Jiuxi

Chapter 730 728 [Tit for tat]

The battlefield is magnificent.

The two cavalry units of the Jing army charged quickly, creating a cloud of dust.

If you look down from the sky, you can see that the three armies of Dingzhou continue to exert pressure on the main battlefield, and the infantry of Jing Army is struggling to hold on under the command of Chelimu. Although there are no signs of disintegration for the time being, it is an indisputable fact that they are at a disadvantage. Even the strong attack of Jing Army's cavalry cannot change this.

Liu Jiangdong, Pei Sui and Liu Yin strictly followed the strategy set by Lu Chen before the battle. They were not distracted by the cavalry of Jing Army. They continued to attack the main position of Jing Army forcefully, and only asked Ningyuan Army and Guangling Army to send out some sword and shield soldiers and spearmen to protect the flanks to prevent the cavalry of Jing Army from changing direction to launch a surprise attack.

Pucha also knew that it was unwise to use cavalry to attack the enemy's thick infantry formation. Moreover, he had not considered the three Qi armies from the beginning.

He stood on the lookout car, looking at the situation in the distance with a little nervousness.

The strategic intentions of the two Jing army cavalry units were very clear. They bypassed the main battlefield from the north and south sides and rushed fiercely towards the enemy's central position.

Such an attack is obviously difficult to be effective directly.

Under the commander's flag, Lu Chen looked calm and gave orders steadily.

Moments after the Jing army's cavalry set out, two military orders were quickly transmitted to the side and rear of the Qi army's main position.

Li Bingxue looked at the commander's flag in the distance, and Lu Chen's instructions from yesterday emerged in his mind. Then he tightened the reins with one hand, raised the lance with the other, and shouted: "Feiyu Army, follow me to kill the enemy!"

The generals and soldiers responded loudly.

Among the crowd, Huangfu Yu seemed particularly excited, and the scar on his cheek revealed a ferocious murderous aura.

Under the leadership of Li Bingxue, nearly 6,000 cavalrymen of the Feiyu Army rode their horses and whipped their horses to meet the Jing Army that was galloping towards the south.

At the same time, on the other side, the tiger general Ye Jitong led 3,000 cavalrymen from the Rui Shi Camp and 2,000 cavalrymen transferred from the Feiyu Army to meet another cavalry of the Jing Army.

Generals faced generals and soldiers faced soldiers, and fighting suddenly broke out.

The war between cavalry may not be as brutal as that between infantry, but the momentum is much greater.

All I saw was smoke billowing, swords and spears wielding, the sound of killing shaking the sky, and arrows raining down like locusts.

On the main battlefield, the infantry of the two armies were in a stalemate, while on the north and south sides, the cavalry were charging back and forth, and the situation was still evenly matched.

"The Feiyu Army and the Ruishi Battalion, these are Lu Chen's elite troops."

Pucha narrowed his eyes and spoke in a meaningful tone.

Judging from the current situation, the Qi army has already deployed most of its forces into the battlefield, and Lu Chen is left with less than 10,000 infantry and two to three thousand cavalry.

Because of the long distance, Pu Cha could not see the situation of the soldiers on the main position of the Qi army, but he could make a very firm judgment that except for the 3,000 infantrymen of the Rui Shi Battalion who were responsible for protecting Lu Chen, the rest should be auxiliary troops who were not to be feared.

At this time, two powerful generals of the Jing army appeared beside Pucha.

One of them was named He Sujia, who was one of the eight great lords of the Loyal Army. He was a trusted and respected general of Pucha, and he followed Pucha to Nanjing Road.

The other one was named Aliban, who was one of the generals of the infantry of the Xiejie Army. Like Chelimu, he was a military noble who was specially promoted by Emperor Jing in recent years.

He Sujia followed Pucha's gaze and whispered, "General, the time should be ripe, right?"

Pu Cha groaned and said, "No hurry, I want to wait a little longer. Our goal in this battle is to kill Lu Chen. As long as he dies, the Southern Qi Dingzhou defense line will collapse. The Qi army seems to be very powerful, but in fact they are still well organized. You see, the enemy's infantry is advancing in three lines, responding to each other from a distance, and the formation is still very complete. This shows that they still haven't exerted their full strength, and they can respond in time no matter what happens. In other words, Lu Chen is still guarding against our army's sudden attack."

He Sujia nodded in agreement, but Aliban frowned slightly and said, "I'm afraid that General Chelimu can't withstand the attack of the Qi army. Once our main position is breached, it will be difficult to reverse the situation later."

"I believe he can."

Pucha looked resolute, and said slowly: "We are in a very delicate situation right now. The Qi army can advance or retreat, but we must wait until they go all out before we can drag them into the quagmire and then launch a fatal attack on Lu Chen."

The two generals fell silent upon hearing this. They certainly knew the importance of this battle, and they also knew that a certain price must be paid in order to achieve their goals.

The infantry position of the Jing army is the bait. As long as Lu Chen can't hold back and put all his troops in, Pucha can launch the final attack.

"Besides, the enemy's cavalry has not been led away from the battlefield by Yan Zhan and Bi Lan. We must wait at this time. We can only wait, otherwise our army will be the first to be in chaos."

After Pucha said this, his expression looked extremely serious.

The smell of blood had already filled the land and also drifted into Pucha's nose. He looked at his own soldiers who were fighting hard in the distance, clenched his fists quietly, and said to himself: "The opportunity to defeat our army is right in front of you, can you turn a blind eye to it?"

Of course Lu Chen couldn't hear Pu Cha's thoughts, but he could judge the current situation.

As the Jing army cavalry was intercepted by Li Bingxue and Ye Jitang, the Qi army's rear was safe and secure, and Liu Jiangdong and others were relieved and devoted themselves to the frontal decisive battle. "My lord, the Jing army should have more than these means."

Huo Zhen’s judgment of the battle situation was also very accurate.

According to Lu Chen's previous analysis, the Jing army can fight or not today. Since they chose to fight outside the camp and have been at a clear disadvantage in the subsequent process, Pucha must have something to rely on, not just the two cavalry units that have appeared.

Lu Chen said calmly: "If I'm not mistaken, Pucha is waiting for me to throw all my strength at him. As long as the Jing army can withstand this wave of attacks, then it will be his chance to counterattack. In the final analysis, he and I are now competing in patience to see who can't help but show his trump card first. Right now the Jing army is at a disadvantage. This may seem like an opportunity, but it will also become a bottomless trap."

Hearing this, Huo Zhen couldn't help but look at the soldiers in the central army position, especially the square formation composed of 6,000 elite soldiers in front.

He said with a hint of worry: "I'm afraid Pucha won't be fooled."

"Many things in the world are uncertain, and this is the helpless situation for many people. Compared with his performance at the foot of Luwu Mountain, Pucha has improved a lot. At least he has the same patience as me today, but——"

Lu Chen paused slightly, turned his head to look to the north, and smiled: "He won't have much choice."

Huo Zhen was a little puzzled, and then he heard Lu Chen say loudly: "Order Duan Zuozhang to start knocking on the gate!"

"Follow the order!"

The herald clasped his fists in salute, then rode away on his horse.

In such a noisy and fierce battlefield, this rider seemed inconspicuous. He arrived at the Lai'an army's position in the northeast as quickly as possible and conveyed Lu Chen's military order to Duan Zuozhang.

Duan Zuozhang responded calmly, then took a deep breath and looked up at Yaoshan Pass standing in the distance.

This majestic pass has stood firm for more than half a month, becoming a rock blocking the Qi army's advance.

Following Duan Zuozhang's order, the vanguard soldiers of the Lai'an Army, under the cover of various siege weapons, continued to approach Yaoshan Pass.

The previous attack by the Qi army was not in vain. At least they had destroyed the defense system outside Yaoshan Pass. The only obstacle before them now was the tall and solid city walls.

Wu Yantuo had been observing the battlefield in the southwest during this period. If Pucha had not repeatedly warned him in advance and the Lai'an army was not watching closely outside, he might have led a group of elite soldiers to charge out from the inside and attacked the flank of the main position of the Qi army.

"General, the enemy is about to attack!"

"Is this general blind? What the hell!"

Wu Yantuo coldly reprimanded the subordinates who came to report, walked to the gate tower, looked at the high-spirited Lai'an army outside the pass, and couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth and sneered: "So that's how it is, Lu Chen is just like this."

The subordinates beside them were puzzled when they heard the two say this.

Wu Yantuo said proudly: "You idiots can't even understand such a simple situation. Now the main forces of the two armies in the southwest are in a stalemate. Whoever loses his composure first will fall into defeat. Lu Chen obviously can't do anything to our main force, so he plans to attack Yaoshan Pass. If this pass is lost, how can General Pucha bear it? Our army's morale will definitely be shaken. But Lu Chen is only capable of this. Why doesn't he think about how a mere Lai'an army can pose a threat to Yaoshan Pass?!"

Everyone suddenly understood and there was a flood of flattery.

Wu Yantuo said calmly: "Stop talking nonsense and cheer up. If you let only 10,000 people from outside the pass climb the city wall, I will kill you!"

The generals responded loudly.

As they were talking, Lai'an's army officially launched an attack on Yaoshan Pass.

This time they did not hold back, shed their blood near the mottled city wall, and climbed up bravely.

Although Wu Yantuo was quite disdainful of Lu Chen in his words, he did not dare to be careless. Fortunately, there were sufficient troops inside the pass to guard the entire eastern city wall tightly and not give the Qi army any chance.

The news of the battle at Yaoshan Pass soon reached Pucha's ears. At first, he had a similar opinion to Wu Yantuo, that Lu Chen's actions were almost like a forced struggle.

The Lai'an army has a total of 12,000 people, and the defenders inside the pass are as many as 6,000. With such a comparison of military forces, Yaoshan Pass is naturally as stable as a mountain.

However, on the main battlefield, the Qi army still maintained an orderly state, which inevitably made Pucha frown.

The only good news is that the cavalry under Lu Chen's command have been consciously led away from the battlefield by the Jing army cavalry.

As the dust flew, Pucha became more and more anxious. He couldn't help but look back at the two elite troops ready to go, and once again silently repeated the word "patience".

Time seemed to pass very slowly. When Pucha's palms were sweaty, he still hadn't waited for the right opportunity. Instead, several knights came galloping over. The knights on horseback said in panic: "General, the situation at Yaoshan Pass is critical. General Wuyan begs you to make a decision immediately!"

Pucha was shocked and his hair stood on end.

(End of this chapter)