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Chapter 272 Youzhou Iron Cavalry
Shanggu County governs Yi County, and it has long been a state of vigorous soldiers and horses.

After Su Su received Li Chongjiu's letter, according to the original plan, Zhao Wansan, the prefect of the county, was left behind, and Yu Chigong was appointed as a side division, leading [-] cavalry. The county threatened Luo Yi's flank.

And Su Su himself led, Zhao Quanting, Chen Ke and two generals, dispatched [-] county soldiers and infantry, along the Laishui County Avenue, and went straight to Zhuo County in Zhuo County.The county magistrate and county lieutenant of Zhuo County are all confidantes of the Lu family. They secretly received orders from Lu Chengqing to lead the army out of the city and surrender the whole city.Su Su's troops conquered Zhuo County without bloodshed, and then advanced to Liangxiang County.

Before Su Su dispatched troops, Li Chongjiu's [-] troops had already dispatched.Li Chong's nine soldiers did not go straight south from Anle County, but passed through Changping County, which is now a fake county, and went straight to the city of Ji County.

Instead, the whole army crossed the Great Wall westward and attacked Huairong County.Huairong County is the passage connecting Shanggu County and Huaihuang Town, and it is a battleground for military strategists.To seize this place, Li Chongjiu has opened up the military capital of Taihang Mountain. It can be said that he can advance, attack, retreat and defend, so he is determined to win.

Huairong County had just been plundered by Gao Tansheng before, and then Gao Tansheng was destroyed by Xue Shixiong. The city was not strong after the siege, and the guards were no more than a thousand people.Even though Li Chongjiu's subordinates are all cavalry,
After resisting the siege of Li Chongjiu's army for three days, the defenders could not resist Li Chongjiu's army, and the whole city surrendered.

After Li Chongjiu broke through Huairong County, he went directly to Xing, the military capital in the Eight Xings of the Taihang, from the military capital on the edge of the Great Wall, broke through again, entered the Great Wall again, and turned south this time.

The goal of Li Chongjiu's southward journey was Liangxiang County, where he and Su Su's five thousand troops joined forces at the city of Liangxiang County.Li Chongjiu's army was all cavalry, so they were extremely fast. Su Su's army just conquered Zhuo County. When they arrived under Liangxiang County, Li Chongjiu's army happened to arrive.

So under Liangxiang County, the flag went into the sea, and Li Chongjiu's [-] troops deployed here, and the guards in the city were all shocked.

In Ji County, Luo Yi heard the news of Li Chongjiu's dispatch of troops. He was not surprised at all. He knew that Li Chongjiu would not sit back and watch Zhuojun fall into Luo Yi's hands, so he would definitely lead the army to fight him.

It's not that Luo Yi is unprepared. After a few days of integration, he has already won the loyalty of tens of thousands of soldiers from the county and township in Ji County, and his power has greatly increased.He originally thought that Li Chongjiu would go directly south from Anle County and fight him in Jixian County, but he didn't expect that Li Chongjiu was afraid of him, or he didn't have the intention of a decisive battle, but went around in circles and defeated two counties in Zhuojun County. , The main force unexpectedly appeared in a circle to the south of Ji County.

Luo Yilian wrote several letters asking Gao Kaidao to help him, but Gao Kaidao wrote back, saying that Li Chongjiu was sent to Diji, and Cui Xu and his two men led Liaoxi, Ding Ling and [-] troops, stationed in Liaoxi County and Yuyang County. On the border, once he sends troops to help Luo Yi, Yuyang County will inevitably be attacked by the two of them. Now for Gao Kaidao who lost Anle County, Yuyang County is his last hometown.

But seeing Luo Yi's pleading, it was not that Gao Kaidao didn't know the reason why his lips were dead and his teeth were cold. He finally showed his loyalty and ordered his Turkic general Ashina Kush to lead southward with a thousand cavalry under his command, which was also regarded as Luo Yi's reinforcement.

After receiving Gao Kaidao's reinforcements, Luo Yi was quite satisfied. He could tell that the cavalry was elite.Luo Yi suddenly gained some confidence, and now he put together his men and horses, and counted them all. After counting, there are [-] to [-] troops around him, which is enough to fight Li Chongjiu.

But Li Chongjiu had no intention of fighting him decisively, he would rather turn left and right around Jixian County, rather than come to Jixian County to fight Luo Yi decisively.Luo Yi originally controlled only Ji County, if the other nine counties in Zhuo County were attacked by Li Chongjiu in this way, then it would be useless for him to have the governor of Zhuo County, but only guarding Ji County.

But at this moment, Li Chongjiu's cavalry appeared in Yongnu County. If he crossed Yongnu and attacked his hometown in Beiping County, it would be even worse.

Luo Yi thought for a while and decided that he could no longer just sit and guard Ji County and wait for Li Chongjiu to come to the decisive battle, but he had to take the initiative to seek the decisive battle to win.Luo Yi is confident that he rose from a small soldier to become a general today. He has been in the army for more than 20 years and has experienced hundreds of battles, big and small.Li Chongjiu is a scorpion, even if he defeated Khitan, Goguryeo, and has some skills in subduing the Xi clan, he can't even beat Song Jingang, so how can he be his opponent.

At the moment Luo Yi is very confident in defeating Li Chongjiu.Luo Yi's only worry was that what would happen if the fire in his backyard happened after he dispatched troops from Ji County?
Luo Yi also knows that he is very unpopular in Ji County now, if his army goes out and the backyard of Ji County catches fire, wouldn't it be nothing for him to fetch water from a bamboo basket.Luo Yi thought for a while, and then ordered two Lang generals under his command, each leading [-] Youzhou cavalry, and the county soldier general he trusted, to guard Yongnu and Jixian respectively.

After the arrangement, a worse news came that Gu'an County also demoted Li Chongjiu.

After Luo Yi heard about it, he knew that if he waited any longer, even Liangxiang County might turn against him.At present, Luo Yi personally led two thousand Youzhou iron cavalry, one thousand high-level reinforcements, and seven thousand county soldiers and township soldiers with 1 horses, and went south from Ji County to Liang Township to seek a decisive battle with Li Chongjiu.In the name of watching the battle, Luo Yi took more than 30 officials from Jixian County, as well as Lu Ziqian and other dignitaries, into the army to prevent them from causing chaos in the rear.

When Luo Yi's army arrived in Liangxiang County, they saw Li Chongjiu's army. Because of his own military strength, he withdrew from the city of Liangxiang and re-arranged outside the city.

Luo Yi saw that the opponent had re-arranged the formation, and immediately said: "The enemy army is afraid of our army and retreats, and it happens to break it in one go. Who wants to be the vanguard?"

Seeing this, all the generals of the county soldiers said one after another: "Although the enemy has retreated, we have galloped for dozens of miles. We are exhausted and our foothold is not stable. It is better to rest for a day and fight again."

"They are all cowards! Father, I am willing to fight the enemy for the vanguard!" A white-robed general spoke out, it was Luo Yi's son Luo Cheng.

Seeing this, Luo Yi said comfortingly: "I'll give you a thousand cavalry, if you haven't defeated the enemy, don't come back."

"promise."

Luo Cheng promised to jump on his horse, and immediately led a thousand Youzhou cavalry to charge forward, with Li Chongjiu's left wing.Luo Cheng knew what his father meant. These thousand iron cavalry were soldiers of Luo Yi's children. No matter their loyalty or fighting strength, there was no doubt. See the strength of the Luo family army.

The left wing of Li Chong's Ninth Army was Zhao Quanting's [-] county soldiers. They were about to retreat back to the camp, but they saw the cavalry from the other side galloping towards their own army.Zhao Quanting did not have the slightest fear. Under the city of Gaimu, the county soldiers defeated the Goguryeo cavalry with strong bows and crossbows.

My own county soldiers trained for a year and went into battle several times. They were not farmers from the rebel army who were afraid of running around when they saw cavalry.At present, Zhao Quanting ordered the Fanjun cavalry who were covering the whole area not to come to support. Instead, he ordered them to cut off the back of the enemy cavalry and line up in front.

Zhao Quanting's infantry formation still consisted of strong crossbowmen in the first row, longbowmen in the second and third rows, and behind the crossbowmen and archers were sword and shield soldiers, Mo Dao soldiers, and infantry soldiers.Zhao Quanting is confident that ordinary cavalry can only seek death if they charge like this.

After setting up their positions, the opponent's cavalry ran faster and faster, and they were approaching less than half a mile in front of them.As soon as the bright sun shone, the cavalry armor suddenly shone brightly.Zhao Quanting's pupils shrank, and he took a deep breath.

Unlike ordinary cavalry, the two sets of armor worn by the infantry are so dark that they do not reflect light even in the sun, while the two iron plates on the chest of the cavalry on horseback are like a mirror, shining brightly.Zhao Quanting saw at a glance that only Mingguang Armor could achieve such an effect.

The armor on the person's body is nothing more than that, and immediately the body is also covered with armor, that is, horse armor. From the past, it can be seen that the iron curtain protecting the horse's head, the chicken neck of the horse guard, and the chest covered with heavy armor leaves are piled up. Horse body armor; take the back; parasitism is also readily available.

From people to horses, it looks like a hill covered with iron sheets. Zhao Quanting is sweating everywhere. Is this the Youzhou iron cavalry built with a lot of money in the 20 years of He Sui?
Different from the rumbling sound when ordinary cavalry stepped on the ground, this Youzhou iron cavalry stood like a thousand weights with every step, and the horse's feet were all covered under the uniform of the equipment, as if the ground was about to be crushed and collapsed.

And when the impact came, Zhao Quanting saw that the opponent's horse was also much taller than the average Turkic horse.

The Turkic horses ridden by Fanqi have always been relatively short, and their height reaches the chest and abdomen at most, but they are superior in Naichang. Most of the Sui troops usually ride Yanqi horses. There are [-] horses in the northern pastures of these horses. Above, slightly taller than Turkic horses, good at galloping.The horses of the opponent's cavalry are all tall horses, almost as tall as a person.This kind of big horse is only available in Liaodong, otherwise it would be impossible to carry the strong armor on such a horse.

Zhao Quanting gritted his teeth and knew that he had miscalculated immediately, holding his sword and saying: "Listen to my order, anyone who dares to shoot arrows at will, beheaded!"

The crossbowmen and archers in front all calmed down when they heard this, the armored cavalry on the other side was getting closer and closer, and they had approached a hundred paces, which happened to be the killing range of the crossbow bow, but Zhao Quanting gritted his teeth tightly and did not move at all, ruthlessly Stare hard ahead.

At seventy paces, the opponent's cavalry immediately put up their bows and shot a round of arrows at the soldiers of Shanggu County at will.

The unarmored crossbowmen and archers in front were shot by the arrows, and 30 people were injured immediately, but because of Zhao Quanting's strict order, no one shot the arrow.

Fifty steps, after the opponent's heavy cavalry shot for a round, he threw the bow to the side, raised his bow flat and pointed straight ahead.

Zhao Quanting shouted at this moment: "Shoot the horse!"

When drawing the bow, use the strong one, and when shooting the arrow, use the long one. When shooting people, shoot horses first, and when capturing thieves, first capture the king.If the cavalry rushed to the battle, the unarmored horse was undoubtedly the best and biggest target. Once the high-speed galloping horse was injured and fell, the cavalry had only one end, that is, they were slapped on the ground with a slap, and then trampled into meat by the cavalry behind them.

But the opponent's horse in front of him is riding in armor and heavy armor. Is it useful to shoot the horse?
The strong crossbow gave the answer. The first row of two hundred three-stone crossbows of the crossbowmen shot a rain of arrows.

(End of this chapter)