Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 542 In an ambush
Li Guangrui reprimanded: "Stupid! Didn't you hear what Tuoba Gelu said just now? Tuoba really hoped to exhaust our army and retreat without a fight. We have entered the Hengshan Grassland for nearly a month. In the long run, Xiazhou's Northwest Frontier Army of the Song Dynasty, Fuzhou, and Linzhou are very likely to have plots, so we don't have much time to stay in Hengzhou. Now that the opportunity is in front of us, we are timid and miss it. Good opportunity? Listen to my orders, gallop to the Xikou Canyon of Helan Mountain, capture Tuoba Zhenli alive, and kill anyone who violates our military order!"

Zhang Yu had no choice but to gather his troops with the generals and join forces with Li Guangrui. He also ordered people to report to Li Guangmu and Liu Yongyuan, and told them to rush to meet him. Li Guangrui, led by Tuoba Gelu, galloped to the west entrance of Helan Mountain. The canyon went.

Li Guangrui likes to take risks when he is young. Otherwise, he would not have cooperated with the Holy Church decisively a few years ago. The state built the city.Years later, he still does.

In addition, Tuoba Gelu's family members and clansmen are all in his hands. He expected that Tuoba Gelu would not dare to deceive him, and he went deep into the Hengshan grassland. It's been a month, and the big things haven't been done yet.But these days he has been feeling a little uneasy about Xia Zhou, and he has long been impetuous, so naturally he believes what Tuoba Gelu said even more in this state.

Of course, there was a bigger reason, but even Li Guangrui himself was not aware of it.Li Guangrui felt that his judgment and decision were based on the Tuoba clan's situation and corroborated with Tuoba Gelu's confession. He did not know that Tuoba Zhenli and the Tuoba clan were in Helan Shanxi from him. It is inevitable for him to send troops quickly!
Such a great opportunity is right in front of you, your name is Li Guangrui, how can Li Guangrui wait.If it was because of this delay that Tuoba Zhenli found out that the Xiazhou army had arrived and immediately crossed Helan Mountain to go further north and escape, it would be too late for regret.

Under Li Guangrui's insistence, the Xiazhou army of the three routes regrouped in one place, and excluding the few soldiers who died in battle and stayed guarding the prisoners of war, about 6000 cavalry galloped away in the wind and snow.According to Tuoba Gelu's confession, Tuoba Zhenli still has [-] guards. He originally had the upper hand, and the other party was at large while he was chasing him. The morale of the army was very different. In addition, he was Unexpectedly, outstanding soldiers, based on his many years of experience in fighting the Dangxiang Seventh Clan, once the Dangxiang Seventh Clan wins a battle, they are all like wolves and tigers.

Sure enough, when Li Guangrui's cavalry suddenly appeared in the Xikou Canyon of Helan Mountain, the Tuoba tribe who were camping there were killed by surprise. They never expected that the Xiazhou Army would come so fast, let alone the Xiazhou Army. Still marching with such heavy snow.Fortunately, the Tuoba clan arranged for the sentinels to stay ten miles away from the camp, so they discovered their tracks in advance.

Tuoba didn't know how many of them were there, so he immediately abandoned the camp and fled.Li Guangrui has seen Tuoba's powerful banner, but unfortunately he has not caught up with him all the way. Li Guangrui's anger is getting more and more excited by his prey. The army, with so many horses, except for Li Guangrui leading the five thousand elite cavalry who were all light, the other cavalry had to carry a certain amount of luggage to feed the horses, and their speed could not keep up. In the end, only Li Guangrui led the five thousand elite cavalry Following in front, the rest of the army was pulled further and further away.

For several days in a row, Li Guangrui followed the Tuoba clan led by Tuoba Zhenli, and was able to catch up to some every day, and then made some gains, but he still couldn't catch the cunning Tuoba Zhenli and the Tuoba clan led by him. Wang Dongzhi inspected the surrounding environment and felt more and more inappropriate, so he said to Li Guangrui: "Patriarch, you have entered the Helan Mountain. The Tuoba Zhenli tribe is one of the Dangxiang tribes. Those closest to Helan Mountain, they should be very familiar with this place. Since we can't make a surprise attack, isn't it easy for them to escape? But seeing that they are always indifferent these days, my subordinates feel that they are deliberately showing weakness to lure me into the depths. From the subordinates' point of view, we should not pursue any further, if we don't return immediately, we should set up camp on the spot, one is to rest and recuperate the soldiers, and the other is to wait for reinforcements."

Zhang Yu also said after hearing this: "Patriarch, what Wang Dongzhi said is true, and the subordinates also feel that Tuoba's strength seems to be deceitful. Let's go back immediately and join the main force. If not, we can set up camp on the spot. Although our soldiers are brave and all of them are heroes, these days they have to brave the wind and snow every day, and climb ice and lie on the snow at night, and their combat power is greatly reduced. In addition, it is difficult for weak soldiers to break through, so it is better to be cautious!"

Li Guangrui didn't have time to think about it. Suddenly, a group of about a hundred cavalrymen chased them up from behind. Their faces were dusty and extremely tired. At a glance, they could tell that they had been driving for several days.

As they got closer, Li Guangrui frowned, his heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly said, "Second Brother! Why are you here? Something happened to Xia Zhou?"

The person who came was Li Guangrui's second brother Li Guangshun. When they were destroyed in Xiazhou more than ten days ago, Li Guangshun and Li Guangcheng escaped from the east city gate, but they were captured by Zhe Yuxun and Yang Chongxun, and finally handed over to Ye Chen. .

Li Guangshun said: "Brother! As long as you are fine, on the third day after you led the army away, the northwestern frontier army of Song State, Zhejia, and Yangjia joined forces to attack Xiazhou with 20 troops, but Jiqian tried his best to let Han Cheng hold the defense For the affairs of the city, Xiazhou City was built as solid as gold. When I left Xiazhou, the Song Army had besieged the city for [-] days.
However, the Song army suffered a lot of losses, while my Xiazhou City was as stable as Mount Tai. "

Li Guangrui breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the words, and said, "That's good. I know Han Chengju. He is indeed very proficient in the way of defending the city. The reason why he didn't use him in the early years is because he was thinking about the way of defending the city for the time being." It’s useless to me in Xiazhou, Jiqian can use Han Chengju against all opinions at this critical moment, and then use me to leave the army and sufficient food and grass, even if it lasts for half a year, the Song army will not be able to break through the city.”

At this time, Li Guangshun's expression was serious, and he shook his head and said, "Brother! If it is true what the elder brother said under normal circumstances, but just half a month after the Song army besieged the city, Ye Chen, the king of Song Guoxiang Fu County, came to the Song army to lead the army in charge of the siege. And brought a large number of extremely sharp siege equipment, including a kind of gunpowder that can blow up the city wall. The day before my younger brother left Xiazhou, a section of the south city wall was dug out by Ye Chen and collapsed Fortunately, Han Chengju was aware of it early and made sufficient preparations. After repelling the Song army, he temporarily blocked it with bricks and stones at the fastest speed. But the pressure on my Xiazhou City was getting bigger and bigger. There were more of them a while ago. The reason why the younger brother risked his life out of the city to find the elder brother was because Han Chengju said that he could only guarantee to hold Xiazhou City for seven days, but he couldn't guarantee whether he would be able to hold it after seven days."

After hearing this, Li Guangrui's expression became extremely serious. He took a deep breath for a while, and said in a deep voice: "Since this is the case, the Tuoba clan led by Tuoba Zhenli can't delay any longer. We will defeat them today. And two days to stabilize the situation in Hengshan, after three days, we must rush back to Xiazhou. Otherwise, if we lose Xiazhou, what's the use of gaining the entire Hengshan grassland."

Zhang Yu, Li Guangrui's counselor next to him, wanted to dissuade him, but Li Guangrui waved his hand to block his words, pointed his whip forward, and shouted: "Tuoba Zhenli is in front, give me orders, and chase after me. Cut!" After saying that, he whipped the horse's butt, and rushed out first, and the guards on the left and right feared that the patriarch would make a mistake, so they immediately followed behind, Zhang Yu and Wang Dongzhi looked at each other, they had no choice but to let out a long sigh and chase after him.Li Guangshun followed Li Guangrui with a hundred cavalrymen who followed him from Xiazhou and chased after him.

Unexpectedly, they had just chased across a snow slope in front of them, and when they drove into the trough, there was a sudden sound of killing. Looking around, on the undulating snow slope, thousands of troops and horses lying in ambush suddenly appeared. , rushed towards them, on this white snowy field, those Tuoba cavalry were like huge turbulent waves, irresistible!

Seeing this, Li Guangrui was startled and regretful, he reined in his horse, looked for Tuoba Gelu with his knife, and shouted sharply: "You good thief, how dare you lie to me!"

However, at some point, Tuoba Gelu pretended to be out of horsepower and had already fallen behind to the end. At this time, he had already pulled away from the Tuoba clan's cavalry. Even if Li Guangrui wanted to catch up and kill him, it was already too late .

At this time, a group of people from the Tuoba clan could be faintly heard bowing down to Tuoba Glu, and said loudly: "This time, after the murder of the patriarch, I, the Tuoba clan, were able to escape from Li Guangrui's hands. Li Guangrui besieged and recruited helpers, all of which were done by Gelu on his own, we will abide by our previous promise and honor Tuoba Gelu as the new patriarch of the Tuoba Clan."

Li Guangrui heard these words in his ears, and was so angry that he almost vomited three liters of blood on the spot.Dare to say that Tuoba Zhenli is dead, and the banner of Tuoba Zhenli before was a bait, leading him all the way here.It's just that when did this Tuoba Gelu become so powerful.

At this time, the horn of "Woo-woo" sounded, echoing in the valley, shrill and desolate.From the heights on both sides of the valley, countless figures suddenly jumped out of the snow. Following their movements, huge snow-covered boulders rolled down the hillside rumblingly, wrapped in a cloud of flying snow, and smashed heavily. On the other side of the valley, one way out was blocked, and the momentum was terrifying!

However, Li Guangrui didn't care about Tuoba Gelu, his face was extremely ugly, and he immediately shouted loudly: "Form an formation and meet the enemy!"

(End of this chapter)