Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 649 The Eve of the Great War
"The imperial reinforcements are here!" A spy carrying a flag entered Pan Mei's Chinese army tent, knelt down on one knee, and reported loudly.

Not to mention the failure of the bombing of the city, on the contrary, it shocked one's own camp into a mess, especially the horses were frightened, and they ran wildly in the army, but there were not many casualties. Pan Mei was most angry and worried about the few soldiers who escaped in a few planes. The morale of the soldiers was not high at all.

Therefore, at this time, Pan Mei's face was so gloomy that it dripped water, and Xu Fangyi's face was even more ugly, and he was extremely ashamed. Although Pan Mei didn't question him, he was too embarrassed to speak for a while.Because he already felt that many of Pan Mei's generals looked at him with extremely dissatisfied eyes.The atmosphere in the big tent was gloomy, and the news of the arrival of imperial reinforcements made the situation even worse, which immediately caused an uproar among the rebel generals.

"Impossible!" Pan Mei said angrily, "Dazhou is thousands of miles away from the capital, so the imperial reinforcements flew here with wings!"

The spies who came in said: "I don't know, I don't know, the flag I saw was Xiangfu King Ye Chen, and the people and horses I saw were all the elite of the imperial army, and all of them were cavalry equipped with horses..."

Pan Mei hurriedly asked, "Where are Ye Chen's men?"

The spy said: "The humble position is the enemy army I saw in Xiaoyi County, and it is very likely that they have passed Xiaoyi County by now."

"Xiaoyi County is only a hundred miles away." A ministry general reminded.

Pan Mei asked, "How many people?"

The spies replied, "About... twenty thousand."

Pan Mei paced back and forth in front of her, and said half aloud: "Ye Chen should have mobilized all the war horses from the regiments of the Imperial Army, and each person has at least two war horses, plus there are states and counties along the way that have already set up rest points. , and prepared food, grass and clear water to be able to run so fast."

It has to be said that Pan Mei's cognition and understanding of the army has reached a very high level. After a simple analysis, she has already guessed the truth of Ye Chen bringing [-] troops here so quickly.

All the rebel generals looked at Pan Mei to make up her mind. At this time, Pan Mei turned around and said: "There are only 2 people, and we can still fight! We are exhausted after chasing him from a long distance, let's go forward and fight! As long as Ye Chen is defeated, If they snatch their horses, the defenders of Dazhou City will definitely have high morale, and they can easily break through the city. In addition, as long as Ye Chen is defeated, the imperial army behind will feel fear, and our army's morale will greatly increase. In a short time, the imperial court will It is difficult to mobilize a large army to deal with our army. In this way, as long as we enter Sichuan and Shu and gain a firm foothold, great things can be expected."

Xu Fangyi couldn't help it, and hurriedly persuaded: "Ye Chen's supernatural powers are too weird and terrifying. If he dares to bring 2 people, he must have a certain chance of winning. Although we have twice the number of people, but There are only [-] cavalry. In addition, we are facing east, and there are Dazhou defenders behind, if Li Guangwu leads people out of the city, it is very likely that our army will be attacked by the enemy."

Pan Mei said: "Then Master Xu thinks what?"

Xu Fangyi said: "For the present plan, retreat to the west and rush into Sichuan and Shu before Ye Chen arrives. As long as they enter the Shu Road, Ye Chen's cavalry will lose their advantage. At that time, we will make a long-term plan."

Pan Mei shook her head and said, "Master Xu said, how can I not know, it's just that the opportunity is rare now. What's more, according to the report from the spies, Ye Chen came from Kaifeng, and it took only nine days. Kaifeng rushed to Xiaoyi County. At this speed, the distance is only a hundred miles away, and we are still a hundred miles away from the Shu Road. At this distance, most of us are infantry. Can we beat Ye Chen? Even if we lose everything I was lucky enough to rush into the Shu Road, but what would my 4-strong army eat? Besides, we fled westward, and if there was any confusion, Li Guangwu would definitely come out of the city to harass! The most important thing is, in this way, the morale of the soldiers below will inevitably be left behind. Few, without waiting for the enemy to come again, the soldiers will try their best to escape. I will be defeated if I don’t wait for the battle.”

After Xu Fangyi heard it, he felt that Pan Mei's words were reasonable, but he was too afraid of Ye Chen in his heart, and he knew that Ye Chen was best at creating miracles.Even though Pan Mei is a famous general of the generation, and even has more experience in combat than Ye Chen, Xu Fangyi is still extremely pessimistic.

Xu Fangyi stopped talking, and after Pan Mei pondered for a while, she said seriously: "Immediately build a pontoon bridge on the Lixia River in the west, and withdraw all the troops to the west of Dazhou City on the spot. We must be prepared to cross the river, and we must also prepare for a last-ditch battle. Use the soldier's desperate heart to defeat Ye Chen in one fell swoop. Only in this way can we have the possibility of achieving great things."

Xu Fangyi was still a little worried, and couldn't help but said: "It's better to rush to work overnight, the more bridges the better; in case the enemy soldiers are strong or come too fast, there is also a way out."

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The city gate of Xiaoyi County was wide open, and the county magistrate, soldiers and civilians knelt on the ground along the way. The county magistrate looked up at the word "Ye" on the big flag, and couldn't help but tremble in his heart, so he hurriedly led people to salute.

Ye Chen was not wearing heavy armor, but a light windbreaker. He rode forward, pointed to the officials in round robes and others on the ground, motioned for them to stand up, and said, "Is the food and grass for the army ready?"

"Report to the lord, everything is ready." The county magistrate hurriedly said, he did not call the commander, but the title, obviously on purpose.

Ye Chen nodded, didn't speak anymore, and continued to walk forward. With his current status and mentality at this time, he didn't have the heart to pay attention to a small official who was afraid of him and wanted to try to please him.

At this moment, several riders rolled up a pile of loess and came galloping from the post road.A spy got off his horse, knelt down on one knee and cupped his fists and said, "Commander, the rebels built a pontoon bridge on the Lixia River to the west of Dazhou City overnight."

Ye Chen beckoned, and Hu Sanguang hurriedly bent over and stepped forward to unfold a map.Ye Chen pointed with his horsewhip: "After passing the Lixia River, although it has not yet entered the Shu Road, it is mostly mountainous. If we start a war there, it will be bad for our army." He turned his head and said to Cao Wei who followed him halfway, "Cao Wei, immediately lead five thousand cavalrymen to attack the rebels and march overnight." Turning around, he said to Wang Tong, the commander of the Xiaocavalry Army, "General Wang, you immediately lead the Xiaocavalry Army to follow with three thousand archers and cavalrymen."

"Decree!" "The last general has an order!"

Ye Chen warned again: "When you are tired from marching overnight tonight, you must not fight lightly; when you arrive in the state, you will set up camp to rest and wait for the main force. The purpose of your battle is to threaten the rebels and force the rebels to form an array to fight. Dare to cross the river in a hurry."

Cao Wei said calmly: "The general will understand."

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Ye Chen led the remaining 1 main forces to stay in Xiaoyi County for an hour, took a short rest, and then continued on their way. They walked more than 30 miles that day; the distance to Dazhou was only more than 60 miles.At this time, the [-] infantry left behind by Ye Chen were still in Jinzhou, three hundred miles away.

Ye Chen led [-] cavalry, one man and two horses. The horses of the imperial army were all high-quality war horses. In addition, as Pan Mei guessed, the supply of food and grass in all the counties and counties was timely, and according to the Huaxia Weifu sent by Ye Chen in advance, The secret talks set up a rest point, so they were able to catch up with the rebels in just eight or nine days while ensuring that the troops could rest for a certain amount of time at night.

In the evening, it was only ten miles away from Dazhou City.Cao Wei sent someone to report that the scouts on both sides had already started to fight, causing casualties to each other. Cao Wei also tried to get people to persuade them to surrender, but Pan Mei obviously took this into consideration, so the scouts sent were all confidantes of the rebel generals. Soldiers, or bachelors who have no relatives alive, so the effect is not good.Ye Chen sent soldiers to order Cao Wei and Wang Tong to rest on the spot and wait for the decisive battle with the main force tomorrow.

"Don't take a rest, start attacking the rebels tomorrow. Tell all the soldiers that the reward for beheading a person tomorrow is twice that of fighting in the past, and one general who persuades him to surrender is equal to one beheading." Ye Chen said to the generals who came to discuss the matter without any hesitation. .

After running nearly a thousand miles, under normal circumstances, the master would find a way to rest and recuperate first, but Ye Chen did not intend to do so.On the one hand, he gave the soldiers and horses at least five hours of sleep every day along the way;Of course, what he did was also related to the fact that the [-] troops he led were the most powerful troops in the Song Dynasty.What's more, he has doubled the soldiers' rewards. The so-called "heavy rewards must have a brave man", although what Ye Chen said is not a big reward, it is enough to improve morale.

In addition, only he and Hu Sanguang knew that Huaxia Weifu had already done enough work for the victory of this war, before or outside of the secret war.And this is the main source of Ye Chen's confidence in this battle.

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In the west of Dazhou City, after the deployment of the two armies was completed, the sun had just risen from winter.The sky-high dust and fog made the red sun unclear, and the surroundings seemed to be shrouded in a layer of light and fog.

The rebels are waiting for work, Ye Chen's side has just arrived on the battlefield, and the number of rebels is twice as large as Ye Chen's side.But Ye Chen led elite cavalry. Although the rebels were also elite, their overall combat power was weaker than Ye Chen's. The most important thing was that even though Pan Mei had exhausted all means, their morale was still not optimistic.

Ye Chen stepped forward immediately, looking into the distance first, and saw a large half-square formation on the bank of the Lixia River, with a diameter estimated to be three miles.The square formation is a defensive formation, and the infantry of various arms forms a large circle formation in a square formation outside; the horse soldiers inside are obviously ready to attack at any time.Because Pan Mei's troops were backed by water, there was only half of the Fangyuan formation in order to concentrate more troops.This formation of infantry has extremely poor mobility, but strong defense.

Ye Chen has never systematically studied the art of war and battle formations of the ancient cold weapon era, but he has seen many of these conventional infantry versus cavalry formations in actual combat. The most impressive one was more than two years ago. Outside Jinyang City, Zhao Kuangyin used [-] infantry to face the [-] Khitan cavalry led by Empress Xiao personally.

(End of this chapter)