The soldiers and horses of the Heiyan Army stationed on the defense line of Ganquan Mountain are mainly divided into four camps in the south, west, north and middle peaks, among which the Xilu camp that confronts the main force of the Xiyuan Army is the largest, gathering a total of 400,000 soldiers and horses. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In addition to the Zhongfeng battalion that gathered 100,000 elites, although the two battalions at the southern and northern feet each had 150,000 soldiers and horses, the main purpose was to ensure that the Ganquan Mountain defense line could open up enough open strategic detour space on both flanks, and at the same time monitor the Zhulu Qinwang army outflanked from the two wings.

The main camp of the northern foot camp is located in the small Lianshui City at the northern foot of Ganquan Mountain.

The Lianshui River originates from the Tianzhu Mountains where Jiyang, Heyang and Yanmen intersect, gathers large and small tributaries, bypasses the west side of Ganquan Mountain, flows southward, and finally joins a large tributary of the Chu River for 3,000 li, which is also the geographical division between Heyang County and Jiyang County.

The north foot of Ganquan Mountain and the Huapuling in the north, there are also several streams and rivers coming out, and finally converge into a big river with a width of seventy or eighty zhang at the northwest foot of Ganquan Mountain, and then flow more than 200 miles to the northwest after leaving the northwest foot of Ganquan Mountain, and finally merge into the Lianshui River.

This river is also known as Xiaolianshui.

Xiaolianshui City was built between the gap between the northern foot of Ganquan Mountain and Huapuling, and the northern camp in addition to Xiaolianshui City as the main camp, and along the northeast bank of the Xiaolianshui River, extended to the northwest, using the old villages and fortresses, built more than a dozen anti-villages, in case the Xiyuan Army and the Zhulu Qinwang Army crossed the Xiaolianshui River and entered Huapuling.

Huang Shuang was quite dependent on Le Yi, and left Le Yi in Xiaolianshui City to assist him in presiding over the war in the northern camp; he still had doubts about Chen Hai's identity, and thought that Ning Chan'er's temper was too weird, and he couldn't control it as a senior brother, so when he returned to Xiaolianshui City, he simply kicked Chen Hai and Ning Chan'er to Qiushizhai on the northernmost wing of Xiaolianshui's defense line to serve as guards.

Under such a general trend, Chen Hai also knew that he couldn't help much, so he and Ning Chan'er took a dozen medicine slaves to the north on horseback, and went to Qiushi Village, which was more than a hundred miles away from the northwest side of Xiaolianshui City, to take over the defense.

Qiushizhai is stuck between two two or three hundred meters high stone ridges, the southwest is facing the small Lianshui River that is more than 100 zhang wide and has been frozen tightly in the cold winter season, and behind it is the Huapuling that stretches for two or three hundred miles and the highest peak is not more than 1,000 zhang, and then to the north is the Tianzhu Mountain Range at the junction of Yanmen, Jiyang and Heyang counties.

"Le Yi is really a fool, why did he take the initiative to ask for assistance in the defense of the camp at the northern foot of the mountain, and we were also kicked to this Qiushi Village......" Ning Chan'er asked more than a dozen medicine slaves to guard at the bottom of the mountain, she accompanied Chen Hai to the stone ridge on the north side of Qiushi Village, looked at the mountain situation on the left and right, and said with a complaint.

Chen Hai looked at everything in front of him indifferently.

Once the main force of the Black Yan Army in Ganquan Mountain decided to retreat to the border of Yanmen County, the Xiaolianshui defense line at the northern foot of Ganquan Mountain would have to bear the burden of delaying and blocking the main force of the Xiyuan Army and the Zhulu Qinwang Army and covering the northward retreat of the main force of the Black Yan Army.

With a weak division of 150,000 to resist the army of one million tigers and wolves composed of the Xiyuan Army and the 11th Qinwang Army, in order to cover the retreat of the main force of Ganquan Mountain, it is not difficult to imagine how tragic the fighting and casualties on this line will be.

When the time comes, the generals of the northern foot battalion, no matter how high their cultivation, may fall at any time.

Le Yi took the initiative to ask to go to the northern foot camp to assist in the defense, because he took a fancy to this, and he had the consciousness of sacrificing for the Black Yan Army and the Red Mei Sect at any time.

Although Ning Chan'er also hoped that the Black Yan Army could preserve its strength, it was far from the extent that she herself stood up and sacrificed herself to preserve the strength of the Black Yan Army.

On the opposite side of Qiushi Village, across the Lianshui, stationed on an unnamed mountain ridge, it is the 40,000 elite Qinwang army in Hexi.

Ning Chan'er suspected that once the final decisive battle broke out, only the Hexi Qinwang army would be able to tear the extremely weak Xiaolianshui defense line into thousands of holes, not to mention the existence of three other elite Qinwang armies on the front of the Xiaolianshui defense line.

Ning Chan'er and Chen Hai climbed to the top of the mountain to watch the situation, in order to confirm with Chen Hai where their retreat route would be once a large force of Qinwang's soldiers and horses swarmed up.

Not only will she not live and die with Qiushizhai, but she will not even care about the 4,000 generals in Qiushizhai and the 20,000 or 30,000 refugees who have escaped the war.

Chen Hai also did not have the intention of coexisting with Qiushizhai, seeing that from Qiushizhai to the north, there was a Jiashi communication to the depths of Huapuling, thinking that after the war could not be resisted, 4,000 defenders and more refugees could escape from Jiashigou to the depths of Huapuling, and the vast majority of people should still be able to save their lives;

After the death of the Great Heavenly Master Gong Qing, there was no figure in the Red Mei Sect who could stand up and carry the banner that made the Black Yan Army and Yun Mengze generals surrender, there were many internal problems, and they were facing such a dilemma, it was not difficult for Chen Hai to see the final outcome of the collapse of the Red Mei Sect in the near future.

Chen Hai thought about saving Le Yi at this time, in addition to his previous friendship and Le Yi's comprehension of the true meaning of the Tao surpassed others, the main reason was that in the past few years since the rise of the Black Yan Army, the light that Le Yi has bloomed on his body is more dazzling than any other general of the Black Yan Army.

Chen Hai wanted to do his best to absorb the remnants of the Black Yan Army and the Red Mei Sect, and Le Yi was more important than Huang Shuang, Gong Liang, Yan Yuan and others.

***********************

Chen Hai took over the defense of Qiushizhai, and it was impossible to do too much, just leading a team of generals every day to chisel the thick ice on Xiaolian Water, so that the raging and cold river water was exposed.

The river surface of Xiaolianshui, which is as wide as 100 zhang, is sometimes more reassuring than the walls of Qiushizhai.

Otherwise, let Qin Muhou Dong Shou lead 10,000 elite cavalry to raid Qiushi Village, Chen Hai is also powerless, and he can only be captured.

Granny Crane returned to Ganquan Mountain on the fifth day, and neither Chen Hai nor Ning Chan'er were summoned to Zhongfeng for discussion.

It was still on the sixth day after Granny Crane rushed back, and they arrived in Xiaolianshui City to hear from Le Yi the detailed plan for the Black Yan Army's northward retreat.

Songpanling is located in the southeast of Heyang County, the location is more than 1,000 miles ahead of Ganquanling, it is planned that the garrison of Songpanling will withdraw first, disengage from the Huben army, retreat to the south of Yanmen County, Songdu Mountain at the junction with Heyang County, build a second line of defense, and then the garrison on this side of Ganquan Mountain will be withdrawn.

Even if the Great Heavenly Master Gong Qing does not pass away, shrinking the defensive line is also the most likely choice for the Black Yan Army, at this time, taking advantage of the suspicion between the Tiger Ben Army and the Xiyuan Army, the two main forces of the Black Yan Army can still withdraw to the territory of Yanmen County north of Songdu Mountain.

And the retreat plan on the side of Ganquan Mountain, as Chen Hai and Ning Chan'er initially expected, the Xiaolianshui defense line bears the heavy responsibility of delaying and staying the main force of the Xiyuan Army, even if there is a danger of completely falling into the encirclement, but as long as it can ensure that the main elite of the Xilu Battalion and the Zhongfeng Battalion can withdraw to the north of Songdu Mountain, any sacrifice is worth it.

In order to ensure that this intention can be completely realized, the Nanlu battalion will also be used as a victim to keep its troops still in the early stage, ensuring that the main force of the Xiyuan Army has no way to make a detour from the southern foot of Ganquan Mountain to pursue the main force of the Heiyan Army.

Although the Beilu battalion undertook the most difficult task of blocking, Zhongfeng had no intention of strengthening the Beilu battalion, on the one hand, he did not want to arouse the vigilance of the Xiyuan Army, and on the other hand, the Beilu battalion had been regarded as a victim, and the precious weapons and a large number of stored gold-quenched arrows had to be withdrawn to Yanmen County with the main force.

When Le Yi informed Chen Hai and Ning Chan'er of the retreat plan, the soldiers and horses of the Xilu battalion had already moved to the hinterland on the back side of Ganquan Mountain through the valley road between the middle peaks in the form of rotation training.

At this time, even the Xiyuan Army and the Zhulu Qinwang Army could vaguely realize the retreat intention of the Black Yan Army, but they did not make a particularly big move because of this, after all, the strategic intention they designed at the beginning was only to continuously compress the survival space of the Black Yan Army, and they did not expect to completely annihilate the nearly two million main forces of the Black Yan Army in Heyang County in one or two battles.

In that case, it would be extremely risky for both the Tiger Army and the Xiyuan Army, and neither army could afford such a big risk.

In the last few days of the seventy-eighth year of Emperor Yitian, although the tentative contact battles between the armies became more frequent, the northern retreat of the Black Yan army was in an orderly manner.

The first batch of 50,000 elites who withdrew from Songpanling withdrew to Songdu Mountain as quickly as possible, and whether it was the Tiger Ben Army, or the Xiyuan Army and the Zhulu Qinwang Army, they did not dare to easily enter between Songpanling and Ganquan Mountain, and enter the inner line of Heyang County controlled by the Black Yan Army.

On the front of the Xiaolianshui defense line, the soldiers and horses of the Qinwang army gathered were also getting denser and denser.

They also had the same idea, the price of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Black Yan Army was too high, but this was obviously the hundreds of thousands of Black Yan soldiers and horses behind the palace, so they didn't want to be able to escape.

And if they can break through the Xiaolianshui defense line in advance, maybe they can bite another piece of meat from the main force of the Black Yan Army retreating north.

If it weren't for the sudden rebellion of Yu Zonghu, the commander of the left army of the Black Yan Army in Songpanling, on the way to retreat, it would not be a big problem for the main force of the Black Yan Army to retreat north to Yanmen County for rest, and even Ning Chan'er packed up and prepared to withdraw from Qiushi Village with the medicine slave first, even if the news of the death of the Great Heavenly Master Gong Qing leaked out, the Black Yan Army would have millions of tiger and wolf elites contracted between the treacherous mountains and rivers of Yanmen County, and they would be able to breathe for several years.

Yu Zonghu is not a disciple of the Red Mei Sect, he is a disciple of the Yu family of Yanmen County, in his early years he practiced in the Void Spirit Sword Sect, and he once passed the selection of the school palace with the title of the first in the Northern Regions, and later served in the Tiger Ben Army.

After the Battle of Huang Luyuan, the Heiyan Army, under the leadership of Gong Liang and Le Yi, rolled all the way to the east, blocked Yu Zonghu's southward retreat, and besieged the elite of Yu Zonghu's 50,000 Tiger Ben Army and the 200,000 local military equipment of Yanmen County in Yandu City.

In the end, Yu Zonghu led his troops and local military equipment, the Void Spirit Sword Sect and the Yu disciples in Yanmen County to surrender to the Black Yan Army, and Yu Zonghu's relatives and nephews in Yanjing and all the relatives and nephews of the surrendered generals were punished for this, and a total of more than 3,200 people were sentenced outside the Wuyang Gate in Yanjing City.

Because Yu Zonghu and his descendants have accumulated a blood feud with the Ying family, they were not ostracized after surrendering to the Heiyan Army, and they were named god generals, and continued to lead the elite of the Huben Army and the 200,000 local armaments surrendered by Yanmen County, and they were one of the most important god generals of the Heiyan Army, and they were also extremely brave in fighting in Lichuan and Heyang over the years.

Who would have thought that he would suddenly mutiny again on the way north?