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At this time, Yu Ming had joined forces with Song Jingang. After receiving the news of Liu Wuzhou's death, Song Jingang cried all night, and then cut off his little finger with a knife, vowing to avenge Liu Wuzhou. He also fulfilled his previous promise, surrendered to Yuming, and was made a hussar general.

After the combined army, the Great Zhou had 150,000 troops in Hedong, occupying more than 10 counties in the northeast of Hedong, such as Mayi, Dingxiang, Yanmen, Loufu, Yuan, and Wu'an, accounting for one-fifth of Hedong in area and population. And seven or eight counties in the southeast of the river were under the control of the Tang army.

Now, Yuming also learned about the strength and arrangement of the Tang army from the defeated soldiers. At present, the Tang army has a total of more than 200,000 troops in Hedong, with Li Shimin as the commander, Pei Lin as the military division, and Sheng Yan and Duan Zhixuan as the deputy generals. Because Li Xiaogong's 100,000 partial divisions have been wiped out, the main force of the Tang army is now concentrated on the line from Baibi to Xia County, and is now rushing towards the camp of his own army.

"King Zhou, the Tang army is only 200,000, only 50,000 more than our army, but their army is mainly infantry, and the cavalry is only more than 60,000 people...... Although our army has only 150,000, there are 70,000 cavalry, which is more than the enemy. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of the cavalry of the Tang Army is only afraid that it is not as good as our cavalry in Liaodong. Luo Shixin is very confident, he wants to fight with the Tang Army and make a great contribution.

"Yes! The Tang army is now aggressive, if our army does not fight a big victory, how can we convince the surname Hedong and the family? How to shock those young people! Cheng Yanjin's thoughts are obviously the same as Luo Shixin's. I want to keep up the good work and get a big win.

Yu Ming shook his head, although he also wanted to win a big victory, he knew that it was very difficult to defeat Li Shimin. If his 100,000 troops were the elite troops of Liaodong who originally attacked Hebei and Shandong, they could still fight head-on with Li Shimin. But in fact, these 100,000 Zhou troops were all reserve supplementary troops, and they were originally used as county soldiers. If it weren't for the fact that Liu Wuzhou's troops along the way were all old, weak, sick and disabled, they would all collapse at the touch of a button like frightened birds. Whether he can recapture Xia County is a big question mark.

Now that the troops are at a disadvantage, it is absolutely not the best policy to fight hard with the Tang Army, which is superior in strength and combat effectiveness.

Let's not talk about whether the Tang army under Li Shimin can fight to win, even if it wins, Yuming doesn't want to fight with the enemy. Because in this way, the casualties of the Zhou army will inevitably be very heavy, and it will not be enough to stay in the counties of Hedong at that time.

"Pass my orders! The army retreated to Xia County and relied on Jiancheng for defense. When a favorable fighter appears, strike again! Yuming unexpectedly gave such an order.

After hearing this, the generals were all a little disappointed, but after all, they were also generals who had been fighting for many years, and they knew that under the current situation, it was the safest to retreat to Xia County and rely on this fortified city for defensive warfare. Therefore, they did not dwell too much on this issue, so they led the army to retreat according to their words.

At this time, Yuming left Song Jingang behind, and then discussed with him alone for a long time.

After talking, Song Jingang, who had just struggled out of his grief, rushed out of the camp with an ecstatic face, which surprised the generals.

……

Two days later, when Li Shimin's army arrived at the previous garrison of the Zhou army, they found that the camp had already been emptied, and only one place was left in disarray.

"Report to the King of Qin, Yu Ming has led the army back to Xia County, and now he has built a large camp outside Xia County, forming a rugged situation with the county seat of Xia County, it seems that he wants to rely on Jiancheng to fight a decisive battle with our army." At this time, a scout rode over from afar and bowed to Li Shimin.

"As expected, Yu Ming knew that he would lose in a field battle with me in this plain, so he retreated to Xia County and wanted to fight a battle with me to defend the city." Li Shimin also had a headache about Yuming's method of responding to the battle. He naturally knew how difficult it would be if he wanted to storm Xia County, and how heavy the casualties of the Tang army would be. This can be seen from the previous siege battles between Song Jingang and Li Xiaogong.

"But fortunately, Yuming is obviously still a little big, if he retreats all the army into Xia County, I'm afraid I will only have to negotiate with him honestly." Li Shimin secretly said in his heart: "But this guy seems to be young and vigorous, and he actually left some troops outside the city, if I wipe out all the troops outside the city and capture a few of his important generals, then I will have the upper hand in the negotiations!" ”

Thinking of this, Li Shimin also said in high spirits: "Pass the order and continue to march!" Eat the Zhou army outside Xia County first! ”

"Yes! King Qin! The generals of the Tang army responded in unison. They also held back their strength, thinking that they would meet the legendary invincible Liaodong Iron Cavalry.

……

After Li Shimin defeated Liu Wuzhou, he recovered a lot of surrendered troops, counting the 200,000 troops he led, his total strength actually exceeded 100,000. It's just that he didn't dare to put the 100,000 Liu Wuzhou's troops into battle immediately. He had already obtained a report and saw a trace of Song Jingang in the Zhou army. And Song Jingang, as Liu Wuzhou's brother-in-law and Liu Jun's second person, is second only to Liu Wuzhou in prestige among Liu Jun's soldiers. If these surrendered soldiers saw Song Jingang, they were afraid that they would surrender to the past. It's not going to be good.

Now, Li Shimin plans to seek peace by war, even if he can't recover it, at least he must conquer Xia County and let Yuming suffer a defeat. In this way, whether it is to negotiate the exchange of prisoners in the future, or to counterattack Hedong in the future, they can take the lead.

And to conquer Xia County, he had to first defeat the Zhou army camp outside the city, so that he could launch a siege without any worries.

The Zhou army camp twenty miles away from the county seat of Xia was stationed with 60,000 Zhou troops, and Yuming ordered Qin Qiong to serve as the main general, and Cheng Yanjin and Luo Shixin as deputy generals for defense.

In the eyes of the Tang army, Qin Qiong's smartest way was to pull out the camp and retreat north, retreating into the defense of Xia County, so that he could hold on for a while longer. However, the news reported by the detective said that Yuming asked Qin Qiong and the others to at least hold on to the sky before they could retreat into Xia County. This made Li Shimin also slightly surprised. Because in this way, Qin Qiong's 60,000 troops are very dangerous, and if one is not good, there will be a danger of annihilation.

The results of the front-line reconnaissance also illustrate this point: Qin Qiong had no intention of retreating, but instead dug a lot of trenches in front of the camp, threw many fortifications, and put on a posture of fighting to the death.

Li Shimin couldn't help but feel angry in his heart, he was determined to deal with Qin Qiongjun blocking outside Xia County as soon as possible.

……

In front of the valley twenty miles south of Xia County, there is a camp, which happens to block Li Shimin's passage to Xia County in the north.

This is the camp that Qin Qiong set up, and it seems that he chose to camp in a special way. At present, he has arranged many fortifications in front of the gate of the camp, although it is not as stable as the camp that the Liaodong army has placed in Hejian County before, but it can also effectively prevent the enemy from rushing the camp.

However, to Li Shimin's surprise, Qin Qiong did not plan to blindly defend it, but sent more than 10,000 troops out of the camp to fight Li Shimin in the field, and the front was 8,000 cavalry.

The first soldiers of the Tang army to launch the attack were infantry, with a total number of about 20,000 men, led by Sheng Yanshi, and launched a tentative attack to find out the reality of the Zhou army. This group of Don troops consisted mainly of pikemen, shield soldiers and archers, as well as some sappers. Their main task was to fill the ditch in front of the camp, destroy the defensive facilities that hindered the cavalry attack, such as horse rejection and tripping horses, and prepare for the attack of their own cavalry.

The rising sun shone its light on the already silver-covered wasteland, and the brilliant light reflected on the armor and weapons of the soldiers of the two armies, and there was a sense of slaughter.

At this time, Luo Shixin was riding on his horse, walking in the center of his cavalry ranks, waiting for the battle.

A faint sneer appeared on his resolute and resolute face, and his eyes as sharp as eagle eyes stared closely at the Tang infantry who were slowly advancing in front of the Zhou army camp.

Luo Shixin looked at the Tang army advancing step by step, and he was also enthusiastic. He raised the spear in his hand and shouted, "Brothers of the Great Zhou, rush! Use our spears to send these thieves back to the West! ”

With his order, the eight thousand cavalry of the Zhou army immediately began to move.

According to the training manual of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, they divided the 8,000 cavalry into forty rows of two people, forming a half-moon-shaped arc and heading towards the enemy.

And in the center of this half-moon shape is the 20,000 Tang Army infantry who have just set up a defensive formation and gathered together. This was also the first head-to-head battle between the Tang and Zhou armies, and the generals of both sides attached great importance to this confrontation. They all understand that the outcome of this battle will affect the psychological advantage of the next two warring parties.

The faces of every cavalry of the Zhou army are clearly portrayed with perseverance and bravery! Not a single soldier had a look of fear in his eyes. They knew that they had to crush the enemy with all their might in order to win hope for a complete victory in the battle for Hedong.

The queue was quickly arranged, and the soldiers were close to their comrades, trying to stand in a tight formation, not only the knights on the horses, but even each horse was covered with a thin layer of iron armor, although their equipment was not the heavy armor of the Liaodong ironclad cavalry, but it could also resist ordinary bows and arrows.

The cavalry in the first row is the strongest cavalry warriors selected, all of them have good martial arts, and many of them are even masters of the rivers and lakes. With a fearless look on their faces, they lined up like a crescent moon!

In the Zhou army camp behind the cavalry, there was a rapid and thick horn sound of "tom, tom, tom". Soon, there were bursts of frantic shouts among the ranks of the cavalry of the Zhou army.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!! ”

Luo Shixin held a spear in his hand, his face was full of fierce fighting intent, and his eyes were calm: "Look at what these Li Tang thieves have to do!" Do they have two heads or four hands? Brothers, strike! For the sake of King Zhou, charge! ”

The cavalry of the Zhou army, inspired by the main general, seemed to fall into excitement and frenzy, and they violently whipped the buttocks of the horses under their horses with leather whips, and then raised their spears high in their hands and rushed forward.

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