"The drums and snow are surging on all sides, and the three armies are shouting that the mountains are moving." Qi Liang rode on a horse and gave the order to go out, but he didn't expect the flag to dance and the drums to make half of Yuezhou City alarmed. Hu Guozhu frowned when he saw it, and asked cautiously: "Shizi!" Is there anything wrong? He didn't dare to have the slightest contempt for Qi Liang.

Qi Liang pointed to the troops who had been pulled out one by one and asked, "Doesn't the march and combat pay attention to concealment?" ”

Hu Guozhu is inexplicable, he has always gone out to fight like this, why is it wrong? "Shizi! Marching and fighting pay attention to morale, the grand scene can make the soldiers full of confidence, and the noisy drums can make the soldiers full of fighting spirit. ”

Qi Liang didn't dare to disagree, and jumped off his horse: "After the troops of Qin Guilin, Liu Qilong, and Tang Daomu are mobilized, the rest of the troops are scattered!" ”

Hu Guozhu was stunned: "We're not leaving?" ”

Qi Liang walked to the big tent and instructed as he went: "Send spies to closely monitor the movements of the Qing army in Linxiang City, and report it every half an hour; Let the soldiers sleep in their tents without doing anything! ”

Hu Guozhu became more and more confused, hurriedly followed behind Qi Liang, and said urgently: "The prince ...... the world."

Qi Liang didn't wave his hand back: "I want to sleep, and no one is allowed to disturb me!" ”

It was too unexpected that Hu Guozhu couldn't adapt for a while, and Qi Liangtu turned back and pointed at him: "You have to sleep too!" ”

At that time, the night sky was full of stars, and the frogs on the ground were chirping, and Qi Liang quietly opened with the headquarters, which was like an ambush.

After a night of forced march until dawn, Qi Liang ordered the troops to enter the valley and forest to hide and rest, and at noon, a spy reported: "Shizi! The Linxiang Qing army has abandoned the city this morning! ”

Qi Liang's squinting eyes suddenly opened, and he stood up in disbelief: "So fast? He turned his head and asked Hu Guozhu on one side: "What does the general think of this problem?" ”

Hu Guozhu was suspicious: "Could it be that the rumors we spread have worked?" ”

Qi Liang shook his head: "It's not fermenting so quickly, the Qing army should take the initiative to retreat and retreat strategically!" ”

"General Hu! Did Liu Qilong, Qin Guilin, and Tang Daomu arrive at the designated position? ”

Hu Guozhu said: "It shouldn't have reached the designated location yet, unless they don't eat or sleep for a day and a night, Tang Daomu may be able to rush to Linxiang City!" ”

Qi Liang looked at Hu Guozhu: "How many cavalry troops do we have?" ”

Hu Guozhu said: "Only 1,200 horses!" "This is the famous Guanning Iron Cavalry - Wu Sangui's elite troops, the only force that can compete with the Manchu cavalry or the Mongol cavalry, this time because of Qi Liang's relationship, specially transferred the three Chong Guanning Iron Cavalry to guard.

"Chong" is a quantitative unit of cavalry troops in the Ming Dynasty, and one rush is 400 cavalry. The establishment of the cavalry battalion in the Ming Dynasty was: 50 cavalry for 1 multiplier - 200 cavalry for 1 heng - 400 cavalry for 1 chong - 4 chong, 1600 cavalry for 1 cavalry sub-battalion

"Twelve hundred is too little!" Qi Liang raised his eyebrows, and then ordered in a deep voice: "Gather all the horses, form a light cavalry pursuit force based on 1,200 Guanning iron cavalry, and set off immediately!" Now he secretly regrets that he didn't go out at the same time with those three troops yesterday, what a clever mistake he was made by cleverness!

The light cavalry pursuit force has been organized, about 1,800 people, Qi Liang jumped on his horse and prepared to set off, Hu Guozhu was anxious: "Shizi! How can you go into battle and kill the enemy yourself? Hurry down, the last general will lead the army! "He can't afford to have such a thing as an accident.

Qi Liang thought that Hu Guozhu was stronger than himself regardless of tactics and experience, so he didn't give up pretentiously, but solemnly advised: "The general must catch up with the Qing army and drag Zhu Man!" He feared that if the Qing army fled, he would never have a chance to save his lost men.

"Don't worry! The last general will not let that Zhu Man escape! Hu Guozhu assured.

Qi Liang clenched his fists: "General take care!" I'll be there! ”

After the light cavalry left, Qi Liang also led the infantry of his headquarters to run and set off. At the same time, he ordered the herald to inform Tang Daomu that he did not need to rush to Linxiang City again, and turned to the northeast to meet with Yanglou Division. The combat missions of Liu Qilong and Qin Guilin remained unchanged.

Qi Liang ran with the soldiers, he gave up his mount and then took off his armor, he knew that he would not be able to keep up with the pace of the soldiers after running for a long time, and even this had already made the soldiers extremely excited!

Originally, Hu Guozhu did not approve of Qi Liang giving up his mount, but Qi Liang insisted, which made Hu Guozhu feel a lot of emotion, the rapid formation of small light cavalry units benefited from the exemplary role of the prince, except for spies and heralds, all the generals in the team followed and gave up their mounts.

The empty mountains and hundreds of birds are scattered, and the clouds are cloudy and sunny. Thousands of troops ran on the avenue with great movement, startled birds, dust, and in the distance it looked like a yellow mist moving. When Shen Shi, the troops crossed Tianshiwan, and a fast horse flew in: "Report——! The loud tail note dragged on for a long time, like a rooster crow at dawn.

"Report! Twenty miles to the northwest, the Qing cavalry was found! The spy jumped off his horse and fell to his knees with great movement.

Qi Liang was shocked: "How many are there?" ”

The spy reported: "About 2,000 horsemen!" ”

Qi Liang ordered the troops to pause their advance, and immediately a herald sounded a flag, and the trumpeter blew a horn.

Qi Liang estimated that the Qing cavalry on the twenty-mile road could arrive here in half an hour, and the two thousand Qing cavalry against the eight thousand infantry could scatter the infantry lineup with a single charge, and he had tasted the power of the Mongolian cavalry. Looking at the surrounding terrain left and right, this belongs to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, the terrain is flat, the vision is open, and the extremely sharp cavalry sprints, Qi Liang can't help but secretly complain. As far as the eye could see, there was a hill to the northeast, and now he had to retreat there, and then ordered: "All troops run to the hill ahead!" He regretted it a little, if the 1,200 Guan Ning Iron Cavalry was on his own, why did he need to dodge?

There was a dense forest on the hill, and Qi Liang was overjoyed, and ordered to cut down trees and set up horse barriers at the foot of the mountain, and build a four-layer defense set of horse barriers, Pak sword soldiers, pikemen, and archers.

Obviously, this Qing cavalry was coming at them, Qi Liang was very puzzled, didn't the Qing cavalry unit not cross the Zhaoli Bridge in Hubei? Thinking that the Qing army in Linxiang could abandon the city and retreat, it is not surprising that this cavalry unit of the Qing army appeared here. Maybe the retreat of the Qing army in Linxiang is a bait! Zhu Man is not a "pig man"! Qi Liang sighed, and after thinking about it, he felt that it was all inaccurate information and a mistake.

Qi Liang was both scared and happy about the appearance of the Qing cavalry troops here, at least Liu Qilong, Qin Guilin, and Tang Daomu did not have to worry about encountering the Qing cavalry, and Hu Guozhu's pursuit of the Qing army in Linxiang was also smoother. As long as the 2,000 Qing cavalry could be held back here, he believed that Hu Guozhu would definitely be victorious. On the other hand, he didn't believe that 8,000 infantry couldn't fight 2,000 cavalry, and this was not a prairie!

After waiting for a long time, the Qing cavalry finally appeared, and the yellow sand covered the sky, and the galloping cavalry rose up a huge cloud of dust and mist, and came to an abrupt halt in front of the mountain, about 350 yards from the hill, just outside the range of the long feather arrows.

Qi Liang stood on the top of the mountain and looked nervously, it was a typical Mongolian cavalryman, wearing a helmet, a long robe, a leather armor, a short scimitar with a belt or another mace or a lasso, and two bags of arrows hung on both sides of the horse's belly, one arrow was small and pointed, which was a light arrow for long-range shooting, and the other, the arrow was large and wide, and it was a heavy arrow for close combat. It was the most advanced light cavalry equipment of its time, armed to the teeth in the words of American GIs.

Qi Liang's palms were full of sweat, he didn't know how to fight, he divided the defense of the hill into four sides: east, west, south, and north, and assigned four thousand households to be in charge, and he only had one reserve ready to rescue the dangerous place at any time.

After the Qing army stood still for a moment, a cavalry suddenly rushed out and ran around the hill, Qi Liang guessed that the other party might be observing the terrain, during which the cavalry also shot four arrows with a flying horse, which should be testing the distance.

Not long after the cavalry rushed back to the ranks, the Mongolian cavalry moved, Qi Liang's breathing suddenly became short, his mouth was dry, like a feeling of asthma and lack of oxygen, this was the first time he had seen the ancient army in the field. The front row of Pu Dao soldiers held their shields high, the second row of pikemen squatted neatly on the ground, and the third row followed the shout of Chito's commander, and the archers lunged and drew their bows to be shot.

The situation was completely different from Qi Liang's imagination, the sound of horses' hooves came like a storm, but the Mongol cavalry did not charge the hill with the force of overwhelming the mountain, but circled the hill like the first cavalry, they were divided into two teams to gallop on the left and right, and their vigorous posture was to ride their horses and shoot arrows with bows and arrows.

At the sound of an order, you also opened your bow! Suddenly, the sky was full of "straw", and the swishing sound was endless, and there were not many casualties between you and me. Qi Liang's arrows couldn't shoot far and couldn't reach them; And the arrows of the Mongol cavalry with trees and shields did not work.

After two laps, the Mongol cavalry stopped, and for a quarter of an hour there was no movement from them, probably discussing something. Cold weapon combat is just like that, far less intense than guns, Qi Liang is relieved, and he can look around when he is in the mood.

Qi Liang walked to a thousand households at the foot of the mountain, which was the front of the Mongol cavalry attack to the north.

"Shizi!" Qianhu saluted respectfully, his face was black and yellow, and there were pockmarks, others called him Lu Huangju, and his real name was Lu Huixiang.

"Although Lu Qianhu commands, don't worry about me!" Qi Liang looked ahead and found that the Mongolian cavalry had moved again, and this time the loose formation began to gather to form a neat square, and he couldn't help asking, "What do they want to do?" ”

Lu Huixiang smiled contemptuously and said, "They want to shoot long arrows in formation!" Then he yelled, "Raise your shield!" "From the first row of shields, a number of people quickly separated, and they raised their shields to the sky and joined together into a whole huge shield.

Those who could not hide in it retreated or hid behind trees. "Shizi! Please step back and go up the mountain! Lu Huixiang was afraid that Qi Liang would lose, so he pleaded.

Qi Liang retreated to the top of the mountain as he said, and soon, waves of dense arrows rained over, and only the sound of arrows cutting through the sky, breaking leaves, and shooting shields was heard.

This time the effect was still not satisfactory, and the Mongol cavalry stopped after a few rounds of fire. Then, the Mongol cavalry did not move again, and they retreated, and they dismounted and rested, and spent patiently.

Qi Liang is very strange, time is not in their favor? Could it be that he pretended to be lazy and lured our army down the mountain to attack? Is this impossible? After thinking about it for a long time, Qi Liang simply sat down and rested against a big tree.

The sun was gradually setting, and the spring was cold, Qi Liang shrank his neck, glanced at the fiery red sun on the horizon, and closed his eyes to recuperate. Susu, he stood up suddenly, patted his thigh and exclaimed, "Fire attack!" ”

The people next to him were startled, and when they heard what they said, they immediately changed their colors and flew away, and if they were attacked by fire, they would be dead.