The sun is scorching, and the eyes are full of loess, gravel and dead grass and shrubs. Shi Yanchao picked up the cowhide water bag and poured it violently, then turned back to a guide in linen clothes next to him: "There is river water going north?" ”

The man said: "We are walking on the Changyuan River, but in the dry season, this section of the river valley dries up, and there are water miles dozens of miles further north." ”

At this moment, I suddenly saw a stream of yellow dust rising in the distance, and a horse galloped over. When he got closer, the knight turned over from his horse and knelt down in front of Shi Yanchao's horse: "Your lord! We've found a large number of enemy forces from the Northern Han Dynasty! ”

Shi Yanchao immediately came to his senses and asked, "How many people?" Where? ”

"At least tens of thousands!" The knight said, "Very ...... It's close......"

"How close?" As soon as Shi Yanchao's words fell, he suddenly felt that the voice was wrong, as if there was a muffled thunder sounding in the sky. When he looked up, he was suddenly shocked, only to see a black line on the horizon of yellow sand from afar! He recognized that the black line was a patch of soldiers and horses! He did not have auditory hallucinations, and the faint muffled sound he heard in his ears was the sound of countless horses' hooves in the distance.

Shi Yanchao was immediately furious, and without saying a word, he whipped the horsewhip and whipped it. "Ahh The knight covered his face and screamed. Shi Yanchao scolded: "I found out so closely, what did you do scout!" What's the use of you, Lao Tzu......"

"My lord spares his life!" The knight obviously knew Shi Yanchao's temper, and kowtowed on the ground, "We have limited manpower, so we should pay attention to the places where there are hillsides to obstruct...... I didn't pay attention to that kind of place, it looked flat, but in fact, it was stacked high and low, and the enemy troops hid underneath in batches. You can't see anything from afar......"

The subordinate general persuaded: "The enemy army is approaching, the lord first takes the strategy of battle and defense, and there is no need to deal with a villain." ”

Shi Yanchao's face was full of anger, he looked around, and heard the scouts say that the Northern Han army was tens of thousands; He was the vanguard, and he only had 2,000 cavalry under his command. At that moment, I remembered the military order sent by Guo Shao last night, telling him to stand by in the face of the enemy and not fight when he was tired.

Although Shi Yanchao is brave and belligerent, he is a veteran who has been in the battle formation for many years, and he is alone here, of course he does not want to attack more than ten times the enemy army......

"Order all the troops, immediately turn around and return the same way!" Shi Yanchao immediately said, "Move closer to Dong Zunzhi and the others!" ”

He also did not follow Guo Shao's military order to "stand by on the spot", because the official military orders issued by the Chinese army to the generals generally have one sentence: The main generals of all roads can act according to the situation on the ground and act appropriately. Guo Shao's military order told him to stand by after discovering the enemy, and the premise of this military order was that a large number of enemy troops would be far away, after all, there were too many people and horses, and the target movement was very large; It's rare to get close to each other suddenly, otherwise it would be too easy to sneak up...... And now, if you still rigidly follow military orders, you will quickly engage the enemy army, what is the difference between taking the initiative to attack?

…… The situation of the forward arrived at the Chinese army with a fast horse, and at this time Guo Shao was still in the valley near the lake, and only the forward Shi Yanchao, and the three armies of Dong Zunzhi and Zhang Guanghan, who planned to meet Shi Yanchao, went out of the mountainous area.

Guo Shao read the complicated terrain and description of the situation in the letter, and only understood the key: Shi Yanchao and the others were ambushed, but the battle had not yet begun.

He had some discussions with the ministers and generals in the military government, and gradually intuitively felt the seriousness of the situation. This feeling is like a kind of life experience of "pain delayed", that is, people cannot feel the pain immediately when they encounter it, and it takes a while to slowly react to it; It's like getting a big cut with a knife, and sometimes you don't feel the pain right away.

The news that the strikers reported back one after another roughly determined the number of the Northern Han army, and it was estimated that there might be more than 30,000 people!

Wang Pu said solemnly: "The ambush of the Northern Han army is very sudden, and our situation is very bad. The three armies of Qianfeng, Dong Zunzhi, and Zhang Guanghan add up to more than 12,000 people, less than half of the enemy's army, and our army is completely at a disadvantage; The most unfavorable thing is that we marched for half a month, walked nearly a thousand miles to get here, and the men and horses were tired, but the Northern Han army was waiting for work. This battle is more disadvantageous. ”

Guo Shao nodded and remained silent.

Wang Pu said: "I found out too late, we can't seem to avoid this battle, and we are forced to fight; The striker and Dong Zunzhi Zhang Guanghan, who was on the left and right wings, couldn't retreat, and the valley behind was full of people, and it was impossible to get through. The main force of the army is still on the valley road, and it will not be able to gather into an army in a short time. If there is one day, even half a day, there is still time to deploy; However, according to Shi Yanchao, the distance was less than five miles, and they had to immediately get close to each other to meet the battle. ”

One of the generals said, "How about our thousand troops retreat to the mountains?" ”

Wang Pu shook his head and said: "Most of the thousands of troops are cavalry, and there is no road on the mountain, so it is very difficult to climb the mountain." What's more, it's too late for this military order to come and go; According to the report ahead, Shi Yanchao and the others showed no sign of deciding to retreat to the mountains. ”

Li Chuyun also said: "This is the first encounter since entering the Northern Han Kingdom. ”

At this moment, I suddenly heard Guo Shao's voice say, "Everyone, ......"

The crowd stopped talking and looked sideways.

Guo Shao said: "Immediately quickly order Shi Yanchao and the other three to set up a frontal battle on the spot!" The left and right sides of the front army temporarily listened to the command of Zhang Guanghan in the left wing of Long Jiejun, and Shi Yanchao moved alone. I immediately rushed to the front with my guards and went to the battle to direct the battle! ”

Among the three people in the former army, the highest military position is Shi Yanchao, who is in a high position as the commander of the front division of the palace (Zhao Kuangyin's position back then); But Guo Shao couldn't trust this person's overall command ability at all. Why is Shi Yanchao's military position so high? Because this guy is too useful as a striker, his meritorious service is too much, and he can't be convinced if he doesn't get promoted!

In contrast, although Zhang Guanghan only held the military position of commander of Xiangdu, he controlled the march of 20,000 people for a long time, and it was more secure to use him. But Shi Yanchao may not accept Zhang Guanghan's command, and it will be even more troublesome when the time comes.

Therefore, Guo Shao made this arrangement for the time being when the matter came to an end, saving the chaos of military power. Just because of Shi Yanchao's existence, he had to go in person, or send Li Chuyun to control the scene of more than 10,000 people in front of him!

Guo Shao took more than 300 fast horses and hurried to the north.

When he hurried to the front, he found that the war was about to begin. A large area of the enemy army in sight has come close to a mile away, and the situation is about to start a war!

There was no chance to even gather the generals to say a few words before the battle. Guo Shaoxian observed with his own eyes that a large number of cavalry of the Northern Han Army were on the left and right flanks, with infantry in the middle, and the whole army was about half a moon array; He guessed that not all of the people in the Northern Han army were elite, and there might be some people from local feudal towns. Because according to the intelligence and estimation of the Privy Council, there are only more than 30,000 elites left in the Northern Han Kingdom, and it is impossible to bring them all out to Yang Ye to do a hammer deal. But the most unfavorable situation on the side of the Zhou army is that it has not been repaired, and the men and horses are relatively tired.

Guo Shao looked at it and didn't call the generals anymore, but decided to let the soldiers know that the emperor was here, firstly to boost morale, and secondly, to let everyone understand that there was a person with a unified military order.

He immediately asked his soldiers to hold the yellow dragon flag and rode their horses between the various formations. When the soldiers saw Guo Shao, who was riding the tallest horse, they quickly shouted, and the sound of long live was endless.

……

The large array of the Zhou army is not a formation, it is a long phalanx of three groups of men and horses close together, forming a line. Yang Ye heard the shouts of the ground shaking on the opposite side, and he felt a little weird, Zhou Jun's group came from a long journey, and there were still spirits shouting? But he soon found a faint yellow flag in the camp, and immediately guessed that maybe the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty had arrived in the barracks.

"Hmph." Yang Ye looked at the situation in front of him disappreciably, and let out a voice with a cold and confident face.

As a military general, he doesn't like any twists and turns, but he is very familiar with the art of war, very experienced in actual combat, and knows the skills of battle formations, that is, to create conditions and opportunities that are beneficial to him!

In this duel, the preliminary preparation was very successful! Yang Ye took advantage of his familiarity with the terrain of the Northern Han Kingdom and seized the time to suddenly appear; He didn't come up with a tactic out of thin air, what he had in mind was to "attack it halfway", but there were no rivers here, and he just used the art of war...... No matter what method he used, he was only about one-third to one-half of his own side that Zhou Jun could fight now; And he is waiting for work at ease to deal with it from afar. Everything was perfect!

Yang Ye viewed that because of the large number of people on his side, the horizontal expansion was wider, and he completely controlled the offensive and defensive initiative of the battlefield; There is also a detail that is accidental...... The terrain of the Northern Han army was higher than that of the Zhou army. The terrain of this area is not mountainous, but it is indeed a plateau with wrong levels; The Northern Han army pursued here, right on a high place, and the Zhou army was under a faulty hillside.

"This battle is inevitable!" Yang Ye looked back and said, "No matter if the emperor is coming, even if the king of heaven is coming, I will also defeat this enemy army!" The order, as soon as the drum sounded, the Chinese army slowed down, and the left and right flanks were the main attack! ”

There are many people by themselves, and the wings are relatively wide, and the advantage lies in the two wings.

When the drummers of the Chinese army were ready, they saw a row of soldiers puff out their cheeks and blow the thick and dull horn, and the rumbling drums also sounded. On the battlefield, the west wind blew obliquely, flying sand and rocks, and on the wild field of barren grass and shrubs, I saw smoke and a tide of people and horses.

The horseman camps on both sides slowly began to move, and a group of war horses slowly rushed out, gradually speeding up, and had already outflanked the Zhou army. The rumbling sound of horses' hooves was like the muffled thunder on a sunny day, and everyone's eyes widened, and their spirits became highly tense.

The two armies fought very quickly, and there was no exchange of men and horses at all. There is nothing to say now, and the only way to meet is to use force!

"Kill! Kill! Kill ......" Soon there were frantic shouts between the two armies, and all kinds of noise and noise on the battlefield were mixed together.