"At this time, we will fight out of the encirclement, or we may have a fight, delay for time, and wait until the Liang army crosses the Huai to the south, and we will die and have no life!"

Li Xiu seems to be weak, but at this moment, he is staring at Chen Mingsheng, insisting on his own opinions, and not giving an inch.

"Xu Mingzhen led 20,000 cavalry, in Huainan and Huaibei and the Liang army iron cavalry for many years, although we have more than 16,000 soldiers and horses, but the remnants of the army accounted for thirty percent, at this time it is not clear what the situation is in the south, how to break through?" Chen Mingsheng endured the severe pain in his right arm and left rib, and persuaded bitterly, "At this time, according to the city, Your Majesty and Grandpa Guo will definitely send troops to respond!" ”

Chen Mingsheng's left rib and right arm were stabbed by Gao Long, but fortunately, when Li Ming was looking for Chen Mingsheng to say something, Chen Mingsheng was caught off guard and stabbed by Gao Long, he reacted very quickly, dodged the assassination of Gao Long's generals, and also drew a knife to kill Gao Long.

After forcing back the three generals around Gao Long, Li Qi led the guards in the courtyard who were suddenly attacked and killed less than ten people, and held on in the narrow courtyard until Li Xiu led reinforcements to arrive, and killed dozens of cronies besieging the yatent around Gao Long, which saved Chen Mingsheng's life and did not cause chaos in the city.

To say that before Xu Mingzhen led 20,000 cavalry to suddenly intersperse with the turtle top and south of Yandun Mountain, Li Xiu and Li Zhen were still a little confused, and seeing that they could not be defeated, they could only lead more than 1,000 wandering cavalry to retreat to Zhongli City in a hurry and join the main force of the Right Shenwu Army.

However, after Gao Long's assassination failed last night, Li Mo, Xu Jing, and Wei Huang's generals all believed that there was a bigger conspiracy behind the scenes against Da Chu, and they were guarding Zhong Licheng, and it was very likely that they would not be able to wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Zhongli City was dilapidated, even after the Jinling Incident, the Shouzhou Army took over Haozhou, and Zhongli City was only hastily repaired, and the city was far from being strong, and it was far from being comparable with strong cities such as Chaozhou and Shouzhou.

What's more, when Chen Mingsheng and they captured Zhongli City, the grain in the city was set on fire by the defenders, even after recovering Zhongli City, a batch of grain and grass was immediately transferred from Chuzhou, but in addition to the more than 10,000 civilians in the city, this batch of grain and grass was only enough for them 16,000 men and horses to eat for half a month.

Of course, the Right Shenwu Guard, as the core elite of the privy deputy envoy and the national abbot, in addition to the 3,000 elite cavalry under Li Xiu and Li Mo, there are also more than 4,000 horse infantry, which means that the whole army has more than 7,000 war horses.

Even if the excellent war horses are to be preserved, nearly 4,000 horses can still be slaughtered and preserved, and they can support it for a long time.

This is also the key to Chen Mingsheng, Wei Huang and others advocating sticking to Zhongli.

Wen Bo led the Chaozhou defenders to hold on for more than half a year under the siege of the elite of the 70,000 or 80,000 forbidden troops in Huaixi, why did they hold on to the Huai River thaw after less than two months?

In Chen Mingsheng's view, even if the Liang army may cross the river to the south at any time, according to past experience, when the Huai River freezes and is unsealed, there is no precedent for the Liang army not to withdraw.

To defend the city, it is always necessary to rate 16,700 weak brigades out of the city and 20,000 Shouzhou cavalry to win a field battle with a much higher chance.

Li Xiu strongly advocated a breakthrough and fought out from the east and south gates of Zhongli City, and to the south was Longyou Lake with a radius of nearly ten miles, and the southwest of Longyou Lake was the northern section of the Wujian Mountains.

The right Shenwu army is well-equipped, the generals are also strong and brave, just surrounded, the morale is not weak, while the enemy cavalry has not yet advanced to the city to build a camp, as long as they fight less than twenty miles of open area, into the hilly area of the Wujian Mountains, Xu Mingzhen's 20,000 cavalry, the threat to them will be greatly reduced.

In addition to the tactical level, it can be worth fighting, and the more important thing is that Li Xiu realizes that the enemy army has a great plan.

Gao Long was originally a general in Tanzhou, who surrendered to Dachu for Wen Ruilin, and accumulated merit as the deputy commander of the Right Shenwu Army. Gao Long assassinated Chen Mingsheng, wanting to create chaos and be taken advantage of by the enemy, so is there a problem with Wen Ruilin?

Is there a problem with Miao Yong, who Wen Ruilin persuaded him, and other generals and military attaches who have been attached to Gao Long and Miao Yong?

Are these people involved in the previous destruction of the Great Chu Water Master in Hongzepu?

If all this is connected, it means that the Shouzhou army and the Liang army behind the scenes have a great plan, and the joint forces will be far beyond their imagination.

The most direct consequence is that the main force of the forbidden army under Chaozhou City is very likely to be severely damaged by the enemy in the next attack, then it will be meaningless for them to trap Zhongli, and they will not be able to escape the tragic end of defeat in the end.

Or the main force of the forbidden army was alert in time and withdrew into Chuzhou or Shuzhou, but the enemy's tens of thousands or even more than 200,000 soldiers and horses moved south, and they must first capture the northernmost Zhongli City, so as to attack the city south of Zhongli and ensure that the land of Huaixi fell back into their hands.

Under the full attack of the enemy, the city lacked the necessary materials to defend the city, could it really hold out until the imperial court gathered reinforcements from Zhuzhou County to reinforce it?

Although Chen Mingsheng was the commander of the capital, and Xu Jing, Wei Huang and other generals listened to his orders, except for Li Chong, who was closer to Chen Mingsheng, Li Qi and other Li disciples all stood on the side of Li Xiu, the deputy commander of the capital.

There is no doubt that the Youshenwu Army, which was born from the Youguang German Army, was mainly developed on the basis of the Li family's children absorbing the children of the Gyeonggi family, and then merging the Xuanzhou soldiers.

In this process, the children of the Li family played a leading role, and Li Xiu's outstanding command ability and Li Yuan's martial courage were well understood by the generals.

Li Xiu insisted on breaking through, and Chen Mingsheng could only painstakingly persuade him not to take risks.

"My father often said that it is taboo for soldiers to take care of themselves in danger and forget their lives when they see profit," Li Xiu did not appreciate it, and said fiercely, "If you are greedy for life and afraid of death, I will take Li Qi as the forerunner and kill a bloody road to the south for the generals." ”

"What do you mean by that?" No matter how good Chen Mingsheng's temper was, when he saw Li Xiu using the name of his father, Li Yu, the king of Zhedong County, to mock him for being greedy for life and afraid of death, he was also furious at this time, and stared at Li Xiu and asked.

"It's better to break through as soon as possible, when the Liang army's foot soldiers come over, it will be too late to break through." Gao Chengyuan sat behind the case and said in a deep voice.

Although Gao Chengyuan finally led less than 3,000 sailors to abandon the ship and land, as one of Yang Yuanpu's most trusted generals, his status and prestige were still higher than Chen Ming's.

In addition to being a commander-level general at the same level as Chen Mingsheng in the army, the military attache rank is higher than Chen Mingsheng.

When Chen Mingsheng was tough, he could force Li Xiu to obey orders, but when the two armies were merged, the command should logically belong to Gao Chengyuan.

Gao Chengyuan was ashamed of the fiasco before, and the only remaining pawns were still entrusted to Chen Mingsheng to save them, and he had always kept a low profile in Zhongli City, even if he gave up the main position.

However, if he didn't speak before, it doesn't mean that Gao Chengyuan has no effect when he speaks.

"General Gao, what do you mean by this?" Chen Mingsheng looked at Gao Chengyuan in surprise and asked.

"Nine out of ten Da Chu Sailors are mourned, and Gao wants to personally send his head to His Majesty's case to ask for guilt." Gao Chengyuan looked up at the roof beams and said in a hoarse voice.

"General ......" Seeing that everyone was inclined to break through, and seeing that the morale was still usable, Li Chong finally spoke out to persuade Chen Mingsheng to obey the will of the people.

"Okay, good ......," Chen Mingsheng said negatively.

…………

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Deciding on the final breakthrough plan, Li Xiu and Li Zhen took the initiative to request to lead the elite cavalry out of the west to fight, resist the main force of the Shouzhou cavalry from the west as much as possible, and squeeze out more space for the horse infantry and foot soldiers to break through from the south city to the west bank of Longyou Lake.

Nancheng is also the horse infantry led by Li Chong and Xu Jing at present, and will advance to the southwest side of the city as soon as possible, acting as the junction of the two lines of soldiers and horses, while Gao Chengyuan led the remnants of the water division in the center, Chen Mingsheng, Wei Huang and other generals later, the northwest flank retreated south, and the generals of Gao Long's department stayed at the end.

After Gao Long, the generals and guards of the army were eliminated, the morale of the generals of Gao Long's department was the worst and the combat effectiveness was the weakest; With this arrangement, it can even be said that they and the more than 10,000 civilians in the city will be abandoned in Zhongli City, so that the enemy cavalry will not dare to attack their flanks with impunity.

The breakout was chosen before dawn the next day, when the eastern sky showed a faint morning light, and the gates opened.

The enemy sentry cavalry wandering outside the city was also the first to discover the change, and the alarm was great, and hundreds of scouts gathered at the first time and roared around to intercept it.

Li Xiu and Li Qi led the cavalry like a black tide from the West City Gate pouring out continuously, the strong bows and crossbows fired arrows whistling in the air like the wind, the war horses howled in the real cold wind, and soon the contradictions of the swords and halberds collided together, stirring up a puff of blood, and the fresh flesh and body fell to the ground and struggled, or like a fish in a dry pond swallowing its last breath.

The role of the enemy sentry cavalry was only to reconnoiter and delay the defenders' breakthrough at the first time.

When they saw that the situation was not right, they retreated.

The Shouzhou cavalry, which was stationed a few miles away, could not directly enter the city, and was always on guard against the defenders breaking through, and almost reacted in the fastest time.

Dark tides collided in the morning light, splashing sparks of blood and flesh.

The cavalry led by Li Xiu and Li Mo, with the children of the Li family and the county prince's palace guard as the backbone, and the young and strong villagers as the foundation, were as indestructible as a reef.

Li Xiu and Li Zhen kept falling down, but then more generals came over to protect the flanks of the two.

Li Xiu made Ma Lance and Li Mo made a halberd, and the two of them didn't have to worry about the side and back, they only knew how to stab and slash the current enemy, and they were bent on killing the bloody road, and when they saw the arrows flying like locusts, they only raised their arms to block the front door.

The core generals all wore one or two layers of leather armor in scale armor, and although their vital points were difficult to be injured by arrows, the horses under their crotches were difficult to block arrows.

When Li Mo was surrounded by the guards on the left and right, he changed to the third war horse, and his right leg, which could not be protected by the scale armor, was pierced by five arrows from top to bottom, and even two arrows pierced his leg skin and were connected with the war horse under his crotch.

By this time, they had already seen the peaks and ridges at the northern foot of the Wujian Mountains peeking out in the early morning mist.

In order to prevent him from falling off the horse, Li told Hu to tie his waist and legs with the saddle of the new fourth war horse with ropes.

"Xu Mingzhen, this dog thief is nothing more than that!"

Li Qi looked at the Shouzhou cavalry who were frightened by them and didn't dare to rush over on the flank, and couldn't help but shout and shout to encourage them.

The enemy cavalry can also take turns to attack to save energy, but they must rush to the front of Wujian Mountain in one go to take a breath.

The last part of the road that remained was not for them to slacken for half a minute.

Li Mo, Li Xiu and others led the cavalry to resist the greatest pressure and rushed forward, but the speed of the cavalry was still faster than the speed of the foot soldiers who set off from Nancheng, and they had already opened some distance to the south.

The horse infantry led by Li Chong and Xu Jing was initially able to take into account the connection between the cavalry and the infantry to break through the encirclement, deliberately suppressing the speed, and even from time to time divided a small group of elite combat forces to rush around the rear wing to kill the enemy soldiers, and Li Zhen and Li Xiu generally kept moving forward side by side.

However, through the early morning mist, they saw that the bud mountain on the northeast side of the Wujian Mountain Range was in front of them, and at the same time, in the morning light that was gradually brightening, seeing that the enemy cavalry gathered on the right front flank was dense like a gloomy black cloud, Li Chong and Xu Jing could no longer care too much, and began to order their troops to speed up, ride their horses and rush towards Asan with all their might, and soon overtook Li Qian and Li Xiu as a whole.

"Humph!"

Li Pu's eldest son died early, Li Chong was the second son, and Li Qi was the youngest, but Li Qi was brought to Yuzhang by his uncle Li Yu since he was a child, and his relationship with Li Chong was far less close to him than Li Xiu. he

At this time, seeing Li Chong and Xu Jing doing this, Li Zhen snorted coldly, dissatisfied and disdainful, but he didn't say anything, raised the halberd to his knees, and led his troops to kill a group of enemy horses from the side and hit it head-on.

Li Chong couldn't care about his brother's contempt at this time, he was full of thoughts that when he rushed to the foot of Yashan Mountain to stand firm, he might be able to spare troops to divide his troops to receive the follow-up breakout soldiers and horses.

But he couldn't see that at the foot of Yashan Mountain in front of them, in the dense forest, more than a thousand cavalrymen and horses were wearing black armor at this time, following the gesture of the main general Pang Xiong, they picked up their blades, turned over and rode on horseback, pulled up the reins, and slowly stepped out of the woods at a very slow speed.

On top of the fallen weeds, the Xuanjia Rider was like a god of death harvesting life, waiting for the first wave of breakout defenders to arrive in front of him......

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The biggest disadvantage of the armored heavy cavalry is the lack of the ability to maneuver over medium and long distances, but the Central Plains war horses selected by the Xuanjia cavalry have a strong physique and a large height, which overcomes the problem of insufficient short-range impact speed to a certain extent, and is even faster than the dwarf horses introduced by Dachu from Sichuan and Yunnan in a short time.

On the wilderness from the southeast shore of Longyou Lake to the foot of Yashan Mountain, which is less than four or five miles, once more than a thousand Xuanjia riders pull up their speed, they are surging like a black tide of rage, and they stomp on the ground like thunder.

If Li Xiu and Li Qi led 3,000 elite cavalry, they might dare to hedge against more than 1,000 Xuanjia cavalry in the wilderness of Pingchuan, but usually speaking, they would still choose to avoid until they had to do so, and try their best to distance themselves to exhaust the enemy's horsepower.

For Li Chong and Xu Jing at this time, they were all horse infantry behind them.

The so-called horse infantry, the main mode of combat is to use horses, mules and other livestock to save physical strength when moving, to carry out medium and long-distance maneuvers at a relatively fast speed, and to dismount and fight in formation when encountering the enemy.

The generals' horseback riding and horse combat training are not as good as real cavalry, and the armor they are equipped with is mainly shield spears and longbows that are inconvenient to handle on horseback, and they are not suitable for horse warfare, let alone hedging with heavy armor and cavalry.

Seeing the enemy cavalry all in black armor coming out of the woods at the foot of Ya Mountain, Li Chong's heart beat like a drum in an instant, and his face was like ashes, as if there was a giant iron hand invisibly, pinching his throat tightly, making him breathless.

On the left is Longyou Lake, although it is frozen, but Longyou Lake is open for more than ten miles, and whether the ice on the lake can withstand thousands of cavalry trampling on it together is still two words.

What's even worse is that Longyou Lake is extremely shallow, and a large area of reeds are exposed on the ice, which is ignited by rockets, and it can melt the lake ice when it burns.

On the right is the cavalry of Li Xiu and Li Mo.

The retreat is the remnants of the sailors of Gao Chengyuan's department.

They could not rush forward to kill, there was only a short distance of three or four miles left from the charging line of the enemy's heavy cavalry, and they dismounted in a hurry, could they withstand the impact of the first wave of the heavy cavalry swarm, like a huge wave?

"Go southeast!" Xu Jing shouted.

To the southeast was the gap between the southern end of Longyou Lake and Yashan, about four miles wide, and the edge of the gap was seven hundred paces away from them, which was a little farther than the forward line of the enemy cavalry, but counting the time, they were able to reach the gap before engaging the enemy cavalry, and then break through to the east by sticking to the edge of the lakeshore, but those who could break through from the gap may only be them and the hundreds of people around them.

Not to mention the Gao Chengyuan department behind them, the more than 4,000 horse infantry led behind them are also a small three miles away at this time.

In doing so, they effectively pulled the entire array of horse infantry behind them diagonally to the southeast, and then exposed the flanks directly to the enemy's heavy cavalry charge.

The only good thing is that they and their guards may be able to escape.

Xu Jing was the head of the Privy Council, but Li Chong was the chief general of the group of horse infantry behind him, but he only hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and shouted: "Go!" "Take the lead and gallop to the southeast......

"Idiot!" Seeing this scene, Li Xiu couldn't help but scold.

The enemy army has an ambush hidden under Nha Mountain, how can it be possible to leave a gap on the southeast side?

Don't dare to dismount to fight the enemy, or even go to the lake ice of the dragon lake, the odds of winning are slightly higher!

However, Li Chong didn't dare to fight hard, the situation was already bad, and he couldn't change it, whether he and Li Qian and the sons behind him could survive, how many people could survive, and see if they could successfully cut through the dense enemy cavalry shrouded in clouds in front of the right.

The remnants of the high Chengyuan Naval Division are located behind the horse infantry, the terrain is slightly lower, and the people are riding on horseback, but the front and right sides are all friendly cavalry galloping, and the field of vision is not wide, and the generals are just trotting forward.

The generals of the Dragon Bird Army, Guo Liang was already a young brave general who was awarded the post of Marquis of Du Yu more than ten years ago, just after the weak crown age, but because of the rebellion of the main general of the old Dragon Bird Army, the old army suffered a heavy blow, and he was implicated for only ten years, guarding hundreds of veterans of the old Dragon Bird Army.

Li Zhihe, Chai Jian, Zhou Shu and others are young generals who grew up in the army following Li Yu, the first general of Dachu, the king of Zhedong County, Li Yu retired, Li Zhihe, Chai Jian, Zhou Shu and others became the backbone of the Xinchang Marquis Mansion, and their abilities and insights were extraordinary.

Gao Chengyuan was selected by the first emperor as the guard of the Chongwen Palace because of his loyalty, courage and studiousness, and then he was able to go to the Linjiang Marquis Mansion to lead the guards, and then to the Longque Army to serve as the Marquis of Yu, so that he could really lead more than 1,000 people, and then because of the trust of Emperor Yanyou, he was entrusted with the important task of organizing and training the water battalion.

He knew that his talents were mediocre, so he never dared to relax in the training of his generals.

More than 3,000 remnants of the sailor trotted out of the city for more than ten miles, and the distance between them and the horse infantry was only five or six hundred steps, in fact, when the entire formation of the horse infantry was deflected to the left by Li Chong and Xu Jing on the front side, and when the field of vision in front of him was vacated, Gao Chengyuan found that the forward line of more than 1,000 Xuanjia cavalry was less than three miles away from him.

Gao Chengyuan seemed to be struck by thunder at this moment, and subconsciously strangled the war horse, and the person almost fell off the horse.

"Run to the lake!" The left and right generals shouted.

Gao Chengyuan turned his horse's head in a daze, and wanted to turn east with his subordinates on the left and right with his generals, thinking of risking his way through the ice of Longyou Lake, but the next moment his mind suddenly sobered up, and he shouted: "Don't panic, all the generals rush forward, don't be afraid of death, follow me to the left front to block the enemy!" ”

The left and right generals are also senior generals brought by Gao Chengyuan in recent years, hearing Gao Chengyuan's order, he was puzzled at first, but he was used to obeying Gao Chengyuan's orders, and immediately brought his own horses and green mules to his family, about 300 people, with Gao Chengyuan to assemble on the left front wing, to make way for the passage on the right side, for the remnants of the generals to continue to move forward.

When Gao Chengyuan led them to the left front and rushed to the flank of the Xuanjia cavalry, the front of the Xuanjia cavalry was already like a sharp knife, cutting into the flank of the horse infantry.

The flanks of the entire horse infantry formation had no power to resist at all, and no military attache stood up and pulled out a team of men and horses to block the front of the Xuanjia cavalry, so that when the entire formation was pulled to the left, it was already compressed extremely tightly and chaotic against the shore of the lake because of fear of death due to cowardice.

In fact, the moment they came into contact with the more than 300 cavalry of the Xuanjia Cavalry Forward, the formation of the horse infantry had already collapsed, and some people even fled to Longyou Lake, which was located to the northeast of them.

If they had chosen to flee to Longyou Lake just now, they would have been blocked by the rout of the horse infantry, and they would have been completely dispersed.

In order to make it easier to attack the flank of the horse infantry, in order to make it easier to attack the flank of the horse infantry, the three waves of cavalry formations in front and behind also adjusted their direction and moved to the northeast.

The Xuanjia cavalry striker has entered the horse infantry formation, the second group of cavalry is less than 200 steps away from the flank of the horse infantry army, and the speed is also pulled to the extreme, and it is impossible to adjust the direction in a hurry if you don't want to be chaotic......