On April 15, the second year of the Apocalypse, when Xue Wanli on the Eastern Front won a great victory, he didn't know that he was already in the most dangerous situation. All the ambushes of Qian Biao's army after the chaos of the front army were exposed, and the ambush that was originally prepared for Xue Wanli's forward troops was suddenly set on Xue Wanli himself, who rushed the hardest. The surrounding forces instantly increased several times, which also made Xue Wanli's charging pace stagnate. Although Xue Wanli was invincible in the crowd and shouted a fierce battle, being surrounded all of a sudden made the charge lose speed and fall into a dangerous situation.

"Lisan, don't hesitate any longer, immediately let the Chinese army charge on all fronts. The war drum corps was ordered to beat the drums with all their might, and the cavalry corps was ordered to immediately tear a hole in the flank to meet Wanli. The drastic changes on the front line also made the chief of staff of the Eastern Front Group Army stunned, and at this time, Wang Houchun flew up directly and jumped onto the command platform and ordered.

This timely general order of the Chinese army later saved the crisis of the whole battle, and even the early use of the cavalry corps turned the tide at a critical moment and won the battle, but it gave Qian Biao the opportunity to withdraw those chaotic soldiers on the front line, so this battle was not so much a victory because there was no defeat. Because the cavalry corps went to rescue Xue Wanli, the follow-up lost the most important mobile force during the pursuit.

However, the situation at this time was gradually reversed after the main force of the Tiance Army was put into the battlefield, and the defense that the southern troops could do in the face of cavalry charges was also active, and the Qian Biao army had never had the opportunity to fight with the cavalry of the large corps before, which also gave Li Tianyi's cavalry corps a best training experience.

In order to prevent the Qian Biao army from strangling Xue Wanli before the rescue from all sides arrived, the explosives package of the artillery battalion was even more thrown to the rear army of the Qian Biao army like money, and the mushroom clouds all over the ground rose into the air, and the billowing black smoke rose up with the smoke column into the sky, which also made this group of Qian Biao soldiers who had never seen this scene secretly frightened. With the gradual passage of time, all this began to change in the direction of the Tiance Army.

"We've finally turned the tide of battle." Yang Tiancheng was also scared, and he almost overturned in the gutter by accident.

However, his optimism was interrupted by Wang Houchun beside him, "Not necessarily, Tiancheng, you see that the front army of Qian Bi's army has now become a rear team and has begun to retreat." The other party's timing is very accurate. Taking advantage of the opportunity of our army to come out to rescue the forward, the scattered soldiers were integrated, the front team became the rear team, they had already pulled the formation back up, and our cavalry had now penetrated deep into the opponent's army formation, and could not play the role of charging the formation. In this way, if the other party orders each other to cover each other's retreat, we will not be able to pursue. ”

"If the front army can't stay, then try to keep the rear army behind. Lisan gave an order to all participating troops to be sure to bite the enemy troops around him to prevent them from escaping, so that Tianyi's cavalry could intercept the retreating men and horses of the other party immediately after joining up with Wanli. Yang Tiancheng asked Li Lisan beside him to stand on the command platform and groan silently after giving the order.

"That's fine, after the Battle of Suzhou, let the Eastern Route Army cooperate with Qian Ning to take Lizhou, and then return to the division to fight Changzhou, and after taking these three bridgeheads, it will definitely stabilize the situation on the entire Eastern Front. Qian Biao already knew the strength of our army no matter what the victory or defeat was this time, and they would definitely fall into an ambivalence in the next battle, wanting to divide their troops to defend the area north of Taihu Lake and defend Hangzhou, and they didn't want to give up their nest easily, and they didn't want to fight to the death with our army so that they would consume their troops here. Let's give him some time and let them divide themselves a bit. Wang Houchun was silent for a long time, and then suddenly smiled: "In this way, with the middle lane as a breakthrough, maybe the speed can be faster." ”

"Okay, when the navy warships come back from the Yangtze River, let's go south along the canal." Yang Tiancheng had obviously guessed Wang Houchun's strategy on the eastern front, and said with a smile: "I'm afraid that Wanli will be troubled for a while if he is frustrated this time." ”

While the two were talking, the battlefield situation had begun to adjust in the favorable direction of the Tiance army, Xue Wanli fought his way out of the encirclement with the support of Li Tianyi, although the forward troops suffered serious losses, but this guy obviously didn't want to let go of Qian Biao's army in vain, and made a bold decision on the battlefield, letting Li Tianyi lead the army to ignore the direct impact on the rear army command platform of Qian Biao's army, and collect the follow-up reinforcements to intercept and kill the soldiers of Qian Biao's army who were competing with him.

Xue Wanli's reflexive attack also made Yang Tiancheng in the rear stunned a little, and then understood this guy's thoughts, but he didn't care about him. At this time, the battle situation no longer required the two of them to intervene too much. So it didn't stop Xue Wanli from adjusting.

However, Xue Wanli's adjustment did play a certain role, the cavalry corps began to charge immediately after being liberated, and the follow-up brigade of men and horses fought with the rear army of Qian Biao's army under the personal command of Xue Wanli to prevent it from intercepting the cavalry corps.

In this way, Qian Bi's army had to make an immediate decision, if the battle continued, it was necessary to transfer the former army that had just completed integration to intercept the cavalry corps, and if it did not want to continue, it was necessary to immediately make a retreat deployment. Qian Biao and several senior generals obviously also discovered the threat to themselves from the other party's reckless style of play. However, the situation has not changed significantly at this time, and if the troops are hastily withdrawn, this battle will inevitably become a complete useless exercise. But if not to retreat their own troops?

Qian Biao himself was tall, and his perennial military life made him very decisive, and after a little hesitation, he immediately ordered the generals around him to lead the troops to cover alternately, and the archers began to play, and immediately after the retreat of the front army, he bent his bow and arrows to prevent the other party from chasing and killing.

"Qian Biao is leaving." On the command platform of the Tiance Army, Yang Tiancheng pointed to the change in the formation in front of him and nodded: "Qian Biao is still very decisive, and even on the battlefield, he will not hesitate. ”

"Although Wanli is a bad move, but the cavalry corps of Tianyi is liberated, and the cavalry charge of 30,000 people can at least disperse their rearguard troops." Wang Houchun pulled Yang Tiancheng to follow Li Lisan's command platform to migrate. At this time, with the deployment of Qian Biao, the war was actually about to end. The troops in charge of blocking the Qian Biao army desperately blocked Xue Wanli's pursuit, and the archer troops took turns firing to resist the onslaught of the Tiance army. The effect was better at first, because the speed of the infantry charge determined that Xue Wanli's manpower at this time could not outrun Wu Yue's infantry. But after Li Tianyi's cavalry charged, Qian Biao obviously didn't expect how fast the cavalry charged. The billowing smoke and dust brought up by the cavalry of more than 20,000 people at the beginning of the attack immediately caught the Qian Biao army in charge of blocking the attack by surprise, and the blocking turned into a major rout.

This battle lasted for a whole day, and after Li Tianyi broke up Qian Biao's blocking troops, he turned from Suzhou to the southwest and circled around Taihu Lake for half a circle, completely driving Qian Biao's army out of the Taihu Lake Basin, and Huzhou and other places along the line were also successfully taken. This battle should have been won by relying on the onslaught of cavalry, at least Qian Biao's brigade of 200,000 men and horses almost lost half of his troops after returning to Hangzhou to reorganize the army. However, in the battle report of the Tiance Army, there was no good news in this war, in fact, the entire Eastern Route Army from Xue Wanli to the lower-level soldiers felt very ashamed, so Xue Wanli also held a special post-war meeting to review the losses and lessons of this war.

However, it is gratifying that Chai Jia is responsible for the rapid progress of the siege troops, the siege battle originally scheduled for ten days after the retreat of the Qian Biao army, the morale of the defender Liu Shiyi and the defenders also plummeted, after all, on the bright side, the Qian Biao army was repulsed, and the main force of the Tiance army turned back to surround the city of Suzhou and cut off all connections inside and outside the city. Chai Jia, who is more and more comfortable in commanding the siege troops to pave the road to the city gate on April 20, the second year of the Apocalypse, the blasting team concentrated fifteen groups to blast at the same time, the huge city wall in the north of Suzhou City was forcibly blown up, more than 40,000 people of the Tiance army swarmed in, completely dispersed Liu Shiyi's reserves in the city, after three days of fighting, the Tiance army completely occupied Suzhou City, and the defender Liu Shiyi was also defeated and captured, and then was escorted back to Chang'an.

"Order the troops to take turns to rest and recuperate, and then the forward troops will move to Huzhou and other places, and the cavalry troops will withdraw to Suzhou to rest, and by the way, the city defense army will work part-time to wait for the arrival of the National Guard and cabinet officials." After listening to Xue Wanli's review, Yang Tiancheng nodded and said, "Eat a trench and grow a wisdom." Wanli, I don't want to hide it from you, but I hope you can change the practice of leaving the command post and charging into battle in person. You are now the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front Group Army, a veritable commander of more than 100,000 soldiers and soldiers, and you must learn to coordinate and handle everything that happens on the battlefield. ”

"And with the continuous use of new weapons, the era of military generals charging has passed. We are also relying more and more on pre-war planning and the impromptu command of the commanding generals during the battle. Yang Tiancheng patted Xue Wanli on the shoulder and said: "The military innovation that the emperor has always said actually refers to the innovation of those of us who lead the troops. ”

"I'll think about it after this battle, and go to the two teachers to ask for a lesson or two." Yang Tiancheng's words obviously made Xue Wanli feel countless emotions for a while, and he clasped his fists and saluted.

Wang Houchun saw Xue Wanli's actions, stepped forward and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, it's great to go to the Military Academy to be a student of Han Xun's kid for a few months." Which of us hasn't been a student of him? ”

"Okay, Wanli and I are going to rush back to Jinling to sit in the town, and the eastern front will be handed over to you, take all the places in the Taihu Lake basin after joining with Qian Ning, and then force the troops out of Hangzhou, force Qian Biao to fight a decisive battle, or force him to enter Taizhou and other places to go south." After Yang Tianchuan finished this, he and Wang Houchun evacuated from Suzhou and began to go west towards Jinling.

And Xue Wanli was silent alone in Suzhou Assassin's Mansion for a long time, this battle was indeed a great blow to a fierce general like him who won with courage and martial arts, and he wasted so much mental strength in the end, if it wasn't for the cavalry, maybe he would have really been defeated.

"It looks like I'm really going to go to Han Xun's kid to learn from it." Xue Wanli said suddenly, and then watched his chief of staff walk in and stopped talking to himself.

"Marshal, this is the battle damage of this battle. Our army has been fighting for 20 days since the beginning of the battle of crossing the river, with 15,000 soldiers wounded and 7,000 killed. The cavalry lost 3,000 men and more than 1,000 horses. After briefly reporting the losses, Li Lisan continued: "Now the remaining strength of our army, including the cavalry corps, has a total of more than 130,000 people. What's next? ”

Xue Wanli was slightly relieved after hearing the casualties, nodded and said: "The cavalry corps is temporarily resting in Suzhou City, let the logistics department set up a field hospital on the spot, and all the wounded soldiers will be placed in Suzhou." Let Chai Jia lead about four battalions of troops to Huzhou and other places immediately to occupy Huzhou in advance. At the same time, he sent an order to Qian Ning's department, telling him to meet the main force of our army from the west bank of Taihu Lake and Chaijia before the end of the month, and attack Hangzhou. ”

"Lisan, we've been partners for more than a year, what do you think of this battle?" After Xue Wanli said this, he suddenly asked.

Li Lisan was a graduate of the same military academy as Liu Yi, and when he heard Xue Wanli's words, he knew that he was still struggling with the previous results, so he did not hesitate to say directly: "Marshal, this battle has not received full success, it can be said that it is the first defeat of the Tiance Army since its formation, but it has also given us countless inspirations." Before, there were still problems with our tactical coordination, the configuration and advance of the artillery battalion were not done well, and the effect of long-range support troops was not brought into play. In the middle of the campaign, they were too eager to achieve results and neglected the deployment of the other side. All in all, our pre-war planning was not done well. ”

"And the command problem in the middle of the battle, right? You don't have to save face for me, Tiancheng and they have already said it just now. You have to drag me in the future, I'm easy to be impulsive. We also hope that the chief of staff will give more guidance in the future. Xue Wanli suddenly saluted Li Lisan, which startled the other party, and hurriedly replied: "Dashuai is polite, Lisan will definitely do his best to assist Dashuai in the next battle, and will not disappoint Dashuai's cultivation." ”

"Let's get these things done right now. Qian Biao: We will definitely get the field back. Xue Wanli said with a smile: "Just now Tiancheng also said that if you eat a trench, you will grow wise, and if we suffer a loss, we must find a way to get the other party back." ”

"Don't worry, I'll arrange the next move immediately." Li Lisan bowed his hand and walked out of the Suzhou Thorn History Mansion.

Four days later, Li Xuanqing, who was far away in Hezhong Prefecture to urge the Changluo Railway to enter, also received a summary of the battle situation from Yang Tiancheng. At the same time, the battle report on the Western Front was also sent to Li Xuanqing's desk almost at the same time. Looking at the battle reports on the two completely different fronts, Li Xuanqing suddenly laughed, at least at this moment, the unification of the Tang Dynasty was in sight.

"Big brother, the Hezhong area has been repaired today, and the railway in Luoyang is about to be repaired here." Qiaoxi walked in and said with a smile: "Mr. Cen has already come, let us go over and take a look at the two sides of the closed traffic." ”

"It's open?" Li Xuanqing looked at the skillful smiling face and smiled the same.