In mid-July of the second year of the Apocalypse, Xue Yang's troops of the Tiance Army divided their troops to attack Hengzhou, Shaozhou and Chenzhou after destroying the main force of Ma Yin's Chu army. But at this time, Liu Shizheng had also unified the large and small princes of Guizhou, and his power reached its peak, and he led his troops north to start a big battle with Xu Ying's troops who attacked Hengzhou, and relied on his strong troops to win Hengzhou. After a series of adjustments, the Jiangnan Command of the Tiance Army sent the Chai Jia Division of the Middle Route Army to lead troops to rush to the nearest aid to Xu Ying, while Xue Yang led the main force to detour through Chenzhou and other places to prepare to attack Liu Shizheng's flank.

It took time for the main force of Xue Yang's Western Route Army to prepare for a strategic detour, but Chai Jia discussed how to counterattack Liu Shizheng after arriving at the city of Hengzhou and joining forces with Xu Ying.

"Lao Xu, you fought a battle before, what is the strength of the Qianjun army?" Chai Jia has grown rapidly in recent years, and he already has the potential to be a general in commanding the army, and it is also good to discuss the front-line military situation with Xu Ying in the big tent.

Regarding Chai Jia's question, Xu Ying shook his head and smiled: "The combat strength of the Qianjun army is actually a little worse than Ma Yin's Chu army, but Qiandi is basically a few tribes in the southwest, and the ability to fight regular warfare is not good, but it is good at conspiracies and tricks, and the means of using poison under Gu are extraordinary, we have almost caught their way in Hengzhou several times in the past few days, if it weren't for the plan of one of Xuanyingwei's secret guards who risked his life to send the other party, I'm afraid that if I can't do it, I will be plotted by him" Before the arrival of Chai Jia's army, Xu Ying actually designed an anti-ambush array, was ready to pretend to be a plan to attract the other party to attack the camp and then ambush the opponent, but Chai Jia's speed was too fast, so that Xu Ying's plan was halfway through the implementation and there was no follow-up.

However, Xu Ying's words still made Chai Jia feel a chill, and after thinking about it, he said: "There are a few tribes in the southwest region, and I am afraid that this matter itself is not something that our military can solve independently." In my opinion, we should jointly report to the command headquarters, ask them to contact the cabinet, and send civil affairs officials to come as soon as possible, and it is best to set up a military administration region like the southeast region, otherwise it will inevitably involve a lot of problems and let the army's energy be focused on the rear. ”

Xu Ying thought for a while, nodded and said, "In that case, I will immediately ask the staff officer to write a military report and send it to the headquarters as soon as possible." After finishing speaking, the staff officer behind him immediately began to write hard, and after writing, the two of them signed and quickly asked the guards outside to leave the camp quickly.

"Let's talk about how to take Hengzhou and defeat Liu Shizheng's front troops. I guess Xue Yang is also waiting for our side to start, so as to attract Liu Shizheng's attention, and then lead his troops to break into Liu Shizheng's hinterland. Chai Jia pondered at the map: "But your marshals are bold enough, and it is a taboo for a soldier to go deep alone." ”

Xu Ying shook his head and ignored Chai Jia's nagging and said with a smile: "You don't know Xue Yang's ability, he is probably the best general in the whole army to fight this kind of large-depth battle." So leave him alone. I've devised a way for you to help me take a look. ”

"I plan to start tomorrow outside the city of Hengzhou to attract Liu Shizheng to fight a field battle with me, you send an elite team of men and horses to carry explosives bags to touch the enemy behind the enemy and ambush under Hengshan, and wait until the front army is scorching in the battle, quickly attack and bombard the opponent's rear camp with explosives bags. Liu Shizheng's army has not seen our killer weapon, and when the time comes, there will definitely be chaos in the rear army, and we will attack with all our strength at this time, so that he will definitely take care of his head and tail and fall into a chaotic situation. Xu Ying said with a smile: "As long as our side starts fighting, Xue Yang's side will definitely have strategic cover, and Liu Shizheng, who is in the limelight, will definitely be angry and continue to send the Guizhou army north to compete with me." In this way, Hengzhou has become a whirlpool to attract the opponent's troops, and as long as Xue Yang's side appears in Liu Shizheng's hinterland, it will inevitably make the other party tremble. ”

"Haha, I found out, how are you all the same from the commander to the general, risky. You're about to disrupt the deployment of the command. Chai Jia said with a smile: "To tell you honestly, I came to Hengzhou just to relieve you of the siege, and I have to rush back when I am done, but there are not many troops to support you." ”

Xu Ying shook his head and said: "Why do I want your support, I have also read the order sent by the headquarters, you can leave me two battalions and enough baggage, and I will do the rest myself." ”

"Forget it, leave it to you. You should arrange and prepare it immediately, you are responsible for the frontal battlefield, I will lead the team to Hengshan to ambush, and when the time comes, I will be caught off guard. Chai Jia was very curious about the adventure of the Western Route Army, and after throwing the command of the front line to Xu Ying, he led the ninth battalion to follow Xuan Yingwei and disappeared into the Hengzhou territory at night. Early the next morning, Xu Ying reorganized the army and set up a large array outside Hengzhou City, sent people to challenge, and set up ballistas to fire arrows at the Guizhou army camp.

This kind of provocation made Liu Zhen, the chief general of the Guizhou army, angry, originally he came to Hengzhou to fight a battle to drive the Tiance army out of Chu and prepare for the next step of Liu Shizheng's personal conquest, but when he arrived in Hengzhou, he fought a battle with the Tiance army and then inexplicably confronted each other for more than ten days. At this time, how could he not accept the challenge when he saw the other party coming out of the camp, you must know that he brought an army of 100,000 on this trip, plus Ma Yin's stragglers who were recruited along the way, the strength of the army was already close to 130,000, how could Xu Ying be less than 60,000 or 70,000 people.

Therefore, almost as soon as Xu Ying's challenge was known to him, he immediately ordered the headquarters of the Qianjun army to leave the camp immediately, and the army of more than 100,000 put on a very strange formation, preparing to surround Xu Ying in a battle.

However, Xu Ying looked at Liu Zhen's Qianjun but shook his head, sure enough, the soldiers and horses of those indigenous tribes were indispensable in the southwest region, and the costumes were also strange, and nine out of ten Xu Ying didn't know them. For the incomprehensible patterns painted on the faces of these clothes, many Tiance soldiers were curious, and prepared to catch one after the war to take a good look.

"Old Joe, I'll let the artillery battalion target those indigenous soldiers for me later." Xu Ying saw that Liu Zhen had put a large number of indigenous soldiers at the forefront, and a thought suddenly flashed in his heart, and he turned to Qiao Zhenhai, the chief of staff beside him, and nodded.

"Don't worry, the deputy marshal understands, see if I don't blow up these damn things." Qiao Zhenhai was the old man of the Lingwu Army before, and he didn't have much affection for these few tribes, so after receiving the order, he directly appeared on the artillery battalion position to personally command, ready to give the other party a ruthless attack.

However, Xu Ying's side arranged to set up a good time, but Liu Zhen's side couldn't help it, and the horn blew up to beckon the army to start attacking, but his formation was half-moon-shaped, and he launched an attack on the whole line as soon as he came up, which opened the eyes of the Tiance army. However, Xu Ying didn't care about this, the command flag in his hand waved, and the drums of the war drum team also sounded, and in an instant, Qiao Zhenhai's artillery battalion immediately began to fire explosive packs, and more than a hundred explosive packs rose into the air and went directly towards the opponent's forward, where most of the indigenous soldiers were concentrated.

However, after the explosive package was fired, it immediately made the soldiers of the mountain battalion guarding the front row complain, lamenting that the artillery battalion had robbed their own part, and this explosion might blow up the other side, so how could there be a chance to catch a live one? However, complaining is complaining, the archers arranged by the front line have also begun to prepare, bending bows and arrows, and the range of the butterfly bow has been assisted by the Shen family's drawings after the Tiance army occupied Jiangnan, and it has become farther and faster than before. I heard that the equipment department has begun to improve the ballista using the principle of the butterfly bow, and I don't know what the latest butterfly bow looks like.

Because the Western Route Army is close to the base camp, it is equipped with the latest gunpowder provided by the Ningzhou Military Industry, after the explosion of this explosive package, I saw that the Qianjun army who charged in place seemed to be involved in a big storm, and the whirlpool-shaped pillar of smoke rose into the air, blowing up the neatly arranged opponent's army formation to pieces, and the indigenous soldiers who rushed to the front were as expected by the soldiers of the mountain battalion, almost no bones remained.

"The mountain battalion assaulted, and the archers approached to support." How could Xu Ying let go of such a good opportunity, taking advantage of the fact that the other party had not yet reacted from this earth-shattering explosion, and directly launched an attack. At the same time, some of the ballistae on the side of the artillery battalion also began to adjust their firing range to extend their attacks.

Xu Ying's side successfully opened the situation and completely defeated the Qianjun, and Liu Zhen of the Chinese army didn't even know what was going on, so naturally there was no way to adjust. However, some of the soldiers of Ma Yin's Chu army that he gathered had seen this weapon of the Tiance army before, and they began to move towards the rear with a stroke under their feet, so that the formation of the Qian army began to be confused. This also gave Chai Jia, who was ambushed on the side of Hengshan, a chance.

"Throw all the explosives packets at me and towards the opposing rear. Immediately after the explosion, attack. Chai Jia's side also shot almost at the same time, and the vibration caused by the explosive pack attached to the small ballista naturally couldn't be compared with the endless explosions in front of him, but at this time, it quickly confused Liu Zhen's army. Soldiers are not afraid of defeat, but of chaos. This is almost the most classic war maxim in the era of cold weapons. The rear army was completely disrupted by this unsuspecting sneak attack, and Chai Jia's ninth battalion took advantage of the chaos to rush into the battlefield, attacking and setting fire at the same time, and the chaos of the rear army directly surpassed that of the front army, so that Liu Zhen's wishful thinking, which originally wanted to send the rear army forward to cover the front army's assault, failed again.

At this time, Xu Ying did not hesitate to order the whole army to assault after the explosives package on Chai Jia's side exploded, and concentrated all the tens of thousands of troops in his hands to break through to the central part of the crescent where Liu Zhen was. He even personally led the personal guards to rush to the front line, preparing to kill Liu Zhen first and completely disintegrate the morale of the other party.

Xu Ying's actions made Liu Zhen panic and let all the armies begin to converge with the Chinese army. In fact, his method was not wrong, no matter what Xu Ying's actions were, there was only one purpose, that is, the location of Liu Zhen of the Chinese army. But this order made the battlefield more and more chaotic at this time, and almost all the soldiers rushed towards the Chinese army like headless flies, so that the assault force led by the mountain battalion was certainly under great pressure, but the combat power of the other side was also exacerbated to the extreme because of this command confusion. How could Qiao Zhenhai let go of such a good bombing opportunity, so almost without thinking, all the ballistas were aimed at the crowd of the Chinese army, and the explosive package also exerted its greatest power at this time, almost every explosive package exploded and brought a bloody storm all over the sky, and the severed arms and stumps were rolled everywhere, forming secondary damage to the surviving Guizhou troops around under the impact of the rapid explosion.

However, although Xu Ying had the help of the artillery battalion on his side, and he was on the front line to charge, the speed was not as fast as the ninth battalion, which was sparse in number but had a loophole. After Chai Jia waved his army and defeated the remnants of the retreating Chu army, he found that he was not far from the command platform of the Chinese army, and immediately concentrated all the men and horses, taking advantage of Liu Zhen's energy to be restrained by Xu Ying, and quietly broke in.

By the time Liu Zhen found that there was a shout of killing behind him, Chai Jia was already less than thirty zhang away from him, and his Chinese army escort was almost killed by the other party, and he suddenly realized that today's situation was difficult to improve, so he began to gather the people around him to prepare to evacuate and escape from the battlefield. But at this time it was too late, Xu Ying began to drive the remaining Guizhou army to roll up the opponent's army after defeating the main force of the Guizhou army, and the defeated soldiers were like sea water impacting the last resistance of the Guizhou army. Liu Zhen's personal guards were killed several times by the indigenous soldiers who rushed the way.

"Haha, where is Liu Zhen going, let me get off the horse and surrender." Chai Jia laughed and was about to step forward to take down Liu Zhen, but was stopped by Xu Ying in the rear, and then saw several people in Liu Zhen's personal guards really turned their heads and took out a few pill-like things from their arms.

"Archer shooting." said that it was too late, then quickly, Xu Ying directly asked the guards behind him to bend their bows and shoot after stopping Chai Jia, and at the same time led people to retreat, and they actually wanted to call the ballistas in the rear to participate in the shooting. After hearing only an explosion, Liu Zhen's area was shattered by an explosive bag falling from the sky.

"It's dangerous, old chai. Liu Zhen has Gu masters around him. Xu Ying couldn't care that he was also injured by a broken spearhead and sighed: "This kind of invisible poisonous trick that hurts people is unguardable. Our current medical conditions are completely unacceptable. ”

"The chief of staff ordered the troops to immediately clear all the remnants of the enemy troops present, and if the situation was not right, immediately attack with explosives bags and blow them up for me." Chai Jia was frightened into a cold sweat by what Xu Ying said, and directly ordered the troops behind him to start attacking with brute force.

"Tell the soldiers to take off all their clothes and escort them back to the camp as soon as they catch them, and forbid contact with them until the medical doctor has any news. Don't show mercy when you need to, shoot directly. Xu Ying thought about it and added. In fact, Xu Ying's reminders quickly spread to all the Tiance troops on the entire southern front, so that they all reached the other party later, and as long as the soldiers of the Lingnan Domain Alliance were captured, they immediately took off their clothes and followed the Tiance army back and were quarantined.

But at this time, Xu Ying's words undoubtedly made many Tiance soldiers let go of their psychological baggage, and after having a way to Gu poison, the Tiance army let go of their hands and feet to chase and kill the Qian army, and captured more than 50,000 people, plus the killing of the hundreds of thousands of troops brought by Liu Zhen This time, seven or eight percent of the ten percent of the army were removed, if Xu Ying hadn't given up at the last moment and continued to pursue, maybe he could really swallow all the Qian army in one battle.

After the field battle, Chai Jia's unit immediately led the army to attack the city, and directly forced the Chu army in Hengzhou, which was already frightened on the city tower, to surrender. So far, the soldiers of Hengzhou City have been taken down without blood.

After Xu Ying entered the city, he immediately sent a flying pigeon to pass on the main force of the Xue Yang West Route Army in Chenzhou, reporting the results of the battle and reminding him to pay attention to the methods of a few tribes, and specially informed him of the Gu poison used by the Qian army this time and the method of dealing with it. After assisting Xu Ying in taking Hengzhou, Chai Jia left behind two battalions and almost all of his baggage, and then returned to Fujian to participate in the war against the Lingnan Domain.

The Hengzhou counterattack can be said to be an insignificant battle for the entire southern Tiance Army, and the process is also very ordinary, but it has opened the curtain on the southwest strategy that was originally difficult to unfold, when Xue Yang received Xu Ying's battle report, Liu Shizheng also received a report from his subordinates, and Liu Shizheng, who was indispensable for the unification of Qianzhou, decided to personally lead the main force north to avenge his revenge, and this frequent transfer of troops not only weakened the control of the area just occupied, but also gave Xue Yang an opportunity. As a result, this roadblock in the southwest entered Xue Yang's sight.