As soon as spring arrived, the land of Hebei had just begun to return to green, the water of the Yongji Canal began to flow in a hurry, and a new round of offensive of the Hexi Army began. The Yongji Canal is divided into two sections: the southern section is from the mouth of the Qinhe River to the north, passing through Xinxiang, Huaxian, Guantao, Qinghe, Nanpi and Cangzhou, and arriving at Sanhui Haikou; The northern section of Sanhui Haikou turned to the northwest, and reached Zhuojun through Yongnu and Anci.

Yongnu County was on the edge of the canal, and the infantry troops of Xu Yuanlang and Yang Yanshi took the lead in attacking, with 500 ships of various types, carrying the Hubu battalion and 5,000 sailors, from Zhuojun and Cangzhou respectively, trying to land; The Tang army was not unprepared, Changsun Wuji set up a camp on the bank, led 3,000 crossbowmen to guard against the attack in the direction of the canal, as long as he saw the Hexi army ships approaching, Changsun Wuji ordered to release arrows.

In the case of chaotic arrows, Xu Yuanlang and Yang Yanshi did not dare to advance lightly, so they had to listen to Zheng Ting's proposition, order the troops to lure the enemy on the boat, and then set up a village on the opposite side of the canal; There were no reefs in the canal, and at night, Zheng Cheng sent a hundred boats, all with scarecrows, and marched with drums, and the Tang army was even more arrows flying like rain, shooting in the middle of the night, and the eldest grandson Wuji found that he had shot 30,000 arrows, so he ordered to stop shooting.

In one day and one night, the Hexi Army obtained more than 50,000 arrows, all of which were made into 20,000 rockets from cloth straw soaked in fat water; After waiting for another day, when the wind was favorable, Xu Yuanlang ordered the whole army to go out, rush to the opposite bank, and release arrows together on the march. Rounds of rockets fell into the camp of the Tang army, and they caught fire in all directions, burning from the canal to the land; The Tang army could not support it, so they had to abandon the village and shoot at the shore.

Under the attack of fifty ships equipped with bed crossbows, the Tang army exposed three gaps and was forced to land by the Hexi army, and Yang Yanshi led the heavy infantry to take the lead and kill the Tang army's crossbowmen; Behind Xu Yuanlang and Zheng Ying drove the troops forward. The eldest grandson Wuji couldn't resist and led 600 remnants of the army to defeat Yongnu County, and learned that Xu Shiji and Wang Bo led 40,000 troops to attack Yuyang, and Hou Junji's reinforcements could not arrive, so the eldest grandson Wuji took the initiative to abandon Yongnu County and fled to Yuyang.

The Hexi army left Xu Yuanlang to defend the city, Yang Yanshi and Zheng Ying led the Hubu battalion to meet Xu Shiji, and halfway through, the scouts ran back in a panic to report that the cavalry of the Tang army was coming. Before he could finish speaking, he heard the sound of horses' hooves, and four dark clouds poured out from the horizon ahead, rushing swiftly towards him; Yang Yanshi didn't have time to set up the formation at all, so he had to personally lead a thousand heavily armored infantry, brandishing a sword and long axe, and rushed into the cavalry formation, leaving the task of arranging the formation to Zheng Ting.

In the era of cold weapons, cavalry has always been a lingering nightmare for infantry, relying on strong impact power, wreaking havoc on infantry in field battles, even if it loses, it can rely on mobility to retreat, and then organize the next round of attack. In most cases, the infantry can only use static braking to stop the charge of the enemy cavalry with a formation, and even so, in the face of archery and cavalry, the infantry will still be covered by the rangers due to the collapse of the formation after a large number of soldiers die.

Every time the Hexi Army won with infantry, it was superior in position and equipment, and the two flanks were covered by their own cavalry, so they could shoot head-on, but today, the Hubu battalion was fighting alone. It was the Xuanjia cavalry, only about 3,000 people, sweeping out the boundless sand; The cavalry of the Tang Army were well-ridden and not under the Turks, their movements were neat and stretched, and even when they were charging at full speed, the distance between the cavalry was kept at about half a horse.

When the two armies met, the brave won, Yang Yanshi roared, and the 1,000-foot army was divided into four teams, which rushed towards the oncoming cavalry, like a flock of seagulls, and rushed into the boundless darkness. The Tang army came to Gao Cheng, Wei Xiaojie, Hou Junji, Zhang Shigui four generals, and the Hexi army fought for a long time, and they all knew the other party's intention to throw out the heavy infantry desperately, once the arrow array behind was formed, even if it was a Xuanjia cavalry, it would be difficult to gnaw this bone.

Gao Cheng, Wei Xiaojie, Hou Junji, and Zhang Shigui had a very tacit understanding, Gao Cheng and Wei Xiaojie commanded the cavalry to entangle the heavy infantry of the Hexi Army, and Hou Junji and Zhang Shigui led two thousand cavalry to rush down the army that the Hexi Army was mobilizing. Zheng Ying only felt extremely resentful in his heart, his heartbeat was much faster than usual, and he finally went on an expedition once but encountered this situation, which was his life; Zheng Cheng drew the sword in his hand and was about to give the order to attack, but found that the soldiers of the Hubu battalion had consciously started to counterattack in groups of fifty people without using a position.

The speed of the Xuanjia cavalry was so fast that the crossbow arrows of the first salvo flew by, and the second round of crossbow arrows was half less, and the infantry guarding the archers did not hesitate to rush forward, using their spears and shields to withstand the onslaught of the cavalry; After a moment of fighting, the Hubu battalion paid the price of thousands of deaths, and the regrouped archers fired a third volley, and the Xuanjia cavalry fell to the ground one after another, and the horses were wounded even more.

Zheng Ting's mood was a little calmer, the Hubu Battalion was known as one of the elites of the three major infantry armies of the Hexi Army, it was indeed worthy of its name, it had rich combat experience, and it was impossible to fight a battle, and the two thousand infantry troops were exchanged for more than 900 cavalry casualties, which was unimaginable in other armies. When the archers of the Hubu battalion were again expelled and dispersed, the balance of battle was completely tilted in favor of the Tang army; However, the more Hou Junji and Zhang Shigui fought, the more frightened they became, and many soldiers of the Tiger and Leopard Battalion only did one thing before they died, that is, to cut off the legs of the cavalry of the Tang Army.

The Tang army is short of war horses, no matter how much the Xuanjia cavalry is taken care of, it can't be like the Golden Wolf Army, one person and two horses, every time a horse leg is cut off, it means that a cavalry becomes an infantry, if unfortunately the body is pressed by the war horse, the nearby Hubu battalion soldiers will not hesitate to end the lives of the Tang soldiers. The practice of the infantry army collapsing after one-third of the casualties was not reflected in front of the Hubu battalion, and seeing that there were still more than 800 people gathered under the banner embroidered with tigers, Hou Junji even wanted to give the order to retreat.

Of the 2,000 cavalry, there were only about 700 horsemen left, and when the banner was cut down, I am afraid that there would be less than 500 men left, and such a victory would be tantamount to shame; Hou Junji looked over at the heavily armored infantry army, the situation was even worse, and now it was a situation of five hundred to five hundred, with a difference of no more than ten people. Zhang Shigui also felt the same way, if all the Xuanjia cavalry were thrown on this road, when Xu Shiji fought a decisive battle with the King of Qin, the Tang army would have no last resort.

The two were hesitating, a chirp sounded not far away, followed by two or three sounds, Zhang Shigui saw that it was the banner of the Hexi Army galloping from the south, and hurriedly ordered a retreat; The Hubu battalion immediately began to counterattack and pester, but the advantage of the cavalry was too obvious, but after leaving more than fifty corpses, the Tang army withdrew from the battlefield and ran far away before the cavalry of the Hexi Army arrived.

It was the 5,000 cavalry led by Guo Qing, the general of the Left Imperial Guard, who were all veterans of the Xiaoguo Army, and they were also surprised to see that the Hubu Battalion had fought out nearly 2,000 Xuanjia cavalry at a cost of two to one in the encounter. Guo Qing hugged Yang Yanshi and said: "Take a rest first, wait for us to go to the big camp, and when we fight the Tang army, I will cover your two wings, and I will definitely kill him without leaving a piece of armor." ”

(End of chapter)