A soldier ran to Yang Xingmi's side in a panic, ignoring the rudeness, and said in a panic: "King! Yanhai's cavalry is coming! It's the barbarian cavalry, no less than five hundred people! ”

Yang Xingmi couldn't help but panic when he heard this, knowing that if he was a little careless, he would fall into a situation from which he could never recover. Yang Xingmi couldn't care less about gnawing on Yan Bao's hard bone at the moment. However, Yang Xingmi is Yang Xingmi in the end, although he is panicked, but intellectually Yang Xingmi still maintains a considerable sobriety. Yang Xingmi commanded without hesitation: "Order the whole army to concentrate all the spears to the rear army, and the army will slowly retreat!" There are not many soldiers and horses on the other side, as long as they carry it for a while, they can retreat safely! ”

Yang Xingmi's composure rendered a lot of soldiers around him, and they all stabilized slightly.

But the worry in Yang Xingmi's heart did not decrease much. From the mouth of the injured Zhou Ben, Yang Xingmi already knew the power of this barbarian cavalry. Unlike the cavalry of the Central Plains, the barbarians in the north have been learning to ride horses for generations, and it can be said that horseback riding has been deeply rooted in their bones. After the professional training and elite armor of the Central Plains, it is simply a first-class cavalry in the world. Although there were not many people coming, Yang Xingmi didn't dare to be careless anyway.

The Huangtou Army and Heiyun are worthy of being the two strongest armies in Huainan, and the bravery of their soldiers is extraordinarily strong. Although there was a sudden attack, the reaction was not slow. Even before Yang Xingmi's order was delivered, the soldiers below had already used the wooden fence, horse rejection, and antlers of the beacon tower to arm the defense. Yang Xingmi breathed a sigh of relief a little.

Although the enemy is difficult, the Jurchen cavalry is not much weaker. The Jurchen cavalry did not choose to fight hard, they were all light cavalry equipment, and their bodies were mainly leather armor, and only there was a heart guard made of high-quality steel plate on the left chest. If they die, they are not necessarily the opponents of the Huainan Army, which is outnumbered.

The Jurchen cavalry suddenly dispersed, withering like cherry blossoms in March. But the scattered Jurchen cavalry did not turn into spring mud like cherry blossoms. The Jurchen cavalry picked up the riding bow, and they didn't know how many arrows, like a violent storm with the cold wind of November, and in the dark night, people wanted to dodge and didn't know where the arrows would come from, and there was the sound of arrows passing by everywhere, and it seemed that there was a rain of arrows left all over the world. The soldiers of the Black Cloud Capital and the Yellow Head Army were indeed extraordinary, and they were very calm in the face of such a situation, and there was not much confusion, and the Jurchen cavalry was also very helpless.

But in order to escape, many of them threw away their armor. Because a set of iron leaf armor weighs eighteen catties, and a Mo knife is only fifteen catties (Tang catties) weigh! It was so heavy that it was hard to retreat in the dark of night. Therefore, in order to keep up with the large army, many soldiers naturally abandon the heavy armor on their bodies in order not to be left behind. But right now, the Jurchen cavalry is shooting arrows, without the protection of armor, it looks so powerless, Yang Xingmi's heart is dripping blood, these are the strong soldiers he spent a lot of effort to create, but now they can only be used to block the rain of arrows.

Blood flowers bloomed in the black night sky, and the Huainan army still gritted its teeth to resist. The team did not disperse, and slowly retreated, so that even the Jurchen cavalry, who were opponents, had to secretly admire.

At this time, Xu Zhihe took advantage of the fact that everyone's attention was on the Jurchen cavalry, and took the opportunity to quietly break free from the rope, and glanced at Yang Xingmi through gritted teeth. The man immediately and decisively flashed into the darkness.

Yang Xingmi naturally didn't have time to pay attention to Xu Zhihe, he commanded the army to retreat while fighting. Although the Jurchen cavalry bit Yang Xingmi, the support speed of the reinforcements in the direction of Yizhou was not slow. Seeing that the reinforcements of the Huainan Army in the direction of Yizhou had arrived, although the Jurchen cavalry was unwilling, they still chose to retreat. However, after a night of fighting, there were less than 500 soldiers left under Yang Xingmi, and if they hadn't been shot by the enemy, many of them would have been lost in the dark.

Some of them were injured and didn't have time to take them away. After all, under the attack of the Jurchens, he didn't necessarily take care of this, where to take care of his injured comrades.

When encountering reinforcements, Yang Xingmi sent someone to count them, and there were only 482 soldiers left under his command, of which more than eighty percent were injured to varying degrees. In terms of senior generals, there are only Li Shenfu and Zhou Ben. Li Shenfu is okay, Zhou Ben was reckless for a while just now, and he was injured and injured, and now he was being carried on a stretcher and couldn't move around on the ground.

When he came, there were 20,000 male soldiers, and the prancing horse and horizontal sword were full of spirit. When he returned, 500 remnants of the army were defeated, and they almost wanted to cut off their robes and beards, and fled in panic. Yang Xingmi thought of this, even if it was a generation of heroes, he couldn't help but feel sad, and tears of regret came out of his eyes. What made Yang Xingmi even more aggrieved was that he still didn't know who he was defeated in and how he was defeated!

The first battle of Surabaya County achieved a success that even the planner Liu Cheng did not expect. Although Yan Bao let Yang Xingmi escape, it was precisely because of this that Yan Bao launched a ruthless attack and led his soldiers and horses to stop Leaky Ze. More than 3,000 soldiers and horses were captured.

In addition, in Surabaya County, Liu Cheng has set a record of killing 10,000 people, which is still traceable. Many Huainan troops wanted to cross Surabaya, but they died coldly in Surabaya, and rudely estimated that the number of drowned Huainan troops was probably more than 1,000! For this reason, Surabaya was blocked for a time, and Liu Jun also sent people to salvage some of the corpses that had been soaked white.

And these corpses of the Huainan Army have provoked countless river fish to compete for food. In Surabaya County, which has not been completely extinguished even in the early morning, it is estimated that no less than 2,000 people have been burned to death. The number of other materials captured was even more numerous. Although there are not many war horses, there are more than 300 horses, but there are more than 6,000 pairs of iron armor and more than 5,000 sets of leather armor.

Even if it is released in the Lu Long army, it is very rare, and the iron armor rate in the Lu Long army is generally about 40%. The leather armor can basically be done to the extent of one person, but this is still because Lu Longjun controls the two steppes of Andong and Monan, and also has trade routes with Bohai and other places. Every winter, it is inevitable that many animals will die of cold, and a large amount of leather is obtained from the purchase of their fur and meat.

However, Huainan and other places are different, and the local development is relatively perfect, basically all fields, where to get a large number of livestock. Even if there is, most of them are ploughing cattle, and it is too late for Yang Xingmi to protect them, where will people slaughter ploughing cattle, a ploughing ox can withstand two or three laborers. And it is just that the children of the family need to go to the hillside to graze, unlike people who have to eat rice. He is simply an excellent worker, he eats for no money and does more than people.

In fact, this is because of the troops brought by Yang Xingmi this time, half of which are Heiyundu and Huangtou Army, and the armor rate of these two armies has reached 100%, otherwise where would Liu Cheng have captured so many materials. This seizure is caused Yang Xingmi to hemorrhage, I am afraid that the Huainan Ordnance Prison has been built for a year, and it is not as much as the seizure of Liu Cheng in one day and one night.

So many armor materials caught Liu Cheng a little off guard, but fortunately, Liu Cheng had prepared the ship this time and went down the river from Surabaya County, and the speed was not slow. The journey of more than 80 miles can be completed in half a day. Dropping supplies and coming back empty-boat was much slower than going down the river, and it was all cleared in three days.

When Liu Jun was leaving, he didn't forget to give Yang Xingmi a big gift. On the edge of Surabaya, the heads of the soldiers of the Huainan Army were used to build four Beijing temples. Trees on both sides of the road are covered with the bodies of Huainan soldiers salvaged from Surabaya, or half-burned in Surabaya County.

attracted countless crows to pounce on him.

…… Three days later......

"It's too much of a deception! It's too much of a deception! Yang Xingmi was so angry that the muscles on his face trembled, and he didn't know whether he was too angry or afraid. The four pyramid-like Jingguan made the soldiers of the Huainan Army feel fearful, and the tragic corpses hanging along the way made people shudder. Maybe a little more angry, when Yang Xingmi just arrived, he happened to see Liu Cheng leave by boat, not to mention that Yang Xingmi's cavalry had died a lot, even if the establishment was still complete, he still couldn't provoke the cavalry of Lu Longjun.

In the end, Li Shenfu is sensible, although he is not lightly angered by the "gift" left by Liu Jun, but he still maintains his sanity. He opened his mouth and persuaded him: "The king, now we should let the soldiers clean up the corpses to stabilize the morale of the army a little." The king then buried the soldiers who died in battle with generous gifts, so as to inspire the soldiers in the army to hate the same enemy, and to mourn the soldiers in one fell swoop! ”

Naturally, things are not as simple as Li Shenfu said, but what Li Shenfu said is also a bit of an element to calm Yang Xingmi's heart. According to Li Shenfu's words, Yang Xingmi stayed in Surabaya County for three days, collected the corpses, and had them buried thickly. Although there was no 'mourning soldier' as Li Shenfu said, it still improved the morale of the army. Although on the surface, the Huainan Army has returned to the state of the past. And no one said it, but now from Yang Xingmi to the firehead soldiers who make rice, they have all been a little more jealous of Liu Cheng in their hearts, or it can be said to be fearful.

After dealing with all this, Yang Xingmi began to send troops to Qufu. To Yang Xingmi's slight surprise, Liu Cheng did not leave soldiers and horses to garrison Qufu. However, the Yan Navy did not shrink its defense, and sent elite cavalry to attack in all directions to intercept and kill the scout cavalry of the Huainan Army. At this time, the shortcomings of the Huainan cavalry were exposed, not to mention that the war horses did not enter the other party, but the quality of the cavalry was greatly inferior.

The scouts were fiercely suppressed within ten miles, and once they exceeded this range, there was a high chance that they would be intercepted and killed. And Yang Xingmi is only a little more than 2,000 cavalry under his command at the moment, where is Yang Xingmi willing to send cavalry to such a luxurious waste. As a result, the Huainan Army is now blind to the situation ten miles away, and it completely relies on maps and captured local guides.

forced Yang Xingmi to be more cautious and cautious, afraid that he would encounter a fire in Surabaya County again, and whenever he encountered dangerous terrain, he would send someone to search it first, and then walk when it was safe. At that time, even passing by Qufu, he did not enter the city to live, for fear of being burned by Liu Cheng for a while. As a result, a one-day journey becomes two days. Although Yang Xingmi was distressed in his heart, even the wise general Li Shenfu was helpless, he did not get first-hand information, and the opponent was not mediocre, even if Li Shenfu was the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang, it was not better than the current situation.

…… River ......

Li Cunhuan, who was thousands of miles away, didn't know that Liu Cheng was on fire in Surabaya County, turned the tide, and beat Yang Xingmi like a dumb person eating Coptis chinensis, and he couldn't tell if he was bitter. This delay dragged Yang Xingmi for seven or eight days, don't look at the short time, the war is time! The words of the soldier and the god of speed were not thrown out casually by the grandson of the soldier saint.

Li Cunhuan, who didn't know the situation, was ruthless at the moment, he couldn't imagine that Zhu Wen was so courageous, and he unknowingly contacted Yang Xingmi and Li Maozhen. Yesterday, news had already come that Li Maozhen went east out of Weishui and attacked Wugong County, a barrier to the west of Chang'an, and the current situation is unknown, but it is estimated that it will not be better there. Now the entire Chang'an area, that is, Chang'an City, is stronger, and other places have been plagued by the Yellow Nest.

At that time, the imperial court had already declined, and it was good to be able to repair Chang'an City, let alone repair other places. Liu Zhijun was a famous general in the world, but he had the common problem of military generals at that time, that is, he would only fight the world on horseback, and would not rule the world on horseback. From the simple information he got from Jin Yiwei, Li Cunhuan knew that Liu Zhijun definitely did not build Jingzhao Mansion, where Chang'an City was located, like an iron bucket. However, Jingzhao Mansion is Liu Zhijun's old nest and granary.

It didn't take long for Liu Zhijun to send someone over to apologize and notify, to the effect that my little brother was sung by Li Maozhen, an old bastard, and Wugong County was breached. If you don't flash again, I'm afraid you'll be whining! Thank you very much for your help, but the situation and conditions are not very good, I will give up on the little brother of Puzhou, I hope that you can continue to support in the river in the spirit of humanity, I really can't resist the little brother I have nothing to say.

What can Li Cunhuan do after watching it? Liu Zhijun can't be allowed to give up his nest and fight Zhu Wen to the death, even if Liu Zhijun is willing, I'm afraid that the soldiers and generals under him who have families in Chang'an City will have to take Liu Zhijun back to Chang'an City. At this time, even Yelu Abaoji, who has always been neutral, persuaded Li Cunhuan to retreat.

But Li Cunhuan shook his head unexpectedly, and a touch of firmness flashed in his eyes, "Chasing the world, like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat thousands of miles away!" Mobilize troops and horses to attack Jincheng! Didn't Zhao Chao say that the artillery had been improved this time! Let those ten guns be pulled out! Paralyzing! I originally wanted to give it to Luoyang City, but now I can only waste it here! ”

Although others have the intention to persuade and hope that Li Cunhuan will not make a desperate bet, Li Cunhuan has already said that he is dead, what can you do? I had no choice but to prepare for the war with all my might.

After a period of practice and exploration, the durability of the new bronze artillery has been scrapped from firing more than 10 cannons to being scrapped by firing 20 cannons. However, the shortcomings are still the same, after shooting twenty shots, although it is not that it cannot be shot, it has become a test of character. If you have a good character, you will blow up after four or five cannons. If the character is poor, the twenty-first cannon will send a bunch of gunners to heaven, and there is still a kind left.

If you want to use it again, you will send the bronze pimple weighing thousands of pounds back to the rear and recast it. Some people will ask, why can't the earthen workshop? It's nothing but casting. It is easy to cause air cavities in the gun wall due to the casting of the clay workshop, or the thickness is different, and the size of the muzzle is different. Very troublesome and dangerous. And this bronze cannon still can't change the disadvantage of not being able to use it on rainy days. Gunpowder can't get wet, anyway, it's a lot more restrictive.

Li Cunhuan also somewhat understands why gunpowder was available in the Tang Dynasty, and it was only in the Ming Dynasty that it began to be regarded as large-scale equipment with firearms. It's because these firearms are too painful and cheating. Any trebuchet has a better price than him. However, the only advantage of artillery is that the destructive power is amazing, especially for the rammed earth walls of this era, basically a large pit with one cannon, which is more powerful than three or five stone projectiles fired by trebuchets at the same time.

All right! To get back to the point, this siege is not a matter of slapping the thigh, and at the moment Zhang Guiba is guarding Tianjing Pass and Jincheng, and the two sides are fighting each other. However, this is inevitably a little powerless in the face of absolute strength. Li Cunhuan asked Yelu Abaoji to lead the black-clothed army to wander between Tianjing Pass and Jincheng to intercept and kill the reinforcements who dared to come out of Tianjing Pass.

Li Cunhuan forgave the guards of Tianjing Pass and did not have the courage to go out of the city, although the black-clothed army only had 8,000 people, it was a strong army of Lu Long. He often fought against the nomads outside the gates, and each soldier also won at least five heads. Needless to say, the quality of the war horse under the crotch is still equipped with two horses for one person, and the mobility can be proud of any cavalry under Zhu Wen's command, and it can't be beaten or run. Although the armor is mainly leather armor, the weapons in the hands are all of the highest quality.

Li Cunhuan estimated that Zhu Wen would have to pull out 20,000 cavalry to compete with the 8,000 black-clothed army. Therefore, Li Cunhuan was not afraid that the defenders of Tianjing Pass would have the courage to come out and disturb him.

…… Jincheng ......

"Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of the drum sounded from slow to fast, making the blood in the soldier's body boil involuntarily after hearing it.

Rows of soldiers in armor came out of the camp and lined up in phalanxes. The polished half-body plate armor reflects a dazzling light in the sunlight. Twenty wide tarpaulins were lifted, revealing twenty bronze guns with a blue-gold sheen that were hidden inside, each with a standard three-inch and two-inch muzzle, and a standard thirty-eight pound of solid iron bullets used.

In addition to the bronze artillery, there are thirty medium-sized trebuchets assembled in the back, but strangely there are no siege towers, siege engines, ladders and other conventional siege equipment. This strange phenomenon made Zhang Guiba, who was standing on the city tower, feel irritable. Zhang Guiba didn't believe that Li Cunhuan had forgotten this. Even if Li Cunhuan forgets that there are 87,000 people in Lu Longjun's assembly here, have these 87,000 people forgotten? Didn't anyone remind Li Cunhuan?

Li Cunhuan is either too arrogant or sure of victory. Thinking of this, Zhang Guiba's left hand on the handle of the saber couldn't help but hold the handle tightly, and he didn't know when the sweat oozed out was stained on the handle, making people's palms feel sticky and uncomfortable.

But at the moment, Zhang Guiba has no way to deal with Li Cunhuan's soldiers and horses. The Shenjie army led by Zhang Guiben was stopped by Li Cunhuan at Tianjing Pass, which made Zhang Guiba quite helpless. Otherwise, with 8,000 Shenjie troops joining, Zhang Guiba believes that there will be no problem in holding Jincheng! Pity! It's not that King Liang Chitose doesn't react quickly, or that his younger brother Zhang Guiben is procrastinating, but that Lu Longjun is too fast, so fast that people can't react at all.

Zhang Guiba also knew some news from the south, and from Li Cunhuan's current actions, Zhang Guiba knew that Li Cunhuan wanted to go to Heyang. After breaking through Jincheng, Tianjing Pass will be difficult to support alone, and if Tianjing Pass is lost, other cities will seem insignificant. As long as Heyang is captured again, a situation will be formed in which Li Cunhuan will cut off Zhu Wen in the river.

Compared with the original situation when Li Cunhuan suddenly went south to Yanzhou, besieged Kaifeng, and attacked Luoyang. Although Zhu Wen was trapped on the north bank of the Yellow River, there were a total of 12 prefectures such as Weibo, Chengde, Xingzhou, Cizhou, and Zhaozhou to supply grain. But now, if Zhu Wen is trapped in the river, then with the grain in Jiangzhou and Puzhou occupied by Zhu Wen, how can the 80,000 army survive?

Thinking of this, Zhang Guiba became more and more worried. Li Cunhuan is Li Cunhuan, even if he is in a predicament, he dares to hold a treasure knife and open up a path that ordinary people can't imagine. I just hope that Li Cunhuan is arrogant, and he can hold Jincheng, and it won't take long, at most a month, Li Cunhuan will not retreat. He may not be able to set foot in Yanhai and Pinglu again in the land of Kyushu in this life.

At this moment, he is in the same heavy mood as Zhang Guiba, and his younger brother Zhang Guiben, who has a very good relationship with his brothers. Now that his brother is trapped in Jincheng, Zhang Guiben should go to the rescue according to reason, otherwise Jincheng will fall, and Zhang Guiben may not have the face to see his second brother Zhang Guihou, nor to see his dead father.

But then again, although the Shenjie Army is an elite and strong army, it has 7,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry in terms of establishment, how can it be the opponent of the black-clothed army wandering outside? Not to mention the 87,000 people in Jincheng. If it is an all-cavalry, Zhang Guiben will fight.

The more Zhang Guiben thought about it, the more entangled he became, and he even had a hope that someone else would take his place to command the army. Faced with the dilemma of saving or not saving, Zhang Guiben couldn't wait to faint at this moment, but he couldn't faint yet.

At this time, a soldier came to report and joined the army, Sun Zhijing asked to see him.

When Zhang Guiben heard this, he waved his hand impatiently and said, "No! Missing! Lao Tzu is nowhere to be seen today! Don't fucking bother me! Zhang Guiben was entangled, and when he heard the request to see, he was really nameless, and he couldn't wait to cut people with a knife. Where will I go to see Sun Zhijing!

However, not long after the soldier left, he came back and said: "General, Sun Zhijingyu, who joined the army, reported: He has a good solution to the general's current problem!" ”

When Zhang Guiben heard this, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, he really didn't believe that Sun Zhijing could have any good recipe, and he could scatter beans into a soldier when he set off. But no matter what happens at the moment, it doesn't hurt to listen to it, and if there is really a way, wouldn't it be better than thinking about it here with gray hair and not coming up with something!

Zhang Guiben restrained the look on his face and said, "Hmm! Please! ”

(To be continued)