readx; Four thousand Southern Tang cavalry took the lead in rushing out of the city, and formed a wedge-shaped impact formation below the city, and the follow-up infantry troops poured out from the city gate, forming three large formations in the north, center, and south respectively. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Zhou soldiers who were camped under the city did not panic in response, and assembled in front of the drum formation as soon as possible.

Hearing the news, Wu Shengjiedu made Hou Zhang and Zhao Kuangyin rush out of the camp with horses, and watch the enemy in front of the formation.

Zhao Kuangyin looked at the anxious and unchaotic degree of the Southern Tang soldiers, and was suddenly shocked: "What does Li Jingsui mean by sending troops to meet the battle now, have they seen through our deceitful plan." ”

Hou Zhang's brows were also twisted, and he didn't speak.

As time passed, more and more Southern Tang soldiers poured out of the formation outside the city, and it turned out to be a decisive battle for the whole army.

Zhao Kuangyin's doubts became heavier and heavier, and he didn't dare to hesitate any longer, so he whispered to General Hou for a while, and after obtaining his consent, he quickly sent several teams of cavalry to the outside to beat the horses outside.

Not long after, the three camps in the north, east and south of Chuzhou City sounded the sound of dense drums, and the three military camps also began to assemble, and some of them were divided into forces to attack the city, and some of them ran to the west gate for reinforcements.

This is also a thing that there is no way to do, Hou and Zhao led the troops to claim 80,000, but the actual number is just over 40,000, there are still 8,000 defenders left in the Qingliu Pass, and the average strength of each battalion is less than 10,000.

Li Jingsui, the king of Qi standing at the head of the city, ignored the sound of alarm drums from the other three cities, and only urgently ordered the heads of the cities to defend them, while he stared intently at the enemy reinforcements that appeared in the north and south of the city, calculated the number of troops that arrived, and at the same time constantly ordered the army to keep out of the city, not to panic or move rashly.

In this way, time passed slowly in the transfer of troops from both sides, and the Southern Tang Army set up three large phalanxes standing side by side, almost identical, with 10,000 people each, and 4,000 cavalry were now divided into the north and south sides, and the Zhou soldiers targeted the inverted triangle battle formation of the first three and the last one.

"There are less than 40,000 people in total, and Wu Qing's intelligence about the enemy army is very accurate." Li Jingsui put his personal estimate of the opponent's strength with the capital eunuch Yao Feng and others, and his heart was suddenly settled, and he raised his hand and shouted, "Come on, order the three formations to advance in unison, and maintain the degree." ”

Twenty-four drums sounded in unison, 30,000 Southern Tang soldiers shouted "kill" at the same time, the first row of Dutch shield soldiers as a whole took a step forward, and the back row of pikemen and archers stepped forward in turn, and the scene was like a gust of wind sweeping through three wide wheat fields at the same time, setting off a very spectacular wave pattern.

Hou Zhang and Zhao Kuangyin's faces changed at the same time.

Zhao Kuangyin blurted out: "The enemy army must have learned about the battle situation in Shouzhou, and this is going to fight with us." "If Li Jingsui didn't know the victory or defeat of Shouzhou and didn't know the details of his own side, it would definitely be impossible for him to directly engage in a battle of attrition in this way.

Hou Zhang couldn't help but turn his head to look at the west, and shook his head slightly, the matter has come to this point, and it is impossible to lure Chuzhou by deceitful victory.

The two of them discussed urgently, and urgently ordered the three armies to tighten and move closer, and the rear army slowly advanced forward.

The Southern Tang army shouted and killed, the neat footsteps did not stop, the shield soldiers and pikemen cooperated, and the archers and shield soldiers cooperated, forming rows and rows of small shield formations, which continued to move forward like waves, and soon entered the range of bows and arrows on both sides.

With a piercing roar, a rain of arrows burst out from the two armies almost simultaneously, instantly covering the sky between them, except for a few arrows that hit each other in the air, the two black shadows quickly crossed and separated, biting towards the target along a basically consistent arc trajectory.

In terms of volume and coverage alone, the rain of arrows from east to west was much larger than that of the reverse rain of arrows, but because both sides were well prepared, most of the rain of arrows that rushed to the ground fell on the shield and the ground, and only a very small number of arrows rained through the dead end of the soldiers' guards, causing a few screams on both sides.

Only two arrows later, the front-row shield array of the Southern Tang Dynasty that rushed up had already collided with the Zhou army's shield array waiting in place, and there were immediately screams and shouts on the entire front.

Zhao Kuangyin, who had already stood on the horse, could see at a glance that something was wrong, because most of the soldiers who were knocked into the air were his own brothers.

The shield soldiers in the first row of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who had the upper hand in the shot, waved their big shields at the same time, knocking the shields and spears of the Zhou army in front of them into the air, and at the same time revealing that the clothes on their bodies were not the same as those of ordinary soldiers.

"The vast majority of them are Du Tou, and there are even Du Wei and Du Yuhou." Zhao Kuangyin gasped, the first batch of soldiers attacked by the Southern Tang Army turned out to be all forbidden army officers, which is also incredible.

As Zhao Kuangyin saw, the grassroots officers of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the first row took the lead one by one, shouting and killing the enemy, like skilled bricklayers demolishing brick walls one after another, advancing extremely fast.

The reason why the Southern Tang officers sacrificed their lives was very simple, Li Jingsui, the king of Qi, summoned the large and small forbidden army officers before going out of the city to fight, and said with a face: "Lin Feng, a weak scholar, led a group of rabble, can easily kill 50,000 enemies in Shouzhou, I, the dignified Marshal of the Tang Dynasty, led the most elite forbidden army in the Tang Dynasty, and now I want to attack 30,000 with 50,000, I will wait to see your performance on the battlefield." ”

People are cheeky, the King of Qi has said it here, these officers are red-eyed, and they swore on the spot that they will fight bravely to kill the enemy, repay the country with death, and live up to the King of Qi, turn their heads, these people have a pair of eyes, and when they meet, they quickly reached an agreement: the officers take the lead, select the elite, and continue to impact with the strongest lineup, so as to quickly open the situation.

It was this kind of morale that was stirred up that made the battle formation at the front end of the Southern Tang Dynasty advance rapidly.

Zhao Kuangyin saw that the momentum was not right, and immediately ordered the whole army to continue to press forward, resist this wave of offensive first, and at the same time urgently ordered the cities to attack the city and break down the frontal battlefield pressure.

The rear army of the Zhou army was divided into three teams, which merged into the left, center, and right phalanxes, thickening and widening the phalanx, and temporarily stabilizing the formation.

However, those heralds soon accompanied the heralds from each city back with their horses, and reported with a worried expression: "There are Tang soldiers in the three cities who have gone out of the city to invite battle, and the number is more than three thousand. ”

Zhao Kuangyin was taken aback, the soldiers left for feints in the three city gate camps are no more than 2,000 at most, basically one block two, and it is dangerous.

Before these heralds could turn back, some heralds rushed to each city on horseback, and reported urgently: "A small number of enemy cavalry and infantry have left the city, and they have made a detour, and our army cannot stop them." ”

Before he had time to digest the significance of this news, the third group of heralds arrived one after another: "Report, the enemy army has soldiers out of the city to reinforce." ”

Zhao Kuangyin and Hou Zhang glanced at each other, and at the same time felt that their hands and feet were cold, Hou Zhang hurriedly ordered: "Order all city gates to retreat to the west camp quickly." ”

Zhao Kuangyin's face was solemn, he threw off the big on his body, and said hurriedly: "Prime Minister Hou, please lead the army to retreat gradually, and your subordinates will step forward to support." ”

Hou Zhang glanced at this brave young student with some concern, and admonished: "Yuen Long, don't blindly work hard, retreat in time, I will wait for you under Qingliu Pass." ”

Zhao Kuangyin nodded gratefully, waved his head and ran to the front with a group of guards and brothers, and these new forces directly entered the battle group that was fighting, and immediately stabilized the already shaky battle line.

At this time, the sound of the golden gong sounded in the rear, signaling the Zhou army in front to retreat one after another.

The Zhou army's position slowly loosened from the back to the front, and began to retreat gradually, and every time they withdrew a certain distance, they immediately turned around and set up a formation, waiting for the brothers who continued to retreat to make a detour and then step again, before retreating and retreating.

Li Jingsui at the head of the city saw through the telescope that the Zhou army was shrinking and retreating in an orderly manner, and couldn't help but secretly praise himself, urgently ordering all armies to press forward slowly and not to advance without authorization.

Zhao Kuangyin led a group of brothers to retreat while fighting, and retreated into their own military camp, and the Zhou army, who had prepared torches, immediately set fire to the tent in the camp, and the fire spread rapidly in the cold wind of winter, and in an instant, the entire military camp was involved in the fire, temporarily isolating the pursuing soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty who were approaching step by step.

Zhao Kuangyin led a group of brothers Xun through the barracks, and together with the brothers who withdrew from other cities, they merged into the rectangular shield array at the rear of the barracks, and began to retreat to the Qingliu Pass in the northwest direction.

At this moment, the scene when the defenders of Qingliuguan in the Southern Tang Dynasty retreated to Chuzhou reappeared, and the scale was a little larger, but this time, the two sides of the attack and defense switched positions with each other.

The "friendly" retreat of the two armies to the Qingliu Pass, the Southern Tang soldiers stopped, watching as part of the other side prepared to set up camp, and part of the other side slowly withdrew into the pass, and immediately cheered in unison to celebrate this major victory.

"King Qi's use of soldiers can really be described as a heavy sword without a blade, and the work is unfortunate, which suddenly changed the offensive and defensive situation in Chuzhou, and at the same time smoothly transmitted the news of Shouzhou's victory. Wu Qing, who was hidden on the east side of Qingliu Pass, listened to the cheers in front of Qingliu Pass, and then looked at the fire that was still not extinguished in the next Zhou camp in Chuzhou City, looking extremely excited, "Okay, from now on, our special forces are going to really start to go our own way, and the results are waiting for us." ”

Wu Qing waved his hand, and took the brothers who had already exceeded five hundred to turn into the back of the mountain, and disappeared quickly.