Beimang's iron hooves connected the two cities of Lying Bow and Luanhe, and were blocked outside Youzhou Pass by the last Xiaguang City, which controlled the dangerous pass. If this pass is not broken and the territory of Youzhou is successfully broken, all the cavalry troops on the eastern front of Beimang will be useless.

Outside the city, two generals of the Eastern Front of Beimang were under the strict escort of no less than 1,000 elite cavalry servants, and inspected the battle situation at the head of the city nearby. In addition to this city, the gourd mouth is already in my hands, but as long as Xiaguang City is not broken for a day, it will never be able to fight to the death with the 30,000-strong ghost cavalry. ”

The pioneer general Tan Tan, who had just been enshrined as the king of the summer bowl by His Majesty the Emperor, said with a smile: "It's really difficult to be a general, like a big nest of young birds waiting to be fed, and it can't be noisy every day." ”

The veteran smiled: "After Xiaguang City, the entire Youzhou is under our horses' hooves, and it is not easy to fight at that time, there are fighters and military exploits everywhere, but how much you can put in your pocket depends on your own ability." ”

Chong Tan, who had only gone to the city to fight in person yesterday, was covered with bloody breath, and said softly: "Now wait for Yan Wenluan to fill the mouth of Xiaguang City with his Youzhou foot soldiers." Otherwise, in three days at most, Xiaguang City would not be able to hold it. ”

Yang Yuanzan sneered: "Xiaguang City is not Hutou City, the city is so big, how many people can stand in the city? Yan Wenluan will throw six thousand people to Xiaguang City at most at one time to participate in defending the city, no matter how much, let alone going to the city, it can only be crowded in the city to watch the excitement." ”

Yang Yuanzan looked at the Xiaguang City in the distance, where the fortifications were already overstretched, and the big crossbow was completely destroyed, especially after his own infantry army almost demolished the Lying Bow City Luanhe City, hundreds of catapults threw boulders frantically during this time, so this summer, there was a lot of rain above the head of Xiaguang City, and there was a stone rain. Except for the two marginal fortresses between Xiaguang City and Luanhe City, the rest of the large and small strongholds have been cleaned up by the private cavalry of the Beimang clan who want to go crazy for their military exploits, and those Hulukou Fengsui, who do not have many guards, are undoubtedly the first to bear the brunt and have become the best hunting targets early.

It can be said that as long as Yang Yuanzan's eastern army takes Xiaguang City, not only will the gateway to Youzhou be wide open, but under the premise of the absolute inferiority of Youzhou cavalry, the eastern front of Beimang can be attacked, and if you retreat, you can retreat to the gourd mouth north of Xiaguang City in one go, and even withdraw directly from Hulukou, so what's the difficulty? Therefore, although the infantry army of Tan Tan suffered amazing battle losses, and two or three thousand-man teams fought to the miserable point of collapse almost every day, the old general with frowning brows on the surface was actually not too worried, and deep down he still had a trace of unknown schadenfreude for his old friend Liu Qi, who presided over the Western Front. At that time, Xijing asked Liu Jue to go to Liuzhou, where the Beiliang border army had no danger to rely on, but asked him Yang Yuanzan to attack Youzhou, and asked him to lead his troops through Hulukou, a terrifying area that claimed to be able to bury 150,000 Beimang troops.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of the old general's demeanor of victory, and the vanguard general with outstanding military achievements wanted to speak and stopped, but finally swallowed his words back into his stomach and did not say his guess. To be able to squeeze out Yelu Yuwat and become the new Xia Bowl with less than a year of military age is because of the sentence of a first-class tyrant in the Xijing Temple, "Chong Tan alone, let my Eastern Front army die 50,000 less in Hulukou, which is tantamount to our side having 50,000 brave foot soldiers who are good at attacking cities and pulling out villages out of thin air, how can I not make a bowl!" It stands to reason that the children of the seed family who have become the same famous generals as Xie Xichen in the Central Plains, Kou Jianghuai, Song Li, and others should be the most complacent at this time, but Tan Tan always feels that the battle situation in Youzhou is not so simple.

Yang Yuanzan suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed to the head of the city that turned sharply, not surprised but happy, and laughed: "Tan Tan, look, Yan Wenluan finally can't sit still, I thought that this old man had dug some great pit in Youzhou, but I didn't expect it to be such a little concentration." Disappointment, what a disappointment!"

When Tan Tan saw the tragic battle situation at the head of Xiaguang City, he was finally relieved.

The geographical location of Xiaguang City can be described as unique, occupying the only Xiongguan Pass that can be used by large-scale cavalry to enter the pass in Hulukou, so the war here can only be hard-hitting, and it is a fool's dream for both sides to launch any surprise attack. The Eastern Front Infantry Army under the command of Tan Tan has been able to continue to pour into the city recently, yesterday Tan Tan personally led 800 dead soldiers to fight in the city, and was driven down the city after half an hour of fierce fighting, when the main battlefield of a siege war changed from the ant attached to the city wall to the city head hand-to-hand combat, it often means that the city is not far from being broken. probably also knew that Xiaguang City was in danger, and this was the first time that Yan Wenluan's old battalion foot soldiers appeared on the Hulukou battlefield. Seed Tan rode his horse forward, and without the threat of the crossbow at the head of the city, with the martial arts cultivation of this Tan Tan, plus wearing iron armor, he was not afraid of the long shots of the scattered archers at the head of the city.

Tan Tan looked up, and sure enough, it was a large number of Youzhou old battalion foot soldiers supporting the city, wearing a typical "Yan Zajia" Preparation, all carefully crafted by the official craftsmen of Beiliang, this kind of Yanzha armor is composed of 1,500 fine iron armor leaves, and then made of tough leather-strips and nails finely intertwined, weighing more than 60 catties, compared with the former Western Chu first-class heavy armor infantry halberd is not inferior, and the Beiliang man's physique is congenitally superior to the Western Chu soldiers, the Yan family infantry is wearing heavy armor and holding spears in a formation to refuse to ride, once in the Spring and Autumn War played a jaw-dropping effect on the Western Chu cavalry. The birth of the heavy armored infantry in the Dafeng Dynasty and the formation of the Spring and Autumn Nine Kingdoms was originally a kind of deformed army that came into being after the large-scale cavalry gradually became the protagonist of the battlefield, especially the steppe cavalry became more and more unstoppable. Of course, the heavily armored infantry was not originally used as a precious class of troops to defend the city, not simply because it was overkill to step against step, but because the heavy armored infantry was too heavy, and it was not wise to engage in hand-to-hand combat in the cityhead where every inch of land was valuable.

However, the four hundred Beimang soldiers who had already attacked the head of Xiaguang City were almost killed by Yan Zajia's infantry in one shot.

Tan Tan turned his head to a herald and said in a deep voice, "Let Zheng Lin lead two thousand cavalry to meet the retreat of the siege infantry army." ”

Above the city, life and death are decided.

The Beimang foot soldiers were almost exhausted, and one of them still slashed out a fierce knife, but the well-armored Yan family heavy foot soldier on the opposite side raised his left arm and waved, and then waved the blade at will, the old character battalion Yan family Ruishi continued to rush forward, and the cool knife in his right hand instantly stabbed into the chest of the leather armor North Mang barbarian, and with great momentum, he directly knocked the Beimang soldier against the outer wall, and after quickly drawing the knife, he held the knife in both hands and lifted it heavily, pulling out a piece of flesh and skin to open the blood groove that was deep in the bones, and the scarlet blood splashed all over the entire face of this heavy step, which was particularly hideous。

A soldier of the North was knocked out of the city on the spot from a rupture in a ruined city.

The head of the glow city, the iron armor is solemn.

The blood-drenched heads of the Northern Mang soldiers were thrown down the city at the same time by those burly armor soldiers.

Except for the soldiers who climbed the city, none of them were spared, and the Beimang siege soldiers who heard the drums of retreat hurriedly withdrew from the ladder, and above their heads, there were constantly skulls and corpses smashed, as well as a rain of arrows splashed by the archers who returned to the city.

This rain of blood and arrows is Xiaguang City's most powerful answer to the "rain curtain" created by the previous Beimang catapult.

For the first time, Xiaguang City, whose gates had been closed until now, took the initiative to raise its gates, and a large group of heavily armored foot soldiers rushed out.

Above the city, the Youzhou heavy armor infantry slid down the ladder and launched a one-sided slaughter of those Northern Mang soldiers who could not retreat.

Like a flood pouring out of the city, there are constantly Beimang foot soldiers "drowning" in the blood water.

After receiving the order from the Tan Army, the two thousand cavalry troops of Beimang, who were closest to the head of the city, began to accelerate their charge, launching a round of cavalry shooting, trying to suppress the out-of-town formation of the infantry army of Xiaguang City as much as possible while rescuing the retreat of their own soldiers. At the same time, the infantry bow, which had a longer range than riding a bow on the head of the city, also decisively gave up shooting and killing the Beimang infantry and turned to the Beimang cavalry, which was disturbing the heavy steps out of the city. The cavalry general Zheng Lin raised his arm and slammed back, the cavalry no longer moved forward, and began to slowly retreat back fifty steps, most of the city's arrows fell on the ground between these fifty steps, Zheng Lin, who turned around again, looked around, a little depressed, except for the siege infantry soldiers who urgently retreated from both sides of the cavalry, the culprit who really prevented them from rushing to the battlefield with more cavalry happened to be the nearby infantry army arrays that should be responsible for the follow-up siege, otherwise as long as they were given two thousand horsemen to block the city gate, with the number of bows and crossbows in Xiaguang City now is not enough to pose too much threat, then four thousand cavalry not to mention completely preventing the infantry army from leaving the city, the worst can make it unable to spread the formation comfortably。

Zheng Lin's cavalry can be described as the elite of the Eastern Front, except for the spears that were not carried for the time being because they did not expect to charge into battle, they all had lunge bows, lassoes and throwing axes and other miscellaneous weapons were endless, and the chain mail on the body was all the same, compared with the leather armor of the ordinary grassland cavalry, it was a big deal to cover up luxury.

Zheng Lin's immovable stationary cavalry stood out from the crowd among the surging retreating Beimang infantry army.

Soon, several reinforcements of the cavalry army were interspersed with difficulty in the infantry army, and there were almost three thousand five hundred cavalry together, but the fighters on the battlefield were always fleeting, and the Youzhou infantry army was skillfully helped by nearly a thousand auxiliary soldiers responsible for baggage transportation, and had been calmly arrayed outside the gate of Xiaguang City, dense as a hedgehog. But for some reason, this infantry army did not place in front of the formation the three-plate axes that hindered the cavalry's charge, staghorn wood, thistle terrestris, and horse rejection. Zheng Lin couldn't help but feel a little strange, Xiaguang City is the last important town of the Hulukou defense line, even if he never thought of going out of the city to ride on foot, but how should the city symbolically reserve these soldiers, Zheng Lin smiled, there is no better, those large rejection horses with four oblique logs, chiseled holes and inserted iron guns, and the kind of military machine in front of the curtain has explained countless times Another simple rejection of horses, it really makes Zheng Lin, a cavalry general, feel numb just by hearing it.

Zheng Lin carefully observed the distribution of troops of the Youzhou infantry army, and it was really not bad as the group of military machine men who were crepe said, the strongest sturdy shield pawn stood up an almost human-tall shield in front, and the sharp spears in the back row stabbed out from between the shields, and on the rattan iron wall, a multi-row "gun forest" was formed that could also make their cavalry feel cold in midsummer, after that, it was to abandon the axe formation with cool knives and big axes, followed by archers who could pull their bows and kill the enemy earlier than the cavalry, as well as waist crossbows and crossbows with a longer range than the foot bow. Zheng Lin subconsciously raised his butt and left the horse's back, trying to see more clearly, but it was difficult to find more inner mysteries of this Yan family's time-honored battalion foot soldiers.

A cavalry commander who came to Hulukou from the Beiting Grassland asked with a smile: "General Zheng, what do you say, why don't you let me lead the troops to rush first?" ”

Zheng Lin looked at this young commander, who was the eldest son of a certain Da Si Xuan who occupied a large area of water and grass and fertile grasslands in the north, young and vigorous, and had made a lot of achievements in the sweep of the Fengsui Fort around Luanhe City, and now he was waiting to break through Xiaguang City and go to Youzhou to kill, it is said that this kid has discussed with a group of Beiting nobles with similar backgrounds, and when the time comes, he will enter Youzhou, and he will not care about other places, so he will join forces and stare at the place called Rouge County, where the water spirit girls are even drooling from the men of the Central Plains of Liyang, and when the time comes, they will first pick out the best hundreds of postures to enjoy alone, and other Rouge County women are sold to the grassland size, both silver and favors.

Zheng Lin, as a disciple of the Southern Dynasty, has no good impression of these descendants of the Northern Court, and in the past 20 years, there have been countless cases of the small nobles of the Northern Court daring to be powerful in the Western Capital of the Southern Dynasty, but Zheng Lin still shook his head and said: "That 4,000-person infantry army is the old battalion of Yan Wenluan in Youzhou, and it is the descendant of the lineage, we don't want to rush into battle lightly, the general just asked me to cover the retreat of the infantry army, and I can't be greedy for merit." ”

The commander said with a smile: "Is it greedy for merit, then I have to lose and then make a conclusion, this thousand grassland children under my command, which is not an elite cavalry army that drills the belly of a horse and plays, General Zheng, since you don't dare to rush into battle, then wait and watch me sweep the formation." ”

Zheng Lin said expressionlessly: "Oh, then the general will wait for the good news." ”

The young commander laughed loudly, and took the lead, rushing towards the heavily defended infantry formation.

The first two rows are dominated by the tall "heavy horses" of the short ones, each holding the original spear or the iron spear captured from the Beiliangwu Fort, and the armor is also superior to the last three rows, and they advance rapidly. This kind of grassland people use extremely familiar cavalry to rush into formation, the formation is simple and flexible, once in the last years of the Dafeng Dynasty in the face of the Central Plains infantry army to achieve invincible outstanding results, so that the Central Plains land is full of wolf smoke, whenever and the Central Plains infantry is about to collide with the formation, the last three rows of light cavalry will suddenly speed up the charge, rush out from the gap in the iron cavalry, or ride out of the dense arrow rain or throw short spears, if the enemy infantry army formation can maintain a stable formation, then the heavy cavalry is not in a hurry to rush the formation, around the arc from the two wings of the phalanx, the light cavalry in turn to follow, if the infantry army on both sides of the infantry army can not find the fighter, return to the same place, and so on, until the infantry army formation shakes a trace of loopholes, the Iron Rider will launch a truly deadly charge, cutting a breakthrough for the light cavalry behind.

In the past, the steppe cavalry that galloped wantonly on the territory of the Dafeng Dynasty, with the various benefits brought by the Hongjia North Run, both armor and weapons have been greatly improved.

It's a pity that the enemy faced by this thousand-man cavalry army is Yan Wenluan's heavily armored foot soldiers, and it is the Beiliang border army.

is not the embroidered pillow dynasty that was boasted by some wealthy literati that "all dynasties died with weakness, but only with the strong death".

When it was discovered that there were only a thousand horsemen charging alone.

This infantry army made a shocking move, violating the common sense of the art of war, and brought down the shield wall and gun forest that were the essence of the horse rejection formation.

It's only between three hundred and one hundred steps.

Under the vigorous shooting of a large number of bows and crossbows, the 1,000 horsemen who shouted loudly turned on their backs and lay down for more than 600 horsemen.

And the next scene is also completely different from the statement in the war book, the infantry army did not continue to shoot large-scale infantry bow throwing, but only accurately shot the dozens of rangers who tried to break away from the frontal battlefield when the opportunity was not good, while the front row regained their shields and spears.

It's like saying, the cavalry is charging into battle, then please come!

After discovering that his commander was pierced through the chest by an arrow, the remaining more than 300 Beimang rode madly and rushed over regardless of life and death.

Crash into those sharp rejects.

After a crash.

The entire infantry military array is still as steady as a rock!

Before the shield.

Among the spears!

More than 300 Beimang war horses, without exception, were pierced on the spot by spears that were two and a half feet long!

At the head of Xiaguang City, a short, one-eyed old man, accompanied by the two great officials of the Northern Liang Frontier, Huangfu and Hu Kui, the general of Youzhou, and Hu Kui, the assassin of Shi, were personally accompanied, and from beginning to end, the old man did not look at the self-killing path of the Beimang Qianqi at all, but looked further north outside the gourd mouth, and said to himself: "In three days, the four cavalry armies will be able to enter the gourd mouth, right?"

————

Outside the mouth of the gourd, the 20,000 Youzhou cavalry army was divided into two, and the cavalry general Shi Yulu and the hussar general Fan Wenyao each led 2,000 cavalry to continue northward, responsible for smashing the grain and grass transportation in Longjiao Prefecture and intercepting and killing those scattered cavalry teams.

Yu Luandao, the deputy general of Youzhou, led 16,000 cavalry to welcome the arrival of the two cavalry armies in the same place, and the Youzhou cavalry would act as an escort for the latter.

Although the number of the latter's two cavalry armies combined, it was just over half of the phantom cavalry.

But Yu Luan Dao did not have the slightest resentment.

————

Two days later, a cavalry army of 10,000 men was the first to break away from the army and rush into the mouth of the gourd.

Decadent fortresses, no one after another.

Devastation.

The wind swept through the lying bow city that was no longer a city, and it was like crying and complaining.

These 10,000 horsemen did not stop in Wogong City, but when they passed around the city, all the cavalry spontaneously drew out the Beiliang Sword and raised it high.

Big Snow Dragoon.

Just silently went south.