In the tent of the commander of the southern army, the commander Sheng Yong bowed down and hugged his fists and said: "Marshal Qiqi, the last general will explore the terrain, thinking that the water flow of the Baigou River is not very turbulent, which is not enough to curb the offensive of the rebels, and he is willing to lead 50,000 troops to garrison the west slope of the north bank, and ask General Ping'an to lead the cavalry to respond to the flat terrain on the east side of the north bank, and set up a pontoon bridge at the gentle place on the water, and when Yan Hui leads the army to arrive, he will be able to break the thief army."

Du Du Qu Neng said in a deep voice: "The last general is not talented, I am willing to lead the troops to fight to the death with Yan on the slope of the north bank, let Sheng Yong lead the reinforcements on the south bank, and cross the river to help when the Yan soldiers are tired and old, and break through it." He knew very well that in such a battle of hundreds of thousands of troops and horses, it would be impossible for both sides to fully devote all their forces to it, and the timing of the reinforcements crossing the river was the key to determining the victory or defeat of the two armies.

Li Jinglong pondered for a moment and asked, "Thinking that Yan Shun is good at using soldiers, how can he not see such an obvious trap?" ”

The tall commander of the Ping'an urn said categorically: "If Yan Wei retreats in a hurry, we will just pursue and go up again." If Zhu Di retreats, then the situation of the army coming to the city last winter will be repeated again, although the imperial army is not as good as last winter, but it will no longer be hindered by the severe winter cold, and the outcome will be completely different. ”“

When Li Jinglong heard the words of the three of them, he immediately issued a military order, asking the army to erect a pontoon bridge, and the governor Qu Neng led 50,000 troops to cross the river and garrison the west slope of the north bank of the Baigou River, and commanded Ping'an to lead 50,000 horsemen to cross the river and then garrison the flat terrain in the east, and commanded Sheng Yong to lead the army to be stationed on the south bank side, in case of battle, to cross the river at any time for reinforcements, and he and the rest of the generals and the rest of the troops and horses were stationed in the Chinese army on the south bank.

On the bank of the Baigou River, Ping An saw the flow of soldiers and soldiers from the south on several pontoon bridges, heading towards the north bank, and he couldn't help but be anxious. Although he had already dispatched dozens of cavalry scouts to cross the river to inspect, he had not yet discovered the enemy's situation, and remembered that the Yan army also had tens of thousands of cavalry and might arrive at any time, so he immediately ordered his cavalry to ride their horses down the river and choose a place where the river was slightly narrow and the water level was shallow.

However, half an hour later, hundreds of cavalry of the Southern Army had the courage to ride their horses down the river, and when they saw that the water was flooded on the back of their horses, they stopped and couldn't help but relax and cross forward. For a time, people on both sides of the Baigou River were noisy and noisy.

At dusk, Zhu Di and Zhu Quan led an army of 200,000 and finally came to the north bank of the Baigou River more than ten miles away.

When it was nightfall, Zhu Di and Zhu Quan rode back to the camp, recalling that they could see from afar that a large number of southern soldiers were already stationed on the slopes of the Baigou River, and they were building a strong camp with torches overnight, and the two of them couldn't help but feel like heavy lead in their hearts. It turned out that the Yan army had a total of 200,000 people, and carried a large amount of grain and grass captured last winter, and the march was inevitably too slow, so they hurried here, but Li Jinglong crossed the river first, occupying a condescending geographical advantage.

Zhu Quan heard the report of the scouts, the imperial army was divided into three routes, all the way condescending to guard the hillside, all the way the cavalry was far away, eyeing each other, although the main force of the southern army was still on the south bank, but more than ten pontoon bridges were erected on the Baigou River, which was not turbulent, which could be said to have set up an extremely obvious pocket, waiting for Zhu Laosi and himself to drill.

If the enemy army is heavy casualties and then increases from the pontoon bridge, so that the enemy is attacked on three sides, the situation is bound to be even more dangerous. A stalemate between the two armies is also undesirable. The water source of 200,000 soldiers and horses is more important than grain and grass, and although the Baigou River is not turbulent, it is the largest river within a radius of 100 miles. If the army retreats and returns, the morale is greatly reduced and the enemy army pursues it, and the consequences are terrible. Zhu Quan has been in battle for a long time, and has long understood that the advance and retreat of the 200,000 army is not as simple as imagined, and the most worrying thing is that he has gone all the way to Beiping behind him, and there is no dangerous place to stop the 400,000 army under Li Jinglong's fierce attack.

After dawn on the second day, Zhu Di and Zhu Quan led a thousand cavalry under his command to check the surrounding terrain, and they were even more in a heavy mood. It turned out that the hill that Qu Neng, the governor of the Southern Army, was holding on to the water, and the terrain was steep under the strange rocks on both sides, and it was impossible to climb at all. The slope is relatively open and gentle, but it is all covered by the artillery fire of the southern army on the opposite bank, and even the range of strong bows and crossbows, Qu Neng does not need to divide his troops at all, he just needs to hold this side of the hill to the death.

There are extremely disadvantages in attack and defense, Rao is the two of them have been in battle for many times, and in this situation, they are also very difficult in their hearts, and they are quite a little lost, and they feel helpless.

Zhu Di looked at the generals standing on the left and right in the tent, and said in a deep voice: "The key to this battle is whether or not you can conquer the hill defended by Qu Neng's old thief. Speaking of this, he turned his head to look at Zhu Quan and said categorically: "Brother Quan led 80,000 soldiers to attack the hill in turn, and Zhang Yu led 20,000 troops to guard the riverbank and destroy the enemy's pontoon bridge to prevent the enemy from crossing the river abruptly for reinforcements. Zhu Neng led the remaining foot soldiers to hold the camp and reinforce all parties at any time. The prince led all the cavalry to meet the safety of the horseman. ”

When Zhu Neng heard King Yan's order, he couldn't help frowning, bowed down and clasped his fists and said: "Fighting in battle is a matter for the last general, just dare to ask His Highness to sit in the Chinese army." ”

Zhu Di Huo Ran got up and said with a smile: "Ping'an's brave and good fight, so this king will personally fight with him to frustrate the spirit of this horseman." He had lived in the north for a long time, and knew the advantages of the cavalry offensive, and knew that the sharpest blade of the enemy in today's battle should be the tens of thousands of cavalry led by Ping'an in the southern army. In case Zhu Quan attacked the mountain and then gave the enemy cavalry a back-up impact, he would have to be in chaos, and it would be safe for him to personally deal with this fierce general under the command of Lan Yu in the past.

To the sound of the earth-shattering war drums, Zhang Yu led his infantry to rush towards the river.

Standing high on the back of the horse with "dark clouds covering snow", the three-foot long sword in the hand of Zhu Quan, who was wearing armor, slashed down. In the sound of the horn, the Yan soldiers with a knife in one hand and a shield in the other hand lined up into a huge phalanx, marching forward, the number of people was huge, and the momentum of Mount Tai was overwhelming.

At the same time, all the cavalry such as the Yanshan guards followed behind Zhu Di's bloody horse, and under the guidance of the handsome flag embroidered with the word "Yan" embroidered with Douda, it was like a torrent, slowly moving forward.

On the other side of the Baigou River, the Southern Army commanded Sheng Yong to visually measure the distance of the enemy and pass down the military orders with a calm face.

Standing on the side of the riverbank, the gunners with torches heard the horn of the herald and lit a long column of hundreds of guns.

A series of artillery roars shook the earth, covering up the overwhelming movements of the Yan army rushing to kill on the other side of the river. The cannonballs flew across the Baigou River and smashed far into the Yan army led by Zhang Yu, causing the Yan sergeants to fly with flesh and blood. The soldiers, who were lucky not to be hit by the artillery fire, rushed forward with their lives under the leadership of the main general Zhang Yu.

Zhu Quan's ears kept hearing the roar of the cannonballs falling to the ground and the screams of the soldiers under his command, but he still didn't dare to order the troops to rush quickly, because he knew that the artillery under his command was limited by technology, and it was far from the power of the artillery fire of later generations, and the next wave of long-range attacks by the enemy troops on the other side would be even more terrifying.

Hundreds of soldiers chose a suitable place at the bottom of the hillside, and built the trees that were hastily cut down yesterday into a wooden shed that was solid enough to be used as a place for King Ning to be stationed.

Seeing that the dense enemy army had rushed to the other side of the Baigou River not far away, the southern army with long swords commanded Sheng Yong to immediately give the order to release arrows.

Fifty thousand crossbowmen of the southern army who were holding strong bows and crossbows, ready to go, heard the sound of the horn of the order, and under the loose arrow wings of the two fingers in the middle of the food, 50,000 arrows vibrated out one after another, flying over the Baigou River, like a dark cloud suddenly waved out by the god of death, which made the sunlight in the sky dim in an instant, and came towards the enemy on the opposite bank. Li Jinglong, the commander of the Southern Army, not only placed all the artillery on the side of the riverbank, but also assembled all the crossbowmen in the general into a large array of bows and arrows, intending to inflict heavy damage on the enemy with long-range weapons such as arrows and artillery, so as to stop the enemy's attack on the mountain.

Don't the Yan soldiers know the benefits of bows and arrows? They raised their shields in their left hands and crouched down, close to the robes on their sides.

The arrows of the torrential rain flew diagonally and fell into the dense shield array of the Yan army. Arrows continued to penetrate the gaps in the shield array, nailing into the bodies of those Yan soldiers, causing a miserable cry. After the panicked Yan soldiers tripped over the bodies that were constantly falling on their sides, they often didn't have time to get up, and they were hit by several arrows in a row.

Along the river on the north side of the Baigou River, the Yan soldiers and soldiers ran towards the dozen pontoon bridges erected on the river with shields in their hands under the leadership of their own thousands of households and hundreds of households, and often fell into the rain of artillery fire and arrows before they came to the bridgehead.

Just when the Yan army was suppressing the artillery fire and arrows of the southern army and couldn't raise its head, a piece of arrows suddenly flew out of the hillside, drawing a huge arc in the sky and falling into the Yan army's formation. Let those Yan soldiers with shields suffer from the enemy on both sides, and it is difficult to take care of the formation, and they will inevitably be chaotic, and they will fall to the ground with arrows. It turned out that Qu Neng, the governor of the southern army stationed on the hillside, saw the enemy army coming to the bottom of the hillside, and ordered the arrow to be released at the right time. The archers of the Southern Army stood on the mountain, and the range of the bow and crossbow was condescending, and the range was better than that of the flat ground, and they gave heavy damage to the hurried Yan soldiers under the full play.

All the archers in the Ming army are struggling to use their foot bows for more than one stone, and after the archers of the southern army opened the bow three times in a row, their arms were already slightly sore, and their hands couldn't help but relax.

The archers in the Yan army's large array who were hiding behind the shield array heard the horn ringing in their ears, and they leaned out one after another, and hurriedly opened their bows and arrows. The arrows released by more than 20,000 archers were not as imposing as the enemy army, but they were lucky enough to shoot many enemy archers who did not have time to run under their shields for shelter. For a time, the two sergeants across the Baigou River, with the strong bows and crossbows in their hands, launched a fierce and unrivaled battle, and the archers on both sides continued to fall under the arrows fired by the enemy. The shields held by the foot soldiers of the two armies were also densely packed with arrows, and from a distance, they looked like countless artemisia grass growing in an instant.

Ma Sanbao, who was wearing armor, hurriedly walked to Zhu Quan's side and said, "Your Highness, our army's artillery is ready, just waiting for the military order to act." "It turned out that when the imperial army of the last winter court was hastily defeated from the city of Beiping, those bulky artillery pieces had to be discarded, and the Yan army captured many artillery pieces and brought them here this time in ox carts and carriages.

Zhu Quan looked up at the hillside where Qu Neng was heavily defended and built a series of solid camps, as well as the pontoon bridges built by the Southern Army on the river in the distance, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart: Our army is attacking the hillside, and the power of artillery bows and arrows is greatly reduced. Thinking of this, he resolutely ordered: "Order all artillery to fire at the enemy artillery on the opposite bank." ”

Amid the roar of more than 70 artillery pieces, shells smashed into the artillery arrays of the southern army on the opposite bank one after another, causing a burst of fire and dust.

At the same time, the 10,000 foot soldiers of the Yan army, led by Sima Chao, armed with shields and swords, rushed up from the bottom to the top along the relatively gentle slope.

The southern soldiers who had been waiting for a long time on the hillside kept firing their bows and arrows, and struggled to push down the stones that had been prepared. Dozens of catties of rocks rushed down from the slope, rolling out of more than ten zhang after the momentum was extremely terrifying, how could the force of the thousand evenly carried be resisted by manpower? In the dust, the Yan soldiers broke their hands and feet, screaming and rolling down. Although the Yan army attacking the mountain was brave and incomparable, they were almost powerless to kill the arrows and stones thrown from top to bottom.

Sima Chao, whose face was covered with dust and grass clippings, and was wearing armor, hid in a pothole on a hillside, and watched a hundred households and several soldiers on his side smash stones and roll down the hillside after their brains burst out, not daring to raise his head, but he was powerless under the angry scolding in his mouth.

Zhu Quan stood at the foot of the mountain, looking at the Yan soldiers under his command on the hillside from afar, even though they opened their bows and arrows, they hurriedly opened their bows because of their unstable foothold, and the arrows often could not fly far before they fell to the ground, and they almost did not pose any threat to the enemy troops at high places, and were completely in the predicament of being beaten passively, and said with a wry smile in his heart: Being in this situation today, I know how much advantage I can occupy if I am condescending. Fortunately, the artillery was heavy and difficult to transport up the mountain, otherwise in the face of such artillery, stones, and arrows, our army would not be much better than attacking the fortified city. He fought hard outside Beiping last year with the enemy veteran Qu Neng, and he knew his bravery, and he had no illusion of easily defeating the enemy in his heart, so he did not invest too many troops in the first ** hit.

On the hillside, Qu Neng, the governor of the Southern Army, who stood by his sword, stood on the top of the mountain, and he could see the location of the Yan army's artillery under the mountain in the distance, and immediately ordered his subordinates to point out the general direction of the enemy's artillery with a banner.