In March, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the north cried out for anxiety, and the weather on the Jiaodong Peninsula and the North China Plain began to gradually warm.

Li Jinglong personally led 100,000 horses and infantry officers to arrive in Dezhou, and formed a corner with Wu Jie, Yu Tongyuan and other 70,000 cavalry in Cangzhou in the north.

They relied on the canals and river networks of the North China Plain to suppress Zhu Di in Beiping and Zhu Gaoxu in Qingzhou.

At the same time, the left and right guards of Yulin who stayed in the capital crossed the Yangtze River under the command of Sheng Yong, and gathered more than ten guards in Jiangbei to march to Xuzhou.

On the first day of the first month of March, Sheng Yong arrived at Huai'an Mansion, and the number of soldiers and horses around him had reached 40,000, but he did not rush to Xuzhou, but arranged a defensive line in Huai'an relying on the Huai River, as if he wanted to see if Zhu Gaoxu would suddenly attack south.

His approach was correct, because at this time, the Bohai Navy had already crossed the sea with 20,000 horse cavalry, and with his little strength marching on the Huaibei Plain, it was easy to be raided by the Bohai Navy.

His task was to pull out a line of defense in Jianghuai to prevent Zhu Gaoxu from going south to disturb His Majesty in the capital.

Moreover, the 40,000 troops in Jiangbei were unusable, so he had to step up training.

Sheng Yong is preparing, Li Jinglong is also preparing, and even Zhu Di is preparing, only Zhu Gaoxu, at this moment, he is still staying outside Qingzhou with cavalry, and continues to surround Qingzhou, it seems that he will not leave if he does not encircle Qingzhou until he surrenders.

"What was he thinking?"

"Wait for the soldiers and horses to cross the sea? But it's been too long. ”

The city of Texas, under the camp of 100,000 troops, it seems very small, but on the map of the city's government, it is very important.

At present, Li Jinglong has arrived in Dezhou, and Zhu Gaoxu did not make a surprise attack on Dezhou as he had planned, nor did he attack Jinan, seeking Dongchang and Dongping to cut off the north-south canal.

"Counting the time, his current soldiers and horses are as few as 10,000 and as many as 20,000 or 30,000."

"With such a number of soldiers and horses, whether it is to Dezhou or Xuzhou, he has a certain certainty that the attack will be successful, why has he not left Qingzhou all the time?"

Standing in front of the map, Li Jinglong frowned, constantly looking at the whole map, and at the same time answered the generals' questions: "He is waiting for us to go." ”

"Wait for us?" The generals were stunned, and then saw Li Jinglong pointing to Deng, Lai, and Qingzhou.

"At present, Dengzhou and Laizhou have been taken by him, and the grain and grass he harvested are enough to make Liaodong worry-free, and Qingzhou occupies 20% of Shandong's arable land, and it is also the main place to provide grain and grass in Dezhou."

"Although it is only March and the crops have not yet been sown, if we do not have the hundreds of thousands of stone grain provided by Qingzhou, we can only continue to rely on the canal to transport grain, and he can rely on the cavalry to constantly harass the canal."

"But we also have a lot of cavalry." Li Jian, the commander of the horses, asked puzzled, but Li Jinglong shook his head:

"We have many cavalry, but we have more than one enemy."

"The real enemy is the Yanshu people in the north, and by calculating the time, he should have returned to Beiping by now, and maybe he will appear behind our army at any time."

"I'm not alarmist when I say this, so you sent someone to inform Wu Gao and Xu Kai that the wall is clear and you are not allowed to go out of the camp to fight with the Yanshu people."

"Yes!" The generals made a move, and at the same time Li Jinglong also rubbed his brows:

"Although the cavalry can't be mobilized too much, it can't be adjusted at all, otherwise it is easy to be deceived by the Bohai Shu people by using our army's horse steps as pond cavalry."

"Order, transfer Yu Tongyuan and Ping'an to lead 10,000 cavalry south, and Chen Hui and Teng Ju will continue to lead the remaining cavalry to stay in Cangzhou and wait for my military order."

Li Jinglong made arrangements and prepared to wait for Yu Tongyuan and Ping'an's cavalry to arrive, and then let them enter the Qingzhou territory as Tang cavalry to learn about the situation of the Bohai navy.

The intelligence is not equal, this is the taboo of marching and fighting, and at the moment they are on the side of the unequal.

The southern army is now very embarrassed, they have changed from facing the enemy unilaterally to being flanked by the east and north.

Because they had a large number of troops, they could use far fewer cavalry and horse infantry than the Yan army and the Bohai navy.

Li Jinglong wanted to wait for Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di to make any moves before acting, but the south would not allow it.

"It's been seven days since the army arrived in Texas, and he hasn't moved, isn't it possible that he is preparing to watch the thief army capture Qingzhou?"

In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City of Tianfu, Zhu Yunwen questioned Qi Tai in a heavy tone.

He stood in front of the two-zhang long and wide sand table, looking at the current situation in Jiangbei, it was difficult not to be angry.

Huang Zicheng, Fang Xiaoru, Tyrant Zhao and others who followed him were silent, only Qi Tai pointed to Dengzhou and Jinzhou and said:

"When the general arrived in Texas, the thief army had already crossed the sea for many days, and the number of soldiers and horses at present was probably no less than 30,000."

"There are many thieves and horses, and our army has few horses, so if our army does not have all the information, it is easy to be attacked by the enemy."

"Thief army horses?" Huang Zicheng seemed to have heard some big joke: "If the lower official is not mistaken, the cavalry of the thief army is only more than 10,000 people, and our army has more than 20,000 cavalry, are you afraid that he will not succeed?" ”

"The thieves and the horse infantry." Qi Tai frowned and replied, but Zhu Yunwen didn't want to listen to the excuse, he waved his sleeves and said:

"There are only four months left before autumn, and within four months, even if I don't have the luxury of succeeding in counterinsurgency, I should drive the Bohai pirates back to Liaodong."

"This matter, you tell Cao Guogong that you don't want to disappoint me again."

Zhu Yunwen brushed his sleeves away, obviously angry that Li Jinglong had not moved troops for many days.

Seeing this, Qi Tai could only sigh, and then arranged for someone to send the news of the dispatch to Li Jinglong.

On the ninth day of the first month of March, when Li Jinglong got the news of sending troops, he did not continue to delay, because if he continued to delay, Zhu Gaoxu was very likely to really take Qingzhou.

Thinking of this, Li Jinglong's army began to march across the canal, leaving only 10,000 men to guard Texas.

It's just that as soon as they left on the front foot, the news of the camp was sent to Beiping and Laizhou.

"Your Highness, then Li Jinglong has finally pulled out of the camp."

Outside Qingzhou City, Xu Sheng, who got the news from Laizhou, walked into the handsome tent with the news, while Zhu Gaoxu looked at the map with a dogma.

Hearing Xu Sheng's news, Zhu Gaoxu was not surprised or surprised, but calmly pointed at Texas with dogma.

"Four hundred miles from Texas to Qingzhou, and five hundred miles from Texas to Zhuozhou."

"Now that he is withdrawn from Texas, whether he comes to fight us or Beiping, he will be farther and farther away from the other direction."

"Send out the Tang Cavalry to reconnoiter and see if he's coming to our side or going north."

"Yes!" Xu Sheng responded, and Zhu Gaoxu asked again: "Have the soldiers and horses landed?" ”

"The brothers have landed, but there are still more than 13,000 horses to be transported to Dengzhou in ten days." Xu Sheng responded.

"Sooner than I thought." Zhu Gaoxu bowed, and then looked at the map.

"Tell Zhu Chenggong and Cui Jun to let them take a boat with more than 1,000 materials to go south immediately after transporting the horses, I have asked them to prepare a big gift in Da Songwei, and ask them to receive gifts according to this big gift."

Zhu Gaoxu said, and at the same time said to Xu Sheng: "Have the cavalry converged?" ”

"All are together, and the three thousand brethren from the east have just arrived this morning, and are now resting."

"Good ......" Listening to Xu Sheng's words, Zhu Gaoxu's eyes flickered: "When the news is released, it will be said that we only have 6,000 people in Qingzhou, and we are about to attack Jinan in the near future." ”

"Yes!" Xu Sheng thought that Zhu Gaoxu was going to release false news, so he turned around and went to do it.

It's just that when they communicated, after half a month of preparation and recuperation, the Yan army in Beiping was ready to go.

From the report submitted by his own guests, Zhu Di successfully learned about the new military trends of the field cluster of the Southern Army.

At noon on the ninth day of the first month of March, after Zhu Di had sacrificed Zhu Yuanzhang and Queen Ma, he immediately led 60,000 horse infantry out of Beiping City to prepare for a strategic decisive battle with him.

On the tenth day of the first month of March, the Yan army went south to camp in the area of Hongren Bridge to rest, and the next day the Yan army officially marched to Dong'an City.

The two armies encountered each other in the valley to the north, and quickly transmitted the news back to their respective positions.

"The rebels are going south? Can you see the scale? ”

In the camp outside Dong'an City, Xu Kai learned that the Yan army was heading south, and immediately asked about the detailed situation.

"Judging by the number of only a few hundred cavalry, it should be a small group of Tang cavalry who came to reconnoiter the movements of our army, but judging by the posture that they still dare to pursue our army, there should be a large group of soldiers and horses in the rear."

The commander made Yu Duan respond, but Xu Kai frowned after hearing this: "The general reminded me that I can't go out of the camp to meet the enemy, but now the thief army has approached our army for fifty miles......"

After thinking for a while, he spoke: "You sent Tang cavalry to Cangzhou to deliver a message, and asked the two generals Chen Hui and Teng Ju to lead the cavalry to help our army. ”

"The last general commands!" When Yu Duan heard this, he turned around and asked Cangzhou for help.

After he left, Xu Kai walked back and forth in the tent, and news came from outside the tent again.

"Governor, the thief army is encamped forty miles north of my city."

"Got it, stand down!" Xu Kai waved his hand and motioned for the thousand-household official who had sent the message to retreat.

The current approach of the Yan army has made him sure that it is the main force of the Yan army that comes this time.

As long as you stick to the camp, even if the Yan army is sharp, don't want to get a bargain from yourself.

Thinking like this, Xu Kai began to calm down, and at the same time, the Tang cavalry who was sent out also passed the news of Dong'an's request for help to Cangzhou after a night of changing horses without changing people.

An Luhou Wu Jie didn't think much about it, because Li Jinglong had told him that he wanted to rush to the aid of Dong'an and Zhuozhou, so he immediately sent Chen Hui and Teng Ju to lead 10,000 cavalry to the north to help, and at the same time sent the news to the south.

Time passed, and in the early morning of the next day, when Chen Hui and Teng Ju led 10,000 cavalry to the north, the Yan army from the north to the south once again pulled out the camp for thirty miles and was stationed ten miles away from the north of Xu Kai's camp in Dong'an City.

"Kill!!"

"Beep-"

"Enemy attack!!"

In the early morning of the 13th, taking advantage of the gray sky, the Yan army launched an attack in the sleep of the southern army.

Fortunately, Xu Kai has been making preparations, so when the sound of the enemy attack and the sound of the wooden whistle sounded at the same time, many southern troops who could not take off their armor immediately woke up and began to form a formation to defend against the enemy.

Xu Kai also wore the armor of the night, and immediately put on his helmet after getting up, and went out of the camp with the generals.

It's just that when he left the camp, the southern army had already chased the Yan army's foot soldiers out of the camp.

"The whole army withdraws, and the poor don't chase!"

Xu Kai was timid and cautious, Geng Bingwen's pursuit was broken and he died in front, and he didn't dare to let the soldiers pursue deeply.

The unfinished southern soldiers were recalled by him and returned to the camp one after another.

In the following hour, the Yan army seemed to have been extinguished, and never launched a decent attack again.

This made Xu Kai feel strange, he did not see the cavalry and horse infantry of the Yan army in this battle.

"Send the Hejian guard to attack, and if you encounter the rebel cavalry, withdraw immediately."

"The last general commands!"

Xu Kai tested the situation of Yan Jun, for fear that Yan Jun would leave a suspicious army to doubt himself.

He watched with his own eyes the three thousand soldiers and horses of the Hejian Guards out of the camp and drove towards the Yan military camp, and soon there was a dusty scene in the north, and the three thousand Hejian guards and horses formed a long spear, using fire gate guns and spears to cover each other to prepare for the enemy, and slowly retreated.

The cavalry of the Yan army did not reap the benefits, and Hejian Wei successfully withdrew after only paying more than ten casualties.

"How, what is the number of cavalry of the Yan Army?"

"About 10,000 people!" Yu Duan, who led the Hejian Wei attack, gave what he saw, and Xu Kai was also relieved when he heard this.

More than 10,000 cavalry, this is not a small force anywhere, Zhu Di cannot use so many cavalry as suspicious soldiers, it seems that it is indeed the main force that attacks him.

Xu Kai was relieved, but he still didn't let the soldiers take off their armor and rest tonight, but asked them to sleep in armor.

At the same time, Chen Hui and Teng Ju, who were ordered to aid Dong'an in the north, also led more than 10,000 cavalry such as Ganliang and Shanxi to Jinghai County to rest.

The night passed in a flash, and in the early morning of the next day, Chen Hui and Teng Ju led the army to pull out the camp and march to Yang Qingshuiyi in the north.

The west side of Yangqingshuiyi is the triangular lake, which is more than 100 miles long from north to south, more than 20 miles wide from east to west, with a large scale, moistening millions of acres of cultivated land.

It's just that for Chen Hui, Teng Ju and others, these are just a slightly larger lake, except for the wind blowing a little cold, the rest can't cause them any obstacles.

They traveled north along the canal and soon arrived at Yangqingshuiyi.

After briefly replenishing the horses, the group continued north, but when they passed through the narrow place north of Yang Qingshui Station, Chen Hui raised his hand and ordered the cavalry to stop.

"What's wrong?"

Chen Hui is extremely vigilant, Teng Ju is brave in battle, and the two complement each other well, so Teng Juce immediately stepped forward to ask.

"It's easy to set up an ambush and shoot arrows into the reeds of the western triangle."

"Good!"

In the face of Chen Hui's vigilance, Teng Ju did not feel redundant, but let people shoot a batch of arrows into the reeds that stretched for more than ten miles to the west, and used arrows to explore the way.

Chen Hui was very worried about that long and narrow area, and did not relax until he came to the wide area.

"Should ......"

"Kill !!"

Chen Hui just wanted to say that it was okay, but he heard the sound of killing in the sky.

He hurriedly looked into the reeds, but no one came.

"East!!"

"Didn't the east side be explored?"

Teng Ju shouted and drew his sword, but Chen Hui was puzzled, he clearly remembered that he had sent Tang Qi to investigate the east, what was the situation now?

"The whole army is in armor!!"

Following Teng Ju's reminder, Chen Hui looked at the endless cultivated land to the east.

In that direction, the armored cavalry of the Yan Army had already risen from the field and covered their side.

Chen Hui didn't have time to think much about how they appeared, so he could only order armor piercing.

"Kill me!!"

Zhu Di took the lead, and began to encircle and suppress Chen Hui's army with the horse infantry who kept getting up and getting on the horse.

Chen Hui could think of the reeds that could set up an ambush, and Zhu Di could naturally think of it, so Zhu Di chose the fields to the east, and had people dig trenches early, lay them with wooden planks, and roll them up to cover them with mud and turf.

The cool pond rides on the road, but does not enter the fields without crops and trample them.

Their wandering and flowering gave Yan Jun a chance, and this hand was learned by Zhu Di from Wang Yi, or from the Bohai Sea.

He left cavalry and a small number of horse infantry to confuse Xu Kai in Dong'an County, and he took more than 40,000 horse infantry to arrange an encirclement at Yang Qingshuiyi, which was taken by surprise.

"Put on your armor! Get ready to break out! ”

Chen Hui didn't expect Zhu Di to be so good at hiding, if they fought in the plains, they still didn't know about it, but now they were tired after marching all morning, and now they were attacked by the Yan army.

At the moment, apart from making the whole army pierce armor and break through, Chen Hui can't think of any means.

Zhu Di didn't give them a chance to wear armor, he personally led Qiu Fu, Zhu Neng, Chen Wu and others to lead more than 100 cavalry to rush into the Ganliang cavalry formation, and began to slaughter before most of them had time to put on their armor.

Their fate let the formation be disordered, and Chen Hui and they couldn't do any other means of reorganizing the army except for being in a hurry to pierce the armor.

In an instant, Gan Liangjing rode away in all directions, trying to put armor on his upper body as he fled.

However, under the arrows of the Yan army, the flesh without armor was extremely fragile.

Each arrow can take a life, and the Ganliang Jing cavalry that crisscrossed the west was surrounded by the horse infantry of the Yan army, except for a few who escaped quickly, most of them were surrounded by the Yan army.

Heavy clouds drifted in the sky, and there was a faint sound of thunder.

The Yan army's horse infantry wore strong armor and held powerful weapons, and caught the defenseless Ganliang cavalry off guard in the chaos of the army, seeing their subordinates fall to the ground and die one by one, Chen Hui and Teng Ju, who finally put on their armor, led more than 100 armored cavalry to fight with the Yan army.

Blood stained the official road of Yang Qingshuiyi, presenting a miserable scene.

The horse infantry of the Yan army poured towards the strong Ganliang cavalry like a tide, and they could not resist it even if they were all armored.

"Xu Kai! I won't let you go if I'm dead! ”

Chen Hui cursed Xu Kai, only because the Tang cavalry sent by Xu Kai said that the main force of the Yan army was entangled with him in Dong'an, so he would lead the cavalry to the north with confidence.

But now, eighty miles away from Dong'an, they were surrounded and suppressed by the main force of the Yan army.

If the intelligence is not wrong, then he will definitely arrange for the army to wear armor and go north, even if he is not defeated now, he will not be so embarrassed.

"Xu Kai ......"

During the scolding, Chen Hui and Teng Ju were successively engulfed in the ranks of the Yan army's horse infantry, fell off their horses one after another, and were trampled to death by the horses in an instant.

In the course of this melee, the Ganliang cavalry was seriously lacking in defensive equipment, and did not even have armor on their bodies to protect themselves.

On the contrary, the Yan horse infantry wore hard iron armor, and was invincible when the body was hit.

The Yan army horse infantry that came like a tide constantly waved their weapons and launched a charge, dividing and trapping the Ganliang cavalry, and chopping them into minced meat alive.

The sound of weapons landing on the ground often sounded, and the sound of the war horse's wailing resounded on the battlefield along with the shouts of killing.

More than 10,000 Ganliang cavalry died a miserable death, and were slaughtered by the Yan army's horse infantry.

"Chen Hui and Teng Ju are dead, those who descend will not be killed!!"

Suddenly, the news of Chen Hui and Teng Ju's death in battle came out, and many Ganliang cavalry threw down their weapons one after another.

Zhu Di panted and turned the horse's head: "Surrender, count the horses." ”

"Your Highness, more than 100 horsemen escaped just now, don't you need to pursue?" Wang Yi gasped and asked, but Zhu Di shook his head:

"It's to let them spread the news and let Xu Kai know that his reinforcements are being attacked."

The tens of thousands of cavalrymen entrusted by Li Jinglong were defeated and captured by Zhu Di at the minimum cost due to erroneous intelligence and information.

After the raid, the entire battlefield was silent, except for a few birds flying.

The green grass has eroded, and the blood has polluted this murderous land.

In this raid, the Ganliang cavalry, without armor and preparation, was only an obstacle in the way of the Yan army's horse infantry sprint.

Zhu Di led the army to rest, although he failed to attract Wu Jie's main force, but it was enough to defeat Chen Hui and Teng Ju and capture thousands of Ganliang cavalry.

"Rest for half an hour, and after half an hour, we will go north, then Xu Kai should be flustered!"

Zhu Di is calm and not like he just won a victory, but more like a game.

Perhaps for him, the raid on the unarmored Ganliang cavalry is no different from the game.

"Kill!!"

At dusk, Xu Kai of Dong'an County led the southern army to thwart the attack of tens of thousands of cavalry of the Yan army again, which made him complacent.

Rao is Yan Army's iron cavalry is no matter how sharp it is, but in the face of the southern army array with long spears, it is not so weak.

"Dudu, this should be the last charge of the thief army, survive today, and we will be able to see the cavalry coming to Cangzhou at noon tomorrow."

The conductor Yu wiped the sweat from his face and communicated with Xu Kai with a smile.

Xu Kai also took off his helmet when he heard this, and wiped the sweat from his forehead: "The cavalry of this Yan army is indeed difficult to deal with, but as long as the spears are lined up, they will be helpless against us." ”

"Tomorrow, when the cavalry arrives, they will cover the left and right flanks of our army, and then our army will be able to launch a counterattack against the thief army."

"This Yanshu person seems to be only good at surprise attacks, not good at facing the enemy head-on."

Xu Kaizhi was complacent, but just when he was complacent, the magistrate in Dong'an County hurriedly rode to the north of the camp.

He dismounted with the support of the soldiers, and waved at Xu Kai: "Xu Dudu, Yan is rebellious...... Yan went south and attacked the reinforcements from Cangzhou! ”

"What did you say?" Xu Kai couldn't believe it, he looked at the retreating Yan cavalry in the distance, pointed over there and asked, "You said that Yan Shun is going south, but their cavalry is all here, how did you go?" ”

"Xia Guan doesn't know, but the cavalry from Cangzhou has fled to the city, they say that the number of Yan counterattacks is no less than forty or fifty thousand, and before they broke through, Chen Hui and Teng Ju have been besieged by the thief army."

Zhixian's words were like a heavy hammer, smashing into Xu Kai's chest.

"Order the whole army to withdraw to the camp, and ask Cao Guogong for help, and send a message to An Luhou in Cangzhou, and let him be careful of Yan Rebellion!"

Xu Kai confessed to Yu Fill, but Yu Fill, who learned that the reinforcements were surrounded, was also in a hurry.

The two commanded the army to withdraw to the camp, and at the same time released carrier pigeons to the south, but they didn't even dare to release the Tang cavalry, for fear of being intercepted by Zhu Di in the south.

Zhu Yunwen spent a lot of effort to transfer tens of thousands of cavalry from Ganliang, which became a stroke on Zhu Di's merit book.

(End of chapter)