Chapter Ninety-Four: On the Eve of the Decisive Battle
The Xuanqi army took Yan'an, and Li Chengye had to let Li Yuan lead the army back to help, and Chen soldiers were on the south side of Beishan to strictly prevent the Xuanqi army from going south. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Helian Yinshan heard that Xuanqi appeared on the Loess Plateau, and he simply led the army westward, crossed Taiyue Mountain and Luliang Mountain, and pursued Xuanqi.
Gao Yao, in accordance with Xuan Qi's order, led the army and the Shanxi heroes, followed behind the Helian Yinshan army, and attacked and harassed from time to time. And Xuan Qi simply gave up going south, but led the army along the north to the west, connecting the three counties of Jinming, Luoyuan, and Huachi. After that, the Xuanqi army traveled all the way west, and after capturing Yuanzhou, it turned south and besieged Jingzhou with the 100,000 army of Li Gan, the king of Shu, who had already captured Qinzhou and crossed Liupan Mountain.
Li Chengye's connection with Gansu was once again cut off, and Li Yuan could only lead an army of 150,000 troops along the Jing River to the west to aid Jingzhou. Tao Qingping, the defender of Longzhong, was also ordered to lead an army of 50,000 to the east into Liupan Mountain. The Helian Yinshan army was constantly attacked and harassed by Gao Yao's army all the way, and the speed of its advance was extremely slow, and it was still in Huachi County.
Xuanqi joined forces with the army of the king of Shu, but he was not in a hurry to capture Jingzhou, but ordered to block the news, and let the soldiers start to build a barrage dam in the Jinghe valley, more than 20 miles east of Jingzhou, day and night. Li Yuan's army marched all the way west, unnoticed, and finally arrived west of Jingchuan seven days later.
Li Yuan saw that something was wrong, and immediately ordered the army to slow down and send scouts to the west along the Jing River to find out the situation.
Half an hour later, the scouts did not return, but five thousand cavalry appeared in front, and it was Xuan Qi who rushed to the front. Li Yuan saw Xuanqi's relatives coming, and hurriedly ordered the whole army to attack. And Xuan Qi's five thousand cavalry rushed to the range of the shot, and after shooting the long arrow in his hand, he immediately circled back along the river valley.
Li Yuan ordered the army to pursue with all its might, one in front of the other, and the two sides were always separated by a stone's throw away. After four or five miles of pursuit, the five thousand cavalry had begun to spread out on the paths on both sides of the valley and to the high ground. As the number of people in the valley became smaller and smaller, Li Yuan faintly began to feel that something was wrong, but Xuan Qi was still riding his horse unhurriedly in the valley, and Li Yuan could not make up his mind to stop the pursuit.
After another three or four miles, the river in front of him made a big turn, and only Xuan Qiyi was left in the river. Li Yuan's army had just turned the bend of the river when he heard a deafening explosion not far ahead, and the explosives planted in the barrage dam were ignited, and the river was drained straight down.
The fast horse was startled by the sound of the explosion and began to run around, and when he saw the river pouring down, Li Yuan's army had already turned their horses' heads and tried to escape the monstrous river. Some cavalrymen hurriedly abandoned their horses and climbed up towards the high ground on both sides.
At this time, Xuan Qi was only a dozen zhang away from the river, but he saw Xuan Qi quickly jumping off the horse, tiptoeing, and already rushed to the high ground by the river. The river rushed under Xuan Qi's feet, and it had already rushed into Li Yuan's army behind him. More than 100,000 troops crowded into the river, but there was nowhere to dodge, and they were swept away by the monstrous river. The neighing, screaming, and cries for help rang out in one place.
Countless cavalry began to appear on the high ground on both sides, slowly moving downstream along the river. And Li Gan, the king of Shu, also personally led 50,000 cavalry and appeared next to the river of Jingchuan. Countless soldiers of Li Yuan's army who climbed the high ground could only abandon their weapons and surrender in the face of the encirclement of the Xuanqi army.
By the time the river began to calm down, it was a mess, full of people and horses. Fortunately, Xuan Qi couldn't make up his mind to slaughter his compatriots, and the barrage dam he built was not too high, and the water storage was less. Although the amount of water is not large, the impact of the flowing water still brings great damage, and almost all the soldiers who survived have lost the ability to resist.
Of the 150,000 cavalry, more than 100,000 surrendered to the Xuanqi Army. When Li Yuan's body was found, he saw that the head of the corpse had been knocked out of a large pit, apparently hit by the river and hit the stones in the river valley. Li Yuan's 150,000-strong army was equivalent to the annihilation of the entire army. Looking at Li Yuan's corpse, Xuan Qi was still a little sad, counting it, this is still Xuan Qi's cousin. And Tao Qingping, who heard the news of the annihilation of Li Yuan's entire army, had already arrived at the foot of Liupan Mountain, but he was so frightened that the whole army retreated to Longzhong in a hurry.
Li Chengye, who was far away in the capital, suddenly understood why Helian Yinshan would be willing to give up Hubei and Henan, which he had already occupied, and instead chased after Xuanqi. The pain of losing a son in old age is so heartfelt that Li Chengye began to have the urge to rush out of the capital and chase and kill Xuanqi.
And just when all parties were speculating about Li Chengye's movements, Li Chengye left the capital from the east gate with the remaining 250,000 troops. Li Chengye's army went all the way to the east, crossed the Yellow River, and then went straight to Jizhou along the north of the Yellow River. After Li Chengye fled eastward, Li Chun, the king of Yu, took the opportunity to take Tongguan and recovered the area around Guanzhong.
At this time, the Xuanqi army had already captured Jingzhou, and the 350,000 army crossed Liupan Mountain and rushed straight to Longzhong. Tao Qingping, the defender of Longzhong, only had 80,000 defenders, and knew that with Xuanqi's ability to lead troops, Longzhong would inevitably be lost, so he simply abandoned Longzhong City and went straight to Lanzhou with a large army.
Xuan Qi didn't want the Celestial Empire to rekindle the flames of war, and after taking Longzhong City, he immediately decided to fight to the death with Helian Yinshan on this Loess Plateau. The officers and soldiers of the Celestial Empire in various places also began to assemble towards the Loess Plateau, and the 800,000 army outflanked the 200,000 troops of Helian Yinshan.
The Xuanqi army began to advance eastward, and before the army of Helian Yinshan reached Liupan Mountain, it took the lead to occupy the area of Liupan Mountain. Xuanqi, who only has 150,000 cavalry, will not go head-to-head with Helian Yinshan, and with the advantage of the mountains, he can give full play to the power of the infantry army.
After the Helian Yinshan army entered the Yuanzhou area, countless ravines were in front of them, and in each ravine, there were hidden cavalry of the Celestial Empire that had been ambushed for a long time at any time. These cavalry just kept attacking and harassing the army of Helian Yinshan, shooting a few arrows from a distance, or charging for a while before retreating. The Hun cavalry wanted to pursue, but they were not familiar with the terrain, and they had lost the trace of the Celestial Empire army after three turns and two turns.
And as long as it is night, the Hun army will set up camp, and it will inevitably be disturbed by constant attacks. Or a simple harassment of gongs and drums, or a burst of cavalry, or a few rounds of fire. What gave the Hun cavalry the most headache was the countless trap pits. On this Loess Plateau, it is very easy to dig a horse trap. As long as you fall into the horse pit and are not crushed to death by your own war horse, you will basically break your tendons and fractures.
When the tired and collapsed Xiongnu army reached the city of Yuanju, the casualties caused by the attack of the Celestial Empire cavalry on the way had exceeded 40,000, and a nightmare awaited them.