Under his leadership, the other Song troops all took the lead bravely, and for a while, swords and swords, gold and iron struck, swords and spears pierced, blood gushed out, and people's screams resounded throughout the battlefield.

Although the Manichaean army was dozens of times larger than the Song army, it had come from a long distance and was already exhausted, but now it was unable to attack the city, and its morale was lost. The weakness of the lack of formal military training was also exposed at this time. Even if there was a firm belief in it, it was useless, and the feeling of defeat spread rapidly on the battlefield, and the army retreated like a tide.

Although Zhong Zhenxian was a hundred unwilling in his heart, the battlefield at this time was no longer under his control. No one listened to his command anymore, and the guards around him could not contain it, and they were scattered by the defeated army and retreated. Chen Dong and Xu Wu saw that the situation was not good, and they didn't care whether Zhong Zhenxian was willing to compete or not, so they held him hostage and retreated.

However, Ling Xiang also kept in mind what Yang Yan said about not falling in love with the war, and after rushing and killing for a while, he saw that the Manichaean army had retreated, so he also stopped chasing and retreated to the city.

When Ling Xiang led the Song army back to the city, he was greeted with enthusiastic cheers. Yang Yan ordered someone to check the results of the battle. In this battle, the Manichaean army lost more than 3,500 men, and most of the wooden ladders used to attack the city were destroyed. And the number of Song Jun and the disciples of the Huang family who died in the battle was less than a hundred, such a brilliant result, even Yang Yan did not expect in advance.

Yang Yan said to the heads of the other four families: "You all saw it just now, although the number of the Manichaean army is behind, it is not terrifying. As long as we unite and work together to resist it, we will definitely be able to defend Hengshan. It's up to you where you go from here. ”

The heads of the four families were silent for a while, and Zhou Wanpeng said first: "Lord Yang, I have decided, our Zhou family is willing to stay and guard Hengshan, and everything will be at the disposal of the adults, and fight to the death with the Manichaeism." He had just seen with his own eyes how Yang Yan used his troops, guarding Hengshan, defeating the fierce Manichaean army, and he had great confidence in Yang Yan. is finally the same, as long as Yang Yan is here, he will definitely be able to hold Hengshan. Once the Manichaean army is defeated, the Huang family's prestige among the Gu clan will definitely increase, and it is inevitable that it will not recover in the short term. Instead of this, the Zhou family might as well participate in the battle to defend Hengshan, and when the time comes, they can also share in the glory and prevent the Huang family from being beautiful.

Zhou Wanpeng's statement, the heads of the other three families also had similar ideas as him, and they all successively expressed their willingness to obey Yang Yan's dispatch and work together to defend Hengshan.

Returning to the camp that had not yet been fully set up, Zhong Zhenxian was furious and beat more than a dozen soldiers who had taken the lead in escaping in a row. Then he immediately gathered his men and horses again and went to attack Hengshan Fortress overnight.

Chen Dong and Xu Wu persuaded each other hard, saying that firstly, the army had just arrived, and the soldiers also needed to rest, and secondly, most of the wooden ladders used for the siege were also damaged. Someone should be sent to gather another batch of wooden ladders from Guizhou. It's easy to say, and it's hard to speak. Bi Jing and the two are also the identity of the Five Elements Banner Envoys, and their status in the sect is not low, and Zhong Zhenxian also had to give them a few faces, so the general manager persuaded Zhong Zhenxian.

After hastily eating dinner, Zhong Zhen first took a stomach full of anger, handed over the endgame to Chen Dong and Xu Wu to pick it up, and went back to the tent to rest by himself. After a day's journey and another battle, the Manichaean soldiers were exhausted by this time, and after eating, many of them fell asleep on the ground. When Xu Wu and Chen Dong met, they had no choice but to let the soldiers squeeze in the tent after setting up, deal with the past tonight, and continue to complete the unfinished camp tomorrow.

The soldiers, who had been tired all day, were eager to rest early, and as soon as they heard Xu Wu and Chen Dong's orders, they immediately rushed into the tent to occupy a place to sleep. The native soldiers, who really couldn't squeeze into the tent, had to wrap a piece of felt in the open air to deal with it. At this time, although it is already November, the climate in the south is warm, and it is not cold. After a while, the whole camp was full of whispers and snoring.

I don't know how long it took, but many soldiers were suddenly awakened by a shout of killing. When they opened their sleepy eyes, they saw a sea of fire. The entire camp was full of firelight, and in the firelight, countless Song army figures were reflected, and the broadswords and spears were extremely dazzling under the light of the fire, and countless Manichaean soldiers died in a daze in their dreams.

In fact, it was a big mistake for the Manichaean army to camp too close to the city. Because in this way, the defenders of the city were condescending and could see clearly the situation in the enemy camp. Therefore, after Yang Yan saw clearly that the Manichaean camp had few anti-leakage measures in the city, he immediately made a decision and made arrangements to rob the camp at night.

So after the second watch, Yang Yan and Ling Xiang, Huang Mingxia, Huang Ye, Huang Qi, Huang Zhengping, Zhou Wanpeng, Ji Chengda, Nong Qingquan, Wei Huang and others led 500 people, taking advantage of the darkness, effortlessly touched the front of the Manichaean camp, 500 soldiers set fire together, and then each raised his weapon and killed into the camp.

The Manichaean army was defenseless, and the entire camp immediately became in chaos, some people were buried in the fire before they could get drunk, and some of the soldiers who were awakened were also disheveled, and most of them did not even have weapons, so they could not resist the Song army that entered the camp. The entire battalion became a battlefield for the Song army. Broadswords slammed into their heads, spears pierced, and soldiers on fire rolled on the ground wailing. In the chaos, many people trampled on each other, killing and injuring countless people.

In fact, at this time, the number of Manichaean troops was still more than 16,000, and if the generals leading the army took the right measures, they could completely stabilize their positions and defeat the Song army. It's a pity that even Zhong Zhenxian, who was bent on capturing Hengshan on the next day, had no intention of fighting any more at this time, and under the protection of Xu Wu and Chen Tong, he fought his way out of the bloody road and escaped from the camp that had become a sea of fire.

And the remaining soldiers had no intention of fighting, and fled from the hellish camp one after another, running as far as they could. All the supplies, weapons, baggage, and food were thrown away.

This battle killed three shifts. The Song army pursued and killed for more than ten miles in one go, and only turned back when the sky was bright, and at this time the fire in the Manichaean camp had not yet been extinguished. Yang Yan ordered people to extinguish the fire, and on the other hand, he sent a letter to Dong Yuan in the city, telling him to immediately organize the people to go out of the city to clean up the battlefield, and move all the materials, weapons, baggage, and food discarded by the Manichaean army into the Hengshan Fortress.

Zhong Zhen ran out of more than forty miles in one breath before he stopped his feet. There are only a few hundred people around, and there are many people who are still barefoot, including Zhong Zhenxian, Chen Dong, and Xu Wu, all of whom are embarrassed.

It had been fighting for the afternoon before the remnants of the remaining Manichaean army, who had fled in all directions, came over one after another and gathered together. Chen Dong and Xu Wu sent people outside to recruit other remnants of the defeated army, and by the evening, they had finally gathered more than 12,000 people. There are a lot of people concentrated, but the materials, weapons, baggage, and food are all lost, and many people are empty-handed and unclothed.

Zhong Zhenxian looked at this group of remnants of the defeated generals who were different from what was set up by Huazi, and felt regret and hatred in his heart, thinking that he was still leading a neat army of 20,000 yesterday, and he looked high-spirited, and he couldn't imagine that he would be killed by Yang Yan overnight and lose his armor, and he couldn't help but feel sad and ashamed when he fled in embarrassment. After discussing with Xu Wu and Chen Tong, there was no other way to think about it now, so he had to bring the remnants to Dezhou first, and then send someone to report that he had arrived in Yongzhou City, Zhong Zixuan, and asked him to quickly lead the army to attack Hengshan again.

After Zhong Ziyu received the battle report, he was also taken aback. He originally thought that since the Manichaean uprising, the attack on the capital and the state had been very smooth, and it would not take much effort to take a small Hengshan Mountain, so he was relieved to let Zhong Zhenxian lead 20,000 horses to attack Hengshan first. But he never thought that he would be defeated by Yang Yan in just one night, and he lost seven or eight thousand soldiers. Although the Manichaean army also fought a defeat in the attack on Wuzhou, it was after all against the regular Sanya forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty at that time, and in the end, it still fought its way out of the siege. I never expected that it would be defeated so badly in Hengshan, and if it goes on like this, wouldn't the Manichaean army have the blessing of the ancestors and win a hundred battles?

In fact, Zhong Ziyu sent Zhong Zhen first as an outpost, and half of the reason why he attacked Hengshan first was that he was forced to do so. His original plan was to mobilize 100,000 troops to occupy the entire Yongzhou region in one fell swoop, but although there were many Manichaean uprisings in the past, they were all improvised and loosely organized, and there had never been such a large-scale organized and planned military action. As a result, more than 70,000 people were mobilized, and Zhong Ziyu knew that he had encountered a lot of troubles, and the difficulty of the organization, scheduling, stationing, and operation of the army was beyond his imagination.

In addition, in the past, there were few formal troops, and most of the equipment and equipment were provided by the believers, and when a state city was defeated, the government treasury was directly opened and materials were used at will, so a complete tax system has not been established. However, as the Manichaeans occupied more and more places, the number of formal armies became larger and larger, and the supplies, weapons, baggage, and food began to be stretched thin. As a result, the 100,000 army has not yet been mobilized, the materials and weapons are far from enough, and the food can only be supported for more than a month, how can all this not make Zhong Zi have a headache.