I saw that in the firelight, a person walked out of the front of the Song army, wearing leather armor, but without a helmet, and holding a long sword in his hand, it was Ling Xiang.

After he and Yang Yan killed Jiankang, they immediately gathered more than 5,000 people and horses brought by Yang Yan and rushed to the military camp of the palace front division by Xuanwu Lake to meet Li Xianzhong.

In fact, Li Xianzhong had already heard some rumors at this time, but his garrison was outside the city, and he couldn't get accurate news, and he didn't know what the specific situation was. He also sent people to inquire about the news in Jiankang City, but all the twelve gates of Jiankang City were closed, and no matter how they shouted, no one answered, and they returned several times in vain. Because there was no edict issued by the imperial court, Li Xianzhong did not dare to easily lead a large army into Jiankang, let alone storm the city gate, so the sky here can only be in a hurry, and there is no way.

Moreover, in the past few days, Li Xianzhong also knew that Li Quan led the army to camp outside Jiankang City, but he also couldn't find out the details of Li Quan's intentions, whether he was ordered to return to Beijing, so he didn't dare to do anything to Li Quan's men, but only ordered the soldiers to be ready and keep ready to be dispatched at any time. and sent people to closely monitor the movements of Li Quan's people and horses, just in case.

Fortunately, this afternoon, Yang Yan and Ling Xiang came to the barracks, and only then did they tell Li Xianzhong about the situation in Jiankang City. Li Xianzhong had always believed in Yang Yan, and knew that he had a close relationship with the emperor, and that there was also an edict brought by Ling Xiang, so he believed in what the two of them said. At the same time, I also regret that I have been hesitating in the past few days, almost causing a big mistake.

And at this moment, the spies sent by Li Xianzhong to monitor Li Quan's people also reported, and Li Quan's men and horses began to act with Yijing, apparently planning to enter Jiankang City.

After hearing this, the three of them immediately made a decision and decided to immediately send troops into Jiankang City to quell the rebels. But Yang Yan knew that now only the three gates of Dinghuai, Sanshan, and Zhengyang were retained in Jiankang City, and the other nine gates were all sealed. Therefore, the men and horses of the front division of the palace can only go around a big circle and enter Jiankang City through the Dinghuai Gate, which will definitely fall behind Li Quan.

Therefore, the three of them had a little discussion, and decided that Yang Yan and Ling Xiang would lead 5,000 infantry troops first, travel lightly, and bring enough ropes to climb into Jiankang City from the city wall of Bei'anmen, so that they could drive Li Quan's men and horses in front of Jiankang City and go to Jiankang City to resist for a while. Li Xianzhong led a large group of men and horses, and still took a detour to Dinghuai Gate into Jiankang to support them. Moreover, Li Xianzhong pulled out 500 Ma Zha knife men from his own department and handed them to Yang Yan and Ling Xiang, and asked them to take them into the city first.

So the three of them immediately set off separately, Yang Yan and Ling Xiang led the 5,000-foot army and set off lightly. The military camp of the front division of the palace is very close to Bei'anmen, and it will be there in a moment. Moreover, the rebels did not leave anyone to defend the city, so the Song army climbed the city wall very smoothly and entered the city of Jiankang.

After entering the city, he happened to meet Zhou Xin's personnel guarding the gates, and only did he know that not only Li Quan had led the army into the city, but also that the rebels were storming the imperial city. Yang Yan and Ling Xiang immediately divided their troops, Yang Yan took a thousand people to rescue the palace first, and Ling Xiang took the remaining four thousand people to Zhengyangmen Street to block Li Quan's men.

When Ling Xiang led the Song army to Zhengyangmen Street, it was just in time for Li Quan's men to arrive. Ling Xiang immediately ordered the heavily armored hemp sword soldiers to lay out a knife formation on the street of Zhengyangmen.

Zhengyangmen Street is the avenue connecting Zhengyangmen and the Chengtianmen of the Imperial Palace, on both sides of the distribution of the three provinces and six departments and the Privy Council's Zhigong Yamen, it is also the widest avenue in Jiankang City, the width can reach more than ten zhang, and fifteen horses can walk side by side.

But as a battlefield, it can still only be considered narrow. Although Ling Xiang's subordinates only had 500 heavily armored and swordsmen, they were still able to lay out a sword formation with a depth of twenty-five columns. The rest of the soldiers were scattered into the streets on both sides of Zhengyangmen Street, and the archers climbed onto the rooftops and occupied the high ground. The arming of the streets was quickly completed.

And the men and horses brought by Li Quan are no better than the rabble rebels in the city, and they are also well-trained and battle-hardened troops. The two sides were separated by more than 150 steps and held each other against each other.

At this time, Ling Xiang stood in front of the sword formation, pointed his sword at Li Quanjun, and said in a deep voice: "Li Quan, the imperial court is not kind to you, why do you want to cooperate with the rebel party and rebel." ”

Li Quan didn't know Ling Xiang, and his subordinates didn't have heavy armor and sword soldiers, but after all, he was a military general of the Great Song Dynasty, and he had seen the drill of the heavy armor and sword formation before, although he knew that this formation was very powerful, but after all, he had not experienced it personally, and now he had nothing to say, so he immediately ordered his subordinates to take five hundred cavalry to attack the sword formation.

**After receiving the order, he immediately led the army to attack, although the five hundred cavalry was not much, but in this narrow street could only be stretched out in a long column, the front row ran half the distance, but the back row had not yet been dispatched.

The horse's hooves trampled on the bluestone paved road, making a deafening sound, and the two sides moved and moved, and the distance became closer and closer. At this time, Ling Xiang jumped onto the roof on one side with the warp, condescending, looking at the overall situation.

Just as the cavalry was about to touch the sword formation, the heavy armor and linen swordsmen in the first and second rows all raised their broadswords diagonally in their hands, and then slashed them together. Suddenly, blood burst out, people roared and neighed, and more than a dozen war horses in the first row of the cavalry fell down at once, almost all of them were cut down to the ground with people and horses, and only three or four of the sword soldiers were washed down, but then there were sword soldiers behind to replenish them.

The wounded soldiers, who had not yet completely lost their breath in a pool of blood, were immediately trampled by the horses that rushed behind, and let out a neighing and lung-splitting scream. Then the sword light rose again, and the blood light appeared in large quantities again, and the heavily armored and hemp knife soldiers continued to raise their knives and machetes, and the sword light reflected the blood light, whether it was a person or a horse, in front of this terrible knife array, they could only be crushed one by one.

The cavalry rushed forward in rows and rows, but one after another fell, and before the blood on the ground had dried, a large amount of new blood was added, and at the same time a large number of corpses of men and horses were added. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the cavalry suffered casualties, and even ** fell under the blade. However, the sword formation did not move at all, and in the entire sword array, only nine sword soldiers were killed. In the front of the knife array, a lot of corpses were accumulated by pushing. Fortunately, the bodies of the Song soldiers in the streets on both sides were pulled away one by one. Only then did the bluestone floor be exposed again, but the original color was so stained with blood that it was impossible to see the original color.

Li Quan couldn't help but gasp, the loss of more than 300 cavalry, for Li Quanjun, it didn't have much impact, but he didn't expect this sword formation to have such a great power, no wonder even the Jin army was very touched by the Song army's heavy armor and hemp knife formation.

But now that there is no way back, Li Quan immediately ordered that all the cavalry should be retreated, and the infantry army was sent into battle instead.

However, this kind of narrow place is the most conducive space for the heavy armor and hemp sword formation, and the snowy blades fall in a flash, taking away a large number of enemy deaths every time. Li Quan's men and horses were like hitting an iron wall, although they rushed desperately again and again, they were all hit to the point of bleeding and countless deaths.

Moreover, the heavy armor and hemp sword formation did not stand still, but slowly advanced, from the beginning of the battle to the present, the fierce battle lasted for nearly half an hour, and the sword formation advanced more than fifty steps. Although the speed of the sword formation is not fast, and it can even be said to be extremely slow, but at this speed, after another hour, it can advance to Li Quan's main formation. And now it is not yet the fourth watch, if the battle is until dawn, it is not impossible to force Li Quanjun back to Zhengyangmen.

At this time, Yang Miaozhen said: "General, it's not okay to fight hard like this!" We can't beat them head-on, so let's attack from the flanks. ”

After all, Li Quan is also a battle-hardened general, and when he was reminded by his wife, he immediately understood, and immediately ordered Shi Gui and Xia Quan to bring 3,000 men and horses each, and called the guide sent by Shi Miyuan to find a way, bypass from the side street, and attack on the side and back of the knife formation.

The Song army had long been on guard against this hand, and the other Song troops had already been in the streets on both sides to protect the flanks of the sword formation, and Ling Xiang crossed back and forth on the roof, observing the movements of the enemy army, and then commanded the Song army to meet the enemy army, so as not to let the enemy easily go around the back of the knife formation. However, in this way, after all, it played a considerable role in restraining the heavy armor hemp knife formation, and it also made the advancement of the knife formation stop at the bottom of the side.

The two sides fought fiercely for more than an hour, and the Song army had few soldiers, so they turned from active to passive, and even the sword formation was forced to retreat, giving up all the distance they had just advanced. However, the Song army is still firmly guarding Zhengyangmen Street, and Li Quan is still far from defeating the Song army on the side and attacking the palace.

And the street has been full of corpses, there are Song army, there are rebels, and there are not only dead horses, resulting in broken limbs, stumps, and cut off heads, and there are countless people, because it is on the road where the two sides pull back and forth, almost completely covered by the corpses, there is no place at all, and the soldiers on both sides can only step on the ** of the dead corpses, running back and forth to fight.

Li Quan couldn't help but be very annoyed in his heart, he couldn't imagine that the situation would turn out like this. At this moment, someone came to report to Li Quan that Li Xianzhong's army entered the city through Dinghuai Gate and defeated Peng Yibin's blockers, and Peng Yibin was also killed on the spot and killed on Zhengyangmen Street.

It turned out that Li Xianzhong led the army into the city from Dinghuai Gate, rushed all the way to the palace, and met Peng Yibin's blocking men and horses on the street outside the drum tower. Li Xianzhong is a veteran of a hundred battles, he has never seen any battlefield, and he and the men and horses he led can almost be said to know the size of the streets of Jiankang well, so he immediately ordered the men and horses to disperse and attack from various streets like Peng Yibin.