. "It turned out that Yijing chased to the edge of the Xun River, and it seems that the Song army is not really defeated, but retreating to both sides." At this time, Zhao Cao began to have some doubts in his heart, and immediately ordered, "Stop the pursuit." ”

But although the soldiers in front stopped, the soldiers behind didn't know what was going on, and continued to move forward, and suddenly found that the people in front of them stopped, and they all subconsciously reached out to push, and the soldiers in front of them were pushed forward without their own bodies, and some soldiers were pushed into the water. In the midst of this pushing, pushing and shoving, the space of the Manichaean army was suddenly compressed a lot.

At this moment, countless Song troops suddenly appeared behind the embankment on the opposite side of the Xun River, all of them archers, lined up on the riverside, firing bows and arrows at the Manichaean army here.

The surface of the Xunjiang River was not wide, only fifty or sixty paces, and the Manichaean soldiers who had stepped into the Xunjiang River were within the range of their bows and arrows, and many of them were shot down at once. Soldiers with shields raised their shields to block arrows, while soldiers without shields instinctively retreated. But the soldiers in the back couldn't see what was happening in front of them clearly, and they were still advancing, and the edge of the Xunjiang River was suddenly huddled.

At the same time, the cavalry of the Song army, which had completed Helong with scriptures behind the Manichaean army, also launched a fierce attack on the back of the Manichaean army. At this time, the Manichaean army was completely disorganized, some continued to follow the people in front of them, and some returned to resist the Song army behind them.

And it was only at this time that the cavalry of the Song army had the opportunity to fully exert their full strength. Hundreds of cavalry lined up in rows, spears pointing horizontally forward, this formation was enough to make people feel frightened. Pushing forward is like a huge grinding disc running over, and everything that stands in the way is unceremoniously crushed.

Under this tremendous pressure, the outermost Manichaean army also had to shrink to the middle, so that it cannot be said that the soldiers of the Manichaean army were greedy for life and afraid of death, but if they were in the crowd, no personal strength could stop the surging flow of people, and only by retreating along the flow of people could they ensure that they would not be squeezed down and trampled to death.

But it didn't take long for the Manichaean soldiers near the river to suddenly find that they had no way out, and there were still tens of thousands of Manichaean soldiers on the periphery who continued to crowd inward. At this time, crowding, panic and trampling inevitably spread among the Manichaean army. At this time, the infantry of the Song army, supported by cavalry, slowly but irreversibly completed the encirclement of the Manichaean army, which was more than its own.

In fact, although it was a back-to-back formation, from the very beginning of the arrangement, Yang Yan never thought of inspiring the soldiers' determination to fight to the death and fight hard with the Manichaean army. Because if you kill 10,000 enemies and injure yourself 8,000, even if you win hard, it will be a miserable victory, and the gains outweigh the losses. Moreover, he knew all too well how terrible the fighting power of the Manichaean soldiers, once aroused, was terrifying.

Inspired by the battle of Changjie when he was defending Guangzhou last year, Yang Yan came up with this method. Last year, relying on a narrow long street, the Manichaean army defeated the Guangzhou garrison, which was more than 10 times larger than itself, with 5 or 600 troops. Although there is no long street here, Yang Yan can find a way to create an environment like a long street through the change of formation, so as to besiege the Manichaean army, which is twice as large as himself.

At the beginning, the Song army's middle lane was to attract the main force of the Manichaean army to concentrate on the middle lane, and step by step into the trap laid by itself. The Song army's strongest cavalry was distributed on both wings, which was to use the strong impact of the cavalry to squeeze the Manichaean army to the middle, and then form a joint dragon on the two wings to complete the encirclement of the Manichaean army.

The implementation of this bold, wonderful, and brilliant large-scale encirclement battle plan requires not only the extremely strong quality of the soldiers and the ability to coordinate and cooperate with each other, but also the commanders of all armies to have a very high command ability, and still more the commanders of the whole army need to have a clear mind and keen observation and judgment.

At this time, the Song army quickly adjusted the formation of the encirclement, and the infantry army replaced the cavalry army to become the main force encircling the Manichaean army, and a huge tower shield was passed into the encirclement, erected a circle of shield walls, through the gap between the shields, the spears stretched forward like a dense forest, covering the soldiers holding the tower shields, and behind the tower shields and pikemen were school swordsmen, as soon as the Manichaean army broke through the shield wall and the gun forest, they would block it.

At this time, on the outermost part, the cavalry stood on horseback one by one, condescendingly, shooting arrows at the Manichaean army surrounded by the circle. Since the Manichaean army was so dense that there was no need to aim at all, almost every arrow was able to hit the target. Moreover, the shield wall and gun forest of the Song army were still advancing inward, and driven by the survival instinct, the Manichaean army, which was surrounded by groups, had no choice but to continue to retreat to the center until there was no way back. In some crowded places, it is difficult to even lift your arms. And the soldiers on the side of the Xun River were all squeezed into the water, and the most unlucky at this time were the soldiers who accidentally fell to the ground, and each of them had to be stepped on by four or five people at the same time.

Although the Manichaean army had been surrounded by the Song army, fortunately, the banner of the main general had not fallen, so Zhao Cao was able to struggle to separate the crowd and find Lai Wenzheng under the banner. And Chen Dong, Li Jin, Shan Huaigong, Wen Fu and several other flag envoys also gathered over and discussed together.

Zhao Cao said: "Mr. Lai, we are surrounded by the Song army, what should we do next?" ”

"What's next?" Lai Wenzheng smiled bitterly, the war has developed to this point, and he also hopes that someone can tell him the answer to this question, but unfortunately these people are waiting for his answer now. "So far, there is no way, we can only inspire the whole army, fight to the death, we must break through the encirclement of the Song army, and kill it."

Zhao Cao nodded, he understood what Lai Wenzheng meant. Separated the crowd, came to the outermost layer, and shouted: "Brothers, fight with Song Jun." ”

Saying that, he waved the crescent cane, and hit a tower shield hard, and when he heard the sound of "Gecha", the tower shield was split into several pieces, and the Song army holding the tower shield couldn't stand the huge impact, and immediately spurted blood from his mouth and died. Zhao Caojing shook his head and said loudly: "Burn my remnants, the flames are blazing, what is the joy of life, and why is it bitter to die?" For the sake of good and evil, but for the sake of light, joy and sorrow, all to dust. ”

Immediately, there were people together, and then the voices of the chant together became more and more and louder, and finally almost the whole army followed along and chanted loudly: "Burn my body, the holy fire is blazing, what is the joy of life, and what is the pain of death?" For the sake of good and evil, but for the sake of light, joy and sorrow, all to dust. The sound resounded throughout the battlefield.

Zhao Cao opened the crescent cane, smashed three more tower shields in a row, and broke through a gap in the shield wall, and under his leadership, the soldiers of the Manichaean army fought back in a powerful way that was unbelievable. Chanting the scriptures seemed to inject great strength into the Manichaean army, and they fought desperately against the Song army that surrounded them with an irrational attitude, striking the tower shield with their flesh and blood, and holding the spear with their bodies, and death seemed to them without fear.

After a while, under the leadership of Zhao Cao, coupled with the help of Chen Dong, Li Jin, Shan Huaigong, Wen Fu and other masters, the Manichaean army overthrew more than a dozen tower shields at once. However, the encirclement of the Song army also had several layers, and it could not be rushed out for a while.

Zhao Cao was just about to pick up the iron rod and hit the other tower shield, but he felt a fierce wind coming towards him, so he knew that it was not good, so he hurriedly held the staff with both hands and parried horizontally.

It was Yang Yan who attacked Zhao Cao, he was commanding the whole army to fight, seeing that Zhao Cao was so powerful, he was afraid that he would really break through a gap and break through, so he didn't care that he was the commander of the first army, and set aside the "Wind Forest Volcano" to jump up from Hai Dongqing's back and hit Zhao Cao.

With a "dang" sound, the swords and sticks struck each other, making a loud sound. But Zhao Cao's martial arts were not as good as Yang Yan's, and he had already killed most of the day just now, how could he compare to Yang Yan's recuperating knife. The whole body was shocked, and he couldn't help but take a few steps back, and hit several people in a row. As soon as his heart was hot, a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth. For a while, he could not play again.

Immediately afterwards, Ling Xiang also arrived, and with a wave of his long sword, he sprinkled ten thousand sword rays, resisting Chen Dong, Li Jin, Shan Huaigong, Wen Fu and the other four. And after Yang Yan repelled Zhao Cao, he waved the "Wind Forest Volcano" to help Ling Xiang, Chen Dong, Li Jin, Shan Huaigong, and Wen Fu knew that they couldn't defeat the two of them, so they immediately retreated to the Manichaean army. With the help of the two of them, the Song army suddenly stabilized its position again, re-erected the tower shield, and tightly surrounded the Manichaean army.

At this time, although the Manichaean army was not afraid of the impact of death on the Song army, Bi Jing could now only engage the Song army with a few hundred people in the outermost area, and the other Manichaean troops were all crowded inside, and they could not use their strength. However, the Song army calmly took turns to fight, and there were arrows like raindrops on the periphery, which went over the heads of the attackers and shot at the Manichaean army, which was powerless. The landing point of each arrow was splattered with blood, and it was terrible to see.

The Manichaean army, in the innermost layer and squeezed into the river, had no choice but to let out a desperate howl of despair, waiting for an arrow to pierce their heads, or the mowing of the grass to finally take their turn.