Chapter 11 The Sunset of the Long River Section 40 The Second Year of the Yuan Ping of the Great Han Dynasty (204 AD), December.

It's snowing in the West Sea. The snow stretches endlessly, the snowfields are vast, the mountains are like jade, and the ice of the West Sea is covered with jade, shining and dazzling under the reflection of the sun.

The Han army, under the repeated resistance of the Qiang people, advanced slowly, and reached Datong Mountain in early December, more than a hundred miles away from the Yegong Niu River.

At this time, the transportation of grain and grass for the Han army was extremely difficult, but the Xiliang people exerted amazing strength, and hundreds of thousands of people continued to send truckloads of grain, grass and ordnance from Longqi Pass to the front line of the West Sea.

The autumn harvest in October and the armistice on the battlefield of Wudu greatly relieved the imperial court, and the people and grain were available, and the imperial court immediately requisitioned more than 300,000 people in Guanzhong, Hedong and other places at the fastest speed to quickly march westward, and quickly sent the grain, grass and ordnance hoarded in Chencang to Hehuang.

The Qiang people originally wanted to take advantage of this heavy snow and heavy resistance to slow down the advance of the Han army, drag the Han army on the snowfield of the West Sea, and force the Han army to withdraw due to lack of food and grass.

But more than half a month passed, and the Han army not only did not show the slightest sign of withdrawing, but began to cross the Datong Mountain in the northern part of the West Sea.

The heavy snow slowed down the advance of the Han army, and also hindered the assembly of the Qiang people, and many tribes were reluctant to rush to the Tianjun steppe because of fear, under the pretext that the wind and snow were too big and the road was difficult to travel.

Hongri was furious, and while sending people to negotiate peace with the Han people, he told the Qiang tribes that the Han people had killed our homeland, and if everyone could not work together, it would be a disaster of annihilation in the end.

If we want to survive, we must fight bloodily, and we must drive the Han people out of the West Sea. We have no way out, surrender is death, and death in battle is death.

In order to defend the West Sea, we fought to the end. The great general Li Hong rejected the Qiang people's peace proposal, and he cut off the head of the Qiang envoy.

The Han army has no way to retreat, retreating at this time, it is very likely to be pursued and killed by the Qiang people, and the losses are extremely heavy, so they can only continue to attack and kill until the Tianjun grassland.

It's a matter of success or failure. In December, the Han army reached the Yegong River and went up the river to the Tianjun prairie.

Hongri gathered an army of 35,000 and faced it head-on. On the day of the decisive battle, the sky was gray, the north wind was roaring, the snow was falling, and the battlefield was white.

Li Hong put the Yue cavalry battalion and infantry battalion of the Northern Army at the front, Yang Qiu's Xiliang army in the center, and Xiao Tianzi and Jia Xu's Tiger Ben Yulin battalion in the rear.

The chariot cavalry general Lu Yi and the Zhenbei general Yan Rou led the iron cavalry to live on the left and right flanks. Sixty thousand soldiers stood in the wind and snow, quietly waiting for the moment of attack.

The Qiang people lined up with geese, ready to go. The battlefield was very silent, and the silence was suffocating. The battle flags of both sides danced wildly in the wind and snow, like a pack of wolves on the snowfield, letting out a thrilling roar.

Li Hong raised the horsewhip, gently patted the snowflakes on his long hair, and then looked up at the tall Da Xu, slowly squinting his eyes.

The Han battle flag danced majestically in mid-air, like a dragon about to take off, raising its head and roaring.

Xiao Tianzi gasped nervously, and the hot gas from his mouth and nose turned into a cloud of white mist. The long-awaited war is about to begin, and the exciting moment is coming.

Dahan ...... The Great Han is invincible...... Li Xiu turned his head to look at Xiao Tianzi, and a coquettish smile suddenly appeared on his red face,

"Why are you so nervous? It's not the first time I've been on the battlefield. Xiao Tianzi glared at Li Xiu solemnly,

"I want to lead the army to rush and kill, wait a minute, don't follow behind me, and hinder me from killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions." Li Xiu was amused by his serious appearance, hurriedly kicked the horse's belly, and retreated to Yan Ba's side,

"Okay, listen to you, I'll follow behind Brother Yan, and I won't delay you to kill the enemy." Li Hong waved his hand.

"Knock knock knock ......" The war drums of a hundred faces beat at the same time, and the earth was shaken in an instant.

"Woo woo ......" The Qiang people dispatched, and the spirit fox rushed out of the main formation with a large army like an arrow from the string, roaring towards the left flank of the battlefield.

Thousands of horses galloped, and suddenly stirred up snowflakes in the sky, which was magnificent. Koji sneered. The Qiang wanted to attack the left flank of the Han army and tear a passage between the Han army's iron cavalry and foot army in order to break through the Han army's formation, which was a good idea, but the Qiang obviously underestimated the strength of the Han army.

They thought that after the Han army arrived in the West Sea, it was not adaptable, and its combat effectiveness was not as good as before. The koji halberd rose from the ground, bringing up a canopy of snow,

"Order all the departments, fight and retreat, bring in the enemy, bring in the ......" Pang De and Ma Chao each led their men and horses, separated from the left and right, and let the Qiang people kill unimpeded.

As soon as the Qiang people were killed to the end, they collided head-on with Wei Jun and Nie Xiao, who were waiting for the battle, and the two sides fought bloodily. Tens of thousands of horses and horses fought together, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

The horn sounded again, and Tietou rushed out of his own camp with a large army, and once again killed the left flank of the Han army. Koji was a little surprised.

The Qiang people identified the left flank, as if they had to break through from this side. He hurriedly ordered Pang De and Ma Chao to turn around and meet the battle to block the enemy's follow-up attacking army.

Half of the Han army turned around, allowing the Qiang people in the formation to quickly break through the Han cavalry resistance and kill the Xiliang army in the middle.

Yang Qiu, Cheng Yi, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and other Xiliang generals couldn't hold back for a long time, and when they saw the Qiang people roaring, they gave orders again and again, and the overseers attacked wildly.

There was chaos on the battlefield on the left flank. Li Hong frowned slightly, turned to Fu Gan and said: "Command General Yushi, the front army will dismantle the formation, and let Qin Yi and Chen Wei take the Yue cavalry battalion to cut horizontally into the left flank battlefield, block the retreat of the Qiang people, and surround the Qiang people." Fu Gan was taken aback,

"General, the front army is demolition, don't the Qiang people just attack?"

"Tell General Yan Rou to pay attention to protecting the front army, stop the frontal attack of the Qiang people, and wait for the opportunity to set a trap on the battlefield on the right flank, induce the main force of the Qiang people to attack my right flank, and introduce all the Qiang people into the battlefield." Li Hong waved his hand vigorously,

"Quick, order......" Fu Gan was dumbfounded. Now the left flank is under attack from two groups of enemy troops. Pang De and Ma Chao's army was caught in the middle by the enemy, although they blocked the second group of enemy troops, but because they failed to cooperate with Wei Jun and Nie Xiao to surround the first group of enemy troops, the first batch of enemy troops successfully broke through Nie Xiao's resistance and stormed the Xiliang army in the middle of the road.

This move caught the Han army off guard, and the solid formation in the middle began to shake immediately. At this time, if the front army is allowed to dismantle the formation and fully cooperate with Pang De and Ma Chao to surround the second group of attacking enemy troops, then the entire middle lane formation will be gone, and the three battlefields on the left, middle and right will immediately become a mess, and the battle situation will soon get out of control.

This is tantamount to giving up the initiative on the battlefield, and this is also the purpose of the Qiang people's continuous attacks on the left flank of the army, they just want to break through the middle lane, cause chaos on the battlefield, and then launch a fatal blow.

Fu Gan still wanted to dissuade him, but when he saw Li Hong glaring at him murderously, he didn't dare to say any more, so he hurriedly ordered to go.

"Tell General Liyi again, let the Qiang people attack the Xiliang army, let the Xiliang army drag the Qiang people in the middle, and then order Wei Jun and Nie Xiao's troops to outflank the Qiang people from the left and right flanks and surround this Qiang cavalry."

"Order the two generals, Jiang Wu and Lei Zi, to approach the battlefield in the middle and make a gesture to rescue the Xiliang Army." Jiang Ji didn't say a word, and rode away.

The drums of war were like thunder, the flags were flying, the armies on the battlefield were moving rapidly, and the situation of the battle soon changed dramatically.

The front army of the Han army suddenly dismantled, and the two generals Qin Yi and Chen Wei commanded the Yue cavalry battalion of the Northern Army to rush to the left flank battlefield, blocking the retreat of Tietou.

At this moment, Tietou was commanding the Qiang cavalry and the armies of Pang De and Ma Chao to fight to the death, doing his best to help Linghu's army attack the middle of Hanzhong, but he didn't expect the Han army to destroy the battle formation by itself.

In front of the iron head were the iron cavalry of Pang De and Ma Chao, and behind were the infantry armies of Qin Yi and Chen Wei, and he and the five thousand Qiang cavalry quickly fell into the encirclement.

At the same time, the Qiang cavalry of the Spirit Fox became more and more courageous, they tore apart the front of the Xiliang army, and frantically attacked, and the Xiliang army seemed to be unable to resist, and retreated step by step on the snow full of corpses.

But the Qiang ignored Wei Jun and Nie Xiao's iron cavalry, and some of the two armies pestered them to death, and some of them quietly inserted from their left and right flanks, like two sharp war knives, one left and one right into their waist ribs, holding them together.

The rainbow sun roars in the sky. In this part of the West Sea, no one is the opponent of the Qiang people, even the invincible Li Hong fell into a desperate situation of defeat in a short period of time.

The middle of the Han army collapsed, and under the fierce attack of the Qiang people, the left flank of the Han army could not support it, so it had to draw a large army from the middle to support, so that the middle of the Han army, which was the strongest attack and defense, became vulnerable.

Hongri immediately ordered the main force of the army to attack from the front and completely destroy the middle of the Han army. At this time, the tide of the battle changed again.

The iron cavalry on the right flank of the Han army moved, and while some of the iron cavalry had already entered the frontal battlefield in the middle, another part of the main iron cavalry also began to move towards the middle battlefield.

Obviously, the Linghu who was trapped in the battle was not only not surrounded, but played a huge role, posing a mortal threat to the Han army, forcing Li Hong to send reinforcements again to rescue him.

But this time, Li Hong made an extremely inferior mistake, in order to save the battlefield on the left flank, he had already destroyed the solid position in the middle lane, and now he even wanted to self-destruct the protective position of the right flank.

Once the main force of the right wing iron cavalry enters the middle or left flank battlefield, what will he do to protect the safety of the flank of the army?

Li Hong was knocked down by the spell of the West Sea, and he was doomed. Hongri trembled with excitement, raised his knife and shouted,

"Kill, kill, attack the enemy's right flank, kill the leopard......" Hongri rushed to the right flank of the Han army with 20,000 Qiang cavalry, and he even threw all his reserve forces into it.

This is a big battle without suspense, and the defeat of the Han army is imminent. Looking at the Qiang cavalry roaring like the tide in front of him, and looking at the huge snow and mist rising into the sky, Li Hong roared loudly.

"Drumming, drumming...... Fight to the death, fight to the death......" The Qiang cavalry all entered the battlefield, Li Hong's goal was achieved, he wanted to annihilate the Qiang cavalry, he wanted to use 60,000 Han troops to annihilate the Qiang cavalry.

No matter what the cost, as long as these Qiang people can be killed, Xijiang can get at least fifteen years of recuperation.

With these fifteen years, the Han Dynasty had enough strength to forge Western Xinjiang into a strong fortress.

The priest took the strongest Hu cavalry battalion and killed it. Jiang Wu and Lei Zi commanded the army to kill the Qiang cavalry from the flank of the battlefield on the middle road.

Yan Rou, Mustafa rushed forward. Chen Jian led the soldiers of the infantry battalion to follow closely behind the iron cavalry, cut horizontally into the battlefield, and intercepted the retreat of the Qiang people.

Hongri was not afraid, he had 20,000 iron horsemen, he had enough strength, enough time to break through the fragile encirclement of the Han army.

The two sides fell into a battle to the death, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. On the snowfield within a radius of several miles, nearly 100,000 troops on both sides were entangled.

Arrows roared in the wind and snow, stumps and severed arms wept in the air, blood stained the white earth, and the sound of killing terrified the beautiful West Sea.

The Han army fought hard, fighting to the death in three encirclements. The fifteen-thousand-foot cavalry army of Pang De, Ma Chao, and Qin Yi surrounded the five thousand Qiang cavalry of Tietou.

The 20,000-foot cavalry army of Lu Yi, Wei Jun, Nie Xiao and Yang Qiu surrounded Linghu's 10,000 Qiang cavalry. Yan Rou, Jiang Wu, Lei Zi, Sai Feng, Mustafa, and Chen Jian's 25,000 iron cavalry trapped Hongri's 20,000 Qiang cavalry.

In these three battlefields, the key to determining the outcome of this battle is whether Pound's army can completely annihilate the iron-headed Qiang cavalry in the shortest possible time.

"General, use the Tiger Feather Forest Battalion." Xie Wu urged the horse to run to Li Hong's side and shouted,

"Let me go to support General Pound, solve one first, and then you can control the overall situation." Li Hong shook his head,

"We must give hope to the Qiang people, give them hope to turn defeat into victory, so that they will not break through and will always stay on the battlefield to fight. The more the Qiang die, the more likely they are to be wiped out. ”

"But our people ......" Enlightenment gritted his teeth in pain,

"General, please, how many of us can be left if we continue to fight like this?"

"Even if the whole army is wiped out, it will not hesitate." Li Hong's expression was resolute and categorical.

"Order all the departments, at all costs, kill, kill them all......" Pound shouted hoarsely, holding a bloody sword, galloping on his horse, roaring like thunder.

The soldiers of the Han army forgot about life and death and fought bloodily. The Qiang people, under the command of the iron head, struggled to break through. Chen Wei fell, and the enemy's spear pierced his chest.

Before he died, he cut off his opponent's head with a knife, and the shield in his hand smashed the leg of a galloping war horse.

The war horse rushed into the crowd and knocked three Northern Army soldiers alive. Bajin was hit and killed by a war horse, and he was still clutching a bloody head in his hand.

The mute man was so angry and angry that he rushed up and killed the enemy's pawn, picked up the eight-pound corpse and rushed to the rear. He wanted to save his brother's bones and bury his own with his own hands, but he was hit by a dense burst of arrows, and he staggered a few steps and fell to the ground.

The camel held his shield aloft and stood by the corpses of his two brothers, preventing them from being trampled by the enemy's horses.

A group of Qiang riders roared past. The camel was pierced by a spear and fell on his back, and he fell on his shield, which covered the two brothers.

Jump to