Yuangai Suwen ordered a halt in the advance and sent scouts back to reconnoitre. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The scout cavalry came back soon and brought back the information of Li Chao behind, "About 30,000 or so, all of them are infantry, and the white robes account for more than half, and they are twenty miles away from us, and they have also stopped." ”

"My lord, kill back."

"Destroy them."

"It's time to teach this guy a lesson." Yuangai Suwen said with a dark face, "Pass the order, turn around, and kill back." He inspected his troops, the 16,000 men and horses withdrawn from the Battle of the River, and the 18,000 men and horses withdrawn from the city of Lulong in Pingzhou, plus the 5,000 men who had been withdrawn from all over the world in the past few days, and he now had 39,000 men.

There are 39,000 cavalry, and Li Chao has less than 30,000 men and horses, and almost all of them are infantry. Why does Li Chao want to fight him?

In the first battle of the river, the combination of the Tang army's firearms and the sharp array did make him suffer a big loss, but he thought about it these days, and this array was not unbreakable.

At the beginning, if he hadn't been careless, he would not have been defeated.

was chased by Li Chao behind his ass every day, and the mud man also had a three-point temper, not to mention him.

Without cavalry, even if Li Chao set up the big array that day again, Yuangai Suwen was confident that he would be able to defeat the Tang army. Li Chao now has no cavalry, fewer soldiers and horses, and he now has more soldiers than Weihe, and at the same time he thinks that he will not make such a mistake now.

Another point, now the Tang cavalry bypassed him and defeated the Goguryeo soldiers under the Yu Pass, which changed the situation. The Tang army controlled Yuguan, and then intercepted it there, Li Chaoyang arrived and blocked him under Yuguan, if the time dragged on, maybe the follow-up Tang army would also arrive, at that time, it would be completely different.

Now he has two options.

The first is to continue to advance, rush to the Linyu Pass, fight with the Tang cavalry, and directly break through the siege. Either that, it is to turn around, take advantage of Li Chao's weakness now, kill back the horse pistol, and defeat Li Chao's main infantry, so that the Tang army will not be able to encircle.

"Li Chao is too arrogant." Yuangai Suwen gritted his teeth and said.

blindly fleeing has made his generals dissatisfied, and even secretly complained about his cowardice. He now needs to defeat Li Chao and then evacuate.

"Yes, even if we want to retreat, we can't run away with our tails between our legs. If we want to defeat the Tang army, it is best to cut Li Chao and leave, so that the Tang people know that we are not easy to mess with. ”

Several generals had fierce expressions in their eyes.

As soon as the Goguryeo army stopped, the scouts immediately returned.

"The Goguryeo people stopped?" Li Chao pondered, and then also stopped the march.

"Do the Goguryeo people want to do it?" Cheng asked silently.

Li Chao looked ahead, "I guess Quangai Suwen also knows that General Wei Chi has entered Linyu Pass, this guy is probably angry, and wants to take advantage of our lack of cavalry to kill a horse pistol." ”

"Didn't Quangai Suwen run fast, why do you want to go back to fight now?"

"That time, this time."

Li Chao could almost guess some of Yuan Gai Suwen's thoughts.

But it's okay, just fight. Yuangai Suwen turned around to fight, then he could hold him back, and when the reinforcements arrived, Yuangai Suwen couldn't run away if he wanted to.

"Bring me the map!"

Li Chao beckoned.

Wang Xuance immediately took out a leather bag and took out a map of Hebei from it. This map is not an ordinary map, but a very accurate and detailed military map, which is extremely secret.

Open the map, it is marked with mountains, rivers, Guancheng towns, etc., at a glance.

Li Chao found the location of Pingzhou, and then marked the location where he was now.

Yuangai Suwen had nearly 40,000 cavalry, but Li Chao had less than 30,000 infantry, and the difference in strength between the two sides was clear at a glance. This is all plains, lacking those suitable for defense of the mountains and river valleys, if you set up a formation on the plains, step against horse, Li Chao knows that he will definitely not win.

The last time I won the battle, it was a special case, after all, first, the new weapons and new formations were unexpected, and secondly, Yuan Gai Suwen was careless about the enemy, and at that time, the Tang army still had an advantage in numbers, as well as cavalry.

Now Yuangai Suwen far surpasses the Tang army in terms of number and elite, and Li Chao still lacks cavalry to protect the formation, and he also lost a lot of soldiers in the last battle.

He had to find a support point, a support point.

This season is not very favorable to Li Chao.

If it was summer, maybe they could find a muddy place to fight, and the cavalry would not be able to run. The terrain here is not good, and the vast plains as far as the eye can see, and even a mountain bag can be found, let alone the dangerous river valleys.

"We've got to find a village."

Li Chao stated his purpose.

There are no mountains, no river valleys, and there is not even a dense point of forest, so it is extremely dangerous to ride on foot, so you must find some support.

"Xiangguo, five miles to the north, there is a Zhuangzi, Zhao Zhuang. That Zhuangzi is quite big, there are usually thousands of households, and the surname of the Zhuangzi is Zhao, almost all of them are people of a big family, and they have been here for many years. This Zhuangzi has Zhuang walls and even several stone pagodas. ”

The scout captain reported to Li Chao.

Li Chao looked at the location he was pointing to, it was very close to here.

The key is that the conditions he said are very much in line with Li Chao's requirements.

A very large Zhuangzi with a wall. And this Zhuangzi actually has a stone tower, this kind of tower is actually the arrow tower, in the war years, to deal with the chaos of soldiers and bandits.

"Didn't this Zhuangzi break through when the Goguryeo people raided Sixiang before?"

"No, the Goguryeo people focused on besieging Yuguan, Lulong and other cities, and then sent thousands of people to loot the four townships, this Zhaozhuang Qingzhuang guarded the village together, and the Goguryeo people fought a few times and didn't fight, so they went to other places."

"Very good, go to Zhaozhuang." Li Chao ordered.

"Go to Zhaozhuang!"

One by one, the orders were laid, and the team turned north and began to trot.

It is not far from Zhaozhuang, only five miles.

The team arrived soon before trotting, and the people of Zhaozhuang saw the smoke and dust, and thought that it was Goguryeo people coming again, so they immediately rang the bell and gong, and greeted loudly.

By the time Li Chao arrived with his troops, Zhao Zhuang was already closed and silent. Only vaguely see the village wall, from time to time someone pokes his head out.

Li Chao looked at this Zhuangzi carefully.

This Zhuangzi is indeed quite good, although it is also on the plain, but the Zhuangzi is very large, and there is a river around the Zhuangzi, which makes it convenient for Zhuangzi to usually use water for laundry, etc., and it also has a defensive effect.

The village wall is about one zhang high, and the stone foundation is rammed.

The gate of the village is completely made of stones.

"Good place." Seeing this Zhuangzi, Li Chao breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, staying in this Zhuangzi, and the 40,000 cavalry of Yuangai Suwen did not have to be afraid.

Gao Kance stepped forward immediately.

"Listen to the people of Zhuangli, we are the officials and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty!"

In fact, at this time, the people in Zhuangzi had already seen clearly that it was not the Goguryeo people, but the officials and soldiers.

"I don't know if the officers and soldiers are passing by, and I miss the distance, please forgive me." On the wall of the village, a man replied loudly, speaking quite literately.

When the people in the village heard that this Tang army was not passing by, but was about to enter the village, they were still a little worried, but after hearing that the person who led the department was Li Chao of Xiangguo, they did not hesitate and opened the door of the village.

The door of the village opened, and the soldiers entered the village.

Li Chao didn't say too much politeness to the people in the village, and met with a few people with high prestige in Zhao Zhuang, and after a few simple conversations, Li Chao began to set up the battle arrangement.

Assign soldiers and horses to guard the village wall, strengthen the village gate, send archers into the stone tower, collect wood and stones, etc., and build some arrow towers behind the village wall.

In Zhuangzi, Li Chao also asked people to drive back the horses, and then defended the main roads in Zhuangli.

Defending the village is equivalent to a city defense battle, the large phalanx is not needed, there is no cavalry, this array is not very useful, so Li Chao directly retreated into Zhuangzi, and wanted to rely on Zhuangzi to fight a positional defensive battle.

After being busy for most of the hour, the entire Zhuangzi has been strengthened a lot.

Li Chao stood on the village wall and looked into the distance, a black line appeared in the east, and the ground began to shake slightly.

Sure enough, the Goguryeo people still came.

Yuangai Suwen rode nearly 40,000 horses, and the row was very open, like a tide, sweeping in.

On one side, the men in Zhao Zhuang were also holding spears and hunting bows, and a few people standing on the wall of Zhuang couldn't help but feel their throats dry when they looked at the black crows in the distance.

Last time they repelled the Goguryeo, but that time they only came with a hundred horses, and they closed the village and held on, and the Goguryeo people could not find a chance to retreat.

But now, it's just the endless Goguryeo people.

"Uncle, can we stay there?"

"Don't worry, with Li Xiang here, he will definitely stay there." Although the old man said this, he didn't have the bottom in his heart.

He turned his head to look at the officers and soldiers next to him, and saw these people standing there, all of them extremely solemn, without saying a word. But there was no fear in their eyes.

Zhaozhuang is a large village, usually with more than 1,000 households.

However, at this time, nearly 30,000 Tang troops were in the village, which was also very crowded.

However, this also has an advantage, that is, the defense is more concentrated.

There are many strong men in the village, and there are nearly 3,000 in total. Li Chao organized these people into reserves, and let them replenish them wherever they were in a hurry.

Outside the village.

The black tide rushed in and stopped two hundred paces outside the village.

The Goguryeo soldiers were numerous, and they directly surrounded Zhuangzi on all sides, surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, and the water could not be drained.

"My lord, these Tang dogs are quick to see the opportunity, and as soon as they saw us turn around, they immediately found such a Zhuangzi and retracted it." One of the generals said angrily, if they had known that the Tang people had sent out all the cavalry, they would have turned back a long time ago.

"What about hiding in the village, such a small village, can't we still attack it?"

Although Zhaozhuang is not small, he is only a farm, not even the smallest county seat. The village wall is quite high, but it is still incomparable with the county seat, because although the village wall is high, it is too thin.

And the one-zhang high wall is actually not high, and it may be quite high compared to other village walls, but one zhang high? His knights stood on their horses and could jump straight on.

"Go cut down some trees, make some ladders, I'm going to break the village today."