Shi Ping said with a bitter face: "Doctor Yuan, although your idea is good, have you thought about it?" If our cavalry does not have a great loss of combat effectiveness of war horses, I am afraid that it will not even be as good as ordinary infantry at that time, if something happens, and you don't even have the ability to resist, you are the chief general of the Eastern Crusade, and there must be no accident, I can't agree. Shi Ping's insistence made Yuan Fang frown, but thinking about it, Shi Ping's words were not unreasonable, between destroying the enemy and ensuring Yuan Fang's safety, Shi Ping was more inclined to the latter.

Suddenly, Yuan Fang's eyes lit up, and he patted his thigh and said: "By the way, didn't you capture a lot of war horses a few days ago, Ling Hu's command is all heavy cavalry, I have seen it, their war horses are all strong and strong, they should be able to carry our heavy infantry, right?" ”

Yuqing was also dazzled, and replied: "The armor of the heavy infantry is heavier than the heavy cavalry, but it is also limited, if it is a heavy cavalry war horse, it should be fine." ”

The battle of Wanmuling was a battlefield cleaned up by Shi Ping's command, Shi Ping said with a wry smile when he heard this: "Yes, we captured a lot of war horses that time, but you don't know, those war horses have reached their limit at that time, and they will be completely abandoned if they don't have a year's cultivation recovery, and some of them are even beyond the limit of bearing, and it is impossible to recover anymore, even if they are used as horse-drawn carriages." ”

Yuan Fang waved his hand to interrupt Shi Ping's talking: "You just say how much more you can barely use." ”

Shi Ping saw that Yuan Fang's tone was resolute, knowing that he had already made up his mind, and said with a painful face: "There are probably less than one thousand and fifteen." ”

Yuan Fang nodded: "Where are they now?" ”

Shi Ping was depressed and pointed behind him: "It's here with us." ”

Yuan Fang was surprised and asked, "Didn't you say they need to be restored?" Why do you still have it? ”

Shi Ping glanced at Yuan Fang and explained: "The recovery of war horses is not just to lie on the bed and sleep like a human, they can't rest, they need to maintain a certain amount of exercise every day, otherwise they will really be scrapped." ”

Yuan Fang nodded suddenly in realization: "Oh, that's it, that's good, wait a minute, you can send them to Tang Jian, and, Yuqing, send the war horses of our Taiji Legion over together, anyway, we were originally infantry, and it's the same with or without horses." ”

Yuqing nodded and said, "Got it, I'll arrange it." So saying, he turned the horse's head and went to deal with the horse's affairs himself.

At this time, most of Gao Shun's troops on the other side of the river had been opened, and the baggage carriage had already gone far away, and only the last infantry phalanx was left, I don't know why, Gao Shun had not left, and like Yuan Fang, he was watching each other from afar. Just as the heavy infantry of the last phalanx set off, Gao Shun rode out and went straight to the wooden bridge, followed by a dozen cavalrymen in light armor, which was nothing, to Yuan Fang's great surprise, those light horsemen were holding bows and arrows in their hands, and the arrows were wrapped in oilcloths that had been lit.

No need to ask Yuan Fang to know what they want to do, it's too late to stop, the other party has already shot arrows, Yuan Fang was shocked, hurriedly turned the horse's head and retreated from the wooden bridge, just at the moment when Yuan Fang and his party left the wooden bridge, the rocket fell on the bridge, and the wooden bridge that had been soaked in fire oil was suddenly ignited, the flames were five or six meters high, and the raging flames carried a scorching wave of air, and Yuan Fang and the others, who were relatively close, had to retreat again.

Across the Tianxing River, the somewhat embarrassed Yuan Fang pointed at Gao Shun on the opposite bank and scolded, Gao Shun couldn't hear what Yuan Fang said, looked at the wooden bridge that was burned by the raging fire, and then looked at the enemy troops on the other bank, and finally his eyes fell on Yuan Fang, smiled contemptuously, and rode away without looking back.

This can be said to be lifting a stone to shoot himself in the foot, Yuan Fang also wants to threaten Gao Shun with destroying the bridge, now it's good, people took the initiative to destroy the wooden bridge, although this can't stop Yuan Fang's cavalry, but at least it can delay Yuan Fang's speed of crossing the river, the same, Gao Shun knows very well that there should be an enemy behind him who can threaten him, otherwise Yuan Fang They would not have blocked themselves from crossing the river with such fanfare, destroying this wooden bridge, it will also cut off the possibility of the other party crossing the river as soon as possible, even if they can follow themselves from the shallows, but there are so many people on the other side, There is definitely a lot of grain and grass needed, and the baggage carriage can't pass through the shallows, so that when the other party finds a way to cross the river, he has already returned to Guangyuan County and is ready to defend the city, and then Yuan Fang's men and horses are not enough.

Gao Shun's idea is very clear and correct, normally speaking, this can definitely delay the progress of the enemy army, but he forgot that his opponent is Yuan Fang, an opponent with different ways of thinking and means.

After scolding for a while, Yuan Fangcai sent someone to put out the fire under Shi Ping's reminder, fortunately there is an inexhaustible water source here, more than 100 cavalry poured water on the bridge at the upwind outlet, and finally extinguished the fire, but the wooden bridge has been unrecognizable, the rough wood has become coke, and the piers exposed to the water are also seriously damaged, and the wooden bridge is no longer passable.

This result is still within Yuan Fang's tolerance, and Shi Ping explained a few words, asking him to leave some people to clean up the broken wooden bridge, leaving only the bridge piers and some bridges that can still be barely used, so as to facilitate the construction of new bridges by the engineering troops, Shi Ping followed Gao Shun along the east bank to continue to intercept, and Yuan Fang, with the Taiji Army and the 1,500 captured heavy horses, waded across the river, and rushed to join Tang Jian.

The water splashed violently, the silt at the bottom of the river was carried up by the horses' hooves, and the originally clear water of the river became turbid, and it took almost 10,000 people a long time to reach the opposite bank, and by this time, Shi Ping and Gao Shun's troops had long since disappeared from the end of sight.

After a while, the Malay report that Tang Jian's large army was about to arrive, and according to Yuan Fang's request, the baggage carriage and part of the accompanying escort troops rushed to the site of the wooden bridge to build a new bridge to cross the river, and the remaining combat troops adjusted their direction to pursue Gao Shun.

Yuan Fang did not leave in a hurry, and waited until the baggage troops arrived and personally instructed the engineers on how to build a new bridge with the iron frame of the platform tower, and then led the Taiji Legion, which had already sorted out their belongings, to the east to chase Tang Jian.

Without the burden of dragging, Tang Jian's speed increased a lot, but it was still far inferior to the cavalry, Yuan Fang caught up with Tang Jian without much effort, and the two armies converged.

Before, Yuan Fang had already sent someone to inform Tang Jian of his decision, Tang Jian was ready, 5,000 heavy infantry and 2,000 field infantry rode around to Gaoshun to intercept, Tang Jian and the Taiji Army that had become infantry accelerated their speed to catch up, and at the same time sent a large number of exploration horses to the east along the river bank to check the topography of the river beach and the possible path to cross the river.

Gao Shun didn't rush to the road, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't, let's put it this way, even if he abandoned his baggage and advanced at full speed now, he didn't have the speed of the pursuers behind him, and once he advanced at full speed, the formation was bound to be unstable, and then the pursuers behind him would have an opportunity.