"How so? General Lu is too worried, right? Huan Yi shook his head and smiled.

As a capable staff officer under Ding Shao, Huan Yi personally participated in the formulation of a plan against the Shile thieves, and knew very well how high the Jizhou shogunate had high hopes for this battle. Therefore, he vaguely felt that he was offended by Lu Yao's sudden assertion, and although he maintained a polite smile, his words were clearly refuting: "The Hebei bandits originated from the subordinate general of Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, and the intention of the initial army was to expel the forces of the king of the East China Sea and recover Jizhou for the king of Chengdu. After the death of the public teacher, the group of thieves went back and forth to fight, and always circled around the states and counties of Hebei. After Shi Le succeeded Jisang as the leader of the Hebei group of bandits, there were many bandits in the mountains, lakes and marshes of various counties and counties, and there were many bandits with the same breath and corresponding sounds, which were able to compete with the Jizhou army to this day. If he goes to the Central Plains, it will be a move to abandon his foundation. What's more, this time Ding Thorn Shi pretended to be seriously ill, which caused the army of thieves to brave the storm and rush straight to Guangzong, and arrived at the camp of our army. Isn't this what General Lu saw with his own eyes? ”

Huan Yi paused, feeling that his tone was rude, so he bowed his head to Lu Yao and said, "The thieves have been fighting with our army for several months, and they are already exhausted. The only opponent they can count on to defeat is our equally tired army. In fact, if they take the initiative to invite the Yanzhou army to attack, it will be something we can't ask for, and the Yanzhou army will sit back and watch for a long time, and it will be time to fight for a while......"

Lu Yao didn't listen carefully to Huan Yi's rambling words. Perhaps his judgment is as flawed as Huan Yi said, but as a general who actually commands the army, sometimes he just relies on instinctive premonitions. Just like now, Lu Yao had a strong premonition that Shi Le would never fall for the trick so easily, and he would inevitably launch a move that would surprise everyone.

Lu Yao gave a few simple orders, and the knights led by Ma Rui began to prepare armor and weapons. The soldiers' expressions were a little solemn, none of these almost illiterate warriors could speak like Huan Yi, but the vigilance brought about by countless births and deaths made them seem to smell some danger in the air.

Gou Chun said that he defeated the Shile thieves in Liaocheng, but in fact, the account is incomplete, and the major military operations involving tens of thousands of horses are not so simple.

The Yanzhou army stationed in Chiping had been watching the battle situation in Jizhou for nearly two months, and 10 days ago received the news that Ding Shao was seriously ill, and immediately flew to report that he was in Liaoqiu, the Yanzhou administrative office. After Gou Xi received the report, he thought that this was a rare opportunity, so he urgently mobilized boats and ships to load the army to cross the river. Five days ago, the Yanzhou army marched north, mobilizing a total of 22,000 troops, known as 100,000.

These 22,000 people were all the elite who moved to the Central Plains under the leadership of Gou Xi, and they were the basic force that the king of the East China Sea relied on to control the situation. The demon thieves Liu Bogen, the flying leopard Wang Mi, Liu Ling and other robbers and giants gathered tens of thousands of people at their peak, and their reputation was not under Jisang Shile, but they were all defeated by the Yanzhou army one by one, which shows that the Yanzhou soldiers are experienced in combat and well-trained.

The Yanzhou army was commanded by the fierce general Gou Chun, and after crossing the river, it quickly launched an unprecedented onslaught on the Hebei bandits. The leader of the thieves in charge of guarding this direction is Zhixiong. He is a veteran of the "Eighteen Cavalry" under Shi Le, and he has always been a steady soldier and quite prestigious. But after all, the strength of the two sides was too far apart, although he tried his best to block the pace of the Yanzhou army, but he was not Gou Chun's opponent at all. In just three days, the cities in the southwest of the plain country, such as Gaotang, Boping, and Linxian, which were successively captured by the thieves, were lost again. Zhixiong lost his armor and escaped from Gaotang County in embarrassment, gathering his routs along the way and defeating westward.

The soldiers of Yanzhou are worthy of the strong soldiers of the Central Plains, they rushed to kill and slaughter like wolves, leaving no prisoners wherever they passed, more than 1,000 thieves were beheaded on several battlefields, and ten times as many people were also beheaded as they were used to invite merit and reward.

Gou Xi, the assassin of Yanzhou, had already instructed the armies to control the southern counties of Jizhou before the king of the East China Sea designated the next assassin of Jizhou, so as to form a de facto occupation. Gou Chun adhered to his brother's intentions, did not delay in the place, and urged the Yanzhou army to cover up the past. By yesterday, the elite of the former army led by Gou Chun himself caught up with the Zhixiong Department in Liaocheng.

It's really ridiculous to say that the male army is facing several times the number of officers and troops, and he still goes out of the city to challenge without knowing whether he is alive or dead. As a result, as soon as the two armies came into contact, the thieves were once again defeated. The Yanzhou army continued the pursuit, breaking through nine camps in a row on the south bank of the Qing River, and achieved another great victory. At this point, the big tribe of the plain country was under the control of the Yanzhou army, but Gou Chun was not satisfied with this. In his plan, he must cross the Qinghe River as soon as possible and reach the capital of Jizhou Zhishu.

As a general in the Yanzhou army whose status is second only to Gou Xi, the general of Zhengdong, Gou Chun is very aware of the situation his brother is facing, and he knows even more that Gou Xi's goal is not only limited to the plain country.

Due to Gou Xi's invincible record, the Central Plains thieves Liu Bogen, Wang Mi, Liu Ling and others were defeated successively, and the Yan, Henan, Qing, and Xu prefectures that had experienced years of war gradually became stable. But in this process, the Yanzhou assassin himself, who was entangled with a strong military force, became the object of jealousy of the king of the East China Sea. Since last year, Gou Xi has clashed with the king of the East China Sea several times when appointing local officials in Yanzhou. Obviously, His Royal Highness the King of the East China Sea and Yanzhou are no longer as close as they were back then, but have vague intentions to hide their bows.

If it is an ordinary official, there is only one way to retreat in the face of the powerful East China Sea King. But Gou Xi had no intention of backing down, and he did not plan to hand over the military and political power of Yanzhou and go to Luoyang to be a noble court official. In Gou Xi's view, although the king of the East China Sea and himself have a high and low status, they are both courtiers of the Great Jin Dynasty and have no master-slave part. Now that the emperor is in power, he is widely famous, and if the ministers have political disagreements, the emperor can make a decision. But the king of the East China Sea still controls the government, and he intends to manipulate the court, and uses his own shogunate Sima as the assassin of Jizhou, which is how to look at it.

The King of the East China Sea is so domineering, it will be difficult for Yanzhou to fight unless he expands his territory and strength on his own. Now that the thieves have been defeated and almost possess the plains, this is the best place to start.

Gou Chun did not have the slightest intention of the garrison to rest, and he strictly ordered his subordinate armies to move day and night to accelerate to the north. On the vast Hebei Plain, thousands of troops and horses diverged their ways, spanning dozens of miles from east to west. In the daytime, flags cover the sun, gongs and drums are noisy; And at night, thousands of torches swayed, and the sound of orders shook the mountains and rivers.

After all, the physical strength of the soldiers was limited, and after a day and a night of forced marching, the men and horses scattered scattered across the entire plain stopped almost at the same time. Although their commander Gou Chun was still impatient and personally led his subordinates to set out to investigate, the generals who commanded the troops from all walks of life had to choose the location of the camp and urge the soldiers to drag their tired bodies to set up a fortress and bury pots to make food. According to General Oshicho's instructions, the army will set off again in two hours at most, so this period of rest in front of him is even more precious.

The Yanzhou Army at this time was very different from the previous days. The torrential rains in Jizhou in the past few days have turned all roads into muddy mud, and these continuous mud ponds have brought terrible torture to the soldiers during the night march. They slipped and fell so much that they were covered in mud, and their robes and armor were congealed into plates. In order to move smoothly, all kinds of long weapons such as guns and halberds were used as crutches, and as for how much dirt someone ate and knocked a few teeth, it was simply unusual.

Several of the teams sent to the vanguard continued their journey in despair. Some grassroots officers complained that they had not yet met thieves in such a desperate hurry, but they were going to exhaust their own families. And the higher-ranking officers knew that the army was not here to suppress thieves, but just to grab more benefits before the new Jizhou Assassin Shi took office. Since the thieves are vulnerable, the armies can do everything they can without scruples too much.

The army stretched east and west, and Gou Chun's main Chinese army was in the middle between the two flanks. At this time, the officers and men of the Chinese army were almost all paralyzed on the ground, allowing the generals to shout and shout, and they could not afford to struggle for a while.

The Yanzhou army was dominated by foot soldiers and had few cavalry, so a small number of cavalry was armed to the maximum, and almost every cavalry had horse armor and iron armor. These well-studied, but heavy equipment were the guarantee of victory in battle, but when they trudged through the mud at night, they became a tiresome burden. More than 1,000 armored cavalrymen were scattered during last night's march, and only six or seven hundred people followed one after another, and some even lost their horses and had to walk on foot.

Due to the difficulty of traveling at night, Gou Chun's subordinate general Xiahou Lie urged the horse back and forth to supervise the march, but accidentally fell off the horse. Unfortunately, he fell from a thorn in the spot, and the thorn branches cut the inner thigh, cutting the flesh and skin. For an old soldier like Xiahou Lie, this is just a minor injury, but when riding a horse, the injury rubs against the saddle, which is quite painful, but he feels more comfortable walking. So he simply gave up his horse to a subordinate who had fallen last night, and limped forward with a short crutch in his hand.

Xiahou Lie is a descendant of the Xiahou clan of the state of Qian, and his ancestor Xiahou Ru once served as the governor of Cao Wei, Jingzhou and Yuzhou, and later entered the court as a servant. Because Xiahou Xuan, the brother of Xiahou Ru, was involved in the political turmoil at the turn of the Wei and Jin dynasties, many of the sons of this sect were slaughtered, and the rest were exiled to Lelang County. Fortunately, local supervision was lax, and Xiahou Lie fled back to the Central Plains to join his relatives when he became an adult. After several twists and turns, he became the cavalry governor of the Yanzhou army with his bow and horse skills, and commanded a cavalry team of the Chinese army. In recent years, his bravery and command ability have been shown many times, and he often serves as a pioneer in the front, and is regarded as one of the few brave generals in the Yanzhou army.

Xiahou Lie is not only brave and good at fighting, but also very strict in governing the army, so it is rare for the department to maintain a cavalry team that can still maintain its formation. They found an open flat land and set up camp, threw the reins away, and let the horses graze on their own, and each took out the dry bread he had brought with him to eat. Xiahou Lie sighed, and with the support of his subordinates, he slowly sat down leaning on a dead tree.

Not far from him, several soldiers drew water and tried to build a fire to cook the rice millet they carried. Somehow, the fire couldn't be lit. The soldiers were tired and hungry, scolding and clanging the cauldron and complaining.

It's obviously chasing after victory, why do you make it look like you've lost a battle, and everyone is disgraced? Xiahou Lie sighed and shouted to them, "Let's dry the firewood first." The little cubs don't look closely, these are all soaked, how can they catch fire! ”

The soldiers responded, and hurriedly went to find a high slope and spread the firewood to dry.

At this time, the sky in the west was still dark and silent. But looking east, the dark clouds that had previously obscured the sky seemed to show some signs of dispersing. Although the morning sun is still blocked by stratus clouds, it shines through the gaps in the clouds, burning the outlines of the clouds to a warm red color.

Maybe it's going to be a sunny day today, Xia Houlie looked at the sky with some anticipation. Yesterday, I rushed all day and night, but because of the poor road conditions, I didn't actually go a few miles, which is too embarrassing. As soon as the sky clears, the ground will soon dry and harden, and the road will be easy to walk. Everyone work hard, maybe you can sleep well in Qinghe County at night!

But...... For some reason, behind the cascading clouds, there seemed to be a dull sound of thunder tumbling. No way? Is it going to rain? Thinking of the hardships of the march in the rain, the soldiers looked at each other with miserable expressions.

Xiahou Lie put his palm behind his ear, trying to discern where the thunder was coming from. That's right, there was a faint tremor in the air, as if an angry demon god was roaring in the distance, wanting to tear apart the clouds that covered the sky with his arms, and stomp his feet to smash the earth apart!

The tremor grew closer and clearer, and gradually turned into a roar, into a loud roar like a thousand beasts entangled and biting. Xiahou Lie jumped up in horror and looked around. The sky was still dark, there was no rain cloud accumulation, but the edge of the bright clouds was no longer as warm as it had been, and the touch of red was like a blade flashing under the traces of blood, revealing a cold to the bone.

Xiahou Lie grabbed the short sword and waved violently to the subordinates who were scattered and resting.

He tried to scream, but his throat choked on the strain, and he couldn't make any sound. The soldiers were still busy with the business at hand, and in the distance, some of the soldiers watched him jump like a clown, and let out a soft grin.

But the light laugh didn't last long. More and more people felt the roar, and some people were even shocked to find that the soup wok on the fire suddenly vibrate, and the soup in the wok swayed, rippling with obvious ripples. Even...... Even the ground beneath his feet has already sent out terrifying vibrations!

Xiahou Lie thumped his chest hard, and coughed up a mouthful of bloody phlegm.

"Enemy attack!" He shouted.

At this moment, at the end of the plain to the north, in the dark distance shrouded in thick clouds, groups of black shadows were already visible to the naked eye!

It was the cavalry of the Hebei thieves, there was no doubt about it.

They had no flags to show the way, no fixed queues, no golden drums to call for advance and retreat. As far as the eye could see, there were only groups of bare-chested, ghost-like fierce men, wielding all sorts of strange weapons in their hands, letting out heart-pounding roars, and galloping like raging swarms of bees.

They didn't care about the horsepower in the slightest, but just sprinted wildly, and sprinted, surging forward like a tide. Compared with the speed of their horse charge, the movement of the Jizhou army was so slow, and the military masters and team leaders of each unit shouted the whole team one after another, but they could not restrain their subordinates who were in a panic at all.

Before they even had time to restore the most basic organization, the bandits' cavalry had already rushed in front of them. Some particularly brave warriors casually picked up the long lances around them and stepped forward to meet the enemy, but in the face of the roaring and charging cavalry, what role can the efforts of a few people play? Occasionally, a few men stabbed their lances into the belly of the enemy's horses, and the other horsemen rushed through the flanks, and the long knives broke through the air, and with a slight swipe, they immediately took their lives.

The thieves had neither iron nor leather armor, and many carried only the simplest weapons, pure light cavalry. Under normal circumstances, this kind of cavalry could only be used for roaming reconnaissance, and they could not resist the heavy cavalry of the Jin army's armored cavalry, nor could they break through the solid battle formation set up by thousands of foot soldiers. Almost every soldier of the Yanzhou Army had experience in dealing with them, and no one took it seriously.

But at the moment, such light horsemen are in the thousands, tens of thousands. They let out a high-pitched howl happily, and without armor, they used their flesh and blood to carry the swords and axes of the Jin army, urging the war horses to crash into the dense place of the Jin people. On such a battlefield, life and death are instantaneous, and after a wave of impact, the first batch of cavalry fell by nearly half, and they were either killed by the Jin people, or trampled the Jin people to death. The follow-up troops were still fighting into the battlefield, and countless iron hooves trampled the corpses deep into the camp of the Yanzhou army, tearing their crumbling ranks apart.

Most of the Yanzhou army infantry did not have time to line up. They were as helpless as lambs facing wolves before the cavalry of the thieves. The thieves charged and went to and fro, ravaging the chaotic foot soldiers, charging with their horses, slashing and stabbing with their spears, striking everywhere with wooden clubs inlaid with iron teeth, shooting with bows and arrows on all sides, killing people on sight, and the blood spilled into the air, turning into a strong-smelling blood mist that lasted for a long time.

Under such a fierce and completely unexpected offensive, the Chinese army of the Yanzhou Army was like a handful of ice and snow exposed to the scorching sun, quickly melting and disintegrating.

Xiahou Lie finally found his war horse in time. He didn't bother to greet the defeated soldiers, nor did he have time to relieve his comrades who were surrounded by enemy troops, but he swept his horse half a circle, and then rushed south. This was not an attempt to escape, but a decision made after a clear analysis of the situation on the battlefield based on the experience of a long period of fighting: at this time, the whole army was completely disorganized, there was no room for counterattack, and it was foolish to try to invite the enemy head-on with its own bravery. It is necessary to retreat, and after exiting a considerable distance, it will be possible to regroup!

As he swept across the battlefield, many of his subordinates saw him and immediately abandoned their opponents and joined him. The experience of fighting side by side for a long time made every subordinate full of trust in him, one, ten, hundred, hundred, the only cavalry that could maintain the formation of the cavalry team gathered in the blink of an eye, soared through the enemy line like a cloud, and retreated backwards around a bend.

Four enemy horsemen rode fast and stole from two loaves of bread. Before Xiahou Lie could see his opponent's figure clearly, four iron lances had already stabbed at him like poisonous snakes.

This is the iron lance that the Yanzhou army cavalry is accustomed to equipping, and it is very well made. Apparently, the thieves killed the Yanzhou cavalry, and then seized the weapons of the dead and went into battle.

Xiahou Lie's heart suddenly gave birth to a violent anger, he roared, and danced to meet him.

******

Do you think it's better to have such long chapters, or is it better to update the original method of updating short chapters every day?