Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 168: Bloody Battle at Weishui

"Sorry..."

Wei River Valley, between battlefields.

The horses panted loudly and the soldiers in both armies groaned continuously.

After the two battles, both sides turned their horses around and lined up in the field.

On the battlefield where the battle just took place, many soldiers and horses were lying in all directions. Some were still alive, while others had already turned into rotten meat. Their identities could only be identified by the armor on their bodies.

On horseback, Liu Jilong swung his spear in a pattern, splashing blood from the spear blade, and panted slightly.

He glanced at his own army formation and saw that it had shrunk, but on the battlefield right in front of him lay many of his own soldiers in bright armor.

"Uuuuuu——"

The horn sounded again, and the living had no energy to grieve, so they could only ride their horses to fight back.

"drive!"

Shaking the reins, more than 600 elite cavalrymen from Longxi launched another charge.

Facing them, Shang Yanxin and the other two, who had calmed down after two confrontations, also showed complex expressions of fear, anger, etc. on their faces.

When the two armies clashed, the number of corpses left on the battlefield from their side was far greater than that of the Longxi army.

If they continue fighting like this, all of their elite cavalry will be wiped out.

Thinking of this, Lu Ruyue turned his horse around first and said, "Liu Jilong, you pig-dog, I'll let you go today!"

"Pass on my military order, fight and retreat at the same time, and keep your formation steady. Think about your families who are heading to Xiangwu!"

Lu Ruyue was very clear about the military discipline of the foreign soldiers. If the retreat was not arranged properly, it would easily lead to defeat. This was the lesson they learned from the two failed battles in Linzhou and Liu Jilian.

Because of this, Lu Ruyue moved the families of the soldiers who had evacuated to Xiangwu to let them know what the consequences would be if they deserted the battlefield.

Their families would be taken as slaves and they would be torn apart.

With just a few words, he managed to stabilize the Linwei elite cavalry.

They changed to short bows and retreated towards Xiangwu while fighting, while Liu Jilian led his troops in pursuit.

Arrows flew across the two armies, occasionally knocking over one or two horses, or causing one or two elite cavalrymen from Longxi to fall and fall behind.

Similarly, many of Linwei's elite cavalry fell behind, all thanks to the powerful bow in Liu Jilian's hand.

He wrapped the reins around his left wrist, drew the strong bow while galloping, and kept drawing the bow and drawing arrows with his right hand.

In an instant, more than a dozen people fell off their horses and were trampled and hit to death by the elite cavalry from Longxi who were chasing them.

With a "bang", the arrow shaft broke and the arrowhead was deeply embedded in the armor.

The elite cavalry of Linwei, who were running for their lives a second ago, were now lying on the back of their horses, and were thrown to the ground after only a few steps.

The elite cavalry of Linwei around were horrified when they saw this and urged their horses to flee.

Liu Jilong seemed tireless, constantly drawing his bow and drawing arrows, and each arrow could kill or shoot down a foreign cavalryman.

The two sides had already run seven or eight miles away as one was chasing the other, and the families and herds of foreign soldiers who had escaped before were right in front of them.

"How far is it to Xiangwu?!"

Lu Ruyue shouted, and a guard quickly responded: "At least twelve or thirteen miles!"

"You bastard!" Lu Ruyue was so angry that she tightly grasped the reins of the horse and said anxiously to Shang Yanxin beside her:
"Liu Jilong is catching up soon. The river crossing is two or three miles ahead."

"Now we have no choice but to drive the herds and abandon the grain carts to block the ferry, otherwise we will not be able to escape!"

"I'll do it!" Shang Yan felt very sad, but he also knew that staying alive was the most important thing.

As long as they save their lives and soldiers, they will be able to regain enough livestock and food sooner or later.

With this in mind, Shang Yanxin urged his troops to move forward and sent people to tell the families at the front to block the north bank of the ferry with the herds and baggage carts.

Soon, the Wei River ahead suddenly became winding, and the north bank of the Wei River began to gradually narrow.

The floating bridge appeared before their eyes. Lu Ruyue and the others reined in their horses and said, "Let the old, weak, women and children cross the river first, and the elite cavalry will line up!"

In order to get their families across the river, the Linwei elite cavalry showed courage at this moment.

Tens of thousands of families and slaves abandoned everything and crossed the river, regardless of the shaking pontoon bridge.

The Wei River, which is more than 40 zhang wide, can only be crossed by a floating bridge that is less than ten zhang wide.

With tens of thousands of people rushing to cross the river, the endurance of the floating bridge continued to decline.

But now no one cares whether the floating bridge can bear the weight. They just want to cross the river and escape, while the Linwei elite cavalry only want to protect their families as they cross the river.

Liu Jilong, who was chasing after them, had an even purer idea. He just wanted to defeat and capture these more than a thousand elite cavalrymen of Linwei!
"Uuuuuu——"

The damn horn sounded again, and the elite cavalry of Longxi switched to long weapons and launched a charge with guns.

Lu Yuyue and Zhe Buhui led their elite cavalry to meet the enemy, while Shang Yanxin organized his men to leave the baggage carts and herds on the north bank, forming a semicircular formation similar to the Queyue formation, leaving only a gap the length of two carriages for Lu Yuyue and his men to retreat.

"Think about your families behind you. If you don't want them to drown, swing your weapons... and kill!!"

Lu Ruyue inspired all the elite cavalry of Linwei, and their morale was also boosted at this moment.

Faced with the charge of the elite cavalry from Longxi, they resolutely chose to meet them.

The silver and brown elite cavalry collided again, and countless people were thrown off their horses.

"Bam—"

"die!"

Liu Jilong raised his spear and knocked away two foreign cavalrymen who tried to charge at him, then rushed into the formation on horseback and went straight to the large banners of Lu Ruyue and Zhe Buhui.

Facing Liu Jilong, the two were obviously not as experienced as Shang Yanxin.

They placed the big banner at their sides, like a beacon in the dark night, guiding Liu Jilian.

"Follow the governor and kill!"

Shang Duoluo screamed at the top of his lungs, his knuckles burst countless times and much blood flowed out.

Under his call, the elite cavalry of Longxi, like a mountain moving at high speed, pushed away and defeated the elite cavalry of Linwei who tried to break through them.

"Liu Jilong!!"

Lu Ruyue's voice was full of fear. Zhe Buhui looked sideways when he heard the voice, only to see Liu Jilian leading the elite cavalry of Longxi to break through the elite cavalry of Linwei and rush towards the two of them.

Zhe Buhui turned his horse around and ran away, and Lu Ruyue did the same.

They had forgotten the words that had previously motivated the Linwei elite cavalry, and they only knew that if they didn't run away, they would die!

A small number of Linwei elite cavalry saw them running away and followed them, but more of them had already rushed behind the Longxi elite cavalry, trying to turn their horses around and charge again.

But when they saw their own flag getting farther and farther away, they immediately realized that they had been abandoned.

The courage that had been built up with great difficulty was destroyed by Liu Jilong, and everyone fled to the ferry regardless of their position.

"You pig-dog bastard! Slave! Slave!"

At the gap in the chariot formation, Shang Yanxin watched Lu Ruyue and Zhe Buhui desert the battlefield and was so angry that he started cursing.

"Qiliben, what do we do now?!"

General Lin Ruzhen looked at the elite cavalry from Linwei and Longxi who were entangled in each other and handed the decision-making power to Shang Yanxin.

"When the big banner rushes over, it will block the carriage. I can't care about so much!"

Shang Yanxin looked at the more than 300 elite cavalrymen beside him with a fierce look.

"But half of the people in the ferry haven't evacuated yet. If we leave now, what will happen to them?"

Lin Ruzhen had a look of surprise on her face and looked towards the congested ferry.

"Tell someone to push them away. I don't care whether they are dead or alive. I just want to stay alive!!"

Shang Yanxin shouted, and Lu Ruyue and the others rushed into the convoy after a dozen breaths.

"Block it!!"

Shang Yanxin was screaming at the top of his lungs. Seeing this, General Lin Ruzhen had no choice but to take the lead in pushing the baggage cart, trying to block the only remaining gap.

Seeing that their escape route was about to be blocked, all the elite cavalry of Linwei were horrified.

They waved their whips madly, and Liu Jilong who was in the pursuit formation also saw this scene.

He shook the reins, urging his horse to charge.

In an instant, countless elite cavalrymen crashed into the gap that had been blocked, and countless people and horses fell to the ground.

“It’s blocked!”

Shang Yanxin breathed a sigh of relief, but saw a black shadow leaping up from outside.

Liu Jilong leapt into the chariot formation on his horse, and as soon as he landed, he thrust left and right, knocking down several armored soldiers, and headed straight for Shang Yanxin.

Shang Yanxin was so frightened that he could not move. In the end, Lin Ruzhen knocked him down, and he avoided Liu Jilong's fatal blow.

Even so, his left arm was still injured and half of his body was covered in blood.

Regardless of his embarrassment, Shang Yanxin immediately drew out the long sword from his waist, pointed at Liu Jilong who turned his horse around and said: "Kill him! Kill Liu Jilong and we can turn defeat into victory!"

For a moment, hundreds of armored soldiers who had fled into the chariot formation turned their eyes to Liu Jilong, while Shang Yanxin and his men had already dismounted and moved the baggage carts away.

"Qiliben, retreat quickly!"

Lin Ruzhen knew very well what the consequences would be if the chariot formation was broken, so he quickly dragged Shang Yanxin and fled towards the ferry.

"Kill him! Kill him and I'll reward him with millions of dollars!!"

Shang Yanxin had gone mad and didn't even think about how he would get the millions of copper coins when he had even abandoned his herds and baggage.

Lin Ruzhen dragged him onto the horse, held the reins and escorted him to the south bank of the Wei River with hundreds of elite cavalry.

At the same time, Shang Duoluo and his men deployed the baggage carts, and hundreds of elite cavalrymen from Longxi were divided into two groups. One group tried to persuade the foreign soldiers outside the chariot formation to surrender, while the other group charged into the chariot formation, killing and persuading them to surrender.

Lu Ruyue and the other two ignored the words of protecting their families, and led their elite cavalry, wielding weapons, to hack and knock down the foreign people who were blocking the bridge.

In a short period of time, countless people fell off the bridge and died. Seeing this, the natives who were unable to cross the bridge knelt down and surrendered. They would rather surrender than cross the bridge and be killed by Lu Ruyue and his men.

Liu Jilong did not cross the bridge rashly, but instead stayed on the north bank of the bridge to prevent anyone from destroying the bridge.

Shang Duoluo led his men to chase after them, trying to pursue them to the south bank, but fortunately Liu Jilong stopped them. "Their herds and baggage were all left behind, and they won't last a few days in Xiangwu."

"We must guard the north bank bridge now. These pig dogs will definitely destroy the south bank bridge. Only by guarding this place can we have a chance to repair it!"

"I obey your command!" Shang Duoluo reacted quickly and took dozens of elite cavalry to guard the ferry bridge, while at the same time trying to persuade the thousands of people abandoned on the north bank to surrender.

"Cut the bridge and retreat to Xiangwu!"

As Liu Jilian expected, the first thing Lu Ruyue and his men did after successfully crossing the river was to destroy the bridge.

As several foreign soldiers took turns chopping with axes, the southern end of the bridge across the Wei River lost its fixation and was carried away by the river water.

"Withdraw to Xiangwu!"

Lu Ruyue looked back at his own team, and saw that there were only three or four thousand people left out of the team of over ten thousand, and only six or seven hundred elite cavalrymen under the three men were left.

"Xiangwu cannot be defended. Retreat to Longxi and send an urgent message to Xue Kui!"

Lu Ruyue knew very well that after losing Weiyuan, Xiangwu, which was flat and flat, would have no strategic location to defend.

Only the narrow and long terrain of Longxi could allow them to hold out until Xue Kui came to their rescue.

Suddenly, monk Lu Ruyue, monk Yanxin and monk Zhe Buhui reorganized their troops and retreated towards Xiangwu.

Liu Jilong and his men stood on the north bank and could only watch them evacuate in a panic.

Seeing them walking away, Liu Jilong turned around to look at Shang Duoluo and glanced at the five or six thousand captured soldiers and civilians.

"Take off the armor and horses of the soldiers, have them dismantle the wagons, and slaughter the sheep to repair the bridge!"

"The last general takes command!"

Following Liu Jilong's order, Shang Duoluo immediately led people to repair the bridge.

From afternoon to dusk, as Zhang Chang led his troops to Weiyuan Ferry, the speed of repairing the ferry bridge accelerated.

While Liu Jilong and his men were repairing the ferry bridge, Lu Ruyue once again forced the people of Xiangwu City to flee to Longxi, and ordered the soldiers from Zhuang County to force the people to go to Longxi.

After his migration, the entire Weizhou was left with Weiyuan, Zhuangxian and Xiangwu becoming deserted cities.

Xiangwu was only thirty miles away from Longxi. Lu Ruyue led the people to retreat overnight and emptied the government warehouses and treasuries.

After crossing the Wei River twenty miles away, they destroyed the bridge again to delay time.

By the afternoon, before the ferry bridge was repaired, Chen Jingchong and Li Ji, who were sent by Liu Jilong to transport grain, led the laborers and elite cavalry to the north bank of the Wei River.

"Forehead……"

"The wound is bleeding, where are the herbs!!"

The laborers were still repairing the bridge, while Liu Jilian led the generals to the wounded camp.

Some trained military doctors in the wounded camp are treating the wounded soldiers.

There were more than ten large tents in a camp for wounded soldiers, with seven or eight wounded soldiers lying in each tent, and two armored soldiers standing at the door to keep watch.

Once someone shouted in the tent, the few military doctors would rush over to treat the wounded.

Although there was no Ma Fei San in the Tang Dynasty, the King of Medicine Sun Simiao used jasmine roots to make a new anesthetic.

Most of the military doctors Liu Jilong urgently trained in Wuquan were barefoot doctors who had served as military doctors in the Wuquan foreign army.

After Liu Jilong taught them some knowledge about disinfection, they stayed in the army as military doctors.

After disinfecting the thick needles and sheep intestines in their hands, they threaded the wounded and sutured the wounds layer by layer.

For soldiers who could not bear the pain, they would feed them jasmine root soup, which would make the person fall asleep in less than half a cup of tea.

"Governor, this external injury is easy to treat, but this internal injury..."

"Speak directly!"

A military doctor found Liu Jilong and said hesitantly: "Some of the blood clots are too deep for us to drain out, but if they remain in the body, they will be fatal."

"Then use the knife to drain the blood!" Liu Jilong clenched his fists, his ears filled with the screams of the wounded soldiers.

"But we have no experience. What if we make a mistake?"

The military doctor expressed his concerns, but Liu Jilong said without hesitation: "Use the bodies of the foreign soldiers as a comparison!"

"Will this...will this cause those surrendered soldiers to make a fuss?" The military doctor had too many worries.

Upon hearing this, Liu Jilong said sternly: "Just save people, don't worry about other things!"

"Yes!" the military doctor responded quickly, and then went to look for the bodies of the foreign soldiers for reference.

The Longxi army won, but it was not an easy victory.

Sixty-four men were killed and 252 were wounded.

The lightly injured people have returned to the normal camp to rest after treatment, but there are still more than 90 wounded soldiers lying in the wounded camp.

"Governor, should we continue to pursue?"

Chen Jingchong and Li Ji, who had returned from Hezhou, looked at him cautiously.

Shang Duoluo and Zhang Chang were at the front line organizing laborers to repair the ferry bridge, so they were the only two who had the opportunity to inquire.

"Of course!" Liu Jilong responded with a dark face.

Of the more than 800 elite cavalrymen, only about 500 were left after excluding the wounded. Fortunately, Chen Jingchong and his companions returned and brought another 200 elite cavalrymen.

"Xiangwu has a flat terrain, making it easy to attack but difficult to defend."

"I'm worried that Shang Yanxin and the others will retreat to Longxi and gather all their strength to fight against us."

"Pass on my military order to equip the civilians of Wuquan and Hezhou with the 1,000 sets of armor we captured, and send 100 elite cavalry to Hezhou to continue transporting grain."

Liu Jilong responded quickly, Chen Jingchong and Li Ji bowed in response, and Li Ji turned around to take care of the matter.

Seeing this, Chen Jingchong stayed and went to the wounded tent with Liu Jilong to visit those wounded soldiers who had stabilized.

"Provincial Governor..."

"Lie down, don't let your wound burst!"

As Liu Jilong opened the tent curtain, the wounded soldiers lying on the bed struggled to greet him.

Liu Jilong hurried forward to comfort them and came to a wounded soldier to take care of him.

"Governor, my arm is broken...I can't help you anymore."

Seeing Liu Jilong, the wounded soldier felt a lump in his throat and raised his mutilated right arm wrapped in thick gauze.

"What are you talking about?"

Liu Jilong comforted him and glanced at the other people in the tent.

The eight soldiers in this tent all had injured meridians in their hands and feet, or had missing arms.

Even if they take good care of their health, they are destined to be unable to do heavy work.

They also realized this, so they were in a very depressed mood.

"Don't be discouraged. After we recover the three states, we still need to train soldiers and carry out literacy campaigns..."

"So what if you can't go into battle? Longxi's development still needs you."

"You are all my old brothers who came from Hexi. I remember all your names."

"Liu Yanhuai, Qian Yuejing, Wang Rende..."

He read out the names of the wounded soldiers in the tent one by one, and the wounded soldiers whose names he read out became more alert.

"And Zhao Yonghan, you complained to your captain before, saying that you couldn't find a wife at the age of 24, and you were afraid that you would die on the battlefield one day, and the Zhao family would have no descendants."

"Now that you are injured, I will arrange for you to work in the prefectures and counties. You can live a good life there and marry a wife to carry on the family line. How do you think? Haha..."

Liu Jilong's words changed the atmosphere in the tent from bad to good, and many wounded soldiers showed shy smiles on their faces.

"Don't worry, we will not abandon anyone. You are all soldiers who have made contributions to the people of Longxi."

"Peace of mind..."

Before Liu Jilong could finish his words, a military doctor anxiously lifted the curtain.

"Governor..." He looked anxious. Liu Jilong looked back and asked, "What's wrong?"

"A brother of mine is dying and wants to see you."

"I'll go now!"

Upon hearing that someone was dying, Liu Jilong had no time to feel sad. He immediately took Chen Jingchong and the military doctor to the innermost tent of the wounded camp.

Lying here were wounded soldiers who were being rescued. As soon as Liu Jilong came in, he saw basins full of blood on the ground.

The five operating beds made from dismantled carts were filled with people, most of whom were wounded soldiers with internal injuries or extremely serious external injuries.

"Governor, it's this brother!"

The military doctor brought Liu Jilong and the other man to a soldier who was about seventeen or eighteen years old.

He was about the same age as Liu Jilong, and both of his legs had been amputated, but it still couldn't save his life.

"Wang Qinghui, hold on, don't give up..."

Liu Jilong squatted beside the bed and tried to wake Wang Qinghui up, but his eyes were hazy and he seemed unable to open them.

"Liu the governor..."

"Hey! I'm here!"

A low voice came out of the dry and bleeding mouth, and Liu Jilong responded quickly, encouraging: "Wang Qinghui, wake up, your Chen Zhechong and I are here to see you."

"Don't you like meat the most? I asked someone to prepare some lamb stew for you. Take care of your wounds and I'll bring it in for you."

Liu Jilong called out to Wang Qinghui anxiously. Wang Qinghui seemed to be thinking of something and a smile appeared on his face.

"Stewed lamb..."

His smile froze and his hands dropped.

(End of this chapter)