Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 266: The End of the Mission
"Fire! Fire!"

"Take the children to the west of the city, men and women, to put out the fire!"

A raging fire was burning in Guzang City, and houses on several streets were affected by the fire. The men and women in Wumo were anxiously passing buckets of water, trying to put out the growing flames.

The sound of horse hooves and people's shouts mixed together, causing great chaos in the city.

Due to the shortage of houses, many people chose to set up tents on the streets. However, these greasy tents were quickly swallowed up by the ruthless flames and turned into a charred black.

The elderly pulled their children away from the flames, while the men picked up buckets of water and wet blankets and bravely rushed into the fire, trying to put out the fire.

Thick smoke billowed and the hot air was suffocating. Many people caught in the fire were trying to call for help, but their appearance made the people around them extremely scared.

One by one, the firemen rushed out of the fire scene until they fell down because they could not bear the burning flames.

Looking at the tragic scene, Dugazhi in the north gate tower turned pale and Du Lunqilu's eyes were dull.

"Oh my God! Why can Liu Jilong control the heavenly thunder and earthly fire?!"

Dugazhi couldn't help but question the heavens, but the thick smoke blocked the sun, making Dugazhi think that he was abandoned by the gods.

In their view, the sudden thunder and fire were obviously the legendary thunder and fire from heaven and earth.

Under such means, the morale of the remaining people in the city fell to the lowest point.

At the same time, as the fire spread, a large number of Umu people were dispatched to put out the fire, and the catapults on the east side of the city quickly used up all their stones and could only passively take the beating.

In comparison, the catapults of the Longyou Army replaced the gunpowder and flour bags with 50-jin slingstones and continued to attack the city wall.

"Beep--"

A shrill whistle sounded, and Liu Jilong, Cao Mao and Li Shangyin rode out of the military camp and gave orderly orders to the Longyou army.

"The troops from Lanzhou, Hezhou, and Shanzhou will stay behind to attack the city, and the rest of the troops will move toward the west gate of Guzang!"

Following Liu Jilian's order, one thousand elite cavalry and more than four thousand armored soldiers in the east of the city moved towards the west gate of Guzang.

Their actions were soon reported to Dugazhi by the Umu army on the city wall.

Dugazhi couldn't believe it when he heard it: "Chengle actually came so quickly this time!"

Ever since Umu took over half of Liangzhou, Umu and the Ganzhou Uighurs have been disliking each other.

Because of this, even with the lesson of "the lips are cold and the teeth are cold", Dugazhi still didn't believe that Chengle would act so quickly.

However, it turned out that Chengle was more suitable to be the Khan and more decisive.

While Dugazhi still refused to believe it, Chengle had already led an army of over 100,000 and was gradually approaching Guzang City.

Hundreds of thousands of people surged toward Guzang like a tide, with three thousand elite cavalry leading the way and six thousand armored cavalry infantry following closely behind.

The remaining hundreds of thousands of Uighurs spread out in all directions with them as the center.

Among them were old people, young and strong people, and even strong women.

However, in terms of war, there is no difference between the arrows shot by old men, young men, and women. They are all enough to kill an unarmored enemy.

"Ado, why are we in such a hurry to rescue Dugazhi?"

On horseback, Xiali, who already had a beard, asked Chengle, who was also on horseback.

In response, Cheng Le said: "The Han people have a saying, 'When lips are gone, the teeth become cold', which means that without the protection of the lips, the teeth will be damaged by the cold."

"Liu Jilong, this dog slave, took advantage of us taking Liangzhou and invaded Liangzhou in the name of recovering it."

"If we don't hurt him, he'll keep harassing us in the east."

"Take this opportunity to drive him back to Longyou, and then we can join forces with An Ning, Pang Teqin, Pu Gujun and others to invade Hexi."

Cheng Le's plan was very detailed. Hearing this, Xia Li nodded and said, "There are so many of us. Fan He also has a thousand elite cavalry and more than 30,000 troops. We are not afraid that we can't deal with Liu Jilong!"

"No..." Cheng Le shook his head and then said:

"I brought so many people here to make preparations for both scenarios."

"If we can't defeat Liu Jilong, we can only go north and return to the Juyan Lake."

"Fan and the more than 1,000 elite cavalry and 30,000 young men are my backup to protect the children as they head north."

Chengle's words shocked Xiali. He didn't expect that his own Ado would actually think about losing.

In response, Chengle glanced at Xili, saw through his thoughts, and snorted coldly: "As the Khan, you must ensure that the tribe will not be severely damaged."

"The Tang people are very cautious about thinking about losing the war before it even starts, but we can't do that."

"We are a tribe that lives on horseback. As long as we keep both people and horses safe, we can start over at any time."

"When the Khitans and the Tang court attacked us together, we were able to retain hundreds of thousands of people because we retreated in time."

"I hope you will never forget this."

Cheng Le taught Xia Li a lesson, and Xia Li quickly nodded in agreement.

Of course, superficial agreement is just superficial agreement, but whether you actually remember it is another matter.

"Beep--"

Suddenly, the sound of arrows whistled in the sky ahead, and Cheng Le said in a deep voice: "Our scouts have encountered the scouts from Longyou."

"We are still fifteen miles away from here to Guzang. It seems that Guzang has been completely surrounded. This guy Dugazhi is really useless!"

Cheng Le cursed inwardly and gave an order at the same time: "After marching five miles, the army will rest for half an hour to recover their power. We can reach Guzang before dusk!"

"Yes……"

Under Chenggong's military order, the Uighurs gathered on the vast grassland like a black tide.

The horse's hooves shattered the silence, and the flying dust obscured the sun.

The sound of horses neighing, arrows whistling, and flags rustling all intertwined together is hard to describe, and it just makes one's blood boil.

The air was filled with tension and anticipation, and everyone's heartbeat was accelerating in anticipation of the upcoming battle.

The wind on the grassland is no longer a gentle chant, but a wild cry. It blows up the dust, as if cheering for the war.

Time passed, and an hour slowly passed. The battle in the east of Guzang City was still going on. The Umo people in the city put out the fire with difficulty and continued to use catapults to start a counterattack.

However, during this period, more than ten of their trebuchets were destroyed, leaving only more than fifty trebuchets still functioning normally.

In response to this, Zhang Chang also ordered the replacement of stone throwing weapons with flying fire weapons in an attempt to wipe out all the Umu people on the horse road on the city wall.

"Boom boom boom——"

Even though they were two miles apart, the sound of engines and fire from the east side of the city could still be heard from the west side.

At this moment in the west of the city, Liu Jilian led his troops to garrison on the west bank of the moat, with a stone bridge for crossing the river behind him.

Four thousand two hundred armored soldiers and one thousand elite cavalry formed a battle formation and stationed here, and elite cavalry continued to gather here in the distance.

In less than half an hour, three thousand elite cavalry and four thousand two hundred armored soldiers were stationed here, and a black wave gradually appeared on the distant horizon.

The wave spread from the north to the south, and it seemed to want to break out of the Qilian Mountains.

The buzzing sound of horse hooves continued, dust rose, and the waves kept approaching.

When the flags of the Ganzhou Uighurs became clearly visible, more than 7,000 Longyou troops had been surrounded by the boundless army.

Facing such a scene for the first time, Li Shangyin looked at Liu Jilong timidly: "General, there must be at least 100,000 people here..."

"We are surrounded by this group of barbarians..." Cao Mao couldn't help but take a breath.

Not only them, but most of the soldiers thought so.

Even though the number of armored men in the Ganzhou Uighur army was not much different from our own, the more than 100,000 Ganzhou Uighurs on horseback and holding bows were not air.

For a moment, everyone was depressed, but Liu Jilong put on his iron helmet and chuckled, "It's just a clay chicken and a clay dog!"

"Elite cavalry on both wings, follow my command. The infantry will form a six-flower formation. The first five rows will switch to crossbows, and the rest will switch to bows."

"Crossbowmen should shoot arrows when they are 80 steps away from the enemy, and archers should shoot arrows when they are 60 steps away from the enemy. Release arrows when you hear the whistle!"

Liu Jilian gave the order in a deep voice, and immediately 4,200 infantrymen began to move and form a formation. They put their spears on the ground and replaced them with bows and crossbows.

The 4,200 infantrymen became archers, and the elite cavalry were divided into two wings.

Seeing the Longyou Army taking action, Chengle in the Uighur formation took a deep breath and said:

"From the sound of it, there's still fighting going on in the east of the city, but here there are thousands of elite cavalry and armored soldiers. How many soldiers has Liu Jilong raised in Longyou?"

It was unbelievable to Cheng Le that the once exhausted Longyou could actually support so many soldiers and horses.

But the reality was right before his eyes and he had no choice but to believe it.

"Ado, what should we do now?"

Xia Li asked Cheng Le, who said, "Six thousand cavalry and infantry will form a battle array on horseback and shoot arrows with their bows to see who has the most arrows!"

Jialin was only thirty or forty miles away from Guzang, so Cheng Le was naturally confident that he had more arrows than Liu Jilong.

Following the military order given by Xia Li, six thousand cavalry and infantry dismounted and formed a battle formation, and immediately changed to bows and arrows to confront the Longyou army from a distance of a hundred steps.

Seeing that no one shot arrows, Xia Li ordered the army to advance thirty steps.

"Beep--"

As the Uighur army advanced, a wooden whistle sounded in the Longyou army, and the crossbowmen began to pull the triggers. Xianli, who reacted quickly, also hurriedly blew the whistle, ordering the army to shoot arrows in counterattack.

For a moment, crossbow arrows and arrows crossed in the sky, colliding continuously and shooting into the two formations.

The experienced Longyou soldiers lowered their heads one after another, but many of them were still shot in the arms by arrows.

In comparison, the Uighurs suffered more casualties. After all, the crossbows used by the Longyou Army were all foot-operated and strung, and were more powerful than the broken crossbows.

Because of this, the Uighur soldiers who were hit by the crossbow arrows groaned, and grimacing was considered the least severe. Many of them fell down after being hit by the arrows.

"Light cavalry will step forward to interfere, and the cavalry and infantry will switch to long spears to break the formation!"

Cheng Le saw that his bows and crossbows were inferior to those in Longyou, so he simply stopped trying and launched a general attack.

"Woo woo woo--" the horn sounded, and in an instant hundreds of thousands of Uighurs formed a formation and moved towards the Longyou army.

Even though they were knocked off their horses by the arrows, they did not stop. Instead, after approaching to within fifty steps, the army began to shoot arrows at the Longyou Army in echelons.

More than 100,000 people were divided into more than 20 echelons. After each team shot a pot of arrows, they withdrew and were replaced by the rear.

Cheng Le's move was nothing more than an attempt to suppress the Longyou Army with a rain of arrows, preventing them from causing damage to the 6,000 Uighur cavalry and infantry in front of them.

"When the enemy is within thirty steps, the crossbowmen will abandon their crossbows and fight with spears tied to their shoulders. The archers in the first five rows will switch to crossbows!"

Liu Jilong's military orders were transmitted to the military teams in an orderly manner. Even though their comrades were constantly injured by Uighur arrows, they did not stop their counterattacks and preparations.

"Beep--"

As the whistle sounded, the crossbowmen in the front line immediately put away their crossbows and switched to long spears.

At the same time, five rows of archers switched to crossbows with hand-loaded arrows, waiting to engage the enemy.

"General Jie, we are being suppressed now. This is not a solution..."

Li Shangyin was a little panicked, but he still held the bow and fought back against the Uighurs on horseback, and asked Liu Jilong with a pale face.

Liu Jilong smiled when he heard this and said, "Yishan, you look much more handsome when you are wearing armor and shooting arrows on horseback than when you are writing at the desk!"

Li Shangyin never thought that under such circumstances, Liu Jilian would still have the mind to joke with him.

"General Jie, you..."

Before Li Shangyin finished speaking, he felt his chest sink. When he lowered his head, he immediately saw an arrow stuck in his chest.

In an instant, he felt his hands and feet were cold and cold sweat was pouring down.

Before he could suspect that he was going to die, Liu Jilong reached out and pulled out the arrow. Only then did he find that the arrow was just stuck between the armor plates.

"This arrow is not good, but the person drawing the bow is good. He can hit you from a hundred steps away."

Liu Jilong looked at the arrow of inferior quality, shook his head, threw the arrow aside, and looked towards the front of the army.

The six thousand Uighur cavalry and infantry were within twenty steps of each other, and Liu Jilong said in a deep voice:

"After the enemy engaged our front line, the archers abandoned their bows and crossbows and took up swords and clubs, and they became the vanguard and fought forward with the front line!"

"Jie Shuai?!"

Li Shangyin and Cao Mao widened their eyes. They didn't expect Liu Jilian to counterattack.

"I said before, the Uighurs are nothing but chickens and dogs!"

Liu Jilong pulled out the iron spear that was inserted next to him, and a sense of familiarity came over him, except that the weight of the iron spear was much lighter than before.

He knew that it was not that the spear had become lighter, but that he had become stronger.

Looking at the spear, he couldn't help but sigh: "When I was in Shandan, I once said that I am not strong yet, but when I am strong, the world will change!"

"Now that I have grown up, I will first test the blade on this Uighur!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his arm and shouted, "Blow the horn, and the battle formation will be broken now!"

"Uuuuuu——"

The trumpets sounded, and military orders were passed on to each regiment by flag bearers.

The four thousand infantrymen on the battlefield replaced their spears with sabers and clubs and rushed forward with all their might.

The spearmen in the front row, who served as the vanguard, gathered their energy, took a deep breath, and charged forward in a row.

"kill!!"

The shouts and cries of killing shook the heavens. The 6,000 armored soldiers of the Uighur side obviously did not expect that with a large formation in front of them, the Longyou army actually turned from defense to offense.

The plan was disrupted. Cheng Le's face turned pale and he hurriedly said, "Form a formation and guard! Form a formation and guard!"

Without him saying anything, the 6,000 armored soldiers of the Uighurs knew what to do.

But the problem is that there are always only a few soldiers with this awareness. Without preparation, many soldiers will not have enough time to stay in the team even if they stop.

Because of this, when the two armies collided, many Uighur armored soldiers were knocked over by the long spears rushing towards them, and the front line of the Uighur armored soldiers collapsed at the first touch.

They used their lives to tell everyone who was the egg and who was the stone.

"kill!!"

Seeing an opportunity, the left and right Uighur light cavalry immediately launched a charge, hoping to take advantage of the unstable position of the Longyou army and break through their formation in one fell swoop.

"Kill with me!"

Cheng Le also reacted and realized that even if the infantry was defeated, they still had elite cavalry and could take this opportunity to defeat the Longyou army formation.

The Uighurs launched a general attack, but at this moment Liu Jilian also assembled three thousand elite cavalry.

The armored soldiers of Longyou blocked the armored soldiers of the Uighurs in front and took advantage of the situation to fight. What he had to do was to lead the elite cavalry to stop the light cavalry of the Uighurs who were rushing in from all directions like a tide.

"A real man's achievement begins today!!"

Liu Jilian raised his arm and shouted, and three thousand elite cavalry rushed towards the left and right wings of the armored troops like arrows.

"Kill!!"

Whether it was Li Shangyin or Cao Mao, it was the first time for them to charge as generals, not to mention that they were facing Uighurs who were dozens of times larger than their own.

At the moment of the charge, their minds went blank, and by the time they reacted, the Uighurs were already right in front of them.

“Hiss—”

"kill!!"

In an instant, the sounds of shouting, collisions, squeezing, horse hooves, and neighing filled everyone's eardrums.

As expected, the elite cavalry from Longyou defeated the Uighur light cavalry who attempted a sneak attack, but this was only the first wave.

Just when Li Shangyin and his men tried to turn their horses around and fight again, they saw the horn sounding still, and the large banner representing Liu Jilian was still charging forward.

At this moment, Liu Jilong's eyes were on the three thousand armored Uighur cavalry.

For the Longyou Army, light cavalry could not shake their position, but elite cavalry was different.

With the help of armored soldiers to break the formation, the elite cavalry of the Uighurs would be able to take the opportunity to break through the formation, which he would not allow.

"kill!!"

Liu Jilong thrust his spear into the air in front of him, representing not only himself, but also the three thousand elite cavalry from Longyou who were charging with him.

"Liu Jilong! You dog slave!"

Cheng Le, who was on the charge, also saw the elite cavalry from Longyou rushing towards him and couldn't help but curse.

Seeing the elite cavalry from Longyou approaching him, he recalled the scene when he was dominated by Zhang Huaishen and Liu Jilian during the attack on Zhangye.

However, there is no Zhang Huaishen outside Guzang City at this moment, and he will defeat Liu Jilian to wash away the humiliation he suffered that year.

"kill!!"

Thinking of this, Cheng Le bravely thrust out his scimitar and led the 3,000 elite cavalry to charge forward regardless of everything.

At the moment the two armies collided, everyone felt their minds go blank, as if the wind had stopped, and the surroundings were extremely quiet.

"Bam—"

“Hiss!!”

"Uh-huh!"

"Cough cough..."

In an instant, people and horses fell to the ground, horses neighed, spears broke, and there was severe pain.

The two armies attacked each other's formation, their arrows were shattered, and the elite Uighur cavalry wanted to rush out, then turned their horses around and launched a second charge.

The elite cavalry from Longyou took advantage of their large size and attacked left and right, trying to break up the enemy's front and then kill all the Uighurs they could see.

In the chaos, Liu Jilong was undoubtedly a particularly conspicuous presence.

All the elite Uighur cavalry tried to kill the general and seize the flag, but when facing them, Liu Jilian remained calm and thrust his iron spear left and right, provoking all directions.

Li Shangyin, Cao Mao and others who followed behind him saw countless people falling off their horses in front of them, and no one could get past Liu Jilian to attack them.

In the chaos of the battle, countless elite Uighur cavalry were killed or wounded, and many elite cavalry from Longyou were also killed or wounded.

"Uuuuuu——"

Suddenly, a horn sounded in the distance. Everyone was startled, thinking that the enemy's reinforcements had arrived.

During the interval of fighting, Liu Jilong glanced in the direction of the horn, only to see that the horn was coming from the north, raising dust.

His heart sank, but he quickly cheered up.

"No matter how many reinforcements the Uighurs send, we will kill them all!"

While thinking, he grabbed the iron spear and smashed it hard on the head of a certain elite Uighur cavalryman. The iron helmet was bent and deformed, almost smashing the man's head into his chest.

"Uuuuuu——"

The sound of the horn was getting closer, and the dust was getting closer and closer.

In the corner of countless people's eyes, what appeared was not the flag of the Uighurs, but the Sanchen flag represented by the Helong Guiyi Army.

On horseback, Zhang Huaishen, who had hurried over, was shocked by the fighting among hundreds of thousands of people, but he was more excited.

Not only him, but also the more than 2,000 elite cavalrymen of the Hexi Guiyi Army were like this, and many of them even had cold hands and feet because of it.

Without time to rest, Zhang Huaishen raised his spear and shouted:

"We must wipe out the barbarians today... Kill them!!"

"kill--"

(End of this chapter)