Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 432: The Horizontal Formation Across the Field Like Clouds

"The time has come!"

When Liu Huai saw that Jin Guo's Da Huaizhen's "Wusheng" flag did not retreat but instead approached the city wall, he was not angry but happy, and immediately gave orders loudly.

"Send a message to General Yang, telling him to attack the Jin thieves' Guishan camp."

"Send a message to Liang Zichu, have him block the Shiliang River and cut off the Jin thieves' retreat!"

"Yes!" The military staff officer on the side responded loudly and lit the brazier on another watchtower.

Columns of smoke rose rapidly, carrying the message far away.

In a reed marsh in Chaohu Lake, Yang Qin looked up at the wolf smoke. His face, which had not shown a smile since he received the news of Li Dao's death, finally relaxed a little. A moment later, this veteran who had been active since the Jing Kang period laughed out loud. As tears fell, his gray hair trembled in the cold wind.

"Let's go! Men of the Dongting Lake Navy, let's get revenge!"

Yang Qin shouted, drew his sword and pointed it forward.

Then the sound of drums on the flagship boomed and resounded throughout the area.

"revenge!"

"revenge!"

"revenge!"

Amidst the deafening cries of revenge, twenty-three large ships and nearly a hundred small boats sailed out from the reed marsh. The Dongting Lake navy and Li Tieqiang's troops of the Tianping Army headed towards Guishan.

Liang Zichu saw the wolf smoke a little further away. Although he was also happy, he sighed again.

"Why is the general so depressed?" Lan Junhao asked with some doubts.

Liang Zichu sighed again, "Our Chaohu navy is destined not to participate directly in this war. We can only go to cut off the Jin bandits' retreat. But seeing our comrades making great achievements while we can only play a minor role, how can a man feel?"

Lan Junhao listened quietly, then shook his head. "General, you're wrong. If the Jin army hadn't been defeated head-on on the battlefield, but had retreated in an orderly manner, we would have had to fight the Jin bandits. Commander-in-Chief Liu has entrusted the last line of defense to us. The Chaohu navy holds great responsibility. General, you should dispatch your troops quickly. How can you complain here?"

Liang Zichu could only nod upon hearing this. As he waved his hand for his deputy to beat the drum himself, he couldn't help but add a few words: "Old Lan, I'm just grumbling. Besides, how could the Jin bandits retreat in an orderly manner under General Liu's nose?"

Not to mention that the Dongting Lake Navy and the Chaohu Navy have already taken action, Liu Huai's orders continued to be issued on the top of Chao County.

"Raise the yellow flag, and have Zhang Baiyu lead the armored cavalry out of the city through the south gate to wipe out the Jin bandit cavalry!"

"Order Lei Ben's troops to sweep the city walls and not let another Jin thief enter!"

"Order Shi Qilang to lead this unit to succeed Lei Ben."

"Order Xin Qiji to be the commander-in-chief of the vanguard army, and lead his troops into battle together with Luo Shenyan and Wang Shilong."

"I will personally lead the troops of Zhang Xiaoyi and Jia Rui to succeed him!"

"Today, we will ensure that no Jin thieves return home!"

In fact, the order of sending troops had been discussed in the military meeting a few days ago, and it was just repeated this time.

Xin Qiji took a long breath after hearing the military envoy's order. Behind him, 2,500 soldiers had already put on their armor and were sitting cross-legged, quietly waiting for the general's order.

"Luo Dalang, Wang Wulang, I will attack first, and you two will follow me, okay?" Xin Qiji said.

Wang Shilong said with a smile, "Xin Wulang, most of your troops are on the city walls, and I only have 500 soldiers left. Why don't you let me, Wang Wu, be the vanguard?"

Each army had a city wall to defend, so except for the cavalry led by Zhang Baiyu, almost each army was divided into two parts. However, the city wall defended by Xin Qiji's troops was longer. In order to avoid chaos, he left most of his troops in the city defense position and only led 500 elite soldiers out of the city to fight.

Luo Shenyan glared at him, "One Xin Wu, one Wang Wu, are you the fifth in line to take all the credit? I won't do it!"

Xin Qiji said sternly, "After all, I was the first to reach the city gate, so it's not a good time to re-form the battle line. I know I have fewer soldiers, but only with fewer can we rush out of the city gate quickly and catch the bandits off guard. After that, Luo Dalang and Wang Wulang can calmly form their battle line and devour the Jin bandits I have entangled. Gentlemen, whether our army can achieve complete victory depends on the Left and Right Armies."

This does make some sense, Luo Shenyan and Wang Shilong could only nod in response.

However, just as Xin Qiji was waving the flag himself and before beating the drum, he heard a burst of loud cheers from the south of the city, followed by the rumbling of horse hooves and the booming of war drums.

Over there, Zhang Baiyu put on his helmet, mounted his warhorse, and raised his huge spear high: "Victory!"

With just one loud shout, the morale of more than a thousand armored cavalrymen rose, as if they had won a great victory, and they shouted along with Zhang Baiyu's shout.

"Wan Sheng!"

In this atmosphere, Yao Buping, the team leader, also became excited.

The neighing of people and horses was so loud that Zhang Baiyu simply gave up his speech before the battle, rode his horse to the front of the team, came to the archway of the South Gate, and nodded to the gatekeepers.

The soldiers smashed open the huge wood supporting the gate, removed the bolt, and the huge city gate creaked open.

Because the Jin army came from the north of the city, the south of the city was almost the farthest place, and the Wusheng army was short of troops, so there were only a few cavalry here.

These Jin army cavalrymen were already feeling uneasy because of the commotion in the city, and were even more surprised and suspicious when they saw the city gates wide open.

When Zhang Baiyu led dozens of armored cavalry out, the Jin army cavalry could not help but be horrified. Seeing that countless armored cavalry were rushing out of the city gate, the Jin army cavalry did not even dare to harass them. They turned their horses and galloped away, wanting to tell Yelu Tula this fatal news.

After a while, Yelu Tula found out, but it was not because the cavalry came to report it.

The sight of thousands of galloping cavalry was so huge that there was no way to conceal it. From afar, one could see the smoke and dust and the rumbling of horses' hooves. Even a fool could tell that a large cavalry force was going into battle.

Yelu Tula was stunned on the spot.

The Jingnan Army should have some cavalry. This was raised during the military meeting of the Wusheng Army, because if the Jingnan Army had no cavalry, there was no reason why it could defeat the Wurui Army's No. 1 Meng'an.

However, the military meeting also concluded that the cavalry of the Jingnan Army would also suffer heavy losses, so there was no need to be afraid at this time.

However, what appeared before Yelu Tula at this time was an intact and highly motivated armored cavalry army, which completely disoriented the marching Meng'an, who was of Khitan origin.

While destroying the number one Meng'an of the Wu Rui Army, you yourself remained unharmed. Are you the Song Army or the Tang Army?
However, there was no time to think about it. He recalled the armored cavalry participating in the siege and asked Da Huaizhen for help.

The First Meng'an of the Wusheng Army led by Da Hongshan was just a few miles to the north. Although a few Mouke dismounted and fought on foot and followed Da Huaizhen up the city wall, there were still hundreds of cavalrymen ready for battle.

But all this takes time.

Zhang Baiyu would not give Yelu Tula time to reorganize his army.

After hastily reorganizing the formation while marching, Zhang Baiyu pointed his general flag forward, and the military commander's horn sounded the urgency.

More than a thousand armored cavalrymen, divided into teams of fifty, formed a huge goose-shaped formation. They rushed towards Yelu Tula like the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, or like a giant sickle cutting the grass.

Yelu Tula looked back at the more than 600 riders behind him and felt extremely depressed.

He originally commanded a thousand cavalrymen, including his own armored cavalry and reinforcements from Meng'an. However, when Huang Heng's three-command captain's banner was displayed, the enemy armored cavalrymen were disheartened and instantly panicked. Da Huaizhen then personally led the charge, stirring the already disorganized armored cavalrymen to charge the walls.

This also mobilized the rest of the armored cavalry, which directly led to chaos among the armored cavalry under Yelu Tula.

It was too late to regroup the army.

Under Yelu Tula's desperate gaze and amid the shouts of "Kill the Jin thieves", the Flying Tiger Army charged into the Jin army's armored cavalry formation with an indomitable momentum.

But in just a moment, Zhang Baiyu and his personal guards broke through the armor of the Jin army and escaped from the formation.

It was actually easier than the encirclement and suppression of Wanyan Guo a few days ago.

(End of this chapter)