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

Chapter 458: The Wheels Collide and the Fighting Begins

After overtime renovation, Chao County has become a big hedgehog, with all kinds of military facilities, trenches, deer horn moats and extended horse-faced walls all showing the solidity of this city.

The Jingnan army above was even more motivated. When faced with the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses showing off their power under the city, they did not panic at all. Instead, they shouted and cursed. They were simply elite soldiers and strong generals.

When the Jin army was showing off its might outside the city in the morning, Wanyan Liang and important civil and military officials had already mixed in with them and had a thorough understanding of the defense of Chao County.

The Jingnan army in the city looked at the Jin army below with awe.

The Jin army below the city was also worried when they saw the Jingnan army on the city wall.

When you fight a wolf with a stick, you're afraid of both ends. Big brother, don't laugh at your second brother.

After carefully identifying the flags, Wanyan Liang immediately decided to attack Cheng Min on Guishan Mountain first. After defeating the Ezhou army, he would use Cheng Min's head to intimidate Chao County, thereby achieving the goal of disintegrating the morale of the Chao County defenders.

Although Guishan is a mountain, its terrain is relatively flat. No matter how strong the camp on the mountain is, it is much lower than the city wall of Chao County.

The main camp of the Jin army was only eight miles away from Guishan Mountain. Logically speaking, with the Jin army's mobility, there was no need to set up another small camp. However, Wanyan Liang showed unusual caution at this time. The Qian army set up camp on the spot, and the regular army was not idle either. The entire army rested for a while and then attacked the small camp of the Song army standing on the hill to the south.

The Second Meng'an of the Wuping Army led the way as the disciplinary battalion. The soldiers, holding steel shields and wearing heavy armor, launched a desperate attack on the small camp.

The commander of the small camp was Chen Min and Chen Yuangong. This taciturn and fierce commander led 4,000 regular troops and 4,000 auxiliary troops to guard this place. Facing the surging Jin army, he was not afraid. He stood calmly in the watchtower and commanded his subordinates to counterattack.

Time was too short. Even with the full support of the soldiers and civilians of Chao County, the camp was still not very solid and the trenches were very shallow. But even so, the Ezhou army was still no pushover. Relying on the terrain, they fought the Jin army to a close defeat.

"Sir, do you want to attack and give the Jin thieves a severe blow?" Bi Zaiyou was clinging to the wooden fence in the camp, watching the bloody battle in the small camp a mile away, and he was eager to try.

Bi Jin knocked Bi Zaiyu on the head through his helmet and said, "Don't be impatient, little bastard. Whoever gets impatient first will make mistakes. In a big battle, the first thing to do is to keep your mind steady. This is what they say: "Even when Mount Tai collapses, your face remains unchanged."

Bi Zaiyu looked at the wooden fence next to Bi Jin that was about to break, curled his lips but didn't dare to talk back to Laozi. He could only clear his throat and ask, "So all we can do is watch?"

"Wait for Chen Yuangong's signal, or wait until the Jin army is exhausted." Bi Jin nodded towards the Jin army position three miles away.

In addition to the soldiers who were still busy, there were also regular soldiers of the Jin army sitting on the ground, putting on their armor and resting.

There were so many figures under the Jinwu banner that it was impossible to count how many regular troops and signed troops there were.

After carefully observing the Jin army's formation, Bi Jin turned his gaze to the battlefield on the other side of the small camp. However, Bi Zaiyu kept craning his neck to look towards the east.

"Sir, we haven't moved here, but Chao County has moved first." Bi Zaiyou said, pointing in the direction of Chao County.

"Is Liu Dalang so shameless?" Bi Jin climbed up the watchtower and tried to look towards Chao County.

Although the distance was a bit far, one could vaguely see the commotion outside the city.

The fact was just as Bi Zaiyu said, the Jingnan army was mobilized.

Moreover, the Jingnan army did not just set out, but the commander-in-chief Liu Huai personally led more than a hundred armored cavalry out of the city to attack the camp.

This almost made Xin Qiji, who had just returned from a hurried inspection of the city wall, so angry that he fainted.

Xin Qiji almost fell out with He Boqiu on the spot, accusing him of not stopping Liu Huai from leaving the city to fight.

He Boqiu was already furious, and became even more angry after hearing this.

This is an army, an army with the most obvious hierarchy. When a military commander is determined to do something, who can stop him?
The opportunity for battle was fleeting. When Liu Huai saw the Jin army's weakness, he had no time to notify anyone and directly led his personal guards to attack. What could He Boqiu do?
Would they follow Liu Huai and charge out? Then who would follow? Who would organize the troops to support them?

If a large army were to launch an attack, would the war escalate rapidly? Would a decisive battle be fought today?
After just a few rhetorical questions, He Boqiu was also out of breath, and Xin Qiji simply turned around and left, leading dozens of personal guards in full armor, waiting for the signal at the gate, ready to go out of the city to meet them at any time.

At the same time, Li Tieqiang, who was on duty at the city gate, had ordered his soldiers to put on armor and prepare to fight at the city gate.

He Boqiu on the top of the city wall was also not idle. A large number of archers gathered, waiting for Liu Huai to retreat and use arrows to stop the pursuers.

Liu Huai naturally did not do this to show off his bravery. In addition to showing his determination to fight to the Ezhou army, he also really found an opportunity to fight.

To be precise, this fighter plane was revealed when the Jin army was moving.

At this time, the Jin army camp was being established under the city of Chao County. They were just digging trenches and cutting trees to build the camp. Most of the Jin army was lined up and camped at the foot of Guishan Mountain. Wanyan Liang even went there in person, which showed that he attached more importance to the Ezhou army.

At the same time, perhaps out of fear of a counterattack by the Ezhou army, after the initial establishment of the camp, Wanyan Yuanyi, who was in charge of the camp, sent more than 2,000 cavalry to the foot of Guishan Mountain to receive orders. The regular army strength in the Jin army camp was extremely thin.

After watching the Jin army's cavalry go away, Liu Huai suddenly discovered from the top of the city that a group of soldiers on the east side of the Jin army camp had actually left the camp and seemed to want to escape in the chaos.

It was only after a while that a small group of Jin cavalry came to chase and kill the soldiers.

The Jin army's manpower was clearly insufficient.

Liu Huai immediately led his personal guards to fight, but instead of rescuing the soldiers who were doomed to die, he marched directly into the camp as a demonstration.

When Wanyan Yuanyi heard reports that troops were marching out of Chao County, he was surprised and immediately went to the watchtower to observe. However, when he saw the massive Jingnan banner, the Jin Dynasty Minister of War was also shocked. He had thought that the Jingnan army was desperate and that the first battle would be the decisive one, and that the entire army would now march out of the city to fight!
However, after a slight shock, Wanyan Yuanyi was overjoyed again. He sent cavalry out of the camp to entangle the armored cavalry of the Jingnan Army, and at the same time sent military envoys to Wanyan Liang to report that he wanted to take advantage of the situation to attack Chao County and drive the defeated troops back into the city.

Wanyan Yuanyi was very confident that even if the Jingnan Army could defeat the Wusheng Army, they could only dream of taking advantage of the main force of the Jin Army, which had 30,000 regular troops and a Hezhameng'an.

However, ideals are full and reality is very skinny. Wanyan Yuanyi found that he could not carry out the first step of the plan.

This cavalry under the banner of Jingnan was really too elite. Although there were only a hundred soldiers, their momentum was like that of thousands of troops when they really fought. The first batch of Jin cavalry that rushed out were chopped off cleanly like cutting melons and vegetables.

The second batch of more than one hundred armored cavalry were also defeated.

Then came the third and fourth batches.

It's not that the Jin army commander was incompetent, turning a good surprise attack into a tactic of adding fuel to the fire, but the camp gate was so small and the reserved passage was so wide that the largest scale that could quickly form combat effectiveness after rushing out without the need for an entire army was just a Mouke.

As for dividing the troops from the left and right sides of the camp, it was also impossible, because there were relatively few soldiers and horses left behind by the Jin army, and it was impossible for all of them to go out of the camp to fight.

In a duel of also one hundred men, how could the ordinary Jin army compare to the personal guards led by Feihu Langjun himself?
Two quarters of an hour later, Wanyan Yuanyi could see that the armored cavalry of the Jingnan Army was obviously exhausted, but they had suffered few casualties, their morale was high, and they were showing off their power in front of the camp.

The Jin army had suffered nearly a hundred casualties. The previously defeated Jin army was gathering together, while the Jin army that continued to fight from the camp did not dare to be arrogant anymore and prepared to gather before fighting again.

However, Liu Huai would not give the Jin army a chance to gather. He fired another round of arrows, provoked the Jin army, and then swaggered back to the city.

At this time, the reinforcements sent by Wanyan Liang had just gathered and set off, and the battle on Guishan Mountain had reached a climax.

The lives of the soldiers were ruthlessly thrown away, and the blood of the Song and Jin armies was used by the commander-in-chief as a way to show his determination. Neither Cheng Min nor Wanyan Liang had any intention of stopping.

The variable appeared in Liang Zichu, who had made a great contribution last night.

At the beginning of the war, the Chaohu navy had received orders from Cheng Min and was ready to join the battle at any time, but they just had to wait for the signal.

However, this was Liang Zichu's first time participating in a battle of this magnitude, and with his blood boiling, he inevitably made mistakes, and the signal agreed upon with Chen Min went wrong.

When he saw a fire in the camp, he thought it was a wolf smoke signal and immediately took the initiative to join the battle. Twenty-three ships sailed from Chaohu Lake to the shore, and with the eight-ox crossbows and small catapults on board, they fired crossbow arrows and stones at the flank of the Jin army.

Although neither the crossbow arrows nor the stones were very dense, their power was immense, and anyone who got in contact with them would die. The Jin army on the south side was unable to fight back, their formation was temporarily scattered, and their offensive slowed down.

The Chaohu navy's move did not cause much casualties, but it disrupted the Jin army's formation. In addition, a group of Jin troops seemed to want to return to the Chaoxian camp for support, which allowed Cheng Min to quickly see the opportunity to fight.

"Zhao Xun, Bi Jin, you two will each lead your archers and crossbowmen, go down the south slope and shoot arrows at the Jin bandits who are besieging the small camp." Cheng Min pointed out two generals and said loudly.

"Order!"

"Du Yan, lead your troops out of the camp and line up eastward. If the Jin bandits don't move, you won't move either. If they attack our crossbow positions, you'll attack their flanks. Do you understand what to do?"

"Here!"

"The military envoy sent a message to Hua Wang, telling the Beiwei army to put on their armor and attack immediately if the main camp raises a red flag!"

After a while, Bi Jin and Zhao Xun led a thousand crossbowmen out of the south gate of the camp and lined up. They stopped on a hillside north of the official road and rained arrows on the heads of the Jin army from a high position.

Although there were not many casualties, the Jin army's offensive became slower due to the rain of arrows from both sides.

The Jin army that was confronting the Guishan camp had just made some movements when more than 3,000 armored soldiers came out of the camp and formed a battle line under the guidance of a large flag with the word "Du". They stared at the tens of thousands of Jin troops at the foot of the mountain, as if they were ready to launch a decisive battle at the slightest disagreement.

There was a slight hesitation in the Jin army's main camp, and Chen Min in the small camp seized the opportunity and personally led 700 soldiers out of the camp to give the Jin army a head-on blow.

The Jin army besieging Xiaoying was already in great difficulty because of the attack from two sides, and now it was even more unbearable because of the attack from three sides.

The vanguard of the Jin army was the Second Meng'an of the Wuping Army, who had made meritorious contributions despite his crimes. After suffering heavy casualties in a night attack and the killing of Marching Meng'an, they fought for at least half an hour. After enduring nearly a hundred casualties, they were frightened and could no longer withstand the attack from three sides.

The Second Meng'an disregarded the strict military law and fled after only a short battle with Chen Min, dragging the two Meng'an behind him with him in a hasty retreat. Fortunately, the presence of the Marching Commander Wanyan Alin prevented the retreat from becoming a complete rout.

However, when the battle reached this point, the Jin army's plan to seize a camp on Guishan Mountain was completely bankrupt.

Chen Min did not rush to attack the foot of the mountain in a fit of rage. Instead, he stopped while he was ahead and stopped Yu Feiying from leaving the camp to fight. He took advantage of this opportunity to quickly collect the corpses and repair the wooden fence and deer antlers.

Although the Song army won, the wooden fences on the east side of the camp were almost all knocked down. The vanguard of the Jin army had pushed the Song army into the last line of defense. Otherwise, Liang Zichu would not have rushed to support.

Wanyan Liang looked up at the sky and understood that after fighting non-stop for an entire afternoon, even the Jin army, known for its perseverance, was extremely exhausted and would be unable to organize another attack in a short period of time.

The two sides had their first head-on confrontation today, and the Jin army suffered a loss.

After thinking for a moment, Wanyan Liang ordered to set up camp for rest, and at the same time ordered Da Huaizhong to retrieve the heads of all the surviving marching Moukes of the Second Meng'an of the Wuping Army.

Make amends for mistakes, make amends for mistakes.

How can you make amends if you have no merit?
(End of this chapter)