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

Chapter 631 It’s better to leave the remaining brave men to chase the poor bandits

"Because of your betrayal, Geng Jiedu has already died in battle."

Xin Qiji looked at the dozen or so people kneeling before his horse and said coldly, "I only have the patience for three sentences, so don't waste it."

"We...we know we were wrong!" someone cried out.

Xin Qiji placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and said with a cold laugh, "This is the first line."

The leader immediately kicked the wailing man to the ground, kowtowed again, and carefully chose his words before saying, "We are still useful. We all know the policies of Lord Flying Tiger. We are willing to serve Lord Flying Tiger wholeheartedly, and we are willing to give away our land and wealth, just to spare our lives!"

Xin Qiji neither confirmed nor denied: "This is the second line."

Seeing that these words could not persuade Xin Qiji, the leading strongman panicked completely, but still continued to say: "Jin bandits! The Jin bandits can hardly escape, but we have held them back! This is three thousand elite Jin cavalry, and the leader is Tu Danzhen, the Left Supervisor of the Jin State!"

General Xin, if you march south immediately, you will achieve great merit!

Xin Qiji looked at the man, and a smile finally appeared on his face: "Then my army will abandon the manor in Xucheng, giving you a chance to escape, is that right, Old Zhao?"

The man called Old Zhao was also the leader of a powerful Zhao family. Upon hearing this, he made up his mind: "That's right. Some of my family members have been doing bad things. Although they are not allowed to follow the rules of Flying Tiger Gentleman, they are still my family's trusted nephews and nieces. I still want to find a way for them to survive."

Xin Qiji laughed and said, "You're quite frank, but have you ever considered that I won't let you go back?"

Old Zhao kowtowed again, saying, "General Xin, how could we possibly escape unscathed after doing this? I only deeply regret why my backbone gave way back then, why I didn't persevere to the end. I made all the decisions, and I am willing to die. I only hope that General Xin will not slaughter my Zhao clan."

Xin Qiji chuckled coldly twice, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but in his heart he began to make plans again.

The Jin army had nearly three thousand elite cavalry, a force that was neither too many nor too few.

Expecting them to fight a strategic campaign is impossible, but striking at the right time is enough to change the outcome of the war.

Most importantly, this was a cavalry force entirely composed of Jurchens. If they could be annihilated, it would be a huge blow to the sparsely populated Jurchens.

However, as the powerful Zhao family in front of them said, although these wealthy families in Xucheng had lost all their private armies and all the able-bodied villagers had been defeated in one battle on the banks of the Beiqing River, and could no longer accomplish anything significant, their core members were still able to escape this ordeal without much trouble.

If the Taiping army abandons its siege of these powerful manors and instead heads south to pursue the Jin army, then these powerful men's sons will surely take the opportunity to escape.

Xin Qiji quickly made up his mind.

These landlords and powerful families didn't know the Five Elements Transfer Technique, so they couldn't take all the land and people with them. They were just a few dozen homeless dogs. How could their importance compare to the main force of the Jin army?
"Sixth Brother!" Xin Qiji said to his cousin and general Xin Yuanying, "I will give you two hundred men to guard our army's rear and keep an eye on these people."

"Ah Yuan! Send a military envoy to order all troops to ignore everything else and head south immediately. We must catch the Jin invaders by the tail!"

Xin Qiji glanced at the dozen or so powerful figures kneeling before his horse with the look of someone looking at a dead man, then spurred his horse and charged south.

More than a thousand soldiers followed suit.

As the military envoy relayed messages to the other four armies, the Taiping Army was fully mobilized.

The soldiers were mostly locals and very familiar with the terrain of Dongping Prefecture. They quickly bypassed the villages and markets around Xucheng and headed towards Tudanzhenbao.

At this point, Tu Danzhen had only traveled about five li.

Even more tragically, after encountering a series of delaying tactics, Tu Danzhen got himself into a trap by taking a detour, deviating from the southward march and gradually heading west, approaching what was once Liangshan Marsh, now a muddy swamp.

In hindsight, the current situation is purely accidental.

At this time, the powerful families of Dongping Prefecture were not organized and had no troops. They were just making a mess of things, each with their own ulterior motives, trying to keep the Jin army in.

If Tu Danzhen had chosen a slightly easterly direction at one of the forks in the road, or had forcibly crossed the river at different points on several small rivers, he might have escaped the wrath of the local tyrants and thus escaped with his life.

But there are no ifs in the world.

"Is this...is this the place where Shi Zhanxie died?" Yi Ladao was physically weak. He rode his warhorse at full speed and forcibly swam across several small rivers. The hem of his clothes was already soaked. When the cold winter wind blew, he felt his whole body become stiff.

However, what chilled him to the bone even more was the vast expanse of reeds.

After persuading Kong Duanqi to surrender, Yila Dao had come here to worship Shizhanxie, and he remembered it very clearly. Tudanzhen reined in his warhorse, his expression somewhat uncertain.

He was also getting a little uneasy about this group of powerful figures from Dongping Prefecture, with no idea how many more insidious tricks awaited him.

"Pass down the order: do not approach the reed marshes!" Tu Danzhen gave the order, causing the troops in the marching formation to turn slightly, and then wait in place for the scouts to report back.

Soon, good news and bad news reached Tu Danzhen one after the other.

The good news is that the road will become normal after walking another five miles.

The bad news was that the Taiping Army's scouts had arrived nearby and were engaged in fierce fighting with the Jin army's scouts.

In other words, in the short time that was delayed, the Taiping Army had already caught up.

This does not mean that the Jin army was completely unable to retreat. Rather, it means that if the Jin army encountered blocked roads and scattered formations during its retreat, it would be unable to even mount a basic counterattack when facing the Taiping army's attack, and would be completely defeated.

Military operations must allow for sufficient time and space.

It seems we have no choice but to fight.

"Left Supervisor! We can't fight the Tianping bandits here!" Tu Dan Yongnian also rushed over. After listening to the scouts' report and understanding the situation, he immediately said, "We don't even have a place to maneuver. In the end, we'll end up like that bastard Shi Zhanxie!"

Tudanzhen nodded in response: "Of course I know this principle. Yiladao, do you know where there are large plains around?"

Ignoring Tudanzhen's rudeness, Yila Dao nodded and said, "Now that we've arrived at this place, I know that there's a large area of ​​saline-alkali land about five miles to the east, enough for us to work on!"

After only a moment's thought, Tu Danzhen immediately made up his mind: "We have to fight a battle. We can't let the Taiping Army get away with it, or we'll be hunted down and killed!"

After the three high-ranking Jin officials reached an agreement, the entire army turned east and, guided by scouts, traveled about three miles eastward until they found the open plain.

Tu Danzhen merely glanced around the battlefield before nodding.

This area must have been flooded by the Yellow River more than 20 years ago after it breached its banks. Subsequently, due to the silt covering it, it became a saline-alkali land that stretches for more than ten miles from north to south and several miles in width.

To manage this saline-alkali land, numerous water conservancy projects would need to be constructed to wash away the salt through repeated flooding. However, given the limited grassroots governance capabilities of the original Qi state and later the Jin state, this was simply impossible.

The local powerful families were too lazy to exert themselves near Liangshan Marsh, because with the Yellow River in its current state, it was uncertain when it would breach its banks again and flood the area, rendering all their efforts futile.

At this time, Tu Danzhen was too lazy to care about these livelihood issues, but it was true that this saline-alkali land gave the Jin cavalry a lot of room to maneuver.

The armored cavalry donned their armor, donned their main warhorses, and had just completed their formation when the first Taiping army appeared at the edge of Tu Danzhen's field of vision.

The banner behind the leading general bore the character 'Li'.

It was Li Tieqiang.

Although he only had a little over a thousand soldiers under his command, he became excited when he saw that the Jin army's armored cavalry had already formed ranks.

"Tell Brother Xin Wu! I've caught the Jin thief! Tell him to come quickly!"

After giving the military commander a word, Li Tieqiang immediately ordered the entire army to don their armor. They hastily formed ranks and then commanded the infantry and armored soldiers to launch an attack on the Jin cavalry.

Tu Danzhen dared not let his infantry charge in front of the cavalry, and immediately ordered several trusted men to lead several hundred cavalrymen in a counterattack.

This was exactly what Li Tieqiang wanted, because his goal was not to defeat the Jin army head-on, but to buy time.

If they can hold out for a short while, the main force of the Taiping Army will be able to encircle them, and then it will be difficult for the Jin army to escape.

Tu Danzhen also understood this principle. Seeing that the hundreds of cavalrymen had been harassing and attacking the more than 1,000 Tianping soldiers back and forth without any effect, he immediately increased his stakes. Nearly a thousand more cavalrymen circled around Li Tieqiang's two flanks, trying to find some gaps in the Tianping army's formation from the side and rear.

The battle became intense from the very beginning.

(End of this chapter)