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

Chapter 772 Jiaqi Mountain Collapses Like Thunder

Li Xianzong's hesitation stemmed from a simple and direct reason.

That is, the east bank of the Fei River is where the main force of the Jin army is concentrated. Now, the Huaidong army at the forefront has completely overwhelmed the conscripted troops and is just one step away from completely defeating them. However, the main force of the Jin army, the armored cavalry, has not reacted at all, which is indeed a bit too strange.

However, judging from Li Xianzong's many years of military experience, Pusan ​​Zhongyi was definitely up to no good and was just waiting for a big move.

After a moment's thought, Li Xianzong, with almost superhuman willpower, suppressed the urge to immediately send troops across the river: "Send orders to Dai Gao and Zhang Zhen, telling them not to pursue the Jin invaders too far."

I have no reinforcements here. Whether they succeed or not is up to them. But they fought brilliantly this time, and the two of them deserve the greatest credit!

Just as the military envoy set off, Li Xianzong heard shouts and cheers coming from the front of the battlefield. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked over.

All that could be seen was billowing smoke and dust, with men and horses hidden within it, making them difficult to see clearly. However, Li Xianzong could still make out the banners of the Song generals slowly advancing.

This should mean that the enemy has been completely defeated and is now driving the routed troops into the enemy camp.

Thinking of this, Li Xianzong did not relax at all; on the contrary, his heart tightened, and he immediately ordered: "Raise the yellow flag!"

The military officer beside him immediately raised the yellow flag that had been prepared beforehand and waved it vigorously.

Upon receiving the agreed-upon signal, Yang Chun immediately took a deep breath and then loudly commanded, "Rise!"

Having already donned their armor, the Song soldiers, who had been resting on the ground for a long time, immediately stood up, stretching their arms and legs while checking their armor.

"Array up!"

"Enter!"

The military order was quickly relayed, and the Chizhou army, which was the absolute main force of the Song army, was also mobilized.

Yang Chun led 7,000 infantrymen ahead, while Li Xianzong personally led the remaining 15,000 troops to begin their march out of the camp and form ranks.

At the same time, Hou Yuanliang was in utter despair.

His troops had been utterly decimated, and countless elders he had tried to protect had also perished. Now, even the conscripted army camp, which he had poured his heart and soul into, was about to be breached by the Song army. This made Hou Yuanliang consider dying on the battlefield to end it all.

It should be noted that there were still tens of thousands of civilians in the conscription camp at this time. If the Song army were to break in, who knows how many more would die.

"Brother! Brother!" A trusted confidant risked his life to pull Hou Yuanliang from the front line, shouting with a sob in his voice, "Brother, what are you doing?"

Hou Yuanliang recovered from his bloodthirsty state, savoring the taste of rust on his tongue, and couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh: "Fifth Brother, I really have no other choice..."

Hou Wulang grabbed Hou Yuanliang's armor collar and shouted, "Brother, is it really okay to just die like this? Even if you are completely incompetent in dealing with the situation, you can still fight as a soldier, right?!"

Why lose heart at this crucial moment?! What will become of the surviving sons and fathers?! Does my elder brother expect me to clean up this mess?!

A barrage of questions left Hou Yuanliang bewildered, but after a moment, the powerful figure from Mengcheng regained his composure amidst the chaos of the battlefield and nodded, saying, "Fifth Brother, you're right. Even if we were to atone with our deaths, now wouldn't be the time. We... we'll fight and retreat, holding the conscripted army camp..."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a military envoy carrying a command flag rode up on horseback.

"Which one is Hou Yuanliang! The Marshal has given a military order!"

The newcomer was not wearing a helmet, nor had his hair shaved, nor was he wearing a turban. Instead, he had his hair braided, clearly indicating that he was a Meng'an-Muke household who had migrated to the interior of China. Their lives had been largely Sinicized, yet they used various tricks to express their Jurchen ethnicity.

Hou Yuanliang, his eyes bloodshot, rose and bowed, saying, "This humble general is Hou Yuanliang. What are your orders, Marshal?"

The military envoy was startled by Hou Yuanliang's blood-soaked appearance and reined in his horse, saying, "Hou Yuanliang, the Grand Marshal has ordered the Han army to retreat to the conscripted army camp. The Song traitors will be dealt with by the elite Heavenly Army!"

Hou Yuanliang's spirits lifted slightly. He didn't care why the Jurchen armored cavalry had only moved out now, and loudly replied, "Your subordinate obeys!"

Subsequently, Hou Yuanliang almost impatiently began the withdrawal of his troops.

However, retreating in the face of battle is a huge problem even for elite troops; a slight miscalculation can turn a retreat into a rout, let alone for conscripted soldiers.

Soon, the already crumbling formation of the conscripted troops completely collapsed, also throwing Hou Yuanliang's Han troops into disarray, with more than 10,000 men running around like headless flies.

Li Heng immediately ordered his troops to press forward, intending to chase after the conscripted soldiers and rush into their camp.

Seeing this, Yu Yunwen became even more flustered. Unable to find anyone to discuss it with, he could only say to Liu Bao beside him, "Steward Liu, isn't Steward Li being too reckless?"

Liu Bao bowed and replied, "General Li, this is something we have no choice but to do. Judging from the size of this camp, the Jin bandits have gathered at least 30,000 to 40,000 conscripted soldiers, but only about 10,000 have actually gone into battle. This must be because the conscripted soldiers are not yet properly trained. If we storm into the conscripted soldiers' camp now, we can cause chaos among these tens of thousands of men, and we might even be able to counterattack the Jin bandits' main force. This risk is worth taking, and besides..."

Liu Bao pointed to the large banner bearing the character "Li" representing the commander-in-chief, sighed, and then said, "Minister Yu is not in the army and does not know what is happening there. Now that the enemy in front of us has been routed, all the troops are chasing after them to claim credit. Commander-in-Chief Li can no longer fully control the troops and can only follow the trend."

Yu Yunwen was somewhat enlightened, but also somewhat hesitant.

Although he wasn't particularly knowledgeable about military affairs, he wasn't the typical Song Dynasty prime minister who would hide a hundred miles away during battle. He was a ruthless man who had fought alongside the army in the front lines; as the saying goes, he had seen it all.

In Yu Yunwen's numerous battles, his troops were always disciplined and obeyed orders. How could there be a situation like the one Liu Bao described, where the army was out of control?
However, Yu Yunwen quickly realized that in the Second Battle of Huaixi, the actual military commanders were either Liu Huai, Li Xianzong, or at the very least Shi Jun.

Although Li Heng was a competent general, how could he compare to these men?

"Now that Chief Steward Li has entered the formation, we can no longer wait here. Move forward!" Yu Yunwen suppressed his panic and gave the order loudly. Then, ignoring Liu Bao's terrified state, he spurred his horse forward.

Liu Bao led more than 2,000 troops without participating in the battle, partly to serve as Li Heng's successor, and partly to protect Yu Yunwen and prevent him from getting too close to the front lines.

However, just as Li Xianzong could not stop Yu Yunwen from personally taking to the front lines, how could Liu Bao possibly stop Yu Yunwen from personally leading the banner to the front lines?

Yu Yunwen's move immediately triggered a chain reaction.

The first to react were Yang Chun's troops, who had already begun their slow march into the battlefield.

Yang Chun, a general who defended Luzhou during the great defeat in Huaixi, had an impressive background. After the defeat, he did not flee to Jiangnan, but instead established a water fortress in Chaohu to fight guerrilla warfare. Later, he personally led his troops to participate in the Battle of Chaoxian and made great contributions.

Therefore, Yang Chun, like Dai Gao and Zhang Zhen, was a general whom Yu Yunwen focused on cultivating.

In other words, Yang Chun is Yu Yunwen's man.

Given this relationship, and under such circumstances, even setting aside personal feelings, from a purely pragmatic perspective, how could Yang Chun allow his own people in the court to be in danger?
Therefore, Yang Chun simply ordered his trusted general Fan Shanshuo to lead more than 300 armored cavalrymen to advance first, and then lead the remaining armored soldiers to speed up their pace, in order to join the battle in the shortest possible time.

The Jin army's reaction was equally intense. Pusan ​​Zhongyi stopped his horse on a small hillside and looked into the distance. When he saw that Yu Yunwen's banner was already faintly visible at the edge of his field of vision, a sinister smile appeared on his face.

"Shu Hu Chi! Have you rested enough?"

Shuhuchi, one of the three chief stewards of Hezhamengan, nodded slowly. Then, the scarred man raised the spear in his hand, spat out the gag in his mouth, and roared, "Mount up!"

Upon seeing the flag signal, the three thousand Hezha Meng'an who were sitting on the ground pulled on their horse reins, lifted their warhorses, and then mounted them.

Pu Sanzhongyi nodded in satisfaction and waved to the guards beside him.

The guards immediately raised a red flag and began waving it vigorously.

Behind the main camp of the conscripted soldiers, four thousand Wu Jie soldiers, who had concealed themselves with the wooden fence of the camp, also mounted their warhorses. Pu Cha Shijie, with a sinister grin, put on his helmet and put down his helmet.

With a command, seven thousand elite Jin cavalrymen roared into action, their thunderous hooves announcing their presence to everyone on the battlefield.

The first to react and immediately panicked was not the Song army, but Hou Yuanliang, who was doing his best to gather his conscripted troops and return to his camp.

A chill ran through him, and as he listened to the thunderous sound of horses' hooves, his mind went completely blank.

Such a large cavalry force was not there to assist the conscripted soldiers in defending the camp, or to help the Han army retreat. What the military envoy just said was not an exaggeration, but rather an extremely true statement.

The Jin army wanted to crush all the Song soldiers here.

However, Hou Yuanliang didn't care whether the Song soldiers died or not. The key issue was that the conscripted soldiers and the Han soldiers under his command in Chenzhou were also in chaos, scattering and fleeing in all directions. Many of them simply blocked the path of the Jin cavalry's charge.

Could we really expect those Jurchens to show any pity for the Han soldiers?
Amid Hou Yuanliang's bloodshot eyes, the Jin cavalry bypassed the massive conscripted army camp from both sides, disregarding all obstacles and trampling over soldiers of all kinds, friend and foe, before appearing on both flanks of the battlefield.

The Wu Jie Army further dispatched over a thousand armored cavalry, in units of ten, to penetrate between the conscripted army camp and the routed troops. They used swords, axes, and warhorses to force the scattered conscripted troops to turn around and charge the Song army formation. The remaining six thousand cavalry split into two groups, sweeping across the battlefield from the flanks and attacking the Song army.

"Pu Chaping!" Hou Yuanliang recognized the old acquaintance leading the armored cavalry to drive away the fleeing troops. He rushed forward, grabbed the other man's horse reins, and said anxiously, "There's no need for so many conscripted soldiers to go back together. Open a gap so I can gather the troops and join the Heavenly Army in the attack."

Pu Chaping's face was full of mockery, but he didn't say anything. He just snatched the reins, casually stabbed a skinny old man who was completely naked except for a loincloth to death, and then led his armored cavalry to continue forward.

Hou Yuanliang collapsed to the ground amidst cries and screams, unable to utter a word for a moment.

(End of this chapter)