Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 158 Joint Battle with Pei Qu
There is a saying: "Above is heaven, below are Suzhou and Hangzhou."

Pei Qu, the military governor of Zhenhai, really liked Hangzhou.

In the Jiangnan region, there are only two places with women of Central Asian descent, known for their high noses and deep-set eyes: Suzhou and Hangzhou.

From the age of six to sixty, Pei Qu was a man obsessed with Hu women.

Pei Jiedu knew that top-quality Hu women were rarely abducted and sold. It was usually wealthy Silk Road merchants who, having no shortage of money, would push their own daughters or sisters into this abyss for huge profits.

Pei Qu, of course, couldn't understand such an unethical practice. He felt that if Hu Ji hadn't aged so quickly, these people would probably have sold their own mother into a brothel.

This did not prevent him from enjoying those young girls.

Pei Qu contacted many well-known foreign merchants, telling them that if their families had any good goods, they could send them to Hangzhou. He promised to make it easier for them to do business throughout the Liangzhe region.

A few days ago, after Pei Qu met that mysterious blonde beauty, he felt that he had wasted his life playing with Hu Ji.

That woman helped him take the head of Cao Shixiong, a petty thief who was good at escaping.

This made Pei Qu give up the idea of ​​taking this woman for himself.

A woman who is too clever for her own good and whose origins are unclear, even if she is brought into the home, will inevitably cause unrest in the household.

Even though the woman had been gone for several days, Pei Qu could still feel the lingering fragrance of her scent, which made him feel quite reluctant to part with her.

Taking a breath of the cool, slightly damp air of late autumn in Jiangnan, Pei Qu brought his thoughts back to the present moment.

Looking around, golden straw army banners fluttered in the wind.

Huang Chao, the villain in the drama who was considered to be no less intelligent and brave than the Four Great Marshals of the Tang Dynasty, has finally arrived!

The army was led by cavalry, followed by chariots, and then infantry, forming a strict and orderly formation.

But the naval sentries looking down from the nesting vehicle could see clearly that many of them were not wearing armor.

On the one hand, Huang Chao's army had recently been ambushed and killed by Lei Shuai Gao Pian in Xuanzhou, suffering heavy losses. The lost supplies must have included many heavy suits of armor.

On the other hand, the real key lies in what makes the pincer strategy an open and difficult-to-break scheme.

As the art of war says: "He who rushes for profit from a hundred li away will lose his general; he who rushes for profit from fifty li away will lose half his army."

In order to break the pincer attack of the government troops, which was like crab claws, Huang Chao's army had to march rapidly in order to fight a decisive battle with one of them.

This inevitably leads to the following results: physical exhaustion, a large number of people falling behind, and a low armor coverage rate when engaging the enemy due to the use of carts and horses to transport armor and the need to rush with armor rolled up.

For a seasoned general like Pei Qu, this was an opportunity not to be missed.

"It's a pity that my generals Dong Chang and Qian Liu are not here, allowing the Yellow bandits to be so ferocious!" Pei Qu looked at his generals: "Who dares to lead the brave and reckless warriors to charge into battle first?"

These words angered Cheng Qianxi, a descendant of the Duke. In order to avenge his four old friends, he first followed Commander Yan in the Battle of Muling Pass, and later joined Pei Qu's army with his troops.

"What Dong Chang, Qian Liu?" Cheng Qianxi roared, "These two juniors are being spoken of as if they were unparalleled in heaven and earth by Commander Pei!"

Cheng Qianxi swung his large axe with his left hand, making a lightning-fast slash in the air: "This general is willing to lead his troops into battle. Even if we can't kill this villain Huang Jutian, we can at least capture a Zhu Wen or Shang Rang to show Governor Pei!"

Judging from Cheng Qianxi's high spirits, he was completely unaware that he had fallen for Pei Qu's provocation.

Instead of pleading, he used provocation. Pei Qu was quite pleased with Cheng Qianxi's high fighting spirit and nodded, saying, "Then I'll have to trouble General Cheng. Please drink this cup of farewell wine!"

They had someone fill a large cup with fine wine for Cheng Qianxi, and then served him five large pig's trotters that were roasted with brown sugar until they smelled fragrant.

With his right hand, which only had two fingers left, Cheng Qianxi grabbed a cup of wine and drank it all in one gulp. He then grabbed a pig's trotter and devoured it, finishing it off in no time.

"General, are you still able to drink wine and eat meat?" Pei Qu asked with a smile. A cup of wine contained a full four liters, and each of the five pig's trotters weighed about a pound.

"I'm only a little full!" Cheng Qianxi wiped the wine stains off his face with his battle robe and said defiantly, "We'll drink to our hearts' content after we've had a good fight with the enemy!"

Most of the generals were locals from Jiangdong. Seeing Cheng Qianxi's heroic spirit, they all thought to themselves, "What a brave man! He lives up to the reputation of his ancestor Cheng Yaojin!"

Cheng Qianxi mounted his horse and led his elite cavalry at full speed toward the approaching army formation. The generals followed Pei Qu's banner and led their infantry closely behind, clearly indicating that they were going to send out their entire army from the outset.

The scattered cavalry at the front of the grass army formation were swept away like morning mist by Cheng Qianxi's charge, and they all retreated in an instant.

“Pei Qu’s troop deployment and formation are in perfect harmony with military strategy; he is truly a fine general,” Pi Rixiu said to Huang Chao, gazing at the enemy formation in the distance.

Huang Chao nodded and asked his old friend, "How does Pei Qu's formation compare to Song Wei's Five Directions Formation?"

Pi Rixiu pondered for a moment, then burst into laughter.

Song Wei, and Kang Chengxun, who once defeated Pang Xun, were more than just good generals.
But when they play well, they seem like completely different people compared to when they play poorly.

Talented horses are common, but discerning judges of character are rare. On fertile ground, there will always be more applicants than openings. Good generals who can fight effectively and methodically, trained step-by-step from junior officers, are abundant and readily available.

The deep-seated problems accumulated over two hundred years in the Tang Dynasty, including various checks and balances, scheming, and infighting, manifested in the army. Often, incompetent officials held high positions, or laymen commanded experts, turning them into incompetent officials themselves. Or several wise and brave generals would sabotage each other, ultimately resulting in them being even worse than incompetent officials.

The reason why the Four Marshals of the Tang Dynasty were so great was because, in such a rotten court, they were able to win battles time and time again that were unmatched by others.

In Huang Chao's eyes, a good general could be used to his fullest potential and would naturally be able to win battles.

However, if he is placed in the position of head coach, how different is he from an mediocre general?

There are too few first-rate people in the world.

Pei Qu and his ilk were not even in Huang Chao's sights!
Cheng Qianxi wielded a large axe with embroidered patterns, fiercely hacking and slashing, causing the grass army cavalry to flee in terror.

It was clear that the enemy cavalry was about to collide head-on with the two hundred Persian armored cavalry recruited by Pi Rixiu.

Because they arrived at breakneck speed, none of the two hundred armored cavalrymen were wearing horse armor, so they could not take full advantage of their iron steeds.

Moreover, the enemy's advance was at its peak, and their warhorses were exhausted from running.

Cheng Qianxi was confident that he could make seven incursions and retreats, utterly defeating Huang Chao's precious armored cavalry.

But as he got closer, his expression suddenly changed.

Two hundred Persian knights dismounted, clad in heavy triple armor, their lances pointing diagonally, forming a dense forest of steel.

In the bloody battle with his arch-enemy, Fulin, the Persian knight, who was once only known for his mounted combat, learned his opponent's foot combat skills and became proficient in both horsemanship and footwork.

When their homeland was destroyed and they drifted to the Tang Dynasty, these descendants of Persian nobles still maintained their pride and passed down their military skills from generation to generation.

When they dismount and form a horizontal line, they become extremely powerful heavy infantry.

Compared to cavalry combat, physique is more important in infantry warfare. These Persians were taller than most non-Han peoples, comparable only to the men of Yan and Zhao in the Tang Dynasty.

In the Jiangdong region, these fierce warriors, each over seven feet five inches tall, wore three layers of thick armor, truly resembling a group of towering iron towers.

Cheng Qianxi swung his axe furiously, cutting down several spears, but his entourage immediately handed him spare spears. The spearheads, like clusters of hedgehog bristles, forced even a valiant warrior like Cheng Qianxi to retreat on horseback.

Several government cavalrymen couldn't stop their horses and crashed into the hail of spears, riddled with bloody holes along with their horses.

(End of this chapter)