Chapter 288: Thousands of Horses Roaring Between Ru and Ying

There is a team that, if it fails to win the championship, everyone will have to eat peanuts.

Then, they won the championship.

There was another famous general who was known for his strict law enforcement. When he led his troops to war, he would often send hundreds of people to fight, and if they dared to escape and return, they would be killed. Then he would send hundreds more. The soldiers would fight bravely to survive, and finally they would win.

Sometimes the threat of death can stimulate people's potential better than the temptation of huge rewards.

In order to rescue the troops on the south bank, Duan Yihong did not care about anything else and directly used strict military law to force these soldiers to rush towards the formation set up by the Western Yan army at the bridgehead.

The Western Army first used strong bows and crossbows to shoot a volley of arrows, while the Eastern Army advanced with large shields like a wall to block the arrows.

The two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat at the bridgehead, their spears stabbing each other, their shields pressing each other, and soon the bodies of the Eastern Army soldiers piled up in front of Wu Gang's chariot to form a bloody ladder.

The soldiers behind continued to attack the Western Army's formation, stepping on their dead comrades one after another.

As for the Eastern Army, seven bridgeheads were guarded by the Ba County's magical soldiers Bandun Barbarians, two of which were guarded by the Wuqian Flying Army composed of the Nanzhong barbarians, and the third was guarded by the Jianghuai elite Huainan Right Camp.

In addition, Li Yuanhui himself led more than 20,000 cavalry to guard the south bank of the Yingshui River. On the one hand, he kept an eye on the reinforcements from Eastern Yan on the north bank of the Yingshui River, and on the other hand, he occasionally watched the elite troops from the East and West armies fighting in the wilderness not far away, so that he could respond accordingly.

The Yingshui Bridge became a blood mill, with blood remaining in the water, turning the river red.

The various units of the Western Yan army were also hindered by military orders and dared not retreat a single step. The two sides continued to fight and clash at the bridgehead.

Li Yuanhui's personal army, the Wuwei Army, served as the supervisory team and reserve force, and was located behind the three elite infantry units, ready to take the lead if any of them could not hold on.

In the encirclement, hundreds of cavalrymen under Dugu Huaijie were scattered. When Dugu Huaijie was exhausted from running, Li Er shot his horse with an arrow and he fell to the ground. He was then captured alive. Li Er ordered his men to tie him up and carry him directly on a captured idle horse, and led this "bandit-suppressing general" into the charge.

After chasing for a while, Li Er was actually testing the junction of the Eastern Army's cavalry and infantry, as well as the thickness of the formation in various places.

When Li San also led his army to launch a full-scale attack and the cavalry began to clash, Li Er assessed the situation, shouted to encourage everyone, and then led his troops directly to charge towards Duan Wuchen's troops.

Before entering the battle, Li Er shot three arrows, and three Eastern Army knights fell down. Then he hung up the longbow, drew out the swords on both sides, and swung them hard, waving both swords at the same time, showing unstoppable courage.

Zhai Sixun, who was following closely behind, saw that Li Er, as the commander, was so brave, so he rushed into the formation with a large spear in his hand, and guarded Li Er on the flank.

All the black-armored cavalrymen were extremely excited, their shouts of killing resounded through heaven and earth, they were all unstoppable and charged forward bravely.

Although the Eastern Army's cavalry were also elite, they had just defeated the 100,000-strong Wagang Army with only 15,000 cavalry not long ago.

But at this moment, they were facing the charge of more than a thousand black-armored cavalrymen under Li Er's command and were unable to resist.

Li San's large cavalry force was pressing forward on the entire front line on the periphery, but he was attacked left and right by more than a thousand cavalrymen in the formation, and it was even difficult to maintain the encirclement.

However, Chen Leng's infantry formation was of no help to the situation at this moment. He had no choice but to retreat slowly and prepare to retreat towards Xiangcheng.

During the cavalry battle, after the Western Army gained the advantage in morale and numbers, Duan Wuchen and Pu Gusu both realized that the situation was not good.

They also saw that the reinforcements from Linying would not be able to cross the Yingshui River to support them in a short time, so the two of them made the same decision almost one after the other: to retreat.

The defeat of this battle is certain, and there is a high probability that we will be defeated miserably.

But the advantage of cavalry is that it is not easy for the enemy to turn it into an annihilation battle.

The two men quickly led their troops towards Xiangcheng, because it was their nearest stronghold between the two main streams of Yingshui and Rushui.

At this time, Li Er had already fought his way out of the battle formation of the Eastern Army cavalry. His left and right swords were covered in blood, and his sleeves were soaked with blood.

"The Eastern Army is leaving. Are you willing to fight me again?"

"Why not? I will follow the general till death."

"We will follow the general until death." Everyone shouted in unison. Although they had been fighting for a long time, their morale was still high.

At this time, a cavalry unit rushed over from a distance. They were none other than the Jianghuai fierce generals Chang Yanheng and Luo Shixiang. The two led their own elite cavalry, totaling more than 2,000 people. After seeing Li Er, they both bowed and said.

"Dunhuang Lord, we are here under the order of the general to await your orders."

Chang Yanheng and Luo Shixiang, who had been watching the battle from the sidelines, could no longer hold back and had been asking Li Yuanhui for a fight. Originally, Li Yuanhui had planned to send them to attack from the flank to support his second brother's cavalry, but he hadn't expected that before the two of them arrived, Li Er led his troops to charge out.

Li Er had always admired the bravery of Chang Yanheng and Luo Shixiang, but because they were his brother's confidants, it was difficult to poach them. Seeing the two coming to help, he laughed and said, "Having the help of Generals Chang and Luo is like adding wings to a tiger."

Then he said loudly: "Everyone, follow me and dance for a while!"

After saying this, he sheathed his two swords, rode away on his horse, and rushed towards the Yan cavalry that had already begun to flee westward in the distance.

The generals followed closely behind, and three thousand cavalrymen gathered to follow.

The various Western Yan cavalry units in the front were connected end to end, surging forward like a huge tide. The scene of thousands of horses galloping was extremely spectacular.

At the front was Li Jia Sanlang himself, and following him were the remaining two thousand black-armored cavalrymen of Li Er's army.

In this battle, the three brothers of the Li family used their best troops almost without reservation. Among them, Li Er and Li San even personally put on armor and took up arms and charged in the front.

Li Si was behind, responding calmly, sending reinforcements in time, and fighting hard to resist the enemy on the north bank.

The outcome of this battle is also very obvious.

Chen Leng's 8,000 infantry were destined to fail to reach Xiangcheng because the cavalry that were supposed to stay behind to support the two wings ran too fast.

So after being caught up again, Chen Leng could only command his infantry to form a temporary formation, a six-flower formation, to fight against the Western Army's cavalry.

Originally, the inventor of the Six Flower Formation was leading his troops as a detachment in Chenliu, confronting the western armies of Chenjun and Liangjun. However, because there was a predecessor named Li Yuanhui, the Six Flower Formation already existed in the Cao Wei era.

It is said that Emperor Xuan Cao Mao "guided" the famous general Ma Long to invent this formation based on Zhuge Wuhou's Eight Diagrams, and at this moment, it became Chen Leng's last straw.

However, any formation requires people to form the formation and to fight.

At this moment, the cavalry had been chased away and there was no trace of them. Chen Leng's troops were doomed to be alone. His only chance of survival was that the large group of cavalry north of Yingshui River could quickly cross Yingshui River and come to the south bank for support.

However, the pontoon bridge was blocked by Li Yuanhui, and both sides suffered heavy casualties in the front, but the Eastern Army was never able to break through the Western Army's defense.

A part of the Eastern Army once broke through the barbarian flying army that blocked them, but was stopped in time by the Western Army.

Li Yuanhui directly ordered Wang Fobao to lead the Wuwei Army to withstand the attack of the Eastern Army and contain the opponent's offensive on the bridge.

Wang Fobao held a large shield in one hand and knocked over several Eastern Army warriors, who fell into the river. The demon-subduing pestle in his hand killed more than a dozen Eastern Army soldiers.

Duan Yihong saw that there was no hope of crossing the river, so he had no choice but to order the attack to stop.

At the same time, he ordered people to quickly send messages to the various units in Yingyang and Jiaxian to wait for an opportunity to rescue.

After Chen Leng's troops formed a temporary battle formation, Li Er and Li Sanduo did not choose to lead the cavalry to charge the battle formation by force. Instead, they left a considerable number of cavalry to monitor, while the majority of them continued to chase and kill the fleeing Eastern Army cavalry.

The soldiers in the formation were still very nervous when they saw that the enemy did not charge, but they also had some hope in their hearts.

But Chen Leng understood that the 8,000 infantrymen under his command would become bait.

There was no need for the Western Army to waste precious cavalry to charge directly at the infantry formation. As long as they trapped them in the wilderness, they could attract reinforcements from the Eastern Army to come and rescue them.

If not, without food, water, and supplies, how long can these 8,000 people hold out?
(End of this chapter)