Chapter 291 A river of blood

After the light cavalry had been provoking and harassing for nearly two hours, the armored cavalry, or heavy cavalry, which had been hiding in the dust and fog, began to move.

Chang Yanheng personally led dozens of cavalry archery experts to within a few dozen steps of the Eastern Army's infantry formation. After completing the feint charge, they stopped urgently and then passed in front of the formation.

The infantrymen here were originally on high alert because Chang Yanheng had only fired a feint. Just as they relaxed, a group of heavily armored cavalrymen rushed towards them from behind Chang Yanheng's cavalry.

On the side being charged, a captain named Chen Gui from the Eastern Army was horrified when he saw this. He immediately shouted to his left and right: "Here they come! Here they come! Get ready! The Western Army is charging!"

The cavalry was getting closer and closer. The sound of their hooves hitting the ground and the sound of their armor and weapons colliding was deafening.

The armored cavalry marched straight forward, both men and horses wrapped in black iron armor, like steel beasts. At this time, the sun was high in the sky, and the sunlight shone on the armor plates of the heavy cavalry, reflecting a dazzling light that made people dare not look closely.

But the lieutenant of the Eastern Army, Chen Gui, sighed in his heart. He had joined the army with his cousin when he was young, and was also famous for his bravery. He had fought in many battles, and had been at the vanguard countless times. He had spent decades in the midst of fierce fighting. Today, he was almost 40 years old, and now he was a lieutenant commanding nearly a thousand soldiers.

He was lucky enough to live to forty after going through hundreds of battles and become an officer at the rank of lieutenant, although not as lucky as his cousin Chen Leng.

And then, he might be trampled into a pile of meat by the hooves of the Western Army's cavalry, or his head might be chopped off by swords, or his body might be pierced by spears. It didn't matter how he died. He was mentally prepared for this when he ate this meal.

But before he dies, as a captain, he will fight until the last moment.

The enemy cavalry was getting closer and closer, and Chen Gui shouted loudly: "Hold on, hold on!"

Suddenly, the Western Army's cavalry crashed into the formation.

The soldiers in the first row who were defending the front line felt that the shields they were holding up with their bodies were hit by a huge force, while Chen Gui in the second row was directly thrown several steps away and fell into the crowd in a daze.

He struggled to get up, only to feel a salty taste in his throat and unbearable pain all over his body. He didn't know how many bones were broken. But he still endured the pain, got up and moved forward again.

"Hold on, hold on! Anyone who retreats will die!" Chen Gui yelled at his retreating subordinates and casually summoned a group of reserve troops to try to stabilize the front and withstand the attack of the Western Army.

But the Western cavalry continued to charge forward with all their might, one after another.

Those armored cavalrymen were like a swirling whirlpool under the dam, constantly spinning, with teams of a hundred each, charging forward back and forth.

When the first batch of knights' charge was stifled by the infantry, they did not want to fight any longer but simply reined in their horses and turned around.

At the same time, the second group of knights began to speed up in the rear, and the third group of knights began to form a team, and so on.

Li Xuandao himself led the team, wearing two layers of armor and holding a large spear as he marched into the battle formation. The volley of arrows from the Eastern Army made him look like a hedgehog, but it was difficult to cause damage to the double layer of heavy armor he was wearing.

Li Xuandao charged into the formation and thrust his spear straight in, piercing the chest of Captain Chen Gui, who was still trying to organize his soldiers into a formation. Then, he used inertia to hit several more infantrymen in succession.

The Eastern Army's formation finally found a gap.

The collapse began.

Once the army formation was broken, it was only a matter of time before the infantry was defeated.

Li Yuanhui looked at the battlefield situation from afar, and when he saw that the armored cavalry had successfully broken through the formation, he knew that the opportunity for battle had come.

"Send the order, beat the drums, and march the whole army."

"Pass on the general's order, beat the drums, and march the whole army forward."

The war drums were beaten three times, and then the powerful and melodious sound of the horn took its place.

Hundreds of military flags of various shapes waved to give instructions, and tens of thousands of soldiers responded with deep voices, moving forward one after another.

From where Chen Leng was, the movement of the Western Army's infantry formation was like a huge city moving. The Western Army in front of him was large in number. Judging from the posture, it seemed that the soldiers' equipment level, fighting desire, and formation arrangement were all at the elite level.

These neatly arrayed infantrymen marched forward, the distance between each unit constantly shrinking, their footsteps were uniform, they advanced like a wall, little by little approaching the Eastern Army. The sense of oppression brought by these elite infantrymen of the Western Army was no less than that of the cavalry.

They advanced step by step, as if every step was a heavy step on the hearts of the Eastern Army. The spearmen in the front and back rows all thrust their spears forward.

The iron spear tips were densely packed, gleaming coldly in the sun, like some kind of giant beast covered with sharp blades, which was chilling.

The soul-stirring drums of war were beating again. The enemy's frontline troops gradually accelerated their pace. Groups of infantrymen, numbering in the hundreds, charged forward with shouts.

Arrows rained down on them, shooting at each other. At this time, human life was worthless. Both sides were armed with spears and long weapons, forming a dense formation and confronting each other.

On the vast battlefield, the spears of both sides were wielding and colliding, metal and wood clashing, making crisp crackling sounds. Some people simply used their spears as sticks, swinging them left and right with all their might.

The officers and soldiers of the Eastern Army shouted loudly: "Everyone, stand firm! Do not retreat. Anyone who retreats will be killed immediately!"

Both sides continued to shoot with bows and arrows, and some threw prepared stones into the array. But when the infantrymen in the rear continued to surge forward, the soldiers in the front row were pushed and had to face the spears directly.

At this moment, with the sound of another round of horns and drums, the captain in charge of the spearmen of the Western Army suddenly shouted an order. The spearmen shouted loudly: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

With a roar, the spearmen stepped forward and stabbed wildly with their spears.

Countless soldiers on both the attacking and defending sides were stabbed to death in this extremely short period of time. Soldiers kept falling to the ground after being stabbed with several holes in their bodies, and blood gushed out like springs, like streams, gathering into rivers.

The Eastern Army was already in a panic because their formation was broken, and now they were struggling to provide support.

Finally, exhausted, with morale shaky and under siege, the Eastern Army Battalion reached the critical point of collapse.

A large-scale rout began to occur, with people trampling on each other, pushing and shoving each other, and trying to escape.

The soldiers of the Eastern Army began to flee in large numbers, and the direction of their escape was the Yingshui River which had been reserved for them by the Western Army.

Chen Leng sighed, he knew that the situation was irreversible. Within half a day, his 8,000 elite troops were beaten to pieces by his former colleague Li Yuanhui.

This is not to say that there is a problem with his command, but in this situation of being surrounded and without any reinforcements, he was able to hold out for half a day before collapsing, which has proved that he has great prestige in this army. He also did everything he should do.

But defeat was still inevitable.

The Western Army continuously compressed the Eastern Army's foothold, making them get closer and closer to each other. The space they could maneuver became smaller and smaller. They tried desperately to rush towards the Ying River in the northwest, but they were unable to do so due to the obstruction of their own comrades.

The Western Army, under the command of officers at all levels, advanced in an orderly manner, like a huge war machine. The cavalry swept the formations on both wings, chasing and killing, driving the defeated soldiers to serve their own purposes, and blocking the defeated Eastern Army soldiers who wanted to escape the encirclement.

You can escape, but you can only escape towards the Yingshui River.

Seeing that there was no way to save the situation, Chen Leng had no choice but to order his soldiers to surrender, and he himself committed suicide.

Before his death, he sent a message to his former colleague Li Yuanhui, asking him to help take care of his family for the sake of their old friendship.

Upon hearing this, Li Yuanhui just sighed and said, "Why is it so? Give him a lavish burial."

Seeing that the overall situation here was settled, he ordered all the troops, except for leaving some men to guard the surrendered soldiers, to move towards Xiangcheng and Jiaxian to provide support.

And this battle of Yingchuan has also reached its most critical moment.

(End of this chapter)