Chapter 352: The Battle between Qin and Han
Li Yuanhui wrote a personal letter overnight and found a captured captain of the Yan army the next morning and asked him to take the letter back.

The content of the letter was roughly, "I have a long history with you, Old Liu. Now I am telling you some unfortunate news. The Turks are coming to attack us. You should retreat immediately. I will stop my second and third brothers from chasing us."
When the captain was brought before Liu Xuanji, the Yan army had already left the camp and deployed their troops. "King of Han, Li Yuanhui asked me to bring you a message."

Liu Xuanji read the letter in front of the battle line, and then ordered his men to drag the captain who brought the letter away and behead him.

"The war is imminent, and you dare to shake the morale of my army? Come, behead you and display your head to the public!" After saying this, he tore up the letter and threw it into the air.

The captain had not even finished shouting out the word "unfair" when his mouth was blocked and he was dragged away.

Liu Xuanji actually knew in his heart that what Li Yuanhui told him was mostly true, but since the troops had already been dispatched today, the battle had to continue.

But at the same time, before advancing to battle, Liu Xuanji secretly instructed Li Yuanzhong and Wang Sizheng to mobilize the troops besieging Jinyang, on the one hand to prepare for the withdrawal, and on the other hand to gather the troops to prevent a surprise attack from behind.

Then he shouted loudly as if nothing had happened to boost morale.

The Tang army was arranged the same as yesterday. They were divided into three armies, with Yuwen She leading the infantry in the front, Chang Yanheng and Wang Bi on the left, Yuwen Xiao, Xue Renmei on the right, and Li Erfeng leading the elite cavalry in the middle.

Behind them, Li San and Li Si also led their elite troops across the river. On the one hand, they suppressed the Yan army in the earthen city on the shore, and on the other hand, they were ready to support the front army at any time.

This time, however, the Yan army did not use heavy infantry to fight against heavy infantry. Instead, it sent out light cavalry to harass and intimidate, changing its tactics.

Hundreds or even dozens of cavalrymen formed a team, running in front of the Tang army's infantry formation, raising clouds of dust.

From time to time, they would ride forward and attack the front-row infantry with archery. This reciprocating cycle of running and shooting might last for an hour, two hours or even longer.

In addition to the continuous killing and wounding by archers, sometimes there seemed to be smoke and dust everywhere, but in fact there were only dozens of cavalrymen bluffing. Sometimes they would suddenly form a large group and approach the army formation to intimidate, making the infantrymen in the formation feel afraid.

As time goes by, even the most solid infantry formation will become loose due to fatigue of the soldiers. At that time, an assault by elite cavalry will be a crushing defeat, or a pursuit of the enemy to the rear, and victory will be easy.

This classic and effective tactic was once again used by the Yan army on the battlefield in Jinyang.

But in fact, this kind of tactics is the most effective way for nomadic cavalry to bully the Central Plains dynasty army which has no cavalry.

However, the Tang army was not without cavalry. There were tens of thousands of cavalry in the entire Jinyang battlefield. Therefore, both Li Yuanhui and Li Xuanqing, the two brothers watching the battle on the earthen city behind, were somewhat surprised by the Yan army's choice, because this tactic would hardly work against the Tang army. They could send out cavalry to counterattack at any time, so it was useless to do so.

The Tang army can fully cooperate with the infantry and cavalry. First, it is based on a solid main formation. If there are more cavalry on the side, they can be deployed outside the formation and work together with the infantry to launch a two-sided attack. If there are fewer cavalry, they can be deployed inside the formation and when the enemy cavalry circles the formation to intimidate, they can launch a short horizontal interception.

Due to the inertia of the horses when running, the enemy cavalry could not avoid being intercepted, and could not adjust their formation for a while. Therefore, only a few successful interceptions were needed to kill a large number of enemy troops. When the enemy tried to counterattack, the cavalry only needed to retreat to the main formation and prepare for the next interception.

Brothers Li San and Li Si were a little surprised, but Li Er saw something. The reason why the Yan army acted in this way was probably because they wanted to have a showdown with the elite cavalry hidden behind Li Er to decide the outcome in one battle.

There is only one explanation for this. Liu Xuanji believed the news given to him by Li Si, or he also received the news that the Turks were heading south, so he wanted to defeat the Tang army today and leave calmly?
This is a bit too confident, Li Er thought.

Then, Li Er made a decision and said loudly: "Cheng Zhijie"

"exist."

"Zhai Sixun"

"exist"

"Qin Bogui"

"exist"

"Qin Zhongyu" "in"

"Shan Xiongxin"

"exist."

"Zhang Jin"

"exist"

"The six of you, each lead your elite troops, go out from the left and right, and intercept the enemy cavalry, but don't chase them too far, just drive them away. If they come back again, fight them, don't let them advance or retreat freely! Harass the infantry formation!"

"promise"

Six brave cavalry generals responded in unison, and then each led hundreds of cavalry to attack from the left and right wings, encircling the Yan cavalry that were harassing the Tang army's front.

The two sides started by chasing, intercepting and besieging each other in front of the formation, and finally they were entangled and fighting each other.

Both the Tang cavalry and the Yan cavalry were elite, and the generals leading them were also fierce generals, so the fighting between the two sides was hard to distinguish, which directly led to a tense situation.

When the two elite cavalry units in the center were forming a stalemate, the cavalry unit on the left side of the Tang army unexpectedly established an advantage. The more than 7,000 cavalry led by Chang Yanheng and Wang Bi once again confronted the 9,000 cavalry of Daibei led by Tuoba Tianbao and Tuoba Tianmu.

As the leader of the Daibei cavalry, Tuoba Tianbao was also extremely brave. He led the troops, holding a long-handled iron bone flower, and rode out on horseback. He knocked down more than a dozen Tang cavalrymen in a row, and was spotted by the Tang general Chang Yanheng.

A few dozen steps away, the bow was drawn and the arrow was shot at a very fast speed. Tuoba Tianbao was hit in the shoulder by an arrow and almost fell off his horse. At this time, several Tang cavalry rushed over in front. If it weren't for his cousin Tuoba Tianmu who arrived and guarded him in the center, Tuoba Tianbao would have died on the battlefield.

After the commander was shot by an arrow, the cavalryman holding the flag behind him was also shot and killed by Chang Yanheng, causing the flag to fall. This action caused chaos among the cavalrymen of Daibei.

Afterwards, Chang Yanheng put away his bow, took down his spear and led his elite troops to launch a fierce attack, while Wang Bi also followed closely with his two swords, unstoppable.

Under the fierce attack of the Tang cavalry, the Daibei cavalry could not see the commander's flag, so the chiefs and leaders of each tribe immediately chose to retreat.

Chang Yanheng and Wang Bi pursued them relentlessly and continuously defeated several cavalry units of the northern Dai tribe and captured their chieftain.

Chang Yanheng's spear is like a dragon emerging from the sea or a tiger descending from the mountain. It is exquisite yet unparalleled in its strength and ferocity.

As for Wang Bi, he wielded both swords, blood flowed all over his sleeves, and in the end, even his refined swords were full of gaps.

After learning that the left army had retreated, Liu Xuanji finally stopped waiting. He immediately took a long spear and led his 3,000 most elite Youzhou cavalry, that is, heavily armored cavalry, to charge.

Following closely behind the heavy cavalry was a cavalry brigade led by Dongfang Di, Han Gui, Lou Daiwen and others, with about 8,000 cavalry. These were the most elite troops in the entire Northern Yan, and also the Youzhou headquarters that Liu Xuanji relied on the most.

After Liu Xuan's move, Li Erfeng finally breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "Defeat the enemy today, and follow me to capture the King of Han alive."

He then led the remaining 4,000 cavalrymen to bypass the infantry formation and launched a charge.

Li Erfeng, holding a longbow, led the way, followed closely by the fierce general Yang Xianguo, while Qiu Xinggong, Zhai Changsun, Zhang Jin, Xue Wanjun and other fierce generals each led hundreds of armored cavalry behind and charged in the direction where Li Erfeng shot the whistling arrows.

The two most famous kings in the world, the King of Qin and the King of Han, finally met on the battlefield.

Some people in later generations also liked to call this battle the "War of Qin and Han".

(End of this chapter)