Chapter 429 Battle of Baigou
"The advantage lies with me," Li Yuan was very confident.

Pei Ji, who was standing by, also chimed in at the right time: "Your Majesty's presence in the battlefield will surely make our Tang soldiers brave enough to take the lead."

Li Yuanhui was stunned after hearing this. The advantage is mine? If not, then it's not allowed. This is like flying dragon riding on the face, losing is a way to death.
In the current situation, the Tang army does seem to have the upper hand due to its military advantage, but it is far from being able to celebrate.

Unlike Li Yuanhui's worries, Li Xiaozheng, who was in charge of the left army, was in high spirits at this time. He got the opportunity to fight in this battle, and he was the commander of the left army, a position that should have belonged to the King of Qi.

But during the military meeting, the King of Qi once again disagreed with the Emperor over some issues, and it was this opportunity that allowed Li Xiaozheng to get this position.

Otherwise, how could he, a defeated general who had rarely fought in a battle, get such an important position in such a crucial battle.

Even so, for the sake of safety, Li Yuan still placed two famous Tang army generals with outstanding military achievements, General Dou Cong of the Left Guard and General Liu Zongxun of the Right Guard, as well as the Minister of War Yuwen Chengye, in the left army, and also instructed Yuwen Chengye to be in charge of the actual dispatch and command.

Basically, it was to let King Wei Li Xiaozheng just put his name on the list so that he could get some credit after the war.

Even so, Li Xiaozheng was still quite excited. After all, in his eyes, this achievement was like something he had picked up for free. Couldn't hundreds of thousands of Tang troops defeat tens of thousands of Yan troops?

Needless to say, Chai Rong, Duke of Qiao, who was in charge of the right army, was Li Yuan's son-in-law and his level of trust was second only to that of several princes.

As for the Yan army, Liu Xuanji looked at the Tang army's formation from afar. Although he remained calm on the surface, he was actually beginning to feel nervous.

But he still didn't take the Tang army seriously. "Although the Tang army is large, the Tang ruler Li Yuan is not a man who knows military affairs. He deployed all 100,000 troops, but did not divide them to harass our army's rear. He did not use people like Qi Wang Li Yuanhui, and commanded the battle himself. Even if the enemy had a million troops, what could they do to us?"

Liu Xuanji's words were actually just nonsense to boost everyone's confidence. At this critical moment, one should belittle the other party to elevate oneself and build confidence.

Li Yuan and Pei Ji also took this into consideration. Both sides were using their own methods to boost their own morale.

Following Li Yuan's order, Duan Xiong, who was in charge of commanding the front army, began to issue the order to advance. The first to attack were tens of thousands of Tang soldiers. With the sound of drums and horns, they formed a tight formation, with long spears standing like a forest, flags flying, and marching forward step by step in neat steps. It was like a mountain pressing down.

Su Ding, who was commanding the front of the Yan army, looked at the Tang army's formation and nodded, thinking that they were indeed elite. Then he shouted: "Although the soldiers in Guanzhong are good at fighting, today, let them see the bravery of us Yanzhao men! All troops, advance!"

Soon, the 6,000 Yan troops and the 10,000 Tang troops from ten Zhechoufu collided head-on on the battlefield.

The two armies were lined up in neat formations, starting with the long-range covering shots by archers and then stabbing each other with long weapons at close range, advancing like a wall, with one death after another.

In a decisive battle on such a vast plain, all movements are actually under the enemy's watch, so there is no room for ambushes or any clever strategies.

Because of their positions, Liu Xuanji and Li Yuan could not actually see the fighting in the front, so at this time many battle situations were judged through oral descriptions of the soldiers in front who were responsible for observing the battle.

After learning that the front army was in a state of panic, Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Send a message to Duan Xiong in the front army to send more troops to attack."

After the collision between the front armies, the left and right armies also began to fight one after another.

Unlike the central army, the left army led by Wei King Li Xiaozheng actually took the initiative and successfully suppressed the Yan army after the battle.

This is certainly not because he is brave and good at fighting.

Instead, the leading troops were the elite Yongliang troops of the left and right guards, who had fought under Li Er from Longyou to Liangzhou, from Guanzhong to Jingzhou, and from Yingchuan to Luoyang. They were the best troops in the world.

Even so, Dongfang Di, the commander of the left army of the Yan army, still commanded the elite troops of the Northern Army and resisted the attack of the Tang army, preventing the team from being defeated.

As for the right army, the Tang army led by Chai Rong and the Yan army led by Zhu Lingshi formed a balance of power. Both sides left room for maneuver and did not commit all their troops.

If the momentum continues, the Tang army will surely be able to gradually transform its local advantages into overall advantages and achieve final victory.

The leaders of the Yan army could see the situation clearly, so they decided to fight to the death.

Liu Xuanji did not give Su Dingbian any reinforcements, but only said one sentence: "Hold on the offensive of the Tang army and wait for me to defeat their left army."

Then he ordered General Yang Kan, who had returned to the Tang Dynasty, to lead his 1,000 cavalry to attack the Tang army's center. He encouraged him, "I heard that your father, Duke of Yue, Yang Su, had led troops for decades. Today, please let me see if the family tradition of the Yue family has been passed down."

Liu Xuanji himself led all the remaining elite troops in his camp to attack the left army of the Tang army, which was the army of Wei Wang Li Xiaozheng.

He could see that the most valiant troops in the Tang army were the left troops, so he had to defeat the left troops first.

Yang Kan took the order and left. Holding a large spear, he led his thousand elite cavalrymen and charged straight into the center of the Tang army. Like an arrow shot from a bow, he bypassed the most intense fighting area between the two sides and came with great momentum.

Although this cavalry unit has only a thousand people, they are all followers of the Yang family for many years. Among them are even old soldiers who followed Yang Xun in the uprising. After years of fighting, only these people are left. They can be said to be elite soldiers who have fought many battles and are extremely brave in battle.

The Tang army did not yet know how destructive this cavalry unit could be.

At this time, Li Yuan saw a cavalry unit charging towards the main camp, so he ordered his men to intercept them. "Order the Left Guard General Pei Xingyan to intercept the Yan cavalry unit."

The messenger quickly delivered the message.

After receiving the military order, Pei Xingyan immediately led the three cavalrymen under his command to intercept the Yan cavalry.

The two cavalry units soon met each other several miles in front of the central army formation.

Pei Xingyan was very excited about this rare opportunity. He took the lead with a lance in hand. After entering the battle formation, he stabbed and chopped the enemies with the lance, killing more than ten enemies. He then broke through the enemy's cavalry formation with a few of his trusted men.

But after the attack, Pei Xingyan turned around and was shocked because his team was also attacked.

After the battle, a total of two thousand cavalry were directly dispersed by more than one thousand cavalry of the enemy.

Although he was brave, he was of no help to the overall situation, because the enemy cavalry had already started to rush towards their own formation.

However, after his cavalry advanced and failed to stop the enemy cavalry, there was a very serious consequence.

That is, the remaining distance is not enough for the cavalry to form a formation, because the cavalry must have enough distance to sprint and build a charging formation before launching an attack.

The cavalry can only have enough impact force if their horses are running at full speed.

The most direct consequence of Pei Xingyan's failure to stop the Yan cavalry was that Yang Kan had already led the cavalry to attack the flank and rear of the Tang army's main formation.

In the eyes of Li Yuan, the commander of the Central Army, the 3,000 Tang cavalry who came forward to intercept were overwhelmed by the Yan army in just one encounter.

After seeing this scene, Li Yuan felt a little flustered for no reason. But on the surface, he remained calm and asked Li Sixing, the general of the Right Guard who was in charge of the central army, to lead the troops to surround and kill the Yan army cavalry.

Li Sixing took the order and left.

But at this time, Li Yuanhui was already very worried. The enemy cavalry rushed to this position, and the formation of the rear of the central army was already somewhat chaotic. If it had not been for the advantage it had already gained, then at this time, as long as the remaining main forces were pressed forward, the Tang army would be in great danger. Even if it could barely resist, it would not be easy to win this battle.

Okay
That’s not right. Liu Xuanji will not let go of such an obvious opportunity. Where is the person?

(End of this chapter)