Chapter 434 Lucky
Liu Xuanji led a large cavalry force and rushed over. Seeing the Tang army arrayed in the field, and also mainly composed of a large cavalry force, he immediately said: "The array is neat. After yesterday's defeat, they were not panicked when they saw our army. They must be the elite of the Tang army. Shiwulang, do you know whose troops are on the opposite side?"

"My king, it's too far. I have to go to the front of the battle line to take a look."

"Go."

The man called Twenty-five Lang was a young man wearing a well-made armor. He was originally half a body length behind Liu Xuanji, but after receiving the order, he rode forward and went about a mile away before turning back.

The expression on his face under the iron helmet was complicated. He carefully identified the opponent's flag and armor style before replying: "Replying to King Han, it is the personal army of King Qi, including the guards of King Qi's palace, the personal army of Tiance Palace, and the armored cavalry of Beiwei Army. There is also a part of the troops and horses that should be the elite of Yongliang from the left and right guards of the old prince."

This man was named Li Xiaochang. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, he was named King of Bohai. He was Li Yuan's cousin, and also the nephew of the late general and King of Zheng Li Shenfu, and the brother of the Queen of Northern Yan and Han, Li.

Because of this relationship, after the Tang army was defeated yesterday, he led his troops to surrender to Yan. Naturally, he was treated well by Liu Xuanji because of his status. He was even allowed to follow him around during today's battle for consultation.

After listening to Li Xiaochang's introduction, Liu Xuanji nodded. He had actually guessed that Li Yuanhui would stay behind with his family property to cover his retreat and fight him personally.

Otherwise, if anyone in the Tang army was replaced by someone leading the battle, he would have been quickly defeated. Only Qi Wang Li Yuanhui could still rely on his old reputation to deal with him.

When we meet on a narrow road, the brave wins.

The vast wilderness is an excellent place for the brave to win.

The Yan army had more than 20,000 cavalry, the Tang army had about 10,000 cavalry, and there were 5,000 mounted infantry, who had already formed an infantry formation.

Cavalry battles of this scale were rare in the wars among the armies in the Central Plains, but in today's battle between Northern Yan and the Tang Dynasty, the carefully selected war horses and battle-hardened cavalrymen of the past were nothing more than ordinary consumables.

The heavily armored cavalry charged at each other, arrows rained down from the sky, and their shouting shook the earth.

The most valiant generals led the most heroic warriors into the battle, and the commanders of both sides also went into battle in person.

The encounter lasted from the morning until heavy fog rose in the afternoon, and both sides stopped fighting.

Duan Xiong and Xu Qiande also took the opportunity to abandon the camp and prepare to retreat to Fangtou, because the Yan army did not dare to attack rashly due to the heavy fog.

This time, the celestial phenomena finally stood on the side of the Tang army.

It was impossible to tell the direction in the fog, so Duan Xiong and Xu Qiande led their troops in the wrong direction and ended up following Li Yuanhui. They all retreated to Liyang.

Li Yuanhui was relieved to see that the two teams were out of danger, but after counting the casualties of his three major troops, he could no longer laugh.

The guards of the Prince of Qi's Palace originally numbered 6,000, but less than 4,000 returned to the camp. The personal troops of the Tian Ce Palace numbered 3,600, but more than 2,000 returned, which was considered a relatively small loss. However, there were more than a thousand armored cavalry soldiers who were killed or missing, and the loss of war horses was also huge.

More than a thousand Yongliang cavalrymen of the left and right guards were also killed or wounded.

When Li Yuanhui saw the battle damage figures summarized by various units, he was in tears.

Many of these casualties were old soldiers who had followed him for many years and fought in battles for many years. They were his trusted followers, just like the thirty Zhechoufu troops transferred back to Jianghuai by the Zuoyou Wuwei. They were the core team. Four to five thousand people were killed in this battle.

Both publicly and privately, he felt extremely sad and heartbroken. He knew that many people had died, but he didn't know so many.

After Liu Xuanji returned to the camp, he felt as painful as Li Yuanhui when he saw the casualty figures.

The entire Great Yan had a total army of 200,000, but because it was located in the north, there were many nomadic tribes and Xianbei tribes serving it, so the entire Great Yan had a cavalry of about 60,000, which was a much higher proportion than the Tang army, but the number was not much different.

Among them, Liu Xuanji directly commanded the Northern Army and the cavalry of the King of Han. That is, more than 20,000. Today, he basically brought almost all the cavalry that could be mobilized on the battlefield, about 15,000 elite cavalry. The cavalry generals led by him included Tuoba Tianmu, Hulu Mingyue, Kuai En, Dongfang Di, Liu Zhi, Zhu Chaoshi, Zhang Shiwu, Zhao Xiang and other elite cavalry generals of the Northern Kingdom.

With such a lineup, they achieved almost a one-to-one casualty ratio with the Tang army.

This is despite yesterday’s great victory!
So it was not just Li Yuanhui who felt heartbroken, Liu Xuanji was also one of them.

Such a huge loss made Liu Xuanji unable to help but complain to Li Si, "You can just run away, why are you playing with your life?"
In fact, both sides know that once they start running, they will be chased like rabbits.

But now looking at the damage figures, and his remaining granaries which were almost empty, there were nearly 30,000 Tang prisoners of war who needed to be resettled.

These became Liu Xuanji's reasons for retreating.

It will take time to digest the results of this battle.

Therefore, even if he was the winner of this war, he had to consider ending the war first.

The Tang army has now taken this opportunity to retreat to Fangtou and has basically completed the crossing of the river. If they continue to fight, they may have to fight a decisive battle in Fangtou, and then they can cross the Qi River and continue the pursuit.

The problem is that the grain transportation channel on the north line has been blocked by Li Yaoshi, and Tuoba Tianbao is still going in circles with Li Yaoshi. The grain transportation channel from Xindu to Yecheng is still under the threat of the Tang army. Although it is only a few hundred miles away, he dares to continue attacking southward at this time regardless of everything.

Therefore, he could quit while he was ahead, which would make him, his generals, and the noble families participating in the war all satisfied.

The most important thing is that the victory in this battle has brought his prestige within Northern Yan to an unprecedented level and has reached its peak.

Some things can also be considered.

Therefore, Liu Xuanji chose to quit while he was ahead and decided to lead his troops back to Yecheng.

The generals had been fighting for a long time and were still frightened by today's bloody battle, so no one had any objections.

But what Liu Xuanji did not expect was that when he was ready to give up and not fight any further, Wei Xiaoju who was stationed at Zixia Pass gave him a big gift.

At this time, the Tang army had completely retreated to the west bank of the Qi River. On the east bank, Fangtou was garrisoned by more than 10,000 elite troops led by Xiao Shizhi, while on the west bank, the Tang army led by Chai Rong who had retreated from the battlefield.

Originally, Xiao Shizhi planned to follow Li Yuanhui's military order to cross the river, burn the pontoon bridge, and continue to move westward. Fangtou was abandoned directly.

However, he did not expect that the camp originally selected by Xiao Shizhi on the east bank had already been built, but was directly occupied by the Guanzhong army.

The two sides argued fiercely for a while, and finally the King of Wei from the Guanzhong army came out to "administer justice."

Li Xiaozheng was also happy to attack the subordinates of King Qi, so he said to you, the Weifu Army of Youwei Guard, who have never participated in the battle. Do you want to compete for the camp with the main force fighting in Guanzhong now?
Xiao Shizhi couldn't say anything, after all, the other party was a prince. Seeing that there was not enough time to set up camp on the west bank, he just stayed in Fangtou that night and crossed the river early the next morning.

But they didn't get it at all, and it was precisely because they stayed in Fangtou that they avoided the danger of capsizing.

Early the next morning, the Qi River flooded and both banks became a swamp.

And at Fangtou, there is a city wall.

(End of this chapter)