Chapter 447 First Victory
The Yan army had more than 10,000 soldiers, nearly half of whom were cavalry, and they followed the governor Lou Daiwen and rushed to the front.

After them came more than 6,000 infantrymen.

Lou Daiwen was a Xianbei man, born in Yuyang. He met Liu Xuanji in the army in his early years. When Liu Xuanji returned to the Youzhou army, he was impressed by him and followed him in battle for a long time.

He had made great achievements in several battles outside the border. This time, he was dissatisfied with Yang Kan, who was less experienced than him. Dongfang Di, who was similar to him, was above him and was under the control of the two of them.

Therefore, he was eager to make achievements, but his own bravery was unquestionable, and his troops were also elite, all veterans of hundreds of battles. There were Xianbei, Han, Gaoche, Turks, and mixed Hu from outside the Great Wall. Some were converted prisoners of war, and some were selected soldiers. These elites followed their commander and rushed forward to the Tang cavalry.

Leading the Tang army's cavalry was the Beiwei Army, with the right commander Luo Shixiang also leading the way and rushing to the front.

Amid the rain of arrows, the cavalry of both sides finally embedded themselves in the enemy's formation. Only after Lou Daiwen charged into the enemy's formation did he realize that he might lose this battle.

But at this time he had no way to retreat, and he was determined to kill the enemy in front of him. He swung the spear up and down, unstoppable. Six or seven Tang soldiers were knocked off their horses in succession, and more than hundreds of his core troops behind him followed closely.

But because he charged too fiercely, his front army became disconnected from the rear army, which was also the result that the Tang army wanted.

The right army commander Yang Xianguo led a thousand guard cavalrymen and turned directly to charge, splitting up the already somewhat loose Yan army. Duan Wuxuan and Lou Jun, who followed behind, led the newly formed Shenwu Army and followed the guard army, constantly disrupting and killing the Yan army with cavalry and archery.

The generals of Northern Yan were originally vying to capture Li Yuanhui alive, but they never expected that they would be defeated by the Tang army at the first encounter.

Ten thousand Yan troops paid the price for Lou Daiwen's underestimation of the enemy and carelessness.

Li Yuanhui personally led a thousand guard cavalrymen to intercept Lou Daiwen and hundreds of his trusted men who wanted to capture him alive. Then the Yan army was greeted by a continuous rain of arrows from the guard cavalrymen. Before the two sides engaged in close combat, dozens of Yan soldiers had been shot and killed, and their arrow counterattacks were not able to form a scale, so the casualties caused to the Tang army were very limited.

Lou Daiwen continued to charge forward. Although no Tang army soldier could stop his charge, the number of troops behind him was getting smaller and smaller. After seeing Li Yuanhui's banner, Lou Daiwen also tried to charge in that direction, but was blocked by the Tang army.

Lou Daiwen's deputy general, General Jianwei Yuchi Lan, was hit by six arrows and pierced through the chest by a Tang spear, and fell off his horse and died.

One of his officers, Lieutenant Cheng, was shot in the right eye by an arrow and died instantly.

Another captain trusted by Lou Daiwen, the Xianbei Mu Shun, saw the Yan army knights coming over and said with some concern: "The Tang people are fighting us together. If we continue to fight hard, we will all die. It's better to retreat to the back..."

But Lou Daiwen himself was furious and said, "I have been with the King of Han for a long time. Every time I fight, I hold a long spear in my hand and wear a long sword on my waist. If I retreat today, will I have the face to face the Han children in the future?"

"I have followed you, General, for more than ten years. I don't understand any great principles, but I always fight bravely in every battle. Are you afraid of death?"

After Mu Shun finished speaking, he threw away his bow and arrows, drew out his long sword and rushed towards the Tang army, then was submerged in the sea of ​​people.

Lou Daiwen then raised his lance and charged into the Tang army's formation again. Although the Tang cavalry did not recognize him, when they saw that he was mighty and majestic, with excellent armor and unparalleled bravery, they all knew that he was a general of the Yan army, so they all shot arrows at him.

Lou Daiwen's armor was quickly shot out like a hedgehog, with hundreds of feathers densely packed on his ribs. However, because he was wearing a black Mingguang armor with very strong protective capabilities, the damage caused by the arrows was very limited. However, after he broke into the formation, he killed several Tang soldiers in a row.

Upon seeing this, the Tang army soldiers also came over to engage in close combat, wanting to kill the Yan army general.

At this time, Lou Daiwen was only a few dozen steps away from Li Yuanhui's central army flag.

But he still couldn't cross the distance of dozens of steps, because there were hundreds of Tang cavalry, as well as fierce generals such as Yuchi Jingde, Wang Fobao, and Duan Wuda.

But what stopped him was an arrow shot by Li Yuanhui, which hit him right on the forehead. He then fell off his horse and was beheaded by the cavalry of the Yan army.

Lou Daiwen, the commander-in-chief of the 12th army of Northern Yan, Liu Xuanji's trusted general, the right general of the imperial court, and the Duke of Julu County, died in battle. In order to deal with him and his trusted generals, Li Yuanhui and his group of brave generals also spent a lot of time.

Afterwards, Li Yuanhui personally rode ahead and led the Tang cavalry to start a one-sided pursuit of the Yan army. More than 10,000 Yan cavalry and infantry were divided and defeated by the Tang cavalry.

The Tang army beheaded more than 4,000 of the more than 10,000 Yan soldiers, captured more than 2,000, and the rest fled in all directions.

The Tang army won the first battle at Mangshan.

Although the left and right commanders of the Yan army, Dongfang Di and Yang Kan, sent people to support Lou Daiwen, they did not dare to move forward when they saw that the Tang army was strong and Lou Daiwen's Yan army had been defeated.

In other words, the 7,000 Tang troops defeated the 10,000 Yan troops, but the 70,000 Yan troops dared not do anything.

In other words, I couldn't do it and didn't want to do it.

After Li Yuanhui returned to Jinyong City with his victorious army, all his staff and generals were amazed at "the king's wise decisions."

On the Yan army side, Yang Kan and Dongfang Di could only consolidate the camp, and then report today's battle situation to Liu Xuanji and ask for the next task.

After seeing the military report, Liu Xuanji did not get angry as the messenger and his staff had expected. Instead, he sighed for a long time and said, "I knew that Lou Daiwen was a rebellious man. Except for me, no general could convince him. But I made him inferior to Yang Kan and Dongfang Di, so that he underestimated the enemy and rushed forward rashly, eager to make achievements. This is all my fault."

Then he wept and lamented.

Seeing this, all the generals tried to comfort Liu Xuanji and requested to fight. In particular, the Xianbei generals who had a good relationship with Lou Daiwen requested to cross the river to fight the Tang army. At the same time, some also blamed Yang Kan and Dongfang Di.

But Liu Xuanji let the matter go and did not blame Yang Kan and Dongfang Di in words. Instead, he asked everyone to stay calm.

After everyone had dispersed, Liu Xuanji's face turned ugly.

Losing the first battle was too damaging to morale. Originally, they had planned to have Yang Kan and Dongfang Di lead 80,000 men to cross the river, gain a foothold on the south bank step by step, and then advance forward.

He had also instructed the two of them in the same way. But he had not expected such a situation to happen. He had not expected that Li Silang, who was always steady, would actually lead the troops to fight in person, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

The reason why he stayed in Hebei was not because he did not want to quickly resolve the issue of Luoyang, but because an opponent who might be more difficult to deal with than Li Yuanhui might appear in the direction of Chenguan at any time.

He was in Wen County to guard against Li Sanlang, the King of Jin of the Tang Dynasty who was guarding Hedong.

Hanoi's location connects the three major regions of Henan, Hebei and Hedong. Its location is very important and it is a strategic location.

The reason why the Tang army gave up so easily this time was because they were short of manpower, their morale was affected by the Battle of Baigou, and they had no strategic location to defend, so they could not hold on. So they planned to directly defend the Yellow River.

Liu Xuanji had never thought that the Yellow River could give him such a great gift. The so-called natural barrier was completely ineffective this winter.

But when he thought everything was going well, the defeat of his old brother Lou Daiwen put Liu Xuanji in a dilemma.

This battle looks like it's going to be difficult.

(End of this chapter)