Chapter 543: Born to be a General
In April of the seventh year of Zhenguan, King Li Yuanhui of Qi was appointed as the Grand Marshal of the Army with the title of General Tiance. He dispatched 120,000 troops from Guanzhong and 80,000 troops from Luoyang to attack Jinyang in the north.

The troops in Guanzhong went ahead and gathered in Hedong first.

Li Yuanhui led the troops from Luoyang up the Yellow River, took the water route to Shan County in Hongnong County, passed Sanmenxia by land, and then took the water route to Hedong.

The two important positions of Hongnong Prefecture Administrator and Shanxian County Magistrate were replaced in advance with candidates recommended by Luoyang Bafu.

Because the amount of food and grass needed in Hedong is huge, the grain from Guanzhong can flow directly from the Weishui River into the Yellow River and directly support the front line at the Fenshui River. However, the grain from Guanzhong alone is still a bit difficult to support the consumption of an army of 200,000, and the gap naturally needs to be filled by Luoyang.

Therefore, Li Yuanhui directly recalled Li Baishi, the governor of Yangzhou, to the Bafu, and appointed him as the governor of Sizhou and the governor of Hongnong, responsible for the transportation of grain and grass. The area under the jurisdiction of Sizhou was not large, but it included Luoyang, Henei, and Hongnong.

General of the Left Guard, Duke of Qiao Chai Rong, General of the Right Guard, Duke of Bao Duan Xiong, General of the Left Elite Guard, Duke of Dai Dou Cong, General of the Right Elite Guard, Duke of Lu Cheng Zhijie, General of the Left Leading Army Guard, Prince of Hejian Li Su, General of the Right Leading Army Guard, Duke of Chen Hou Jun, Governor of Qinzhou, General of the Western Expedition, Prince of Hedong Li Cang, Governor of Xiazhou, Duke of Yanmen Xue Wanjun and other generals were all in Hedong to welcome Li Yuanhui.

At the end of April, Li Yuanhui arrived in Hedong and appointed Hedong Prince Li Cang as the commander-in-chief of the vanguard army with 60,000 infantry and cavalry.

He led his army up along the Fen River and besieged Jinyang in early May.

Emperor Liu Xuanji of the Northern Han Dynasty mobilized all the troops in Hebei, numbering 150,000 men, to go to the rescue.

Li Yuanhui surrounded the city with a total of 80,000 troops, including 60,000 infantry and cavalry led by Li Cang and more than 20,000 troops from Xihe led by Li Huaizhen. He led the army to confront Liu Xuanji in Shangdang.

The Tang army sent out 200,000 troops this time, but there were already nearly 60,000 troops in Bingzhou. Among them, the 15 Zhechoufu led by General Xu Maogong of the Left Jinwu Guard were stationed in Pingyang. After Li Yuanhui led the army north, Xu Maogong's main task was to guard the Fenshui River.

The main forces of both sides, totaling more than 300,000 people, were concentrated in Tunliu, Changzi and Huguan areas of Shangdang, and engaged in a confrontation over the turbid Zhang River in the upper reaches of the Zhang River.

In June, Li Yuanhui led a large army to successively capture Changzi and Tunliu in Shangdang, while the Han army guarded the Zhuozhang River to fight against the Tang army.

The two sides continued to confront each other until September, when the Tang army forced its way across the Zhang River and the Han army launched a counterattack, and the two sides fought a decisive battle at Xijian.

General Zhu Deyu of the Left Wuwei Army personally led more than 10,000 elite soldiers across the river. The Han army attacked them halfway across the river, while the Tang army fought one after another. After paying the price of more than a thousand casualties, they successfully built a pontoon bridge and lined up on the east bank.

The counterattack of the Han army became more fierce. Zhu Deyu personally led the elite troops of the old army to resist the counterattack under the arrows and stones.

At this time, Chang Yanheng led the cavalry and rushed hundreds of miles to finally arrive at the battlefield. He attacked the flank of the Han army fiercely, greatly reducing the pressure on Zhu Deyu's troops.

Chang Yanheng, as always, took the lead and charged into the enemy camp first.

Following closely behind was Li Yuanhui's second son, Li Chengdao, the Prince of Beihai. He was nearly sixteen years old but extremely brave. He was originally at the back of the attack sequence, but relying on his fast horse, he rushed directly behind Chang Yanheng. The horse lance skills he learned from Yuchi Jingde had made him unmatched. Wearing heavy armor, he completely ignored the enemy's arrows and followed Chang Yanheng into the enemy's formation as if he was in an empty space. He killed dozens of people and then broke out of the Han army formation.

Chang Yanheng laughed and said, "Good boy, can you still fight?"

Li Chengdao said proudly: "Of course I can."

"Hahahaha, follow me into the battle formation again."

After saying this, he took the lead and charged into the battle again with a gun in hand. Li Chengdao followed closely behind him, his courage unstoppable.

Battle reports kept coming to the central army on the west bank. Li Yuanhui, who was waving the emperor's flag by the river, was not wearing a helmet or armor, but was wearing a robe and riding on a horse to listen to the reports.

After seeing the elite Huaixi soldiers of the Left and Right Guards fighting bravely on the battlefield, with even the King of Qi's own son charging to the front and joining the fight, all the generals could no longer sit still and requested to fight.

General Duan Xiong of the Right Guard got the opportunity to go into battle and personally led the elite Guanzhong infantry from five Zhechoufu to join the battlefield.

The battle was extremely intense. The Han army was stationed in Xijian City with the auxiliary general Dongfang Di, who hurriedly ordered the fierce generals Xue Andu and Fu Hongzhi to lead the troops to meet the attack. However, the Tang army still stabilized its position on the west bank and did not lose to the Han army of tens of thousands.

After Duan Xiong and Zhu Deyu gained a foothold, the Han army failed to drive the Tang army back to the west bank after several consecutive counterattacks. The Tang army continued to reinforce its troops, and Li Yuanhui ordered Zhang Zhen'e and Hou Jun to lead more than 10,000 soldiers under their command to cross the river.

But Liu Xuanji also rushed from Huguan to the Xijian battlefield. After understanding the situation on the battlefield, he immediately adopted the strategy proposed by Wei Xiaoju. He used small boats filled with flammable materials to burn the Tang army's pontoon bridge. Only a few thousand people from Zhang Zhen'e and Hou Jun's troops crossed the river, and the pontoon bridge was burned.

The 20,000-plus Tang troops on the east bank were about to face a siege by the Han army, which was several times their size. Li Yuanhui was not anxious at this moment, but a number of generals were extremely anxious and requested to fight.

Especially Zhang Jian, as the uncle of Li Chengdao, the Prince of Chengyang, who had a very good relationship with his nephew, immediately asked to repair the pontoon bridge to cross the river to meet the right army on the east bank. Another uncle Zhang Zhen'e also sent people to request to strengthen the troops on the pontoon bridge. Li Yuanhui was very calm and did not lose control because his son was separated from the other side. Before the battle, although Li Chengdao was nominally the Lieutenant General of the Left Guard and was under the command of Chang Yanheng, he was always left in the central army by Li Yuanhui. Although he knew that his son was brave, he did not want him to charge into battle in the front.

But this kid requested to go to the grassroots several times and follow General Chang to fight. Li Yuanhui was tired of nagging him and let him go. Before he went, he specifically told him that on the battlefield, your first identity is the Lieutenant General of the Left Guard of the Tang Dynasty. It doesn't matter whose son you are. The enemy will not show mercy to you just because you are the son of the King of Qi.

But this kid said that it was his uncles and father who braved the arrows and stones to build the Tang Dynasty today. When my age was young, father had already commanded an army of more than 10,000 people to fight against an enemy force several times larger than his own. My two cousins ​​Changgong and Yanzong also followed the army to fight early on. Is your son not as good as your uncle's son?

Having said that, what else is there to say? If you want to fight, go ahead.

Li Yuanhui directly asked Li Xiaoer to find Chang Yanheng, and specifically told him that this kid did not need any special care.

Although Chang Yanheng was fierce and reckless in fighting and killed people without any regard for others, he was actually quite smart in dealing with people and things.

Whether it was personally leading a small group of elite troops to raid and fight, or commanding thousands of cavalry to make a long-distance raid, or commanding a large army of 100,000, he could do it all with ease. Do you think he is a reckless man? What's more, this is his son-in-law.

Therefore, Chang Yanheng actually placed Li Xiaoer's attack sequence in the middle, which was a relatively safe position. But once he charged, Li Xiaoer was also a natural assault champion, which was very similar to his second uncle and his uncle.

Even at this moment, he was facing an attack three times the size of the Han army with 20,000 Tang troops, but he was not afraid at all. His immediate superior and father-in-law, Chang Yanheng, praised his son-in-law Li Xiaoer highly and praised his bravery.

The two men led their elite cavalry and defeated several Han armies in succession. At this moment, they were changing horses, resting, and eating to replenish their energy in their camp.

Li Xiaoer was chewing on beef jerky, but his eyes were always fixed on the battlefield.

At this time, Zhu Deyu and Duan Xiong's troops of more than 15,000 people were almost facing a two-pronged attack from the Han army, but their formation remained unmoved.

However, there was a huge gap at the junction between several Han armies, and the cavalry were all on the periphery. This meant that they should be wary of flank attacks by the Tang cavalry. After all, this was the specialty and usual trick of the Tang cavalry.

"Well, what did you see?"

Chang Yanheng saw that Li Xiaoer was watching intently and asked.

Li Xiaoer pointed at the Han army camp and said, "General, the Han army's pincer attack can move forward in unison and support each other, but there are large gaps between the various parts of the Han army. I see that the Han army's center is in that direction. I think we can lead our elite cavalry to charge directly there and perhaps capture the Han army's commander alive."

Chang Yanheng was a little surprised when he heard this, and then he laughed. This guy's sense of battlefield was too sensitive. This was his first time on the battlefield, but he was able to find the loopholes in the enemy's formation. This was already rare.

On the opposite bank where the Tang army was located, Li Yuanhui thought for a moment and immediately ordered Li Yaoshi to lead the Tiance troops and the left and right guards of the Guanzhong army to the north to attack Huguan. At the same time, he approved Zhang Zhen'e and Zhang Jian's request to let them repair the pontoon bridge to support the army on the east bank.

Even he himself did not realize that the first thing he thought of was not to send someone to pick up his son quickly, but the opportunity for the army to win.

The difficulty of repairing the pontoon bridge was no less than that of rebuilding it. Zhang Jian and Zhang Zhen'e were both very determined and ordered the soldiers and militiamen to use all their speed and strength to build it as soon as possible.

On the east bank, Kuai En and Fu Hongzhi led 25,000 infantry and cavalry to attack the position of Zhu Deyu's troops of more than 10,000 people. Xue Andu led his own 12,500 men to attack Duan Xiong's troops of 5,000 people.

The armies of Zhu Deyu and Duan Xiong lined up along the Zhuozhang River to the east, forming another back-to-back situation. The cavalry under Chang Yanheng withdrew to the center of the infantry formation to rest.

Li Chengdao found that the enemy's formation was not tightly connected, and Chang Yanheng naturally understood this and fed the horses some salt-fried beans to replenish their energy. The heavy cavalry also took off their gear to let the horses rest and replaced them with spare horses.

After doing all this, Chang Yanheng led the cavalry to attack again.

Before the attack, Chang Yanheng instructed, "This time, don't rush in the front with me. You lead 300 heavy cavalry to hide behind the front arrow formation, and I will lead 400 cavalry behind you under General Xi Junmai. After my front troops are entangled with the Han cavalry, you just bypass the battle group and attack the center of the Han army. How about this, do you dare to do it?"

Li Chengdao patted the heavy armor on his body and answered loudly: "Why not? General, rest assured, I will not turn back until the enemy's center is defeated."

Anyone who has blood will have a desire to fight.

Do you ask this guy if he dares? If you give him 10,000 men, he will dare to attack Yecheng.

(End of this chapter)