Chapter 545 Huguan
After losing his lance, Dongfang Di was actually dead.

He eventually died under his own horse lance. This is quite a heart-breaking move, to kill you, and use your weapon.

To defeat the enemy at the right time and to kill the general in front of the battlefield. This is the achievement that every warrior wearing armor and holding a sword pursues.

As the second son of Li Yuanhui, the Tang Dynasty had already been established when he was born. He was a prince at a young age. His mother's family was the wealthy Zhang family of Guangling, and they were also important generals of the Jianghuai faction. He had been living a life of luxury since childhood, and he was also very intelligent. He was Li Yuanhui's favorite son, and could be described as a descendant of a royal family.

When Emperor Gaozu lived in Luoyang, he also liked this grandson very much.

Even though he came from such a noble family, in his first battle, he led 700 cavalrymen to break into the Han army's formation and killed the Han leader Dongfang Di.

Dongfang Di was indeed a man of extraordinary bravery, but at this time he was already in his sixties, his energy and blood had declined, and he seemed a bit old.

So in fact, Li Chengdao took advantage of his youth, strong physique and extraordinary physical strength.

But even so, it is enough to prove his extraordinary bravery.

The commander of the front army, Dongfang Di, was beheaded in battle, his son Dongfang Xun and his brother Dongfang Wu were killed by Zhang Yixian, and the soldiers holding the big banner were all killed by the Tang army. This was a devastating blow to the morale of the Han army.

The entire Han army formation began to waver, and Chang Yanheng even ordered the cavalry, which was already at a disadvantage, to shout loudly. Seeing this, Zhu Deyu and Duan Xiong also ordered the Tang army to launch a counterattack. At this time, the Tang army on the west bank had rebuilt a pontoon bridge. Zhang Jian and Zhang Zhen'e quickly led their elite troops across the bridge for support. At this time, the Han army upstream repeated their old tricks and prepared to set fire to the bridge again, but Duan Shao gave Li Yuanhui a plan to hook the fireboat with an iron chain and then drive the draft horses to pull the boat to the shore.

This move directly prevented the pontoon bridge from being burned by the Han army's fireboats, and the Tang army continued to rush to the east bank through the two pontoon bridges.

After Dongfang Di was killed, the Han army that had earlier besieged Zhu Deyu and Duan Xiong had already begun to fight and retreat. As for Hulu Mingyue's troops who were fighting with Chang Yanheng, they had already gained the upper hand in the melee, after all, they were the side with more troops.

But the commander was killed and the central army collapsed. Even Hulu Mingyue wanted to retreat and ordered his soldiers to blow the horn to retreat.

But Chang Yanheng was not willing to give them a chance to retreat calmly. He led the elite cavalry to follow and pursue, while Xi Junmai and Zhang Yixian followed Li Chengdao. The three of them were like a sharp arrow, unstoppable, and continued to pursue and forced a large number of Han troops to surrender.

After Zhang Jian and Zhang Zhen'e each led hundreds of elite troops across the river, they immediately began to look for Li Chengdao's whereabouts. When they heard that the main general of the Han army might have just been killed by Li Chengdao, they became extremely anxious and quickly led their troops forward.

Yu Zhongheng commanded the imperial guards to cross the river and join the pursuit of the Han army. The Han army was crossing the river at that time, and the pontoon bridge had not been built yet. Liu Xuanji's original idea of ​​crossing the river and attacking Li Yuanhui's main camp was completely shattered, and he could only order the entire army to retreat to Huguan.

After the death of Dongfang Di, Han generals such as Xue Andu, Fu Hongzhi, Kuai En, and Hulu Mingyue had begun to fight each other. In addition, the Tang army was constantly increasing its troops, and the entire battlefield situation had become one-sided. Even Liu Xuanji could not reverse this downward trend.

On the Tang army side, Zhu Deyu, Chang Yanheng and Duan Xiong were all famous generals with many years of battle experience. The troops under their command were all the best in the world. Most of the generals at all levels were backbones who had fought with the Li brothers for twenty years. They could fight in adverse situations and they were even better at fighting in favorable situations.

The Tang Dynasty's central army learned that the second son of the King of Qi and Zhang Yixian had destroyed the enemy's central army and killed the Han army's main general Dongfang Di and his four sons and brothers, directly annihilating the Dongfang family. Even Li Yuanhui, who was always steady, expressionless, and good at cultivating qi, was a little surprised and stunned.
Are you kidding? My son is so brave? This is too outrageous. You, Li Xiaoer, are almost catching up with Li Laoer. No, Li Lao was not so brave when he was 26.
This is certainly a good thing, a very good thing.

The generals in Guanzhong requested to join the battle, so several pontoon bridges were urgently built. Almost all the cavalry were sent out to join the pursuit. Li Yuanhui himself also crossed the river with his guards and commanded the various troops to advance towards Huguan.

Li Yaoshi was ordered to cross the river in the north and attack Huguan, which happened to be a killing move that Li Yuanhui had prepared for the Han army in advance.

Li Yaoshi led his troops across the river and fought with the Huguan defenders led by Wei Xiaoju. The battle was extremely fierce, but the Tang army could not defeat the Han army and capture Huguan for a while. However, at this time, two pieces of news were delivered to Li Yaoshi almost at the same time.

One was a military order sent by Li Yuanhui on an express horse. The Han army was defeated in the Battle of Xijian. The Prince of Beihai killed the Northern Han general Dongfang Di in battle. The Tang army was pursuing them with all its might, so Li Yaoshi was ordered to lead his troops to stop the Han army.

Second, scouts brought news that a large number of Han troops were heading towards Huguan, and judging by the flags, they might be the elite central army led by the Northern Han Emperor Liu Xuanji himself.

Li Yaoshi had about 70,000 elite soldiers under his command, including the Tiance Army and the elite left and right guards of Guanzhong.

Now, among these 60,000 elite soldiers, half of them have been deployed to fight against the Han army, which means that he can only withdraw 20,000 to 30,000 people to block the elite troops in the central part of the Han army, and he still has to leave some reserves.

At present, Dou Cong has led the twenty Zhechoufu and Shenshen Army of the Zuoxiaowei, his personal troops, and the Longjie Army to attack the Huguan defenders.

The generals who were still waiting for military orders from Li Yaoshi included the Right Guard General Cheng Zhijie, the left and right generals of the Xuanjia Army Zhang Jin and Zhai Changsun, the left and right generals of the Shenwu Army Lou Jun and Duan Wuxuan, the left and right generals of the Pengri Army Xu Qiande and Fu Weixue, and the left and right generals of the Tianwu Army Xie Shufang and Yang Xianguo.

After learning the news, Cheng Zhijie volunteered to lead his troops to block the Northern Han Central Army led by Liu Xuanji. Li Yaoshi ordered Cheng Zhijie to lead 20 Zhechongfu of the Right Guard, together with the Pengri Army and the Tianwu Army to block the attack.

He personally led four elite cavalry teams, Shenwu, Xiaoguo, Xuanjia and Beiwei, and joined the attack on the Huguan defenders.

The current situation is generally favorable to the Tang army, but it is not advantageous for the Tang army he led. There are the garrison troops in Huguan in front, which are probably between 40,000 and 50,000 people, and the Northern Han Central Army led by Liu Xuanji behind him has about 30,000 people. The two sides are probably about the same in terms of strength, but his 70,000 Tang army is in a situation of being attacked from the north and the south, so he sent Cheng Zhijie, Xu Qiande, Xie Shufang and others to stop Liu Xuanji, because the elite troops led by Liu Xuanji cannot be broken through in a short time. In comparison, the Huguan garrison troops with more troops are naturally easier to be defeated. Therefore, he must concentrate his elite troops to defeat the garrison troops in the north first, so that the Han army can only flee to the direction of Lu County, the capital of Shangdang.

Li Yaoshi was on the left, leading the Beiwei and Shenwu armies. Zhang Jin, the left commander of the Xuanjia army, was on the right, leading the Xuanjia and Xiaoguo armies.

Originally in this battle, Dou Cong led 30,000 Tang troops to suppress the slightly larger Han army, and the commander of the Huguan garrison, Wei Xiaoju, commanded the army to barely hold up the front line.

The Han army troops left behind in Huguan were all second-line troops, and their elite troops were handed over by Liu Xuanji to Dongfang Di to be sent to the front line to resist the Tang army. Therefore, it was naturally difficult for them to establish an advantage against the elite troops of Guanzhong and the Long Jie Army, which was good at fighting tough battles.

However, even so, the Han army barely maintained the situation, and Wei Xiaoju was still trying to deploy reserve troops to defeat the Tang army.

But the cavalry that suddenly appeared from both sides, accompanied by billowing smoke and dust, made Wei Xiaoju feel chilled to the bone.

How dare the Tang army come all the way? Is there something wrong with the central army on your side? Or...
At this time, before the Beiwei Army, the Shenwu Army, which was a light cavalry, began to raid the formation first. The cavalry surrounded the Han Army's infantry formation and then continuously shot densely with bows and arrows, causing considerable trouble to the Han Army's flank. After the Shenwu Army passed by, the Beiwei Army, a heavily armored cavalry equipped with horse-drawn carriages, began to charge.

Luo Shixiang, the left commander of the Beiwei Army, took the lead and attacked the flank of the Han Army with a large spear in hand. Naturally, there were some gaps in the infantry formation that was originally blocked by the dense fire of the Shenwu Army. He took advantage of the momentum of his horse to knock over two Han soldiers, and killed another Han soldier with his large spear. After the charge stopped, he quickly turned his horse's head. The heavy cavalry of the Beiwei Army behind him did the same. It was like a huge wave hitting the sandy shore. After a layer of water fell, the waves scattered, but they kept breaking back and forth, constantly peeling off the sand layer by layer.

When facing a dense formation of infantry, if the heavy cavalry cannot directly break through the formation, they can only adopt this kind of circling and rotating attack combat mode.

The Xuanjia Army and Xiaoguo Army in another direction also adopted the same combat mode. The light cavalry was responsible for harassment and constantly exerting psychological pressure on the flanks, while the heavy cavalry attacked the tiny gaps caused by the dense coverage of the light cavalry's arrows, and then continuously tore and expanded them. If the Han army could fill the gaps in time, it could still maintain the integrity of the formation. However, as long as it was a little slower and was caught by the Tang cavalry, it would be difficult to keep the formation intact.

The loose infantry formation would easily be smashed to pieces when facing cavalry.

The cavalry teams on both wings brought a great impact to the Han army, and the balance of victory began to tilt towards the Tang army little by little.

In the other direction, Cheng Zhijie, Xu Qiande, Xie Shufang and others lined up on a slope thirty miles south of Huguan County. The Tianwu Army and the Pengri Army quickly formed a large formation of barricades according to the requirements of the training outline, with spears, swords and shields in front and archers in the back.

Right Guard General Cheng Zhijie was dumbfounded. What was going on? Were the troops under the King of Qi so well-trained?
Isn't the speed of this formation too fast?

He also hurriedly ordered his infantry vanguard to speed up, so that they could form a formation before the Northern Han army arrived.

Cheng Zhijie led 3,000 cavalrymen of the Left Guard to guard the flank, while the infantry was led by General Pang Lin of the Right Guard.

Pang Lin's father was Pang Xun, the General Zhenxi of the Former Yan. His father had a great friendship with Li Yuanhui. Li Yuanhui had recruited him in his early years to serve in Jianghuai, but Pang Lin declined Li Yuanhui's recruitment because his father had passed away and his mother and siblings needed care. However, Li Yuanhui still arranged a military position for him in the imperial guards in Chang'an. He also followed Taizong to participate in the Battle of Gaoping and was promoted to General of the Left Guard for his military merits. He also participated in the battle to pacify the Eastern Wei with the late King Shang of Jin, Li Chenghui, and pacified the Three Wus, for which he was promoted to General of the Left Guard.

Now, he has been promoted to a high position based on his qualifications and military achievements.

Pang Lin's use of troops is quite similar to his father's. He is not known for his bravery, but he is very good at commanding the army and setting up camps.

Although General Cheng Zhijie of the Right Guard was the commander and in charge of the Guard House during wartime, the two generals of the Left Guard were in charge of the military affairs of the Guard House on weekdays.

Although he himself was not a reckless man, he was better at leading cavalry.

At this time, he let the large group of infantry be commanded by Pang Lin, and he and another right and left general Yu Zhongkan each led the cavalry to guard the two wings.

When Liu Xuanji led his troops to the battle, he saw the Tang army lined up in front of the road, blocking the Han army's way north to Huguan. Although the battle was hastily arranged, the neat formation and solemn appearance of the Tang army showed that it was a dignified battle.

While secretly admiring the swift movements of the Tang army, Liu Xuanji knew in his heart that he had already lost the battle.

(End of this chapter)