Chapter 91: A Tiger Drives A Thousand Sheep

Under the city of Dongpingling, the coalition forces of more than 100,000 claimed to have 200,000 troops. They set up camp near Xiaoqing River in the north and the remnants of Mount Tai in the south, surrounding the city of Dongpingling on three sides.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city had been holding out for more than a month. Although Gao Huang was caught off guard and lost all the elite troops of Qingzhou, it was not his fault. After all, even if the military report was sent to Chang'an, some people still did not believe that Murong Xuan had rebelled.

Not to mention Gao Huang, who was preparing to lead his troops to Daze Mountain to continue suppressing the rebellion.

Now that almost all of Qingzhou has fallen, although Gao Huang is to blame, he can also be considered foresighted. After all, he had been limiting the number of soldiers in Qi County before. Later, the emperor personally issued an edict to allow Qi County to recruit new soldiers to quell the rebellion, and also conferred the title of King of Chengyang on Murong Xuan for his diligence.

Therefore, the most severe blow to Murong Xuan's rebellion was undoubtedly to the saint's reputation.

But now Murong Ying really doesn't care about this little bit of face. After all, he was besieged in Guangwu by the Turks for more than a month during his northern tour, which has already lost all his face.

If it weren't for that incident, and the death of Murong Ding, the pillar of support, it would be hard to say whether Murong Xuan would dare to rebel.

This time Gao Huang returned without any preparation, which was a perfect opportunity for him to swallow Qingzhou in one gulp.

However, Dongpingling still became a thorn, leaving Murong Xuan with no chance to capture Licheng.

To the north of Qingzhou is the natural barrier of the Yellow River, and to the east is the natural barrier formed by the four mountain ranges of Taishan, Lushan, Yishan and Mengshan. Licheng is located between Taishan and the Yellow River and is the western gate of the Qi and Lu areas.

During the Warring States Period, the various states attacked Qi, and each battle took place at Lixia. After Qin conquered Wei, it marched eastward, stationed troops at Lixia, and pressured Qi, causing the King of Qi to surrender.

Later, when the Chu and Han dynasties were contending for supremacy, Li Shiqi persuaded King Tian Guang of Qi to ally with Han, causing Qi to withdraw its troops from Lixia. Only then was Han Xin able to take advantage of the situation to invade Qi territory and conquer the three Qis.

Now that Licheng was out of his hands, Murong Xuan built defensive fortifications horizontally on the narrow ground between Dongpingling and Licheng in order to fight against the rebellion army. This was to resist the rescue of Dongpingling by the elite cavalry of the central army.

After hearing the report from the scouts, Li Yuanhui personally led the cavalry to get closer for an inspection. The trenches dug by the rebels were not very deep, but in order to prevent the cavalry from passing through easily, they even diverted water from the Xiaoqing River.

In addition, beacon tunnels were built along the ditches, and light cavalry patrols were deployed to ensure that the rebels in Qi County could block and hold their position as quickly as possible.

Li Yuanhui reported the findings of his scouts to Murong Yang, and the prince immediately gave up the idea of ​​advancing immediately.

However, on the other side, after investigation, the scouts discovered several small paths between the northern foothills of Mount Tai, which could be passed through and bypassed the south of Dongping Mausoleum.

Li Yuanhui and Duan Wuchen each led 500 cavalrymen to try to attack the rebels by taking a detour. To ensure that everything went well, Liu Xuanji personally led people to check the route and clear the way for Li Yuanhui behind him. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, he only brought Zhang Shiwu, Zhao Silang and more than ten other cavalrymen.

The group walked along the bike path, but as they walked, they felt something was wrong.

"It's so quiet around here, not even a bird is singing."

Looking at the mountains and dense forests on both sides, it was silent, without even the sound of birds or animals.

As a veteran soldier from the Youzhou Cavalry Scout Camp, he naturally knew what such an abnormality meant, and the dense forests on both sides were a perfect place for an ambush.

"There must be ambushes on both sides, probably to prevent us from taking the small road and attacking from behind. This road is the only one that can be used by cavalry. Our opponents are all locals, so it is unreasonable that they are not as familiar with the local terrain as we are. Let's go back and tell the general that this road cannot be used."

Liu Xuanji had just turned his horses around with Zhang Shiwu and Zhao Silang and prepared to go back when a leader named Zhang Baiqian, a subordinate of Wang Bozhong, the leader of the Qingzhou rebel army who was lying in ambush there, became anxious.

Although the main force of the Yan army did not arrive, these people who fell into the trap must be captured. He looked at the horses under the crotch of these Yan army scouts and felt that they must not be let go.

He subconsciously treated this horse as his own.

Zhang Baiqian immediately stood up and shouted: "Do it."

Two thousand ragged men, armed with a variety of weapons such as wooden spears, sickles, dung forks, shovels, etc., emerged from behind the small woods on both sides, and under the leadership of their respective leaders, they rushed towards the dozen or so people below, shouting loudly.

Liu Xuanji took off his lance and rode ahead. Zhang Shiwu, who was behind him, drew out his sword and followed closely behind. Zhao Silang, who was lagging behind, drew out his bow and arrow, and first shot left and right, knocking down the rebels who were in the front.

Liu Xuanji swung the lance in his hand left and right, killing several rebels who approached him in succession. The first three quickly broke out of the encirclement.

But the dozen or so cavalrymen behind him were surrounded and in great danger.

The warhorse was galloping, and after walking less than a mile, it was suddenly tripped by a lasso set by the rebels, and Liu Xuanji fell to the ground.

Zhang Shiwu, who was riding behind him, was tripped and fell down along with his horse. Only Zhao Si, who was at the end, pulled the reins in time and avoided being tripped.

Liu Xuanji stood up immediately. Although he was a little dazed after the first fall, his body was extremely strong and he immediately regained his consciousness. He drew the sword from his waist and killed several ambushes who were responsible for finishing off the rear.

Then he helped Zhang Shiwu up, looked at the horse, and said, "Zhang Shiwu, you and Zhao Si ride together and quickly report to General Li and ask him to lead the army to help. I will hold off the pursuers myself."

"Liu, are you kidding? If anyone is to stay, it should be the two of us. You are a captain, how can I let you cover our retreat?" Zhang Shiwu also discovered that the two war horses were tripped while galloping at high speed and were injured and could not be ridden.

Now there is only one horse, but there are three people. For short distances, one horse can carry two people, but three people definitely cannot.

Zhao Si also said, "Liu Tou, hurry up and get on the horse."

Liu Xuanji said angrily, "You dare not listen to me, Zhang Shiwu, don't dawdle, hurry up and go get reinforcements with Zhao Si. If you stay here, I will still take care of you. I won't kill you happily, so get out of here. If you don't leave, I will chop you to pieces with my knife."

After saying that, he placed the knife across Zhang Shiwu's neck.

Seeing this, Zhang Shiwu had no choice but to steel himself, hold Zhao Si's hand from behind, jump on his horse and sit behind Zhao Si.

In order not to waste time, Zhao Si galloped away without even looking back.

Liu Xuanji picked up his iron helmet from the ground and put it on again, and then checked whether the straps of the fish-scale heavy armor given to him by Li Yuanhui were fastened tightly.

Finally he sheathed his sword, picked up his spear, and stood in the road.

In front of him, thousands of rebels were rushing towards him, and more than a dozen people who were left behind had been killed by the rebels.

Zhang Baiqian, the leader, saw a man standing with a spear in his hand and two fallen horses beside him. He couldn't help but feel distressed. However, when he looked at the other party's armor, he could tell it was a high-end product made with great care. He even imagined how majestic he would be if he wore this armor.
"Brothers, he's alone. Go and chop him into paste. Leave the armor to me. Kill him!"

"kill"

Without any formation, the disorganized rebels rushed towards Liu Xuanji like a group of sheep rushing towards a tiger.

When Liu Xuanji saw this scene, a faint smile appeared on his face.

He made these ragged and unkempt bandits understand what happened next.

A tiger is a tiger and a sheep is a sheep.

The spear in Liu Xuanji's hand was 13 feet long. He chopped vertically and swept horizontally, and it was as easy to cut the rebels who had no protective equipment as cutting melons.

Soon, the rebels discovered that the Yan army general in front of them was not someone they could deal with at all.

His armor was very sophisticated, and the wooden sticks and shovels in his hands could not cause any harm to him, but the tip of the spear could easily cut their bodies, limbs, and heads in two, and could also easily pierce their chests, lower abdomens, and throats.

After killing dozens of people in succession, the soldiers behind dared not rush forward anymore.

However, Liu Xuanji was in the mood for killing. He picked up a head with his spear and threw it into the crowd, causing the psychological defenses of the rebel army to completely collapse.

Who is this?
Is that human being?
Liu Xuanji held his spear in the way, and after killing hundreds of people, he was already covered in blood. Seeing that no one dared to step forward, he shouted "Kill!"

Then a man rushed into the group of bandits, hacking and killing like a mad tiger, and finally made thousands of bandits frightened and fled.

The only way a sheep can kill a tiger is to starve it to death.

But this tiger was extremely hungry and could not be fed no matter what.

When Li Yuanhui and Duan Wuchen arrived with more than a thousand cavalrymen to support, they saw only hundreds of corpses along the way.

Afterwards, the mountains and forests disappeared, and a vast open space suddenly appeared.

Looking far ahead, an armored general was like a demon, chasing and killing countless defeated and fleeing bandits. There must be hundreds or even thousands of them.

"He is truly a man of heaven, driving away a thousand enemies all on his own."

　As for Lao Liu, he is actually a combination of Gaozu, Zhaolie and Wu of Song.

　　Song Wu's experience and martial arts skills, Zhaolie's birthplace and chivalrous spirit.

　　There is also three parts of roguery and three parts of luck on the part of Emperor Gaozu.

　　In such a chaotic world, there should be a hero named Liu.

　　It represents the great Han Dynasty, burning again after hundreds of years.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)