All kinds of good news kept coming like snowflakes. I believed that Zhang Zhengdao would open the city gate. The main force of the Huoyi Sui army marched northward as promised. They set up camp under Lingshi City and rushed to build siege equipment. Then the Taiyuan army scouts confirmed the Sui army again and again. General Liang Naizhu had already escorted the cannon into the Queshu Valley. In addition, there is good news, that is, the detailed work of the Taiyuan army lurking in the Huoyi area has finally confirmed that the Sui army in Huoyi made a bluff a few days ago by stirring up wind and rain, but in fact they did not receive much reinforcement. The nine thousand Sui army marched northward Behind the valley, Nuo Da's Sui army camp was already empty, and there were not even a few ghosts to be seen.
In the face of these good news, none of the civil and military members of Li Er's army was smiling, knowing that his own army had a sure chance of winning. The scouts were required to continue to keep a close watch on the Sui camp in Huoyi, especially the road from Huoyi to Linfen, in order to judge that Liu Heita, who was sitting in Linfen, suddenly sent reinforcements to Huoyi.
During this period, Duan Lun, who was stationed in Jiexiu, also used letter pigeons to contact Li Er, telling Li Er that Jiexiu's garrison was ready to go to war, and also asked Li Er about the progress of the plan and when to start. Because at the moment we only see the dawn of victory, but have not yet determined whether the last step of the plan will be successful, Li Er did not give an immediate answer, but put aside Duan Lun's letter from Feige asking about the time to send troops, and then continued in Ling Shicheng waited in fear for the follow-up report—Li Er was really worried this time, because he missed this opportunity, and Li Er didn't know if he would have such a good chance to capture the Sui army's artillery.
The night of the second day of March was spent in torment. Before dawn on the third day of March, Li Er had already climbed onto the Lingshi city wall, looking at the movement of the Sui army camp in the distance, for fear that Wang Xingben and other troops of the Sui army would notice the situation Not good, led the army to retreat ahead of time, but fortunately, the Sui army camp is still there, and there is no sign of retreat. At the same time, the Taiyuan army scouts also confirmed that the Sui army sent soldiers to cut wood again, and they are still making siege weapons. Li Er Only then did I feel a little relieved. Then Li Er turned his gaze to the official road of Queshu Valley in the south, and said in his heart: "You must come!"
More than an hour later, when Li Er had already returned to the city to command and arrange military affairs, the scouts who went south sent back the first scout report, saying that the Sui army's rear team led by Liang Naizhu had set up camp to escort the heavy and difficult soldiers. The line of artillery continued to go north to Lingshi. Hearing this news, the writing brush in Li Er's second hand suddenly made a loud bang and broke in two. Then Li Er tried to take a deep breath, and then calmly ordered: "Call all the generals to discuss matters, and by the way, I will discuss with Duan The carrier pigeon contacted by the manager is ready, and a reliable messenger is prepared."
Not long after the order was conveyed, the generals of Li Erjun rushed to the meeting hall to wait for their orders. During this period, Li Er had already written a pigeon letter, telling Duan Lun that everything was going well, and asked Duan Lun to send troops at You today, and strive to arrive at Mao Shi tomorrow. On Lingshi battlefield, send this letter to Jiexiu first with carrier pigeons. At the same time, in order to be cautious and prevent the pigeons from encountering unexpected delays on the way, Li Er asked the courier to bring Duan Lun a message with the same content, asking the courier to arrive at Jiexiu before You o'clock today, so that Duan Lun would know when to send troops and how to fight. time.
After the two messengers, one person and one pigeon, were dispatched, the generals of the second army of Li had already arrived. Facing the eagerly awaited generals under his command, Li Er first smiled, and then said: "My lords, start to prepare for the battle immediately. Tomorrow at Yinshi 2:00 (four o'clock in the morning) troops will be dispatched to attack the Chen bandit's camp, I hope you will take the lead and inspire the soldiers to fight bravely, break through the Chen bandit's camp, and seize the Chen bandit's artillery!"
The generals of the Second Li Army were not in a hurry to sing promises. On the contrary, they all looked at each other in blank dismay, and then Zhu Can asked timidly: "Your Commander, are you too anxious? The artillery of the bandit army is still on the way, and it is still uncertain whether it can be transported to Lingshi today." It's hard to say, it's too urgent to decide to send troops tonight? Anyway, even if the bandit army has transported the artillery today, it will be difficult to attack the city immediately tomorrow, why not wait another day to be more sure?"
"I can't wait." Li Er resolutely refused, and said solemnly: "We must be in a hurry! Liu Heimai is both wise and brave. Once he learns that Wang Xingben and others are leading the army to the north, he may send reinforcements to delay our army's important affairs. We must take care of him. The precious opportunity to act when the reinforcements have not yet been dispatched or the reinforcements are still on the way is more secure! Moreover, General Duan Zhixuan and the others are lurking in the mountains, and they may be discovered by the bandit scouts at any time. The longer the time drags on, the more likely they will expose us Raiders! Do you understand?"
Zhu Can nodded, then immediately cupped his fists and said, "Understood! The final general, please let Ling serve as the vanguard, and please allow it from the commander-in-chief!"
"Very good, I will let you be the vanguard!" Li Er nodded in satisfaction, and said to the generals under his command: "Don't worry, gentlemen, in tonight's battle, our army will not only have surprise soldiers to disrupt the rear of the bandit army, but also the main force of Director Duan to help. Wang Xingben is a general who is often defeated by our army, Cao Qing and Liang Naizhu are warriors, they are absolutely no match for our army! Our army has a certain chance of winning, you gentlemen, go forward with confidence, we will definitely win a big victory!"
All the generals of Li's second army sang promises, and they all praised the governor's clever calculations as gods, and the self-army will undoubtedly win! Then he immediately rushed down to prepare for tonight's battle arrangement, and Li Er immediately sent someone to contact Duan Zhixuan who was lurking in the mountain area to pass the order. After everything was arranged, Li Er sneered and said in his heart: "Wang Xingben, You must not have guessed it, the day your artillery arrives at the camp will be the day of your disastrous defeat!"
Li Er guessed it right. In fact, Wang Xingben, who was beaten by the Li family's army several times on the Hedong battlefield, couldn't even guess the real purpose of Li Er's luring him into the Lingshi, let alone guess the time of his counterattack. up. But Wang Xingben's inability to guess it does not mean that Liu Heita could not guess it. In fact, Liu Heita found out as early as yesterday after analysis and deduction that the time for Li Erjun's counterattack should be the night when the artillery resisted the Lingshi battlefield, and it had already Inform Yu Wang Xingben and other generals in advance. However, Liu Heitai is not a god who knows the foretelling. Although he guessed the date of Li Erjun's counterattack correctly, he guessed the exact time of Li Erjun's counterattack wrong...
Henceforth, a rather interesting thing happened. Although Wang Xingben's army had known that Li Erjun would launch an attack tonight, he secretly made preparations for the battle, and pretended not to check and transported the artillery into the camp in a grand manner that evening. Wang Xingben and Cao Qing personally led the army to ambush in the camp, and waited until the middle of the third watch that night, but they still didn't see half of the enemy. It was Liu Heita who misjudged the enemy's situation and completely misjudged the enemy's situation.
In the end, Wang Xingben and Cao Qing, who didn't really believe in Liu Heitai's analysis and judgment, discussed it for a while, and felt that Liu Heitai must have guessed wrong this time, so they simply withdrew their troops and returned their accounts when the fourth watch was approaching, so that the soldiers could live a better life. rest. But what Wang Xingben and Cao Qing probably never imagined in their dreams was that just as they were withdrawing their troops to return to their tents to rest, the soldiers of the Li Second Army in Lingshi City had already got up one after another under the urging of the generals at all levels, and quietly began to make the final battle inspection Prepare, and on the Queshu Valley official road in front, the 7,000 Taiyuan Army led by Duan Lun is also trotting quickly approaching the Lingshi battlefield...
Not to mention, Li Er gave up the most favorable opportunity for a night attack in the middle of the night. Although he was forced to do it to match Duan Lun's marching time, the result was a lot of unexpected results when he hit the right way. And the half-ninety hours of hard work in the middle of the night also made Liu Heizai, who was waiting in full force outside Huoyi City, wait for a long time. At one time, he suspected that his anticipation of the enemy was wrong, and the time for Li Erjun's counterattack was not tonight. But fortunately, Liu Heita is much more patient than Wang Xingben and Cao Qing. Not only did he resolutely reject the suggestion of his subordinates to let the soldiers go back to their tents to rest, but he also secretly said in his heart: "The great thing is to let the soldiers work hard all night. Anyway, I am here in the rear. , Soldiers can rest assured during the day.”
"Boom-boom! Boom! Boom!"
The clapper at the fourth watch finally rang, and upon hearing the slow and rapid sound of the clapper, more than 800 soldiers of the Taiyuan army walked out of the mountain forest northeast of the Sui army camp in Huoyi, holding horses in their hands. Wearing black clothes and black armor, they look like ghosts, all of them have thick waists, round arms and bright eyes. They are Li Ernai's famous and only surviving Xuanjia cavalry. Looking at the sparsely lit Sui army camp in the distance, Duan Zhixuan, Li Er's cavalry chief, seemed to be breathing fire, and ordered in a low voice, "Prepare for battle, lead the horse forward!"
The order was conveyed, and more than 800 Xuanjia cavalrymen with horseshoes in their hands quietly stepped forward, gradually approaching the already extremely empty Sui army camp, and after stopping half a mile outside the camp, Duan Zhixuan waved his hand, Several masters proficient in night raids stepped forward, first shot down the Sui army sentries on the archery tower with bows and arrows, then quickly moved away the antlers at the gate of the camp to repel the horse, and then successfully opened the gate of the Sui army camp, and the Sui army who was extremely cautious Only then did the army soldiers realize that the enemy was attacking, they shouted loudly and beat the alarm gong desperately!
At the same time, all the Xuanjia cavalry had already mounted their horses under Duan Zhixuan's order. When Yaoyao saw that the gates of the Sui Army's barracks had been opened, Duan Zhixuan was extremely grateful and said, "God bless you." He shouted: "Brothers, revenge! Today! Kill me!"
Roaring, Duan Zhixuan took the lead to rush towards the opened Sui barracks gate with his horse in his arms. Eight hundred Xuanjia cavalry shouted in unison. Straight into the sky, "Kill! Kill all these Chen thieves! Kill!"
Amidst the shouts, Duan Zhixuan was the first to rush into the gate of the Sui Army's camp, galloping towards the Sui Army's middle camp, and only then did some dazzling torches appear in the Sui Army's camp. Hurry up, but just as he was about to rush to the gate of the Sui Army's middle barracks, the front hooves of Duan Zhixuan's horse seemed to trip over something, and he fell to his knees directly on the ground after a stumble, and Duan Zhixuan was also caught by the powerful inertia. It fell out, flew forward more than a foot, and fell heavily on the ground.
"Ah! Oops!" The screams rang out one after another, and the Xuanjia cavalry behind Duan Zhixuan seemed to be pulled by some unknown thing, and fell down one after another, and the momentum of the charge disappeared immediately.
"What's the matter?" Duan Zhixuan, who was dizzy from the fall, was a little confused for a while, but seeing his cavalrymen falling one after another, and inadvertently catching a tough rope hanging on the ground, Duan Zhixuan finally came to his senses When he came over, he immediately screamed heart-piercingly, "Trip the rope! We have been fooled! Bandit Chen is prepared, this is a trap!"
It was too late to realize that they were fooled. Amid the sudden explosion of gunpowder bottles, the sides of the Xuanjia cavalry suddenly burst into flames. The heavily armed Sui army cavalry led on both sides. Said: "Taiyuan bandits, do you know me, Zhangnan Liu Heita?"
"Liu Heitai?!" Duan Zhixuan screamed in disbelief again, and he couldn't believe that his old opponent Liu Heitai, who was already the commander-in-chief of the Hedong Military Region and the leader of the six counties, would personally lead the army to participate Such a small-scale war! Immediately afterwards, Duan Zhixuan, who had already suffered countless losses in front of Liu Heitai, suddenly sank in his heart, and said to himself: "It's over! Liu Heitai will go out in person, and I'm doomed!"
It is indeed a lost game. While Liu Heizhen laughed loudly, the Sui army had already launched a charge from the two wings of the Xuanjia cavalry. Although the Xuanjia cavalry was elite, they encountered the enemy in a hurry. The Sui army cavalry who charged first immediately broke their formation, and they dared not retreat without authorization, and then gave the Sui army infantry a chance to rush up and fight with them. Over there, Duan Zhixuan quickly got on his horse with the help of his subordinates, and shouted loudly: "Quick retreat! Quick retreat! Get out!"
Unable to kill, a Sui army infantry has blocked the Xuanjia cavalry's retreat first. The Xuanjia cavalry retreating hastily had no time to use their charge advantage to break through. Given the opportunity to cut the horse, the experienced Liu Heita commanded the army to encircle the enemy calmly, determined to kill Li Er's housekeeper. Charged to the right, looking for opportunities to break through, but the position space was quickly compressed to a small range, but there was no chance for the Xuanjia cavalry to charge vigorously. If they tried to charge, they could only be forced into melee, and every charge had to be paid a lot. Small casualties, but still can not find any way out.
It must also be admitted that the Xuanjia cavalry formed by Li Er is indeed very good in terms of combat effectiveness. Even if they are attacked in a hurry and cannot make full use of their strengths in charge and assault, they still cause a lot of casualties to the soldiers of the Sui army in the melee. In particular, Duan Zhixuan was invincible in the melee, killing several Sui soldiers one after another, killing the Sui soldiers so frightened that they almost broke out of the encirclement from the front. However, although Duan Zhixuan's active performance successfully boosted the morale of the army, it also annoyed Liu Heita, who is more skilled in martial arts, and rushed directly to fight Duan Zhixuan with his cavalry, shouting: "Fuck! This commander will come to meet you in person !"
Shouting, Liu Heita's horse lance stabbed straight at Duan Zhixuan's chest, coming very fast. Duan Zhixuan knew that once he dodged, he would be swept away, so he reluctantly raised his knife to block it, and successfully swung away Liu Heita's horse lance. Hei Kai was slightly surprised, and immediately recognized Duan Zhixuan, an old opponent, by the light of the torch, and couldn't help laughing again: "So it's you, just right, let's settle the past!"
Talking with a smile, Liu Heita suddenly yelled and stabbed again. Duan Zhixuan knew that he was not Liu Heita's opponent, but he still reluctantly parried, and tried his best to fight back with a livid face, thinking in his heart that even if he lost or died, he would have to fight back. The old enemy Liu Heitai was buried with him, but it is a pity that the gap in martial arts and strength cannot be offset by Duan Zhixuan's all-out fight. After a round, he found that he was still unable to parry, so he could only sell a flaw and run away.
"Go there!" There was another thunderous roar, and Liu Heita suddenly swept across Duan Zhixuan's vest, hitting Duan Zhixuan until he vomited blood, and fell off the horse directly. The Xuanjia cavalrymen who were entangled by the generals of the Sui Army could no longer come up to help Duan Zhixuan get back on his horse. Two infantrymen of the Sui Army rushed forward and immediately held Duan Zhixuan who was still struggling.
"Don't kill him, catch him alive! I want to ask for a confession!" Liu Heita shouted and ordered, and then immediately led the army to kill the remnants of the Xuanjia cavalry, and because of the small number of the Sui army, the encirclement was relatively thin For this reason, although the Xuanjia cavalry managed to find a gap to partially break through, only about 300 people managed to escape, and the rest were either killed or captured, and only a few surrendered voluntarily.
At this time, the sky was already twilight, and seeing that the victory was decided, Liu Heikai no longer led the army to chase and kill himself, but handed over the cavalry to the generals to lead the chase and kill, so as to maximize the results of the battle. Then immediately rushed to the place where the prisoners were held for interrogation in person. After seeing Duan Zhixuan who had been tied up by Wuhuada, Liu Heita immediately asked, "Why did you come to rob the camp at the fourth watch? Was it Li Erlang's order or your own decision when you started to rob the camp?!"
Here we must also praise Duan Zhixuan for his loyalty to Li Er. In history, when Li Er fought Dongdu, Duan Zhixuan thought he was defeated and was captured by Wang Shichong's army. before. It was the same this time, after listening to Liu Heitai's questioning, Duan Zhixuan immediately spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and cursed: "Bah! Idiot, kill me if you have the ability! Ask me to confess, you are dreaming!"
Duan Zhixuan was loyal, but it was a pity that his subordinates were not as loyal and fearless as he was. A Xuanjia cavalry soldier who voluntarily surrendered suddenly shouted: "Marshal, Marshal Liu, I know, it was the order from the right commander, It was the right commander who wanted us to rob the camp at the fourth watch!"
There was a lot of scolding, and the wounded Xuanjia cavalry prisoner kicked the traitor, Liu Heita hurriedly ordered his soldiers to rescue the traitor of Li Erjun from the crowd of prisoners, and asked him: "Are you sure it was Li Erlang's order? "
"Back to Marshal Liu, yes!" The Li Erjun traitor nodded quickly, and then took the initiative to say: "Yesterday afternoon, the messenger from the right governor found us and brought a message to General Duan, asking him to attack you, Marshal at four o'clock last night." You have to burn your camp supplies to cooperate with the main force in the battle. After we succeed, we have to go north to rob and kill the commander of your defeated army in Lingshi. The villain happened to be not far from General Duan at the time, and I happened to hear this Order."
"Oops!" Liu Heita complained, and said, "I guessed correctly the date of Li Erlang's dispatch, but I didn't guess the time of his attack. Wang Xingben and Cao Qing don't know how to fight with their heads. If If he voluntarily gave up the ambush, not only would he not have the chance to capture Li Erlang alive, he might even lose the battle."
"Marshal, why don't we hurry up and send troops north to meet him?" The subordinate next to him immediately suggested.
"It's too late, and besides, I don't have enough power now." Liu Heita shook his head, and then Liu Heita had an idea, and suddenly thought of one thing, that is, when he sent Liang Naizhu to escort the artillery to the north, in order to complete Chen Sangliang For the task of scaring the grass and scaring the snake, Liang Naizhu once explained that if he could not expose the artillery, he should try not to expose it. There is still more to be done on this point. After a little more calculation, Liu Heikai made up his mind again, and immediately grabbed a subordinate, and whispered in his ear, asking him to take the rotating horse and fly to Lingshi to Wang Xingben and others order.
"I hope it can be succeeded." Liu Heitai prayed secretly in his heart, "God bless, if this matter can be succeeded, then there is no need for Tang Wang's main force to go out, just relying on the strength in my hand, I can consume a large number of Taiyuan bandit troops. !"