Xu Huai held the long sword in both hands, exhaled loudly, and slashed down with a violent sword light, splitting open an iron shield that was approaching in front of him.

The enemy soldier hiding behind the iron shield watched in horror as the sharp sword broke through the shield without abating. The blade was as cold as snow and struck through his brow, making him suspect that his body would be split in two from the brow.

, but he didn't want the violent blade to cut his throat. In the gushing blood, he suddenly turned to the left side with a light stroke, and drew a single-shaped blade light with ease, like a poisonous snake flying out of the grass.

He slashed away at a spear that was stabbed hard from the side.

However, before Xu Huai could charge out like a fierce tiger, sharp arrows shot through the air with a "whoosh". The long knife in Xu Huai's hand suddenly cut into seven rays of sword light, blocking all seven sharp arrows in front of him, but in the time of blocking,

Xu Huai could also fully feel how fast these arrows shot.

At the same time, Xu Huai also heard someone behind him groaning in severe pain. He glanced over from the corner of his eye and saw that a guard was shot in the face by an arrow and was dying; there was another person on the shoulder.

The armor was pierced by an arrow. The arrow penetrated the flesh very deeply. It seemed that it might have penetrated the shoulder bone directly.

"Damn it, these dogs are so ruthless in their archery skills!"

Wang Jun saw that the captives were riding close to a hundred paces and fired a dozen cold arrows at Xu Huai, and then he galloped to the outside without any delay to open up a distance, telling the elite archers on their side to move away.

He had no chance to fight back with his bow, so he could only curse in vain.

Wu Chihai, Liu Yueting and others personally led the armored soldiers to continue to advance to the periphery. The counterattack was not interrupted by a small episode, but to prevent the enemy from having another cold arrow aimed at Xu Huai. Wang Xian, who was in charge of the battlefield command in the center, ordered the two teams of sword and shield players to quickly move from

They rushed out from behind the chariot formation and separated Xu Huai from the enemy soldiers.

Seeing that this round of the enemy's offensive had been almost disintegrated, Xu Huai put his sword back into its sheath with a stern expression. Surrounded by Niu Er, Wang Jun and others, he slowly retreated to the section where more than a hundred refined iron shield vehicles were located.

The knotted arc formation is followed by the sweeping formation.

Behind the car formation, more than 40 ships were lying across the vast water surface of Yingshui River.

In addition to being lightweight, the fine iron shield chariot is also stronger than the traditional wooden chariot, but it is far from indestructible.

Whether he was going south from Zhuxianyi or landing on the branch of Xiliu River this time, Xu Huai did not directly place a vehicle formation on the outermost edge to resist the enemy's attack.

More often, armor and soldiers take turns to fight in formation outside the chariot formation, with elite archers standing on top of the shield chariot to provide support.

If the enemy army gathers armored cavalry to attack suddenly, the armored soldiers on the periphery will quickly withdraw behind the chariot formation, change spearmen, and stand on the shield chariot with spearmen to resist the impact of the armored cavalry; the small group of armored soldiers will quickly form a formation to counterattack.

Kill and intersperse, disintegrating the charge of the enemy cavalry.

The battle lasted for most of the day and successfully resisted seven waves of enemy attacks. Thousands of corpses were abandoned in the grass.

In addition to the fact that the fine iron shield chariots made by Chushan were lighter and stronger, the tactics implemented by the Chushan army on the south bank of Yingshui River were essentially the same as the "Que Yue" that was famous in the Hehuai land hundreds of years ago.

Array" makes no difference.

If viewed from a high altitude, Chushan's warships, chariot formations, more than 2,000 armored soldiers, and a small number of cavalry formations entering the front bank look like a huge half-moon, covering a space of 2,000 to 3,000 steps to the left and right.

However, the "Que Yue Formation" in history was short-lived. It did not shine much dazzlingly in many wars in the Central Plains in the following hundreds of years. It is not without inheritance. The main reason is this kind of formation with a large number of tanks against the water, combined with the warships carrying generals.

The tactics of using soldiers, combat supplies, and equipment have too many limitations when implemented.

The terrain of the Hehuai River is flat and broad, which is advantageous for vehicle fighting. However, the main rivers between the Hehuai River, such as Cai, Bian, Ying, Ru, Wu, and Yi, have soft soil along the banks and are prone to flooding in summer and autumn.

Branch streams and canals dug by nearby people to facilitate irrigation, coupled with the clumsiness of traditional chariots, severely restricted the maneuverability of vehicle formations.

However, the vehicle formation does not consider mobile combat and only defends one place, but it has the advantage of resisting the charge of heavy armored cavalry.

At this time, Xu Huai set up the "Queyue Formation" on the south bank of Yingshui River and west of the mouth of Xiliu River, mainly to form a solid beachhead, and then used several large-wing boats to quickly travel between the two banks to gather the troops on the north bank of Yingshui River.

Those generals, soldiers and horses were transported little by little to the south bank.

…………

…………

Yue Hailou, Muchi and others reined in their horses and stopped on a flat hill.

At this time, the rain has stopped, the sky has not cleared up yet, and is still covered with clouds. However, the Yingshui River near Xiliu River is only more than a hundred feet wide, which does not hinder Yue Hailou and others from moving Yingshui north to the wilderness of Xihua City.

All in sight.

A part of the Chushan Army generals, under the personal leadership of Xu Huai, took warships directly to the south bank of Yingshui River west of the mouth of Xiliu River. At the same time, more than 4,000 Chushan Army generals went directly from the south city of Xihua City before noon.

He rushed out of the gate and rushed to the north bank of Yingshui River.

Although the cavalry they deployed on the north bank of Yingshui was dispatched as quickly as possible to surround Xihua City, because Xihua City was only eleven or twelve miles away from the north bank of Yingshui, they were unable to stop the four thousand cavalry in the end.

Chushan Army soldiers and more than a thousand war horses quickly resisted the north bank.

Now these four thousand armored soldiers are on the north bank of Yingshui River. In addition to relying on hundreds of chariots to form a moon formation to resist the impact of the cavalry, they are also constantly sending troops to the south bank bit by bit through boats.

Judging from the soldiers' armor, the tightness of the formation, and several tentative attacks that lasted for most of the day, Yue Hailou was able to ensure that the 6,000 armored soldiers gathered on the north and south banks of the Ying River at this time were all the elites of the Chushan lineage.

This means that only the four to five thousand rebel troops that Xu Huai attached to after attacking Bianliang, the generals who returned to the rebellion, and their families are still standing in Xihua City.

At this time, in addition to the tens of thousands of infantry and more than 2,000 elite cavalry gathered on the west bank of Xiliu River, Yue Hailou also dragged hundreds of heavy side carriages and shield carriages from nearby camps with oxen and horses, and marched in Xiliu

The west bank of the stream and tens of thousands of infantry formations together formed a solid blockade defense line.

Yue Hailou even mobilized thousands of young and strong civilians to dig long trenches along the east-west direction on the west bank of Xiliu River; cut down trees to create more obstacles such as horses and deer antlers.

Yue Hailou was confident that they had completely blocked Xu Huai's possible breakout southward along the west bank of Xiliu River. However, Yue Hailou's inner uneasiness became stronger. After all, in this situation, how could Xu Huai still survive?

Continuously transport soldiers and horses from the north bank to the south bank bit by bit?

"It may be necessary for Wuchi to lead the cavalry on the eastern front to march westward in advance,"

Zhong Changqing looked at this scene, frowned deeply and suggested to Mu Chi, Yue Hailou and others,

"The Southern Dynasty should be aware of our intention to lure its reinforcements to the north of the Shuishui River for encirclement and annihilation. It may be that we are trying to take advantage of the situation.

Our troops on the eastern front have not yet moved westward, and the three reinforcements from the south crossed as quickly as possible to the upper reaches of Xiliu Creek, and Xu Huaisuo led elite troops from north to south to attack our troops on the west bank of Xiliu Creek, seeking the possibility of rendezvous -

—We can’t even rule out the possibility of them organizing night battles!”

Zhong Changqing claimed to have a deep understanding of Chu Mountain. All he could guess was that the reinforcements from the Southern Dynasty would probably rush towards the Xiliu River as quickly as possible. After Xu Huai led the elite to gather together, they would then slowly break out south.

.

Mu Chi laid out the Kanyu map on the saddle. The Kanyu map marked Chushan's camp on the north bank of Xiaoquegang, the position at the mouth of Xiliu River occupied by the elite led by Xu Huai, and the shores of the Shuishui River where the main force of the Xuanwu Army of the Southern Dynasties was located.

The position it occupies happens to form a triangle with three roughly equal sides and a distance of about sixty or seventy miles.

At this time, it is really impossible to rule out the possibility that the three reinforcements from the South Dynasty will suddenly dispatch and travel north overnight to meet Xu Huai near Xiliu River.

At that time, about 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Southern Dynasty will gather together, form a huge military formation, and then slowly break out to the south. Their mobilization of soldiers and horses on the east and west fronts will be a little slower, and they may not be able to completely surround these 50,000 soldiers and horses.

Woolen cloth……

"If you are greedy for too much, you will lose. If you can annihilate Xu Huai's troops along the Yingshui River at this time, it will be better. After the Hehuai River is completely frozen, it will not be too late to gather troops and tear open the defense line on the Huaihe River..." Mu Chi also has extremely strong feelings in his heart.

Feeling uneasy and worried that it would be risky to draw all the reinforcements from the Southern Dynasty to the north bank of the Shuishui River before mobilizing troops and horses for encirclement, I decided to follow Zhong Changqing's suggestion and transfer the elite cavalry of Wuchi's unit to the western front in advance.

He directly asked the military officials to draw up military orders and seals on their saddles. In the dusk, he sent messengers carrying letters and orders to 40 miles away. Wu Chi led his troops to garrison the camp in the west of Shangshui City and asked Wu Chi to receive the order after receiving the order.

After the signal was given, all the cavalry were immediately assembled, and they detoured from the south of Miaowang Valley all night, crossing directly to the north bank of the Shuishui River to intercept the Southern Dynasty troops and horses that might cross northward from the shore of the Shuishui River at any time.

As the sky gradually darkened, Yue Hailou, Muchi, and Zhong Changqing returned to the temporary camp formed on the west bank of Xiliu River. At the same time, they ordered the garrison in the nearby camp to further gather on the west bank of Xiliu River, and at the same time, they ordered the civilians to stay overnight.

Dig a long trench on the south side of the camp and build more obstacles such as horses and antlers to prevent the possibility of being attacked from the north or south.

Piles of bonfires were lit, lighting up the hazy night sky.

The Chushan army formed at the mouth of Xikou showed no signs of breaking out of the car formation, but they did not stop using warships to continuously transport people and horses from the north bank across the river.

Yue Hailou was busy until late at night before he lay down to rest with his clothes on. Half asleep, he heard the sound of galloping horse hooves and suddenly woke up.

Hearing carefully, he saw several fast horses galloping into the camp. He rolled up from the simple bed made of wooden planks and walked out of the tent. He saw Zhong Changqing striding over with Xinqi and asked in surprise: "Reinforcements from the Southern Dynasty.

Have you gone north overnight?"

"The situation could be more serious than this,"

Zhong Changqing would rather he knew the news earlier that the reinforcements from the Southern Dynasty were heading north overnight, but the unconcealed fear in his heart betrayed him and he said in panic,

"After Wuchi received the order, he immediately sent the front troops and horses to go ahead, but encountered a large area of ​​flooding in the southeast of Miaowang Valley and was unable to cross!"

Although Chen Zixiao led 4,000 soldiers and horses to set up the front army camp at Miaowanggou, there was still more than twenty miles between the front army camp at Miaowanggou and the company camp of the Chushan Army on the north bank of the Huishui River.

of free time.

The Chushan Army only had 20,000 soldiers and horses on the north bank of the Shuishui River, which was far from enough to fill the space from the north bank of Xiaoquegang to Miaowanggou, which was about 40 miles wide.

If the Wuchi cavalry wanted to quickly penetrate to the north bank of the Shuishui River west of Xiaoquegang, intercept the main reinforcements of the Southern Dynasties, mainly composed of the Xuanwu Army on the left and right, cross the Shuishui River and quickly go north to fight, and pass through the open space south of Miaowang Valley, it would be

The fastest and most convenient way - this is much faster than the dense camp area built by Chenzhou Army in the north of Miaowanggou (different camps are connected by fence walls and long posts).

The terrain south of Miaowanggou is flat and broad with almost no ups and downs. As the elite Red Hussars, they pass directly through this area and are not afraid that the Chushan Army dares to break out from the camps on both wings to engage in night battles and melees.

But who would have thought that before entering this area, it would have been blocked by extensive flooding!

"How is that possible?" Yue Hailou felt a chill running down his spine and almost screamed. He couldn't imagine or believe that a large area of ​​flooding would suddenly occur in the southeast of Miaowanggou.

In the past three or four days, it has been raining continuously, and the Yingshui River has also risen a bit, but this is very different from the torrential downpours in summer and autumn.

What's more, there was no rainfall for more than a month between Ruying and Ying, so the land was dry.

The continuous rain can first seep into the dry soil, and there is no condition to form a large area of ​​​​water, let alone the flooding that has blocked the open area more than 20 miles south of Miaowang Valley.

Generals such as Mu Chi and Yin Chao also rushed over after hearing the news.

Yin Chao's face was a little pale, and he secretly regretted why he didn't stay in Xuchang for two more days, but came to meet Yue Hailou and Mu Chi at this time?
To be continued...