In history, the grassland cavalry's large-scale invasions to the south mostly bypassed the strategic passes and majestic cities and towns, or they surrounded the enemy without attacking, forcing the enemy to disarm and surrender. In the true sense of the word, the nomads on horseback were not good at siege battles, and the losses outweighed the gains. Instead of fighting to the death with the defending army at the border, it was better to go around the city and raid the hinterland where the city walls were low and the morale was low. Even though Xu Fengnian had long understood that Northern Mang's plan was a bad one, that they had no choice but to make an example out of Northern Liang, Dong Zhuo and the Magistrate of Peace were clearly ambitious as well. They wanted to use Northern Liang's three hundred thousand border soldiers as whetstones. This was the same reasoning as when Xu Fengnian used Tuoba Bodhisattva to build up momentum. If they could win, they would be able to gallop across a wide expanse of flat plains. Once Beiliang fell, Beimang, which seemed to have suffered heavy casualties, could win the most precious general situation. It was just like when the Xu family's cavalry defeated West Chu and secured the victory at the Battle of West Leibi. After that, they attacked West Shu and South Tang. It was just the icing on the cake. The key point that made Hsu Fengnian feel heavy was that Beimang only had Dong Zhuo and Taiping Ling at the beginning. However, after the fierce battles at Hutou Town and Hulukou, Beimang's soldiers began to quickly get rid of the discomfort of dismounting and fighting. Hsu Fengnian led the Phantom Cavalry to fight Beimang's cavalry outside Hulukou. At that time, he did not see Zhong Tan leading his troops to attack the city, so he did not have a deep impression of it. Only when he was there and saw them advancing in an orderly manner and taking turns attacking the city did he realize that Beimang's million soldiers had a high chance of winning.
Hsu Fengnian was suddenly enraged.
Beiliang was a small place with few people. Every time Qingliang Mountain recruited a Master, they had to use them carefully. Even Hsu Fengnian treated the Finger Xuan Realm Sword Path Grandmaster Mi Fengjie with respect. But on this battlefield, a few Master Realm Masters had already died. Out of the three that showed up, there were two that blocked his path. He found some clues and casually tossed out an arrow to kill one of them. In the blink of an eye, there were six. On the other hand, how many Master Realm masters could there be in the entire Whispering Water Room?
Just as Hsu Fengnian was about to kill the hidden masters, those Wu Dao masters suddenly retreated from the battlefield at the same time.
Hsu Fengnian raised his head and looked. It turned out that Dong Zhuo's South Courtyard King Flag had begun to move to the rear.
Luring the enemy in?
Xu Fengnian, who originally wanted to quickly charge forward, suddenly stopped. For the sake of preventing any accidents from happening on the battlefield, the Huaiyang Pass Protectorate's Liu Ya and Fu Ling Garrisons had made corresponding arrangements. If Northern Mang didn't hesitate to send several thousand cavalry to surround and kill him, the two garrisons had even prepared for the worst. Even Liu Jinu had clearly stated that the cavalry within the city could charge out at any time. Hsu Fengnian had his eyes on Hutou City, so he was confident that he could charge in alone and leave the battlefield. However, at this moment, Hsu Fengnian suddenly had a bad feeling.
Dong Zhuo's breakthrough point, or Beimang's breakthrough point, wasn't Hutou City or Gourd Mouth, but Beimang's Liu Province that both sides had their eyes on at the start but had tacitly given up on as the situation changed.
At that time, he had suggested Chu Lushan and Yuan Zuozong to launch an astonishing strategy. They wanted to use the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry that had been biding their time and a genuine heavy cavalry as the main force to move their forces and swallow up Yang Yuanzan's army. They would first invite the enemy into the jar and then catch the turtle in the jar.
In that case, was it possible for Northern Mang to change their strategy before this and attempt to swallow up Liu Province in one go?
Before Hsu Fengnian arrived at Huaiyang Pass, he had already followed the plan and asked Chu Lushan to give Kou Jianghuai the title of Liu Province General. He would lead three thousand cavalry and six thousand Liangzhou infantry to assist Liu Province and work with the Long Xiang Army to guard the Liu Province battlefield where Tuoba Bodhisattva had joined the battle.
Hsu Fengnian stood where he was and looked towards the west, towards the distant Liu Province.
At this time, more than twenty cavalry had unknowingly followed the King of Beimang into the battlefield, each of them carrying a sword.
The two at the front were the Sword Crown Wu Liuding of the Wu Family Sword Tomb and the female sword attendant Cuihua.
Wu Liuding rode up to Hsu Fengnian's side. This young swordsman said with a mischievous smile, "You don't dare to advance anymore?"
Hsu Fengnian didn't say anything. The sword attendant Cuihua, who was used to closing her eyes to rest, frowned and said in a low voice, "Let's get down to business."
Wu Liuding immediately kept quiet out of fear and helplessly said, "Protector-General Chu wanted me to pass on a message. He said that he felt that the boy Dong Zhuo has bad intentions, so he took the initiative last night to bring several hundred of his personal guards to Liu Province. However, at the border between Liangliu Province and Liu Province, he already had eight thousand soldiers lying in ambush there, waiting for Beimang to make this move. Oh, and Protector-General Chu also said that those eight thousand soldiers were all troublemakers that had been urgently picked out from the various border armies. Without him personally leading the troops, those old soldiers wouldn't be able to do anything. "
Hsu Fengnian suddenly began to laugh heartily, unable to stop no matter what.
Wu Liuding turned his head to Cuihua and asked, "Have you gone crazy?"
Hsu Fengnian finally stopped laughing and looked towards Dong Zhuo's banner in the distance to the north. He smiled and asked, "Do you dare follow me to break the formation for another two li?"
Wu Liuding said without hesitation, "I'm just here to pass on the message. I don't dare!"
The female sword attendant opened her eyes and calmly said to Hsu Fengnian, "Your Highness, please be at ease with your back."
Hsu Fengnian nodded.
Those eight thousand old soldiers that had been put together at the last moment.
In reality, long before the Xu family had died, they had already been disorganized. Even before that, when a certain fatty led his army into Shu, there was no such thing as a direct line of soldiers. It had always been Great General Xu Xiao who gave him as many soldiers as he wanted to fight. The soldiers under his command were either the ones who died the quickest in the Xu family army or the ones who rose the quickest. If one had to give him a name, there was one. It was a battle that had made him famous when he was young. It had taken place by a river. At the time, of the eight thousand cavalry that he had put together, only four hundred had survived. After Xu Fengnian's hereditary title as the King of Northern Liang, he had a casual conversation with Fatty, who was the Governor of Northern Liang, at Huaiyang Pass. Only then did he know that ever since Fatty had led troops in more than seventy battles, there were about ten thousand people left in Northern Liang who had served under him and had not died. The older ones had already become the family heads of the general families. Most of them were young men in their forties in the army. The most useless of them should be at least a standard commander at the very least.
If Hsu Fengnian remembered correctly, that river was called the Yeluohe.
— — —
At the border bordering the Cold Stream.
A fatty who had just put on his armor and mounted a horse looked at the cavalry in front of him, those familiar faces. He laughed and asked, "Everyone, how does it feel to go from a general to a lowly soldier under my, Chu Lushan's, command?"
The cavalry roared with laughter.
The fatty beamed and said, "I hear that there are quite a few people from the infantry who came here to make up the numbers. I, Chu Lushan, am a sentimental person and will not bicker with you all. Presumably, after all these years, you haven't fallen too far behind in archery and horses."
The cavalry laughed even louder.
The fatty's face suddenly seethed with killing intent as he viciously said, "Everyone here knows an old rule. If you follow me into battle and don't die, you'll be promoted. This time, I'll have to disappoint all of you. It's hard to say if you'll die, but even if you don't die, you won't be promoted! Let me say this first: the enemy this time is the cavalry under the direct command of that Dong Zhuo of Beimang. There are at least twenty thousand of them! We only have eight thousand people. What do we do? "
A solemn silence reigned.
Chu Lushan suddenly clasped his fist and said, "Then I invite everyone to make another trip to the Yeluohe with Chu Lushan!"
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