Northern Liang Path's two new relay routes within Liu Province's territory were both horizontal, separately leading to Liang and Ling Provinces, far less meticulous than the Pass Inner Province's three provinces. This was also a helpless move. The vast Liu Province only had three military towns to rely on, yet it was bordered by Northern Mang's powerful Gusai Province. That was why building longitudinal relay routes within Liu Province could only make it easier for the Grassland Cavalry to drive south, this was a move that destroyed one's own border. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if that young vassal king mysteriously lost his head, overestimating his own abilities and exhausting his military, building relay routes in Liu Province, Green Azure City's Provincial Governor Manor, Huaiyang Pass Protectorate Manor and Clear Frost Mountain would all rebel at the same time. The plains on the right side of Crone Mountain was the most suitable terrain for cavalry outside of Qingcang City.
The location chosen by Kou Jianghuai for the third intercepting battle after the two great victories was a yellow sand plain about two hundred li north of Crone Mountain. Between that plain and Crone Mountain, there was a huge corridor running north and south. It was roughly shaped like a woman's waist. If the grassland cavalry were to advance from north to south, although this wasn't a path they had to pass through to reach the battlefield of Crone Mountain, compared to taking a detour, it could shorten the distance by sixty li. Furthermore, this corridor wasn't narrow or steep, definitely not a winding path. It was impossible to set up an ambush on both sides. On the contrary, the mountains on both sides of the corridor were flat. The width of the corridor was roughly the same, about one and a half li. It could be said that a large group of cavalry could pass through it without any hindrance. The so-called corridor was shaped like a woman's waist, but that was only in comparison to the entire Liuzhou territory. As a result, from the first battle of Liang Mang, when Liu Wei's cavalry went south, to the second battle of Kou Jianghuai, when the three intercepting battles, neither side had set their eyes on this place that the refugees had named 'grasshopper's leg'.
However, amidst the grandiose reinforcement of the fifty thousand southern border cavalry, when almost everyone could see the northern entrance of this corridor, there was already a group of Liu Province soldiers in the middle of the corridor. They had been waiting for a long time!
When Ma Lanzi hurriedly reported back to the Beimang generals, the fifty thousand cavalry fell into an awkward situation. The Liuzhou infantry all assumed a posture of defending the corridor to the death. There were about fourteen thousand of them. The main force was the monk soldiers of Lantuo Mountain in the west, mixed in with two to three thousand native Liuzhou soldiers. The bad news was that with this corridor as the battlefield, the cavalry couldn't move left and right. The good news was that the infantry army that was waiting in formation didn't bring any large scale anti-horse machine. Once the cavalry army that already had the absolute advantage in terms of military strength smashed through the infantry army and forced them to retreat in panic, forget about seventeen to eighteen thousand infantry, even if their military strength was doubled, it still wouldn't be enough for this cavalry army to cut down with their blades.
After twenty years of fighting to the death at the border, the Northern Mang Southern Dynasty cavalry no longer dared to underestimate the strength of the Northern Liang cavalry or the Youzhou infantry under Yan Wenluan's command. However, if it was any other troop, they really wouldn't think much of it. This wasn't blind arrogance, but rather the enormous confidence that the grassland cavalry had accumulated over the past four hundred years since the end of the Great Feng Dynasty's era. Apart from this, the reason that made the Southern Generals feel troubled was that from the moment they left the camp to the battlefield at Crone Mountain, whether it was the King's tent in Beiting, the nearby temple in Xijing, or the commander in chief Huang Songpu, who was fighting in the south, they were all strictly ordered to participate in the battle on time. At the crucial moment, the entire battle would be decided and all the main forces in Liuzhou would be wiped out. Thus, the fifty thousand cavalry could not miss the opportunity at all! Right now, the difficult problem facing these Southern Dynasty generals who grasped military authority wasn't just whether or not they should take a longer detour, because the monk soldiers in the middle of the corridor could similarly quickly withdraw to the south. Perhaps if they changed the battlefield, the Northern Mang Cavalry could break through the formations even faster, but the consumption of traveling sixty li of additional distance was definitely not a price these Southern Dynasty generals, large and small, could endure. Moreover, the military merit of more than ten thousand Western Region monk soldiers, especially Xie Xibian whose head might be exchanged for the merit of being granted a noble rank, was just too tempting!
Should they fight or not?
Of course they would!
Whether it was for public or private reasons, the Beimang cavalry felt that they had to fight in this corridor to obtain a large amount of military merit. The eighteen Xianbei jade belts that the Emperor had recently bestowed to the Wanyan family were the best example!
With great merit in front of them, how could the fifty thousand cavalry, whose stamina and spirit were at their peak, not be able to break through the formation of more than ten thousand infantry soldiers?
On the other side of the corridor, Xie Xibian, wearing armor and a war blade at his waist, sat on the back of a horse and looked toward the north.
The wind blew in his face, and it was as if he could already smell the scent of blood.
This deputy general of Liuzhou, who was known as one of Da Chu's Twin Jade Annulus, had a firm gaze and a calm expression.
Cao Zhangqing had once privately commented with the Empress of West Chu, Jiang Si, about the generals and ministers of the dynasty. Most of them were mediocre, but when it came to Xie Xibian's proud disciple, he was unexpectedly not stingy with his praises. Especially when he said, "Using troops on the battlefield, turning stone into gold", these eight words carried the most weight. But in the end, he added a comment that seemed to be a digression: Xie Xibian's tenacity and perseverance surpasses Kou Jianghuai's.
Xie Xibian slowly closed his eyes. This young man that even the young Emperor of Li Yang wanted to recruit into Great Peace City was now a citizen of Da Chu but a general of Beiliang.
Da Chu had been invincible for two hundred years during the Spring and Autumn Period. They relied on three things to defeat their enemies: strong armor, strong bows, long spears, and military orders. When Da Chu was at the peak of its power, it had once beaten Li Yang and Dong Yue to the north of the country like a strong man beating a young child. Even though Great Chu's military strength had declined from its peak, and Liyang, located in the northern corner of the Nine Kingdoms of Spring and Autumn, had begun to pay attention to cultivating cavalry, before the 120,000 great halberd warriors were completely wiped out in the Battle of Scenic River, the entire Central Plains still believed that the Liyang cavalry of a certain scale would not be able to gain the slightest advantage against the heavily-armored infantry that was hailed as the most powerful in history. However, in the Battle of Scenic River, reality had proven that on a suitable battlefield, heavily-armored infantry that did not have enough cavalry supporting them could only wait for death no matter how many there were. They might not necessarily lose, but they definitely would not obtain a great victory. That classic battle in the history books was far inferior to the one at West Leibi. It had always been underestimated and looked down upon by Li Yang's historians and militarists. First of all, in the three battles, not many soldiers actually died on both sides, only thirty thousand. Second, the Xu family army that had achieved a great victory with the combination of cavalry and infantry chose to brutally bury more than eighty thousand surrendered soldiers in order to prevent any mistakes in the crucial battle that followed. In addition, the old Emperor of Li Yang, Zhao Li, had once sent an old general with meritorious service and two Zhao clan relatives to participate in the battle. Therefore, it was inconvenient for Zhao Dun to spread the taboo of ascending the throne and claiming the title of Venerable. However, that Battle of Jinghe had a great impact on the victorious Xu family. When Xu Xiao and his subordinates were touring the battlefield, he squatted down and stared at the fine armor of a Da Chu halberd soldier. Long sabers hacked and spears stabbed, but it was still mostly intact. He sighed, "The person is already dead, but the armor is still intact. If I had armor like this, how many people would die? We can't continue to be so poor. "
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