Following Zhang Hu's military order, Left Commander Guo Xianfu, who had been hiding in the night, stood up. With a single command, he led 25,000 strong warriors and galloped through the night, heading straight towards the place where the flames had lit up the sky.
They hid far away and didn't dare to get too close. It was too dangerous to get too close without being discovered.
Along the way, some tripped and fell, but they got up and continued running.
Along the way, they were attacked by a small group of soldiers.
Xu Laiping almost broke out in a cold sweat when he heard about the sudden appearance of troops on the river bank. Luckily, he was mentally prepared and quickly sent fifty thousand soldiers to intercept them. At the same time, he stomped his feet and cursed, wondering why the one hundred thousand reinforcements hadn't arrived yet.
He did not know that his retreating reinforcements were being brutally attacked.
Guo Xianfu was indeed Zhang Hu's right-hand man. He was an experienced general and had great adaptability. Along the way, when he saw that the enemy had been alerted, he immediately ordered his five thousand soldiers to continue attacking to attract the enemy's attention and intercept their main force. Then, he led twenty thousand soldiers to make a detour.
Soon, the five thousand attacking troops clashed with the fifty thousand intercepting Song army. Another bloodbath ensued.
When Xu Laiping realized that the enemy was coming from another direction, it was already too late. It was also difficult to send more soldiers to intercept them.
"Kill!" Guo Xianfu rushed to the shore and waved his saber. He led twenty thousand soldiers and stabbed into the enemy like a sharp blade.
They didn't get entangled with the enemy and charged forward with all their might. The cultivators led the way.
Many of the Song army's cultivators were fighting with the Yan cultivators on the river, but they were held up by the Yan cultivators. Even if they knew in time that their rear was being attacked, they couldn't retreat. If they did, the shore defense would be broken by the Yan cultivators, and the result would be the same.
Without the obstruction of the cultivators, Guo Xianfu and his men were like tigers in a flock of sheep. After killing their way to the front, they immediately destroyed the archers and projectiles on the shore. The river bank was in a mess, and it was a mess of people fighting.
Without the threat of sharp weapons, the Yan army on the river rushed forward with all their might. A large number of wooden rafts blocked the river bank like a pontoon bridge. The soldiers stepped on the rafts and leaped forward on the surface of the river.
Cultivators kept knocking over the wooden rafts in an attempt to stop them, but it was like trying to put out a burning cart of firewood with a cup of water. They couldn't stop the densely packed crowd that was rushing over like ants, not to mention the obstruction of the Yan cultivators.
From time to time, someone would overturn and pour water onto the raft, or step into the water and fall into the water. They would climb back onto the raft drenched and continue to rush forward.
Zhang Hu, who understood the situation of the battle, bared his teeth. He waved his sword and roared, "Attack!"
The wooden rafts upstream were immediately released, and his Changzhou troops launched an all-out attack. The ones attacking in front were all the troops of the imperial court, and they were sent to their deaths to exhaust the enemy.
This arrangement could also be said to be his selfishness. No one was willing to see their brothers throw away their lives first.
On the other hand, it was also Meng Shanming's idea. Meng Shanming naturally knew which forces should be preserved. After breaking through the river defense line, the following battle still needed the support of capable troops. He would preserve the troops of the imperial court or the feudal lords, and it was not because Zhang Hu was his former subordinate.
Seeing the enemy surging to the shore like a tide, and knowing that there were only a few thousand of them in the rear, Xu Laiping also roared crazily and summoned the fifty thousand troops back to block the hole in the river defense line.
However, the tide was gone, and he was powerless. The river defense line could no longer be defended. A large number of enemies had landed on the shore, and it had become a chaotic battle. The enemy was still coming.
With the arrival of Zhang Hu's main force, the situation became even more one-sided.
"Lord Xu, we can't hold on any longer. Let's go!" A few cultivators dragged the struggling Xu Laiping up the stairs, trying to escape with him.
In the midst of the battle cries, Xu Laiping looked at the battlefield full of flames and the one-sided situation. He struggled and cried, "Let me go! I won't go, I won't go. As long as the Hukou defense line exists, I will be here. If the Hukou defense line is lost, I will die. I must defend here! "
"Lord Xu, don't talk nonsense. Where there's life, there's hope. Give the order to retreat, or it'll be too late." A cultivator tried to persuade him.
Xu Laiping shook his head in tears. "Oh my god, I, Xu Laiping, am the greatest sinner of the Great Song. I, Xu Laiping, will become the greatest sinner of the Great Song. The Governor trusted me and ordered me to guard this place, but I lost the Hukou defense line. How can I face the Governor?" As he spoke, he swung the sword in his hand and was about to cut his own neck.
Luo Zhao had entered deep into the Yan Kingdom to attack, so the rear defense line naturally had to be handed over to capable and reliable people. The defense line was set up very carefully. The guards along the line were all capable generals personally selected by Luo Zhao, and Xu Laiping was one of them.
However, before he could commit suicide, a cultivator beside him grabbed his wrist, took away the sword in his hand, and scolded, "How can a man just die? Now, we should clean up the mess and try to salvage the situation. That's the only way to live up to the Governor's expectations. How can we exchange death for freedom?"
Xu Laiping, who had changed his mind, immediately gave the order to retreat, intending to preserve as much strength as possible.
Before he left, he ordered, "Send an order to the granary guards. Immediately set fire to the grain. Don't leave a single grain for the Yan traitors!"
Just because he gave the order, enough food for two million soldiers for a month was burned to ashes.
The Yan army that came ashore chased after them for a distance. In the end, they were stopped by Zhang Hu. Now was not the time to chase after deserters.
As the Yan army took full control of the Hukou defense line, a few people in ragged clothes supported a battered person.
It was Sun Gaotian, who led more than four thousand soldiers to stop the enemy's army of one hundred thousand. His hair was cut off, and his hair was disheveled. Some were long, some were short. His body was a mixture of mud and blood. The mixed colors made his face look like a cat's face. He no longer looked human.
His abdomen had been slashed by someone, and he was holding it with one hand.
Seeing Zhang Hu standing beside the firelight, Sun Gaotian forcefully pushed away the people around him who were supporting him and staggered to Zhang Hu. He knelt down with a thud and burst into tears on the spot. "This general is incompetent. All my brothers have been annihilated. I couldn't stop the enemy's reinforcements! I deserve to die a thousand deaths. I beg for a quick death! "His tears flowed freely.
Left Commander Guo Xianfu, who was covered in blood, also had tears streaming down his clothes. Many other generals were either wiping their tears or crying silently.
Zhang Hu's cheeks tightened, and his fingers gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist. His eyes were red, and he was so agitated that he couldn't speak.
A few cultivators who were also in terrible shape came forward. All of them were injured. One of them cried out in pain, "Great General, it's not General Sun's fault. It's really not General Sun's fault. Four thousand soldiers faced the enemy's attack of one hundred thousand soldiers, and they held them back for close to an hour. The battle was too terrible! We tried our best. General Sun tried his best. We really tried our best! None of them escaped. Almost all of them died in battle. General Sun refused to live. If we didn't risk our lives to pull General Sun out, he would already be dead! "
It wasn't just the few thousand soldiers. A large number of cultivators who accompanied them had also died in battle.
"Ha …" Zhang Hu opened his mouth and slowly exhaled. He controlled his emotions and took a step forward, helping Sun Gaotian up with both hands. "It's not your fault. Very good. All of you have done very well. All of you have done very well. You didn't let Commander Meng down. The Hukou defensive line has been successfully taken down. All of you have done a great service!"
This wasn't a lie. If the one hundred thousand soldiers had arrived an hour earlier, no one could tell if there would be any changes to the battle situation.
He was afraid that when Guo Xianfu led the ambushing troops to attack from the back, the one hundred thousand reinforcements would arrive and attack from the front and back. If the ambushing troops couldn't disrupt the troops of the river defense in time, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The crux was that he couldn't order Guo Xianfu's troops to attack forcefully the moment the battle started. He had to wait until they lured out a large number of enemy cultivators before he could give the order to attack. Otherwise, when faced with a large number of cultivators, it would be very hard for Guo Xianfu's troops to be of any use. Therefore, he had asked Guo Xianfu to lie low and not make a move before this. This was also to numb the enemy.
Lying low and waiting for time was also a test of how long Sun Gaotian could hold off the one hundred thousand reinforcements.
From the moment he gave this order to Sun Gaotian, he already knew what kind of tragic situation Sun Gaotian's side would face. A few thousand people against an enemy army of one hundred thousand. It wasn't hard to imagine the consequences.
When he gave this order, he couldn't bear to do it either. However, he had no other choice. This matter concerned the outcome of the entire battle. If they lost, forget about what happened to Yan, so many of his brothers would have died in vain.
Sun Gaotian, who was being helped up, shook his head and cried, "I don't seek to be meritorious. I only seek revenge. If the Great General trusts me, give me another group of troops. I will definitely annihilate that batch of reinforcements and avenge our fallen brothers!"
Zhang Hu rejected him, "You should recuperate first. Someone will naturally take care of the matter of revenge." He turned around and said coldly to the cultivators beside him, "Venerable Masters, I'll leave Commander Sun to you. If anything happens to him, don't blame me for turning against you!"
At this moment, not a single cultivator was angered by his words. One of them nodded and said, "Rest assured, Great General. We will definitely do our best to treat General Sun. There won't be any mistakes." He then waved his hand and signaled for his subordinates to carry Sun Gaotian away for treatment.
"Guo Xianfu!" Zhang Hu turned around and shouted again.
"Here!" Guo Xianfu, who was covered in blood, came out and cupped his fists.
Zhang Hu gritted his teeth and said, "Gather a hundred thousand men and make a trip. If you encounter that batch of reinforcements, kill them for me. Don't take any surrendered soldiers and don't leave any survivors! Also, take down the granary for me! "
"Yes!" Guo Xianfu accepted the order and left.
However, they still missed. The reinforcements were originally coming this way. Xu Laiping knew that the situation couldn't be reversed, so he informed the reinforcements to retreat at the last moment.
In fact, the one hundred thousand reinforcements also suffered heavy casualties. When they forcefully attacked the granary, they lost close to thirty thousand men.
Sun Gaotian and his men didn't know how many enemies they killed. They only knew that they used the obstacles they set up to obstruct the reinforcements. Using only four thousand men, they managed to kill close to thirty thousand of the enemy's men.
They didn't manage to take down the granary. By the time Guo Xianfu arrived with his men, the granary guards had already retreated. What was left for the Yan army was scorched ashes in the drizzle.
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