Chapter 288 – Wind and Snow Iron Cavalry Goes Down to Jiangnan (X)

All the way south, excluding the tops of those lofty mountains, there was almost no snow left.

The spring cold was the most freezing.

The Northern Liang cavalry advances another 120 miles to the southeast, equal to enter the Guangling Road, although from the real battlefield, the army under the command of Wu Chongxuan, the new Secretary of the Ministry of War of Liyang, and the main force of the Western Chu breakout to the west of the confrontation line, there is still a distance, but even without the need to grasp the battlefield situation of the generals and colonels of the lieutenants to remind them of the words, just by virtue of the marching route around the more and more Liyang, local scouts scouting riders, it is already enough to make this Northern Liang cavalry to the south. The army is already enough to let the Northern Liang cavalry to launch the general situation, that is, usually only the intimacy of the horse washing and feeding action, but also can not help but show a few points of murderous meaning. At dawn, there is still half an hour before the army pulls out the camp, temporarily acting as the main general of this iron cavalry, the king of Beiliang, Xu Fengyen, summoned all the generals and lieutenants in the temporarily set up simple army tent, together with Yuan Zuo Zongning Emei Hong Shuwen, a total of sixteen people, there is no table inside the tent, the half a zhang wide and high opinion map of the Guangling Road hangs on the curtain wall, the major passes and cities have long been clearly recorded, and even the number of troops stationed at each place are recorded in small and meticulous vermilion red letters, and the number of soldiers in each place is also recorded in small red letters. Even the number of troops stationed at each place was carefully labeled in meticulous vermillion lower case letters, accurate to a hundred.

Xu Fengyen stood flanked by the map, still wearing the famous sword he snatched from Jiang Axe Ding’s hands back then, but with the sword removed, Xu Fengyen looked at all the generals of the cavalry who were standing in an arc, raised his sword, and drew a route on the map that was shocking enough to shock the Liyang Ministry of Military Affairs, and laughed: ”Next, we’ll be passing through the Green Lotus County, and passing through the Weishui Baxia County, and officially entering the Guangling Road. two counties, and officially enter the Guangling Road. Perhaps we were too slow in Huaibei and then too fast in Huainan, causing the imperial army to be caught off guard, so they weren’t able to keep up with us, or else the Jizhou cavalry should have arrived two days ago in the area of Shanyin County, which is characterized by many mountainous trails, and intercepted us in advance, using the cities of Wufang and Songyun as a backbone to hold on and wait for reinforcements until the Ministry of the Army Xu Gong’s capital city army joins with the local soldiers and horses and defends this natural defensive line with the advantage of the land. The natural defense line with the advantage of the ground, forcing our army to break into the south for more than eighty miles, and make a detour to the east to enter Guangling, but in this way, we must collide with the soldiers and horses of Qingzhou that are going north at a rapid speed, and as long as there is a slight delay, the West Shu that claims to have an army of 20,000 soldiers will arrive in a great hurry.”

Xu Fenian said here, paused slightly and hooked the corner of his mouth, “It’s just a pity, that Gu family’s hairy-footed son-in-law is still running a bit slow, so I guess at this moment Servant Xu has already pointed and spat at General Jizhou’s nose. However, if I have the chance to stand in front of Servant General Xu, I’ll be sure to say a few words in favor of the Jizhou General, ”You, Xu Gong, are hiding on the right flank of Jizhou, why do you want our Jizhou cavalry, which is as tired as a dog, to rush up and fight for the Northern Liang Iron Cavalry? Who doesn’t know that the big snow dragon riders on horseback into riding armor Beiliang, off the horse foot work is also not the slightest bit lose to the Youzhou infantry? I came to the Central Plains to get credit, not in a hurry to be reincarnated!'”

In addition to the unsmiling Yuan Zuozong, all the generals in the tent laughed loudly, especially a few members of the cavalry veterans who fought in the Spring and Autumn wars, but also grinned a lot, this group of people although most of them are in the Northern Liang border to get the generals and colonels of the official body, but before going to the Liang or pawns, most of the time, they have heard their respective military old lieutenants bragging about the generals in the pre-war arrangements every time they could not fail to take the enemy to make fun of a pass, and even the West Base Wall Battle is said to have been the hardest fought time, and the most difficult time to fight. It was said that even the battle of Xibeibi was fought the hardest when the Western Chu Ye Baikui, who was known as the Spring and Autumn Soldier Armor, didn’t manage to escape.

Waiting for the laughter to stop, Xu Fengyen collected a relaxed look, said in a deep voice: “Our Great Snow Dragon Riders are still more than 10,000 troops, but how the real strength, the family knows its own business, Hulukou wiped out Yang Yuanzan’s western army, my Great Snow Dragon Riders had the most successes, but the casualties were by no means a small number, and there were 3,400 people who died on the battlefield! The generals who had to quit the border army because of injuries also numbered more than 1,200 afterward! Ten thousand people, in the end, almost only half of the old soldiers left, I might as well say here to offend the two heavy cavalry words, they are also heavy casualties, but relatively speaking, I dare to let these two cavalry from the Liangzhou left and right cavalry, or even from the elite cavalry of Youzhou and the Lingzhou local garrison, but for the Great Snow Dragon Riders, not to mention Lingzhou, or even the Youzhou I did not draw even one rider! All from the Liangzhou pass outside the selection of people, I Xu Fengyen can pat his chest to say, each new pawn additions into, have gone through the Qingliang Mountain and the Palace of the double screening, each new lieutenant, their track record, I Xu Fengyen is eye-to-eye, I have to be in my nod, and then by the Chu Lushan and Yuan Zuozong agreed to go to the office. But even so, compared to when that rushed to Hulukou’s great snow dragon rider, it is obvious that now this great snow dragon rider ……”

Inside the tent, all the military generals who had made great achievements in the Guanwai area felt a dull sense of suffocation, not only the title of King of Beilang on the young man, not only what jianghu masters and land gods, but also the personal prestige that Xu Fengyen had slowly accumulated bit by bit through what he had done in the past few years. To become a commander-in-chief of an army, you don’t need to be the kind of 10,000 enemies who charge into battle, not only is Xu Snapdragon like that, even Gu Jiantang who is a great master, the number of times that he has been the first to fight in the battle of Spring and Autumn in his early years is actually infrequent, and Chen Zhi Bao is even more so. Winning battles and losing battles is actually enough. As for this young vassal king in front of the crowd, it seems that he has never lost a battle in the sand, in the temple, or in the jianghu. Of course, it is said that in a certain battlefield, our king of Beiliang that is eaten a big defeat, even Yan Wenluan Chen Yuntui these meritorious generals, occasionally heard subordinates sneak mention this matter, never reprimanded, on the contrary, reveal only the big men understand the kind of heartfelt smile.

Xu Fengyen after selling a small secret, a serious: “Obviously, now this big snow dragon cavalry, to say what Jizhou elite riders Jinggi army, still no difficulty.”

This time, even Yuan Zuozong could not help but laugh.

Xu Fengyen said, “This time I brought you guys to Guangling Road to trip through the muddy water, the general people of Beilang surely don’t know the truth, but all of you in the tent have more or less heard about some of it, in fact, as you have heard and guessed, that’s true.”

Not waiting for the crowd to take a stand, Xu Fengyen had already said in a deep voice: “No matter what, whoever has complaints, or even whoever wants to scold me a few times, wait until we return to the Beiliang territory. This time, in addition to Cai Nan’s Lianghuai border army, we have to make a show out of it, before facing Wu Chongxuan’s northern frontier army, my aim is to not fight, even if my big snow dragon rider here a ride to fight off a hundred imperial court troops, is also a loss business, of course, Xu Gong Yuan Tingshan these people have to be dead to stop in the end, that is to fight, once to fight afraid of them! Before that, I still have something to tell you first, the real battle is still with Wu Chongxuan, because this trip into the Guangling Road, in addition to I want to pick up a person, you also want to take the opportunity to absorb a certain number of Western Chu ‘routed troops’, the initial estimate of between 200 to 300, mostly young and strong, in the battlefield will be a small group of fleeing! Cavalry face, at that time we will provide them with Bei Liang war horses and light armor, and of course Liang swords, quickly break up this troop and integrate it into our army, after this Commander Yuan will lead you out of the western battlefield, and I will rejoin you in a day at the most.”

Xu Fengyen pointed his cool sword heavily on the map, “Unsurprisingly, Xu Gong’s Jinggi soldiers and Yuan Tingshan’s Jizhou cavalry will meet here, Xu Gong will use the higher walled Chaisang County as a stronghold, Che Ye’s Xishu foot soldiers and Qingzhou’s army are located at the rear and south of our army respectively, with their own cities and passes to rely on, the enemy’s entire battle line presents a half arc, the terrain on both sides of Chaisang is flat, but the water network is long and wide. Although the terrain on both sides of Chaisang is flat, but the water network is not conducive to the large cavalry riding through, because there is only a wide official road has been Chaisang government to drive the people to join hands to destroy, especially every two hundred paces, digging a strip of more than ten feet in width of the gully, if another slightly large spring rain, will be even more unfavorable to our advancement. It is reported that Xu Gong’s army carries a large number of heavy crossbows from the Ministry of War’s inventory, and even more heavy armor, 1,700 pairs, of which the Great Bow Battalion’s Divine Arm Battalion totals 4,000, so naturally, they are going to defend Chaisang to the death while forcing us to dismount and fight. If we choose to bypass Chaisang city and stall on that official road, it is highly likely that we will completely lose our original initiative as a cavalry army, then the 10,000 men who were surrounded and lost their way in and out of the city will be facing off against the more than 60,000 men who are free to stretch their battle lines, not to mention that the other side’s commander-in-chief is the renowned Xu Gong who is counted as the most famous general in Liyang, so for us, to fight or not to fight that Chaisang city is just a next best thing.”

Hong Shuwen cautiously said, “Your Majesty, I will look at the geographical situation near Chaisang, if we go around to the north, we will have to make a big circle, and there is also a Beigu city similar to Chaisang over there, however, if we change the established marching route, quickly go south, do away with the Qingzhou soldiers and horses that have not yet arrived at Chaisang, and then make it look like we are approaching Jing’an Road, I think it will be more interesting, now the world knows that Jing’an Road has a lot of people in it, so we will have to fight against the other side. Now the world knows that the Jing’an Road from Jing’an King Zhao Xun to the Secretary of the Secretary, the three guys who are in charge, are with us in Northern Liang gap, even if Xu Gong knows that our original intention is to replace the battlefield, he can not afford to Jing’an Road, the risk of war and chaos, can only be led by us by the nose to go, as long as they leave Chaisang, especially the Jizhou cavalry and the capital city of the army appears to be out of touch, then our opportunity will come, only The only thing we have to pay attention to is the traveling crossbowmen we are dragging behind us, we have to kill more enemy scouts hanging on our tails before we can do so.”

Xu Fengyen said with an innocent face, “Do I look like the kind of person who would go to great lengths to avenge a personal vendetta?”

Hong Shuwen was resentfully silent.

Yuan Zuozong was the first to laugh oddly, “Not like that?”

The generals first looked at each other in dismay, and then roared with laughter very facelessly.

Xu Fengyen had anticipated this and quickly laughed, “Since this is the case, let’s do the appearance to the end, Niu Qianzhu, you lead a thousand riders to intercept the Western Shu army, and along the way, although you can release the news under the banner of ‘catching up’! Anyway, no one in the middle originally believed that we are here to quell the rebellion, so this just confirms their nonsense.”

A dark-skinned and stout man asked in a jarring voice: “Your Majesty, isn’t 1,000 riders a bit less?”

Xu Fengyen pondered for a moment and nodded, “Then let Pang Jianrui lead another thousand riders in response to bolster the momentum.”

The black charcoal-like man hurriedly waved his hand and said, “Your Majesty, not this meaning, my subordinate is a big lieutenant, this life has never led more than 2,000 soldiers and horses, this is not to take the opportunity to follow the king to the Central Plains, or to pretend to be a general, I don’t dare to compare with the king, as long as there are 2,000 riders will be enough, really can’t, so that the old Pang lent me 500 riders will be fine! ……”

The more the man said, the lower his voice became, obviously a little weak.

Xu Fengyen raised his foot to kick, Daxue Dragon Cavalry Lieutenant Niu Qianzhu hurriedly hid behind Pang Jianrui.

Xu Fengyen pointed his sword sheath at this Niu lieutenant and said in a bad mood: ”Okay, I will give you 2,000 riders and lend you my Feng Zi Battalion, how about it? If you’re not satisfied again, I’ll lend you Commander Yuan as well.”

Niu Qianzhu laughed awkwardly, “Yuan Commander, forget it, it will only steal my thunder, with 2,000 riders and the king’s Feng Zi battalion, it’s enough, it’s enough.”

Hiding from the first day but not the fifteenth, School Captain Niu gave Yuan Zuozong, who was standing not far away, a kick.

The short and sturdy lieutenant Pang Jianrui asked, “Your Majesty, Qingzhou cavalry has been in Zhao Xun when he first sped to support the king of Huainan, Zhao Ying in the battle, the loss of all, and now that the eight thousand or so infantry is really not worth mentioning, the end of the general would like to lead a thousand riders as a vanguard for the army to open up the road.”

Niu Qianzhu said in a fiery voice, “Old Pang, the king has already promised to lend me all of your 1,000 men!”

Pang Jianrui turned his head and glared fiercely, scaring Niu Qianzhu into shrinking his neck. Niu Qianzhu’s size looked like he had to be two Pang Jianrui’s, but in the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry Army, the same lieutenant who commanded a thousand cavalry, it had always been that Niu Qianzhu in front of Pang Jianrui was like a little daughter-in-law meeting an evil mother-in-law.

Right at this moment, Yuan Zuozong suddenly spoke out, “I’ll be the vanguard, five hundred riders are enough.”

Pang Jianrui scratched his head, even if he had ten guts, he wouldn’t dare to compete with the Commander-in-Chief. Moreover, as long as the old man of the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry, they all know that the Qingzhou Xiangfan City ten years of attack and defense war, Yuan Zuozong as the Xu family army following Wu Qi Xu Pu after the second generation of the cavalry commander, that year under the city of Xiangfan, the war was tough and fierce to the banner of the cavalry had to do foot soldiers to use, ants attached to the attack on the city, to the end of the last ten do not save three, which has after the Chulu Shan thousands of riders in the Shu’s feat, not that the Xu family iron horsemen do not want to pull out more It is not that the Xu Family Iron Cavalry does not want to deploy more cavalry, but there are really no cavalry available, no matter whether it is cavalry or horses.

Xu Fengyen nodded, then raised his sword and pointed at the two battlefields on Guangling Road where the two armies were in a stalemate, “After crossing the various armies under Xu Gong’s command, the Western Chu cavalry army that we are going to receive will break out here, located 30 miles south of Guazizhou, the Wu general in charge of this battlefield is called Zhou Ran, with a total strength of 20,000, which should not be underestimated, and Zhou Ran is a veteran and prudent, specializing in positional fighting, and he is very skilled at fighting with a strong army. Zhou Ran is an old-fashioned and prudent man, good at positional warfare, and has never been greedy and adventurous, with 2,000 cavalry under his command. At that time, our main force will be about twenty miles northwest of Guazizhou, and here, along the Xiangwei River, we will make a short halt and garrison. Zhou Ran will certainly send a large number of scouts to monitor the movements of our troops, not only that, because of our arrival, Wu Chongxuan will certainly order the northern Lai County battle line to the south of the moderate tilt, the main general Yuan Jiade although less than 10,000 troops, but the cavalry accounted for almost half of the more than 4,500 riders, this part of the South Frontier army was the vanguard of the north to quell the rebellion, the battle force is obviously not weak. Yuan Zuozong, you lead the main force to Guazizhou along the Xiangwei River to push east thirty miles, directly approaching Zhou Ran’s residence, Wang Boyuan, you will lead two thousand cavalry straight between Lai County and the Xiangwei River, to cut off the path of Yuan Jiade’s main cavalry to the south to reinforce the road, cooperate with the main force, and set up the posture that we want to swallow Zhou Ran’s 20,000 men in a single stroke, Song Jinshan, you will lead 1,000 cavalry and the center of the army’s right flank to maintain a three-or-four-mile spacing to slow down the advancement, the main duty is to keep an eye on Zhou Ran’s two thousand cavalry, and the main duty is to keep an eye on Zhou Ran’s two thousand cavalry. Zhou Ran’s two thousand horsemen, as well as clearing out Zhou Ran’s various scout detectives in the south, once the Feng Zi Battalion’s trail of the horsemen going south to receive that troop leaks out, or if there are Wu’s troopers and horses in the front line chasing after them, during that time, if Zhou Ran’s two thousand horsemen get the news to intercept and kill them in the south, you have to bite them, and make sure to give the Feng Zi Battalion the openings to fully receive those hundreds of people!”

Yuan Zuozong and the two cavalry generals both clasped their fists and led the way.

Suddenly, a traveling crossbowman came to report the military situation, and then Xu Fengyen and the military generals all cried and laughed a bit.

Intercepting the military order passed to the Qingzhou side by the scouts under Xu Gong’s command, they were ordered to return to the big town of Huangluxiang City on the northern border of Jing’an Dao according to the original route, and not to leave the city to go north without authorization.

Xu Fengnian said helplessly, ”If there are no surprises, the West Shu side is about the same. It seems that Xu Gong is not happy to give us a chance to bluff.”

Xu Fengyen did not think that he had accomplished a great feat just because he intercepted a secret letter, this kind of military order that did not fear leakage at all, naturally, he would not send only a single rider to pass it on, and it would not be too much to say that it would be better to have more than one.

But Xu Fengyen quickly sneered: “West Shu side is not good to say, maybe will listen to the order to retreat, the next will have a tacit agreement to withdraw and wait for an opportunity to move, but the Hall King Jing’an should be more than a minister to say the words to be useful, that the Qingzhou soldiers and horses may not listen to the Xu Gong ‘unreasonable’ dispatch. That Zhao Xun sand field with soldiers, regardless of victory or defeat, only show loyalty. The main general of this troop is the king of Jing’an’s heart of the king’s origin, before the army certainly got Zhao Xun’s secret order, which is even if the suspicion that the spread of greed and advancement so that the army was destroyed, but also absolutely can not give the court to leave the impression of greed and fear of death. This young King Jing’an, worthy of the dynasty and field praise the most virtuous vassal king ah.”

Niu Qianzhu and the other generals were a bit bewildered, after all, the situation in the Central Plains was really both too lazy to care and disdainful to this group of Northern Liang prima donnas who had been fighting outside the Guanwai for a long time.

Only Yuan Zuozong nodded and sneered, “The possibility of the Qingzhou army insisting on going north is very high, and in the future, Zhao Xun’s nickname of ‘Death Sending Vassal King’ will be true to its name.”

With the commander Yuan Zuozong the same experienced the battle of Xiangfan City veteran general Song Jinshan, sighed, lamented: “I heard that the current Qingzhou naval division is very unlike, but from last year’s Guangling battlefield Qingzhou cavalry’s blip to see, and do not care about the combat strength of the high and low, only to say that its degree of bravery, quite similar to the year, want us back then, no matter how much we hated on the Qingzhou to that Xiangfan City, but on the Qingzhou soldiers, or We thought that no matter how much we hated Qingzhou and Xiangfan City, we still had to give our thumbs up to the Qingzhou soldiers, so they could afford to be admired. As a result, we ended up with such a defeated vassal king, it’s a pity, it’s a pity.”

There was a moment of silence in the tent, and Xu Fengyen suddenly joked, “General Song, you’re not insinuating anything, are you?”

Song Jinshan coldly tilted his head and spat at the ground.

This bold move of committing a below-the-line offense scared Niu Qianzhu Pang Jianrui and the others into trepidation.

Soon Song Jinshan smiled brightly and said, “Zhao Xun that little son of a bitch, he’s not even worthy of lifting the king’s shoes!”

Xu Fengyen patted the old general’s shoulder, “Worthy of being Xu Snapdragon brought out the old pawns, fighting without words, patting the ass is also hard to get!”

Song Jinshan’s old face smiled in an exaggerated way, and did not forget to raise his eyebrows at Niu Qianzhu’s young generation, the old man had a somewhat beaten up demeanor, obviously saying to the younger cavalry lieutenants to learn from me, I’m the real ass-kissing, you guys are still too young!

Xu Yan Bing lifted the tent curtain, Xu Feng Nian nodded at him.

Xu Fengyen told all the generals in the tent to disperse, then stood side by side with Xu Yanbing outside the tent.

Xu Fengyen frowned, having an ominous feeling.

A guest had come from afar.

Coming extremely fast from an extremely distant place.