Seeing Li Jingda personally leading the men to kill him, Xu Xian stretched out his arms and shouted, "Get out!" Everyone immediately turned their horses and ran towards the road.

Xu Xian deliberately fell behind the team and ran for two or three miles. The soldiers in the red scarf capital slowed down with a tacit understanding and waited for the Tang army to catch up.

Xu Xian turned his head and saw Li Jingda's shiny silver armor. He picked up the divine arm crossbow and just turned around, when he saw Li Jingda already nocking an arrow and shooting towards him.

Xu Xian lowered his head subconsciously and pulled the machine in his hand at the same time. Then he heard his helmet explode. He raised his head slightly and saw that Li Jingda was intact. The arrow just now must have been missed.

"Shoot the one in silver armor!" he yelled and lowered his body to cock the crossbow. When he turned around and looked again, Li Jingda was already protected by his own soldiers. He couldn't help but feel annoyed in his heart. It would be difficult to shoot Li Jingda again now.

Li Jingda was also worried about why he didn't shoot Xu Xian's mount with his arrow just now. He loudly ordered: "Pursue them with all your strength!"

The two thousand Tang troops continued to whip their horses, and the Zhou army's mounts galloped for a long time and were running low on power. The distance between the two groups of cavalry became closer and closer, and more and more soldiers fell off their horses around Li Jingda.

Suddenly his eyes were empty, and there was no shield from the soldiers. Looking at the empty horses in front of him, Li Jingda secretly resented it. But when he looked up, he saw Zhou Jun with a ferocious smile pointing at him with a crossbow, and with the soft sound of the machine, he fired a hail of arrows.

Shoot at him.

At this moment, the resentment in Li Jingda's heart turned into infinite panic, "Am I going to die now?"

The two soldiers on the left and right rushed in front of him, and were instantly out of range. The sharp arrows penetrated the body of the soldier, revealing a long section, and blood splashed on his face like raindrops.

Go up and slowly slide it down your cheeks.

A soldier nearby cried: "Your Majesty, stop chasing me. More than a hundred people have already died. We can't hold on any longer!"

More than a hundred people on our side were killed, while only a few people on the other side were hit by arrows in the back, and none of them were killed.

Such a comparison immediately made Li Jingda feel a burst of despair in his heart, but if he just gave up those robes, his death would be in vain. He gritted his teeth and said, "You are not allowed to retreat. If you dare to retreat again, I will kill him."

The Tang army had no choice but to continue to chase the Zhou army. Seeing that they were only twenty or thirty steps away from the Zhou army, Li Jingda quickly ordered: "Raise your spear and throw it over!" Riding and shooting is difficult to learn, but it is much easier to throw a spear from horseback.

Before Tang Jun raised his gun over his head, Zhou Jun in front suddenly dropped something. Li Jingda lowered his head and saw that the ground in front was full of silver spikes. He quickly shouted: "It's caltrops! Stop!"

Stop it!"

How could the cavalry in full sprint stop so easily? Before Li Jingda could finish his words, the cavalry at the front had already rushed into the dense barrage.

The horseshoes could not stop the caltrops. The moment the spikes penetrated the horseshoes, the horse immediately neighed and fell to the ground, and then more caltrops pierced its body.

The cavalrymen who fell off their horses were also in bad condition. They had countless bloody holes in their bodies. Although they were not fatal, they were not very painful. As soon as the cavalrymen in front fell down, the cavalrymen behind them bumped into each other and then fell over again.

There was a scene where people and horses neighed terribly.

Li Jingda pulled out several iron caltrops from his chest and legs, waded out of the iron caltrop formation, looked at the men and horses who were still struggling among the iron caltrops, and then looked at Zhou Jun who had stopped and turned around in front of him.

, ordered his soldiers: "What are you doing standing there in a daze? Why don't you help me go back!"

Li Jingda got on his horse and ran wildly along the road he came from. After only a few miles, he heard screams from the end of the team. He knew without asking that it was the Zhou troops who were chasing him.

At this moment, there was no anger but fear in his heart. These Zhou soldiers were not using rogue tactics. On the contrary, they were clever tactics. Once provoked, they were like maggots attached to the bones. They would not give up until they sucked out the bone marrow. Liu Yanzhen lost one point.

It's not unfair either.

He decisively separated out 300 men and then fled back to the Tang army with the few remaining cavalry, and asked the marching team to stop immediately and form formation on the spot.

Chen Jue asked in confusion, "Why does the king want the army to stop? If we delay it, we won't be able to reach Shouzhou early tomorrow morning."

Li Jingda replied: "We can't leave anymore, otherwise the 20,000 of us will be overwhelmed by that Zhou army."

Chen Jue saw that Li Jingda was covered in blood and thought he had defeated the Zhou army. "With the bravery of the king, he led two thousand elite cavalry and failed to defeat the Zhou army?"

Li Jingda clenched his fist bitterly, "No, I was defeated and almost lost my life!"

Chen Jue and other generals were shocked when they heard this, and most of them were in disbelief.

Ruan Xiaoyu explained to everyone: "You don't know, this Zhou army is extraordinary. Its fighting methods are unheard of and unseen. Whoever replaces them will have the same result."

As he spoke, there was another sound of horse hoofbeats. Li Jingda couldn't help but tremble in his heart. He looked towards the official road. Sure enough, the Zhou army cavalry was catching up with them again, but they just stopped and watched in the distance.

Li Jingda let out a sigh of relief, "Our troops are arrayed in order. They really don't dare to do it again. They just let the soldiers rest and wait until dark before marching again. If he dares to pursue me again, he will never come back."

He made a mistake. It was not that Xu Xian did not dare to attack the Tang army in formation, but that his horse power was really weak. If the horse collapsed from fatigue, it would not be able to display its great ability. The soldiers of the Red Scarf Capital cut the grass and then started from the horse.

He took out beans from the cloth bag on his back and fed them to the horse.

An hour passed and the horses were almost rested. Xu Xian looked at the yellowing sunlight in the west and asked anxiously: "Xiaozi, have the scouts come back?"

Xiaozi replied: "No! The reinforcements from Chuzhou have not arrived!"

Wu Liangdao: "If the reinforcements don't come, it will be dark. If they want to march all night, we will not be able to help them!"

Although Manggu's tactics are clever, it is easy to get ambushed by the enemy if you are unable to distinguish the surrounding environment at night, and it is difficult to ensure effective shooting of the enemy in the dark.

One night was enough time for the Tang army to rush to the gates of Shouzhou City. If the Zhou army was defeated, Xu Xian would probably have no good fruits to eat. He had promised Chai Rong in his letter. However, the reinforcements from Chuzhou and Haozhou were delayed.

, faced with more than ten times the number of enemies, how should he behave?

Jiubao said: "I think these Tang soldiers have been scared out of their wits for a long time. It's not necessarily impossible for us to just rush forward and take the head of the coach directly!"

"Damn it, I hate this kind of unskilled fighting style. Many people will die. Do you know how much pension I will add to it if one person dies?"

Dakui said: "It turns out you are afraid of death when fighting, but it turns out you care about money!"

Jiubao rolled his eyes at Dakui, "He is indeed a one-track mind!"

"What are you talking about? Say it to me again!" Dakui said, grabbing Jiubao's collar and preparing to hit him.

"Everyone, stop it!" Xu Xian separated the two and shouted: "If you have the strength, go to the battle formation and use it. Since you are not afraid of death, I will lead you to be a true hero!"

More than a thousand soldiers from the Red Scarf City were ordered to mount their horses and, under the leadership of Xu Xian, ran towards the Tang army forming a formation in the field. Upon seeing this, Li Jingda immediately ordered the archers to prepare, and began to release arrows when the Zhou army entered the shooting range.

The cavalry on the left and right wings are ready to attack at any time.

There was nothing wrong with his order. It was just that Xu Xian had no intention of rushing up to the formation, let alone getting within the range of the Tang army's bows and arrows. More than a thousand cavalry stopped at a distance of 1,780 steps.

He came down and fired arrows at the Tang army's position without any scruples.

The idea of ​​using a large number of archers to suppress the cavalry is correct, but it is meaningless without a weapon that can shoot farther and more accurately than the enemy. What's more, the Tang army, which has thrown away all their baggage and light equipment and is running fast, does not even have a crossbow with a low accuracy and a slow fire rate.

, the one that can shoot the farthest is the Tang Nu, which is about 150 steps.

Li Jingda looked at his soldiers, falling in pieces like wheat. He was extremely shocked. The Zhou army's previous attack distance on them was about 150 steps, which made him think that the Zhou army's crossbows were just ordinary Tang Dynasty crossbows.

Crossbow, now it seems that the enemy's hand crossbow should be able to shoot about two hundred steps, or even further. What a sharp weapon this is!

In addition to being shocked, he was also ashamed and angry. He foolishly asked his soldiers to line up to meet the enemy. He was completely serving as a target for the enemy. That Xu Xian must have been ruthlessly mocking him in his heart.

Can't be chased, can't escape, can't be shot, what kind of cavalry is this? If I have to find a word to describe it in my heart, it can only be "invulnerable". If not, the opponent would still be flesh and blood that would bleed to death.

With his body, Li Jingda really wants to regard this Zhou army as a heavenly soldier and a heavenly general.

Although he has no outstanding military exploits, he has never been timid on the battlefield. For the first time, he had the urge to run away. The opponent really made him unable to say anything. But he couldn't bear to part with the 20,000 elites, and he had no shame to escape back to Jinling.

, before the expedition, he swore to Li Jing that he would drive Chai Rong back to the north of the Huaihe River.

"The cavalry on the left and right wings are outflanking the enemy at the same time. Don't let any of the enemy's troops escape!" Li Jingda could almost foresee the result of this order, but he had no choice.

Sure enough, as soon as the cavalry on both wings rushed out, more than a thousand Zhou army cavalry immediately turned around and fled, and had already escaped before the Tang army cavalry could encircle them.

Seeing that the cavalry under his command wanted to pursue again, Li Jingda quickly ordered them to stop. As soon as the Tang army cavalry reined their horses, the fleeing Zhou army immediately sent 30% of the troops to fight back. They aimed at the Tang army cavalry with a hail of arrows.

The Tang Army's cavalry reacted and turned back. The Zhou Army's cavalry, who were watching, once again separated a small group of troops and rushed over...

"Come back! Come back quickly!"

Li Jingda gave a loud order, and Chen Jue, the supervisor of the army, came up and grabbed his arm, "Your Majesty, the change of military orders is like a child changing his face and making the soldiers confused. Are you going to ruin these 20,000 elites? Look at the enemy troops behind them who are taking arrows in vain.

!”

It’s not just Zhou’s soldiers who are at a loss. This description of Li Jingda’s current situation couldn’t be more appropriate. Li Jingda snorted coldly, “If Supervisor Chen feels that I am incompetent, I will hand over the command to you.”

"Then I'd rather be respectful than obey your orders!" Chen Jue was ecstatic, and he immediately ordered the cavalry to counterattack and pursue the enemy. However, he did not notice that Li Jingda let out a sigh of relief, as if he had been relieved of a heavy burden.

After being confused by a series of orders, the Tang Army's cavalry was still able to carry out Chen Jue's military orders, and they were definitely elite. The Tang Army's cavalry chased the enemy away, and calm returned to the battlefield. Everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

,

Only Chen Jue became more and more excited. He did not believe that thousands of Tang army cavalry would be helpless against more than a thousand Zhou army. Now that he had the power, he dealt with this Zhou army and rushed to Shouzhou overnight according to the original plan to meet Liu Renzhan.

Together we can drive the Zhou army back to the north of the Huaihe River. It would be best if we could capture Chai Rong alive.

By then, his favor will surely be even better than in the past, and it will be a matter of course to replace Li Jingda as the number one man in the Tang army. The days when he can call upon the wind and rain seem to be within reach...

Just as Chen Jue was thinking, the sky gradually darkened, and the setting sun in the west dyed the sky blood red. The rumble of horse hoofs sounded again from far to near, and a galloping cavalry came from the official road with billowing smoke.

Chen Jue only thought that it was his own cavalry returning in triumph, but when the cavalry approached, he couldn't help but change his expression. The fluttering Xu flag and the red scarf tied on his arm indicated that they were enemy troops.

Where are our cavalry? They are four thousand elite cavalry. It is impossible for the entire army to be wiped out, right?

Chen Jue was shocked and confused, but Zhou gave him the answer. They shouted in unison: "Your cavalry has fled back to Jinling! Your cavalry has fled back to Jinling!..."

You heard me right, my cavalry escaped!

Chen Jue couldn't believe his ears and eyes, but the fact was right in front of him. None of his cavalry came back, but the enemy army was getting closer and closer, already within the range of the crossbows, but the archers dropped their weapons and turned around.

The fleeing Zhou army was like a sharp sword thrust into the Tang army's array, directly piercing the commander's banner...

Looking at the Zhou army that was already approaching, Li Jingda finally had the opportunity to fight with this difficult Zhou army with real swords and guns, but he could no longer organize enough troops, and all the Tang army seemed to have been stabbed in the nest.

The wasps fled in panic. Li Jingda smiled bitterly and fled eastward with his remaining 100 soldiers.

Chen Jue was horrified and said, "Your Majesty, please wait for me...ah!" Before he could turn his horse around among the chaos, a young and handsome but ferocious face appeared in front of him, and the spearhead stabbed him fiercely.

The chest knocked him off his horse.

Xu Xian pulled out his gun and continued to charge forward. There was almost no one to fight him. The biggest obstacle he encountered was the Tang army, which was running rampant like headless flies.

He rushed to the nearby soil slope in one breath and looked at the mountains and plains filled with the fleeing Tang army. They had no power to resist. When he saw that Wu Liang wanted to pursue him again, he said: "Don't chase the poor invaders, let them go!"

"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a rumble of horse hooves on the official road in the south. He saw more than a thousand cavalry galloping in the sunset. A large flag with the word "Zhao" was vaguely visible. The Tang army who had foreseen the retreat was killed fiercely.

Shouting: "Surrender without killing!"

Xu Xian muttered and cursed secretly, "What a coincidence!"

Dakui pointed to the north, "Marquis Yu, there seems to be cavalry coming over there too!"
Chapter completed!