Chapter 1 War

War is the highest and most violent expression of conflict. Due to the limitations of the era, the outcome of medieval wars often depended on the gain or loss of a vital city, or the life or death of a vital figure. However, a decisive battle will always be the most straightforward, direct, and speechless means of victory.

However, unlike most battles that require dispatch, deployment, and probing, this main battle, which took place in the hills between the Zi and Long Rivers, was somewhat unexpected for both sides.

Yue Fei judged Li Cheng's main attack direction from Zhang Jun's arrangement, but he never expected that Li Cheng would bring almost the entire existing military force of the puppet Qi. Otherwise, he would have tried his best to bring all the soldiers he could. Why would he let Hu Cheng sit idle in the rear?

Li Cheng was the same. The development of the situation forced him to do his best. But for a warlord, who would be willing to put all his wealth into it for no reason?

Neither side had a sure chance of winning or a complete plan. Both sides could only fight to the death.

Li Cheng's cavalry on both flanks clamped down on the infantry brigade, uniform and consistent, and rushed forward. Yue Fei adapted to local conditions, set up counter-cavalry and infantry, and used the most elite heavy infantry as a highlight, arranging an oblique formation to meet the enemy. This was the most both sides could do within a short distance of a dozen miles.

"Jiedu!"

Less than half an hour after the start of the battle, while the fierce fighting was in full swing in front, a rider covered in blood suddenly galloped from a distance. Because the command flag on his back was broken, he could only dismount in front of the flag and present his waist card. Then, Bi Jin, Yue Fei's personal guard, personally verified it and forwarded the military situation. "There is accurate military news from the front. Zhang Zi'an, the fifth general of the Imperial Guard Right Army Beiwei (Elite) Army, was injured by a stray arrow as soon as he came up, and died just now!"

Yue Fei reined in his horse and stood on a small hill in the hilly area beside the road, watching the smoke and dust in the distance, his face unchanged, and he didn't even turn his head, then he directly scolded coldly: "In such a fierce battle, don't report the death of officials below the commander!"

As Yue Fei's personal guard, Bi Jin naturally knew the temper of this commander, but he bowed his head and shook his armor beside Yue Fei. As for the fact that Zhang Zi'an was Zhang Jun's nephew, he never intended to report it from the beginning.

However, on the battlefield, Yue Fei could ignore the death of Zhang Jun's nephew, but he could not ignore the battle situation of Tian Shizhong's forward troops. On the contrary, the battle situation of that unit was the basic factor determining victory or defeat.

"Did you see it?" Li Cheng also raised his flag and stood on a small slope beside the road, then observed the battle situation to the east, and suddenly spoke. "The victory or defeat of this battle depends on whether the long axe heavy infantry protruding from the southern Song army collapses first, or our central army becomes chaotic first..."

Guo Dadao hesitated to speak. He really wanted to ask his lord if he was talking to himself, or just talking to himself? But these words changed when they reached his mouth:

"What the lord said is very true, that's the truth!"

After a slight pause, Guo Dadao seriously said again: "The infantry in the middle should be facing the Beiwei Army under Daxiaoyan, that is, the cavalry led by Zhang Xian; and the long axe soldiers in the south blocking the Jurchen cavalry should be the Beiwei Army led by Zhang Laocai's son-in-law."

"Not bad." Li Cheng nodded repeatedly. "They are all famous teachers and generals."

"Then should we go to support the south and help the Jin people defeat Tian Shizhong, or go to support the middle and stabilize the central army?" Guo Dadao continued to ask.

In the noisy battlefield, Li Cheng fell into a kind of silence for a while. Not only the kind of silence in personal language, not only his own unilateral silence, but also that the hero who had been mixed up in the Hebei army suddenly felt a silence after the abruptness on the entire battlefield was smoothed out.

Everywhere is noise, so there is no noise; everywhere is bloody, so there is no bloody smell; everywhere is fighting and death, so fighting and death seem insignificant.

The key is the question raised by Guo Dadao. This simple question is the key to determining victory or defeat. Yue Fei made the final oblique formation arrangement, indeed Yue Fei was able to hold his breath better, but then what?

Then there is the feeling that both sides throw the dice together. At the moment, this battlefield, the central avenue, is slightly rugged on both sides, and there are narrow rivers blocking their respective retreats within ten miles before and after. In such a crowded and narrow battlefield, once the troops in hand are smashed out, it will be difficult to transfer them again. What else can be done?

As the main general, the only thing he can do at this time is to decide when and where to throw the last bit of elite power that he can command!

"Lord! Lord?!"

Seeing that Li Cheng was silent, Guo Dadao couldn't help but remind him again.

"Wait a moment." Coming back to his senses, Li Cheng couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, and then responded. "Wait a moment... These hundreds of long sabre cavalry and three thousand heavy infantry are our last trump card. This time, we must strike later and control the enemy, and not let Yue Fei respond to the situation again... You must know that even if Daxiaoyan smashes the Beiwei Army as soon as they come up, there must be a final troop!"

Guo Dadao nodded repeatedly, apparently convinced.

"Jiedu."

Seeing another wave of wounded soldiers being carried down, Tang Huai, who had been reining his horse beside Yue Fei, suddenly spoke after a little calculation in his heart.

"What's the matter?" Yue Fei was still staring at the flags coming and going on the front line in a daze.

"Counting from the time when Deputy Commander Wang (Wang Gui) started fighting, so far, the whole line has been fighting for only a little over a quarter of an hour, and no less than three hundred seriously wounded have been carried down. I am afraid that the number of deaths on the front line is also this number..." Tang Huai said in a deep voice. "Jiedu, since the battle with the Jin people, the armor of both sides has become more and more solid. It is rare to die so many people in a short time."

"With such terrain and fighting methods, what's so rare about this casualty?"

"Actually, I always feel a little unworthy in my heart..." Tang Huai paused and said frankly. "Not to mention the Imperial Guard Right Army Beiwei Army led by Tian Shizhong, even our 20,000 soldiers were carefully selected during the rest in Xuzhou. Before the Southern Expedition for more than half a year, there were hardly any casualties. We were going to keep them to cross the river and fight the Jin people in the future. But I didn't expect that we would have to spend our strength with the bandits of the puppet Qi in the wilderness at this time... I know this is a wilderness battle, and I know that deaths are inevitable, but the deaths are too fast!"

This time, Yue Fei didn't speak for a long time, not knowing whether he didn't want to speak, or felt a certain battlefield-specific 'silence' like Li Cheng on the opposite side.

"Send troops! Press on!"

But unlike Li Cheng, Yue Fei gave the order directly after only a moment of silence. "Press on in the middle!"

Tang Huai didn't say a word, just turned around to look at Bi Jin behind him. Just as Bi Jin was about to relay the military order, he found that the flag bearer behind him had already raised the flag, and all the soldiers around him had also started to move... In amazement, he turned his head again, but found that his commander Yue Fei had personally pressed forward after giving the order. The last four thousand central army troops remaining around the banner naturally started to move together, going straight ahead.

The movement of Yue's flag shook the entire battlefield.

On the central avenue, the infantry formation of Li Cheng's troops, which had been severely damaged by Zhang Xian, directly showed a tendency to waver. Tian Shizhong's troops, who had been advancing alone, suddenly relaxed and were able to catch their breath, so that the infantry behind them could respond and keep up.

Seeing Yue Fei sending troops so early, Li Cheng on the opposite side was obviously stunned for a moment, and then fell into a trace of confusion under the attention of many generals and officers including Guo Dadao... He was a little hard to understand. He felt sorry for his own wealth, didn't Daxiaoyan feel sorry for it?

Why did he want to fight a decisive battle so early? Did he think the battle wasn't intense enough?

But soon, Li Cheng realized that whether Daxiaoyan was temporarily soft-hearted and made a mistake, or felt that a quick victory would reduce casualties, since the other party had moved, he could no longer waste his elite forces in the rear for nothing. He had to give every inch!

"Send troops!" Li Cheng drew his sword and looked back. "Follow me and press on! Kill this Daxiaoyan in front of us!"

Guo Dadao took the lead in responding, directly removing the brocade cover on his long-handled broadsword, and with a shout, led the long sabre cavalry to open the way first. Li Cheng personally led the flag forward, and then three thousand heavy infantry followed Li Cheng to meet him in front under the shouts of dozens of generals and officers... Just like the two armies collided head-on regardless of everything before, the battle had only started for about a quarter of an hour, and the commanders of both sides had raised their flags and moved forward to meet the enemy head-on.

This brought the intensity of the battlefield to a new level.

In an instant, almost everyone was rushing forward. The usual military pay, grace, honor, righteousness, and the coercion, leadership, and supervision of the flag behind them at this time, mixed with fear and anger, all gathered together. No one could say clearly why they were moving forward, but they could only move forward... Then wait until one of them loses the will to move forward first.

Yue Fei arrived at the front line first. His thousands of fresh troops met with Zhang Xian's cavalry, and took advantage of the misplaced space created by Tian Shizhong's forward protrusion to cause a huge blow to the infantry of Li Cheng's troops who were rushing forward... Almost visibly to the naked eye, although both sides were surging forward, as Yue Fei's flag arrived at the front line, with infantry as the base and cavalry in front dividing into multiple teams to stab back and forth, they were pushing the battle line westward step by step.

For a time, one ebbed and the other flowed.

At this time, Li Cheng's troops were still on the hard road to advance.

To say one more thing here, the reason why there is such a time difference in arriving at the front line is not only because Yue Fei started the flag first, but the key lies in the deployment of troops... The Imperial Guard Front Army has 23,000 troops, with an oblique formation forward, 8,000 infantry on the left and right, of which Wang Gui leads Zhang Yong, Li Kui, Sang Zhong, Liu Zhong, Li Hong and other generals as one route, a total of 8,000 troops in the north, and another 8,000 led by Ma Gao and the Yi Zhang Qing couple, also leading several generals to follow Tian Shizhong's troops, in the middle, Zhang Xian leads 4,000 cavalry, and finally Yue Fei and Tang Huai lead 4,000 central army troops to dispatch in the rear.

In other words, after Yue Fei pressed forward, there were only four thousand cavalry on the avenue in front of him, so he could move unimpeded.

At the same time, Li Cheng's nearly 40,000 troops, with 5,000 cavalry on the left and right, supplemented by some infantry behind, and then divided some supervisory troops mixed in the gaps, even so, the central infantry formation was still dense and deep, with a total of 20,000 troops, but it was strong in the front and weak in the back. The front was armored elite, and the back was leather armor inferior soldiers... At this time, Li Cheng led his troops forward, completely relying on Guo Dadao to work hard to open the way in front, so that he could barely advance.

The advancing speed of the two sides was not on the same line at all.

By the time Li Cheng's troops had worked hard to reach the front line, the front line infantry formation was already crumbling... The so-called will to fight, was only one last breath left.

Fortunately, they still caught up.

"We must counterattack!" Behind the army formation, Li Cheng commanded some heavy infantry to form a formation to stabilize the formation, and pointed at Guo Zhongwei and shouted sternly. "Guo Dadao! Take all the remaining long sabre cavalry with you, and charge, it's best to charge over and cut down Daxiaoyan's flag! Remember, only cut down the flag, don't compete with Daxiaoyan, you are not his opponent!"

Guo Zhongwei didn't say a word, didn't raise the flag, didn't shout, just held the broadsword upside down and moved forward, while the two hundred long sabre cavalry behind him each removed their sabre covers. For a time, the long sabres were like a forest of arrows, moving forward along the center. The infantry of Li Cheng's side in front, seeing the iconic long sabre cavalry raising their sabres and forming a formation forward, separated to both sides like wheat waves encountering living things in the distant fields.

Under the hasty march and the squeeze of troops, except for a Beiwei Army cavalry of more than two hundred people directly on Guo Dadao's marching route, it was impossible for others to easily step forward to stop them. The leader of this Beiwei Army cavalry was none other than Li Zhang, the Sky Soaring Falcon from Hu Cheng's command, who had followed Yue Fei for a long time.

Li Zhang was originally a hero from Yizhou, and has always been known for his bravery in the army. How could he retreat in the slightest? Seeing this, he was both angry and happy, and directly met him head-on.

The two cavalry collided, broadswords and spears, flesh and blood flying everywhere. Li Zhang killed with enthusiasm, and even led seven or eight partner cavalry to kill several long sabre cavalry in a row, directly plunging into the opponent's formation. For a time, his momentum was not weaker than that of Li Cheng's famous long sabre cavalry.

But at this moment, Guo Zhongwei saw Li Zhang, still without saying a word, he continued to bow his head and drag his sword forward in the army formation, but under the cover of the other long sabre cavalry, silently, suddenly accelerated, suddenly pounced on the other side, and then waved his sword vigorously.

With just one wave, he directly cut Li Zhang in two from the left side of his neck to the right side of his armpit, killing him under the horse.

It was not until this time that the long sabre cavalry shouted together, gathered around Guo Dadao as the core, and easily dispersed the Beiwei Army in front of them who had lost their command, and then continued to head towards Yue Fei's flag.

Of course, the long sabre cavalry was too conspicuous. After crossing the cavalry melee area, they were directly spotted by Yue Fei and Tang Huai.

"With such troops, one advance and one slow, one slow and one advance, although there is some consumption, but they have been moving forward, there must be a general sitting in the rear!" Tang Huai saw the difference after only a moment. "I'll go meet him!"

"Wait for him to come!" Yue Fei, sitting on his horse under the big flag, looked at him coldly, and raised his hand to stop him. "We can continue to press the armored soldiers forward with the cavalry."

How could Tang Huai not know what his brother meant, but he immediately understood and nodded, and then simply led his own guards to turn to the flag, and then called Bi Jin and gave a slight signal.

After a while, not knowing whether it was the Song army's deliberate indulgence, the resistance encountered by this long sabre cavalry after entering the Song army infantry formation was not so serious. The troops along the way only blocked and consumed them layer by layer.

However, when Guo Dadao rushed to a place not far from the flag, looking at Yue Fei, whose armor was obvious, and dozens of cavalry in the line of sight in front of the flag, and turned his head to see that there were only a dozen cavalry left behind him, he knew very well and realized what was going on... It was the Song army deliberately indulging him, peeling him off layer by layer, and then luring him to take on Daxiaoyan himself with fewer and fewer troops.

Otherwise, why is there such a tight deployment under the flag, but the general is standing in the front?

This is a trap.

However, knowing this, Guo Dadao, who was bold because of his great skills, was angry at being underestimated, but he ignored it and drove the last ten cavalry forward, throwing away the established goal of the flag and going straight to Yue Fei... You must know that there are so many weapons in the world, why does he, Guo Zhongwei, use a long-handled broadsword on horseback? Isn't it because the broadsword is sharpened before the battle, and then with a vigorous wave, whether you are a martial arts master, well-armored, or a famous general, it will only be a matter of one sword?

Since Guo Dadao went straight to Yue Fei, Yue Fei's guards were not fools, so they swarmed to meet him. Dozens of people almost covered all the last ten long sabre knights, but Guo Zhongwei's battlefield experience was so rich. Since he had expected it at this time, he suddenly accelerated before the encirclement, and went straight forward.

Yue Fei, who had already turned his head and squinted to look at the comer, was not afraid at all, and simply turned around and rode his horse to meet him.

As soon as the two generals and two horses met, Guo Dadao panicked... Because just now, he used the momentum of the horse to strike down with all his strength, but it was easily deflected by the other party with a steel spear, which shows that the two sides' horsemanship is not even close. And when he fell into a disadvantage in one move, remembering his lord's instructions, he pretended to turn to the flag, but unexpectedly, Yue Fei turned so quickly behind him that he quickly chased after him, and stabbed his back with another spear. In embarrassment, Guo Zhongwei could only turn sideways to block, but this kind of action inevitably deformed and the force was improper, and then his tiger's mouth only went numb, and he was directly knocked off the broadsword in his hand by the opponent's steel spear.

Since Guo Dadao had lost his broadsword, he became more and more panicked, and reined in his horse again, preparing to turn and escape.

Unexpectedly, it was this rein that slowed down the horse's speed, and he was actually bullied to the front by Yue Fei relying on the good horse. Then he saw the dignified Commander of the Imperial Guard Front Army directly let go of his spear, took a sharp Pu Dao (a type of Chinese polearm) from the other side of the war horse, and then held the knife in both hands, just slashed hard at the back of the other party's neck on the horse, and actually slashed all the way from Guo Dadao's neck, directly to the other party's crotch without stopping, and then split the saddle and injured the horse's back before stopping.

Guo Dadao was also split in two, and his internal organs were scattered all over the ground.

Yue Fei, covered in blood, stopped his war horse without saying a word, then personally got off the ground to pick up his spear, and then calmly got back on his horse. After returning to the front of the flag, he continued to command and urge the formation to continue.

Not far away, the long sabre cavalry who were still resisting and the infantry of Li Cheng's troops who were close, after seeing this scene, were each chilled as if they had seen a ghost. Guo Dadao's sudden attack inevitably dissipated directly.

And Li Cheng was far away, although he didn't know that his broadsword was split in half vertically, and his intestines may not be able to be reconnected, but seeing that Guo Zhongwei had been gone since he fell into the Song army's formation, and then the Song army seemed to be temporarily boosting their morale, he could naturally guess that Guo Dadao had suffered a loss.

However, Li Cheng was not incompetent. As soon as a general died, he unhesitatingly sent a messenger, but ordered Xu Dadao, who was supervising the army at the junction of the north and the middle, and his two hundred long sabre knights, plus one thousand Jinan cavalry, to be summoned together to continue to maintain the suppression of the central line.

Xu Dadao was also a loyal person, and he had already seen the plight of the central army caused by Yue Fei's arrival and the swollen formation of his own army, so he did not hesitate at all after receiving the order, and also quickly rode his horse to rescue him, trying to use the organized cavalry to divide the Imperial Guard Front Army's cavalry and infantry on the avenue.

This was a very correct decision. In fact, Yue Fei could not, and would not dare to let such a cavalry enter the central battlefield.

"Two thousand soldiers are given to you, no matter what, you have to block them!" Yue Fei turned to Tang Huai and said concisely.

Tang Huai understood and led his troops away, while Yue Fei, who was half-covered in blood, after a little thought, ordered to move the flag again... Not the kind of step-by-step forward as before, but like the first time he started, he directly raised the flag and strode forward to oppress.

At this time, the battle had progressed for about half an hour, and the front lines of both sides had suffered heavy casualties and were somewhat shaky. At this time, going forward again, the casualty rate would undoubtedly increase greatly, but Yue Fei hesitated for a moment, and then took the initiative to step forward.

What made Li Cheng on the opposite side feel a little panicked was that since Yue Fei had stepped forward again, the entire Song army formation still showed no signs of wavering... You must know that the number of casualties on both sides was naturally higher for Li Cheng's troops, but the two-to-one troop ratio was there. In terms of casualty ratio, the two sides were almost the same.

However, under such a situation, Li Cheng's army had already begun to be somewhat sluggish, chaotic, and disorganized. The Imperial Guard Front Army still maintained its morale and aggressive posture.

In this way, before the afternoon was even half over, Yue Fei himself and his big flag appeared in the melee area. At this time, thanks to the central cavalry's tactics against the infantry and the commander's personal pressure, the melee battle line in the central part was almost level with Tian Shizhong's troops.

This was actually very dangerous for the Song army, so Li Cheng hesitated for the second time.

If he retreated slightly at this time, he could very likely pull the Song army's weak middle troops into a three-sided encirclement. This was the best situation pursued by the two cavalry flanks themselves, and the ultimate tactical pursuit that had been collapsed by the Song army's oblique formation before... However, once he retreated at this time, there was also the danger of being crushed by Yue Fei and the entire army collapsing.

On the contrary, he could also choose to lead his troops forward, without venting his breath, and directly confront Yue Fei head-on at the front line.

But in this way, he would very likely face the most direct danger to his life... He had never seen Han Shizhong, who was known as the number one in the world, but he knew very well about that Daxiaoyan in front of him. Once the two sides faced each other, it would really be a fifty-fifty gamble on his life.

Or even worse?

After all, his Li Cheng, General Li, was not good at horse fighting in the first place, and his double sabres were now lost.

For a martial artist, losing his sabre is a terrible thing.

This is the case right now.

In his hesitation, there was no broadsword to ask his soul again. Without anyone asking, he hesitated like this... Little did he know that inaction under hesitation was the third choice besides advancing and retreating, but it was precisely the worst choice.

Because just in his hesitation, Yue Fei made another move.

Specifically, it was that Yue Fei, who had already reached the limit position of the front line, moved his flag again to put pressure on him - but interestingly, this time Yue Fei did not go directly to the west, but instead prompted the remaining two thousand infantry to go to the left front, that is, to the most direct support and pressure on the right front side of Tian Shizhong's troops on the southern side of the battlefield.

"It's bad!"

Looking at the Yue character flag going southwest, Li Cheng almost instantly saw through the mind of Daxiaoyan on the opposite side, and also instantly realized the most foolish arrangement in his pre-war deployment.

"Forward! Forward! I want to fight Daxiaoyan head-on!"

After realizing this, Li Cheng dared not hesitate any longer, but immediately raised the flag forward.

However, as soon as the flag was raised, almost at the same time, the Song army suddenly shouted and killed, almost using the full strength of the army to launch a general attack to the west. At the same time, what made Li Cheng completely helpless was that the huge flaw he had just thought of also broke out on the spot... On the front line on the southern side of the battlefield, the Meng'an (a type of military officer in the Jin dynasty) supported by Elubu, after encountering the tenacious resistance of Tian Shizhong's long axe heavy armored soldiers and suffering heavy casualties, finally chose to retreat under the pincer attack personally launched by Yue Fei.

It was a pity that Li Cheng was worried that the Hebei brothers would not work hard, and was also worried that the local tyrants in Shandong would have ulterior motives before the war. As a result, none of the old brothers betrayed him, but the Jin army reinforcements, who were the strongest in combat power, betrayed him.

Of course, it is still a bit wrong to say betrayal. It was unexpected, but reasonable... Even if the Jin army is strong in combat power and good at hard battles, why should they sell their lives for him, Li Cheng? Could it be that a Meng'an should have a strategic awareness of the integration of Hebei and Shandong?

Li Cheng should not have allowed this unit to undertake tactical tasks from the beginning.

Back to the present, such an organized unit with tactical tasks, suddenly retreated, but pulled out a huge gap on the southern side, and this gap, with Yue Fei's timely general offensive order, was instantly occupied by Tian Shizhong's troops who had suffered heavy casualties.

For a time, the puppet Qi army's formation also had a tendency to be shaken by the impact.

At this time, Li Cheng's flag, which had just been raised, could not only not move forward, but was squeezed backward by the slightly shaken army in front of him, and was forced dozens of steps backward.

He lost his footing again, retreated again, and could not stand his ground for the third time, and retreated for the third time.

Finally, the defeat was like a landslide.