Chapter 1 The Truth

Actually, ever since the Yan army crossed the river, Qian soldiers had been active in this area. However, what was strange was that these Qian soldiers didn't seem like scattered scouts. Some looked like they belonged to the military, and others showed considerable skill and horsemanship. But a large portion of them weren't wearing Qian army armor.

They were scattered and somewhat disorganized, seemingly without any system, like people from the martial world.

In Liang Cheng's words, scouts during wartime were like the eyes of an army, much like in modern sandbox strategy games. There were always shadows in the field of vision, and scouts were needed to reveal them.

The number of scouts deployed, how they were positioned, and their quality were all extremely important.

Generally speaking, the soldiers with the strongest individual and small-team combat abilities in an army were often the scouts. For a long time, before the concept of special forces existed, reconnaissance soldiers and reconnaissance companies often served as special forces. This led to many films and television shows about reconnaissance soldiers and companies, influencing generations of children who dreamed of becoming reconnaissance soldiers.

Cui Liu Fort mainly used barbarian soldiers as scouts, and whether they were from Cui Liu Fort or the Zhenbei Army, their quality as reconnaissance forces capable of operating in the vast, harsh deserts was among the best in the world. Therefore, these Qian scouts were no match for them.

Even if some of them were skilled, it was easy for several scouts to kill or capture them alive in a joint attack. Interrogation revealed that some of them weren't scouts from the Qian army at all, but family retainers sent by various families to gather information.

If it was just minor skirmishes before, now they had received reports from the scouts that a well-organized Qian army was approaching.

The number was about two thousand.

Whether or not it was a well-organized unit was a key factor in determining its combat effectiveness. Therefore, the previous one-on-one duels were just for show, and no one took them seriously. But when a well-organized Qian army appeared, the nature of things changed.

The Yan army was still crossing the river, and even a beginner like Zheng Fan, who had just entered military school, knew the story of "attacking halfway across." At this moment, he directly slapped his horse's rear with the back of his saber and led nearly two thousand cavalry to charge over.

Zheng Fan's role was temporarily over. Next, Commander Zheng consciously handed over command to Liang Cheng.

Before going to the battlefield, he always felt that the world was vast and he could roam freely. But after truly experiencing the cruelty of the battlefield, he understood that those in positions of power must have a clear understanding of their own abilities. A single wrong decision could cost the lives of many soldiers under their command.

However, Commander Zheng soon regretted it.

Because without any probing, without reorganizing the formation, and without deploying in tiers,

Liang Cheng waved his saber and decisively issued the order to charge!

The rhythm of the hooves quickened, and all the knights began to accelerate!

Because he was in the middle of it all, with Fan Li, this tall tower, blocking him, the other demon kings were close by, and there were his own cavalry on the periphery, Commander Zheng hadn't really observed the situation on the other side.

Oh, right, when Zheng Fan ordered the attack, the little sword attendant was patted on the head by Fan Li and left in place, without taking her to the battlefield.

As for whether she would sneak away and run, that was her own choice.

Finally,

the two sides made contact.

Once the armies engaged, much of the previous order disappeared. Everyone only saw the opponent in front of them, and the only thing left in their minds was "Kill him!"

Zheng Fan also slashed down a Qian soldier, but after doing so, he was a little stunned, because this could no longer be considered a Qian soldier. The clothes he was wearing were more like the costumes of people on stage during a play.

Yan favored black, and the Yan system often blurred the lines between military and government. In other words, the Yan people didn't really have much artistic talent in terms of "aesthetics" and "class."

"Master, these are yamen runners."

A'ming said.

Oh, right.

Zheng Fan suddenly realized why the clothes looked so familiar. This was indeed not a regular Qian soldier, but a constable or something from a nearby yamen.

That's why Liang Cheng directly ordered the charge. An army composed of yamen runners and some other unknown elements was simply a rabble. Facing an opponent with no tactics at all, bothering with tactics yourself was just asking for trouble. Just charge!

The fact proved that this was indeed the case. Even the Qian regular army would have difficulty resisting the Yan cavalry charge if they were in formation, let alone this group of people who were basically disorganized and just gathered together.

After the initial charge, this Qian army directly collapsed. Next was the Yan army's one-sided slaughter.

However, there was a civil official riding a donkey in the Qian army.

Yes, riding a donkey, with white hair, dragging a sword, because the sword was too heavy for him to lift.

Presumably, this rabble was gathered by him. His spirit was commendable, even a little awe-inspiring, but in terms of combat effectiveness, alas, it really wasn't worth mentioning.

Zheng Fan just glanced at the old man. The next moment, the old man's figure disappeared. Perhaps he had fallen off the donkey, or perhaps he had been slashed down by a Yan soldier.

In short, in the face of a major rout, the probability of that old man surviving could be said to be extremely small.

This was the battlefield, and there was no room for respecting the old and caring for the young. Even if you wanted to admire the heroes among your opponents, that was an extension activity to be done after the battle was over and the battlefield was cleaned up.

The enemy came quickly and collapsed quickly, but Liang Cheng didn't order a full pursuit. Instead, he decisively ordered the troops to withdraw. As the vanguard, their most important task was to secure the crossing point. It would be a real loss if something went wrong due to greed for merit.

Even if charging further south might allow them to see the Qian capital, even with great merit in sight, they still had to restrain themselves.

On the way back, Liang Cheng came to Zheng Fan's side and reported:

"Master, it was a defeated army of yamen runners, prisoners, and a group of local heroes organized by the local old magistrate."

Zheng Fan nodded upon hearing this.

He didn't say anything more, nor did he ask if the old man's body had been collected. After experiencing similar things on the way south, he was indeed a little numb.

Qian was so big that it was normal to have some people like that. But in fact, their appearance itself meant that Qian's national power was declining.

However, at this moment, a Zhenbei Army force galloped over from the direction Zheng Fan came from. Leading the way was Li Fusheng, followed by Sun Guyi.

"Others will defend the crossing point and wait for the main force to cross the river. Commander Zheng, lead your troops and follow me!"

"This subordinate obeys!"

Zheng Fan originally thought that Li Fusheng's advance across the river was to go to the Qian capital and say hello to the Qian emperor, fulfilling his previous joke.

But unexpectedly, Li Fusheng directly led his troops eastward, not southward.

Zheng Fan's Cui Liu Fort cavalry, plus Sun Guyi's subordinates, totaled less than five thousand. The follow-up troops were still crossing the river, but Li Fusheng was obviously a little impatient.

Heading east, the group traveled non-stop for seventy or eighty miles. Ahead, a Qian military stronghold appeared.

From the outside, this stronghold was very well-organized and layered. On the other side of the Bian River, there was another stronghold. The stronghold on the other side of the river was larger in scale, and there were more soldiers inside.

The appearance of a large cavalry force naturally couldn't be concealed. For a time, Qian soldiers appeared in the strongholds on both sides of the river.

To be honest, Zheng Fan was already a little dizzy at this moment. His map reading skills in his previous life were basically just at the level of Zhi Ling sister's navigation.

In this life, using it for warfare often left him confused about directions.

In fact, not only was Commander Zheng confused, but at the moment, in this not very large area from Xishan County to Bianzhou County, with the Bian River as the dividing line, the positions of the Zhenbei Army and the Qian army on both sides could be said to be intertwined and extremely complex. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were intermingled.

Li Bao didn't hesitate to sacrifice the lives of his subordinates and launched a frantic attack in the past few days, completely mobilizing the Qian army.

This was a chaotic battle, and only truly excellent generals had the ability to unravel the situation from the chaos and open up a breakthrough.

Li Fusheng didn't hesitate at all.

He raised the long saber in his hand and shouted:

"The will to break the formation!"

Behind him, the Zhenbei Army knights shouted:

"Live or die!"

There was no pre-war speech, and he didn't even let everyone, who had been galloping for so long, stop to rest. Seemingly in a great hurry, he omitted most of the steps and only left the charge!

Li Fusheng led the charge, followed closely by Sun Guyi. The Zhenbei Army soldiers no longer cared about their already overdrawn horses and began to squeeze out the last bit of energy from their close comrades.

Liang Cheng turned his head to look at Zheng Fan, which was already very polite. Because unless you wanted to cut yourself off from Great Yan, you would just be waiting to die if you still wanted to preserve your strength and not charge at this time.

The question was, if you didn't continue to side with Great Yan at this moment, could you really run to the Qian side, which was about to be beaten into a dog, and surrender?

Zheng Fan bit his teeth and shouted:

"Charge!"

Liang Cheng ordered the charge, and the Cui Liu Fort cavalry no longer hesitated, following the Zhenbei Army knights and charging forward regardless of anything else.

Arrows were shot out from the Qian military stronghold. In front, Yan cavalrymen were constantly hit by arrows and fell from their horses, but the cavalrymen beside and behind them continued to charge forward.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Some warhorses directly crashed into the barricades, and some were stabbed in the abdomen by the wooden thorns below, with blood and intestines flowing out directly.

The knights who fell from their horses held sabers and called on the surrounding comrades to continue the charge on foot.

The cavalry on the outer flanks began to throw flying claws, using the power of their horses to destroy the stronghold's outer walls.

Li Fusheng took the lead, biting his saber directly in his mouth. After dismounting, he used both his hands and feet, climbing directly up the stronghold's outer wall with amazing speed, like a nimble monkey.

Behind him, batch after batch of Zhenbei Army soldiers did the same, climbing the wall with their bare hands.

The outer wall of the temporary stronghold was naturally not as good as a real city wall, so it was still quite easy to climb. However, there were Qian soldiers inside using spears to thrust and archers shooting arrows. A small half of the armored soldiers climbing were knocked down halfway, but the people behind them remained unmoved, continuing to climb upwards like a group of fearless madmen, following their general.

Fortunately, the comrades behind them also counterattacked with arrows. Because they were more fearless and stronger than the Qian army in archery, they finally suppressed the Qian army in the stronghold for a time.

At this time, Li Fusheng had already led the first batch of armored soldiers onto the stronghold wall, starting to fight with the Qian army on top and clearing space for subsequent troops to climb the wall.

Zheng Fan also arrived at the stronghold wall. On his left was A'ming, on his right was Si Niang, behind him was the Blind Man, and in front of him was Fan Li.

For the demon kings, it didn't matter how the war was fought, as long as their master was safe, it was all acceptable.

Commander Zheng didn't insist on "going out to have fun alone," after all, it didn't matter if you crashed and burned, but it could very likely lead to the collective death of the demon kings.

"What the hell are we fighting for!"

Zheng Fan roared, not knowing who he was venting his dissatisfaction on. He only knew that his family, which he had been carefully saving for so long and had suffered almost no damage since the start of the war, was now dying one by one at an extremely fast rate.

But Zheng Fan knew that the best way to reduce casualties was to defeat the Qian army inside as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if they were to stalemate, their losses would only increase!

At this time, perhaps because the vanguard armored soldiers led by Li Fusheng had successfully withstood the pressure and entered the stronghold, the threat to the surrounding Yan army began to lessen. So, a group of knights had already worked together to pull a barricade out of the frozen earth.

"Clang..."

A gap of about ten meters was opened.

At this time, the Qian army inside didn't retreat in fear. Instead, they shouted and swarmed forward, wanting to block the opening in the stronghold.

The Qian army in the stronghold was of good quality, at least much more capable and willing to fight than the Qian garrison soldiers in the cities seen along the way.

"Fan Li!"

Commander Zheng let out an angry roar.

"Roar!"

Fan Li let out an angry shout, holding double axes and directly charged towards the gap. He was covered in iron armor, even his head was covered with a large iron helmet, like a mad bull, crashing into the Qian soldiers in front of him.

Because he was limited by Zheng Fan's strength, Fan Li was not an absolute master in the true sense, but his physique and his own strength were truly very useful on the battlefield.

"Bang!"

Fan Li alone forced the Qian army in front of him to start retreating.

At this time, Zheng Fan and the others followed closely behind, charging in.

The Blind Man's mental power could no longer do anything else at this time. He could only do his best to protect himself, Si Niang, and his master from being injured by stray arrows.

As for A'ming and Fan Li, it didn't matter much if they were hit by a few arrows.

Using this gap, Yan soldiers kept charging in on foot. Gradually, the Qian soldiers who were trying to block the gap couldn't hold on any longer and began to retreat. At this time, it was a competition of blood and courage. Whoever retreated first would often mean defeat.

The Qian's momentum had been泄 (xiè - leaked, depleted). More and more Yan soldiers charged in, and everyone began to fight in the stronghold.

Without the protection of the stronghold, without the advantage of the terrain, the Zhenbei Army soldiers' individual martial prowess was fully displayed. The fighting in the stronghold quickly showed a one-sided trend.

Finally, as Li Fusheng took the head of a Qian general, the already declining Qian army finally collapsed. They no longer resisted and instead began to flee from the other entrances of the stronghold.

This stronghold was taken by the Yan army.

At this time, the Qian army in the stronghold on the other side of the river came out of the camp and crossed the icy river to rescue, but this stronghold fell too quickly, causing the reinforcements from the other side to be taken over by the Qian army who escaped this stronghold, and the reinforcements actually started to run.

It made the Yan army soldiers who were preparing to welcome the second fight a little dumbfounded.

However, Commander Zheng was really a little dumbfounded now, because in the last round of charging the stronghold, nearly 400 of his Cui Liu Fort cavalry had died in battle alone, and twice as many were wounded.

This kind of casualty cost made Commander Zheng, who was used to doing small business, feel so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe.

In the final analysis, it was because Zheng Fan hadn't evolved into the kind of person who could easily say "One general succeeds, ten thousand bones wither."

The Blind Man was a little exhausted. He seemed to have been shrinking at the back all the time, but his contribution was the greatest. What he feared most on the battlefield was not a real fight with swords and guns, but suddenly being attacked with something insidious, so that he wouldn't even know how he died.

As soon as the battle was over, the Blind Man sat on the ground, lowered his head, and began to rest.

Fan Li's armor was also damaged in many places, and there were many wounds. Si Niang was helping him treat them, but fortunately, he was thick-skinned and fleshy, so the problem wasn't too big.

Zheng Fan turned his head and looked, and sure enough, he saw a familiar and somewhat hunched figure sitting in the most densely stacked pile of corpses.

This person didn't have peanuts this time, but he was putting fried noodles coated in red into his mouth non-stop, his cheeks were stuffed full, and he was chewing mouthfuls, unspeakably satisfied.

Zheng Fan took a deep breath and exhaled heavily.

Zheng Fan didn't intend to go up and reason with Li Fusheng and say anything, because Zheng Fan was in the wrong.

At this time, A'ming stealthily pulled out an arrow from his shoulder, threw it aside, and asked Liang Cheng, who was standing next to him:

"What exactly are we fighting for?"

"Li Fusheng probably just learned that the defense of this stronghold was weak. Obviously, according to the scale of this stronghold, there should be more than just this many soldiers inside. They may have been transferred to encircle and suppress Li Bao before."

"And then?"

"And then, both crossing points along the nearly hundred-mile-long Bian River are now in our hands." Liang Cheng replied, "Crossing points are originally suitable places to cross the river. Although the river surface is frozen at the moment, it's not realistic to cross troops on the ice on a large scale. When we crossed the river before, many soldiers fell on the ice. Building a pontoon bridge will also take time, and as long as there are enough scouts, it won't be a problem for the Qian to sneak some people across the river on a small scale, but they will definitely be discovered by us in advance if they want to cross troops on a large scale. At that time, it will be much easier to attack halfway across.

This should be the Xifeng Crossing.

Originally, the Qian's most capable troops were transferred north. Later, because of Li Bao's force, most of the elite forces that the Qian's capital area could mobilize were sent to Xishan County to intercept and encircle Li Bao.

Now that this crossing point is in our hands, it's as if the Bian River, which was specially dug by the Qian to prevent the Yan from going south, is now standing on our side and being used by us."

Liang Cheng turned around and looked south, where the richest city in the world stood.

And this city was already separated from its own troops by this Bian River, which was originally used to protect it.

…………

"Commander Zheng."

Li Fusheng waved to Zheng Fan, who was standing in the distance.

Zheng Fan walked over, without any disrespect on his face.

Instead, after seeing a deep, bone-deep knife wound on Li Fusheng's left shoulder, he showed concern and said:

"Lord, your injury?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing, a small injury, just a small injury, I'll have someone take care of it later. But this one, is he also your retainer?"

Li Fusheng pointed to his side.

Only then did Zheng Fan see Xue San, who had been completely blocked by Li Fusheng's figure before.

"If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to kill the other side's general so easily. Commander Zheng, you really have a lot of talent around you."

So much so that Li Fusheng was a little jealous.

"Lord, you're joking, now they're all yours."

"Hehe, don't say such nonsense. Now that the stronghold has been taken down, leave seven or eight thousand cavalry here to guard it. Don't even think about the Qian on the other side of the river crossing over safely. I dare to let him send as many as he dares to come.

As for wanting to go around, ha, with the Qian's lack of cavalry, those infantry will have to run for three or four days before they can get around.

That silly Bao played big this time, actually deliberately sold a flaw to let the Qian army encircle him. That's how the Qian soldiers in this stronghold were all transferred over. Otherwise, it would have been really difficult to take it down."

Zheng Fan lowered his head and remained silent.

"This time, I owe that silly Bao a big favor."

Saying that, Li Fusheng laughed again,

pointing south,

and said:

"Commander Zheng, I said before that I wanted to have a good chat with that Qian emperor. Now, I have at least three days to have a good chat with that Qian emperor."

Li Fusheng reached out and patted Zheng Fan on the shoulder,

and asked:

"Commander Zheng, I have a great merit to give you. If you get this merit, you will be the first in this battle!

I ask you,

do you dare to be my messenger tonight,

to send a greeting letter to that Qian emperor in that Shangjing city?"

Zheng Fan immediately knelt down on one knee excitedly,

cupped his fists,

and said sincerely:

"I dare not!"

"............" Li Fusheng.