Chapter 357: The Battle of Zhengyang: Killing Xian Shilang!

Li Chongjin discussed with Dong Zunhui for a moment and decided to keep Li Gu's troops stationed on the west side of the Huai River. He led his troops across the Huai River and set up a battle on the east bank to prepare for a decisive battle with Liu Yanzhen.

Although the division of the two armies by floating bridges is a taboo in the army, Li Chongjin has already carried enough food and grass, and even if the retreat route is cut off, he can hold on for a while. With the large number of Li Gu's troops, Han Lingkun won a small victory, boosting morale, and not afraid of Liu Yanzhen's troops' attack. Moreover, even if the enemy occupied Kaiyang and successfully divided the connection between Li Chongjin and Li Gu's troops, the main force of Emperor Guo Rong's imperial camp was about to arrive here. At that time, the three armies worked together and Liu Yanzhen's troops would be destroyed!

Besides, Liu Yanzhen always felt that the Later Zhou army would flee in sight, and neither took Dong Zunhui and others seriously nor made too much preparation. In order to strengthen his momentum, he even divided his troops into two groups and advanced along the water. More than 200 warships on the water surface were upstream, and the lineups on the land stretched for thirty miles. The vanguard was so hungry that he was intimate. The baggage troops behind had not had time to deliver food!

After being hungry for two or three consecutive times, the soldiers complained. Liu Yanzhen ordered Zhang Quanyou, who was not very obedient, to be responsible for the logistics force and to ensure that the frontline soldiers had timely food. Zhang Quanyou was very angry and was dissatisfied with Liu Yanzhen's behavior of exile himself; but he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Even if Liu Yanzhen was defeated as Liu Renzhan said, he could escape his life!

On this day, Liu Yanzhen finally led his troops to the vicinity of Zhengyang, but saw the Hou Zhou army waving banners and had already prepared before the war. Liu Yanzhen was so panicked that he didn't know what to do. Moreover, the army rushed here, and didn't even have time to eat breakfast. Where can he have the strength to fight when he was hungry?!

Fortunately, Deputy General Xian Shilang hurriedly came forward to remind: "Master General, our army has a lot of defensive equipment, all of which are loaded on the ship. It's better to unload the ship immediately and defend on the spot!"

Liu Yanzhen nodded repeatedly and immediately ordered. He saw the warship avoiding one side, and the baggage ships kept moving forward. The waterway was so narrow, so the water surface was in chaos. All the warships aimed at the Later Zhou army were blocked behind and lost their place of use.

The soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty were so exhausted that they gasped. They moved the refusal horses that had been built in advance from the ship, inserted sharp blades on them, and then connected them with iron ropes. At the same time, the Southern Tang vanguard troops raised up thick wooden shields that had been built, and kept knocking on the wooden shields with long swords in their hands to provoke. In order to prevent the Later Zhou army from attacking the flanks of the troops, Liu Yanzhen also sent a lot of people to sprinkle many caltrops on the flanks and prepared for defense.

Everything was ready, and everyone was tired and sweating. As for breakfast, there was no mood to eat! So Liu Yanzhen was in charge of the central government, Xian Shilang was in charge of the front, staring nervously in front, and did not dare to move at will!

Looking at the tight and solid fortifications of the Southern Tang Army, Li Chongjin laughed, and Dong Zunhui laughed repeatedly. The Southern Tang Army and the others clearly had the advantage in their troops, but they didn't have the courage to launch an attack. In fact, they were just soft persimmons. Moreover, Liu Yanzhen was clamoring to destroy the Zhou army, but now they only dared to shiver behind the fortifications and tremble. What are the fears of such a paper tiger?!

Li Chongjin said to Dong Zunhui: "It is better for us to lead a unit to attack Liu Yanzhen and defeat Liu Yanzhen's troops with a clamp attack!"

Dong Zunhui nodded and smiled, "It's just my wish. Let's see who can capture Liu Yanzhen first!"

Li Chongjin laughed and immediately returned to the formation to prepare. Dong Zunhui also came to the formation and arranged for the generals under his command: "I just agreed with General Li Chongjin to break the enemy's defense with a clamp attack. So I decided to make the following arrangements: I will lead a thousand men to take the main attack; Shi Shouxin, Han Chongyun, you two each lead 500 men to serve as my left and right wings, and rushed with me. Zhang Yi, you lead 500 archers to stay in the back formation to cover the army, Zhang Yi, you are proficient in medical skills, and lead the remaining soldiers to protect our army's wounded. Have you heard clearly? Action!"

In less than half a minute, Dong Zunhui's headquarters was ready and immediately launched an action. Seeing Dong Zunhui's headquarters gradually approaching, Xian Shilang immediately shouted loudly: "Shoot the arrow!"

Hearing his orders, thousands of archers immediately raised the bow and arrow in their hands diagonally, and then released the arrow in their hands. Thousands of long arrows flew rapidly into the sky, and then shot towards Dong Zunhui's troops.

Dong Zunhui shouted loudly: "Rise the shield!"

Hearing his orders, the sword and shield hands immediately raised the wooden shield in their hands. Although the spearmen did not have wooden shields, they also formed a defensive formation and shook the spear frequently. They heard arrows shot into the wooden shield, or were separated by the shaking spears back and forth, which did not have much impact on Dong Zunhui's troops.

Seeing that the Southern Tang army focused on Dong Zunhui's troops, Li Chongjin immediately urged the soldiers to take the opportunity to move forward quickly and not waste this great opportunity.

Seeing that Li Chongjin's troops accelerated their advance, Xian Shilang quickly commanded the army to change directions and shoot arrows at Li Chongjin's troops. Dong Zunhui did not hesitate when he saw this and immediately adopted the same strategy and led the troops to accelerate their advance.

As a result, Dong Zunhui and Li Chongjin cooperated with each other, and the sling of Xian Shilang's troops basically did not achieve much results. After several arrows were released in succession, Xian Shilang was also anxious. He shouted loudly: "The whole army has it, shoot directly at the enemy! Aim, release! Let go!"

Hearing his order, the archers quickly laid the longbow flat, aimed at the Zhou army, and kept pulling the strings and shooting arrows. However, the ones rushing to the front were Zhou army's sword and shield hands, and the damage caused by the archers was extremely limited. Xian Shilang cursed angrily: "How can you be so stupid? You have to shoot according to other people's shields. Don't you know how to shoot your legs? Don't you know how to shoot your head? You always shoot at the other party's chest. Do you think the other party's wooden shield is made of paper?!"

After his continuous beating and kicking, the archers finally found a little feeling. The soldiers of the Later Zhou army were constantly shot into the thigh and calves, and forced to retreat. However, before Xian Shilang could wait to be proud, he saw that the Zhou army had rushed to the front. Suddenly, the shield was lifted, and long spears stabbed out from the cracks of the shield, and rushed towards the Southern Tang army archers in front of the formation.

Xian Shilang was shocked and shouted quickly: "Archers retreat, spearmen headed!"

His orders were quite timely. If the three or four hundred archers lying on the ground were ignored, they would hear the orders of Xian Shilang, and the spearmen of the Southern Tang Dynasty immediately rushed up from behind the archers and used spears to hold up Zhou's shields, leaving them with only a few stays in front of the horse-resisting formation!

However, this is just a manifestation of Li Chongjin's army. Dong Zunhui, who has a modern soul, will not be so old-fashioned. After rushing to the vicinity of the horse-rejecting formation, Dong Zunhui shouted loudly: "Roar throwing a spear, throwing a gun!"

Hearing his orders, the spearheaded soldiers hiding behind the sword and shield hands immediately took two quick steps and quickly threw out the short gun in their hands. Then the soldiers pulled out the short gun from their shoulders and threw it out again quickly!

After three consecutive times, there was no standing enemy army in front of Dong Zunhui. So the soldiers calmly picked up the horses, untied the iron chain, and continued to attack the depths of the Southern Tang army.

At this time, the advantage of Dong Zunhui's troops paying attention to daily cooperation was revealed. The sword and shield hands resisted the enemy's attack, the spearmen waited for an opportunity to attack, and the spearmen threw out their power from time to time. The rake soldiers who were hurt and smashed them up on the feet of the Southern Tang army!

In just a quarter of an hour, amid the screams of the soldiers of the Southern Tang Army, Dong Zunhui's troops rushed into the depths of the Southern Tang Army and rushed towards Liu Yanzhen and came over.

Liu Yanzhen had never seen this before. He was trembling and immediately ordered Xian Shilang to lead his army to resist. However, Xian Shilang had just retreated to Liu Yanzhen's side, and Li Chongjin, who was leading the army, also led his army to break through the enemy's defense and ran over from the flank!

Seeing that the situation was about to be met, Xian Shilang, who was self-respecting his courage, shouted loudly: "The enemy general is Dong Zunhui, who blocked our army in Xiacai Town? I, Xian Shilang, are here. Do you dare to come forward to die?!"

Dong Zunhui looked in the sound and saw a strong man jumping up and down to boost morale. Dong Zunhui curled his lips and ordered in a low voice: "Sight the crossbowman, let it go!"

Xian Shilang didn't expect that the enemy would openly attack him, so he tried hard to knock out four crossbow arrows, but two crossbow arrows pierced his defense, one shot through his left knee, and the other hit his right shoulder. Xian Shilang screamed and couldn't help but fall to the ground. Although he avoided the crossbow arrows reissued by the Hou Zhou crossbow soldiers, the weapon in his hand was also thrown aside.

Dong Zunhui's troops had long seen that the arrogant guy in front of him was a high-ranking official in the Southern Tang army. Everyone immediately stepped forward bravely and rushed up at the direction where Xian Shilang fell, just like a pervert who inherited five million property. He suddenly saw a beauty who had 200 yuan a night!

Xian Shilang roared and roared, but there was no weapon in his hand to fight back. He was like a personal sandbag, being smashed around in the crowd. When Dong Zunhui rushed to the front, I believe Xian Shilang could not recognize who the pig head in front of him was!

Xian Shilang has been captured here, while Liu Yanzhen is still organizing reinforcements. At this time, Li Chongjin was unhappy. Why has his troops not achieved any results? Under his spur, the soldiers bravely stepped forward and rushed towards Liu Yanzhen and killed him!

Dong Zunhui also ordered people to tie up the Xian Shilang and led his army to rush up. The soldiers of the Southern Tang army around him were scared by Dong Zunhui's troops and did not dare to resist at all. They retreated one after another. At this time, Han Lingkun and others in Li Gu Camp also saw Dong Zunhui's feat of capturing Xian Shilang alive. As soon as they planned, they rushed out together: Seeing that the general situation had been decided, the fool would not fight!

The defense line of the Southern Tang Army was originally defeated by Li Chongjin, and Dong Zunhui's troops were shaking. After being rushed by Han Lingkun and other new forces, they could no longer maintain and collapsed immediately. Some Southern Tang Army soldiers even rushed into the caltrop bush, and would rather be pierced to make the soles of their feet bleed and hurt than stayed in place to wait for death!

Under such circumstances, no one implemented the orders issued by Liu Yanzhen, and only hundreds of troops he could command were left! Liu Yanzhen was in danger!

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Chapter completed!