~.-~    Chapter 462: The Decisive Battle with Mianzi Valley (Part 1)

After Dong Zunhui returned to Dahui Village, he bandaged his wounds slightly and called all the generals to a meeting. He said to everyone: "This time, Zangyong and I (Gao Huaide's font) succeeded in raiding Gaoping Pass, burning down the food and supplies that the enemy had hoarded there. The enemy lost the capital to confront us and would definitely launch a general attack on our position. Either die in battle or starve to death, they have no second way! And our opportunity is here, should we defend based on the danger or take the initiative? Everyone talks about it, see how we should deal with it?"

Everyone was thinking. It was the first time some people partnered with Dong Zunhui. They didn't know his temper, so they didn't dare to make any rash suggestions.

At this time, Shi Shouxin stood up. As the backbone of the "Ten Brothers of the Yishe Society" and as a trusted general trained and promoted by Dong Zunhui, Shi Shouxin certainly could not let the meeting be discontinued. He pointed to the map and said in a deep voice: "Master (referring to Dong Zunhui), generals, let's look at this map. Although the terrain of Dahui Village is dangerous, it cannot carry out large-scale corps combat due to the restrictions of the terrain. Even today, our large troops can only garrison in the south of Dahui Village, and only select some troops to enter this fortress.

If we choose to defend ourselves in danger, although we are nominally fighting against Li Yun, we are actually fighting with Li Yun. Even if we can give the enemy a certain amount of killing, it will waste a lot of time.

If Li Yun could seize this opportunity, he would be able to obtain subsequent food and supplies from Luzhou or Han (Northern Han). The longer the time was, the smaller the favorable impact of our surprise attack on Gaoping Pass would become. If we really fought with the enemy here, we would not have much advantage!

Let’s look at this place again. There is a narrow valley in the south of Zezhou City, which is the only place where tens of thousands of troops can be fought. Li Yun cannot find our background now, and can only gather heavy troops in the south of Zezhou to stand by. If our army dispatches its main force, Li Yun, who is angry and attacks the heart, will definitely fight us head-on. Our army is highly morale and has received strong reinforcements from the main force. He will definitely be able to defeat the enemy and retake Zezhou in a short time!"

Dong Zunhui nodded slightly and said to the generals: "Shi Shouxin said something reasonable, but Li Yun's troops are already in a desperate situation of fighting against the enemy. If they have no food, they will have to die! If they go forward decisively, can our troops block them? After all, Nianzi Valley has no cover, and in order to pursue the speed of coming here to suppress the rebellion, we have given up the heavy troops. There are very few cavalry accompanying them, and they do not have much advantage over the enemy."

Seeing Dong Zunhui sincerely seeking everyone's opinions, the generals put down their burdens and took the initiative to express their opinions. Murong Yanzhao said: "Li Yun is a veteran general who has been fighting for many years. As he grows older, he is more and more afraid of death. Although he has cavalry under his command, he has been taken to the guards and will not be involved in the battle at any time. As long as we can entangle Li Yun's troops at that time, he will not dare to use cavalry troops, but will focus on protecting himself. In this way, although the enemy has cavalry, it will not play much role!"

Dong Zunhui nodded slightly, "This is a solution. What are you going to have any good ideas?"

At this time, Gao Huaide tightened the wound on his arm and whispered: "Although we have made up our minds to fight the enemy's decisive battle, we don't have to fight head-on. We can first defend Dahui Village and consume the enemy's spirit. After persisting for a day or two, open the gate and rush to the direction of Nianzi Valley to form an array. At that time, the enemy's morale is low, which is a good time for a decisive battle. Moreover, Li Yun cannot capture Dahui Village for a long time, and will not refuse the temptation of a head-on decisive battle. At that time, we will raid Li Yun's troops and attract the enemy's cavalry. Then use the effective troops to block Li Yun's headquarters and use the main force to eliminate Li Yun's remaining troops. In this way, we will definitely win a great victory!"

Everyone gradually opened up the conversation, the discussion plan became more and more detailed, and the night became deeper. In the city of Zezhou, Li Yun also said to the generals: "You may already know that our army was attacked in Gaoping Pass, and there was a lot of food loss, but you don't have to worry too much. Our ally Han Kingdom has sent Wei Rong to escort some of the food, and then a large number of military rations were served. However, we have been in the army for many years, how can the enemy be so arrogant?! I am going to mobilize the entire army tomorrow to attack Dahuizhai and decide the victory and defeat with the Zhou army. What do you think?"

Everyone knew that Li Yun was arbitrary and stubborn, and no one dared to say anything against him. Fan Shoutu, who was appointed as the governor of Heyang by Li Yun a few days ago, felt that he was also a well-known person in the army, so he said to Li Yun: "Master, the enemy occupied by Dahui Village is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If we attack strongly, our army will definitely pay a heavy price. It is better to send someone to send a letter of war to the Zhou army and ask them to fight on the front line of Nianzi Valley. There is no cover, and it is just right to decide the outcome!"

Li Yun frowned. Before he could speak, Dan Gui next to him said coldly: "What if the Zhou army refused to go out to fight?"

Fan Shoutu hurriedly said, "Then let's spend money with the enemy. Anyway, Wei Rong will be escorted to the escort, and there is also a lot of surplus grain in our Zezhou city, so we don't have to rush to attack!"

Li Yun secretly complained in his heart. He regretted that he had not communicated privately with Fan Shoutu before, but he misinterpreted his meaning. In fact, there was no food in the Weirong army, but it was just an excuse for Li Yun to calm the morale of the army. Although Li Yun had ordered people to send a letter to Li Shoujie and asked him to transport food to the front line, Luzhou's grain storage was really limited. If the army and Zhou army were exhausted, then the first thing that could not persist was Li Yun. But Li Yun could not say it explicitly, for fear of affecting the morale in the army.

Dan Gui was more considerate. Before the generals agreed with Fan Shoutu, he refuted first: "Mu Qi! I didn't expect that General Fan would be in no way angry after being promoted. It really disappointed me! Who is our general? He is a general who is in charge of the Great Han Dynasty (Liu Zhiyuan) and the Zhou Dynasty Taizu (Guo Wei) fighting on the battlefield. He has never seen any scenes or any enemy formations before?! If he continues to fight against the enemy, they would think we are afraid! General Fan, why are you so useless?!"

Before Fan Shoutu could refute, Li Yun nodded and said, "Dan Gui said so much, Shutu. When you followed me to dominate the world, how could you care about these juniors?! Why are you so timid now? You have one thousand troops in your headquarters. I will give you another three thousand soldiers in the Dead Soldiers Camp. Tomorrow, you will be the first to go on the field! When will you fight all the troops and when you break through the enemy's main camp, you will be able to retreat to rest!"

Ah?! Fan Shoutu was stunned. He was pushing me to death! But he had no choice. Fan Shoutu's wife, children and family were all in Luzhou, all under Li Yun's control. He could only stand up tremblingly and nodded in agreement.

If it were normal, Dan Gui might have stayed to plead with Li Yun, and Fan Shoutu did ask Dan Gui for help quietly, but the continuous defeats had long destroyed Dan Gui's arrogance and also made his position in Li Yun's heart sharply decline. Dan Gui himself understood this, so although he sympathized with Fan Shoutu, he still pretended to turn a blind eye to "a dead fellow Taoist who will not die."

The next morning, everyone got up early, had an extremely sumptuous breakfast, and then put on their clothes and armor. Soon the city gate opened wide, and Li Yun stood on the city tower and cheered the soldiers. Soon, the soldiers lined up in an orderly line and rushed towards the direction of the conference camp. As the pioneer commander, Dan Gui did not rush forward, but the unlucky Fan Shoutu did his best and was commanding the Dead Soldiers Camp to rush forward.

Looking at the dark enemy troops in the distance, Dong Zunhui and the others were not panicked, but slowly walked up to the newly built watchtower south of Dahui Village and stood at a high place to command the army. As for the specific guard work of Dahui Village, it was handed over to Shi Shouxin.

Shi Shouxin shouted loudly: "Arrowers are ready to shoot, prepare, release!"

The archers who heard his order immediately raised the longbow in their hands and shot the arrows diagonally upwards. The scene of hundreds of archers firing volleys was quite impressive, but in Fan Shoutu's eyes, this was really hateful. Most of his soldiers had not raised their wooden shields, but the arrows of the Zhou army fell on them before they could raise their wooden shields. More than a hundred soldiers had fallen from the Death Soldiers' camp in the front row!

However, the soldiers and family members of the Death Soldiers Camp were all near Luzhou, under the control of Li Yun and Li Shoujie and his son. Although they suffered some losses, they did not dare to stop. They just raised the wooden shield in their hands and rushed forward slowly.

At this time, the Zhou army archers in the conference camp were still attacking, but in order to cross the Taihang Mountains, everyone did not carry heavy weapons such as catapults. Now they can only use bows and arrows to block them for short-range attacks.

However, although the arrow rain was dense, the enemy vanguards also held skinned wooden shields and rushed closer and closer in the arrow rain. Moreover, the archers in Li Yun's army also began to attack Dahuizhai, causing certain casualties in the Zhou army.

At this time, it was obvious that the gap between the two armies was coming. The injured soldiers in Fan Shoutu's army could only cry and shout and resist. The injured soldiers of Shi Shouxin's troops were quickly transported down and received emergency treatment from medical soldiers. Although some soldiers were still hit and lost their lives, the proportion of casualties in the past has decreased a lot!

Fan Shoutu's troops rushed closer and closer, and finally rushed to the vicinity of the city wall of Dahuizhai. But they suddenly realized that they were still separated from the wide trench that the Zhou army had urgently dug out in the past few days. Many people were even knocked into the trench by their comrades who could not stop and were killed by the hidden wooden trenches there! Even if they avoided these wooden trenches and put the long ladder in the trench, they could not climb up to the city wall. The ladder was too short. Everyone could only hide under the city and then slowly shot and killed by Zhou soldiers.

Soon, Fan Shoutu's headquarters was dispersed by the defeated soldiers, and even the soldiers of the supervising team were scared by the courageous Fan Shoutu's troops dispersed!

~.-~
Chapter completed!