Country is the most important

The 2 Dingyuan iron cavalry left behind in the southwest are different from the [-] Dingyuan cavalry that Li Dingzhong took to Dingyuan.The [-] horses that Li Dingzhong brought to Dingyuan were originally Dingyuan soldiers. They fought with King Dingyuan since they were young. Because of their bravery, they were selected and carefully trained to become Dingyuan iron cavalry, which made the enemy fearful.So the degree of loyalty to King Dingyuan can be seen.

But the [-] Dingyuan iron cavalry left in the southwest are different. They were originally northern barbarians. Due to the pressure of life, they have defected to the imperial court since the time of the late emperor. The late emperor assigned them all to King Dingyuan, so they are called Dingyuan. cavalry.Because the Northern Man was originally a race on horseback, and the cavalry was highly skilled, that's why this Dingyuan iron cavalry made the enemy so frightened.But after all, they are cavalry bought with money, and how much power they can exert at critical moments depends on the price.

Gao Yan took a fancy to the characteristics of these [-] cavalry, so he came up with this plan.

When Gao Yan arrived in the southwest, the Dingyuan iron cavalry stationed in the southwest had just clashed with the Nanman outside Jingzhou City. Because one side was full of hatred and the other lacked a leader, the result was obvious, and the Dingyuan iron cavalry suffered serious losses in this battle.

Gao Yan's army went all the way down, and when they reached Annan, seeing many soldiers with their heads downcast, Gao Yan had already guessed in his mind.

Jingzhou's guard Yang Sheng heard that King Pingyang was coming, so he went out of the tower early to greet him.After dismounting, Gao Yan did not take any rest, and followed Yang Sheng up to the Jingzhou City Tower with several generals around him to check the terrain.

Gao Yan carefully looked at the terrain around Jingzhou City, feeling a little uneasy in his heart, turned his head and said to Yang Sheng, "I have heard that there are many mountains and rivers in the southwest, but I didn't expect that Jingzhou City is surrounded by mountains on both sides, and the only exit is still muddy." The ground is full, this kind of terrain is very unfavorable for the Dingyuan cavalry who are good at cavalry combat, this battle is not easy to fight!"

"Your Highness said exactly." Yang Sheng then pointed to a tunnel in the northwest direction, "I just fought against the Southwest Army here the day before yesterday. Due to the muddy and wet ground, the cavalry was completely useless. The soldiers who are good at riding and archery can only get off their horses. Combat. The result can be imagined."

"Does the emperor know about these situations?"

"How can I not know. It's just that the emperor doesn't know why he sent [-] cavalry to garrison the southwest. Now I'm afraid something will go wrong." Yang Sheng smiled and said to Gao Yan, "But it's all right now, Pingyang With your presence, His Royal Highness, Jingzhou will be saved, and Southwest will be saved as well."

Gao Yan frowned, and said in a deep voice after a long while: "I don't know what's going on in Jingzhou, and most of them are cavalry." Gao Yan said as he pressed his hands heavily on the city wall, his face livid.

Hearing Gao Yan's words, Yang Cheng frowned immediately, stomped his feet and said, "Then what should we do?"

Gao Yan glanced at Yang Sheng, who was almost jumping in a hurry, and said coldly, "No matter what, the Nanman rebellion must be put down!" Then Gao Yan pushed the city wall away with both hands, turned around, "follow me to the camp to study Take a look at the terrain and carefully deploy your military defenses."

The two quickly walked down the city wall and came to the tent.

Yang Sheng spread out the blueprints on the desktop, "Although the number of Nanmans is small, they hold spears and are very good at long-distance land combat. However, our cavalry can't be used in a large area like Jingzhou. The Nanman and the imperial court will use Jingzhou as the boundary and rule the land. The towns south of Jingzhou will be owned by the Nanman."

"Why didn't you go to Jingzhou?" Li Zheng interjected.

"Crossing Jingzhou is Xunzhou. General, it's easy for you to say. You can also see the terrain of Jingzhou. It is surrounded by mountains on both sides, low-lying, and wet. It is not suitable for marching and fighting. It is lucky to be able to defend it, let alone crossing Jingzhou to fight. Going to Xunzhou? What's more, the Nanman rebellion was unexpected by everyone. When they captured Xunzhou City in one fell swoop, we had no choice but to retreat to Jingzhou."

"Is the terrain of Xunzhou the same as Jingzhou?" Gao Yan suddenly turned to ask Yang Sheng.

"Xunzhou's terrain is flat, which is suitable for cavalry operations."

Gao Yan poked Xunzhou City on the map with his finger, "Since Xunzhou is suitable for fighting, then go to Xunzhou!"

"This... I'm afraid it's not that easy." Yang Sheng said in a low voice, hesitating.

"If you can't fight, you have to fight to the death! Fight to the death with Nanman in Xunzhou!" Gao Yan sternly said.

The determination revealed in Gao Yan's tone shocked everyone present.

Then Gao Yan turned his head to look at Yang Sheng, "How was the battle with Nanman yesterday? Tell me about it in detail."

"Yesterday, General Qin led [-] cavalry out of the city to fight against the Nanman. At the beginning, the battle situation was still in our favor. The Nanman was unfavorable in the battle and fled to the south. General Qin led his army to pursue it. Unexpectedly, it was only ten miles outside Jingzhou City. They fell into a trap set by the Nanman, and five thousand cavalry were stuck in the mud and could not get out. The Nanman turned around and shot and killed half of the cavalry, and the remaining cavalry fled back in a hurry, and even General Qin was seriously injured."

"So now the soldiers are injured and defeated, and their morale is not very high. The main reason is that the Nanban is very familiar with the terrain and mountains of the Southwest generation, which is good for defense. Compared with us, it is easy to fall into the trap set by them." Yang Sheng In order not to show that our own army is too incompetent in combat,

Listening to Yang Sheng's narration, Gao Yan suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Then how did Li Dingzhong retreat at that time?"

Yang Sheng didn't react for a moment, and said after a while, "Your Highness, you don't know that when General Li came, the Nanman had not yet attacked Xunzhou, so the 5 cavalry led at that time did not fight the Nanman in Jingzhou."

"So the most critical issue now is that the soldiers can't get out of Jingzhou City!" Gao Yan stared at Jingzhou City on the map, frowning very high.

"That's right! Nanman is keeping a close eye on Jingzhou City. As soon as an army leaves the city, Nanman will launch an attack immediately. We are now in a dilemma!"

Gao Yan slammed his fist on the blueprint, "Send the order!"

At this time, everyone was silent, waiting for Gao Yan to issue orders.

"Assemble the whole army immediately!"

The soldiers present looked at Gao Yan in panic. After a while, some of the generals reacted and shouted outside the camp, "All the army is assembled! All the army is assembled!"

"Your Highness! What do you mean?" Yang Sheng couldn't help asking anxiously.

"It's futile to stay in Jingzhou any longer, and it will lower morale! Gather all the soldiers tonight, with the infantry at the front and the cavalry at the rear, and rush out of Jingzhou with the king and enter Xunzhou City!"

"But……"

Gao Yan raised his hand at once, "No but! Even if you fill it with people, you have to fill up the outside of Jingzhou City and step over there, and fight Nanman to the death!"

Looking at the decisive and resolute Gao Yan in front of them, the soldiers could not help but gasp in their hearts.

It was late at night, according to the plan arranged in the camp, Gao Yan adopted the strategy of infantry at the front and cavalry at the back. The whole army set off from Jingzhou City and headed towards Xunzhou!Not surprisingly, just ten miles away from Jingzhou City, they encountered the Nanman army, and a small-scale battle broke out between the two sides.

The Nanman soldiers were divided into two groups, one group stabbed the cavalry with spears in their hands, and the other group stabbed at the infantry with machetes in their hands.In Gao Yan's troops, the infantry all held single swords and shields, while the cavalry, with their sabers on their waists, kept firing bows and arrows at the Southern barbarian army with bows and arrows in their hands.Gao Yan personally commanded the infantry to charge forward in order to stand in front of the cavalry and fight to the death with the Nanman. , so that the large forces can move forward step by step.The two sides fought fiercely for about two hours, and then the Nanman army withdrew back.Gao Yanfang soldiers shouted!This was their first small-scale victory since the Nanman Rebellion.

But in this battle, neither side took advantage of the other side, but the only good thing is that Gao Yan's army finally walked out of Jingzhou City.At this time, due to the two-hour battle, the soldiers were also a little tired, so Gao Yan ordered the troops to withdraw and set up camp to rest!

While the soldiers were resting, Gao Yan called all the generals together and held a meeting.The generals attending the meeting were all happy because they had just won a small victory over Nanman.

Gao Yan said to the generals of the entire army, "This time we were able to repel the Nanman in a small area, in fact, it was due to the coordinated operations of the infantry and the cavalry. Next, our army must go all out and continue to move forward! Send the order, the whole army Head to Xunzhou City again in an hour!"

An hour later, it was already dawn, and Gao Yan led the army to march again to Xunzhou where the Nanman was stationed. Along the way, the soldiers of the Nanman continued to attack Gao Yan's army, but Gao Yan's army didn't seem to like fighting, they just kept fighting. The cavalry and infantry cooperated with each other and moved forward, so the two sides fought while walking, and the two sides did not rest until the early morning of the next day.

The soldiers were very tired from continuous fighting, and many soldiers couldn't even keep their eyes open when walking, especially the infantry.

Yang Sheng rode up to Gao Yan's side, pointed anxiously at the infantry around him and said to Gao Yan, "Your Highness! You see, the soldiers are already so tired, it's not an option to go on like this."

Gao Yan frowned and looked at the swaying infantry, "If you stop at this time, wouldn't it be due to the collapse once the Nanman came to attack?"

Yang Sheng jumped off the horse, grabbed a handful of dirt on the ground, held it in his hand, kneaded it repeatedly, and then raised it high and handed it in front of Gao Yan.

Gao Yan realized the meaning of Yang Sheng's actions, and immediately asked, "How far is our army from Xunzhou City now?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, at this time it is still about 60 miles away from Xunzhou City."

"Then according to your judgment, what does the road behind look like?"

"The pile of mud on Gangbei's hands has become mostly dry, and the front must be flat and dry, unlike the surrounding area of ​​Jingzhou City."

Gao Yan immediately ordered that all the cavalry follow him to open the way, and the infantry followed after a short rest.