Volume 2 Chapter 70: River Beach
After the main battle under Changsha City lasted for a little more than an hour, the outcome of the battle was completely decided.
So far, Han Shizhong successfully broke through and relieved Changsha City. The main force of the Jin army left here also collapsed. Generally speaking, there seems to be no doubt that the Song army won a great victory and the Jin army was defeated.
But to be fair, the Song army did not perform well enough in this battle, it can only be said to be passing. It’s just that they did so badly before, so they stood out this time.
Relatively speaking, the Jin army still did well, but the arrogance and conceit caused by past victories made it difficult for them to accept such a natural defeat - it was certainly natural. Although there was a difference between cavalry and infantry, the gap of five times the military strength was there. Wasn't it normal to be defeated in an hour?
On the contrary, it was abnormal for the Jin army of 10,000 or 20,000 to drive 70,000 to 80,000 or even hundreds of thousands of Song troops around.
Coming back to the present, the stunned Talai still found it difficult to accept the fact. He stood there, falling into panic and hesitation... Experience and the tradition of the Jin army told him that he should take these last two Meng'an and rush towards the dragon flag regardless of everything. According to the military law of the Jin army, when he, the marshal, rushed forward, all the Jin cavalry on the battlefield would turn around, and then it might be possible to make a comeback; however, at the same time, the desire to survive told him that he should take these last two Meng'an, throw away everything, turn around and escape from the Zhuoqi River!
By the way, perhaps Talai himself did not realize that his hesitation was in vain, and no matter how hard he struggled, it was useless, because when he accepted Qin Hui's advice and used political struggle to become the right deputy marshal; when he faced the sudden assembly of the main force of the Song army and chose to compromise with Du Chong on the opposite side; when Han Shizhong rushed out, but he did not send the two Meng'ans away accordingly... he had already lost some of the things he had when he followed his cousin Wanyan Aguda to charge into battle.
This man was clearly old and corrupt. But what was even worse for the Jin people was that at this time, because of his own old age and corruption, he became a top figure in the Jin Kingdom and the Jin Army.
Of course, Talan has grown old, but some people have not.
Just when the right deputy marshal of the Jin army was at a loss in the face of the overwhelming Song army, Hong Ya, who had already mounted his horse, could no longer bear it. Perhaps it was the courage given to him by his previous experience on the battlefield that he took the reins from Talai, then turned around and went behind him while leading Talai's horse with one hand and urging his own horse with the other.
The Jin army officers and Talai's guards would never think of doing such a thing, and the other Han surrendered ministers did not dare to do it. However, after General Hong turned around with the right deputy marshal's mount, these people turned around in silence and followed.
Moreover, as the Song army behind them gained momentum, these people ran faster and faster. In the end, there was no need for General Hong to hold the ropes at all. Everyone spontaneously fled towards the floating bridge on the Zhuoqi River northwest of Changsha City.
This action directly led to the final collapse of the Jin army - the battle ended here, with the Song army winning a great victory and the Jin army being defeated.
The Han soldiers in the camp began to surrender in large numbers. The panicked Jin knights began to flee into the water like the Song army that had once collapsed, and then were dragged down by their armor and could hardly get up. The last two Meng'an in Talan's hands, two Meng'an who had not fired a single arrow, finally broke a new record under the pursuit of the Song army - three months ago, the fresh force that was enough to sweep seven or eight counties of the Song army and force a Song commander not to leave the city, actually collapsed without a fight!
The Song army easily eliminated the Jin army camp, secured control of Dahezhou where Changsha City was located, and began to hunt down the Jin army wantonly. Once the hunter and the prey switched places, it turned out that both sides were just ordinary living people!
Of course, there are still differences between armies. Because of the concerns about the ten fierce men of the Jin army who might arrive at any time, Yue Fei's troops and Wang Yan's troops, who gathered the fastest, gave up the pursuit and began to redeploy their defense lines in the opposite direction along the river. Han Shizhong's troops also maintained control. As the local defenders of Changsha, they began to use their familiarity with the terrain to quickly lock on the shallows and the only remaining floating bridge within the range of Dahezhou, and conducted large-scale searches of the remaining troops, trying to completely trap and block the scattered Jin army in this circle.
In contrast, the troops of the Tokyo Garrison were somewhat confused. In order to compete for the greatest military achievement of Talan, at least four or five commanding officers, seven or eight leading officers, and nearly 20,000 troops crossed the Zhuoqi River and chased northward.
However, during Zhao Jiu's slightly nervous and excited questioning, Han, Yue and Wang, the three high-ranking generals who had reunited, all thought that there was no need to restrain them, because after escaping from the turbid Qishui River and heading north, they would reach the west side of the Qishui River where the clear and turbid waters merge into one, and the wide Qishui River was enough to block any attempt by the ten Meng'ans to cross the river on a large scale. In this case, there would certainly be no problem in hunting down as many Jin army deserters as possible.
Moreover, the more important point is that the significance of Ta Lazy Man's Head itself is worth five Meng An! It is of course a good thing to be able to get it!
In fact, after Emperor Zhao was sure that everything was correct, he even released his trusted confidant Liu Yan and asked him to lead the Chixin team to chase Talai with the advantage of cavalry.
Back to the present, Pucha Hulu did not keep the Song army waiting for long between the clear and turbid waters of the Qi River, and the restraint of Han, Yue and Wang did not let Hulu gain any advantage... In the late afternoon, before evening, this Wanhu of the Jin army and his ten Meng'an almost broke their horses' legs when they rushed back from the northeast, but they could only look at the river and the battle array and sigh.
No matter how hard it was to accept, this Jin army general in his golden age had to realize the cruel reality before him in a short period of time - the Jin army had been defeated, and the victorious Song army did not leave any opportunity for them to take advantage of.
Moreover, after the scouts returned and learned that a considerable number of Jin troops were fleeing on the west bank of the Qishui River, Pucha Hubalu realized that there was no reason for him to stay here and confront the enemy in vain… It was not far from dark , and staying here would be futile for the Jin troops who had no foothold. At the same time, his backers, his father-in-law, and his commander-in-chief might still be on the run.
As a result, Hubalu came quickly and retreated quickly. He stayed for only a quarter of an hour and then took the initiative to lead his troops north along the Qishui River.
This decision naturally brought about wild cheers from the Song army.
"Official, please be careful of this person."
On the general platform where Wanyan Talai originally stood, under the newly erected dragon banner, Yue Fei narrowed his eyes and looked at the 10,000 cavalrymen who decisively turned back on the other side of the river. He watched the smoke and dust go north, but turned back and bowed, his tone serious. "This general is so decisive, he can never be compared with Wanyan Talai and Da (white on top and Da on bottom)..."
Emperor Zhao knew that the other party was reminding him not to become complacent because of this great victory and not to think of fighting again in the short term. After the lesson of arrogance after the battle on Huai River, Zhao Jiu himself had some life experience here. What's more, it was Yue Fei who reminded him personally.
He nodded immediately but couldn't do it.
However, Zhao Guanjia, who had more experience in personnel affairs, nodded and did not forget to "ask" the other two generals for their opinions: "What do Han Qing and Wang Qing think?"
Han Shizhong was in high spirits at the time, so naturally he followed whatever the government said.
Wang Yan frowned slightly, but did not refute: "I think Pucha Hubalu is indeed decisive, and we should be careful."
Zhao Jiu nodded, as if thinking about something, and said no more.
Not to mention that Pucha Hubalu's decisiveness made Emperor Zhao sober up a little from his boiling blood. On the other side, Wanyan Talan fled north in a panic. The troops behind him first crossed the pontoon bridge, but because the passage was crowded and the Song army was chasing them closely, most of them were scattered. Later, they were pursued by the Song army on a large scale along the main road, and they were already in a mess.
After running for seven or eight miles, he finally saw a shallow ford, but he ran over there first. Then he had to go back because of the appearance of the Red Heart Cavalry on the road. Then he decided to try to cross the river from here, in order to take the few dozen remaining cavalry across the river to the other side to find his son-in-law.
However, when several Jin army knights carefully tested the shallows with thin ice, Wanyan Talan and others quickly took off their armor and were about to cross the river on horseback, suddenly, a group of poorly equipped people emerged from the yellow-green reed marsh next to them. The leader could not suppress his joy and shouted to them, "Talan, you bastard, you took off your clothes to flatter me?!"
Not to mention that this person's words were vulgar, just say that when Talai and others looked up, their hearts immediately turned cold. It turned out that this person was Li Kui, whom they had not seen for a long time before the war!
It has to be said that Li Kui was indeed a meticulous person. Not only did he anticipate that he might be in danger and sneak into the civilian camp early, but he also escaped from the Zhuoqi River floating bridge early after the battle broke out in an attempt to save his life in the chaos.
Not only that, after crossing the river, he did not flee to avoid the battle, but watched the battle from the side of the Zhuoqi River for a while. After discovering that the Song army was in full force, he simply stopped a group of more than a hundred civilians who had stolen the weapons of the Jin army and fled, and reported his official background... The Jin people were searching for this person today, and everyone in the civilian camp knew about this person, so how could they not believe him? However, under Li Kui's half-deception and half-coercion, he took the initiative to lead this official army commander to this shallow beach, in order to "make meritorious service while guilty".
It can only be said that Li Kui was really meticulous... He knew that it would be impossible to intercept the enemy if the dozens of civilians he had stayed at the pontoon bridge, and he had nothing to do with the pursuit on the main road, so he found this shallow beach early, but after seeing Talai and others arriving, he forced himself to be patient, and waited until the moment when these people took off their armor and prepared to cross the river, and then he led them to jump out.
Talai and his companions were already frightened, and now they were almost naked. When they saw Li Kui's divine soldiers and generals, they were fine, but Talai himself was frightened to the point of waiting to die almost instantly.
It was Hong Ya, who had also taken off his armor, who tried his best to command the remaining dozen or so exhausted Jin soldiers who had also taken off their armor to go forward and fight in the cold shallow water, and then he and some scholars surrounded Talai and quickly rode their horses across the river.
However, with such a huge gap in morale between the two sides, and without the advantage of armor, and in the water with ice, the Jin army, though brave, was temporarily suppressed by the civilians who had stolen weapons and were waiting for the opportunity. Not to mention that Li Kui himself was a hero from Jingdong, and in his hometown of Yishui, he was the second most important figure after Li Zhang, the Flying Eagle. Otherwise, how could he have established himself in Mizhou and sat on the throne, and how could he have been accepted by Zhang Rong of Liangshanpo when he arrived in Dongping Prefecture?
Therefore, Commander Li was seen with his bare chest, revealing his snow-white tendons and fancy tattoos, holding a knife in one hand and a large wooden shield in the other, but he was naked fighting against the equally naked Jin army.
When the two sides engaged in battle, before Talan could take a few steps into the river, Li Kui chopped down three or four people almost instantly, then broke through the obstruction and went straight for the unrestrained Talan.
After a few slashes, two of the surrendered literati who were escorting Talai were killed, and they simply fled in all directions. Talai was ready to accept his fate at this point.
But at this moment, the old man Tian Bujue shot an arrow with great force across the river, which actually hit Li Kui's shoulder. Li Kui hastily dropped his sword and held his shield, and then looked around, only to find that a large group of Jin troops had gathered on the opposite side without him knowing when, and he was instantly helpless.
However, Puchagulu, who came in such a hurry that he had to go into the river to shoot arrows to rescue, was even more panicked than Li Kui, because when Li Kui and his group rushed out, most of the guards around Talai were scared away, and the horses also lost control and fled... At this time, there was only a trembling General Hong beside Talai on the opposite side.
I dare to ask, how can an old man and a southern scholar, stripped naked and without a horse to rely on, cross this shallow ford with thin floating ice above and a turbulent undercurrent below? In fact, the two of them supported each other and took a few steps in panic, then stumbled out of control.
What's worse is that the water in the upper reaches of the Qishui River is very wide, and the Jin army's shooting range cannot reach the other side at all. Only Pucha Hubalu came into the waist-deep river with ice chips, raised his hard bow high and shot blindly, and he could barely reach the other side. And he waited until the last moment when he was helpless before he gritted his teeth and shot the arrow... It can only be said that he was lucky to hit the target... And at this time, if the Song army found out about the movement and chased after them, and shot arrows from that side, what would happen if the old man died?
To be honest, at this time, Hubalu wanted to abandon the old man opposite, but he really couldn't abandon him... As a direct subordinate of Wan Hu, how could he abandon his own marshal in front of the army? Where is the military law? If he doesn't save him today, the king will definitely hang him with his own hands when he returns!
What’s more, he is his father-in-law, his political backer?
Therefore, the Jin army commander was helpless and could only call on his personal guards to load the large crossbows on the shore, then go down to the river and hold them high to block Li Kui and others on the opposite side, then he personally took off his armor, supported a tall warhorse with its vest removed and crossed the river to rescue them.
The few guards cavalry behind him had no choice but to do the same and keep up.
In the end, this man really led seven or eight people over with his bravery, and gave his warhorse to Talai. Then, Talai mounted the horse and held the horse's neck, while Hong Ya pulled the horse's tail, and with Pucha Hubalu personally covering the rear, they slowly crossed the river surrounded by several guards.
Seeing this, Li Kui, who was hiding behind the shield, was completely disappointed and felt that he had been hit by the arrow in vain today.
However, when Gubalu saw his father-in-law crossing the river, he was about to retreat to the east bank, but after taking a few steps, he saw the shield standing in the shallows, and his anger rose up again. He decided to go all out, so he turned around and headed west with a few bare-chested guards, ready to chop the man to death!
This time, it was Li Kui's turn to be desperate. The enemy officers came for hand-to-hand combat, so he no longer had to worry about the inaccurate crossbow arrows from the other side . But he had an injured arm after all. There were only a few brave civilians on the shore who had not yet escaped. How could he resist?
Sure enough, after a few rounds, the few remaining civilians on the shore were killed by a few fresh Jin soldiers and had to flee. Li Kui himself was in an even more miserable state and was almost killed by the Hubalu on the riverbank!
However, as the saying goes, good times come with twists and turns, things on the battlefield are always so ups and downs... Maybe it was not right for Li Kui to die today, in the chaos, suddenly another Song army came, it was the previous movement here that attracted a part of the Song official army that was looking , and when the Song army arrived here, they easily killed the few remaining Jin soldiers on the shore with bows and arrows.
Not only that, the leading general actually recognized Li Kui. After he rushed out, he put on heavy armor, an iron helmet and an iron mask, and rushed to the riverbank to rescue. He also shouted from a distance in an attempt to scare the Jin army officers:
"Don't worry, Brother Li, Niu Gao from Ruzhou is here!"
After hearing this, he only took a glance and realized that the other party was of burly build and did not look like an ordinary person. Moreover, all the personal guards who had crossed the river with him had been killed. Pucha Hubalu naturally did not dare to fight and immediately gave up Li Kui and left.
At this moment, Li Kui looked up and his heart moved again... because he found that after Talai on the other side of the river came ashore, he did not take the opportunity to escape, but looked at the Jin army officer who came to kill him anxiously. It was obvious that this general was not an ordinary person.
This time, Commander Li realized the identity of this person almost instantly, but he gritted his teeth, broke the arrow on his shoulder, and then rushed forward regardless of everything, shouldering the shield, and with just one pounce, he threw the man to the riverbank, and did not forget to turn around and call out to Niu Gao: "Commander Niu, come quickly, come quickly, I will give you a great contribution!"
Gubalu knew that his identity had been discovered, so he tried to stand up in the shallow water. However, Li Kui could not let him stand up, so he held the man down from behind with his shield! In this scene, the crossbowmen of the Jin army dared not shoot recklessly, but could only stare in amazement at the general with the big flag with the word "Niu" on it, wearing heavy armor, running into the shallow water of ice at a high speed, and then calmly joining the melee!
But what happened next stunned everyone - they saw Hubalu struggling hard in the water and trying to get up, while Niu Gao, who was too big to use his weapon, simply abandoned the weapon in his hand and followed Li Kui's example, relying on his heavy armor to hold down the Jin general's waist, and then reached out to hold down the opponent's arm. As for Li Kui, who had his hands free, he took the opportunity to raise his shield and then smashed it hard on the neck of the person under him.
Only Li Kui was injured. After hitting him, he still couldn't kill the Jin army commander. With no other choice, the shirtless Song army commander simply put his shield on the opponent's neck and pressed down on him...
The Jin army was in a panic. Countless Jin soldiers tried to cross the river to rescue them regardless of the water level. But how could they cross the river easily? After walking a few steps, someone slipped and sank under the ice in the water. It was difficult for him to get up. Several crossbowmen shot at him, but they were not accurate.
It is said that Pucha Hubalu was truly brave. Even though he was pinned down by two Song generals, he still struggled non-stop, and from time to time he forced his head up from the icy water. But as soon as he raised his head, the two generals behind him would exert force to press him down again... This farce lasted for more than half a quarter of an hour before it completely stopped.
At this time, countless Jin and Song troops had already gathered on both sides of the Qishui River, and they watched almost the entire process of how the Jin army commander was drowned to death by two Song generals in water only one foot shallow.
Let alone others, Wanyan Talan fled naked on the other side of the river, and was surrounded by his own 10,000 cavalry. He knew he was safe and had long since come to his senses. But at this moment, he was standing by the river and saw his son-in-law suffer such a fate. He was powerless and completely speechless, shaking all over, and felt as if he had lost his confidant and heart!
In this battle, he lost too much!
