stubborn thief

Chapter 222 Responsibilities
The horses are howling.

The long poles on the front line of the Lion Battalion were completely broken, and the sergeants desperately resisted, but they were only slightly obstructed.

Soon, Gao Xian, the leader of the left post who was at the front line, smashed a horse with a pumpkin, and was knocked aside by the horsemen behind him. Before he could get up, he was dragged away by his subordinates, and the gap widened accordingly.

The Guan Ning cavalry raised the reins, jumped over the horse corpses, and rushed into the formation in a single file. They continued to kill and expanded their victories on the side until they slammed into the second wall.

The second wall is the soldiers led by the brothers of the Han family.

Cao Wenzhao, who was charging ahead, received a volley of strong bows, and his horse fell to his death. Later, the cavalry soldiers were worried that they would trample on the general, so the impact speed slowed down a little.

At this time, Liu Chengzong had already raised his sword and mounted his horse, and the earth and mountain flags in the hollow formation were waving, so that the sergeants on the left and right wings of the Lion Camp took advantage of this opportunity to turn to the inside, forming a pincer attack on him.

Waiting for Cao Wenzhao to change horses and ride again, seeing that the offensive was frustrated, he urged the horses to point their spears at Liu Chengzong, hoping to take his head with elite troops, hoping to break the formation.

However, Han Shipan and the others held their bows and shot arrows again. They knocked down several arrows with their spears in desperation, but they could only protect the horses. Several arrows pierced through the armor and hurt their flesh. .

When Cao Bianjiao saw his uncle hit by an arrow, he rushed to the front and said anxiously to him: "General, if you can't move the Chinese army, it's better to cut it!"

The so-called cutting is also a tactic used by the cavalry to attack. It also passes through the army formation, but does not penetrate through the middle, but from the corner of the flank, depending on the strength of the battle, protruding from the flank to separate it from the main force.

It's like cutting a corner off of tofu.

Divided troops will quickly collapse, and when encountering strong resistance, the difficulty of completing tactical actions is much less than that of crossing enemy lines.

Cao Wenzhao followed good example, took Cao Bianjiao as the vanguard, shouted and led the cavalry to rush to the left.

Liu Chengzong leaned his sword on the ground and shouted to the Tushan bannerman: "The right-wing cavalry intercepted!"

In and out of the formation, it has been disrupted.

Although the Guan Ning army broke through the front line, they could not expand the results of the battle. The Chinese army still had elite resistance, so that the sergeants of the Lion Camp who had avoided the horse cavalry earlier were regrouped by the officers.

However, the flags of the front line fell to the ground, the officers were injured, and the command chaos was unavoidable, so the lower-level officers could only be left to their own devices.

Although this is the strength of the Lion Camp, anyway, there are no qualified generals and schools in the entire Lion Camp, but they are all junior officers who are too proactive.

No initiative, how to do rebels?
For a while, the two sides fought in a group at the gap in the army formation, and groups of Lion Battalion auxiliary soldiers without the command of superior officers gradually shrank.

Clear gaps first appeared between the teams, and Guan Ning cavalry continued to gallop and charge in the gaps. People shouted and horses neighed, and spears flew.

On the outside of the army formation, there were also cavalry soldiers who had not yet entered the formation charging and squeezing around, dismounting and firing at foot, constantly exerting pressure on the outside of the army formation, causing the lion battalion soldiers at the gap to suffer from the enemy.

The helmet of the captain of the left post flying to nowhere, leaving only the iron piece inlaid with the hair scarf on his head, led his subordinates to resist the attack of Guan Ning army in the formation.

He started having headaches again.

The piece of iron on his forehead was Liu Chengzong's reward for his bravery in the battle of Huanglong Mountain.

In that battle, he was ordered to follow Gao Xian to attack the mountain, but he was shot in the forehead by a Ningxia soldier.

Huang Shengxiao, the sentinel captain nicknamed Clay Figure, was also on the front line of the battlefield. Cao Wenzhao broke through from his team and cut his soldiers in half. A dozen people were divided to the other side of the battlefield.

More than [-] gunners under his command still defended the front line, protecting the last lion cannon in their hands, and launched bursts of fire at the Mercedes-Benz cavalry.

The remaining three cannons are still there, but the position of the cannons can no longer pose a threat to the Guanning Army, but the cannons are not good, and the artillery is okay.

Several artillerymen held shells wrapped in fabric, and threw them at the galloping horse's head whenever they had the chance.

Whether the result is not the result of the battle, they have to do something anyway.

But fighting bravely in a small area cannot make up for the self-protection sentiment after losing organizations in a large area.

The gaps in the frontline formation slowly burst to the surroundings like a spider web.

For Guan Ningbing, who was caught in the chaos, this meant that they saw more and more familiar faces around them.

This is a harbinger of the enemy's imminent collapse, and everyone is very excited.

From time to time, some people got off their horses and drew short soldiers from their horsebacks to engage in close combat, stepping forward step by step, fighting for a path for more cavalry to pass through.

Liu Chengzong's army formation has been completely deformed, the left and right wings of the hollow phalanx squeezed towards the middle, and the rear team replenished to the middle, pounced on the Guan Ning army trying to pass from his side, and prevented the enemy cavalry from passing through the formation.

On the bridge farther away, Zhong Hu was leading his men forward for reinforcements.

Han Shipan drew his strong bow, stuck an armor-piercing arrow in the chest of an enemy cavalry, drew out his Yanling Saber, turned his head and shouted: "Commander, I have no more arrows!"

"Backup is here, let the rear go up first."

Liu Chengzong didn't have any arrows anymore. He boasted that the strength of the lion camp was the ceiling. He wanted to go up and fight, but his subordinates didn't give him a chance, so he could only shoot arrows from behind.

But against such a well-equipped and heavily armored opponent, his record is not ideal.

There was a bang, and a puff of gunpowder smoke wafted in my ears.

On the contrary, it was Fan Sanlang who was beside him, this little thing brought five or six soldiers, stood in the safest place, each of them holding a pistol, and commanded: "Don't let go!"

The chi-long pipe was no shorter than the three-eyed blunderbuss, and even though she had only released five bludgeons so far, she had already knocked the three riders off their horses.

More people were injured than Liu Chengzong. He only shot one person in the face, causing him to fall directly off the horse. When he hit other positions, the arrow clusters would often get stuck after piercing the armor and could not cause fatal injuries.

Several times in a row, the enemy ran away with his arrows.

Firearms are different. At a suitable distance, a hit may not be able to kill a person, but it is enough to make people lose their combat effectiveness and fall off the horse.

At this moment, Liu Chengzong saw the riot in the enemy's rear, and his subordinates on the flanks also cheered up.

Outside the formation, horseshoes rained like rain.

Yang Yao led the outpost cavalry to attack the enemy's rear. Liu Chengzong climbed up and looked over, and couldn't help but rejoice—the outpost cavalry actually drove away a group of more than 400 Guanning troops.

Those people were fleeing eastward with their tails between their legs, gradually moving away from the battlefield.

Yang Yao then surrounded hundreds of Guan Ning troops who had not yet had time to enter the formation, and fought with them.

For a while, the morale of Guan Ning's army, which had been boosted earlier, was greatly defeated, and the dismounted sergeants did not dare to charge around, and instead shrank their formation.

But on the other side, the transformation of the lion camp created favorable conditions for Cao Bianjiao to pass through the formation, allowing him to use his bravery to yell and rush out of a way, attracting hundreds of cavalry to come out.

But others were not so lucky, Gao Yingdeng was almost as brave as last time.

Last time it was He Huchen.

It was not easy for the cavalry to pass through the formation. Even though Cao Bianjiao had a path for Guan Ning's army, Gao Yingdeng shouted to drive away the infantry, but he couldn't complete the interception as ordered. In the end, he simply changed direction and ran directly to the center of the formation.

But in this way, he was faster than others, and before his subordinates could keep up, he almost hit the face of the enemy cavalry.

He thought to himself, if he rushes up and fights, he will definitely not be able to fight, or he will be captured.

Immediately rode over, just when the enemy cavalry was about to fight him, this guy yelled "Catch me!" to the infantry team next to him, and jumped off the horse.

Who will pick it up?It weighs more than 200 kilograms with a person and armor, who can handle it?It all fell apart.

As a result, Gao Yingdeng got stuck in the friendly formation and fell completely.

On the contrary, Gao Yingdeng's horse was much stronger than his, collided with the mount of a young general of Guan Ning Army, and blocked the galloping horse team.

Cao Wenzhao was in the stopped team.

Seeing that the cavalry was separated by the encircling lion battalion infantry and cavalry, he was anxious, swung his horizontal spear and poked a few spearheads in front of him, looked around the battlefield, and once again saw Liu Chengzong dispatching troops under the earth mountain.

Cao Wenzhao immediately turned his horse's head and led Guan Ning's cavalry to charge wildly in the formation, spearing at the Chinese army.

Cao Bianjiao had just killed himself outside the formation. He originally wanted to run around the formation to attack Yang Yao and rescue more Guan Ning troops. However, he turned his head and found that only two hundred cavalry rushed out of the formation, and the enemy's formation was gradually closing. .

He was so anxious that he stood up on the back of the horse, but saw that his uncle led an army to charge against the bandit army, he was very anxious for a while, and urged the horse to lead the team into the formation again.

Unexpectedly, a cannonball came from the outside of the army formation, startling his horse, leading him to a distance, and the horse team also dispersed to the surroundings.

Liu Chengzong didn't pay attention to Cao Wenzhao at all. He was busy getting the frontline soldiers to cooperate with Yang Yao to defeat the surrounding enemy army. Some people had already put down their weapons and began to surrender.

Suddenly I heard Fan Sanlang report: "Master, someone is rushing!"

Turning his head, he saw the cavalry soldiers of the Guanning army lying in the formation like a long snake, being led back by the snake head. The front of the team was a middle-aged general, running towards his direction with spears.

Liu Shizihu twisted his neck with a grimace, raised his knife and walked towards him: "Do you think I'm powerless? Twice!"

He had seen this man before, he wanted to lead the cavalry to charge him as soon as he broke the formation, he took a few arrows from the thick armor before rushing away diagonally, Gao Yingdeng's team would stop him, and he brought the horse soldiers to charge him.

As Liu Chengzong left, Han Shipan and the others each raised their weapons to guard their left and right sides, while Zhong Bao shouted at his brother's subordinates, "Protect the general, line up!"

Hearing that the Guan Ning soldiers next to the man who charged were all shouting generals in Liaoyang dialect, they turned their heads and charged.

Liu Chengzong was overjoyed, raised his arms and pointed, "Sanlang, hit him."

He shouted again: "Cao Wenzhao is there!"

As he shouted, there was a tooth-piercing sound of drawing the bow, and a rain of arrows shot towards the galloping cavalry.

Cao Wenzhao had several arrows stuck in his chest at this moment, but only a few of them were pulled out during the charge.

There are two cavalry beside him, three cavalry side by side, blocking the left and right enemy troops for him.

When he saw the enemy drawing his bow, he lowered his head, relying entirely on his armor, he did not dodge or dodge the incoming arrows, his spear moved like the wind, and he just pushed aside the weapons that stabbed the horses in front of him, and stabbed the enemies in his way .

Only forty steps away, and forty steps away, he will be able to take the head of the thief!
At this moment, the flames flickered right in front of him, which made him feel alarmed, and he tightened the reins quickly.

For a moment, the horse raised its front hooves in pain, and its rear hooves were still kicking forward due to inertia. Seeing that the horse was about to fall, only a few pops were heard, and the horse suddenly jumped forward, and fell to the ground crookedly. Slide forward two steps.

Several blood holes were punched in the chest and neck of the war horse. It was difficult to get up after struggling, and its four hooves kicked on the ground. It was difficult to raise its neck and could not get up.

Cao Wenzhao jumped down instinctively the moment he was shot by the horse. He didn't let the horse break his leg, but lost his long pole. .

The galloping horse team was blocked again, and in the blink of an eye, the surrounding soldiers surrounded him and fought repeatedly with the horse soldiers guarding him.

At this moment, the general under his command, Xiao Pingan, dropped his spear, dismounted while galloping, pulled the saddle and jumped and ran, controlled the horse to run towards him, and shouted: "General, get on the horse!"

After saying that, he threw his saddle and rolled in the formation to relieve his strength. Just as he stabilized his body, he looked up and saw that he had rolled into the enemy army. He just drew the knife half an inch from his waist when he was hit hard on the bowl with a gourd. It was dark and unconscious.

Liu Chengzong saw this scene not far away. Seeing that one horse was knocked out, his subordinates actually sent another one to Cao Wenzhao, and his heart was furious!

He snatched a spear from his subordinates, put his leg on the ground and kicked it to break it, held the broken spear back and ran forward shouting: "Get out of the way!"

After saying that, he had already run seven or eight steps, and ran a few more steps until the soldiers in front of him had no time to get out of the way. Then his face turned red from holding back, and with all his strength, he threw the broken spear towards Cao Wenzhao.

After more than ten steps, in the blink of an eye, the broken spear pierced the horse's neck, and the other end even pierced the leg of Cao Wenzhao who turned over the horse, but was blocked by the armor skirt.

But the broken spear going straight is no better than the lead bullet that can roll and deform. The horse is not dead, but it rushes forward like crazy with Cao Wenzhao.

The momentum of constantly tilting his head and spitting blood froth startled Liu Chengzong, wondering if this horse wanted revenge or what?
It wasn't until it crashed into the crowd that the horse lost its strength and fell to the ground.

Cao Wenzhao was almost sent into the army by Crazy Horse. Even so, he was still captured without a fight.

It wasn't until the Han brothers and others rushed forward that they caught him.

I don't know who yelled first: "Cao Wenzhao is captured!" Immediately, the words resounded across the battlefield, but within a few breaths, it was changed to: "Cao Wenzhao was captured, and he will be captured with nothing. Forgive you!" Don't die!"

After a while, a large group of Guan Ning troops put down their weapons, and there were still many people who wanted to resist to the end, even dozens of people still formed a group to fight out after the main general was captured.

The battle was coming to an end, Liu Chengzong didn't care about the dozens who ran out.

In his opinion, this is the "benefit" of Cao Wenzhao's leading troops to kill and surrender. If they do too many bad things, these people will not dare to surrender even if they lose the battle.

But for a moment, Cao Wenzhao was tied up and escorted forward in the voice of Shan Huan live. Later, his subordinates sent Ping An, who was still in a coma, and Han Shipan said that he was also a general.

"Cao Wenzhao, I heard that you killed the hungry prisoners in Shanxi directly. Is this true?"

Cao Wenzhao glanced at him, but said nothing.

"You Datong old Xi'er, what are you pretending to be from Liaodong? You can't understand Shaanxi dialect?"

Cao Wenzhao took a deep breath and gritted his teeth: "You recruited me, why did you attack me?"

"Why did you hit you?" Liu Chengzong snorted, "You shouldn't have come here!"

"I'm out of food."

"Now you know that there is nothing to do without food? The hungry people and border soldiers killed by you, which one is not without food and can't do anything, I'm not talking about coming to Pingliang."

Liu Chengzong turned half a circle under the earth mountain, and the battle was basically over. The Guanning soldiers who surrendered were disarmed from their weapons and armor, and they were escorted to the back to watch.

There is still a Guanning soldier of more than 200 people hanging far away in the east, neither daring to step forward nor leaving.

Yang Yao is leading his men to guard against their surprise attack from afar.

Liu Chengzong stopped several subordinates who were escorting the captives, and said to the captives: "Go to someone and tell the generals outside that you can either get out now. If you want Cao Wenzhao, you can bring all the weapons, armor and horses yourself."

The Guanning army is very difficult to deal with. If another army does the same thing as Cao Wenzhao, Liu Chengzong can bleed them and dye the Jinghe River red.

In particular, they spent all their own money. Seeing Cao Wenzhao, Liu Chengzong couldn't help thinking of being dizzy from starvation in Yuhebao.

But now that there are thousands of injured people, Liu Chengzong couldn't help but think of these people in the narrow corridor outside Shanhaiguan, sleeping night and night.

Moreover, it was wrong for the imperial court to embezzle their military pay, but in the eyes of Liu Chengzong, the ability and courage of these people did not disgrace the military pay that was paid to them.

Although horses are not as good as people, and guns are not as good as people, they can still fight like this.

After that, Liu Chengzong took a deep breath, turned around and said to Cao Wenzhao: "I said you shouldn't enter Shanxi or Shaanxi. You beat the captives outside the pass. I respect you heroes. You will do everything after entering the pass. What's the matter?"

"The Guanning army was ordered by the emperor to fight, and Cao only fought for the emperor, fighting against the captives in the east and the bandits. What did I do wrong?"

"What's wrong with people seeking to live! They don't want to serve the country? Do they have money, can they support their parents, wives and children? They all hanged themselves!"

Liu Chengzong was so angry that he raised his slap, and finally put it down again, so he could only curse bitterly: "I want to beat you up a long time ago, Shanshan is outside the pass? The starving people are Eastern captives?"

Cao Wenzhao was really thinking seriously about Liu Chengzong's words.

After thinking for a moment, even though he was tied up, he kowtowed to the east, stretched out his head and said, "I'll kill them all. The defeat is because I'm not as skilled as others. Cao Mou will know this day when he joins the army. You can kill me."

Liu Chengzong scratched his head angrily, pointed at Cao Wenzhao and said to Fan Sanlang, "You should kill him with a shotgun."

Fan Sanlang pondered, he wanted to collapse to death, wasn't it blocked by the war horse.

At this moment, a notification came from the front, and the general of the Guanning Army outside, who called himself Cao Bianjiao, came over.

Liu Chengzong saw a young general who entered the camp in single clothes except for his armor. He still did not lose his military integrity. He strode forward with his head held high and raised his chin and said, "The commanding guerrilla general Cao Bianjiao is here, let my uncle go."

Liu Chengzong glanced at it again and again, he was mighty and attractive, but he also looked like a bully temper who was not afraid of death, he was so bullish even after losing.

He glanced at it, and said angrily: "I can't hear you, my rank is higher than yours, so I salute first and then speak."

It was originally an angry sentence that made Cao Bianjiao embarrassed, but he never expected that Cao Bianjiao was stunned for a moment, and he really bowed down and gave a military salute, which was very natural: "Guerrilla Cao Bianjiao, pay homage to the commander, and ask him to let my uncle go."

Liu Chengzong said: "It's late, your uncle is really begging me to die."

Hearing this, Cao Bianjiao changed his expression and said in a broken voice, "General?"

He called his uncle.

Cao Wenzhao didn't explain, but said: "The responsibility for the defeat has nothing to do with you. You go back and serve His Majesty loyally. Don't humiliate your family."

"Yes!"

Cao Bianjiao's eyes were red, he responded heavily, kowtowed to his uncle's luggage, stood up, gritted his teeth and pointed at Liu Chengzong, turned around and was about to leave.

Don't say that Liu Chengzong is stupid, all the officers and soldiers around the Lion Camp are stupid.

Uncle could clearly hear the embarrassment from such a family, and the commander-in-chief felt sorry for them, wishing to die; the nephew was not unhappy when he saw that his uncle was going to die, but he turned his head and left.

"Come back!" Liu Chengzong called to stop him and said, "I beat you because you should pay for killing the hungry people indiscriminately; but in Liaodong, I have contributed to the world. I won't kill you, but I will pay back our soldiers' salaries. Hand over the horses."

Cao Bianjiao was overjoyed when he heard the words, and turned to look at his uncle. Although he tried his best to keep his face expressionless, he couldn't help smiling, took a few deep breaths, and then lowered his head slightly and said to Liu Chengzong, "Thank you, sir."

"Thank me? Heh, I will not let go of those who surrendered. The matter between Shanshan and Shanshan cannot be solved by massacre. It can only make others hate you and the court even more."

"Leave a way for others to survive, and others will leave a way for you to survive. Otherwise, if I don't kill you, someone else will kill you in the future. Keep a useful body and go outside the pass to fight against the captives."

After finishing speaking, Liu Chengzong waved his hand: "Hand over the soldiers and horses, and take your uncle away."

Not long after, Cao Bianjiao led people to send the armored horses, and Liu Chengzong released Cao Wenzhao.

He led his horse and stood on the edge of the battlefield, watching more than 200 people leave lightly, smelling the bloody smell in his nose, looking around the battlefield, and sighed deeply.

Fan Sanlang asked: "Why didn't the commander-in-chief kill them?"

"Kill and let go, between the two." Liu Chengzong glanced at her: "My goal has been achieved."

Fan Sanlang looked at the Guan Ning army who was being recruited not far away: "The commander wants to recruit them? They are really powerful."

Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong shook his head: "It's not a surrender. Those who are not killed must be taken away. This is my responsibility."

"responsibility?"

"The most capable frontier army in Shaanxi is in my hands. We went to Qinghai. No one can stop this Guanning. They are cruel to the prisoners. How many more people will die?"

Liu Chengzong looked at his army formation with unspeakable sadness in his eyes: "The truths I said, their uncles and nephews are full of loyalty to the emperor and serving the country, they may not listen to it, they can only let the knife speak."

"My purpose is to disable the Guanning army. They escaped, surrendered, were wounded, and died. If the remaining hundreds of people can be equipped with soldiers, armour, and horses, although they still have some combat power, they are still ineffective for those who stay in Shanshan. Wang and Gao are not absolutely threatening."

After all, Liu Chengzong turned his eyes to the distance: "We entered Qinghai to accumulate strength to fight for the world. There must be no friendly troops between Shanshan and Shanshan. Only I... can do this."

The soldiers came to report: "Marshal, everything is packed."

"Let's go, I will catch up with you soon."

The setting sun in the west was like blood, and by the riverside of Jiangou, Liu Chengzong led his horse and walked on the messy battlefield, and stood quietly with his head bowed for a moment.

No soul speaks to him, making the land even more silent.

After a while, he got on his horse and pointed to the west with his whip: "Let's go, I'm going to ask King Han for a piece of land to bury the heroic spirit!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)