Chapter 25 Bloody Battle Songxi 2

Huang Chao ordered the three soldiers and horses of Daqi to forcibly cross Songxi in the middle of the night, opening the prelude to the decisive battle with Li Yanjian in Fujian.

The Tang army on the east bank of Songxi saw hundreds of large and small warships coming straight over. While resisting, they asked Li Yanjian, Zhang Jin and Guo Rong for help.

When Li Yanjian, Zhang Jin and Guo Rong heard the news, they quickly put on their horses and commanded their soldiers to run to their river defense area.

Zhang Jin is a famous general in Fujian. He is known for his fierceness and has the courage of thousands of people. He waved the penetrating golden axe and took the lead in charging, fighting with Shang Rang, Li Tangbin and Kang Shiming, who killed the east bank. At the same time, Guo Rong's army was hostile to Huang Kui, Zhu Cun, Zhu Wen, Zhu Zhen and Pang Shigu's soldiers crossing the river. Li Yanjian commanded the main force of the Tang army and stopped Huang Chao, Chai Cun and Meng Kai. The two sides launched a life-and-death war on the east bank of Songxi. In a blink of an eye, the east bank of Songxi turned into a sea of corpses and blood, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce.

Li Yanjian has 5,000 crossbowmen, and his arrow skills are outstanding. The arrows are soaked in the juice of poisonous snakes. When they see blood and seal their throats, as long as the soldiers hit the arrow, it will be extremely difficult to survive. Li Yanjian saw that Huang Chao commanded the army to rush towards his soldiers and horses like a tide, and urgently ordered the bow and crossbow to release arrows. The rebels were killed and wounded, and were forced to retreat back. The first wave of attacks failed.

Huang Chao was shocked and was very anxious to see the painful expression of the soldiers who survived the arrow and died one by one.

Huang Chao endured the pain and organized the rebels to attack the three battalions of Li Yanjian, Zhang Jin and Guo Rong. All of them were repulsed by the Tang army three times in a row.

Chai Cun hurried to Huang Chao and said decisively, "Brother Huang, most of our army has crossed Songxi, and we must not step back half a step! I took a closer look at Li Yanjian's crossbowman. The first wave of shooting at our army just now has used a lot of arrows, and it is estimated that the stock is not much. Now you can urgently order Daqi's shield hands to form a front array, each with short knives in their hands, rush forward, rush to the Tang army's bow and crossbow hands, and break into the array to kill, just go deep*! The back is equipped with long spearmen, wearing heavy armor, specializing in killing Tang cavalry. Brother Huang and Meng Kai personally led the iron horse to attack Li Yanjian's battalion from the left and right wings. I will respond to you in the middle and get in touch with you at any time, and I will be able to defeat Li Yanjian's main force. After eliminating Li Yanjian, our army can cooperate with Shang Rang and Huang Kui's two-way soldiers and horses to completely defeat Zhang Jin and Guo Rong. In this battle, our army used circuitous tactics. No matter how much it costs, we must completely annihilate the Tang army. We must not let Li Yanjian, Zhang Jin and Guo Rong go!"

"Go and prepare separately according to the arrangement of the Chai Cun brothers!" Huang Chao made a good plan.

The Rebel shield held the shield in one hand and a short knife in the other, forming a military array and approaching Li Yanjian's bow and crossbowman. Li Yanjian urgently ordered the crossbow to release arrows and only shot a few volunteers' shields. The volunteer shield hand quickly touched Li Yanjian's bow and crossbow hand, killing the Tang army bow hand full of blood and retreating one after another.

The long gunman of the Rebel Army immediately rushed up and rushed to the Tang cavalry, killing the Tang soldiers who were carrying out a counterattack. When the bow and crossbow of the Rebel Army saw that the shield hand and the long gunman had won a complete victory, he cooperated with them to attack the Tang army. Li Yanjian could not resist and had to retreat with the disabled soldiers into the camp.

At this time, Huang Chao and Meng Kai's second-way army surrounded Li Yanjian's camp and launched a fierce attack on Li Yanjian's battalion together with the soldiers and horses commanded by Chai Cun. Li Yanjian shouted, waved thirteen snake bone whips, killed and injured dozens of volunteers one after another, and commanded the remnants to hang together with the rebels who attacked the camp. Inside and outside the Tang camp, the sound of drums and killing shocked the world.

Meng Kai saw Li Yanjian's stubborn resistance, and the volunteers kept falling beside him. He couldn't help but be furious, so he urged the green horse, raised the nine-ring knife, and led his own soldiers to kill Li Yanjian. Li Yanjian opened his blood-red eyes and still fought to the death.

After Meng Kai killed several soldiers who protected Li Yanjian with a knife, he met with Li Yanjian and killed them together. Li Yanjian fought with Meng Kai for more than a dozen rounds and found that his soldiers were getting fewer and fewer. Knowing that he could no longer defend the camp this time, it was difficult to save this life. He bit his teeth and tried his best to use the unique skill of "poisonous dragon stirring the sea". The snake's whip followed the shape and tightly entangled Meng Kai. This whip is also like an arrow, soaked in the venomous juice. As long as it is hit by it, it is life-saving.

When Meng Kai saw that the snake's whip was wrapped in a roar and did not leave his front and back, he quickly danced the knife, used a life method, and finally solved Li Yanjian's poisonous trick. Meng Kai saw that Li Yanjian's offensive slowed down and his life-threatening attack was frustrated. He shouted at Li Yanjian's poisonous means and raised his power and used his unique skill of "desperate nine-day serial knife". However, when he saw the cold light of the nine-ring knife flashed and hit Li Yanjian's neck, as fast as lightning, as fast as a hurricane. It was absolutely too late for Li Yanjian to hide. He was immediately cut off the horse by Meng Kai and separated from his head. Poor Li Tangmin turned into a dream of Nanke.

The general of the Tang army was beheaded, and the camp was suddenly in chaos and was defeated all the way. Huang Chao, Chai Cun and Meng Kai took advantage of the victory to destroy the main force of the Songxi Tang army.

The remnants of Li Yanjian's battalion fled to the two battalions around Zhang Jin and Guo Rong. Zhang Jin was shocked and looked up to the sky and mourned: "Songxi is over! The Chinese army camp was occupied by Huang Chao's thieves, and General Li was killed in battle. Now there are only 50,000 soldiers left with me and Guo Rong's thousands of remnants!"

Tang Bing came to report: "General Zhang, the big deal is not good. Shang Rang, Li Tangbin and Kang Shiming got the news that Huang Chao defeated Li Yanjian and strengthened the offensive. The main force of Huang Chao's thief is now assisting Huang Kui and Zhu Cun to attack Guo Rong's camp. Guo Rong sent his cronies to ask for help!"

"Guo Rong asked me for help, and I am also a mud bodhisattva crossing the river now - I can't protect myself. Reply to General Guo and ask him to find a way to break out. I can't go to rescue him!

After receiving Zhang Jin's reply, Guo Rong's eyes were dull and muttered to himself, "Zhang Jin wants me to find a way to break through. I'm eating Gan Shu in the middle of the night - I don't know the end. Huang Kui and Zhu Cun's army have caused more than half of my casualties. Now Huang Chao personally leads the main force to surround our troops. Even if I have three heads and six arms, it's useless!"

Guo Rong has a long beard, has the ability to lift a thousand pounds, and is good at hammering a pair of five poisonous chains, which is extremely brave. He pondered for a moment and decided to concentrate his troops and move closer to Zhang Jin's camp to resist the rebels.

Guo Rong, with two or 3,000 soldiers, suddenly launched an attack to the north and intercepted him. The leader of the Rebel Army was

Zhu Zhen, Pang Shigu, and the second generals will block Guo Rong's fight. Guo Rong was the enemy of the second general, and his face was fearless. The five poison chain hammer played with the wind. Zhu Zhen and Pang Shigu did not dare to approach. Guo Rong took the opportunity to kill the siege and joined Zhang Jin's army.

At this time, Zhang Jin had organized a second breakout, both of which were driven back to the camp by the Rebels. So far, the Rebels and Tang armies have gone back and forth on the Songxi battlefield and conducted eight times. Both soldiers were exhausted and reached the physiological limit.

Huang Chao, Chai Cun and Meng Kai ordered the generals of Daqi to compress Zhang Jin and Guo Rong into a narrow area, where food and water were cut off. Zhang Jin checked that there were only more than 1,000 soldiers, most of whom were injured.

Zhang Jin and Guo Rong gathered the defeated soldiers and began to issue the final order to break through. Zhang Jin said, "Brothers, in the battle of Songxi, your loyalty and courage are remembered in Zhang Jin's heart. Now that General Li Yanjian has been killed, 50,000 soldiers and horses, the vast majority of them have died in the battle, and a few weak bones have surrendered to the thieves. We only have thousands of you now. It's quite difficult to break out. What do you think we should do?

The subordinates shouted:

"We are not afraid of death. We are willing to follow General Zhang, General Guo and the bandits to fight to the end!"

"How can the Tang warriors succumb to the thief?"

"General Zhang, General Guo, order to break through!"

......

Zhang Jin held up the golden axe and shouted, "Tang soldiers, since we have defected to the Tang Dynasty, we will stand against the Daqi thief to the end!" We have no choice, because we have chosen!"

Guo Rong came to Zhang Jin and shouted harshly, "General Zhang, whether you like it or not, I will be the vanguard of this ninth attack and break through in the direction of Fuzhou!"

"Okay, General Guo, I agree to your request and lead 500 men as the first echelon to break through to Fuzhou!" Zhang Jin ordered.

Guo Rong stopped talking, so he said goodbye to Zhang Jin and other soldiers. After that, he took the lead in taking off his armor, put down his long gun, abandoned his horse lightly, and led 500 Tang soldiers to rush into the Rebel array.

The generals of Daqi thought that victory was right in front of them, and they had a paralyzed mind. They were killed by Guo Rong's soldiers and horses, and nearly a thousand people were damaged. Huang Chao received the report and personally led the main force to Guo Rong's breakout area, strictly ordering all the rebels not to let go of the Tang army.

Guo Rong rushed left and right with 500 soldiers and horses, shaking the valley, but after all, the people were few and weak. After a few hours of fierce battle, they were wiped out by the generals of Daqi. In the fierce battle, Zhu Cun waved a wind knife and cut Guo Rong under the horse.

Seeing Guo Rong's failure to break through, Zhang Jin raised the golden axe and commanded the remaining hundreds of Tang soldiers to kill in the southeast. Although Zhang Jin was brave, he could not sing alone. Chai Cun was well dispatched and arranged for the volunteers to shoot intensively at the Tang army. Zhang Jin's disabled soldiers suffered 10 casualties*, and there were few left. Therefore, Huang Chao ordered to launch a final attack on Zhang Jin's remnants. Zhang Jin cut a golden axe, chopped left and right, and killed dozens of his own soldiers for a while. In the end, he was trapped and was killed by the righteous soldiers.

In the battle of Songxi, although the Rebels completely annihilated the 50,000 Tang troops of Li Yanjian, Zhang Jin and Guo Rong, they also paid a heavy price. The Rebels damaged more than 30,000 people, and the blood of the heroes of Daqi stained the Songxi water red.

The life-and-death battle between the Huang Chao Uprising Army and Li Yanjian of the Tang Army took place in Songxi and is now under Tieshan Town, Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. Because the two sides fought against each other nine times in this battle, and later called this place nine battle hills.