Chapter 1104: Burning the Enemy Formation

The battlefield incident encountered by the Qi army's right wing was soon reported back to the central army camp. Gao Yang, who was delighted with the breakthrough on the front, suddenly changed his face after learning about it. After a moment, he sighed and said, "The Qiang bandits are really cunning in their use of troops. I took the risk and suffered the consequences of the bandits."

Heba Ren was unwilling to launch a large-scale attack on the flank before, but Gao Yang insisted and sent reinforcements several times. Now that he was trapped by the enemy at the risk of fighting on two fronts, Gao Yang should bear the main responsibility.

He did not expect that the enemy would retain a fresh force to set traps under such strong pressure. But if you think about it carefully, this situation is actually more reasonable.

The enemy originally had the idea of ​​fighting and retreating, luring the enemy deep into the depths, and this new force might be the troops to meet the returning army. By taking the initiative to set up a trap through the failure of the attack on the camp, giving up part of their own positions, they were used to lure the Qi army's right-wing troops to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly, and then gather forces to eliminate them. After removing the pressure from the flank battlefield, the Wei army could concentrate on resisting the pressure from the front battlefield and gradually retreat.

From this perspective, Gao Yang could not be said to have fallen into Li Boshan's trap, but took the initiative to step into and explode this trap.

If the right-wing army still had only more than 10,000 troops as before, once it fell into this trap, it would really be possible for the enemy to gather superior forces and quickly kill and wound them, and then quickly evacuate after eating them all.

However, Gao Yang sent more troops to the right-wing army before and after, and now there are more than 30,000 troops. Even if so many troops rushed into the enemy's trap, it would be impossible to encircle and annihilate them in a short time. Instead, it exposed their intentions more and more, making their evil plan fail.

In the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy will appear pale and powerless. Although Li Boshan was cunning and resourceful, Gao Yang had the confidence and strength to defeat ten masters with one force. After the initial shock, Gao Yang gave another order in a deep voice: "Tell King Anding to order the army to hold their positions firmly and not to be frightened by the enemy and flee rashly. Although the enemy has evil plans, they are still under attack from both sides. After breaking the enemy's formation here, the danger will be solved!"

After making this explanation, his attention turned back to the front battlefield. The 10,000 divisions and brigades that were sent to the battlefield before were already fighting in an orderly rotation with the front formation, and they still maintained a very fierce offensive.

But Gao Yang still felt that this was not enough. While sending more troops to the north to set up a majestic formation to deter the enemy, he also ordered Xue Guyan to continue to strengthen the offensive, making sure that the enemy army would be unable to cope with it.

As the Qi army's offensive intensified, the situation of the Wei army on the plateau also deteriorated further, but Li Tai, who stood on the top of the plateau under the central army's banner, remained calm.

Tian Hong, who had just withdrawn from the first front line, was wounded several times. With the help of his subordinates, he came to the banner and said with regret and shame: "I am ashamed that I failed to hold the front until noon and failed the trust of the master..."

Li Tai stepped forward to support Tian Hong, who was unable to stand steadily. His eyes swept over the exhausted soldiers who were almost all injured and retreated from the front line. He said in a deep voice: "You have fought against enemies several times your number, fought bravely, and blocked the enemy for a long time, which is very valuable. The turnaround in the war depends on this effort! You don't need to fight in the subsequent battles, but you need to stay in the camp to watch your comrades kill the enemy!"

As he spoke, he asked his staff to properly settle these soldiers who had been fighting for a long time and retreated to the camp. But in fact, there was little clean land in the Wei army's camp at this time. The front plateau was indeed a fierce battle, and the position in the northeast direction behind the plateau had been occupied by the enemy's side division for the most part. They were attacked from both front and back, and the situation was very bad.

At this time on the battlefield, the Western Wei army had already used its strength to the extreme. The 8,000-man brigade led by Tian Hong resisted the frontal offensive of the Qi army for a long time, and finally more than half of them were killed or wounded. On the battlefield on the side, the 10,000 troops on the left led by Gao Le, plus the 5,000 troops sent by the central army, have been besieging and resisting the Qi army's detachment that crossed the river.

At this time, there were still more than 10,000 fresh troops on the top of the plateau who had not been involved in today's battle. They had been watching the battle and recuperating, and this group of people was Li Tai's real trump card for turning the tables today!

In front of the plateau, the enemy's offensive was fierce, and the fiercer the enemy's offensive, the more at ease Li Tai was. War is not only about human lives, but also about people's hearts. The more excited a person's emotions are, the stronger the frustration and sense of destruction will be after being suddenly interrupted.

The biggest advantage of the Qi army over the Wei army is that they have more soldiers, but they also have the biggest negative blessing, that is, their emperor personally went to the battlefield and led the army.

Qi Lord Gao Yang cannot be said to be ignorant of military affairs, but at least he is not a first-class general. The most fundamental point is that he ignores human life. Observing his use of troops, human lives are rarely taken into account. Those who can succeed by relying on strength will succeed, and those who need to judge the situation will not succeed. The limit of his ability is this wave of recklessness. If he can't be reckless, he will start to mess up.

Let's not talk about the cliché that kindness cannot lead the army. In ancient times, those who used troops like gods were like Wu Qi in the Warring States Period. He killed his wife to get a general, which was cruel, but he could suck the wounds for the soldiers to show his kindness. Gao Yang was cruel and arrogant. Even if he understood this truth, he was too lazy to pretend. He treated human lives as worthless and his tyrannical temperament was consistent. In war, which is a matter of great consumption of human lives, it would be particularly obvious.

Such a person has no patience to move step by step, weigh the pros and cons seriously, and seek the final victory at a reasonable price. He will only continue to coerce and oppress, and only see the result of victory, and all the efforts in the process are taken for granted in his eyes.

At present, the battle situation of the Wei army on both sides is in line with Li Tai's prediction of Gao Yang. In fact, this rapid attack and quick decision-making idea cannot fully and reasonably play the military advantage of the Qi army. Because of the limitations of the battlefield environment, the number of troops that can be put into battle at the same time is limited. The Wei army can resist several times the enemy by holding its position, and the military advantage of the Qi army is completely not reflected.

But this gave Li Tai an opportunity to win a big victory with a small one and reverse the situation. He only needs to wait until the time is right to launch all the arrangements.

When he saw that the troops on the side battlefield of the Qi army were still holding their lines and had no intention of retreating, and the enemy's offensive on the front battlefield was becoming more and more fierce, Li Tai understood that the fish had been bitten firmly, and whether it could be protected or not depended on the next battle.

He raised his hand and ordered the troops to retreat, and all the soldiers defending the second line retreated to the rear, handing over the second line.

The Qi army soldiers in the battle were surprised to see the Wei army retreating on their own initiative. Xue Guyan, who had been supervising the battle with the army, was overjoyed and shouted loudly: "The enemy is now attacked from all sides and has no power. They are exhausted. Attack quickly, attack quickly, capture the enemy camp, and capture and kill the enemy general Li Boshan!"

The Qi army soldiers were encouraged by this and immediately rushed forward to occupy the positions vacated by the retreating Wei army, and the soldiers at the forefront pushed forward to the third line of defense of the Wei army in one go. The divisions and brigades that followed up in the rear did not forget to destroy the chariots in the formation, so that the cavalry teams that had been waiting for a long time could attack smoothly.

But when they were happily hacking away at the outer walls of the chariots, they found that the chariots in the second line were not filled with earth and stone like the ones in the previous line to increase their stability, but were filled with firewood, miscellaneous materials, and ointment in earthenware jars!

"Oh no, retreat!"

The quick-thinking soldiers suddenly changed their faces after seeing this scene, and hurriedly tried to withdraw, but the warriors behind them were all rushing forward, intending to seize the credit of breaking through the formation, so there was no way to retreat for a while.

The Qi army soldiers did not know that a disaster was coming, but the soldiers of the Shesheng Camp who had been on standby for a long time in the third line of defense did not miss the opportunity to fight. As the military order from the rear was issued, they immediately ignited the rockets and shot them out.

The rockets hit the chariots on the second line of defense accurately, and instantly ignited the firewood and ointment piled in the chariots. At this time, many chariots had been hacked and destroyed by the soldiers of the Qi army, and the firewood inside was also scattered in the Qi army formation. After being ignited by the rocket, the fire immediately spread in the Qi army formation.

"The Qiang bandits are treacherous and actually use fire attack..."

The sudden fire caught the Qi army soldiers off guard. Those who were close to the fire naturally tried their best to escape, but the surging crowd in the back still blocked the back road. Seeing that the fire was about to spread to them, some people even swung their swords directly at their comrades in the back, and the scene was in chaos for a while.

The burning fire cut off the Qi army formation. Those soldiers who had rushed to the third line of defense were originally happy that they could achieve great success, but now they were shocked to find that they had become a lone army deep in the enemy's formation. The comrades in the back were intercepted and forced back by the fire, and they were abandoned in front of the formation, helplessly facing the enemy's brutal blade!

"Beat the drums, attack!"

With Li Tai's order, the soldiers who had been waiting for the battle on the top of the plateau for a long time suddenly rushed out of the last line of defense in front of the camp like a tiger out of the fence, and rushed to the panicked enemy soldiers in front of the line of defense.

"Hold on, hold on! The fire is still under control and has not spread. Line up now, don't let the Qiang bandits kill you!"

The incident happened suddenly, and Xue Guyan was also shocked, but after reacting, he immediately shouted and ordered loudly, trying to stop the retreating soldiers.

However, water and fire are ruthless, and people are deeply afraid of them. At this moment, they are all panicked, and few people obey orders. The battlefield in front of the plateau is in chaos. Even the supervisors who were sent by Xue Guyan to stop the retreating soldiers were directly defeated by the frightened crowd.