When the 70,000 official troops in the capital replaced the Ponu Army and settled in Anbian, the Ponu Army left behind Zhang Tong's troops to guard the Ponu Army protected by Pinglu Prefecture, and the 100,000 main forces and supplies of the Ponu Army were led by Zhang Ping'an to attack Lingzhou. Zhang Ping'an's move was a big surprise. Even Sun Chengzong, who was in military affairs, could not help but admire that the little fox had a very accurate vision and hit the weak point of the Hui army.

The marching speed of the Pou Army was extremely fast. As the vanguard of the entire army, Hu Ming's army and Liu Chong's army marched quickly. It took only three days to reach the periphery of Lingzhou Institute. Huang Zhi's army, who arrived, began to station five miles southwest of Lingzhou Institute. Hu Ming's army was directly stationed in the north of Lingzhou, and Liu Chong's army set up camp in the southeast. When Sun Chengzong asked Zhang Ping'an for advice, he asked Cao Wenzhao to ask He Renlong to come to the Pinglu Office where Zhang Tong was stationed, Zhang Ping'an chose Cao Wenzhao without hesitation. In Zhang Ping'an's view, Cao Wenzhao was much more courageous and scheming than He Renlong, who only knew how to fight fiercely.

Therefore, as soon as the main force of the Pou Nu Army arrived in Lingzhou, Zhang Tong's troops arrived later. After interrogation, the scouts reported to the news that the generals of the rebel army stationed in Lingzhou were Ma Tengyao's son Ma Deren, and there were more than 50,000 rebel army stationed in Lingzhou. Zhang was extremely satisfied with the result of the interrogation. If Ma Tengyao did not send troops to rescue Lingzhou, his son would die without a place to bury him. What's more, Ma Tengyao had another son, Ma Dezhong, cut off his retreat by the Pou Nu Army. If Lingzhou was not opened, Ma Dezhong would not be able to escape.

Seeing that the strategic purpose was achieved, the Ponu Army began to revolve around the trenches dug in Lingzhou and cut off the connection between Lingzhou and the outside world. The Ponu Army Commander Zhang Ping'an used the Ponu Army's personal military camp and Zhao Guangming's chariot camp as the main force of the siege. Yan Cheng's heavy cavalry and the 5,000 light cavalry led by him were placed between Hu Ming and Liu Chong's troops. He wanted to use Yan Cheng's mobile power to deal with the reinforcements of the Retro army. Zhang Tong's troops were placed on the east side behind Hu Ming by Zhang Zheng to prepare for the main force of the Return Army to rescue Lingzhou. Huang Zhi's troops monitored the retreating return troops of the Ningxia Zhongwei and Jinglu Guards in the southwest, so as to give a fatal blow to the retreating return troops at the appropriate time.

The mountain troops led by Tian Peng swam 200 miles eastward and were ready to annihilate the Ningxia defender Ma Dezhong's troops at any time. The mountain troops led by Liu Qingshan were used as a reserve team by General Zhang and supported all directions of the battlefield at any time. Zhang Ping'an, the head coach of the Po Slave Army, set up a large circular formation within a radius of 200 miles in Lingzhou, always preparing for the return troops in all directions. The same as Zhang Ping'an expected, the first return troops that could not sit still was the Ningxia defender Ma Dezhong's troops. They abandoned the 200,000 people who surrendered to the return troops in the city and retreated to the outside of the northwest Great Wall.

The whereabouts of Ma Dezhong's troops were soon discovered by the scouts of Tian Peng's troops. Zhang Ping'an, who received the news, immediately led the personal barracks of 13,000 cavalry, Yan Cheng's 3,000 heavily armored cavalry, and Tian Peng's troops' 11,000 mountain troops to pounce north. The remaining 5,000 cavalry of Tian Peng's troops went straight to the Ningxia guards and took over the empty city defense of Ningxia guards.

The return troops who marched hard in the cold and whistling north wind pulled out a long line of ten miles. What made Ma Dezhong worried that the five scouts he sent to the south had not received military information for two hours, which made Ma Dezhong, who had fought with the official army very worried. He had heard that the tactics of the Po Slave Army preferred to cover the battlefield, in order to blind the opponent's eyes and the ears of the enemy. Just as Ma Dezhong was still confused and entangled, he heard a slight silent thunder, and then he saw a piece of smoke and dust in the south.

Realizing the threat of the Pou Nu Army approaching, Ma Dezhong immediately ordered the entire army to stop advancing and form a formation on the spot. As soon as his order was released, more than ten scouts in black armor appeared two hundred feet away from the left wing of the return army. In less than three moments, the thousand scouts arranged three rows to form a horizontal army formation. As the commander Qian Zong let out a swan whistle, the formation began to turn the horse's head and turn to the right. The Pou Nu Army scouts adjusted their direction while the horse was jogging and turning.

That is, at a distance of fifty feet, the scouts of the Ponu Army changed from a horizontal team to a column, and when the war horses were speeding up, the column turned into an attacking arrow. Before the return army could react, the whistle in the mouth of the leader Qian General became rapid. As the war horses ran wildly, the soldiers of the Ponu Army gradually opened the distance between them and half a meter left and right in the formation, and two meters apart in front and back. The piercing cavalry had already laid a flat sword and raised a silver light.

When the scouts 1,000 cavalry of the Slaves joined behind them, they were joined by more than 10,000 cavalry of the Slaves, and it was not difficult to identify their identities from the battle flags of the fox and wolf-headed ones. However, the cavalry unit attacked slightly to the east than the scouts, in order to encircle and annihilate the tail of the Slaves. Under the rapid impact of the Slaves, the Hui army even had time to take out the bow and arrow, and nearly 30% of the rear team was cut off by the scouts. The cut off troops were attacked by the subsequent cavalry of the 10,000 battalion of the Slaves.

In the era of cold weapons, infantry without strict protection of the military formation, and had a strong fighting will, and was no match for the cavalry at all. Under the multiple strikes of war horses, spears thrust, and swords, ten thousand infantry who had no time to form a formation were soon flooded by the black clouds of the Ponu cavalry. When the Ponu army returned to the horse and entered the thin rear long snake formation of the Reich army, less than a thousand people could stand to welcome the enemy. Accompanied by the intense sound of war drums, the Ponu army's commander flag appeared in the south of the battlefield.

Zhang Dashuai, the commander of the Pou Nu Army standing on the southwest hill of the battlefield, observed the battlefield calmly. He was very satisfied with his tactics of eliminating the Hui army in the field. In the field, the Hui army lacked defensive artillery and shield chariots and heavy and effective defensive equipment. It was impossible to defeat the Pou Nu Army alone by relying on the strict military formation. The Hui army's rear team, which was once again flooded by the Pou Nu Army cavalry, could no longer see a standing figure. Judging from the food, tents and other military funds on the scattered wheelbarrows, the Hui army's rear team was obviously their baggage team.

The Hui army who lost food and grass would starve them to death as long as they trapped them. But Zhang Ping'an did not intend to starve the remaining 20,000 Hui army. He wanted to use the Ponu Army cavalry to defeat the besieged Hui army. He ordered people to find several wounded and undead Hui soldiers from the battlefield and let them go to the main battlefield to persuade them to surrender. In the situation of winning, General Zhang was reluctant to risk the life of the Ponu Army soldiers and do deadly things like persuading surrender.

Faced with the Ponu Army with absolutely superior troops, Ma Dezhong suppressed his panic and calmly observed the Ponu Army's formation. The Ponu Army set up a formation with three in size and one in order to force the Return Army to break through to the west with the most hope of survival. Anyone with a little military knowledge understands how the two-legged infantry can run over the four-legged cavalry, which clearly shows that the entirety of annihilation of the Return Army is to be wiped out.

Facing the Hui brothers who came to persuade the surrender, Ma Dezhong did not blame them, but instead drove away the three thousand Han soldiers and left their weapons to surrender to the Ponu Army. Although everyone was rumored that Ponu Bo Zhang Ping'an was very dark, if anyone surrendered, it would only be a moment longer than death in battle. As a senior general of the Hui army, Ma Dezhong knew the inside story, and Ponu Bo was targeted to kill prisoners. They learned through the escape of the rebel soldiers that Ponu Bo Zhang Ping'an generally would not kill the Ming prisoners, and even the Hui civilian prisoners in the rebel army. Ponu Bo Zhang Ping'an generally only killed foreign prisoners and the Ming traitor prisoners who worked for the Jurchens.

However, Ma Dezhong knew very well that once he was captured by the Ponu Army, he would be handed over to the court by Ponu Bo for credit and seeking rewards. Waiting for the consequences of the rebels in the court's eyes, he would definitely be cut into pieces. He drove the Han soldiers to surrender, not because Ma Dezhong was so virtuous, but because he was afraid that the Han soldiers would have weak will to resist and escape at the critical moment of the battle affected the overall combat effectiveness of the Hui army. In addition, Ma Dezhong had an ulterior motive, which was to use the blood of their Hui army to warn Hui people who wanted to surrender. The Ponu Army only killed Hui people and wanted to kill all Hui people.

This will deepen the fear of the consequences of surrender in the battles commanded by his father in the future, and thus will fight to the end. After driving away the Han soldiers, Ma Dezhong took a decisive attitude and surrounded all the Hui troops into a round formation to make the final desperate resistance. Since the Hui troops were to fight to the end, the Zhang Dazhong, who was not good at heart, would certainly not be ruthless.

He moved Yan Cheng's heavy armored cavalry to the northwest of the Huijun Round Formation, took back the cavalry of the personal camp after the battle, and asked Tian Peng's mountain troops to gather northwest. Tian Peng divided the mountain troops into ten thousand-man teams, took out crossbow bows and stabbed the Huijun Round Formation. The mountain troops took advantage of the upper vent to scatter black clouds and arrows to the Huijun Round Formation. The mountain troops who attacked continuously shot arrows fifty feet outside the Huijun Round Formation. Each round of arrow rain fell, like black hail coming from the sky and blew bloody winds in the Huijun Round Formation, and more than 10,000 arrow rains killed thousands of Huijun.

Immediately afterwards, the cavalry of the Pou Nu Army's personal barracks dismounted and arranged five thousand-man teams on the south side outside the Hui army round formation. They took out muskets and lined up sixty feet away from the Hui army, and carried out uninterrupted gun-firing on the Hui army round formation. The archers in the Hui army's formation were helpless for the long-distance shooting of the Pou Nu Army. The range of the bows and arrows they used was less than fifty feet, and they could not pose any threat to the Pou Nu Army. They could only watch the Pou Nu Army's musket soldiers shoot out of the metal storm.
Chapter completed!