Chapter 058 Hanging and beating the Hun King
Just as the Maodun Shanyu army was pressing towards Li Xi and Xintong in an orderly manner, it was already dark. Suddenly, the dense sound of Qin crossbows fired in the west of the Huns army, and countless crossbow arrows shot towards the Huns army. At this time, even Maodun Shanyu couldn't figure it out. Could it be that the Qin army also set up a larger ambush here? Maodun immediately ordered the army to stop heading north, first find out the situation before making plans.
After more than ten rounds of Qin crossbows, there was another earth-shaking rushing sound in the west. Maodun was unclear about the enemy situation and did not dare to lead the elite eagle shooter in the royal court headquarters to attack. Thinking of the Qin army blocking the north, the west also shouted to kill the sky. In the east, the Great Wall of Qin was blocking the defenders, and ordered the 100,000 troops from the Shanyu royal court headquarters to retreat quickly and go south to escape from the battlefield.
As soon as the 100,000 cavalry from the headquarters of the Shanyu Royal Court retreated, the 100,000 ordinary Hun soldiers and horses left behind instantly lost their courage and were defeated by the two Qin troops in the west and north. At dawn, the battle stopped, and the remaining 20,000 Hun cavalry raised their hands to surrender.
The two Qin troops joined together and met successfully. It turned out that the Qin army that came to the west was the 30,000 cavalry led by Meng Tian. They took advantage of Li Xi and Xin Tong to block the Huns' army and went north to bypass the Huns' army. They had been waiting in the west for a day, and suddenly came out and attacked the 100,000 soldiers and horses in the middle of the Huns.
After this battle, Li Xi and Xin Tong had only 3,000 troops, and Meng Tian had only more than 10,000 cavalry. Together, they escorted the Xiongnu prisoners into the Great Wall and quickly headed north to Jiuyuan City.
After dawn, Maodun Shanyu, who had discovered the enemy situation, was ashamed and was always fooled by Meng Tian's plan. Last night, he took advantage of his suspicion. If he dared to fight north, he might have won a great victory, but he had no regrets.
"I want to turn the tables completely!" Maodun desperately ordered the army to attack Jiuyuan City in the north at full speed.
Let’s talk about Cheng Zhiyi, the Mongolian army led 20,000 cavalry and the 80,000 Yuezhi, the former Yuezhi of King Kunyue of Xijun, to go north along the straight road, and meet with Li Xin to Jiuyuan.
According to Meng Tian's general order, Li Xin placed Qiang Gang, the chief cavalry general who came to support from Xianyang, to guard Jiuyuan City. He immediately led a 100,000 army from Yanmen Pass to the north of Jiuyuan and go north to Yinshan to kill the temporary royal court stationed by Maodun Shanyu.
The temporary royal court of the Huns also had 100,000 Hun cavalry, which was not elite, but more of them were composed of herders. They also found that the Qin army came over and attacked in a formation.
Li Xin knew that the elite of the Jiuyuan army was far superior to the Xiongnu soldiers, so he ordered Cheng Zhiyi and the Mongolian army to lead 20,000 cavalry to attack on the left wing, and the Xiongjun Prince Kunyue led his old troops to attack on the right wing, and directly fought the decisive battle with the Xiongnu cavalry.
The Jiuyuan cavalry on the left wing killed the Xiongnu and retreated step by step. Unexpectedly, the 80,000 Yuezhi army on the right wing was actually killed by the Xiongnu and retreated step by step, like a pig-like teammate!
Li Xin had no choice but to lead 5,000 thousand Jiuyuan cavalry to help, so that he could barely kill a draw with the Xiongnu. Both sides fought from Xiangwu until late at night, and the Xiongnu finally could not withstand the charge of the Jiuyuan army and began to defeat and flee north.
After the battle, the King of Xijun led only more than 30,000 remaining former subordinates of Yuezhi to find their families and escort the Huns' families back to Jiuyuan.
The Qin army suffered heavy losses in this battle. The 20,000 cavalry of the Jiuyuan Army reduced the combat personnel by half. The Yuezhi cavalry only had 30,000 remaining, and 80,000 Hun cavalry were killed. Three days later, they all returned to Jiuyuan City.
When Li Xin entered Jiuyuan City, Maodun Shanyu led a 100,000 Xiongnu army to reach 30 miles away from Jiuyuan City. Meng Tian made a quick decision and decided not to wait for the Xiongnu to set up camp and attack immediately while his foothold was not stable.
So Meng Tian ordered: "Qiang, Cheng Zhiyi and the Meng army led the newly arrived 30,000 troops from Xianyang and the 30,000 troops from Yuezhi to set up a large formation to shoot the Huns in front; Li Xi and Xin Tong led 10,000 elite cavalry to detour from both wings to encircle the Huns."
The generals bowed and shouted, "Okay!" and then took the order and led their troops to set off.
The night was dark, and Maodun Shanyu saw that he had arrived in Jiuyuan City, so he decided to rest for a night and start siege tomorrow. However, when he was ordering a camp, he came to report: The Qin army came out of Jiuyuan City and had already rushed over!!!
Maodun Shanyu panicked and had to order a hasty response.
When the Qiang Gate, Cheng Zhiyi and the Mongol army saw that the vanguard troops of the Huns entered the range of Qin crossbows, the deputy generals immediately ordered the army ahead to shoot at the Huns.
The Hun soldiers, who had been frightened by crossbow arrows for more than half a year, heard the sound of Qin crossbow arrows buzzing in the air again, and the vanguard of the Hun army suddenly appeared in chaos.
Cheng Zhiyi, on the right side of the Qin army, saw chaos in the Huns' front army, and ordered his troops to abandon their chariots and change them to cavalry and rush towards the Huns' army in front of his army.
Cheng Zhiyi's army's murder was so fierce that he dared to rush and attack for more than an hour, killing one side of the Huns' front army to defeat and fleeing one after another.
The front army of the Xiongnu on the right fled back and happened to run into the main army of Maodun Shanyu. It was nighttime, and it was difficult to distinguish the enemy with our eyes. In addition, the shouting and killing in front of the sky was like thunder. The main army of the Xiongnu thought that the escaped Xiongnu soldiers were chasing Qin troops, so they fought with their teeth.
Now the main army of the Huns was in chaos. Cheng Zhiyi seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and led the army to cover up the killing.
After more than an hour of melee, the main force of the Huns realized that they were killing each other and shouting that they were wronged!
When the main force of the Huns army was gradually falling into chaos, the elite cavalry led by Li Xi and Xin Tong had already completed detours and encircled the rear of the Huns army.
Li Xi and Xin Tong were drooling at the fighter plane in front of him, so they shouted almost at the same time on the left and right wings, ordering their troops to attack the Huns.
Li Xi and Xin Tong, two newborn tigers, pounced on the Huns' central army with extremely hungry wolves, killing Maodun Shanyu's elite guards and retreated one after another.
Maodun Shanyu was extremely confident about his elite guards. He was defeated by the two cavalry rushing from behind. Unwilling to fail, he shouted: "The most powerful warriors on the grassland, will you be defeated?"
The more than 7,000 personal soldiers seemed unwilling to accept the inspiration of the Shanyu. They roared and rode their horses toward the Qin army that was rushing like a tide.
Li Xi and Xin Tong both saw the retreating Xiongnu army rising to resist the elite cavalry team. Li Xi and Xin Tong, two young tigers, suddenly came and ordered the army to specifically surround and kill the brave Xiongnu cavalry.
Next, two of the most elite cavalry in the world had an unprecedented fierce battle on horseback. After the elite cavalry of the Qin army collided with the most elite cavalry of the Huns, both sides ruthlessly chopped and killed them immediately, and people's heads and arms kept flying up and rolling on the grassland to the ground. The scene was extremely miserable and passionate under the moonlight.
After more than an hour of fierce hedging and killing, and the combat power of the two sides was almost the same, Li Xi and Xin Tong surrounded and fought with the absolute advantage of the number of troops, and finally set the most elite Xiongnu Shanyu personal guard cavalry on this grassland.
Losing this most elite cavalry, Maodun Shanyu had no confidence and the fighting spirit to resist. After a night of battle, even though the 100,000 Hun cavalry were elite, the marching fatigue caused by several days of travel, and after dawn, Meng Tian sent a large army to harbor most of the Huns' families in a chariot.
The Hun army saw that their temporary royal court had been attacked, their families were captured, the most elite cavalry around Shanyu were also cut and killed, and the morale of the army was instantly disintegrated. After dawn, the battle ended after only half an hour, and Maodun was captured.
Maodun asked Meng Tian about many ambush strategies, but Meng Tian did not tell him and directly sent someone to take him to Xianyang for life imprisonment. In fact, Meng Tian and the generals analyzed the two crossbow archers ambushing outside Yanmen Pass. Those were herders, and most of the sheep on the grass were soldiers. However, they hid far away so that the Huns could not see clearly and could not distinguish them.
The grassland war was finally over, and Meng Tian’s reputation resounded throughout the grassland. Generals such as Meng Tian couldn’t help but sigh at the cruelty of the war, deployed a group of defense, settled the wounded, and treated the families of the fallen soldiers.
Qin paid a heavy price to attack the Huns. The Jiuyuan army left less than 50,000 from 300,000 before the war. The 30,000 troops from Longxi came to reinforce less than 10,000, and the Dayuezhi even had less than 50,000 people. Of course, the millions of string control men of the Huns were also destroyed.
In the early winter of 207 BC, after more than two months of post-war affairs, it was the winter truce again. Meng Tian led the generals back to Xianyang and accepted the reward from Fusu.
Fusu was overjoyed and issued an edict: Meng Tian was awarded the title of General in the position of General, commanding the world's troops, and was awarded the special marquis of Jiuyuan Marquis. This marquis was above all counties and marquis, and was used to commend Meng Tian's immortal achievements in Jiuyuan.
Li Xin was granted the title of the second-rank general of the Northern Conquest, and led his troops to continue to guard Jiuyuan County, and his salary was paid according to the first-rank.
Xin Sheng was already a second-rank general who conquered the West and was no longer granted the title. He led his troops to continue to guard Longxi County, and his salary was paid according to the first-rank.
The Qiang Governor added the great achievements of unifying the six kingdoms and the achievements of this expedition. The labor force was added to the second-rank general of Zhenbei, and his salary was paid according to the first-rank.
The prince of Xi County, Kunyue, was awarded the title of the third-rank General Anyi, and was given the name Yingxi, and led the Yuezhi cavalry under his command to Xingyang to return to Han Xin's control.
Li Xi was awarded the title of General Zhenwei in the fourth rank, and led his army to guard Yunzhong. Xin Tong was awarded the title of General Yangwu in the fourth rank, and led his army to guard Yanmen Pass.
Five young generals, Cheng Zhiyi, Meng Army, Bai Long, Qiang Yi and Yang Hongxi, unified the fifth-rank generals and also led the Anyi Guardian Army and Fuyi Guardian Army. These five generals went to Shangjun to lead troops and used the cavalry training methods taught by Xijun Wang Yingxi to train cavalry.
Chapter completed!