Outside Liudao Kou, tens of thousands of bandits swarmed like a plague of locusts, rushing towards Li Xiuwen's camp.

  Duan Hong gazed at the surging torrent before him, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly. He had never expected this - originally, he had planned to use rumors to force Zhao Mengxi's banner troops into a precarious situation, causing chaos and infighting among the government troops, thus creating an opportunity for a breakthrough on the front lines, pushing forward to the pass, and then launching a fierce attack on Wuliang Town and Weiyuan. But unexpectedly, that flag-bearer Li Xiwen had just taken office and used the rumors Duan Hong had spread to directly execute Zhao Mengxi, taking control of both banner troops.

  What kind of person Li Xiùwén is, others may not know, but Duàn Hóng certainly does. Li Xiùwén was originally named Li Sùwēn, a descendant of the Western Liáng "Chúyàn Army" Li Xīan. He is only twenty-seven years old this year, but his military command and combat capabilities are absolutely not to be underestimated. At seventeen, he led troops into battle, and since then, he has fought in over thirty large and small battles, with few defeats. The number of rebel bandits and foreigners who have died at his hands is already in the tens of millions. Due to his notorious reputation, after being transferred into the Léi Tīng Army, he was kept under wraps by Wèi Yǐn, only responsible for some training, logistics, and supply work, and changed his name to Li Xiùwén, temporarily hiding his sharp edge. On the surface, it seemed like Wèi Yǐn was suppressing him, but in reality, Wèi Yǐn always regarded him as his trump card, never lightly revealing him.

  "I didn't expect Wei You to send even Li Suwen this time, it seems that the Lei Feng army really wants to get rid of me and the Shunyi army as a matter of course. Unfortunately, I'm not in a good position right now, if it weren't for the fact that Gao Yang's grain and grass were looted, I wouldn't have had to engage in this decisive battle at this time." Duan Hong thought about his lost military equipment and supplies, feeling extremely heavy-hearted!

  Fu Ruhai stood beside Duan Hongyi, gazing at the retreating Shunyi army troops, and said: "General Duan, don't worry. What if Li Xiwen is a good fighter? How can his less than 30,000 government soldiers withstand my 500,000 militia's onslaught?"

  Duan Hong sighed: "I hope so, but I think Li Xiwen will not let our army pass through that defense line so easily. Now we can only count on the 2,000 cavalry led by Shao Dan from Jing Tai to arrive as soon as possible. While Li Xiwen is still unstable, we should take advantage of this opportunity to destroy him, but it's hard..."

  Ding Jian led his 20,000 militiamen and 800 sharpshooters mixed in with the tens of thousands of refugees, waiting to deliver a fatal blow once they entered the government army's defensive lines.

  ……

  More than ten miles away, Li Xiūwén stood on the arrow tower, gazing indifferently at the distant specks that could be vaguely seen, with his hands clasped behind his back, majestic and awe-inspiring.

  "Think you can take advantage of my unstable footing and launch a surprise attack? Too late, three days ago I might have been able to retreat back to the pass and avoid the brunt of it, but now... Hmph, Duan Hong, I'd like to see just how many tricks you have up your sleeve, and how many lives are enough for you to sacrifice!"

  "Report! General, the bandits are within seven li of the camp." A soldier below the arrow tower relayed the military information.

  Li Xiwen nodded slightly and said, "Order Du Fang and Yan Heng to take action. Tell them that whoever dares to retreat will be executed along with their entire clan!"

  "Roger!"

  ……

  "No, why is it so quiet?" The massive refugee camp crossed the five-mile mark, but found that the opposing government army was unusually quiet. At this time, someone should have come out to intercept, could they all be scared silly? Ding Jian couldn't help but shake his head, unable to see through the subtlety of the situation.

  "Kill!" Just as Ding Jian was hesitating, tens of thousands of government soldiers suddenly appeared in front of him, shouting and killing their way towards him.

  "Great! It's finally here!" Ding Jian's eyes were filled with bloodthirsty light, "Charge over! Kill one officer and get a dou of rice as reward! Two for three dou, five for a shi! Those who don't want to starve, come and charge for me!"

  "Waaaah~~~"

  Ding Jian's words spread instantly, and the refugees were excitedly shouting and rushing towards the government army less than half a mile away even more frantically.

  "Hold steady!" Yan Heng gazed at the approaching bandits, ordering his soldiers to grasp a chain firmly with both hands. Upon closer inspection, nearly a thousand men were doing the same, each with their upper body bent and hands clutching thick chains.

  "Pull!" Seeing that the bandits had already rushed to within ten or more steps, Yan Heng gave a loud order, and the soldiers holding the chains pulled hard...

  In an instant, the dry and hard ground suddenly burst open a crack of several hundred meters long like an earthquake, and two rows of sharp wooden stakes as thick as thighs appeared in front of the rushing bandits.

  "Hmm hmm hmm hmm……"

  The sound of wooden stakes piercing flesh kept ringing out, and thousands of bandits, one careless move at a time, were pierced to death or through, with fresh blood and internal organs flowing non-stop from the wooden stakes. The Battle of Wuliang Town had officially begun...

  "Left! Right! Pull!" Seeing the corpses all over the ground on the wooden fence in front, the bandits immediately changed their marching route and attacked from both sides. However, the government troops had already taken precautions and pulled up another 100-meter-long wooden fence. Some of the bandits who ran to the front did not react in time and stepped into the forest of spears, becoming one cold corpse after another.

  "Come on, men! Keep pushing forward! Over the abatis! Kill!" Ding Jian saw thousands of people die under the spikes of the abatis in an instant, and he couldn't help but shudder. But immediately afterwards, he ordered the starving civilians to continue charging, providing convenience for his own troops to attack.

  "Go to death!" Several cautious bandits who had just climbed over the first layer of abatis were not yet able to get around the second layer when they were fiercely stabbed down by the government troops. In front of the second abatis, a bloody melee began quickly, with every sword and spear thrust leaving behind a trail of blood.

  "General, we are surrounded!" A soldier reported to Yan Heng as he saw that his unit was surrounded by a sea of bandits, crowded in front of the wooden fence and constantly exchanging casualties with their own soldiers, and the wooden fence was about to be filled with corpses.

  "Hold on! It's time! Fire the signal arrow to inform Du Fang!" Yan Heng shouted loudly.

  "Roger!"

  "Whoosh!"

  But just as a sharp whistle pierced the sky, those bandits had not yet reacted when they saw countless arrows falling from the sky into the midst of the bandit group.

  "Bend the bow, take aim, shoot!" From over a hundred paces behind, on a small slope, suddenly appeared more than a thousand archers. Under their officers' angry roars, they shot arrows that poured out like a storm, piercing the dense crowd of bandits. Instantly, wails filled the fields, and the bandits who were hit by arrows fell to the ground, shouting and screaming loudly, a truly terrifying sight.

  The dense crowd no longer needed to aim, each wave of feathered arrows brought out splashes of blood, how could the bandits without even leather armor withstand the invasion of piercing metal? Three or four waves of arrow rain came down, and the bandits surrounding the wooden fence had already fallen in large numbers, greatly relieving the pressure on the Yan Heng troops.

  "Take this!" Yan Heng's heavy, specially-made waist knife finished off two bandits who had just climbed into the Ju Mu formation. Seeing that the bandit offensive had slightly weakened, he let out a sigh of relief, but looking at his own side, which also had several hundred casualties, he couldn't help but feel some heartache.

  "Long spear men! Hold the left and right sides, sword and shield men watch the front and back!" Yan Heng's commands kept echoing inside the four-cornered wooden array, for a time the bandits were unable to get in.

  "Take some men to wipe out the government troops on the mountain slope! The casualties of our side are too heavy!" Ding Jian saw that the dense bow and arrow hands on the opposite small mountain slope were constantly harvesting the lives of his own righteous army, and he couldn't help but grit his teeth. If those bow and arrow hands weren't eliminated, these refugees would surely collapse, and the consequences would be unbearable.

  "Head, that thorny distance is too long, it's hard to get around!" a thief said with a bitter face.

  Ding Jian grasped his collar, saying word by word: "You can't get around it, take a few thousand starving people to cover for you, and make sure to wipe out those government troops for me! If you can't do it, you won't even need your head!"

  "Yes!" The bandit leader shouted and led his men away.

  That bandit led five thousand bandits, with twenty thousand starving people in tow, and with great difficulty skirted the surrounding woods, swarming up the mountain slope.

  "Hmm?" Reflected in Yan Heng's eyes, his gaze lit up, "Good! Now, 'Fire the arrow!'"

  "Whoosh!"

  Suddenly, over a thousand archers appeared on the other side of the mountain slope, drawing their bows and shooting arrows that flew into the bandits surrounding the refused horses, instantly filling the air with wails and cries...

  "How is this possible?" Ding Jian's eyes widened in shock, as if he was about to spit out fire. "There are actually archers!"

  "Oh no, my eyes!"

  "Not this, not that"

  ……

  The cries of agony reached Ding Jian's ears, and he looked intently to see that the starving people who had been attacking the mountain slope were being shot down by arrows one after another. The archers who had originally aimed at the wooden stakes around the fort now turned their arrows towards the bandits climbing up the slope, with estimated casualties of several thousand.

  "Despicable! Come back, come back quickly, stop fighting!" Ding Jian shouted in a state of panic and despair. Alas, the road was too far away, and those bandits who were charging up the slope couldn't hear Ding Jian's cries at all. All they could do was watch as one by one, they were shot dead by the archers on the mountain slope who were waiting in ambush. The dense crowd was undoubtedly a moving live target.

  "Uh..." An arrow pierced the throat of the leader who was leading the charge up the slope, he clutched at his neck, his face filled with regret as he fell, and more bandits around him were hit by arrows and rolled down the hill...

  "Ding ding ding ding..." Several hundred steps away from the battlefield, a metallic clanging sound rang out. When this sound was heard, the originally frantic bandits suddenly lost their momentum and fled in the direction they came from, howling.

  "Alas..." Ding Jian sighed and had no choice but to lead his own troops to retreat with the main force.

  Seeing the enemy retreat like a tide, Yan Heng let out a loud roar: "Good! Brothers, follow me in pursuit!"

  "Waaaah~~~"

  The soldiers inside the phalanx shouted in unison, bursting out of a corner of the broken wooden fence and cutting down the fleeing bandits one by one to the ground...

  "Idiot!" Du Fang cursed to herself from a distance, "Aren't you afraid of the defeated bandits counterattacking? Do you dare to charge with tens of thousands of defeated soldiers? Be careful or you'll be forced into a desperate situation where you'll end up dying together with them!"

  ……

  "Kill! Kill!" The entire Yanhe Banner army of over 10,000 men went crazy, chasing and slashing everything in sight that resembled a bandit.

  "Isn't that endless?!" Ding Jian's eyes grew cold as he saw Yan Heng's banner team pursuing relentlessly, "Ambush the troops and wipe out these officials!"

  Well-trained eight hundred sharp soldiers and the remaining eighteen thousand or so bandits under Ding Jian's command, yelling and rushing towards Yan Heng's troops, quickly clashed together.

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