Volume 10 Chapter 190
Wu Ying led the Feng Army to capture Peicheng. This news greatly encouraged all the Feng Army. The only one who was unhappy and anxious was Qi Heng.
Although Wu Ying was the deputy commander of the direct army and Qi Heng's immediate superior, she was just a woman after all. Even she could easily capture Peicheng. As the main attacker of Tongchuan, how could Qi Heng not be anxious? He set a goal for himself. To capture Tongchuan, he must be faster than Wu Ying in capturing Peicheng, and the loss must be smaller.
Under Qi Heng's urging, he and Kong Yan led 20,000 Feng Army without any stop in Peicheng, and directly passed through the city, desperately rushing towards Tongchuan. Under the almost crazy rapid march, Qi Heng and Kong Yan arrived in Tongchuan in just two days.
In order to march quickly, the 20,000 Feng Army did not bring any baggage. There was no large siege weapon in the whole army, and even the food and grass they brought was only enough for three days of rations.
After arriving in Tongchuan, Kong Yan planned to let the soldiers rest for half a day, but Qi Heng immediately ordered the whole army to attack the city.
For the Feng Army, they had just marched for two days and two nights and were exhausted. When attacking the city, their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, but Tongchuan was also negligent in defense.
They came too fast. The news of the fall of Peicheng had only reached Tongchuan for less than a day, and the Feng Army had magically killed the city.
The defenders of Tongchuan were shocked, unprepared, and rushed to fight. When the two sides started fighting, many soldiers of the Mo Army hurriedly ran up the city wall to participate in the battle without even wearing their armor.
The combat effectiveness of the Feng Army was weakened, but the combat effectiveness and momentum of the defenders were not much stronger. The two sides were equivalent to weak soldiers against weak soldiers. Relatively speaking, such a battle was more advantageous to the attacking side.
Qi Heng's fighting style was fierce. He issued a death order at the beginning of the battle. All soldiers could only move forward and could not retreat. If there were any who were afraid to move forward, the soldiers behind could kill them directly. Anyone who killed those who were afraid to move forward or fled on the battlefield could be rewarded according to the merits of killing the enemy.
Such an order was equivalent to telling the soldiers of the Feng Army that they could either move forward or be killed. There was no other way.
As the commander, Qi Heng was also very clear. He led the way and stood at the center of the battle between the two sides.
Under the attack of the Feng Army, which completely disregarded life and death, the Tongchuan defenders who were caught off guard were the first to be unable to withstand it. First, one point was broken, and then the second and third points were broken by the Feng Army one after another. The dark Feng Army, like ants, continued to surge up the city along the cloud ladder and launched a face-to-face hand-to-hand combat with the defenders.
When Qi Heng also rushed to the top of the city, the defenders could no longer resist. They were defeated like a mountain collapsing. A large number of Mo soldiers rolled and crawled down the city wall, and countless Mo soldiers were directly pushed down the city wall by the Feng army, screaming and falling to the ground.
As the Feng army rushed into Tongchuan City, the battle gradually turned into a one-sided massacre. The defenders retreated back to the city and had no resistance or parrying. The streets and alleys were full of Mo soldiers who were chased and killed by the Feng army, and the defenders were besieged and died tragically everywhere.
The battle of Tongchuan by the 20,000 Feng army led by Qi Heng can be described as a bloodbath. From the beginning to the end of the battle, the Feng army did not capture a prisoner. No matter whether the opponent surrendered, resisted, or fled, they cut and killed anyone they saw. Fortunately, Qi Heng had not forgotten Guo Jue's reminder to him, and the killing was targeted at the defenders, and did not affect the innocent people in the city.
As a Mo person, Qi Heng's methods towards the Mo army were more cruel and vicious than those of the Feng people, which made people sigh.
In the battle of Tongchuan, more than 10,000 defenders were wiped out by the Feng army, and only a few escaped by chance. The Feng army also suffered casualties, but relatively speaking, they were much smaller, with less than 3,000 dead and wounded.
After successfully conquering Tongchuan, Qi Heng sent people back to report the victory, while leading people to plunder the granary in the city, replenish the soldiers' rations, and then rest for a while, and then sent down another order, leaving 2,000 Feng soldiers to clean up the battlefield, take care of the wounded, and guard the city. He led the remaining soldiers to continue southward to take Tongxia directly.
Hearing his order, Kong Yan was shocked. We still have to fight Tongxia? Tongxia is different from Tongchuan. It is the county city of Sishui, and the defenders inside must be at least 20,000 to 30,000. Can we defeat it with only the remaining 15,000 people? I'm afraid that before I can reach Tongxia, I will be intercepted by the enemy's reinforcements.
Kong Yan dissuaded Qi Heng from being overwhelmed by the victory in the Tongchuan battle. Tongxia is definitely not something that can be conquered with this amount of troops.
But Qi Heng didn't listen to him at all. He tasted the sweetness of blitzkrieg and launched a rapid march at lightning speed. He launched a siege before the enemy had time to make adequate preparations. Siege warfare is much easier to fight. Tongchuan has more than 10,000 defenders, but we only paid 3,000 casualties to take it. Even if Tongxia's defenders are twice as many as Tongchuan, we will only pay twice as much to take it down.
As long as Tongxia can be taken, then the entire Sishui battle will be mostly won, and there is no greater merit than this. The position of the commander-in-chief of the direct army is still vacant. Once he can accomplish this feat, the position of commander-in-chief will belong to him.
Qi Heng was a man of courage and strategy, but his only weakness was that he was too ambitious and always wanted to be the best and surpass everyone else. Now he was suffering from this disease.
He was the main general, and he was determined to conquer Tongxia, and Kong Yan could not persuade him. Under Qi Heng's command, the Feng Army of more than 10,000 people left Tongchuan, which had just been captured, and continued to move south, deep into the center of Sishui.
As Kong Yan expected, the journey from Tongchuan to Tongxia was not smooth. Not only were there more and more soldiers stationed in the villages and towns they passed through, but there were also many checkpoints and small camps along the way, which caused considerable trouble to the Feng Army and greatly slowed down the march.
Logically speaking, the Feng Army was already exhausted and could not continue to fight tough battles, but at this time, Qi Heng's powerful military force exerted a terrifying power. He was the first to fight along the way. He was always the first to charge and break the formation. The Feng Army was able to win battles one after another and was unstoppable. It even broke through the villages and camps stationed by the Mo Army, almost entirely relying on Qi Heng's own strength.
When he and Kong Yan led the Feng Army out of Tongchuan and marched south for 200 miles, they encountered a large number of Mo troops.
This batch of Mo troops had a total of 30,000 people, and the main force came from the three major military camps of the Mo Army in the east, west, and south, and some were local troops that were pieced together from east to west.
The 30,000-strong Mo army and the more than 10,000-strong Feng army fought hand-to-hand combat in the grassland area between Tongchuan and Tongxia.
The difference in the strength of the two sides was huge, and the Mo army did not take the more than 10,000-strong Feng army on the opposite side seriously. Soon, both sides blew the horn of attack.
As the drums sounded, Qi Heng rushed out of the main formation with a roar like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins. Seeing this, Kong Yan was overwhelmed and hurriedly ordered the whole army to advance and support the main general.
Although Qi Heng rushed forward quickly, he retreated quickly, but he was shot back by the Mo army.
The 30,000-strong Mo army and the arrow formation should not be underestimated. Just one round of arrow shooting turned Qi Heng's horse into a hedgehog. Qi Heng himself was also shot very embarrassed and hit by several arrows. Fortunately, his cultivation was deep enough and his spiritual armor was strong enough to protect him from injury.
After returning to the main formation, he changed a warhorse and did not dare to rush forward rashly. He followed the main force of the army and maintained the formation to advance.
Soon, both sides entered the shooting range. The Feng Army and the Mo Army, which had not yet come into direct contact, started a tit-for-tat shooting.
The Feng Army was good at shooting, but had too few soldiers. Arrow shooting was not the Mo Army's strong point, but they had a large number of soldiers and each side had its own strengths. The arrow formations that came and went also caused huge casualties to each other.
As the casualties on both sides gradually increased, the distance between them became closer and closer. At this time, the Mo Army suddenly launched a surprise attack.
The entire Mo Army camp was seen to split to the left and right, with a large gap in the middle. Then, a cavalry rushed out of the Mo Army camp at a high speed and headed straight for the Feng Army camp.
The lethality of the cavalry to the infantry was too great. The galloping war horses alone were not something that the infantry's flesh and blood could resist. If this cavalry rushed to the front of the Feng Army, the formation would be torn apart immediately. At this time, Qi Heng laughed with his head raised. He was worried that he could not break through the Mo Army's arrow formation, but he did not expect that the Mo Army would take the initiative to offer him a door.
He raised the Nine-turn Soul-breaking Sword, urged his horse to meet the Mo cavalry, raised his hand and swung the sword, a flash of cold light flashed, and the cavalryman who rushed in the front fell off his horse, his body scattered. Qi Heng did not slow down, swung the sword and rushed into the cavalry, slashing left and right, killing people like cutting vegetables.
Qi Heng was only one person, but he was like a knife, cutting through the middle of the Mo cavalry team, slashing all the way, and actually killed directly into the depths of the entire Mo army camp.
Looking forward, he saw a general flag standing not far away, with several riders standing under it, all dressed as Mo army generals. He didn't think about it, shouted loudly, and rushed over.
The shouts came before the people arrived.
"Don't run, you rat, take my sword!"
The spiritual sword in his hand suddenly showed thousands of rays of light, and the light was so bright that it seemed like a sun rising in the crowd, piercing people's eyes.
When the light faded, the spiritual sword in his hand had grown to nearly three meters long. On the blade, there were flashes of light and radiant cold.
After completing the spiritual transformation, Qi Heng swung the sword in the air with one hand. The three-meter-long spiritual sword actually threw out a huge virtual sword that was three meters long and two meters wide when it fell.
This huge virtual sword composed of light and shadow mixed with spiritual energy made a dull whistling sound. Before the sword landed, it shook the dust on the ground and made it fly all over the sky.
Under the incomparable power of the spiritual transformation of soldiers, the several Mo generals under the general flag could not turn their horses to escape. Their war horses were too frightened and raised their hooves and cried out uncontrollably.
There was a click in the ear, and the Mo general in front of the general flag was chopped by the virtual sword. He had no power to resist. He and his horse were split in half from the center. The Mo generals on his left and right were affected by the impact and flew to the left and right, falling a long way.