Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 243: Before Punishing the Thief, First Punish His Heart

"Stop!"

"Form a line! Shields forward! Spears forward! Pull the barricades over here! Quick, quick!"

Seeing that the two sides' formations were less than 200 steps apart, Liu Huai quickly gave orders.

The Flying Tiger flag was quickly erected pointing diagonally forward, and the army stopped. The captains and generals of each team also took quick action and began to organize their troops.

Even though they had undergone rigorous formation training and had experienced several large and small battles, the Loyalty Army was still a relatively new army. While they were able to maintain double columns for a long time during the march, once they began to form a battle array, various problems arose.

Often they had to stop and re-form their formation after marching a few hundred steps.

Of course, not to mention the second brother, the Wuxing Army is in a similar situation. In fact, because there are too many war horses in the Jin army, the frequency of military reorganization is even higher.

Luo Shenyan licked his dry lips and said, "Master Commander, everything is ready."

Liu Huai laughed and patted Luo Shenyan on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down. "Then please come up. It's time for us to have a good time. We've been really frustrated these past few days. Do you think the Jin thieves can see clearly from this distance?"

Luo Shenyan turned around and waved his hand, smiling and said, "As long as the golden thief is not blind, he will naturally see it."

Liu Huai's smile faded: "That's it."

The sun is shining, the west wind is blowing strongly, and the sky is cloudless.

The Yishui River all around is emerald green, the waves are sparse and flat, and the hills are stacked like surging waves.

Spears were like a forest, warriors were like rain, and flags were rustling in the wind.

An inexplicable thought arose in Liu Huai's mind: in this situation, even if he died, he would have no regrets.

No, I can't die yet. I still have a world to pacify and an era to change.

No one can do it except me!
Thinking of this, Liu Dalang raised his long sword and shouted with all his strength: "Raise the flag!"

"Raise the flag!"

More than a dozen large Wuque flags representing the marching Mouke, plus two relatively gorgeous and large Meng'an flags embroidered with Saker Falcon were raised to the front of the formation.

The only difference is that the flags are hung upside down, and a white cloth is tied to the top of the flagpole to indicate that they are captured.

The first ones to be stunned were the marching marshals and grassroots officers such as Puli Yan, especially the marching marshals. They were able to participate in some military discussions, so they roughly knew that there was a group of people in the camp going to harass the loyal army, but they did not know the specific number and marching route.

Seeing that the Zhongyi Army suddenly took out so many Jin Army flags, the grassroots officers of the Wuxing Army instantly had some bad associations.

When Wanyan Hongji, Huitemiler and Zhuotuan saw this scene, they became completely panicked.

They knew exactly where Wen Dunhunyu and Pushandong had gone.

There are regulations for military flags, and counterfeit ones have too many loopholes to fool those who know the business.

And the flags lined up in front of the Loyal Army are flawless no matter how you look at them!
How come the second Meng'an and the seventh Meng'an were defeated so badly?

This is not just a simple defeat, but the two most important flags of Meng'an have been almost captured, and the troops must have been wiped out!
These are two thousand regular troops!
Wanyan Hongji felt a little dizzy, but he also knew that even if these flags were real, they had to be said to be fake now, otherwise the morale of the army would be ruined.

He then forced a laugh. "The Loyalty Bandits are just a bunch of thieves, always trying to be clever. How can this be the flag of my army? It must be a ceremonial banner they seized from the Linyi treasury to disrupt our morale! Spread my words. If the Loyalty Army wants to resort to such tricks, it can only mean they're scared! The Loyalty Bandits are scared!"

As if he himself was convinced, Wanyan Hongji's tone became more and more firm, and in the end he really laughed out loud.

The guards around him all acted as if suddenly enlightened and began to curse, saying that the loyal and righteous thieves had not changed their evil nature, and even before their death they wanted to disgust the Wuxing Army. What a bunch of filthy slaves. However, just as the messenger and the guards had departed, another group of soldiers appeared in front of the loyal and righteous army, dragging prisoners and emerging from a gap in the army formation.

The number of prisoners was small, only about fifty.

But the fact that these fifty men were wearing the standard black uniforms of the Jin army and still had the iconic Jurchen braids on their heads was enough to make the Wuxing Army in formation nervous.

After displaying dozens of captives for a while, the loyalist soldiers behind him raised their swords and beheaded the captives on the spot.

This scene happened simultaneously on the left and right wings.

The entire Wuxing Army was horrified.

This was not the end yet. The loyal and righteous soldiers ignored the corpses and threw the heads forward, which soon formed a small pile. Soon, another fifty prisoners were pushed up and continued to be beheaded in front of this small Jingguan.

The severed heads became part of the Jingguan.

The battle between the Zhongyi Army and the Second Meng'an and the Seventh Meng'an of the Wuxing Army was an encirclement and annihilation war, so they captured about a thousand people. After a hasty persuasion to surrender, the Jin soldiers who were unwilling to surrender were dragged to the front of the two armies and executed in front of everyone.

As he was beheading, the executioner yelled at Wu Xingjun: "The one I just beheaded was your Puliyan! The next one I'm going to behead is your Xingjun Mouke! And the next one after that will be you bastards! Every one of you will be killed by my sword!"

Naturally, some of the captured Jin soldiers resisted, but most of them were killed directly. Only one person on the right wing broke free from his restraints and ran desperately towards the main camp of the Wuxing Army.

Immediately, the Jin army cavalry came forward to provide support.

"Bah, a bunch of trash." Zhang Xiaoyi didn't know whether he was scolding Wu Xingjun or the executioner. He jumped off his horse, snatched the crossbow from the personal guard beside him, cocked it, took a rough aim, and pulled the trigger.

"Zheng."

The crossbow arrow flew out like a meteor chasing the moon, piercing the fleeing prisoner in the chest and knocking him to the ground.

The prisoner simply stretched out his hand towards the cavalry who were already running towards him and opened his mouth to say something, but a large amount of blood gushed out of his mouth. He then fell to the ground powerlessly and died in full view of everyone.

If the prisoners were slaughtered when officers at all levels were mentally prepared, they would inevitably take the opportunity to incite their soldiers to share the same hatred for the enemy, thus becoming a pitiful army.

But now the Wuxing Army was completely unprepared for this. Not to mention the marching commanders, even Wanyan Hongji's head was buzzing and he was at a loss for a moment.

In fact, it was precisely because of this that Wei Sheng felt that there was an opportunity for battle today.

After today, there will definitely be fleeing soldiers who will cross the hilly area to inform the Wuxing Army. By then, no matter Meng Tian is sad or angry, he will be prepared and will not be able to achieve a surprise victory.

It now seems that this tactic is very effective. At least the dozens of light cavalry who gathered together could not suppress their anger after seeing their comrades die so miserably in front of them. They rushed straight to the front of the right army and tried to rescue the prisoners who had not been killed yet.

Zhang Xiaoyi showed a ferocious smile on his face, pointing at the dozens of riders and shouting an order: "God-arm crossbows, shoot them to death!"

Nearly a hundred crossbowmen stood on a small slope, looking down from above and shooting crossbow arrows.

The dozen or so light cavalrymen in the lead were shot to the ground along with their horses. The remaining light cavalrymen seemed to have regained their senses and dared not charge towards the solid infantry formation anymore. They turned their horses around and fled.

However, as if the reckless advance of these dozens of cavalrymen served as a signal, the entire Wuxing Army formation became restless.

The left wing of the Wuxing Army, namely Hui Temile's troops, suddenly moved forward without receiving any orders and started fighting with Zhang Xiaoyi's troops.

The battle started so suddenly.

(End of this chapter)