Chapter 285: Cavalry

At noon, the two armies were twenty miles apart.

But more than half an hour later, as the two armies formed their array in front of them according to the marching sequence, they were only fifteen or sixteen miles apart. It can only be said that a distance of twenty miles is not too far for both sides, with their respective armies of tens of thousands and a total of 60,000 people.

The shortening of distance also means two things at the same time, that is, the increase in the frequency of intelligence acquisition by both sides, and the increase in the difficulty of intelligence acquisition... There is no contradiction between the two, because the frequency and bloodiness of the battles between the scouts of both sides are also rising sharply.

Everything has a price, and in other words, the two sides have actually started a preliminary battle.

Back to the present, for Yue Fei, the new intelligence naturally made him feel mixed:

What is worrying is that in such a battle where there is no retreat, Li Cheng also realized the problem and did not waver at all. This means that today there will inevitably be a battle with heavy bloodshed, injuries and deaths in a short period of time, and even the winner will have to pay a considerable price.

The good news was that as the scouts continued to come and go, Yue Fei learned that although Li Cheng's troops were almost twice as many in number as the troops in the front of the Imperial Camp, and the neatness of the troops also suggested a considerable amount of training and military discipline, the troops' eliteness and equipment level were still far inferior to those of the front of the Imperial Camp... The scouts clearly stated that the number of armored troops in the rear of the pseudo-Qi army had decreased sharply, and were replaced by troops wearing leather armor, and finally there were a considerable number of unarmored troops, just like civilians.

This is reasonable. After all, no matter how fertile the land of Jingdong is and how large its population is, even if Li Cheng plundered it as thoroughly as the deceased Kong Yanzhou, he still has to support soldiers and scholars, and collect gold and silver to exchange for war horses with the Jin people, so there will definitely be shortcomings.

Insufficient armor and uneven combat effectiveness among troops are fundamental flaws.

Of course, at the same time, Li Cheng also had mixed feelings:

What made him happy was, of course, that the enemy had fewer soldiers, especially fewer cavalry. He had more than 10,000 cavalry, while the enemy had only 3,000 or 4,000 cavalry. What made him worried was, of course, that the enemy's morale was high, their formation was strict, and their armor rate was frighteningly high... If what the scout said was true, then the armor rate of the imperial camp troops in front of him could almost be said to be second only to the imperial guard he encountered on the Wushan battlefield that day.

However, this force has about 20,000 people.

"My Lord!"

A general came riding up from the front and confronted him. "The scouts said that the soldiers of the Zhao Song imperial camp in front were flying a banner with the word Yue on it. Could it be a trick? According to the court report, Yue Fei shouldn't have come so quickly? I see that there are only 20,000 soldiers... Maybe Zhang Jun's generals are pretending."

"It must be Yue Fei." Li Cheng's face was serious, and he reined in his horse and turned around. "No one else can put up such a posture, nor have so many and such neatly organized armored soldiers. Only Yue Fei, like me, is willing to spend all the money and food on the army."

"The Zhao Song army has fewer horses, so they have more armor." The general realized, but immediately asked again, "My lord, since Daxiaoyan has come in person... do you really want to fight? With this kind of posture, if we collapse, we will lose everything. If we follow what Erlubu said and retreat to Hebei, what will we do if we lose our capital?"

Li Cheng was immediately furious: "Geng Er, the battle is ahead, don't you want to win this battle, but instead think about going to Hebei after losing? You are only afraid of the big and small eyes, but not me? Besides, isn't his coming here at this time a response to the exhausted army? We are the returning army that cannot be defeated!"

Geng Er, the so-called leader of the rebel army that Li Cheng had conquered on his way south from Hebei in his early years, bowed his head on his horse when he heard this, reined in his horse and circled on the ground before asking again, "If this is the case, has the lord issued any military orders?"

Li Cheng became even more furious: "In this situation, the whole army is united and fighting to the death. How can there be any military orders? Even if there are military orders, there is only one sentence... You are not allowed to retreat without orders! You are not allowed to leave the headquarters without permission!"

Geng Jian didn't dare to say anything more and turned around to go to the front army. After Li Cheng was extremely angry, he became a little nervous again and looked at the two generals beside him, one was called Xu Wen and the other was called Guo Zhongwei.

Among them, Xu Wen was from Mizhou, Jingdong (now the area from Rizhao to Gaomi, Shandong), and he once ruled a region. He was considered a small semi-independent force in Mizhou. However, after the Battle of Yaoshan, the whole country was shaken and people's hearts were once again in turmoil. Now Mizhou has been gradually controlled by Zhang Jun through means of enticement and persuasion, but this man is ambitious. He ignored the enticement of his old brother Li Kui in Mizhou and the local tyrant Hu Cheng in Yizhou, and almost went his own way and joined Li Cheng alone... Originally, he thought he could take over the remaining Mizhou soldiers of Du Yan and Wu Shun in Li Cheng's hands, but unexpectedly, he became the other side's personal guard general.

Guo Zhongwei was a hero from Huaishang. He was one of the brothers that Li Cheng met and conquered when he was wandering. He was also Li Cheng's personal guard general at the beginning.

As for these two... I don't know if it's more popular these days or what, but like Guan Sheng, the official general who was murdered by Liu Yu in Jinan Prefecture, they were all nicknamed "Big Knife"... Xu Wen was nicknamed Xu Big Knife, and Guo Zhongwei was nicknamed Guo Big Knife. Together, the two big knives were in charge of Li Cheng's long knife cavalry, so they were worthy of the name.

Usually, Li Chengdu is compared with Dian Wei and Xu Chu, who were beside Cao Cao in the storybooks.

Without further ado, Li Cheng scolded Geng Jian to leave, then he swung the two big swords at his side, but hesitated again... The reason was simple, he wanted to send someone to the front to supervise the battle, but he didn't know who to use.

All I can say is that every family has its own problems.

Without going into the specific situation on the battlefield at this point, let’s just say that the hastily established Li Cheng’s army, like all emerging warlords in chaotic periods of history, formed factions… and most of the factions were basically divided around territorial disputes between outsiders and locals.

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