On the morning of September 1, 391 in the Daliang calendar, the Zhenxi Army and the Western Regions Allied Forces took up their positions several miles apart to the east of Lijiang City. Both sides seemed to hope to decide the outcome in one battle.
As soon as Sun Hao came up, he sent out four "hundred-level" generals, Huo Qubing, Ma Yuan, Long Qie and Fan Kuai, to lead 20,000 tiger cavalry to charge towards the formation of the Western Region coalition forces.
Seeing that the Zhenxi Army had dispatched about 20,000 heavy cavalry, the Western Regions Allied Forces immediately sent 50,000 heavy cavalry from the Puwan Kingdom to meet them.
The heavy cavalry of Puwan State was once as famous as the heavy cavalry of Parthia in the Western Regions, but it was still not enough to face the Huben Cavalry.
With just one charge, the 20,000 Tiger Cavalrymen smashed the 50,000 heavy cavalry of Puwan into pieces and killed almost half of them.
Then, Huo Qubing, Ma Yuan, Long Qie and Fan Kuai ignored the scattered Puwan heavy cavalry and led the Huben cavalry directly into the Puwan infantry formation.
Upon seeing this, Diyad, the commander of the Western Regions coalition, immediately told Dagati, the commander of the Puwan army, "We must kill all the heavy cavalry of the Liang State's Western Guard Army at all costs.
If the Puwan army is in trouble, I can send the Cheshi army to assist."
Dagati gnashed his teeth and said, "General Diyad, rest assured. I will personally command them. No matter what the cost, we must keep this heavy cavalry of the Liang State Zhenxi Army."
When Sun Hao saw the Huben cavalry charging into the enemy formation, he sent four "hundred-level" generals, Ran Min, Liu Yu, Yang Dayan, and Xiao Mohe, to lead 20,000 white-robed cavalry to charge towards the Western Region coalition's formation.
Diyad saw that the Zhenxi Army had sent out about 20,000 heavy cavalry, and ordered his 50,000 Parthian heavy cavalry to charge forward.
Unfortunately, the 50,000 Parthian heavy cavalry could not withstand the 20,000 white-robed cavalry, and like the Puwan heavy cavalry, they were also smashed to pieces.
The white-robed cavalry, led by Ran Min, Liu Yu, Yang Dayan and Xiao Moha, rushed into the infantry formation of the Cheshi Kingdom.
Next, the heavily armored cavalry from the Zhenxi Army charged towards the Western Regions Allied Forces...
As the commander-in-chief of the Western Region coalition forces, Diyad never expected that the coalition forces, with a total strength of about 2.5 million, would be defeated so easily by the Zhenxi Army.
As the heavy cavalry of the Zhenxi Army charged into the Western Regions Allied Forces' formation, they defeated one infantry formation after another, eventually causing a major defeat for the entire coalition.
Sun Hao was actually a little surprised that the Western Regions coalition forces were defeated so quickly, but he did not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He immediately led the infantry of the Zhenxi Army and 400,000 wing troops to attack. This became the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Western Regions coalition forces.
Under the relentless pursuit of the Zhenxi Army, a large number of officers and soldiers from various countries in the Western Regions had to voluntarily lay down their weapons and choose to surrender to the Zhenxi Army.
After final statistics, it was found that a total of more than 1.5 million soldiers from the Western Regions were taken prisoner, and more than 800,000 were killed or trampled to death. Only tens of thousands of cavalry from the Western Regions escaped.
After this battle, Sun Hao believed that these countries in the Western Regions would never dare to unite to fight against the Zhenxi Army again.
Just as the results of the battle were being tallied, Northern Guard Commander Bai Qi suggested to Sun Hao, "My lord, in order to reduce the war potential of the Western Regions, I suggest that all of the over 1.5 million prisoners captured be buried alive!"
In the previous few defeats against the coalition forces formed by the Western Regions countries, the prisoners captured by the Zhenxi Army, except for the prisoners of war from the former Gule and Wensu countries, had been released after reaching a peace agreement with the Western Regions countries.
Among the armies of the countries in the Western Regions this time, there were some officers and soldiers who had been captured by the Zhenxi Army.
Sun Hao was shocked by Bai Qi's suggestion. This was more than 1.5 million lives!
Sun Hao swallowed and said, "Isn't this a bit too harsh? These prisoners of war can be kept as laborers."
What Sun Hao didn't expect was that the three counselors who came with him, Zhuge Liang, Guo Jia and Jia Xu, all supported Bai Qi's suggestion.
Zhuge Liang said, "My lord, Xizhou has a large population and is not short of labor.
By keeping these 1.5 million more Hu prisoners of war, the Xizhou people will have fewer opportunities to earn extra income, and the Zhenxi Protectorate will have to hire fewer people to build bridges and roads, dig canals, and construct cities."
Guo Jia said, "My Lord, the cost of feeding these 1.5 million captives is too high, and releasing them is not an option. We should follow General Bai Qi's suggestion and weaken the war potential of the Western Regions."
Jia Xu said, "My lord, I also agree to bury all the prisoners alive to reduce the food consumption of the Zhenxi Protectorate."
Seeing that the three counselors all agreed to bury alive more than 1.5 million prisoners of the Western Regions coalition forces, Sun Hao no longer objected and directly handed the task to Bai Qi, and asked other units of the Zhenxi Army to cooperate.
Bai Qi seemed to be very experienced in this area. It took Bai Qi only three days to kill all the more than 1.5 million prisoners of the Western Regions coalition in batches.
Moreover, the deep pits where these prisoners were killed were dug by the prisoners themselves.
The news that the Zhenxi Army had massacred more than 1.5 million prisoners of war from the Western Regions Allied Forces quickly spread throughout the entire Western Regions, causing the Western Regions countries to verbally and in writing criticize the Zhenxi Army, and also completely frightened the Western Regions countries.
In the royal palace of Shuiyue City, the capital of the Parthian Empire, King Dabaier of the Parthian Empire said to the Prime Minister Antiva of the Cheshi Empire with a wry smile: "Prime Minister Antiva, let's keep quiet!
This prince is truly terrified of Liang's Zhenxi Army. They held over 1.5 million captives, and they just buried them all alive. This is simply horrifying."
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