Chapter 454
Ye Luji’s idea was right, but now, he was surrounded by colourful smoke and the people outside could not see him. For the Ye Dynasty army on the other side of the river, Ye Luji was simply a living target.
The Deputy Commander shouted at each square, “Ye Luji is in the yellow smoke. He is wherever the yellow smoke is!”
The rain of arrows suddenly became dense and Ye Luji was weighed down by the arrows, unable to raise his head. Xie Xuanchen saw that Ye Luji had been completely restrained and said to the Deputy Commander, “You stay here and keep an eye on him, don’t let him have a chance to raise his head. I’ll take the right army to cut off their eastern route.”
“Your Highness!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Xie Xuanchen reined in his horse and suddenly accelerated, running out of the battle, “There is only one person in the world who can hurt me and she is still waiting for me at home.”
The 8,000 forbidden troops were divided into three groups— left, centre and right. 4,000 people in the middle intercepted Ye Luji in the centre with shields and arrows. The two groups on the left and right were lying in ambush on the roadside. When they got the signal, they rushed out to intercept and kill the Beirong people.
Xie Xuanchen personally led the right army and charged. Xie Xuanchen led the cavalry in front, followed by the infantry. The hooves of cavalry horses were covered with cotton so that they would not slip on ice.
Although Ye Luji brought 100,000 people, these men were all commanded by him alone. Previously, in order to show his military power, Ye Luji specially asked everyone to line up in a line to cross the river, stretching from east to west for several miles. It seemed that there were indeed many people and dark clouds overhead, but because the east-west front was long, the exchange of news was also very slow.
There was obviously a problem in the middle led by Ye Luji, but the east and west wings were unclear about it. They didn’t know what happened when they were suddenly dispersed by the cavalry. The Beirong battle line was so long that it was cut into pieces as soon as the cavalry charged. They lost command from the middle and panicked. Then, the Ye Dynasty cavalry formed a circle and took advantage of their height advantage to harvest the opposing team’s heads.
The eastern wing of Beirong was completely cut out of contact. During this period, they showed the slightest idea of gathering, but were scattered by the cavalry of the Ye Dynasty. They could only fight on their own in small groups. Xie Xuanchen also sent someone to spread the news in Khitan that Ye Luji was dead. Since the Beirong soldiers did not know the truth, they panicked. Their confidence collapsed after being beaten by the elusive cavalry of the Ye Dynasty and they were soon completely defeated.
Only a few people died from falling into the water or being shot by arrows. The majority of the casualties were those on the east and west wings, which were strangled in pieces by Xie Xuanchen using psychological tactics.
When Ye Luji learned that the east and west wings had lost contact, he was so angry that he vomited a mouthful of blood. The guards were shocked when they saw it and shouted ‘King Dongdan’ one after another. Ye Luji knew that he had completely lost this battle and shouted angrily, “Withdraw the troops!”