Chapter 854

Hearing Li Cheng's words, Zhou Lan almost laughed in anger. He said proudly: "How can a hero surrender to bandits? How can a dragon and a phoenix surrender to a tiger and a leopard?"

Li Cheng was furious and shouted: "Zhou Lan, you don't know what's good for you! I have piled up dry firewood under the city gate. If you don't surrender, you will be buried in the sea of ​​fire!"

"Haha——" Zhou Lan laughed loudly and said: "When did you hear that Fengguo had a general who surrendered to the enemy country? Today I can tell you that Fengguo has no civil officials who surrendered to the enemy country!" As he spoke, Zhou Lan laughed up to the sky again.

Li Cheng was so angry that his teeth itched and was about to order a fire. At this time, Zhou Lan suddenly stopped laughing and said sternly: "Listen, Zhen thieves, Fengguo will definitely become your burial place!" After that, he jumped out of the city gate and fell straight down to the city.

"Ah?!" Such a strong civil official made the Zhen army soldiers gasp, including Li Cheng.

Fangcheng was lost, and the city lord Zhou Lan jumped out of the city and died. More than 3,000 defenders died in battle without a single survivor. However, the casualties of the Zhen army were not small in this battle. Fortunately, the people of Fangcheng had evacuated in advance, saving them from being killed by the Zhen army.

The Zhen army, who had nowhere to vent their anger, poured all their anger on Fangcheng. When they were about to leave Fangcheng, the Zhen army set fire to the city. Fengguo, a large southern city, burned for a whole day and night. When the fire receded, Fangcheng was left with only a pile of rubble.

The Zhen army slaughtered the people and looted property in Chongcheng. When they arrived in Fangcheng, they set fire to the city and became more and more brutal.

Zhang Ye, the head of Pingzhou County, where Fangcheng belonged, urgently summoned the county soldiers and county soldiers from the counties under the county, and united the local militias to organize a force of more than 60,000 soldiers. Pingzhou County Lieutenant Su Yuan served as the main general and led an army of more than 60,000 people to meet the Zhen army in an attempt to stop the Zhen army from continuing to advance.

The two sides launched a large-scale battle in the plain area near Jiancheng. As soon as the two armies came into contact, they were immediately distinguished. It was undoubtedly a fantasy that the Feng Army, which was temporarily assembled from more than 60,000 people, wanted to confront the elite Zhen Army of more than 100,000 people head-on. Less than an hour after the battle, the two corps of the Feng Army's front army had basically been wiped out.

The main general Su Yuan hurriedly mobilized the central army and the rear army, and the whole army pressed forward, wanting to make a last-ditch effort with the Zhen Army. As a result, Gao Jun and Xun Xiao each led a 3,000-man Zhen Army death squad, inserted from the left and right wings of the Feng Army, disrupting the Feng Army's formation. Even Su Yuan, who was commanding the central army, was killed by Xun Xiao who rushed to the front with an axe.

The Feng Army was not a match for the Zhen Army, and the main commander died. The whole army was immediately in chaos and collectively collapsed backwards.

How could Li Cheng, who had been on the battlefield for a long time, miss this opportunity? He led the army to rush forward and chase the Feng Army. The pursuit and hacking caused heavy losses to the Feng army, with no less than 30,000 people killed. In addition to the two corps that had been wiped out, the 60,000 Feng army finally fled back to the county city with less than 10,000 people.

In this battle, the troops of Pingzhou County were exhausted and could no longer resist the invasion of the Zhen army.

The Feng army was defeated, while the Zhen army fought easily, so easily that they just defeated more than 60,000 Feng army and went to attack Jiancheng without stopping. Jiancheng did not put up any resistance. After hearing the news, its lord had already abandoned the city and fled with the people of the city. The Zhen army entered Jiancheng without bloodshed and without firing a single sword or gun.

All the property and food in Jiancheng that had not been taken away in time went into the pockets of the Zhen army.

After Jiancheng, going north is Fengcheng, and going north of Fengcheng is Wancheng. Wancheng is the acropolis of Fengdu Yancheng. If the Zhen army reaches Wancheng, then Yancheng will be close at hand.

When the Zhen army was stationed in Jiancheng for rest, the Chifeng army led by Peng Haochu finally arrived.

The two sides once again launched a full-scale battle on the plain near Jiancheng. The Chifeng army did not have many soldiers, only 100,000, but its combat power was much stronger than that of the local army. This battle was also the first hard battle that the Zhen army had encountered since entering Fengguo.

The Chifeng army was the central army of Fengguo. It could not be said that it had been on the battlefield for a long time, but it also had a deep understanding of the essence of the Feng army. As the army advanced forward, arrows were constantly fired, and the dark waves of arrows caused great casualties to the Zhen army. The Zhen army also launched a return shot, but the density was much worse than that of the Feng army's arrow formation.

Although the Zhen army had more soldiers than the Chifeng army, when the two sides did not come into contact, the 100,000 Chifeng army was 100,000 archers. The whole army shot arrows while advancing, while in the Zhen army of more than 100,000 people, there were only about 20,000 to 30,000 archers, and the scale of its arrow formation was naturally not comparable to that of the Chifeng army.

Li Cheng saw the weakness of his side and hurriedly ordered the whole army to advance at full speed and engage in close combat with the Feng army.

The two armies advanced on their backs. Not long after, the arrow shooting stopped and the most intense and bloody close combat began.

The close combat of the Chifeng army was already very strong, but compared with the Zhen army, it had no advantage. The biggest disadvantage of the Chifeng army was that there were no generals in the army. On the other hand, Gao Jun and Xun Xiao, two generals of the Zhen army, fought in and out of the Feng army camp. No one could stop them, and no one could match them.

The role played by these two fierce generals in the battle even exceeded that of two corps. As the casualties in the front continued to increase, Peng Haochu shook his head secretly. This was not a solution. The Zhen army fought fiercely and had terrible combat power. They had more troops than his side. If they continued to fight, it would be difficult to gain an advantage.

After seeing the true strength of the Zhen army, Peng Haochu expected that he could not win, and he had the intention to retreat. He sent an order for the whole army to retreat and no longer fight against the Zhen army.

The Chifeng Army's retreat was not a wholesale defeat, but an orderly retreat step by step, with some covering the rear and some providing support. Even if the Zhen Army came after them, they would only suffer a fierce counterattack from the Chifeng Army.

Seeing that the enemy army was retreating, but the formation was not in disorder, the soldiers were not panicking, and they were marching step by step in an orderly manner, Li Cheng understood that the enemy was a well-trained army, and its commander must be an experienced and good general who was good at commanding the army. There was no benefit in chasing and killing them. Most importantly, he did not want to fight a war of attrition with the enemy.

He had only so many soldiers under his command, and without backup, one less would be one less. But the Feng army was different. Fighting on the home ground, there were countless soldiers, and casualties could be filled immediately. Li Cheng certainly did not want to fight the enemy army and both sides would suffer losses. Seeing that the enemy army had retreated, he ordered the entire army to stop chasing and killing, return to Jiancheng, and continue to rest.

This battle was a direct collision between the central armies of Feng and Zhen countries, and ended with the Chifeng army's active retreat.

On the battlefield, the two sides did not clearly distinguish the superiority, but after all, it was the Chifeng army that retreated first, which showed that the Feng army had lost. In this battle, both sides suffered heavy casualties. The Zhen army of more than 100,000 soldiers was reduced to about 100,000 soldiers after the casualties were removed. The casualties of the Chifeng army were slightly greater, with 50,000 casualties, of which nearly 20,000 were killed.

After the battle, Peng Haochu had reassessed the combat effectiveness of the Zhen army. According to him, the Chifeng army could no longer actively attack the Zhen army, at least they could not engage in a head-on confrontation with the Zhen army.

However, Li Wei, the deputy commander of the Chifeng army, firmly opposed it. He believed that they had to fight again, even if all the soldiers in the army were killed and exterminated, they had to fight to the end.

Li Wei's opinion was not unreasonable. After Jiancheng, the city was closed, and the next was Wancheng and Yancheng. If the Zhen army was allowed to advance, it would take only a few days to reach Yancheng at the speed of the Zhen army. Now, the capital was empty and there was no army left to fight. When the Zhen army attacked Yancheng, what would the court use to defend against the enemy? If the capital falls, Feng State will also collapse, so the Chifeng Army must hold back the Zhen Army.

Li Wei said so, and the soldiers of the whole army followed suit. Although Li Wei was the deputy commander, his reputation in the Chifeng Army was too high. The first commander of the Chifeng Army was Li Wei, and the generals in the army were basically brought up by him. However, when fighting with Ziying, Li Wei made a big mistake, which led to the defeat of the Chifeng Army. Tang Yin demoted Li Wei to deputy commander and appointed Peng Haochu as the commander.

The generals led by Li Wei put pressure on Peng Haochu. In the end, Peng Haochu was helpless and had to bite the bullet and fight again.

Peng Haochu's ability to command troops is very strong, and he is also full of strategies, but he is not strong enough. He does not have the courage of commanders such as Xiao Muqing, Liang Qi, and Ziying. Tang Yin kept the Chifeng Army in the territory of Feng State and let it be the army to defend the country. There is also a reason for him.

The Chifeng Army asked for a fight again, but the Zhen Army did not respond. They hid in Jiancheng and refused to go out.

The Zhen Army refused to go out of the city to fight, which made Li Wei and other generals very proud. They thought that the other side was afraid of them, and they repeatedly invited them to fight. However, no matter how the Feng Army yelled and cursed outside the city, the Zhen Army refused to go out of the city. Li Wei was very proud of this. With his own army guarding outside the city, the Zhen Army dared not go out of the city. In this way, wouldn’t his side successfully delay the Zhen Army?

But Peng Haochu was not as optimistic as Li Wei and other generals. In his opinion, the Zhen Army was not inferior to his side in a head-on battle. There must be a trick in their repeated refusal to fight. Li Wei and others, who were overwhelmed by excitement, did not listen to him at all and continued to curse. Judging from their posture, it seemed that they would not stop until they scolded the Zhen Army out of the city.

In the end, the Zhen Army went out of the city, not during the day, but at night.

The Zhen army stayed in Jiancheng for three days. Three days later, at night, the Zhen army quietly left the city. They did not leave from the south city where the Chifeng army was located, but from the north city. The direction of their march was not the Chifeng army camp, but the closed city in the north.

Sky Eye, ground network and spies in the Chifeng army had already spread their eyes around Jiancheng. As soon as the Zhen army made a move, the news was immediately transmitted back to the Chifeng army camp.

Hearing that the other party was going to abandon the city and go north, Li Wei and the generals were happy. If they didn't take the opportunity to chase and kill them at this time, when would they wait? Li Wei didn't even ask Peng Haochu, and privately issued an order for the whole army to attack, pass through Jiancheng, and chase and kill the Zhen army.

Before the Chifeng army left the camp, Peng Haochu, who got the news, hurried over, grabbed Li Wei, and said in a hurry: "General Li, don't enter Jiancheng, be careful of fraud!"

"What fraud? The Zhen army has already abandoned the city and fled, what fraud can there be?" Li Wei asked nonchalantly.

In fact, Peng Haochu had no evidence to prove that there must be a trap in Jiancheng City, but his intuition as a general told him that the Zhen army's abandonment of the city was definitely not simple.