Chapter 67: Deploying Troops and Formations

  Those dozen or so riders were all wearing Jin army armor, and the leader was a deputy commander. He had been ordered to stay in the vicinity of Luoyun Fortress to monitor the movements of the Ye family's army. Now he came rushing over, riding his horse at top speed to arrive before the grand hall of Niu Luocheng. He dismounted and knelt down on the ground, reporting: "Commander Yan Liu, the Ming army inside the fortress has already come out of the city to provide reinforcements. I estimate that there are a thousand or more of them, judging by their uniforms they appear to be crack troops from within the fortress."

  The Qing soldiers present all took a deep breath, not expecting the Xining army to actually dare to come out of the fortress to rescue them. Niu Lu Zhang Jing sneered: "These Ming people have such big guts, they really dare to lead their troops to reinforce, it's good, let's catch them off guard in the wild and kill them all, leaving no one alive."

  He loudly ordered the retreat, and immediately the horn sounded, echoing over Dongjiazhuang and the entire battlefield. The Jin soldiers who were fighting on the city wall of Dongjiazhuang were stunned for a moment, and many people's faces showed unwillingness. However, at this time, the Jin army's discipline was strict, and when the retreat order sounded, no one dared to disobey the military order. They all retreated from the city wall and fled from various cloud ladders.

  Jin Bing's army suddenly left, and Chen Tong and others on the city wall had incredulous expressions on their faces, some of them dared not believe what was happening in front of them. The barbarian army was about to attack, but suddenly left, could it be that there was some kind of trickery involved?

  Everyone looked down at the city, but saw that the attacking Jin soldiers dispersed like a tide, yet it didn't seem to be a ruse.

  Everyone felt relieved and asked: "What happened?"

  "Why did the barbarians retreat?"

  "Could it be that reinforcements have arrived?"

  Suddenly a soldier pointed to the distance and shouted with joy: "The banner of Lu Yunbao, it's really General, General's reinforcements have arrived."

  Everyone rushed to look, and indeed under the sunlight, in the distance, multi-colored flags emerged from the ground, vaguely visible with the color of Ye Jiajun's scarlet red. Looking further, under each flag, there was a neat square formation, and within each formation, most were silver-gray, which was the gray iron armor of Ye Jiajun without lacquer, like a signboard.

  Those several phalanxes came slowly, the neat and powerful footsteps seemed to be heard even in Dongjia Village, that unique marching combat formation, if not the Ye family army, who else?

  On the city wall, there was a burst of cheers. Chen Tong and Dong Xiang looked at each other and laughed: "Indeed, the general has arrived, the general did not abandon us brothers in Dongjia Fortress."

  Dong Xiang shouted loudly outside the city, suddenly he remembered something, his face changed greatly: "Lord Ye came out of the city to rescue us, but only fought against the barbarian soldiers in this wilderness."

  Chen Tong's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

  The land around Luoyun Fortress is flat and open, making it convenient for marching. In order to form a battle formation more quickly, after assembling at the drill ground of Luoyun Fortress, Ye Xuan ordered each soldier to march in a combat square formation. From Luoyun Fortress to Dongjiabao, they marched in one direction, although everyone was taking big strides, but since the Luoyun Army had been trained rigorously every day, the concept of formation had long been deeply ingrained in their minds, so even during this march, the formation was still extremely neat and tidy. When encountering a large number of enemy troops, as long as they slightly adjusted their formation, they could quickly engage in battle.

  In the march, it was divided into three teams. Sun Yu's vanguard was the front army, and there were some night uncollected as vanguard cavalry. Chen Fei's rear guard was the rear army, Ye Xuanyu's guard flag hand Zhao Jie and Yang Xiao's right guard army formed the middle army. In addition to the middle army, there was Su Zhong's Divine Machine Battalion, and Hua Zhen led some medical officers as medical personnel.

  After the three scouts left Luoyun Fort, there were waves of Jin army scouts coming to scout. Some scouts even dared to run close to watch, but under the bombardment of dozens of soldiers from the Divine Machinery Battalion, they left some corpses and ran far away, only watching from a distance.

  Ye Xuan didn't bother to reason with them, and the group swaggered out of Yunbao Castle in a big way. Along the way, they carefully maintained their marching formation and finally arrived at Dongjiabao. Looking at the distant city head of Dongjiabao, Ye Xuan let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the rescue was timely, and Dongjiabao had not fallen yet, so he could rest assured.

  Zhao Jie, who was beside Ye Xuan, also stared at the city head of Dongjia Fort. He suddenly said to Ye Xuan in a low voice: "General, you risked your life and led the army to rescue them personally. I think Chen brothers must be grateful."

  Ye Xuan nodded and sighed: "Brother Zhao, Ye is not talented. However, I will not abandon any of my brothers."

  He looked towards the distant Jin army formation and laughed: "The barbarian troops are coming to meet us."

  Only the sound of Jinbing's horn kept ringing, and slowly they gathered into a piece, constantly welcoming each other. Just outside Dongjiabao City, within less than one mile apart, both sides stopped at the same time.

  Jin Bing's side saw the Ye family army marching in the wilderness, surprisingly maintaining such a neat and solemn formation. They were shocked at the same time, and their eyes blazed with anger. It was clear that some of the armor worn by the Ye family army belonged to their brave warriors who had died in battle. Unexpectedly, these Xining people dared to wear them out so brazenly, it was infuriating. In the upcoming battle, they would definitely annihilate these reckless Xining people.

  Niu Lu Zhang Jing sneered, "Judging from the situation, there are about 600 to 700 Ming soldiers on the opposite side, all of whom are robust and vigorous warriors. It's indeed true that this castle has a great general stationed here. However, looking at the Ning military flag, it seems that the Ning country is just a small one. But why does he have so many soldiers? This is really strange."

  Everyone else was also puzzled and thought it strange.

  "Whatever the case, they are delivering themselves to death. These Xining people are extremely bold and daring to come out of the city to fight us. My great Golden Army is invincible in battle, I will definitely kill them all here, leaving no one alive, and then enter the fortress to slaughter those Xining people, not even sparing their chickens and dogs."

  "Take advantage of their military fatigue and launch an attack at once."

  Niu Lu Zhang Jing Ning hastily said: "Yan Liu, the military commander of Xi Ning has long-range weapons that are sharp and powerful. Our Jin army has never seen anything like it before. They dare to come out of the city, they must be fearless. I think, we should prioritize caution."

  Ning Jia, you dog slave, have you been intimidated by those Xining people? You suffered heavy casualties under their fortress, with hundreds of brave warriors killed or injured. Do you still have the face to speak here?

  Niu Lu Zhang Jingning's face turned red with rage, and he retreated in a humble manner. Yesterday, under the city of Shunxiang, he had lost many soldiers and generals, not only had he lost the elite troops from other Niu Lu, but also his own Niu Lu's elite troops were all gone. In this army, he no longer had any room to speak.

  Seeing him being scolded by that Jia Lao Ye, the other cowards cast sidelong glances of schadenfreude, his own family members looked at him with a mixture of disappointment and helplessness.

  The commander of the Jiala troops, Jing, arranged his soldiers in battle formation and prepared to attack. Among these Jiala golden soldiers, there were more than 1,500 soldiers, including over 500 armored warriors, while the rest were unarmed attendants and auxiliary soldiers.