Chapter 626: Response

Latest website: "The Qi army has retreated."

On the city wall, Chang Wei had been watching the battlefield; seeing the Qi soldiers retreating south one after another, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

Pingyuan City had been taken.

What followed was merely the encirclement and interception of the remnants of the Qi army.

Turning his head, he said to Qin Shan and Guan Tong, "You two immediately lead the soldiers to take over Pingyuan City."

The two agreed and each led their respective troops to enter from the North Gate.

On the south side of Pingyuan City.

Chen Hu and Zhong Li each led ten thousand Cavalry, lying in ambush on the road that was the only way to the Pingyuan City ferry.

When the cannon fire in Pingyuan City ceased, a cavalryman hurried over shortly after.

"General, Qi has been utterly defeated, and a large number of routed soldiers are fleeing toward the Pingyuan City ferry."

Zhong Li and Chen Hu exchanged a glance and nodded.

Returning to their respective armies, they immediately ordered preparations for battle.

In less than half an hour, they saw a massive swarm of Qi soldiers coming from the north.

When these soldiers entered their ambush range, a gong sounded, and a large number of Cavalry charged out from the woods, brandishing their Cavalry Sabers as they rushed over.

The Qi soldiers fleeing from Pingyuan City had long since lost track of their commanders, and the commanders had lost track of their troops; they were in total chaos.

Now, seeing a large number of Cavalry charging toward them, they were even more terrified, unable to care about anything but saving their own lives.

For a time, the Qi soldiers were like headless flies, running everywhere.

"Kill!" Facing the chaotic Qi soldiers, the Cavalry were like a sharp knife thrust into tofu.

They rode into the middle of the routed soldiers, hacking left and right, and one Qi soldier after another fell under their Cavalry Sabers.

The charge of over twenty thousand Cavalry instantly caused heavy casualties among the routed Qi soldiers.

Seeing this, the Qi soldiers became even more panicked; a large number of soldiers threw away their Matchlocks and the Armor on their bodies, blindly fleeing toward the Pingyuan City ferry.

Han Qi and Shicun Dahe were mixed in among the routed soldiers.

While the Wangfu Army was hunting down the Qi soldiers, they were observing the weak points of the Wangfu Cavalry.

Seeing a gap open up among the Qi soldiers in the southeast, he immediately led the Cavalry to charge over.

Zhong Li had been watching the battlefield and, discovering a small wave of Qi Cavalry attempting to escape, he immediately led one thousand Cavalry to kill them.

When Han Qi and Shicun Dahe broke out of the gap, they saw a pair of Cavalry surrounding them completely.

Zhong Li stared at Han Qi and sneered, "Lord Han, long time no see."

When he was under Yuan Li, he had seen Han Qi many times.

Han Qi's expression stiffened.

If he had encountered anyone else, he might still have had a hope of escaping.

But facing the Cavalry led by Zhong Li, he had no way to fly.

"Zhong Li, you are acting as a tiger's accomplice; neither Yan Wang nor you will have a good end, just you wait." Seeing that the hope of escaping back to Qi was slim, Han Qi, though inwardly terrified, shouted loudly.

Zhong Li gave Han Qi a look of disdain and said, "Who is acting on behalf of Heaven and who is acting as a tiger's accomplice, someone will naturally judge after a hundred years."

Having said that, he pointed his long spear at Han Qi and spurred his horse to charge over.

Han Qi was greatly alarmed and tried to rein in his horse to turn back.

But Zhong Li's long spear arrived in an instant, knocking him off his horse.

Immediately, Zhong Li swept his long spear horizontally, knocking Shicun Dahe, who was following closely beside Han Qi, off his horse.

"Capture them all!" Zhong Li shouted.

The cavalrymen loudly agreed, jumped off their horses, and pinned Han Qi and Shicun Dahe to the ground.

With their main general captured, the morale of the Qi soldiers was completely lost.

More and more Qi soldiers simply stopped fleeing and instead threw down their Weapons to surrender to the cavalrymen.

Only a small number of Qi soldiers escaped the battlefield.

Having wiped out the routed Qi soldiers in one fell swoop, Zhong Li and Chen Hu ordered the cavalrymen to escort them toward Pingyuan City.

They left only a portion of the soldiers to clean up the battlefield and collect items such as Armor and Matchlocks.

At this time, Chang Wei and the generals had already arrived at the center of Pingyuan City.

When Zhong Li arrived with the prisoners, Chang Wei and the group of generals revealed smiles.

Then he said, "Immediately send the battle report to Yancheng and await the Prince's instructions."

Two days later.

The news of the Prince's Personal Army's great victory at Pingyuan City reached Yancheng.

"Congratulations, Your Highness. With Pingyuan City broken, the remaining two cities are nothing more than items already in the bag."

In the Wangfu Hui Ke Tang, Ma Han bowed to congratulate Zhao Xu.

Three days ago, Yan Wang had issued a decree for him to go to Yancheng to discuss matters, and today, he had just arrived.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xu laughed lightly, "This matter was already within my expectations; what I care about is merely reducing the casualties of the soldiers."

Ma Han continued to flatter, "Your Highness loves your soldiers like your own children; no wonder the Prince's Personal Army is invincible."

Zhao Xu waved his hand, "Enough, I summoned you here not to listen to your flattery, but because there is an important matter to entrust to you."

Ma Han's expression immediately became serious, looking as if he were listening attentively.

After pondering for a moment, Zhao Xu said, "According to the information I have received, Qi seems to be uniting other powerful clans to jointly resist me."

"I don't really care about the powerful clans uniting to crusade against me, but if the Northern Di and Dongying get involved, it will be troublesome."

"You heard the battle report just now; Flintlocks have already appeared in the Qi army that fought against the Prince's Personal Guard this time. If they are allowed to continue colluding internally and externally, I fear the division of Da Song will continue for a long time, perhaps even indefinitely."

"Therefore, I intend to take action from two places: first, take back Qinzhou and Yongzhou to cut off the connection between Southern Liang and the Northern Di; second, once the new batch of Warships is launched, I intend to have Zhou Yi annihilate the Dongying Navy and the Wufeng Pirates to sever the dealings between Dongying and the Han Family. Once that is done, I can then deal with them with peace of mind."

Ma Han nodded slowly.

In his view, Yan Wang's decision was extremely correct.

Currently, the Northern Di and Dongying are the two instigators causing chaos for the Great Song.

They are like wicked people who keep feeding meat to a tiger.

As long as they are there, the tiger will grow stronger and stronger, and it will be even more ferocious when it tears into Yanzhou.

Most importantly, all this fighting back and forth is just internal attrition for the Great Song.

Yet Dongying and the Northern Di only need to fan the flames to weaken the Great Song; it is simply extremely shameless.

Then, his eyes suddenly lit up; Qinzhou and Yongzhou are a wound in the heart of every member of the Ma Family.

Now, they finally have the opportunity to take back these two provinces.

"What does Your Highness want your subject to do?" he asked.

"This King will provide the army under your command with a batch of new-style muskets and Artillery, and will also dispatch officers to assist with training," Zhao Xu said.

During this time, Ma Han had already quelled the rebellion in Sizhou, and the Ma Family that had persisted earned his recognition.

Henceforth, the Ma Family Army would not only be the Ma Family's army, but also the Imperial Court's army.

Therefore, he prepared to bring the firearms of the Ma Family Army up to the same level as the Prince's Personal Army.

Once they had adapted to the new firearms, he would have Ma Han lead the Ma Family troops to march out and retake Qinzhou and Yongzhou.

Ma Han was overjoyed upon hearing this and hurriedly said, "Many thanks, Your Highness."

Zhao Xu nodded, but he changed the subject and said, "However, before that, your Ma Family Army must accept a batch of officers from the Military Academy."

Ma Han was stunned for a moment, then immediately felt relieved; since he had already pledged allegiance to Yan Wang, he did not care about this, so he said, "No problem."

Only then did Zhao Xu reveal a deep smile.

This batch of officers was a group of special officers he had cultivated since establishing the Military Academy.

Their duty was not to lead troops into battle like Chang Wei and the others, but to be responsible for the ideological education of the soldiers.

In the army, their authority was on par with the main commanders, and they could supervise each other.

In this way, he was effectively controlling the Ma Family Army indirectly.