From a distance, the mountains looked far away, but after passing through the woods, Liu Yan discovered that they were only five or six miles away from the rugged mountains at the southern foot of Jingong Mountain.
It's right to think about it. The open plains on both sides of the Huihe River are only forty or fifty miles deep, and there are various slopes and gullies crisscrossing them. How can it be too far from Jingong Mountain?
It's just that they fought all night and fled westward in a hurry like a dog. Their minds were really dizzy. There were sparse forests, snowy fields, and enemy cavalry everywhere in their field of vision. It gave them the illusion that the mountains were far away.
Liu Yan grabbed a handful of snow and chewed it into his throat, letting the coldness stimulate him to wake up more, but his heart became increasingly bitter.
In the early morning, the main breakout force collided with the Red Husbands. At that time, the Red Husbands had no intention of fighting. The large group of cavalry was divided into several teams, and one wave after another, each wave was more ferocious than the other.
, and in a short while, the main breakout force, whose hearts were turbulent, was cut into pieces.
In the early morning, the stars and moon shone on the snow, and the scenery in the distance could only be vaguely seen. The soldiers and horses were cut into pieces, and Liu Yan only had hundreds of fine cavalry around him to follow him and fight.
In the chaos, I don't know how many arrows were shot, and I don't know how many knives were broken. My muscles and bones were already weak and weak.
Unfortunately, during the fight, the front hoof of his horse stepped on an ice hole. He was caught off guard and fell off the horse. He fell unconscious when he hit the ground. When he woke up, he realized that almost all of his loyal soldiers had been killed.
Only a dozen people took advantage of the chaos to rescue him from the siege.
There were too many Red Guards cavalry on the south bank of the Huihe River, so they were forced to retreat to the north bank and escape to the west through the gaps in the chaotic battlefield. At dawn, they met Chen Yuan, who had been scattered and had to retreat to the north bank to find a way out, and the two gathered together.
Some generals were still able to carry their complete armor with them during the escape, but by this time the Chihu people had completely controlled the battlefield on the south bank of the Huihe River and began to send troops and horses to the west flank to pursue the enemy.
They fought off three small groups of enemy cavalry along the way, but were eventually targeted by two groups of hundred-man cavalry. They were entangled until now and could not get rid of them.
After fighting and fleeing for seven or eight hours, Liu Yan, Chen Yuan and many of the remaining soldiers were already exhausted. They were entangled with the enemy's cavalry, and their breakout speed to the west was too slow. At this time, the enemy confirmed the identities of him and Chen Yuan, and was summoning
More cavalry came to join the encirclement, and Liu Yan, who had a strong temperament, couldn't help but despair.
It was not that he and Chen Yuan had never thought of taking refuge in Jingong Mountain to the north, but they knew very well that the Red Husbands had already declared war on Dai Viet, and would only assemble a larger force to go south.
They fled into the icy and deserted Jingong Mountain. The Chihu people did not need to go into the mountain to pursue them, they only needed to block the passage from the outside. How long could so many of them last without a morsel of dry food in Jingong Mountain?
It is even better to take advantage of this moment to squeeze out some of the strength and rush to break out of the siege of Shuozhou City, which is more than a hundred miles away. The chance of survival will be greater; along the way, they can also support each other with other remnant soldiers fleeing to the west, and maybe some people can escape and ascend to heaven.
It wasn't until the remnant soldiers in the north met the enemy's cavalry arrows and met them that the seven knights were Shuozhou generals and that there were people from Shuozhou in Jingong Mountain to the north to support them. Of course they changed their minds and decided to go here first.
The side breaks through.
However, through the woods, except for another remnant army of about a hundred people, there was no trace of the Shuozhou troops. Liu Yan felt cold in his heart. He suspected that the Xuanwu Army who had just braved the enemy's cavalry arrows and lost seven of his men had joined them.
Did all the generals, Zhao Qianbei, misunderstand?
"Damn it, I must have misunderstood you?" Zhao Qianbei was also a little confused, slapped himself, and cursed, "Those bitches in Shuozhou lied to us? I knew those bitches in Shuozhou couldn't do it.
Xin, why did I commit such a crime just now?"
"Those people are there too!" Someone with sharp eyes recognized Xu Huai and the others. Even though their faces were deliberately disfigured, their body shape, demeanor and the armor they wore were beyond the reach of ordinary soldiers. He looked at them intently.
You can still recognize it.
"That may be misunderstanding!" Liu Yan said.
At this juncture, no one would joke with their own lives.
Even if Xu Huai had surrendered to the enemy in Shuozhou, there was no need to send someone to trap them.
They are all in such a miserable state and are already trapped in a tight siege. What else is there to design?
No matter how prejudiced Liu Yan was against Shuozhou, he didn't think that the seven Shuozhou generals who appeared earlier had any ill intentions. It was more likely that Zhao Qianhuai had been misled. At this time, another red cavalry force with a size of nearly 300 cavalry was formed.
As they were heading this way, they had no choice but to go back and move forward.
More than two hundred red cavalrymen, at this time, regrouped into two hundred-man cavalry groups and chased them out of the woods from the left and right wings.
The scouts have also reported that there are more than a hundred remnants of the Dai Viet Army formed here to join Liu Yan and the remnants of Chen Yuan. They saw that the remnants of the Dai Viet Army gathered here, their armor was relatively neat and the formation was tight, and they did not dare to act rashly, so they came to find them.
From a high ground, we watched the situation on the left and right.
They confirmed that there were no other abnormalities, and speculated that a small group of cavalry had been ambushed here just now, and nearly twenty people died, and it was this remnant soldier who was responsible.
The Red Husbands are rich in combat experience, but the more so, the clearer they are that if the light cavalry directly attacks the shield and lance exchanges, and there are dense infantry formations with bows and crossbows, especially when the opponent has a strong will to fight, the casualties will be
It is hard to imagine that even stopping Liu Yan and Chen Yuan from leading the remnants of his troops to join them would cost a lot.
The red cavalry decided not to stop Liu Yan. Chen Yuan led the remnants of his troops to join up with the newly emerged remnants. Instead, he separated some of his troops and went directly around to the north to dismount. They formed an array with swords and shields on a high ground to intercept these remnants.
Fleeing into Jingong Mountain, they waited for more troops to follow and annihilated the remnant army, which already numbered more than 300 people.
Although the commander clearly ordered to chase the defeated soldiers, it is enough to drive the defeated soldiers as far as possible to Jingong Mountain in the north. It is necessary to bite the remaining soldiers who are still determined to resist as much as possible to avoid unnecessary casualties, but Liu Yan's actions
General Liu Shizhong, the third general of the Xiaosheng Army, and Chen Yuan, the tenth general of the Xiaosheng Army, are obviously two big fish that must be caught or killed if necessary and worthy of a certain amount of casualties. How could they be allowed to escape into Jingong Mountain so easily?
, will it one day become an obstacle for the Red Guard Cavalry to move south?
…………
…………
"Marquis Liu Jun and Marquis Chen, you didn't expect to meet each other at this moment, did you?"
The two remnant troops gathered together. Xu Huai called Liu Yan. The remnant troops led by Chen Yuan withdrew to the formation to rest and seize the time to eat some dry food to replenish their strength. He and Wang Juchao stood in front of the formation and looked at Liu Yan, who was riding on the enemy, and Chen Yuan.
The two Yuans walked over and asked calmly.
"..." Recognizing Xu Huailai, Liu Yan, and Chen Yuan, they were stunned for a long time and were speechless. When they wanted to speak, they found that they really didn't know what to say.
During the military meeting in Yingzhou, Xu Huai asserted that the Chihu people must have murderous intentions and borrowing troops to attack the city was simply to lure the wolf into the house and seek death. He even did not hesitate to offend his father and Cai Yuanyou to reprimand Tian Zhizhen during the public meeting.
However, although they were ashamed of borrowing troops, they were not wary of the Chihu people. They even believed from the bottom of their hearts that Xu Huai, Zhu Zhi and others, as Wang Zhen's lackeys, were weak and incompetent at heart.
They even laughed at Xu Huai and Zhu Zhi during military discussions.
What can he say at this time?
Of course, it was impossible for Xu Huai to ridicule Liu Yan and Chen Yuan just to feel comfortable at this time?
If he really just wanted to ridicule the generals of the Western Army, he could just sit and defend Shuozhou. Why would he need to take such a big risk? In the end, he called Liu Yan just for the sake of being quick-tongued. Chen Yuan felt unhappy and did not care about their good deeds?
"The situation is very critical now. The Red Husbands and Horses are too strong. More Red Husbands and Cavalry will inevitably gather in the future. I can't bring out all the three or four thousand men and horses in Shuozhou to come to your aid. I ask Liu Junhou and Chen Junhou to forgive you.
,"
Xu Huai didn't need to play riddles with Liu Yan or Chen Yuan, he straight to the point told his next plan, saying,
"Except for this remnant army, there are only 300 soldiers in Shuozhou ambushing the valleys, ravines and woods. The part of the soldiers who are chasing us are not aware of it yet. Next, we need to first dismount the more than 100 soldiers who are arrayed here.
After eating them all, we retreated to the mountains behind the gully for a longer rest. However, more and more Chihu soldiers and horses will enter Yunshuo later, and Cao Shixiong may surrender to the enemy at any time. If we want to escape into
Huairen, if thousands of defeated troops in Jincheng area can escape to Xishan via Shuozhou, we have to do nothing..."
The Dai Viet dynasty relied on civil society and military affairs, and many senior generals in the army lacked strategic thinking. However, Liu Yan and Chen Yuan joined the army to fight with their father when they were young, and in recent years they have each commanded an army. Their tactical literacy is still sufficient.
They couldn't figure out what the Red Husband's strategy for going south would be for a while, but at this time the assembled Red Husband cavalry had defeated the main force of the Yan army. If they hadn't considered the possibility of Cao Shixiong surrendering to the enemy, they could only say
Stupid.
Cao Shixiong surrendered to the enemy, and there were not many capable soldiers and horses in Daizhou, Xinzhou and even Taiyuan to defend it, and the entire Hedong would be in danger.
The only thing they could do was to gather more defeated troops and retreat to Shuozhou to wait and see the situation.
Neither Liu Yan nor Chen Yuan were afraid of death.
Simply trying to survive, they fled into the mountains. Even if they went through many twists and turns, killing horses to satisfy their hunger, and trekking all the way through mountains and rivers, the chance of escaping back to Jingyuan was definitely not small. However, 60,000 soldiers of the Xiaosheng Army and Xuanwu Army died in Yunshuo. They
How could he face the parents of Jingyuan and the parents of the generals of the two armies if he escaped by himself?
What they can do now is to save as many people as possible so that they can feel less guilty.