Chapter 612 The overall situation has been decided
Dozens of riders quickly crossed the small wooden bridge and disappeared into the wilderness on the west bank of the river.
The infantrymen scrambled to get on the bridge and cross the river, pushing and cursing.
There were so many people that some people fell into the ice of the river as they were squeezing.
The ice surface was thin and brittle, and soon someone fell into the biting cold water, flopping around in panic. But it was no use. Some people were squeezed out or even pushed or thrown off the bridge.
The sound of falling into the water was endless, and the screams and screams were endless.
On both sides of the wooden bridge, a group of cavalry crossed the river across the ice in desperation. As a result, just halfway through, even the men and horses fell into the icy water. Fewer than 51 people successfully crossed the river. number.
The soldiers and horses that were withdrawn later saw this scene and couldn't wait any longer. They either headed south or north, trying to take a detour to cross the river.
From a broader perspective, there are countless Huns retreating in chaos on the ground in Zhongshan, Gaoyang and even the river east of Hengshui. Large groups of Xiongnu soldiers can still be seen in the west, but the scale becomes smaller and smaller as you go east, gradually turning into groups of scattered soldiers hiding everywhere.
The dry food carried with them has been eaten up long ago, and the transport troops have also lost contact. Without food and clothing, they will either starve to death or freeze to death, or surrender.
At this time, the powerful nobles took action.
It is very similar to the land of Yuzhou after the Battle of Gaoping. They dispatched their own Zhuangke tribe to capture the Huns soldiers in groups of three to five or more than a dozen people, and looted all their equipment, war horses, etc.
The able-bodied among the captives can be members of the wealthy tribe, while the old and weak can only be farmed as slaves.
From the 15th to now, the total number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by the powerful tribes from various places is no less than 3,000 infantry and cavalry. Most of them are Zhongshan people, Changshan people, and a few Gaoyang, Hejian and even Di Qiang people. .
In fact, there are not many people lying on the road, the number is similar to that of being captured by a wealthy family.
In addition, as of October 25th, the number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by various departments of the Jin army was no less than 5,000.
True Huns, fake Huns, Di Qiang, Xianbei, Jie people, Changshan people, Zhongshan people, Gaoyang people, Hejian people, Taiyuan people and so on.
But the pursuit is not over yet.
On the twenty-seventh, when Jin Zheng led the Yinqian right battalion to fight and advance, and arrived at Hengshui, what he saw was such a scene of hasty retreat.
Up to this point in the pursuit, both the enemy and us are in chaos. We are among you, and you are among me.
One side ran away like a roller, and the other side chased and disrupted the establishment.
Jin Zheng was absolutely sure that behind him, there must be some neglected enemy troops retreating and escaping, but there were not too many of them.
The group of people crowded at the bridge in front of them received another gift package from the sky. If they didn’t say anything, they could just beat them.
"Dong dong..." After the war drums beat, the Silver Spear Right Battalion lined up in a neat queue and entered the wall.
At a hundred steps, there was a burst of harassing projectiles. After the light arrows fell into the enemy formation, they exploded in an instant. More people fell into the water, flopped for a while and then disappeared on the ice.
Two throws at seventy steps.
The enemy troops became even more nervous. Everyone was blushing, shouting, and pushing, and some even pulled out knives to chop and kill indiscriminately, making the scene even more chaotic.
At thirty steps, dense arrows shot out.
The enemy soldiers crowded at the bridge fell in large numbers and screamed miserably.
"Surrender! Surrender! Surrender!" The silver gun sergeants stopped twenty steps away, struck the ground with the barrel of their rifles, and shouted in unison.
The Huns paused for a while. After a while, there were countless people kneeling down, abandoning their weapons. There were probably three to five hundred people.
The Silver Spear Army detached some manpower to drive the prisoners away, and the main force quickly crossed the river.
When they arrived at Lunu, the Zhongshan elders, who were already in an empty city with no soldiers, no food, and no chief officials, immediately opened the city gate and respectfully welcomed the king's troops into the city.
After several days of pursuit, he was exhausted and ready to die. Jin Zheng ordered him to rest here for a day.
On the 28th, the army rushed westward again, toward Changshan Mountain.
******
There was a smell of meat inside and outside Lingshou County.
The Huns looted almost all the livestock in the city, and then dragged out the thin, injured, and sick horses in the army that had run away and lost weight, and slaughtered them all.
The retreat is imminent and there is no need for so many horses. Food is scarce and it is a drag to carry around. It is better to slaughter them and let the soldiers drink some broth to boost their morale and restore their physical strength.
Liu Yao was also eating horse meat and drinking broth.
The wine was gone, which made him very irritable.
This is war, the outcome is hard to predict.
In this situation, if he has another fresh army, there is no need for more, just ten or twenty thousand people are enough. If he decisively enters the battlefield, he will definitely be able to defeat the pursuing Jin army - at least repel it.
At the critical moment, just one breath away, alas.
After sighing, Liu Yao didn’t think much more. Now that the matter has come to this, whether the emperor punishes him, beats him or scolds him after he returns, he will accept it.
Moreover, those are actually trivial matters.
The most important thing to him is to bring back as many soldiers as possible, the more the better.
After the sergeants finished eating, they recovered from the shock. They regrouped and packed their luggage under the command of the officer.
Take as much as you can, whether it’s items or people!
From the day he arrived, Liu Yao had already begun to force the people of Lingshou to go westward. If you catch a batch, you will receive a batch, as many as you can catch.
Within three days, broken troops were constantly being gathered up. Most of them were cavalry, and more than 2,000 cavalry came back one after another. Together with the 1,500 he brought back, the total was less than 4,000.
As for the infantry, only a team of more than a thousand people miraculously withdrew from the east, and there was no news about the rest.
Another seven to eight thousand soldiers from Bingzhou and Guanxi came to join them. These were all troops who did not participate in the pursuit and stayed behind. During the retreat, they were beaten by the Youzhou people and lost some of their men. These more than 7,000 infantry, together with the 5,000 cavalry who responded to him, are Liu Yao's troops with the most complete equipment and the highest morale. Especially the latter, who had just defeated the Youzhou soldiers who were pursuing south yesterday afternoon and beheaded more than two thousand people, forcing them to slow down and not dare to pursue too fiercely.
A rough calculation shows that the loss of the 24,000 infantrymen brought to reinforce Hebei in the past few months should be more than 8,000. Especially in the last retreat, the loss of no less than 5,000 troops was heavy.
As for Shi Le's soldiers and horses, basically none of them could come back. They were either dead, captured by Shao Bing, or captured as slaves by the wealthy people of Jizhou.
In the afternoon of the 29th, after the entire army had eaten their last meal, the entire Lingshou County was burned to the ground.
Liu Yao rode out of the city with eighteen thousand infantry.
The five thousand fine cavalry with relatively high morale took the initiative to attack and defeated the three thousand vanguards of Bo Sheng's army who were chasing after them.
Liu Yao led the remaining 10,000 people to retreat towards Jingxing.
In fact, there are still many defeated soldiers in the wild, but we can't control them anymore. It is important to save the remaining people.
Youzhou soldiers and Jin soldiers bypassed the Huns troops who were intercepting from behind, and chased Liu Yao's front team with light cavalry.
Liu Yao sent out men to block the attack while retreating.
The whole process was generally smooth. However, when crossing the Hutuo River in the south, he was approached by the pursuers and collapsed a little. It was not until Liu Yao personally led his men to repel the pursuers that he stabilized his position.
On the 30th, the entire army crossed the Hutuo River, leaving two thousand steps behind.
On the second day of November, the entire army arrived at Jingxing. After the troops and horses were withdrawn, the number of people was counted and it was found that there were less than 14,000.
******
Shi Le received the news from the messenger on the evening of the 26th.
He made the decision to retreat with little hesitation.
Before making this decision, he had just won a small victory, which boosted the morale of the soldiers defending the city.
Until now, Li Zhong has not been able to break through the outer city, and it is almost impossible to capture Zhending head-on.
But there was nothing Shi Le could do against Li Chong.
The guy opposite is just like an old turtle. He is very cautious in all his arrangements.
It can be seen that Li Chong is a conservative general who would rather miss a fighter opportunity than take any risks. His main focus is to be stable and impeccable. Perhaps it was this commanding style that allowed him to survive in various wars: there was no glorious victory that made people excited, but you should not take advantage of him too much.
This is actually not easy, because Li Chong can rarely command elite soldiers and horses. Most of them are miscellaneous troops gathered together. If he can integrate them well and then advance steadily, without too much time, His ability to complete the minimum mission target despite many flaws is quite outstanding.
His troops stationed in the south of the city were actually trying to contain each other with the Zhending defenders. Shi Le knew this very well.
“It’s time to go!” In the early morning of the 29th, Shi Le took one last look at Zhending and sighed with regret.
Before leaving, he sat silently in front of the rockery pond in the backyard for a long time.
When I went out, I touched the stone lion again with a dazed expression.
With this departure, his last foothold in Hebei was gone.
According to the order of King Zhongshan, he will temporarily station in Xinxing County.
When he heard this place name, he was stunned for a long time.
Ten years ago, after he surrendered to the Huns, he trained troops in Xinxing and other places. After accumulating provisions, horses, and equipment, he went down the mountain to attack Jizhou.
At that time, his main opponent was Wang Jun.
At the beginning, he suffered repeated defeats, but when he had more and more cavalry at his disposal and the infantry gradually became more proficient, in the battle of Feilong Mountain, he pulled out 100,000 infantrymen and was eventually defeated by Wang Jun. Defeated, but only ten thousand soldiers and horses were lost.
From that time on, he knew that although his strength was not as good as Wang Jun's, the gap was not big.
After Wang Jun had a falling out with Wuhuan and Xianbei's son-in-law, he even had the idea of killing Wang Jun.
Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. He started from not having a single foothold in Hebei, developed to occupying a large territory, and now retreats to Xinxing in despair. It is almost a reincarnation.
How many decades are there in life?
After wasting these ten years, he, who will be forty-three years old next year, has no chance to compete in the world. Perhaps, from now on, I can only be an honest servant of the Liu family.
This is life!
Fate plays tricks on people!
On the 29th, Shi ordered Wu Yu and others to lead an army to attack Li Chong, and retreated westward with five thousand strong soldiers.
After Li Zhong received the news of Shi Le's retreat, he immediately dispatched troops and horses to pursue him.
Zhi Quliu led more than 2,000 men and was defeated.
Wu Yu led his army back and did not dare to stay. He headed west with Zhi Quliu, fighting and then retreating.
On the 30th, just as Liu Yao's entire army was crossing the Hutuo River, Shi Le's main force was overtaken by Li Chong. Shi Le personally directed the battle, but the morale of the troops was low and they were defeated. They fled after nightfall.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, he received help from thousands of Huns cavalry and finally got rid of Li Chong's relentless pursuit.
But on the second day of the second lunar month, they were intercepted by a group of Youzhou Xiongnu who came out of nowhere and were defeated again.
On the third day of November, Shi Le, Zhi Quliu, Wu Yu and others, with less than 4,000 troops, collapsed to Jingxing, one day later than Liu Yao.
The guard general Hu Yanwei closed the city gates tightly and sent troops to guard various gates and forts in order to prepare for the attack.
On the fourth day of November, Li Zhong led his army to the outside of Jingxing Pass. Looking at the towering and solid city, he quietly retreated and went to clean up the remaining enemies.
At this point, the war has basically ended, and the overall situation has been decided.
(End of this chapter)