Chinese New Year

Chapter 612 The overall situation has been decided
Dozens of riders quickly crossed the small wooden bridge and disappeared into the fields on the west bank of the river.

The infantry rushed forward, pushing and swearing as they crossed the river.

There were so many people that some people fell onto the ice in the river.

The ice was thin and brittle, and soon some people fell into the freezing cold water, thrashing about in panic. But it was no use, as others on the bridge were squeezed off, pushed, or even thrown off.

The sound of people falling into the water was endless, as were the screams and cries of agony.

On both sides of the wooden bridge, a group of cavalrymen tried to cross the river on the ice in a hurry. However, halfway through, both the men and their horses fell into the icy water, and less than 51% of them successfully crossed the river.

When the troops who retreated later saw this scene, they could not wait any longer and either headed south or north, trying to cross the river by a detour.

From a broader perspective, countless Xiongnu were retreating in disorder in Zhongshan, Gaoyang and even Hejian to the east of Hengshui. Large groups of Xiongnu soldiers could still be seen in the west, but the smaller the group went east, gradually turning into scattered groups of three or five soldiers hiding everywhere.

The dry food they carried with them had long been eaten up, and they had lost contact with the baggage train. Without food or clothing, they were left with no choice but to either starve to death, freeze to death, or surrender.

At this time, the nobles and powerful families took action.

It was very similar to the situation in Yuzhou after the Battle of Gaoping that year. They mobilized their own farmhands to capture groups of three, five or a dozen Xiongnu soldiers, and looted all their weapons, war horses, etc.

The strong captives could become soldiers of the powerful families, while the old and weak could only be slaves working the land.

From the 15th to now, the total number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by local nobles is no less than 3,000 infantry and cavalry. The vast majority of them are from Zhongshan and Changshan, with a few from Gaoyang, Hejian and even Di and Qiang.

There were actually not many people lying dead on the road, and their number was similar to that of those captured by the nobles.

In addition, as of October 25, the number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by the various Jin armies was no less than 5,000.

There are real Huns, fake Huns, Di Qiang, Xianbei, Jie, Changshan people, Zhongshan people, Gaoyang people, Hejian people, Taiyuan people, and so on.

But the pursuit is not over yet.

Twenty-seven, when Jin Zheng led the Silver Spear Right Camp and advanced while fighting and arrived at Hengshui, what he saw was such a scene of hasty retreat.

After the pursuit till now, both the enemy and us are in chaos, you are in me and I am in you.

One side was running away, while the other side was chasing them and disrupting the system.

Jin Zheng was absolutely certain that behind him, there must be some neglected enemy troops retreating and fleeing, but their number was not too large.

The group of people crowded at the bridgehead are another gift package dropped from the sky. No need to say anything, just beat them.

"Boom, boom..." After the war drums sounded, the Silver Spear Right Camp lined up in neat rows and advanced in a wall formation.

At a hundred paces, there was a harassing barrage of arrows, and after the light arrows fell into the enemy's formation, they exploded in an instant. More people fell into the water, floundered for a while, and disappeared on the ice.

At seventy steps, launch the missile a second time.

The enemy became even more nervous. Everyone's face turned red, and they were shouting, pushing and shoving. Some even pulled out their knives and slashed and killed indiscriminately, making the scene even more chaotic.

When they were thirty steps away, dense streams of arrows shot out.

A large number of enemy soldiers crowded at the bridgehead fell down and screamed in agony.

"Surrender! Surrender! Surrender!" The soldiers of the Silver Spear Army stopped twenty steps away, hit the ground with their spears, and shouted in unison.

The Huns paused for a moment. After a while, there were countless people who dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground, at least three to five hundred people.

The Silver Spear Army sent a portion of its men to drive the prisoners away, while the main force quickly crossed the river.

When they arrived at Lunu, the elders of Zhongshan, who had found the city an empty one with no soldiers, no food, and no chief officer, immediately opened the city gates and welcomed the royal army into the city.

After days of pursuit, Kim Jong-un was exhausted and ordered his troops to rest here for a day.

On the 28th, the army headed west again, heading towards Changshan.

******
A scent of meat wafted from inside and outside Lingshou County.

The Huns plundered almost all the livestock in the city, and then dragged out the skinny, injured, and sick horses in the army and slaughtered them all.

With the retreat imminent, there was no need for so many horses. Food was scarce, and carrying them was a burden, so it was better to slaughter them and let the soldiers drink some broth to boost morale and restore their physical strength.

Liu Yao also ate horse meat and drank horse broth.

The wine was gone, which made him very upset.

This is war, the outcome is hard to predict.

Given the current situation, if he had another fresh force, not many, just 10,000 or 20,000 would be enough, and decisively threw them into the battlefield, he would definitely be able to defeat the Jin army that was chasing them - at least repel them.

At the critical moment, I just need this breath, alas.

After sighing, Liu Yao did not think about it any more. Things had come to this point, and he would accept the emperor's punishment, beatings and scolding after returning.

Besides, those are actually small things.

The most important thing for him was to bring back as many soldiers as possible, the more the better.

After the soldiers finished eating, they recovered a little and regrouped to pack their luggage under the command of their officers.

Take away as much as you can, whether it’s objects or people!

From the day he arrived, Liu Yao had already begun to force the people of Lingshou to travel west, capturing as many as he could and sending them away.

Over the course of three days, the defeated soldiers were constantly being gathered up. Most of them were cavalry, with more than 2,000 returning one after another. Together with the 1,500 he brought back, the total number 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 of the rest.

Another 7,000 to 8,000 Bingzhou and Guanxi soldiers came to join them. These were the troops who did not participate in the pursuit and stayed behind. They were also attacked by the Youzhou people during the retreat and lost some men. These more than 7,000 infantrymen, together with the 5,000 cavalrymen who supported them, were the troops with the most complete equipment and relatively the highest morale at Liu Yao's disposal. Especially the latter, who had just defeated the Youzhou soldiers who were chasing south yesterday afternoon and beheaded more than 2,000 people, forcing them to slow down and not dare to chase too fiercely.

A rough calculation showed that of the 24,000 infantry and cavalry brought to reinforce Hebei, more than 8,000 had been lost over the past few months. Especially during the last retreat, no less than 5,000 soldiers were lost, which was a heavy loss.

As for Shi Le's troops, basically none of them returned. They either died, were captured by Shao's troops, or were taken as slaves by the Jizhou nobles.

On the afternoon of the 29th, after the army had their last meal, they set the entire Lingshou County on fire.

Liu Yao led 18,000 infantry and cavalry out of the city.

The five thousand elite cavalrymen with relatively high morale took the initiative to attack and defeated the three thousand vanguards of Bo Sheng's Qihuo Army who were chasing them.

Liu Yao led the remaining 10,000 men to retreat towards Jingxing.

In fact, there are still many remnants of the defeated army in the wild, but we can’t take care of them. The most important thing is to save the remaining people.

The Youzhou and Jin soldiers bypassed the Xiongnu troops that were intercepting them from behind and chased Liu Yao's vanguard with light cavalry.

Liu Yao sent people to block the enemy while retreating.

The whole process was generally smooth, but when they were crossing the Hutuo River to the south, they were approached by pursuers and had a slight collapse. It was not until Liu Yao personally led his men to repel the pursuers that they were able to stabilize the situation.

On the 30th, the entire army crossed the Hutuo River, leaving two thousand infantry and cavalry to cover the rear.

On the second day of November, the whole army arrived at Jingxing. After the rear guards were withdrawn, a head count showed that there were less than 14,000 people left.

******
Shi Le received the news from the messenger in the evening of the 26th.

He made the decision to retreat without much hesitation.

Before making this decision, he had just won a small victory, which boosted the morale of the soldiers defending the city.

Up to now, Li Chong has not been able to break through the outer city, and it is almost impossible for him to take Zhending head-on.

But Shi Le couldn't do anything to Li Chong.

The guy opposite is simply an old turtle. All his arrangements are flawless and he is extremely cautious.

It can be seen that Li Zhong is a conservative general who would rather miss the opportunity than take risks, and he focuses on being stable and impeccable. Perhaps it is this command style that has allowed him to survive in various wars: there are no brilliant victories that make people excited, but you can't expect to take too much advantage of him.

This is actually not easy, because Li Zhong rarely commands elite troops. Most of them are a mix of various forces. He can integrate them well and advance steadily, completing the minimum mission objectives without too many flaws. His ability is quite outstanding.

He stationed his troops in the south of the city, in fact, to tie down the Zhending defenders, and Shi Le was well aware of this.

"It's time to go!" On the morning of the 29th, Shi Le took a last look at Zhending and sighed with regret.

Before leaving, he sat silently for a long time in front of the rockery pond in the backyard.

When he went out, he touched the stone lion with a dazed look on his face.

With this departure, he lost his last place of residence in Hebei.

According to the order of King Zhongshan, he will temporarily station in Xinxing County.

When he heard the name of this place, he was stunned for a long time.

Ten years ago, after he joined the Xiongnu, he cultivated land and trained his troops in Xinxing and other places. After accumulating food, horses and equipment, he went down the mountain to attack Jizhou.

At that time, his main opponent was Wang Jun.

He was defeated repeatedly in the beginning, but when he had more and more cavalry at his disposal and his infantry was slowly trained, in the Battle of Feilong Mountain, he led out 100,000 infantry and cavalry, but was eventually defeated by Wang Jun, but the loss of only 10,000 soldiers and horses.

From that time on, he knew that although his strength was not as good as Wang Jun's, the gap was not that big.

After Wang Jun fell out with his Wuhuan and Xianbei sons-in-law, he even thought of destroying Wang Jun.

In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed. He started out with no place to stand in Hebei, then grew to occupy a large area, and now retreats to Xinxing in disgrace. It is almost a cycle.

How many decades are there in life?
Having wasted these ten years, he will be 43 years old next year, and he no longer has the opportunity to compete for the world. Perhaps, from now on, he can only be a loyal servant of the Liu family.

This is life!

Fate plays a trick on us!
On the 29th, Shi Le ordered Wu Yu and others to lead the army to attack Li Chong fiercely, while he himself led 5,000 elite soldiers to retreat westward.

When Li Chong received the news of Shi Le's retreat, he immediately dispatched troops to pursue him.

Zhi Quliu led more than 2,000 people to cover the rear, but was defeated.

Wu Yu led his army back and did not dare to stay. He headed westward with Zhi Quliu, fighting and retreating.

On the 30th, when Liu Yao's army crossed the Hutuo River, Shi Le's main force was caught up by Li Chong. Shi Le personally led the battle, but the morale of the troops was low and they were defeated. After nightfall, they fled.

On the first day of the new year, he received help from thousands of Xiongnu cavalry and finally escaped from Li Zhong's relentless pursuit.

But on the second day of the New Year, they were intercepted by a group of Youzhou Huns who appeared out of nowhere and were defeated again.

On the third day of November, Shi Le, Zhi Quliu, Wu Yu and others fled to Jingxing with less than 4,000 soldiers, one day later than Liu Yao.

The defending general Huyan Wei closed the city gates and sent soldiers to guard all the pass cities and forts, ready for battle.

On the fourth day of November, Li Chong led his troops to the outside of Jingxing Pass. Looking at the tall and sturdy city, he quietly withdrew his troops and went to deal with the remaining enemies.

At this point, the war has basically ended and the overall situation has been determined.

(End of this chapter)