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 on the river as they were squeezing.
The ice surface was thin and brittle, and soon some people fell into the biting cold water, thrashing about in panic. But it was no use, some people on the bridge were squeezed or even pushed or thrown off.
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, the men and their horses fell into the icy water. Only a few of them successfully crossed the river.
When the soldiers and horses that were subsequently withdrawn saw this scene, they couldn't wait and either headed south or north, trying to cross the river in a detour.
From a broader perspective, in Zhongshan, Gaoyang and even on the ground east of Hengshui, countless Huns are retreating in chaos. Large groups of Huns can also be seen in the west, and the scale becomes smaller as you go east.
Gradually, they became scattered soldiers hiding in small groups.
The dry food they carried with them had been eaten up long ago, and contact with the baggage troops had been lost. Without food and clothing, they would either starve to death or freeze to death, or surrender.
At this time, the powerful nobles took action.
It is very similar to what happened in 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 could be members of the wealthy clan, while the old and weak could only be farmed as slaves.
From the 15th to now, the total number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by the powerful tribes in 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 Diqiang people.
In fact, there were not many people lying frozen on the road. The number was similar to that of being captured by a wealthy family.
In addition, as of October 25, the number of Xiongnu soldiers captured by various Jin army units was no less than 5,000.
Real Huns, fake Huns, Diqiang, Xianbei, Jie people, 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 Yinqian right battalion to fight and advance and arrived at Hengshui, what he saw was such a scene of hasty retreat.
Since 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 certain 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 would just beat them.
"Dong dong..." After the war drums beat, the right battalion of Silver Spear lined up in a neat queue and marched from the wall.
After a hundred steps, there was a burst of harassing projectiles. After the light arrows fell into the enemy formation, they exploded. 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, pushing and shoving, and some even pulled out knives and hacked and killed randomly, 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 in agony.
"Down! Down! Down!" The silver spear soldiers stopped twenty paces away, struck the ground with the barrel of their rifles, and shouted in unison.
The Huns paused for a while. After a while, countless people abandoned their weapons and knelt down. There were 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 city was already empty. The Zhongshan elders, who had no soldiers, no food, and no chief officials, immediately opened the city gate and respectfully welcomed the king's troops into the city.
After days of pursuit, he was exhausted and ready to die, so Jin Zheng ordered him to rest here for a day.
On the 28th, the army rushed west again, toward Changshan Mountain.
****
The smell of meat came from 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 and slaughtered them all.
The retreat is imminent and there is no need for so many horses. Food is scarce and carrying them is a drag. It is better to kill 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.
There was no more wine, which made him very irritable.
This is war, and the outcome is hard to predict.
In this situation, if he had another fresh force, it didn't need to be more than ten thousand or twenty thousand, and if he decisively entered the battlefield, he would definitely be able to defeat the pursuing Jin army - or at least repel it.
At the critical moment, just one breath away, alas.
After sighing, Liu Yao didn't think much about it. Now that the matter is over, he will accept it whether the emperor punishes him, beats him or scolds him after he returns.
Moreover, those are actually trivial matters.
The most important thing to him was to bring back as many soldiers as possible, the more the better.
After the sergeants finished eating, they recovered from their shock. They regrouped and packed their luggage under the command of the officer.
Take away 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. He would catch as many as he could and send them to another group.
Within three days, broken troops were constantly 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 the 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 accompanying him, are Liu Yao's troops with the most complete equipment and the highest morale. Especially the latter, who just defeated the Youzhou soldiers who were pursuing south yesterday afternoon, beheading more than 2,000 soldiers.
, forcing him to slow down and not dare to pursue too fiercely.
A rough calculation shows that the losses of the 24,000 infantry and cavalry brought to reinforce Hebei in the past few months should be more than 8,000. Especially in the last retreat, the loss was no less than 5,000, which is a heavy loss.
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 foot soldiers.
The five thousand elite cavalry with relatively high morale took the initiative to attack and defeated the 3,000 vanguard of the Beggar Army's Bo Sheng Division who came 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 Xiongnu troops who were intercepting the rear, 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 2,000 cavalry behind.
On the second day of November, the whole 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 tortoise. He is very careful 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 steady and impeccable. Perhaps it is this kind of command style that allowed him to survive in various wars:
There is no glorious victory that makes people excited, but you don't want to 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. He can integrate them well and advance steadily without too many flaws.
His ability to complete the minimum mission objectives is quite outstanding.
He stationed troops in the south of the city, which was actually to contain 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.
On the way out, he touched the stone lion again with a hesitant 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 the fields and other places such as Xinxing. After accumulating grain, 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 hand and the infantry gradually became more and more skilled, in the battle of Feilong Mountain, he pulled out 100,000 infantry and cavalry, and was finally defeated by Wang Jun, but he lost 100,000 infantry.
There are only ten thousand horses.
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.
In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed. He started from not having a 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 in the new year, has no chance to compete in the world. Perhaps, from now on, he can only be an honest servant of the Liu family.
This is life!
What a trick of fate!
On the 29th, Shi ordered Wu Yu and others to lead an army to attack Li Chong, and retreated westward with 5,000 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 commanded 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 Lunar 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, with less than 4,000 troops, retreated 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 Chong led his army to the outside of Jingxing Pass. Looking at the towering and solid city, he quietly retreated to clean up the remnants of the enemy.
At this point, the war has basically ended and the overall situation has been decided.
Chapter completed!