The withdrawal process is painful, mainly mentally.

On the donkey cart, Wang Mi was drowsy. When he woke up occasionally, he would sigh endlessly.

His ears were filled with the whistling wind, the messy sound of horse hooves, and the heavy breathing of the soldiers.

The sound of fighting gradually faded away and became inaudible.

After all, there are loyal and brave people who fight to the death to buy time for his escape, which is worthy of his generous treatment.

However, most of the people who have been cut off will never come back. The more such people die, the less old foundation they have. Cultivating a loyal subordinate requires both capital and time, and it is not that easy.

Wang Mi couldn't help but shed two lines of hot tears.

He doesn't like to cry and rarely cries.

When people cry in troubled times, it is a sign of weakness and will bring great danger to themselves and their families.

But the blow was really too big!

He suddenly thought of Shi Le, and felt sympathy for him.

Da Hu was really miserable. After the construction of Fangtou City was completed, he was targeted by Shao Xun. He launched a massive Northern Expedition for two consecutive years and completely drove his forces out of Hebei.

That's not all. This year's attack on Bingzhou and the breakthrough from Da Hu's territory once again extinguished the embers he had finally put away.

Da Hu fled west to Pingyang with thousands of soldiers and civilians, and was almost beheaded by the emperor.

What is the difference between him and Da Hu? In the battles of Lianchi and Laoshan, he lost the elites he had spent years of hard work training. Although there are still many soldiers in Shaanxi County, there are at most a thousand brave warriors.

The remaining kindness has not been done, the skills are not refined, and the mind is hesitant. He is just a peasant soldier.

He no longer has the confidence to defend Shaanxi County.

He just wanted to run, run westward, all the way back to Tongguan.

"Alas." Wang Mi sighed heavily and sat up on the donkey cart.

After feeling that his body was not so uncomfortable, he turned his head and looked back, secretly counting the soldiers.

There are more than 2,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and more than 400 personal troops, that's all.

Two-thirds were lost in the first battle, which was really tragic!

The donkey cart moved forward leisurely. Wang Mi looked back and thought silently.

Is Pu Hong coming to Shaanxi County soon? Will he take over the spotlight?

Will the emperor take the opportunity to remove him from all his duties and take Hongnong back?

If the Jin army attacks all the way, should we defend? How should we defend?

If you escape back to Tongguan, what will the prince's attitude be? You can't run away too fast, otherwise the prince may kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. But you can't escape too slowly, otherwise you will be surrounded by the Jin army and you will never be able to leave again.

The only way is to march westward together with the defeated troops in Xihe, Pingyang, and Hedong. If the law is not punished, they may be able to get through.

There are so many issues to consider!

On October 21, just as Duan Mobo on the northern line arrived at the Xiongnu camp in Chihshui, Wang Mi was finally defeated and retreated to the boundaries of Shaanxian County.

He stayed here for a day and gathered hundreds of defeated troops - but the number of his troops was slightly reduced. Gein's soldiers pursued him again and had to leave some people behind to block the attack.

After running for dozens of miles and regaining his composure, Wang Mi no longer wanted to run away.

Shaanxi County sent two to three thousand people to respond.

He decided to use the plateau terrain to block the attack. Especially those places with mountain plateaus on both sides and a dark and deep skyway in the middle, they could make a fuss.

I heard that Pu Hong has entered the Qilijian area, maybe he can be "deceived" to come here.

They have never fought against Shao Thief. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. They dare to fight and fight hard. Maybe they can achieve miraculous results.

In addition, he sent several groups of envoys to Pingyang in succession, with only one core appeal: to request reinforcements, the more the better.

****

On October 24, Wang Mi's first batch of messengers had just arrived in Pingyang, and Bohai King Liu Fu had already sent three batches of messengers.

Liu Cong endured for a long time, and finally sighed: "Ba Shuai of Pingyang led his troops and horses north to Lishi. Lishi's soldiers sent 5,000 people to the north to Chihongling. Chihongling could not hold on, so they retreated to Chihongling.

Make it clear to my son that I will allow him to retreat once at the end. If he retreats later, he will not have to come back."

"Yes." Shiren bowed and retreated, going to deliver the order.

Liu Cong picked up the memorial written by Liu Xian, King of Quyang, requesting reinforcements, with a gloomy expression on his face.

In fact, he was a little confused.

When the Shao bandits attacked Bingzhou, they actually fought a lot of tough battles due to the terrain, and besieged many cities, resulting in heavy casualties. Now, even if they have enough manpower, they should not continue to attack fortified cities.

Is it worth it to sacrifice tens of thousands of people to unite the state?

These are not tens of thousands of farmers, but farmers and soldiers who have been on the battlefield many times and have certain military experience.

Is the attack on Zhiguan really so fierce?

He thought for a while, looked at Wang Chen who was accompanying him, handed the memorial to him, and asked, "What do you think, sir?"

Wang Chen glanced at it roughly and said: "Your Majesty, I think we still need to increase the number of troops. If there is insufficient manpower, just recruit the strong men from Wubao."

Liu Cong was still undecided.

Wang Chen was referring to Wubao Dingzhuang in Pingyang, which the imperial court had strong control over. But many people have been sent to Pubanjin to repair the Zhongli City that was destroyed by the flood.

Starting from last year, because Guanzhong became more and more important, the imperial court followed the example of the three cities of Heyang and built three cities in the east, middle and west in Pubanjin.

Xicheng is located in Fengyi, and Dongcheng is located in the east of Hedong. The two gates are built as ferries and face each other across the river.

Zhongli City was built on the sandbank in the river to connect the east and west cities.

The Yellow River is no better than the Yangtze River, and there are not as many places to cross the river.

Pubanjin is the most important ferry here because it can directly communicate with Kansai and Kanto and bypass Tongguan.

There is Fenglingdu to the south of Zhongtiao Mountain. After crossing the river from Hedong, it is still east of Tongguan and cannot bypass this pass.

There was a flood this year and the Pubanjin Zhongli Castle was seriously damaged, so the association has dispatched manpower to build it.

As for the pontoon bridge, it is also being actively constructed, but the original permanent pontoon bridge has been washed away, and now a temporary pontoon bridge is being built that can only be used for a few months.

The pontoon is very important.

Even though Liu Cong had decided to live and die with Pingyang in his heart, for various reasons, he still ordered the construction of the pontoon bridge to be accelerated - he might not be able to use it, but what about others?

"Transfer the Jie people stationed in Anyi to Wangwu to provide support at any time." Liu Cong thought for a long time and finally issued the order.

At this time, the four queens on the left, middle, right and top came in and brought him tea, snacks and even wine.

Liu Cong looked at the food box and wanted to ask why there was no Five Stone Powder, but thought about it and shut up.

I haven't done it for a long time, and I wanted to do it at first, but when I saw the battle situation, I suddenly lost interest.

He pulled the left queen Wang and the middle queen Xuan into his arms.

The former is fifteen years old and the latter is twenty years old. They are both beautiful. At this moment, they are trying their best to smile and look at him with affectionate eyes.

Liu Cong coughed violently.

Queen Fan sighed and stepped forward to stroke her back.

Liu Cong's first queen was Hu Yan, who was relatively older. In terms of seniority, she was considered his aunt, and she has died.

The second queen, Zhang Huiguang, was his niece, the grand-niece of Empress Dowager Zhang, and the daughter of Zhang Shi, the general who assisted the Han Dynasty. She entered the palace with her sister Zhang Liguang, but she looked ordinary and Liu Cong was annoyed by it.

Especially after comparing the two daughters (Liu E, Liu Ying) and four granddaughters of Taibao Liu Yin, I became even more disgusted with the Zhang sisters who like ugly people and do mischief.

Liu E was very virtuous and often advised Liu Cong.

Liu Yingzi is the most beautiful woman in Pingyang. She is very eloquent, can speak eloquently, and is well versed in political affairs.

Liu Cong once wanted to make Liu Ying his queen, but the Queen Mother firmly opposed it, so the matter was abandoned, and Liu Ying soon died inexplicably.

After Liu Ying died, Liu E didn't live long and then died.

Later, Empress Dowager Zhang died of illness.

As expected, Queen Zhang Huiguang died of "excessive grief" only two days later.

Zhang Liguang lived a little longer, but soon "died in depression".

In short, Brother Cong’s harem is really...

Fan was Zhang Huiguang's personal maid, and she had to choose a way to die, whether it was "dying of fear", "dying in depression", or "accidentally catching a cold", in any case she had to die.

But she was so beautiful that Brother Cong actually spared her and made her the queen.

Liu Cong is very satisfied with the current four queens.

At least it has good looks, a good figure, and talents. It is his favorite style.

He didn't want to experience the nightmare of Zhang Huiguang sisters again - an ugly person could become a queen? This was not the Jin Dynasty.

Looking at his four queens, Liu Cong suddenly felt emotional. He gently touched Wang's face and asked, "What will you do if something unexpected happens to me?"

Wang was young and was a little confused at first. After she figured it out, her body couldn't stop shaking.
To be continued...