On the south bank of the Fen River, soldiers of one battalion after another crossed the bridge.
The bridge had been built for several days, and the water rose several feet overnight, almost submerging it near the campsites of the two armies.
The sergeants waded through the stagnant water and struggled to expand the defense line to the outside to facilitate the follow-up army.
Liu Xun led two thousand Jin soldiers to form an array on the dry high ground. He first used powerful crossbows to attack and fired. After being suppressed, he simply rushed down to the high ground and met the newly arrived part of the Jiangzhou Army.
What Shao Shude saw from the watchtower on the other side of the river was such a funny scene: Thousands of people on both sides were wading in the river water up to their calf bones, walking hard in the yellow mud soup, and the process of fighting each other looked like a stage.
It was like a fight that was fake to the extreme.
He hurriedly descended from the watchtower, got on his horse under the escort of his own soldiers, and headed for the other side of the river.
A sentry rider came running from a distance. When he got close, he dismounted and jumped into the water. He rolled and climbed to the front of Shao Shude's horse and reported: "General Xu has gone downstream to find a place to wade across the river and is preparing to pursue the bandit army."
"Let him seize the opportunity, pursue and fight fiercely, and leave as many enemy troops as he can!"
"As you command!" After the sentry saluted, he hurried away again. Water splashed everywhere he passed.
The bridge was very wide, and the soldiers carefully pulled the horse's bridle and escorted Shao Shude across the river.
The fight continued as if in slow motion.
It looks unstructured, but it is very bloody. The Jin soldiers fought hard to prevent the Xia army from pursuing them. This makes people a little surprised. With a reward of a few cents, what are you doing with your life?
The pursuit began as soon as they crossed the river.
In addition to the 3,000 cavalrymen of the Tielin Army led by Xu Hao, Meng Zhixiang and Murong Fu also dispatched with 2,000 cavalry from the bodyguards and pursued them bravely along the direction of the enemy's retreat.
More and more infantry were crossing the Fen River.
Under the command of the officers, they surrounded them from both wings and gradually squeezed the only two thousand Jin soldiers who were still resisting into a corner.
Shao Shude withdrew his gaze and led his soldiers to gallop up a high slope.
It must have been several years, right? In the past few years, he has rarely been on the front line. He usually sits in the rear and directs, coordinating the overall situation.
After all, handsome and general are different.
Thanks to his "blessing", the Tielin Army had fewer and fewer opportunities to fight face-to-face with the enemy, so much so that Shao Shude was worried about whether he would feed these guys to waste.
Now it seems that everything is fine. It will not deteriorate in a few years. If it takes longer, for example, if there is no blood in ten or twenty years, it may really be useless, because the age of veterans who have experience and dare to fight is reaching a certain age.
Point, newcomers grow slowly in a privileged life, then they are truly perfect. Just like the Bianliang Forbidden Army during the late Emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty, they were equipped with first-class equipment, but the Tianwu Army, which ranked second in combat power, was despised by Li Cunxu, thinking that they were not as good as Zhu Quanzhong.
The seniors of the period can fight.
"Send someone to persuade Liu Xun to surrender." Shao Shude looked at the Jin soldiers who were besieging Youdou and said.
Wang Yao, whose legs were covered in mud, ran over and said: "Uncle, Wang Ke has already taken his people to escape first, but there are still 20,000 rebels. They abandoned the camp in a hurry. How could they all run so fast?"
My nephew requested to lead troops to pursue him, and I will behead Wang Ke and offer him his head."
Shao Shude glanced at him, smiled and said: "Nephew, please be patient. I have sent the cavalry to pursue them in a detour. If the thieves just run for their lives, they will surely gain something. If there is an ambush behind them, they will not be in great danger."
Sorry, Sergeant Jiangzhou, you are tired from fighting for a long time, please rest here first."
"My uncle is more considerate than my nephew." Wang Yao suddenly realized and praised. However, the expression on his face showed a sense of loss and unwillingness.
On the other side of the battlefield, the fighting was coming to an end. Five thousand Jiangzhou soldiers, plus four thousand Tielin troops who were outflanking them from the left and right wings, stepped on the muddy yellow soup and slipped step by step, almost completely squeezing in the remaining more than a thousand enemy soldiers.
Fenshui.
"General Liu, you and your family are all in the east of the river, why do you have to sacrifice your lives for Wang Ke? My commander-in-chief said that those who abandon their weapons will avoid death. If you surrender, how about leaving it alone?"
There were dozens of people shouting, all with loud voices, and they were distributed in various places, making sure to be heard by the Jin soldiers.
After hearing this, the Jin soldiers who were about to fight to the death were moved, their hands could not help but slow down, and they looked at the general Liu Xun with expectant eyes.
Liu Xun sighed secretly and looked at the post road to the southwest.
Wang Yao ran away first with more than 2,000 cavalry, followed closely by thousands of Tao Jianzhao's men. The main force of Zhang Hanyu's men had been defeated, and even he himself was trapped on the north bank of Fen River.
In the end, of the more than 20,000 people who could escape, one-third had to burn high incense, and probably not that many.
The army was defeated like a mountain! Wang Ke had lost most of his throne.
While he was thinking, a large group of Tielin soldiers had already bypassed from a short distance away and were chasing the Pu army in the direction of their retreat.
Their breakup has no meaning anymore.
"It's down!" Liu Xun was disheartened and threw his spear into the muddy water.
More than a thousand Jin soldiers also lost their weapons and looked relieved.
"Collect the equipment. We will take care of it first, and then we will arrange for manpower to send them to the danger zone and hand them over to Kang Junli." Shao Shude ordered.
"As commanded."
…
On the Pujiang section of Taiyuan Dayi Road in Chang'an, the troops were routed for hundreds of miles.
From Qin Village in the north to Baoding County and Fendian in the south, as well as Xinyi Store where the fastest runner Wang Ke's troops were temporarily stationed, Pu soldiers were everywhere lying on the roadside panting.
They were walking in such a hurry that they didn't even have time to bring food and water, so they fled with the officers in a daze. As a result, they got separated while running away. The officers couldn't find the soldiers, and the soldiers couldn't find the officers, and they were in chaos.
There was a rapid sound of horse hooves.
Pu Bing, who was cooking in a dilapidated temple on the roadside, hurriedly extinguished the fire without daring to make a sound.
Fortunately, the cavalry did not stop here, and they pursued southward at lightning speed.
The sergeants were very happy. Let's go and chase those generals, so that they don't harm our big soldiers.
This battle was lost in a blur! Suddenly I heard that Bei'an was defeated, and suddenly I was about to run away. The soldiers at the bottom had limited information channels, and they didn't know how they lost, let alone why the big shots wanted to run away. They could only sigh inwardly at the bad luck.
, with such an incompetent retainer, I don’t know how many people will be tricked to death by him.
Meng Zhixiang, a member of the bodyguard of the Qianhu Army, and his three hundred cavalrymen, looked at the broken troops hiding in the grass, hiding among the villages, and sitting on the field ridges on the roadside, and did not bother to care at all.
The most important thing now is to catch up with Wang Ke.
Although there is little hope, Wang Ke's troops probably have a lot of horses, but people have to have dreams, right? What if they catch it?
The war horse continued to gallop forward.
Suddenly hundreds of soldiers rushed out from the roadside. Meng Zhixiang was startled, subconsciously drew his riding bow and shot two arrows in a row, killing one of them.
"Stop shooting! Stop shooting!" The leader of the defeated troops hid behind a tree and shouted, "I am willing to surrender!"
"Get out of here!" Meng Zhixiang was too lazy to pay attention to these people, flicked his riding whip and continued to move forward.
"But Wang Shijun's soldiers in Jiangzhou? We are willing to surrender." The leader of the routed troops said loudly: "We will support Wang Shijun and go to the east of the river. We will protect him and stay there. Wang Shijun will reward each person with two pieces of silk."
"
No one paid attention to him. The rumble of horse hooves gradually faded away.
"It looks like they are Xia thieves, not Wang Shijun's soldiers." Someone suddenly said.
"Huh? Xia Thief? Then we won't surrender! Take the small road back to the east of the river. If Wang Yao comes, we will surrender him, and then let him and Xia Thief do it! It is not the turn of outsiders to make the decision in the four prefectures in the river."
"That's right. Most of the brothers have actually broken up. If we gather them together, there will still be enough people."
"Wang Ke fought a bullshit fight! He was so confused that he lost without even seeing Thief Xia's face."
"Insects cannot fight and cannot be masters."
The defeated soldiers talked in confusion and helped each other away.
Meng Zhixiang rode his horse continuously and arrived at Baoding County in one day. On the evening of the next day, he pursued him to Xinyi Store.
On the way, they captured several defeated soldiers and interrogated them, and learned that Wang Ke had broken camp and set off back to Puzhou the day before.
After all, Xinyi Store is only thirty-five miles away from Hezhong City and can be reached in a short time.
The total mileage from the city in the river to the Fenshui River where the two sides were fighting was no more than 180 miles. If you focus on running away, it will be really difficult to catch up.
"These bastards can run very fast!" Meng Zhixiang sighed and called on the soldiers to go back and collect the enemy troops along the way. Since we can't catch Wang Ke, we will weaken his strength and cut off his minions.
.
We can capture as many of the Hezhong yamen soldiers as we can, but we cannot let them return to Hezhong City safely.
…
The atmosphere in River City was serious, even tense.
Thirty thousand troops went out to fight, but less than 3,000 came back. Although some broken troops would come back one after another, a disastrous defeat was a high probability.
Wang Ke's already very weak prestige suffered a fatal blow and fell to almost zero.
"Husband, why do you need to be so concerned?" His wife, Mrs. Li, sat quietly next to Wang Ke and said, "I have written to my grandfather asking for help. As long as we guard Hedong County well, there may not be any chance of turning things around."
"Where are my father-in-law's reinforcements? Why hasn't there been any movement yet?" Wang Ke said anxiously: "If they arrive any later, I'm afraid they will have to collect the bodies for me."
Mrs. Li looked at her husband quietly and sighed: "Husband, what's the point of sighing now that things have come to this? I heard that Shao Shude is not a murderer, and he is very generous to his children, nephews and descendants. Even if the city in the river is destroyed, what can be done?
?If the husband does not want to return to Jinyang with me, I will accompany him to the court."
"Enter the court?" Wang Ke was stunned and didn't say anything.
This also seems to be a way out.
The imperial court had never refused those who had failed in the annexation wars of feudal towns and internal power struggles when they requested to join the imperial court.
Entering the dynasty as an envoy would definitely give you no chance of becoming a powerful prime minister, but it seems good to get a noble position.
Shi Zan has already entered the court, and Li Kuangwei is about to enter the court. Do I, Wang Ke, want to become the third important figure in the feudal town to enter the court in recent years?
"Husband." Mrs. Li sat closer and whispered: "Now we need to reward our soldiers and generals generously, and the sergeants who accompanied my husband back home must also be rewarded more. The current situation is critical, and the old government soldiers in the city have ulterior motives.
, maybe one day I will tie up my husband and throw him out to perform his duties. The husband must have his own people, and those who have gone through hardships together are the most suitable for promotion and appointment."
"This..." Wang Ke hesitated and said, "If we only reward these people, will it make other sergeants dissatisfied and cause trouble? It's inappropriate."
Seeing that her suggestion was not adopted, Mrs. Li was so angry that she put the teapot on the table and stopped talking.
Wang Ke looked at his wife, his eyes flickering slightly. Maybe there is a way to save the crisis?