After Huo Qubing received the news about Fenglingdu and Aoguan, he guessed that Li Shimin would probably retreat directly. After all, if he didn't retreat, he would be unable to leave even if he wanted to.
Huo Qubing sent spies to monitor the Tang camp day and night. Sure enough, he found that both Li Shimin and Li Siyuan had withdrawn overnight, and Li Sizhao was left behind after the Wuzhang Yuan was cut off, apparently to stop the Qin army and delay the attack.
Huo Qubing ignored Li Siyuan's troops who had escaped, and instead concentrated all his troops, preparing to forcibly break through Wuzhangyuan and catch up with Li Shimin as quickly as possible.
As a famous general of the Later Tang Dynasty, Li Sizhao was not low in command and force, especially his commander attribute was as high as 95 points. He was more than enough to serve as a defender of a city, but it was a pity that this time he encountered Huo Qubing.
Under the fierce attack of Huo Qubing's 40,000 troops, Li Sizhao could not hold on for even one day. The Wuzhangyuan camp was breached by the Qin army, and Li Sizhao was killed by Gongsun Xuanyuan with one shot.
After breaking through the Wuzhangyuan camp, Huo Qubing did not take any pause and personally led 20,000 cavalry to pursue Li Shimin.
At the same time, Li Shimin's troops, who had fled to Wugong County, ran into Lu Bu's five thousand cavalry halfway.
Among the 40,000 Tang army's infantry and cavalry, fully 10,000 were cavalry, but Lu Bu only had 5,000 cavalry under his command. Naturally, he did not dare to confront the Tang army head-on, but chose to harass them.
The Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry under Lu Bu's command was slower than Huo Qubing's, but much faster than the Tang army.
Relying on his speed advantage, Lu Bu led his army into a guerrilla fight with the Tang army, constantly attacking the Tang army. After one attack, he immediately fled far away, and then continued back and forth, leaving Li Shimin undisturbed.
Lu Bu's harassment did not cause much damage to the Tang army, but it seriously slowed down the Tang army's marching speed.
Li Shimin knew very well that the 10,000 troops left in Wuzhangyuan could not hold off Huo Qubing for long, and if they marched at this speed, let alone Chang'an, they would probably be overtaken by Huo Qubing before they reached Hu County.
In desperation, Li Shimin could only personally lead 50,000 cavalry to guard the two wings of the army. After discovering Lu Bu's traces, he immediately attacked and pursued him closely to keep the army as far away from the Qin army's cavalry as possible.
Just because Lu Bu didn't dare to fight with 40,000 Tang troops doesn't mean that he didn't dare to fight with 10,000 Tang troops. He was not afraid even of cavalry.
Seeing Li Shimin personally leading 10,000 cavalry in pursuit, Lu Bu led his army to retreat fifty miles north and deliberately lured the Tang cavalry away from the infantry. When the distance between the two was too far to provide support, he changed direction and turned around to fight the Tang army decisively.
[Ding dong, Lu Bu's skill "Flying General" is activated with effect 1. When he leads the cavalry in battle, his own command is 4 and his force is 3.
Lu Bu (injured): Commander 88 (3), Force 107 (5), Intelligence 61, Politics 58, Charisma 97 (2);
Currently, Lu Bu’s commandership has increased by 92, and his military force has increased by 110;]
After the Battle of Youzhou, Lu Bu's basic command increased by 1 point, now reaching 88, and his cavalry command can reach 92;
[Ding dong, Lu Bu's skill "Flying General" effect 4 is activated. When commanding the "Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry" in combat, the riding skills of the units will increase, the attack power will increase, the movement speed will increase significantly, and the entire army will command 1 force;
Currently, Lu Bu’s commandership has increased by 93, and his military force has increased by 111;]
It has to be said that the successive victories made Lu Bu a little overconfident. He overestimated himself as the supreme commander of 93, and underestimated Li Shimin, who had a basic commander of 99.
The Qin army's five thousand iron knights were in high morale, but the Tang army's morale was low. In terms of overall combat strength, the five thousand Qin army might be stronger than the Tang army in the past, but the battle required not only combat power, but also brainpower.
Li Shimin did not use any strategy this time, because the battle came so quickly and suddenly that he had no time to make arrangements. However, with an intelligence of 100, even a temporary arrangement was still the best.
Li Shimin divided the army into three groups, with 5,000 men in the center and 2,500 men on the left and right wings. He also ordered Gao Si to lead the center army to fight Lu Bu with Mashanwei, while he commanded the left and right wings to attack the two wings of the Qin army.
Lu Bu was injured in the battle with Kong Peng. Although it was not a serious injury, it still had a certain impact on his combat power.
After that, Lu Bu even fought with Wang Shi even though he was injured, and now he faced off against the two gods of war, Ma Shanwei and Gao Siji.
Lu Bu, who was in poor condition, would naturally find it difficult to replicate his record in the Battle of Youzhou where he single-handedly challenged three war gods and even won.
This battle was very difficult for Lu Bu. Under the attack of two gods of war, Lu Bu, who was injured, only lasted a hundred rounds before falling into a disadvantage.
But when the battle was about to reach the 200th round, Lu Bu chose to retreat.
It wasn't that Lu Bu was afraid of Ma Shanwei and Gao Siji, but that the Qin army couldn't hold on any longer.
Even though Lu Bu was at a disadvantage among the generals, he still paid attention to the battle situation around him, but found that his own side was losing casualties too quickly, so he immediately realized that Li Shimin had seen through the tactics.
The tactics used by Lu Bu were a typical arrow formation, which focused on directly defeating the opponent in one go. However, if he failed to defeat the opponent in one go, he would be exhausted again and fall into the enemy's quagmire.
Li Shimin saw the weakness of this method of warfare at a glance, so he deliberately let Ma Shanwei and Gao Siji hold back Lu Bu, and continuously weakened the Qin army from the weak wings. By the time Lu Bu found out, the Qin army had already suffered many casualties.
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After using all his strength to repel Ma Shanwei and Gao Siji, Lu Bu raised his halberd and shouted: "Retreat."
The Qin army, which had not yet been completely trapped, immediately pulled out and made an emergency retreat. However, many Qin cavalry were entangled by the Tang army and failed to get out in time.
Naturally, Li Shimin would not let go of the opportunity to pursue, and led his troops to pursue him at full speed. However, he discovered that Lu Bu was fleeing to the west. He was worried that he would hit Huo Qubing's pursuers, so he withdrew his troops and stopped pursuing them.
The battle between Lu Bu and Li Shimin pitted three thousand against ten thousand. The two sides fought for two hours, and finally ended with the Qin army's defeat.
After the war, statistics showed that the Qin army suffered 2,000 cavalry casualties and lost nearly two-thirds, while the Tang army actually suffered 3,000 cavalry casualties.
The Tang army was obviously the victorious side and had the advantage in military strength, but its casualties were greater than those of the Qin army, which shows the Qin army's comprehensive combat power.
Through this battle, Li Shimin once again saw the bravery of the Qin army, and he made up his mind that he would never engage in field battles with the Qin army before he was absolutely sure.
After briefly cleaning the battlefield, the Tang army did not want weapons, only armor and horses, and then continued to Chang'an with thousands of armored horses.
On Lu Bu's side, two thousand cavalry were lost, and their injuries were aggravated. Naturally, he was extremely upset, but he did not dare to face Li Shimin alone. The top priority now was to join up with Huo Qubing.
After only half a day of rapid march, Lu Bu ran into Huo Qubing's troops who were chasing him.
When he learned that Lu Bu had been defeated for a while, Huo Qubing did not blame him.
Five thousand against ten thousand, and the opponent is Li Shimin. Lu Bu can still retain three thousand cavalry, which is already quite difficult.
After a brief understanding of the situation, Huo Qubing ordered his horses to speed up and march at full speed, hoping to catch up with Li Shimin as soon as possible, but unfortunately he was still a step too late.
Half a day later, Huo Qubing led his cavalry to pursue Hu County. Just when they were about to enter Jingzhaoyin, Li Shimin's army had already fled into Chang'an.
Although Huo Qubing was extremely upset about this, there was nothing he could do about it. After all, he was leading cavalry, not heavenly soldiers and generals, and it was impossible for him to fly to Chang'an City.