Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 329 323. Return to Camp
"King Mulu, why don't you let your men continue the pursuit? The Han army has been badly defeated. If you continue the pursuit, they will surely suffer heavy casualties!"

After both sides gathered their troops, Dongdana was somewhat dissatisfied with King Mulu's decision to stop pursuing the Han army on his own initiative, and he criticized King Mulu in a questioning tone.

"Humph."

King Mulu didn't care about Dongdana's accusation at all, he just snorted and left. Unlike Dongdana, King Mulu's position in the 72 caves of Nanzhong has always been relatively neutral. This time he came to help only because the pressure from the Han people was too great, and Meng Huo gave him a lot of benefits.

King Mulu didn't want to exhaust his army of wild beasts just because he was wholeheartedly helping Meng Huo. If he did so, Meng Huo probably wouldn't praise him, but would just swallow him and his cave, leaving nothing behind.

King Mulu ordered his soldiers to count the remaining beasts and clean up the battlefield. Dong Tuna was very annoyed by King Mulu's bad attitude, but he didn't dare to offend him too much. He could only suppress his anger and order his soldiers to search the battlefield, capture the wounded Han soldiers, and loot their equipment.

"My lord, our beasts are fighting..."

Soon, King Mulu's men controlled the beasts on the battlefield and drove them back to King Mulu's residence. The casualties were also counted. King Mulu lost nearly 400 beasts in this battle, leaving him with less than 1,000 beasts under his control.

This huge loss was one of the reasons why King Mulu was unwilling to continue fighting the Han army. I have accumulated wealth with great difficulty for decades, and one third of it was destroyed in one battle. Who can bear this?

However, Dong Tuna was still very happy. According to the count by his soldiers, the Han army suffered heavy casualties in this battle. This was a rare advantage that Nanzhong had over the Han army.

"General Guan, General Zhang, and General Guan Xiao are back."

The guard came in from outside and reported quietly, interrupting Guan Xing who was reading.

"So fast? Did something happen?"

Guan Xing thought about it for a moment and realized that something was wrong. Zhang Bao and Guan Suo had been chasing for less than two days, so how could they come back so soon? It could only be that something happened that forced them to interrupt the pursuit.

Guan Xing still subconsciously ignored the possibility of Zhang Bao's defeat, because in his opinion, even if the Nanman army used some tricks such as ambushes, it would at most hinder Zhang Bao, and it would be almost impossible to defeat Zhang Bao. There was no other way, the strength of the Han army was there.

"General Guan, General Zhang's messenger said... that they were ambushed by the Nanman and suffered heavy losses. Only 6,000 of the 10,000 troops were left, and General Ma Zhong was injured."

The guard reported to Guan Xing in a low voice that out of 10,000 people, more than 3,000 were lost, with a loss rate as high as one-third, which was no different from a major defeat.

"How could this happen? What happened?"

Guan Xing knew that although his sworn brother, who was sworn brothers under the order of the late emperor, looked arrogant and domineering, he was still very capable in marching and fighting. It was almost impossible for an ordinary general to defeat him. How could he have suffered such a great defeat?

"General Zhang said he would come back to personally apologize, but he didn't share any specific details."

The guard shook his head. The messenger Zhang Bao sent back didn't say much, so he had no way of knowing. Guan Xing had no choice but to send the guard away. But when he wanted to read again, he couldn't concentrate.

Everyone thought that the Han army was here just to gain experience and to fight the southern barbarians. With the level of these southern barbarians, they would be able to return home in half a year at the fastest and a year at the longest. But now it seems that things are not as simple as they thought.

A few hours ago, Zhang Bao's side fought and retreated, and finally pulled away more than ten miles, so everyone had time to rest. Zhang Bao gritted his teeth and personally led the team to cover the rear and guard, to prevent the Nanman army from taking advantage of the situation to chase them back. Fortunately, it seemed that the Nanman army also suffered heavy losses, and no one came to chase them, allowing the tense nerves of the Han soldiers to relax and collapse on the ground, gasping for breath.

"General Zhang, the statistics show that there are only about 6,000 people left..."

Zhang Bao leaned against a tree in silence, his face somewhat gloomy, his eyes slightly lowered, as if he was thinking about something. The deputy general who had just been sent by him to count the number of people came back and reported to Zhang Bao with a somewhat sad expression the numbers he had just checked several times.

"Yes... I see. How is General Ma Zhong doing?"

Zhang Bao nodded silently and asked about Ma Zhong's condition. Ma Zhong was a senior general after all, and it was not so easy for him to die, but his mount was also frightened by the beasts, and he was thrown off the horse and injured.

"General Ma Zhong is fine. He suffered some minor injuries, but they are not serious. It's just... General Zhang, the brothers are a little depressed..."

The deputy general considered the choice of words and finally told Zhang Bao the current situation of the Han army. Zhang Bao did not make any statement, which was also expected. The morale of the Han army was high, and now that they were defeated, it was inevitable that their morale would be low.

"Find a brother and send a letter to An Guo. We have to go back and rest."

Zhang Bao was silent for a while, and finally gave another order to the deputy general. The deputy general bowed and went down to find someone.

So after half a day, a group of Han soldiers, like defeated roosters, returned to their previous camp. Their number was obviously much smaller than when they went out.

"Xingguo, you're back? What happened?"

Guan Xing heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Zhang Bao coming back, Guan Suo was safe and sound, and Ma Zhong had only minor skin injuries.

"Alas, this time I was too arrogant and looked down upon all the heroes in the world."

Zhang Bao looked a little depressed. He shook his head and took the blame for the battle on himself.

"General Guan, I am also guilty. I failed to defend our flank, which forced General Zhang and General Guan to retreat. I cannot escape the blame for this battle."

Ma Zhong also admitted his mistake, which made Guan Xing even more curious. Ma Zhong's level was not low. Could it be that the Nanman had some kind of genius who was born with knowledge and easily broke through his defense?

"Don't say that for now. Tell me first, why were you defeated by the Nanman Army? Did the Nanman Army use any tricks?"

Guan Xing directly interrupted the three people who were going to the expedition. He didn't know what had happened from beginning to end, and he needed to know the truth first.

Zhang Bao and Ma Zhong looked at each other, and finally Zhang Bao stepped forward and told Guan Xing what happened during the pursuit, from his order to pursue, to the beast army breaking through Ma Zhong's flank, to his being forced to retreat.

(End of this chapter)