The Jagged Emperor of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 942
Wei Yan looked angrily at the ongoing melee in the distance, and the muscles on his face twitched involuntarily.

As the battle fell into a stalemate, Cao Wei's army finally blocked the charge of the Shu Han troops.Wei Yan's army was dominated by infantry, and the disadvantage of lacking cavalry support was fully exposed at this important moment.

Now that the attacking troops were blocked, the central army was broken through by the enemy, and the left and right flanks were besieged by the enemy, no matter how brave Wei Yan's army was, it would be difficult to achieve further results.

Moreover, Wei Yan's combat experience is extremely rich, and now he has realized that the two sides have been fighting for so long, but they have not seen Su Ze's appearance.Judging from this situation, Su Ze must have received the news in advance and had already led some troops to retreat in advance.Zhang Ji just stayed with some troops to stop the attack, buying time for Su Ze's troops to retreat.

Now that the purpose of the attack has been achieved, it doesn't seem to make much sense to force the attack?
Just when Wei Yan was about to give the order to retreat, there was a sudden huge movement from the direction of Fenghuang Ridge on the side of the battlefield, like ten thousand horses galloping.

After Wei Yanjing listened to the sound for a while, she was overjoyed and did not give the order to retreat temporarily.Because according to the size of this cavalry team, it should be Gaimeng's cavalry team coming.

Du Zuo obviously also sensed the approaching danger, and suddenly issued an order for the entire army to retreat, and shouted to the herald: "Order all the ministries to shrink intensively and leave the battlefield to the south!"

The rapid sound of war drums and the continuous waving of battle flags guided the soldiers fighting on the battlefield to move south.

On Wang Ping's side, he took the lead and fought hard. After a period of fierce fighting, he successfully intercepted Guo Fei's cavalry troops and cut off their formation at the middle.Wei Yan's men who were blocked on the left battlefield swarmed forward.

However, Guo Fei did have two hands. Seeing that the situation was not right, he immediately led the remaining half of the cavalry to quickly retreat, and the troops quickly moved to the south.

Soon, Gai Meng's troops arrived, and cooperated with Wei Yan's troops to either wipe out most of the cavalry and infantry of the Cao Wei army who were surrounded and unable to escape, or force them to surrender immediately by force.

But for the part of Guo Fei and Du Zuo who had already escaped, the Shu Han army was really helpless.

An hour later, the war was finally completely over. At this time, the sky had become twilight, with a faint gray on the horizon.

The corpses of soldiers and horses from both sides were everywhere on the battlefield, and there was a strong smell of blood in the slight cold wind.

Wei Yan ordered the soldiers to rescue the wounded as soon as possible, and then cleaned the battlefield and cleaned up the spoils.

After the order was conveyed, Gai Meng also brought Zhi Yuanduo to find Wei Yan.

Gai Meng was very grateful to Gai Meng in his heart. If Gai Meng's men and horses hadn't appeared in time at the last moment, he probably would have led the army to retreat. Then even if he had achieved great results, it would be difficult for him to explain to Emperor Liu Chan. Because not only did he not fully implement the emperor's battle plan, but he was also repelled by the enemy under his private actions.

Wei Yan said a lot of grateful words to Gai Meng and Zhi Yuanduo, and then let Gai Meng go back to rectify the army first.

After Wei Yan sent Gai Meng and Zhi Yuanduo away, he inspected the battlefield, and then sent someone to find Wang Ping, and asked, "How much did our army lose in this battle?"

Wang Ping clasped his hands and replied: "General Wei, our side lost nearly 500 soldiers and injured more than 2000. Cao Wei's army killed more than 3000 and captured about 2000."

Wei Yan nodded, and the originally serious expression on his face became more relaxed, and said: "This result is not bad. From this point of view, it is true that Cao Wei's army did not all participate in the battle, and Su Ze first ran away with some of them. "

Wang Ping nodded, seeming to agree with Wei Yan's statement.Because judging from the current number of killed and captured Cao Weijun, as well as the estimated number of escapees, there is indeed a big gap with the size of Cao Weijun.And the best reason to explain this gap is that Cao Wei's army had already retreated before the battle.

In addition, the fires in Fenghuang Ridge before the war are also sufficient evidence for the explanation.

Of course, after Wei Yan thought through these relationships, he felt more relaxed.

Because he can use this to make the following explanation to Liu Chan: The minister's night attack on Cao Wei's army was really out of the need to adapt to the situation, not just to show off his personal achievements.It's just because Cao Wei's army has obtained all kinds of information from our army in advance, if they don't attack immediately, all opportunities will be lost.

Wei Yan's rhetoric drawn up in his mind is definitely an afterthought, and it may not be the real situation, but it is indeed enough for him to make meritorious deeds, and at the same time, he can completely ignore the relationship between leading the army to attack without permission.

Thinking of this, Wei Yan couldn't help laughing twice, Wang Ping, who had always looked dull, felt very strange.

Then, Wei Yan hadn't forgotten the reinforcements behind him who hadn't arrived in Meiyang, but he had taken most of the credit for them.

Wei Yan asked quite proudly: "Where are the troops of General Lu Xun, Wu Yi and others?"

Wang Ping found the scout captain, and after questioning, he said to Wei Yan, "General Lu Xun's troops have already crossed the river and are rushing over here. They should arrive soon."

Not long after, Wei Yan also got a very good news. Li Baiyuan's troops, who were desperately rushing to Meiyang City, had already chosen to retreat after learning that Zhang Ji's army was attacked by Wei Yan at night. .

Therefore, Wei Yan's troops immediately marched towards Mei Guocheng.

The distance from Meiyang to Meiguo City is about 130 miles, and the distance from Xiaohuaili to Meiguo City is about [-] miles.

At dusk that day, Zhang Ji's remnant soldiers finally rushed to the foot of Qishan to join Su Ze's troops, seriously wounded.

At this time, Zhang Ji's injuries became more serious, his face became as pale as a dead man, and he was dying and unconscious again.

Su Ze looked at this elder, official supporter, superior, and Wangnian acquaintance, and felt so sad that he almost couldn't help crying.

Of course, he couldn't do the stupid move of stepping forward to shake the seriously injured Zhang Ji, but just stood in front of the bed and silently watched the doctor rescue Zhang Ji.

But Zhang Ji didn't seem to wake up.

However, it wasn't until early in the morning that Su Ze got the news that Zhang Ji had woken up.

Su Ze immediately rushed to Zhang Ji's big tent, and sure enough, seeing Zhang Ji waking up, he rushed over and grabbed Zhang Ji's hand, and asked, "De Rong, how are you feeling now?"

Zhang Ji said slowly: "I can't die for the time being. Hey, if Li Baiyuan's army hadn't delayed the rendezvous time, we wouldn't be in such a mess."

Of course Su Ze was very aware of this matter, but he just stared blankly at the dim candlelight and didn't make a sound for a long time.Because Li Baiyuan is a good friend of Zhang Ji, but his friendship with Su Ze is average. Su Ze doesn't want to speak ill of Li Baiyuan now to make an old man who is seriously injured sad.

Zhang Ji went on to say: "I heard that you plan to fight again in Qishan, is that right?"

"Li Baiyuan's men and horses will be here soon." Su Ze nodded and said, "After his cavalry of seven to eight thousand men arrives, our strength will increase greatly. In addition, Gao Shili and the others are also turning around. Come here, we may not be able to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy. Now all the troops of the Shu Han are chasing us. If we don’t stop them in Qishan, I’m afraid it will be difficult for us to defend Tianshui and Hanyang counties when we retreat. .”

Zhang closed his eyes, as if he was thinking about it, and said after a while: "The morale of our troops is low now, and a decisive battle with the Shu Han army at this time is playing into the enemy's hands."

Su Ze sighed, why didn't he think of these things?

Said: "De Jong, if our army wins a victory and immediately chooses to retreat all the way, it will deal a heavy blow to the morale of the army. If this causes Hanyang to be unable to defend, the gate of Liangzhou will be destroyed. Then the hole will be opened, and the Shu Han army will take advantage of the momentum to attack. At that time, the Qiang and Hu tribes will probably turn their backs and stop cooperating with us, and it may be difficult for us to find a chance to turn the tables."

Zhang has experienced too many things, and his mind is firmer than Su Ze. He said: "Master Literary, you are too pessimistic. We just lost a battle and lost thousands of troops. Wei Yan's side is no more. That is an increase of [-] to [-] horses. As long as our reinforcements can join together, the strength of the two sides will still be almost the same. Master Wen, you must know that now Tongguan is blocked by the Shu Han army, and General Cao Zhen’s army can’t get through at all. It means that for a period of time in the future, we will not be able to get His Majesty's support. Therefore, we must try our best to survive, and our army must keep the army, which is the fundamental reason for choosing to retreat."

Su Ze then fell into deep thought.

Zhang Ji also said: "If we want to win, if we want to successfully recapture Chang'an without the support of the Lord, and save the face we lost, we must do everything we can to slowly destroy the enemy with the smallest amount of effort. Not a face-to-face showdown with the enemy, pointlessly draining our existing strength."

Hearing this, Su Ze was suddenly enlightened, nodded and said, "De Rong, your knowledge is always farther than mine!"

Although Zhang felt the pain in his body, but he could hear Su Ze's words, but his face showed joy.

He asked with some difficulty: "Master Wen, you should know what to do next, right?"

Su Ze nodded, and said: "De Jong, you must persevere in the past. If you are gone, how can I support the overall situation alone?"

But Zhang Ji seemed very calm, and said calmly: "Between death and life, the only thing to do is righteousness. What is there to fear in death?"

Su Ze looked at Zhang Ji sadly, feeling a little moved in his heart.

Su Ze sat in Zhang Ji's big tent for a while, and only walked out of the big tent after Zhang Ji finished taking the medicine.

(End of this chapter)