Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

The battlefield was cleaned up slowly, and many of the bodies of the comrades were no longer recognizable as human beings. They had to be carefully sorted before being put on vehicles and taken away to await on-site burial.

On the other side, the Liao army prisoners were being gathered and tied up with ropes. There were about 13,000 to 14,000 of them. The huge group of prisoners had to require the Qi army to send special troops to guard them.

"...Have the people at the back quickly erect some wooden fences and put the prisoners in first. Have the troops from all the surrounding units send some people to guard them first." Lu Bu looked at the tired soldiers in the light of the fire and said, "Send them to the back early tomorrow morning. We still have a battle to fight, and it would be too much of a burden to bring them along."

Black and red flags fluttered in the night sky. Soldiers holding swords and shields walked around to guard. Lu Bu, wearing a beast-head chain armor, walked in the middle. He looked up at the night sky and was silent for a while. "Let the baggage camp build a simple camp first, so that the soldiers can rest. It's too late to set up camp as usual now."

Yu Cheng nodded and said something to a few guards. They rode their horses and ran to the back. At this time, Niu Wenzhong bandaged his wound and rode over on his horse. When he saw Lu Bu, he quickly rolled off the saddle and saluted: "Greetings, my king."

"Don't be so polite on the battlefield." Lu Bu shook his head and motioned him to get up. He frowned at the white scarf oozing blood on his shoulder and asked, "How did you get hurt?"

"I was not as skilled as my opponent on the battlefield, and was slashed by a bald Khitan man." Niu Wenzhong glanced at his shoulder and scratched his head: "I just asked the military doctor to check it out. There is no big problem. I just need to rest for a few days."

Seeing his own king across from him relax and turn around to walk away, Niu Wenzhong hurriedly followed him: "My king, I came here to talk about something."

The figure walking forward didn't even turn his head: "Go ahead."

Figures were busy walking around. Some picked up intact swords and guns from the ground, tied them up, and carried them to the side. Niu Wenzhong watched the figures walk away and whispered, "Wanyan Zongjun, a lieutenant under my command, is not stable. When the war started, he disobeyed orders and ran to Wanyan Zongbing's army without permission and never came back..."

"This is a matter for your army. You can write a letter to the Military Affairs Department later."

"...But, my lord, this is not what I want to talk about." Looking at the back of the figure in front of him, Niu Wenzhong hesitated: "It's not that I want to pick on Wanyan Changshui, but I always feel that he is not content. First, the lieutenant in my army ran to his army for no reason, and then he dragged his feet in the attack during the battle, resulting in me and others failing to break through the enemy's blockade. I always feel that..." Seeing that the figure in front of him did not respond, he lowered his head and said, "It seems that he did it on purpose."

The footsteps in front slowed down. Lu Bu looked at him sideways and patted his intact shoulder: "These things are just your conjectures. I can't punish him for your speculations. Maybe he is not capable enough, but he can't break through the blockade." Looking at Niu Wenzhong's somewhat unwilling expression, he smiled and patted his arm twice: "But I can feel your desire to help me on the battlefield."

The injured general smiled, and Lu Bu turned his head and said: "Let's do this for tonight. We have to send troops to Linhuang Prefecture tomorrow. Since you are injured..." After a slight silence, he said: "Then lead the troops to escort these surrendered soldiers back tomorrow."

Niu Wenzhong nodded in agreement.

Soon, before midnight, the battlefield, which had been bustling for a long time, began to return to silence. In the place full of blood and flesh, many faint green lights appeared, and the sounds of chewing and fighting were heard in the darkness.

……

The curtain of night was lifted by the dawn in the east, at the border of Longhuazhou and Huizhou.

White clouds illuminated by the golden sun passed through the sky. Under the bright sky, hundreds of horsemen were galloping on the plains. Clusters of Liao soldiers were gathering. After a night of desperate running, they felt more or less safe. The moment they relaxed their minds, fatigue and hunger took over their bodies at the same time. Many people took out their marching rations and put them to their mouths, but they couldn't bite them.

The long period of escape has caused those who rely on their own legs to over-exercise. Even if there are delicacies in front of them, they have to wait until the intense heartbeat subsides before they can eat.

Frustration, uneasiness and tension were conveyed in the whispers of people. A considerable part of this group of soldiers, totaling no more than 5,000 people, were the remnants of Li Ji's Right Guard. The rest came from Qiong Yao Nayan of the Northwest Route Recruiting Office, the son-in-law Taizhen and the son-in-law Xiao Yu from the Zuo Pi Shi Army, and even the defeated soldiers of the Ugurdilie Military Command, and the defeated soldiers of the Xi people and the Yuan Army.

After this group of people met Li Ji and his wife, Princess Taizhen, they were all kept by them. However, the affiliations of each army were mixed, and the court officials standing behind them were different. He did not dare to really break them up and incorporate them into his own army. He just temporarily formed infantry and cavalry teams according to the size of their official positions, and he acted as the commander-in-chief, directing these people to choose a way to escape.

They were all defeated and had lost all their morale. Facing the Qi army that would definitely attack Linhuang Prefecture from behind, these defeated soldiers had no power to fight at all. What's more, what they needed to do now was to take a rest first, otherwise Li Ji suspected that these soldiers would be exhausted to death on the spot before they could run to a safe place.

After the order to rest was given, many defeated soldiers lay on the ground on the spot and could not sit up no matter what. The cavalrymen who had horses dismounted and kept comforting the horses that were foaming at the mouth. They sat down to rest only after the horses slowed down. Many of them were knights who had been close to the periphery when Lu Bu charged into the battle. They were lucky to have survived and did not want to face the red figure again in a short time. Some of the older ones had the idea of ​​leaving the army.

Soldiers sat on the ground in groups, and in the middle of the circle surrounding the city were the figures of generals. Li Ji ate the dry food he brought with him in silence and drank a mouthful of cold water. Next to him, the son-in-law Xiao Yu chewed the dried meat vigorously and muttered: "I don't know where Marshal Yelu ran off to. He has gathered a lot of people along the way, but there is no news about him."

"Most likely they didn't go this direction." The consort Taizhen swallowed hard, the rations that hadn't been boiled in water were a bit dry and hard, scratching her throat: "Even Xiang Wen wasn't here."

"I saw him. He ran towards Jiangshengzhou." Qiong Yao Nayan rubbed his palm, and the wound that was no longer bleeding was slightly painful. "He was defeated too quickly. I wanted to go back and look for him, but I didn't expect to see the flag of the Zuopishi Army fall when I turned around."

"It's good enough that I survived." Xiao Yu glanced at him, and remembered that he was almost crushed by the warhorse before. He shuddered: "I don't want to see that guy Lu Bu again. I will apply for a transfer to Xijing Road, far away from here."

“…Who isn’t?”

Someone muttered something, and then the generals who had gathered together fell silent. After a while, Qiong Yao Nayan spoke up: "If His Majesty had sent more troops, perhaps this battle would have been different."

"...It's useless." Li Ji finally spoke, lowering his head and said sullenly, "Apart from the large number of people, the morale of the army is too poor. Only the resentment army can be led, and the rest of the troops were defeated very quickly. It took only a few hours to get to this point. If we had fought here in the past, we wouldn't have been able to win within a few days."

"It's all Xiao Fengxian's fault. If he hadn't protected his defeated brother..."

"Zhi'er Fulang!" Li Ji called his name in a neither light nor heavy voice. When the big man stopped talking, he glared at him and said, "Shut up!"

The general who spoke shrank his neck, and then ate in silence. The others pretended not to hear. They were all soldiers and knew clearly what happened in the fourth year of Tianqing. More people were complaining in their hearts. If that man had not protected his defeated brother and let him go without guilt, causing the soldiers under him to lose the faith to fight to the death, the war situation would not have collapsed so quickly.

Of course, he did not forget the role of King Lu Bu of Qi in charging the formation, but he deliberately ignored the fiery figure. Just as Xiao Yu said, no one wanted to see him again in a short period of time.

For a moment, there was no sound of talking in the circle in the center. Only whispers could be heard from the surroundings, mixed with the sound of crying. There were panicked people holding knives and muttering to themselves, and some people nervously curled up against a tree trunk.

But at this time everyone was exhausted and no one was willing to walk around the camp.

Soon, the defeated soldiers, who had relaxed their minds, began to fall asleep one after another, and the sound of snoring could be heard in this temporary resting place.

……

The skylight jumped onto the sea of ​​clouds, and the golden sunlight became brighter.

Wow!
The bushes swayed, and the expressionless general in black armor leaned against a few dead branches to look around and exhaled. Behind him was a team of 1,500 people. As he walked out of the old forest, they took a deep breath and many of them raised their hands to their foreheads.

"Someone, go check ahead and see where we are." Shi Wengong said helplessly, then led his horse to a rock and sat down, leaving his mount eating the tender grass beside him without paying any attention.

Several scouts in the army hurriedly rode out on their war horses. A personal soldier took out a geomancy map and handed it over. Shi Wengong just waved his hand and said, "We don't even know where this place is. What do you need this for?"

He looked up at the clouds floating in the sky and sighed. He had traveled at night before, but this was the first time he walked in the forest. He thought he could take a shortcut to the battlefield, but he lost his way while running in the forest. Now he didn't know where he was.

Trouble...

Shi Wengong slowly raised his hand, stuffed a dry and hard rice ball into his mouth, took a sip of water, chewed it hard twice before swallowing it hard.

When these Qi soldiers had finished their breakfast and were sitting there nodding their heads, the sound of horse hooves broke their sleepiness. Many knights stood up, drew their swords and mounted their horses. They only relaxed when they saw three dark figures in their sight.

He was a scout who went out to investigate.

Shi Wengong watched the scout approach, dismounted, and clasped his fists: "General, a group of Liao soldiers were spotted ahead."

Shi Wengong raised his eyebrows, stood up and took two quick steps forward: "How many people? What flags?"

"I don't know how many people there are. From what I can see from above, they are all resting and sleeping. There are all kinds of flags, and I can't tell which group they belong to. They just look a little dishevelled, and many of their flags are tattered, as if they had been through a tough battle."

"Rest, sleep, fight..." Shi Wengong stroked the messy beard of the director under his chin and said, "Did you meet the king?" He put down his hand and strode to the warhorse, climbed on the horse, and shouted back, "Everyone get on the horse and go wake up the Khitan people!"

The cavalrymen had been holding back their anger for having taken the wrong road, and now they were delighted to have a way to vent their anger. They mounted their horses, shook the reins, and gradually formed a cavalry formation while running. With the sound of loud hooves, they galloped towards the direction led by the scouts.

The more than 5,000 Liao soldiers on horseback and infantry who were soundly sleeping over there were unaware of anything. It was only when the thunderous sound of horse hooves from Shi Wengong's troops rang out a hundred feet away that some of them sat up in a daze.

"kill--"

Shi Wengong looked at the Liao soldiers sleeping on the ground in front of him, raised his Fang Tian Hua Ji and let out a loud roar.

The 1,500 cavalrymen behind him had been streamlined, with many old and weak ones cleared out of the cavalry. The rest were all strong and healthy men. Qi was a country founded on military merit, and the rewards were the highest, so they had long been eager for a fight.

Many of the Liao soldiers who were sleeping soundly were having nightmares and were awakened by the sound of war horses' hooves and Shi Wengong's roar. With sleepy eyes, they looked at the figure holding the Fang Tian Huaji and a large flag with the word "Qi" written on it fluttering in the wind behind them. They suddenly stood up in panic, yelling "Ahhhhhhhhh" unconsciously, and turned around and ran away with their knives in their hands.

There was a general standing in front of him, rubbing his face, wanting to shout to wake up the sleeping person and escape, but he was suddenly hit in the face by the man with a knife. Blood splattered, and a fishy-sweet smell began to fill the air. More and more people were wielding knives and guns.

"Get out of my way——"

"You dare to chop me! I'll kill you!"

"Damn it, are you crazy?!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha--"

All kinds of sounds exploded in this small field. Everyone was swinging their swords at the people around them. The blood splashing on their faces made their expressions even more ferocious. More and more soldiers were involved.

"stop!"

Twenty feet away, Shi Wengong was watching on his horse with his mouth wide open, holding up his Fang Tian Hua Ji and shouting loudly. A group of cavalrymen reined in their horses one after another, leaning back uncontrollably and standing there dumbfounded as they looked at the Liao army which was in such a mess.

The blade frequently reflected the sunlight from the sky, and the broken limbs and blood kept splashing onto the people around. The moment Li Ji opened his eyes, he saw someone rushing towards him. He instinctively grabbed his gun, and as the iron spear stabbed towards his chest, he grabbed the spear shaft, swung his hand and shot the man in the face, knocking him unconscious instantly.

"What's going on?!"

The sounds of fighting and shouting flooded into his ears, along with more unconscious screams and crazy roars. The right guard general, who had regained consciousness, turned around, the scene of demons dancing wildly reflected in his pupils. In the distance, the fluttering large flag with the word "Qi" came into his sight.

"General, General! Camp howl, camp howl!" Zhier Fulang staggered over with the Moon Axe in his hand. When he was about to wake up, someone stepped on his leg. If he had not reacted quickly, he would have been a dead body by now.

"I saw it!" Li Ji said with a dark face, showing some regret.

It was time to patrol the camp and drive the soldiers who had already fled to the side to rest.

After blaming himself, the general stood up and shouted, "Men of the Right Guard, come and gather! Defend, defend—"

At the back, Qiong Yao Na Yan, Tai Zhen's husband and other generals also came over. When they heard Li Ji's cry, they moved their lips and said, "General Li, is it too late to send someone over now?"

However, as if answering him, the soldiers carrying the flags of the Right Guard fought and retreated at the same time. Many of them cooperated with each other in retreating to Li Ji from the killing, and then surrounded the circle of generals as usual.

"...The Right Guard is indeed well-trained." The voice of Prince Consort Taizhen was amazed.

Li Ji smiled bitterly. That was not the case. It was obvious that the men under him were ready to surrender, so the string in their hearts had not yet been stretched tight and broken.

But I can’t explain this to others in detail.

In front of them, more and more figures were fighting and entangled. The Qi army on horseback was stunned and finally understood what was happening. Shi Wengong pulled the reins and said, "Back off a little. Don't get dragged into these lunatics."

"General, why don't you take this opportunity to attack us?"

"Why kill him?" Shi Wengong looked at him coldly and said, "Wait." (End of this chapter)