Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 529 Not Shameful
West Mountain, outside the valley entrance.

The morning was filled with fog, and scouts from both sides traveled back and forth in the thin mist, driving each other away and fighting.

Five or six miles away, Zhang Liao rode his horse here again and watched from afar.

One could vaguely see the Youzhou soldiers cutting down the trees near the road and building strongholds on both sides of the valley entrance relying on the mountain terrain.

At the same time, trenches were dug into the roads or logs were piled up to serve as obstacles.

Zhang Liao reined in his horse and did not move. Soon Fa Zheng arrived at the front on horseback and saw the obstacles set up by the Youzhou rebels.

The people around him observed and said, "Your Majesty has predicted that it is not advisable to attack head-on. Set up camp around the chariots and rest the soldiers and horses."

By the time the morning mist dissipated, two vehicle camps had been set up.

There are still large areas of unharvested rice fields in the fields south of Cheying.

However, these rice fields had been ravaged once by the Youzhou rebels, and were in a mess due to being trampled by men and horses, so there was still a large amount of rice available.

The accompanying horses were all raised here. Fa Zheng inspected the area, rubbed a handful of rice ears in his hands, and looked at the unharvested rice fields in the distance. He could not help but sigh, "The selfishness of the tyrants has caused misfortunes, and innocent men and women have suffered greatly."

Qin Mi was traveling with him, and he said, "Now I am no longer worried about the north, but about the south."

Yang Xiu, who was squatting on the edge of the field and picking rice ears with a short dagger, looked up and said with a smile: "Sir, are you worried about the heroes in your hometown?"

Qin Mi smiled, but it was a very forced smile.

It has been demonstrated through actual battles that when the Grand Marshal entered Shu, he maintained great restraint towards the people of Shu. If the people of Shu did not cherish this restraint.

No matter how restrained they were at the beginning, when the explosion occurred it would surely be several times more brutal.

But they are five or six thousand miles apart. How can he have such influence to interfere with the choices of the heroes in his hometown?

Fortunately, he was from Mianzhu, where the shogunate's army was stationed.

Even if there is a rebellion in Shu, the rebellion will only occur in the south of Mianzhu and will not involve Mianzhu.

At this moment, we were in the west of Ji County, on the flat fields at the edge of the highway.

The cautious Jiao Chu did not lead the cavalry directly to charge Wei Yan's formation, but waited until the Zhongshan soldiers and Hejian soldiers arrived before forming an attack formation.

The two armies were tired from the march and after arriving at the battlefield they sat down on the ground to rest.

Jiao Chu's cavalry formed a battle array vigilantly, attempting to cover the two county and state troops.

He had already made up his mind that after the two county-state troops recovered their strength, he would form a battle formation and advance to fight Wei Yan; then his cavalry would attack from both wings, relying on superior forces to defeat Wei Yan's cavalry, and then attack from both sides to completely defeat Wei Yan.

Wei Yan did not dare to launch an attack rashly, as he knew that the newly recruited soldiers were unreliable.

Under the constraints of military law, it is okay to let the newly recruited soldiers line up and wait for fighting; but if they are deployed, they will immediately become scattered and difficult to control.

In front of the city wall, Black Bear looked at Jiao Chu, who was four or five miles away, wearing a typical embroidered robe and golden armor, under his banner.

After watching for a while, I saw two more Yuan troops advancing towards here on the road in the distance. The closest one was about fifteen or sixteen miles away.

Black Bear felt a little embarrassed and wanted Wei Yan to launch a defensive counterattack to make Yuan's army consume more energy so that Wei Yan could capture more prisoners.

But looking at the current situation, even if we defeat Yuan’s army, we won’t be able to capture many prisoners.

They must not pursue the enemy too deeply, otherwise the Yuan army that arrives later will be able to pick up the fleeing soldiers and have the possibility of counterattacking the pursuers.

After thinking for a while, Black Bear turned his head and instructed: "Raise the red flag."

"Yes!"

The defenders on the city walls responded, put down the battle flags in their hands one after another, turned around and raised the red flags on the ground.

Seeing this, Wei Yan at the foot of the city took a deep breath and said, "Beat the drum!"

The drums sounded, and the forty centurions organized by Wei Yan were divided into seven battle groups, with four in front and three in the back, pressing towards the southeast.

At the same time, the cavalry on both wings also advanced slowly. Amid the drumbeats, at first these infantrymen could still advance in unison to the beat of the drums.

After less than fifty steps, the pace became scattered, but the size of a hundred-man team was still maintained, and there was no mixing. Also in the sound of drums, the Zhongshan and Hejian soldiers who were sitting on the ground to rest stood up one after another, and formed a battle array under the shouting and supervision of the military officers.

Most of these military officers were powerful and tyrants. Facing the life-and-death crisis, they either shouted and scolded, or whipped, or kicked the buttocks of servants and soldiers with their cold and hard leather shoes.

At this time, the city gate slowly opened.

Lu Bu led the way, wearing a white robe and golden armor, with two battle flags inserted diagonally behind him.

As he appeared, the Hejian soldiers deployed on the right wing of Jiaochu were immediately in an uproar. The military officers could not stop them by shouting, and even if they drew their swords and swung them, they still could not suppress the commotion.

As more and more armored cavalry appeared behind Lu Bu, the entire Hejian army fell into chaos and fled backwards uncontrollably.

Some powerful military officers were dragged into the conspiracy, and some even had no time to mount their horses before they were dragged away by their subordinates and fellow villagers.

During the escape, throwing away weapons and armor to reduce the weight is an inevitable measure.

The unusual movement of the Hejian soldiers soon affected the knights on horseback, as they had better vision, and the entire Yuan army fell into a state of stiffness and sluggishness.

Even Jiao Chu took a few glances before concluding that it was Taishi Wengong who came: "He... this... this is indeed a trick against our army!"

The military officer beside him urged: "General, if our army is gone, the Wuhuan from the three counties will arrive and we will have no way to check and balance them!"

But if he just turned around and ran away, although he could save the cavalry, wouldn't he lose his face?
The military officer guessed Jiao Chu's difficulty and immediately said, "General! Taishi Wengong set an ambush specifically for you. You were able to escape, which is something that ordinary people cannot do!"

It is not shameful to escape from the hands of Taishi Wengong. Being able to save your life shows real ability.

Jiao Chu reacted and didn't care about the Zhongshan soldiers on the left wing who were unaware of the situation. He immediately shouted, "Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

As he made his choice, the flag officer beside him immediately lowered the commander's flag. All the cavalrymen who were paying attention to this place saw it and shouted, "Retreat!"

Driven by the desire to escape, even though Black Bear hurriedly ordered Lu Bu to chase and kill Jiao Chu, the Yuan army knights who were trying to escape were all fighting bravely.

The horses were galloping vigorously, and Jiao Chu moved even further away from the team of personal guards. He took off his conspicuous golden helmet, half-crouched on the horse's back, and covered his gilded Ming Guang armor with his cloak.

So many knights fled together, chasing each other, the men and horses were confused, and in the smoke and dust, Black Bear quickly lost his target.

They could only control the armored cavalry to chase them for seven or eight miles and then turn back. As for the Zhongshan soldiers on the left wing who were a step slower in fleeing, they did not dare to run backwards and could only run sideways towards the water.

Except for some people who jumped into the river, the rest were forced to surrender by Wei Yan.

It was not until late afternoon that Wei Yan drove about two thousand prisoners to clean up the battlefield outside the city.

Even something as small as an arrow costs money and requires manpower to produce. When manpower is producing, it needs to be paid and given rice and millet.

After following Liu Bei for a long time, Wei Yan developed the habit of being thrifty.

Seeing Wei Yan leading his troops into the city, Black Bear said goodbye to him and galloped along the road towards the west mountain under Wei Yan's reluctant gaze.

It took Zhang Liao and others two hours to march, but he only ran a quarter of an hour.

Outside the temporary camp, when he arrived, some soldiers were slaughtering horses.

The blood dyed the water red and spread for seven or eight miles.

The slaughtered and skinned horse meat was soaked in the river water on the spot. After the remaining blood was washed away, the soldiers cut it carefully. The horse meat was rough and tasted good only after being stewed deeply.

In a battlefield environment, eat in whatever way is convenient.

This way of eating belly meat is very convenient.

After eating and drinking enough, it will be convenient to fight after nightfall.

In mountainous and hilly warfare, the forces that can come into contact between the two sides are limited.

Because his vision was affected, even if Tian Yu had ten times the courage, he would not dare to dispatch troops to reinforce the battle at night.

If he dares to mobilize troops, I will launch an all-round attack.

(End of this chapter)