Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 44 Counterattack
The smoke and dust in the southwest direction grew thicker and thicker. After the Sichuan East Army fled, the Yanhai Army and the Boye Army, which were responsible for the western battlefield, could no longer maintain the front line and also retreated to the north.

At this moment, in the chaotic battlefield, everyone in Baoyi looked around blankly. They had not yet recovered from their recent victory.

But Zhao Huaian yelled directly:
"What are you all doing? Follow me and run for your lives!"

After saying that, Zhao Huaian took the lead and ran north. That was the retreat route Xian Yu Yue had told him before. At this moment, he could only trust Xian Yu Yue.

When Zhao Da ran away, everyone woke up as if from a dream. They no longer went to chop off heads and followed Zhao Huaian carrying the battle flag.

Zhao Liu cursed beside him:
"They're all a bunch of cowards. They've all lowered their flags. They're a bunch of cowards who don't even know how to escape."

When the flag bearers of the other eight groups heard this, they woke up as if from a dream. They stepped on the flagpoles and broke them, took down the flags and stuffed them into their pockets.

As expected, Sixth Brother is the best at escaping.

……

Fatty Dou was wearing iron armor, his fat body shaking, and he was holding an iron whip in both hands, yelling and cheering himself up.

Suddenly, he saw Zhao Da, who had been full of vigor and vitality just now, running towards him with his regiment of soldiers.

Just as I was wondering, Zhao Huaian had already run to my side, left a word, and ran away without looking back.

Fatty Dou was stunned for a moment and repeated it:

"Follow me."

The next moment, Fatty Dou's cross-eyed expression straightened out because he also saw the enemy troops in the southwest direction.

Without any hesitation, Fatty Dou yelled at his dirt ball:

"Follow me, no, follow Zhao Da!"

Just like that, Fatty Dou, who had just run all the way here, ran back again. At this moment, he wanted to slap himself in the face:
"Dou Lu Sanlang, Dou Lu Sanlang, you are a cheap bastard. Why do you just follow Zhao Da Chong and don't care about his life or death?"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Fatty Dou was bleeding as he ran. Most of his supplies were left in the camp. If they were lost, the loss would be huge.

How about going to the camp first?

But just as this thought came to my mind, I saw that bastard Zhao Da ran even faster.

"Zhao Da, wait for me! Wait for me!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

……

Along the way, whenever Zhao Huaian saw a familiar leader of the group, he would shout "Follow me", but not many people really listened.

Because of their poor vision, they did not realize that the soldiers from eastern Sichuan had already fled, let alone saw the Nanzhao army crossing the Baizhu River from the upper reaches.

But Zhao Huaian couldn't care less.

He led his team to the place where they had formed their battle array. There, Lao Mo had already gathered the war horses and baggage carts with the baggage train. When he saw Zhao Huaian coming, he breathed a sigh of relief:

"Master, a group of defeated soldiers came to rob us just now, but they were driven away by the Yanhai army that rushed over from behind."

Zhao Huaian said nothing, but kept this in mind, and then said to everyone:

"The troops in eastern Sichuan collapsed first, and the Central Army turned its flag north. Now we can only retreat with the Central Army. The Central Army is escorted by the Zhongwu Army, and its combat effectiveness has remained intact since the battle began. Those Nanzhao troops dare not pursue us, so our only chance of survival is to follow the Central Army. Do you understand?"

No one knew that Zhao Huaian had made a contingency plan before. They just thought that everyone would be able to give orders calmly in such a critical situation and be at ease.

After the battle just now, Zhao Huaian's prestige has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Without any hesitation, Zhao Huaian greeted Fatty Dou who was running towards him from afar, and then led his team and eight supply carts to flee north.

Although there were still many belongings in the camp, they could no longer escape at this moment.

……

Running, running, running, there are fleeing soldiers everywhere.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian truly felt what it meant to be "panic-stricken and see enemies everywhere."

The old Mo was driving a donkey cart at lightning speed. Zhao Huaian was on the cart, looking left and right from time to time, asking everyone to follow closely.

Fortunately, it is afternoon and the day is still bright. If we had escaped in the middle of the night, the team would have been dispersed before we had gone far.

But even so, the teams began to become disconnected. Those from the mountain sheds and the Tang army were fine, as they were the best at running, but the young men from the Xiongbian faction could hardly keep up.

Seeing this, Zhao Huaian stood on the donkey cart and shouted:
"Throw your armor onto the car, quickly."

After hearing this, everyone stopped and began to take off their armor.

Zhao Liu was at the other end of the donkey cart, with Niu Li, who was tying the small drum, sitting next to him. Upon hearing Zhao Huaian's order, he immediately said:
"You can't take off your armor like this. Hurry up and wipe the sweat off with a cloth."

Zhao Huaian immediately realized what was happening and looked behind him. He saw no Nanzhao troops chasing him. He then saw a dense forest to the west and shouted:

"Everyone go to the dense forest and take off your armor."

After saying that, Lao Mo drove his donkey cart down the dirt road and bumped into the dense forest.

Behind him, everyone rushed down together, and then more people followed, not only Fatty Dou and his men, but also some other defeated soldiers who had lost their organization.

Once they arrived, Zhao Huaian found a sheltered spot and began to have everyone remove their armor and wipe each other's sweat. He remained in his Mingguang armor, anxiously gazing out into the forest.

At this time, Fatty Dou, who had finally arrived, was out of breath and clutching the handle of the donkey cart, panting heavily:
"Zhao Da, let's rest here for a while. I think the Nanzhao army is going to chase the central army."

Zhao Huaian's heart was beating so fast that it almost jumped out of his throat. After hearing what Fatty Dou said, he nodded.

But suddenly he looked at Fatty Dou in surprise and exclaimed:
"Fatty Dou, your cross-eyes are gone!"

Fatty Dou was stunned for a moment, put his finger to the tip of his nose, and then his eyes suddenly became cockfighting again. He breathed a sigh of relief:

“That’s what makes it comfortable to watch.”

Zhao Huaian was dumbfounded.

Ignoring Fatty Dou's confusion, Zhao Huaian looked at the team and found that there were more people, including many strangers.

Zhao Huaian immediately shouted at those people:
"My dear brothers, as the saying goes, a snake cannot survive without a head. We are running together, but we cannot do it without a leader. If you want to run with us all the way, then listen to me. If you don't want to, I won't stop you. Run north on your own."

After Zhao Huaian finished speaking, the defeated soldiers looked at each other and shouted in unison:
"We have all heard of your great name, 'Hu Baoyi,' and we are willing to follow you."

"Yes, I'll follow you."

"It's all up to you."

"Lord Zhao is a real man, he won't sell us out."

The people below were talking at once, and Zhao Huaian couldn't help but smile. He hadn't expected that he, Zhao Da, already had such prestige? This appeal to the crowd, this charisma?

But the ignorant Zhao Da had no idea that these defeated soldiers who had been separated from the tribe did not dare to escape alone.

Whenever there is a big battle like this, the nearby mountains, forests and swamps are already filled with various mountain bandit gangs, all of whom are hyenas hoping to make a fortune from these defeated soldiers.

Along the way, only Zhao Huaian's team remained organized. The only way for them to survive was to follow Zhao Huaian closely.

So at this moment, let alone asking them to obey orders, even asking them to call Zhao Huaian "dad", any hesitation would be disrespectful to their lives.

There were fourteen people in their group. Zhao Huaian chose a leader from them and found out that they were all from the Yanhai Army. One was called Han Jian and the other was called Ma Wu.

Zhao Huaian called Zhou Dexing, who was also from the Yanhai Army, over, thinking that they would get to know each other, but he didn't expect that the two of them looked embarrassed when they saw Zhou Dexing.

But Zhou Dexing just hummed and said:
"We will all be heroes, just follow us."

The two nodded awkwardly and breathed a sigh of relief.

When Zhao Huaian saw this, he knew that Lao Zhou knew them both and that there was something going on, but since they didn't say anything, Zhao Huaian didn't bother to ask.

Everyone here took off their armor and wiped the sweat off their faces. Zhao Liu then told everyone to tie their cloaks tightly and prepared to continue escaping.

But at this moment, a burst of shouting came from the dirt road outside the forest, and Zhao Huaian on the donkey cart turned his head to look.

……

Zhao Huaian glanced outside the forest and saw six donkey carts running wildly in front, and behind them was a group of Nanzhao soldiers shouting excitedly.

Suddenly, a donkey cart hit a rock, shook up, and then fell heavily, and the entire axle broke.

The donkey cart overturned while running, and all the wooden boxes on the cart were scattered all over the ground.

But what was scattered on the ground was not the gold, silver, silk and cloth that the Nanzhao soldiers had expected, but piles of rolled paper.

As the axle broke, the people on the cart were thrown out. The driver hit his head on a rock and broke his neck, while the person next to him fell on the meadow and couldn't get up for a long time.

As for the other donkey carts, they slowed down suddenly because of the delay and were immediately caught up by the Nanzhao army behind them.

Most of those who fled were killed or wounded by swords and axes.

Just as the Nanzhao army was about to split open the wooden box to check the spoils, a rain of arrows suddenly shot out from the forest and knocked them down.

Inside the forest, Zhao Huaian found that he had once again hit another target with 100% accuracy. His old face no longer blushed, and he habitually stuck out his belly, acting very serious.

He just met an acquaintance. The person who was thrown away was none other than Wang Duo, whom he had met before.

This idiot ran away with a box of books.

This old guy was born to be good at getting money and food. Zhao Huaian couldn't bear to see him die here, so when he saw that he was about to be killed by the Nanzhao warriors, he shot an arrow without hesitation.

As expected, the arrow hit the forehead of the person behind. Fortunately, Guo Congyun next to him shot the person in front to death, otherwise Wang Duo would still have died.

There was a hail of arrows here, and Zhao Huaian looked at everyone. Although only he and Guo Congyun and other knights were still wearing armor, when it came to fighting, they had to go up even if they were naked.

Then he shouted:
"Kill me!"

As he spoke, Zhao Huaian jumped off the donkey cart, raised his sword, and strode out of the forest.

Behind him, Baoyi followed him everywhere, no one left behind. Fatty Dou cursed, then, dressed in a single layer and holding an iron whip, led his men out to attack.

For a moment, there were cries of killing everywhere, as if ambushes were coming out.

The number of Nanzhao pursuers was originally only about a hundred people. Half of them were shot down by a volley of arrows. When the remaining soldiers saw the Tang army rushing out of the forest, they subconsciously thought they had been ambushed and were all frightened.

Once they lost their courage, they could not use even a fraction of their full fighting strength. In just a moment, the pursuers were all killed by Zhao Huaian and others on the roadside.

(End of this chapter)