Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 479 Runaway Wild Horse
"Da da da da da!"

"Xichu dog thief, where are you running? Take your life!"

The sound of horseshoes and arrogant shouts came from behind again. Amid the billowing dust and smoke, thousands of Han army cavalry raised their hooves and charged directly at the retreating Western Chu army from north to south. The small number of scouts from the Western Chu army who were on patrol did not dare to confront the enemy, they could only hold their horses tightly and whip their whips repeatedly as they did the previous few times, and raced against time to meet up with the self-army brigade for protection.

Seeing this scene, even though he knew that there was little hope, Xiang Yu, who personally led the army behind the palace, still roared and ordered a thousand cavalry of the Western Chu Army to rush up to meet the enemy. Then maybe a miracle happened, or maybe he didn't see Xiang Yu personally lead the army To fight, and the number of cavalry sent out by the Western Chu Army is basically the same as that of our own army. The Han Army cavalry who suddenly killed them did not turn around and retreat immediately. They decisively chose to continue to accelerate and fight in the wild .

People screamed, blood and flesh flew, sharp sabers kept cutting down, spears and swords kept stabbing, seriously injured and dying cavalry fell off their horses one after another, and the horses that lost their owners rushed out of the dust, shaking their messy mane. They ran away screaming miserably, and soon the ground was covered with corpses of people and horses lying in disorder, the scene was extremely tragic.

It made Xiang Yu angry. Although the thousand cavalry he sent to fight were all the elite of the Western Chu Army, but because the sabers uniformly equipped by the cavalry of the Han army were more suitable for cavalry warfare, the elite cavalry under his command could not occupy any of the troops on the battlefield. The advantage is just that he fought inextricably with the cavalry of the Han army that he had dismissed before, and he did not show his defeat.

Annoyed at the incompetence of the cavalry of our own army, and unable to bear the repeated provocations of the cavalry of the Han army, Xiang Yu rushed forward again, ignoring the kind reminders of his subordinates, insisting on a black horse with four hooves on the snow, and personally led the cavalry brigade northward to help the battle. With one eye, I want to drive out all these cavalry of the Han army who don't know the heights of the sky and the depths of the earth.

The cavalry of the Han army is still as shameless as ever. I just saw Xiang Yu personally lead the army to kill. The sound of the retreating gong immediately sounded in the cavalry of the Han army in the fierce battle, and all the cavalry of the Han army who could fight on horseback also retreated immediately. Leaving the battlefield, he fled northward at high speed. Xiang Yu was furious, insisted on leading his army to chase, and quickly led the cavalry away from the rear brigade of the Western Chu Army.

Seeing this situation, the infantry in the rear of the Western Chu Army had no choice but to stop quickly to take precautions. At the same time, after the situation was reported to the front, the front team led by General Zhou Lan of the Western Chu Army, Huan Chu and The central brigade of the Western Chu Army led by Xiang Bo could only stop advancing one after another to avoid being out of touch.

In the end, relying on the steed of the black horse, Xiang Yu managed to stab a straggling Han cavalry to death with his own spear. He let out a sigh of relief, but most of the Han cavalry still managed to escape. One day, after running for more than thirty miles, he finally got rid of Xiang Yu's personal pursuit.

Xiang Yu was also forced to stop the pursuit because he had no other choice, because he knew very well that his scumbag cousin Xiang Kang was personally leading the main force of the Han army in the middle to chase south. The infantry brigade encountered, and the cavalry brigade of the Han army who has been following behind but does not know its position for the time being, will definitely kill it immediately. Although Xiang Yu himself is not afraid at that time, the cavalry of the Western Chu army under his command will definitely eat It was a big loss, so there was no way, Xiang Yu could only roar and order the cavalry of the Western Chu Army to stop advancing, and reorganize the team to go back to join the brigade of the Western Chu Army.

In this world, there is no second person who understands Xiang Yu's unruly temper better than Xiang Kang. He likes to act recklessly and never uses his brain when things happen. In order to slow down the retreat speed of the main force of the Western Chu Army as much as possible, and buy time for Uncle Zhou, Xiang Kang decisively dispatched the cavalry to go forward after the official southward pursuit, and let the cavalry of the Han Army take turns to step forward at any cost, harassing and provoking The purpose of the Western Chu army's rear team led by Xiang Yu himself was not only to slow down the retreat speed of the main force of the Western Chu army, but also to make Xiang Yu's muscular brain constantly congested, squeezing the activity space of brain cells even more, and making it easier for Xiang Yu to act. A favorable decision for the Han army.

Xiang Kang also achieved satisfactory results. Under the harassment of the cavalry of the Han army in turn, the main force of the Western Chu army carrying a large amount of food, grass and military supplies has been unable to get up fast, and even the speed of forty miles a day cannot be maintained. , The main force of the Western Chu Army took a full ten days to travel three hundred miles from Puyang to Dingtao.The steady and steady main force of the Han army's central road took the opportunity to continuously narrow the distance with the Western Chu army. When the main force of the Western Chu army arrived at Dingtao Ferry in Jishui, the main force of the Han army's central road was only fifty miles away from Dingtao. .

Fortunately, Dingtao has prepared a sufficient number of wide floating bridges for Xiang Yu. It is very easy to transfer the food, grass and military supplies of the Western Chu Army across the river. I was too worried that the Han army would launch an assault when they crossed the river. In the end, they successfully crossed the Jishui River, which might cause them trouble, and moved all of them to the south bank of Jishui. Opportunity.

At this time, the important issue of whether to leave troops to guard Dingtao was finally placed in front of Xiang Yu. Dingtao has always been the hinterland of the Western Chu Army. The enclave was not destroyed by the flames of war when Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms. The scale of the city and the people's livelihood and economy are far above Puyang, the county of Dongjun. It is of course a pity to abandon it directly.At the same time, if the Western Chu Army stays in Dingtao, relying on the strong fortifications left by the Western Chu Army and the natural danger of Jishui, it will definitely not have any problem blocking the main force of the Han Army's middle road for a long time, and it can serve the Western Chu Army. The main force successfully retreated to Pengcheng to buy enough time, so there was no need to worry about being attacked by the Han army on the way to retreat.

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages. If the Western Chu army chooses to leave an army to garrison Dingtao, it will definitely not have any effect if it stays too little. If it stays too much, it may be defeated by the Han army and weaken the Western Chu army again. The overall strength is already at a disadvantage.So Xiang Yu hesitated again and again, unable to make up his mind about this idea.

Coincidentally, at this moment, Master Xiang Bo suddenly came to Xiang Yu angrily with a proclamation, and yelled loudly as soon as they met: "My lord, that traitor Xiang Kang is too arrogant, a traitor!" Before the army arrived at Dingtao, his meticulous work actually posted a surrender notice on the gate of Dingtao, saying that you will voluntarily abandon Dingtao and encourage Dingtao to open the city and surrender."

"Is there such a thing?" Xiang Yu was furious, and snatched the call to action carefully, and saw that the scumbag cousin actually declared in the call to action that he would voluntarily give up Dingtao, Xiang Yu was so angry that he poked his eyes red, three He tore the call to pieces twice, and roared: "Zhuzi, you are dreaming! This king wants to stay in Dingtao, let's see what you can do?!"

"Your Majesty, I also think that an army must be left to garrison Dingtao."

Without the old man Fan to add to the chaos, the ambitious Master Xiang finally gained his military talents, and said eloquently: "Let's not say that Taocheng is strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it can definitely be defended for a long time. We must not give up the natural danger of Jishui outside Dingtao City. As long as we leave an army to stand firm, we can not only buy enough time for our main force to retreat, but we may also hope to rely on Dingtao Jiancheng to block the Han army. Thieves, so that Han thieves cannot invade our hinterland."

Another important counselor of the Western Chu Army, Kuai Che, dared not say a word, while Xiang Yu nodded repeatedly, pointed decisively at Huan Chu on the other side, and said loudly: "Huan Chu, Dingtao has always been guarded by you, and you are familiar with the situation. , now I leave it to you to guard, no matter what, we must defend Dingtao for the king and buy time for our main force to withdraw to Pengcheng."

Huan Chu cupped his hands and sang promises with a sullen face, and then asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, how many troops will you give the last general? And how much time will you let the last general guard Dingtao?"

"I'll give you [-] troops!" Xiang Yu yelled loudly, "The longer you hold on, the better. Before the last moment, you are absolutely not allowed to abandon the city to break through! But at least not less than a month!"

"[-] troops?" Huan Chu almost didn't cry, and said quickly: "My lord, if other bandit troops come to attack Dingtao, because of the strength of Dingtao city, the last general will lead [-] troops to defend for a month. Question. But the Chinese thieves are different, you don’t know the kind of trebuchets used by the Chinese thieves, how could a [-] army stop the Chinese thieves for a month?”

After hesitating for a while, Xiang Yu replied: "Then I will give you [-] troops, no more! But you have to guard this king for a month, and you can't miss a day! Otherwise, the military law will be used!"

Considering that the Dingtao city is stronger than Puyang, and there is Jishui outside the city to delay yourself for a period of time, and the current situation is different from that during the Puyang War, the army staying in Dingtao did not flee after a disastrous defeat outside the city during the Puyang War. Huan Chu reluctantly bowed his hands and sang promises to the mob who rushed into the city to rebuild, biting the bullet and taking over this difficult task.Kuai Che next to him still didn't say a word, letting Xiang Bo and Master Xiang happily praise Xiang Yu for being wise and making the right decision.

In this way, because of a call for surrender of the Han army that extremely despised Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu decisively made a wise decision that Old Man Fan would never agree to. Blocking the pursuit of the Han army and buying time for the main force of the Western Chu army to retreat calmly, it also reduced the main force of the Western Chu army led by Xiang Yu to 12 people.

But still the same sentence, if there is a loss, there must be a gain. Although there are only [-] troops left to guard the Dingtao and Jishui defense lines, the main force of the Western Chu Army has taken a break because the Western Chu Army has already confiscated the surrounding ships. After withdrawing from the Dingtao battlefield, even if Xiang Kang led his army south to the Jishui River, he could not immediately cross the Jishui River to continue the pursuit. On the north bank of the water, the retreat speed of the main force of the Western Chu Army could no longer be held back.

As a result, the retreat speed of the main force of the Western Chu Army was greatly accelerated, and it quickly increased to more than sixty miles a day. It took only two days to withdraw from Dingtao South to Chengwu. However, during this period, Xue Jun However, two urgent reports were sent one after another. The first one was that General Zhou Shu of the Han Army arranged for Zhujishi to lead the army to stay in Qidi, and then personally led the main force of the northern line of the Han Army into the hinterland of Xue County, posing a threat Taking advantage of the momentum to win Xuejun and annihilate the remnants of the Chu-Ji coalition forces, the second urgent report is that Peng Yue, a famous little strongman in the late Qin and early Han Dynasties, left Juyeze again and entered Xuejun with more than 1 troops. In the hinterland, Chengqiu invaded and threatened Chidao, and joined hands with the Han army on the northern front, forming a double threat to the hinterland of Xuejun and the remnants of the Chu-Ji coalition army.

Perhaps it was because of sharpening the gun before the battle and taking the time to read a few military books. At this time, Master Xiang Bo finally came to a correct conclusion and said to Xiang Yu: "My lord, Peng Yue ran to the hinterland of Xue County to jump on the beam again. It must be to contain the army of nephew Xiang Zhuang and the others, and to buy time for Uncle Zhou to create a northern army that annihilates us. We have to guard against this and find a way to rescue nephew Xiang Zhuang and the others. If anything happens to Nephew Zhuang Xian's army, our future battles will definitely be more difficult."

Xiang Yu nodded slowly, and then asked: "In Uncle Ji's opinion, what should we do?"

"Hurry up and send out an army to take Xiang Zhuang's nephew and his army back..."

Before Master Xiang Bo finished his words, Kuai Che on the other side couldn't bear it anymore, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, there must be no further division of troops. Zhou Shupifu's troops are still higher than those of Xiang Kang's traitors. We If we divide our troops to go to Xue County, there will definitely be a danger of being defeated by the Han thieves one by one."

This time, Xiang Yu finally did not listen to Master Xiang's nonsense, nodded and said: "What Doctor Kuai said is very true, our overall strength is already at a disadvantage, and dividing our forces again and again will definitely only give the Han bandits a chance to defeat us individually. "

Glaring at Kuai Che with great resentment, he quietly recorded the account in his own little black account book. Master Xiang changed his words and said, "Then what should we do? We can't just sit and watch our army be wiped out by the traitors, can we? "

Rubbing his fingers and thinking about it for a while, Xiang Yu made up his mind and said: "It can only be like this, let Brother Xiangzhuang and the others lead the army south at full speed, and don't give Uncle Zhou a chance to surround them. Our main force reunited. Our main force diverted to the east, first went to Huling to meet Brother and his army, and then went south to Pengcheng together."

Seeing that Xiang Yu had listened to his own persuasion just now, Kuai Che took courage and said: "My lord, the military situation is like fire, and time is precious. It is best for our main force to withdraw to Pengcheng as soon as possible. We can only retreat to the deep ditch of Pengcheng as soon as possible." Only by building strong defenses can we hope to block the two flanking attacks of the Han thieves."

"Then what about our northern army? Could it be that they are completely annihilated?" Master Xiang immediately found an opportunity for revenge, and angrily shouted: "Besides, going west to Huling to meet our northern army will cost a lot of money." How much time? What can be delayed?"

With old man Fan's lessons learned, Kuai Che, whose status and status are far behind that of old man Fan, of course dare not speak against Master Xiang again, so he can only turn his attention to Xiang Yu, hoping for a miracle to make Xiang Yu make the right decision again .Unfortunately, however, Xiang Yu just made some calculations and said: "Uncle Ji is right, it's not far from here to Huling, so it won't waste much time to pick up Brother and the others. Besides, take the road from Huling to Pei County Going south is also much easier than taking the road of Shanfu Fengyi to retreat to Pengcheng, and strictly speaking, it is not a waste of time."

"Your Majesty..."

Kuai Che's voice was a little trembling, but when Xiang Yu turned his head to look at Kuai Che, Master Xiang's vicious eyes also turned to Kuai Che. , the road in Peixian County is indeed much easier to walk."

After complimenting against his will, Kuai Che turned his head with a strong smile, his eyes full of pain, and said helplessly: "I hope that traitor Xiang Kang can't think of that trick, or he acts cautiously, even if he thinks of that trick, he won't be afraid of it." I don’t want to take the risk to implement it, otherwise, we may not even have the chance to withdraw to Pengcheng.”

Saying this helplessly in his heart, Kuai Che's heart suddenly burned with nameless anger, and he couldn't help saying in his heart: "What are you worrying about? Even if the traitor Xiang Kang thought of that trick, so what?" What to do? No wengs are left here, there are places where wengs are kept, no wengs are left anywhere, and wengs go to surrender to the Han thieves! At worst, surrender to the King of Han!"

In this way, without old man Fan's persuasion and restraint, Xiang Yu completely turned into a runaway wild horse, galloping wildly in the wilderness out of control. In addition, Xiang Bo, Master Xiang turned into a hornet with wings, and from time to time, Xiang Yu was in front of Xiang Yu. Staring at the buttocks of a wild horse, Xiang Yu naturally couldn't hold back his hooves even more. Regardless of the precious time, he actually gave up the original plan to quickly withdraw to Pengcheng, and chose to divert eastward and rush to the south of Xue County. Hu Ling went to meet the remnants of the Chu-Ji Allied Forces who had been severely injured.

But then again, it is not without his reasons that Xiang Yu made this decision on his own. With the current situation of the Chu army in the west, he really can no longer accept that the rest of the Chu-Ji coalition army was wiped out by the Han army's Uncle Zhou Corps and Peng Yue's army. At the same time, if he can rescue the few people who are currently in the Chuji coalition army and listen to their correct opinions, there are still two Western Chu armies in the rear of Huainan and Jiangdong. It is not that there is no hope of a comeback at all. .

(End of this chapter)