Yan Zhong persuaded: "Having said that, this Qin general has made great contributions after all, and the soldiers have also made merits. If the general blames General Qin, it will chill the hearts of other meritorious soldiers. ”

The matter has come to this point, Zhang Hao has nothing to do, Qin Wen can only do this first if he disobeys his orders. Just like Yan Zhong said, if you insist on dealing with it, it will only make other soldiers deviate from morality.

At this time, the scout who was in charge of monitoring the Wuhuan camp came to report to Zhang Hao: "General Qiyu, half an hour ago, there was a cavalry of more than 6,000 in the Wuhuan camp, leaving the camp and heading north. ”

After listening to this, the few people present understood that these cavalrymen were all heading for Qin Wen.

"General, Qiu Liju wants to recapture his military rations, whether it is to stop Wuhuan or to support General Qin, we should also send troops." Du Pin immediately suggested.

Zhang Hao also knew that now was not the time to be angry, so he nodded in agreement.

If the Wuhuan people were allowed to recapture the rations, it would not only greatly boost their morale, but also undermine their own confidence. The scales of victory will be tipped in their favor.

"Order the cavalry to assemble, and I will personally lead it to meet Qin Wen." Zhang Hao said.

It's time to test whether these Wuhuan soldiers are as loyal to them as they say they are.

"When I am away, the two of you must stick to it and guard the camp." He had instructions to Yan Zhong and Du Ping.

"No, we will obey the general's orders."

After Zhang Hao led the army to set off, the Wuhuan rangers, who were also monitoring the Han army camp, also reported the situation to Qiu Liju.

"Khan, the large battalion from which a cavalry of the Han army left went west, about five thousand horsemen."

Qiu Liju listened, five thousand horses? Aren't those traitors that the Ranger reported earlier? This is the only cavalry team in the Han camp.

They were supposed to make a detour to the west to the north to support another Han cavalry. In this case, the six thousand horsemen of Mulihu alone are not opponents.

When Qiu Liju wondered if he should send troops again, another thought came to mind.

Now that the only formed cavalry in the Han army's camp has left, doesn't that mean that they only have infantry left, so that even if they come out, they will not be able to threaten their camp for a while.

In this way, the initiative of the offensive completely fell into their own hands, and the Han army could only passively defend. As long as he can break through the camp of the Han army in three days and defeat the Han army in front of him, he will not have to care about those livestock at all, and the entire Pingzhou will be his granary.

Will we send troops to recapture the livestock? Or just take this opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Han army? Qiu Liju fell into deep thought.

If you want to recapture the livestock, you have to send troops to it, and you need to find the Han army within three days, and then defeat the Han army, and slaughter the livestock and return it. It seems that there is not enough time to do this, and after three days, I will have to kill the horse.

In the case of a decisive battle with the Han army, although there is a time limit, if you have the initiative, you have a better chance of defeating the Han army. As long as the Han army is defeated and their military rations are obtained, the war itself will be completely won.

Speaking of both methods, they are actually gambling, but it seems that the second one has a bigger chance of winning.

As the khan of all Wuhuan people, the king of the steppe, Qiu Liju is not an indecisive person, and he can't be a khan without courage.

He immediately made up his mind and chose the second method, taking the opportunity to fight the Han army in a decisive battle.

If he wins, he will enter Pingzhou. If he loses, he will betray his relatives and lose everything, and the real steppe people will not follow a defeated leader.

……

Qin Wen led the Han cavalry to guard behind the herd, while the captives drove the livestock. They returned the way they came.

It's just that unlike when the cavalry came, they traveled hundreds of miles a day, and now they have come for a day, and the team has only traveled more than thirty miles.

Qin Wen was very anxious in his heart, if he marched at this speed, he would have to return to the Great Wall for at least nine days, and he would have to withstand no less than three or four Wuhuan cavalry attacks during this period. I'm afraid that if I can't reach the Great Wall at that time, these livestock will be taken away, and I will lose all my efforts.

He came to Ah Gu's side and urged, "Can you go faster, the speed is too slow now." ”

After listening to the translation, Ah Gu said in embarrassment: "General, the speed is already the fastest now, if you go faster, the villain will not be able to control it, these livestock will run around, and it will take more time to catch them back when the time comes." ”

Qin Wen shook his head helplessly, he didn't understand this, he still had to listen to the professionals.

The guide on the side seemed to see Qin Wen's concern, and he explained: "General, as far as his subordinates know, the Khan... No, Qiu Liju sent people to the temporary pasture every three days to get meat, which means that the enemy army has less than three days of food left. ”

Qin Wen was happy in his heart, this is good news, in this case, the Wuhuan people will chase after him once at most.

Only this time will also be the worst.

The next day, the team came to a large river, and Qin Wen first asked the captives to drive their livestock across the river.

At this time, the scout who was in charge of guarding the back of the team came back and reported: "General, my subordinates have just found the Wuhuan cavalry twenty miles away, numbering more than six thousand, and they are rushing here. ”

Qin Wen was taken aback, how did the pursuers come so quickly?

But now there was no time to think about this, he immediately ordered: "Leave a thousand men in charge of continuing the guard, and the rest of the soldiers will go with me to meet the enemy!" ”

There is also a reason why the Wuhuan people came quickly. First of all, Qin Wen's team was too slow, and with such a large herd of livestock dragging them down, they had only walked a fifth of the way until now.

The second is the footprints, although Qin Wen followed behind with the Han cavalry to guard and keep cleaning up, but the footprints of so many livestock and people and horses are not so easy to deal with, and they still leave a lot of traces.

The Wuhuan people followed these traces and chased after them all the way.

They stopped five miles away from where the Han army had crossed the river.

As the chief of the Wuhuan tribe in Liaodong, Mu Lihu knew the terrain of this area very well, and he knew that there was a big river in front of him.

Extrapolating the speed of the Han army from the traces on the road, Mu Lihu estimated that the Han army was now preparing to cross the river at the location of that river. And they drove so many cattle that they couldn't cross the river in a single day.

At the moment, they are not in a hurry to attack, taking advantage of this opportunity, Mu Lihu asked his subordinates to rest for a while, and they were already very tired after such eagerness to catch up along the way.

He asked the ranger to go over and make sure that the Han army was now on the river. It didn't take long for the Ranger to come back and report.

"My lord, the Han army left some men and horses to continue to drive the cattle across the river, and the other nearly 4,000 people are coming towards us."

After hearing this, Mu Lihu immediately took down the hammer and sounded the horn of assembling for an attack. All the Wuhuan cavalry quickly stood up and stepped onto their horses. Then he followed Mu Lihu and rushed in the direction of pursuit.

The two sides met unexpectedly on the road.

Mu Lihu blew the sound of the Ming Di again, and shouted loudly: "Sons, defeat these thieves and kill the people of the Han Dynasty!" ”

Qin Wen also shouted: "Soldiers, defeat these robbers, kill!" ”

The two red streams collided and fused together.

The Wuhuan cavalry had a numerical advantage and superb individual horsemanship, while the Han cavalry had excellent equipment and skillful coordination.

The two sides had the advantage, and the first round of the contest was evenly matched, and their respective losses were close to 1 to 2, with the Han army having a slight upper hand.

But at this time, no one goes back and cares about this. After rushing out a few hundred paces, the two sides turned their horses' heads together and charged again for the second round of the contest.

The duel between the cavalry is simple and brutal, just you rush back and forth with each other. It's just that there are all kinds of details in it.

Although the two sides were evenly matched at first, as time went on, the situation became more and more unfavorable for the Han army. Just now, the Han army still had a one-to-two advantage in battle losses, but now it has indeed slowly become one-to-one or even two-to-one.

This was only because the Wuhuan cavalry had no way to retreat, and if they could not get these livestock back, they would face starvation to death without food. And these are just a credit to the cavalry of the Han army, and no one is more important than life.

After the separation of the two sides this time, the Han army had lost a total of nearly 1,000 people, while Wuhuan exceeded 1,500 people. Although they were both nearly a quarter of the losses, there was a clear difference in morale between the two sides.

In order to survive, the Wuhuan cavalry is still high-spirited. And the Han cavalry became a little cringe in order to survive.

Mu Lihu's insight as the leader is still very keen, and he can see that the morale of the Han army is a little unstable, and this is the opportunity to defeat the Han army. He led the army again to kill the past.

And Qin Wen saw that Wuhuan was coming again, and shouted loudly: "Kill!" ”

Only this time Ying and his voice were softer than before. Qin Wen looked back and found that the soldier's face was full of horror. The large number of corpses in the center of the battlefield frightened them into retreating.

Qin Wen's heart chuckled, this situation is too bad, the Han army has no will to fight, it is equivalent to a tiger and leopard without teeth, and this battle is bound to lose.

He suddenly felt very regretful, if he really completely destroyed the temporary pasture of the Wuhuan Army in accordance with Zhang Hao's military order, the credit for this rush to the rear would not be small. It's a pity that he was greedy for a while and wanted more and more credit, so as to realize his wish to worship the marquis.

It's just that now it seems that not only is the credit gone, but he also has to bear a charge of disobeying the general's order, being greedy for merit, and losing his soldiers.

And Mu Lihu was very excited at the moment, he actually defeated the Han army head-on in a similar situation, and he could also recapture the stolen livestock. With such a great achievement, he can definitely make his prestige comparable to that of Khan Qiuli.

When the time comes, he will return to the grassland, and gradually attract wandering herdsmen from all over the country to defect with his prestige, and strengthen the strength of his tribe, and he may not be able to compete for the throne of Khan in the future.

Just when the two sides were still fifty paces away and were about to make contact, one of the guards beside Mu Lihu suddenly shouted in horror: "My lord, look at the south, it seems that there are cavalry rushing over!" ”

Mu Lihu looked closely, and sure enough, another large wave of cavalry from the south rushed over.

Qin Wen also saw it, no matter who came, he preemptively shouted loudly: "Soldiers, our reinforcements are coming, let's kill them together!" ”

The morale that was originally sluggish was immediately inspired by this sentence.

"Kill!"