After thousands of elite Liang cavalry crossed the border and rushed to Yingzhou in the south, under the advice of the veteran Ma Rong, Ma Xun dispatched three scouts from Zaoyang.

Follow thousands of Liang cavalry all the way, see if this Liang cavalry directly rushed to Yingzhou City, in case they took advantage of this side not to pay attention, killed a horse gun, and then turned to Zaoyang City to kill back.

Go all the way to the northeast to the southwest foot of Tongbai Mountain to see if there is any sign of the Liang army passing there.

If the Liang army wanted to set up an ambush between Zaoyang and Suizhou, its soldiers and horses to the north should pass through the southwest foot of Tongbai Mountain and enter the valley and hills between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain.

Even if you haven't noticed this before, even if thousands or even tens of thousands of soldiers and horses have crossed the border, it is impossible not to leave a trace.

Although according to Wen Ruilin's speculation, this possibility is very small, but for the sake of prudence, Ma Rong still suggested that the prince send more than 100 scouts in this direction.

There was also a reconnaissance cavalry to reconnoiter along the Tangbai River in the northwest direction, which was a key reconnaissance area that decided where the troops and horses of Tanzhou would withdraw.

Tang River and Bai River are the two most important water systems in Nanyang Basin, originating from the eastern foot of Funiu Mountain in Fangcheng County, and finally converging together in the northeast direction of Fancheng to flow into the Han River, also known as Tangbai River.

In addition to irrigating millions of acres of grain fields on the north bank of the Han River, it was also the most important waterway in the Nanyang Basin, but with the frequent wars in the past 100 years, the people have abandoned the land and avoided the deep mountains, the embankments on both sides of the Tang River and the Bai River have not been repaired, the river water flooded, all collapsed, and the two rivers were divided into dozens of large and small streams and rivers to join the Han River.

The water transport of the Tang River and the Bai River was completely abandoned, and at the same time, a narrow belt of lakes and rivers was formed that cut through the southern part of the Nanyang Basin.

If the Liang army wanted to lay an ambush on the way of Zaoyang's soldiers and horses to Xiangzhou City, their soldiers and horses should leave Tanghe County and go directly south along the eastern flank of this Huze belt.

Facts have proved that Wen Ruilin's judgment is correct.

Tanzhou reconnoitred Zaoyang City, galloped out of the northwest direction for more than 60 miles, and encountered a large force of Liang troops on the eastern flank of this Huze belt heading south.

In other words, the Tanzhou soldiers and horses retreated from Zaoyang to the west, and they may have just resisted the Han River, and before they could organize ships to cross the river, they would be bitten by the Liang army that went south from the Tang River.

Although Du Chongtao had sent an envoy from Xiangzhou City at this time, ordering Ma Xun's generals to lead their troops to retreat west in time if they could not hold Zaoyang City, cross the Han River to Xiangzhou City to join the main force of the Xiangzhou Army, but how could Ma Xun ignore Du Chongtao's order at this time?

Ma Xun was worried that they would hesitate a little, and the Liang army that was heading south from Tanghe County might turn around at any time and come directly to Zaoyang.

He didn't want to be trapped in Zaoyang City, and regardless of the hardships and panic of the night march, he ordered his troops and horses out of Zaoyang City before dark, and withdrew from the valley road between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain to Suizhou.

The soldiers and horses of Tanzhou decided to retreat to the east, and the reinforcements from other states added up to more than 4,000 soldiers and horses, plus seven or eight thousand people, most of them thought that they could stay away from right and wrong, and seeing that they did not have to bear the responsibility of withdrawing without authorization, they all pretended to be deaf and dumb and followed Ma Xun to withdraw to Suizhou.

Only Zhong Yanhu, who joined the army in Jiangzhou, parted ways with Ma Xun in Zaoyang City, led his troops westward alone, and rushed to the Hanshui to evacuate, preparing to cross the river to Xiangzhou City.

He brought with them all the grain and grass that could be transported by camel, and those who could not be transported by camel were burned by fire, and 14,500 people, plus 2,300 mules and horses, marched eastward in a mess.

Ma Xun had no intention of controlling it, and it was difficult to control it, so he thought about retreating to Suizhou City as soon as possible and then rectifying.

Go east out of Zaoyang City, take the valley road between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain, go east for 100 miles is Guangshui County, to which Suizhou belongs, and then go southeast for 50 miles, and then go to Suizhou's state city.

The Liang army that went south along the east bank of the Tangbai River was also a mixed group of cavalry and foot soldiers, and fell fifty or sixty miles away, even if the tail pursued over, the Tanzhou soldiers and horses had enough time to withdraw into Guangshui County, which was located at the southern foot of Tongbai Mountain.

Ma Xun was still not at ease, and traveled all the way at night, putting almost all the scout cavalry behind him, afraid that the Liang army might organize cavalry to pursue from the rear at any time.

The heavens and the earth gradually became clear under the morning light, and the mountains and dense forests in the distance were shrouded in the early morning mist, and they gradually became clear.

The rear reconnaissance cavalry reported that except for the cavalry of the Liang army with a scale of more than 1,000 people stationed in Zaoyang City, there were no other soldiers and horses chasing after him, and Ma Xun breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, they were less than forty miles away from Guangshui City.

Ma Xun crossed a shallow stream, reined in front of a low hill, and looked back at the seven or eight miles long team, frowning, but fortunately, the Tanzhou soldiers and horses located in the front half of the team were relatively neat, and they did not disgrace him.

Ma Xun sent people to find Ma Rong, Wen Rui and others, and he thought about passing through the valley in the middle of the Phoenix Ridge in the southeast and rushing directly to Suizhou City.

Guangshui City is a subordinate county of Suizhou, although it has been repaired in recent years, after all, the wall is low and the city is small, compared with the Suizhou City built on the steep terrain at the northeast foot of Dahong Mountain, it is too much worse - at the same time, Suizhou City as a state place, the grain storage is more abundant, and the local military equipment is also stronger than the subordinate county.

More than 10,000 of them entered Suizhou City and joined the local defenders of Suizhou City, at least in the short term, they were not afraid that the Liang army had the ability to dare to eat Suizhou City.

After that, no matter how the Jingxiang battle situation develops, they will win the initiative of advancing and retreating: if the Liang army is a paper tiger, they can cooperate with the main force of the Chu army to fall into the well and compete for military merits; If the Liang army is strong and controls the momentum of Jingxiang, and the Chu army can not reverse it, then it will be a good opportunity for Tanzhou to make peace with it and break away from the control of Great Chu.

"Okay, let's go to Suizhou City!" Wen Ruilin, Ma Rong and others also felt that after arriving in Suizhou City, their hanging hearts could be relaxed a little.

Ma Xun ordered the whole army to bury the pot and cook, rest for an hour and then hurry, he and Wen Rui came off the horse, thinking that Rong Ma could calm down and enjoy the scenery when he was handsome, and it was also an elegant thing to spread out.

Ma Rong shook his head and smiled bitterly, and was about to send someone to contact the reinforcements from other states to restrain the troops and horses, when he suddenly saw more than a dozen Tanzhou scouts in the southeast frantically rushing over to this side.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

They sent out a dozen scouts to search the road ahead, and they rushed back with a loud voice.

However, the wind crossed the mountains and forests and roared, and by the time Ma Xun, Wen Ruilin and the others heard clearly what the dozens of scouts were shouting, hundreds of black-armored cavalry had already slaughtered out from a valley in the southeast, four or five miles away, like a black torrent.

Seeing this scene, Ma Xun, Ma Rong, Wen Ruilin and others' faces turned pale in an instant, and their hands and feet couldn't help but tremble.

How can it be?

How could there be such an elite cavalry of the Liang army in the valley to the southeast?

Before they set off yesterday, they obviously sent more than 100 horsemen to search the hills and mountains at the southwest foot of Tongbai Mountain.

"This is the cavalry that attacked Yingzhou yesterday, and it must have been the one who crossed the Dahong Mountain in the south of Zaoyang last night to intercept us?" Wen Ruilin groaned out in pain and said, "We have fallen into Liang Jun's calculations!" ”

Ma Xun intuitively felt a burst of blackness in front of him, and his heart was flustered.

Ma Rong calmed down a little, just as Wen Ruilin said, this road Liang army could not have flown over the mountains at the southwest foot of Tongbai Mountain, nor could it have been ambushed in the valley at the northern foot of Dahong Mountain a few months ago, it must have been the thousands of cavalry who went south through Zaoyang yesterday, dangling a shot, crossing Dahong Mountain overnight, interspersed here, waiting for them to enter.

Hit the trick!

Although they sent out scout cavalry all the way yesterday to keep an eye on the movements of these thousands of Liang cavalry, the passage from the western foot of Dahong Mountain to the bank of the Hanshui River was relatively narrow, and the mountains were full of Liang cavalry, and their scout cavalry could only stay far behind, and there was no way to go around to the front.

In fact, the Liang army only needed to leave one or two thousand cavalry to block the passage behind, and they could not detect the movement of the Liang cavalry further south.

What's even worse is that they didn't realize that the elite cavalry of the Liang army might cross the Dahong Mountain to ambush them after a false shot!

Dahong Mountain is located on the east bank of the Han River, three or four hundred miles longitudinally and horizontally, and it is also a ravine, with thousands of peaks stacked on top of each other, but the highest peak is only three or four hundred zhang after all.

The Dahong Mountains are mainly divided into three major areas on the east bank of the Han River, and there are a large number of valleys, rifts, and flat dams between the three mountains, in which the people who lived in Yingsui built roads thousands of years ago.

In the absence of a defense pass, thousands of elite cavalry could quietly and quickly cross the Dahong Mountain from the east bank of the Han River and appear in the valley between the Dahong Mountain and the Tongbai Mountain.

They were too gullible to believe that the Liang army was reluctant to use elite soldiers and horses to fight with them, and they were too self-righteous, feeling that Tanzhou had the intention of breaking away from Dachu, and the Liang army should regard them as potential partners and thought that retreating east to Suizhou would be a smooth road.

Perhaps this mentality of theirs has already completely fallen into Liang Jun's calculations.

It can even be said that the thousands of elite cavalry of the Liang army directly bypassed outside Zaoyang City yesterday, the purpose was to make them afraid and urge them to abandon Zaoyang City in a hurry and flee.

Ma Xun and Wen Ruilin deeply regretted that they did not obey Du Chongtao's orders and withdrew to Hanshui with the Jiangzhou soldiers led by Zhong Yanhu.

In that case, even if they reached the edge of the Han River, they might be entangled by thousands of Liang army horses and infantry troops who were rushing south from the north, but they were in a formation with their backs to the Han River, and there were the elite of the Xiangzhou Army behind them at any time to help, which was definitely much more comfortable than preparing nothing at this time to meet the impact of thousands of Liang cavalry.

"Son, go!"

Ma Rong couldn't care about regretting anything at this time, and ordered more than 100 guards to retreat to the rear with Shizi Ma Xun first, and he himself retreated to the shallow stream on the west side of the hill, shouted loudly, and ordered the nearby soldiers and horses to move closer to him, ready to form a formation to meet the charge of the Liang cavalry.

However, 15,000 or 6,000 people, under the jurisdiction of six states, the army and civilians were mixed together and retreated eastward, and they were tired and tired after walking all night in the valley, and the team was naturally scattered, and the Tanzhou soldiers and horses in the first half were slightly better.

Fifteen or six thousand people had just relaxed and were about to bury the pot to cook rice, when they saw the black-armored cavalry like a torrent coming out of the valley, they all stood in horror.

Although the place where they were located was relatively open, the team was in a mess, dragging out for several miles in front and back, and there was no formation at all, and they did not expect that there would be a force of cavalry that would directly kill them at such a close distance.

Ma Xun, Wen Ruilin and others retreated to the rear, and Ma Rong hurriedly gathered hundreds of foot soldiers with shields and halberds to form two rows of horizontal formations after the shallow stream.

The three or four hundred black-armored cavalry who had been killed at the moment, not afraid of the sharp spears sticking out from between the strong shields, stepped across the shallow stream with their horses' hooves, and rushed towards the front of the Chu army with splashing waves.

Suddenly, the flesh and blood flew sideways, and the war horse that was pierced by the spear and halberd did not reduce its momentum, and it collided with pressure, and then broke through the gaps in the defensive formation.

The fierce Liang army generals bravely lost their horses, as long as they were not stabbed to death on the spot by spears, they all dismounted and fought on foot, even if they were hit by several arrows or more than a dozen arrows, the halberd was also quickly and powerfully slashed out.

More cavalry rushed to the Chu army from the gap that was opened, firmly and quickly rushing to the depth of the Chu army, with swords and guns with pieces of blood, limbs and flesh flying, stirring up the scattered formation of the Chu army even more chaotic.

At this time, teams of black-armored cavalry were like black dragons, constantly galloping out of the valley, wading through the filthy icy cold river, and killing into the chaotic ranks of the Chu army......