However, it was said that Wang Mang saw that the morale of Li Zhong's army was high, so he personally went out to suppress the formation, stabilize the morale of the army, and scolded Li Zhong.

After a few words, it greatly dampened the spirit of Li Zhong's army.

Li Zhong saw that Wang Mang's side had four or five thousand soldiers and horses to kill together, and he was expected to be defeated.

So he rode his horse and galloped, running all the way backwards, and ordered as he ran: "Quickly Mingjin collects the troops, and the whole army retreats!" ”

Chen Chong's generals, Gao Ming and Li Sheng, chased after him relentlessly, raised his sword and shouted: "Li Zhong is a rebel and a thief, leave!" ”

Seeing this, the generals Xiao Yuan and Gao Chao, who were guarding Li Zhong's left and right, stopped their horses and blocked behind Li Zhong. fought against Zhang Gen and the two of them, and blocked them with money.

The two armies fought, and the swords fought, which was tragic.

Within a little effort, Wang Mang's army took advantage of the high morale and the overwhelming number of people to rush through the defense line of Li Zhong's military camp and fight wantonly.

Wherever the Xiao will pass, the heads are rolling!

Under the crushing of the iron cavalry, the blood of the soldiers flowed like a river.

When Wang Mang left the center of the battlefield and came to the rear Chen Chong, he said to Chen Chong: "Li Zhong is defeated this time, and his subordinates will definitely come to help. You can quickly lead a thousand men and make a detour behind them. Taking advantage of the emptiness behind them, they set fire to the camp.

Then our two armies flanked him, shocking his heart, and he would definitely be able to inflict a heavy blow on him. They were unable to fight anymore and had to flee far away. ”

"Yes, sir!"

Chen Chong received the order, and led a thousand soldiers lightly, broke away from the battlefield, and rushed to the rear of Li Zhong's army.

On the frontal battlefield, after more than three hours of fierce fighting, the 2,000 soldiers led by Han De were routed on all fronts, and the killed ones lost their armor and fled in embarrassment.

Wang Mang ignored the fleeing soldiers and led the soldiers to chase Li Zhong who was running wildly in front of him.

There was a big battle here, and Li Yuan, Li Guang, Zhang Shun and others, who were guarding the two wings in the rear, also received urgent reports from the sentinels, and they all rushed to help with their troops.

When Li Zhong saw these people leading the troops over, he chuckled in his heart, he didn't expect it to be good, and roared angrily: "Wang Mang'er, you deceive people too much. ”

Zhang Shun and the others were about to say something, but they found that the military camp behind them was on fire, and their faces suddenly changed greatly, and they understood the reason and knew that they had been tricked to divert the tiger from the mountain.

"My lord, that Wang is reckless and cunning, and he does shameless things, how should we act now?" Li Yuan asked.

Li Zhong replied: "Now we have Chen Chong blocking the road in front of us, and Wang Mang chasing soldiers behind us, which is the situation of the two armies attacking. Generals, on the line of life and death, you must rush out as soon as possible and make every effort to break through Chen Chong's interception, and you must rush out as soon as possible, so as not to make their two armies join forces to flank them. When we're on our feet, we'll fight them again. ”

"Yes, sir!"

At that moment, their three-way army joined forces, and their momentum increased greatly, and they rushed towards the rear barracks.

Chen Chong expected that he would not be defeated and would not be blocked, so as not to kill the soldiers in vain. So he led the army to get out of the way, and ordered the archers to shoot a steady stream of arrows in the distance, reducing the strength of Li Zhong's army.

After Li Zhong's army rushed through the position, the soldiers led by Wang Mang also joined forces with Chen Chong to pursue Li Zhong together.

As for the two generals Xiao Yuan and Gao Chao, who fought with Li Sheng and Gao Ming, they were firmly surrounded by the army because they wanted to protect Li Zhong to escape. Under the chaotic arrows, these two people were bloodied on the spot, and ten thousand arrows pierced their hearts and died.

At present, Wang Mang's army is chasing after him, but he does not give Li Zhong the slightest chance to breathe.

Between the two sides chasing and fleeing, a day and a night have passed, and the march has reached hundreds of miles.

So far, more than three days have passed since Wang Mang and Li Zhong fought two battles, and nearly 8,000 enemies have been killed.

Between escaping, Li Zhong's heart was full of poison, and he vowed to slaughter the city after the reinforcements came.

Wang Mang saw that the time was almost there, and the people of Yingchuan should be far away from the boundary of Yuzhou. So he stopped the pursuit, ordered the rear army to stop, turned into a vanguard, and withdrew at full speed.

As for the original vanguard, it acts as a soldier after the break. The strategist He Jin and the general Gao Ming set up an ambush on the way to evacuate to intercept Li Zhong's counter-pursuit.

Back and forth, a day and a night passed again.

When Wang Mang came to the headquarters camp again, Wang Jingyan was already impatient, and he threw himself into Wang Mang's arms.

Wang Mang said with a smile: "Jingyan, this matter is over, we should quickly catch up with the people of Yingchuan in front, and then go to Yuzhou together to see my mother." ”

"Hmm!"

Wang Jingyan saw that Wang Mang's eyes were bloodshot, knowing that he was already tired, he couldn't help but feel distressed, "Xianggong, we are going back earlier." It will be very hard for you to stay here longer. When you arrive in Yuzhou, you can rest and don't have to be so tired and running around. ”

"I have you by my side, why do you have to work hard?"

Wang Mang laughed three times, completely tired. Holding Wang Jingyan and turning over the horse, he led six small servants, and ran towards Yuzhou with Qiutong, Yuan Qing, and Xiang Wei.

After Chen Chong and others rectified the military horses and counted the casualties of the soldiers, they also followed closely and marched towards the boundary of Yuzhou.

After more than ten days of rapid marching, Wang Mang and others passed through Yuzhou and came to the boundary of Kaifeng, catching up with the people of Yingchuan who moved their families.

Although these people fled, they were protected by a few soldiers and had a sufficient supply of rice and food, but nothing major had happened, and everything was fine.

And on the way they walked, many people who had fled from other cities joined in, and they all had to go to Yuzhou together.

As a result, the number of refugees has expanded from more than 80,000 at the beginning to nearly 100,000.

For this situation, Wang Mang was naturally pleased.

Now these Yingchuan people are overjoyed when they see Wang Mang and Chen Chong leading the army coming.

As for those strong men, they hurriedly met with their own children and told them about their family affection. Only those strong men who died in battle, their families did not see their sons come back alive, and they were sad and tearful.

Against Li Zhong this time, although Wang Mang's side won two games in a row, he also suffered a lot of losses. Nearly 3,000 strong men were killed in battle, and 1,000 soldiers died, which was extremely tragic.

In the era of cold weapons, marching and fighting relied on hand-to-hand combat, and the casualties were extremely high. Unlike modern times, you basically don't need to do much hand-to-hand combat, as long as you can control powerful weapons remotely.

At this time, Wang Mang and the people marched for several hours and arrived at Kaifeng Iron Cage Mountain.

Wang Mang looked at the sky and saw that the sun had set, so he ordered all the soldiers to camp down and cook.

Within half an hour, bursts of green smoke rose from the whole mountain, and the aroma of rice porridge overflowed.

At this time, there was an old woman, who brought a large bowl of rice porridge to Wang Mang and said, "Lord Wang, you can also take a sip while it's hot!" ”

Wang Mang took the rice porridge and replied with a smile: "Thank you, auntie." ”

Later, when he saw that the old woman's clothes were a little thin, he immediately took off his mink fur and draped it on the old woman.

"Auntie, it's cold today, you should wear more clothes, don't catch a cold. After all, it will take at least a month or two to go to Yuzhou, and you must not ignore your body. ”

The old woman hurriedly refused: "Lord Wang, this can't be helped, this can't be done. ”

Wang Jingyan said with a smile: "Auntie, you don't have to be polite, this is my father-in-law's heart." ”

Just as he was talking, the scout who was exploring the road in front rode his horse and came to Wang Mang and said urgently: "Lord Qiqi, I just found out that four miles in front of our army, there was a group of bandits blocking the road, and the number was about hundreds. Lord Wang Xun was negotiating with the other party, but the other party ignored him. He said that he would ask us to take out two or eight thousand pieces of silver, and they would let them go. ”

(End of chapter)