The news that the Huainan Army had broken through the danger at Ivory Pond and satirized the allied forces spread quickly. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After losing the containment of the allied forces, the back road of the Chu army will be seriously threatened by the Huainan army, and the Gao'an City in front will not be able to break through in a short period of time after being strengthened by 3,000 Jiangzhou state soldiers, so the Chu army should have no other choice but to retreat.

Under these circumstances, Liu Wei immediately led 500 people to the Gao'an front line in person, preparing to organize an army to counterattack the Chu army.

Zhou Ben moved even faster than him, and early the next morning after the battle of Ivory Pond ended, he led 5,000 elite soldiers to turn westward, all the way to the west.

Although the soldiers were very tired, the Huainan army, which had just won a complete victory, was in high morale and was not affected by exhaustion at all.

In the afternoon, Yuan Mei, the leading general of the Chu army, and Peng Yanzhang, the assassin of Yuanzhou, received the news of the defeat of the army, and they were immediately shocked.

However, in addition to being surprised, the two began to seriously doubt the news.

Although I received news before that there was a Huainan army of tens of thousands of people heading straight to Ivory Pond, it seemed that the most elite Zhenguo army in Huainan led by Zhou Ben was the most accurate in terms of time, and now Zhou Ben rushed to Ivory Pond at most to confront the dangerous army.

After all, there are 60,000 troops in Wei Quanxi, no matter how brave Zhou Ben is and how elite the Zhenguo army is, it will not make Wei Quanxi's entire army rout so quickly.

Could it be that the news of the defeat of the army that I had just received was deliberately released by the Huainan army to disturb the hearts of the Chu army?

In the midst of this suspicion, Yuan Mei and Peng Yanzhang did not immediately withdraw their troops, but stopped the siege while sending more scouts to inquire and confirm the news.

It wasn't until the next morning that the definite news came: the coalition had been defeated!

Not only that, but the scouts also found out that after Zhou Ben defeated Wei Quanxi, he quickly turned westward and prepared to cut off the retreat of the Chu army.

Judging from the astonishing marching speed of the Huainan army, I am afraid that the retreat of the Chu army has been cut off at this time, and they may have been surrounded!

After making this judgment, Yuan Mei and Peng Yanzhang suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and the generals below who were waiting for their orders were even more anxious like ants on a hot pot.

Yuan Mei is also a veteran of the Caizhou Army, a general who followed Liu Jianfeng very early, and is brave and brave, and has a strong ability to lead troops to fight.

However, this person is somewhat similar to Li Si'an, the general of the Liang army, who is also a general with strong ability and courage, but always loses battles.

This time Ma Yin sent him to attack Gao'an, which was originally a good time to make a contribution, as long as he was given another period of time, he believed that he would definitely be able to break through Gao'an and enter the siege of Hongzhou.

However, his ally Wei Quanyan was so incompetent, not only did he stay in Ivory Pond for more than 20 days for no reason, but he had been hesitant to move forward, so that he missed the best opportunity to capture Hongzhou; Now it was defeated by the Huainan army, which was far inferior to him, in one day, so that even the back road of the Chu army was cut off by the enemy.

With the current situation, the Chu army has only two choices, one is to withdraw immediately before the enemy brigade arrives, but this choice means that they must act hastily, not only are they easy to be taken advantage of by the enemy, but they also need to forcibly break through the enemy's blockage; The second option is to ignore the problem of the rear road, and the army will continue to launch a strong attack, trying to take Gao'an before the main enemy force arrives.

"The second option is obviously too risky! Our army has been attacking for many days before, and has never been able to take Gao'an, so will we be able to break through the city in one fell swoop in a short period of time? What's more, even if Gao'an is defeated, what can it do? The rear road of our army has been cut off, if it cannot be opened in a short time, it will be besieged by the enemy in the small city of Gao'an, and I am afraid that it will be wiped out in a few days! Yuan Mei said coldly.

The current situation is obvious, the second option is more like a suicide attempt, and the first option still has a little hope of breaking out.

Peng Yanzhang deeply agreed with his opinion, and the two main generals immediately decided on a plan for immediate retreat.

Soon, a raging fire ignited in the camp of the Chu army, which was caused by the Chu army burning away the baggage that could not be taken away.

Then, regardless of the fatigue of attacking the city, the Chu army immediately set up troops to the south, preparing to break through the blockade of the Huainan army.

As for the soldiers who were injured in the siege before, those people were already prone to wound infections in this hot weather, and at this time they were directly abandoned and left to fend for themselves.

This approach was understandable, but it made the Chu army, which had withdrawn in a hurry, even more demoralized, and there were gradually various rumors in the army, saying that the army had been defeated and that they were now surrounded by the Huainan army.

Yuan Mei and Peng Yanzhang saw it in their eyes and were anxious in their hearts, but because of the rush of time, they had no time to appease them, so they could only tell the soldiers that the rumors were false and cheer them up.

It's a pity that these words are so pale in the face of reality.

In the afternoon of the same day, when they had marched more than 40 miles south, they were suddenly attacked by the Huainan army, and the whole army was in chaos.

The Huainan army that raided them was led by Zhou Ben, and after they turned westward and successively broke through several supply camps set up by the Chu army in the rear, they simply rested in the camp of the Chu army for half a day, until the main force of the Chu army arrived before they suddenly launched a surprise attack on them.

The Chu army had rushed forty miles to get here, hungry and tired, and was attacked by surprise in this situation, and the result can be imagined.

What was even more unfavorable to them was that when Yuan Mei and the others commanded those chaotic Chu troops to support under the attack of the enemy, in their rear, Liu Wei also led 6,000 state soldiers from Gao'an to rush to attack Zhou Ben in front and back.

Go down in flames!

Although the training level of the Chu army is good, it cannot continue to hold out in this situation, so it can only break through in all directions, and maybe some people can escape from the chaos.

"Ma Yin's hand has been stretched too long over the years, and this time he finally taught them a lesson!"

Looking at the fleeing enemy army, Zhou Ben, who had always had a serious expression, finally smiled.

This battle was dispatched from Guangling, to the day and night in 20 days to reach Ivory Pond, and then in four days, the 60,000 troops and 20,000 Chu troops were defeated successively, and their own losses were insignificant.

Of course, in addition to Zhou Ben's excellent command, the excellent performance of generals at all levels, and the incomparable elite of the Huainan Army, it was also related to the fact that the opponents they encountered were too weak.

Especially the allied allied army, the 60,000-strong army was routed almost immediately after the engagement.

In addition, the incompetence of the enemy generals was also an important reason for their great victory.

As the assassin of Fuzhou, Wei Quanxian governed one side but did a good job, and was deeply supported by the local people, but when it came to leading troops to fight, in Zhou Ben's opinion, Wei Quanxi's ability may not even be comparable to that of an ordinary battalion commander of the Huainan Army.

At least the battalion commander of the Huainan Army should also know that crossing the river in front of the enemy army is not a joke, and if you are not careful, you may be taken advantage of by the enemy army, which will lead to a great defeat; However, Wei Quanxiao made the decision to cross the river very hastily, so much so that he gave Zhou Ben the opportunity to launch a fatal blow.

And Yuan Mei and Peng Yanzhang's command, although much stronger than Wei Quanxi, still made a big mistake, that is, their actions were too obvious and lost their suddenness.

Especially burning the baggage before withdrawing the troops, that is almost telling the Huainan Army that they are going to withdraw their troops.

In addition, if Zhou Ben was in Yuan Mei's position, he would definitely not choose to withdraw his troops immediately and hastily, at least to find out the enemy situation first, so as not to be attacked by the Huainan army in a hurry.

In short, this victory in the Battle of Hongzhou was definitely a classic battle of long-distance raids, especially Zhou Ben's battle to defeat 80,000 enemy troops with lightning speed, which would definitely make him famous.

By the time it got dark, the battlefield gradually subsided, and a total of more than 6,000 Chu troops were taken prisoner, and more than 3,000 were killed, while the losses of the Huainan army were greater than when they were defeated before, reaching more than 800 people.

Of course, these losses were mainly incurred when the Chu army was still resisting at the beginning, and it was almost a one-sided pursuit later.

The biggest result of this battle was not only to defeat the 20,000 Chu troops and avenge the two battles of Yuezhou, but more importantly, to capture Peng Yanzhang, the assassin of Yuanzhou!

Like Wei Quanxi, Peng Yanzhang also chose to surrender to Huainan, and offered to let the troops left behind in Yuanzhou surrender to Huainan in order to save his own life.

For this request, Zhou Ben and Liu Wei naturally readily agreed.

After a few days of rest, Zhou Ben and Liu Wei led the Huainan army to continue to attack Yuanzhou and Jizhou, and Yuanzhou surrendered to Huainan without any resistance because of Peng Yanzhang's persuasion.

On the Jizhou side, most of the army in Jizhou was defeated by the Huainan army in the battle of Ivory Pond, and there were only more than 4,000 people left behind, and they did not dare to resist in the face of the Huainan army's large-scale attack.

On the other side, the Huainan Army led by Mi Zhicheng and Li Decheng also easily captured Fuzhou with the help of Wei Quanyi.

Then, after resting in Fuzhou for a few days, the 20,000 state soldiers that Li Shenfu promised to mobilize also arrived in Fuzhou at this time, and with the replenishment of these large armies, the Huainan army continued to march to Xinzhou.

Xinzhou Assassin Shi Wei Zaichang, who had just escaped from the battlefield of Ivory Pond, also did not dare to resist, and directly led the defenders to abandon the city and enter Fujian, preparing to take refuge in Wang Shenzhi.

At this point, the land of the eight states of Jiangxi, except for Qianzhou, which did not send a single soldier in this battle, the land of the remaining seven states all fell into the hands of Huainan.