Eight miles south of the battlefield where Yang Wu was located, Zhao Zaili's heart was full of excitement and anger at this time.

What made him excited was that the Silver Spear Army under his command had defeated the Wu army's 15,000 troops in less than an hour, killing countless enemy troops, and his own casualties were extremely light, not even a hundred.

Such a major victory was something that Cho Jae-li had not expected at all before crossing the river.

When they first heard Li Cunqiao's plan to cross the river, other generals such as Shi Jingjiao and Li Shaorong were very excited and agreed with this plan; But Cho was different, he was very worried about the plan at that time.

After all, the experience of fighting with the Wu army in the past year or so can be seen that the strength of the Wu army is not blown, they can eliminate Houliang and others, and unify the area south of the Yellow River, relying not only on excellent strategy, but also on strong military strength.

In the case that the troops are far inferior to the other party, and the quality of the soldiers is about the same, but he wants to have a ruined battle, hoping to win by surprise, Zhao Zaili feels that this is too risky.

But now it seems that Li Cunqing's assumption is undoubtedly correct, and they do now see the possibility of victory.

This made Zhao Zaili have to sigh: "The king is the king, but I can only be an ordinary general, there is really a gap!" ”

However, in addition to feeling proud, Cho Jae-li also felt very annoyed.

When he defeated the main force of the Wu army, he did not dwell too much, leaving only the 1,000 cavalry that cooperated with his attack to continue to pursue the enemy's rout, while he himself led the main force of the Silver Spear Jie Army to clean up the battlefield, preparing to go to support Li Cunqiao after a short rest.

However, what he did not expect was that less than half an hour later, news came that the cavalry unit in charge of pursuing the enemy army had been ambushed, and most of the soldiers had been lost.

This news surprised Zhao Zaili, "Could it be that the reinforcements of the Wu army have arrived?" If that's the case, we can't rush to support the king, we must first find out the situation here. ”

Fortunately, from the soldiers who fled, Zhao Zaili got specific news that it was not the reinforcements of the Wu army who ambushed them, but the defeated soldiers who were defeated by them before.

Li Decheng, as the commander of the rear army of the Wu army, when the army was attacked by a surprise attack and fell into collapse, no matter who it was, it was difficult to recover the defeat, so after seeing that the general trend was gone, he immediately led more than 2,000 people, who were still intact at that time, to withdraw from the battlefield and retreat to a forest to rest.

There, they gathered some more routs one after another, bringing the total strength to more than 3,000 men.

At this time, after a crushing defeat, the morale of the soldiers was extremely low and they were full of fear of the enemy, so many generals believed that they should retreat immediately now and return to Pingyin to rest and recuperate before making plans.

However, this proposal was resolutely rejected by Li Decheng.

In Li Decheng's view, as a general of the army, he is responsible for leading the rear army, but he has suffered such a fiasco, and he has no shame to face King Wu.

More importantly, he believed that the enemy army would not only raid the rear army, but also the Chinese army would definitely be attacked by the enemy, and with his understanding of Yang Wu, he believed that Yang Wu would definitely not be easily defeated, perhaps at this time the Chinese army was fighting fiercely with the main force of the Jin army.

At this time, the role of his "rout army" is extremely important.

If he did nothing and allowed the Silver Spear to besiege the Chinese army, the result would probably be devastating; On the other hand, if he manages to contain the silver spear and buy time for the Chinese army, then he can still atone for his crimes.

Therefore, with the support of the idea of "atonement", Li Decheng did not choose to retreat in the end, but decided to counterattack.

It was at this time that the enemy pursuers arrived.

There is a saying that "every time you enter the forest", no qualified general will easily bring his men into the woods without understanding the situation in the woods, because there is a possibility of being ambushed by enemy troops.

For the pursuing enemy cavalry, the cavalry is often affected in the woods, because the trees are blocked, and the horses cannot give full play to their speed advantage, so they are vulnerable to siege in the woods.

Therefore, cavalry generally rarely fought in the woods unless it was necessary.

However, in front of them, they were just chasing the route, and the cavalry commander took it for granted that there would be no danger, so he went straight into the woods, only to be ambushed by Li Decheng, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

After getting the news, Zhao Zaili was annoyed in his heart, but he had to stop, preparing to completely defeat the enemy army before going to support Li Cunqing.

However, what happened to him next drove him mad.

When he led a large army to attack the woods, after a careful and careful search, it took a long time to waste, and finally found that the enemy army had long since left.

After a search failed to find any trace of the enemy, Zhao Zaili decided to ignore this enemy army and go to besiege the Wu army first.

It is said that Yang Wu, the king of Wu, is in command of the enemy's army, and if he can defeat the enemy's army, kill or even directly capture Yang Wu, then the war against Wu will be completely victorious, and he will also get great merit, that is, it is not difficult to be crowned the prince of the country.

In comparison, it was too much to gain and lose to entangle with this enemy army.

Thinking so, Zhao Zaili immediately ordered to turn around and rush to support Li Cunqing.

However, he had not marched more than a mile when the bad news came that the army that remained at the rear to take charge of the broken rear had been attacked by the enemy.

Thousands of enemy troops suddenly came out from behind the hillside, and a chaotic rush of arrows was followed by a swift charge, and after a while, they immediately retreated without stopping, so that the enemy troops who rushed to support after hearing the news could only sigh in the dust.

Immediately afterwards, similar things happened one after another, and the enemy army rushed out from time to time to sneak attack, and every time they hit and run, they didn't stop at all, so that the Jin army ran back and forth, but they couldn't catch them.

Not only that, but some Wu troops rushed ahead of the Jin army, destroying the bridge across the river, or cutting down trees and piling them in the middle of the road to block the road, or hiding in the woods to release cold arrows, in short, in various ways to delay the Jin army's march.

As a result, after walking for more than half an hour, the Jin army actually walked less than three miles, and the soldiers were already deeply tired.

This situation made Zhao Zaili both angry and helpless, and at the same time a little regretful.

If he hadn't sent the cavalry to pursue the enemy before, but had sent his infantry there, then even if he had suffered heavy losses from an ambush, at least the cavalry would have been intact enough to cope with the current situation.

But now most of the cavalry was lost, and most of the rest were wounded, and they could not cover the march of the army at all.

Seeing this, Zhao Zaili changed his mind and ordered to leave 2,000 infantry troops to break the queen, while he led the main force to support Li Cunqing, the king of Jin.

This response was quite timely, after all, the enemy's rout should not be much, and 2,000 men were enough to block the enemy.

However, he was mistaken, that is, at the beginning, perhaps the defeated troops led by Li Decheng were indeed not many, but as he continued to sneak attack the Jin army, more of the defeated troops that had been scattered before also joined in.

The reason why the Wu army was able to destroy bridges, block roads, or hide in the woods in advance to release cold arrows before the Jin army was because only a small part of the rear army that was defeated by the Jin army was actually killed on the spot, and most of the soldiers were only scattered.

If no one stood up to take command, then these routs would not be able to cause any trouble to the Jin army; But as Li Decheng took the lead, the other defeated soldiers followed suit and joined the ranks of the sneak attack on the Jin army, which made Zhao Zaili feel that it seemed that the Wu army was sneaking up everywhere.

Now that Zhao Zaili left 2,000 people to break the line, he led the other main forces to go first, Li Decheng also immediately changed his mind, he gathered the defeated soldiers, gathered nearly 4,000 troops, stormed the broken Jin army, and even personally led the troops to kill at one point.

As a result, under his leadership, the Wu army changed the low morale caused by the previous defeat, and showed great courage to break the Jin army, which was miserable, and sent people to Zhao Zaili for help one after another.

This time Zhao Zaili had an even more headache, if he continued to move forward regardless of it, then once the two thousand people after the break were defeated, the enemy army was likely to follow, and he would still have to stay to resist this enemy army at that time.

But if he returns to the army to support, maybe the enemy army will quickly slip away, and not only will he not be able to destroy the enemy, but he will also be dragged back.

You must know that at this time, Li Cunmiao's side has sent messengers one after another, asking him to quickly end the battle on this side and lead his troops to support as quickly as possible.

Judging from the news obtained, the attack on the Wu army has fallen into a stalemate, and Yang Wu, the king of Wu, arranged the army in an arc formation, relying on the hillside and the nearby river, firmly blocking the attack of the Jin army.

The battle was very fierce, and the Jin army suffered heavy casualties, and it urgently needed the support of the Silver Spear Army.

The dilemma gave Zhao Zaili a headache, and in the end, he gritted his teeth and decided to send two thousand people back to rescue, and the rest of the army continued to advance.

After all, the Silver Spear Temperance Army is an elite army, and after the rescue of these two thousand people, the broken army quickly stabilized the battle situation, and even gained some upper hand.

And the headquarters army led by Zhao Zaili was also able to march unimpeded, the only difference was that there should have been 8,000 elite troops to support Li Cunqing, but now there are only 4,000 people left, and the other 4,000 people have been dragged by Li Decheng.

When night fell, Li Cunqiao had already ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, and Zhao Zaili was also late at this time.

Late at night, in the Jin army camp, Li Cunmiao's face was as if he was dyed with a layer of frost, and it was terrifyingly cold.

And Zhao Zaili, who knelt in front of him on one knee, felt the coldness in silence.

Originally, it was a perfect victory, and after defeating the rear army of Wu's army, he could immediately come to support, and besiege Yang Wu with the army personally led by Li Cunmiao; But what about now? Not only did it delay until now, but even the 8,000 elites only had 4,000 people arrive, so it was no wonder that Li Cunmiao was so annoyed.

But Zhao Zaili also has an unspeakable bag, and he doesn't want to do this, but Wu Jun's delaying tactics make him suffer.

You must know that in order to raid the Wu army, the Jin army was originally in a rapid march on this day, and it walked more than 50 miles in half a day, followed by a fierce battle, and the soldiers were already exhausted.

If it weren't for the fact that the army had already won a big victory, which made the morale of the soldiers high and made up for the physical fatigue to a certain extent, I am afraid that the Jin army would have been unable to hold it for a long time.

And the subsequent sneak attack of the enemy army exposed the weakness of the Jin army, if it wasn't for the soldiers being too tired, how could they be dragged down by the little trick of sneak attack? How could the two thousand Jin troops after the break be beaten by the enemy and ask for help one after another?

It's a pity that these reasons can't convince Li Cunmiao, what he wants at this time is not an explanation, but reinforcements, 8,000 silver spears to serve the army, but now Zhao Zaili only brought 4,000 troops, and it was a tired 4,000 army, as if the 4,000 army was extremely embarrassed after losing the battle.

After a burst of anger, Li Cunqiao also understood that it was useless to be angry, and more importantly, what to do next.

He stretched out his hand and rubbed his forehead, and said a little tiredly: "Now the Wu army relies on the terrain to defend strictly, and the enemy's front army has been temporarily blocked by our army. But there is not much time left for us, the enemy's reinforcements may arrive at any time, if we can't quickly defeat Yang Wu, then we will all die without a place to bury. There is no need to say this alone, I think everyone understands it. ”

He sighed, and continued: "Today's battle was fierce, the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and they must be very tired at this time because of the rapid march. But we can't stay, we must continue to attack, and we must not give the enemy a chance to breathe. ”

He looked at the generals, and finally said slowly: "The next battle is a battle to the death, and since you are alone, you must have the determination to die, if anyone still has a fluke mentality, and thinks that we still have enough time to attack slowly, then we will really die." ”

"So Lone decided that General Lone would personally lead the troops to continue the attack tonight, except for the cavalry, the rest of the army must be all put into battle, and no one should be greedy for life or afraid of death. The generals must also go to the front line to fight and cannot stay in the rear. Did you hear that? His voice was dull and firm, and it was clear that he had made up his mind.

"The last general will be ordered!" All the generals also knelt on the ground and answered loudly.

During the daytime battle, because of the threat of the Wu army's bed crossbows, many generals hid in the rear to command; But if it is dark today, the role of the bed crossbow will be greatly reduced, and Li Cunqiao is ready to go into battle in person, so what reason do these generals have to continue to hide in the rear?

And Zhao Zaili, who had just made a mistake, also stood up at this time and asked loudly: "Great King, although the last general's department only brought 4,000 people, each of them is an elite of a hundred battles. In tonight's battle, the last general is willing to lead the troops as a vanguard to storm the enemy camp and atone for his sins. Please allow the King! ”

Li Cunmiao immediately replied: "Okay, General Zhao has this determination, and he agrees." ”

Zhao Zaili immediately said loudly: "The last general should fight to the death!" ”

The other generals also shouted: "Fight to the death!" ”