The most cost-effective tactic is to pursue.

Whether it is hundreds of paces apart and using bows and arrows to shoot each other or fighting in formation, there will inevitably be casualties and losses, and only pursuit can minimize such casualties and losses. Zero casualties, which are regarded as the highest level of pursuit in the modern mode of warfare, can only be barely achieved in pursuit warfare in the era of cold weapons. When the enemy begins to retreat, its command structure and will to fight no longer exist, the speed of pursuit is directly proportional to the results obtained, and the degree of casualties can basically be controlled on a baseline plane.

All in all, it's rare for the galloping enemy to turn around and pick up arms again to fight you, and it's a sure-fire deal.

On the battlefield of Ten Trees, most of the main cavalry of the Ye Ji family has been annihilated, and more than 450 people have been killed in the battle, a number that the Ye Ji family, a poor tribe with less than 7,000 people, can absolutely not afford. Cutting out the wounded, by the time they began to retreat, there were only eighty-seven people left in the Yeji family's armed forces who were still on their horses and could run back.

The pursuit force led by Zhang Guizhi has two brigades of 100 people, standard cavalry armor, standard sabers, horse lances, standard individual crossbows, and standard hand crossbows.

This cavalry had been assembled on the eastern side of the battlefield since the beginning of the battle, until the trumpeters of the Emperor of the Emperor blew the trumpet for the third time.

If only in terms of data comparison, the weight of Zhang Guizhi's war horses is much higher than that of the enemy's war horses, so the horse speed is relatively low.

But this is just a simple comparison of data, and the reality is far from it.

The war horses of Bingdu are all high-quality war horses purchased from the self-determined difficult army, and they are fed with grain on weekdays, fat and weight, and strong and tall; Most of the so-called war horses of the Ye Ji family are inferior horses used by the family herdsmen for grazing, and they all grow up by eating grass on the pasture, and the decent horses in his clan have long been donated as sheep and horses by Guo Yanqin.

The Bingdu cavalry is the standard configuration of the scout cavalry. One man with two horses. Rides can be swapped to save horsepower. The mounts of the Yeji family soldiers are all their own, and except for a few nobles, no one has extra horses to ride.

Except for a few of the cavalry who participated in the battlefield alert reconnaissance and shelter earlier today, the vast majority of the cavalry of Bingdu have been recuperating on the east side of the valley, while the horses of the Ye Ji family have traveled dozens of miles and experienced a difficult battle and battle, and most of them have reached the end of the crossbow.

What's more, the maximum firing range of the cavalry in the hands of the Bingdu cavalry is more than 150 paces. Even if the horse can't catch up, the crossbow bolts can.

The most fatal thing is that at the beginning of the rout, the 200-strong cavalry team of the Ye Ji family, which served as the rear army, had just walked to the western valley

The cavalry team, which had been in a fairly orderly queue, was rushed into chaos by the soldiers of the family who had escaped from the road. Some deserters saw the needles and fled in the gaps between the sides of the queue and friendly forces. Some of them have bad eyes, or they can't hold their horses and crash straight into the queue. The cavalry, which was still on the march and had not yet begun, was stunned by this unexpected turn of events, and many were infected by the despair and fear of the deserters. He began to quietly turn his horse's head and prepare to run away.

At this time, Zhang Guizhi's cavalry chased and killed in a narrow fan-like shape.

Zhang Guizhi's cavalry also needed time to deploy, but compared to the rear army of the Ye Ji family, he had plenty of time, and the cooperation of friendly troops was quite tacit.

After Di Huaiwei's division dodged a gap about twenty paces wide for the second time, the Bingdu cavalry began to slowly accelerate from behind the formation, but in only a quarter of an hour, this cavalry had already rushed through the chasm. The front had already opened up the attack surface of seven or eight cavalry.

At this time, the soldiers of the Ye Ji family who fled were still in a mess at the mouth of the valley to rush the road.

Ye Jichuan, who was dragged back by his own soldiers, was still shouting and trying to restore the command system. Some of the nobles of the rear army were trying to stop the rout, some were hesitating, and a few began to quietly turn their horses and prepare to retreat westward. And the cries and shouts of those defeated soldiers almost drowned out Ye Jichuan's words so much that they couldn't be heard at all.

The so-called defeat is like a mountain, and that's pretty much it.

What really solved the situation of Gutong on the west side was the salvo of two rows of crossbow arrows from Zhang Guizhi's department.

The valley mouth is about twenty-five or six steps wide. Zhang Guizhi divided the Bingdu right team into two groups and deployed them on both wings. Fifty cavalrymen raised their crossbows, which had already been wound behind the formation, and fired a cross-salvo, and suddenly there was a ghostly howl from Taniguchi. Dozens of crossbow arrows burst into the air. Immediately, the two dozen or so retreating cavalry who were still lined up on the easternmost tail were dressed in a sieve, and the screams of these cavalrymen and the sound of falling off their horses further irritated the soldiers of the family who were seizing the road in front of them, and some of the deserters began to slash the cavalry of the rear army with red eyes - just to be able to fight a way out of the sky.

Immediately after the first firing, the right team approached about 40 paces, and used a hand crossbow with a range of only more than 30 paces in a denser formation to inflict a second wound on the enemy, and forcibly opened a gap more than ten paces wide at the mouth of the valley.

At the same time, the left team of Bingdu, which had assembled in four columns, began to accelerate its charge.

At this point, the nobles of the rear army who were still hesitating finally stopped hesitating, and fled with their own soldiers, and more than 200 cavalry ran for their lives in the valley that was only about 20 paces wide, and the road between the valleys to their west would become narrower and narrower.

Zhang Guizhi personally led the left team from the gap into the valley on the west side, and the scouts of the left team did not look at the scattered enemy cavalry on both sides, they had already put away their crossbow arrows, and carried horse lances (i.e., horse guns, slightly longer than the wooden guns used by the infantry). ), at a relatively gentle but even pace, chased the enemy cavalry running around the valley like a swarm.

Zhang Guizhi did not rush to the end in one breath, in the narrow valley, whether it is the enemy fleeing in a group or the self pursuing in a group, it is difficult to run at full speed, as long as he can stick behind these enemies slowly, and rush up every once in a while to kill and wound the enemy troops at the end of the team with seven or eight people, it will be difficult for the enemy army to have a chance to stop somewhere to rectify the formation and command, and there is no problem in chasing his own horsepower all the way to the county seat of Huai'an.

Unlike the infantry, the fighters of the Bingdu Left Squad were young. Most are between the ages of seventeen or eighteen. The eldest is not more than twenty years old, and most of these teenagers' riding skills have only been more than half a year old, and if they really go into battle to fight, I am afraid that they may not be the opponents of these enemy troops who have grown up on horseback since childhood. Therefore, Zhe Yuqing has always refused to take out these dolls and fill them on the battlefield early, and only in this kind of pursuit war, these cavalry seedlings who are still in the learning period can accumulate as much combat experience as possible without major damage.

The dozen or so veterans who chased the first wave had participated in the cavalry scouts of Xifeng Minda since the Battle of Luziguan last year, and they were relatively proficient in equestrianism. The will to fight and experience are also better.

This kind of pursuit is the most pleasant, and the constant repetitive acceleration - rushing up and stabbing the horse lance in the back of the enemy - and then slowing down and drawing the horse lance at the same time, and the individual who misses the hand rushes over the head and rushes into the enemy's ranks, but the defeated soldiers who are running wildly are so frightened of them that they dare not even look at them and continue to urge their horses to flee forward. It is a brave act to turn around and kill the enemy soldiers who have rushed into your ranks. But it was clear that the less brave allies would take advantage of this rare opportunity to run ahead of them - which meant that they would fall victim to the enemy's next approaching charge......

Most of the time, selfishness is a universal law......

Intermittently rushing and killing, there are more and more enemy troops who fall under the pursuit of Zhang Guizhi's troops and scattered enemy troops that are crossed by Zhang Guizhi's troops - these scattered routs are handed over to the right team behind to contain, and when the battle is fought to this point, it is time to capture some prisoners......

Of course, Zhang Guizhi was not completely unprepared, after all, the enemy army outnumbered his own. If you turn around and back, you won't be able to eat and walk around. The left team has not lost even a single person so far. Only some of them accidentally lost their horses in pursuit and had to draw their sabers and move on. Under Zhang Guizhi's strict order, none of the 50 crossbows and hand crossbows of the entire team have been fired. If the enemy army really fights back, with the perverted firepower of these crossbow arrows, it is more than enough to defeat the fighting spirit of these defeated troops again.

Battle of the Ten Trees. At this point, it can actually be considered a complete end. Although in the end, Zhang Guizhi led the cavalry to chase all the way to the county seat of Huai'an, but it could no longer be regarded as ten trees in terms of geography.

This battle of the valley. Ye Ji's family lost almost all of the elite warriors of the clan, nearly 600 people were killed in battle, more than 120 were captured, and finally Ye Jichuan fled back to Huai'an County with only 16 cavalry.

In this battle, 109 people were killed in the camp in the north of the Guan, including 77 soldiers of the Folded Family, 32 of the Eighth Route Army, and 52 wounded, most of whom were soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. A total of 318 horses, 100 and 3 pairs of armor, and countless inferior sabers of all kinds were captured in this battle.

Folding Yuqing didn't bother to look at these sabers, these broken copper and iron were of almost no use except for taking them back and handing them over to the Iron Engineer Battalion of the Xiang Corps for recuperation - whether it was the Ori family soldiers or the Eighth Route Army, no one would be equipped with such a broken thing.

On March 22, the third year of Guangshun, the Guanbei marching army and the Yejijia rebels fought a fierce battle in the Shikeshu Valley in the southeast of Huai'an County, Gyeongju, and the Guanbei army won a complete victory, and the Yejijia was almost completely annihilated.

The next day, Zhi Yuqing led the army to the southeast of Huai'an County, and set up camp in three miles of the city.

At this time, Ye Jichuan, who was defending the city, only had less than 300 remnants left, and his morale was low, and the whole army only had six pairs of armor, but he had to defend a county town with more than 700 households, so he was naturally overstretched and embarrassed.

After convening a meeting of the remaining nobles in the city to unify the army, they unanimously decided to abandon the county seat of Huai'an, which was completely undefendable, and retreated north to the camp of the tribesmen in Luoyuan, and at the same time decided to demolish the wooden bridge over the Toudao River after retreating, so as to delay the further attack of the enemy.

Ye Jichuan did not hesitate to take the responsibility for the defeat on his own shoulders during the public discussion, but he also warned everyone that the defeat was followed by the disaster of extermination, these Han soldiers will not forget the betrayal of the Ye Ji clan to their court, they have always been very benevolent and righteous to foreign races, for this powerful conquest army from afar, it is a natural choice to destroy this small tribe and let Gyeongju have no trouble from now on, not to mention that there are still some wealth, cattle and sheep and women in the clan after all. These are the things that can most stimulate the bestiality of the Han army.

Therefore. The war below is no longer a war between people and land, but a battle for the survival of the Yeji clan, and the crisis of extinction is in sight!

On the night after the end of the public discussion, a soldier of the Ye Ji family, covered in blood and with three arrows stuck in his body, fell on horseback and galloped along the official road into the north gate of Huai'an County.

"Da Lu Ze, the clan camp was attacked...... Toudaochuan was occupied by a Han cavalry ......"

That's all the warrior said. He fainted.

This sentence froze the chests of Ye Jichuan and all the people from nobles to ordinary soldiers into ice cellars, and at that moment, Ye Jichuan only felt that his blood was coagulating, and the functions of all parts of his body were ossified, and he couldn't even move his fingers......

After a while, the Yeji family patriarch reacted. Hurriedly asked someone to treat this soldier who had come to deliver the message.

Fortunately, the Han army in the south has not attacked the city in the past two days, and there is still time to figure things out.

Ye Jichuan deployed more than 300 cavalry in Luoyuan, in order to prevent a feud in the east to kill the Niu family to sneak attack. Under normal circumstances, the news of his defeat in the Ten Trees would not have been transmitted to the Cattle Killer so quickly, and the Cattle Killer would not have sent troops so quickly; In addition, compared to the attack on the clan camp, the news that the front line of Toudaochuan was occupied by the Han army was much more terrifying, which meant that the communication between Huai'an and Luoyuan had been completely cut off. Even if the clan camp is unharmed, the more than 200 people in Ye Jichuan's hands have already become a lone army.

Almost blink of an eye. The Ye Ji family has been forced to the point of exhaustion by this original foreign army from Yanzhou.

It wasn't until early the next morning that the soldier who delivered the letter woke up, and from his mouth, Ye Jichuan finally learned the truth.

Just four days ago, an unknown Han cavalry unit suddenly occupied the Toudao Kawajo Wooden Bridge. And a defensive line was set up on both sides of the wooden bridge. In the lower reaches of the Toudao River, there are activities of the Han army's naval fleet. Just after the noble elders who were in charge of the military on behalf of the clan learned the news and sent troops, the Niu family, who had been hibernating, finally dispatched more than 600 cavalry with wolf riders as the core. Raided the county seat of Luoyuan, occupied the dilapidated county town that was only tied up with a fence, and cut off the communication between the Yeji soldiers who attacked and the clan camp. Just the day before yesterday, in the south of Luoyuan City, the Han army and the soldiers of the Niu Killing Family carried out a north-south flank attack on the remaining troops of the Ye Ji family in the meeting place.

This warrior was sent by the noble elders of the clan to report to Ye Jichuan before this battle, because the wooden bridge was blocked, he had to make a detour to the upper reaches of the Toudao River, and broke through the blockade of the Han cavalry on the way, and two of his three companions died on the way, so he did not arrive until today, as for the result of the battle of Luoyuan, he did not know.

Ye Jichuan knew in his heart that there was almost no suspense in this battle, with the combat strength of this Han army, coupled with the main force of the cattle killing clan, the 300 or so troops left behind in the rear were basically more than lucky.

After a wry smile, the patriarch's heart was relieved, and he turned a blind eye to the terrified eyes of the surrounding nobles, and recruited a local Han man who could write Chinese characters, and ordered him to write a humble and straightforward letter on his behalf, ordering two family soldiers to be sent to the Han army camp in the south of the city.

In his heart, Ye Jichuan said very simply that he was the culprit of the Yeji rebellion, such as today's soldiers, willing to surrender to the law, just to be able to bypass the lives of the old and young women and children in the clan, and the rest did not dare to hope.

Even this is an extravagant hope, Ye Jichuan understands it better than anyone else.

It's just that he has decided that if the enemy refuses to agree and insists on slaughtering the Ye Ji clan, it is a big deal to lead the team to rush out and fight to the death, and kill a few if he can. Under the continuous blows of this long-planned trick of the Han people, the Yeji tribe basically has no strength to fight back, and now they are alone, and the contact with the clan has been completely cut off, and there is no way to know the safety of the clan camp.

The initiative is in the hands of others, and he can't win on the battlefield, except for surrendering, Ye Jichuan has nothing to do.

I hope that I can exchange my life for the lives of the old and young women and children of the whole clan.

As for the young man, Ye Jichuan didn't think about it anymore, the crime of rebellion, and the killing of the whole clan was already merciful to the Han army. Since hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, "the victorious soldier is killed" has been a common method used by the Han people after quelling local rebellions.

Unexpectedly, after the letter was sent, there was no news from the mud cow into the sea. The soldier who delivered the letter said that a young Han general had taken the letter and read it, saying that he would have to think about it, and sent him back.

Ye Jichuan didn't know how many days the other party had to think about it, but he couldn't afford it, and his life was hanging upside down, how could he not be in a hurry?

So on the first day there was no news, and the next day he sent another messenger to say the same thing, for greater humility.

The other party still didn't react.

On the third day, he sent a third letter, expressing his willingness to give away all the wealth and half of the young women of the whole clan, as long as he could leave some seeds for the Ye Ji family.

The messenger returned empty-handed.

On the fourth day, Ye Jichuan had already sent the last messenger almost desperately, and went to the Han army camp with a letter wishing to be attached to the final condition of the slavery within the clan.

In the evening, the messenger returned, bringing with him a letter from the chief general of the Han army, which contained only one sentence: "Tie yourself to my camp with a rope, and I will talk to you ......"