Chapter Fifty-Six: The Pursuit
Chengdu is sandwiched in the upper reaches of the two rivers of Tuojiang River and Minjiang River, located in the middle, Chengdu goes to the west, and only one day's journey can cross the Minjiang River, which is the ground of Qianwei, and there are two big mountains in the north and south of the county, namely North Qingcheng Mountain, South Emei Mountain. The key is that the terrain of the county is mountainous, there are many barbarians, and the west is mostly inhabited by the Qiang people, which basically belongs to the barren land.
Liu Fan consulted with Huang Quanyi after Liu Yan fainted, and immediately decided to withdraw his troops to the west and go to Qianwei, so as to wait for the time to make a comeback. After Yang Huai transferred the army to the north gate and found that there was no trace of Liu Yan's army, Jia Xu and Zhang Song took a look at the city, and both of them felt that Liu Yan was about to slip away. Without saying a word, Yang Huai hurriedly sent people out of the city to vigorously look for Liu Yan's traces in the two directions of the West Gate and the North Gate, and the news reported by the scouts confirmed Jia Xu's speculation, and Jia Xu immediately suggested to Yang Huai: "General Yang, now that Liu Zhoumu has fled, the general can lead the army out of the city to cooperate with the lord to kill the enemy, without further ado." Yang Huai didn't think so, at this time Yang Huai's identity was very sensitive, Chen Lin gave him the task of Chengdu city affairs, if he went out of the city at this time, winning was just the icing on the cake, if there was a mistake in Chengdu, wouldn't it be a waste of all his previous efforts, and the credit of working hard to stick to Chengdu City overnight was in vain. Yang Huai didn't do it, Jia Xu and Zhang Song were helpless, how could the two not know Yang Huai's thoughts, but although Liu Yan ran away at this time, there were still many enemy troops in the city. Jia Xu hurriedly said: "Since the general's military order is in his body, but the news of Liu Zhoumu's escape still hopes that the general will send someone out of the city to tell the lord to help the lord break the enemy." Yang Huai can still do this little thing, Jia Xu is the reddest strategist in Chen Lin's eyes, Yang Huai is not willing to be remembered by Jia Xu for this little thing.
"What? Liu Junlang ran away? Chen Lin didn't expect that Yang Huai would give him such news at this time, Liu Yan wouldn't be able to, tens of thousands of troops were disrupted by Chen Lin and Zhang Wei's 5,000 men. First stunned, then overjoyed, Chen Lin hurriedly shouted excitedly: "The state pastor has fled, and the army is killed." First Chen Lin shouted alone, then dozens of Chen Lin's guards shouted together, and finally the entire Hanzhong soldiers and horses who could still shout on the battlefield were agitated. Even Zhang Wei's subordinates couldn't help but shout, Zhang Wei staggered up and shouted at Gao Pei: "Renzhi, survive, hahahaha." After Zhang Lu's death, Zhang Wei returned to Shu County and became less and less valued by Liu Yan, if it weren't for the thousands of soldiers and horses he brought back from Badong, Zhang Wei didn't know where to beg now. Every day is a panic, especially in the past few days when rumors are spreading, Zhang Wei feels like half a life has passed, at this time, I heard that Liu Yan ran away, Chen Lin sent troops to help him, and he was still alive, Zhang Wei was almost crazy with joy.
The sky began to brighten, Liu Yan ran away, and the rest of the people were still fighting, either scattering and running away, not knowing where to go to be a strongman, or abandoning their weapons and surrendering, and a few still had the heart to resist at this time. The torch was extinguished, and I began to be able to see a hundred zhang away, only to see outside the West Gate of Chengdu, within a radius of three or four miles, corpses were all over the field, everywhere were broken spears, blunt steel knives, and I could see a section of limb stumps that I couldn't tell what part it was. Scattered here and there stood indifferent Hanzhong soldiers, their eyes without the madness of last night, only infinite tiredness and indifference, as if all these things that had passed in front of them were not lives. It's not that they're ruthless, it's that they've seen too much, and their love has been exhausted last night, and one day after another their brothers and friends have fallen, but they can only keep slashing with instinct, and then they survived, and when they found that they had survived, there were few familiar people left around, and they were like living in a strange world, what else could they do except this expression.
Picked up the weapon that seemed to be usable, looked at it, couldn't use it, dropped it again, and walked to the next one, the person on the ground seemed to be dead or not, so he gave him a ride, stabbed down, and the blood splashed on his face, and his eyes didn't blink. Hordes of captives were gathered together, weapons were collected, and there was not even a surplus of people to tie them up, so they marched into the city in groups after groups. Yang Huai was also ordered by Chen Lin to go out of the city to clean up the battlefield, looking at the battlefield in front of him, Yang Huai finally knew where he had lost in the first place.
Zhang Wei had to kneel, after this battle, Liu Yan had collapsed, Chen Lin became the biggest overlord in Shu in one fell swoop, Zhang Wei did not have much resentment towards Zhang Lu's death, but waited for Chen Lin's forgiveness in fear. Jia Xu went out of the city, Zhang Song presided over the city, Gao Shun won the battle, but he was not necessarily happy, and it was difficult to recover the previous momentum within two years of being trapped in the camp. Cai Yang was disabled, and there was not much left of Yang Ren's department, and now Chengdu is the 2,000 men under Yang Huai's command who have become the largest force, but Chen Lin is not worried at all, last night's defense has already explained Yang Huai's choice.
"Gao Shun, even General Zhang Shouyi's soldiers and horses, how many soldiers are there in our army in Chengdu now?" Chen Lin looked at the generals who were not very energetic and said. This sentence made the panicked Zhang Wei happy, and it was done, Chen Lin's words showed that Chen Lin accepted himself. Gao Shun was stunned for a moment, turned around and beckoned several generals to gather and ask, and Zhang Wei also hurriedly came over. After a while, Gao Shun came over and replied to Chen Lin: "My lord, now there are three hundred people who can fight in the camp." Saying that, there was a pain in his heart, "General Yang Nianxian has 1,800 under his command, General Cai has 300, General Yang Jiwei has 200, General Zhang Shouyi has 300, a total of 2,900 people, and the rest of the wounded are nearly 1,000 people. ”
Jia Xu frowned and asked Chen Lin, "What is the lord going to do?" Jia Xu had a faint feeling of uneasiness in his heart. Chen Lin ignored Jia Xu expressionlessly, turned to Gao Shun and ordered: "Cai Zilan and Yang Jiwei will stay, and the rest of the soldiers and horses will gather at the West Gate within half an hour, and all the generals will be controlled by Gao Shun, with Gao Shun as the commander, and go after Liu Junlang with a certain person." He didn't look back, got on his horse, and ran back to the city. Jia Xu was shocked, and shouted in the back: "The lord must not, Huang Gongheng is a stable person, there will be an ambush when the troops are withdrawn." It's a pity that Chen Lin stopped and rushed forward. Chen Lin was very uncomfortable with the casualties in this battle, and the blood debt had to be paid in blood, and for the first time, Chen Lin wanted a person's life so much, and this person was Liu Yan.
Chen Lin really went to pursue Liu Yan, Zhang Song and Jia Xu persuaded hard, Jia Xu looked at Chen Lin and the army of 2,400 in the distance, this army was also sad and indignant, although it fought fiercely all night, but I heard that Chen Lin was going to pursue Liu Yan to avenge the dead, none of them complained, after simply eating one or two pieces of food, the army started, with a bamboo tube of water on his body, a weapon, and nothing else, he must catch up with Liu Yan lightly, and catch up before Liu Yan did not cross the river. Jia Xu was very helpless and anxious, Chen Lin was usually happy to listen to everyone's opinions, but when he was impulsive, no one could change his mind. Jia Xu thought about it, jumped up with a bang, and said loudly to Zhang Song: "Ziqiao, the matter of Chengdu is up to you, go and help the lord." Then he ran down the wall, grabbed a horse, and ran.
When Jia Xu caught up with Chen Lin, he saw Chen Lin and his gang rushing back, and the army behind him was also panicked, and at a glance, he knew that it must be a defeat just now. Chen Lin looked at Jia Xu who came alone in astonishment, and said to Jia Xu with shame: "I regret that I shouldn't have listened to Wen He's words, Liu Junlang didn't go far at all, and he was ambushed twenty miles away from Chengdu, and our army suffered hundreds of casualties, and he was guilty of a certain crime." The generals hurriedly came up to persuade them, Jia Xu looked at them, and hurriedly said: "Lord, chase again, return to the army and chase again, hurry up." Chen Lin was stunned, more than 2,000 people were indignant to take revenge and chase after them, but they were all beaten to the ground, and now everyone is in shock, but Jia Xu wants to chase them. Jia Xu saw Chen Lin hesitate, and shouted: "Don't ask, lord, chase it, it's too late after the enemy army crosses the river." ”
Chen Lin chose to believe Jia Xu, regained momentum, turned around and shouted three times, and hurriedly rushed back. Immediately, Jia Xu said to Chen Lin: "Lord, Liu Zhou's pastoral strategist Huang Gongheng is a steady person, there must be an ambush when the troops are withdrawn, and if he wins a battle at this time, he will definitely not think that our army will pursue again, and if he is not prepared, the lord can win." When Chen Lin heard this, he laughed, the previous haze was gone, and he hurriedly urged the army to speed up. After the death of these words, there were only more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, but Chen Lin was not afraid at all, and always felt that Jia Xu was right.
After only one hour, the fast horse scout in front reported: "My lord, the enemy army is in front, and the rear army is defenseless." Chen Lin was overjoyed, glanced at Jia Xu, and waved his knife to Gao Shun and ordered: "Gao Shun, the time for shame has come, blow the horn." "All the combined cavalry, together with Chen Lin's cavalry guards, numbered more than a hundred, and they took the lead in rushing towards Liu Yan's army, which was not at all defenseless. It is less than five miles away from the Minjiang River, and it is just right that the rear army is attacked, and the front army will definitely speed up and rush to cross the river, instead of returning to the rear army. Sure enough, Liu Fan and Huang Quan protected Liu Yan in the front army, and suddenly heard the sound of shouting and killing from the rear army, and a scout came to report that the soldiers and horses in Hanzhong were coming again, and this time there was no ambush, Liu Fan panicked, and immediately ordered Liu Yan's carriage to cross the river first, and he also had to cross the river in a hurry. Huang Quan persuaded loudly: "Childe, childe, you can go back to the army to rescue the rear army, the soldiers and horses in Hanzhong have been fighting again and again, the number of people must not be much, maybe our army can turn defeat into victory, Childe can't go." Liu Fan didn't say anything, but Liu Mao jumped out and scolded, you old thing, you want to kill us, if you don't go, I'll go, Huang Quan is sad, he doesn't even want a family, he actually gets such treatment, it seems that except for Liu Yan, none of these sons can trust him, even Liu Fan just wants to live on his own.
Huang Quan really regretted suggesting that Liu Fan withdraw his troops, and he really regretted it, but Liu Yan, who fainted in a hurry, calmed down and thought about it now, Hui Qianwei is a next policy, Qianwei is so small, how to feed the army of 20,000 in the future. How can he hold it without an army of more than 20,000, although Chen Lin Hanzhong is also seriously injured now, but Chen Lin has become a fat man, as long as he recovers a little, he is a strong tiger. Rather than waiting for this tiger to recover and bite himself, it is better to fight when he is injured, Huang Quan regrets it.
Chen Lin's second pursuit won a complete victory, and Liu Fan's family rushed and fled across the river, with only 3,000 soldiers and horses.