The soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army became more and more courageous, and the rebels gradually showed a tendency to rout since they were scattered in formation, and after only a moment, the demoralized rebels began to gradually flee in all directions.

"Retreat, retreat quickly...... The rebel general saw that his soldiers were gradually collapsing and that victory was hopeless, so he took the initiative to call his subordinates to retreat in the direction of the woods.

With the order of the commander-in-chief, the rebel soldiers who were still fighting against the Northern Expeditionary Army also gave up their resistance, threw away their weapons and rushed towards the woods.

"Kill...... Hunt down the rebels, hunt down the rebels. Seeing that the rebels began to break and flee, the generals of the Northern Expeditionary Army shouted and led their troops in pursuit.

Pursued all the way, fought all the way, and it was not until the rebels entered the depths of the woods that the Northern Expeditionary Army gave up the pursuit, and then gradually withdrew to the city of Jiaozhi.

Hua An did not personally participate in this battle, the reason why he did this was to observe the combat ability of his subordinate officers and soldiers from the perspective of a bystander, and find out the shortcomings of the soldiers and the defects of the formation.

After this fierce battle, Hua'an was basically satisfied with the combat strength of his soldiers, which fully met his expectations, but at the same time, Hua'an also discovered the shortcomings of the infantry formation, that is, the formation was too rigid and could not be moved by the enemy.

Especially when the enemy army is broken and fleeing, it is impossible to pursue the enemy army and maintain the formation, so that once the rebels suddenly kill the horse pistol, or the pursuing troops are ambushed by the rebels, it is easy to suffer great losses.

Jiaozhou is a jungle area, the rebels are extremely familiar with the terrain, as long as the Northern Expeditionary Army goes deep into the jungle, it is very likely to be ambushed by the rebels, and fighting in the jungle area is not the strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

To this end, Hua'an decided to study carefully and formulate a set of formations conducive to jungle warfare according to the dense characteristics of the jungle in Jiaozhou, so that his soldiers could go deep into the jungle to pursue the rebels.

The reason why the Northern Expeditionary Army achieved a huge victory was entirely because of the enemy's first opportunity, knowing the rebels' actions in advance, and then adopting the tactics of ambush and sneak attack to break the rebels, and once the rebels fled into the jungle, the Northern Expeditionary Army did not dare to pursue, because the jungle was too dense and the situation inside was very complicated.

After the rebels retreated into the woods, they could ambush at any time and use the cover of the trees to carry out a sneak attack on the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was somewhat similar to street fighting in the city, the rebels who were familiar with the terrain and jungle climate naturally had the advantage, while the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was good at large-scale battles, was completely at a disadvantage.

"Big brother, our army has won a big victory, our army has won a big victory!" The thunderstorm that collected the army back to the city and Zhao Wu and Tie Niu climbed the city wall to report the good news to Hua'an.

"I saw it, the eldest brother saw it, the soldiers played well, very good." Hua An praised loudly.

"In this battle, our army chased out five miles, at least killed nearly 10,000 rebels, if it weren't for the rebels' long legs running fast, they would have been wiped out by our army, haha!" Thunderstorm laughed out loud.

"Haha! Ha ha! Hua An and Wang San also laughed, the victory was not easy to come by, and everyone's mood was extremely excited.

"What about the casualties of our army, are they big?" After laughing twice, Wang San suddenly asked.

Tie Niu's eyes glared, looked at Wang San, and said, "You and your eldest brother are standing on the head of the city, haven't you seen them all?" The casualties of our troops did not exceed a thousand at most, well, a thousand at most. ”

"Big brother, the casualties are one to ten, and our army has made a lot of money." Zhao Wu was obviously very satisfied with the results.

Hua An nodded, pointed into the distance, and said: "Five hundred miles to the west, is Xinggu County of Shu State, where 30,000 elite soldiers are hoarded, if these 30,000 elite soldiers and the main force of 60,000 rebels in the direction of Guilin County come to Jiaozhi City together, our army's situation is not optimistic, we have to plan early." ”

"Big brother, the strength of Shu is far weaker than my Great Jin, I don't think the Shu army has such courage, if Shu dares to declare war with my Great Jin, our army will destroy the rebels first, and then wave the army westward, and go straight to his nest of Shu." The thunderstorm roared loudly.

"Big brother, the 30,000 army of Shu has been hoarding Xinggu County for more than three months, but it has not launched an attack on my Great Jin for a long time, I think it is to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and after our army and the rebels are both defeated, they will march to Jiaozhou." Zhao Wu frowned and analyzed.

Hua An smiled at Zhao Wu and said, "Zhao Wu, what you said is very right, the army of Shu is indeed waiting, it seems that the monarchs and ministers of Shu are very treacherous!" At this time, as long as our army is defeated on all fronts, they will encourage the rebels to continue to march to Guangzhou, so as to weaken the strength of the Great Jin and the rebels at the same time, and have reaped the benefits of the fisherman. If our army is victorious, they will stand still and pretend that nothing has happened. If our army and the rebels are both defeated, and there is a strength vacuum in the two states of Jiaoguang, they will move eastward and take the opportunity to occupy the southern frontier of the Great Jin Dynasty in order to expand their strength and stabilize their country. ”

After hearing this, Wang San touched his forehead thoughtfully, and said: "Only when our army and the rebels are both defeated, will the army of Shu go east, which is also the reason why the eldest brother is unwilling to go deep into the jungle to fight the rebels!" ”

Hua An smiled indifferently and said: "That's right, whether it is the soldiers of my Northern Expeditionary Army or the soldiers of the rebel army, in the final analysis, they are all the people of my Great Jin, the rebellion of the Nanyue people is just bewitched by the Shu State, as long as our army is gracious and powerful, the rebellion will be quelled sooner or later." ”

"Big brother, since this is the case, is it too much for our army to kill so many rebel soldiers, and in the future battles, should we show mercy to the rebels." Wang San had doubts again.

Hua An shook his head and said: "No, there is no need to be like this at all, the so-called combination of grace and power, the deterrence of force is also essential, only if the rebels are beaten miserably, they are hurt, so that they are afraid in their hearts, know the fate of going against the court, and then give comfort, they will honestly obey the rule of the Great Jin Dynasty and dare not rebel again." ”

"Big brother, I understand." Wang San nodded, and the thunderstorm, Zhao Wu, and Tie Niu behind him also nodded thoughtfully.

At this time, most of the officers and men of the Northern Expeditionary Army who returned to Jiaozhi City went into the camp to rest, a small number of wounded soldiers were treated by military doctors, and the soldiers who were responsible for counting casualties were still shuttling around the battlefield.

Two moments later, the statistics were handed over to Hua'an, and in this battle, more than 8,000 rebels were killed, less than 500 were killed and more than 1,000 were wounded, which can be described as a great victory.

Hua An was very satisfied with the results of this battle, which was even better than he originally expected, but after all, nearly 500 soldiers were killed in battle, and Hua An still couldn't help but feel a little moved in his heart.