(Xiao Zhengyi has acute gastritis, and today he tossed in the hospital for a long time, and he didn't go home until more than three o'clock, and he will update a chapter of 5,000 words today)

Early in the morning of the 23rd.

The wharf in the south of Jingzhou City, which was built by the King of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, has a history of 14500 years, and has been repaired for several generations, and the shoreline of the berthing ships for several miles is hidden in the mist of the early morning, like a swimming dragon.

In the upper reaches of the mouth of Jingshui into the Yangtze River, through Yiling, Jingzhou, against the Jingshui is the Jingshan that stretches thousands of miles between Jingzhou, Hanzhong and Xiangyang - Ye Jiluo Rongce hesitates on the embankment on the east bank of Jingshui, looking around.

Not far from the north, there is a canal to lead the water of the Jing River to the north of Jingzhou City, the water conservancy irrigation of Jingzhou Mansion is complete, the fertile land is fertile, and it is the land of fish and rice - facing the big river, the back is surrounded by mountain dangers, and there is the fertile land of the war, this should be a good land for the great control of the water army and the expansion of the army to control the Jianghuai after the capture.

Ye Ji Luorong looked at this land with lingering, thinking that he was about to abandon Jingzhou City and retreat north, and he had an unwillingness in his heart that he couldn't suppress.

On the water surface of the Yangtze River in the distance, more than a dozen oar-row warships of the Jinghu Navy loom in the mist, seemingly waiting on the river for the withdrawal of troops to regain Jingzhou City.

"Hu Wenmu simply gave up Jingzhou City, it seems that Huaidong did not put any pressure on him......" Hu Zongguo reined in the reins, looking at the warships on the river, the number of ships that received Hu Wenmu's remnants of the Jingzhou garrison retreated from yesterday is not a few, but most of them are remodeled fishing boats, which are far less threatening than the Huaidong Shuiying warships.

Ye Ji Luorong nodded, what Hu Zongguo meant was to guess that Lin Jian might not have thought of sending elite soldiers and horses from Jingzhou to pursue their back road at all.

Ye Ji Luorong would not think that Lin Tie's ambition would only limit the annihilation of their soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Han River, since Lin Tie had no intention of landing from Jingzhou to pursue their back route, one might be that Lin Tie would not have time to divide his troops from Huangpi and go up the Yangtze River, and the other was that Lin Tie thought that the Huaidong Water Battalion warships could enter the Han River in time to intercept them halfway.

The way to the north was long, and Ye Ji Luorong couldn't see the fog hidden in front of him clearly for a while.

Because the changes came too quickly, Ye Ji Luorong thought to himself, Yanjing is still celebrating the upcoming victory in Jingzhou, right?

Thinking about it like this, Ye Ji Luorong's heart was even more desolate and bitter.

Even if the possibility of the main force of the Huaidong Army landing from Jingzhou to pursue their rear route is not high, Jingzhou cannot but arrange the soldiers and horses of the palace.

Ye Ji Luorong's general, deputy commander Pu Jieshi, led 8,000 elite cavalry to defend the three cities of Jingzhou, Yiling, and Changlin to cover the back road of the northern withdrawal of troops and horses. At the same time, Ye Ji Luorong threw more than 6,000 wounded soldiers among the generals to Pujieshi, and wanted to use them to defend Jingzhou City in the end, and abandoned them in Jingzhou City when the cavalry retreated.

It is not from Jingzhou City to the river bank eight or nine miles away, from Jingzhou all the way north to Xiangyang, there are more than 400 miles. If 100,000 soldiers and horses retreat north, bringing with them more than 6,000 severely disabled soldiers who are not good at walking and need more people to take care of them, the speed of the northward march will be slowed down by half.

Some of the cavalry were behind, but there were also 20,000 cavalry who had retreated in the direction of Xiangyang last night.

Mainly because of the speed of the cavalry's retreat to the north, they could reach Xiangyang in three days; On the other hand, Chen Zhihu, who was about to enter Nanyang, needed more elite cavalry to deter the Huaidong Army entering Fancheng, so as to avoid the flanks of the Danjiangkou and Wuguanhe from prematurely penetrating the main force of the Huaidong Army.

Next was the retreat of Zhou Fan, Tian Chang, Han Li and other foot soldiers.

If you want to retreat without turning into a rout, you can't retreat quickly; It is even necessary to consciously suppress the speed of the northward retreat, and stop from time to time to use Jingmen, Nanzhang, Zhongyi and other cities to rectify and rectify, instead of hundreds of thousands of people running to Xiangyang in a chaotic manner.

The defense line of eastern Hubei collapsed in the blink of an eye, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were defeated, so that the Huaidong army took advantage of it to wantonly cover up and kill without the power to resist - Yeji Luorong has been fighting for more than 30 years, and he is no stranger to this situation, but he has always led his troops to cover up and defeat the enemy, and has never covered up and killed others.

It was precisely because he knew the horror of the rout, it was precisely because he didn't want the 100,000 soldiers and horses on the west bank to finally flee to Guanzhong, and he didn't want to make the retreat turn into a rout, so Ye Ji Luorong was bent on capturing Jingzhou City to cover the safety of the back road, so that the retreat would be calm and orderly, and not let the elite of the Huaidong Army run away from the dogs and rabbits behind.

To take Jingzhou City, if the Huaidong Army wants to land on a large scale from the periphery of Jingzhou City, it is not something that can be done in three or five days; At least until the Huaidong Water Camp can enter the Han River, the Han Water will still provide enough security for their flanks.

As for Hu Wenmu leading six or seven thousand remnants of the army to withdraw from Jingzhou City, Ye Ji Luorong would not care, after all, his top priority at this time was to let the 100,000 soldiers and horses on the west bank smoothly withdraw to Guanzhong, and preserve the strength of the soldiers and horses on the western front to prevent the main force of the Huaidong Army from being annihilated, and nothing else.

It would be good to be able to take Jingzhou City to cover the back road; Even if the six or seven thousand remnants of Hu Wenmu's army were annihilated, for Ye Ji Luorong, it would only be his own side and at the same time would suffer thousands of casualties, what good would it be?

The retreat will not be in a hurry, and it is useless to rush to Xiangyang even if it is one step earlier, and Xiangyang has not yet prepared enough ships for so many soldiers and horses to cross the river in a short time.

The good news is that Su Tingzhan accepted the appointment of the general of Baiyang Pass in the north of Shicheng, which means that Su Tingzhan can intercept Yang Xiong's troops who fled north, and it means that the three or four hundred ships controlled by Su Tingzhan and Yang Xiong can be used for the northward retreat of the army, but these three or four hundred ships cannot be rushed to Xiangyang and Danjiangkou in three or five days......

In addition, Meng Ancian also got in touch, but after Su Tingzhan withdrew from Shicheng, although there were still suitable locations to climb the city from Shicheng to the north and the east bank of the Han River, the time did not allow Meng Anchan to lead his troops to directly cross the river to the west bank of the Han River.

There was no ready-made wharf, and it was extremely unrealistic for the 20,000 cavalry to withdraw to the west bank of the Han River before the troops and horses from the southeast and north of Huai came over; Ye Ji Luorong could only order Meng Anchan to break through into Xinye before Huaidong's soldiers and horses on the northern front could complete the complete blockade between Fancheng and Zaoyang.

If Meng Anchan's 20,000 cavalry can break out of the encirclement and enter Nanyang to join Chen Zhihu, the whole situation will be much more optimistic.

Thinking of this, Ye Ji Luorong's heart was also secretly tight, he had never believed in fate, and at this time he also hoped that Meng Ancia could pass through Zaoyang first.

By this time, Ye Ji Luorong had almost figured out the development of the situation on the east bank of the Han River:

The main force of the Huaidong Army on the southern front only pursued as far as Panpo (now Jingshan County), and was planning to outflank and annihilate the nearly 100,000 foot soldiers who had fled from Huangpi and Hanshui.

The soldiers and horses of the Northern Yan in Huangpi, except for the cavalry of Meng Anchan's department, which was very fast, had already escaped to the vicinity of Shicheng, and almost all the other defeated soldiers and horses were intercepted at the southern foot of Dahong Mountain.

100,000 foot soldiers, even if it is 100,000 dogs, will pounce a few times after the siege, but the 100,000 defeated soldiers who are scattered and panicked seem to be crops waiting for the Huaidong army to rush to harvest.

The only one called Ye Ji Luorong was in a better mood, and the 100,000 defeated soldiers near Panpo and at the southern foot of Dahong Mountain could delay the main force of the Huaidong Army on the southern front for at least three or four days.

To the east of Panpo, Xiaochang, located between Dahong Mountain and Shuangfeng Mountain, has called Zhong Rong and Wang Xian'er to abandon and flee north. The commander of the Chizhou Army made Deng Yu lead his troops to occupy Xiaochang, and actually blocked the passage for the southern foot of Dahong Mountain to flee to the northeast.

The Huaidong Army on the northern front had no intention of encircling and annihilating Luo Xiancheng, Zhong Rong and other troops for the time being, but rapidly marched westward, wanting to plug the gap between Fancheng and Zaoyang.

Luo Xiancheng has 50,000 soldiers and horses in Huaishan, Zhong Rong and Wang Xian'er will bring more than 10,000 soldiers and horses after fleeing north, but most of them are scattered in the defense village at the northern foot of Huaishan, Luo Xiancheng will meet Zhong Rong and Wang Xian'er in Lishan, and there will be 30,000 soldiers and horses to use, but according to Ye Ji Luo Rong and Hu Zongguo's understanding of him, he decided that he had no courage to recapture Suizhou City.

Even if Luo Xianyi is still in the inner city of Suizhou, but under the complete collapse of the situation on the eastern front, I am afraid that he will have to borrow several more courages from Luo Xiancheng to make him dare to risk sending reinforcements to the encirclement point to recapture Suizhou City.

And it is impossible for Luo Xiancheng to escape north through Huaishan; Even if Dong Yuan did not gather 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers and horses south of Xinyang and more than 10,000 elites of Huai Dongfeng's army, only the mighty Huaishui in the middle of Xinyang, it was not Luo Xiancheng who did not have a ship in his hand that could cross over-Ye Ji Luo Rong thought to himself that the envoy he sent to Lishan to see Luo Xiancheng, if it went well, he would probably arrive at Luo Xiancheng's Lishan camp before noon tomorrow......

Ye Jiluo Rong walked north, reluctantly glanced back at the Yangtze River, and said to Hu Zongguo: "One day, we will drink the ...... of the Yangtze River again."

Listening to Ye Ji Luorong's ambitious words, Hu Zongguo smiled, and felt that his smile seemed so bleak in the morning mist, pulled the horse's head, looked back at the surging Yangtze River, and thought: Is there really a chance to drink the Ma Yangzi River again?

**************

On the afternoon of the 23rd, at the northern foot of Dahong Mountain, a strong wind arose, blowing from the mountain pass in the north, blowing stones and sand.

Luo Wenhu rode on horseback, against the wind, covered his mouth and nose with a cloth, the horse was whirring in the cold wind and spewing white air, there was a ridge in front of him, extending from south to north for twenty or thirty miles.

In the territory of Jingxiang, there are hills and mountains everywhere, if you can't find a local person as a guide, Luo Wenhu, who often ran between Jingxiang in the early years, can't recognize what kind of mountain this long ridge is in front of you. However, Cao Peng had a fine map comparison all the way, reined in his horse, pointed to the ridge in front of him, and said to Luo Wenhu: "This is the Bird's Tongue Ridge, and the Black Stone Ditch is in front; Liu Zhenzhi's army had already engaged the defeated enemy at Longzui Mountain, and he was worried that the defeated enemy would flee north from the valley road between Queling and Heishigou. Liu Zhenzhi will tell us to cross the Bird's Tongue Ridge before nightfall, and guard the valley road between us and Heishigou, so we will stop and rest for a while, and then send a probe horse to the south to explore the road......"

It had been two days since the main force of the Huaidong Army in Huangzhou launched a general attack on the Baita River defense line, and the enemy cavalry that had fled north from the Huangpi and Xiaonan lines at the earliest had already entered the northern foot of Dahong Mountain.

Liu Zhenzhi, who was ordered to enter the south of Zaoyang and the northern foot of Dahong Mountain to intercept, advanced westward to the shore of the Han River as early as the afternoon, and engaged more than 1,000 defeated cavalry who fled first.

From Huangpi and Hanjin, almost 20,000 enemy cavalry fled north late at night on the 21st, while the main force of the Huaidong Army, which was south of Huangpi and mainly composed of foot soldiers, could not pursue it; Since Su Tingzhan led his troops to flee from Shicheng first, this enemy cavalry passed through Shicheng yesterday afternoon without entering, and continued to flee north, and will probably cross the border on a large scale from the northwest foot of Dahong Mountain after tonight.

Because Chen Zhihu's subordinates gathered Gao Yi and his soldiers and horses in Xinye and entered between Fancheng and Zaoyang, Sun Zhuang could not directly deploy his soldiers and horses in Fancheng to block the gap between Fancheng and Zaoyang, which was more than 100 miles wide.

Once Liu Zhenzhi could not intercept the defeated enemy at the northwest foot of Dahong Mountain, he would call a large number of defeated enemies to flee to Xinye through the gap between Fancheng and Zaoyang.

The other enemy soldiers on the east bank of the Han River can hold off and not fight, but the 20,000 enemy cavalry who fled north are Yanhu cavalry, not to mention that they have the extremely scarce war horse resources in Huaidong, how can they be allowed to escape easily?

Cao Peng suggested stopping to rest first and then cross the Bird's Tongue Ridge to enter the preparatory blocking position, Luo Wenhu glanced back, and the loose and crumbling team made him ashamed.

The four brigades led by Liu Zhenzhi set off from Luodian east of Suizhou at about the same time as them, but they ran down for two days and two nights, not only did they run more than 50 miles more than the four main brigades of the Third Town Division of the Chongcheng Army, but they also rushed into the interception position before them to annihilate the more than 1,000 enemy cavalry that fled first.

The 20,000 enemy cavalry who fled north from Huangpi were the headquarters of Meng Anchan, the general of Yanxi, and when the Huaidong Army launched a general attack, its unit itself was located behind the waist of the Huangpi defense line, and fled north from the camp first.

When Meng Anchan's department fled from Huangpi, it panicked and the men and horses were scattered, but relying on the speed of the horse, it quickly distanced itself from the main force of the Huaidong Army that was pursuing behind.

Although Liu Zhenzhi led his troops to annihilate more than 1,000 defeated enemies in the encounter, he also alerted the large-scale enemy cavalry who came from behind. It also means that the interceptors and horses that enter the northern foot of Dahong Mountain will usher in the strong impact of Yanhu's northward fleeing cavalry, rather than simply routing and crossing the border.

Luo Wenhu looked at the loose team behind him, and his confidence fell again.

At this moment there was a hurried sound of horses' hooves, and the horses listened quietly, and the sound of horses' hooves seemed to come from the northern slope like a shower, and soon behind the woods there was a large force of horses stepping out of the dust......

Luo Wenhu and Cao Bao were shocked, if the cavalry sent by Sun Zhuang came to converge, they would inevitably send a liaison officer over first, and they would not approach rashly, if the enemy cavalry suddenly came up from behind, how could the loose team of 3,000 people behind them withstand the impact of the cavalry?

Luo Wenhu hit the horse and ran back, shouting: "Zhou dog left, Zhou dog left!" ”

Zhou Sheng came over, Luo Wenhu pointed to the north side, and said: "You lead people to plug that gap, you can't block it for half an hour, cut off your head......"

On the north side is a mountain pass, a large gap where enemy cavalry can directly rush through, and plugging it can buy some time for the three thousand soldiers and horses behind them to shrink and form a formation. The infantry formation was held together with guns and crossbow groups, and it was not afraid of the impact of the light cavalry at all, but it was loosened out, and the cavalry rushed in, and the cavalry was scattered and collapsed at the first charge, and the key at the moment was to gain enough time.

Luo Wenhu reacted so quickly, and there are indeed some generals, but it is really hard to say whether the soldiers under his command can withstand the big task.

Cao Peng and Luo Wenhu said: "I went with Zhou Sheng; Behind us, you will use your spears and spears to discharge a defensive formation......" With more than 30 Huaidong elites who were incorporated into Luo Wenhu's department with him, and more than 100 soldiers from Zhou Sheng's department, they rushed to the mountain pass on the north side to plug the gap.

To plug the gap on the north side while the enemy horses are galloping is bound to be a danger of death. Cao Peng is the commander of the army designated by Cao Ziang to serve as Luo Wenhu's deputy, and he is also a middle-level general at the level of deputy brigade general - seeing Cao Peng personally leading people to plug the gap, Luo Wenhu sighed in his heart: Who can defeat such a Huaidong army?

Luo Wenhu didn't think too much, rode his horse back and forth, whipped those panicked soldiers with whips, and loudly conveyed orders, trying his best to gather the loose long column of 3,000 people to the steep slope of the right flank as quickly as possible......

When Luo Wenhu raised his heart to his throat, the sound of the horse's hooves suddenly stopped outside the forest on the northern slope, and after a while, he saw Cao Peng, Zhou Sheng and others returning from the mountain pass, and there were two people in their arms.

"Lifting the alarm is the ...... reinforcements" Cao Peng ordered the enemy police to be lifted along the road.

Luo Wenhu was furious in his heart, what reinforcements would dare to make such a joke?

"Luo Xiucai, your ability to lead troops to fight has not improved much, grandpa rushed over with cavalry, and before you put up the defense array, it is more than enough to overturn you twice!" A black-faced rider beside Cao Peng laughed at Luo Wenhu mercilessly.

Luo Wenhu squinted, looking at the familiar faces of the two people around Cao Peng, and couldn't remember who came for a while.

"Luo Xiucai doesn't know the old man?" Chen Daozi pulled the reins beside Sun Zhuang and smiled.

"Sun Pole? Sun pole, how did you shave your beard? Luo Wenhu recognized Sun Zhuanglai at this time, in the early years, the Zhulu Liumin Army would be in Fangling, Luo Wenhu was also reused by Luo Xiancheng at that time, and he was very familiar with other important generals of the Liumin Army, and he didn't think that he would meet again on this occasion after seven or eight years.

"You don't blame me for scaring you, do you?" Sun Zhuang jumped off the horse, looked at Luo Wenhu, and asked.

Sun Zhuang is a senior general at the level of deputy commander in the Huaidong Army, and the cavalry general sequence is only under Zhou Pu, he brought the cavalry to help, intending to scare him, Luo Wenhu really has nowhere to redress his grievances.

Compared with the grievances just now, Luo Wenhu was more ashamed at this time: just as Chen Daozi said, if he really wanted Sun Zhuang to lead the cavalry to rush up, the defensive formation formed by the three thousand soldiers and horses behind him really couldn't resist. When they met in Fangling for quite a few years, he was almost the same as Sun Zhuang's status, and he even felt that Sun Zhuang was brave and brave, and he didn't know the soldiers deeply, who would have thought that Sun Zhuang would lead 5,000 light cavalry to annihilate more than 10,000 enemy soldiers at Baihetan outside Fancheng three days ago? When will he be able to achieve such a brilliant record?

"Why did the pole master come here in person, why didn't he go to join Liu Zhijun when he came?" Cao Peng didn't have time to ask Sun Zhuang about his feelings, so he asked at this time.

"Fancheng has Huang Zuyu in charge of defense, and Zhou Bin and Tang Xitai to help him; If I don't come out, how can I get a chance to fight? Sun Zhuang said, "I don't go to see Liu Zhenzhi, I'm with him, am I commanding him, or is he commanding me?" Liu Zhenzhi said that your side is weak, and I am also worried that the opening in the west of Bird's Tongue Ridge is a little big, so I will come over to partner with you to stop and defeat the enemy, you will not listen to my arrangement after all, right? ”