The slanting sun hung in the air, and a group of solitary geese swept across the sky and flew south.

In the devastated wilderness, the smoke gradually dissipated, leaving behind the corpses and remains everywhere, as well as countless wounded soldiers struggling and wailing, and thousands of ownerless war horses that did not want to leave their old masters and leave independently.

Since the beginning of the five watch robbery camp and continued until the sun went westward, the allied army and the Yuan army fought repeatedly, from the camp to the foot of Shouchun City, and more than 30 miles along the way were battlefields.

It can be described as: all the way to the bumpy road, all the way to kill, every inch of dirt and every inch of blood.

This unexpected battle evolved from the initial sneak attack and robbery camp to an ambush halfway, and then to a one-sided pursuit later. The situation is changing again and again, and it seems to be accidental but it is inevitable.

On this boundary, which is more than 30 miles apart, it seems that the territory is very large, but in fact there is not much room for the two armies to play and utilize. The scouts and elaborate canines on both sides are intertwined, and the slightest disturbance can be immediately known by both sides, and then they will be on guard.

And the reason why Yuan Jun was able to successfully attack the Allied camp was both accidental and inevitable. Incidentally, the scouts under Lu Bu's tent were negligent, and as a result, they were calculated by Yuan Jun and quietly wiped out by Yuan Jun. The inevitability lies in the fact that when the allies first arrived at Shouchun City, their foothold was not stable, they were not familiar with the terrain, and no matter how they defended, they would inevitably have loopholes, which left an opportunity for the Yuan army to take advantage of, so that the Yuan army attacked and robbed the camp.

In terms of robbing the camp alone, although Yuan's army did not break through the camp, the purpose of attacking and harassing the allied forces was achieved, and it was a relatively successful raid. The subsequent halfway ambush is also remarkable. If Yuan Shu didn't have a fluke mentality, he directly ordered the army to attack. Then the ambush was undoubtedly successful again. It's a pity that it was Yuan Shu's arrogant personality and complacent psychology that made this originally foolproof ambush annihilation battle a complication. Thus leading the entire battle into the abyss of the unknown.

There is often only one opportunity, and when you seize it, the situation changes. On the contrary, losing this opportunity means that the possibility of turning around is lost forever, and there is no chance to turn defeat into victory.

Character determines destiny. In this battle, Yuan Shu's lonely and arrogant personality directly determined the outcome of the entire battle. It truly reproduces the true meaning that character determines fate.

A little smug, a little arrogant, a little fluke. Then there was a slight delay, and time directly determined the outcome of a battle that was taking place.

The ambush battle began with Yuan's army's determined victory, but finally ended with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry sweeping the battlefield. The reason for this is that Yuan Jun was defeated above time. Or rather, the time difference. A moment earlier or a moment later. It sounds inconsequential, but in reality it is a matter of victory or defeat, and a quarter of an hour can make or break a battle.

If??? Yuan Shu did not hesitate for a moment, and immediately ordered to shoot Lu Bu and the wolf cavalry, so under the three rounds of ten thousand arrows, the casualties of the wolf cavalry army must be more than four thousand, or six thousand or eight thousand, or even the entire army was wiped out. If Yuan Shu did not hesitate to destroy Lu Bu and the wolf cavalry. Then there is no way to talk about what happened next, and the whole situation of the war will be completely changed. Yuan Shu, who has fallen into decline, still has the possibility of making a comeback and making a comeback.

It's a pity that there are no ifs in this world, no ifs, only when it is. A fait accompli cannot be changed, and the time will never be lost.

It was precisely because Yuan Shu mistakenly thought that he had eaten Lu Bu and tried to persuade Lu Bu to surrender, but he sneered and ridiculed Lu Bu with the attitude of a victor, which backfired, forcing Lu Bu to fight back and attack first. It was this great change that completely changed the entire battle situation, not only for Lü Bu and the wolf cavalry to get a glimmer of life, but also for Yuan Shu to completely lose the best opportunity to eliminate Lü Bu, and then guide zhì to subvert the entire battle situation, so that Yuan's army was finally defeated. And it was a big defeat, a fiasco in the true sense of the word, a mess, a failure.

It was a battle, when Ji Ling found that the shape was not good and fled, Gongsun Zhan, Ke Bineng and Ma Dai led 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry to kill the Yuan army that had collected troops in panic. The 30,000 tiger battalion led by Dian Wei and Cheng Gongying outflanked from the flank, bypassing the frontal battlefield and directly attacking its rear road from the eastern wilderness.

At that time, Yuan Jun was only twelve miles away from Shouchun City, and as long as his pace was a little faster, he could rush back to the city in half an hour anyway. It's a pity that the two-legged people can't outrun the four-legged war horse after all, and the soldiers of the Yuan Army, who were the first to evacuate the battlefield, were caught up by the Xiliang Iron Cavalry before they ran far.

A one-sided massacre ensued. Nearly 100,000 soldiers of the Yuan army rushed for their lives in the wilderness, and 70,000 iron horsemen interspersed with butcher knives, the scene was really shocking and miserable.

At the same time, Dian Wei, who was ordered to pursue Yuan Shu, led three thousand iron cavalry directly to the rear of Yuan Shu, thinking that he could block Yuan Shu, but unexpectedly did not see any trace of Yuan Shu at all. In disappointment, Dian Wei did not give up, and still led the iron cavalry to continue the pursuit, almost at the same time as the first batch of retreating Yuan soldiers arrived at the north gate of Shouchun City, and then began a desperate fight.

After a fight, nearly 30,000 Yuan troops fled back to the city, and then the city gate was closed, so that Dian Wei, who tried to kill the city in one go, sighed and shouted that he had made a mistake, if he had more soldiers and horses, he would definitely be able to rush into the city gate in one fell swoop and capture Shouchun. However, the next scene completely made up for Dian Wei's regret. It was he who led his army to rush to Shouchun City, forcing the defenders to hurriedly close the city gates, only to block the tens of thousands of Yuan troops who arrived later.

As a result, the soldiers of the Yuan army who finally escaped to the city were blocked by the cavalry of Dian Wei's department, and there was no way forward, and there were chasing soldiers behind, so the soldiers of the Yuan army were completely desperate. With no way to survive, they could only throw away their weapons and pray for mercy from the Xiliang army's subordinates to take the initiative to surrender.

In this way, by chance, Dian Wei inadvertently made a great contribution. With just more than 1,000 cavalry, he successfully intercepted nearly 50,000 Yuan soldiers, and these Yuan soldiers became prisoners of war and all of them were reduced to surrenders. This result set a new record for the number of enemy troops captured on the frontal battlefield since the Xiliang Army's conquest, and it was actually the largest number of prisoners of war after the previous great victory.

?????? As the sun sets, the afterglow of the setting sun spreads all over the field, rendering the most beautiful scenery and releasing the last residual warmth.

The battle in the wilderness slowly came to an end, and the Xiliang iron cavalry that pursued Yuan's army returned one after another. Instead, Hou Cheng and Chen Zhi led 50,000 infantry troops to the city, took over the war cavalry, and besieged Shouchun City.

The allied forces besieging Shouchun this time also adopted the method of besieging three and one, trapping the south, north, and west gates, leaving only the east gate. Because the counties outside the east gate were still under the control of Yuan Shu, there was a certain risk of besieging the east gate rashly, so the east gate was left for the Yuan army to flee.

At present, the main target of the allies is Shouchun City, after all, Shouchun is the imperial capital of the Zhong Dynasty, so the capture of Shouchun is of great significance. Once Shouchun is captured, then the Zhong regime established by Yuan Shu will collapse, and the military generals who follow Yuan Shu will also fall apart and run for their own lives, so that the Zhong Dynasty will be completely destroyed. Compared with the Shouchun Imperial Capital, Yuan Shu's life and death are still secondary.

A down-and-out emperor with no followers is no different from ordinary people, and even inferior to ordinary people. In this way, does it matter whether he lives or dies?

Under the setting sun, Li Li, dressed in brocade robes, and Lu Bu, who had bandaged his wounds, stood side by side on the mound, condescending, looking down at the groups of soldiers being escorted to the camp that had not yet been built, and the busy figures of thousands of Allied soldiers cleaning up the corpses in front of the camp.

As of this moment, most of the more than 100,000 troops under Yuan Shu's command have been wiped out, and the number of Yuan troops trapped in the city is no more than 50,000. However, the number of prisoners of war captured by the Allied forces was huge, and more than 60,000 people were surrendered in the just-concluded pursuit battle, plus more than 10,000 people under the Qiaorui tent captured by Lu Bu before, and thousands of Yuan troops captured in the robbery camp, the total number of prisoners of war was close to 80,000.

Such a huge number of prisoners of war was actually the largest in all previous conquests. Prior to this, the largest number of surrendered troops captured by Li Li's army was during the Battle of Sili. In the year-long fierce battle, Li Li captured nearly 100,000 surrendered soldiers, but the Xiliang army also paid huge casualties of more than 100,000 soldiers.

But this time the war is different. From the beginning of the dawn robbery camp to the end of the battle, the soldiers under Li Li's command suffered little losses in the successive battles, with more than 10,000 casualties among the infantry and less than 10,000 casualties among the cavalry, and less than 20,000 horses in total. The casualties were so small, but such fruitful results were achieved, which had to be thanks to Lu Bu and the Xuzhou army under his command. In other words, this result was all won by Lu Bu and his army fighting desperately, to be precise, it should be the result of Lu Bu's army in exchange for their lives.

But in the end, it was the Xiliang army under Li Li that reaped the fruits of victory, and all the battle captures fell into Li Li's hands, and the fame of defeating Yuan Shu's army also fell on Li Li's head.

It was Lu Bu who was standing beside Li Li at this moment, looking at the busy figure of the Xiliang Army in front of him and the scene of wreckage everywhere in the wilderness, Lu Bu couldn't help but feel depressed and extremely depressed.

For the victory in front of him, he led his soldiers and horses to fight bravely, and most of the 20,000 wolf cavalry were lost, and now only 5,000 people remain, and he himself almost lost his life. The most important thing is that when he led the army to conquer Yuan Shu, there were 80,000 soldiers and horses under his command, but now, including the surviving wolf cavalry, the total number of infantry and horses is less than 30,000 horses.

However, how many soldiers and horses are there under Li Li's command? When the army was dispatched, Li Li led an army of 100,000 to the south, and now Yuan Shu has been disabled, and Li Li still has more than 80,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and there are still ?????? 80,000 troops.

In contrast, how can Lu Bu be embarrassed?

It was because he had just bandaged the wound and ignored the pain that he found Li Li as soon as possible, and he wanted to replenish the soldiers and horses, as well as the ordnance captured in this battle. Because Li Li, as the leader of the alliance, should compensate him for the loss of soldiers and horses, or should give him the reward he deserves.

However, the moment Lu Bu stood beside Li Li, looking at Li Li's calm face and contemplative expression, Lu Bu couldn't say a word. I could only stand quietly beside Li Li, watch the sunset with him, and wait patiently for him to wake up from his contemplation??????

―――――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――― (To be Continued......

PS: [Heartfelt thanks: helpless zhou, TTOOTT book friends for the reward and encouragement, thank you for the scarecrow in Zhoushan book friends for their monthly ticket support, thank you!] 】

I wish you a Merry Christmas, warmth and happiness, and good luck!