With a dull roar, the last pile of obstacles blocking the entrance of the mountain road was blown to pieces, and Xu Shao'an, who was blocked by it, and nearly a thousand soldiers of the "Flying Dragon Army" supported the lightly injured comrades and slowly withdrew. At the same time, the health and logistics troops from outside the mountain road rushed in to deal with the seriously wounded who were not suitable for casual movement, and to carry out the bodies of the fallen soldiers.

One hundred and forty-three people were killed and two hundred and twenty-five were wounded (including seventy-two seriously wounded), for a total of 368 casualties. It stands to reason that as a general who has experienced a hundred battles, Xu Shao'an, who has long been accustomed to life and death, should not have reacted too violently in the face of the casualties of his subordinates. But the problem is that these soldiers were not killed or injured in a hard-fought battle, but purely because Xu Shao'an's own light enemy was reckless, bent on going his own way, and stubborn for his own use, so he entered the ambush circle that he should not have entered, and was attacked by what he should not have been. In a sense, the reason why these more than 300 subordinates would bleed, be maimed, and die was completely caused by Xu Shaoan, and it was he, the commander of the First Army, who sent them into danger and handed them over to the enemy to slaughter. Now watching the bloodied wounded limping past in front of him, and watching the cold corpses being carried in front of him by the health soldiers and logistics soldiers, Xu Shao'an's heart was dripping blood, and he fell into deep self-blame.

Standing still for a long time, until the bodies of all the fallen soldiers were carried out of the mountain road, Xu Shao'an agreed that the military doctor would come forward to treat the wound on his forehead that was broken by rubble, and at the same time ordered Xing Zhengnan to immediately send a telegram to Wang Kunjun in Hezhou, reporting the situation here truthfully, and reviewing and self-criticizing his mistakes. In addition, despite all his reluctance in his heart, Xu Shaoan had no choice but to propose in a telegram to Wang Kunjun that the time for attacking Chizhou and the crossing of the river by the Eastern Route Army should be appropriately postponed -- the defeat of the Central Route Army was bound to require a certain amount of time to deal with the wounded and the remains of the fallen soldiers, and to make the necessary psychological adjustments, and it was basically impossible to launch an attack on Jiangzhou on time.

The Middle Route Army was ambushed by the Route Army heading to Jiangzhou and suffered heavy losses, and Wang Kunjun was surprised by such unexpected news. Especially when he saw that the vanguard of the middle route army in ambush was led by Xu Shao'an himself, Wang Kunjun, who had always behaved steadily and unhurriedly, was so nervous that he suddenly stood up from his chair. It wasn't until he confirmed that his eighth brother had only scratched a little skin on his forehead from the small gravel that had been splashed down from the mountain, and that he was fine, that he sat back on the chair again. But Rao is like this, he has already broken out in a cold sweat, and he can't help but be afraid.

In Wang Kunjun's mind, Xu Shaoan's weight is much heavier than that place in the south of the Yangtze River. In his opinion, it didn't matter how many days earlier or a few days later to pacify Jiangnan, even if Jiangzhou or Jinling could not be captured on time due to weather and terrain, it was just a small problem for the army to spend a few more days of food, and it was nothing at all. If it was to take the life of the eighth brother Xu Shaoan in order to pacify Jiangnan a few days earlier, it would really be worth losing the watermelon and picking sesame seeds. For Wang, there is no comparison between the two. Moreover, now that the crossing team is gaining prestige, it can be said that it is only one step away from the ultimate goal set at the beginning. If there were brothers who lost something at this time that shouldn't have happened, it would definitely be a heavy blow to the crossing team. The loss of a brother in the course of a battle, even if it was caused by a violation of the rules of war by his own brother, would not only have a severe impact on the morale of the Southern Expeditionary Army and indeed the entire Zhou army, but would also inevitably affect the views of the people on military action, and would make everyone become overly cautious in any matter concerning military action, and even postpone or even abandon those military operations that were considered to be more difficult and dangerous - even if the rules and regulations of the team were strictly enforced. These actions do not pose any threat to the lives of their brothers. In addition, there may be criticism of the practice of having their own brothers personally lead the troops, and then oppose the principle that the crossing team has followed since they became armed. Doing so will inevitably prevent the members of the traversal team from increasing their prestige in the military, and over time, it will likely also affect the traversal team's ability to actually control the military. In this way, it will not only delay the process of the crossing team to achieve the ultimate goal, but there may even be a situation that the crossing team will never want to see, such as the loss of military power and the repetition of the mistake of the military generals grabbing the position since the Later Liang.

Therefore, after a long communication with Li Junwu and Zhang Weixin, who were in Kaifeng, Wang Kunjun sent a telegram to Xu Shao'an in the evening of the same day, on the one hand, while appeasing the eighth brother, he also tactfully criticized his practice of not abiding by the rules of the team, violating the combat regulations, and advancing lightly. On the other hand, while agreeing to his application for revising the battle plan and appropriately postponing the date of the attack on Jiangzhou and Chizhou and the crossing of the East Route Army, he ordered him to rest in place in the name of the committee and wait for the main force of Zeng Zhilin's Western Route Army to join forces with Jiangzhou before attacking Jiangzhou.

Although he had some opinions on the telegram's arrangement of resting on the spot and joining up with the Western Route Army to attack Jiangzhou together, after all, he was acting recklessly and losing his troops first, and it was really unconfident and meaningless to argue with several other members of the committee at this time. Moreover, their own troops do need to take a certain amount of rest and recuperation to eliminate the adverse effects caused by this ambush. In addition, although after Xu Shaoan and the besieged vanguard escaped from danger, Xing Zhengnan immediately sent someone to inform the lieutenant general of the Central Route Army, who was in charge of commanding the follow-up group, that the crisis of the forward group had disappeared, and there was no need to rush to the road. However, because the lieutenant general was really worried about the safety of the commander, he still urged his subordinates to step up the march, and rushed to the foot of the mountain at the time of the lamplight, so that all the soldiers and generals of the follow-up group were exhausted and out of breath, and many horses dragging artillery and heavy baggage were exhausted to death. Therefore, Xu Shaoan did not raise any objections to Wang Kunjun's order, but conscientiously complied with it, and ordered his troops to set up camp in Chenjia Village, not far from the north side of the mountain road, and wait for the arrival of the Western Route Army.

On March 22 of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong, Zeng Zhilin led the main force of the West Route Army to Chenjia Village and joined forces with Xu Shaoan. At this time, after three days of rest and recuperation, the Central Route Army has undergone political and ideological work by political cadres at all levels -- supervisors at all levels, supervision envoys, and metropolitan supervision envoys -- and its mental outlook and military morale have greatly improved compared with those of the previous few days. Especially after the memorial and cremation ceremonies were held for the fallen soldiers on the 20th day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the officers and men of the Middle Route Army held their breath in their hearts and had the idea of avenging the robe and justifying their names. Therefore, on the road from Liuhu to Jiangzhou City, the officers and men of the Middle Route Army often pursued the small units of the Jiangzhou Army who attacked and harassed them along the way in an attempt to obstruct their advance. Moreover, due to the fact that from Liuhu to the east, the plains are the main plains, and there are no conditions for ambushes at all, and the Central Route Army has an absolute advantage in cavalry, so the fate of those small units of the Jiangzhou Army who come to sneak attack and harass is often the annihilation of the whole army and no survivors.

Although there are some opinions about the fact that the Central Route Army was completely wiped out when pursuing the small group of Jiangzhou Army's sneak attack and harassment troops, there are some opinions about the practice of leaving no living for those enemy troops who have abandoned their weapons and surrendered. But seeing that Starling has been sullen and depressed all the way, and the pursuit of the enemy's small force is, in a sense, a boost to the morale of all units of the Central Route Army. Therefore, although he did not support it in his heart, Zeng Zhilin finally did not build a myna Xu Shaoan to stop this behavior that was close to killing and surrendering, but chose to remain silent.

Before the afternoon of the 24th day of the third month of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong, the soldiers and horses of the central and western routes of the southern expeditionary army arrived at the city of Jiangzhou and surrounded it.