Laohugou is 30 miles away from Jinzhou, and is a valley that runs northwest and southeast and is about 10 miles long. The valley is flanked by straight and steep cliffs, and a small river that is a tributary of the Xiaoling River (Xiaoling River) meanders through the valley. Out of this valley, the front is no longer a mountain, but a wide plain, and tens of thousands of troops who have been trekking in the mountainous and hilly areas for several days can gallop on horseback and go straight to Jinzhou Yongle City. However, although Jinzhou was close at hand, Yelu Tzulie did not let his guard down. On the one hand, he sent meteor scouts to step up the investigation of the battle in Jinzhou, and on the other hand, he ordered the forward troops to carefully check the situation in Laohugou, so as not to be ambushed by the Beiping army. The commander of the forward unit is also well aware of the stakes, so he commands his subordinates to look at it very carefully.

As the saying goes, "slow work produces meticulous work," and if you want to conduct a careful survey, the speed of the troops' march will inevitably be affected. In addition, there are cliffs on both sides of the Tiger Gully, and the sharp soldiers in charge of reconnaissance must start to climb from a long distance from the entrance of the valley in order to reach the top of the cliff smoothly, which greatly slows down the speed of the troops' advance. In this way, although the army of Jerod is not as slow as a turtle, it is not much worse.

Now that the Jinzhou War is in full swing, the sooner the support army arrives, the better, and the current speed of march is obviously contrary to this principle. However, during the Battle of Youyun, the Beiping Army or the "Youzhou Righteous Army" successfully set up ambushes several times, which caused the Liao army to suffer heavy losses, and made Yelu Tartlie, who had experienced that battle, afraid of being ambushed by the Beiping army, and did not dare to risk rushing forward. Just when Yelu Tart Lie was hesitating about "safety first" or "speed first", the meteor scout who was sent to investigate the battle situation in Jinzhou rushed back to the Chinese army with a messenger from Jinzhou, and sent extremely urgent news: the Beiping army had blown up a section of the city wall at the south gate of Yongle City in the early morning, and now the enemy and us are fighting fiercely at the collapse of the city wall. The city guards begged for reinforcements to rush to the rescue, otherwise Jinzhou would be difficult to protect after dark.

It was past noon, and it was only three hours before it got dark. If you take away the work spent on the road, then you will have at most an hour left for yourself to prepare, and this time is obviously impossible to complete the reconnaissance of the cliffs on both sides of the tiger ditch. This also means that Yelu Tartlie must immediately choose between "risking his life to save Jinzhou" and "guarding against ambushes".

Considering that the fierce battle is now raging under the city of Yongle in Jinzhou, and the Beiping army is doing its best to attack the city, there should be no extra troops to block the ambush, and the possibility of an ambush is very small. In addition, it is estimated that the 20,000 elite cavalry from Shangjing Road are also approaching Jinzhou, and with the strength of the Beiping Army, at most they will send a small force of men and horses to block it, and it is impossible to set up an ambush on both sides at the same time. Even if his side suffers some losses, the reinforcements from the north can still relieve the siege of Jinzhou. Therefore, after some weighing, Yelu Tart Lie finally decided to take a risk, and he ordered to stop the reconnaissance of the cliffs on both sides of Laohugou, and the whole army immediately passed and killed Jinzhou as fast as possible. On the one hand, the messengers who came to deliver the letter returned to Jinzhou and brought the news of the imminent arrival of reinforcements back to the city, so as to stimulate the fighting spirit of the soldiers defending the city, enhance their confidence, and persist until the moment when the reinforcements arrived.

The army of 80,000 marched for more than ten miles, and when the forward troops were close to the exit, the rearguard was still waiting outside the ditch. Yelu Tartlie, who was located in the middle of the Chinese army, was in the middle of the tiger ditch at this time, and he had just received the news from the forward troops that "everything is normal, and the exit is in sight", and his heart that had been hanging was slightly lowered.

But just when Yelu Tart Lie secretly congratulated himself that he seemed to have made the right bet and that the siege of Jinzhou was expected to be broken, a shocking noise suddenly came from the direction of the exit of the valley, and a huge cloud of smoke and dust rose from the direction of the exit of the valley. The loud noise was so loud, coupled with the concentration and reflection of the sound from the cliffs on both sides of the valley, that the buzzing of the entire valley was incessant for a long time, and the ground under his feet shook a little.

The sudden change made Yelu Tart's heart, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly tighten, and an ominous premonition immediately came to his heart--he was ambushed. Thinking of this, Yelu Tzulie couldn't help but regret his adventurous decision. It's just that, first, there is no "regret medicine" sold in this world, and second, the situation in the valley at this time does not allow him to have time to regret. The loud noise, the strong shaking, the smoke and dust that covered the sun, such a strong external stimulus, frightened almost all the horses of the front and middle armies, and they rampaged and scurried in all directions in the valley. In this way, not only did many Khitan soldiers fall off their horses, but they also died under the hooves of other horses galloping by. Moreover, it also caused chaos in the valley that had been orderly, and the soldiers trampled on each other, so that the dead and wounded were left to rest.

Now, the most urgent thing for Yelu Tzulie to do is not to regret it, but to make a decision, to make a decision whether to advance or retreat. After only a little thought, Yelu Tarlie had already made up his mind to retreat. Because with his understanding of the Beiping Army, he knew very well that the opponent's most usual tactic was to block the road and attack from both sides. The loud noise at the exit of the valley was likely to mean that the other party used his sharp firearms to blow up the cliff and block the passage of advance, so that the ambushes on both sides of the valley could attack the Liao army, which had fallen into chaos. Under such circumstances, it is obviously unwise to order the officers under his command to charge forward. What's more, since the other party can block the exit, then it is very likely that the entrance will be blocked in the same way. If this is the case, then his tens of thousands of horses will become a veritable turtle in an urn, and they will only be left to be slaughtered.

So, while controlling his frightened mount as fast as he could, he ordered the heralds around him to wave their flags and blow their horns, and ordered the whole army to immediately turn around and withdraw from the valley. However, nine times out of ten, things in the world do not go as planned. Before Yelu Tartlie's order was conveyed, just as the Khitan soldiers in the valley were about to control their frightened mounts with all their might, sort out the chaos, and prepare to turn around and retreat, as a huge firework exploded over the valley, colorful light shot out, from the exit of the valley to the cliffs on both sides of the middle of the valley, there was immediately a burst of gunfire, and the bullets splashed on the Khitan generals in the valley like a storm. At the same time, shells also exploded in the densest places of the crowd, harvesting dozens or even dozens of lives in an instant. Among them, several shells were concentrated on the left side of the Chinese army's Shuai Qi, which not only knocked Yelu Tzulie and his senior generals off their horses, but also blew the Shuai Qi into two.

With the sound of gunfire, as more and more soldiers were shot and fell off their horses, especially when they saw that the handsome flag had fallen, the spirit of the Khitan forward generals, who were already unstable and panicked because the road ahead was blocked, could no longer be supported, and the team of more than 20,000 people completely collapsed, turned their horses' heads one by one, and galloped in the direction of the entrance of the valley regardless of it.

In the ten-mile-long valley, there is a situation at the exit, and it takes a certain amount of time to react to the entrance. Just when the forward and some of the Chinese army fell into chaos and collapse, the Khitan army in the rear did not know what was happening in front of them. Although they also heard a loud explosion, although they also felt the vibration of the ground under their feet, and although they also received a signal from the Chinese army to retreat, it was not easy for 20,000 or 30,000 men to turn around, and it was not something that could be done in a moment. Second, it took only a few moments for the order to retreat to be heard, and the handsome banner of the Chinese army was blown down. As a general under his command, the commander of the rear army naturally has to consider whether he should go to the rescue.

Since there is thinking, there will be hesitation and choice, and both hesitation and choice will cost the Khitan army very valuable time now. It was precisely because of the indecision of the commander of the rear army that the retreat of the rear army became slow and procrastinated. As a result of the slow and sluggish retreat of the rear army, the front army, the middle army, and the rear army, which had not yet completed the turn, collided with the rear army that was crossing the valley. They are all dense cavalry queues, and they are all huge clusters of tens of thousands of people, and the result of the two teams colliding together can be imagined. There are countless soldiers who can't dodge and collide together, and the Khitan troops buried under the hooves of their robes and horses are everywhere. As the cannonballs from the cliff chased the fleeing Khitan front army and the Chinese army towards the entrance of the valley, this kind of collision and squeezing became more and more intense. In the end, those Khitan soldiers who did not want to die under the fire of the enemy artillery were ruthless, and they drew their knives and spears one after another, and ruthlessly slashed and stabbed all the robes who blocked their way. And those Khitan soldiers who stood in the way naturally did not sit idly by, and immediately took up arms to fight back. As a result, the two Khitan armies fought in the valley regardless of this, completely forgetting that those ambushes lying on the cliffs were their common enemies.

The battle in the valley lasted for nearly an hour, and when the formation of the Khitan army finally became sparse due to the increasing casualties, and the remaining Khitan soldiers could ride their horses forward without worrying about colliding with their comrades, they withdrew their swords and guns, and without looking back, they galloped wildly in the direction of the entrance of the valley, and fled like lost dogs and caught fish to Andezhou, the nearest city to Jinzhou.