"General, should we retreat?"

The lieutenant came to Zu Zhi's side and asked in a low voice.

As Zu Zhi's trusted lieutenant general, when he saw Zu Zhi's face, he more or less guessed what he was thinking.

"What do you think?" Zu Zhi said in a deep voice.

"The last general thinks that we should withdraw our troops. ”

The adjutant general cautiously glanced at Zu Zhi and said, "Huo Quai's army has already attacked once while our army's combat effectiveness has not fully recovered, and thanks to the general's display of the Zhenshen Banner, the enemy army can be repulsed." ”

"But General, it will take more than a month for your Zhenshen Banner to be used for the second time, but the enemy army can go back and regroup again. ”

"It will now take at least five days for our army to fully recover its combat effectiveness. ”

"Five days is enough time for the enemy to attack. ”

"Therefore, the last general thinks that we should withdraw our troops now, avoid the edge for the time being, and wait until the combat strength of the army is restored before fighting!"

"Retirement?"

When Zu Zhi heard this, he sighed lightly and said, "Where are you retreating?"

"Behind us is the Dongbo Mountains, if the army retreats into the Dongbo Mountains and does not need Huo Qubing to lead the troops to attack, it will not be long before our army will suffer heavy losses due to the cold environment. ”

"If we retreat, it will be Lan Suiguan, and we will be in an absolute defensive position at that time. ”

"For the war between two great powers, whoever is in a defensive position is the inferior side, which is unacceptable to me, let alone the dynasty. ”

"So, we must not withdraw our troops!"

If the troops could be withdrawn, Zu Zhi naturally wanted to withdraw the troops, because he knew very well that Huo Qubing would definitely not give up and would soon lead the troops to attack again.

However, it cannot be withdrawn!

Once the troops are withdrawn, everything that the Ice and Snow Dynasty has done will be useless, and the soldiers lost will also be lost in vain.

And when Yuzhou is in turmoil in the future, the Ice and Snow Dynasty will also lose control of the northern grasslands, which is something that the Ice and Snow Dynasty cannot accept.

So, it must not be withdrawn!

"That ......"

The adjutant general looked at Zu Zhi and said with a wry smile: "General, now our soldiers are not opponents of the enemy army at all!"

Zu Zhi heard it and was silent for a long time.

He naturally knew that if the morale of the army was high, he was very confident that he would defeat Huo Quai's iron cavalry, but now, the morale of the soldiers was low and the combat effectiveness was weak.

In this case, it would be a fool's dream to defeat a well-trained elite Iron Rider.

After a little groaning, Zu Zhi took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "You go down and immediately tap the number of battle damage, and at the same time pass the order to the soldiers below to immediately build a crossbow array on the spot!"

"Remember, we don't have to build fortifications to block the infantry, but the crossbow array must be as numerous as possible, and there must be no mistakes!"

The adjutant general was shocked and said, "General, are you going to give up infantry defense and focus on cavalry defense?"

Zu Zhi nodded and said, "In this situation, if we build fortifications according to the previous rules, it will be too late in time, so we only need to build a crossbow array, and we don't have to do anything else!"

"This ......"

The adjutant didn't know what to say when he heard it.

The normal defense of the barracks is to have two kinds of infantry defense and cavalry fortifications, to ensure that no matter whether the enemy is attacking with infantry or cavalry, it can be effectively blocked.

Among them, the cavalry fortifications were the simplest, which was to build a large number of crossbow arrays.

Because the cavalry charged, it was impossible to raise the shield, and as long as there was enough crossbow array to cover it, the enemy troops who came to charge could suffer heavy losses.

But conventionally, it was the infantry who attacked the camp.

Cavalry fortifications are of little use to the infantry, because there are shield soldiers in the infantry, which can definitely block the shooting of the crossbow array, so the barracks defense will also be matched with enough infantry fortifications.

Now Zu Zhi ordered to build only cavalry fortifications, if the enemy attacks with infantry shields, blocks all crossbow shots, and the cavalry charges again, it will be dangerous!

"General, this is really ......"

"I know what you're worried about. Zu Zhi interrupted the deputy general's words and said: "But this is the northern grassland, and the Southern Yan Kingdom only has cavalry, not infantry, we don't have to worry about that, go down and act according to the order!"

The adjutant general listened and smiled bitterly in his heart, there are no infantrymen?

When the cavalry dismounts, isn't it infantry?

It's just that Zu Zhi's mind has been decided, and he can't change it.

And also understand that, as Zu Zhi said, there is not much time left for them to build complete fortifications.

Not surprisingly, Huo Quzhi's next attack will definitely come in two days!

Soon, Zu Zhi got the battle damage statistics reported below.

This battle damage statistic made his already ugly face even more gloomy.

Just one charge of the enemy, the losses of the Ice and Snow Dynasty's army turned out to be more than 800,000!

And that's not even counting the wounded.

If you add those soldiers who are seriously wounded and lightly wounded, this number will be added to 400,000.

An army of three million, just one invasion by the enemy, caused 1.2 million soldiers to lose their combat effectiveness.

This result is something that Zu Zhi has never encountered in decades!

In fact, if he thinks about it, he can understand that this battle loss is a figure within the normal range in the current situation.

The army of the Ice and Snow Dynasty has just come out of the Dongbo Mountain Range, and it has not yet adapted to the outside environment, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers has decreased a lot, and the military camp has not yet been built.

The enemy army is charging with iron cavalry, and there are even Shengzun generals charging into battle.

If it weren't for his action to block Huo Qu's disease, I'm afraid this number would have to be added to eight or nine hundred thousand, or even more than one million.

A Saint-Venerable general, leading the charge, no one knows what the maximum damage can be done.

Faced with this result, Zu Zhi didn't want to accept this result, but he had to accept it.

I could only pray in my heart, hoping that Huo Quai's next wave of attacks would come more slowly and give him more time to build fortifications.

As long as the fortifications are in place, they can operate on their own, while holding on to the defenses until reinforcements from within the dynasty arrive.

When the time comes, he will still be very confident in himself.

......

On the other side, Huo Qubing led the troops back to Barbarian Jiaocheng at night.

In this battle, he brought 100,000 elite iron horsemen to battle, and brought back more than 93,000 people.

He lost only more than six thousand people.

This is entirely because the enemy army is unprepared, demoralized, and taken by surprise, so that such a record can be achieved.

"General. ”

Seeing Huo Qubing leading the troops back, the deputy general immediately caught up.

Huo Quzhi nodded, looked at the deputy general, and asked, "How is the fortification of Barbarian Jiaocheng?"

"Everything can be used, we just need to put our troops and turn it into a fortified city. The adjutant said immediately.

"Good!"

Huo Quzhi immediately said: "You lead 300,000 troops to defend Barbarian Jiaocheng, and the remaining 700,000 troops will go with me early tomorrow morning!"

(End of chapter)