Chapter 55: Sima Yi's Tricks

As mentioned last time, after a great battle between Liu Hou and the Tiger and Par Cavalry, both sides suffered heavy losses, and Liu Hou was sad and discouraged when he heard the casualty report of his team, and his dream of unifying the world with musketeers was dealt a heavy blow.

But now is not the time to sigh, Guo Youzhi's words woke up Liu Hou: "Shizi, we can't delay, we have to evacuate immediately." The enemy's army is coming, and it is not advisable to stay here for a long time. ”

Liu Hou woke up from his contemplation, and he also knew that now was not the time for sadness, and escaping from danger was the first priority now, otherwise, if he was caught and sent to Xuchang, the story of "Happy and Unhappy" might have to be staged decades in advance.

Liu Hou immediately issued an order, and the whole army packed up their things and prepared to retreat. The battlefield can't be cleaned up, and the corpses and horses of the tiger and leopard riders all over the ground, as well as their armor and weapons, all leave it alone, and leave it to the Wei army, maybe it can delay the pursuit of the remaining 1,000 tiger and leopard riders.

It's just that the wounded brothers can't be left alone, Liu Hou ordered to use wood to make a simple stretcher to carry them away, and the dead could not be taken away, so they could only drive the 2,000 captives to dig a pit again and bury them on the spot.

In order to speed things up, they also deliberately found some ready-made pits or places with soft soil as burial places. As for feng shui or something, I can't pay attention to it now, but it doesn't matter, it's all temporary, and when the war is over in the future, I will send someone to pick up their bones and transport them back to their hometown for burial.

"Mr. Guo, let's withdraw like this, what if those tigers and leopards chase after us, after all, they still have almost a thousand people, if the ghosts continue to chase and harass us, it will be really difficult to do." Liu Hou asked worriedly.

"It doesn't matter, we will send a battalion of troops to the rear of the palace, and then gather the cavalry of the scout battalion to cooperate with them, if they dare to pursue, let the rear battalion of the palace fight them head-on, and the scout battalion will take the opportunity to eat them." Guo Youzhi.

This is really a good way, now Liu Hou plans to retreat at full speed, and it is completely unnecessary for the scouts to stay behind to spy on the movements of the Wei army, just to give full play to their advantages and fight with the tiger and leopard cavalry.

Before, there were as many as 3,000 tigers and leopards, and he only had about 500 scouts, and his troops were at an absolute disadvantage, so he didn't dare to use them like this, and it was not worth it to consume his most elite troops in vain. Now it's different, there are only 1,000 tigers and leopards left, everyone's strength is not too different, and there is also a battalion of infantry behind the palace to cooperate, it is not impossible to leave the tigers and leopards behind.

In the end, Liu Hou asked Guan Xing to lead the first battalion of the first regiment to be responsible for the palace, and the scout battalion was also deployed by him.

At this time, the rest of the people and horses of the tiger and leopard riding were still in shock, and today's battle gave them too much shock, and in just half an hour, the tiger and leopard rode to lose two-thirds, which was unprecedented since the tiger and leopard rode into the army. These Shu troops are simply killing machines, and their killing efficiency is terrifying.

The main commander of these 3,000 tiger and leopard riders will be Cao Cao's nephew Cao Zhen, who is also the deputy commander of the tiger and leopard cavalry, this young general with a great future, will be the general and the Cao clan of the great Sima in the future.

Taking over the command of the remaining tiger and leopard cavalry was a tooth keeper named Wang Qiu, who was now hesitating, not knowing whether he would chase or not. Pursue it, he was really frightened just now, the Shu army is like a hell demon, he chooses someone to devour at any time, and he is no longer willing to face such a terrifying existence.

What's more, there is a lot of grief in front of him, many of his comrades are not dead, and they are still waiting for someone to rescue, if they do their best to treat them, they may be able to save some of the injured. If left unchecked, they will soon die of blood.

If you don't chase it, it's not good, not to mention that the generals sent to them by the metropolitan governor are to block and track the Shu army, just saying that this Shu army has just slaughtered 2,000 of their comrades, it is worth fighting with them endlessly. But why did the thought of chasing them make his feet feel weak?

Just when Wang Qiu was still in a daze, he suddenly heard a burst of "Da Da Da!" The sound of horses' hooves. Wang Qiu looked back and saw a knight with a brocade feather on his head galloping over on a fast horse. "It's an emergency military order!" Wang Qiu's spirit was shocked, it was an urgent military order sent by the Governor of Dadu for 800 miles, and he was not allowed to think about it at this time, so he hurriedly cleaned up his mood and went up to receive the order.

Wang Qiu looked at Sima Yi's military order, and his expression, which was still grief-stricken and panicked just now, relaxed, and a cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. Now the brothers' revenge can be avenged!

Wang Qiu immediately acted according to the plan, and ordered the remaining 1,000 men to take action and prepare to destroy the Shu army. Sima Yi's order was very simple, that is, to attack by fire and burn the Shu army to death with the fire of the plain.

Although it is already early spring, the climate in Jingzhou this year is particularly strange, and there are not a few rains when it should have been rainy. People who know how to farm are worried about whether this year will be another year of great drought. If the successive years of military disasters are coupled with a major drought, the common people will soon have no way to live.

Due to the lack of rain, there is not much grass that grows tender green shoots, and the field is still full of dead grass, dead branches and leaves, these things are very dry, a little bit, as soon as the fire is big, if it is blown by the wind again, it will soon become a prairie fire.

Liu Hou's luck today is very bad, and they are now riding with the wind. It is fortunate to go with the wind in normal times, because it can save a little effort by the wind, but today it means bad luck.

Wang Qiu led his men and horses to the front of Guan Xing's formation behind the palace, and just when Guan Xing thought he was going to charge the battle and ordered his soldiers to prepare for shooting, Wang Qiu led his subordinates to dismount and set fire upwind.

When Guan Xing saw the fire, he was horrified and shouted, "My life is over!" "Order the troops to retreat immediately. Wherever the wind blew, the hay on the ground hit, and the fire spread almost as fast as the wind went, and they were now in a race against the wind. 500 wind-like men incarnated as Liu Xiang, running desperately in the wilderness, at this time they had no formation at all, no chance, only the wolf bèi escaped.

Not only that, but they also ran all the way and threw down all kinds of loads, the grain bags were thrown away first, then the water bottle, and the ammunition bags should be thrown away as soon as possible, otherwise it would be miserable if they were ignited, and then there were other miscellaneous things, with only one purpose, to reduce the load, try to run as fast as possible, and avoid becoming a roast pig.

Of course, the gun is not dared to be abandoned, this is strictly ordered in the army, if they dare to abandon the gun as well, what awaits them will be severe punishment, and the result of escaping back is similar to that of not escaping.

The cavalry team ran the fastest, and they soon caught up with Liu Houbu, who was already at a certain distance from them. When Liu Hou heard this, he couldn't care about anything, and ordered the troops to run and advance to escape from this dead place.

Originally, Liu Hou planned to run sideways to see if he could escape from this sea of fire, but from a distance, the line of fire was constantly extending to both sides, and he knew in his heart that the Wei army had cavalry and strong mobility, and constantly ignited fires on both sides, so that the burning range continued to expand. Unless you run faster than they can set fire, don't try to get out of the way by walking sideways. And they set fire on horseback, and their own soldiers are all infantry, how can they outrun others?

The damned Wei army doesn't think about the consequences of setting fire all over the mountains like this, how many fields should be burned all the way, and how many farmers' crops will be destroyed? If there are villages, how many villages will suffer from this unwarranted disaster? General Wei is indeed a vicious person, and the destructive power of war on society is fully revealed at this moment.

If they encounter a terrain that is not conducive to the fire, such as a creek, they can get out of danger, if they encounter some impassable dead places, such as cliffs, then they will die, even if they don't encounter anything, so run all the way, they will be exhausted sooner or later, and they will be caught up by the fire, and they will die.

Liu Hou didn't want to leave his fate to something as illusory as luck. He rode a horse and followed the army while running while thinking about the solution, and later generations read more miscellaneous books, such scenes, such bridges have seen a lot, and there are solutions, the easiest way is to dig a firebreak.

That is, if all the vegetation in a certain area is removed, the fire will not burn here, and people on the other side of the firebreak will naturally not be burned. It's easy, but it's not that easy to do.

First it takes time to dig this firebreak; Second, find reasonable terrain. At least there must be no tall trees, otherwise it is estimated that by the time you sawn down a tree, the fire will burn; Also, try to find a place with thin grass and soft soil, so that the grass can be shoveled quickly and easily. Of course, a little water would be better.

The method came up with it, no matter whether it would work or not, whether it would be fooled by those bad readings, Liu Hou called all the cavalry without saying a word, and rushed forward with the sapper shovel. Keep an eye out for vegetation on the road along the way.

The hard work paid off, and it didn't take long for Liu Hou to find a meadow with no trees and bushes, and the grass in this meadow was obviously sparser than other places. Liu Hou turned over and fell off the horse, shoveled it with a sapper, okay, the soil here is a mixture of sand and mud, and it is a hard stone if it is shoveled down less than ten centimeters.

No wonder there are no tall trees, not even shrubs, the soil here is too shallow, the roots of the trees cannot be firmly rooted, even the grass does not grow firmly, and a shovel can lift a piece of turf.

There is no better place than a stream. Liu Hou gave an order, and all the cavalry dismounted and shoveled the grass desperately. A shovel goes down, and even the grass with sediment is shoveled up, and then buckled upside down on the grass in front, so that these grass-facing and sediment-facing things are covered on the grass, which also has a certain flame retardant effect.

This matter is related to their own lives, everyone is tired and desperately shoveling the grass, no one is still thinking about what to save at this time, including Liu Hou, they are all doing their best, constantly repeating two actions: shoveling the grass, turning the shovel to buckle the turf upside down in front of it.

Soon the cavalry shoveled out a firebreak about 300 meters long and 1 meter wide, and in front of this fire-setting belt, about half a meter of grass was covered with mud and sand-facing turf, which Liu Hou called "quasi-firebreak".

At this time, the army finally came to this place, and there was no need to greet them, everyone took out their sapper shovels and joined the ranks of shoveling grass. That is, in Liu Hou's Hong army, there will be so many sapper shovels, and in other troops, even weapons may not be equipped, let alone this kind of shovel that looks useless.

The 2,000 captives were unarmed, but in this life-and-death situation, they did not need to be driven away, so they consciously went up and picked with their hands, dug with sticks, and also participated in the procession of digging firebreaks.

Seeing that there were enough people, Liu Hou divided a part of the manpower to come out and dig a firebreak on both sides of this firebreak longitudinally to prevent the fire from spreading from both sides.