The 100,000 Eastern Barbarian army formed the first line of defense, although their army was well-organized, but compared with the Western Barbarian army, which was seven times their size, they lost a lot in momentum alone.

The Eastern Barbarian General beat a drum in his heart, and kept asking the Han Army Counselor beside him: "Counselor Liu, are you sure that Commander Ye's military order is for us to hold on for half an hour?"

Counselor Liu nodded and said, "That's right, it's half an hour! What's the matter, General Ma has no confidence?"

General Ma smiled bitterly: "It's not nothing, it's not at all! You can also see that the Western Barbarian army is seven times our size, and there is no danger to defend here, not to mention half an hour, as long as it takes ten minutes, our army's casualties will be more than half." ”

Seven to one, there is really no way to fight this battle.

Counselor Liu frowned and said, "Then try to hold on for a while, in fact, Lord Ye said, as long as the two sides don't rout as soon as they come into contact, how long can they hold on." ”

General Ma had a bottom in his heart, and turned around and ordered his generals: "Everyone is ready to meet the enemy, once our formation is disrupted by the other party, don't panic, try to retreat in an orderly manner, withdraw to the second line of defense, and join the brothers there." ”

"Yes!"

Counselor Liu also glanced back, the soldiers' faces were more fearful than confident, and after listening to the words of the commander, many people were ready to flee for their lives at any time.

It seems that a rout is inevitable.

However, strictly speaking, this is not to blame everyone, mainly because the disparity with the enemy's forces is too large.

Sure enough, as soon as the Western Barbarian army launched a charge, someone on the Eastern Barbarian side began to retreat, and as soon as the front armies of the two sides came into contact, it turned into a rout.

Watching the Eastern Barbarians desperately flee, Meng Tule laughed: "Sure enough, it's vulnerable, go and inform the forward general, let him not chase too closely, we still have to concentrate on dealing with their second line of defense! At this speed, we can reach the royal court city before dark." ”

The second line of defense of the Eastern Barbarians was also 100,000 men, and now it reached nearly 200,000, because it had just accepted those who had fled back from the front.

There are also benefits to the rout, at least 100,000 people have come back alive and more than 90,000 are miraculous.

The strength of the third line of defense is 200,000, and Meng Zhun, the king of the Eastern Barbarians, is personally in charge, but his face is not much better than that of the generals behind him.

He didn't understand why he wanted to divide the army into three parts, instead of fighting with the Western Barbarians in one place, the scattered forces were easy to be broken by the other party one by one, how could Ye Yunyang, who was known as a last resort, make such a common-sense mistake.

As early as when the order was issued, he raised questions, but Ye Yunyang did not answer, but only asked him to act according to the plan, and if he dared to disobey the military order, he would be dealt with severely.

Although Meng Zhun was not convinced, he had to separate the army according to the requirements and arrange them on three lines of defense.

The second line of defense was not able to be held by doubling the number of troops, and in the face of the enemy's charge, it still ended in a rout.

Similarly, the casualties this time were not large, and Meng Zhun received nearly 190,000 troops, all of which were incorporated into the third line of defense, with a total strength of nearly 400,000.

It was still early before lunchtime, but the Western Barbarian army did not intend to continue the charge, but stopped at a distance of three miles from the enemy.

The soldiers took off their armor, unsaddled their horses and chewed their heads, and left the horses to forage for food.

This is a helpless approach, the grain and grass were all snatched away by the Han army, and the dry food they carried with them was only enough to eat for three days, and they really couldn't squeeze out the rations of the war horses, so they could only let them eat grass on the spot.

Meng Tu came to inspect with a group of generals, although the soldiers had a tired look on their faces, but two successive victories raised everyone's morale, and everyone believed that they could win the royal court in one go.

On the opposite side, the 400,000 Eastern Barbarian army was waiting for it.

One of the generals lowered his voice and said: "King, the enemy's third line of defense has a lot of troops, although our side has the advantage, but hard fighting will definitely cause a lot of casualties, is it a different way of attacking?"

Meng Tu waved his hand: "No! Our army's morale is high, and the enemy has suffered defeats in a row, and his morale is low, so there is no need to beat around the bush and rush over directly! They have already broken and fled twice, and the soldiers who have fled account for half of the total, and the idea of fleeing for their lives is spreading, which will affect the other half of the people, so as long as we charge, they still choose to flee." ”

"The king is wise!"

Meng Tuha laughed and suddenly asked, "What smell?"

"There's no smell!" the generals said as they sniffed hard, "What do you smell, my lord?"

Meng Tu frowned and said, "It seems to be the taste of fried beans......"

All the generals laughed, how could there be the smell of fried beans in the wilderness.

At this moment, a soldier next to him shouted: "Look, the horses don't seem to be eating grass, but looking for something in the grass...... It's black beans!"

The soldier picked out a few black beans from the grass, put them under his nose and smelled them, and said, "It's fried, no wonder the horses eat so happily!"

Meng Tu hurriedly turned over and dismounted, and tossed in the grass for a while, and sure enough, he found a few black beans.

The generals also wondered, how could there be beans in the meadow?

Black beans are one of the most commonly eaten concentrates for war horses, just eating grass will lose fat, affecting endurance and explosiveness, fried black beans with a fragrance, can make most war horses want to stop.

From the morning to now, the war horse has galloped for hundreds of miles, and it is the time when the stomach is hungry, and it is definitely a surprise to find black beans in the grass following the fragrance.

"No, it's not just black beans!" A general spread out his palm, in addition to a few black beans, there was also a bean that was obviously one size larger, the color was yellow, and his eyes widened: "This is a croton!"

Meng Tu was stunned for a moment, and then shouted at the top of his voice: "Quick, stop the war horse from looking for beans to eat!"

Horses do not have human intelligence to distinguish between black beans and croton, and as long as it is a bean, they will swallow it without thinking.

Black beans can satisfy the stomach, but croton is a deadly thing, which can make livestock run and lose their ability to ride, and can kill war horses.

The soldiers hurriedly took action, and couldn't help but chew on the horses, but even if they reacted in time, tens of thousands of horses were tricked, and then they began to have diarrhea, and the air was filled with the smell of horse manure.

All horses with diarrhea will take at least a day to recover, and the most serious losses are the forward battalions, and the war horses of the middle and rear armies are rarely hit.

This is Ye Yunyang's strategy, let people sprinkle a belt of croton with a width of hundreds of meters three miles in front of the third line of defense, and in order to attract enemy war horses to eat, fried black beans are also mixed in the croton.

"Damn Han people!" Meng Tu jumped to his feet angrily, about half of the horses in the forward battalion were hit, and there were no horses that could not charge, so he could only order the whole army to retreat, change the rear army into the front army, be responsible for the defense task, and set up camp to plan tomorrow.

The enemy suddenly retreated, such a result made Meng Zhun puzzled, the opponent's troops were in full swing, they should continue to charge, why retreat, and still stationed on the spot, what does it mean?

It took him a while to figure out the situation, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

But because it was the enemy's war horse that was hit, it only lost its ability to attack, and the defense of 700,000 people should not be underestimated. Ye Yunyang sent an order, ordering the Eastern Barbarian army to stand still, no matter when the enemy attacks tomorrow, it must withstand it at all costs, at least until the second half of the night.

In order to avoid the phenomenon of rout and escape again, Ye Yunyang added one more sentence to the order: Anyone who retreats will not be killed, from generals to ordinary soldiers, and they will be treated equally.

By the afternoon of the next day, the Western Barbarian Strikers were ready to go, and although most of the horses still looked a little sluggish and their physical strength had not yet fully recovered, they were at least able to meet the needs of a charge.

Meng Tu can't afford to spend it, there is only one day left for food, and he has to hurry up to break through the defense line in front of him and win the royal court in order to sit back and relax.

On the opposite side, the Eastern Barbarian army was also ready to attack, and Meng Zhun deliberately put the 30,000 Southern Barbarian heavy armored infantry that had just been subdued at the front to delay the enemy's first round of charge.

30,000 people, armed with large guns more than 10 meters long, formed a rectangular horizontal formation, and waited for battle.

At the same time, among the Han army units responsible for intercepting the enemy's westward movement, Ye Yunyang gave orders: "The whole army of the Iron Eagle Army moves to the east of Wangting, and the Nanshan Army moves to the rear of the western barbarian army. ”

"Understood!" Yin Falcon and the two Adjutant Generals of the Iron Eagle Army responded in unison.

Deputy General Zuo asked cautiously: "Commander Ye, is General Cao already ......?"

Ye Yunyang said expressionlessly: "Until now, he has not returned to the team, it is estimated that he is more than lucky, rest assured, this marshal will truthfully show his merits to the imperial court, and His Majesty will posthumously honor him and compassionate his family." ”

The so-called merit is nothing more than Cao Ziang taking his body as bait, although it is because of his action that he broke the silence between himself and the enemy for many days, but it is not too much merit.

The left deputy general and the right deputy general glanced at each other, there is nothing to say about the matter so far, the blame can only be blamed on Cao Ziang himself, the 200,000 army can be calmly withdrawn, but he will be surrounded by the enemy, whether it is because of arrogance or bad luck, there is no way to verify.

The two of them hugged their fists at Ye Yunyang, turned around and returned to the Iron Eagle Army, each leading half of the men and horses, and marching to the southeast as required.

Yin Falcon and Ye Yunyang stood parallel to each other, lowered their voices and said, "Without Cao Ziang, the Iron Eagle Army has really become very obedient, that old guy is just a-stirring stick, he is really innocent." ”

Ye Yunyang smiled faintly: "You can't say that, after all, people use their bodies as bait and play a big role, but not just anyone can lure the Western Barbarian army out." No matter what shortcomings he has, now that the man is dead, let's leave some morality. ”

Yin Falcon nodded: "Yes! It is estimated that Meng Tu and Meng Zhun are about to start stumbling, they both say that they are brothers who fight tigers, these two brothers are really interesting, and they want to kill each other." Okay, it's time for me to go, Yunyang, take care, let's see you in Wang Ting City. ”

"Uncle Yin, let's go. Ye Yunyang said with a smile: "I wish Uncle Yin a smooth journey, a successful start and new contributions." ”