Biqiu Jian chose to return to the army and look for the infantry of the forbidden army under Zhu Zan's department.

If it is close, Biqiu Jian feels that there is still the possibility of biting the retreating troops of the Shu army. Even if the Shu army retreats with torches overnight, the speed of the march is definitely not comparable to that of the day, and the goal of marching with torches in the middle of the night is very obvious, and it is not difficult to keep up.

As long as the Shu army retreats from time to time, it is not that there is no chance to fight again after dawn.

But. It took a long time for Biqiu Jian to find a Zhu Zanjun to rest and replenish supplies in a small village, and this small village had deviated from the main battlefield just now for nearly ten miles.

It is already quite difficult to set off again from this place to bite the retreating Shu army.

What's more. Zhu Zan did not agree to pursue the Shu army again.

From the perspective of the status of the two people, Zhu Zan actually has no need to obey Biqiu Jian's orders and commands.

Although Biqiu Jian is a member of Guo Huai's army, the position of joining the army is a temporary position, and there is a certain authority and deterrence in Guo Huai's army.

Biqiu Jian's qualifications are still too shallow, and he has never made contributions in the army before, even if Guo Huai wants to promote him, there is no suitable reason, so Biqiu Jian's real military position now is just a cavalry captain.

Zhu Zan is a lieutenant general, just in terms of military rank, Zhu Zan is actually two levels higher than Biqiu Jian.

And Zhu Zan belongs to the system of Sun Li, a general of the scattered guards, and Sun Li is actually Cao Zhen's person. Although Guo Huai and Cao Zhen also have a subordinate relationship, the relationship between these two subordinates is actually a relatively vague subordinate relationship.

Therefore, Biqiu Jian could use Guo Huai's name to command Zhu Zan to fight without Zhu Zan's objection, but when Zhu Zan questioned or objected to Biqiu Jian's command order, Biqiu Jian had no reason to ask Zhu Zan to obey the order unconditionally.

Moreover, Zhu Zan is not without his own reasons.

Zhu Zan led 5,000 forbidden troops, and was ordered by Sun Li, the general of Sanguan, to support Meixian. Theoretically, after the loss of Meixian, he should lead his troops back to Sanguan to report the news to Sun Li, and at the same time assist Sun Li to continue to defend Sanguan.

But because Biqiu Jian recruited Zhu Zan to fight in the name of Guo Huai, and Zhu Zan didn't want to make such a trip, except for a loss of soldiers, the two of them acted together.

At that time, although Zhu Zan was entangled with the Wudang Flying Army led by Wang Ping along the way, there were still more than 3,500 people under his command after all, and it was not that he did not have the strength to fight.

But after the battle in the past few days, the forbidden army under Zhu Zan's command has suffered continuous blows, from 3,500 to only 2,300 people, and Zhu Zan has no confidence to continue fighting.

Even if he Zhu Zan was willing to sacrifice himself for the country, the soldiers under his command would not agree.

When he came out, he took 5,000 people with him, and now there are 2,300 people left, and the battle damage has exceeded 50%, and it is not easy to ensure that the morale of the soldiers has not completely collapsed at this stage, and that there are no large-scale deserters.

This is Cao Wei's central forbidden army, and the families of these soldiers are all in Yecheng, and the consequences of being a deserter are much more serious than staying in the army. Otherwise, with Zhu Zan's ability, it would be absolutely impossible to maintain the establishment of his subordinates until now.

But even so, Zhu Zan knew very well what these soldiers under his command were thinking, and if he forced these people to fight at night at this time and pursue what would happen next, Zhu Zan himself didn't know.

Zhu Zan didn't have any ill feelings towards Biqiu Jian, so there were some things that Zhu Zan told the truth and didn't hide it from Biqiu Jian.

And after listening to Zhu Zan's words, Biqiu Jian thought about it again and again, but he could only sigh.

At this time, Biqiu Jian is just a newcomer who has just joined the Great Wei and is ready to make contributions, and it has not yet reached the point of "receiving the grace of the country", if you change to Biqiu Jian during the Huainan Three Rebellions, you will definitely not give up so easily, and you can't say that you can still kill Zhu Zan and seize military power.

But now, after Zhu Zan clearly opposed the sending of troops, Biqiu Jian could only sigh "Time is not up to me", and then discussed with Zhu Zan, whether to stay together and wait for Guo Tingshi's return army, or go their separate ways, Zhu Zan returned to Sanguan, and led the army to see Guo Huai.

In this regard, Zhu Zan also hesitated, and finally decided to lead the remnants of the army to turn around and disperse.

As for Biqiu Jian, after a few days of fighting side by side, Zhu Zan recognized this person's character and morality, but he was really unfamiliar with Guo Huai and Zhu Zan.

Don't look back, this high-ranking and powerful Yongzhou assassin Shi deducted all the blame for delaying the main force of the Shu army on his head, then he stayed here, that is not the wrongful death?!

As a precaution, Zhu Zan still decided to lead the army back to reinforce Sanguan on the grounds that the troops in Sanguan were insufficient.

Biqiu Jian didn't say anything, left enough food and grass supply for Zhu Zan, and sent Zhu Zan away.

Now that the main force of the Shu army has joined the division, if nothing else, it should be able to withdraw to Meixian tomorrow. In the next battle, whether there is one more Zhu Zan will not have much impact.

After saying goodbye to Zhu Zan, Biqiu Jian also returned to his army, counted and sorted out his cavalry troops, and prepared to retreat to the direction of Wuzhangyuan, looking for the main force of General Guo Huai, and informing him of everything that happened in Meixian today.

After that, Biqiu Jian felt that it was necessary to discuss with Guo Tingshi again, and now the Shu army has joined forces in Meixian County, and the defenders of Meixian County have risen from five or six thousand to more than 10,000 in an instant.

Meixian is not easy to fight.

At this time, Wei Yan, after a night of rapid marching, finally escorted Wu Ban's headquarters and safely withdrew to Meixian.

After Wei Yan returned to Meixian, the first thing he did was to send people to strengthen the city defense, what would happen next, Wei Yan somewhat predicted.

There is also Wang Ping's department, and Wei Yan also sent scouts to find and guide them to retreat to Meixian as soon as possible. Such a strange army must ensure that they are safely withdrawn, and when they defend the city in the future, they may be of great use.

After doing this, Wei Yancai and Wu Ban met together and made an inventory of the withdrawn Han army.

And then both of them had a little chill.

This response seems to be a perfect success, but in fact the loss is not small.

Wu Ban originally led about 10,000 people to march into Meixian County, but met Wang Ping halfway, with a total strength of about 11,000 people.

But the people who returned to Meixian County, not counting Wang Ping's department, only more than 6,500 people.

And Wei Yan led 4,000 people out of the city to meet Wu Ban, and finally withdrew to Meixian, only 3,000 people.

Most of them were killed or wounded in the battle with the Wei army, and a small number were lost and scattered during the overnight march. The quality of the soldiers themselves in these years is not high, and many people fight just to make ends meet, and they will never work hard.

Now that the Meixian War is imminent, these scattered soldiers, at this time, I am afraid it is impossible to rebuild.

That is to say, if there was no Biqiu Jian halfway, there should be more than 16,000 people stationed in Meixian County, but now, not counting Wang Ping's more than 1,000 Wudang Fei Army, the Meixian garrison is less than 10,000 people.

In just two or three days, more than 5,000 soldiers were lost.

This loss is enough for Wei Yan and Wu Ban to ask for guilt. But that's not the end of the story.

The appearance of Biqiu Jian means that the Wei army in the direction of Wuzhangyuan has noticed the problem in Meixian, so it is not easy to say whether the main force of the Wei army in Wuzhangyuan will counterattack Meixian.

In addition to Wuzhangyuan, Cao Zhen of Chang'an calculates the time, and the troops sent by Cao Zhen to rescue Meixian should be almost to Meixian, right?!

Unless Cao Zhen was a fool and the rescue force sent to retreat directly after learning that Meixian County was lost, otherwise, it should not take more than three days for this force to appear outside Meixian County.

Wei Yan really didn't have much time to think about other things, what he had to do now was to quickly strengthen the defense of Meixian County, stabilize the hearts of the people in Meixian County, and fight a defensive battle in Meixian County.

To be honest, Wei Yan's confidence in this is not very sufficient.

If this was to fight such a defensive battle in Hanzhong, or in other Han territories, Wei Yan didn't think there was any problem.

The city was guarded by 10,000 soldiers, and even if the enemy came to attack with 100,000 people, Wei Yan was confident that he could defend it for a month.

But the problem is that this Meixian County, in the hands of Wei Yan, is full of calculations, and it doesn't take more than ten days.

In the city defense battle, in addition to the need to fight hard for the defenders of the city, whether the people in the city support it or put it more bluntly, and whether the families in the city support it or not, is also a key factor.

When the Meixian garrison is sufficient, no matter what these families think in their hearts, they will not act rashly, and will even show support for Wei Yan on the surface. But once Meixian holds on to a critical moment and the loss of troops is too large, no one knows what these families will do.

But now, Wei Yan doesn't have much time to appease these families in the city, and even now, Wei Yan hasn't seriously dealt with Wang Shuang's problem, this unlucky child, has been locked up in the Meixian County Government Prison!

Wei Yan has to do this, although Wei Yan is really not good at these things, but Wei Yan knows that it is better to do it himself than to do nothing.

After all, he is also a person who has been the Taishou of Hanzhong, Wei Yanzhen is not a reckless man who doesn't know anything, he summoned the representatives of the family in the city, persuaded him with good words, and put forward some interest temptations. I don't want you to completely fall to the big man, but at least don't add to the chaos, that's it.

This is not too high a requirement, although Wei Yan's emotional intelligence is a little low, but the Hanzhong Taishou has not worked in vain over the years, at least he has experience.

At this time, if you want to let these families bleed profusely to support the big man, maybe you will directly force these families to Cao Wei's side.

But don't add to the chaos, no one needs to be offended, no matter who Meixian ends up in the future, these families can continue to survive in Meixian.

This kind of request, the families of Meixian County, have expressed their opposition!!

How can you not add to the mess uh, no, how can you do nothing?!

As a citizen of the Han Dynasty, seeing the Northern Expedition of the King Division, how can there be a reason not to welcome each other? !

Cao Wei, usurping the ears of the Han and rebelling thieves, as a citizen of the Han Dynasty, how can he be a traitor? !

The Meixian family has expressed that they want to help Wang Shi defend the city. These families gathered a thousand families, a number of grain, grass, and silk, and said that if General Wei needed it, they could hand it over to General Wei's command.

Wei Yan people are stupid about this family in Mei County, why is the painting style so strange? !

(End of chapter)