Chapter 850: Severely injured
Chapter 850: Severe loss of vitality
Chapter 848: Severe loss of vitality
Before being surrounded by the coalition forces, the Liang army still had more than 4,500 people.
The sudden ambush and siege directly killed and injured more than half of the Liang army who were caught off guard, but there were still more than 2,000 soldiers alive.
The remaining two thousand or so Xiliang soldiers are undoubtedly the best among the best. Although it is not easy to break through, the defense is more than enough.
As expected, the coalition forces launched a fierce attack in the last quarter of an hour. Although they caused heavy casualties to the Liang army, they did not completely defeat the opponent.
Xue Rengui saw that nothing could be done, so he decisively issued an order to retreat.
"Stop the attack and retreat."
After Xue Rengui gave the order, the soldiers quickly shouted: "General Xue Rengui has an order to stop the attack and retreat."
"What?"
Some of the generals under the princes showed disbelief. After all, victory in this battle was close at hand, and retreating at this time was a bit difficult for them to understand.
But whether you understand it or not, a general order is a general order, and it must never be violated.
However, it is not an easy task to withdraw the army when both sides are anxious.
What's more, some generals were heartbroken and suffered casualties, so they even thought of taking out all their troops without any damage. This also greatly delayed the efficiency of the army's retreat.
Seeing that the army was retreating so slowly, Xue Rengui on the side stamped his feet anxiously and asked quickly: "What on earth are the front troops doing? Why don't they just retreat as ordered?"
“General Qi, the generals of the former army want to avoid casualties, so...”
“These short-sighted guys.”
Xue Rengui said through gritted teeth. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a spy running over in a panic and angrily.
“Report...to the general, a large number of their cavalry was found in the west direction, and they are less than five miles away from our army.”
"Come so fast?" Xue Rengui looked shocked, obviously underestimating the opponent's speed.
Five miles can be reached in less than a quarter of the time for cavalry at full speed, but the coalition forces obviously cannot be withdrawn within a quarter of an hour.
The trapped Liang army realized that reinforcements were about to arrive, so they stopped defending and instead moved out to entangle the coalition forces to delay the coalition's retreat.
Seeing that some of the coalition forces were getting deeper and deeper, and that if this continued, more people would be dragged down, so Xue Rengui was heartbroken and shouted: "Ignore them, the whole army will retreat immediately, as much as they can escape."
There is another point that Xue Rengui did not dare to say clearly, that is, to sacrifice these people as a backing so that his own troops can escape smoothly.
Of course Xue Rengui also wanted to defeat the enemy head-on, but now the enemy is cooperating inside and outside, and his own ambush troops are exhausted after the battle. With the enemy outnumbered, we have no chance of victory, so it is better to retreat in time without sacrificing the small and safe. Besides, this The results they achieved in the first battle were already great enough.
After Yang Guang led the army and arrived, he saw that the enemy troops had not withdrawn yet. A ferocious smile flashed on his face and he shouted: "Flying Bear Army, attack."
"Kill, kill, kill." Among the cavalry Yang Guang brought this time, in addition to ordinary cavalry, there was also a battalion of the Liang Army's veteran elite Flying Bear Army, so he was able to arrive early.
Three thousand flying bear troops were like tigers descending from the mountain, charging towards the enemy in front of them with great ferocity. In an instant, the coalition's formation was directly torn apart, and what followed was a one-sided massacre.
Jia Fu, Wu Yunzhao and other generals were relieved when they saw that Yang Guang had finally arrived, and quickly rode their horses to meet him.
“General Yang, if you had come even a quarter of an hour late, you really wouldn’t have been able to see us.” Wu Yunzhao said with a wry smile.
Seeing that almost all of the generals were injured, and several were even seriously injured and unconscious, it was not difficult for Yang Guang to imagine what a brutal battle they had experienced.
“Everyone, if you can still fight, please follow Guang and kill all these bastards.”
Yang Guang gritted his teeth and wrote, then waved his weapon and personally joined the pursuit.
Seeing this, Jia Fu and other generals could only smile bitterly, then endured the pain and gritted their teeth and joined in.
Not long after Xue Rengui led half of his troops to withdraw, he heard miserable and direct screams in the distance behind him. He immediately did not dare to stay longer and ordered the entire army to retreat quickly.
They are not out of danger yet. If enemy reinforcements catch up, they will be forced to run away, so it is better to withdraw to a safe area as soon as possible.
Yang Guang led the army in pursuit for ten miles, and then ordered not to continue the pursuit. Wu Yun summoned him and asked in confusion: "Why don't you pursue the general? The enemy has been defeated. We will kill them directly. Soon we will kill all the trapped brothers." Have you been rescued?"
"well…"
Yang Guang sighed and explained: "If I had 50,000 cavalry in my hands, I would definitely continue to pursue until the trapped soldiers were rescued. However, our army now only has 10,000 cavalry, while the Kwantung Allied Forces dispatched 100,000 cavalry.
The ones who fled were just the ambush of the coalition forces. If the pursuit continued, once Xue Rengui reacted, even the 10,000 cavalry would be trapped. "
The generals couldn't help but be silent for a while after hearing this. Yang Guang knew that it was difficult for them to accept this fact, so he did not say anything more. He immediately ordered to the left and right: "Sweep the battlefield quickly and prepare the entire army to retreat."
A quarter of an hour later, the casualty report was calculated. The coalition ambush casualties were nearly 3,000, and the Liang army reinforcements basically suffered no casualties. However, of the 50,000 Xiliang cavalry who went into battle, only more than 1,000 survived.
Yang Guang couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. Fifty thousand Xiliang cavalry left Hulao Pass, but there were only more than a thousand people when they came back?
This is equivalent to the annihilation of the entire army, and the casualties are too heavy, right?
After learning the news, all the Liang Army generals were in agony. After all, although the order to leave the customs was given by Li Shimin, they also played an urging role in it. How could they convey this to the master of Chang'an?
It took Dong Zhuo more than 20 years to have 100,000 Xiliang cavalry. As a result, more than half of them were casualties in one battle. The generals in Liangzhou couldn't believe Dong Zhuo's reaction when he found out.
In addition to the soldiers, the generals of the Liang Army also suffered heavy casualties. Senior generals such as Zhang Gongjin, Gao Shilian, Mai Tiezhang, Yang Yichen, and Liang Shitai died in direct battle, and the veteran general Ding Yanping was captured alive by the Qin army.
In addition, the Liang army also lost more than fifty captains, more than 30 partial generals, and more than ten miscellaneous generals. It can be said that their vitality was seriously damaged.
Had it not been for the rescue of dozens of generals including General Wu Yunzhao by Yang Guang at the last moment, the Liang Army would have directly lost more than six levels of senior generals.
Yang Guang sighed deeply. The responsibility for this defeat was too great and he couldn't bear it. He could only pray in his heart that Li Shimin could survive. After all, except for Li Shimin, no one in the Liang army was Qin Hao's opponent. He Yang Guang can’t do the same.
(End of this chapter)