Fu Shanhe

Chapter 303: Difficult Escape
“Finally got out!”

Uligai, who survived the disaster, couldn't help but shed tears after he sighed.

This battle was really too brutal.

Of the 5,000 cavalrymen in his hands, less than 200 managed to break through.

Just a little bit more and the whole army would have been wiped out.

The situation on the other two routes is unclear, but it is unlikely to be much better.

After this battle, the remaining army was severely damaged and no longer had the strength to launch a counterattack.

At this moment, the only thing we can do is to reunite with the troops outside and evacuate from Jinan Prefecture as soon as possible.

……

On the city gate tower.

"Just let them go like this?"

Marquis Wuyang asked doubtfully.

It is not surprising that the enemy was able to break out.

No matter how tightly you surround the enemy, there will always be weak points. It is normal for some lucky ones to escape.

Breaking through the siege does not mean you will be safe.

The army sent to support the king also had cavalry, so it was no problem for them to deal with the few remaining defeated soldiers.

Now is the time when the enemy's troops are exhausted and their horses are exhausted, so it won't take much effort to send cavalry to pursue them.

"My Lord, the Northern Tartars are not united internally, and there is also a deep blood feud between the Guifang and the Tatars.

Among the Guifang tribe, the Qiqihada, Hailar, Holingol, Bayartu and Grale tribes are the leaders.

Among them, the Qiqihada tribe defected to the Tatars early on and was considered their most trusted confidant.

The other four tribes were different. They only surrendered on the surface, but they were still full of resentment towards the Tatars in their hearts.

The enemy forces outside the city were mainly from the three major tribes of Hailar, Holingol and Bayartu.

If they are defeated, the merger of Guifang and Tatar will become a foregone conclusion.

Once the various Guifang tribes are integrated, a monster with hundreds of thousands of soldiers will appear in the north.

By then, the pressure on the Nine Borders would be too great, and even if Liaodong Town was willing to fight, it would be powerless to stop them from entering the pass.

Even with our army, we are still no match for the enemy."

Li Mu said with a serious expression.

Although there was a clear opportunity to annihilate the enemy, due to the necessity of the situation, they had to give in.

The Tatars were only the overlord of the grassland and had not yet unified the prairie, so the Dayu Dynasty had some difficulty in dealing with them.

If the enemy were allowed to unify the prairie, the consequences would be disastrous.

In addition to the needs of the situation, the disputes within the court also forced him to be more restrained in his fighting.

The wood show will be destroyed by the forest wind.

Being slightly stronger than other armies only resulted in envy and criticism.

Given the current performance of the loyalist army, Liaodong Town can also fight back if it wants to. It is just a matter of how much casualties it will suffer.

For the emperor, this was a military force that he could trust.

If they perform too well and can easily annihilate tens of thousands of grassland cavalry, then the nature of the situation will change.

An armed force that disrupts the balance is a potential threat to the emperor.

Perhaps in the short term, the emperor will use him again due to the needs of the situation.

As time goes by, suspicion will gradually take over.

If you do anything that fails to satisfy the emperor, all the goodwill you have gained will be wiped out, and will be replaced by suspicion and suppression.

After weighing the pros and cons, Li Mu thought it would be better to let Liaodong Town take the lead and attract the firepower of the emperor and officials.

As for the Guangdong and Guangxi towns, we can wait until the war to support the king is over, and then use the opportunity to reward people for their merits to split them up again.

However, at this critical juncture, the court is unlikely to allow the split.

It is estimated that the splitting will not be carried out until Nanjing is recovered and the military pressure on the court is reduced.

Anyway, the troops of these two towns are just products that are displayed in the open, and they are not his real direct descendants.

It was just the right opportunity for him to take advantage of the split to enjoy the treatment of having his disciples and former officials spread all over the court.

"These bastards are so cheap!"

Marquis Wuyang nodded and said.

He wanted the credit, but thinking of the terrible political consequences, he thought it would be better to take it slow.

The heads of the Guifang cavalry are also very valuable.

The capture of this battle was over ten thousand, enough for military merit to earn him a title of nobility.

Coupled with the previous victory in Jinan and a series of military merits accumulated before, a hereditary marquisate was inevitable.

If you go any higher, it won't be achieved by beheading alone.

Even if you completely wipe out the enemy's rearguard troops, the only thing you can get is a better title.

In fact, the best title among marquises was basically occupied by the founding heroes.

No matter how great the contributions made later, they cannot compete with the original shareholders for having their accounts blocked.

"My Lord, it won't be easy, there will be troubles waiting for them later.

Arrangements had already been made for them at the ferry, and the Guifang people would not have a safe journey back home.

After this battle, the enemy army had become like a frightened bird, and their morale was completely destroyed.

Now is the time to grab a bargain.

Pass the order down, let the cavalry attack and seize the enemy's spoils."

Li Mu gave the order with a smile.

When it comes to kicking a fallen dog, he will not show mercy.

They deliberately let the enemy break out because they were afraid that the top leaders of the three major tribes would all die, leaving them leaderless and giving the Tatars an opportunity to take advantage.

The soldiers below can still be killed at will.

The Guifang people have no shortage of men, so it doesn't matter if tens of thousands of them die.

If the number of tribesmen is insufficient, then they will annex smaller tribes to supplement the population.

Tribal mergers and splits are common on the prairie.

It mainly depends on the carrying capacity of the grassland. Generally speaking, these large tribes will split up some small tribes every few years.

It is not difficult to bring people back when needed.

Of course, in the actual operation process, it may not be so beautiful.

……

“Chief, the enemy didn’t catch up with us.

Let the soldiers rest for a while. Even if the men can hold on, the horses can't!"

After listening to his brother's words, Ulige nodded slightly.

The whole journey was focused on breaking out, and they didn't even bring any horses for replacement.

After experiencing the fighting on the battlefield and the long journey, the mount under him had long reached its limit of endurance.

Even while fleeing, some war horses ran out of energy and fell down on the road.

When the team was resting, a familiar team appeared on the horizon.

When he saw who was coming, Ulige's tense nerves suddenly relaxed.

Encountering their own cavalry meant that the escape was halfway successful.

"Clan leader, what's going on?"

Looking at the embarrassed team, Altai asked with a puzzled look.

“This morning, the enemy troops suddenly came out of the city and attacked our army.

The enemy's firepower was too fierce, and our cavalry and archery were no match for them.

Forced by the situation, the top leaders of the coalition forces discussed and finally decided to abandon all the spoils and break out.

After the brave fighting of our tribesmen, only these few soldiers from our Hailar tribe managed to break out."

Ulige said with an unwilling look on his face.

The defeat was too tragic. Facing the main force of Yu's army, they had no power to fight back.

All the counterattacks launched ended in failure.

Deep down, he secretly regretted coveting the spoils.

If they had abandoned their camp and fought the enemy in the open field right after the enemy launched an attack, they would never have been defeated so miserably. Their most proud cavalry archery tactics were simply giving the enemy heads in this battle.

Compared to muskets, the range of bows and arrows is too short.

Not everyone has the courage of Lu Bu, who was able to shoot the halberd at the gate from a distance of 150 steps.

Ordinary soldiers using bows and arrows can only effectively kill within a few dozen meters, which is completely incomparable to the enemy's muskets.

In the face of a dense firepower network, accuracy is secondary; the key is to have a long enough range.

Unfortunately, bows and arrows were unable to defeat the enemy in this large-scale battle.

To make matters worse, the enemy also has close combat artillery.

They can be killed from hundreds of meters away.

In addition, there were a bunch of unique firearms designed to target cavalry, which swarmed towards them.

Many times, we don’t even know what happened, and there are a lot of casualties.

"The enemy is so strong, why didn't they attack earlier?"

Altai asked in disbelief.

Judging from what the head of the family said, even if they did not split their forces, it would be difficult for them to have a chance of winning against the enemy.

If the enemy had emerged earlier, they would have no chance to go out and rob.

“This is the despicable nature of the enemy!
If they had attacked earlier, even if we were not their match, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in now.

But the villain Wuyang Hou is the most cunning one. He deliberately gave us the impression that he was seriously injured and unable to launch a large-scale battle.

If we hadn't been deceived by them, we wouldn't have sent our troops out to plunder.

I am sure that they did not suffer much loss in the previous battle of Jinan.

All the intelligence the Tatars gave us was false.

The purpose is to weaken our military strength with the help of the Yu Dynasty people!"

Ulige said indignantly.

Deep down, he hated the Tatars.

I've seen unreliable people, but none are as unreliable as them.

It's complete nonsense to say that tens of thousands of enemies were annihilated and the troops under Marquis Wuyang were severely damaged.

In any army, the most capable elite soldiers are only a part of it.

Generally speaking, as long as these elite soldiers are killed, the other soldiers will not be a concern.

The reality was cruel. The enemy's soldiers were not damaged at all, and the previous Battle of Jinan was a joke.

The real battle was that the enemy overpowered the Tatars and won a great victory without much effort.

In order to save face, he deliberately said that the enemy was severely damaged.

It doesn’t matter if you falsify information when promoting to the outside world, but you can’t cheat your allies!
If he knew the enemy's true combat strength, he would definitely flee as soon as possible after completing the diversionary mission.

"Damned Tatars!
I want to…”

In a flash, the scene was filled with curses.

The surviving officers and soldiers of the Hyrule tribe directly blamed the Tatars for the defeat on the front line.

As for the Yu Dynasty army that defeated them, not many people scolded them.

Compared to enemies, people obviously hate betrayal by allies more.

If they were not so weak, they would go to the Tatars to ask for an explanation right now.

"Chief, since the enemy's fighting power is so strong, what should we do with the spoils we have seized?"

After calming down, Altai asked with concern.

All the spoils in the camp have now been lost, but the troops that went out to plunder still have spoils in their hands.

The Yu army was very powerful, and it was almost impossible for them to transport the spoils safely back to the prairie.

"Give it up!"

"Money is just a thing outside of our body, and is far less important than the lives of our people.

For everyone's safety, this hatred with the Yu army can be recorded first.

Gather the troops first and evacuate safely to the grasslands before considering revenge!"

Ulige said with a painful look on his face.

After making this decision, he felt a lot more relaxed.

After a near-death experience, he suddenly realized that he didn't love money that much.

No matter how good the spoils are, they are not as important as your own life.

Carrying a large amount of spoils on the road will inevitably affect the marching speed.

Once they were discovered by the enemy and gathered their forces to attack them, they would be unable to resist.

"it is good!

I will arrange for people to contact the various units to retreat."

Altai said, suppressing his reluctance.

The wealth I gained disappeared in an instant. Life is full of ups and downs.

Not breaking down on the spot means you have a strong mentality.

"Report!"

"The enemy cavalry is coming, less than ten miles away."

The news brought by the scout broke the sad atmosphere at the scene.

Compared to your life, no matter how much money you have, it is not worth mentioning.

Without the slightest hesitation, everyone jumped on their horses and galloped away, with no intention of staying to fight.

……

south.

The situation of the Horqin Gol tribe, which also broke out, was much more miserable.

Because of the direction, they did not meet their own people halfway and could only try their best to escape from the enemy's pursuit.

The warhorse under his crotch had already gone on strike because it could not bear the heavy load.

Now the Horqin Gol cavalry has been reduced to infantry and is advancing with difficulty.

“Chief, we can’t go any further.

Now that we have left Jinan Prefecture, if we continue running south, it will be difficult to return north."

After hearing the reminder from his subordinates, Wu Rimu immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.

When choosing the direction of the breakout, the three of them decided by drawing lots.

Perhaps because he was possessed by the god of bad luck, he unfortunately caught Xiangnan while trying to break out, which led to the current tragic situation.

Of course, it's not all bad.

The south is a dead end, so the government troops deployed in the south are relatively smaller.

The troops that broke through the siege were the largest among the three major tribes.

Having run all the way to now, there are more than 600 people following Wu Rimu.

The only problem was that the escape direction was wrong, which increased the difficulty of evacuation.

"Change your route immediately, borrow a road from Yanzhou Prefecture, and cross the river from Dongchang!"

Without any hesitation, Wu Rimu made the decision immediately.

After running such a long distance, it is almost impossible to reunite with the troops in Qingzhou.

The only solution now is to take the route through Yanzhou and quickly cross the Yellow River.

If we are lucky, we might be able to catch up with the army returning north and return to the prairie together.

"Chief, what about those tribes in the east?
Without receiving the notification, they are likely to…”

Before the middle-aged man could finish speaking, Wu Rimu interrupted.

"Don't worry, even though we didn't notify them, the Hyrule tribe broke out to the east.

Seeing that other tribes in the coalition had withdrawn, they would have followed suit, unless they were stupid.

If you don't even have this little ability to distinguish, you deserve to die!
Compared with them, our current situation is the most dangerous.

Without our war horses, any government troops can wipe us out!"

……

(End of this chapter)