My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 522: A -mile Defeat
Seeing Zhang Fei advancing with great force like a mad tiger and Wang Ping and others finding loopholes in a cunning way, the defense line of Cao's army was on the verge of collapse.

In today's battle, Liu Bei's army's high morale, clever tactics, and the sudden resilience of the barbarians all greatly exceeded Xiahou Yuan's expectations. If he had known that the situation would be like this, he should have chosen to resist step by step, delay in batches, and choose dangerous places to delay time.

It is useless to regret now. Facing Jia Xu's persuasion, Xiahou Yuan also knew the importance of the matter:
If he fought to the end here, like a trapped beast, he could certainly cause considerable casualties to Liu Bei's army, and the final exchange rate would also be able to restore some dignity.

But if he died here, what would happen to Hanzhong? Would the Prime Minister's army have time to cross the Qinling Mountains and seize Hanzhong?

It was only the first few days of April, and the snow in the depths of the Qinling Mountains had just melted, forming the ice flood. Only when the ice flood water level dropped and the land became dry again could the valleys in the mountains be used for marching.

After weighing the overall pros and cons, Xiahou Yuan could only give a painful order to assemble the central army reserve as quickly as possible and retreat.

The troops in the rear camp would follow as many as they could, and as for the front troops who were still fighting hand-to-hand, they had to be abandoned.

Of course, in order to allow more people to leave, Xiahou Yuan did not retreat in a high-profile manner, but tried to retreat as quietly as possible, and the flag formation remained in place without moving.

In this way, the troops still fighting on the front line can at least learn the truth later, hold on a little longer, and buy more time for friendly forces to retreat.

……

However, in such a tragic and tense battlefield, it is destined to be difficult to escape from defeat.

Zhang Fei fought very hard, holding back Cao's troops on the second and even the third deer horn defense lines, and then pierced through and cut through them, killing them in pieces.

Moreover, the senior officers of Liu Bei's army had telescopes, which allowed them to observe the enemy situation from a distance more clearly. Not long after Xiahou Yuan ran away, Pang Tong, who was beside Liu Bei, stood on a sentry tower of Cao's camp that had just been occupied and looked through the telescope to see if there was anything unusual.

Pang Tong shouted out a warning: "My Lord! Xiahou Yuan has retreated! Let the soldiers shout to break the morale of the enemy troops who are still resisting!"

Liu Bei quickly gave the order to do so, and then he himself climbed up to see it with his own eyes using a telescope.

The guards around him tried to persuade him not to take risks by climbing high, and to be careful of the remnants of Cao's crossbowmen near the battlefield. However, Liu Bei shouted them off, "If the military advisor can climb high, why can't I? Besides, I'm wearing steel armor!"

Then Liu Bei went upstairs to take a look himself, and sure enough, he saw Cao's army retreating from the rear camp.

"They didn't even use Xiahou Yuan's banner. Xiahou Yuan is really shameless," Liu Bei put down the telescope and returned it to Pang Tong, praising him. "My military advisor has a good eye. Even though there was no banner, he could tell it was Xiahou Yuan."

Pang Tong quickly advised: "My lord, it is easy to be shot from a high place, so come downstairs with me."

Liu Bei: "Let's go together, let's go together."

At this moment, several arrows really flew over, and one of the crossbow arrows hit Pang Tong's steel-filled breastplate, but it failed to penetrate the entire steel plate forged by the hydraulic forging hammer, and only embedded slightly.

Liu Bei and Pang Tong quickly lay down, while shouting to their guards downstairs that they were fine.

The guards immediately sent people to clear the direction from which the crossbow arrows were shot, chopped several Cao army crossbowmen who had been hiding in the trenches and pretending to be dead into pulp, and then finished off the bodies of the Cao army who were already dead and wounded in that section of the trench. Then they came back to tell their lord that the danger was over, and helped Liu Bei and Pang Tong down from the sentry tower.

There were no other accidents during the whole process, but Pang Tong was a little anxious when he went down the stairs for the last time. He was afraid of being sniped again in mid-air. When there were still seven or eight steps to the ground, he stepped on empty space in his haste and fell directly, spraining his ankle.

One cannot help but sigh that Pang Tong's arrow-attracting physique would easily cause trouble as long as he was on the front line of the battlefield and appeared in a conspicuous place. After this incident, it is estimated that he will be more restrained in the future and will not look down on the heroes of the world.

However, his reckless advance was not without gain. If someone else had climbed up to observe the enemy, they might not have been able to accurately detect Xiahou Yuan's escape immediately.

Because of Pang Tong's timely reminder, the morale of Zhang Fei's troops who were charging on the front line quickly rose, and everyone shouted in unison, "Xiahou Yuan has escaped! Capture Xiahou Yuan alive!"

Although the Cao army soldiers who were resisting could see Xiahou's flag when they looked back, they collapsed even faster when they thought that it seemed that there seemed to be no reserve troops sent to reinforce for a while.

Eventually, the Cao army troops that were cut off began to disperse in large numbers, and even surrendered or were captured. Liu Bei's army took advantage of the situation and pursued them. In less than half an hour, they completely drove Cao's army out of the camp.

Zhang Fei was relentless and continued to pursue the enemy in an effort to expand his victory.

Gan Ning, who had not been able to participate in the decisive land battle before, was now desperately going up the Jialing River, trying to land behind and intercept some of Cao's soldiers.

However, Cao's army soon became more and more scattered, abandoning all their carts and baggage, and no longer retreating along the Jialing River valley, but running all over the mountains and plains.

As long as Gan Ning could stop those he encountered, he could basically capture them in batches without encountering any resistance. It was a pity that he encountered too few people, but he did capture quite a few.

Liu Bei's army pursued the enemy by land and sea, and they chased them for more than 60 miles that day before they had to give up. They were really exhausted, and they had just fought a great battle and did not even rest before they started chasing.

The results of the battle have not yet been counted. However, a rough estimate is that Cao's troops who were directly killed, surrounded, captured and surrendered on the front battlefield accounted for 20% to 30% of Xiahou Yuan's total troops. Another 20% to 30% of the troops were caught up and defeated or captured in batches during the pursuit.

At least half of Xiahou Yuan's army was killed. If we add the detachments that Xiahou Yuan had not had time to gather to collect food, it is possible that two-thirds of the total force was lost.

……

"What a pity that so many of Cao's troops escaped." That night, Liu Bei, who had been running with the army all day, felt quite proud of the great victory, but he still wanted more and couldn't help but sigh.

Pang Tong, who was standing nearby, had sprained his foot and was being carried on a stretcher and loaded onto a cart to accompany the army. The army's medical technicians had also given him emergency treatment, straightening his joints and meridians, and then bandaging and fixing them.

After hearing his master's sigh, Pang Tong also hurriedly comforted him: "Everything has its gains and losses, so you don't have to be greedy. At the beginning, we didn't want to swallow Xiahou Yuan in one go, otherwise we wouldn't be deployed like this. Instead, we should delay for a few more days, then surround Cao's camp and attack again.

But after all, Xiahou Yuan has more troops than us. If we really fight a desperate battle, it is entirely possible that we will suffer 10,000 or 20,000 casualties to completely destroy Xiahou Yuan. Now we have only suffered a few thousand casualties, but we have been able to defeat and annihilate 60% of Cao's army in the battle to attack the camp, which is already very good. "

There is a way to fight a war of annihilation and a way to fight a war of crushing defeat.

Since you have chosen a unilateral offensive deployment that is fearful of the enemy's desperate actions, leaving the enemy a route to retreat, hoping that the enemy will run away when their morale collapses and the situation is not right, then don't expect to completely annihilate the enemy. It is impossible to have all the good things.

Liu Bei also knew this truth. The deployment at the beginning of this battle was not aimed at annihilation. Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong had told him before the war: Cao's army is large and ours is small, so what we should pursue now is still "cost-effectiveness", that is, to annihilate as many enemies as possible at the lowest cost and reduce the exchange ratio of losses on both sides to the lowest.

Only in this way can we continuously weaken Cao's army, and wait until the strength of Cao and Liu gradually approaches and they are able to overtake each other, and then we can fight a head-on war of attrition with Cao Cao.

Moreover, Liu Bei's current occupied area is too far back. If Xiahou Yuan collapses all of a sudden and a vacuum appears, if Liu Bei's army wants to go to Hanzhong, they must first go up the Jialing River to Jiameng Pass, a straight-line distance of 550 miles.

(Note: Baidu Map shows a straight line of 270 kilometers, from Hechuan District, Chongqing to Guangyuan City, Sichuan)

But Liu Zhang's army had been guarding Jiameng Pass.

What if Liu Zhang's army heard that Xiahou Yuan was defeated and suddenly rushed out of Jiameng Pass to seize Hanzhong, which was almost vacant? Wouldn't Liu Zhang have reaped the fruits of Liu Bei's hard-earned victory?
This guy Liu Zhang never officially expressed his allegiance to Liu Bei. He just joined forces with Liu Bei and provided him with military supplies.

If such a situation really happened, Liu Bei would at most be able to capture Bashu, while Hanzhong would actually be stolen back by Liu Zhang, which would be a huge loss.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong both analyzed with Liu Bei: Even if Xiahou Yuan had to die in the end, he had to die in Hanzhong, and not in Baxi.

Only if Xiahou Yuan returned to Hanzhong and died, could Liu Zhang be sure that he could not steal Hanzhong. As long as Liu Bei occupied the entire Baxi area first, and then defeated Xiahou Yuan next time, Liu Zhang would not be able to snatch him.

Because by that time, the 550-li area along the Jialing River from Dianjiang County to Jiameng Pass had already been occupied by Liu Bei.

His attack position could be moved 550 miles forward, allowing him to return to the same starting line as Liu Zhang and compete fairly.

As long as there is fair competition and no one cheats, there is no way Liu Zhang could possibly defeat Liu Bei.

……

Liu Bei also knew these principles, but he had just won a great victory, which made him a little greedy and impulsive.

After being reminded by Pang Tong, Liu Bei quickly regained his composure. In the following days, he ordered Zhang Fei and Gan Ning to pursue the enemy step by step, expand the results of the battle, and not to force any reckless advance.

The main force then fought along Anhan County, Nanchong County, and Langzhong County one by one, steadily clearing the banks of the Jialing River.

At the same time, Liu Bei did not forget to send part of his troops to the banks of Dangqu to intercept Xiahou Yuan's grain-collecting army which had not yet returned.

However, Xiahou Yuan's grain-collecting army was not stupid, and they would send out scouts during the march. So the next day, the outpost cavalry of this grain-collecting army found out that General Xiahou's main camp in Dianjiang had been captured by Liu Bei and the main force had collapsed.

This grain-raising army would certainly not force its way south again, hoping to cross the Dangqu Canal and enter the Jialing River to die, so they immediately chose to turn around, retreat along the upper reaches of the Dangqu Canal, and finally cross the Daba Mountains and retreat back to Hanzhong.

However, this road is much more difficult to travel than the Dangqu and Jialing River Valley roads, so some people in Xiahou Yuan's detachment would surely fall to death while crossing the mountain on their way back.

Moreover, most of the food and baggage carts that had just been looted were unable to cross the steep section of the Daba Mountains. All the carts had to be abandoned on the road, and the food could only be carried by manpower. Only as much as could be transported back to Hanzhong could be transported.

However, there is a huge difference between the capacity of people carrying sacks and the capacity of ships transporting grain.

Therefore, most of the work done by Xiahou Yuan's grain-raising army was in vain.

(End of this chapter)