Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 200 The Three Armies Flee in Panic

Zhu Tianshou fled north for only two miles before he reined in his horse and stopped.

Just now, he realized a major problem.

At that time, we should have waited and seen the success or failure before taking any action.

If he ran away now, if Tu Danzhang won, this madman might punish him for deserting the battlefield; if Tu Danzhang lost, the Wuxing Army would come together and naturally would not let him go.

To please Tu Danzhang has always been his established strategy, so why did he just forget about it?
Is it true that when a person is anxious, his mind goes blank and he ignores everything?

As the sun set, the remnants of Mount Meng cast long shadows beside him. In the gentle autumn evening breeze by the river, Zhu Tianshou sweated profusely and was once again at a loss.

"You... Liu Er, go back..." Zhu Tianshou pointed at an attendant, but then he dropped his hand and waved it weakly: "Forget it, forget it."

None of his trusted aides were cut out for battle. It was already a good thing that they didn't abandon him after seeing such a big scene. If he forced Liu Er to go back to investigate the situation, let alone running into the mountains, even if they hid in a ravine and came back two hours later to talk nonsense, Zhu Sanlang wouldn't know whether it was true or not!

Liu Er, who was called out, broke out in a cold sweat instantly. Even if he didn't know how dangerous war was, he should have known that the battlefield was not a good place to be. Seeing that his master was still looking him up and down, he quickly made some calculations in his mind.

It can be said that this person is quite quick-witted. In just a short moment, he really came up with an explanation.

"Third Master," Liu Er swallowed hard and spoke quickly, "We absolutely must not panic now. We must wait here and not wander off. It's almost dark. If we still can't decide the winner, even with the torches of the Heavenly Soldiers, it's likely to be a chaotic battle. If we charge in now, not only will the loyal thieves be killed, but even the Heavenly Soldiers will easily kill us. If we die in the chaos, then General Tushan won't be able to stand up for us."

After hearing all this nonsense, Zhu Tianshou asked coldly, "Then what do you think we should do?"

He made up his mind that if Liu Er couldn't explain the truth, he would chop him into pieces!

Liu Er whispered, "Third Master, wait here, just wait here. If the heavenly soldiers win, then it will be dark now, and we can take advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters. Everything will be easy to say. We can even say that we were chasing the fugitives and got separated."

If the heavenly soldiers are unfortunate... the defeated soldiers will definitely flee to the north, and we will meet them soon. At this time, the Third Master will step forward and help General Tushan, then wealth and support will be within his reach, right?

"Third Master, it's easy to add icing on the cake, but it's very difficult to help someone in need! The greatest achievement is to save you!"

After Liu Er finished his self-deprecating and inappropriate remarks, Zhu Tianshou couldn't help but nod heavily.

Of course, it is unclear how much of his conviction was due to the fact that Liu Er's words made sense, and how much was due to the fact that he could not move forward and did not dare to escape, and had to make the choice.

In short, these people drove their horses to a slope on the official road again, opened their eyes wide and looked towards the north in the afterglow of the setting sun.

When the sun was completely obscured by the Mengshan Mountains, Zhu Tianshou finally spotted a sparse group of cavalrymen galloping past on the official road. Their armor was gone, and they were not holding weapons; they were literally fleeing in disarray, stripping off their armor.

What made Zhu Tianshou feel like he was falling into an icy cave was that these cavalrymen were obviously Jurchens with shaved heads.

Tu Danzhang was defeated?
Failed so quickly? Failed before even making it to the evening?
What made Zhu Tianshou even more disheartened was that, apart from a few scattered riders, there was no large-scale rout! The Loyalty Army had not only defeated Tu Danzhang and the Wuxing Army's number one Meng'an, but they had completely wiped them out, taking a huge bite out of them, leaving them practically unable to return north!

"Go! Go! Go quickly!" Zhu Tianshou said "go" three times in a row and took the lead to walk north.

At this moment, Zhu Sanlang no longer cared about the might of the Jin army or the timely assistance. The only thought in his mind was to run as fast as possible!

Liu Dalang must hate him deeply. If he is caught by the Loyal Army, he will be cut into pieces!

His attendants were even worse off. They whipped their horses and galloped away, looking back as if the pursuers were already right behind them, perfectly demonstrating the meaning of "flee at the sight of the enemy."

After walking for an unknown number of miles, Zhu Tianshou looked around in the hazy moonlight, but suddenly realized that he didn't even have a single servant by his side. Those confidants he had carefully selected had completely run away at some point.

The sound of horse hooves following behind him turned out to be that of a Jurchen soldier.

Zhu Tianshou cursed the servants in his heart as trash, cursing both the servants and the pale-faced Jurchen man.

When the Jurchen saw Zhu Tianshou had stopped, he reined in his wheezing warhorse. He seemed to know Zhu Tianshou and asked, panting heavily, "Do you have any food or water?"

Zhu Tianshou only felt that the Jurchen looked familiar, but he didn't take it seriously and just threw a water bag over.

The Jurchen man raised the water bag and took a few big gulps, but seemed to be choked by the water and started coughing violently.

After a moment, the Jurchen said, "Let's take a break. We need to take a break. If we keep running like this, even if we can hold on, the horses won't be able to. We need to let the horses drink some water. If the horses die of exhaustion, we'll have no choice but to retreat into the ravine."

Zhu Tianshou looked towards the south and asked fearfully, "What about the pursuers..."

The Jurchen shook his head and said, "There will be no drums chasing us. The loyal thieves are not made of iron. After such a great battle, they are exhausted."

After saying this, the Jurchen's face showed a sad look: "Besides, it's not worth it for the loyal thieves to waste their energy on just the two or three kittens and puppies we escaped."

Zhu Tianshou nodded. He really wanted to know the whole story of today's battle, so he dismounted and led the Jurchen woman's horse to the riverbank. They sat down behind a small slope, both to avoid the cool evening breeze and to hide their bodies from possible pursuers.

Zhu Tianshou took the dry food bag off his horse, took out a cake from it, handed it to the Jurchen man, then took out another one, held it in his mouth and chewed it slowly.

The two men looked at each other in silence, simply eating their bread with river water. After about a quarter of an hour, when their moods had mostly calmed down, Zhu Tianshou was the first to ask, "What happened today? How did we lose so badly, so quickly?"

The Jurchen looked at Zhu Tianshou in surprise, as if curious about why he would ask such a simple question, but she didn't think too much about it. "What else could it be? Naturally, your information was leaked and the loyal thieves noticed it, so they set an ambush here and surrounded and killed our six Mouke."

　The Ratlin of Yellow Wind Ridge is so strong!!!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)