Tiger Guards

Chapter 145 Alternating Withdrawal
Four or five miles to the north, another large group of Huns were continuing to gather.

From time to time, small groups of Tiele Huns, mixed Huns, and mixed Huns stationed nearby would gather here.

It’s just that there is so much smoke and dust in the south that the situation on the battlefield cannot be seen clearly.

What these Xiongnu nobles hated even more was the dust raised in this dry weather. If they intervened in the battle, they would be caught in the dust.

When visibility is poor, the more people involved, the more people will be accidentally injured.

As they watched, the fighting ceased and the dust gradually cleared.

The Han army had begun to clean up the battlefield, and the Han army's reinforcements also pressed up from the wastelands at both ends of the road.

Although these people moved slowly, they still trampled up dust, making it difficult to observe and find out how many there were.

So the famous king of the Qiangqu tribe, who was in temporary command and gave orders, gathered his men and held their ground, standing firm as still as a mountain.

On the battlefield, all kinds of vehicles were urgently repaired. Even if they could not be repaired, horses were used to try to tow them back.

The wounded were loaded onto the carriages, and the fallen soldiers were tied to the horses.

Quickly collect various weapons, armor and the heads of the Huns. The situation is urgent, otherwise even the tattered leather coats of the Hun slaves will have to be stripped off.

Even if the coat is made of rat or rabbit skin, the fur inherited from ancestors has been worn out and can be washed and used to wrap the legs to keep warm in winter, or it can be disassembled to make overshoes for horses.

To date, most knights have not had time to replace their horseshoes.

The time was not yet ripe, and Zhao Ji prepared to deploy all his troops at once and catch the Huns off guard.

The wars in the Fen River Basin also caused less wear and tear on horse hooves and were not very urgent.

The later the horseshoeing technology is developed, the better. Otherwise, after the horse trade in Liangzhou and Bingzhou is monopolized, it will be difficult to sell horses to people like Cao Cao, Lu Bu, and Liu Bei.

It can’t be said to be planned obsolescence, but it’s almost there.

Even though some tribes of the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan peoples mastered horseshoeing, they were reluctant to spend the money on it because their horses multiplied rapidly.

But for Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao and others, the cost of horseshoes was very low.

Especially Gongsun Zan, if he deployed horseshoes on a large scale and achieved good results in battle, then the powerful people in Youzhou would immediately follow suit, and then in the arms race, the Wuhuan and Xianbei would have to grit their teeth and keep up.

By then, the Wuhuan and Xianbei cavalry will be able to carry out long-distance raids north of the Yellow River.

Although it was Yuan Shao and Cao Cao who gave him a headache, he himself could not escape in the end.

Therefore, before parting ways with the court, Zhao Ji would delay the deployment of horseshoes unless necessary.

I always feel that horseshoes or bronze horseshoes will become popular trading commodities in the future.

Before conquering Taiyuan, the powerful people in Taiyuan would definitely do business in this area.

Zhao Ji rode on Yuelihei, holding a water bag in his hand and taking a sip from time to time.

Even now, every breath he took could smell the strong earthy smell.

He looked around and found that all the corpses within his sight had been turned over, all of them were headless.

Various relatively better leather and iron armors were also stripped off and piled on carts, or bundled and hung on horses' backs.

The Xiongnu volunteers and Hedong knights also sent some men to help clean up the battlefield, and tried to collect as many arrows stuck in the loess ground as possible.

The soil in the abandoned fields is loose, and the arrows are basically intact.

Vehicles loaded with the wounded were evacuated first. Many heads had nowhere to be loaded, so they could only be put in cloth bags and hung in front of horses, or hung on the waists of some soldiers.

More than a hundred captured prisoners were tied together with ropes, with two heads hung around each person's neck, also serving as transportation, and were evacuated under the supervision of the lightly injured knight.

Xu Huang and Qu Bei followed the road and came to the battle flag of "Hu Ben Zhong Lang Jiang" and saw a head hanging in front of Zhao Ji's horse.

Qu Bei recognized him at first sight as the famous king of the Black Wolf Tribe. He was somewhat of an acquaintance, but just an acquaintance.

No matter how poor Qubei was, he was still a member of the Xiongnu royal family; Tai'ahou, the famous king of the Black Wolf tribe, was only from a side branch of a noble family, and being able to become a wealthy man was already the limit.

The Huns did not like wolves, and the fact that they used the black wolf totem shows how much this branch deviated from the mainstream.

Xu Huang and Qu Bei jumped off their horses and stepped forward, bowing: "Minister."

"Later, I will lead the Tiger Guards to guard the rear of the road, retreating left and right alternately, each time retreating two or three miles before forming a battle formation and waiting."

Zhao Ji looked at Qu Bei and said, "The Xian King will retreat first, two miles in advance. Brother Gongming will then retreat three miles. When I retreat and reunite with the Xian King, the Xian King will retreat three miles. Once the Xian King has established a stable formation, Brother Gongming will retreat. The three of us will retreat in turns, and each time someone must establish a formation to cover the rearguard."

"Here!"

Qu Bei and Xu Huang agreed with a bow. This request was not too demanding at all. Zhao Ji was the first to cover the rear, and then the two of them took turns to cover the rear.

Just repeat this three times and you'll be back in the safe zone.

Xu Huang thought this withdrawal was a bit conservative, but he couldn't propose it publicly, as it would be risky. And after so many years of fighting in Bei, what did it mean to him to leave behind a rearguard?

He then proposed: "Minister, the Black Wolf Tribe is so vulnerable, and our army's morale is high. Why not take advantage of the victory and pursue them to defeat them again?"

He knew the habits of the Xiongnu tribe very well. If he launched an attack at this time, the other side would not be able to figure out his true strength and would definitely retreat.

But if they directly took turns to cover the withdrawal, the Huns would be full of curiosity and chase after them to watch the fun and look for opportunities, almost shouting "Lakanishu".

Zhao Ji looked around when he heard this. There were still more than 500 cavalry and rangers left, all sitting around the road drinking water and resting. There were also a few people with obsessive-compulsive disorder who were wiping the sweat, mud and dirt off the horses.

He went to see Xu Huang: "Brother Gongming, what do you think?"

Xu Huang turned his head to the left, squinting his eyes as the sunlight streamed down upon his face. "Minister, it's getting dark. Without reinforcements other than ours, a prolonged battle would lead to failure."

"Then we'll fight another day!"

Zhao Ji turned around and mounted his horse, bowing to the two men and saying, "As you command."

"Here!"

Qubei and Xu Huang bowed again, walked a dozen steps with their guards, and each mounted their horse. Qubei was worried that they would forget, so he instructed his attendants: "Let's retreat two miles first, then three miles, which is another two miles. Don't make a mistake!"

"Yes!"

The little kings and leaders who followed responded and looked at the battlefields on both sides. They were ready to fight and looked quite regretful.

When they withdrew their troops, just as Qubei had expected, the Huns gathered in the north followed cautiously, becoming bolder and closer.

At the closest point, they were less than a mile away from Zhao Ji, but no one took the lead in charging.

The three armies took turns to cover the rear, and only returned to the river mouth camp when the sunlight turned orange.

None of them rushed back to the barracks, but instead washed their armor and horses on the banks of the Fen River, and Zhao Ji was no exception.

Take off your armor and throw it into the shallow water on the riverbank. Who will care about your armor being rusty or your leather armor being soaked in water during a battle?

Everyone was exhausted, and even if they weren't that tired, they didn't want to move much.

Zhao Ji took off his combat boots, sat on a mat, soaked his feet in the water, and felt relaxed all over.

On the other side of the river, the Huns drove their horses that had grazed the young crops along the bank, with thousands of them staring at them across the river.

There were also people on both sides blowing sharp whistles at each other, competing with each other's whistling skills across the river, as if they wanted to annoy the other side to death.

There was no need for Zhao Ji to tell them that no matter how thirsty a person was, they would not drink Fen water.

The Xiongnu people near Xingcheng upstream were also grazing their horses by the river to eat young crops. Horse manure and even the Xiongnu people's own corpses were thrown into the river and drifted downstream.

Most of those whose bodies were thrown away in this way were not native Xiongnu people, but slaves and mixed Hu people.

Zhao Ji watched as a headless, torn body was swept to a nearby area by the river, floating up and down in the shallow water on the mudflats, and was slowly swept away by the river.

In the military camp, Jia Kui led the military medical team to treat the seriously wounded soldiers; Pei Xiu led people to count the heads brought in by the Huben soldiers in vehicles, and arranged for people to transport them to the river for immediate cleaning.

Jia Xu also began to interrogate several captured Xiongnu nobles and leaders, and these prisoners answered honestly.

If you cooperate well, there is still hope of survival and conversion into a volunteer; if your attitude is not correct, you will lose your life and endure various tortures.

With Zhao Ji's permission, Si Tu Zhao Wen also came to inquire about the injured Huben and the squad leaders, taking notes from time to time.

Zhao Ji asked him to recount the battle. Even though Zhao Wen didn't want to help Zhao Ji, he wanted to change his lifestyle.

After arriving at the Beijiang military camp, the minister had to take on the role of stablemaster, a job that made Zhao Wen feel bored.

It's good to come out and do some writing work to relax.

It wasn't that he had to come, but others asked him to come out so that he could bring back some news from the outside world to entertain others.

As the campfires were lit one after another, Zhao Wen saw Pei Xiu return and place carts of cleanly washed heads in the middle of the parade ground, like market stalls.

One hundred of them formed a small square formation. After drying their hair and tying it up, the Huben and Yulin soldiers who would participate in the battle tomorrow would come to inspect their heads.

Zhao Wen couldn't help but worry as he saw the seventh phalanx was almost ready.

No matter how outrageous Dong Zhuo and Li Jue were, they never asked the emperor to examine their heads.

Although there were various battles close to the emperor during the eastward migration, casualties in battle were one thing, but looking at the phalanx-like heads was obviously another matter.

After thinking about it, Zhao Wen decided to keep him and persuade Zhao Ji.

So as not to frighten the emperor.

(End of this chapter)