Tiger Guards

Chapter 675 Cutting Off Beard and Abandoning Robe
Outside of Zhang County, Han Sui's rear guard, which was originally responsible for covering the rear and monitoring Zhang County, has now become the vanguard charging ahead.

The fleeing cavalry of Han Sui's central army had not yet arrived here, but news of the defeat swept through the rear army like a raging storm.

In fact, many people had similar expectations for this outcome. This time, they were not facing veteran generals of the Later Han Dynasty, whose army was mainly composed of conscripted soldiers and based on the vassal system, but rather a fierce and powerful army that had followed Zhao Ji in suppressing the various barbarian tribes.

Therefore, with this shared psychological expectation and understanding, the slightest disturbance would cause these troops to observe each other. Hesitation in one army would lead to hesitation in all other armies. Because they were unclear about the situation, these armies would be more panicked and react in more bizarre ways.

Their bizarre reaction would further exacerbate the suspicion among the surrounding allied forces, until another army took an even more outrageous action.

Therefore, when the morale of the army is low and signs of collapse appear, no external force is needed; a series of internally catalyzed reactions alone can trigger a large-scale rout.

At this moment, Ma Chao and Zhu Ling's armies stood in bright, immovable formation, resembling the shape of the number "8". They blocked the road with two diagonal lines on the left and right, leaving a narrow, rugged passage only about fifty paces wide in the middle.

The arrays on both sides of this passage have been deliberately thickened.

The fleeing generals of Han Sui's rear army could easily understand this simple formation, but they were already unable to control their troops, let alone gather them to attack Ma Chao and Zhu Ling's weak flanks from both sides.

At this point, if you get entangled with Ma Chao and Zhu Ling, you'll be truly trapped and unable to break free.

In Ma Chao's formation, he wore a thick felt hat decorated with snow leopard print over his helmet. The hat was shaped with wire mesh inside, making it very straight.

He hadn't expected that Han Sui's rear army would retreat so quickly and decisively.

In fact, when he and Zhu Ling abandoned the city and military camp defenses and took the initiative to go out and form ranks, they had already frightened Han Sui's rear army.

He and Zhu Ling made their prediction based on Zhao Ji's actions. With such thick snow, after the sled team was reorganized, Zhao Ji would naturally launch a very fierce attack.

Zhao Ji himself was intimidated by the treacherous mountain roads of Longyou, but in fact, he was the most unsolvable opponent in this kind of mountain warfare.

Whether it's the battlefields of Longyou, Hehuang, or other deep mountain and dense forest battlefields, the turning point in the stalemate between large armies often begins with a brave warrior's initial charge!
The more mountainous the battlefield, the longer the stalemate lasts. It's like playing Go, where both sides continuously reinforce their troops and seize every possible location to station troops, their pieces interlocking like black and white stones on a Go board that's almost full.

The longer this stalemate drags on, the more numb the soldiers become.

A rapid breakthrough at one node can trigger a chain reaction in surrounding nodes. Under the influence of fear and a reluctance to fight, friendly forces amplify negative emotions among themselves, leading to large-scale chaos and rout.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhu Ling, Zhang He, Zhang Xiu, and Yang Qiu continued to hold their ground after retreating to Longyou. This place was no longer suitable for a large-scale decisive battle, but as long as Grand Tutor Zhao arrived, the situation could be reversed.

The core strength of an army is ultimately limited, and a sharpshooter like Zhao Ji is the most effective counter to the Xiliang rebels on mountain battlefields.

Due to the mountainous terrain, the elite troops of each army could only be deployed at the front. These people were quickly shot down by Zhao Ji, and those following behind would immediately become furious.

Then the fleeing soldiers created even greater chaos... which was almost impossible to prevent.

Zhao Ji himself was well aware of the difficulty of shooting. In this kind of mountain warfare, when he was defending, he stood on high ground, so he could naturally hold off ten thousand men.

If he were to lead the attack, the enemy archers would be hiding in the forests on both sides of the road, which would be like playing whack-a-mole, a very troublesome situation.

However, the other Jin army officers, key military officers, and veterans did not think so. In their eyes, whether Zhao Ji was standing on high ground calmly shooting at the invading enemy or shooting while moving forward during the attack, he should quickly shoot down the enemy soldiers in his line of sight.

This misunderstanding led the Jin army to have high expectations of Zhao Ji.

Even though Han Sui's army of over 60,000 men passed through Zhang County in a grand procession, the morale of Ma Chao and Zhu Ling's armies remained stable and their fighting spirit was not shaken.

At this moment, Ma Chao's 8,000 men and Zhu Ling's 5,000 men took the initiative to form a battle line in the field to block the road. You are Han Sui's rear army, are you panicking?
In a sense, even if Zhao Ji had not attacked Yan Xing from Zhongtao, the unusual behavior of Ma Chao and Zhu Ling alone would have been enough to dismantle Han Sui's '100,000-strong army'!
Han Sui cleverly abandoned the direct attack on Zhang County, and this is the price he has to pay!
Ma Chao surveyed the battlefield, searching for any troops maintaining order. At this time, Han Sui would never raise his Great General's banner. Knowing Han Sui as he did, Ma Chao knew that the old scoundrel would definitely disguise himself as an ordinary military officer and escape.

Only the cavalry guards around Han Sui were able to maintain a relatively stable order of operations, and Han Sui could be traced back from these people.

Ma Chao was itching to capture Han Sui and skin him alive, while Zhu Ling on the other side was also scanning the battlefield, searching for any group of fleeing soldiers who might be Han Sui. The first to break through were Han Sui's rear guard, who maintained relatively good physical condition and were mentally stable due to their abundant energy.

Even if they forced their way out through the funnel-like opening, they would be subjected to crossbow fire from both sides... These deserters accepted it; as long as they weren't certain to die, it wasn't the worst option.

Moreover, the funnel-like gap constantly caused routed soldiers to be wounded by arrows, fall from their horses, or collapse, making the already congested road even more congested.

The ultimate carnage was thus achieved through the combined efforts of Ma Chao, Zhu Ling, and the routed soldiers.

Although their original intention was to intercept and kill Han Sui, they were not interested in the heads of these ordinary rebels; however, the ones who actually carried out the battle orders were ordinary officers and soldiers. These people were not interested in Han Sui's head. What could really help these ordinary officers and soldiers to accumulate merit and be promoted was the countless defeated soldiers in front of them, who rarely put up any effective resistance!

As the battle and carnage continued, the routed soldiers in the rear became congested and unable to move, their strength gradually waning, and their already dwindling morale vanished.

At this time, the Qiang cavalry, who were the first to retreat from Han Sui's central army, fled to this place. They had originally managed to maintain a marching column and some order of command.

When these Qiang cavalrymen saw that their retreat was cut off and that the rear guard units were in disarray and in chaos, they were almost instantly affected by the battlefield and joined the fleeing ranks.

They had to be afraid, constantly worried that Ma Chao and Zhu Ling would close the gap.

To the Qiang cavalry who had just arrived on the battlefield, this bloody breach should have been a bloody path opened up by the rear guard officers and soldiers in a fierce charge!
We must launch a continuous and coordinated attack to maintain this bloody path!
If Ma Chao and Zhu Ling manage to close the gap again, they will have to pay an even greater price to break through and tear it open once more.

The Qiang king was unable to command or stop them, and he himself was also drawn into the struggle for the passage to survival by other noble cavalry.

When Han Sui arrived on horseback, the battle became even more chaotic.

As the number of fleeing soldiers increased, many of them had to take the initiative to probe and attack the weak flanks of Ma Chao and Zhu Ling in order to break through the encirclement.

This forced Ma Chao and Zhu Ling to retreat and defend, like two stubborn stones blocking their ureters!

Han Sui looked around and immediately pointed to the flank of Zhu Ling's position, which had fewer troops: "Go this way!"

"Here!"

Dozens of knights responded and took the lead in riding away to clear the way, while more knights followed and gathered on both sides of Han Sui.

Amidst the chaos and rout, these orderly knights immediately caught the attention of Ma Chao and Zhu Ling.

Ma Chao leaped onto his horse and charged into the fray, his spear pointed diagonally at Han Sui's location. He bared his teeth, glared, and roared, "The old thief is here! Soldiers, follow me and kill him!"

At the same time, he spurred his horse around the formation towards the weak flank, attempting to outflank the enemy and strike directly at Han Sui's location.

More than a thousand cavalrymen followed Ma Chao as he galloped away, quickly breaking away from the infantry formation and charging eastward through the chaotic battlefield.

Han Sui immediately noticed and took off his gilded red-tasseled battle helmet, handing it to one of his guards.

Ma Chao, with his sharp eyes, shouted to his left and right as he charged forward with his spear in both hands: "The one with the blue turban on his head is the old thief!"

Immediately, a fellow knight shouted angrily, "The one with the blue turban on his head is Han Sui!"

Soon, Han Sui led more than a hundred cavalrymen to flee to the side of Zhu Ling's position. First, he cut off his beard, then he discarded his embroidered Shu brocade battle robe. Finally, he was in a disheveled state and mixed into the fleeing army with more than ten cavalrymen, like a drop of water into the sea.

After chasing down several decoy squads, Ma Chao had no choice but to return to the battlefield to continue his search.

Meanwhile, Zhu Ling, eyeing the most likely decoy squad, led over a hundred riders to join the pursuit.

(End of this chapter)