Under the strict control of Chen Dao, the ambush troops under his command briefly resisted the urge to attack immediately in the dim light of the morning, allowing Ji Ling's vanguard to pass through the ambush area safely.
Chen Dao didn't know how long he could restrain him. Maybe the next moment a junior officer would be unable to bear the pressure and mistakenly thought he had been discovered, and would have to fight his way out.
The longer it can be delayed, the more enemies it can entangle is counted.
Chen Dao's composure was not in vain.
But at this time, the commotion in the southeast was getting louder and louder. More and more Liu Xun's defeated troops dispersed in all directions, and quite a few of them chose to escape to Ji Ling's camp.
These defeated soldiers were inevitably caught by Ji Ling's department. Ji Ling was also frightened and angry, and quickly arrested some people to ask about the situation.
Hearing the anger, Ji Ling couldn't help but whip the defeated soldiers with a riding crop:
"Trash, these trash! In such a short period of time, the entire army blew up the camp! Where are Chen Lan's cavalry? Aren't they on night watch? Why didn't Guan Yu be found?"
So all of a sudden, the news that Liu Xun's bombing camp collapsed and his life or death was unknown spread among Ji Ling's urgent reinforcements.
Ji Lingjun's morale was also hit hard. In addition to all the setbacks in the past few days, and tonight's sudden awakening and being forced to march hungry and half-conscious, the combination of various unfavorable factors made Ji Ling secretly complain in his heart.
He knew that the combat effectiveness of his troops was very doubtful. If Liu Xun could not be saved, perhaps preserving the remaining strength at this moment was the best choice.
When he was in a dilemma, Chen Dao and Tian Yu on both sides finally couldn't suppress the impulse of their men, so they could only fight out one after another.
"kill!"
"Liu Xun is dead! The Lujiang army has been defeated! Those who surrender will not be killed!"
Although Chen Dao and Tian Yu each only had more than 2,000 people, and the enemy army had more than 10,000 people, Ji Ling was still killed and caught off guard.
"Liu Bei has an ambush!"
"We've fallen into a trap!"
Some of Ji Ling's soldiers retreated in panic before the fight started. In the darkness, they couldn't see how many enemy troops were fighting out of the woods beside the road, which only intensified their panic.
Seeing the poor performance of his soldiers, Ji Ling couldn't help but feel angry. While shouting to restrain the soldiers, he personally rushed to boost their morale: "No chaos! Kill those who escape from the battle! How dare Liu Bei do this! Ji Ling is here, the thief general Come and die quickly!"
Ji Ling was worthy of being the most brave general under Yuan Shu. He reacted very quickly and organized a counterattack by the guards around him to join forces with Chen Dao's troops.
Although Ji Lingjun's peripheral soldiers were in disarray, his core direct troops were still impressed by the general's example and stabilized the hearts of the people.
Ji Ling yelled and attacked fiercely, charging and hacking to death more than a dozen of Chen Dao's soldiers and two village commanders. Finally, because his performance was too conspicuous, he encountered Chen Dao who came to intercept.
Chen is not well-known to this day, but Liu Bei saw that he was good at martial arts, so he kept him by his side as a personal guard, Qu Junhou. When he was sent out to lead troops, he could be assigned a higher rank, which was equivalent to the treatment of a military commander.
Of course Ji Ling would never have heard of a newcomer like Chen Dao. The two sides immediately fought and fought to the death with all their might.
After dozens of moves, Ji Ling was secretly shocked: besides Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, how could there be such good warriors under Liu Bei? The opponent's strength was not inferior to his own at all. It was only because of his lack of martial arts skills and fighting experience that he had the upper hand.
Over time, if this young man is allowed to experience it, I'm afraid it will be hard to say.
Even now, Ji Ling thought that he might not be able to suppress the opponent without fifty moves.
After Ji Ling and his close personal guards were entangled by Chen Dao and others, his remaining tens of thousands of troops were immediately at a loss. Without the direct command of their coach, they could only fight on their own.
Morale, discipline, and the fear of falling into a trap were layered on top of each other, and the combat efficiency of the troops was suppressed again and again. It was like a headless chicken and could not be used at all.
The two sides fought in a bloody melee for half a moment, each suffering heavy casualties, but Ji Lingjun's casualties were at least two or three times that of Chen Dao and Tian Yu.
Finally, another rumbling sound came from the southwest. Ji Ling did not dare to fight, and tried his best to fend off Chen Dao with several moves. After taking a closer look, he couldn't help but feel scared: "Guan Yu? Coming so fast?"
It turned out that with the first ray of sunshine in the morning, he finally saw clearly that it was Guan Yu's flag. Obviously, the other party could only come to reinforce the second battlefield after completely defeating Liu Xun.
Ji Ling roared in annoyance, knowing that any attempt to rescue Liu Xun was meaningless now. It was better to preserve his own vitality and stop losses in time.
When working under a lord like Yuan Shu, maintaining the strength of one's direct troops is still a high priority.
What's more, this battle is already doomed, and all the responsibilities for the defeat are destined to be borne by Liu Xun.
Even if he retreats, the responsibility will not be held on him.
"Hurry up and withdraw your troops! Before Guan Yu catches up, get rid of the enemy in front of you!" Ji Ling finally made up his mind and gave the order sternly.
He knew that he had to retreat immediately and break away from Chen Dao and Tian Yu. He would definitely be overshadowed by the enemy for a while and take advantage of them. But it would be easier to leave and the price paid would be smaller than waiting for Guan Yu to arrive on the battlefield before retreating.
Therefore, he directly abandoned part of the front army - or in other words, during the retreat process of the front army turning into the rear army, and the rear army turning into the front army, these abandoned troops had automatically turned into the rear troops.
The remaining troops who were able to break away from the contact fled as fast as possible.
He initially brought more than 10,000 people to reinforce Liu Xun. The brief head-on fight with Chen Dao and Tian Yu just now resulted in less than 1,000 casualties. However, the loss was greater due to the panic and fleeing during the sneak attack.
In the current retreat phase, the losses continue to increase exponentially.
Chen Dao and Tian Yu clung to each other and chased them madly, not daring to slack off at all.
At least two to three thousand troops were cut off and surrounded. After only half an hour of delay, they completely collapsed and failed to escape. All of them surrendered and became prisoners.
After Chen arrived at Tian Yu and devoured his rear troops, he continued to kill hundreds more people along the way. After Guan Yu's cavalry rushed up, they pushed the feast of pursuit to its peak, killing at least another one or two thousand people, although most of them fled in all directions.
Ji Ling rushed all the way back to the camp and counted the troops. Of the 12,000 reinforcements he brought out, only 40% returned to the camp in full force. It was quite miserable.
Of course, Ji Ling had fought many battles, and he knew that the 60% was not a total loss. At least a small half of them might have just escaped and would gradually return to the team in a few days. But even if this part was removed, at least 40% of his attacking troops would be lost.
"I haven't moved my troops for seven or eight days, but we were defeated so miserably early in the morning. When did Liu Bei have the ability to use troops like this? Is this the same Liu Bei who I defeated in Xuyi County?"
After Ji Ling took stock of the losses, he felt heartbroken and bleeding.
He took a little inventory and found that at least five thousand soldiers and horses were permanently lost today. If temporary escapes are included, it would be seven to eight thousand. Including the siege of the city a few days ago, he lost more than 2,000 in total. He has lost tens of thousands of people in total along the way.
In other words, of the 25,000 troops when they first came to Huaiyin, only 15,000 are left now, and the number may rise to 17,8 when the deserters regroup in two days.
But Liu Xun's friendly army on the southern front, looking at the current situation, is not to say that the entire army is annihilated, at least it is completely defeated. Even if there are those who survive, it is impossible to gain a foothold, and they will definitely be kicked all the way back to Guangling County.
Therefore, if he did not retreat, he would have to face Liu Bei's full strength alone with fifteen thousand men.
Before today, the total strength of Yuan Shu's army on the Huaiyin battlefield was three times that of Liu Bei's army. Now it has dropped to one and one point, and 60% of the total strength has disappeared.
Continue to hold the camp firmly and stick to Liu Bei to wait for changes, or temporarily withdraw to the attack base Xuyi County?
The miserable Ji Ling was in a dilemma.
——
PS: It’s a new week, please vote, collect, follow up, and by the way, please give me a 1 yuan reward to increase the number of active fans and the number of fans on the fan list...
(It doesn’t take much, just increase the number of active followers. If you are willing, just click on the smallest one worth 1 yuan)
