Xie Brown was already one of the few warriors among the Liang people. At this time, he rode up to fight Zhu Jun. He thought he could catch Zhu Jun, but once they fought, he realized that this man was like a swimming fish. He was not very strong, but he was able to move around unexpectedly. It was expected that he would not be able to gain the upper hand for a while.
Guo Bang also noticed it, and he immediately called his trusted knight Ge Feng, who was famous for his good shooting. He pointed forward and said to Ge Feng, "Have you seen the man in white armor?" Ge Feng nodded in agreement, picked up his bow and galloped out on his horse. After careful observation, he found that Zhu Jun actually had at least a dozen arrows stuck in his body. This is because Zhu Jun's armor is very thick and lined with cooked leather and other materials, making it difficult to penetrate. Therefore, if you want to shoot him to death, you must shoot directly in the face.
Ge Feng immediately entered the range of the arrow, drew his arrow and drew his bow, aiming at Zhu Jun's face and shooting. But Zhu Jun was not standing still, but was moving left and right to fight. He was on a high slope, so his face was looking down, and the shooting range was extremely small. Ge Feng's arrow flew past the side of his helmet and missed.
Ge Feng took two arrows and shot them one after another, but when Zhu Jun lowered his head, they both hit his iron pocket. In this short period of time, Zhu Jun had already moved away from Xie Brown and stabbed several people in succession.
Ge Feng felt that his face was dull. He took a deep breath and was about to shoot again. Suddenly something flew towards him. After a long battle, he instinctively shrank his head, and with a pop, an arrow shot off his leather hat. Fortunately, he lowered his head in time and escaped the fatal arrow. After all, he was an arrow's distance away from Zhu Jun, and Zhu Jun's personal followers would not always ignore his existence. Ge Feng had no time to look for the leather hat on the ground, so he hurriedly rode out of the arrow's range.
Guo Si was furious when he saw that his subordinates were suffering successive disadvantages. As the commander-in-chief, he should have been sitting in the middle of the army to stabilize the morale of the army, but at this time he could no longer sit still. He scolded: "A bunch of pig intestines! Look at me." Take his life!" After saying that, he picked up a long sword and quickly rode his horse into the battle. Seeing this, the trusted knights did not dare to delay, and they all raised their flags and roared into the enemy's battle.
At this moment, the Liang Army's offensive reached its peak, and morale was greatly boosted. The situation on the left wing was already in a bad situation, and Zhu Jun could only support it with his personal bravery. At this time, Liang Qi took the lead and used his full strength to attack the soldiers who had fought hard for a long time. Finally, they couldn't hold on any longer. First, one person retreated and stopped moving forward, followed by two and three others. The line continued to collapse backwards, and soon a great collapse was formed.
Zhu Jun tried to organize a counterattack and held back some soldiers, but the front collapsed faster and failed. The soldiers are tired, so how can he not be tired? He has long passed the age of fighting in person. After fighting with Xie Brown, Xie Brown thought he was slippery. Why didn't he think Xie Brown was brave? Just after he got out of the battle, a stray arrow still scratched the hand holding the short spear, and dark red blood flowed out. At this time, he felt that his left hand was a little weak and gradually trembled, and he felt increasingly powerless. The front line retreated, and he who was originally in the second line passively moved to the front line. The soldiers left behind were all trembling and fearful.
Guo Bang was originally rushing towards him. When he saw that Zhu Jun was exposed, he did not stop for a moment. He led his relatives and rushed towards him, like an iron stream. They rushed over, and the dust was swept up to the sky. Everyone's vision became blurred. Zhu Jun listened to the thunderous sound of stepping on the iron. Although he was on a high slope, he felt like a withered grass in a low valley. Roots had grown on his feet and he was firmly fixed in place, but his chest and abdomen were constantly heaving. It seemed as if he would be swept down by the violent current at any time.
He struggled to straighten his body and pointed the tip of his spear at the enemy.
People always think about some relevant or unrelated things before they die, and Zhu Jun is obviously already at this moment. He suddenly remembered something. One night three years ago, a young man came to his house in the rain and asked him to kill some people, but he refused. His thoughts were suddenly confused. When Guo Si's iron stream came to him, he thought sadly: How will my name be recorded in the history books?
So he was submerged in the iron current without a trace of waves.
When the Liang people saw this, they cheered like thunder and rushed forward to attack bravely. However, the Northern Army, which had been deprived of its momentum, had little power to fight back. Rong Shao, who stayed in the Chinese army, did not know that the general was dead, and was still commanding the shrinking of the front according to the battle situation, but the situation had basically tilted towards the Liang people. According to Guo Si's prediction, when the retreat turned into a rout, the battlefield would immediately turn into a ruthless massacre.
But at this moment, the Northern Army, which had been retreating and was about to be forced to the shore of Jingshui by Liang Qi, suddenly regained its morale and launched a counterattack against Liang Qi. This contrast made Guo Bang confused. When he was wondering, , he heard Guo Xian beside him say in horror: "Sir, look!" Listening to Guo Xian's voice, Guo Si knew that he was looking behind him, which surprised Guo Si even more. He thought to himself, now is the time to seize the opportunity to pursue the victory. Timing, what else could happen?
But looking back, Guo Bang was also stunned. It was already evening, and most of the afterglow of the setting sun had dissipated. The sky was a little dark, but he could clearly see that thick black smoke was rising over the plain. At the bottom of the black smoke is a powerful firelight, shining before the arrival of night, giving people the illusion that the bright moon will rise here.
The scope of the fire was so large that it was not only seen by them by the Jingshui River, but also by the Liang people under Gaoling City. The defenders in Gaoling City also saw it, and everyone within a radius of twenty miles saw it. And the place where the fire burned was not somewhere else, but Guo Bang's base camp!
It turned out that before going into battle, Zhu Jun felt that he would have to fight with his back against the wall and that he would be unable to win anyway. However, during the military meeting, he suddenly had an idea. The only cavalrymen attacked the camp and set it on fire. Guo Bang would definitely not dare to fight with all his strength, and the Gaoling defenders would definitely be boosted in morale when they saw the light of fire.
And today's development was just as he expected. After crossing the river, the Liang people came out of camp to confront each other. Gaishun, the Eagle Commander who stayed on the west bank, took the opportunity to cross the Wei River from the south and took a detour to attack Guo Si's camp. He succeeded in one fell swoop, but it only took time on the way. It's still a little longer, so that Zhu Jun himself can't see this scene.
But Rong Shao didn't know that Zhu Jun was dead. When he saw this, he immediately shouted loudly: "Zhu Gong's plan has worked! Go and ask Zhu Gong to take charge of the overall situation!" The battle line was so chaotic that he didn't know where Zhu Jun was, so he just shouted While ordering his soldiers to search, Wei Jie had just stabilized the battle line. After hearing Rong Shao's call, he rushed over and said to them with tears: "Zhu Gong died fighting to delay time and resist the Liang people. Even the body was trapped in the cold formation."
Hearing this, Rong Shao couldn't help scolding him angrily and said: "As the commander-in-chief, seeing that our fighting strength was exhausted, he was willing to take the risk of an enemy attack to boost the morale of the army. But in the end, not only were you unable to protect Duke Zhu, but you were also unable to retrieve his body!" Wei Jie said. Feeling ashamed, he immediately turned around and said to the soldiers: "I am willing to charge forward and snatch back the general. What do you think?" The soldiers had hatred in their hearts and knew that the Liang army was unstable, so their original fear was overshadowed and they turned around. And launched a counterattack against Liang Ren.
Wei Jie was the first to enter the formation. The moment he entered the formation, he put the bow on his shoulder, clamped the long string between his elbows, and stabbed at the current Liangren. There was a muffled sound, like a cowhide drum being pierced, and the pole sank into the horse's belly. The huge inertia of the sudden stop made Wei Jie's mount fly into the air. Liang Ren on the horse was shocked and confused. Before he could fight back, the beast-like mount had already pounced down, knocking Liang Ren and his horse down together. After the horse died, Wei Jie did not take any rest. He immediately stood up from the ranks and led the army forward.
The Chinese Army's Rong Shao Division, followed by Du Kai's and Jiao Jiao's Division, entered the battle next. As they moved forward, they searched for the body of the general. The Liang army could not figure out the situation behind them, and they did not dare to fight them to the death. They had to let the elite cavalry retreat first, and the infantry blocked the back. The result was that the infantry left behind were in a messy position and were severely chopped with knives. Disperse quickly.
It’s not that the Liang people didn’t know the consequences of withdrawing their troops, but it was more difficult to accept winning first and then retreating than retreating from the beginning. They basically lost the ability to judge the battle situation, even though they knew that there would be a large number of troops withdrawing at this time. The casualties did not dare to stay anymore and retreated one after another. After the Northern Army chased for a while, they could not catch up with the Liang Army's fast horses and let them withdraw. However, the Liang people paid a heavy price and were unable to withdraw in time. The infantry were reduced to cannon fodder to block the Northern Army's pursuit. As many as 2,000 of them died, and as many as 3,000 were seriously injured and lost combat effectiveness. The casualties were nearly three times that of the Northern Army.
But the Northern Army did not have the joy of winning the battle. They searched for a long time on the battlefield and finally found the general's body among a pile of corpses. They also found his head and the chest of his body more than 500 steps away. With three sticks stuck in the tips, the silver-white armor was already extremely dark. Everyone shed tears when they saw his appearance. Rong Shao said sadly: "Without Zhu Gong, where will we go next?", everyone was stunned. in silence.
When Gaishun, who set the fire, came back to join forces, he was the eldest son of Gai Xun and was famous for his quick wit in the army. Therefore, Zhu Jun entrusted him with important tasks. We must first let him return to the court for burial. The commotion of the arson just now was too great. I see that the rebels in Gaoling have made some moves. I think General Fenwu can also be inspired. Our mission has been completed. The top priority is to return to Chang'an. Wait for the bandits to regroup and bite our tail, otherwise we won’t be able to retreat.”
This was recognized by most people. They cleaned up the battlefield and crossed the river back to Chang'an, leaving the Liang people in a mess. Guo Bang didn't encounter any ambush along the way. He only saw a ruins after returning to the camp. How could he not know that they had been fooled. But what happened was that he had no choice but to truthfully inform all the ministries of the war situation.
After Jia Xu learned about it, he did not complain at all. He directly sent someone to ask Guo Bang: "Have any prisoners been captured?"
Of course, Guo Bang still captured some soldiers. If Jia Xu wanted them, he would hand them over to Jia Xu. Jia Xu immediately led the prisoners to Gaoling City to call the city, claiming that Chang'an's reinforcements were trying to relieve the siege, but he used the camp as bait to set up a fire plan. , annihilated them all, and asked Lu Bu to surrender on the spot. He also massacred the refugees from the three auxiliaries and built a Jingguan with their heads under the city, claiming that these were the reinforcements annihilated by Guo Si.
The Gaoling defenders were suddenly panicked, and Lu Bu was already making plans to break out. It was only the second day of August, and there were still ten days before Bingzhou planned to send troops.
