When Yu Wenmona arrived at the foot of the mountain, he sent knights who could speak Chinese to publicize the news of the change of ownership of Shihuo Mountain in front of the Han army's formation. The heads of Bailu Banner and Yan Gang were both present, and the facts were irrefutable, which greatly frustrated the Han army.
Gongsun Zan was suddenly in an extremely embarrassing situation. He could not break the court in a hurry by attacking upwards. Instead, he would be taken advantage of by the enemy forces behind him. But if he retreated, his way back would be cut off. Where could he retreat to? I couldn't help but scold Yan Gang for his incompetence. But the matter had come to this, and the curses had no effect. Gongsun Zan did not dare to fight anymore, and finally slowly descended the mountain, brought the army back to the camp at the foot of the mountain, and then made plans.
Gongsun Zan originally planned to set up more guards at the first court gate he captured. The Xianbei people who came down the mountain now had their hands free to deal with the Yuwen tribe behind them. As long as they could eliminate future troubles, they would have room for whatever they did. But by chance, at this time of deep winter, heavy snow fell from the sky. The vast snowflakes were like clouds overturning the sky, and suddenly the sky and the earth were one color, and everything was white as far as the eye could see.
It was so cold that even though the Han soldiers were wearing winter clothes, their skin was cracked, their hands and feet were stiff, and their movements were much slower. Gongsun Zan sent some elites to challenge the Yuwen Ministry. These Xianbei people were prepared with snow-proof furs and buttermilk for heating. The Han army was unable to defeat them for a while, so they had to huddle in the camp again, lighting fires to keep warm day and night, waiting for the cold wave. past.
But the daily food expenses of a 60,000-strong army are an astronomical figure. How can they last long in front of the Xianbei people when their food routes are cut off? After two days, the Han army changed from three meals a day to two meals a day. Even so, in another month, the army's food will be exhausted.
In order to solve this situation, Gongsun Zan also came up with a strange strategy. He suddenly ordered all the troops to eat dry food first, so that there would be no smoke in the camp for two consecutive days. He wanted to use this to make the army have no food and the soldiers were exhausted. Lure the Xianbei people into taking the initiative to attack the camp.
But Kebi was able to sit firmly on the top of the mountain and was not fooled. In the past few days, he gave up the court gate one after another and gave the illusion of failure. However, this also resulted in a lot of casualties among the troops, who were in urgent need of training. Kebi Neng looked at the situation at the bottom of the mountain and smiled at the leaders of the various ministries: "The Han people have no way to pass the terrain and the roads are covered with heavy snow. They have no way to go! Why should we fight with them? After more than ten days, when the snow melts, Wouldn’t it be easiest for us to go directly to the bottom of the mountain to collect the corpses?”
Seeing that the Xianbei people were not fooled, Gongsun Zan could only resume his diet and find other ways. It was a severe cold winter. Although they tried to save food and use simple food, they still consumed more food than usual. However, after more than ten days, the Han army had to start killing horses and making soup. Due to the combination of hunger and the fact that the Han army used ice and snow to boil water for drinking, many people were not acclimated to the climate and contracted diseases. There were not enough herbal medicines in the army, so people died almost every day. The morale of the army became increasingly low. Soldiers often stole horses and tried to escape back to Youzhou through the trails. Gongsun Zan was furious when he found out and ordered that anyone caught should be beheaded. Even so, it still cannot be banned.
In a blink of an eye, it was the first month of the year. In order to boost morale, Gongsun Zan summoned his soldiers to practice martial arts and shoot trees. The winner was rewarded with bacon. He personally drew a three-stone strong bow and shot at the target, and the arrows were not missed. He also ordered the knights to remove the needle points and use the rods to fight. Drummers beat cowhide drums to cheer up, and the sound shook for more than ten miles. Ke Bi could hear the sound of drums and asked Ju Luohou to order his troops to say: "Gongsun Zan is running out of food and grass, and he is going to fight to the death! The troops are preparing for war. If he moves, we will all move! We will never let go and return to Juyong. !”
His guess was good. Gongsun Zan felt that if he stayed here any longer, his entire army would be annihilated, recreating the outcome of the Battle of Baitan Mountain. Moreover, when he was defeated, he could return to Youzhou and reorganize his army with the help of Liu Yu. But at this time Liu Yu had forced him to leave. His defeat would probably overthrow the entire Youyan, so he had to fight to the death and ordered that the entire army prepare for a breakout. After three days, they would pull up camp and raise their troops, with Tian Kai at the rear. Xian Yufu is the forward.
But after the military order was passed down, the army was quite uneasy. Privately, the Han soldiers said: "We don't have enough food, we don't have enough strength, and we have killed some horses. How can we fight with Xianbei? Even if we win by luck, how can we go away?" How about traveling hundreds of miles back home? I’m afraid we’ll all starve to death here!”
In fact, not only the infantry of the Han army, but also Gongsun Zan's heart was unprecedentedly uncertain. It's like a gambler who has lost half of his chips. He wants to sit down at the gambling table and win back all the money he originally lost, but he is afraid that he will lose all his last chips and all his expectations will be in vain.
This mentality of worrying about gains and losses reached its peak on the last day. It was still dark at that time and the stars were still shining dimly. Gongsun Zan suddenly woke up from his dream. He called his guards and asked, "Did you hear the sound?" The guards all looked blank and said they had never heard it. But he said with great certainty: "Beilu is making some moves, come and see with me."
After that, he climbed up to the watchtower and looked south. It's still dark, and the Yuwen Department in the south is ten miles away. Just standing on the watchtower, you can't see anywhere. As far as you can see, the vast black shadows on the white snow are as dim as ink. Everyone says, it's the king. It's Hou's delusion. But Gongsun Zan was extremely confident. He said: "I can hear the sound, and there must be some movement in the south!"
They just stood on the watchtower until dawn. The cold wind in the morning was as cold as a knife. The faces of the accompanying guards were numb, and they saw no movement from the south, so they persuaded Gongsun Zan to return to camp. He was still needed to organize a joint battle today. At this moment, Gongsun Zan pointed to the south and said, "Who is that?"
Everyone looked over and saw more than a dozen red-armored knights galloping towards here. Although they were few in number, they held high a banner with the word "Han" in it. This made the Han army cheer and boost their morale. Gongsun Zan originally planned to greet him personally, but before leaving, Gongsun Zan suspected that it was a ploy by the Xianbei people and asked Zhao Yun to greet Yingzheng instead. After Zhao Yun rode out and confirmed with the visitor, Zhao Yun came back with a silk letter in his hand and said: "Junhou, they are the people of General Duan. They have the military order of Sili Xiaowei and are here to relieve us. "
"Is it the dragon's head's arrangement?" Gongsun Zan quickly opened the silk book and saw Chen Chong's official and private seals on the back of the letter. He was relieved and hurriedly welcomed the visitor in.
The envoy was Wang Gai, Wang Yun's second son. As soon as he entered the camp, he directly stated his purpose. It turned out that Duan Yan had heard the news that Gongsun Zan had marched into the royal court, and he had already prepared to lead his troops to rendezvous. Unexpectedly, just after he had gathered more than 10,000 soldiers, he received the news that Gongsun Zan was besieged. Duan Yan knew that the safety of Youzhou was at stake and did not dare to delay. He led his army north from Pingcheng and occupied Daiqing Mountain slightly west of Huangshi Cliff. He also forced Yuwen Mona away, and then the road was opened. Now Gongsun Zan can retreat to Bingzhou, then transfer from Pingcheng to Dai County and return to Youzhou.
Knowing that they could return home safely, all the generals persuaded Gongsun Zan to agree. Gongsun Zan was unwilling to accept it. He hesitated for a moment and asked Wang Gai: "Can you lend me some food and grass? Not only our troops are hungry and cold now, but the Xianbei dogs are exhausted after fighting hard for days. As long as you and I attack here together, we can capture them." Without Xianbei Chanyu, how can there be war in the north?"
Wang Gaihun didn't expect Gongsun Zan to say this. He didn't know how to answer the question for a moment. After a moment of silence, he slowly replied: "Mayi still has 50,000 hu of grain in stock, but how to use it is not up to me." Yes. When I entered the prince's camp and saw that there were many sick soldiers in the prince's army, should I continue to fight like this?"
Gongsun Zan said: "Then please hurry up and ask! My current soldiers are of course important, but did those soldiers who dumped their bodies here die in vain?"
Wang Gai had no choice but to ride back immediately and report the matter to Duan Xuan. Duan Xuan couldn't laugh or cry after hearing this, and scolded him: "Gongsun Bogui has lost his mind. What are you talking about in Mayi Yicang? The military situation is changing rapidly, how can there be such a delay? You don't need to go anymore, I told Yang Shangshu, let's He passes."
Chen Chong attached great importance to this battle, so he sent Yang Hui to supervise the army. After Duan Xuan told Yang Hui about the matter, Yang Hui did not dare to delay and asked Linghu Yuan to lead the way and led dozens of horsemen to Gongsun Zan's army. Just after Wang Gai left, Gongsun Zan spent a day arranging the army, only to find that the 60,000-strong army he brought with him had only more than 40,000 men left. The nearly 30,000 knights who originally accompanied him on the expedition were no longer strong enough. Of the 20,000 people, there are only 6,000 people who can ride horses. Not to mention fighting again, even holding on to retreat to Pingcheng is probably not an easy task. Therefore, when Yang Hui arrived at the army, he did not need any more persuasion, and Gongsun Zan agreed to withdraw his army and go south.
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Ke Bineng on the mountain also received the news from Yu Wenmona. He watched the Han army breaking camp at the foot of the mountain and hesitated whether to go down the mountain to pursue it. But looking at the white snow all around and wondering how many reinforcements had come from Bingzhou, I finally gave up. He sighed to the ministers: "The luck of the Han people is not over, and warriors are emerging in large numbers. If we want Xianbei to rise, it will take more than one or two battles!" So he gave up the idea of pursuing.
The Yan people walked out of Danhan Mountain one after another, and then walked north. They walked for two days in a row before arriving at the junction of Daiqing Mountain and Shuangtai Mountain. After passing the mountain road, they were at the location of Duan Xuan's tribe. But what greeted them first was the howling cold wind outside the mountain. The people wrapped in furs shivered from the cold, and the remaining horses also shivered. Looking back at the way they came, there were more than a thousand people who couldn't follow them. He got on the team and fell in the wind and snow.
Duan Xuan and his generals were waiting here to welcome them. Even though they were prepared, they couldn't help but be surprised when they saw this scene. They quickly asked their subordinates to add thirty mouthfuls of hot soup for them to keep warm and drink.
Here, Gongsun Zan's troops rested for five days before reluctantly continuing southward and arriving at Yanmen. Duan Yan originally received the news from Liu Bei that he would return to Bingzhou soon, so he wanted Gongsun Zan to stay temporarily, and when he arrived, the two parties could renew their old friendship. However, Gongsun Zan lost nearly half of his army at this time and was too ashamed to talk to Liu Bei. At the beginning of the first month of the first year, he led his army eastward and returned to Youzhou from Dai County.
After this battle, Gongsun Zan's vitality was severely damaged. Due to insufficient troops, he recalled Gongsun Fan and Gongsun Xu, and also moved the soldiers from Zhongshan and Changshan counties into Zhuo County. Although Yuan Shao suffered a setback in Dai County for a time, thanks to this, he finally regained the two counties without any blood and regained control of Jizhou's nine counties.
