As the commander-in-chief of the Shu army, Liu Fan could have simply withdrawn from the battlefield. But Liu Fan also knew very well that under the thick fog, the entire army would inevitably lose its formation when retreating. If the Han army pursued the victory, no one knew how many people would die here. He mobilized almost all the field battles in Shu for this battle. Even if military strength cannot achieve success, it must not be thrown away lightly!
Therefore, in the panic, Liu Fan instead cheered up and organized his guards to evacuate southward, while leading his army to organize a formation in an attempt to secure the rear for the army. But the choking smoke that hit their faces was really unbearable for them. Fortunately, the Shu army had the habit of storing water, and there were four or five water tanks in the camp. They took out all the unused towels in the generals, soaked them and split them into hundreds of pieces. Each person wrapped the wet cloths around them. on the mouth and nose, so that one can stand firm before the fire.
After making relevant preparations, Liu Fan undoubtedly felt much more calm when faced with the pursuit of the Han army. They piled up useless utensils and baggage around them, covered them with wet linen cloth, and then used them as roadblocks to shoot arrows at the pursuing Han army. Although the line of sight was extremely poor, the Shu people did not care about the cost and fired rapidly at the Han army like a rainstorm, which still caused great trouble to the Han army. For a time, they thought that the main force of the Shu army had not retreated.
But this method could only block the Han soldiers coming from the west. Not long after, Liu Fan heard ripple-like responses from the north, which gradually became clearer by his earlobes. When Liu Fan heard that they were cavalry, he immediately shouted to the soldiers: "North! North! Fire your arrows!"
Fei Shi immediately changed direction and flew against the wind towards Xu Huang and others. It was like a gust of rain coming from the clouds, and the arrows hit the armor of the Taiping Cavalry. Although the momentum was huge, not many armors were broken, and only a dozen people in the front row were killed or injured. But the following cavalry troops rushed up like running water, jumped over the simple roadblocks, and strangled the Shu army at the rear.
Xu Huang's cavalry was actually a little tired from running around at night, but the Shu army had been smoked for a period of time. Although they could still breathe, they could hardly open their eyes. When they caught each other and fought, the two sides were high and low, and the outcome of the battle was almost one-sided. The Shu army, which had stopped its decline slightly, began to collapse again.
The Shu people were really panicked at this time. Although Liu Fan was willing to stay in the rear, he was not prepared to gamble with his life. Seeing that he could not reach the enemy at all, the guards gathered around Liu Fan and mounted their horses, intending to leave directly. Although Liu Fan remained calm on the outside, he was still upset inside. He regretted not increasing the manpower for night patrols and also regretting not leaving scouts in Weibei. Soon they were all on horseback, and before leaving, he would glance over his shoulder at the soldiers still in the rear.
At this moment, a gust of wind blew over and accidentally blew Liu Fan's headscarf away. Liu Fan felt a chill on his head and hurriedly reached out to catch it, but it was too late. He saw it fell under the horse's hooves, was picked up by the wind, flew over the antlers, and headed straight towards the direction of the Han army.
Liu Fan immediately stopped and stood still. The confidants on the left and right thought that he was arrogant and unwilling to admit defeat, so they anxiously pulled his bridle to leave. Liu Fan waved his hands repeatedly, raised his head to look at the white unicorn flag behind him, and saw the flag roaring to the northwest, blowing straight in the direction of the Han army!
"The wind has changed!" the Shu people shouted. They could hardly believe their eyes. It was clearly a northwest wind just now! They sat on their horses and continued to watch the subsequent changes in the situation, with the cold wind blowing against their backs. Looking at the blazing flames in the camp, they were blown backwards by the sudden southeast wind, stretching out long flames, like the tongue of a giant snake in the thick fog. The thick smoke also turned, and now it was the Han army that was being chased. The Han soldiers were caught off guard and coughed repeatedly. The Shu army at the rear who was originally at a disadvantage immediately took advantage of the situation to counterattack. The knights on horseback had no choice but to Step back and distance yourself.
In just a short moment, almost all Han troops on the front line were forced to stop their offensive and left the Shu camp one after another under the command of officers at all levels to wait for the fire to end. The Shu people who were originally running south stopped at this time and cheered loudly in the roar of the southeast wind. What was originally a disastrous defeat that would have resulted in the annihilation of the Shu people's entire army seemed to have vanished into thin air because of a gust of wind.
Liu Fan pulled out the remaining troops, but the Han army also lost the direction of attack in the thick fog and could only let them go at a loss.
Escaped again? When Liu Fan returned to Luo Valley, he still felt a little shaken. fog at this time
After the anger dissipated, all the generals gathered together to discuss matters in the open air on a hill. When they counted the losses in this battle, it was not difficult to find that the mighty 130,000 Shu army when they entered the Qin Dynasty actually lost nearly 20,000 people in one day. Adding in the previous casualties, less than 100,000 people could still fight. People. But no one complained. Instead, they felt lucky to have escaped death.
In this ten days, the Shu people fought with Chen Chong three times, and Chen Chong won a small victory each time. If it had not been for the proper formation the second time and God's help for the third time, the Shu army would have been defeated twice, which frightened everyone.
Zhang Song then asked Liu Fan: "Sir, after such a continuous battle, I think the morale of the army has been low, and I am afraid that it will no longer be able to withstand a defeat. Do you want to withdraw to Hanzhong first?" Everyone was silent after hearing this. To stop the troops here would mean that the hard work of the past few months has been in vain, and they cannot bear this responsibility. But they no longer dared to confront Chen Chong, so they could only respond in silence.
Only Dong Zhao objected, and he persuaded Liu Fan: "Young Master is tired, isn't Chen Chong tired? It is said that one vigorous effort will weaken again, and it will be exhausted three times. Although Chen Chong won three times but failed to succeed, he was already at the end of his crossbow! Moreover! The scouts have just found out that the reinforcements called by Chen Chong this time only number in the tens of thousands, and their strength is still far inferior to our army. Once the young master withdraws from this trip, and Chen Chong rushes to help Guandong and relieve Liu Bei, the young master may never have the chance to go north again! "
But as soon as he finished speaking, someone sneered at him: "Dong Gong said it lightly, he is probably willing to fight in battle!" Dong Zhao's face turned red after hearing this, and he found that everyone was watching with their eyes, so he had to restrain his anger. , said slowly: "Whether to fight or to retreat, is the decision of the Lord. We, the ministers, do not have to overstep the bounds of others, we can only do our best to advise."
Seeing signs of quarrel among his subordinates, Liu Fan waved his hand slightly, and the scene immediately became quiet. Seeing that everyone pricked up their ears and turned their attention to him again, Liu Fan straightened up and said slowly: "What Gongren said makes sense, and what Zi Qiao said makes sense. The morale of our army is indeed low, and the thieves should also be tired. Of course, our army cannot compete with fight, but we can’t just retreat.”
These words made everyone confused, neither fighting nor retreating, so what should they do?
Liu Fan laughed and said: "The current strategy is for our army to hold on to Luo Valley and drag Chen Chong to death here!"
Seeing that everyone was still puzzled, Liu Fan picked up a dead branch and drew a line on the ground, with Chen Chong on one end and Liu Bei on the other. He explained: "Chen Chong summoned reinforcements from Guandong to defeat us quickly. The army's idea is to go to Dongdu to relieve the siege. If I delay him here and don't fight with him, what should he do? He can only abandon me to save Liu Bei. Even if he doesn't leave now, when Cao Cao breaks through Dongdu, he will still only You can leave me to save Liu Bei." At this point, Liu Fan couldn't help but sigh: "I realized now that as long as I sit back and watch without fighting, Guanzhong is already in my pocket!"
After saying this, everyone suddenly realized and praised Liu Fan Shengming one after another. Liu Fan waved his hands repeatedly, pointed at the still windy sky and said with a smile: "It's just hindsight. If he was a true saint, how could he be defeated today? If it weren’t for the reversal of the divine wind, you and I wouldn’t be able to meet here!”
After listening, the entourage remembered that he had to put a new headscarf on Liu Fan to protect him from the wind. Liu Fan stopped him and said, "Are you afraid of blowing such a divine wind?" He stood up and encouraged the generals: "There is a royal spirit in Shu! God bless me, Yizhou!" When the surrounding Shu people heard this, they all followed suit. Chanting "Ten Thousand Victories".
The next day, as expected, Han troops came to Luo Valley to call for formation, but Liu Fan closed the camp gate tightly and ignored them. Then another envoy from the Han army came and brought a letter written by Chen Chong. In the letter, Chen Chong persuaded him to either go forward and fight to the death, or to retreat in time, exactly as Liu Fan expected. In this way, Liu Fan's confidence in Luogu was strengthened.
This confrontation between the two sides quickly passed for another ten days. During this period, the Shu army's scouts reported to Liu Fan several times that the Han army in the north of the valley seemed to be moving their camps and whether they wanted to lead the army in pursuit. But Liu Fan was unmoved and told the scouts: "If Chen Chong doesn't go straight out in front of Hongnong, it's not a chance for him to fight." As a result, early the next morning, the Han army returned to its original camp.
Seeing that the war situation was getting more and more favorable to his side, Liu Fan couldn't help but feel happy. During the confrontation in Luogu, he once again sent letters to all the counties in Guanzhong and Sanfu to attract people's hearts. In the end, he even sent a letter to Chen Chong, claiming that As long as Chen Chong led the people to surrender, he would still use him to govern Guanzhong and hold him in the high position of Taifu.
However, in February Gengzi (the seventh day of the lunar month)
), Liu Fan also received a letter from Mianzhu, which brought news that could change the current situation in Kansai: Liu Biao took advantage of Liu Fan's northward march and led 50,000 men to attack Yizhou with Cai Mao as the leader. Just fifteen days ago, his nephew Liu Pan broke through Jiangguan. The navy went upstream and reached Linjiang, and the army was approaching Jiangzhou. At this time, there were only three thousand guards in Jiangzhou City. If Jiangzhou is lost again, the Jing people will cross the mountains and go straight into the hinterland of Bashu! Therefore, Liu Yan sent a message to Liu Fan, hoping that he would immediately return to the south and drive Cai Mao out of Yizhou.
After reading this letter, Liu Fan was extremely disappointed. He was usually very well-educated, but at this time he couldn't help but cut the stone with his knife, causing the blade to be completely destroyed. He said angrily: "The old thief Jing Sheng actually destroyed my empire!" However, no matter what, the center of Shu is the fundamental place, and he must return to his army to resist the thief. After Liu Fan informed the entire army of the news, the soldiers were all worried about their family members and had no objections.
Early the next morning, when the Han army's scouts went to take a peek in Luo Valley, they were surprised to find that the Shu army's camp was already empty! The Shu people embarked on their journey home quietly. And this bitter battle that lasted for nearly a month, the Battle of Luogu came to a dramatic end.