There is a saying that Wei Yan's military order was somewhat unkind.
Wang Ping was ordered to lead the outnumbered Wudang Fei Army to pursue Cao Wei's Central Forbidden Army, and he also requested a pursuit of ten miles. The most terrible thing was that after the ten miles of pursuit, the troops were to withdraw. Wei Yan did not intend to provide any cover for this force, but ordered them to retreat on their own. Mei County.
This is somewhat indicative of not caring about this army.
The Wudang Fei Army itself is an army composed of Nanzhong's elite soldiers as the main force. Although the commander is not from Nanzhong, he is also a man. If Wang Ping was more cautious, he might have gone astray.
But fortunately, Wang Ping is an honest person and has his own judgment on the battlefield situation. Therefore, Wang Ping can actually understand Wei Yan's military order to some extent.
Now the Wudang Fei Army has been reduced in number after several battles, with only more than a thousand people left. It does seem a bit inappropriate to pursue Cao Wei's Imperial Army alone with this small force.
But the problem is that today's Cao Wei Imperial Army has also been reduced from the 5,000 people at the time of departure to more than 2,000 people now. Both sides are actually at the end of the war.
The most important thing is that the withdrawal of Cao Wei's imperial army was a retreat chosen to avoid the whole army being surrounded. Strictly speaking, it was considered a defeat. It was impossible for the morale of the army not to be affected.
Although Wudang Feijun is at a disadvantage in terms of strength, they may not encounter any risks if they follow them and pursue them.
As for Wei Yan's decision to let the Wudang Feijun withdraw to Meixian alone, he obviously did not want to give the Wei army another chance to follow the retreating army. At the same time, he also trusted the Wudang Feijun and could only rely on the organization and running ability of the Wudang Feijun, who was good at raids. , it was possible to get rid of the surveillance of Wei Jun's scouts and return to Mei County alone.
Other soldiers simply cannot do this.
Wei Yanzhen did not want to abandon Wudang Feijun, but believed that Wudang Feijun could do this.
After Wang Ping received the military order, without any hesitation, he directly led his troops to pursue Zhu Zan's troops.
As for Zhu Zan, when he retreated after disengagement, he also discovered that there was a Shu army pursuing him, and the number of this Shu army was not large. To be honest, Zhu Zan also thought about whether to fight back and stop this small army. The Shu army of more than a thousand people continued to pursue him.
However, some situations are really different.
When Wang Ping was able to chase Zhu Zan and command his soldiers to advance and retreat freely, it was because Wang Ping's advance and retreat were all arranged by himself. However, Zhu Zan's defeat and retreat was actually beaten away by others.
Just as Wang Ping thought, it is impossible for the morale of the military not to be affected.
Unless Zhu Zan can defeat the pursuers quickly and boost the morale of the army, even if Zhu Zan wants to turn back and kill the enemy, his soldiers may not be able to do it.
Obviously, after Zhu Zan saw clearly who was chasing him, he immediately gave up the idea of reflexively killing the enemy.
As for those Shu army barbarians, not only they have high combat power, but they also run fast. If I can't quickly distance myself and readjust my formation, God knows if I will suffer another big defeat once I am overtaken by these barbarians.
Therefore, Zhu Zan still led the army to retreat, while Wang Ping led the army to pursue. After chasing for about ten miles, Wang Ping suspended the pursuit in strict accordance with the military order, let Zhu Zan's troops go, and led the army to retreat to the southwest.
Seeing that Wang Ping stopped pursuing, Zhu Zan also quickly stopped retreating, readjusted the combat formation, and considered whether to pursue the Shu army in reverse. But Zhu Zan found that he really did not have this ability.
Retreating is also very exhausting. Now that you are being chased for ten miles, you have to turn around and pursue them as soon as they retreat. Zhu Zan, who was retreating on horseback all the way, couldn't bear it, but his soldiers couldn't bear it.
Even though the physical fitness of Cao Wei's Imperial Army was excellent, even in a modern army, if you don't take a few hours of rest, you won't be able to slow down a five-kilometer run with heavy loads.
It's not that Zhu Zan doesn't want to chase, but that he really doesn't have the ability. And without the footwork of a flying army, Zhu Zan doesn't think he can catch up with him after falling behind for nearly half a day to rest.
Even the other party must be very tired.
In the end, Zhu Zan decided to rest where he was for a day and then lead his army to find Guan Qiujian. By the way, he asked Guan Qiujian what he should do next. !
I really can't fight anymore.
Zhu Zan brought out 5,000 central imperial troops and had been marching for almost ten days. Even if Guan Qiujian helped provide some food supplies along the way, the food was about to be exhausted and the number of troops had been reduced by more than half. In this case, even if It's the Central Forbidden Army, and it doesn't have much fighting power anymore.
If we really can't stop the Shu army from retreating to Mei County, then should we find a town, take a good rest, replenish supplies, and wait for another day to fight? !
You can't blame Zhu Zan. Zhu Zan's vision and layout can only see what's in front of him. He really can't see things that are too far away.
But Guanqiu Jian was very anxious now.
In fact, when Guan Qiu Jian led his troops to make a large detour and pursue Wu Banjun, Guan Qiu Jian had already reacted, as if there was a big flaw in his idea. How could he continue to pursue after dark? !
Nowadays, the sky is getting darker and darker. Guanqiu Jian can clearly feel that his vision is affected while riding on the horse. Even if he catches up with and entangles Wu Ban's soldiers and horses, after dark, there will be no infantry to help him contain this army. Unlike the army, don't you have the ability to completely keep people here? !
And if infantry is to be used to contain it, Zhu Zan must lead the army to advance quickly. Not good! ! !
Guanqiu Jian finally realized that his roundabout pursuit was tantamount to leaving Zhu Zan in the double-team of Wei Yan and Wang Ping.
Zhuzan is in danger.
Although Guan Qiujian was very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Forbidden Army, the difference in strength was too great. Now Guan Qiujian could only hope that Zhu Zan would stop stupidly adhering to military orders, and at least know how to retreat according to circumstances, so as not to be surrounded and annihilated.
As for myself, I can't go back.
If I lead the cavalry back now, I may not be able to catch up with Zhu Zan to rescue him, but I will also lose the opportunity to pursue Wu Banbu.
Originally, I didn't have many opportunities. The sky was getting darker and darker, and time really didn't give me enough opportunities.
If he continued to hesitate and run back and forth, he might waste all his time on the detour without causing any harm to the enemy.
Therefore, Guanqiu Jian made a quick decision and continued to lead troops to attack Wu Ban's army in a roundabout way.
Now Guan Qiujian can only hope that after leaving the battlefield, the Wu squad will become careless and give himself a chance to defeat the Shu army. Even if he cannot defeat them, he still has to give himself enough opportunities to kill the Shu army.
But Guanqiu Jian was somewhat disappointed.
Yes, with the support of Wei Yan, Wu Ban finally led his troops away from the battlefield, and relaxed his vigilance to some extent. This was not something Wu Ban could decide. It was the spontaneous behavior of the soldiers. After all, Wu Ban led not elite soldiers, but only recruited soldiers. They are just county soldiers, and their organization and training can only be said to be average.
It is normal for these soldiers to be somewhat relaxed and careless after leaving the battlefield.
However, Wu Ban was still a qualified general and was relatively cautious in using troops. Therefore, after leaving the battlefield, Wu Ban did not change his formation layout and change the square formation into a long snake formation in order to march quickly.
The current Wu Ban Army was still marching in a square formation. Although the speed was not fast enough, it was not defenseless after all.
Therefore, when Guan Qiujian led more than two thousand cavalry to appear, although the soldiers led by Wu Ban were a little panicked, they still quickly assembled the square formation and made preparations to meet the enemy under Wu Ban's quick order.
At this point, Guanqiu Jian must attack, and Wu Ban cannot escape. It's just a matter of life and death.
In this battle, Guanqiu Jian had the superiority in troops. His more than 2,000 cavalry still had a certain suppression advantage against Wu Ban's less than 6,000 infantry.
But Wu Ban also had a time advantage. As long as they held on for at least half an hour, when the sky turned completely dark, the cavalry's impact advantage would not be able to be used.
Besides, Wu Ban believed that if Guanqiu Jian could appear here, then Wang Pingjun, who was in charge of cutting off the rear, and Wei Yanjun, who was in charge of supporting them, should not be too far away from him.
Therefore, we must hold on. Only by holding on can we have a chance to safely withdraw to Mei County.
In a fight, both sides suffered considerable losses.
Although the infantry led by Wu Ban were prepared, it was really difficult for the infantry to defend against the cavalry charge. Even with the defense of shields and spears, they still suffered heavy casualties. In less than half an hour, There have been more than 500 casualties.
As for Guan Qiu Jian, although he only suffered casualties of more than 200 cavalry, after today's several charges, Guan Qiu Jian had already suffered casualties of nearly 700 cavalry.
Guanqiu Jian only had three thousand cavalry in total. The cavalry these days was an elite unit. It was not easy to train a cavalry. With so many casualties, Guan Qiujian was already feeling distressed.
Of course, the most important thing is that he suffered so many casualties, while the casualties of the Shu army on the opposite side, added up, were only more than 2,000 people, barely reaching one to three.
When Guanqiu Jian thought about this ratio, he felt that his toothache was due to the Shu army being too good at fighting, or because he was too incompetent. !
If he wants to completely destroy this army of 5,000 men, do he still have so many cavalry to give? !
What's more, as night gradually fell, Guanqiu Jian knew that his chances were getting less and less.
Just when Guanqiu Jian gritted his teeth and decided to launch a final attack and kill as many as he could, Wei Yan led more than 6,000 soldiers and rushed to join Wu Ban.
And the most important thing is that Guanqiu Jian did not see any Wei army infantry behind Wei Yan.
Guanqiu Jian's heart skipped a beat, and he had some bad premonitions.
Guanqiu Jian really didn't know what Zhu Zan's situation was now, but now Wei Yan led the army, but Zhu Zan did not fall. Guan Qiu Jian did not dare to continue wandering.
There is not much difference between attacking once more and attacking once less.
But whether he has the help of infantry or not, the difference in the current situation is huge.
After Guan Qiujian thought for a while, he decided to give up the attack on Wu Ban's army and led his cavalry to turn to the west to find traces of Zhu Zan's army.
Really, Guanqiu Jian is really praying now. Zhu Zan shouldn't be the kind of person who is so stupid that he only follows orders, right? !
(End of chapter)
