The journey of fifty miles is neither long nor short.
An ordinary march would take about a day and a half to complete, and an urgent march would not take more than a day to complete.
But running for one's life is not an option.
Once the army loses structure and restraint and breaks up and flees for its life, it is completely uncontrollable.
Cao Xiu was desperately restraining his men, but at this time, there was the Shouchun Army pursuing Soochow in the rear, and the Ruyin occupying army on the flanks was Lu Xun who took the initiative to attack. Under this situation, the Wei Army's lower-level captains were already panicking, and even more Not to mention ordinary soldiers.
The Wei army once again reenacted the battle at Shiting a few years ago, and was chased by the Soochow army and fled in all directions.
Once the soldiers began to flee without any restraint, it was almost impossible to organize them and let them retreat in an orderly direction towards Yingyang.
At present, the only thing Cao Xiu can control is the five thousand soldiers of his central army. These soldiers are the elite of Runan led by Cao Xiu himself. They are much more obedient than the soldiers borrowed from Yanzhou and Yingchuan and the ordinary soldiers of Runan County.
But at this point, Cao Xiu actually has two choices.
One is to lead his own soldiers to turn around and personally intercept the pursuit and interception of the Soochow Army, buying enough time for the rest of the soldiers to escape.
But this choice is somewhat too late.
If Cao Xiu had done this before the soldiers were dispersed, it would have bought time for the soldiers. After all, the army structure was still there at that time. As long as someone took the lead, or Yingyang could take the initiative to send troops to respond, the soldiers could still be organized. Retreat to Yingyang.
But now, the soldier organization is in chaos. When they flee, no soldier cares about where they flee, as long as they run faster than their teammates around them.
Yingyang, which Cao Xiu had high hopes for, did not take the initiative to send troops to respond. Until now, Cao Xiu has not seen Xu Zhi.
Therefore, if Cao Xiu took the initiative to stay behind at this time, it would be equivalent to taking the initiative to run into the arms of Soochow's pursuers. There would be no other effect except death.
Therefore, Cao Xiu had only one choice left - just like the Battle of Shiting a few years ago, leave these fleeing defeated soldiers and lead his elite troops to break through.
The only good news at this time is that - unlike the Battle of Shiting a few years ago, this time the commander of the Wu army took the initiative to let go of a corner of the siege net. Cao Xiu no longer had to worry about being surrounded like a rice dumpling. There is no way to break through with the support.
The chance of escape is greatly increased, but this battle will inevitably end in failure.
At this time, Cao Xiu had no choice. He could only lead the elite of the Chinese army to break out first. At the same time, Cao Xiu's old habit happened again!
When the war situation was unfavorable, Cao Xiu would always start to shift the blame habitually.
Last time, he was dumped to Jia Kui, who worked desperately to help him break out of the encirclement, which led to a disagreement between Jia Kui and Cao Xiu, which was known to the world.
This time, Cao Xiu left it to Xu Zhi - if Xu Zhi could take the initiative to send troops to assist him, why would he be chased by the Soochow Army and be in such an embarrassing situation now.
Cao Xiu was a little unreasonable when he passed the blame to Jia Kui. You must know that Jia Kui's status is not low, and there is no clear reporting relationship with Cao Xiu. So he still saved you at the cost of giving up Hefei City. . It's a bit of a scapegoat. Not to mention that Jia Kui couldn't bear it, even Cao Pi couldn't stand it.
But this time, it actually makes some sense to blame Xu Zhi.
It's not that Cao Xiu didn't arrange for backup. Cao Xiu, who had experienced the disastrous defeat at Shiting, left 10,000 soldiers with Xu Zhi just in case, with the purpose of asking Xu Zhi to rescue him when his battle situation was unfavorable.
As a result, Xu Zhi failed to lead his troops when Cao Xiu needed him most. At first glance, it was indeed Xu Zhi's fault, and it did make sense for Cao Xiu to blame Xu Zhi.
Even speaking, if Xu Zhi can appear in time when Cao Xiu is defeated, help Cao Xiu gather the defeated troops and retreat to Yingyang, and continue to confront the Soochow army in Runan, then the plan to attack Shouchun will have failed, but it may not have defeated Soochow. The army is sure to drive out of Runan.
After all, in Runan, Cao Xiu has been operating for more than ten years and has long been entrenched. The Soochow Army has just arrived. Even if it relies on sneak attacks to occupy part of the county, it is hard to say whether it can hold on.
But Xu Zhi did not appear, which led to the defeat of Cao Xiu's army. Even if Cao Xiu escaped successfully, he did not have enough troops to stop the subsequent attack of the Soochow Army.
Runan is very likely to fall under the siege of the superior strength of the Soochow Army.
As soon as Runan fell, Yanzhou and Yingchuan were opened wide, and the two places were now seriously short of troops, causing great trouble.
Therefore, the more Cao Xiu thought about it, the more he felt that it was all Xu Zhi's fault. If he could escape this time, he would never let this bastard off lightly.
And Xu Zhi, who had been called a bastard by Cao Xiu, was actually quite unjust.
In fact, the reconnaissance cavalry sent by Xu Zhi had indeed noticed the direction of Cao Xiu's defeat, and he did want to take the initiative to support Cao Xiu's retreat.
But the problem is that Xu Zhi only has 4,000 troops including the original defenders of Yingyang. On a battlefield where nearly 100,000 people are fighting, they are not there to respond. They are simply going to die. .
Another thing, Xu Zhi did not expect that Cao Xiu would be defeated so quickly.
When Xu Zhi learned that Cao Xiu was about fifty miles southeast of Yingyang County, he also received another news - the Shangcai reinforcements led by Gao Tanglong would arrive in Yingyang in about half a day, and they would follow Xu Zhi Convergence.
Xu Zhi thought about it for a while. Gao Tanglong's reinforcements arrived in half a day, and after resting for another half day, they should be able to meet General Cao Xiu early the next morning.
After all, that was General Cao Xiu, so he couldn't last even one day, right? !
Yes, Xu Zhi just hesitated and waited for a while. By the time he gathered enough troops and horses, leaving Gao Tanglong to guard the city, and he took eight thousand soldiers to meet Cao Xiu, it was already too late.
Cao Xiu's army had fled the night before, and when Xu Zhi led his troops to meet Cao Xiu, Cao Xiu had already led 5,000 soldiers to retreat to a place only thirty miles away from Yingyang.
In other words, even if Xu Zhi does not send troops to respond, Cao Xiu will soon retreat to Yingyang.
The unlucky Xu Zhi thought he was taking a huge risk by joining General Cao Xiu, but he almost let the angry Cao Xiu directly take the blame and push him out to behead him.
If Cao Xiu didn't have some sense left in the end, Xu Zhi would have died.
The reason why Cao Xiu still has some sense left is actually very simple - none of his three generals, Zhang Pu, Xue Qiao, and Zhang Te, have been able to withdraw safely until now, and they all live or die. .
If Xu Zhi is killed again, Cao Xiu will really have no one left under his command.
We can't let Cao Xiu command the scholar Gao Tanglong.
Not to mention that the two of them had conflicts before, even if Gao Tanglong had the mind of Jia Kui, he could put aside the conflicts at critical moments and work together for the sake of the country. Gao Tanglong, the scholar, did not understand military affairs at all. Cao Xiu still knew this .
In this way, although Cao Xiu passed the blame to Xu Zhi and scolded Xu Zhi, but thinking that it was the time to hire people, Cao Xiu could only endure the anger and retreat to Yingyang with Xu Zhi first.
After retreating to Yingyang, Cao Xiu saw that Gao Tanglong, who was supposed to stay in Shangcai, had also arrived in Yingyang, and he was immediately worried.
Xu Zhiyou accepted his mission to withdraw his troops, so it was understandable that he showed up in Yingyang. Why are you, Gao Tanglong, here too? !
If Gao Tanglong is in Yingyang, who will stay behind in Shangcai? !
Cao Xiu became angry again. This time, he planned to blame Gao Tanglong as well.
But Gao Tanglong is not Xu Zhi. In terms of social status, Gao Tanglong is indeed inferior to Cao Xiu, but he is not inferior to Jia Kui when he was guarding Hefei. Gao Tanglong is a great Confucian of the time and is famous for his honesty as an official. How can he accept this? Wronged? !
Gao Tanglong immediately asked Cao Xiu - what's the use of me staying in Shangcai? Do I have any troops? !
Is a polished commander staying in Shangcai and waiting to be the prisoner of the Jiangnan bumpkin? !
Cao Xiu was a little choked when he heard this. When he originally arranged for Xu Zhi to take care of him, he really didn't think about how to arrange Shangcai's defense if Xu Zhi transferred all his soldiers.
But now, Cao Xiu didn't bother to argue who was responsible for this. Anyway, it was Xu Zhi's fault.
If I can't blame Gao Tanglong, can't I blame my subordinates? !
Moreover, after Cao Xiu learned that Shangcai was almost an empty city now, he did not dare to be negligent and immediately led his troops to retreat and return to Shangcai.
There is no way, the geographical location of Shangcai is very important, with Yanzhou to the north and Yingchuan to the west. If Shangcai is captured, there will be no need for Runan to continue to hold on, and all the roads that should be opened will be opened.
Cao Xiu wanted to withdraw his troops and return to defend Shang Cai. Gao Tanglong had no objection to this, but Gao Tanglong had a problem - what would happen to Yingyang if Cao Xiu withdrew? !
Just give it up to the Soochow Army? !
Let’s not talk about whether fleeing without fighting will repeat the fate of being chased by the Soochow Army. Let’s talk about the Wei soldiers who are still scattered near Yingyang. What should they do? !
Once they abandon Yingyang, they will not even have the last destination to escape. Doesn't that force them to surrender to the Soochow Army? !
On the contrary, as long as Yingyang is still there, those defeated soldiers will have a direction to flee. If they wait here for a few days, they may be able to gather some of the escaped Wei soldiers and return to the army. Is it better than giving them up directly? !
When Cao Xiu heard this, he realized that the depressed scholar was just a scholar. At this time, he was still thinking about this.
Yes, if there is no rush, Cao Xiu also wants to hold on to Yingyang for a few days and collect some defeated troops. When Chibi was defeated in the Great Fire, his uncle Cao Ren was ordered to defend Jiangling in the face of danger. He relied on the gathered remaining troops to block Zhou Yu's first wave. offensive, and then restored morale and military morale, and held on to Jiangling for nine months.
Now, Cao Xiu can actually follow Cao Ren's example and stick to Yingyang.
But the problem is that Yingyang is just a small county town, so it is not as important as Shangcai, a strategic point.
It was in Yingyang that Cao Xiu fought a turnaround and defeated the Soochow army that besieged Yingyang. But if Shangcai fell, it would be all in vain.
Apart from being suffocated to death by the Soochow Army in Runan, Cao Xiu could not have imagined his second end.
Therefore, Cao Xiu left two thousand soldiers for Gao Tanglong and asked him to defend Yingyang. He took the remaining thirteen thousand soldiers and immediately returned to the army and returned to Shangcai.
Since you, Gao Tanglong, feel it is necessary to stick to Yingyang, then you should stick to it.
If you can keep it, it's all your fault. If you can't, it's not your fault.
(End of chapter)
