"I regret not listening to Zhong Quan's words."
After finally escaping back to Mengjindu, Master Sima immediately apologized to Xiahou Ba and expressed this emotion.
There was nothing I could do, I was fooled. That Wang Chang used the withdrawal of troops as bait to lure Sima Division into sending troops to pursue him. Then the Shu thieves set up an ambush halfway and killed Sima Division by surprise.
Of course, if it was just an ambush in pursuit, Master Sima would not have said such words to Xiahou Ba. The defeat this time was really too miserable and too miserable to watch.
One of these two men led 10,000 soldiers, one pursued and the other responded, but in the end, none of them could escape, and they were all trapped in an ambush trap.
Twenty thousand people followed him out, and the soldiers who finally escaped back to Mengjindu were not even able to return with a total defeat of five thousand.
Therefore, Master Sima still really needs to apologize to Xiahou Ba on this matter.
On the one hand, Xiahou Ba had not recommended an attack earlier. It was Master Sima who couldn't help himself and insisted on pursuing, which resulted in this tragic defeat.
On the other hand, if Xiahou Ba had not responded in time this time, I am afraid that Sima Division would not have returned with a disastrous defeat, but the entire army would have been annihilated.
Master Sima's apology was sincere, but Xiahou Ba really couldn't accept Master Sima's apology. Because he was not much better than Master Sima, and he was also the one who was ambushed.
As agreed at the beginning, Sima Division led the troops in pursuit, but Xiahou Ba was a little behind about ten miles to catch up. Not long after the pursuit, the scouts from the front came back with an order saying that Sima Division had pursued Wang Chang's retreating team.
This is not a surprise. After all, Sima Shi is very decisive and quick in attacking. It is very normal to be able to catch up with the Shu thieves quickly.
Later, according to the news sent back by the scouts in front, it was said that Shu general Wang Chang led the troops to intercept the Sima Division's pursuers.
This is not a surprise. Considering Wang Chang's ability, since he chose to withdraw his troops, he would definitely arrange a break in the rear, and he would not be easily chased and intercepted by Sima Division.
In this case, Xiahou Ba has two choices.
One is to take the initiative, cooperate with Sima Division to defeat Wang Chang's rear-cut infantry, and then chase down the Shu thieves who have no rear guard protection.
The other is to stay put for the time being. Once an accident occurs on the battlefield, Xiahou Ba can respond to Sima Division in time.
Obviously, given Xiahou Ba's character, he must have chosen the second way of coping.
However, this did not last long. Within half an hour, Master Sima sent someone to the rear to convey an order, asking Xiahou Ba to follow him as soon as possible to surround and annihilate the Shu thieves.
The reason is simple. Wang Chang did arrange for troops to break off the rear, but Wang Chang only led 5,000 people to break off the rear. The remaining nearly 20,000 people were retreating rapidly under the leadership of Zhang Yi.
Sima Division was leading ten thousand people in pursuit and attack. Wang Chang did not have enough troops, so he could only retreat while fighting, but soon he would be unable to stop Sima Division.
In this case, Sima Division must have hoped that Xiahou Ba would quickly follow up, defeat Wang Chang's troops as soon as possible, and then join forces to pursue the retreat of the Shu thieves.
If the troops are too small, the results of the battle will not be great, and the main force of this group of Shu thieves will be able to withdraw easily.
Another thing is that the situation is now like this. The Shu thieves' rear wing has been broken and the rear troops have suffered nearly a thousand casualties. There are no ambushes from the Shu thieves yet. It can be seen that the Shu thieves should have no ambush to speak of.
If you don't pursue it, you will really miss the opportunity.
Master Sima sent someone to convey the order and explained the situation ahead. Faced with such a situation, even Xiahou Ba could not think of any reason not to pursue.
Then Xiahou Ba led the army in pursuit.
The pursuit went smoothly at first, but Wang Chang could not stop the joint attack of Xiahou Ba and Sima Shi.
But after chasing him, thirty miles south of Mengjindu, something went wrong.
After Wang Chang and Zhang Yi led their troops to retreat across a hillside, a large group of Shu troops suddenly appeared from behind the hillside.
It is said to be a large group of Shu troops, but in fact the number of troops is not large. There are only about two to three thousand people in total, and most of them are crossbowmen. There are only more than a thousand Miao Dao soldiers guarding in front of these crossbowmen.
In terms of troop strength and service configuration, you can call it an ambush, but with such a small number of ambushes, not to mention Sima Division didn't care, even Xiahou Ba didn't care much.
With this small force, they are all crossbowmen who cannot fight in close combat. It is basically a dream to ambush nearly 20,000 Wei troops. Even Sima Shi suspected that this was an abandoned son thrown out by Wang Chang in desperation, just to hinder the pursuing troops. For a moment, it was convenient for them to escape.
Therefore, Sima Division did not hesitate at all and continued to command his soldiers to take the lead in pursuit.
As for the crossbowmen, the lethality of the bows and arrows is there, but as long as they approach quickly and shorten the distance, the rest is just a one-sided massacre, and there is no big threat.
However, Master Sima soon saw a thick black cloud covering his front army at an extremely fast speed.
It was a rain of arrows. The two thousand crossbowmen on the hillside shot out the arrows that ten thousand crossbowmen should have.
By the time Sima Shi came to his senses, there were only a few of his more than 500 front troops who could stand.
What's even worse is that the Shu thieves' second batch of arrows struck very quickly, and there was almost no time between them.
Faced with such a bow shooting speed and coverage, even if the Sima Master wanted to trade lives for distance to attack, there would probably be no chance of getting close.
How could the Shu thieves' crossbowmen cover such a large area with their arrows, and how could they launch continuous attacks within such a short interval? !
Master Sima doesn't understand this problem, and now is not the time to figure it out. The attack will definitely not be able to advance, and even if he doesn't move forward, with the bows and crossbows of the Shu thieves pressing forward, the main force of his Chinese army will be defeated by this group of Shu thieves. The range of the crossbowmen is covered.
Must retreat as soon as possible.
Just when Sima Division ordered the retreat, he found that two troops suddenly appeared on his two wings, with a strength of about 10,000 people, and they were quickly outflanking them.
The flag of one unit is "Meng" and the flag of the other unit is "Liu". Sima Division does not need to consider who the generals represented by these two flags are. He only needs to know that the soldiers of Hongnong County led by Wang Chang , there are no leading generals with these two surnames.
Obviously, these two troops are not Hongnong County soldiers at all.
From this, Master Sima came to a simple and clear judgment - he had fallen into a trap.
After Master Sima realized that he had fallen into the trap, he immediately ordered his troops to return and get closer to Xiahou Ba's supporting troops as soon as possible. The two families worked together to break out of the encirclement as soon as possible before the enemy army completed the encirclement.
But at this time, Wang Chang would not let Sima Division retreat easily. He had already led his Hongnong County soldiers to fight back.
What was even more terrible for Sima Division was that he had just informed Xiahou Ba to move forward and rendezvous with his front leg, but he himself fell into the trap with his rear leg. Now Xiahou Ba was also mobilized by Sima Division and fell into the encirclement.
Xiahou Ba's ability was not bad, and his reaction speed was fast enough. When he saw Shu troops appearing on the two wings of the Sima Division of the former army, he immediately ordered the rear army to stop advancing, and five thousand people were fortified on the spot. Thousands of people followed him to meet Master Sima, thus preserving a glimmer of hope for Master Sima and Xiahou Ba.
But he escaped. Of the 20,000 soldiers he brought with him, less than 5,000 came back. The remaining soldiers were all trapped in the encirclement net.
There was no way, the Shu thieves had too many troops, and they almost used 50,000 soldiers to attack the 20,000 Wei army.
After the Wei army fell into the trap and was surrounded, it fell into complete chaos, and the morale of the entire army was completely lost. Except for the five thousand soldiers left by Xiahou Ba to defend on the spot, they could barely maintain some fighting will because they were fighting on the edge of the battlefield. Wei's soldiers were completely in disarray.
In addition, the Wei army retreated to Mengjin Ferry all the way, and the Wei army was in turn chased by Shu thieves all the way. Still less than 5,000 soldiers retreated to Mengjin Ferry. This can be regarded as the result of Xiahou Ba's timely response.
For this reason, Master Sima had to apologize to Xiahou Ba as soon as he came back. This time, he was really too reckless and killed more than 10,000 soldiers.
But Xiahou Ba is actually not much better.
If Master Sima jumped into the pit on his own, Xiahou Ba also stepped into the pit with one foot. It was only with Master Sima's experience that he managed to get out, but he ended up in a miserable defeat.
This matter happened to Sima Shi. It was Xiahou Ba who saved Sima Shi's life, but when it came to Cao Wei's emperor Cao Rui, both of them were the same, they were both defeated generals.
The most important thing is that more than 15,000 people were lost in the first battle, and the morale of the army was greatly reduced. What should they do next, the two men were a little unsure.
After all, the two of them had now figured out that this time, it was the Shu thieves who came to help in large numbers, and the leading general was the world-famous general Zhang Xi who was supposed to be guarding Jingzhou.
Zhang Xi has already appeared at Mengjindu, so the next battle may not be a simple Luoyang offensive and defensive battle.
Shu thieves, I'm afraid they are about to make a big move! ! !
(End of chapter)
