In the inner camp of the Sui army, more than a dozen exhausted captains, each with the support of their own soldiers, found Wei Yunqi and Ling Jing who were discussing something. And behind them were some brigade commanders and team leaders.
One of the captains was stabbed during the fight. He lost a lot of blood because he had to be bandaged in time. His dark face was so pale that there was no trace of blood. He looked at Wei Yunqi in pain and despair, and begged with tears rolling down his face: " General, Sima, we were reorganized by the imperial court in Hechuan, Taozhou. We are very grateful to the imperial court and to the king for everything he has done for us. Even if the king asks me to die, I will not frown. But we have ten thousand warriors. As of now, there are only more than 3,000 people left, and everyone has injuries of varying sizes. If everyone dies here, how do you want us to explain to the tribe?"
"Yes!" Another captain said with tears in his eyes: "General, Sima, the brothers have really tried their best! If we continue to fight like this, these brothers will be defeated, so we'd better retreat!"
Wei Yunqi and Ling Jing looked at each other with bitter looks on their faces. What they were most worried about finally appeared.
Before that, everyone was fighting day and night. Everyone focused on defending the camp and had no time to think about anything else. Now, although this retreat and this fire have successfully isolated the enemy troops, the soldiers' minds have definitely cooled down. When they see familiar people dying in battle one by one, all kinds of negative emotions come one after another. At the same time, I don't want to continue fighting. If it is not handled properly and not properly appeased, the soldiers may flee at best, or the entire army may mutiny at worst.
"Brothers, we are all brave and have tried our best. Everyone is a hero of our Sui Dynasty. Everyone has not humiliated the Sui army. But we have finally contained the enemy here. If we retreat at this time, Now, do you know what this means? It means that the enemy troops who are bound here by us no longer have any fear, it means that the previous efforts were in vain, and it means that thousands of brothers died in vain." Wei Yunqi's eyes were on the group of people. He swept away the gathered soldiers and spoke slowly, his deep voice filled with a bit of tragedy and helplessness.
Looking at these wounded soldiers, his eye circles could not help but turn red. Facing the pleading eyes, he tried hard to suppress the helplessness and grief in his chest, and said in a harsh voice: "Once we retreat, the enemy will be freed from their restraints." Generally speaking, we can either cover our backs or divide our forces to annihilate the other two armies, which will ultimately make the entire Northern Expedition a complete failure and everyone will die in the Great Lakes area where enemies are everywhere."
Everyone was silent after hearing this.
These generals are all sensible people, otherwise they would not stand out. They all know that the order to evacuate is only a matter of one sentence, but once the order to evacuate is given, the morale and military morale they have finally built up will disappear. The soldiers will also lose all fighting spirit. At that time, everyone will focus on saving their lives and everyone will focus on escaping. If they hear the slightest disturbance during the evacuation, all the grass and trees will disperse in a rush, and then they will all die in the The Great Lakes region is surrounded by enemies on all sides.
"Now that the war has started, everyone has no choice but to retreat, even the king. Even if we know we will die, we still have to fight for a chance to survive in the battle; even if we lose all our weapons, we still have to use our fists, Use your feet and teeth to drag Murong Yan's army here." Seeing that everyone remained silent, Wei Yun's heart calmed down a little. He looked at everyone and continued: "The next battle is not for the imperial court, Not for the king, not for me, Wei Yunqi, but for everyone to stay alive until reinforcements arrive, and for everyone to go home alive!"
After hearing the news, Po Chaoqi and Yang Tie hurriedly came from a distance. When they saw these familiar faces gathered here, they were so angry that their noses were crooked. Po Chaoqi roared angrily: "I, the son of the Qiang people, have been here for generations. How have you ever been afraid of fighting against the sky, against the earth, against poisonous insects and fierce beasts? You have really brought shame on your ancestors. If you run away in fear of fighting today, your descendants will never be able to look up to you because of your cowardice. beginning."
"Everyone will die, I'm not afraid, so what do you have to be afraid of?" Yang Tie also roared: "I, the Sui warrior, will fight to the death and never retreat!"
Stimulated by this, everyone raised their weapons and let out earth-shattering roars:
"I, the Sui Dynasty warrior, will fight to the death and never retreat!"
"I, the Sui Dynasty warrior, will fight to the death and never retreat!"
"I, the Sui Dynasty warrior, will fight to the death and never retreat!"
"..."
Wei Yunqi took a few steps forward with a serious face, pulled out the horizontal sword from his waist, and said in a deep voice: "Go back and deploy the defense line. Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed! Anyone who dares to shake the morale of the army will be killed!"
"Here!" A group of people bowed silently and retreated. At this moment, no one said anything about retreating. Wei Yunqi has made the consequences very clear. The war has been fought now, no longer for Yang Ji and the imperial court, let alone for illusory righteousness, but for themselves. Even if you die here, you can't retreat.
Once we withdraw, everyone will have to finish playing in the Great Lakes District. Even if they killed Wei Yunqi, Ling Jing, Po Chaoqi and Yang Tie, and used their heads to surrender to Murong Yan, I'm afraid Murong Yan would comply with the soldiers' demands and let the angry soldiers cut them into pieces. Thousands of sections.
So their only way to survive at this time is to hold on and hold on and fight and fight and fight!
When everyone retreated, the outspoken Yang Tie saw no one else around, so he asked Wei Yunqi in a low voice: "General, the time agreed between General Li and us is two to three days, and we have now held on for two and a half days. But the reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, and there is not even any news. Do you think our reinforcements are coming? Are they there? "
Hearing this, Po Chaoqi also looked at Wei Yunqi expectantly.
Wei Yunqi's eyes flickered, and he naturally slid from the two of them towards the gradually decreasing fire, and said calmly: "The reinforcements have arrived! They are hiding in a suitable location for attack. As long as the fighter plane appears, they will attack Enemy, give the enemy a fatal blow."
Ling Jing's cheeks twitched violently and remained silent.
"Great!" Yang Tie waved his arm heavily and said with high spirits: "As long as we contain the main force of the enemy's army, General Li can give the enemy a fatal blow from behind, making Murong Yan unable to take care of both the head and tail. Waiting for Master Cui Once the general’s army arrives, they will be completely finished.”
"Hahahaha!" Po Chaoqi also burst out laughing with joy and joy.
"Not bad!" Wei Yunqi felt bitter in his heart, but kept a stiff smile on his face: "The fire has gradually weakened. If the water is no longer scorching people, Murong Yan will have people put out the fire step by step with sand. Next. , it’s another bloody battle. Two generals, it’s better to prepare.”
"Here!" Yang Tie and Po Chaoqi bowed their hands, turned their horses' heads happily, and ran towards the front line.
"Alas!" Wei Yunqi and Ling Jing looked away from their backs, looking at each other in unison, shaking their heads and sighing in unison.
Wei Yunqi was silent for a moment, then sighed again, and said to Ling Jing in a happy mood: "Sima, I can't hold on any longer. Why don't you come and trick me too and make me happy for once?"
Ling Jing was speechless upon hearing this.
You Wei Yunqi said so, how could you lie to me?
. . . . . . .
Wei Yunqi still underestimated Murong Yan. He did use sand and corpses to extinguish the fire, but he did not wait until the fire became smaller. Instead, an hour after the fire ignited, he drove away the remaining prisoners and braved the fire. The scorching fire and the suffocating smoke came to fill the landfill, and the captives who were roasted and smoked to death became tools to extinguish the fire. After the smoke cleared, it was only an hour and a half before the fire started.
After the fire was extinguished, the corpses of the enemy and our soldiers were used to build a slope in front of the camp, and the soldiers were ordered to step on the mountain of corpses to attack the Sui soldiers on the city.
With the convenience of the human ladder, Murong Yan's army only fought fiercely until dusk, and then rushed to the 'city top' one after another, and behind them, more soldiers were emerging continuously.
In less than two hours of bloody fighting, the camp was covered with dead bodies and streams of blood flowed. Both the enemy and ourselves suffered heavy casualties. It's just that the disadvantage of the Sui army's military strength is there after all. If one person dies, one person will be missing, and a small hole will appear in the defense line. But Murong Yan had already pressed forward with his entire army. They had an absolute advantage in terms of strength. In the desperate struggle between the two sides, a steady stream of Murong Yan's troops quickly gained the upper hand, and the situation gradually became unfavorable to the Sui army.
When Murong Yan heard that the Sui camp was about to be defeated, he was immediately overjoyed and issued an order to attack the Sui camp in one fell swoop. At this moment, there was a sudden commotion on the left side of the rear, followed by the ground suddenly shaking violently, and a sound from the distance. A thunderous sound
Murong Yan had lived on the grassland for a long time, and he immediately realized that a large group of cavalry was about to kill him. However, all their troops were here, and his father Murong Bei was far away in the north. How could any reinforcements come to help?
This means that the other two groups of Sui troops that he has been worried about have arrived.
A patrolman rushed over, sweating profusely, and shouted: "Report to the young master, a large number of Sui army cavalry are coming towards us!"
"What?" Murong Yan was shocked. She was really afraid that something might happen. Before he could say anything more, he turned his horse's head and ran towards a higher ground behind him. Suddenly, a loud horn sounded again from the right side.
Two Sui army cavalry came from the left and right sides respectively. The blackness was like two dark clouds surging in. The soldiers' swords were sharp and their horses were like dragons. The overwhelming murderous intent swept across and killed everything. They were torn apart in the army in an instant. Two big gaps.
Murong Yan's army returned triumphantly from the Eastern Turkic battlefield. When they heard that the Sui army was attacking their base camp, they rushed here desperately, and then fought fiercely with Wei Yunqi for seven or eight days, barely getting half a day's rest.
After several days of offensive and defensive battles, Murong Yan's army was exhausted and their energy had long been lost. The news of the fall of the Xianbei Prairie had already wiped out their fighting spirit and morale. The fire in the morning and the sudden civil war had even more They were frightened and heartbroken. If they had not known that there were not many Sui troops left, and if they had not had to clear the way home, the soldiers would have dispersed long ago. At this time, the two left wings were suddenly attacked by an unknown number of Sui soldiers. For a time, the position was rushed into chaos, and many weak-willed soldiers had begun to flee.
"Don't panic, there aren't many enemy troops. Let's all line up to meet them!" Murong Yan was so depressed that he almost vomited blood. He had already rode his horse to a high place and found that the number of these two cavalry groups was not that large. But they were very good at choosing the moment, and at this moment they were like two sharp knives stabbing into his weakest point.
The momentum of these two armies was like a rainbow, leaving corpses all over the ground wherever they passed. They rushed left and right in the formation, killing the enemies to the ground. They did not give Murong Yan's soldiers a chance to assemble. In about a moment, the left and right positions had completely collapsed.
These two troops are Li Jingjun and Cui Shijun. Why do they appear here at the same time?
But it was Li Jing who had been paying attention to the battle in Bailangyuan, and he had already arrived last night. However, he found that although the fighting here was very fierce and difficult, Wei Yunqi could always hold on, so he rationally kept the army not far away. To recharge his batteries, he did not directly join the battle. At the same time, he sent someone to urge Master Cui, who was a few hours late, to come as soon as possible. He also told him not to jump into the battle as soon as he arrived, but to wait for his orders to act.
Although Li Jing's arrangement and deployment were unfair to Wei Yun's army, Li Jing knew how to make choices and knew that some sacrifices were necessary. From the overall perspective, this arrangement was also the wisest choice at present.
If it were Yang Ji, Yang Su, Gao Jun, Chang Sun Sheng, Shi Wansui, Li Jing and other famous generals, or Wei Yunqi himself, Li Jing believed that they would do the same. Otherwise, they would be unqualified. The commander-in-chief, so Li Jing did not feel any guilt about his choice.
This is the so-called compassion that does not command troops.
The sudden change caused the soldiers fighting in the front to disperse. Murong Yan led more than a thousand direct soldiers to fight their way through the chaos and rushed to Murong Yan's side. At this time, he saw Li Jing leading a group of soldiers. The elite soldiers rushed straight towards this side, and under the spear, there was no enemy in the army. Knowing that he was outmatched, he quickly shouted: "The army is in chaos, young master, retreat quickly!"
withdraw?
Looking at the scattered army that was rushed by two Sui armies in an instant, Murong Yan smiled bitterly and suddenly felt a sense of despair.
With the loss of the Xianbei Prairie and the long-term attack on Wei Yunqi's camp, the morale of the soldiers was already low. Now these two new and powerful armies came, completely dissipating their last bit of morale.
If he retreated at this time, the army would definitely flee in all directions. If he could gather thousands of people, he would be considered protected by the gods.
What's more important is that the soldiers and civilians in the Great Lakes region were already afraid of the Sui Dynasty. If they were defeated again, their backbone and soul would be interrupted by the Sui Dynasty, and they would never be able to muster the will and courage to fight against the Sui Dynasty.
At that time, why should we establish a powerful Xianbei Empire?
However, although Murong Yan didn't want to retreat, he saw the enemy soldiers getting closer and closer, but he had to retreat. If he continued to stay here, he might be directly killed by the general among the three armies, and he would have achieved something that belongs to him. He immediately said to Murong Yan: "Murong Yan, lead your own soldiers to cut off the rear, and the others will follow me to retreat!"
"Young Master, I..." Murong Yan's expression changed. Just when he was about to say something, he saw that Murong Yan had already turned around and left with more than a hundred personal guards, and his face suddenly turned red.
"Kill~" At this moment, Li Jing had already followed the handsome flag and was approaching.
Murong Yan looked at Li Jing, who was fighting among the rebels, as if he was in no one's land. A ferocious look flashed across his face. He drew out an arrow, and in front of everyone's stunned eyes, he killed Murong Yan with one arrow. Shoot down the horse.
Including Li Jing who rushed forward, both the enemy and ourselves were stunned.
Murong Yan suddenly threw the bow and arrow in his hand far away, rolled off his horse, knelt down not far from Li Jing, and said loudly with his head touching the ground: "The last general Murong Yan is willing to surrender!"
Li Jing reined in his horse and looked around at the enemy soldiers who were kneeling because of Murong Yan's surrender. He frowned and asked, "Where is Murong Yan?"
"General Qi! He has been shot off his horse by the general. The arrow hit him in the back. He must not survive." Murong Yan showed a flattering smile on his face, climbed up, climbed back on his horse, and faced Li Jing. Said: "General, follow me!"
Looking at Murong Yan with a diligent look on his face, Li Jing only felt a lump in his chest. He wanted to kill Murong Yan, but seeing Murong Yan shoot Murong Yan so simply, he still had a complicated feeling.
Although he knew that the foreigners believed in the concept of the weak eating the strong and respecting the strong, and there was no concept of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, but Murong Yan, a loser, changed his face too quickly, right?
Could this be a talented person who understands current affairs?
But with this disgustingly flattering smile in front of him, it was really difficult for Li Jing to apply the word "junjie" to him. At this time, except for the emotion of stabbing him to death, Li Jing had no other thoughts.
Although Li Jing despised him, he also knew that Yang Ji's purpose in launching the Northern Expedition was to scare the Eastern Turks and then use the warriors from the Great Lakes area to fight in the south. This guy who claimed to be Murong Yan must be One of Murong Xianbei. His existence can at least minimize the enemy's will to resist and allow him to gather more prisoners, so he absolutely cannot be killed now.
Thinking of this, the expression on Li Jing's face softened a little and he smiled and said: "Murong Bei and his son betrayed the Sui Dynasty. It is really an unpunishable crime. It is difficult to atone for their crimes by a hundred deaths. However, most of the soldiers were deceived by them and their crimes were not punished. If you die, please ask General Murong to assist our army in persuading them to abandon the dark side and surrender to the bright side. When I meet King Wei one day, I, Li Jing, will definitely show my merits to the general!"
"Thank you General Li for your kindness! The general will definitely go all out." Murong Yan was overjoyed when he heard this. As a senior member of the Murong clan, he knew the basic situation of Liangzhou's important officials very well. Not only did he know that Li Jing was the governor of Tingzhou at the western foot of Jinshan Mountain, he also knew that Li Jing came from the Palace of Wei and was Yang Ji's confidant general. If he could embrace this opportunity, would he still worry about having no future?
At that moment, he cheered up and loyally followed Li Jing's command. He took Murong Yan's head and went to persuade the army that was abandoned by Murong Yan to surrender.
The entry of fresh troops from the Sui army, Murong Yan's departure and death, made the battlefield even more chaotic. In this small-scale war without a leader, if there is no one who is enough to suppress the situation to stand up as the leader, all resistance will be lost. Meaningless. Although Murong Yan's character was not good, as Li Jingzhi expected, he was familiar with many army generals, so under his persuasion, the soldiers abandoned their weapons and surrendered one after another.
After the last melee, Li Jing and Master Cui killed less than 3,000 enemies. However, with the help of Murong Yan, they not only easily gathered more than 13,000 prisoners, but also brought more than 20,000 prisoners with Murong Yan. The prisoners took over together.
Seeing that the situation had been decided, Li Jing did not care about chasing the scattered deserters, handed the prisoners to Shi Huaiyi for unified supervision, and couldn't wait to go to Wei Yunqi's camp with Master Cui.
Wei Yunqi, who had been standing on the camp gate directing the soldiers to fight, saw that the people coming were Li Jing and Master Cui, his tense heart suddenly relaxed, and he fainted dizzily. No one in such a large camp could stand up to greet them. In the end, Li Jing and others stepped on the mountain of corpses and entered the camp.
