Therefore, Cao Rui would rather play it safe than take risks easily. In his opinion, being more stable is more certain. Cao Rui's approach indeed put great pressure on the rebel brigade. Ten thousand cavalry were slowly pressing down behind him, making the rebels, from Song Yan to ordinary sergeants, all very nervous because of Cao Rui, who didn't know when to launch the attack.
Especially the archers, if they slow down a little, the cavalry behind them will come up like a bad wolf and try to take a bite. They can only maintain a fighting state at all times. As long as the cavalry behind them accelerates, they must open their bows and fire arrows. Song Yan's retreat began. Less than two hours later, the bow could no longer be pulled. The arrows shot from the hard bows in their hands are getting closer and closer.
As for the pursuit, Cao Rui, who is experienced, has always grasped the rhythm very well. Just like that, he took his own cavalry and followed closely behind him. If the rebels relax for a moment, they will immediately come up and take a bite like a vicious wolf. After tearing down several thousand rebels, they stopped. But in the face of Cao Rui's blunt knife-cutting style, the rebels were powerless.
Once he was bitten, the rest of the rebel group did not dare to rescue him at all. He could only watch helplessly as the severed person was quickly devoured by the large group of cavalry. The long period of high pressure has caused the mentality of all the tens of thousands of rebels to almost collapse. Facing Cao Rui's wolf pack tactics, Song Yan was helpless and didn't even dare to stop for a moment.
When it got dark, in order to get rid of the chasing soldiers behind him as soon as possible, Song Yan didn't even let him use the torch. But he didn't light the torch, but he gave Cao Rui a chance. That night, Cao Rui divided his men into three waves and attacked in turn. The thousands of cavalry deployed on the left wing even rushed to a position less than a hundred steps away from Song Yan during the charge before dawn.
When the first sun rose in the morning, Song Yan felt a little more relaxed. But at this moment, he desperately discovered that the team he led was missing more than half of the people. Now, of his 50,000-strong army, there were only more than 10,000 left. As for the rest, there are those who were annihilated on the battlefield yesterday, those who were continuously eaten away by the enemy during the retreat yesterday, and those who were the result of the hard battle yesterday.
Song Xie also knew that those who disappeared may not have died in the battle. I'm afraid a considerable number of them escaped under the cover of night. In yesterday's battle, the lethality of the cavalry against the infantry in a relatively flat area probably frightened many people. Once the morale of the army is messed up, it will be difficult to clean up. While I am not allowed to light a torch, I keep walking in the dark. How long will it take?
I pinched my temples, which were a little swollen and painful because I hadn't slept all night. After this night, I saw that nearly half of the team was missing. Looking at the Hualin Water that had appeared not far away, Song Yan didn't know whether he could still retreat to the Hualin Water. Now he can only hope that the vanguard and rearguard troops can rush over to join him, so that he can still fight.
In his heart, Song Yan was even more looking forward to the fact that he had sent people eight hundred miles to rush to notify the Huguang army and horses to come and join him before evacuating, and informed them of his detailed marching route. If the two can be combined, it will not only increase the military strength. I'm afraid that even if the officers and soldiers want to eat themselves in one bite, they still have to have that appetite when facing more than 200,000 troops and horses.
Xie Jinchuan, who was responsible for commanding the Huguang army and horses, knew what he was like. If it were anyone else, he might not obey his orders, but although this Xie Jinchuan has never been on the battlefield, he is a person with a very strong view of the overall situation, and his overall ability is considered good. He is also the Lord’s absolute confidant. Although the two of them are on the same level at the moment, he knows how to do it, which is more beneficial to the overall situation.
As long as he receives a notification from him, he will definitely come to cooperate with him. But it has been several days since I set off from Jiujiang Prefecture, but there is no news at all from Huguang. Did he still arrive, or did he not receive his notification at all? If it's the first point, it's better, but if it's the second point, it's terrible. Seeing Cao Rui's troops pressing forward again, Song Yan couldn't help but sigh.
He was very clear about the current situation. No matter what, he would not be able to withstand the pressure from the front line again. Especially when he saw his subordinates looking at the army of cavalry slowly pressing forward, with a look of fear and even despair in their eyes. And last night, he already knew that the several pontoon bridges he had built on the Hualin River had already been burned by the army's Qingqi.
Now he was facing a large group of cavalry and couldn't escape. How could a two-legged one outrun a four-legged one? But if we talk about holding on, now my military morale has been lost, and when I retreated yesterday, I lost almost all my baggage under the pursuit of the cavalry. The whole army, from himself to every sergeant, is now hungry. If they really hold on, there is no need for the officers and soldiers to deliberately attack.
At that time, as long as I am trapped by the Hualin River for three to five days, I will starve to death even if I am hungry. Could it be that the bank of the Hualin River is really going to be the burial place for myself and the 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Chinese army? Thinking of this, Song Yan couldn't help but sigh. If he had known this, why did he do it in the first place? The moment he started collecting money, he already had no way of turning back.
In fact, Song Yan, who is now extremely desperate, does not know that he is waiting for reinforcements from Huguang. And Cao Rui, who was right opposite him, wasn't also waiting for the infantry coming down the river? Because according to his plan, the main force of the infantry that should have arrived yesterday was still missing. The Hualin water is still empty now, with not a single ship in sight.
Without the cooperation of the infantry, relying solely on the cavalry in his hands, although he was confident that he could defeat the enemy in front of him, what he wanted was not a defeat but a total annihilation. Otherwise, once those defeated armies are scattered and become bandits, it may take a lot of money to clear them up in the future. But the infantry was delayed, and now he could only act according to his temper and try every means to suppress the large rebel army in front of him, while sending people to seize the time to find them.
On this day, Cao Rui, who wanted to completely wipe out the rebels in front of him, was not in a hurry to launch an attack. On the one hand, they used bows, arrows and cannons to bombard the rebel positions in turn, gradually suppressing them towards the Hualin River. On the one hand, the reconnaissance cavalry went out in all directions to find the main infantry force whose whereabouts were unknown. As for the rebel cavalry on the other side of the river, there is no pontoon bridge anyway, so they can't get across even if they think about it. I have plenty of time.
Facing Cao Rui's pressing step by step, Song Yan blocked left and right, constantly trying to find ways to stabilize the morale of the army. Both sides are accumulating their final strength, waiting for the moment of the final decisive battle, and they are also looking forward to their own reinforcements. Especially Song Yan, even if Xie Jinchuan could not make it, he still hoped that his 30,000 vanguard troops and horses would turn around and rush back as soon as possible. Even if it’s only half the time, that’s fine.
But compared to Cao Rui, who had captured all Song Yan's luggage and was now very full. At this time, they did not know that the 30,000 troops and horses in their vanguard had already turned around and ran south after learning that the Chinese army was intercepted and intercepted by a cavalry brigade of the official army. He didn't come back to rescue him at all. The defender wanted to rescue him, but couldn't cross the river at all. Song Yan, who could only stare, was even more anxious in this regard.
On the first day, Cao Rui only launched a harassing attack to prevent the rebels from relaxing. At the same time, they continued to suppress the opponent with cannons and bows, but the main force did not launch an attack. In order to maintain the remaining strength of his troops and the will to persevere, Song Yan could only order the killing of all livestock, including the remaining war horses, to feed his men even though they were already running out of food.
Although he lost a lot of cavalry in yesterday's hard battle, he still had more than 200 cavalry left. Although all the baggage was lost, thousands of Guangnan West Road's native low draft horses were preserved. This saved him from having to kill the Tianzhu war horse that he couldn't put down because of its extremely spiritual nature. But if this continues, he doesn't know how many days the horse can be kept.
After touching his beloved war horse and looking at the horse meat sent by his own soldiers, Song Yan had no appetite at all. Yesterday, he sent people to float out to look for the thousands of cavalrymen in the rearguard, and headed towards Huguang to search, but so far there is no news at all. I don't know how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive, and how long I can hold on. The key is what Cao Rui on the opposite side is thinking.
The most critical thing is how long they have until the infantry that has not appeared on the battlefield can arrive. If their infantry had arrived first, they might have had no choice but to kill themselves to atone for their sins. As for surrendering, Song Yan had never thought about it. He knew that even if he surrendered, the court would not let him go. So many officials on Guangnan East Road died in their own hands.
It would be great if the imperial court did not destroy the nine clans of his own, but how could he forgive himself? Nowadays, when Song Yan closes his eyes, he sometimes thinks of his death in his own hands and the miserable state of his colleagues, which often makes him unable to close his eyes night after night. Especially in order to intimidate the officials on Guangnan East Road who had not surrendered at that time, they were skinned and hung on the official road outside Guangzhou Fucheng to show the miserable state of the pacifier.
And the tragic situation of those officials who were killed, who were rewarded to sergeants, and their families were ruined, always appeared in front of him involuntarily. Although he was not the instigator of all this, those officials died in his own hands after all. So many feudal officials died in his hands at once. The master in the capital probably hated himself so much that he gritted his teeth. He might even be above the Guilin County King.
Looking at the horse meat in the bowl, it looked fishy because there was no salt. Song Yan sighed, but in the end he refused to eat and gave the reward to his own soldiers. He stood up and looked at the large group of cavalry on the opposite side, as well as the several cannons that were constantly firing at them. However, he felt extremely agitated and kept pacing back and forth. And his appearance is almost the same as that of Cao Rui opposite him.
Cao Rui was naturally anxious because his infantry was still missing. His reconnaissance cavalry has yet to send back any news. Where did those bastards go? The ships that Zhao Wushu collected were all veteran sailors, and the ships were carefully selected and were extremely strong. What could go wrong in this situation? Could it be that his old subordinates were also infiltrated by the rebel king?
Thinking of this, Cao Rui shuddered in his heart. Although he has been an official for many years, experienced many wars, and the city he was raised in, he has always been calm and calm on the surface, but the anxiety in his heart is only known to him. What he is most worried about now is that there is a traitor among his subordinates. Consciously delaying the pace of the infantry advance will cost you your own life.
But those were all his old subordinates who had been with him for many years. Cao Rui really couldn't believe that there was really a weakling who was tempted by money among his subordinates. But the infantry's delay in arriving made him have to think this way. But in front of his subordinates, no matter how anxious he was in his heart, Cao Rui also knew that he had to appear calm on the surface.
