The deputy general and a group of guards in front of him fought desperately to clear the way. Xie Chong rushed to the woods to the south, only to see several generals leading thousands of archers and firing arrows at the Tang army. There was a large pile of corpses scattered on the ground. It was obvious that the sudden attack had killed many of his soldiers.
"Come out quickly! Why are you still lingering here?" Xie Gui said loudly.
Under the strict order of the commander, the Han soldiers gathered here and rushed out of the forest without fear of death. However, the Tang army seemed to be afraid of their large number and began to retreat slowly. The Han army shot and killed hundreds of Tang soldiers, but other than that There will be no achievements beyond that.
Seeing that he could successfully escape from the danger, before Xie Gui could take a breath, he suddenly heard the report and the Tang Army cavalry that appeared on the east side of the valley suddenly appeared a hundred steps away.
After this sharp blade disrupted the Han army's formation, they clashed in two rounds and killed thousands of Han soldiers before retreating. When the Han army was panicking, they quietly turned around and ran south. Xie Gui couldn't help but cursed angrily. , and then hurriedly set up the defense line, but the Tang Army cavalry disappeared inexplicably, and together with the Tang Army archers who had just retreated, they hid in the forest elegantly.
By this time, Xie Gui finally understood that the Tang army had adopted this extremely vulgar and annoying style of play. Who in the Han army was not familiar with it? But this time the tactics were obviously much smarter than before. In addition to taking advantage of the cavalry's flexibility to avoid frontal confrontation, they also took advantage of the darkness of the night to use forest grass and infantry to coordinate a sneak attack. Xie Gui felt like he was getting choked up in his throat at this time. Like a fly, he was so aggrieved and uncomfortable that he could not speak.
But after understanding this, Xie Gui felt a little more at ease. Since the Tang army did not dare to fight head-on, it meant that the troops were insufficient, at least not as many as his own men. So he immediately ordered the entire army not to disperse anymore, and to all of them. Shrinking together, the archers were guarding all around. Once the enemy appeared, they would shoot them with arrows, and they all slowly retreated southward.
This actually worked. The more than 10,000 Han troops gathered together had to have at least three to four thousand archers. The powerful firepower network was enough to suppress the opponent. After the Tang army made two attack attempts, they obviously suffered some small losses. Unfortunately, it soon completely died down.
However, Xie Gui's arrangement of troops effectively avoided excessive casualties caused by his respective breakthroughs, but it made the Han army exhausted. Naturally, more than 10,000 people move slowly, but how can the withdrawal of troops be so delayed?
Every time they were delayed in the dangerous situation, all the soldiers had to be more worried. At this time, they all crowded together with their eyes wide open. No one dared to relax their vigilance, and their mentality was extremely broken. In the end, they survived until dawn. Han The soldiers finally withdrew from the valley, and they were as tired as dogs.
After dawn, the light was bright. Fortunately, the soldiers and horses of the Tang army who attacked at night did not follow and pursue them. They had already disappeared. At this time, not even half a person could be found. The Han army arrived at the flat official road leading to the south, and the crisis was temporarily relieved.
Xie Gui quickly ordered the entire army to speed up and march south. Since the commander gave the order, he was finally able to run wildly. The Han soldiers rushed towards the official road without looking back. At this time, it seemed that they had abandoned the fatigue accumulated for many days. Xie Gui and his army actually ran in one breath. After hundreds of miles, it was not until the afternoon that the order was given to take a short rest.
The lieutenant general of the army counted the losses of the soldiers, and found that there were more than 3,000 casualties and casualties that night. All the equipment and baggage were discarded, which is unimaginable. A rough estimate showed that the Tang army also suffered more than 1,000 casualties in this battle. Xie Gui ordered the dozens of captured wounded soldiers of the Tang Army to be gathered together for questioning. These Wuping soldiers were all seriously injured and were captured because they could not escape.
While Xie Gui was interrogating them, several Han soldiers arrived carrying a corpse. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Xie Gui frowned and was about to ask a question. Suddenly he saw the face of the corpse clearly. The bloodless face was Xie Chong's face. The stab wound on the neck was extremely eye-catching. It had been cut into seven or eight points, and now only a little bit of hanging flesh was left connected to the body. It was really shocking.
"What's going on? This...is Ah Chong?!" Xie Gui suddenly took a breath of air and said in shock.
"Yes, we found General Chong when we were collecting the bodies of our brothers... His throat was slit, and the body was in the grass, so it is not easy to find." The Han soldier carrying the body had a grimace. road.
Xie Gui was stunned, and suddenly remembered that Xie Chong slept at the edge of the forest on the north side before going to bed. He said that the grass there was softer and he did not want to sleep in the forest and be protected by soldiers. Now, my throat was cut in my sleep.
"How could this happen? Ah Chong, you are one of my Xie family members. Why were you killed in your sleep? You are so stupid! You are so stupid!" He sighed, but did not shed a single tear for this clan brother.
Xie Gui was depressed. In fact, for him, it was nothing for a cynical and evil guy like Xie Chong to die. But the problem was that he had secretly thought about it before. Since Xie Chong was drunk and bold enough to propose it first at the military meeting, That just allowed him and Shao Tingxuan, who led the "suspicious soldiers" to go north, to shoulder the blame for the defeat...
It doesn't matter if Shao Tingjuan doesn't know whether to live or die at the moment, but Xie Chong's death would be a troublesome thing, because after returning to the court, there must be someone alive to take the blame, right?
After thinking about it, Xie Gui was upset and had no other explanation. He finally decided to still put all the blame on Xie Chong, but he would have to talk to the generals later, especially his subordinates. The older generals must let these old stubborns agree with them, saying that Xie Chong knew that he could not escape the blame for the defeat, so he committed suicide by committing suicide. It cannot be said that he died in battle, because death in battle is still considered a little bit. Kudos.
Xie Gui was also mentally prepared. If there were a few Han generals who refused to cooperate with the lie, he would have to find a way to kill those disobedient ones before returning to Prince Xing's palace, so that he could freely justify himself in front of Emperor Liu Cheng. .
The decision was made, Xie Gui quickly ordered someone to build a simple coffin and put Xie Chong's body in it. The soldiers' bodies can be buried on the spot, but Xie Chong's body must be taken with him, which can also be used as evidence. Although the huge wound on his neck is obviously not consistent with death by suicide, it can be easily explained, such as the swords intersecting in the rebel army, or simply it was caused by the Tang army's last stab.
Turning his head, Xie Gui continued to interrogate the dozens of captured Wuping soldiers. These soldiers were all seriously injured and covered in blood. They were forced to kneel in a row with their legs bent on the ground by the Han army. Some of them were already lying on the ground and just hanging on for breath. They were already dying.
Xie Gui walked up to a Wuping soldier who seemed not too seriously injured and looked normal, and with a cold look on his face, he kicked his legs while he was kneeling on the ground with his toes. The soldier immediately screamed in pain, his teeth chattered and he sucked in cold air. It turned out that he had injured his leg, and there was a large hole bleeding profusely on his right leg.
"If you answer a question from Pontus, but if there is even half of a sentence that is untrue, I will chop off your head immediately." Xie Gui said solemnly.
