Peng Chao's eyes widened and his fists were clenched tightly, but his body was shaking slightly. Even now, he still doesn't believe Baoerji's words, even if this person was by his side many years ago. The undercover agents he bribed have never let him down in these years.
Peng Chao said in a deep voice: "Is the Jin army really that strong? I still don't believe it. Have you been deceived by them? Judging from your situation, the Jin people still use the terrain to ambush, which is nothing special."
Baoerji sighed: "Even if they fight head-on out of the grass, they are very powerful. Usually when we face the general Jin army, two thousand cavalry are enough to defeat their ten thousand infantry, but this time at least we have More than three times, more than 2,000 cavalry fought against their more than 1,000 infantry. It was a real head-on battle, and there was no advantage at all."
Peng Chao gritted his teeth: "That's because your attack was not resolute enough. You were facing them head-on without outflanking the two wings. Of course you suffered a loss. If it were me who fought, I wouldn't be like this."
Baoerji shook his head: "It's not that Shao Bao has never attacked, and Kuvolidu also attacked, but the tactics of these Jin troops are completely different from before. They can use flying spears to attack our cavalry, otherwise It’s our light cavalry, and I’m afraid even the Xianbei people’s armored cavalry can’t resist it. I haven’t figured out how to crack this strategy yet, Lord, we’d better retreat first.”
Peng Chao was upset and waved his hand: "No, my 60,000-strong army retreated without a fight. How can I explain to the king when we go back? After all, we have fought bloody and hard for the past year and finally obtained the land of Huaibei. Can’t we just give up?”
Baoerji solemnly said: "My lord, a general needs to know how to advance and retreat. The difficulty is that you will lose everything if you don't know how to advance or retreat and just fight hard. If you retreat now, at least you can save your entire army and you can come back again in the future. Again. The responsibility for retreating can be put on top of the difficulty of annihilating the whole army. His large cavalry is gone, so our troops, which are mainly infantry, will naturally be unable to hold on. The king will not blame you."
Peng Chao shook his head bitterly: "It's not a question of whether the king is to blame or not. I have given Wang many suggestions in the past few years, which is to pacify the Huaihe River and drink from the Yangtze River. Now that this goal is half achieved, should we just give up? Then? Even if the king wants to destroy Jin in the future, I'm afraid he won't give me another chance."
Baoerji sighed: "This plan is not as good as changing quickly. If the Jin army has the same combat effectiveness as before, then there is no problem with my lord's plan, but now the Jin people have trained such a powerful army, and our army has lost its cavalry." , If you want to face it head-on, there is really no chance of winning. With more than a thousand people, how can our army resist if a large group of people follows up?"
Peng Chao rolled his eyes and suddenly laughed: "Perhaps these more than a thousand people are just the most elite troops among the so-called Beifu soldiers. Not the tens of thousands of Beifu soldiers have such strength. Aren't you the same? Later, when it was difficult for them to ambush, some of the ambush soldiers were just blacksmiths with sledgehammers in their hands. It can be seen that not all Beifu soldiers are as well-equipped as these more than a thousand people."
Baoerji nodded: "This is possible. However, when Ji Ji was ambushed later, the slave had already left the battlefield and did not see it with his own eyes. But it is hard not to lie about this matter. And It seems that many of the lightly-armed troops who lured us into the battlefield have buns, and their equipment is mainly short weapons such as swords, not heavy armor and long spears."
Peng Chao laughed: "That's it. Not all of these Beifu soldiers are well-equipped and have superb combat skills. They just put together more than a thousand elite soldiers to show off. They want to scare us away. If that's really the case. Many armies have such equipment and combat capabilities, why not bring them all out? With five thousand such armies, there is no need to set up any ambush, and it will be difficult to defeat them head-on, right?"
Bao Erji had a slanderous smile on his face: "My lord, that's right. That's about it. However, it may be that it's hard to take credit this time. Our army went too fast. Xie Xuan had no time to follow up with the army, so he could only let the vanguard Let’s go first. Master, please don’t be careless.”
Peng Chao waved his hand: "No, if it's just the vanguard, what about the blacksmiths with hammers? I'm afraid the Beifu soldiers only have good equipment for these more than a thousand people, and so do you. The heavy armor these people wear, I The army's arrows cannot penetrate, but they can still fight with their bodies full of arrows. It is probably because their armors are supplied to these people, so that others can only wear leather armor and hold sledgehammers."
At this point, Peng Chao sneered: "We were almost deceived by Xie Xuan. With his little strength, he wanted to scare us off by destroying Ji Di. We can't fall for his deception, so our plan remains unchanged. Continue south. Capture Guangling. However, to be on the safe side, we set up camp here first and wait to see if the enemy changes."
Baoerji curled his lips and said seriously: "Commander, there is one more thing. I'm afraid you may take it to heart. Even if we want to continue fighting, I'm afraid the morale of the soldiers is not enough to support it. Regardless of whether the Jin army is If you are trying to make a fool of yourself, it is best for us to return to Yanzhou first."
Peng Chao's expression changed and he said in a deep voice: "What do you mean? Didn't I strictly block the news of the defeat of the former army? You also came back quietly dressed as a messenger. Who would know that it is difficult for the army to be defeated?"
Baoerji sighed: "You ordered the news to be blocked, but that was before Ju Nan came back. Ju Nan came back in embarrassment with dozens of guards and entered through the gate. The news couldn't be blocked. Come on, everyone in the whole army knows him. If he returns in such a disastrous defeat, then the front army is probably defeated. Just before you convene the military meeting, rumors are already spreading in the camp, even here in the Chinese army. Spread!"
Peng Chao was so angry that he jumped up from the commander's chair, took out the sword from his waist, and waved it in the air: "Asshole, send the order quickly, anyone who spreads rumors in the army, kill him! Let the generals preach in each camp , the front army is fine, our army is camping here as its back-up."
Baoerji shook his head: "It's too late. Everyone saw how difficult it was and couldn't help it. My lord, you have been a general for many years. You should know that the morale of the army cannot be violated. Fighting with such a panic-stricken army is like driving The sheep enters the tiger's mouth."
Peng Chao's forehead was covered with beads of sweat, and he sighed after a long time: "This bastard is not only incompetent in fighting, but he has also shaken the morale of our army. He should be killed!"
Bao Erji smiled slightly: "Lord, for the current plan, we should quickly move closer to the pontoon bridge above the Huai River. As long as the pontoon bridge is there, our army's rear path will be guaranteed, and then retreat slowly. Only in this way can the entire army , as for the future, it’s only a long time to come!”
Peng Chao nodded and was about to speak. Suddenly, there was a rush of footsteps outside the tent, and a scout rushed in with a panicked look on his face. He cried on the ground and reported: "Something bad has happened, Marshal. The Jin cavalry has unexpectedly attacked our Huaihe River." At the water crossing, more than ten pontoon bridges have been burned, and our army's retreat is blocked!"
