"The general's order is passed down: The army bypasses the camp, heads south at full speed, and stays at the base of the camp as the rear of the entire army." Zhao Wei announced Zhao Kuo's general order rather tragically.
"General, the general is injured." The old doctor quickly interrupted.
"You cannot disobey the general's wishes." Zhao Weihu replied with tears in his eyes. He knew the general's temperament. If the general woke up and found out that he was injured and delayed the army's journey, he would kill him. Even sadder.
"General, please leave it to the old gentleman." Zhao Wei bowed deeply to the old doctor.
"General, please get up quickly." The old doctor hurriedly helped Zhao Wei up. Although he was not a soldier, looking at the general's bravery, he obviously understood that the general did not want to delay the entire army because of himself, so he immediately He sighed lightly and replied, "I'll just do my best."
Although the generals were not surprised by the general order to withdraw south, they did not delay at all and immediately left as a team after receiving the order.
The series of actions of the Zhao army here were naturally visible to the Qin army.
After Wang Hao learned that Zhao Jun had turned south, he almost broke the railing - because before, he had roughly learned from the cheers of Zhao Jun that Zhao Kuo might still be alive, but Wang Hao But he did not order the Qin army to pursue him because of this.
Because in Wang Lu's opinion, even if he was hit by a three-stone strong bow, he wouldn't be able to survive for long, and at worst he would be seriously injured. Serious injuries require medical treatment, and medical treatment requires a safe and quiet atmosphere. Here, Wang Hao has already obtained the battle report of the barrier battle. The 50,000 reinforcements led by Wang Qishuo will arrive in a few hours.
In other words, the tens of thousands of Zhao troops in front of them will be heavily surrounded in a few hours. And this group of Zhao troops who were about to be besieged were really not worth exchanging their lives for.
However, he did not expect that Zhao Kuo's sense of smell was so sensitive that he dragged his seriously injured body and decisively ordered all his troops to withdraw south.
When the general was seriously injured, only Zhao Kuo could ignore his serious injury and order the army to retreat southward. Only Zhao Kuo's general order could mobilize tens of thousands of Zhao's elite troops. If it were any other person, even if Lian Po suddenly appeared in the army, he would probably be unable to move.
Zhao Jun's escape to the south undoubtedly caused him to lose an excellent opportunity to divide and encircle Zhao Jun. At the same time, after tens of thousands of troops joined the army on the southern route, it will inevitably greatly increase the difficulty of encirclement and annihilation in the south.
Of course, it is useless to regret now. Seeing that Zhao Jun has bypassed his stronghold, and the soldiers in the stronghold are already ready to cut off the rear, sending troops to pursue him at this time is tantamount to attacking his stronghold. , What they gained were only the soldiers left behind by the Zhao army, but what they lost were their own elite soldiers.
It’s not necessary.
Now that the barrier on the west bank of Danshui has been occupied, as long as the north road is firmly defended, Zhao Jun will have no possibility of escaping. All he has to do is advance slowly and slowly wear away Zhao Jun's grain. A great victory is in sight. There is really no need to fight for it. Some took risks for small profits and lost the lives of their own soldiers.
Therefore, under the setting sun, the Zhao army had less than 40,000 troops left, carrying broken military flags, and slowly retreated southward. The setting sun was like blood, and the figure of the Zhao army was stretched.
A bloody battle ended with both sides losing.
The Qin army on the north route had a total of 150,000 troops on horseback and infantry. After the battle, there were only less than 60,000 horses left. Nearly 100,000 troops were lost on this bloody battlefield. Most of them were the Qin army that had finally developed. The cavalry suffered such huge losses that even Wang Hao, who was used to seeing casualties, couldn't help but be speechless.
However, Wang Hao believes that it is worth it. The loss of less than 100,000 troops successfully shattered the Zhao army's attempt to decisively fight in northern Xinjiang, successfully blocked the Zhao army's breakout route, and thus completely sealed the more than 300,000 Zhao army in the "Light Wolf City" and "Light Wolf City". In the triangle formation composed of "Danshui" and "Jie Pai Ling".
After this battle, the strength of the Qin army dropped sharply from the nearly 500,000 troops at the beginning of the battle to about 300,000 today.
Its specific distribution is: in the north, Wang Lu's troops have 60,000 troops, the king's cavalry reinforcements have 50,000 troops, the border guards and Guanglang City guards have 10,000 troops, the barrier defenders have 25,000 troops, and the main and south sides Zhao Jun's fortress entangled more than 150,000 people in Bai Qi's main camp (including the troops who received reinforcements from Jiepai).
As for the Zhao army, a total of more than 120,000 troops were deployed on the northern battlefield. Less than 40,000 troops returned south, and only less than 20,000 cavalry were left. The most elite armored cavalry, which spent countless manpower and material resources, were almost completely wiped out in this battle.
More importantly, Zhao Kuo, the general of Zhao State, was sneak attacked by the Qin army's cold arrows and almost died on the battlefield.
At this point, the strength of the Zhao army has dropped sharply from the nearly 500,000 troops at the beginning of the war (including 100,000 young men) to the current 280,000 infantry and horses.
Among them, nearly 100,000 troops are in Daliang Mountain, and there are still more than 17,000 troops in the Bailishi Great Wall defense line (including the troops who escaped from the barrier). On the real front line, the South Road Fortress was also destroyed by the Qin army. Only less than 120,000 troops were left, and most of them were filled by young men. Plus the 40,000 people who returned to the south, the Zhao army was It's all about facing the Qin army.
After more than ten days of fighting, when the Qin and Zhao armies were fighting each other, their battle losses were almost the same.
In fact, in the two barrier battles and the just-concluded offensive to the north, Zhao Jun actually took some advantage.
But in the southern battlefield, Zhao Jun has been in absolute passivity since the Wangqi troops went out of bounds to lead the surprise attack. Even though Zhao Kuo left countless fortresses for defense, due to the lack of troops in the south and weak combat power Because of this, even if it occupies a favorable geographical location, it will never be an opponent of the elite Qin army. It’s normal to suffer such a big loss after being pressured so hard.
Of course, this battle loss ratio is also in line with the expectations of both parties.
Even for Zhao Kuo, such battle losses were a bit unexpected. After all, more than 100,000 of the troops he brought to the west bank of Danshui were pure parallel imports. With an army of 400,000, against the Qin army of 500,000, the battle loss ratio is almost the same, which is already a big victory.
Of course, these 100,000 young men did not actually participate in many battles. In addition to pursuit battles, they were defensive battles for barriers and fortresses. The fortress battle in the south was not actually launched on a large scale.
As for the Qin army, such a result is naturally acceptable. After all, his army also has tens of thousands of new soldiers from Hedong. From their perspective, although they are only 400,000 to 400,000, after a series of operations , although he lost hundreds of thousands of horses, he left Zhao Jun's main force of 400,000 troops on the west bank of Danshui.
