As night fell, the encirclement and annihilation battle on the southern battlefield finally came to an end.
Except for a few scattered small battlefields where dozens or hundreds of Qin troops were struggling to their death, the vast majority of Zhao troops were already cleaning the battlefield.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the final sound of fighting finally disappeared, and there was no Qin army standing on the battlefield.
These more than 10,000 old Qin people used their lives to hold back Zhao's 50,000-strong army for a whole day.
However, even though they had tried their best and paid a heavy price, it had to be said that their actions had almost minimal impact on the entire battlefield.
In the middle, an army of 150,000 men had already tightly clung to Meng Ao's headquarters.
At the same time, after consciously blocking the battle in Zifang City, Li Mu finally determined that the main force of the Qin army was not in the middle.
Even so, Li Mu had no intention of moving his troops from the middle road to the north road. Instead, he sent more cavalry troops to surround Meng Ao's troops from all directions.
The most important weak link, although the black flag of the Qin army is still flying, is actually under the control of the Zhao army.
Meng Ao, who was tired of running for his life, naturally knew nothing about this.
While the Qin army on the south road was being strangled step by step, Meng Ao's 20,000 elite army also rushed into Li Mu's encirclement step by step.
The only situation that was slightly better was the main force of the Qin Army on the North Road.
Because Li Mu had roughly determined the number of Qin troops coming from the middle and south roads, he naturally calculated the number of Qin troops coming from the north route.
Although the 120,000 Qin army was on the way to escape, only a mere 100,000 troops were pursuing them. They had to divide their forces to stop the attack. If the Qin army was really forced to have a head-on confrontation, this 100,000 army might not be possible. He is the opponent of the 120,000 Qin army who are eager to return home.
Therefore, Li Mu immediately adjusted the strategy of the army on the north route: sending out all the cavalry, both as a block and as a delay. He did not seek to block the Qin army, but to slow down the speed of the Qin army's return to the north, and all the infantry The soldiers no longer seek to fight the main force of the Qin army, but specifically consider eating the Qin army at the rear and weakening the Qin army's combat power as much as possible.
The goal is very clear, to delay the Qin army for one to two days, and after the troops on the middle and south roads have surrounded and annihilated the enemies in front of them, they will attack the main force of the Qin army.
It should be said that Li Mu's idea was good, but the commander of the Qin Army's North Route Army was not a fool.
After experiencing several sudden attacks and tail pursuits by Zhao Jun, the commander of the Qin Army's North Route Army had already discovered Zhao Jun's intentions.
Immediately, the Qin army also planned a plan.
Didn't you send a small group of troops to harass our army and delay our army's actions?
OK, I also trade small stocks against small stocks. After encountering an obstruction, they immediately sent a small group of troops to meet them and fight with Zhao Jun. The large troops continued to withdraw northward, giving Zhao Jun no chance to delay them.
As for Zhao Jun’s pursuit at the rear, that’s even simpler. Don’t you want to eat part of me? Why don't I just cut it for you.
Yes, faced with the Zhao army following them, the Qin army directly resorted to peeling off their skin and docking their tails to survive.
In this way, the Zhao army's troops could hardly affect the Qin army's escape speed. Of course, the Qin army also paid a certain price while peeling off its skin and docking its tail.
After all, those with this skin and this solid tail are all soldiers of the Qin Army.
But no matter what, the Qin army still managed to escape a distance that surprised Li Mu at a very small cost.
Seeing that there are less than three days left to Fangling, if the tactics are not changed, Zhao Jun may have to watch the Qin army return to Hanzhong.
But how can Zhao Jun, who only has a mere 100,000 troops, change his formation?
A clever woman can't make a meal without rice. Only by increasing troops can this situation be changed, and only by increasing troops in large numbers.
As night fell, the Qin army's tactics and requests for additional troops were also passed to Li Mu, who was commanding the operations of the Central Army.
Facing the North Route Army's request, Li Mu was quite helpless. He had no troops at all to mobilize. Even if he did, they were too far away to be of any use.
Now that the encirclement and annihilation battle in the middle was coming to an end, Li Mu did not want to give up Meng Ao, the Qin general, because of the so-called main force of the Qin army in the North route.
As for the army on the south road, they had already completed the encirclement and annihilation of the Qin army on the south road. However, to get to the north road from the south, they had to climb several mountains and it was difficult to get there in a short time.
This is why Li Mu asked the Northern Route Army to delay the Qin Army for one to two days as much as possible.
In desperation, Li Mu still ordered the South Route Army to go north immediately and rush to the outskirts of Fangling within two days to cooperate with the North Route Army to encircle and annihilate the Qin Army.
Of course, at the same time, Li Mu also led the army in the middle to pursue Meng Ao's troops in front of him overnight.
To be precise, it should be Li Mu who led Zhao Jun and drove Meng Ao's troops into the encirclement.
Zhao Jun's overnight pursuit was quickly detected by Meng Ao's scouts.
Meng Ao could only lead his army to continue fleeing towards Shuzhong. It is a pity that Zhao Jun's overnight pursuit did not make Meng Ao feel abnormal. After all, the closer to Shuzhong, the more anxious Zhao Jun was, which was as it should be.
Even from Meng Ao's point of view, Zhao Jun's overnight pursuit showed that his role as the main force had achieved good results.
In this way, with the cooperation of both parties, the nearly 20,000 men under Meng Ao finally rushed into Li Mu's trap step by step without hesitation.
After a full day and night of running around, under the piecemeal attack of Li Mu's Zhao army, Meng Ao's troops were reduced sharply from 20,000 to 12,000.
Fortunately, there is a weak point ahead.
Although the weak pass is weak, it is still a pass.
In Meng Ao's mind, he had attracted Zhao Jun for enough time, and the main army should be able to enter Fangling in two days.
It can be said that he and the Southern Route Army have completed the cover task excellently, and it is time to consider their own evacuation.
Looking at the black military flag hanging high above the juncture, Meng Ao also let out a long sigh of relief.
"Order: The whole army speeds up, the target is weak." Meng Ao immediately issued a military order.
Meng Ao knew very well that as long as he entered a weak pass and divided two thousand people to guard here, it would not be a problem to delay Zhao Jun for at least three to five days, not to mention completely blocking the Zhao army.
Three to five days were enough for him to completely throw away the Zhao army behind him and enter the middle of Shu.
Thinking of this, Meng Ao couldn't help but become a little excited. XiuShu.com
However, at this moment, the messengers were still conveying the order to speed up the army, but bursts of beating drums came from the rear, north, and south of Meng Ao's headquarters.
Meng Ao frowned immediately.
"Report." The voices of several scouts immediately sounded around Meng Ao.
"Speak." Meng Ao ordered immediately.
"General, a Zhao army is coming from the north. The number is about 30,000. They have made contact with the scouts."
"General, a Zhao army is coming from the south. Their number is about 30,000, and they are rushing towards our central army."
"General, the Zhao army in the rear has sent about 10,000 cavalry and tens of thousands of infantry. They are pressing towards our army. The distance is less than two miles." Xiu Shuzhu.
Three pieces of news came and the situation almost took a turn for the worse. Once surrounded by Zhao Jun on three sides, everyone knows what that means.
No one cares about where Zhao Jun came from.
There is only one thing on everyone's mind - what to do?
Not only the ordinary soldiers of the Qin army, but also the generals, captains and captains around them were panicked for a while.
Although they all knew that they were going to attract firepower for the army on the north road, but seeing their own weakness right in front of them and the hope of survival right in front of them, even the steely Qin Army was unwilling to do so!
That's how people are. They feel calm even though they know they are going to die.
What I'm most afraid of is that if there is hope for life again, I will feel panic because of worrying about gains and losses.
Fortunately, Meng Ao was experienced in many battles, and even when surrounded from three sides, he still remained calm enough.
"Don't panic!" Meng Ao roared immediately.
Then he turned his head and looked at the Zhao Jun Dajun that suddenly appeared on the left and right wings, and then looked at the weak pass not far away.
Immediately, Meng Ao told decisively: "Zhao's army is still far away, which is enough for our army to withdraw from the weak pass."
But one sentence quickly gathered the swaying military spirit, and then Meng Ao drew out the sword from his waist, pointed towards the weak pass in the distance, and said: "The whole army listens to the order, speed up and return to the pass! "
The word "hui" is used very cleverly.
It makes people unconsciously think of going home.
No need to ask where home is, it is the weak point in front of you.
Obviously, Meng Ao wanted to stimulate the homesickness of the Qin army soldiers, so that the army could return to the weak pass faster.
Yes, the situation was extremely critical. Facing Zhao's cavalry, the Qin soldiers did not have much time advantage at all even though they were closer to the weak point.
Only by stimulating the desire for life in the hearts of the Qin soldiers can there be a slim chance of running back to the weak point before the Zhao cavalry catches up.
And this is also the last glimmer of hope for Meng Ao's troops.
Following Meng Ao's order, the Qin army instantly rushed towards the weak pass.
At first, the Qin army could maintain a tight formation, but as the sound of the Zhao army's horse hooves came, the Qin army's soldiers finally couldn't help but speed up.
Then came the second, third...
Soon, the Qin army's front became uneven.
Not only that, some of the officers riding war horses obviously also wanted to survive, so they accelerated and ran with their own soldiers on war horses.
It doesn't matter if he runs away, the Qin army's front line is completely collapsed.
Seeing that his captains and officers had already run away in advance, the commanders and commanders below began to speed up regardless of the situation.
As the lower-level officers left their posts without permission, the Qin army officers and soldiers below suddenly became even more chaotic.
Seeing the horses galloping away in front of them, the only way the Qin army soldiers could think of to speed up was to abandon their helmets and armor.
Weapons were the first to be given up, followed closely by helmets and armor.
The tens of thousands of troops were completely defeated in the blink of an eye.
Now, even Meng Ao can no longer control it. The only hope is to rush into the weak pass and reorganize the army.
Fortunately, as the army approaches, the weak pass over there seems to have felt the urgency of the Qin army to go home. With a creaking sound, the gate of the weak pass has slowly opened!
only......
