Sang Yang smiled and said, "We don't know if Dong Zhuo will attack the rebels alone."

"Ma Teng must have crossed the river this morning, otherwise he would have done it too obvious."

"The rebels will definitely retreat because they have several channels of information. If they don't retreat, are they waiting for our 30,000 cavalry to attack them?"

"The rebels are most likely to retreat south. Because the Qiang and Hu cavalry who were thunder in June will appear along the Wei River at any time and can be used to meet them. The possibility of going north is the smallest, because there are many mountainous areas in the north and the road is difficult to walk. The infantry will seriously delay the rebels' retreat speed, and tens of thousands of cavalry are chasing them behind them, so the rebels are easily attacked."

"As for the Duwei Xianyufu, Xianyufu, did not arrive at the State of Ji as scheduled, Li Zhonglang did not arrive at Qianyeling, the Taiwei had already thought of an excuse. He said that he had temporarily changed the plan and had sent you to cross the Wei River south, advance along the south bank of the Wei River, and attack Chen Cang."

"Even if the Taiwei of Dong Zhuo and Ma Teng gave orders, they would refuse to go north to Duyang on the grounds that Li Zhonglang did not arrive, but the two of them had a bad relationship, but they had a good relationship with Beigong Boyu in private and would not take this opportunity to chase him. What's more, Beigong Boyu still has 50,000 troops in his hands."

Li Hong chuckled softly and said, "The excuse of Grandmaster Taiwei is really good. We are at the south bank of Weishui? Haha... Who would go to the south bank of Weishui to find us? Grandmaster Taiwei is really a good idea."

Sang Yang said worriedly: "But this trick won't take a few days. As long as our troops arrive at Chen Cang and you have not arrived yet, the nonsense of the Grand Marshal's words may be..."

"When the lies are intercepted, and then Beigong Boyu receives the news, it will take more than ten days no matter how you calculate it? In another five or six days, Beigong Boyu may be solved." Li Hong said confidently, "By the way, Lord Sang, eat something, we are about to rush to the road."

Sang Yang looked at the black cake in his hand with a frown, not knowing how to swallow it. Li Hong and Zhao Yun ate it in a few bites.

"Li Zhonglang, you have been eating this all the time?"

"Yes." Li Hong said, "We ate this thing from Youzhou to Jizhou, and from Jizhou to Xiliang. The troops are very tight. It is already quite good for everyone to eat this every day. At least it is much better than the troops who eat two meals a day."

Zhao Yun took out a piece of dried meat pie from his backpack and handed it to the Sangyang, and said apologetically: "Our conditions cannot be compared with the Taiwei Mansion, so you will only have a few days for the time being. When this battle is over, we may be able to seize some spoils and then we will give it to the adults."

Sang Yang held a hard black cake in one hand and a fishy dried meat cake in the other hand, almost spitting out all the meal last night. He was born in a family of officials and had been frugal since he was a child. He had never eaten such things. He stared blankly at the things in his hand, but he couldn't eat them and dared not throw them away.

Zhao Yun saw his embarrassment and hurriedly took back all the things in his hand.

Sang Yang saw that Li Hong had already led his horse to the river, he hesitated for a moment, looked at Zhao Yun, and asked in a low voice: "You sir, have been eating this?"

"Yes." Zhao Yun replied, "He has three meals a day, and it has never changed since the day I followed him."

"You have been fighting all the time? This thing is the dry food of the cavalry, and you only carry it when fighting. You have been fighting all the time?" Sang Yang asked in disbelief.

"I heard from the old man that since he returned to Lu Longsai to serve in the army, he has been fighting and has never stopped. I started fighting with the adults in November last year, and I couldn't even think about it." Zhao Yun smiled, "But follow the adults and fight with the adults, it's even more enjoyable."

"Li Zhonglang is so saving, must be a little saving? Does he have a family?" Sang Yang asked casually.

Zhao Yun looked at him and laughed out loud, "My lord is telling a joke. My adult never takes his salary. He is left to the wounded barracks to improve food or reward soldiers who have made meritorious services. Otherwise, he is just a military salary. He never takes salary anyway. He often says that he is alone and it is useless to ask for money. He just needs to eat enough every day. When he was in the Xianbei period, he lost his past memories, and he forgot all the past, and even his father and mother, so he has neither relatives nor wife."

Sang Yang asked disbelief: "Li Zhonglang never spends money?"

Zhao Yun smiled and said, "Often he doesn't need money. He stays in the military camp every day, and there is no place to spend money."

"Did Li Zhonglang know about war?"

Zhao Yun thought for a while and nodded. He looked at the mulberry sheep and asked, "Do you really not eat it?"

Sang Yang glanced at the dried meat patty in disgust, swallowed a few mouthfuls, shook his head, and said firmly: "Don't eat it."

＝＝＝

In the morning, Dong Zhuo led his troops to Luofengling again.

Bian Zhang and his troops have evacuated. The battlefield is full of corpses of soldiers on both sides and remains of war horses.

Dong Zhuo ordered his men to immediately bury the bodies, clean the battlefield, and clean up the spoils.

"How much do we lose?" Dong Zhuo sat on a tree stump and asked Li Jue.

"Return to the general, 3,224 soldiers were killed and more than 600 were injured." Li Jue said loudly, "More than 7,800 enemies were killed..."

Dong Zhuo waved his hand and interrupted him, laughing: "It's not bad, it's not bad... Where are the reinforcements? Can they cross the Dushui River?"

"Ma Teng's troops have crossed the river and are rushing to Qianye Ridge. With his bad temper, he probably won't come to pay homage to the Lord." Guo Si said.

"Where is that leopard?" Dong Zhuo asked strangely, "Where is his troops?"

No one knows.

At noon, Li Su rushed to Luofengling.

After listening to Li Su's narration, Dong Zhuo didn't say anything for a while. Li Su didn't dare to say anything. To be honest, he didn't do this as Dong Zhuo's wishes. He was a little afraid that Dong Zhuo would lose his temper and would beat him dozens of times.

Dong Zhuo stood up, patted Li Su on the shoulder, and praised: "Shaoshen (Li Su's name), fortunately you are smart, so you ran to see the Taiwei immediately. Although we did not achieve our goal, at least we knew that Li Zhonglang was unwilling to offend us and did not expose our shortcomings in front of the Taiwei. In other words, Li Zhonglang can still win over and use it."

Li Su was afraid that he would say the wrong thing and did not express his opinion.

"Running Du Yang?" Dong Zhuo walked back and forth on the grass with his hands on his back, then stood in front of Li Su and said, "The Grand Marshal asked us to attack Du Yang? Are the Grand Marshal confused? After we attacked the rebel camp, there were heavy casualties. Where can we have troops to attack Du Yang? Ma Teng is late, and Li Zhonglang still has no trace. We should let them attack Du Yang. What do you think?"

Li Su nodded and said carefully: "The general is very reasonable. We have fought a battle and we need to rest for a few days. Then we will send troops to the city of Qiguo to see where the Taiwei can help."

Dong Zhuo laughed and said sarcastically: "Old Bian has already run back to Liangzhou, so the Taiwei no longer needs help."

Soon, Li Ru, who was stationed in Meiyang City, sent someone to send news. Beigong Boyu retreated.

The next morning, the Grand Marshal Zhang Wen sent someone to send an order to cancel the plan to attack Du Yang. Dong Zhuo's troops and Ma Teng's troops immediately went to Meiguo City.

＝＝＝

Meiyang is about one hundred miles away from Meiguo City, and Xiaohuaili is nearly two hundred miles away from Meiguo City. Han Sui's troops and Zhou Shen's Northern Army set up camps in almost the same time. Before Zhou Shen's troops arrived at Wugong City, Han Sui's troops had already left Meiguo City.

Bian Zhang's cavalry rushed to the foot of Qishan at dusk and met with the main force.

Han Sui looked at Bian Zhang who was dying and sleeping, and his heart was as painful as he was.

In the middle of the night, Bian Zhang slowly woke up in a sad and sad sound of flute.

Han Sui sat quietly in the dark night, bathed in the faint moonlight, silently playing the flute, thinking about his thoughts.

"If Zhang Wen's Jizhou reinforcements did not arrive in time, if Beigong Boyu did not delay the meeting time, we would not be so embarrassed, and you would not be so seriously injured." Han Sui grabbed Bian Zhang's hand and said slowly.

Bian Zhang sighed in pain and whispered: "Wen Yue, don't doubt Bo Yu, our friends for many years, don't you have any trust at all?"

Han Sui stared blankly at the dim candlelight and did not make any noise for a long time.

"Listen to Yang Qiu, Cheng Yi and others said, are you planning to fight Zhang Wen in Qishan?"

"June thunder is coming soon." Han Sui nodded and said, "After his 30,000 cavalry arrived, we have a 100,000 army, and we can fight a decisive battle with the enemy. Now Zhang Wen's more than 100,000 troops have all chased him. If we don't fight and stop them in Qishan, we may find it difficult for us to defend Hanyang County after retreating to Xiliang."

Bian Zhang closed his eyes and said slowly: "Now the troops are in panic and their morale is low. At this time, the decisive battle with Zhang Wen in Qishan and Fengxiang areas is the only way to hit the enemy."

Han Sui lamented and said in an almost desperate tone: "Old Bian, if we don't fight, we will retreat quickly all the way, and our morale will become lower and lower. Han* cannot defend. Hanyang cannot defend, Xiliang's gate will open, and Zhang Wen's more than 100,000 troops will rush in. At that time, it may be difficult for us to find an opportunity to hit Zhang Wen hard. After Zhang Wen occupied Hanyang, he would immediately rely on Zhou Shen's Northern Army and Li Hong's Jizhou Army to conquer and regain the lost territory. However, we are not strong enough, so we can only give up the Xiliang counties that we occupied before, retreat to Jincheng, barely stabilize our position, and temporarily stay in a corner."

Bian Zhang opened his eyes and said weakly: "We just lost for a while, lost thousands of people, and Zhang Wen only increased 50,000 people. The strength of the two sides is almost the same. Wen Yue, you seem to be too persistent and care too much about where we have now. You must know that we retreat in panic not because we can't beat them, but because we can't afford to fail and lose. If we want to survive for a long time, we must have soldiers, troops, and strength, so we retreat. Even if Bo Yu and us meet, facing the frontal blockade of more than 100,000 troops, we still have to retreat after a long battle, Zhang Wen still has to chase them. Today's situation will still happen."

Han Sui pulled back his hand holding Bian Zhang and concentrating. Did he think wrong?

Bian Zhang glanced at him and said solemnly: "If we want to occupy Xiliang and to win, we must have an absolute advantage in military strength. We must do everything we can to eliminate the enemy and gain an advantage in military strength at the lowest cost, rather than a decisive battle with the enemy, meaninglessly consuming our existing strength."

Han Sui suddenly realized and looked ashamed.

"Old Bian, I am indeed becoming more and more stingy."

Although Bian Zhang was in great pain, his eyes showed joy. He trembled with his lips and said, "Wenyue, do you know what to do?"

Han Sui smiled bitterly and said worriedly: "Old Bian, you can't die. If you die, how can I support myself?"

Bian Zhang showed a calm expression on his face and said calmly: "It's better to die, it's better to die, it's better to die."

Han Sui looked at him sadly, not knowing how to comfort him. Bian Zhang couldn't hold on and fell asleep. Han Sui sat for a while and quietly walked out of the tent.

He summoned more than a dozen generals including Yang Qiu, Liang Xing, Ma Wan overnight to discuss matters in the military tent.

"We withdrew our troops overnight, and we kept going all the way, retreating as fast as possible." Han Sui glanced at everyone and said firmly and forcefully.

The generals thought that Han Sui was summoning the matter to discuss the matter, and they were preparing to fight the pursuers, but they didn't expect that it was completely different. Han Sui asked to retreat, and retreated quickly. Everyone was a little unacceptable for a moment, and they all looked at Han Sui, hoping to hear his explanation.

"Old Bian and I discussed it carefully and decided to give up the idea of ​​a decisive battle. The decisive battle is too great for us. So we simply retreated, retreated quickly, and lured the enemy to chase. If we retreated quickly, the enemy would chase it quickly. If we retreated farther, the enemy would pursue it long. Once the enemy pursued it too long, the several pursuers following us would definitely have problems in covering and support, and their food transportation would become more and more difficult due to the increase in distance. At this time, it was our turn to take action and hit them hard."

Han Sui stood up, called his subordinates to surround the case, pointed to the map spread on the case and said, "I will order June Jinglei to lead the Qiang and Hu cavalry along the south bank of the Weishui River to launch a harassing attack on the border between Hanyang County and Longxi County, and lure Zhang Wen to divide his troops to pursue him. At the same time, he quickly notified Bo Yu and Wenhou, and asked them to immediately lead their troops to march into Hanyang County from Wuzhi to lure Zhang Wen to divide his troops to pursue him again."

"Where do we retreat?" Yang Qiu asked. Yang Qiu was a burly man, dark and tall, with a beard. In the past, he was a horse bandit who was rampant in the northwest, with hundreds of brothers under his command, mainly in the Great Desert and the Yellow River area of ​​Wuwei County.

"Retreat to Yuzhong in Jincheng County, around Jincheng." Han Sui pointed to the map and said.

Everyone exclaimed almost at the same time.

"General, we are going to retreat more than a thousand miles in a row?" Liang Xing asked a little disbelief. Liang Xing's father is a Han Chinese and his mother is a Qiang Chinese. He grew up in the Qiang tribe. Liang Xing looked straightforward and simple, and looked extremely tough.

"General, Hanyang doesn't want it?" Ma Wan asked in surprise. Ma Wan is a Qiang man, a Qiang man from Zhangye County. He and his tribe members have lived in deserts for many years. His skin is dark and red, he is tall and a little fat.

Han Sui glanced at everyone and smiled and said, "No, give up, give up all."

"Why? That was what we worked hard to beat." Ma Wan asked loudly.

"As long as the enemy is destroyed, these places and cities are all ours." Han Sui smiled, "The more enemies occupy, the more dispersed the troops will be, and the easier it will be for us to attack them. Don't you understand?"

Han Sui returned to the big tent and walked to Bian Zhang with slight steps.

Bian Zhang opened his eyes and smiled at Han Sui. The smile was even worse than crying. Han Sui's heart trembled, and tears almost burst out from his eyes.

"Old Bian, we are going to withdraw."

"Okay, okay." Bian Zhang said with difficulty.

"We will retreat to Jincheng and will walk for more than ten days. Can you hold on?" Han Sui grabbed Bian Zhang's hand and asked in a low voice, "If it doesn't work, I'll ask Liu Yue Jinglei to take you to Longxi."

Bian Zhang grabbed Han Sui's hand, grabbed it tightly, and said with all his strength: "Take me back to Jincheng, back to Jincheng, I want to go back to Jincheng..."

Han Sui couldn't help it anymore, and tears suddenly surged out.

＝＝＝

Zhang Wen looked through the bamboo slips on the table and felt very heavy.

Tao Qian sat next to him, talking nonstop analyzing the latest military situation. Sun Jian and Huangfu Li sat opposite Tao Qian, lowering their heads and lowering their eyes, each thinking about their own thoughts.

The rebels of Xiliang suddenly shook their arms and stepped back with great strides at the speed of escape, which surprised the Han army. The staff of the Taiwei Mansion were shocked and suspicious, with all kinds of speculations and explanations. Zhang Wen was dizzy and was a little at a loss for a moment.

Chase? Without clarifying the cause, the reckless and lonely army went deep into the deep, and the consequences were unpredictable. Who dared to take risks?

Don't chase? If something really happens within the rebels, causing the rebels to retreat in a panic, this is the best time to annihilate the enemy. He hesitate at critical moments and delay military opportunities, and he will have to take responsibility in the future. However, if you chase after them and fall into the enemy's plan to lure the enemy, the troops will suffer heavy losses, so why don't you bear greater responsibility?

Zhou Shen, Dong Zhuo, Huangfu Hong and Xu Rong all sent people to send letters of war from the front line, asking the Taiwei to immediately order the entire army to launch a pursuit operation.

Tao Qian firmly opposed it. Under the current situation, it is easy to judge that this is Bian Zhang and Han Sui's plan to lure the enemy, which is too obvious. How much loss can 80,000 rebels be attacked by General Dong Zhuo's 10,000 cavalry? They retreated in a hurry not because of General Dong Zhuo's attack on the camp, but because they knew that Li Zhonglang's Jizhou reinforcements arrived in Xiliang. They faced 150,000 Han troops and had no advantage. In this situation where there was no chance of victory, they would withdraw even if they did not retreat. The rebels had no losses at all. Did Beigong Boyu's troops suffer losses? Did the Qiang and Hu cavalry of June Jinglei suffer losses? Since there was no loss, what would Bian Zhang and Han Sui run away? Could there be any man in Xiliang rebellion?

Tao Qian believed that the troops should be gathered together now, and they should follow the steps and steadily, and then they should enter Hanyang County, Liangzhou. Then they launched operations to recover the cities and squeeze the rebels, and strive to drive the enemy across the Yellow River within a month. After Hanyang stabilized his position, they would send troops north to Anding County, south to Longxi and Wudu County, and successively recover the lost territory of Xiliang. In this way, in the short term, not only can Sanfu and Chang'an be ensured that in the short term, Sanfu and Chang'an will no longer be threatened by the rebels of Xiliang, but they can also help disaster victims, recruit rebels, and strive to stabilize Xiliang by the end of the year.
Chapter completed!