Chapter 14: Reinforcements arrive

Ma Chao ran alone in front, while Qiang soldiers chased after him.

The vast tens of thousands of people, plus the horses, were enough to sway the dust to cover the sky and the sun, and the sound of horse hooves was enough to make the earth tremble.

If you look from the air, a black dot in front is running forward rapidly, while the Qiang cavalry behind is in a cone shape, like a rolling tide, wanting to rush forward, and further backward, the rolling dust has covered the subsequent cavalry, and you can only see the loess rushing like huge waves.

Blood kept pouring out from Ma Chao's shoulders, but there were a large group of pursuers behind him, so Ma Chao had no time to stop and deal with the wound.

Liangzhou produces excellent war horses, such as Chitu, and Liangzhou horses. Ma Chao's war horses are only stronger than Chitu. When he was in Tongguan, the claw Huang Feidian that Cao Cao rode was also a BMW that was hard to pick in thousands, but he was caught up by Ma Chao several times. It can be seen that Ma Chao's mount was one level higher than Cao Cao's claw Huang Feidian.

Although the Qiang people are riding a good war horse, they are not of the same level as Ma Chao's mount. As the pursuit battle unfolds, Ma Chao's horse's speed is exerted, and the distance between the two sides is getting farther and farther away, and Ma Chao gradually disappears at the other end of the horizon.

"Uncle, why haven't my father come up yet?" Ma Qiu said, looking back.

"Don't worry, Xiaoqiu, brother will catch up soon." Although Ma Dai said this, he was very anxious.

"Major General, the general is back!" The scout behind shouted, and Ma Qiu and Ma Dai immediately stopped the war horse and ran backwards.

I saw that half of Ma Chao's shoulders were stained with blood. He kept running and riding along the way, so that the wound had not healed at all, and there was still a little blood gushing out. Fortunately, the main blood vessel was not damaged, and the arrow injury was not fatal enough.

Maybe because of excessive blood loss, Ma Chao turned pale, and his lips turned pink and white due to a lot of blood loss. At the same time, his face was also full of the words "tired", but Ma Chao's eyes were still firm and sharp.

"Father, I'll heal you!" Ma Qiu felt a little sad when he saw that Ma Chao's body was stained with blood.

"No need, go find a cloth strip to tie it first, there are pursuers behind us. We must continue to march."

"But Father, your injury..."

"It's okay, I can't die! I have been on the battlefield for decades, and this little injury is nothing. I'm sending an order immediately, don't stop and continue moving forward. As long as I can enter the territory of Jincheng, it will be safe."

More than half an hour later, Deng Ai led the pursuers to the place where Ma Chao had just stopped.

A Qiang soldier leaned over and carefully observed the horse's hooves marks on the ground, and from time to time he lay on the ground to smell it.

A moment later, the general stood up and spoke to Deng Ai next to him: "General, judging from the traces on the ground and the feces left by the horses, Ma Chao should have left here more than half an hour ago."

"Is it more than half an hour? It's getting faster, Ma Chao and the others are right in front!"

From Guzang City to the southwest, it is Jincheng. At the same time, Wuwei County where Guzang City is located is also bordered by Yongzhou. From Guzang City to the west, you can reach Yongzhou by crossing the Yellow River.

Departing from Guzang City, it is much closer to Jincheng than to Yongzhou, and Ma Chao is a cavalry with a speed that is much faster than infantry, so soon, Deng Ai chased him to the Jincheng County of Kaojun.

"General, Ma Chao and the others should be coming right in front of you."

Deng Ai nodded and asked, "How far is this place from Jincheng County?"

"There are still Baili."

"Send the order, everyone accelerate the march, don't save horsepower, you must catch up with Ma Chao as soon as possible!"

"Brother, you're catching up, the Qiang people are catching up!" Ma Dai said anxiously.

"Why did it come so quickly!" Ma Chao couldn't help but look back.

The shadow of the Qiang people was not seen on the horizon, but Ma Chao could see a trace of gloom in the distance.

In most of the time in Liangzhou in summer, the weather is clear, the wind is smooth and the wind is bright, and the sky is impossible to be so gloomy. This kind of gloomy in the horizon can only occur if the loess raised by large-scale cavalry.

"Why did Deng Ai come so quickly!" Ma Chao was slightly stunned.

According to Ma Chao's judgment, he should have been leading for nearly an hour before, but now that he has arrived in Jincheng, Deng Ai actually caught up with him.

Ma Chao knew that the Qiang cavalry was faster than the Shu cavalry under his command. Speaking of cavalry, the Han people could not compare with the Qiang people who had grown on horseback since childhood. As for war horses, the war horses raised by the Han people were not as good as those raised on the grasslands, so the Qiang people were faster than those raised on long distances.

Ma Chao has three thousand elite Liangzhou cavalry under his command, which was the old foundation of Ma Chao's Liangzhou cavalry back then. He once followed Ma Chao to fight in the north and south and participated in countless battles of the country. The riding skills of this group of people are not much worse than that of ordinary Qiang people, but the other more than two thousand people are far inferior to that of the Qiang people. These more than two thousand people greatly slowed down Ma Chao's marching speed. In addition, Deng Ai spared no effort to pursue his horse and tried his best to pursue him, so now in Jincheng, Deng Ai still caught up with Ma Chao.

"Brother, at this speed, the Qiang people will soon catch up with us!" Ma Dai said.

"I know, let the brothers get faster."

"Brother, if we were the three thousand old brothers, we would be able to get rid of those Qiang people. Why not, brother, please take our three thousand old brothers away first!"

Ma Chao hesitated for a moment, and Ma Dai's words made Ma Chao excited. Ma Chao brought more than 5,000 people from Guzang City, and 3,000 were elite Liangzhou cavalry who had followed Ma Chao for many years. If he only brought these 3,000 people, it would be possible to get rid of Deng Ai's pursuit.

But in this way, it was equivalent to abandoning the other two thousand soldiers. This was something that Ma Chao could not accept.

On the battlefield, robe is equivalent to another life. For a soldier, abandoning robe on the battlefield is equivalent to abandoning another life. For a professional soldier like Ma Chao, abandoning robe on the battlefield is a shame and will become a scar for Ma Chao's life.

"Father, look ahead!" Just as Ma Chao was still hesitating, Ma Qiu's voice suddenly came.

Ma Chao hurriedly looked at the direction Ma Qiu pointed, and saw a black dot suddenly rise in front of him. The black dot swayed with the wind, and it was possible to tell that it was a flying flag.

Then, a black line appeared under the banner, and then the black line turned into black dots, and the black dots slowly moved forward.

"Brother, the person in front of him walked so slowly, he should not be a cavalry." Ma Dai could tell at a glance that the person coming was an infantryman.

"That's right, I think it may be that reinforcements have arrived." A trace of solemnity appeared on Ma Chao's face.

The soldiers of the Qiang people were all cavalry. In Liangzhou, a large-scale infantry were the Di people except the Han people. Now that they have arrived in Jincheng County, the Di people cannot appear here. Needless to say, the large Han people are naturally reinforcements of the Shu army.

Gradually, the people on the opposite side were getting closer and closer. Ma Chao could vaguely see that the person coming was indeed the Shu army, and the floating flag was covered with a golden word "jiang".

"Ma Dai, do you see if the flag is written with the word 'ginger'?"

"Brother, there is the word 'jiang' above."

"Who will the surname Jiang be? Why don't I remember there is a general named Jiang in the army?" Ma Chao said.

"Brother, have you forgotten that the one Deng Ai mentioned is Jiang Wei."

"By the way, I remember that it was called Jiang Wei, and I heard that Jiang Wei was only in his early twenties." Ma Chao said, frowned slightly, and then said, "I remember Deng Ai said that Jiang Wei was a general appointed by Zhuge Liang, and he was also Zhuge Liang's person."

"Brother, don't worry. In the public eye, I think this Jiang Wei dare not play any tricks. Even if Jiang Wei wants to be unfavorable to you, I can protect my brother Zhou Quan. Jiang Wei, a young man who is just over 20 years old, can lead the army according to Zhuge Liang, how powerful can he be!"

As soon as Ma Dai finished speaking, Jiang Wei had sent several cavalrymen in front, running forward, shouting: "Is General Ma Chao in front?"

"I am Ma Chao, who are you?"

"It's General Ma Chao, it's General Ma Chao!" The cavalry shouted at the military formation behind him, and then a general rushed out of the military formation, wearing silver armor and holding a spear, came closer and said, "General Ma Chao, Jiang Wei, Xiatianshui, will be granted the order of Your Majesty, and I will help the general with one armour!"

"Brother, he said he was sent by His Majesty."

Ma Chao nodded and then shouted: "General Jiang Wei, how dare you ask where Your Majesty is?"

"General, Your Majesty, I will be the vanguard and come first to help the general. Your Majesty is still in Chang'an." Jiang Wei replied.

At this time, Jiang Wei also saw Ma Chao's entire shoulders in black and red. Jiang Wei knew that Ma Chao was injured.

Jiang Wei was slightly surprised. Looking at Ma Chao and his group of people, Ma Chao only tied his shoulders a little, and even the wound on his shoulders did not have time to deal with them carefully. Jiang Wei immediately realized that there were pursuers behind him.

"General Ma Chao, are there pursuers behind him?"

"Yes, there are tens of thousands of Qiang people pursuing their troops behind."

"General Ma, hurry up and go back to the formation to rest first. Leave this pursuer to resist..."

"General, look ahead!" A Qiang general pointed ahead.

Deng Ai looked in the direction pointed by the man and saw that the vast Shu army in front had already formed a formation.

"It seems that Ma Chao's reinforcements have arrived." Then Deng Ai glanced at the banner embroidered with the word "ginger".

"Jiang? It seems that no one among the Shu army generals is named Jiang!" Deng Ai frowned slightly, thought for a while before he remembered the Tianshui Jiang Wei.

"Is it the one who came from Tianshui Jiang Wei? So the one who came before should be the one who captured Jincheng a few days ago. The number shouldn't be too large."

Thinking of this, Deng Ai looked back at the Qiang soldiers beside him. The pursuit that had consumed horsepower before had already exhausted everyone. At this time, the soldiers did not have the strength to attack and the horses were tired.
Chapter completed!