Chapter 1300 Xu Rong Is Seriously Injured

Forty miles west of Dingtao City, tens of thousands of Tang soldiers set up camp on the south bank of Sishui River. However, if you observe these Tang soldiers carefully, you will find that they are all dejected. In the big tent in the middle, a group of generals are surrounding a big tent, reluctant to leave.

Inside the big tent, the leader of the Qianniu Army of the Tang Army, General Pingnan Xu Rong, is lying on a stretcher with a pale face. Several doctors are busy next to him. Around them, Meng Gang and Pang Shanmin are anxiously looking at the busy doctors. Standing outside the tent door farther away are the officials and generals of Shanyang County headed by County Magistrate Liu Yixun and Duwei Li Ling.

Outside the camp, although Liu Yi, the deputy general of the Canglang Camp, is patrolling the camp with his soldiers, his eyes are constantly looking at the big tent of the central army. Obviously, his mind is mostly on General Pingnan Xu Rong.

The story begins at the end of the afternoon. After Meng Gang ordered the troops in Changyi City to retreat, Deputy General Liu Yi immediately led 5,000 cavalrymen to escort Pang Shanmin and other officials to the outer perimeter of the west gate. At this time, the 20,000 infantrymen in Changyi City had lost 5,000 to 6,000 people. In addition to the soldiers scattered on the four walls, Meng Gang finally led only 10,000 infantrymen outside the city.

After the Qi army entered the city, it did not stop attacking the Tang army. With Cao Cao's order, the Qi army only left 10,000 soldiers to clear the remaining Tang soldiers in the city. The rest of the Qingzhou army, Wuwei Camp, Zhonglei Camp and Cao Ren's Rencheng War Camp, a total of more than 30,000 elite Qi troops, followed closely behind Meng Gang's troops.

The Qi army kept chasing and killing all the way, and the Tang army kept resisting all the way, and then waited for an opportunity to retreat. The two armies chased and stopped like this until the afternoon, when Meng Gang's army joined the 15,000 troops led by Xu Rong.

Seeing the smoke and dust ahead, Xu Rong, who received a report from the scout, immediately ordered the army to line up and prepare to fight the Qi army and support his own troops to retreat.

Although Xu Rong's troops had been marching for nearly a day, they were still different from the Qi army that had been fighting for a day, so 15,000 soldiers of Xu Rong still blocked the attack of the Qi army and supported the Meng Gang army, which had less than 10,000 soldiers left, behind his own army.

However, at this time, a sudden change occurred. The 5,000 Qi Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, which had not appeared before, suddenly appeared in the south of the battlefield and rushed towards Xu Rong's central army. Facing the sudden appearance of the Qi cavalry, Xu Rong had to lead the cavalry to meet them and prepare to block them outside the battlefield. However, Xu Rong only led 5,000 ordinary cavalry, how could he be a match for the 5,000 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

After a fierce battle, more than half of the 5,000 Tang cavalry were lost, while the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry lost only a thousand cavalry. Most importantly, Xu Rong, who was not good at fighting and was older, was chopped off his horse in the battle with Cao Xiu, the leader of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. If it were not for Xu Rong's personal soldiers who risked their lives to rescue him and escorted him out of the battlefield, Xu Rong would probably have died on the spot.

The unknown life and death of the leader not only did not reduce the morale of the Tang army, but instead aroused the determination of more than 20,000 Tang soldiers to fight to the death. After Meng Gang handed over the infantry to Liu Yi and Li Ling, he personally led the remaining 3,000 cavalry of the Canglang Camp. After joining with more than 2,000 cavalry of the Qianniu Camp, they launched a desperate attack on the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry of the Qi Army and finally repelled it.

Then the two armies stopped fighting, and only then did the Tang army evacuate with peace of mind. Meng Gang originally wanted to evacuate overnight, but when they were more than 40 miles away from Dingtao, Xu Rong's injuries worsened. Meng Gang had no choice but to order the army to set up camp to control Xu Rong's injuries first, and then make other plans.

While Meng Gang ordered the army to set up camp, he also sent a hundred cavalrymen overnight to report to Dingtao City, and then quietly waited for the doctor's treatment results.

In Dingtao City, Huangfu Chaobo had just lain down for less than two hours when he was awakened by Gao Shun, who was on duty outside: "My king, there is news about the two armies of General Xu Rong and General Meng Gang!"

"How are they?" Huangfu Chaobo woke up immediately, turned over and got up and said;

Gao Shun opened the door, walked in and said: "The situation is not very good.

Now there are less than 20,000 people left in the two armies. This is not the most important thing. The important thing is..."

Seeing Gao Shun's hesitation, Huangfu Chaobo felt an ominous feeling and asked hurriedly: "Speak, if there is any bad news, just say it directly!"

"The news is not very clear, but I heard from the visitor that General Xu Rong was seriously injured, so the army did not rush back to Dingtao overnight, but set up a camp forty miles west of Dingtao. General Meng Gang plans to return to Dingtao tomorrow after dealing with General Xu Rong's injuries."

Under the pursuit of the enemy, they actually gave up evacuating overnight. Could it be that Xu Rong's injuries have been so serious?

"Where are the people sent?" Huangfu Chaobo asked as he put on his clothes;

"I have arranged for someone to be in the hall in front!" Gao Shun replied quickly;

"Okay, I'll go there right away!" Huangfu Chaobo stood up and went to the hall in front, and soon the group arrived at the hall.

After seeing the blood-stained messenger, Huangfu Chaobo immediately asked, "How is General Xu?"

"Reporting to the king, I am not very clear. When the army set up camp, I led the cavalry to set off. However, when General Xu was rescued, he was already covered in blood and unconscious."

"Damn it, why did this happen? Tell me the details of the whole battle!"

The messenger did not dare to neglect and described the whole war in detail. Huangfu Chaobo then understood the whole war situation. He was also helpless about this situation. The reason was that the cavalry was not here. If there were 10,000 elite cavalry, why would Xu Rong lead the troops to take risks?

"Come here, gather the doctors in the city immediately, send 2,000 cavalry to escort them to the camp, carefully check the injury of General Xu Rong, and tell Meng Gang that the army should not act rashly. Tomorrow morning, I will personally lead the army to support!" After thinking about it, Huangfu Chaobo ordered;

Wang Xiu heard this and immediately sent people to gather the senior doctors in the city. Dian Wei immediately arranged 2,000 guards to escort these doctors to the army camp.

At dawn the next day, Huangfu Chaobo handed over the defense of Dingtao City to Mu Shun and others, and personally led the rest of the guards towards the camp forty miles west of Dingtao. The journey of more than forty miles was less than an hour for the cavalry, and soon Huangfu Chaobo arrived outside the west gate of the camp.