Chapter 1302: Retreat to Jiyin

As Guo Jia expected, the Qi army did not appear. However, when more than 20,000 cavalrymen were ten miles away from the camp to the east, they began to encounter a large number of Qi army scouts. Both sides had their wins and losses, but the Qi army never appeared.

In Changyi City, the victorious King of Qi did not send out a large army to continue pursuing the retreating Tang army, because the situation came from Dingtao last night. The King of Tang's flag, escorted by about 20,000 cavalrymen, had entered Dingtao City, which means that the Tang army will definitely have a large number of cavalrymen to support it. In addition to the less than 10,000 Tiger and Ben cavalrymen, the Qi army only had less than 5,000 ordinary cavalrymen. Cao Cao did not want to take the risk of facing 20,000 to 30,000 Tang cavalrymen.

However, according to the news from Hebei, several elite cavalrymen of the Tang army appeared in a cavalry battle in Hebei a few days ago. Now these cavalrymen should still be in Hebei, so Sima Yi deduced that the cavalrymen who appeared in Dingtao were just Huangfu Chaobo's guards, just infantrymen on horseback, and could not be considered cavalrymen at all.

Even so, Cao Cao, who was suspicious by nature, still rejected the general's request for battle, ordered the army to retreat in Changyi City, and then sent a large number of scouts out to inquire about the movements of the Tang army.

"Zhongda, is the Tang army so sure that the war in Hebei is under control? Why did Huangfu Chaobo put all his last troops into the battlefield in Yanzhou?" Cao Cao looked at Sima Yi sitting next to him and said;

"Reporting to the king, I don't know, but it is very likely that the battle in Shangjun has ended and Hua Xiong's cavalry has returned to Hebei, so the Tang army can do so. Another point is that the situation in Yanzhou forced Huangfu Chaobo to put in the last 20,000 troops, otherwise the Tang Kingdom would not just lose Shanyang County." Sima Yi thought for a moment and replied;

In fact, according to the previous discussion between the king and ministers of Qi, the minimum goal of Qi's military expedition this time was Shanyang County and Peiguo County, and the greatest hope was to be able to take back Jiyin and Liangguo. But no one expected that the Tang army would react so quickly, and the battle situation in Hebei was not as smooth as previously expected. The joint forces of Wei and Zhao did not make good progress. Although they captured Handan City, they suffered a great loss in cavalry. The Zhao cavalry suffered heavy losses. As a result, the idea of ​​transferring Huangfu Chaobo's guards to Hebei was also unsuccessful.

In the afternoon, the Changyi and Dingtao troops were all withdrawn to Dingtao City, and more than 20,000 cavalrymen took a short rest in the city and then left the city again, heading towards Shanyang County. Their mission was to receive the troops from other cities and withdraw to the designated cities for resettlement.

Cao Cao in Changyi City had also learned about the situation of the Tang army. When he learned that more than 20,000 cavalrymen were only guarding the troops and their families and craftsmen from the cities to evacuate, Cao Cao was very tactful and did not send troops to harass. Instead, he waited for the Tang army to evacuate and then sent troops to take over the cities.

Facing more than 20,000 Tang cavalry, Cao Cao was unwilling to take the risk with his only cavalry. In fact, there was no other way. Qi had too few cavalry, so the Qi army sent out just watched from afar as more than 10,000 soldiers and horses were withdrawn from each city and evacuated to Jiyin in the east.

In any case, let's take control of these occupied cities first. You know, the Qi army that entered Changyi City has gained a lot of benefits in the city.

The battle on the battlefield of Yanzhou was strangely calm.

…

Just when the Tang army in Shanyang cities withdrew to Jiyin, the battle in Wei County became fierce again. After receiving the news that the Tang army had reinforcements, Yuan Shao ordered the army to launch a fierce attack on Wei County and Liangqi regardless of casualties. Liangqi City only resisted for six days before it was broken by Yan Liang's army.

Unlike Handan City, Liangqi City was actually broken. On the second day after Liang Qi was captured, Wei County's defense became precarious under Wen Chou's attack.

After Zhao Yun in Yecheng received the news, he did not care that the cavalry had not yet been fully integrated. After discussing with Lu Su, he immediately led 40,000 cavalry to Wei County for support. Unfortunately, when the army arrived at Wei County, the Wei army had already occupied the western wall of Wei County, and thousands of Wei soldiers had begun to enter the city.

After receiving the news that the Tang cavalry was coming to help, Yuan Shao immediately ordered the Wei cavalry to intercept the west of Wei County, and sent someone to invite Lu Bu to fight together. For a time, 24,000 Wei cavalry and 8,000 Zhao cavalry, and 40,000 Tang cavalry once again lined up on the Hebei Plain, and another cavalry battle was about to break out.

After both sides finished lining up, Zhao Yun did not stand against the coalition for too long. With his order, 30,000 Tang cavalrymen, including the Tuqi, Xiliang Iron Cavalry and Huben Cavalry, rushed towards the more than 24,000 cavalrymen of the Wei army, while Zhao Yun led 5,000 Baima Yicong and 5,000 ordinary cavalrymen to attack the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry of King Zhao Lu Bu again.

After the last cavalry battle, Lu Bu, after discussing with Yuan Shao, had withdrawn Cao Xing's cavalry and all the injured soldiers of the Zhao army back to Zhao State, and he led 8,000 Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to stay in Hebei to continue to assist the Wei army in the battle. Among these 8,000 cavalrymen, there were 5,000 of the most elite Blood Wolf Cavalry and 3,000 ordinary Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry.

Seeing that the White Horse Volunteers attacked him again, how could Lu Bu not fight? At his command, 5,000 Blood Wolf Riders followed him, Zhao Yun and the White Horse Volunteers and fought together, while the remaining 3,000 ordinary wolf riders just bypassed the battlefield where the two were fighting and killed the 5,000 Tang army ordinary cavalry behind the White Horse Volunteers.

For a time, the city of Wei County and the area within ten miles to the west became a Shura hell.

The cavalry battle started at noon and ended when it was almost dark. As a result, only less than 5,000 of the 24,000 cavalry of the Wei army escaped from the battlefield, and only more than 5,000 of Lu Bu's 8,000 wolf riders were left.

The Tang army also paid a heavy price. 5,000 ordinary cavalry were wiped out on the spot by the Bingzhou wolf riders, only 2,000 of the 5,000 White Horse Volunteers were left, and more than half of the 30,000 cavalry including the Xiliang Iron Cavalry were lost, and only 15,000 were left.

The battle in Wei County also ended in the defeat of the Tang army. Of the 15,000 Tang soldiers defending the city, only 2,000 were left under the leadership of Geng Wu. The rest were all killed in the city. The Wei army's Wen Chou army, which was responsible for the attack, also lost more than half of its troops. Even Zhang Nan, one of Wen Chou's lieutenants, almost died on the spot.