Chapter 621: Retreat to Xindu

The Qin army's blocking made Xiang Yu, who was in the middle of a fierce battle, suddenly feel like he was stuck in a mud pit. Although he was now facing only the elite soldiers of the Qin army, which was very different from the Qin army generals he had faced before, their fearless momentum made him feel helpless.

Yes, this feeling was helplessness. After killing one, another one came immediately, as if they were not going to die but to a banquet. He couldn't remember how many Qin soldiers he had killed, but there was always a feeling that he could not kill them all. Although he wanted to get away several times, those soldiers always killed him relentlessly, so Xiang Yu had to fall into a tangle with them again.

Suddenly, Xiang Yu felt a rain of arrows flying over his head, and then he heard the soldiers behind him shouting and groaning from being shot by arrows, and the whistling sound of the rain of arrows seemed to be endless, and there was no meaning of ending forever.

After forcing back several soldiers who were killing him, Xiang Yu took the time to look back, and saw that hundreds of soldiers had fallen within 20 or 30 steps behind him, and soldiers were constantly shot by arrows. Suddenly, Xiang Yu woke up, and the Qin army had more crossbowmen. Damn, there were a lot of them, otherwise it would not be possible to have such a fierce rain of arrows.

At this time, Pu Jun rushed to Xiang Yu and shouted: "General, Qin's crossbow reinforcements have arrived. Should we retreat temporarily? Otherwise, our casualties will be very large!"

Just as Xiang Yu was hesitating, Ying Bu also rushed over and said: "General, retreat first. Qin's crossbowmen are too many. In just a few breaths, the army has lost nearly a thousand people."

At this time, Xiang Yu was not the arrogant King of Western Chu, and he quickly accepted the persuasion of his two generals. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Order, retreat, retreat beyond the range of 200 steps, and make plans later!"

After getting Xiang Yu's consent, Ying Bu and Pu Jun breathed a sigh of relief. Today's Qin army was really too weird. Suddenly, so many crossbowmen came out from nowhere. Then, the sound of the gong sounded in the Chu army. In less than a moment, the Chu army outside Su Jiao's camp retreated completely. The Qin soldiers did not pursue them anymore, but slowly retreated back to the camp.

Watching the Qin army slowly retreat into the camp, Xiang Yu knew that his idea of ​​​​encircling and annihilating the Qin army under Julu City had failed. Although he was unwilling, he could do nothing about it. God knows why a large number of crossbowmen came to support the Qin army. Otherwise, these 200,000 Qin soldiers would have escaped from their mouths.

Sure enough, the Qin army that returned to the camp did not rest, but continued to strengthen the defense of the camp, and then kept piling something behind the camp gate.

Xiang Yu, unwilling to give up, sent people to attack several times, but every time he entered the distance of a hundred steps from the main camp, the crossbows in the camp were like a heavy rain, shooting outwards, and the Chu army had to retreat helplessly after leaving dozens of soldiers.

But if they bypassed the main camp, they would have to go a longer way. So after several times, the two sides were deadlocked here.

In fact, there were only a thousand Yuanrong crossbowmen and more than 700 remaining soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp in the Sujiao camp, and the rest of the Qin army had retreated one after another.

However, before they left, they had reinforced the defense inside the camp again, and placed a large amount of flammable materials such as food, grass, and wood not far behind the camp wall. Moreover, they left enough war horses for them to use a few dozen steps behind these soldiers.

As long as the rear guard soldiers left for a long enough time, the rear crossbowmen and soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp could set the camp on fire and then retreat on horseback. In this way, the Chu army would not be able to catch up with them.

It was the beginning of the Mao hour, which was about five in the morning in real time. The sky was already slightly bright. It had been nearly half an hour since Wang Li's rear guard army left. Zhao Cen and Gao Shun looked at each other, bowed deeply to the seriously injured Qin soldiers who volunteered to stay behind, and then led more than a thousand soldiers under their command to mount their horses and gallop away, chasing in the direction of the army's retreat.

The movement in the Qin army camp alarmed the Chu army outside the camp. Xiang Yu knew that the Qin army had retreated after hearing it, but he still wanted to give it a try and sent a thousand Chu soldiers to attack the camp.

Sure enough, they successfully entered the camp, but not long after, fires were everywhere in the camp, and soon the Chu soldiers were seen retreating in a panic. A thousand people went in, and less than four hundred people retreated, and the rest were trapped in the camp by the fire.

Seeing this, Xiang Yu was furious, but he had no choice but to retreat to his camp and discuss the next step with Fan Zeng.

When Gao Shun and Zhao Cen led the army to catch up with Huangfu Chaobo and his party, it was already dawn. At this time, the army had already broken through the siege of the vassal army and was only more than 20 miles away from Xindu.

The soldiers of the Great Wall Legion who broke through the siege were in high spirits. They rushed all the way and finally arrived in Xindu before noon. The soldiers who returned to the city breathed a sigh of relief, and finally they could eat a full meal and sleep well.

After entering Xindu, Wang Li ordered the army to rest and quickly ordered the city to be under martial law. He ordered scouts to closely monitor the movements of the vassal army and report immediately if they found any unusual movements. At the same time, he counted the losses, counted the number of soldiers who could fight in the army, and reorganized the soldiers who could fight. It was not until the evening that I finished all the work.

After finishing all these, Wang Li summoned all the generals to discuss matters in the county government office of Xindu City, and Huangfu Chaobo was also summoned.

After everyone arrived, Wang Li informed everyone of the losses of the army in the Battle of Julu. After days of fighting, the 200,000 troops of the Great Wall Legion were lost by half, and 80,000 were killed or injured. Basically, most of them were lost after Xiang Yu's Chu Army joined the war. After listening to Wang Li's report, although the generals present were prepared, they were also shocked.

After everyone's discussion subsided a little, Wang Li continued to tell everyone about other things. Of course, Wang Li and the generals were grateful for Huangfu Chaobo's full rescue.

Then, Wang Li informed everyone of the situation of the surrounding princes' army and Zhang Han's army. Afterwards, Wang Li ordered the generals to do their own things.

The Qin army generals stood up and saluted before turning to leave. Huangfu Chaobo also stood up and prepared to leave with the generals, but he was thinking about quickly discussing with Pang Tong. He had rescued Wang Li and the Great Wall Army, but when could he complete his mission? It was rare that he had to ask Wang Li for it himself, or wait for the Great Wall Army to fight Xiang Yu again, or was there something else going on?