Chapter 718: Ants Moving

Originally, I discussed with Pang Tong and others that we should use the camp to support for two or three days, and then the army would withdraw. Now it seems that if there is a chance to send these wounded soldiers away in advance, it is better than tens of thousands of troops hiding on the road in fear. If they are really blocked by Dong Zhuo's cavalry, it will not be a loss of a few thousand people. It is estimated that these hundreds of thousands of people will have to be herded.

Chen Jing immediately stood up and accepted the order.

Huangfu Chaobo nodded, then turned to Zhao Yun and said: "Zilong, it depends on you next. These few days will definitely be more difficult. There are also 20,000 newly recruited soldiers transferred from Wenxi, and you need to pay attention..."

At this point, Huangfu Chaobo paused suddenly. Would Zhao Yun be tied up by his actions?

"Zhao Yun, listen to my orders!"

"I am here!"

"From now on, the defense of the camp is yours. I will not ask about the mission, but you must hold on for five days. After five days, the army will be ready to retreat!"

"I obey my orders!" Zhao Yun was inspired after hearing this. He also knew that the battle would become more intense as time went on. Moreover, the infantry of Dong Zhuo's army had not yet joined the battle. It was estimated that Xu Rong would send them out tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest. On his side, he would have to add 20,000 newly recruited soldiers, so the pressure would be even greater.

In the middle of the night, the cavalry that went to Gengxiang had returned. A thousand soldiers from the Dragon Embroidery Camp and a thousand cavalrymen captured the town in less than a quarter of an hour. Afterwards, Yang Feng led a thousand Dragon Embroidery Camp and a thousand civilians to enter the town, and then began to actively prepare materials for building a pontoon bridge.

At night, Yang Feng sent the thousand cavalrymen and three thousand horses back to Wenxi.

The next morning, at daybreak, Chen Jing and Su Zhi arranged 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 civilians, and quietly left Wenxi and headed for Gengxiang under the escort of 3,000 cavalrymen.

Shortly after daybreak, as Zhao Yun expected, Xu Rong attacked the camp again, and the offensive was more fierce than the previous two days. In the afternoon, the infantry of Dong Zhuo's army, which had not participated in the attack since the beginning of the war, also joined the attack.

With the addition of Dong Zhuo's army, the pressure on the defenders was obviously much greater. Fortunately, Zhao Yun was well prepared and resolved Xu Rong's attack in an orderly manner. However, at the end of the day, the number of defenders in the camp increased compared to the previous two days. The number of dead soldiers alone reached 3,000, and the number of injured soldiers reached more than 6,000.

However, at night, after the horses returned and rested, another 10,000 soldiers and civilians were arranged to escort them to Gengxiang.

This continued until the sixth day. Facing the five-day attack of his own army of hundreds of thousands, he still could not break into the camp of the Sizhou Army. Not only the Hedong Army of Jiang Pei could not hold on, but even the soldiers of Dong Zhuo's army were a little tired. Xu Rong had to order the army to rest for a day and wait for the next day to fight.

In his opinion, Sizhou should be almost at its limit. After the army rested for a day, he would give them another thundering blow, at least they could capture their camp. If they could occupy the pontoon bridge before the Sizhou Army destroyed it, they might be able to follow the defeated soldiers to attack the city of Wenxi.

At this time, in the camp of the Sizhou Army, Huangfu Chaobo and others were also counting the losses of the past few days. After five days of fierce fighting, the 100,000 Sizhou Army had more than 14,000 soldiers killed in battle, and as many as 25,000 injured. There were nearly 10,000 seriously injured soldiers who would die one after another. That is, in these five days, the daily losses reached as many as 5,000.

Fortunately, nearly 30,000 people have been sent away in the past few days. Together with the 2,000 people who went with Yang Feng at the beginning, 32,000 people have arrived in Gengxiang. Now there are less than 50,000 troops and 25,000 wounded soldiers in the camp and Wenxi City, and there are two cavalry units with nearly 8,000 of them.

In other words, after a few days, there are only more than 40,000 infantrymen who can really fight, among which nearly 10,000 are newly recruited soldiers. More than half of the 20,000 newly recruited soldiers have been killed or wounded in a few days.

There is no way, this tragic battle is the grave of new recruits, but this is still in the battle of defending the city, otherwise there will be more casualties.

Now only half of the 170,000 or 180,000 troops are left, and nearly half of them are wounded. It can be said that this battle really hurt Huangfu Chaobo.

Everyone in the big tent was silent. After a long time, Zhao Yun said, "My lord, it's time for the army to retreat. Otherwise, if it drags on, the losses will be even greater. I suggest retreating tonight."

Huangfu Chaobo also knew that he couldn't hesitate any longer, but there were still nearly 10,000 seriously injured soldiers, and it was basically impossible to evacuate safely. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh and said, "Get ready, arrange the soldiers to start retreating to the north of Sushui tonight, and at the same time order the cavalry to send away some of the injured soldiers first, and the rest of the troops will retreat on foot overnight. After the cavalry sends the wounded to Gengxiang, they will return to meet the follow-up soldiers."

"As for the seriously injured soldiers..." After a long time, Huangfu Chaobo said, "I will go and talk to them in person..."

As he said, he walked towards the wounded camp without looking back.

Seeing this, Pang Tong hurriedly followed him, and the other generals prepared to retreat under Zhao Yun's arrangement. First of all, the wounded had to be evacuated to the other side of the river. This was not a big deal, because after every battle, wounded soldiers in the Sizhou Army camp would be evacuated to Wenxi. Xu Rong had already heard all of this clearly.

So, Xu Rong and his generals were not surprised by the evacuation of the wounded during the day. They just sent cavalry to patrol outside the camp to prevent the army from suddenly evacuating or taking other actions.

At this time, neither Xu Rong nor Jiang Pei could have imagined that the Sizhou Army would retreat from Hejin, because Pang Tong's sleight of hand and Huangfu Chaobo's ant moving were too perfect.

These days, the troops left and returned every day, basically before dawn in the morning and after nightfall at night, and during the day, there were basically cavalry patrolling between the pontoon bridge of the camp and Wenxi to cut off Jiang Pei's information exploration around Jianxi.

Although within a few days, the Sizhou Army had quietly moved 10,000 to 20,000 people to Gengxiang, but Jiang Pei and his men still knew nothing about it. In addition, under Pang Tong's arrangement, both Wenxi and the camp were constantly moving, and there was no sign of the army retreating at all.

When Huangfu Chaobo left the wounded camp, his face was as gloomy as water. Although it was not the first time he led troops to fight, he had never abandoned so many wounded soldiers at once. This did not include the thousands of seriously injured soldiers abandoned in Su Zhi's camp. This was the second time he abandoned the wounded.