Chapter 912: Deployment of Defenses at the Riverside
Of course, during the retreat, in addition to taking away the body of his own Zepao, the soldiers of Anton also took away all the heavy armor and weapons of the heavy infantry soldiers of Yuan Shu's army. You must know that these armors and weapons are not Ordinary equipment. Except for Yuan Shu's soldiers who watched helplessly, no one dared to act rashly.
A quarter of an hour later, all the soldiers of the Anton Army had withdrawn to a mile south of the battlefield, and in the wilderness more than a mile to the north, the silhouette of Ji Ling's army became increasingly clear. At this time, Huang Wudie also breathed a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, he made a decisive decision and quickly ordered the army to retreat. Otherwise, the army must have been trapped by Yuan Shu's army now, and he would have been unable to stop by then. The final result would have been heavy losses. , or even the entire army was destroyed.
Huang Wudie personally led an army of 20,000 people and stood there quietly, watching quietly as Ji Ling led an army of 50,000 people to quickly approach and then stop on the battlefield. After a brief pause, Ji Ling left behind 10,000 soldiers and horses. Assisting Ji Bao's remnant soldiers to clean up the battlefield, he continued to lead an army of 40,000 people and slowly approached Huang Wudie's army.
Seeing Ji Ling continuing to approach, Huang Wudie was not afraid. The army was all infantry. Although his army had been fighting for more than an hour and was already a little tired, Ji Ling's army was not much better. I know that after rushing here for a few hours from morning to now, the physical strength of the soldiers cannot sustain a battle at all.
Looking back at the direction in which the injured soldiers left, he saw that they were already two miles away. Huang Wudie stopped staying. He waved his hand and ordered: "The assault cavalry stayed to monitor the whereabouts of Ji Ling's army, and the rest of the troops retreated alternately. ! Join the general’s army!”
Afterwards, the army slowly retreated, leaving only nearly three thousand cavalrymen to monitor the whereabouts of Ji Ling's army. After the other infantry retreated two miles away, they pursued the majority of the Chinese army.
On the battlefield two miles away, Ji Ling reined in his horse and stared at the retreating Anton Army with a solemn expression, but did not order the army to continue the pursuit. It's not that he didn't want to pursue it, but that he never expected that the Anton Army would suddenly withdraw, so he was not prepared at all. The army left the camp in the morning, and it was almost noon now, and it was already exhausted.
The Anton Army is different. Since it is ready to retreat, it will definitely make relevant preparations. If you lead the troops to catch up with tens of thousands of exhausted troops at this time, the opponent will be waiting for work, and you will definitely not be able to get it. OK The reason why he ordered the army to move quickly at the beginning was that he hoped to keep the tens of thousands of troops behind. Unfortunately, he was still a step too late, so Ji Ling just watched the Anton army retreat quietly.
He wanted the army to rest here for a while, just in time to wait for lunch and dry food to be delivered later. As early as the time of departure, he had ordered the main camp and Anfeng City to prepare lunch for the army, and then send it here as soon as possible. After the army had lunch, it happened to be almost rested, and he could bring some dry food with him before starting again. In pursuit, you must sharpen your sword and chop wood carefully. Anton's army carried a large amount of baggage and could not move faster.
However, Ji Ling was also stunned by Ji Bao's next report. Thirty thousand infantry plus three thousand cavalry left less than ten thousand people in the end. Three thousand cavalry were lost, leaving less than ten thousand infantry. Among them, there are more than 2,000 heavy infantry and more than 6,000 ordinary infantry. In addition to the more than 50,000 troops he brought, after a few days, only less than half of his own army of more than 100,000 remained.
However, if you add the nearly 10,000 troops in the rear army, Ji Ling's army still has nearly 80,000 troops. After excluding the more than 10,000 wounded soldiers, the number of troops that can be used is about 70,000. What Ji Ling didn't know was that just when he was surprised by the loss of the army, Huangfu Chaobo was also surprised by the loss of the army.
The battle report of Huang Wudie's army was immediately reported to Huangfu Chaobo by the cavalry. Twenty-three thousand people blocked the army, with two thousand cavalry losses and ten thousand infantry losses. There were 17,000 reinforcements, but after a scuffle, 5,000 troops were lost. When these troops finally retreated, only 23,000 troops remained, including 3,000 cavalry.
Twenty thousand infantry.
This is only the loss of troops and horses caused by today's war. Since the war between Anfeng and Hulou began, nearly 10,000 people have been lost on the battlefield of Anfeng and more than 10,000 people have been lost on the battlefield of Hulou. In addition, the defense of the camp these days The battle lost nearly 10,000 people. If calculated in this way, the losses of the Anton Army have exceeded 50,000.
In other words, Huangfu Chaobo still has more than 70,000 soldiers and horses at his disposal. After deducting Zhang He's more than 6,000 troops and horses and nearly 10,000 wounded soldiers, the number of soldiers he can now use is only about 50,000.
On the surface, it seems that the strength of both sides has basically not changed much from the beginning, but these days, most of the losses of Ji Ling's army are ordinary soldiers and horses, with the defenders and city guards losing the most, but the losses of his elite soldiers and horses are very small. , only the heavy infantry lost about 8,000, and the rest of the soldiers and imperial guards were basically unscathed, so the tens of thousands of troops in Ji Ling's hands are basically elite.
But the Anton Army is different. Today's army of more than 50,000 people, Huangfu Chaobo's Guards is about 15,000 people, more than 20,000 combat soldiers, and more than 10,000 defenders. As for the player's soldiers and horses, they have basically been lost. At the end of the day, only the personal guards in each person's hands were still barely intact, and the total number of soldiers was only about three thousand. Therefore, the gap between the two armies in terms of military strength comparison has become even greater.
This is why Huangfu Chaobo and Pang Tong and Guo Jia both agreed that they must form a formation to block Ji Ling's army when they cross the river. The gap between the two armies is increasing. Without the help of positions established in advance, it will be difficult to stop Ji Ling's army's attack. .
Only by fighting to the death can we survive!
When Huang Wudie led 20,000 troops to join the central army, it was already 3:30 in the afternoon, which was about 4:00 in the afternoon. At this time, Huangfu Chaobo's army had already urgently arranged defenses. Only 200 steps away from the river, thousands of civilians had dug three trenches several miles long. Although the trenches were not deep, they could well prevent the group advance of Ji Ling's army.
Behind the trenches, hundreds of baggage carts were lined up, connected end to end, forming another line of defense. The baggage carts were piled with mud dug out from the trenches, which formed a breastwork. Behind the breastwork were two rows of sword and shield soldiers and spearmen, and behind them were archers from various departments.
Further back, there were more than a thousand baggage carts still preparing to cross the river. Although there were already eight pontoon bridges across the creek with the full efforts of the civilian laborers of Zhang He's army, it would still take nearly two hours for all of the more than 2,000 baggage carts to cross the river.