Chapter 917: The Army Successfully Crossed the River

As the Anton Army blocks layers of attacks, each time a line of defense is abandoned, the Anton Army's vehicle formation shrinks by several percent. By the time it reaches the last line of defense, it only includes the stone bridge and the two pontoon bridges on its north and south sides. The Anton Army only needs five thousand soldiers and horses to organize a defense.

On the river at this time, among the several pontoon bridges upstream and downstream of the stone bridge, only the two pontoon bridges closest to the stone bridge remained, and all the other pontoon bridges had been destroyed. And only less than two hundred of the Anton Army's baggage vehicles remained here. And there are only less than 8,000 soldiers and horses.

After all other troops and horses had withdrawn to the east bank, Gao Shun and Dian Wei began to form a formation at the west end of the stone bridge, preparing to meet the withdrawal of the defensive force of the second vehicle formation. At the same time, they ordered the remaining two pontoon bridges to be destroyed, leaving only There is a passage across the river under the lower stone bridge.

Following Huang Zhong's order, the generals of each department began to retreat alternately, leading the soldiers to slowly retreat towards the stone bridge, while Ji Ling's army pressed forward step by step. The soldiers from both sides came and went, killing them all. Eyes red.

There was less than twenty steps from the defense line to the west of the bridge, but it took Huang Zhong and his army a full quarter of an hour to withdraw. When Huang Zhong stepped onto the stone bridge, there were only more than 5,000 soldiers. There are 2,000 people, and the remaining 3,000 people have died on the way back.

Standing on a baggage train two hundred steps east of the bridge, Huangfu Chaobo stared intently at the bridge head to the west, where he had three thousand of his most elite guards. This battle would be extremely difficult. He had been prepared from the very beginning when Ji Ling's army was about to encircle and annihilate his 120,000-strong army, but he did not expect that it would be so difficult.

Now that the army has basically crossed the river, only Dian Wei and Gao Shun led two thousand iron wall battalions and one thousand trapping formations to resist Ji Ling's army in the west of the bridge. Huangfu Chaobo made a visual inspection and found that, except for the 10,000 injured soldiers who had withdrawn to Yulou County and the 3,000 cavalry in Hexi, the 120,000-strong army assembled on the east bank of the river as ordered was less than 40,000, including There were thousands of seriously wounded soldiers, and it was estimated that thousands more would eventually die from their wounds.

As a result, only a little over 50,000 of the 120,000-strong army was left, and the loss was as high as 60%. In the battle that lasted less than two hours, more than 10,000 troops were lost. This shows that the number of casualties was high. heavy. Of course, this is just his preliminary statistics. The specific casualties will need to be calculated in detail after the entire army has settled down.

At this moment, Huang Zhong came to him: "General, the army has basically crossed the river. You can order the two generals Dian Gao to retreat. This stone bridge..."

Huangfu Chaobo knew what he meant and shook his hand: "No need, we don't have the time and opportunity. Just give the order and make arrangements. The army will withdraw to Yulou as soon as possible to rest and be prepared to defend against Ji Ling's siege. What's next The war is not easy either!”

At this time, Zhang He's Euphorbia soldiers had also returned to the east of Hedong to regroup. Of the five thousand Euphorbia soldiers, there were now only just over 3,000 left. They were all arranged by Huang Zhong to the east of the bridge to prepare for the two armies of Dian, Wei, Gaoshun.

There is currently no suitable halberd in the army, so Zhang He first equipped his soldiers with spears. However, it was not the spears used by pikemen that were several feet long. That is a little more than three meters in reality. This length is exactly the length of the halberd used by the Euphorbia warriors. A spear of this length is more flexible and convenient to use.

Behind and on both sides of Zhang He's troops, 5,000 Yuan crossbowmen and 5,000 to 6,000 archers were waiting in formation. As soon as Dian Wei and Gao Shun led their soldiers to retreat onto the stone bridge, they began to fire bows and arrows at Ji Ling's army again. , and took the two troops back to Hedong.

Following Huang Zhong's order, the two troops of Dian and Wei began to retreat slowly. Of course, they did not retreat directly to the bridge. First, they fired a thousand crossbow arrows from the trapped camp, knocking down the Ji Ling Army that had surrounded them. Then, Dian Wei led nearly 2,000 iron wall battalions to launch a counterattack against Ji Ling Army.

Dian Wei's counterattack was far beyond what his clan brother Dian Zi could match. It was just a charge.

Dian Wei waved his halberds and charged directly into the soldiers of Ji Ling. The soldiers of the Tiebei camp immediately followed, killing the thousands of Ji Ling soldiers who had surrounded them and retreating. After killing him and retreating more than ten steps, with Dian Wei's whistle, the soldiers of the Tiebei camp lifted up their wounded companions and quickly retreated to the stone bridge.

At this time, Gao Shun's trapped camp had already retreated to the stone bridge, and had already taken over a few baggage trucks and blocked the bridge head. As long as the Tiebei camp retreated onto the stone bridge, they could quickly block the bridge head.

Soon, the two soldiers and horses retreated to the east of the river amid the arrows of Ji Ling's army. When the trapped camp left, they set fire to several baggage carts on the stone bridge and the food on them.

And when they retreated to the middle of the bridge, more than 10,000 crossbowmen began to pour arrows at Ji Ling's army on the other side. Tens of thousands of arrows once again swamped Ji Ling's army.

Two hundred steps away on the west bank of the river, Ji Ling looked at the fighting on the river with a blank expression, sighing inwardly that he still underestimated the crossbows of the Anton Army. It was always rumored that the Anton Army had an extremely powerful crossbowmen. The thought of being so powerful led to the success of the battle to encircle and annihilate the Anton Army. It seems that it is time to prepare for the siege.

Thinking of this, Ji Ling waved his hand and ordered: "Ming Jin, withdraw your troops!"

"Dang Dang Dang..."

As Ming Jin's voice sounded, Ji Lingjun began to retreat slowly. Of course, the injured soldiers of his own army would not forget to be carried away together. When the officers and soldiers of the Anton Army saw Ji Ling's army finally retreating, they all breathed a long sigh of relief.

After the soldiers had withdrawn a hundred steps away, Ji Ling said: "Order the army to set up camp and rest on the spot, and send a message to the Anfeng garrison commander, ordering him to recruit 20,000 civilians to rush to join the army tomorrow, and at the same time transport the army's baggage. The army will rest for one night, cross the river tomorrow, and prepare to attack Yulou!"

After a long breath, Ji Ling continued: "Count the casualties of the army and report to this general as soon as possible!"

The generals next to him agreed in unison and turned away.

In Hedong, Huangfu Chaobo was also watching the movements of Ji Ling's army. When he saw that Ji Ling's army did not continue to attack, but collected all the hundreds of baggage carts abandoned by the Andong army in Hexi and prepared to set up camp, he was really relieved. Ji Ling had realized that it was useless to fight again. It seemed that he was going to let the army rest and cross the river tomorrow.

Now there was only one stone bridge left on the river, and it was impossible for Ji Ling to cross the river. Seeing this, Huangfu Chaobo said to Huang Zhong and his generals: "The army should retreat, retreat!"