Chapter 865
The temperature in the central part of Feng Kingdom suddenly turned cold and heavy snow fell. This sudden weather change caused the situation of both sides to reverse. Originally, Yancheng, the capital of wind, was in danger and had no troops to stop the powerful enemy. However, the Zhen army was confident of victory. It was only a matter of time before Yancheng was captured.
But now, the Zhenjun, who could not bear the severe cold, could only throw away the fruits of victory and reluctantly chose to retreat.
At the same time, Wancheng also discovered signs of Zhenjun's retreat. Feng Country is a place of severe cold. Feng people have long been accustomed to the cold weather and are very well prepared. When the temperature drops sharply, the Feng Army soldiers immediately receive the distributed cotton clothes, trousers and boots, but even if In this way, the soldiers guarding the city were still shivering from the cold and kept walking back and forth on the top of the city.
Feng Jun's sentry was the first to notice Zhen Jun's movements. He did not dare to delay and hurriedly ran down the tower to report the news to the city. Soon, the news reached Wu Mei, and she suddenly heard the news that the enemy troops were retreating. Wu Mei turned over and sat up from the bed. There was no sleep on her face. She asked the female guard who came in: "Is this true?"
The female guard responded: "Replying to Madam, it was discovered by the soldiers who were keeping watch on the top of the city."
That shouldn't be wrong. No one would dare to report such a thing as false. Wu Mei was puzzled. How could the Zhen army retreat if it was so good? While getting dressed, she asked, "What happened to Zhenjun?"
The female guard shook her head and said: "It's not clear yet, but in the middle of the night, it suddenly snowed heavily. Did the Zhen army retreat because of this?" She made a random guess, but she was really fooled.
"Oh?" Wu Mei put on her clothes as quickly as possible, opened the door, and walked out in stride. She went out quickly and came back even faster. She was forced back by the cold wind outside. She was only wearing single clothes at this time, but she didn't expect the wind outside to be so strong and freezing cold. After returning to the room, Wu Mei said repeatedly: "Hurry! Go and find a cotton coat for me!"
"Yes! Madam!" the female guard agreed and left quickly.
Wu Mei calmed down and thought about it carefully, and then she understood the reason why Zhenjun retreated.
The Zhen people must have been unable to adapt to the sudden change in the weather, and they had not made adequate preparations for cold protection. The entire army could not bear the cold, so they had no choice but to retreat. Thinking of this, Wu Mei understood why Zong Yuan vowed that the Zhen Army would retreat last night. It turned out that he had already judged that it would be cold and snowy tonight, and also judged that the Zhen Army was not enough to protect themselves from the cold.
oops! Wu Mei stamped her feet. If she had known this, she should have listened to Zong Yuan and prepared the cavalry earlier to go out of the city to chase Zhenjun! While she was walking back and forth in a hurry, the female guard came back and brought a set of clean cotton clothes. Wu Mei quickly changed into them, then wrapped herself in the cloak and walked out of the residence quickly under the protection of a group of guards.
As soon as Wu Mei came out, she saw Zong Yuan and Lei Zhen coming towards her. Seeing the two of them, Wu Mei immediately blurted out and asked: "I heard that Zhenjun has retreated. Is it true or false?"
Zong Yuan and Lei Zhen both looked happy, and both nodded and said, "Madam, it's absolutely true, the Zhen Army has indeed withdrawn its troops!"
After receiving confirmation from both of them, Wu Mei's heart finally fell back into her stomach. She let out a long laugh, looked up and sighed: "This is God's blessing for me!" After sighing for a moment, she said urgently to Lei Zhen: "General Lei, please speed up the two thousand cavalry in the city to chase down the Zhen army. , we must not let the Zhen army retreat too slowly."
"General, I obey!" Lei Zhen accepted the order with his hands and turned around.
He gathered two thousand cavalry in the city and rushed out of Wancheng to pursue Zhenjun. The cold wind in the city was no longer too small, but as soon as we left the city, the cold wind outside became even stronger, blowing so hard that ghosts and gods howled. Even the cold-resistant wind man could not bear the cold wind even when he wore cotton clothes and trousers. No, even if they could hold on, the horse they were riding on could not.
Less than two miles out of the city, Lei Zhen and his cavalry were blown back to Wancheng by the wind and snow outside. When returning to the city, not to mention the soldiers below were so cold that their eyes watered. Even Lei Zhen felt as if his ears were about to be frozen off, numb and stinging, and his hair and beard were covered with a layer of white frost.
It’s impossible to leave the city in this kind of weather! He sighed secretly in his heart, wiped the runny nose randomly, and went to find Wu Mei to explain the situation. After Wu Mei heard this, instead of being angry, she was actually happy. If our soldiers could not hold on when they left the city, then the situation of the Zhen army could be imagined.
Her guess was correct, Zhenjun was in extremely miserable condition now.
People were walking hard in the cold storm and snow. From time to time in the queue, someone fell straight down. No one paid attention to it. People were already in trouble. How could they have the mood and strength to care about others?
In the ice and snow, you could still see the road at first, but when it got a little dark, you couldn't see the road, nor could you see any reference objects. Everything you looked at was a vast expanse of white, as if Everything in the world is covered with snow.
At this time, Zhenjun's march became even more difficult. When he took a step forward, he could hardly see his calves. The snow had already reached his knees. He had to exert all his strength every step he took. In addition, the biting cold wind blew people away. Unable to open their eyes, tens of thousands of Zhenjun gradually became completely lost in this snowy world. They couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north, so they just walked forward blindly.
After an unknown amount of time, the Zhen soldiers walking in front exclaimed: "There are woods! There are woods ahead!" Now they no longer expect to encounter towns or villages, as long as there are mountains and trees to protect them from the wind and snow.
Seeing the woods, the Zhenjun soldiers seemed to see an oasis in the desert. People used all their strength to rush towards the woods despite the wind and snow.
This forest is quite large. The Zhen army entered the forest and went deep into the forest. When they got here, the cold wind finally weakened a lot. People pushed away the snow on the ground, cut branches from the trees, and started a fire.
The soldiers of the Zhen army gathered around the fire, sat on the ground, and then sighed. They started to retreat in the middle of the night. Until now, all the soldiers of the Zhen army were tired, hungry, cold, and exhausted.
Li Cheng leaned against an old tree, half squatting and half sitting, looked at the exhausted soldiers around him, sighed bitterly in his heart, and then said to the assistant generals around him: "Go and count how many troops our army has left now."
The Zhen army fell to the ground along the way, and Li Cheng saw it, but he had no way to do anything.
Soon, the number of people in each corps was reported one after another. When the assistant generals counted, people were a little unbelievable. When attacking Wancheng, the Zhen army had more than 80,000 people, and when retreating, there were more than 50,000 people. Now, there are only 30,000 people left, which means that nearly 20,000 people fell in the process of retreat.
Oh! Seeing such data, Li Cheng looked up and lamented that God was unfair to the Zhen Kingdom, and even more unfair to him, Li Cheng! Since entering the Feng battle, he has never made a mistake, winning battles one after another, attacking cities and strongholds, and being invincible, but the result is like this, how can Li Cheng accept it?
Seeing Li Cheng's sad face, Xun Xiao and other generals comforted him: "General, don't be sad, even if there are only more than 30,000 brothers left, after the wind and snow stop, our army can still capture Wancheng and enter Yancheng!" Their words are not just comfort. In fact, the Zhen army does have such strength. Even if there are only 30,000 people, it is not something that the Feng army in Yan and Wan can resist.
Li Cheng looked up at the sky and murmured, "Who knows when this blizzard will end?!" As he spoke, his stomach made a rumbling sound.
People were stunned at first, then they reached into their food bags, took out steamed buns and dried meat from them, and handed them to Li Cheng.
Li Cheng took them, and before he put them in his mouth, he had lost his appetite. The steamed buns and dried meat handed to him by the crowd had already frozen and were as hard as stones. If they hit his head, it would probably make a big bruise.
He shook his head and smiled bitterly, drew out his sword, stabbed the steamed bun hard, and then put it on the fire to roast. Seeing this, the generals followed suit, each taking out their swords and roasting steamed buns and dried meat.
They had food, but most of the soldiers did not. People were so hungry that their eyes were blurry, and they could not go out of the woods to find food. They could only lie by the fire and curl up to rest.
The sky gradually darkened, but the blizzard showed no sign of stopping. Li Cheng issued an order, and the whole army rested on the spot and spent the night in the woods tonight.
At night, the bonfires flickered in the forest, one row after another, which was quite beautiful. However, the soldiers of the Zhen army did not have the leisure to appreciate the bonfires and the snow scene. They lay by the fire, too lazy to move.
No one talked, no one spoke, and no one even made a sound. In such a large forest, more than 30,000 Zhen soldiers were terribly silent, with only the crackling sound of dry firewood burning.
No one talked all night. When the wind and snow were not as strong as yesterday in the morning of the second day, Li Cheng cheered up and asked the generals on the left and right to take some of the strong brothers to search for food outside the forest.
The order was passed down, and the corps commanders shouted loudly, asking the soldiers below to get up quickly. But at this time, people suddenly realized that many Zhen soldiers could not get up after lying down. In one night, thousands of Zhen soldiers were frozen to death in the forest.
Under the pressure of hunger and cold, the Zhen army was almost always freezing to death and frostbite.
After much difficulty, five hundred soldiers with good physical strength were selected from the Zhen army, and led by a deputy general, they went out of the forest to find food.
Not long after they left, the storm turned from weak to strong, and the five hundred people led by the deputy general never came back after they went out...
This sudden storm lasted for four days and four nights.
The Zhen army led by Li Cheng who marched straight into Yancheng suddenly disappeared, and no one was seen alive or dead, and no trace could be found.
The Feng Kingdom could not find them, and they did not return to the Zhen Kingdom. The inexplicable disappearance of Li Cheng's army became an unsolved case.
It was not until a long time later that a hunter from the Feng Kingdom accidentally entered the forest and found a large number of Zhen army remains in it. After careful inspection, it was confirmed that the remains of the Zhen army were Li Cheng's army, and Li Cheng, the lieutenant general of the Zhen Kingdom, was also among them.