Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 121 Who Can Ask Lian Po’s Old Age (Part )

"Brother, whether to advance or retreat, whether to attack or defend, just say something."

After Ma Jintuo stabilized his right wing, he saw Zhang Chou still standing there in the middle of the small formation, and he couldn't help but get anxious.

Zhang Chou was stunned and muttered to himself: "They...what are they shouting? What's the broken wing end?"

"what?"

Ma Jintuo didn't hear clearly for a moment and asked with a frown.

Zhang Chou cleared his throat and spoke louder: "I mean, what are they shouting about? What's that 'broken wing end'?"

Ma Jintuo was stunned for a moment, then almost furious, but then he suddenly realized what was happening. How could he not understand at this point that his brother was confused by today's series of events? He could only suppress his anger and said, "Brother, why do you care what they are shouting?! Let's retreat now while there's still time. I'll cover your retreat."

Zhang Chou looked at the spear array that was approaching like a wall and finally reacted: "If we disperse now, won't we be easily trampled by the Song army?!"

"Won't the Song army easily trample our formation? Big brother, didn't we agree beforehand that if the Song army is prepared, we can't fight them? Are we really going to fight to the death today?" Ma Jintuo was anxious. "Besides, no matter whether the Song army is truly benevolent or just pretending to be benevolent, they will never torture prisoners. We are from our hometown and are familiar with the surrounding terrain. We can disperse and return to the village on our own."

Zhang Chou was still hesitating, but he didn't expect, or rather, no one expected, that the two of them were right in the center of the 800 people, with at least dozens of farmers gathered around them, and the two of them didn't lower their voices when speaking, which was really damaging to morale.

Originally, these farmers were full of resentment. After hearing this conversation and looking at the approaching array of spears, even the leaders of grassroots military organizations such as the generals and small farm owners became afraid.

The spear array had approached to within a hundred steps. Although the right army of the Loyal Army was a newly expanded team and had not experienced a series of battles along the Shu River, it had undergone formation training along the way and had high morale. Although it could not fight any tough battles, it was more than capable of fighting a smooth battle where the majority outnumbered the minority.

At this moment, someone in the right army's spear formation shouted, "Kill the bandits and divide the land!"

The already high morale quickly became like a raging fire, and everyone started shouting. This also caused some people in the gun formation to take wrong steps and advance too far, and the entire gun formation changed from a horizontal line to a wave shape.

Zhang Xiaoyi also had to stop and order the officers to reorganize the formation.

There was nothing that could be done about it. When King Wu was attacking King Zhou, he said, "Today's affairs took no more than six or seven steps before we were all in order. Sir, please try your best." At that time, the troops had to reorganize their ranks after taking six or seven steps. Today, the right army took hundreds of steps before becoming disorganized, which was already quite remarkable.

Although the right army stopped, the slogan of "Kill the bandits and divide the land" seemed to have completely stimulated the farmers in Zhangjiazhuang. All the previous things piled up on each other, and this slogan finally became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"The owner of the manor has ordered us to retreat to the manor!"

"Escape!"

"The owner said we can leave now!"

I don’t know who was shouting, or if it was everyone shouting at the same time. The words were noisy and varied, but the meaning was almost the same.

Don't die in a confused manner, run away quickly.

The formation of eight hundred people exploded like a bunch of grass pulled by a naughty child, and fled in all directions without knowing east, west, south or north.

They really came from all directions. More than a dozen people simply ran towards the right army's gun formation. When they got there, they realized something was wrong, but they didn't dare to turn around and run away. They could only squat down and surrender with their heads in their hands under the scolding of the Loyal Army officers.

It was not until this time that Zhang Chou completely regained his composure and immediately grabbed the panicked Zhang Baicao.

"Erlang, you go to the rear and take as many men as you can. We don't ask for a kill, just to delay them for a while, even if it means surrendering. In short, don't let the Song army catch up so quickly."

Zhang Baicao's face was pale and he was staggering on his horse, with sweat all over his head and face, but he still gritted his teeth and said he had received the order. Then he took a few trusted confidants who obeyed his orders, gathered farmers along the way, and rushed towards the gun formation a hundred steps away.

Zhang Chou grabbed Ma Jintuo's arm again and said, "Atuo, I still have fifty cavalrymen, all of whom are my trusted confidants. I will give them to you now. You will be the vanguard and open up a retreat route."

Ma Jintuo nodded seriously, then put on his helmet and asked sternly, "Brother, what do you expect now? Just surrender, and don't let any more casualties occur."

Zhang Chou smiled bitterly, "I know I've lost my way today, but I also have to explain to Brother He. I absolutely cannot surrender at this moment."

Ma Jintuo nodded again, snatched Zhang Chou's flag and threw it to the villagers behind him. Then he raised his spear of astonishing length and shouted, turned around and asked fifty light cavalry to gather behind him and slowly march towards the big flag with the word Zhang embroidered with a fish symbol.

There were one hundred Song cavalrymen there, who had now dispersed. Some of them were armed with bows and arrows, some with spears, and some even held fishing nets, machetes, and ropes. They did not look like they were there to fight, but rather to clean up the mess after the overall situation had been decided.

This made Ma Jintuo feel very aggrieved, so he straightened his spear, kicked his horse's belly, and galloped out.

Since you southerners look down on northerners, today I will let you experience the bravery of northerners!
Ma Jintuo felt aggrieved, and Zhang Baiyu felt even more aggrieved.

The armored cavalry under his command only captured two villages at the beginning, making two first-class achievements. Afterwards, Liu Huai began to lead the various troops in rotation, and these armored cavalry became the cheerleaders for cleaning up the surrounding security, and they were already a little impatient.

Especially when the news came that the land was being distributed according to merit in the rear, these armored cavalry quickly became anxious.

Marshal Wei and Commander Liu held high positions and had their own considerations, so ordinary armored cavalry naturally wouldn't resent them. However, they couldn't hold back their resentment, so they naturally directed it at their immediate superior, Zhang Baiyu.

There is often a situation where we can't even grab a striker's task. Others are playing in the front while our two teams are sitting on the bench.

"It was you, Zhang Baiyu, who attended the military meeting. Why didn't you dare to argue with Wei Marshal Liu Tongzhi and the others?"

'What are you afraid of? Why don't you dare to fight Commander Liu?' Such absurd words reached Zhang Baiyu's ears.

Zhang Baiyu was so angry that he had no place to vent.

The key point is, don't be fooled by the noisy and noisy cavalry under his command. If you let them deal with Liu Huai, most likely all they will say is "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief. I kneel down to you, Commander-in-Chief."

Are you crazy or am I crazy if you want to fight with General Liu?

This opportunity was what Zhang Baiyu had been waiting for for a long time. He had hoped to fight fiercely so that he could be proud of himself, show off his prowess in front of others, and gain respect from others!

But who would have thought that just as everyone was getting ready to fight, the enemy had already fled?

what is this?
Then a question suddenly arose in the minds of all the armored cavalry.

Didn’t Marshal Wei just issue a military order that “this time living is more valuable than dying”?
How many prisoners would it take to be credited with being the first to break through the enemy's formation?

No, he didn't have the time to think about that right now. There were only a few hundred prisoners in total. If others captured one more, wouldn't that mean he would capture one less?

"Brother Liang San! Leave me twenty, no, five, and I'll take care of this bandit. You quickly surround the fleeing soldiers and make them lay down their weapons and surrender." Zhang Baiyu quickly shouted, "Don't hurt anyone unless necessary."

"Yes!" Liang Pan responded loudly, and then the cavalry dispersed in groups of five and began to force the defeated army to surrender.

When Ma Jintuo saw that there were only five people left under the flag with the fish symbol and the Zhang character on the opposite side, he couldn't help but feel overjoyed. With his strength and the strength of the fifty cavalrymen behind him, wouldn't it be easy to capture these five people?

At that time, even if we can't reverse the situation, it will be no problem to protect Zhang Chou and let him escape calmly.

The warhorse was galloping at full speed like colorful clouds chasing the moon. In a blink of an eye, the two sides were only fifty steps apart. Ma Jintuo held the spear in his right arm, bent his body, and squeezed his legs hard against the horse's belly, increasing the speed of the warhorse even further. With a tiger roar, he went straight for the handsome young man who looked like the commander.

Zhang Baiyu casually drew his bow and shot the reckless general's horse with just one arrow. Then he waved his hand lightly, and two Song cavalrymen holding fishing nets came forward and covered Ma Jintuo, who had fallen to the ground, with the fishing nets. Then another Song cavalryman holding a long sword came forward and put the long sword on Ma Jintuo's neck.

Ma Jintuo was an skilled horseman and was not killed or injured in the fall, but he was still very dizzy. For a while, he was unable to struggle at all and could only let the fishing net cover his body. The only movement he made was to raise his head and look behind him.

He didn't understand why no one came to his rescue, but when he saw Zhang Baiyu holding a bow and spear, easily stepping forward and knocking off the horse of the family member holding the flag behind him, and snatching Zhang Chou's flag, he immediately understood.

It turned out that the person charging forward with him was only one person and one flag.

The rest of the people had already fled on their own in this distance of less than a mile.

Ma Jintuo was panting heavily, lying on his back on the ground. He did not look for his sworn brother, nor did he know whether Zhang Chou could escape this time. He only heard shouts of "abandon the troops but not the soldiers" everywhere.

"This can be considered as loyalty." Ma Jintuo thought so, but he saw the unbelievably handsome young Song general dismounted, rolled up Zhang Chou's flag and threw it to his personal guards.

"I'm Zhang Baiyu, commander of the front line of the Loyalty Army. It wouldn't be considered an insult if you fell into my hands." Zhang Baiyu squatted down and patted Ma Jintuo's face. "Are you hurt? If so, please tell me. We in the Loyalty Army have doctors, and we don't need your medicine."

Ma Jintuo shook his head slowly.

"Oh, that's good." Zhang Baiyu nodded, then frowned. "Are you the commander-in-chief? Could you please explain in advance why these few hundred people dared to attack the camp of our loyal army? Are they taking the wrong medicine?"

Ma Jintuo's throat was dry, and he muttered, "Although I'm not the commander-in-chief, I can tell you why we're fighting. It's not that we've taken the wrong medicine, but we've been pulled by public opinion and have no other choice. Your loyal army, Duke Wei, is indeed a master of tactics, and I'm convinced."

Zhang Baiyu instinctively wanted to scratch his head, but ended up scratching his helmet instead, causing his fingers to hurt. "What is this guy talking about? What's this about human nature and tactics? Why didn't I see that?"

Then he looked back and immediately became furious.

"Shi Laoqi is too fast! Why doesn't he leave some for us?!"

Ma Jintuo knew that Zhang Baiyu was referring to the prisoners being captured too quickly, and he couldn't help but sigh and close his eyes.

It was just noon (11 o'clock) at this time, and only an hour left before Zhang Chou officially set out to attack.

In response to Zhang Chou, Cui Hema, who was on the south side of Hejiazhuang, had just gathered his troops and had not yet left the village.

All I can say is that Zhang Chou is indeed decisive and quick in his work.

(End of this chapter)