Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 196 Eight Generations of Ancestors
The Lord is worried about the labor of his ministers, and the Lord humiliates his ministers to death!
Zhou Ang's face darkened, and a murderous intent suddenly gathered in his eyes.

He restrained himself, knowing that now was not the best time to attack. Although Yan Yi's army was already near Changle Pavilion and would arrive in an instant, it would still take some time for the soldiers to form a line after the march.

If we attack in advance and cause the entire army to follow hastily, it may disrupt the entire army's formation.

However, Huang Gai insulted Yan Yi in public, and if he did not respond, he might be criticized afterwards.

Zhou Ang paused for a moment, then gave the order: "Heavily armed infantry in front, lightly armed infantry in the back, advance one hundred steps and cover the enemy with arrows!"

One thousand heavily armored infantrymen and two thousand lightly armored infantrymen moved according to the order, advanced one hundred steps in a tight formation, then took off the crossbows on their backs, drew their bows and loaded arrows.

Huang Gai's troops also took the same action.

Whizzing!

Arrows as dense as locusts crisscrossed the sky and poured down towards the armies of both sides.

After a round of arrow rain, Zhou Ang and Huang Gai looked at the enemy army at the same time, and a solemn look appeared on their faces involuntarily.

Although the arrows were sharp, they did not cause much damage to the enemy.

Zhou Ang's army relied on tight shield formations and layers of armor to defend against arrows.

Although Huang Gai's army was slightly weaker in equipment than Zhou Ang's army, their shields were larger and provided a wider range of protection, and their casualties were even smaller than Zhou Ang's army.

Under the cover of dense rain of arrows, the two armies slowly approached each other.

The moving side was Huang Gai's army.

Zhou Ang's army remained in formation and just kept shooting arrows at the approaching enemy.

Click! Bang!
About half a minute later, the rain of arrows disappeared, and the two armies, like iron walls, collided with each other, splashing a rain of blood.

Both sides deployed their heavily armored infantry in front, trying to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.

After the fierce collision, both armies remained motionless, and the battle was actually evenly matched.

Zhou Ang's army was well-equipped, had high morale, and was well-rested, so they were no less capable than the enemy.

Half of Huang Gai's soldiers were veterans who had fought with Sun Jian in many battles, and their equipment was only slightly inferior to that of the enemy. Although they had been fighting in Wucheng for more than a month, they were not inferior to the enemy at all due to their long-standing battle experience and tenacious fighting will.

Moreover, the fighting skills of these soldiers are obviously superior to those of Yan Yi Army soldiers.

Even when facing the enemy's tightly protected armor, they can respond effectively. The weapons in their hands always strike sharply and accurately at the parts of the enemy that are not covered by armor, thus causing effective damage.

But Huang Gai knew that this situation could not last long. His soldiers had fought a bloody battle in Wucheng for more than a month and were extremely tired. Moreover, they had just experienced a forced march of 20 miles. If they could not break through the enemy's formation in the early stages of the battle, they would soon fall into a disadvantage.

Boom boom boom!
Suddenly, a burst of drumbeats as dense as a rainstorm came from the west side of the pavilion.

Huang Gai looked in the direction of the sound, and wherever he looked, he saw dense swarms of enemy soldiers. Their footsteps were like rain, and their shouts were deafening. They were like two huge spiral arms, surrounding the two wings of his army.

The main enemy force has arrived!

Huang Gai was like a prey that was suddenly targeted by a hunter. His whole body suddenly tensed up and he became anxious and uneasy.

At this moment, a general came galloping over and shouted in his ear: "General, don't worry, the Lord has personally led a large army to rescue us, and they are only a little over a mile away!"

Huang Gai let out a long sigh, his tense body relaxing as he shouted, "Order the entire army, change formation and hold!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground shook slightly, and with a loud noise like muffled thunder, a group of armored cavalry rushed past from an official road hundreds of steps away and rushed towards his rear.

Huang Gai's face changed again. Looking at the enemy cavalry gradually moving away, his heart rose to his throat again.

Xu Sheng led a thousand heavily armored cavalrymen and galloped at full speed. In the blink of an eye, they had penetrated into the rear of Huang Gai's army.

His purpose was to harass Wu Jing's army and buy precious time for the main force to annihilate Huang Gai's troops.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Xu Kun quickly led 700 cavalry to intercept.

The two cavalry armies approached each other rapidly on the official road, like two flashes of lightning, sometimes merging and sometimes separating.

After the dust rose all over the sky, Xu Sheng's troops appeared behind Xu Kun's troops, stepping on the corpses all over the ground.

After just one charge, Xu Kun's troops were defeated!
Xu Kun was riding on his horse, his face pale, unable to accept this cruel reality.

Blood was gushing out from the wound on his left arm, but he turned a blind eye and just stared blankly at the defeated troops beside him.

The enemy was well-equipped, he knew.

He also knew that his army had suffered heavy losses in both cavalry and horses after a series of fierce battles. He had to beg and plead with Yuan Shu to get a new batch of war horses.

But he didn't expect to be defeated so badly and so thoroughly!

"Yuan Shu! Wu Jing!"

A low growl filled with hatred came from Xu Kun's throat.

If Yuan Shu had not been on guard everywhere and supplied him with inferior horses, and if Wu Jing had not been stingy and unwilling to spend a high price to purchase war horses and armor from other places, how could he have suffered such a crushing defeat!

In fact, he was a little wrong about Wu Jing. Although Wu Jing conquered more than ten cities, most of them were small cities.

Part of the spoils had to be handed over to Yuan Shu, and part had to be left to the Sun family. The remaining money was used by Wu Jing to purchase warships and to purchase infantry equipment. In addition, the losses in the Battle of Wucheng were very heavy and Wu Jing was not good at making money, so there was actually not much money and food left in Wu Jing's army.

Two days ago, Wu Jing had never expected to encounter such an elite enemy cavalry. Since Xu Kun's troops were already more than sufficient to handle the situation, why bother selling everything he had to purchase war horses and cavalry equipment? Wouldn't it be better to slowly acquire them from Yuan Shu?

The most hateful person was Yuan Shu, who stared at Wu Jingjun with his eyes. If Wu Jingjun gained a little weight, he would cut off a few pieces of flesh with his knife.

In terms of openly and covertly resisting Yuan Shu, Wu Jingyuan was not as good as Sun Ce in history, and the result is predictable.

The combination of various factors resulted in Wu Jingjun's cavalry having obvious shortcomings.

The fig leaf that covered up this shortcoming could not be torn off by Yan Baihu, Xu Gong, or Xu Zhao, but now it was easily torn apart by Yan Yi.

After one battle, Xu Kun's troops were on the verge of collapse.

Xu Sheng launched another charge without hesitation and defeated Xu Kun's troops in an instant.

Xu Kun fled alone!
After defeating Xu Kun, Xu Sheng rode straight to Sun Ben's troops and launched a charge.

Sun Ben's troops were anxious to rescue Huang Gai's troops, and they rushed all the way. They had just hastily formed their battle formation when they were defeated by Xu Sheng's troops, who were like demons descending from the earth.

On the official road, wherever the cavalry passed, it was like a hurricane. Soldiers fell to the sides like broken ears of wheat, and corpses were everywhere.

Sun Ben's eyes were bloodshot, and he shouted loudly to the remaining soldiers to avoid the official road and line up in the fields, barely stabilizing the formation.

Upon hearing the news, Wu Jing's troops rushed over, formed ten rows of spears, and approached Xu Sheng's troops, trying to join forces with Sun Ben's troops to attack the enemy cavalry.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Xu Sheng led his troops, narrowly avoided the gun array, rushed into another official road, and ran towards Qin Ran's troops.

Wu Jing was stunned and once again found himself in a dilemma. Should he save Huang Gai first, or Qin Ran first?

For him, this is a difficult choice.

The soldiers of Huang Gai's army were the elite of the entire army and their combat effectiveness was stronger than that of Qin Ran's army.

But Qin Ran had a better relationship with him, and behind Qin Ran's troops were the baggage camp and the wounded camp. If they were rushed through by Xu Sheng's troops, the consequences would be unimaginable!
After a fierce ideological struggle, Wu Jing decided to first gather several troops, arrange them into battle formations, eliminate the enemy cavalry threat, and then go to Changle Pavilion to support Huang Gai. This would cost Huang Gai his life.

Just as Wu Jing was gathering his troops, Huang Gai's troops were surrounded by 8,000 enemy troops.

Huang Gai was horrified to see that there were still more than a thousand enemy soldiers laying caltrops on the official road and in the fields in the direction of Wu Jing's army.

Caltrops are small defensive weapons typically placed before battle lines or along roads. They have multiple spikes, three of which touch the ground and one points vertically upwards, effectively hindering the movement of soldiers and particularly effective against cavalry.

Even if Wu Jingjun arrived immediately, it would take some time just to clear the caltrops all over the ground.

By the time the caltrops are cleared, the daylilies are cold.
What's more, the enemy can split up its forces to intercept.

A feeling of despair surged in Huang Gai's heart. He knew that Yan Yi was determined to kill him first.

The attacks were pouring down on him from all sides, using every possible means, even torches were thrown in to create chaos.

The number of soldiers in Huang Gai's army was decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A quarter of an hour later, Wu Jing arrived at Changle Pavilion with his 5,500-strong army.

Seeing the caltrops all over the ground and hearing the wailing coming from the front, Wu Jing felt a surge of anger in his head, and angrily ordered his soldiers to clear the obstacles.

What was particularly hateful was that the enemy archers continued to shoot and kill their own soldiers who were clearing the caltrops, making the clearing process extremely slow.

Wu Jing was almost going crazy. Seeing that the morale of the army was getting lower and lower, an idea suddenly flashed in his mind. He quickly ordered the soldiers to demolish the nearby houses, take stones and wooden boards, and start paving the road.

This method is indeed effective and has greatly accelerated the progress.

However, when the road was halfway through, Wu Jing suddenly ordered to stop.

The generals were puzzled and asked the reason.

Wu Jing's face turned grim as he asked, "Do you think our army still has a chance to rescue Gongfu? If we advance to the enemy camp, the enemy will have already defeated Gongfu and then take advantage of the situation to attack us. We lack cavalry cover, and retreating dozens of miles will be difficult. I'm afraid our entire army will be wiped out."

The generals' faces turned extremely ugly, knowing that what Wu Jing said was true.

The sounds of fighting coming from afar were gradually weakening, indicating that Huang Gai's army was about to be destroyed.

It's still not too late to retreat now. If you delay for a moment, you won't be able to escape even if you want to.

But if we watch Huang Gai's army being destroyed without offering any help, who will bear the blame and the infamy?
Everyone subconsciously looked at Wu Jing.

You are the commander-in-chief, who else can take over?
Wu Jing had anticipated this. He had already seen through these people's hearts and minds. They were all irresponsible!
At this time, if someone stood up and proposed to withdraw troops, and he agreed "reluctantly", the blame would never be put on him.

But no one stood up, including Sun Ben.

Wu Jing felt desolate, but he no longer cared. He cast a last glance at the yellow flag swaying in the distance and ordered, "Pass on my military order. The entire army will retreat immediately!"

This is all I have left, and I have to hand it over to Sun Ce no matter what.

The military order quickly spread throughout the army, causing an uproar.

Many soldiers showed expressions of disbelief. To withdraw at this juncture was tantamount to admitting defeat. The word "failure" could not even be used to describe it. The most appropriate word should be "escape"!

The entire army had not suffered a single defeat since the attack on Danyang. They had thought this impressive record would continue until they swept across Jiangdong. However, they had not expected defeat to come so suddenly.

But more soldiers breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the order to withdraw.

They have been on the battlefield for a long time and have developed a keen sense of smell. They have realized that the strength and cunning of the army in front of them are incomparable to other enemy forces. If they don't escape now, they will probably die here forever.

Amid the soldiers' extremely complicated emotions, the entire army maintained its formation and began to retreat slowly.

Xu Sheng saw all this and wanted to stop it, but the enemy troops were huge in number and their formation was already formed. If he tried to intercept them, he would pay a heavy price and the loss would outweigh the gain.

When Huang Gai saw this scene, he was filled with despair that chilled his bones. He hoped that Wu Jing would come to rescue him, but unexpectedly, at the last moment, Wu Jing led his troops away.

Although I know that Wu Jing's approach may be right, my heart still hurts.

Am I abandoned?
I was abandoned!
An iron halberd suddenly stabbed at him, interrupting Huang Gai's thoughts.

He subconsciously dodged sideways, and although he avoided the vital parts, his arm was cut by the halberd blade and blood gushed out.

Huang Gai groaned, grabbed the halberd with his left hand, pulled the attacking soldier in front of him, raised the iron whip in his right hand, and smashed the soldier's head with it. Red and white objects flew out and covered his face.

To maintain his precarious position, he led his personal guards to charge left and right, rescuing the enemy wherever they went. However, the enemy was overwhelming, and after a bloody battle, he was wounded five times, and his armor was completely shattered.

There was no time to bandage the wound, and the blood kept flowing. The energy that was usually inexhaustible was gradually slipping away like quicksand through the fingers.

Huang Gai gripped the iron whip tightly, fearing that if he loosened his grip even a little he would lose his grip.

He knew that defeat was imminent, and with his heart filled with grief, he fought with all his might, and for a moment, no one dared to approach him.

"What a fierce general!" Yan Yi, who was watching the battle from a distance, exclaimed in admiration and gave the order: "Pass on my military order, capture Huang Gai alive."

"Young Master has ordered that Huang Gai be captured alive!"

"Young Master has ordered that Huang Gai be captured alive!"

Military orders were passed down one after another, reaching the front line.

Zhou Ang shouted loudly, holding a snake spear, and went into battle himself to fight Huang Gai.

After fighting for less than ten rounds, Huang Gai was exhausted and was hit by the whip by the snake spear. With a clang, the iron whip fell to the ground.

The surrounding soldiers rushed forward, pinned Huang Gai to the ground and tied him up.

When Huang Gai's soldiers saw their commander being captured, the last bit of fighting spirit left in their hearts collapsed, and they threw down their weapons and surrendered.

At this point, the remaining caltrops have been cleared away.

Yan Yi left 500 soldiers to clean up the battlefield and take care of the wounded, and then led the army himself to hunt down Wu Jing's army.

A massive chase then broke out in the area of ​​dozens of miles between Wucheng and Guzhang.

This time, Zhou Xin witnessed the demise of Wu Jingjun as a victor. Just like the battle of Gulingdu that he had commanded, the process and result were almost exactly the same.

Three hours later, Wu Jing and Sun Ben led the remaining 1,000 soldiers, escaped the pursuit by a narrow margin, and fled to Mingling County, five miles west of Zhenze.

Mingling County is located 25 miles northwest of Wucheng. It is just an inconspicuous small county town, but at this time it has become the place where Wu and Sun seek survival.

They did not dare to flee to Wucheng, because at this moment, even a fool would know that Wucheng had become a dead place.

This was a tough time for Qiao Rui and Le Jiu, who were still in Wucheng resisting the Wujun coalition forces.

When Qiao and Le received the military report of Wu Jing's army's defeat, they felt a chill running down their spines to their foreheads, and their whole bodies felt as if covered with ice and snow, cold.

It took a long time for the two to recover from this shocking news.

"Wu Jing, I'll fuck your ancestors for eight generations!"

Le roared like a mad tiger, drew his sword suddenly, and chopped the military report into pieces.

(End of this chapter)