Reborn in Liangshan: I built the strongest lineup

"Hurry! Hurry! Get out of there!"

Upon seeing the reinforcements, Yue Fei rallied his soldiers even more vigorously, and they charged out through the gap opened by Niu Gao and his men, quickly escaping the enemy camp.

"Crossbows and palm grenades provide cover, light the fire!!"

Niu Gao had only a few ignition materials and a small number of palm grenades left. After seeing his comrades retreat, he immediately ordered his men to throw these things into the enemy ranks.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

Although the palm-sized grenades from the Tiangong Academy are far less powerful than the hand grenades Ren Yuan had seen in his previous life, they are still a deadly weapon in this era. If it weren't for the technical difficulties that prevented mass production, the Dayi Army's combat style might have been a three-pronged attack of crossbows, palm-sized grenades, and muskets, followed by hand-to-hand combat.

But the Jurchens had never seen such a thing before. They were bombarded by the palm thunder, and the soldiers at the front were thrown off their horses and screamed in agony. When the soldiers behind saw this, they quickly reined in their horses and dared not go forward.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Niu Gao's men set fire to the breach again, creating another wall of fire to block the enemy before retreating at full speed! The group retreated quickly, disappearing into the thick night in the blink of an eye.

The Jurchens watched them retreat, but they had no way to pursue them. They could only curse and glare helplessly. Finally, when they were really annoyed, they fired a volley of arrows into the sky, as if they had already given chase.

"Stop chasing! Quickly organize people to put out the fire; save as much grain and fodder as possible!"

"Yes, yes! Someone come here! Put out the fire first, and also, quickly go check on His Highness!"

"Those who need to put out the fire, come with me first! And hurry up and collect the general's remains!"

……

At this moment, the Jin army was leaderless, and only the surviving Meng'an and strategists could issue orders. Fortunately, although the orders were somewhat chaotic, everyone accepted the current situation after realizing that they could not catch up with the bandits.

We can't catch up, but we can't run out of food. We need to put out the fire quickly, or we might not have anything to eat tomorrow!

……

While the Jin army camp was busy putting out fires, Yue Fei and his men were still running for their lives. They were not stupid; they knew that the surprise attack had succeeded largely because the enemy did not know their exact situation. If they were discovered to have only two or three hundred men, the enemy would probably immediately send thousands of men to pursue them!

So now, while no one's around, run as far as you can! Ideally, run straight back to the area controlled by Dayi; that's when you're truly safe!

"General, are you injured? How was the battle?"

Niu Gao caught up. He had been in charge of covering the rear and had come all the way here. He saw that the soldiers who had charged into the enemy camp were all covered in blood and looked exhausted. They were only able to keep going by sheer willpower as they rode their horses at full speed.

Therefore, Niu Gao was very worried about Yue Fei.

"I'm fine, it's mostly enemy blood."

Yue Fei's voice was also somewhat hoarse.

"The results were quite good. You set fire to the grain supplies, a great achievement! We killed quite a few Jin generals, and there was also a Fourth Prince, whose eye I shot with an arrow."

"The Fourth Prince? Could he be a member of their royal family?"

Niu Gao was also surprised when he heard this. If it really was the royal family, then their contribution this time was indeed great.

"I don't know, but it's a pity we couldn't kill him outright. If we had, the commotion we caused this time would have been no less than that of the Marquis of Champion back then. As for now, we're still a bit inferior to the Marquis of Champion."

Yue Fei felt it was a pity, after all, Huo Qubing had directly killed Ji Ruohou Chan, the uncle of the Xiongnu Chanyu, and captured the Chanyu's uncle Luo Gubi, as well as the prime minister, the head of the household, and others in that battle.

“General, the Marquis of Champion had eight hundred men back then, while we only have three hundred, and even the number of men charging into battle is only two hundred, so we are actually no worse than them.”

Niu Gao comforted Yue Fei, saying that Huo Qubing's victory was different in terms of numbers, and that they had already done quite well.

"That makes sense. By the way, Lao Niu, did you count how many people came out in total?"

Yue Fei knew in his heart that there would definitely be casualties in this battle, but he did not know the exact number.

"No, how about we let the brothers rest for a bit? And while we're at it, we can count the casualties? When I came over just now, a lot of the brothers were actually just barely holding on."

Niu Gao suggested that they take a break first.

"Run for another hour, Lao Niu, go tell the brothers to hang in there!"

Yue Fei turned his head to look behind him. Although they were already quite far away, he was still worried that enemy troops might catch up. At this moment, he dared not rest.

"Yes!"

Niu Gao accepted the order and left. This was the only job he could do now, since everyone else had been through a fierce battle, except for Niu Gao, who hadn't done much.

The group ran under the moonlight for about an hour. When Yue Fei looked back again, he saw that the soldiers behind him looked exhausted, and many of them were swaying and about to collapse, as if they were about to give up!

He mentally estimated the distance and felt it should be safe, so he slowed down his horse and had the messenger quickly relay the order to rest.

"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo..."

Upon hearing the order to rest, everyone quickly reined in their horses. After a night of surprise attack and escape, not only were they exhausted, but the horses were too. Many warhorses were snorting hot air from their nostrils and spitting out saliva. They needed rest as well.

"Dismount, dismount, let's rest, let's rest!"

At this moment, Niu Gao's hundred men came in handy. Because of the surprise attack and the fire wall in the later stages, they were basically unharmed except for a few unlucky ones who were grazed by stray arrows. They stepped forward to help their brothers dismount and rest.

After dismounting, many of the soldiers collapsed to the ground, panting heavily and unable to move, clearly exhausted.

The soldiers who charged into the enemy lines suffered heavy losses. They hadn't counted them carefully beforehand, but after everyone dismounted, they counted the number of men and discovered that of the two hundred who charged in, only sixty-odd were uninjured. More than forty men were wounded, some seriously and some lightly. The rest... remained inside the Jin army's tents and did not come out.

In other words, they lost almost half of their men in this raid on the camp!

"It's already pretty good. Although we have the advantage in equipment, the number of enemies is dozens of times that of us, and once they react, they are indeed not so easy to deal with."

Yang Zaixing calmed down at this moment. He had probably killed the most enemies tonight. Although there was no specific count, it was obviously no less than a hundred.

"Yes, those guards protecting that Fourth Prince are indeed quite formidable."

Yue Fei also said that the Jurchens in front were easy to deal with, but the ones who came later were clearly a level above in skill. If it weren't for Niu Gao's effective fire, the losses would probably have been much greater.

"General, I think we need to send this message back to Marshal Sun immediately. The fourth prince of the Jurchens has arrived, which means that the Jurchens must also have the idea of ​​moving south. Perhaps the day when we confront the Jurchens is not far away."

Niu Gao felt that it was impossible for a member of the royal family to bring troops to the border without a reason; there must be something going on!

“You’re right. Are our peregrine falcons still around? Send a message to the commander immediately.”

Yue Fei thought this made sense and immediately ordered that a message be delivered by a peregrine falcon.

"Let's rest for half an hour, and then continue our journey!"

……