flstandardbreds Chapter 370 The ruthless are afraid of those who don't value their lives.
Chapter 370 The ruthless are afraid of those who don't value their lives.
Guan Xing continued to lead his troops on a miserable march along the official road, but this time he did not dare to run wildly. Instead, he advanced at a steady pace to conserve his strength and try to have enough energy to fight when he encountered the Wu army.
After running for an unknown amount of time, a group of scouts suddenly came running towards them, shouting from afar, "General, Liu Zan has defeated Bi Kui and fled north. Battalion Commander Ning Huan is in pursuit. Please turn back north and try to intercept Liu Zan."
Upon hearing this, Guan Xing shouted loudly, "Did you all hear that? Enter the rice paddies and pursue them to the northwest. We must catch up with Liu Zan and leave him here forever."
After saying that, he rushed into the rice field and chased after them. The rice in the field was growing very well and was about to be harvested. Guan Xingzhen couldn't bear to trample on it, but he also knew that now was not the time to be soft-hearted and care about the rice. If he let Liu Zan escape because of this little bit of rice, he didn't know how much money and grain it would cost to deal with this Wu army.
To solve the problem once and for all with minimal cost, Guan Xing had no choice but to step on the rice paddies and instructed, "Deng Hong, remember to remind me to compensate the owners of these rice paddies. We can't do anything that harms the interests of ordinary people."
Deng Hong nodded emphatically and said, "Understood."
While they were talking, Ning Huan's scouts caught up. Of the six who had called out to Guan Xing earlier, only two caught up, while the other four went back to report to Ning Huan.
Upon seeing the scouts approach, Guan Xing immediately asked, "What's the situation over there? How come Bi Kui was scattered so quickly?"
Logically, this shouldn't be the case. Bi Kui had a full five thousand men. Even if he couldn't defeat the Wu army, which was weaker than him, he should have held out until nightfall.
The scout explained Bi Kui's defeat with a wry smile, leaving Guan Xing speechless. "Damn those Yue bandits, they're really unreliable. Everyone speed up, the time for the decisive battle has come. We absolutely cannot let Liu Zan escape right under our noses."
Guan Xing was upright and honest, and he never concealed any battle plans from his soldiers. Not only did he not conceal them, he also actively answered their questions. Therefore, his soldiers all knew what it meant for Liu Zan to escape, and upon hearing this, they all quickened their pace and followed Guan Xing.
At this moment, Liu Zan was fleeing due north, while Guan Xing was chasing him to the northwest. They were like two intersecting lines that would eventually overlap, no matter how far apart they were. Therefore, Guan Xing was not worried about losing them.
Sure enough, they spotted Wu Jun's figure in less than half an hour. Upon seeing their target, the Han army was greatly encouraged and accelerated again to chase after Wu Jun to the right.
At the same time, Wu Jun also discovered the Han army's whereabouts. Liu Sheng ran up to Liu Zan and said, "Captain, we have spotted a large army of about two or three thousand men with the character 'Guan' on their banners to our left rear. It is probably Guan Xing himself. What should we do?"
Liu Zan hurriedly turned around to look, and when he saw the Guan-character banner flying rapidly towards him, he was furious. He cursed, "Damn Guan Anguo really abandoned Yu Han and came towards us. With the bandit army's pitiful fighting strength, there's no way they could defeat Pan Zhang. This Han army is definitely the spearhead against Pan Zhang. They just defeated Pan Zhang, then rushed to Yu Han, and now they're coming back to chase us. Aren't the Han army tired after running so far?"
Liu Sheng said anxiously, "Aren't we tired? They're already at our doorstep. What should we do? Should we continue to retreat or turn around and intercept them?"
Liu Zan knew that running away was not a solution. If they continued to run, they would be caught sooner or later. Even if they were not caught, their morale would be shattered. Therefore, the best course of action was to turn around and attack, defeat the Han army while they were exhausted from their long journey, and then retreat calmly.
But the problem was that Ning Huan was still following behind him. If Guan Xing got entangled, Ning Huan would catch up. So Liu Zan was caught in a dilemma. After struggling for a long time, he gritted his teeth and said, "Keep running. It's getting dark. We'll be safe when it gets dark."
Upon hearing the order, Wu Jun also accelerated. Seeing that Wu Jun did not turn back to intercept Guan Xing, Guan Xing became anxious and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Brothers, hurry up! If Wu Jun gets away, all the suffering we've endured today will have been for nothing."
This worked, and the Han soldiers exerted all their strength to speed up their pace once again.
The Han army was also an elite force drawn from the surrendered soldiers of the Wu army, and had received some modern training from Guan Xing. After fighting desperately, their speed was much faster than that of the Wu army. As time went by, the distance between them and the Wu army was getting closer and closer. At this rate, catching up with the Wu army was only a matter of time.
Seeing that there was no way to escape, Liu Zan couldn't help but curse angrily: "Damn Han soldiers, are they rabbits? How can they run so fast? We can't escape. Brothers, turn around and fight the Han soldiers to the death!"
After running for so long, their morale was almost gone. Now they're only thinking about giving it their all. Where were they before?
Despite some reluctance to fight, Wu Jun still turned around and charged towards the Han army.
Wu Jun originally had 4,000 men, but lost 500 men in the battle against Ning Huan with Wang Shu, and lost another 200-300 men in the battle with Bi Kui. At present, his strength is basically equal to that of the Han army, and he has almost no chance of winning against the Han army.
But Liu Zan had no choice. Fighting offered a sliver of hope, while continuing to flee would not only leave him with no chance but also result in a humiliating death. So he had no choice but to fight.
Seeing that Wu Jun had finally turned around and was attacking Guan Xingle, he excitedly roared, "Brothers, follow me!"
The two armies rushed towards each other, quickly closing the distance. Once within range of the arrows, Guan Xing decisively ordered the arrows to be fired. However, the Wu army had discarded their bows and arrows during the attack on Bi Kui, and now they could not retaliate and could only passively take the hits. In an instant, a large number of them were shot down.
In addition, Guan Xing also adopted the same infantry-artillery coordination tactic as Liu Zan. The moment the arrows fell, he rushed to the front of the Wu army, like a mad bull charging into the Wu army, causing blood to splatter everywhere.
You must know that the Han army had been running for so long and was burning with anger. Now that they finally had a chance to vent their frustration, they naturally wouldn't hold back.
Wu Jun vented his anger on Bi Kui, who also had the same fear of Han as the Yue people. Before the battle even started, his morale was already weakened by three points, so how could he possibly win?
In less than a quarter of an hour, Wu's army's formation was broken, and the Han army began to encircle and annihilate them from both sides. Seeing this, Liu Sheng hurriedly said, "Colonel, you go first and I will cover you. You must escape. General Zhuge and Grand Commander Lu still need you."
Liu Zan angrily retorted, "What kind of talk is this? My brothers are fighting a bitter battle, how can I abandon the army and flee alone?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Sheng, too lazy to argue, ordered Liu Zan's personal guards to drag him away, while he himself brandished his sword and charged at the Han army, attempting to buy time for Liu Zan to escape by fighting desperately.
Guan Xing had been observing the battlefield. Seeing Liu Zan escape, he immediately ordered, "Deng Hong, you handle this. I'll go after Liu Zan."
After saying this, he called on dozens of his personal guards to give chase. They thought that Liu Zan was lame and they would catch up quickly, but to their surprise, Liu Zan's personal guards also showed amazing potential in the face of life and death. They carried Liu Zan and fled at a speed that was even faster than the Han army, and in an instant, they widened the distance between themselves and the Han army.
Guan Xing naturally wouldn't give up the pursuit, and soon he and Liu Zan broke away from the battlefield behind them. After chasing for another quarter of an hour, they finally closed in. Seeing that they couldn't escape, Liu Zan's personal guards had no choice but to abandon Liu Zan and charge at the Han army, shouting with their backs to Liu Zan, "Colonel, run! If you can't escape, we'll have died in vain!"
Liu Zan was not one to be pretentious; upon hearing this, he stomped his foot in anger and turned to leave.
Guan Xing charged headlong into Liu Zan's personal guard formation, easily breaking through the enemy lines with his formidable martial prowess and chasing after Liu Zan. The Han army behind him wanted to follow, but Liu Zan's personal guards refused, resorting to a life-for-life tactic to keep Guan Xing's personal guards in place and prevent them from pursuing Guan Xing.
As it turns out, the saying "the fierce fear those who are fearless" is true. Seeing that victory was assured, the Han army was naturally unwilling to trade lives with the Wu army. In their fear of death, they were indeed stopped in place by the Wu army for a short period of time.
Seeing this, Guan Xing struggled for a moment before deciding to ignore his personal guards and chase north. His personal guards were evenly matched with Wu's army and wouldn't die for the time being, but if he let Liu Zan escape while trying to rescue his personal guards, he would suffer a great loss.