Xiao Siwen never expected that the most serious incident would happen in Zhuozhou and it would be so sudden and unprepared.
The wind had messed up his beard and hair, but he no longer cared about that. He sat on his horse in a daze, his face pale.
Earlier, when there were explosions and earth-shaking shouts and sounds of fighting in the city, the city gates were closed. Xiao Siwen wanted to call the troops who had not entered the city to rescue, but the cavalry in his hands had no siege equipment for the time being, so he had no choice but to wander around the city and shoot arrows.
The fighting in the city was fierce and a long time had passed. Suddenly, the south gate of Zhuozhou slowly opened, but no one came out. A thin white smoke filled the open gate, and almost all the Liao army soldiers looked towards the gate.
Now, do you dare to enter
Xiao Siwen's face turned pale and blue, and he was speechless. He felt as if an enemy had torn open his chest and shouted: Come and stab me. But he didn't dare to stab him at all. This was a completely humiliating thing.
Who was the Zhou army garrison commander of Zhuozhou? Xiao Siwen only remembered to ask about this at this time.
Finally, a general said: His name is Guo Shao, from the Imperial Guard. I heard that he used to be a blacksmith. He married Fu Yanqing of Daming Prefecture and married the sister of the Queen of Zhou Dynasty.
Blacksmith Xiao Siwen almost cried, he was beaten so badly by a blacksmith.
Xiao Siwen added: "I have sent someone to report to the Khan."
The general said: Yili went to report in person with his entourage.
Seeing that his soldiers were dejected and the remaining troops were very few, Xiao Siwen had no choice but to order a retreat to Gu'an.
Guo Shao was not surprised when he heard that Xiao Siwen had retreated.
There was no news that the main force of the Khitan ruler on the north bank of the Zhuo River was heading south. Even if they were to come, it would not be today as the sky was dark and it was almost evening.
The smoke in the air had dissipated, but there was still a faint smell of gunpowder and a strong smell of blood. That smell was a bit like the smell you get when you are on a fishing boat, which makes you feel a little nauseous.
The Liao army is so strong, killing them is like killing pigs, hahahaha
They are all born by their parents, I don't believe I can't kill them
The generals in the tent were talking wildly and excitedly, and many of them were covered in blood. Guo Shao's body was the cleanest, as he had not personally participated in the battle. The lining he wore was changed just this morning, the white silk was spotless, and the chain mail was also brand new. But he felt that his hands were covered in the most blood, and there was no way to wash them clean.
However, after killing so many people, he felt that he would not be punished but rewarded. Liao was the biggest enemy of Zhou Dynasty, and Chai Rong was threatened by Liao just after he ascended the throne; moreover, the Central Plains Dynasty still did not regard the barbarians they identified as human beings, and everyone was not easy to deal with.
Everyone was making a lot of noise, but Guo Shao said nothing. Everyone was used to this way of getting along, it was really a habit after so many times, anyway, they didn't need to pay attention to what the commander said, it was completely fine.
Yang Biao, Wang Zhang. Guo Shao suddenly looked up and said, "And Qi Tingxun."
After hearing this, the three men stopped talking, stepped forward and bowed, saying: "Your humble servants are here."
Guo Shao said: You must immediately gather the people from the First, Second and Fourth Armies, assemble them and be on standby at all times. Except for the generals' personal soldiers, hand over the remaining war horses to Luo Yanhuan first, and you lead the Third Army to receive all the Khitan horses.
The four people clasped their fists one after another.
Guo Shao said again: Li Chuyun, send someone down to get all the wounded soldiers out. If there is a car, load them up. If there is no car, use door panel stretchers to carry them out.
He gave many orders in one breath, and then said to Zuo You: Mr. Zuo, please draft a memorial for me. First, report the victory. The number of captured 10,000 people is exaggerated. Thousands of horses and heads were seized. You can think about the rest and write it down, and then complain. The left wing of the Hujie Army suffered heavy casualties in the hard battle in the city. Don't write the specific number of casualties. The more tragic the description, the better. By the way, the food and grass are exhausted, the houses and tents are damaged, and the wounded have nowhere to stay. I want to send troops to escort the wounded from Qigou Pass to the south bank of the Juma River. Finally, tell the emperor that the main force of the Liao army shows signs of moving south, and Zhuozhou cannot be defended. Please order the army to retreat to the south bank of the Juma River as soon as possible to avoid the annihilation of the whole army.
He added: "The officials of Zhuozhou should send a few people to the central army. They are afraid that the Liao army will massacre the city after reoccupying Zhuozhou, so they should start organizing the people of Zhuozhou to flee to Qigou Pass tomorrow. The bodies left in the city should not be taken care of for the time being."
Guo Shao spoke for a while, making sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do, and then he fell silent again. He sorted out his thoughts again.
In fact, he had already thought over what he had in mind many times, but now he had to sort it out again, which was a bit complicated and prone to omissions.
First, he judged that if Xiao Siwen chased him to Zhuozhou, he would most likely be fooled. Of course, if he was not fooled, he would have to find another way.
Guo Shao was a man who was very good at learning. He relied on his previous experience in this battle. Three years ago, the small-scale battle of the siege in Wuqi Town was too smooth, which made him realize that there was almost no street fighting in the siege war of this era, and both the attackers and defenders did not consider it according to experience. So once Xiao Siwen broke through the city gate, and the Liao army had been bold and arrogant before, the possibility of them not taking the opportunity to follow into the city to seek credit was relatively small.
After entering the city, he first used smoke to disrupt the enemy's organization and create chaos; then he used heavy troops to block the city gate from the flanks and used the terrain to divide and encircle the enemy. He learned these things from Chai Kehong, a famous general of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
If Chai Kehong had not used this strategy twice, the first time against Li Jixun and the second time against Guo Shao in Haozhou, it would have been difficult for Guo Shao to come up with specific measures and deployment methods from scratch in a short period of time. Chai Kehong was once his enemy, but also Guo Shao's teacher. The Battle of Zhuozhou almost completely copied Chai Kehong's tactics.
As expected, the sudden ambush on Xiao Siwen's troops went very smoothly. The Liao army was much stronger than the Southern Tang army, but its military tactics were not necessarily as good as those of the famous Southern Tang generals in the Huainan Campaign, and perhaps not at all. If Chai Kehong were alive and in Guo Shao's position, he could also get rid of Xiao Siwen's troops and might have done a better job.
Those were all things that had been accomplished. Now Guo Shao returned to his goal: to return to Tokyo.
Whether to return to Tokyo or not was not determined by Guo Shao's will, but by a word from Emperor Chai Rong. Otherwise, how could Guo Shao dare to disobey the order
However, Chai Rong did not insist that Guo Shao stay in Hebei; rather, he felt that Guo Shao's troops were already on the front line in Zhuozhou, and after listening to Zhao Kuangyin's recommendation, he thought that keeping Guo Shao was the most appropriate choice. But if Chai Rong felt that Guo Shao was not the most appropriate person, then the emperor would most likely make other arrangements.
Therefore, Guo Shao's logic was to influence Chai Rong's judgment and make himself unsuitable to stay behind; he also thought of a more suitable candidate for Chai Rong, who was Han Lingkun.
The first step was to cross the Juma River and let Han Lingkun guard the Juma River at Qigou Pass. Han Lingkun's Longjie Army's left wing was stationary at Qigou Pass and did not suffer any losses. It was obviously more suitable to stay in Hebei than Guo Shao's troops who had just experienced a great battle, suffered heavy losses, and had fled back to the Juma River due to fatigue.
How to go back to the south bank of Juma River? If you are timid, you can ask for permission to persuade him, but in order to prevent any more trouble, Guo Shao planned to execute him first and then report to the emperor and run away; he asked for permission while running away.
Because of his first achievement in the Northern Expedition, in which he annihilated 10,000 enemies in Zhuozhou, Guo Shao had the courage to make up for his mistakes. Moreover, he had already reported the situation on the front line. In order to prevent the annihilation of the entire army, he decided to withdraw his troops at the last minute. At that time, he would be accused of misjudging the opportunity and dereliction of duty, but at least it would not be an unforgivable crime. There was experience to follow in how he would be punished. In the Battle of Huainan the year before last, Li Gu's vanguard withdrew from Shouzhou City and returned to Zhengyang. As a result, the emperor was furious and reprimanded him for misjudging the opportunity, but did not do anything to Li Gu. And this time, Guo Shao had made such a great military achievement, so it would not be a big deal if he misjudged the opportunity.
At present, Guo Shao was preparing to realize his first step and deal with Chai Rong's will in a roundabout way. A head-on conflict would be a death wish, and no one in the Great Zhou Dynasty had the strength and prestige to fight Chai Rong head-on.
Guo Shao raised his head and looked towards the south, his hand touched the waist ornament embroidered by the woman around his waist, and thought: I dare not forget the Queen's earnest advice at any time; but I can only do this, there is really no other way.
The Queen must also hope that he would use this proper method. She has trusted Guo Shao countless times to get things done. This time will be no exception. Guo Shao feels that what he has done can satisfy her. Otherwise, in this situation, there is a more brilliant plan.
Guo Shao has asked this question many times: Is there any movement of the main force of the Liao army in the north
Li Chuyun was in charge of sending scouts to monitor the north, and hurriedly said: There is no movement for the time being, at least it has not entered the range of dozens of miles.
Guo Shao glanced at the dim light outside the tent and said softly: It's too late today, the Liao army should not come.
What about tomorrow
Guo Shao once again thought of how Chai Rong retreated after the decisive battle with the main army of the Liao Kingdom. At that time, the main force of the Zhou army was at a disadvantage in the decisive battle, so they took advantage of the Liao army's retreat in the evening and unexpectedly retreated southward overnight, so that when the Liao army reacted, they had lost the opportunity to pursue them, and the Zhou cavalry still ran fast.
Chai Rong and the generals of Zhou army were experienced warriors who had fought in hundreds of battles. Guo Shao believed in their abilities and felt that he should learn from them how to run away. The Hu Jie army was not as fast as the cavalry, but the enemy was dozens or hundreds of miles away, so they had a greater distance advantage than Chai Rong when he ran away.
He made a prompt decision and ordered the infantry battalions of the First, Second and Fourth Armies to escort the wounded soldiers and retreat to Qiugou Pass tonight.
The general hurriedly said: The tribes have just experienced a great war, and if they retreat overnight, it will probably cause chaos. Once the organization is in chaos, it will take a long time to recover its combat effectiveness.
Guo Shao said: "It's fine as long as we can return alive. I don't plan to fight again. Throw away everything and only take dry food with you. Zuo You, immediately send a military order from the shogunate to all the troops.
"Yes, my lord," Zuo You said with a fist.
Guo Shao's face was pale, and he seemed very nervous as he put his hand on his forehead. But the surroundings had long since returned to calm, with only the groans of the wounded and the noise of insects. His left hand was still on his waist ornament, and he kept thinking: Am I doing the right thing