"Your Majesty, we have won, a great victory. The Daxu army suffered few casualties, and killed countless enemy soldiers." A general came over and clasped his fists and said excitedly, his voice trembling.
Guo Shao was riding on his horse, looking at the mountains of corpses and sea of blood. Somehow, he just couldn't feel happy.
The wind was very light, and the smoke from the massive artillery and matchlock muskets could not be dispersed for a long time, and the entire hillside and valley were filled with fog. It was a sunny day, but it seemed as if the sky and the earth were covered with haze.
There were corpses everywhere as far as the eye could see. In the core of the two main battlefields, there was almost no yellow earth to be seen. The corpses had piled up and spread in all directions, and the whole field was in ruins. Broken weapons and flags were everywhere. Even the execution ground was not so tragic.
Guo Shao had fought many battles, but he never took pleasure in killing people, and never hated life. Painful killing only made him uncomfortable.
However, deep down in his heart, he felt that this was right. He was obsessed with catching that sense of justice brought by the massacre, which was much better than defeat.
Li Yueji's words were recalled: Why do we have to fight each other
Guo Shao looked back at the battlefield where the smoke was slowly rising, and said to his left and right, or perhaps to himself: You have all seen with your own eyes the harassment and massacres suffered in various parts of Hebei. If I don't kill them today, they will kill the soldiers and civilians of the Great Xu Dynasty in the future.
Li Chuyun bowed and said calmly: As warriors, it is natural for us to kill people on the battlefield. It is good enough that we did not massacre women and children.
Guo Shao glanced at him and said seriously: Duke Kaiguo is right.
Wang Pu looked far into the distance and could no longer see the scene of the chase. He clasped his fists and said: The Dangxiang have dispatched more than 100,000 men in this battle, and there are no more troops to be mobilized. We can take advantage of this victory to wipe out their forces.
Guo Shao accepted Wang Pu's suggestion and said, "Pass the order, Cao Bin's troops should keep an eye on the remaining cavalry in the south. The imperial infantry on horseback should take turns chasing the fleeing infantry. The cavalry should mainly focus on destroying the Khitan cavalry that fled in defeat."
I obey your order, Wang Pu bowed with satisfaction. Somehow, the civil officials were still worried that Guo Shao, as a warrior, would be soft-hearted, but Guo Shao did not disappoint them.
Guo Shao suppressed his negative emotions, pondered for a moment, and said: Don't let Shi Yanchao chase him blindly, let Dong Zunhui lead the main cavalry force of the First Corps.
Sometimes wisdom has nothing to do with age. Dong Zunhui is relatively young, but Guo Shao discovered during the Northern Expedition that he is very good at judging the situation. He is also willing to give Dong Zunhui a chance to make merit, as he is a relatively high-ranking young general.
The imperial guards infantry dismounted during combat, but after the establishment of Daxu, the number of war horses was expanded several times, so the number of imperial guards dispatched this time was not large, and for the sake of mobility, a large number of them were mounted infantry.
Even if infantrymen were given horses, they were not very good at horse fighting, as was proven by the first Northern Expedition after Guo Shao came to power. However, they were quite good at chasing rebellious soldiers. If they encountered defeated soldiers organizing resistance, they would dismount and fight. Anyway, walking and running would not be able to outrun people on horseback in a short time.
After Dong Zunhui in the north received the order from the central army, the main force stopped the pursuit. On the one hand, he sent a small group of troops to follow the defeated Liao army cavalry, and on the other hand, he sent people back to the military camp to take some tents, food and fodder, and extra horses before following.
After a delay, Dong Zunhui's troops followed slowly, changing horses every once in a while, and followed until nightfall, but they were getting farther and farther away from the defeated army.
Yang Gun was nowhere to be found in the Liao cavalry brigade. The Liao reinforcements included about 10,000 Khitan cavalry and 10,000 Xi infantry. At that time, the cavalry charged on the northern battlefield, while Yang Gun was on the western mountain. After the cavalry was defeated, they fled. Many people died on the battlefield, and some fled along the way. Now there are only a few thousand cavalry left in the Liao army, and there are also a large number of Dangxiang cavalry. Although the entire horse group is much better than when it was defeated, it is still in a mess.
At night, the war horses had been running and fighting, and had carried people all day, and many of them died of exhaustion.
The cavalrymen were defeated and fled directly from the battlefield. They had nothing and were short of food and fodder. What was even more terrible was that they had no tents and other things to charge into the battlefield. It was impossible to charge with tents on their backs, and they could not even bring too many extra horses.
A large number of people and horses stopped one after another and soon shivered with cold.
It was already the first month of the lunar calendar, and according to the season it was spring, but on early spring nights in the northwest, people could still be frozen to death in less than half an hour. Some of the Dangxiang cavalry had already quietly escaped.
Few Khitans ran away on their own. They were Liao people, and their only thought after the defeat was to go north to Liao. For a long journey, it was obviously the best choice to travel with a large group of people. Most of the Dangxiang cavalry were herdsmen from the grasslands north of Xiazhou, and they did not want to stay in Suizhou.
Everyone was shivering with cold, the wilderness was pitch black, the mountains were barren, and they had to use sabers and other weapons to cut trees, because they didn't bring axes or hatchets. It was completely inadequate to meet the needs of the army.
The Khitan and Dangxiang generals had difficulty communicating with each other, so they could only find people who could speak Chinese to translate.
The generals gathered around a fire that had been lit with great difficulty. The area was crowded with people. Everyone discussed and someone said: "Hurry up and we will reach Suizhou tomorrow and get supplies there."
But the Khitan general disagreed: If we lose this battle, the entire Pingxia area will not be able to stop Xu's army. Our horses are exhausted. Even if we reach Suizhou, how can we go
Someone else said: After we get to Suizhou, if Xu Jun follows us, we have to defend the city.
The Dangxiang generals could not help but say: You want to leave, Pingxia is over, where are we going
After hearing this, everyone sighed and there was a hopeless atmosphere.
Some even suggested taking a break and engaging in a decisive battle with Xu's pursuers, as Xu's cavalry was outnumbered. However, this idea was quickly rejected.
After some discussion, the group of people were at a loss. Finally, the tribes set off one after another to continue walking. It was a dark valley. Fortunately, they could determine the route by observing the Wuding River, otherwise they would definitely get lost.
Many Khitan cavalrymen began to dismount and walk, and the crowd followed suit, leading their horses and walking. Everyone knew that if their horses died of exhaustion, no one would give them a horse, and they might end up staying in this broken place forever.
By dawn, the Khitans were exhausted. At this time, they found a few thatched houses on the roadside and were about to send people to get some supplies, but they saw that some Tangut soldiers had already got there first. They drove out some ragged women, children and the elderly, and asked them where the food was hidden. They even took away their tattered clothes, probably because they remembered how cold it was last night.
Suddenly, the soldiers stabbed an old man several times with their knives, then raised their sabers and pointed them at a child, shouting and cursing loudly.
The Khitans watched silently, without asking any questions. They didn't care whether the soldiers were their own people or not. Besides, the Tangut cavalry and the farming tribes here were not of the same kind.
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