mtl008 Chapter 399: Withdrawal to Dingzhou
Chapter 399: Withdrawal to Dingzhou
The army led by Ma Biao and Zhu Yongzhen successfully reunited with Xing Shuren's garrison in Yanzhou City. However, they were not greeted with the courtesy and welcome they had imagined, as if their arrival was deliberately ignored.
What was even more outrageous was that the remaining Xianbei soldiers in the city had not been completely eliminated, and Xing Shuren actually forced the two teams entering the city to camp outside the city.
"Ugh! This Xing Shuren is really too much! We worked tirelessly, consumed a large amount of weapons and ammunition, and lost many soldiers, but he is so indifferent to us!"
Zhu Yongzhen walked out of the city with an angry look on his face, and found Ma Biao covered in dust, complaining constantly.
"This Xing Shuren was just like that when we recaptured Yizhou. He's extremely xenophobic towards us from Dingzhou. In his eyes, we're just a ragtag army. Our new army has never had a good impression of him."
Ma Biao participated in the Battle of Langya and the Battle of Yizhou, and knew Xing Shuren well. The new army always had a bad reputation for him.
"I will write to His Majesty right now, informing him of the situation here in detail. If nothing else happens tomorrow, we will return home."
As a veteran who has been through many battles, Zhu Yongzhen could not tolerate such humiliation. He would not tolerate Xing Shuren's bad habits.
At the same time, Xing Shuren was also writing a battle report to Zhao Hui.
In his battle report, he praised the tenacity of the Yan army in fighting and tried his best to describe its heroic deeds in finally successfully repelling the Xianbei army.
As for the Dingzhou army coming to help in the battle, it was only mentioned briefly.
However, the battle report written by Zheng Xiangyi, the governor of Yanzhou, was completely different.
He truthfully and comprehensively described the battle situation in Yanzhou, and finally gave a detailed account of how the Dingzhou army defeated the enemy in a short period of time after arriving.
The book also gives a detailed description of Liu Xiang's heroic performance and the process of replacing generals on the battlefield.
Of course, he did not mention a word about the quarrel he had with Xing Shuren over the evacuation of the civilians.
In this way, two completely different battle reports were urgently sent to the capital that night by different people.
At night, Murong Mang and Duan Rui huddled in the houses like frightened birds, hiding anxiously, waiting for the opportunity to leave the city.
In the south of the city, Gongshu Hehe and his fifty men hid temporarily and thought the time was ripe, so they planned to climb over the wall and leave the city.
"Who is it?" the soldiers guarding the city shouted loudly in vigilance.
"Puchi..." The sound of a knife entering flesh instantly broke the silence. The soldiers on the city wall were killed on the spot. Dozens of Xianbei soldiers quickly climbed up the city wall and skillfully put on ropes.
The rest of the soldiers guarding the city heard the noise and rushed over, more than a hundred of them surrounded them.
"Kill..." Soldiers from both sides shouted in unison and started a fierce fight in an instant.
"Chief, run away!" A Xianbei soldier shouted loudly at Gongshu Hehe, and at the same time used his body to block the two Yan soldiers rushing over.
Seeing this situation, Gongshu Hehe knew that he could not continue fighting. If he continued to maintain a stalemate, he would only die on the city wall.
He decisively grabbed the rope, flipped over neatly, and slid down quickly along the rope.
Seeing this, the Yan army soldiers worked together to chop down the Xianbei soldiers who were blocking their way, and then rushed forward to try to cut the rope.
"Dang!" I saw a horizontal sword blocking the attack of the Yan army, and then the man rolled over and the horizontal sword swept from bottom to top.
The Yan army soldiers were forced to take a step back and their machetes were knocked down.
At this time, another Xianbei soldier came over. He looked at Gongshu Hehe and saw that he had already come down from the city wall.
Shouted: "The leader is safe, everyone evacuate quickly."
After saying that, he also climbed over the wall and slid down using the rope.
The Xianbei soldier holding a horizontal sword had just managed to kill a Yan soldier, but three more Yan soldiers came. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue fighting to the death.
Screams could be heard from the city walls from time to time.
This was accompanied by the sound of people falling along with the rope.
More and more ropes were cut, and there were fewer and fewer Xianbei soldiers on the city wall.
Perhaps the riots in the south of the city attracted everyone's attention.
Little did they know that at the collapsed gaps, more than a dozen dark shadows quickly escaped under the cover of darkness.
After the shadows disappeared into the night, they continued to move for several miles. One of them said, "Captain, we are finally out of danger."
"Well, Chief Duan, this time it was really too dangerous. We brought 200,000 people into the city, but in the end only us and a few others escaped." Murong Mang said with lingering fear.
"Maybe there are other people who escaped. There was a commotion in the other direction just now. Maybe they are our people."
"Stop talking, let's continue running north for a while, maybe we can run into the rest of our group."
The sound of the conversation grew quieter and quieter, and Murong Mang fled hastily into the depths of darkness with a dozen other people.
The next day, someone in Yanzhou City reported that some uninhabited houses were hiding Xianbei soldiers. The garrison rushed to the scene and quickly wiped out these people, giving them no chance to surrender.
Seeing that the situation was settled, Zhu Yongzhen met with Ma Biao for a discussion and decided to organize the army and return to Dingzhou.
Just then, Zheng Xiangyi came to visit them with several officials.
"I am Zheng Xiangyi, the governor of Yanzhou. I would like to thank the Dingzhou army for coming all the way to support Yanzhou!"
When Zheng Xiangyi met Zhu Yongzhen and others, he bowed respectfully and expressed his sincere gratitude.
Seeing the visitor's excellent attitude, Zhu Yongzhen's resentment immediately eased a lot. He clasped his fists and returned the greeting, saying, "As soldiers, we are sent by the King of Dingzhou to provide support. This is our duty. No need to thank me."
Having said that, I still can't help feeling unhappy when I think of Xing Shuren's bad attitude.
"I only learned last night that the general was stationed outside the city. It is because Yanzhou has not treated the soldiers well. I have come here today with my family to apologize to you all."
Zheng Xiangyi and others were well aware of what Xing Shuren had done, and secretly cursed him for being dishonest.
If Yanzhou needs help again next time, even if the other party is ordered to come and deliberately delays for a day or two, it will definitely be a disaster for Yanzhou.
Therefore, if you make a mistake, you must admit it, and if you are beaten, you must stand at attention.
He could only apologize on behalf of the governor's office, and this had nothing to do with Xing Shuren.
Seeing Zheng Xiangyi and the others holding important positions yet being so humble, Ma Biao felt it was inappropriate to allow Zhu Yongzhen to manipulate him any further, so he stepped forward and said, "The crisis has been resolved. We will return to Dingzhou to report. Thank you again, Governor, for seeing us off."
This sentence directly blocked their thoughts of trying to keep him, and also made his attitude clear.
Then, with a military order, the Dingzhou army marched in an orderly manner towards the southwest.
Zheng Xiangyi and others stood there until the team disappeared from their sight, and they did not leave for a long time.
……
In the Battle of Yanzhou, the Yan and Xianbei armies suffered comparable losses, especially in the hand-to-hand combat after their firearms were exhausted, resulting in nearly 100,000 casualties.
The greatest loss to the Xianbei soldiers came during their final rout, when they were scattered, trapped in the city, and killed one by one.
From then on, the Xianbei's fighting power was greatly damaged, and it was difficult for them to fight against Yanzhou for five years.
The sudden loss of so many people also greatly alleviated their tribe's food problem on the grassland. As long as they could survive this year's famine, there might be another opportunity in the future.
However, what they didn't know was that the Huns had discovered their plan the following year...