Border area.
"Reporting to the general! All the stones have been launched!"
"Eighty percent of the stones have been piled up on the bridge! They have successfully blocked their retreat!"
Under the bright moonlight, a soldier was reporting to Huo Qubing.
Huo Qubing nodded slightly, his starry eyes sparkling with an unusual light.
Looking at the mountain of boulders piled up on the bridge in the distance, Huo Qubing said in a deep voice, "We've used up all the larger stones here. Let's put away the war halberds first."
"Retreat three miles away and set up camp without being detected by them. We will launch an attack tomorrow after we reunite with the lord!"
"By the way, take a group of men back to the city first and deliver the message to the lord!"
"Yes, General!" The soldier immediately led the group away.
Immediately, Huo Qubing led his men to retreat. He had a geomantic map in his hand, so he had already chosen a suitable campsite.
Upon arriving at the pre-selected location, several cavalrymen rode up from a distance; they were the spies that Huo Qubing had previously sent to gather intelligence.
"General! Our army has won a great victory!"
"I saw Tu Yuanjun heading towards his barracks a few miles away. They all looked dejected, probably because they had suffered a major defeat on the main battlefield in Xijing!"
Upon hearing this, Huo Qubing's face lit up with joy, and he immediately asked, "How many men do they have left?"
"Hmm... there are quite a few people, at least around 200,000."
Huo Qubing stroked his chin, lost in thought.
If Tu Yuan's army only has tens of thousands left, then tonight I can lead my troops to intercept them, or even directly storm their camp, so that they can't go back.
However, if there are 200,000 people, and our 30,000 men go to fight, there will inevitably be many casualties.
Now that we have war siege weapons and triple crossbows, there is no need to cause unnecessary casualties.
but--
Wouldn't it be a shame to let them return to their barracks so peacefully?
Thinking of this, Huo Qubing raised an eyebrow, looked at the full moon on the horizon, and then lowered his head to say to his subordinates:
"Most of the boulders here have already been driven into the bridge, so it would take too much time to find them now."
"Bring your war halberds into battle. If we provoke a counterattack and they seize our war halberds, it will be even more troublesome."
"In that case, those with bows, come with me! Even if they return to camp, let me leave some of them behind for later!"
"They've suffered a defeat. Let them spend this night in fear and exhaustion. I'll see how they fight tomorrow!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the cavalrymen carrying bows and arrows immediately stepped forward.
Huo Qubing's mission was mainly to cut off the Yuan army's retreat, so he did not have archers, only about two thousand men.
However, Huo Qubing did not believe that Tu Yuanjun would lead a large army to pursue him under such circumstances.
Having suffered a major defeat, the Tu Yuan army is now like a frightened bird, and dares not launch an attack rashly!
Soon, Huo Qubing led over two thousand archers towards Tu Yuan's camp under the cover of night...
——
The full moon rose higher and higher, and the temperature in the air dropped lower and lower. The defeated Tu Yuan army was now only two or three miles away from the camp.
At the front of the army, Mokhadin was still reviewing the day's battle in his mind.
He couldn't understand why the other side was able to bring out such powerful weapons today.
If he had known beforehand that the enemy had war lances and heavy crossbows with such a long range, he would never have chosen to engage in battle.
Tu Yuan Kingdom also possesses war siege weapons with a range of approximately 800 meters. He knew the power of such weapons; today, the enemy had fired so many stones, there must have been at least several hundred of them.
Could it be that they have been holding back for the past ten days or so to transport war convoys to Xijing?
Mokodin sighed.
In his memory, this kind of weapon was not widespread; to be precise, it was absolutely not available in Xijing!
At least in previous operations, they had not been seen using this weapon in Xijing.
"Could it be that I'm really wrong? Is there really no distance between the Emperor of Daqian and the Prince of Zhenbei? Are they putting on an act?"
"These weapons couldn't have appeared out of thin air, could they?"
"It seems they were already preparing for war with us. These weapons must have been transported to Xijing by the Emperor of the Great Gan Dynasty. They were just waiting for us to come and attack!"
"Damn it! They tricked me!"
Mokodin grew angrier the more he thought about it, his face turning bright red. He gritted his teeth and muttered to himself:
"What a deep scheme! Deliberately feigning weakness and pretending to be at odds with superiors—is it all an act?"
"This massive campaign means they're mobilizing the entire nation to wage war against us!"
Mitri, who was listening intently to him, suddenly frowned and said:
"Marshal, the war is not over yet, we have not lost!"
"Since they have already made preparations, we cannot continue fighting like this. In my opinion, we should return to our country as soon as possible, raise more troops, and have the Emperor send the strongest army of our Tu Yuan!"
"They have these weapons, but with the combined strength of the entire nation, our Tu Yuan Kingdom is no weaker than them!"
"Today's crushing defeat was due to our underestimation of our opponents. As long as we are well prepared, we will definitely be able to defeat them."
Mokodin frowned and looked at him, saying, "Of course we have to go back to the country, but then we won't be able to fight anymore."
"At least we'll get through this winter."
Mitri nodded and said in a deep voice:
"No matter how long it takes, I, Mitri, will definitely return here and achieve final victory!"
As he spoke, he took out a cross pendant, put it to his lips, and began to chant softly.
Mokodin turned his face away and said nothing more.
Just then, panicked shouts suddenly came from the rear of the army.
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