Three days later, late at night, the Xijing military camp quietly took action.
Yang Yan was a seasoned and shrewd strategist; even his retreat was meticulously planned.
The vanguard was replaced by the rearguard, with the elite troops leading the way, the supply and auxiliary troops in the middle, and a group of suicide soldiers left behind to cover the rear. The camp flags remained unchanged, in an attempt to mislead the Liangzhou garrison.
However, all of this was almost impossible to hide from the eyes of Tang Yanhai's scout camp and Shen Qian's night watchmen.
As dawn broke, the gates of Liangzhou quietly opened.
Wu Shangzhi and Guo Luo led two thousand elite cavalrymen, like cheetahs hunting in the dark, silently surging out of the city gates. Guided by the night guards, they rushed straight for the flanks and rear of the retreating Xijing army.
Meanwhile, Liu Yi's Shenji Battalion, under the cover of Shi Yong's infantry, occupied several pre-selected high grounds, with crossbows nocked and thunderbolts ready.
Yang Yan's rearguard discovered that the cavalry from the east of the river were pursuing them and attempted to form a defensive formation.
But they were facing the Hedong Iron Cavalry, who had been resting and preparing for battle for many days and were holding back their strength!
"Throw!"
At Wu Shangzhi's command, the cavalrymen charging ahead suddenly hurled a cluster of dark, metallic lumps.
It was a small, thunderous thunderbolt specially equipped for Liu Yi's Divine Machine Battalion!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The thunderbolts exploded in the hastily assembled formation of the Xijing army.
Sparks flew and shrapnel flew everywhere, instantly shattering the tight formation and sending men and horses sprawling!
"kill!"
Guo Luo pointed his spear forward, and the cavalry surge, undeterred, crashed into the chaotic enemy ranks!
With flashing swords and thrusting spears, the fierce Xijing army soldiers covering the rear were quickly overwhelmed and routed under such a violent onslaught!
Breaking through the rearguard, the Hedong cavalry did not stop, sticking to the tail of the retreating main force of the Xijing army like glue.
Instead of charging head-on into the enemy's well-organized main force, they used the mobility of their cavalry and the long range of their composite crossbows to constantly harass their flanks, shooting down stragglers and burning supply wagons that they couldn't take with them, spreading panic like a plague.
"Don't linger in battle! Keep your distance and use your bows and crossbows to engage them!" Wu Shangzhi shouted to his men.
Their mission was to harass, delay, and bleed the enemy, not to fight tens of thousands of enemy troops head-on.
The retreating troops of the Xijing army began to fall into disarray.
The auxiliary soldiers and laborers were the first to break down, crying and fleeing in all directions, disrupting the formation of the fighting force.
Generals at all levels tried their best to suppress the unrest, but to little avail.
Standing on high ground, Yang Yan looked down at the billowing smoke rising behind him and the faint sounds of battle cries, his face ashen. He knew Zhao Muyun would not let him retreat easily, but he hadn't expected the pursuit to be so sharp and precise!
"Order the Left Army to send out three thousand men to turn back and crush these flies!" Yang Yan gritted his teeth.
A force of 3,000 Xijing infantrymen was ordered to turn back and attempt to disperse the Hedong cavalry. However, Wu Shangzhi and Guo Luo did not engage them in battle at all, using their speed advantage to quickly disengage, while simultaneously firing whistling arrows into the air.
"Whoosh—smack!"
Upon seeing the signal, Liu Yi's elite military unit, which had already occupied the high ground, sprang into action!
"Target: Enemy troops turning back, 200 paces ahead. Covering fire—fire!"
"Whoosh—!" A dense barrage of crossbow bolts fell like locusts, accurately covering the advance route of the three thousand Xijing infantrymen, instantly felling a large number of them!
Immediately afterwards, several thunderbolts trailing flames were launched by crossbows and exploded violently in the enemy ranks!
"Boom!"
The Xijing army was thrown into disarray by this long-range attack, their formation was thrown into chaos, and their pursuit was immediately halted.
Meanwhile, Wu Shangzhi and Guo Luo's cavalry took the opportunity to circle around to another direction and continue to harass the main force.
This is the "farewell gift" that Zhao Muyun prepared for Yang Yan.
Scouts provided guidance, cavalry harassed the enemy, the Shenji Battalion launched long-range attacks, and infantry provided cover and support.
A series of combined attacks left the retreating Xijing army in dire straits, severely slowing their march and causing their morale to plummet.
Helpless, Yang Yan had no choice but to continuously divide his troops to cover the rear, and even personally lead the elite central army to hold the line, in order to barely stabilize the situation.
But the entire retreating force was like a long snake that had been beaten and wounded, moving slowly and covered in blood.
This brutal pursuit lasted from outside Liangzhou City until the Xijing army withdrew from Xiaoguan and entered the Longshan Mountains.
Along the way, the Xijing army left behind countless corpses, wounded soldiers, and supplies, suffering heavy casualties.
Just when they thought they could shake off their pursuers by taking advantage of the terrain after entering the mountains, the Qiang and Rong warriors led by Namtso and Urgan dealt them a crushing blow.
The Qiang and Rong warriors, familiar with the terrain, appeared and disappeared unpredictably, using rolling logs, boulders, and arrow traps to turn the Xijing army's return journey into a veritable road to death.
When Yang Yan finally led his remaining troops back to Guannei Road in a disheveled state, a headcount revealed that of the original 50,000 troops, less than 30,000 remained.
With morale low and equipment damaged, the team suffered a severe blow.
After confirming that Yang Yan's main force had retreated into the Xijing defense zone and could no longer expand their gains, Zhao Muyun decisively ordered a halt to the pursuit and led his victorious army, carrying a large amount of spoils, back to Liangzhou in triumph.
The siege of Liangzhou has been completely lifted!
......
Just as Zhao Muyun was winning a great victory over Yang Yan in Longyou and returning triumphantly to Liangzhou, Lin Feng and Huan Naxue led the Xiazhou army in a series of unstoppable advances, encountering almost no significant resistance.
The momentum of the great victory at Xia Prefecture was so strong that news of Yang Fan's execution and the annihilation of 20,000 elite troops had already spread throughout Guannei Circuit.
The garrison troops in the prefectures, counties, and passes along the way either surrendered at the mere sight of them or abandoned their cities and fled, not daring to confront them directly.
Occasionally, small groups of Xijing troops would attempt to stop them, but they would crumble instantly under the onslaught of Murong Chunhua and Huan Naxue's iron cavalry.
The army moved at an extremely fast pace, and in just over ten days, the vanguard cavalry had reached Phoenix Mountain, the last barrier north of Xijing.
The garrison commander of Phoenix Mountain originally planned to resist by relying on the natural defenses of the pass, but when he stood on the pass wall, he saw the Hedong army outside the city, all looking menacing.
Especially when he saw the "Huan" banner fluttering in the wind and the imposing white-horse-riding female general with a giant sword, and thought of the rumors that Yang Fan had been killed in battle, his will to resist instantly vanished.
After a symbolic resistance of half a day, the commander of Phoenix Mountain surrendered.
With Phoenix Mountain captured, Xijing was like a nut with its shell peeled off, exposed to the might of the Hedong army!
Lin Feng, Huan Naxue, and Murong Chunhua led their large army out of Phoenix Mountain and set up a long camp on the north bank of the Wei River, facing Xijing across the river.
Banners fluttered, the camp was heavily fortified, and it stood in stark contrast to the majestic and imposing Xijing City in the distance, which was shrouded in an atmosphere of panic.
On the walls of Xijing, the defending troops were on high alert, with archers and crossbowmen densely packed behind the arrow sacks, and rolling logs and stones piled up like mountains.
But upon closer inspection, many soldiers wore expressions of fear and unease.
Rumors were rampant in the city, and people were restless.
Although Yang Yan had retreated back to Guannei Road, he was still a hundred or two miles away from Xijing.
Facing the Hedong army, whose morale was high and which was coming with the momentum of a great victory, the defenders of Xijing were under unprecedented pressure.
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