However, Zhao Jiu still felt uneasy and frightened.
Because his shallow military experience told him that as this melee continued, under the influence of rain, mud and armor, the physical strength of both sides would be rapidly lost. Once a certain point was passed, large-scale casualties would quickly occur, and the speed of occurrence would be faster and faster. What's more terrible is that although there is no definite intelligence at present, Zhao Jiu can still be sure that, just like his side, the Jin army must have a large number of fresh troops that have not been put into battle.
At that time, every time both sides deploy new forces, there will be large-scale, wave-like and organized casualties, which will be severe and indiscriminate.
Reason told Zhao Jiu that the Song army had the upper hand in the war, and even if both sides had to fight to the death in the end, he had a greater chance of winning.
However, this does not mean that Zhao Jiu did not feel torment and fear, especially since he needed to sit here, almost as an outsider, observing and waiting for the progress of the battle with a blurred vision.
Lu Yihao and Liu Yan had been silent for a long time.
Time passed little by little, and noon came. Seeing that the Song army formation in front of the high ground, with the help of more and more reinforcements from the western front, through bloody melee and the driving out of large areas of defeated troops, finally occupied one-third of the entire high ground, Wuzhu did not force them to stay, but turned around and went to Huonu's camp according to Balisu's request.
Soon after he left, Wanyan Bendu began to implement the established preparatory strategy, which was to order the troops to shrink and integrate their formations, while at the same time gathering the troops on the western front to retreat in order to continue to control the high ground and protect the camp behind them.
But this action inevitably put the Tuhesu unit, which was located at the corner of the battle line, in a dangerous situation.
"General Huyan!"
At the same corner of the battle line, a disheveled Khitan knight came from the south and finally found Huyan Tong, but he did not dismount, but spoke anxiously. "I am the messenger of General Yelu, I have been here several times before..."
"Just get straight to the point!" Huyan Tong, who was shirtless and bandaging a wound on his arm under a flag, shouted coldly without even raising his head.
"Yes!" The Khitan messenger did not dare to neglect. "The battle line of Jiagu Wulibu is out of touch with the battle line of Tuhesu, and it is obvious that they are going to retreat. Most of General Chen Jue's troops have been involved. General Dong Min is obviously afraid that Heshelie Taiyu, the Wanhu, will also retreat, and has tried to advance and encircle them with Prince Tuoli. My general asked me to ask him whether he should go in with the others or stay to help you finish off the Tuhesu troops first? Also, should we inform General Xu Shian and ask him to come to our aid and quickly capture Tuhesu?"
"How many soldiers are there on the southern wing of Tuhesu?"
"Three to four thousand..." The Khitan messenger tried to answer. "It's just an approximation. Most of the infantry are equipped with spears, and most of the cavalry are equipped with war hammers. The formation is very stable."
"Let your general go and work hard with the other troops, and leave me 3,000 light cavalry to guard Tuhesu's southern wing. I will personally deal with Tuhesu's northern wing, and then sweep the southern wing with these 3,000 cavalry..." At this point, Hu Yantong paused for a moment, then gritted his teeth. "I, Hu Yantong, will personally deal with Tuhesu's matter. The prince has promised me that. Why call Old Xu? I didn't even call Deputy Commander Jie who was right behind Tuhesu."
The messenger knew that the other party was angry because of what happened a few days ago. Now he heard Han Shizhong's words of instruction, so he did not say much. He just responded and rode away to report to Yelu Yudu.
As soon as the enemy left, Huyan Tong, who had bandaged his wounds, could not wait and asked his personal guards to help him put on armor. A moment later, he put on his armor again and went into battle personally, leading his troops to launch another round of offensive against the northern wing where Tuhesu was.
Seeing Huyan Tong's flag coming again, the exhausted Jurchen veteran under the flag of Tuhesu just sighed slightly, and then did not rush to command the troops forward. Instead, he looked around on horseback to observe the situation.
But what is there to observe right now?
You know, although the vision was restricted and the battlefield was chaotic, the trend of the Jin army's large-scale contraction was still very clear. It was natural that the headquarters located at the angle was about to be surrounded on three sides. There was Jie Yuan behind him, Huyan Tong in front, the Khitan cavalry in front of him, and Xu Shi'an, who had been asked by Han Shizhong to keep his troops in place, farther away.
To be honest, at this time, Tuhesu wanted to retreat. After all, it was meaningless to continue to hold on at this time. Instead, it would be more beneficial to the overall situation to bring the troops back.
But... thinking of this, Tuhesu looked directly at Huyan Tong who had rushed to the front about a hundred steps away from him... With this man being so persistent, how could he and the others escape?
You have to know that the battle lasted for half a day. As the first two troops to engage in the battle, the troops on both sides were already very tired. Without strength, what was the use of armor? In this case, if he suddenly chose to retreat, the cavalry could still survive with its mobility, but if the infantry lost its footing, they would be drowned in the tide of the Song army. And if he abandoned the troops to cover the rear and only led the cavalry to escape, he might be able to take advantage of the chaos to survive, but let's not talk about how likely it was to survive, what about his own troops?
He had fought in so many battles, and had always led the troops in the past few decades. Even if he had been injured, he would have been restrained. How could he possibly abandon his troops and run away?
With this thought, Tuhesu suddenly looked to his south, then called a trusted guard and whispered, "Tell that noisy guy to take advantage of Huyan Tong's attack and let him lead his troops to retreat first. Take as many people as he can, and I will cover his retreat!"
The guard seemed a little confused, but still turned and left under Tu Hesu's gaze.
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