Chapter 156 River Beach
After the main battle under Changsha City lasted for a little more than an hour, the outcome of the battle was completely decided.
So far, Han Shizhong successfully broke through and relieved Changsha City. The main force of the Jin army left here also collapsed. Generally speaking, there seems to be no doubt that the Song army won a great victory and the Jin army was defeated.
But to be fair, the Song army did not perform well enough in this battle, it can only be said to be passing. It’s just that they did so badly before, so they stood out this time.
Relatively speaking, the Jin army still did well, but the arrogance and conceit caused by past victories made it difficult for them to accept such a natural defeat - it was certainly natural. Although there was a difference between cavalry and infantry, the gap of five times the military strength was there. Wasn't it normal to be defeated in an hour?
On the contrary, it was abnormal for the Jin army of 10,000 or 20,000 to drive 70,000 to 80,000 or even hundreds of thousands of Song troops around.
Coming back to the present, the stunned Talai still found it difficult to accept the fact. He stood there, falling into panic and hesitation... Experience and the tradition of the Jin army told him that he should take these last two Meng'an and rush towards the dragon flag regardless of everything. According to the military law of the Jin army, when he, the marshal, rushed forward, all the Jin cavalry on the battlefield would turn around, and then it might be possible to make a comeback; however, at the same time, the desire to survive told him that he should take these last two Meng'an, throw away everything, turn around and escape from the Zhuoqi River!
By the way, perhaps Talai himself did not realize that his hesitation was in vain, and no matter how hard he struggled, it was useless, because when he accepted Qin Hui's advice and used political struggle to become the right deputy marshal; when he faced the sudden assembly of the main force of the Song army and chose to compromise with Du Chong on the opposite side; when Han Shizhong rushed out, but he did not send the two Meng'ans away accordingly... he had already lost some of the things he had when he followed his cousin Wanyan Aguda to charge into battle.
This man was clearly old and corrupt. But what was even worse for the Jin people was that at this time, because of his own old age and corruption, he became a top figure in the Jin Kingdom and the Jin Army.
Of course, Talan has grown old, but some people have not.
Just when the right deputy marshal of the Jin army was at a loss in the face of the overwhelming Song army, Hong Ya, who had already mounted his horse, could no longer bear it. Perhaps it was the courage he had gained from his previous experience on the battlefield that he took the reins from Talai, then turned around and headed behind him, holding Talai's horse with one hand and urging his own horse with the other.
The Jin army officers and Talai's guards would never think of doing such a thing, and the other Han surrendered ministers did not dare to do it. However, after General Hong turned around with the right deputy marshal's mount, these people turned around in silence and followed.
Moreover, as the Song army behind them gained momentum, these people ran faster and faster. In the end, there was no need for General Hong to hold the ropes at all. Everyone spontaneously fled towards the floating bridge on the Zhuoqi River northwest of Changsha City.
This action directly led to the final collapse of the Jin army - the battle ended here, with the Song army winning a great victory and the Jin army being defeated.
The Han soldiers in the camp began to surrender in large numbers. The panicked Jin knights began to flee into the water like the Song army that had once collapsed, and then were dragged down by their armor and could hardly get up. The last two Meng'an in Talan's hands, two Meng'an who had not fired a single arrow, finally broke a new record under the pursuit of the Song army - three months ago, the fresh force that was enough to sweep seven or eight counties of the Song army and force a Song commander not to leave the city, actually collapsed without a fight!
The Song army easily eliminated the Jin army camp, secured control of Dahezhou where Changsha City was located, and began to hunt down the Jin army wantonly. Once the hunter and the prey switched places, it turned out that both sides were just ordinary living people!
Of course, there are still differences between armies. Because of the concerns about the ten fierce men of the Jin army who might arrive at any time, Yue Fei's troops and Wang Yan's troops, who gathered the fastest, gave up the pursuit and began to redeploy their defense lines in the opposite direction along the river. Han Shizhong's troops also maintained control. As the local defenders of Changsha, they began to use their familiarity with the terrain to quickly lock on the shallows and the only remaining floating bridge within the range of Dahezhou, and conducted large-scale searches of the remaining troops, trying to completely trap and block the scattered Jin army in this circle.
In contrast, the troops of the Tokyo Garrison were somewhat confused. In order to compete for the greatest military achievement of Talan, at least four or five commanding officers, seven or eight leading officers, and nearly 20,000 troops crossed the Zhuoqi River and chased northward.
However, during Zhao Jiu's slightly nervous and excited questioning, Han, Yue and Wang, the three high-ranking generals who had reunited, all thought that there was no need to restrain them, because after escaping from the turbid Qishui River and heading north, they would reach the west side of the Qishui River where the clear and turbid waters merge into one, and the wide Qishui River was enough to block any attempt by the ten Meng'ans to cross the river on a large scale. In this case, there would certainly be no problem in hunting down as many Jin army deserters as possible.
Moreover, the more important point is that the significance of Ta Lazy Man's Head itself is worth five Meng An! It is of course a good thing to be able to get it!
In fact, after Emperor Zhao was sure that everything was correct, he even released his trusted confidant Liu Yan and asked him to lead the Chixin team to chase Talai with the advantage of cavalry.
Back to the present, Pucha Hulu did not keep the Song army waiting for long between the clear and turbid waters of the Qi River, and the restraint of Han, Yue and Wang did not let Hulu gain any advantage... In the late afternoon, before evening, this Wanhu of the Jin army and his ten Meng'an almost broke their horses' legs when they rushed back from the northeast, but they could only look at the river and the battle array and sigh.
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