Chapter 988: The Great Retreat

Yulin.

Just as the Gun Cavalry commanded by Chen Hu were advancing toward this place, the Northern Di vanguard cavalry arrived here a step earlier.

At the same time, Ma Han, who was located in Yulin County, also received news of the battle from Lingwu County.

The one who delivered the message to him was a cavalry unit from the Central Army responsible for relaying battlefield conditions.

In less than a quarter of an hour, orders from Yongcheng also arrived.

General Chang Wei ordered him not to wait for the Central Army, but to attack immediately and defeat the Ashuer Tribe.

Clearly, the Central Army had also sent someone to deliver the battle situation of Lingwu County to Chang Wei.

"Prepare for battle immediately!" Upon receiving Chang Wei's order, Ma Han no longer hesitated.

During this period, his White Tiger Army and the Ashuer Tribe had been engaging in battle here every day.

It was basically the soldiers under Ashuer's command charging, and then being repelled.

This was precisely their predetermined plan: to exhaust the enemy's strength with the advantage of defense.

Now, the main force of the Northern Di in Lingwu County had been defeated, so the game of cat and mouse naturally no longer needed to be played.

He wanted to swallow the Ashuer Tribe in one gulp.

Just at this moment, the cavalry responsible for reconnaissance returned, and Ma Han asked, "How many men are in the vanguard of the Mule Hongzhen force that arrived early?"

"Reporting to the General, about eighty thousand," the cavalry replied.

Ma Han nodded.

Mule Hongzhen had retreated in defeat from Lingwu County, and his army consisted of both infantry and cavalry.

Such a cumbersome force could not possibly arrive all at once.

In order to let Ashuer receive the news in advance, he must have let a portion of the cavalry go ahead.

"Mule Hongzhen was beaten quite miserably by the Central Army this time; he can only send out this many cavalry," Ma Han chuckled twice.

In front of the Central Army, he also had no temper.

After all, back then, Chang Wei had commanded the Prince's Personal Army and conquered the entire Northwest.

Therefore, even though he now solely commanded the White Tiger Army, he remained well-behaved in front of the Central Army.

Dian Zhang, standing to one side, scratched his head and could not help but sigh in admiration.

Then he said: "General, the Black Tortoise Army also participated in the battle of Lingwu County and will also be credited with a merit. We cannot be left behind by them. If we can't compare to the Central Army, can we not even compare to the Black Tortoise Army?"

"That's true." Ma Han suddenly realized.

The Five Armies were all competing with each other; no one wanted to be worse than the others.

Thinking of this, he hurried toward the trench fortifications to the north.

Seeing that the soldiers of the Ashuer Tribe in the opposite trenches had not yet withdrawn and there was no movement in the camp, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Snatching the bugle from the bugler at his side, he puffed out his cheeks and blew the charge.

When he was young, because Ma Han lived in affluent circumstances, he was very interested in all kinds of musical instruments.

After the military reorganization, each army had buglers, and after playing with the bugle, he mastered the technique.

"Doo-doo-doo... doo-doo..." A clear and high-pitched bugle sound rang out.

The White Tiger Army soldiers lying in the trenches were invigorated.

Their muscles tensed up, and they crawled out of the trenches like cats and charged out.

The counterattack began immediately!

At this moment.

In the northern camp, Ashuer had not yet recovered from the shock.

He asked Bamudan six times before he could arduously believe the cruel reality.

The great army commanded by his brother and nephew had been defeated, and the losses were heavy.

The Northern Di cavalry gathered around them numbered less than one hundred thousand, and there were only over one hundred and fifty thousand infantry, with losses reaching seventy percent.

"How is this possible? How is this possible?" Ashuer murmured, his eyes wide with fear.

"We once had hope for victory. According to Niegofu's strategy, we used cavalry carrying Gunpowder Barrels to achieve some results, but after a strange firearm appeared on the battlefield, everything changed," Bamudan said with a dark expression.

Thinking of the cavalry slaughtered by the strange rifles on the battlefield, he still felt lingering fear.

"Strange rifles?" Ashuer was puzzled.

Bamudan then explained it, emphasizing, "This kind of rifle can fire continuously without any need to pause; the bullets were truly like raindrops."

Upon hearing this, Ashuer suddenly felt a chill.

The Breech-loading Rifles equipped by the Da Song army had already made them suffer enough.

Now, this kind of terrifying rifle had appeared, so it was no wonder that even his brother had to suffer defeat.

"We arrived a step early this time, firstly to notify you to retreat, and secondly, to prevent you from being unable to cope with a counterattack by the Da Song army," Bamudan said.

Just as he finished speaking, his body suddenly trembled.

He heard a sound that was both familiar and terrifying to him.

Listening more closely, he confirmed that this sound was exactly the strange sound from when the Da Song army launched a full-scale counterattack in Lingwu County.

Ashuer's complexion also changed; he realized that the gunfire on the battlefield had suddenly become dense, and the explosions of Hand Grenades and the roar of Artillery had also increased.

Rushing out of the tent, he looked toward Yulin.

Just as he and Bamudan had guessed, the Da Song army was launching a full-scale counterattack.

The Da Song army, dressed in dark green uniforms, surged out of the trenches like a tide, constantly covering their trenches.

"King Ashuer, we must retreat immediately; if we don't leave now, it will be too late," Bamudan said.

"Ugh!" Ashuer stomped his foot in frustration, turned around, and left, issuing the order to retreat.

Among the three routes of troops, the force commanded by Mule Hongzhen was the largest, and his was second.

When he arrived at Yulin, he had 150,000 Cavalry and 200,000 Infantry.

But after several engagements, his Infantry suffered heavy losses, with only about 120,000 men remaining, and the Cavalry also lost over 20,000 men.

Although he did not adopt the brutal charging method of Niegofu, he had also tried letting the Cavalry charge the Trench.

The result was obvious; having suffered numerous losses without achieving any tactical results, he stopped using the Cavalry.

Therefore, his Cavalry losses were the lowest.

As his orders were issued, the entire camp immediately became busy and chaotic.

The Cavalrymen mounted their horses one after another, and the Infantry organized their formations, preparing to march west to rendezvous with the forces of Mule Hongzhen.

As for the soldiers in the Trench, Ashuer could only abandon them, letting them hold off the Great Song army for a while to prevent the Great Song army from catching up.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The war was still continuing.

Large numbers of Cavalry were constantly fleeing from the camp, and as this scene fell into the eyes of Ma Han, he ordered the White Tiger Army soldiers to charge even more boldly.

Conversely, after the initial shock, the morale of the Northern Di soldiers in the Trench instantly plummeted to the lowest point.

Facing the attack of the Great Song soldiers, they no longer resisted, thinking only of following the others and retreating with the main army.

Thus, a chaotic scene appeared in the Northern Di Trench fortifications where Great Song soldiers were chasing and Northern Di soldiers were running.

Ashuer, who was fleeing the battlefield, did not dare to look back at the battlefield.

At this moment, a sense of anger, humiliation, and a feeling of powerlessness filled his heart.

For over two hundred years, they, the Northern Di, had always been the attacking side.

Yet today, they were actually driven off the battlefield by the Great Song army.

Not only that, they were not necessarily safe now.

Because, while he was fighting at Yulin, he received news of the Northern Di Cavalry's crushing defeat at the hands of the Great Song Cavalry.

Where was this Cavalry? Now, they knew nothing about it.