The upper reaches of the Luo River in the southeast of Luodu and Jiuqu City on the north bank of Yongji Bridge have fallen into a busy chaos.

Xiao Gan, the governor of Heshan, was already the queen of Liu Hou, and was also shouting loudly, trying hard to suppress and gather the retreating troops and crowds.

At this time, the streets of Jiuqu City were filled with great danger and panic. At the gate of the south city where the front line was rushing, countless officers and soldiers retreated from the front line and wounded.

More Northern Army officers and soldiers fled one after another in heavy rain, looking at the entrance of the city gate. At the Yongji Bridge in the distance, Xiao Gan's subordinates were also fighting a desperate battle with the attacking Southern Army.

Some people kept falling into the river, washed away by the slowly turbulent river water, and some people rushed over the bridge again and joined the battle at the bridgehead.

Although Yang Keshi fought desperately on the southern front and was temporarily safe, there were crises and mistakes in front of the Southern Army, which was coming immediately along the other side.

In a blink of an eye, it was urgent to say that the southeast region still looked safe and sound, such as Gaomen Pass, Queqiao Pass, Changshui County, Shazha Town, Fuchang County, and Liuqiao Post, which had been strengthened, fell one after another.

If it weren't for the sudden heavy rain that came into deep summer, which seriously weakened the power of the Southern arms and made several water systems in Dujidao's territory become anxious, I'm afraid that the brave soldiers of the Southern Army had already climbed to the north shore of the Luoshui River.

In fact, since the Southern Army entered the pass, Luodu has known that the Turkish regiment and rural soldiers recruited from the local area were useless, so he specially transferred the Yongwei Army, which was originally stationed in the third pass of Heyang to Jiuqu City City to take charge and manage.

Then due to delays and chaos in command and assignment, the Yongwei army transferred to the local area not long ago had mastered the power of city defense, but did not make any defense plans and take any appropriate measures. Until now, he heard the news of the failure of the front line.

For his own safety plan, Zhang Guangtai, the commander of the Yongwei Army, first thought was to close the city gate, whether the enemy's chasing cavalry or his own defeated soldiers came to capture the gate.

In terms of defeated soldiers, the first thing they consider is their own safety. They know that being closed outside the city gate means being slaughtered by the enemy. What they are afraid of is that the enemy has already chased their heels.

As a result, the defeated soldiers were so crowded that they had a great power. Before the gate of the baggage was closed, they showed the courage they had never taken out when they were chased, and tried their best to push the door open. They won.

As a result, the city gate suddenly opened, and a few city defense troops who were trying to block behind the door were squeezed to death and stepped down, and the rest escaped without a trace in an instant. The defeated soldiers cheered in the victory of the battle to win the door, crowded, trampled on each other and rushed into the city gate, as if they had recovered a city from the enemy.

therefore,

Liu Yanxiu, who was leading the reinforcements from his subordinates, rushed to the city gate in the uneven "victory" of their uneven cheering. Without even saying a word, he rode his horse along the city wall and rushed around most of the city. He rushed all the way to the official road south of the city.

The heavy rain that had not stopped since last night blocked his sight like a gauze screen. But through the gauze screen, he still saw a very surprising, heartbreaking and chaotic picture. The above-mentioned official road was filled with people, horses and various vehicles.

The official road was originally a journey between merchants and travelers. From Gaomen Pass to the gate of Guangding City, Luodu, the roads of more than 100 miles were built very neatly. However, in recent years, the national economy has been difficult and the roads lacking repairs have gradually damaged the rings. It cannot even withstand the impact of the storm this night, and has lost its original form and appearance. It is connected with the ditches, wild paths and fields on both sides, connecting them into a large sea of ​​water.

People were shouting, scolding, horses were neighing, and the slanted vehicles crowded between the people also made a "rattle" sound. Everyone hoped to go faster and escape to the safe area in their minds as soon as possible.

That area seemed to be out of reach. They had seen the city tower for a long time, but they had never reached its heel. It was this common and urgent desire that prevented it from being realized as soon as possible. They blocked each other's way, and all anger, fear, struggle, fight and tragedy of each other revolved around this central idea of ​​wanting to escape.

There is really no crowd on the official road in front. There is no need to rush to the wild trail or hike and run around the fields with some scorched crops. The official road and the nearby areas have long lost their original boundary, and more and more people are scattered from the middle to both sides, just as if the river water that broke the embankment must spread to the lowlands outside the riverbed.

At this time, the weather became worse. In addition to the storm, it also carried hail as the size of a bowl, and was hit without thinking. The rain came so rapidly that the long-dried ditches were filled with rolling turbid water. The turbid water rushed to the low-lying area, and some soil slopes collapsed by large pieces by rain. This area turned into a swamp of mud.

The people and vehicles walked in the mud, constantly slipping and rotating. Sometimes they were squeezed by the people behind and stepped into the deep mud, and it was difficult to pull out by themselves. Some people who were slipping had no time to get up, and the people who were squeezed up from behind trampled past them, and the wheels rolled past them, causing casualties.

Liu Yanxiu rushed forward several times along the official road, but was blocked by the defeated soldiers several times. He tried to wrap him up and retreat together. At this time, it was much more difficult to rush over the defeated soldiers and seize the way forward than to rush into the enemy's strong positions.

Because the power used by these defeated soldiers when they escaped was doubled or several times higher than when they attacked. The horses expanded and moved forward again, but then moved forward again, and seized their own path inch by foot.

Along the way, he kept meeting familiar soldiers and officers. Some had time to say hello and say something. They usually said something about the front line defeat and the enemy cavalry pursuit. Everyone said something different, and they were different. It seemed that they had not seen the enemy yet. They were just based on rumors and rumors, intimidating each other, spreading rumors, and then ran away first.

In a defeated battle, even if he was able to see the enemy, he turned around and escaped. Some of them had no time to speak and nodded. The soldiers and officers he met were surprised. Now everyone was running back. Why did he rush forward with a single shot at this point?

Someone raised his thumb and pointed his fingers behind, indicating that the chase was approaching and advised him not to go further. Some people also guessed that Liu Yanxiu went to the front line to find someone to convey an important order. What is more important than escaping for life? He kindly told Liu Yanxiu that those who could control them in the rear had also fled long ago, and the orders were no longer possible to be conveyed.

Then, Liu Yanxiu finally met a familiar face. Gao Huaizao, the former subordinate of the Privy Councilor Zhang Shuye, was wrapped in a large army of chaos, wandering in the whirlpool of defeat. He stood on the horse several times, commanding something angrily, trying to stop the chaos. As long as he could do this, he had hope to revive the team and turn back to defend the enemy.

But no one can do this. A person who loses his subordinates, his generals, his personal soldiers, guards, commanders, and loses the commandership of the flag, is mixed in the chaos of the army. His power is no greater than that of an ordinary person, and he has no more chances of escaping than others.

Military envoys, defense envoys, and military envoys have a small flag in their hands, which can usually command the advance and retreat of tens of thousands of troops. Now, in the minds of soldiers, it is just a piece of worn-out cloth, and it is too small to wipe the table.

The strict hierarchy in the army was automatically flattened in a major defeat. Officers and soldiers at all levels were just a group of fugitives who were leaving in a desert, and everyone was equal. People pretended not to recognize him, pretended not to hear his orders, or pretended to want to execute his orders without being able to execute them.

As soon as the larger rapids rushed up, everyone hurriedly left him, leaving him to get angry and scold him alone among the crowd. The eunuchs sent by the imperial court to supervise the withdrawal of troops could not show their might at this time, so they had to heel with a bald head and lamely backwards step by step with the flow.

At this time, Gao Huaizai had no effect on what Liu Yanxiu was going to do. To go to the front line to stop the enemy from dying, the Songyang Pass guard did not need to issue documents or souvenirs, nor did he need to issue an order.

Liu Yanxiu realized this clearly and hurriedly took the opportunity to skip past them like the wind.

Then Liu Yanxiu also saw another general with blood flowing from his mouth, Li Changyu, deputy envoy of Yongning Army. He used an ambiguous voice to scold the retreating team.

After seeing Liu Yanxiu, he waved his hand suddenly and shouted something in anger and indecisive manner. However, his voice did not seem to be coming from the mouth of Li Changyu he was familiar with.

It turned out that in the melee, he was shot by the enemy and penetrated each pair directly on his left cheek, so he spoke with blood and constant leakage of air.

This was within eight days, when he was injured for the second time, and he was forced to retreat.

So, when the Shengjie cavalry who were going upstream and joined the remnants of the Yongning Army, the trend of retreating here finally slowed down. They gathered a group of three or four thousand people in the city next to them, slowly turned around and headed towards the location of Yongji Bridge.

After a while, when this team, which was deep and shallow, finally saw the flag on the head of Yongji Bridge that belonged to the official army, he also heard the whistling and sound like a mountain collapse and crack.

However, there were the sound of shellings from the Southern Army one after another, and the Shanzhou soldiers who retreated like the water breaking through the dam.
Chapter completed!