Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 53: Escape
"The rebels will surrender, the rebel army has been defeated, and those who surrender will not be killed!"
Ding Feng couldn't even open his eye because of the blood, but he still held up a four-meter-long spear, waving it like a flag, and hanging on the tip of the spear was Li Feng's head...
The Huainan cavalry that came to reinforce lost their main commander right at the start, and the other captains under his command were also in a panic. Although they did not surrender on the spot for a while, they could no longer form a unified momentum. Under the constraints of the Qu'a spearmen, the cavalry who were in disarray were no different from other infantry!
On the other side, the 6,000 elite troops led by Liang Gang had just approached the battlefield when they were disrupted by the defeated troops of their own side.
Although they shouted "circle the formation" and "anyone who charges the formation will die", whether it was to order and pacify the fleeing friendly troops or to command their own soldiers to kill the fleeing friendly troops, it required the general to have sufficient command ability, and Liang Gang obviously did not have it.
After shouting for a long time, some of the fleeing soldiers who were charging into the battle line were killed, but in the end, the fleeing soldiers actually fought back...
This is also the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry, which learned the fighting .
Taking advantage of the chaos in the enemy's formation, hundreds of Bingzhou Wolf Riders rushed into the enemy formation like wolves into a flock of sheep - the sparsely arrayed infantry were no match for the cavalry!
When Liang Gang finally managed to slow down the Bingzhou cavalry's charge by sacrificing lives, he heard a cry of surprise...
From afar, I could only see that Zhang Xun's flag had fallen on the general's platform, and the area around the platform was in chaos!
It was Lu Bu and his 300 cavalrymen who had broken into the general's platform before the troops in the main camp arrived...
"Zhang Xun is dead, and those who kneel down and surrender will be spared!" The Qu'a army began to shout.
Liang Gang did not completely believe that "Zhang Xun was dead", but he also realized that the morale of the army was in chaos and could not be saved. Facing the charging Bingzhou cavalry, he quietly put away the general's flag and fled westward under the protection of dozens of his personal soldiers.
On the other hand, Zhang Xun was indeed not dead yet - before Lu Bu rushed up, Zhang Xun had already fled in panic like Liang Gang. At this time, he and his personal soldiers barely joined up with the 3,000 soldiers who had rushed from the camp, but they had already lost their spirit and could only hope to escape safely!
Lü Bu and his three hundred Bingzhou cavalrymen, like wolves hunting sheep, pursued an army that was ten times their size...
The only purpose of the three thousand soldiers in the camp was to block the road and slow down the cavalry.
Bai Tu was in Qu'a City, waiting with some anticipation but more anxiously. In the afternoon of that day, Chen Gong finally returned with a large number of prisoners.
At this time, the officers and soldiers in Zhang Xun's army were searched and detained, while the other soldiers had their weapons and equipment confiscated and were driven away in groups...
" Good!" Bai Tu cheered secretly on the city wall.
Although Chen Gong seemed very confident before, it was after all "four thousand VS ten thousand", or even actually "four thousand VS ten thousand + ten thousand", so Bai Tu was still nervous but tried not to show it.
Now looking at this large number of prisoners, it means that our side has won a great victory!
After arranging the handling of the prisoners, Chen Gong immediately came to see Bai Tu and personally reported the results of the battle.
In a battle outside the city, Zhang Xun's 20,000-strong army was completely defeated. At the cost of less than 500 casualties, nearly 3,000 enemies were killed and 8,000 were captured. The rest were all defeated. Lu Bu was still pursuing, and the results of the battle would continue to expand.
Because the enemy's morale was broken in a short period of time, rather than a bloody battle that lasted for several days, the casualty ratio for the victorious side was very considerable.
It can also be seen from the casualties of the enemy that in cold weapon combat, the number of enemies directly killed is often not a large proportion. For example, in this battle, the casualties of both sides did not exceed 20% - the rest were "defeat" rather than "death".
In fact, in a battle, unless it lasts for several days and each formation takes turns to fight fiercely, or if strategies such as water attack and fire attack are used and successful, the direct casualties will basically not exceed 20%!
In other words... before the casualties reached 20%, they were basically defeated!
It would be difficult for a properly trained "qualified" soldier to withstand 30% casualties without losing morale. Even an elite soldier who has experienced many battles and is well disciplined and led by a famous general could not withstand more than 50% casualties.
On the one hand, it is a separate formation, which will collapse when the casualties reach 20% to 30%. At this time, if the defeated army still knows how to "go around the formation", it is considered qualified.
The more formations that are destroyed at the same time, the faster the low morale will spread. For the entire army, when the casualties exceed 20% to 30%, it will also lead to the collapse of the entire army...
Fierce battles that often last for several days are essentially a process of constantly gathering the defeated troops and then sending them to the battlefield in turns. For a certain formation, it is equivalent to several battles.
As for water attacks and fire attacks... in fact, morale had already collapsed, but the soldiers could not escape, so the casualty ratio would be extremely high, hence the saying "water and fire are merciless."
As for the victorious side, or when the battle ends in a draw, they can leisurely gather their defeated troops after the battle, so the casualty ratio will be very low.
However, once the battle is defeated, even if the gathering places in the rear are not lost, the number of defeated troops that can be gathered will be greatly reduced.
Therefore, when the battle ends in a draw, the enemies will often fight for several months, but if they are defeated, they will suffer heavy casualties and flee in panic.
In addition, Bai Tu also noticed that although they were Ji Zao's soldiers,... as long as their injuries were slightly serious, they would basically be unable to recover. The "casualties" reported by Chen Gong already included these seriously injured ones.
A small half of them can be converted into laborers, while the others can only gradually dissipate - this is also in line with the characteristics of trauma medical treatment in the era of cold weapons.
Bai Tu had also made up his mind to include trauma medical care and military medical systems in the technologies that needed to be developed as a priority. However, this could not be achieved with the strength of three counties alone. At least he had to wait until Bai Tu occupied Jiangdong.
"The names of the officers who died in the battle, no matter they were sergeants or captains, no matter they were locals or warriors from Bingzhou, must be counted and pensions must be provided. Especially for those whose families are in the three counties of Qu'a, their family situations must also be registered, and people should be arranged to visit and express condolences during the holidays in the future." Bai Tu instructed.
"Don't worry, Mr. Bai. I understand." Chen Gong accepted the order.
"Godfather has been chasing me for so long..." Bai Tu said worriedly.
"Given your lordship's bravery and the enemy's hasty escape, Lord Bai is just waiting for good news." Chen Gong trusted Lu Bu more.
After Lu Bu chased Chen Gong to the maximum distance he could see , Chen Gong immediately lifted the "Ming Ce" effect on Lu Bu, otherwise the consumption of mental energy would be too exaggerated.
The Bingzhou Wolf Riders who were in pursuit came back one after another and brought back some follow-up news - Lu Bu led his men in pursuit all the way, but the number of prisoners surrendered along the way was not many, only a few hundred people.
It was not until the evening that Lu Bu returned to the city with the last few hundred riders, unhappily.
"Zhang Xun was not good at fighting, but he was cunning when he was escaping. He used the infantrymen behind him to stop us and exchanged clothes with his personal soldiers... I just killed a bunch of fakes!" Lu Bu said depressedly.
"It's okay. They are just a bunch of defeated soldiers. They are probably about to cross the river in a hurry. We have already won a great victory this time!" Bai Tu didn't care whether Zhang Xun was captured or not.
Just as Bai Tu had expected, Zhang Xun landed at Digang in Danyang County when he crossed the river, and barely gathered more than 4,000 defeated troops, preparing to continue crossing the river and retreating northward. At this time, Qu'a already had the strength to recapture Danyang, and these defeated troops could not stop him.
At the same time, Gan Ning was leading the dozen or so water forts he had annexed on the Yangtze River, totaling nearly a thousand people, down the river to Qu'a...
