Chapter 1068: Pretending to Surrender and Killing the Enemy

In the valley, the two groups of people who suddenly encountered each other were a little confused. They didn't expect to encounter the enemy in this place and under this circumstance.

As soon as they reacted, the soldiers of the Wei army, as the weaker side, hurriedly withdrew and retreated. Seeing this, the Qi army on the south side of the valley also hurriedly chased them with weapons, chasing them while drawing bows and shooting in the mountains and forests.

This Wei army had only more than 100 soldiers, a small team led by Li Ya. Because their mission was to find a suitable place to station and build a city in the valley, they did not carry too many armors and weapons, only basic weapons such as swords and bows.

On the other hand, the Qi army on the opposite side had hundreds of soldiers in sight, and as they began to chase northward along the valley, more and more Qi soldiers emerged in the woods. The number of soldiers seen alone exceeded thousands, which showed that there must be a very secret thief's nest nearby that could hide a large number of soldiers.

Li Ya and his men were not familiar with the terrain here. They had retreated in a hurry when they encountered the enemy before, because they were worried that they would lead the unknown number of enemy troops to their temporary camp with little solid protection. Therefore, except for a few soldiers who left the team and ran back to report the news, the others did not retreat along the way they came, but fled north along the Qinshui River Valley under the leadership of Li Ya.

They looked back and shot while running away, trying to force back the enemy who was getting closer and closer. However, since their main mission on this trip was not to fight, they did not carry many arrows, and the dozen or so feather arrows per person were quickly used up. The enemy's counterattack was much more fierce, with arrows flying behind them like locusts. If they fell behind a little, they would be shot and fall to the ground. More than 20 soldiers had already fallen in the river valley.

Seeing the river valley narrowing in front and the enemy behind becoming more and more aggressive and getting closer and closer, Li Ya secretly complained in his heart. He touched the empty Hu Lu behind him, angrily took it off and threw it by the river, regretting that he had too few arrows before leaving the camp.

However, it was too late to regret now. Even if they wanted to stop and kill the enemy, they would be shot to death by the enemy before they could fight hand-to-hand, unless the enemy gave up shooting...

His thoughts turned, and he hurriedly signaled his men to throw their bows on the ground, shouting loudly: "We are willing to surrender, we are willing to surrender! Please spare my life, General, and I will tell you all the military information of the Wei army! Please spare my life!"

Sure enough, the Qi army chasing from behind hesitated after seeing this. Although Although they still didn't believe it, they slowed down the frequency of shooting, but the speed of pursuit was still not slowed down. More than a hundred soldiers in front of them chased them while roaring: "If the Qiang bandits surrender, quickly drop your weapons and lie down, otherwise you will be killed without mercy!"

At this moment, Li Ya and others also ran to the narrow pass in the valley ahead, so at their signal, they all took off their swords and squatted with their heads in their arms. Seeing this situation, the Qi army chasing behind them suddenly relaxed their mentality, and there were also people who laughed at the ugly appearance of this Wei army team who was afraid of death.

"Where did the Qiang bandits flee into the country? Who is the bandit leader? Is Pingyang still guarding?"

This Qi army has been hiding in the valley for a long time in recent days, and has had little contact with Yining City. They don't know much about the enemy situation on the west side of Heishuiling. At this time, they forced this enemy team to surrender, so they naturally wanted to find out the details of the enemy situation, so a sergeant in the team walked forward with a knife and asked.

"Report to the general, we are the troops led by Duke Tang of Wei, coming from the south of Black Water Ridge, and entering this valley only to... take your life!"

Although Li Ya held his head with both hands, he kept peeking at the enemy general. When the distance between them was shortened, he first used a trembling tone to confuse and attract the other party's attention, and then suddenly jumped up, grabbed his saber and slashed at the enemy general.

The enemy general was caught off guard and they were so close to each other, and his neck was deeply chopped by the blade in Li Ya's hand. Instantly, blood gushed out like a spring, and he died on the spot. The other Wei soldiers were also waiting for this moment, and each of them grabbed the saber on the ground and fought with the enemy soldiers.

"These Qiang bandits are so treacherous, they actually pretended to surrender!"

The Qi army soldiers in the rear were ashamed and angry when they saw this, and they rushed forward again in a hurry. Some people wanted to shoot the enemy with bows again, but the two sides were already in a melee, and it was inconvenient to use bows and arrows for a while, so they could only put away their bows and rush forward with knives.

Although Li Ya and his party were still weak, they were close to the enemy and fought hand-to-hand with the enemy. For a while, they fought and retreated, and retreated to the river valley pass in the rear while the large group of enemy troops had not yet attacked and surrounded them. The enemy was also limited by the terrain and could not rush forward. Li Ya and his party firmly held the pass and repelled the enemy's momentum several times.

However, Li Ya and his party also suffered heavy casualties. There were only more than 50 people left out of more than 100 people, and almost everyone was injured. After the enemy army rushed forward several times and was frustrated, they retreated a distance and began to shoot here with bows and arrows again. Li Ya and his men had no choice but to take shelter in the pass again, dragging their injured bodies and continuing to flee northward.

At this moment, the Qi army in the south of the valley started to fight again. Thousands of Wei soldiers rushed out from the Black Water Ridge, cutting off the Qi army in the valley, and then fought hard.

"It's bad, the Qiang bandits are ambushing! Retreat quickly and call for help!"

As the Wei army rushed into the valley, the Qi army soldiers were as frightened as they had been in pursuit of Li Ya and his party. Compared with the shocking casualties caused by the fierce battle, what made them even more worried was that they had no idea what was going on at the moment. Why did a large group of enemy troops suddenly rush into the Qinshui River Valley?

Because these Qi army ambushers were led more than ten miles north by Li Ya and his party, they were separated from the hiding camp where they had originally hidden and built, and were cut off by the Wei army from behind. They could not take care of both ends and could only retreat in the north and south directions for a while.

Li Yantou, who led the team into the valley, was also unclear about the specific situation of this enemy army. The order he received was to try his best to destroy the enemy's formation and kill the enemy, especially to guard against the enemy's interception and obstruction in the lower reaches of Qinshui.

When he saw the enemy troops fleeing in the north and south, he ordered Han Qinhu to lead more than a thousand troops to continue to pursue northward, while he led the rest of the troops to go south along the Fenshui River Valley to ensure that the enemy troops would not stop downstream to intercept the river valley.

There were about two thousand enemy troops fleeing northward, but it was difficult to regroup and organize a battle formation in the narrow river valley. Han Qinhu led the troops to charge all the way and soon rushed out of the pass previously occupied by Li Ya and others.

When he saw the bodies of many comrades lying at the pass, Han Qinhu couldn't help showing a sad face. Because he had to continue chasing the enemy and couldn't stay here, he loudly ordered several soldiers: "Quickly pick up the bodies of comrades here, and General Li Ya may have died here, so you must find the body..."

Before he finished speaking, a slightly weak roar suddenly sounded from the pine branches on the west side of the mountain wall: "I'm not dead yet! How can a mere bandit kill me..."

It turned out that while the enemy's rear was in chaos and had no time to chase, Li Ya led dozens of surviving soldiers to climb up the rocks and hid among the pines and cypresses. Now that he saw his comrades from the rear killing here, he dared to speak to meet them.

Han Qinhu was overjoyed when he heard this. He hurriedly climbed up the rock in two steps. When he walked into the shade of the pine trees, he saw Li Ya lying on a slanting pine branch in a bloody shirt. The other soldiers around him were either lying or standing, and everyone had multiple wounds. There were only less than 20 people left from the original 100 people, which showed how fierce the previous fight was.

"You guys go back to the camp to treat your wounds first, and I will lead my troops to chase the enemy army for a while to avenge my fallen comrades!"

Han Qinhu sent dozens of soldiers to take care of Li Ya and others, and sent some prisoners back to the camp. He followed behind the troops and continued to chase north along the river valley.

When Li Ya and his party returned to the Black Water Ridge camp, it was already several hours later. Li Tai was anxiously waiting for the battle report from the front. When he saw that all of them were in such a miserable state, he was shocked. He hurriedly sent the wounded to the tent for treatment, and he first interrogated the prisoners brought back from the battlefield.

After interrogating the prisoners, Li Tai realized that the enemy troops ambushed in the Qinshui River Valley were not intended to lure the enemy deep into the Qinshui River and then cut off the Qinshui River. Instead, they were an ambush arranged outside by the defenders of Yining City to respond to the city. The scale was only two or three thousand people.

After learning this, Li Tai was greatly relieved. It turned out to be a false alarm. Then he was a little bit amused. There were really all kinds of variables that could happen in the war, and no one could tell what tricks the other side could come up with.

When Pi Jinghe, the captain of the scout team, learned that there was an enemy army hidden from the scouts in the direction of Yining City, he felt ashamed and bowed his head in front of Li Tai to apologize.

Li Tai did not complain too much about this. In fact, the value of scouts can best be reflected in the plains and wilderness. In a combat environment with complex and changeable terrain, even the smartest scouts can hardly guarantee that they can fully explore the enemy situation. Therefore, the most important thing is to be able to respond promptly and effectively when facing the enemy.

In this mountainous environment, Han Guo is the most smart and accurate in observing and perceiving the enemy situation. When he attacked Jinyang, it was thanks to Han Guo's talent in this area that he was able to flexibly advance and retreat in the Lishi area.

Although the current situation is a bit unexpected, it has not caused too much loss. Moreover, since Li Ya and others noticed the enemy's whereabouts, they eliminated such a variable hidden danger in advance, which is also a good thing.

So Li Tai went to the sick camp again to commend Li Ya, but found that the boy had fallen asleep after treating his injuries, so he praised the other wounded who were still awake. After leaving the camp, he arranged for Guo Yan to lead 3,000 troops to Yining City to look for an opportunity to fight.