On the daylight of October fourteenth, the valley on the southeast bank of the Fen River appeared exceptionally quiet.

After the Liang army launched surprise attacks capturing the two cities of Quwo and Jiang County, they relied on these cities and the abandoned enemy camps to work tirelessly consolidating their defense lines, so they could leisurely consume the tens of thousands of routed enemies trapped between Jiang County, the Yu River, the Fen River, and Mount Xiang.

However, the problem was that the numerous camps previously constructed by the Mongol army were mainly distributed in echelons facing the northern slopes of Mount Wangwu, to guard against Liang forces advancing from the northern slopes of Mount Wangwu toward the banks of the Fen River.

These camps were continuous and quite substantial horizontally, but extremely thin vertically, leaving gaps in Jiang County and Quwo territory for enemy forces to penetrate north in escape.

And the scattered Mongol forces east of Jiang County spent the entire day gathering in the western areas of Anyi and Wenxi counties adjacent to Jiang County and Quwo—not to mention military officers, even the soldiers’ families were not in the Fen River valley basin. Until reaching the end of the road, who did not think of returning to their homeland rather than willingly lay down arms and become prisoners?

After nightfall, cold wind rose fiercely. The wind was dry and cold, cutting the face like knives.

For the Mongol army to reverse defeat into victory was impossible. Their formations had already been broken up and scattered. Even a considerable portion of troops had abandoned weapons and armor in their flight for survival.

Most soldiers were anxious, only thinking of escape, with no morale whatsoever to speak of.

In such circumstances, the Mongol army did not even dare cross through Jiang County and Quwo territory during daylight.

However, once night fell, not seeking to form battle lines against high-morale Liang soldiers in open terrain, the Mongol army instead opened their stride, finding gaps to pass through Jiang County and Quwo territory, fleeing north toward Yicheng along the open terrain between the Fen River and Mount Taiyue. At least they could run faster than Liang infantry wearing neat armor.

And in pitch darkness, the difficulty for the Liang army to exit camps for night interception was much greater.

Routing and slaughtering routed forces were two different concepts.

The Liang army could organize night combat in patrol unit formations, but not wanting casualties to be too great under Mongol cavalry counterattacks, troop strength could not be further dispersed.

But for enemy forces single-mindedly intent on escape, as long as they had a general direction, completely scattering to flee posed no pressure at all.

The difference was as great as scattering tens of thousands of pigs versus intercepting, capturing, or killing tens of thousands of pigs within a hundred li radius.

At this time, Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing were also assembling cavalry forces in the hills south of Yicheng as much as possible, preparing to provide support. This further increased the difficulty and danger for the Liang army conducting night interception from camps.

At dusk, Xiao Yiqing piled wood on hills south of Yicheng and lit large fires as markers. Commanders Xiao Siqing and Minshan gathered the core escort cavalry they had managed to assemble with difficulty, directly pressing toward the two cities of Jiang County and Quwo where Liang forces were most concentrated. Night quickly darkened.

That night, with thin overcast skies and only a few lonely stars on the horizon, tens of thousands of scattered routed troops surged northwest like a flood.

The Liang forces occupying Jiang County and Quwo territory naturally could not sit idly watching routed enemies pass through. Relying on camps and city fortifications, they deployed thirty complete infantry combat battalions scattered into the open Fen River valley to form battle arrays, lighting hundreds of bonfires, using bed crossbows, scorpion crossbows and other war machinery to block open terrain, shooting down routed enemies attempting to pass through.

Yet it could not be denied that Mongol elite cavalry’s field combat capability was astonishing. Even after experiencing such a great rout, in just one day and night, they had reorganized into groups of several hundred cavalry. Taking advantage of the dark night, column after column avoided solid camps, charging at Liang army interception positions outside camps without regard to casualties, sweeping up infantry to retreat northwest.

No one was clear how many additional casualties both armies suffered that night. When Xiao Siqing, covered in blood, fought his way to Lingxi Valley to join with Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing, a pale fish-belly white was just emerging on the horizon.

Lingxi Valley was a stream valley in southern Yicheng County, nestled between two low mountain ridges. A winding stream flowed down from the southern foothills of Mount Taiyue, converging west into the Fen River.

The stream was over ten zhang wide, filled with pebbles, its gurgling waters muddied by trampling warhorses.

Fortunately, after winter arrived, rainfall in Mount Taiyue had decreased. The stream water did not even reach the knees. Cavalry could directly wade across, while fleeing northern infantry could use several simple floating bridges to proceed north.

If this were summer or autumn with water levels surging high, the vast majority of forces would be blocked south of this stream. Then they would truly want to cry but have no tears.

Although at this time, having broken through the encirclement, the first batch of cavalry to rush to Lingxi Valley for the rendezvous numbered less than a thousand, Xiao Siqing breathed a sigh of relief.

They were cavalry, naturally running fast. He thought that after the sun rose, tens of thousands of troops behind could withdraw, then establish defenses based on the low mountains to the north, delaying pursuing forces.

Yicheng County was a strategic location connecting northern Jinzhou and western Zezhou. But Xiao Siqing, hastily arriving, was unclear whether Wusu Dashi had thoughts of defending Yicheng, or would first temporarily establish defenses, waiting until troops withdrew to the southern foothills of Mount Taiyue and northern Huo County, then abandon all of Jinzhou including Yicheng?

“…” Xiao Siqing swallowed, seeing Wusu Dashi and his clan uncle Xiao Yiqing standing on the mountain rocks with stern faces. Walking over, he did not know what to say. To directly abandon Jinzhou—he could not bring himself to ask outright.

This battle was fought too frustratingly. Even the vast majority of soldiers did not know what had happened before they were routed.

Seeing Wusu Dashi and clan uncle Xiao Yiqing seemingly oblivious to his arrival, their eyes still fixed tightly on the southwest direction, Xiao Siqing thought he had escaped too early, not remaining behind to cover other routed troops fleeing north, thus earning their dissatisfaction.

Steeling himself, he requested combat duty: “The Liang army will certainly pursue closely. To the southwest is a mountain ridge that can block enemy forces. I will lead troops to wait there!”

To cover more troops fleeing north, they needed brave and skilled rear guard forces to entangle and check the Liang army’s pursuit.

“You passed through Jiang County and Quwo to get here. Did the Liang cavalry in the two cities deploy?” Wusu Dashi asked Xiao Siqing with a worried expression.

“Enemy cavalry should be exhausted from fighting. They did not deploy from the city camps,” Xiao Siqing said.

“That’s not right. Han Qian is not such a cautious person,” Xiao Yiqing shook his head.

“Enemy cavalry also suffered heavy casualties the day before yesterday. The remaining six to seven thousand cavalry deploying from the city for night combat could not stop us,” Xiao Siqing said.

This battle was fought too frustratingly. Many cavalry commanders under Xiao Siqing’s command even wished the Liang cavalry would deploy at night so they could regain some face. But regrettably, throughout the entire night, besides deploying infantry from camps and cities to form arrays blocking gaps, the Liang army’s few remaining cavalry had not moved at all.

Xiao Siqing thought the Liang cavalry had suffered too heavy casualties and were unwilling to be used in chaotic night combat, instead wanting to conserve energy, waiting until after dawn to coordinate with their infantry and mounted infantry in pursuit of their routed troops from behind.

In his view, this was also a prudent tactical choice for the Liang army to expand battle results after already achieving decisive victory.

Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing asked no more questions. Deep in their hearts, they also hoped this was so.

More and more fleeing soldiers gathered. Between heaven and earth was noisy chaos.

At this time, the sky also brightened further. The peaks of distant mountains successively revealed clear ridgelines. In the distance, they could see birds taking flight above the forests to the south.

Wusu Dashi’s expression suddenly became solemn. Taking the brass telescope from an escort’s hands, he looked toward the northern slopes of Mount Wangwu to the southwest. His hand trembled, almost dropping the telescope.

Xiao Siqing’s eyesight was extremely keen. He saw over twenty li to the southwest, a column of troops was crossing over a mountain slope, emerging at the crest—a dark mass like giant waves surging from behind that slope.

His heart also skipped a beat. Such neat cavalry formations were definitely not their troops fleeing from the southwest.

The Liang cavalry had not failed to deploy during the night. Rather, they had skirted the outside of their northern escape route, hugging the mountainous terrain of Mount Wangwu’s northern slopes, circling around to south of Yicheng County.

This was definitely not Liang forces that had entered Jiang County and Quwo for rest and reorganization, but reinforcement cavalry transferred from elsewhere. Their purpose was specifically to intercept their fleeing troops!

And seeing their direction of advance, they were heading directly for the ancient Mei River road thirty li away.

Xiao Siqing’s heart turned ice cold:

From Yicheng proceeding east into the southern foothills of Mount Taiyue, all the way to Qinhe County territory, along the ancient Mei River road and Qinshui River valley, there were four pass fortifications where they had stationed troops ranging from several hundred to over a thousand men.

In the short term, they were not worried these four pass fortifications would be captured by Liang forces. But the problem was, if this dark mass of what appeared to be seven to eight thousand Liang troops directly blocked before the Mei River passes, how much time would they need to rout this Liang force and open the route for troops to withdraw east to Zezhou?

For routed troops fleeing to Yicheng, escaping east via the ancient Mei River road was fastest.

Fleeing routed troops, once entering the southern foothills of Mount Taiyue, could assemble and reorganize on the spot. They could even restrict the Liang army from wantonly continuing to pursue along the Fen River valley their troops withdrawing toward Huo County.

If the eastern withdrawal route was blocked, only by fleeing north into Huo County territory could they have opportunity to rest and reorganize—that was over one hundred fifty to sixty li more distance.

For starving fleeing infantry, one hundred fifty to sixty li would require at least three to four days to complete.

And during these three to four days, could the cavalry forces they had hastily assembled—just over ten thousand—truly block the Liang army’s main infantry and cavalry forces of tens of thousands pursuing north from south of Yicheng County?

Thinking of this, Xiao Siqing’s hands and feet also turned ice cold.

In his panic, Wusu Dashi sent out several cavalry columns to strike south at their flanks. But they quickly saw this Liang force divide out three columns of about a thousand men each to intercept, while other troops continued along the low hills and mounds, rapidly proceeding toward the ancient Mei River road.

Soon they received news that in the direction of Jiang County and Quwo, the Liang forces that had deployed from camps for night combat yesterday had all withdrawn into city fortifications to rest and reorganize. Meanwhile, the over thirty thousand elite Liang troops who had remained in camps or conserved energy in cities last night were now successively exiting cities to assemble, ready at any moment to pursue toward Yicheng…