Chapter 1502： No choice

"General, shall we retreat?"

The lieutenant came to Zu Zhi and asked in a low voice.

As Zu Zhi trusted lieutenant, seeing Zu Zhi's face, he more or less guessed what he was thinking.

"What do you think?" Zu Zhi said solemnly.

"Finally, I think we should withdraw our troops."

The lieutenant glanced at Zu Zhi cautiously, and said: "Huo Qubing's army has already attacked once before our army's combat effectiveness has not fully recovered. Thanks to the general's use of the Zhenzhen flag to repel the enemy."

"However, it will take more than a month for your General, your Zhenzhen Banner to be used for the second time, but the enemy can return and regroup afterwards."

"It will take at least five days for our army to fully recover its combat effectiveness."

"A full five days, enough time for the enemy to launch an offensive."

"Therefore, we will finally think that we should withdraw our troops now, avoid the edge for the time being, and wait until the army's combat effectiveness is restored.

"retreat?"

Zu Zhi sighed softly when he heard it, and said, "Where should I retreat?"

"Behind us is the Dongbo Mountains. If the army retreats into the Dongbo Mountains and does not need Huo Qubing to lead the attack, it will not take long for our army to suffer heavy losses due to the freezing environment."

"If we retreat again, it will be Lan Sui Pass. By then, we will be in an absolute defensive position."

"For the battle between two big powers, whoever is in the defensive position is the disadvantaged. This is something I cannot accept, let alone what the dynasty can accept."

"So, we must not withdraw our troops!"

If it is possible to withdraw troops, Zu Zhi naturally wants to withdraw troops, because he knows very well that Huo Qubing will definitely not give up, and will soon lead the attack again.

However, it cannot be withdrawn!

Once the soldiers are withdrawn, everything the Ice and Snow Dynasty did will be useless, and the soldiers lost will be lost in vain.

And when Yuzhou is in great chaos in the future, the Ice and Snow Dynasty will also lose control of the northern grasslands. This is something that the Ice and Snow Dynasty cannot accept.

Therefore, it must not be withdrawn!

"that……"

The lieutenant looked at Zu Zhi and smiled bitterly: "General, now our soldiers are not the enemy's opponents at all in frontal combat!"

Zu Zhi heard it and said nothing for a long time.

He naturally knew that if the morale of the army was in full swing, he would be very confident to defeat Huo Qubing's cavalry, but now the morale of the soldiers is low and the combat effectiveness is weak.

In this case, wanting to defeat a well-trained elite cavalry is simply a dream.

After pondering for a while, Zu Zhi took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "You go down and immediately tap the number of war-damaged, and at the same time pass the order to the soldiers below to immediately build a crossbow formation on the spot!"

"Remember, we don't need to build fortifications to block the infantry, but the crossbow array must be better, and there must be no mistakes!"

The lieutenant shocked and said, "General, are you giving up infantry defense and focusing on cavalry defense?"

Zu Zhi nodded and said: "In this situation, if we build fortifications according to the previous rules, time is too late. Therefore, we will only build the crossbow formation and do nothing else!"

"This……"

The lieutenant heard that he didn't know what to say.

Normal barracks defense includes infantry defense teamwork and cavalry defense fortifications, ensuring that it can effectively block the enemy regardless of whether the enemy is attacking by infantry or cavalry.

The simplest cavalry fortification is to build a large number of crossbow formations.

Because the cavalry charge can't lift the shield, as long as there is enough crossbow formation to cover, the enemy who comes to charge can suffer heavy losses.

But conventionally, it is definitely infantry who attack the camp.

Cavalry fortifications are not very useful for infantry, because there are shield soldiers in the infantry, which can definitely stop the shooting of the crossbow formation, so the barracks will be equipped with enough infantry fortifications.

Now Zu Zhi ordered that only cavalry fortifications be built. If the enemy uses infantry to raise a shield to block all the crossbow formations, the cavalry will charge again, it will be dangerous!

"General, this is really..."

"I know what you are worried about." Zu Zhi interrupted the deputy and said: "But this is the northern grassland. The Nanyan Kingdom only has cavalry and no infantry. We don't have to worry about those. Go ahead and follow the orders!"

The lieutenant listened, with a wry smile, no infantry?

A cavalry dismounted, isn't it an infantry?

It's just that Zu Zhiyi has decided, he can't change it.

And he also understood that, as Zu Zhi said, there is not much time left for them to build a complete fortification.

Not surprisingly, Huo Qubing's next attack will definitely come within two days!

Soon, Zu Zhi got the battle damage statistics reported below.

This battle damage statistics made his already ugly face even more gloomy.

It was just an enemy charge, and the loss of the army of the Ice and Snow Dynasty turned out to exceed 800,000!

This has not added those wounded soldiers.

If you add in those soldiers who were seriously injured and slightly injured, this number would have to be added 400,000.

An army of three million, just one attack by the enemy, caused 1.2 million soldiers to lose their combat effectiveness.

This result is something Zu Zhi has never seen before in decades!

In fact, he can understand after thinking about it that this battle loss is a figure within the normal range in the current situation.

The army of the Ice and Snow Dynasty had just emerged from the Dongbo Mountains and had not yet adapted to the outside environment. The soldiers' combat effectiveness had dropped considerably, and the barracks had not yet been built.

The enemy army charged with iron cavalry again, and even the sage generals charged forward.

If it weren't for his action to block Huo Qubing, I'm afraid that this number would have to be added eighty to nine hundred thousand, or even over one million.

A holy military commander, leading the charge, no one knows how much damage it can cause.

Faced with this result, Zu Zhi didn't want to accept this result, but had to accept it.

I can only pray in my heart, hoping that Huo Qubing's next wave of offensive will come slower and give himself more time to build fortifications.

As long as the fortifications are in place, you can operate it yourself, and at the same time stick to the defense, waiting for reinforcements within the dynasty.

When the time comes to fight, he is still very confident in himself.

...

On the other side, Huo Qubing led his troops back to Manjiao City at night.

In this battle, he brought 100,000 elite cavalry to the battle, and brought back more than 93,000 people.

He only lost more than 6,000 people.

This is entirely because the enemy was unprepared, morale was low, and was caught off guard, so that he could have such a record.

"General."

Seeing Huo Qubing's return, the lieutenant greeted him immediately.

Huo Qubing nodded, looked at the lieutenant, and asked, "How about the fortifications of Manjiao City?"

"Everything can be used, we only need to put on our troops to become a strong city." The lieutenant said immediately.

"it is good!"

Huo Qubing said immediately: "You lead 300,000 troops to guard the Manjiao City, and the remaining 700,000 troops will go out with me tomorrow morning!"