Invincible Iron Army 71, Hongmen Banquet Flag

  Wang An was filled with indignation in his heart, and immediately retreated, thinking to himself that the Jiedushi's attitude was too arrogant, and it wasn't something that ordinary people like him could get close to. He thought he had overstepped.

  Liu Jiao saw Wang An bowing to her politely, and felt an inexplicable pang of sadness in her heart. She knew that from this moment on, Wang An no longer considered her a friend. However, she still spoke harshly, saying: "Wang An is just a wild wolf, what's so precious about having him as a friend?"

  Wu Ge's army was in the front, Du Lin's army was in the middle, and Wang Lin's troops were at the back. Liu Jiao Jiao didn't even bother to take another look at Wang An's troops, fearing that she couldn't hold back her anger. Wu Ge's army and Du Lin's army were also mocking and insulting Wang An's army from soldier to soldier every day.

  Wang An's army was approaching the meeting point, when a soldier came to deliver a message: "Your army will stop advancing and camp here." Wang An hastily asked: "Why? Isn't the meeting point at Changhe Bank?" The soldier replied: "This is the intention of the Jiedushi, she said that if we let the enemy see you in this state, they will certainly look down on our country." Wang An was filled with anger in his heart. Although the soldiers below him were uneducated, they were not foolish and also knew that the Jiedushi was afraid that her own image would bring shame to the country, and their hearts were also filled with indignation.

  These soldiers have been subjected to a lot of cold eyes and hot ridicule in recent days. They also felt wronged in their hearts, gathered around Wang An's side, Jiang Cai, Du Lu, Zhang Wan, and Li Li also came to Wang An's side and asked: "Are we worthless?" Wang An said: "Absolutely not, brothers, I'll say it again, we are the best forever! They only saw the surface and denied us, which is wrong. We will prove to them that we are the best team." The mood of the soldiers improved a bit, Wang An said: "You must remember, others looking down on us doesn't matter, but you can't look down on yourself. Their disdain for us doesn't matter, we also don't care about their opinions." After listening to Wang An's words, the soldiers' mood improved greatly, and their morale was boosted a lot.

  The Xiongnu's Left Shanyu, Qigeg, met with Liu Jiao. The Left Shanyu kept his promise and brought more than 3,000 cavalrymen to attend the meeting.

  Wu Guo's troops joined forces with Du Lin's troops, forming a formation that was dazzling and majestic. The Xiongnu cavalry across from them seemed somewhat inferior because the Xiongnu cavalry mostly wore leather armor and had few iron armors, naturally appearing less impressive in comparison. The Xiongnu soldiers even rarely saw iron-made blades because they didn't have hands to mine or smelt iron, so they needed to go inside the passes to plunder the necessary iron tools, which was also one of the important reasons for the Xiongnu's constant attacks on the interior.

  Both sides first sent envoys to discuss the details of the talks and then agreed that each would bring one hundred people to the designated location for the meeting.

  Wu Ge's army added a lot of color to Liu Jiao Jiao, and Liu Jiao Jiao's heart was somewhat proud.

  This time she decided to select one hundred people from Wugou's army to go.

  The two parties met in the central area, soldiers set up tables and blankets, and Qige and Liu Jiao sat facing each other. Liu Jiao had always been proud of her beauty, but when she saw Qige, she felt ashamed, Qige's beautiful long legs were wrapped in black boots, wearing a black short skirt on top, looking exceptionally sexy and beautiful. With fair skin and a pretty face, all the men were infatuated.

  Ke'er said: "Liu sister, your army is really powerful and majestic. Compared to my troops, yours are much stronger." Liu Jiao immediately replied with a smile: "My heavenly dynasty is rich and prosperous, with a strong military, of course. These troops are just the worst among them, it's really laughable." Ke'er laughed and said: "Is that so? But if the heavenly dynasty's army is so powerful, why do we always end up fighting inside your borders instead of your army coming to our lands?" Liu Jiao was momentarily speechless and couldn't respond. Wu Ge answered on her behalf: "That's because my heavenly dynasty has a broad mind and knows that heaven has a benevolent heart, not wanting to start wars unnecessarily and create more killing karma." Liu Jiao looked at Wu Ge with gratitude, thinking he was brilliant today, eloquent and skilled in military tactics. She suddenly felt a great increase in affection for him, thinking to herself: "I shouldn't have made things difficult for him because of Wang An. He might be the one I can rely on from now on." However, Liu Jiao forgot who it was that defeated the Xiongnu at Yucheng and left Zuo Xianwang's tribe in a state of utter defeat.

  "Who are you to interrupt me?" Qigai angrily said. "I am just a small commander, but if the king's eloquence is not even comparable to mine, it would be shameful," Wugou replied. Qigai furiously asked: "How can I not compare to you?" Wugou responded: "If your eloquence surpasses mine, then don't be afraid of me and let me speak." Qigai laughed and said: "Your eloquence is indeed impressive, almost to the point of being deceitful. But I wonder if your army is as strong as your words." Wugou proudly declared: "You'll find out soon enough, but I have confidence in crushing all enemies."

  "General, it seems that Da Jin has no intention of negotiating and is only here to show off their military strength," Ke'er said immediately. "We, the children of the grasslands, have always been brave and fearless in the face of strong enemies. Let's settle this on the battlefield!" With that, Ke'er and his men turned their horses around and left, leaving Liu Jiao stunned by their sudden anger. She was still thinking about how to dispel the misunderstanding when Wu Ge hurriedly said, "General, let's leave quickly! The enemy is about to launch an attack!" Liu Jiao hastily mounted her horse and returned to her own army's formation.

  The Xiongnu cavalry began to attack, and under the command of Qi Jiguang, they charged towards the Jin army. The Xiongnu cavalry was like a wave crashing on the sea, like a dense forest on land. The sound of their horses' hooves hitting the ground was as loud as thunder.

  Liu Jiao and Wang An had fought against the Xiongnu before, so they were not very afraid. Wu Guo was an old general on the border, all his official positions were exchanged for military merit on the battlefield, with extremely rich experience. The soldiers brought by Wu Guo were also seasoned veterans in the army, with extremely strong combat effectiveness. Wu Guo said to Liu Jiao: "General, don't worry, I will definitely protect your safety and defeat these arrogant Xiongnu cavalry".

  The Xiongnu cavalry began to divide into left and right wings at a distance from the Jin army, surrounding Liu Jiao's troops. After the encirclement was formed, the Xiongnu army started to squeeze inward, and when they reached a certain distance, they stopped advancing and shot arrows inward.

  Wu Guo's army fell instantly, the outside army was wearing heavy armor, but it couldn't cover the whole body, such as the face and throat were exposed, the Xiongnu arrows accurately shot these parts, making the Jin soldiers die with one arrow.

  Wu Guo's army had fought against the Xiongnu many times, but they always chose to shoot arrows and throw stones from atop the city walls, without ever engaging in a field battle with the Xiongnu soldiers. As a result, they lacked experience in fighting the Xiongnu in open combat. When the front row of soldiers fell, the troops were immediately thrown into chaos.

  Wu Guo, however, was an old veteran on the battlefield and quickly stabilized the morale of his troops, ordering them to form up and prepare to face the enemy. Liu Jiao looked at Wu Guo with admiration, thinking to herself: "He can remain calm and composed even in unfavorable circumstances - truly a rare talent! I made the right choice in selecting Wu Guo's army as my escort."

  She couldn't help but think of Wang An, thinking: "Wang An is a useless good-for-nothing. Compared to Wu Guo, he's like a sparrow compared to a phoenix - the difference is vast. If Wang An were in command, I'd probably already be a captive by now. What a waste, what a disappointment."

  Wu Guo's troops fell by two hundred, Wu Guo stabilized the front line, and this time the dense arrow rain arrived, Wu Guo's soldiers suddenly fell again. Wu Guo loudly scolded: "Don't panic, maintain combat formation, prepare to engage in close combat with the enemy." The Huns' arrows kept coming, the Jin army continued to fall, casualties increased, and the soldiers were panicked. They found it hard to remain calm, although Wu Guo was constantly rebuking them, but the army gradually stopped listening to Wu Guo's orders.

  Dulin found Wu Ge and said: "Wu, the enemy is only shooting arrows from a distance and not engaging in close combat with us. This does not match our military deployment." Wu Ge also said: "The troops I brought are ordinary and mediocre, but unexpectedly the enemy did not follow the routine and only shot arrows from a distance, without engaging in close combat with my army."

  The arrows of the Xiongnu were like a swarm of locusts, constantly pouring down, and the soldiers under Wu Guo's command were dwindling in number. Before long, his troops had lost half their strength, while the enemy army seemed to have suffered no casualties. Liu Jiao also felt that something was amiss and thought to herself: "If this battle continues like this, our army will surely be decimated." She hastily summoned Wu Guo and asked him: "Wu, sir, how should we respond?" Wu Guo hastily replied: "Sir, the soldiers I have chosen are absolutely elite warriors with strong combat capabilities. They can take on ten enemy soldiers at once without any problem. The deployment of troops and the arrangement of military formations have also been strictly carried out in accordance with military guidelines. The unfavorable situation is due to fate, not something that human power can reverse." Liu Jiao said: "Wu, sir, I am not looking for someone to blame. We have only just begun fighting, but our army has already lost more than half its strength. If we continue like this, it won't be long before our entire army is annihilated by the enemy. This battle cannot go on like this; we need to think of a solution." Wu Guo was left speechless and unable to come up with any plan.

  Du Lin hastily said: "General, as the saying goes, 'as long as the green mountain is left, there's no need to worry about firewood.' We should resolutely withdraw our troops and return to Guan Nei to plot our revenge." Liu Jiao Jiao hesitated but had no choice but to nod in agreement. Wu Ge immediately commanded his troops to break through to the south, but as soon as they made a move, the soldiers who had just found cover from the hail of arrows came out and were immediately met with heavy casualties. In an instant, more than half of the soldiers fell, and the remaining ones saw this and immediately gave up on breaking through, returning to their previous hiding spots and refusing to come out no matter what. This attempt at breaking through ended in failure, Liu Jiao Jiao was extremely anxious inside but appeared calm on the outside.

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