When Ma Qiu regained his senses again, he was already on the way to flee from Xiangguo to Xindu, and he only felt that his head was splitting, and the thoughts in his mind were just fragments of fragments of fragments of fragments. It was through the narration of the entourage that he learned about the subsequent developments.

After he fainted in anger, his army was also cut off, and some of them were forcibly blocked out of the large array, and this part of the large formation was naturally killed by the Jin army frantically and collapsed.

Originally, according to this situation, Ma Qiu and his troops who were trapped in the big formation should not be spared, but there were still variables at the critical moment, that is, a part of the defenders in the north of the city suddenly appeared on the flank of the battlefield, which restrained the strength of some of the Jin army's intercepted divisions, which allowed the cavalry of the Jin army outside the formation to break through the obstruction and make a little reinforcement to the formation.

At this time, there was already a scuffle in the big array, and taking advantage of this change on the battlefield, Ma Qiu's personal soldiers escorted him and rushed out of the big array.

However, Ma Qiu's little luck was a great misfortune for the Xiangguo army as a whole, and these soldiers who suddenly appeared were not reinforcements to participate in the war, but were ready to surrender to the Jin army.

After determining that this force was not a threat, the Jin army once again launched a fierce outflanking and encirclement, which made Ma Qiu's personal soldiers fail to defend the plan of returning to the city to reorganize the army, and had to flee the battlefield and began to flee. Probably, the Jin army could not determine the specific location of Ma Qiu, and although the scope of pursuit was expanded, they still let the people who escorted Ma Qiu escape.

Ma Qiu listened silently, and after a long time, he gradually began to accept that the battle situation in Xiangguo was the end of a big defeat and loss. At present, he still does not know the exact situation of Zhang Hedu in the north of the city and Wang Shikun of Wu'an, but since the army in the north of the city appeared on the battlefield in the south of the city and took the initiative to surrender to the Jin army, he can also imagine how bad the situation has become.

Because the escape was too hasty, there are only a few hundred soldiers left who are still under Ma Qiu's side, and everyone is not in a good state. Seeing that Ma Qiu's condition was still not too good, and there was no trace of the Jin army chasing in the rear, they chose a deserted forest to rest for a while.

When they left the battlefield, they had just rushed out of the Jin army's large array, and their supplies were naturally gone, so they could only slaughter the two wounded war horses, and because they were worried that the fire in the wild would expose their whereabouts, they could only eat the flesh and blood of the war horses, and talk about their stomachs.

Ma Qiu was still looking confused at the moment, and he didn't eat the horse blood and horse meat offered by the soldiers, but he just looked at the remote countryside and was stunned.

Only two days later, there were as many as tens of thousands of soldiers in Xiangguo, and they were defeated so badly, if it wasn't for a fluke, I was afraid that he and the only hundreds of soldiers around him would not survive!

This defeat not only scattered all of Ma Qiu's ambitions as a heavy general of the Qiang Kingdom, but even his courage to survive as a person became extremely weak.

The special heavy cavalry rushed to kill Xie Ai, and seeing that success was imminent, the picture of people and horses falling down and being slaughtered by others made Ma Qiu's bone marrow feel a chill.

"Xie Ai is really a peerless talent, but it is ridiculous that Ma Qiu is stupid and ignores himself, and he has the idea of winning in vain, harming others and himself, and tiring the army and the country. Such stupid people are already the laughing stock of the world, and what face is there to live in the world! ”

After sitting for a long time, Ma Qiu stood up suddenly, looked in the direction of Xiangguo, and there was a strong and extremely decaying aura all over his body, and after sighing a few times, he suddenly pulled out his waist saber and wiped it straight to his throat.

"General, no!"

Some soldiers had already found that Ma Qiu was not in a good state, and his eyes were not far away, and when he saw that he was determined to live and die, he drew his sword and killed himself, so he jumped up and rushed forward to snatch the war knife in Ma Qiu's hand.

Ma Qiu was thrown to the ground, still with a lifeless expression, and he sighed astringently: "Why are you waiting? Defeat after defeat, the body of a great sin is already unreasonable. You are all rare heroes in the world, unfortunately follow me, this vulgar and shameful person, I can't repay you and other officials and nobles, only this life is given to you, you take my body back to Jin, it is not difficult to live......"

"General......

Hearing Ma Qiu say this, the soldiers around him also had tears in their eyes, many people choked up, and some people stepped forward to help Ma Qiu on their knees, and shouted: "The defeat of Xiangguo is not the general's crime!" The general was unwilling to take the risk and attack lightly, but he was persecuted by the dog thief Zhang Hedu...... The Jin army is supported by gods and ghosts, and it is not something that mortals can ...... overcome."

"Gods and ghosts help...... Hey, whoever is the destiny of heaven has always been the ...... of the sword."

Ma Qiu's hands were held down by the nearby support soldiers, and after a little struggle, he lost his strength, and when he heard the sobbing sound of the soldiers, he was even more sad, and cried: "Tens of thousands of soldiers, tens of thousands of lives, how can I, I ......"

"Please take care of this body, we and the loyal soldiers still have to rely on the general to live! The defeat of Xiangguo is too profound, if the Jin army does this again, the country will be defenseless, and it will be incapable of being an army......"

A group of people either wept or lamented, it was really too unexpectedly defeated in this battle, not to mention anything else, even if it was still defeated in the end, but there were still tens of thousands of defenders in Xiangguo, even if the strength of Zhang Hedu in the north of the city was deducted, the more than 20,000 cavalry soldiers under Ma Qiu's command alone should not be so defeated.

But in any case, defeat is defeat, and even if you are annoyed, repentant, or whatever, it will not help. Although Ma Qiu couldn't accept this result at first, he was determined to live and die, but after some venting, his emotions gradually stabilized, and since he was lucky not to die, he still wanted to go.

They stayed in the wilderness for a night, and Ma Qiu gradually became assertive in his heart, and now the sky is freezing cold, and even if he is not chased and caught up by the Jin army in the suburbs, the cold weather alone is enough to kill.

It's just that it's not appropriate to go to Xindu like this, although they were indeed defeated by an unknowable force in the Jin army's great array, but this information is not enough to be a reason to exonerate. Therefore, after a little recuperation, Ma Qiu sent more than a dozen people to investigate the road, hoping to attract some fugitives from Xiangguo and grasp more accurate information.

However, they lingered in the left for two days, but they gained almost nothing, and the only thing they were sure of was that the Jin army had indeed successfully entered Xiangguo, as for the situation of Shi Kun and Zhang Hedu, it was not clear. As for the routs recruited, there are even fewer of them, and even the outcasts in the suburbs are rare.

Seeing that it would be even more dangerous to stay here any longer, and even simply killing horses to satisfy hunger would not be enough to sustain them on their way to Xindu, so Ma Qiu could only lead these hundreds of soldiers to hurry to Xindu.

Although he knew that even if he returned to Xindu, the Lord would definitely not spare him, but now that he had nowhere else to go, he could at least return to Xindu first, and he could also transfer the sin of defeat to Zhang Hedu. In fact, it is true that if Zhang Hedu hadn't clamored to force Ma Qiu to fight, even if the situation in Xiangguo was still difficult, it would not have been ruined to this point!

It seems that the heavens feel that Ma Qiu and the others should not survive, and the snow is falling heavily on the way, day and night, which makes the journey even harder.

Ma Qiu and his party were not in a good state, and they were not able to carry anything with them, and some people continued to die on the road in the wind and snow, but fortunately they met the messenger of Xindu who rushed all the way to Xiangguo halfway, but at this time there were less than 100 people still alive around Ma Qiu.

In order to stabilize the situation in the country and the hearts of the people, the lord Shi Hu planned to hold a grand celebration in the new capital of Xindu on the occasion of the New Year, and rewarded the generals with a large number of rewards.

In addition, Shi Hu also strictly ordered Ma Qiu to stabilize the situation in Xiangguo, not to seek merit, but to seek no fault, at least to hold the city of Xiangguo, and block the Jin army's Northern Expedition Middle Route Army near Xiangguo.

Because after a year of operation and combing, the situation in Xindu has initially stabilized, Shi Hu plans to take advantage of this uplifting morale after the New Year's celebration, and personally lead the Xindu army south to attack the Jin State East Road army stationed in Dongwu City, Qinghe County.

This counterattack can be regarded as a long-term momentum, and it is regarded by Shi Hu as a key battle to save the fortunes of the country, and he has high hopes for this, so he naturally cannot afford to lose, especially not allowing other aspects of the Jin army to participate in this battle.

However, the envoy met Ma Qiu, who had escaped from Xiangguo, and naturally there was no reason to go to Xiangguo again. In particular, the loss of Xiangguo and the near-annihilation of the defenders were variables, which was even more contrary to Shi Hu's plan, and the envoy and his party naturally did not dare to slack off, so they sent people to return to the country first, and then imprisoned Ma Qiu on the back road.

If it was for another seven or eight days, the wind and snow on the way were intermittent, but as we got closer and closer to Xindu, there was no shortage of forts and camps arranged by the Karma Kingdom along the way, but I did not worry about supplies.

On this day, everyone arrived at a camp not far from Xindu, shook off the snow and went into the camp to rest.

Ma Qiu and his troops were arranged in a separate camp, originally according to his status, he could get more preferential treatment, but after learning the Lord's intention from the mouth of the messenger, Ma Qiu also knew that he was already guilty of a great sin, even if the Lord had not announced his punishment, but he no longer dared to be optimistic, only hoped that after returning to China, he could report in detail in front of the Lord the details of the battle of Xiangguo, and also begged the Lord to leave a trace of blood for his family for the sake of his many years of loyalty and service to death, and he did not regret his death.

In the middle of the night, a series of slight abnormal noises suddenly sounded in the wind and snow outside the camp, although the sound was not too loud, but Ma Qiu, as a veteran general who had experienced a hundred battles, quickly noticed that something was wrong, and hurriedly turned over and got up, and left the camp in his clothes.

The camp was already small, with four or five hundred soldiers stationed there, and there were still scattered snowflakes fluttering in the sky, and the cold wind was still unabated, and even some of the patrolmen advanced into the camp early and snuggled up by the fire to keep warm. Ma Qiu yelled many times before someone poked his head out and hurriedly stepped forward to obey the order.

Ma Qiu was about to order the camp to send scouts to patrol the surroundings, but the commotion became louder and louder in the wind and snow, and at the same time, many soldiers poured out of the white night against the snow.

Although the camp was quietly approached, the guards in the camp were not panicked, after all, this place was only a dozen miles away from Xindu, and the only team that could appear here was the soldiers from Xindu. Because the camp owner did not give the order to be vigilant, he was busy and ordered the soldiers to leave the camp tent and prepare for the fire.

Seeing the battalion owner's reaction like this, Ma Qiu also felt that he should be too sensitive, and was about to turn back to the account, but after glancing at the rapidly approaching army, the vigilance in his heart became stronger and stronger, since it was a friendly army and had already marched here, why hadn't he ordered the soldiers to report yet?

The soldiers outside the camp were getting closer and closer to the camp, and the camp owner had already led a dozen soldiers to eagerly greet them, ready to open the camp gate, and greet the big man from the capital. Ma Qiu stood in the camp, and when he saw that the soldiers outside the camp had already drawn their blades from their winter clothes, he suddenly glared at him and shouted: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!" ”

Suddenly, the sound of killing shook the sky, and the soldiers outside the camp directly pushed to the loose fence around the camp to guard, and waved their knives and guns in their hands, and slashed straight at the guards in the camp!

The already loose and narrow camp, the guards are not a kind of elite people, including Ma Qiu's nearly 100 parts are also running for a long time, and their strength is greatly lost, naturally they can't help the attack and killing of these tigers and wolves, the battle ended after half an hour, and those soldiers who rushed into the camp began to search and patrol the camp, and when they encountered the living mouth that was still not exhausted, they stabbed it with their hands, and at the same time carefully identified the appearance of the dead.

It wasn't until the corpse of a corpse lying in the ravine inside the camp and surrounded by many corpses was turned over, and the snow stained on his face was swept away, that the soldier waved the war knife in his hand in surprise and said loudly: "Ma Qiu is here, Ma Qiu is here!" ”

Several soldiers hurriedly walked over, surrounded Ma Qiu's corpse for a little identification, and then determined the identity of the other party, one of them stepped forward and bent down to cut Ma Qiu's head, but saw that the other party was still staring at him until death, his eyes were still wide, and the death was hideous and terrifying, so he was a little dissatisfied in his heart, raised his hand and smashed Ma Qiu's wide eyes with the handle of the knife, and scolded with a smile: "The dog thief army has been defeated and humiliated the country, what kind of hatred is there that is not blind to death?" ”

"Move faster, there are still a few camps to patrol on the road ahead. Before leaving, Lord Lang has a strict order, never let the Western war situation enter the country and delay the ceremony, if something goes wrong, be careful of your respective lives! ”

A general stepped forward and scolded, and took Ma Qiu's head and couldn't help but curse: "The dog thief is really disgusting, since he has been defeated, he will either fight to the death in Xiangguo, or directly surrender to Jin, why bother to return to the country to die, and he will be tired of his winter asceticism until death!" ”