There was little worth recounting about the ambush at Shanchi.
Once they had grasped the possible logic behind events, they had prepared against an unsuspecting enemy, feigning withdrawal while actually lying in ambush-a kind of sudden counterstroke combined with an attack from within and without. With nearly ten thousand fighting men against five thousand who had yet to gain a foothold, if they still could not win, Liu Cheng, Shen Jin, Liu Jian, Wang Xia, and even Liu Zhuang of the Northern Command, who had stayed behind to support them, could all strip themselves of their General's titles.
The haul was substantial: a thousand or so heads, two or three hundred warhorses, and considerable captured supplies.
It was a proper victory, fought against the regular provincial and commandery troops of a provincial governor, with quite a few men among them whose beards and hair marked them as being of other peoples. Han Bo, the court envoy witnessing such a scene for the first time, was tremendously heartened.
Afterward, Shen Jin even proposed continuing to hold Shanchi and trying to fight another battle. Han Bo wavered along with him for a time, but Liu Cheng could not be bothered to entertain it. He had proposed fighting this battle to raise morale precisely because he had realized such an engagement might arise while he served as rearguard, not because he wanted to fight for fighting's sake.
Moreover, Murong Chen had now moved, while Murong De had shown no movement at all. That made the situation look dangerous instead.
Thus, he immediately ordered the entire army to pack up at once, abandon Shanchi, discard some cumbersome baggage if necessary, and retreat at top speed without delay!
With the military order issued and Liu Cheng himself deadly serious, none of the troops dared drag