"Hold on for a while, and you can return to Jiangbei, where is the emperor waiting for you?" Tan Fei encouraged the rescued assault detachment while speeding up his pace and retreating along the way he came. Although the people were saved, these people were already extremely weak, and he was a little worried that they would not be able to make it back to Jiangnan.

"Is the emperor in Jiangbei?" The assault detachment's captain Pang Fu was extremely surprised.

"Well, Your Majesty learned that you were in distress in Jiangbei, so he personally went to Jiankang to organize a rescue, and now you are supervising the battle in Yanziji Water Village!" Tan Fei nodded.

"Your Majesty also knows about us, come to rescue us, everyone must cheer up!" After receiving the confirmation, Pang Fu turned around and said to everyone in surprise.

"Long live Your Majesty, long live, long live!" Everyone was in high spirits when they heard this, first with a look of astonishment, and then shouted in ecstasy.

Seeing this, Tan Fei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. When they arrived at the foot of Guabu Mountain, they found that two centurians of the Yuan army were stationed there, but they only blocked the winding mountain road down the mountain and did not attack. Based on this, he judged that it should be that the Yuan army, after many failed encirclements and heavy losses, changed its tactics and wanted to starve the assault detachment to death on the mountain through siege.

At present, there was such a big commotion on the riverside, which obviously alarmed the enemy troops stationed at the foot of the mountain, and they were already on guard. However, perhaps it was the failure of the previous Song army's rescue operations that made these enemies a little slack, and they did not fully enter the combat state, which also gave Tan Fei an opportunity to take advantage of. Using the shadows and the bushes between the mountains, he sneaked from the side of the mountain to less than fifty paces from the enemy camp.

After entering the attack position, Tan Fei immediately launched an attack after two volleys. In fact, he also knew that in the case of almost blind shooting, he could not inflict many casualties on the enemy, and the purpose was only to cause panic among the enemy troops. They then launched a surprise attack, throwing grenades into the enemy camp as they advanced, blasting a bloody path through it.

In the face of the sudden inrush of a group of uninvited guests, the Yuan army, which was at a loss, had already lost nearly half of it before it could organize a decent counterattack for a while. Under the bayonet assault of the guard battalion, the formation collapsed, and scattered and fled. Tan Fei did not pursue him, but left some of his soldiers to defend at the bottom of the mountain using the improvised barracks built by the enemy, while he led his troops to search and advance up the mountain to find trapped allies.

Tan Fei and the others searched and advanced, although it was difficult to see the corpses of the enemy on the mountain road, but the patches of purple blood that had dried up also showed that there had been a fierce battle here. The further up you go, the more traces you leave behind, the scorched black left behind by the explosion of gunpowder, the shrapnel embedded in the trees, and the rolling stones on the road all show the fierceness and cruelty of the battle.

They also discovered a strange phenomenon that at the bends of the mountain road they found improvised fortifications made of stones, but none of them were complete. But Tan Fei quickly understood that the trapped soldiers retreated while fighting, and used the ubiquitous stones to build fortifications in dangerous places, and when it was difficult to defend, he pushed the fortifications to block the pursuing enemy soldiers with rolling stones, and then quickly chose another place to build another fortifications to resist the enemy army step by step.

Seeing this, Tan Fei couldn't help but worry, they attacked the enemy with stones, indicating that their guns and ammunition had run out, at least there were not many left, and they had to borrow stones to block the pursuers. What made Tan Fei even more worried was that he did not find the corpse of his own soldiers on the way, and he did not believe that the Mongols, who had always regarded murder as a mustard, would kindly bury the corpses of the enemy's dead soldiers, and did not respond to their calls. It made him wonder if the Yuan army was using this as bait to continuously attract the Song army to attack, so that they could wait for the rabbit to sit and reap the profits.

But when Tan Fei walked quickly to the end of the mountain road, his suspicions were swept away. There were thirty or forty corpses lying on the ground, with a disgusting putrid smell, and he looked at the blood that had accumulated in the low-lying areas before it had dried up, indicating that there had been a battle here not long ago, which meant that there were still people alive on the mountain.

When everyone shouted and continued to move towards the mountain, what responded to them was a gunshot, and Tan Fei also realized that he was regarded as a soldier, and the enemy must have used this trick to coax the people above to say that he was a reinforcement, so he was used to it and didn't believe it at all. This made him embarrassed, no one in the guard camp knew them, let alone their names, and he could no longer win his trust by saying that he was his own.

Just as Tan Fei was scratching his ears and cheeks, a voice came from the top of the mountain, asking how many city gates and how many main streets there were in Qiongzhou. He immediately woke up to the fact that the officers in the various armies were basically veterans from Qiongzhou, and Meng Yuan had never set foot on the land of Qiongzhou for so many years, and naturally he had never been to the capital city of Qiongzhou.

This kind of question naturally couldn't help Tan Fei, so he answered it without thinking. But the people above were still very cautious, and asked how many prefectures and states there were in Qiongzhou, and how much did the emperor spend on dinner? After he answered them one by one. Only then did a person tremble on the mountain and walked down from the mountain, Tan Fei put down his gun and hurriedly greeted him, the man was very weak, but after interrogating them again, he believed that it was really his own people who came to rescue them, and he couldn't help crying.

Tan Fei thought about what it would be like to be besieged on the mountain for ten days, but when he saw other people after going up the mountain, he was still very shocked, his eyes instantly turned red, and the other people in the guard camp were also in tears. There were eleven people alive on the mountain, but all of them were wounded, and they were too weak to stand up, and they were all out of shape, and they were like ghosts crawling out of hell with their tattered uniforms.

Now that the situation is urgent, Tan Fei can't care about grief, he ordered someone to re-bind the survivors first, and after feeding them some dry food and water, they slowly gained some spirit, and intermittently told about the experience of these days, the hardships of the battle are self-evident, the ammunition they carry should be spared, and they repelled dozens of enemy attacks with stones and bayonets. And even if the dry food is saved, it will be exhausted in three days, and these days I rely on eating raw wild vegetables, catching rainwater, and licking dew to persevere.

And the reason why they have been able to persist until now is that they are convinced that the army will not forget themselves, nor will they give up on themselves, and will inevitably send troops to save them, as long as they persist for one more day, they will have the possibility of survival. It is precisely this belief that has allowed them to endure the torture of hunger and wounds, as well as the surrender of the enemy army again and again.

Tan Fei knew that there were a total of twenty-three people in the assault detachment that crossed the river, one of them crossed the river to deliver the letter, and there were still twenty-two people, but in addition to the ones living in front of him, there were seven bodies of the dead who had been gathered, and four people whose whereabouts were unknown. And the little emperor's order was to 'see people in life, see corpses in death, and be sure to bring everyone back', and so their task was not yet completed.

Under urgent questioning, Pang Fu said that after attacking Guabu Town, he was discovered by the enemy and was surrounded and suppressed, and in order to cover their evacuation, Ding Hu, the deputy of the team, led three wounded soldiers with impaired mobility to break off, and their whereabouts are unknown since then, and most of them have died in battle. Because the three wounded soldiers could not get rid of the pursuit of the enemy army, they could not withdraw at all, and with the cruelty of Meng Yuan, they would not let them live.

Tan Fei also felt that there was no possibility of surviving the few people after the conclusion, but the task given by the little emperor had not yet been completed, and the most important thing at the moment was to escort the remains of these survivors and the dead down the mountain to return to the team. So they carried them down the hill and joined the covering detachment, and found two wagons in the camp and hurried back. But he was worried that these people might not wake up once they fell asleep, so he talked to them all the way, and told them that the emperor was in command in Jiangnan, and sure enough, their spirits were much more uplifted......

After meeting with the receiving troops on the way back, Tan Fei and the others quickly transferred them to the ferry port and returned to Jiangnan by boat. The battle on this side is still continuing, the reinforcements of the enemy army are also coming quickly, the three battalions of a regiment deployed in the northwest direction have already met with the enemy reinforcements sent by Changlu Town, and the reinforcements sent by the Duge Wanhu Mansion stationed in Liuhe are less than 20 miles from Guabu Town, seeing that the assault detachment has already boarded the ship, Li Hongbin immediately ordered to shrink his forces and concentrate on the ferry, preparing to retreat.

"Li Dutong, you can't withdraw your troops for the time being!" When the herald was about to leave the account, he was stopped by Tan Fei.

"Commander Tan, what does this mean?" Li Hongbin frowned, and his face was unashamed. He knew that Tan Fei was a close minister of His Majesty, but after all, they were not subordinate to each other, and he had no right to interfere with his command.

"Yudutong, most of them have been rescued at the moment, but there are still four people lost in Guabu Town, their lives and deaths are unknown, and the lower officials think that the mission is not over, and they have no intention of interfering with the command." Tan Fei looked at his face and immediately understood that he had misunderstood what he meant, and said with a smile.

"Commander Tan, I also asked Pang Teamzheng just now, saying that there is no possibility of survival for those four people, and we can try to find their bones later. But at present, the enemy reinforcements will arrive a little later, and it may be difficult to withdraw again. Hearing Tan Fei say this, Li Hongbin also realized that he had misunderstood, and returned the courtesy.

"Your Majesty strictly ordered that people should be seen in life, and corpses should be seen in death. Since we have different understandings of the command, please make it easier for all of us! Tan Fei listened and groaned slightly.

"Oh, Commander Tan has everything to say?" Li Hongbin said with some surprise.

"There has just been a fierce battle, and a lot of ammunition has been consumed, so I would like to ask you to replenish some of them. In addition, we came in a hurry this time, we didn't carry heavy weapons, please borrow us a few mortars to use, the lower officials can make a note, and they will definitely be returned afterwards! Tan Fei saluted again.

"Commander Tan, don't talk about borrowing, if you need it, just take it. But I don't know, we are about to withdraw our troops, what else do we need to do? Li Hongbin asked suspiciously, but suddenly thought, "Don't you retreat with the army, and go to Guabu Town alone to find those four people!" ”

"Hmm!" Tan Fei nodded and said, "Your Majesty's order, I don't dare to disobey it, even if it is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, I have to break through!" ”

"I admire Commander Tan's courage very much, but if you still want to go to Longtan Tiger's Den knowing that there is a tiger's den ahead, you are stupid!" Li Hongbin said in shock and annoyance.

"The lower officials know that they are stupid, but the emperor's order is in his body, and he must complete the task even if he dies!" Tan Fei still said with a smile.

"Okay, good, everything that Commander Tan needs is outside the tent, let you take it!" Li Hongbin said hello twice, then turned around and said angrily.

"Thank you!" Tan Fei didn't care, and stood up and saluted.

"......" Li Hongbin didn't turn around, just waved his hand to let him take care of himself.

"Yu Dutong, Tan Tong received some bullets and grenades, as well as four mortars and 100 shells, this is an IOU!" After a while, a soldier came in and replied.

"What about them?" Li Hongbin took the IOU and looked at it and asked.

"Commander Tan, Commander Tan just said to take care of their wounded, so he led the team to set off and went in the direction of Guabu Town." Join the army and return to the road.

"Crazy, all crazy......" Li Hongbin didn't expect Tan Fei to really go to Guabu Town, he turned around the tent twice and scolded anxiously.

"Commander, has the order to withdraw troops been communicated to the ministries?" The herald waiting at the door asked timidly.

"Withdraw, why don't you withdraw......" Li Hongbin shouted loudly, as if he was venting the anger in his heart, in fact, he was also very conflicted, the guard battalion was a foreign army relative to him, but it was the soldiers under his command who risked his life to look for. It is said that he has completed the task if he rescues the people on Guabu Mountain, and he has no obligation to continue the search, but he has to go alone when he insists on withdrawing the army, which makes him feel ashamed and uneasy.

"Du Tong, do you want to ask the commander first and then withdraw the troops?" Joining the army suggested at this time.

"It's okay, order all the departments to prepare for the withdrawal of troops alternately, and inform the commander of the situation!" Li Hongbin let out a long breath and thought for a while.

The order was conveyed, listening to the increasingly dense gunfire outside and the news that the scouts kept reporting that the enemy reinforcements were approaching step by step, Li Hongbin was even more annoyed, and he didn't know if it was right for him to let the guard battalion go alone, which also made him feel worried, and kept pacing back and forth in the tent, thinking about his thoughts, but he never had a clue.

"Are you still in the mood for a spin here?" At this time, the tent door was pushed open, and a person strode in and whipped Li Hongbin.

"All handsome...... Why are you here? Li Hongbin was stunned and had already been whipped, and he asked urgently.

"Bastard, if the Sprinkle family doesn't come, won't you lose all your face to the army!" Chen Fenglin pointed at him with a horsewhip and scolded.

"Du Shuai, the lowly position is just acting according to the plan in advance, how can it be a shame!" Li Hongbin stood upright, but did not dare to take a step, and said with some insufficient confidence.

"Your Majesty's order is to see people in life and corpses in death, and bring people back at any cost. And this man is speaking of the living, including the dead. The first thing in the plan is to save people, and you dare to act according to the plan with the Sprinkle family! Chen Fenglin poked his chest with a horsewhip and said.

"What about the lowly position and the fact that he did not order the withdrawal of the army at the moment?" Li Hongbin lowered his head and said in a sneering manner.

"Fortunately, you didn't order the withdrawal of the army, otherwise even if Your Majesty let you go, Ben Shuai would have cut you!" Chen Fenglin shouted angrily......