Why do you take away all these messy iron tools when you plunder? Because the Tang Dynasty was seriously short of iron.

Nowadays, Huangzhushan does not produce iron itself, and it is not easy to buy it in large quantities, so that the iron needed to make muskets, swords and other weapons is not enough, so every time they go out of the mountain, they will loot a large number of strategic weapons, among which iron is the material they focus on collecting.

After Li Xuan heard Huang Xueren's words, he hesitated slightly, and then said in a firm tone: "Throw away the iron and some other messy things first, and then we'll see the situation later!" ”

Although iron is an important strategic material, it is still not as important as ordnance and food in a short period of time, after all, the latter two are directly related to the current battle of the Tang New Army.

They can't fight without weapons.

Not to mention food, they can throw away all the ordnance and weapons, but only the food can't be thrown away, otherwise tomorrow you will go hungry.

As for the lost iron, just go back and get it back elsewhere.

As the baggage team of the Tang New Army abandoned a large amount of iron and messy things, a lot of empty carriages were vacated, and finally a small part of these carriages were used to let the soldiers who were exhausted and could no longer walk to sit on, and more carriages were used to reduce the weight of the soldiers, putting the things and even weapons they carried on the carriages, so as to reduce the burden of these soldiers whose physical strength was on the verge of exhaustion, so that they could walk more easily.

In this way, although the marching speed of the new army of Datang is still much slower than before, they can still continue to hurry.

At the same time, Wang Zhisi, who was behind him, was panting and scolding: "These pseudo-Tang thieves are all rabbits, and they haven't stopped to rest after running all day, and I'm tired to death!" ”

Wang Zhi sighed and said that he was tired, and the Ming soldiers around him were even more tired and wanted to scold his mother!

You Wang Zhisian are all riding horses, this is tired, what do you think of us big soldiers marching on foot? The boys are also very tired.

Their condition was no better than that of the puppet Tang thief army in front of them, or even worse.

Like the puppet Tang thief army, they haven't had a good rest for two consecutive days, and they rushed for a day during the day yesterday, and they just arrived in Zhengtai County to fight a battle, and they lost a battle.

At night, just after nightfall, it was because the puppet Tang thief army wanted to break through, and they hurriedly ran to intercept it, and after the puppet Tang thief army retreated to the city, they finally rested for a few hours, but in the second half of the night, the puppet Tang thief army broke through the city, and they were called up and ran all the way.

first captured the county seat of Zhengtai, and then went out of the city non-stop to pursue the puppet Tang thief army, they were so busy that they didn't even have time to eat breakfast, so they could only hurriedly use dry food to satisfy their hunger on the road.

After marching continuously for most of the day, by the end of the afternoon, these Ming troops finally couldn't hold on.

Many soldiers simply sat on the ground, refusing to get up and continue marching.

At the beginning, Wang Zhisian forcibly let them get up, and if they couldn't get up, they were asked to walk slowly behind, but as more and more people fell behind, and at the same time, when the pseudo-Tang thief army in front of them didn't stop and continue to escape, Wang Zhisian finally sighed: "Order, the whole army rests!" ”

If you continue to catch up, there will be more and more soldiers who will fall behind, and even if you reluctantly continue to pursue at that time, it will be meaningless if there are not enough soldiers around you, and it may give the pseudo-Tang thief army a bite back.

Seeing that the Ming army behind him took the initiative to stop and rest, Li Xuan in front finally breathed a sigh of relief, but at this time, Li Xuan knew that it was not the time to rest, and they had to take advantage of this time to distance themselves from the Ming army.

As long as the distance between the two sides is more than ten miles, they will be able to get a preliminary security guarantee, and if the distance can be stretched to more than fifteen miles, then Li Xuan has a great degree of certainty, and the Ming army will not be able to catch up with them again.

Therefore, he shouted loudly: "The puppet thief army can no longer walk, everyone insists on holding on, as long as we hold on for another hour, then we can get rid of them completely!" ”

Completely get rid of the Ming army, these words made the already exhausted Huangzhushan bandits feel shocked again, as long as they can escape their lives, what if they are tired?

However, although the morale of the Datang New Army was high, it still could not change the fact that the soldiers were physically exhausted, in order to continue to hurry, Li Xuan asked the baggage team to abandon half of the food, just to free up the carriage to reduce the burden on the soldiers, and at the same time take those soldiers who could no longer walk to continue the journey.

"Don't give up on any of your comrades!" This is a death order issued by Li Xuan's subordinate generals.

This is not because Li Xuan is soft-hearted, but because after these several battles, every soldier in the Tang New Army is a veteran with valuable combat experience, and every soldier is a valuable asset to the weak Tang Dynasty.

If they are killed or injured in the battle, they will be killed and wounded, since they have all broken through from Zhengtai County, how can they still be on the way to escape, this is unacceptable.

After they forcibly drove another wave, when it was close to four o'clock in the afternoon, they finally couldn't walk, even Li Xuan himself was exhausted, and the horses under his crotch were also tired and out of breath.

Getting down from the sweaty war horse, Li Xuan felt that his legs were a little weak and he almost couldn't stand, but he still stood up straight with Zeng Ziwen's support, and at the same time said: "Order, the whole army will rest for an hour!" ”

From the time when the Ming army took the initiative to stop the pursuit, they walked for about an hour, and it was initially estimated that they were about eight miles away from the Ming army.

At this time, as long as you are careful, you can stop and rest for a while.

However, it can only rest for a while, Li Xuan plans to rest for an hour, and then take advantage of the evening to walk for another two hours, before the sky is completely dark, the distance between him and the Ming army will be more than ten miles.

In this way, he will dare to sleep peacefully tonight, otherwise he will always have to worry about the night attack of the Ming army!

After the order to rest and recuperate, the bandits in Huangzhushan didn't care about the queue or anything, they all sat directly on the ground, many people sat on the ground, and even went down directly, and after a while, many people were already asleep.

However, although most of the soldiers can rest, some people can't do this, such as Cao Mingda's cavalry.

Cao Mingda's cavalry still needs to act as the eyes of the whole army, and the embankment guards the sudden appearance of the Ming army to provide early warning for the whole army.

The men dragged their tired bodies and prepared to start making fires

The last time the Datang New Army had a meal was already more than three o'clock in the morning, although the soldiers could nibble on dry food while walking.

But to be honest, dry food is extremely unpalatable, and eating dry food is just an expedient measure, filling your stomach at noon to replenish a lot of energy.

When the men were about to make a fire to cook, Li Xuan, Qian Mengjiu and Zeng Ziwen discussed the defense and follow-up routes again, and then they also lay down and closed their eyes to rest.

Today's escape not only tired the bandits below, but even if he Li Xuan was riding a horse, he was also tired.

After closing his eyes, he quickly fell asleep, and this time he slept very well, and did not dream as often as usual.

Normally, Li Xuan always dreams easily when he sleeps, and most of the dreams he has are not good dreams, either dreaming that he was defeated and dying, or dreaming that he was captured by the Ming army in Beijing, and he slept very shallowly, and he was often awakened because of some small noises.

The reason for this situation Li Xuan himself also knows, it is nothing more than worry!

Thinking about it day and night, he is often afraid that the Ming army will come to the door, and he will naturally have these dreams when he dreams.

Today's Li Xuan can be described as extremely insecure.

When he was woken up by Qian Mengjiu, he opened his eyes to look at the sky and found that the sky was already red, which was the color of the sunset.

After washing his face with cold water, Li Xuan saw that most of the soldiers had already gotten up, and they were eating and drinking soup at this time, and the men were naturally not going to make any good meals in a hurry, but in order to supplement the physical strength of the soldiers, Li Xuan had already ordered that the rice was served openly, and the broth was served at the same time.

Not to mention that the rice is full, this broth is also a relatively appropriate food for the soldiers at this time, which can effectively replenish their large amount of energy.

Li Xuan himself drank the broth for a night, and after eating two mouthfuls of food, he took the guards of the guard team to inspect the situation of the soldiers.

After walking down this circle, I found that most of the soldiers were in relatively good condition, and after an hour's rest, they had recovered a lot of physical strength, although their spirits were still a little sluggish, but it should not be a problem to continue to hurry.

However, some of the physical strength is not good, and the small number of soldiers who have been out of strength before and can only lie on the carriage and walk are still not very good, and many of them even have heat stroke.

It's summer at this time, and traveling in the sun for a long time will not only consume a lot of physical strength, but also heat stroke.

Li Xuan didn't have any good way to deal with this, so he could only let Qian Mengjiu, a part-time doctor, boil a bowl of soup and medicine for these soldiers who had fallen ill.

After the soldiers had rested and eaten, Li Xuan once again ordered the whole army to continue marching, and they should take advantage of the fact that there was still some time before it was completely dark to widen the distance.

After walking for about half an hour like this, the night was already a complete general, but at this time, Cao Mingda at the back reported that the Ming army behind had shortened the distance by two miles, and now it was about eight miles later.

"Well, in that case, let's go for an extra hour and let the soldiers raise their torches!" Li Xuan didn't want the distance that he had managed to open up to be shortened again, even if he didn't hesitate to walk at night for this.

When Li Xuan and the others continued to rush to the night, the main force of the Ming army led by Su Jiakang himself finally caught up with Wang Zhisi's forward troops.

After seeing that Wang Zhisi's forward had been thrown away by the puppet Tang thief army, he scolded angrily, and after the scolding, the forced troops continued to chase at night.

At about nine o'clock in the evening, Li Xuan and the others just found a small valley to rest, planning to sleep well all night and continue to escape tomorrow.

At this time, Li Xuan didn't know that Su Jiakang in the back was still forcing the Ming army to continue the pursuit at night, and the distance between the two sides was constantly being narrowed again, and Su Jiakang was planning to have a night attack!