Outside Jiangling City, among the ranks of the officers and soldiers who had gone away, Liu Jurong, the envoy of Shandong Jiedu, who had a scorched hair and a wounded eyebrow, took one last look at the "Taiping" banner fluttering on the head of the city, as if he wanted to depict it deeply in his eyes, and suddenly spit out a breath of depression and resolutely slapped his horse and galloped away.

These enemies who have fought in the city are really different from the past, not only can they fight in the field with the officers and soldiers in a decent manner, but they can also fight in the chaotic and complicated city, and they can advance and retreat with a basis and basically maintain the upper hand. Not only is the equipment well-equipped, but the armor is complete, but it also has a variety of tricks and ambush methods.

Therefore, it is not so much the grass thieves of humble and despicable backgrounds as it is more like a well-trained officer and army.

As for Liu Jurong, since Qi Zheng is not enough to gain the upper hand and win, the only way to do this is to turn in time to quickly stop losses and preserve strength. After all, his enemies were more than just the grass thief who suddenly appeared in front of him; And the cause and effect that led to the defeat of the Gangneung Raiders this time was also quite suspicious and problematic, so he had to keep a hand for himself.

After all, in order to attack the important town of Jiangling, the 50,000 troops he led south had already lost three or four percent; and divided the troops to recover the Hunan states and eat and go to the outlying places again; Add to this the unfavorable losses of repeated battles in this Gangneung city; As the envoy of Shandong Jiedu and the commander-in-chief of the military and political affairs of the seven states, and the cornerstone of the financial endowment of the remaining eleven states, he is already in jeopardy.

Compared with those titles of the Ministry of Rites, Xiangzhou Thorn History, and General Youjinwu, this Shandong Festival Marshal is the biggest foundation for him to establish himself in the government and the opposition; As long as he can continue to hold power, no matter how big the loss and loss, he can be regained by asking for supplies from the imperial court and covering places.

And the foundation of this Shandong Jianya is the tooth army inside and the battalion soldiers outside. Then there are the defenses, guards, and soldiers and horses of the subordinate states; Outside, it is the united children of the Shandong prefectures, and the local town garrison soldiers (in the forehead) and the Tutuan army (in the forehead).

only hated that before and after the Battle of Gangneung, he lost more than a dozen generals under his command in a row; Especially in the battle of kicking the camp outside the city, several generals were trapped in the firearms ambushed by the grass thieves.

Among them, during the period from Guilin's garrison to Yongqiao Town, Zhang Huchen, a brave general of the township party who followed the saddle before and after the horse, was burned to charcoal on the spot when he rushed into the enemy camp first; There was also Liu Congxin, a nephew who had followed him for many years and a pro-army escort, who was killed by a flying cannon a few steps away from him and died without a whole body; Then another clan brother and the battalion of the patrol soldiers and horses Liu Yiqiu, for himself when he was cut off, he was drowned in the attack of the grass thief cavalry. . .

This is undoubtedly a painful loss for the Liu clan, which has always been in battle with father and son soldiers, killing enemy brothers, and township party and relatives as the pillars of the army. Therefore, he couldn't help but have a strong retreat on the spot.

However, for Zhou Huai'an, who commanded the end of Jiangling City, in the end, under the leadership of Liu Jurong, the envoy of Shandong Jiedu, there were still two or three thousand officers and soldiers who fought and walked and successfully escaped from the battlefield and looked north, but it was also a helpless thing.

It's not that he doesn't want to leave the other party completely in one battle, or try to win the merits of a major imperial court town envoy; It's just that during this time, the size of the army has expanded several times, but the corresponding organization and training level have decreased significantly;

Although we have already gone through a lot of training and running-in in the previous stage of combat, the problem of being difficult to sustain under high-intensity and continuous combat has been revealed. On the other hand, the cavalry units formed in the south gradually showed the problem of lack of horsepower in the larger battles.

Therefore, once the time of the attack drags on for a long time, it is easy to show a state of fatigue that cannot be continued; Especially in the face of an enemy who is bent on breaking through and getting out, an interception and encirclement with more than enough blood and courage but not enough tenacity seems a little weak and not enough.

It was because under the circumstance that both ends inside and outside the city had to be grasped, he could only give priority to the part of the dishes that had been served on his plate in the city, and temporarily let go of the enemies who were not easy to outflank and encircle in the battlefield outside the city.

In the end, the "warships" of the navy that pursued all the way along the river almost all the guns and arrows on the boat, and the loaded foot soldiers were all landed, before they returned one after another; However, in addition to inflicting more follow-up casualties, it was not able to leave the officers and soldiers in formation as before.

After all, although the other party was defeated and lost, it still retained a considerable number of elite officers and soldiers of the mountain (south) and east (road) camps. Even if he is in the midst of defeat and adversity, he is still good at drowning with more endurance and toughness.

Therefore, with them as the core, there was only a slight pause, and the defeated officers and troops were able to regroup; And the cost performance and results of follow-up pursuit and harassment are getting lower and lower.

After retreating from Jingmen County, there was even Yu Liming who repaired the plank road and secretly crossed Chen Cang to leave an ambush, and the front and rear flanks heavily damaged and defeated a temporary regiment that followed the pursuit. Then the Taiping Naval Army, which was responsible for guarding the river, also saw an official army who came to meet under the banner of Cao Quanxi, the envoy of Jiangxi.

In Jiangling City, with the capture of the Shandong Army's Daxu and General Banner on the battlefield outside the city, the city was hung up for the first time; The remnants of the officers and soldiers who were still encouraging each other to resist seemed to have been drained of the last trace of blood and bones, and they cried or screamed on the spot, and most of them lost the will to resist and stopped one after another.

There are also a very small number of stubborn and heroic people who want to commit suicide on the spot, but because of the fatigue of the long battle, once they relax, they can't even wipe their necks and stab their hearts, and they become anticlimactic and self-inflicted injuries.

As a result, this somewhat anticlimactic battle of Gangneung was also declared over.

。。。。。。。。。

In Jiangxi Province, outside Poyang (now Boyang City, Jiangxi), the city of Raozhou Prefecture, Yang Shigu, who had just arrived at the local wharf by boat, also looked at the chaotic scene in front of him, and was a little speechless. But then he struggled a lot and finally found a familiar acquaintance in the local area.

"Master Yang, why are you still here..."

The person dressed as an ordinary person couldn't help but be shocked.

"In the battles of Poyang, Leping and Yugan, the righteous army was defeated several times, the left commander of the navy army Xiang Xian was not in the army, and the rest of the generals all voted for the official army."

"At present, the Yellow King's main formation has led the army to retreat to Xinzhou (now Shangrao, Jiangxi) to reorganize."

So, their lonely riverboat reloaded a few scattered rebels who had defected nearby, pulled anchor and set sail, continuing to follow the remaining waters all the way south. Crossing Yugan County, which was also abandoned, and arriving in Guixi County, Shinshu, it was only then that he encountered the first local fortification and the headquarters of the rebel army behind the palace; Then I got the news from them again that the Great General's Mansion had set up a formation in Yiyang.

In the Great General's Mansion temporarily set up by the Yiyang County Ya, Yang Shigu saw Huang Chao for the second day.

"Brother Shigu, it's good if you can come back, it's good to come back."

Huang Chao, who looked a little lean and emaciated, immediately grabbed his arm and shouted.

"Why don't you settle down for Brother Yang soon."

Looking at this scene, Yang Shigu suddenly felt a little touched, and he suddenly felt that after losing the glitz, restlessness and confusion brought by wealth and extravagance, the original Yellow King who could not be beaten, hammered and flattened, and became more and more courageous in adversity, came back.

"But I don't know if all the things (goods) that came out of the ship are in order."

However, immediately after the other party's words, his heart sank again and turned into a kind of bitterness, and then Yang Shigu said with difficulty

"It's okay."

"That's good, these things should be of great use to me next"

Huang Chao continued unnoticed.

"But I want you to keep bothering about it."

“。。。。。。。。。”

Yang Shigu nodded helplessly, at least he could continue to contribute to the righteous army.

"You also know that the current situation in the military government is a little bad, those who can escape have fled, and there are many who have defected to the official army."

"The current plan, in addition to thinking of ways to bring back those rebel brothers who were previously separated, and work together to go to the difficult situation."

"I'm also going to ask the officers and soldiers for peace. I thought it was a temporary delay"

After greeting and reassuring and explaining the recent situation for a while, Huang Chao stared at him with burning eyes.

"Now that the military government is withered, I hope you can go to find out the truth on my behalf. Be sure to make the thief believe that the righteous army has the intention of interceding and recruiting peace. ”

"Good"

At this moment, Yang Shigu's heart suddenly surging with thousands of words came to his lips, and in the end, there was only one word left that weighed as much as ten thousand pounds. Wait until he turns away.

"Why don't you tell Yang Junshi, we also echo Zhang Thief in the official army."

There was a person who turned out behind the wall in the front hall of the county government, but it was Shi Huangrui, the right chief, who asked.

"That's to better win the trust and the thief head...

Huang Chao sighed with a sad face.

"Among today's rebels, there are not only many people who want to secretly communicate with the official dog. If you don't act secretly, it will only ruin the overall situation and Brother Yang's life in vain. ”

(End of chapter)