The gray sky pressed overhead, and there were faint snowflakes drifting in the air. A long army walked along the mountain path between the hills with great bride.

In the middle of the team, Jin Xin looked at the sky from time to time, praying that it would never snow.

On the orders of Chen Yue, the king of Qi, he led the army to chase Hong Chengchou lightly, and his soldiers were not only food and weapons, but also a bedding on their backs. For the speed of the march, most of the soldiers did not carry armor and marched lightly in cotton military uniforms.

The defense of such an army is very poor, but there is not much way to do it, if it is a step-by-step march, I am afraid that it will not be able to catch up with Hong Chengchou at all. And according to the estimation of Chen Yue and others, the morale of the Green Battalion soldiers under Hong Chengchou may have dropped to the extreme, and there is no need to fight any tough battles on this trip, maybe the time to catch up will be the time when the Green Battalion soldiers are defeated.

However, Jin Xin and his troops were already working very hard, marching at a speed of eighty miles a day, and had already crossed Zhangqiu County, but there was still no trace of the green battalion.

Now Jin Xin can only pray, first, that there will be no heavy snowfall, and secondly, Hong Chengchou's army has not gone too far......

"General, there are green battalion soldiers in front!" Suddenly a soldier came to report, Jin Xin was overjoyed.

"How many people, how far apart?"

"There are quite a few people, all over the mountains, but they seem to be deserters from the Qing army."

"Deserters?" Jin Xin frowned slightly.

Soon, several green battalion generals were brought over, but they were Wu Shengzhao, Wang Guangtai, Guo Hu and other generals.

"Mr. Jin, you can be regarded as here!" Guo Hu walked over with a smile on his face, and took Wu Shengzhao and others to salute Jin Xin.

After Guo Hu escaped from Jiaozhou, he took the remnants of the army to Qingzhou, fearing that he would be dealt with by Hong Chengchou and did not continue to flee to Jinan.

After some persuasion, he heard that the 100,000 green battalions in Dengzhou had surrendered, and felt that the strength of the Ming army in Shandong was far stronger than that of the Qing army, so Guo Hu decisively decided to surrender. However, Tang Tong did not let him surrender directly, and after discussion, it was decided to let him lead his troops to flee back to Hong Chengchou's headquarters, taking the opportunity to disrupt the Green Battalion Brigade and persuade more Green Battalion generals to surrender.

"In this situation of total defeat, you can flee back with the army instead of surrendering to the Ming army, Hong Chengchou has no reason to deal with you at all, on the contrary, he has to be rewarded. Think about it, if you can persuade more Green Battalion generals to surrender and then disturb the entire Green Battalion, wouldn't it be more important to be used by the prince than just surrendering in such a gloomy way? Tang Tong's persuasion made Guo Hu make up his mind, so there was the scene not long ago.

Jin Xin knew about Guo Hu's surrender, and seeing that he had brought a number of green battalion generals, Jin Xin only nodded slightly, did not give them a better look, and directly interrogated the current situation of the green battalion soldiers.

"General Jin, it's messed up, the green battalion soldiers are all in chaos. I took Wu Shengzhao, Wang Guangtai and other generals to break away from the Green Battalion Brigade, and the morale of more than 100,000 Green Battalion soldiers was suddenly lost, and Hong Chengchou did not dare to go to Jinan to meet Li Benshen again, but chose to flee north with the army. I can't even take care of the baggage or something, and the loss is all over the mountains! I am ordering someone to collect these burdens and pass them on to you in a moment. Guo Hu's eyebrows danced, this is all his merit.

Hong Chengchou fled north? Sure enough, he wanted to cross the Daqing River and flee to the north!

Where can Jin Xin care about anything at the moment, and glared at Guo Hu, "You just watched him run away?" Why don't you lead your troops in pursuit? ”

Guo Hu, Wu Shengzhao and the others laughed and lowered their heads. Pursuit? Where do they dare.

"Since you have chosen to surrender, you are a member of our Ming army, and now I order you, as the vanguard of our army, to immediately lead your headquarters to pursue Hong Chengchou. Ladies and gentlemen, whether you can gain a foothold in Daming depends on this battle, as long as you can keep Hong Chengchou and make military achievements, I will protect you in front of the prince! ”

Guo Hu, Wu Shengzhao and the others looked at each other, and then saluted Jin Xin at the same time, "Yes, General!" ”

For Guo Hu and others, it would be difficult for them to attack Hong Chengchou's army alone, but if there were tens of thousands of Ming troops as their backing, it would be different. Now it is clear that the Green Battalion soldiers are demoralized, and it is time to beat up the water dogs. And Jin Xin is right, this battle is indeed related to their future in Daming.

Now the Ming soldiers are strong and strong, if they can't make some military achievements, where can they gain a foothold in the Ming Dynasty, at most they will be appointed to an idle position, and there will be no future in this life. But if he made great contributions to the defeat of Hong Chengchou, it would be different, and Chen Yue, the king of Qi, would never treat the heroes lightly.

The generals of the Zhulu Battalion immediately made a decision and went back to pack up the team, it was not easy or necessary to pack up the whole army in a short time. They each gathered their own soldiers and asked them to take out white towels and wrap them around their right arms to distinguish them. Then he hurried north with his own troops. Five or six generals, each of whom had a total of two or three thousand personal soldiers, were the most elite troops under them. And as soon as they left, the ordinary soldiers under their command also ran along in a mess.

Two or three thousand elite soldiers were the vanguard, and twenty or thirty thousand ordinary soldiers were behind, hulala and went to the north, although it did not seem to be a queue, but it was also quite imposing.

Jin Xin did not follow to the north to chase and kill, but ordered his subordinates to stay where they were, and then the baggage left by Hong Chengchou was repaired for a few hours.

The big guy is really tired from marching repeatedly, and he must repair and replenish his physical strength to cope with the next battle.

Now that Guo Hu, Wu Shengzhao and others are in a hurry to make meritorious contributions, they should be able to bite Hong Chengchou's tail, and when they are tired from fighting, they will lead their troops to clean up the mess.

There is a cloud in the art of war, "those who seek profit for a hundred miles will be generals, and those who seek profit for fifty miles will be half an army." And along the way, Jin Xin's army fell seriously behind, and the 20,000 troops when he traveled are now at most 15,000 with him. Therefore, even if Jin Xin's meritorious heart is cut, it must be trimmed. Otherwise, if you chase after you quickly, I am afraid that if you catch up with Hong Chengchou, your own army will be more than half behind, plus your physical strength is exhausted, where is there combat effectiveness at all?

With the baggage left by the green battalion soldiers, the Ming army hastily set up a camp, buried the pot and began to rest, fortunately with these baggage, there are conditions for camping, if you camp in the open air, not to mention that the cold alone can make the combat effectiveness sharply reduced.

And even if he knew that the Qing army had fled, Jin Xin still didn't dare to relax his vigilance, the sentry detective released two miles, and the soldiers were all undressed and their hands were not off their knives, even when they were sleeping.

The snowflakes are getting bigger and bigger, the whole world is white, and the Daqing River, which is seventy or eighty miles away from here, is about to start a fierce battle in the snowflakes fluttering in the sky.