In the first few years, the peasant army really couldn't defeat the imperial army, not even the garrison, because they were backward in equipment, had poor individual combat ability, had little tactical literacy, and more importantly, because they were not united.

In fact, no matter how bad the more than 200,000 troops of the 36th Battalion are, it is impossible to take 10,000 Qi family troops, but they wanted to preserve their strength at the beginning, and then they calculated with each other and refused to work together.

The most scheming in the peasant army is Li Zicheng, he saw through Zhang Xianzhong's strategy at the beginning, ran more than 100 miles in advance, and ran the fastest way, and even, the horse rejection fork he prepared was not used, because when he started to run, the imperial army did not even have a shadow at all.

Originally, he wanted to put the rejection of the horse fork on the official road from the city of the Daimyo Mansion to the county seat of Neihuang County, block the peasant army behind him, and let them entangle with the officers and soldiers to ensure that he had more time to escape, but Gao Yingxiang disagreed.

Gao Yingxiang is not so vicious, he may do such a thing as defeat and help, but he really can't do it to harm other peasant armies.

Therefore, it makes sense that the peasant army will be left with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the end, they have brains, understand tactics, and more importantly, they are ruthless enough to attack the peasant armies from all walks of life.

Like Li Zicheng, in order to seize control of the peasant army, he even killed Luo Rucai, a life-saving benefactor who helped him escape from death many times, so he was able to mix from the second leader of the peasant army all the way to the most powerful of all the peasant army, established his own regime, and became the emperor.

Of course, he hadn't shown his prominence at this time, so he could only listen to his uncle Gao Yingxiang, so he had to leave the rejection fork on the side of the road and run away with Gao Yingxiang.

The second ranked should have been Zhang Xianzhong, but because he couldn't help but make a start this time, he insisted on going to the capital for a turn, and he couldn't run away in advance, so he was robbed by the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution.

In fact, Ma Yingshou didn't see through Zhang Xianzhong's sinister intentions at first, he just didn't want to participate in the siege of the city, and he didn't want to consume the strength of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, so he volunteered to raise grain and grass.

However, when he got to the back, he also felt that something was wrong, because Anyang had lost contact, and Zhang Xianzhong still refused to run away.

Why, is it really so important to build a daimyo castle?

Of course not, he understood after a little thought, Zhang Xianzhong wanted to consume everyone's strength, if he could take down the Daimyo's Mansion City and then go to the capital for a turn, it would naturally be best to attract soldiers and horses from all over the world to enter the king of Beijing, if not, he Zhang Xianzhong would definitely run faster than anyone else.

Therefore, as soon as he heard that Zhang Xianzhong took Luo Rucai to camp south of the Daimyo's Mansion City, he immediately led the fifth battalion of Ge Zuo to the south of the entire Daimyo's Mansion to raise grain and grass, Zhang Xianzhong could run for ten miles at most, but he had already run dozens of miles first.

Of course, Zhang Xianzhong's preparations were still relatively good, and on the second night of the siege separately, he secretly told Luo Rucai that everyone was not in unison, and I was afraid that this famous mansion city would not be able to be defeated, so it was serious to hurry up and prepare to run.

Therefore, early on the morning of the third day, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai ordered their subordinates to start packing up their things, the reason why they also led the army to attack Pau was not to make a final effort, but mainly to paralyze the main force of the peasant army led by Wang himself, so that they thought that this side had not given up, and at the same time, it was also to block the sight of the Ming army, so that they could not see that the camp behind them had been demolished.

His run not only woke up Wang Ziyong like a dream, but also made Zhang Bin in the city discover the intention of the peasant army to escape.

Zhang Bin immediately asked Lu Xiangsheng and Zhang Zongheng to quickly inform them, so that they could quickly attack and surround the main force of the peasant army.

He didn't dare to be too careless, bring out all the Qi family troops in the city, in case the peasant army played any trick of feigning to retreat, it would be troublesome, he didn't dare to lead 5,000 Qi family troops to directly rush into the main force of more than 100,000 peasant army, at this time they still have tens of thousands of cavalry waiting there, and he led 5,000 foot soldiers to rush up and find death, he could only wait with his back against the city wall, waiting for Lu Xiangsheng to lead the army to come, so frightened that the peasant army began to break and flee, and then rushed up to pick up the leak.

At this time, Wang Ziyong was indeed guarding against the 5,000 officers and soldiers outside the West Gate, and he had already received the news that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai had run away, and he could only complain a few words, because it had been discussed a long time ago if he couldn't fight for three days, and he didn't do anything wrong, but he was just half a beat slower.

However, at this time, he didn't realize the seriousness of the matter, he just retreated normally, so he didn't panic too much.

On the one hand, he ordered the main cavalry of each battalion to assemble on both sides, ready to intercept the officers and soldiers who left the city at any time, and on the other hand, he ordered the infantry of each battalion to assemble their ranks and pack up the camp tents, everything was so orderly that there was no sign of rout and escape at all.

Zhang Bin is not in a hurry, anyway, he does not plan to annihilate the main force of the peasant army, it is good to be able to leave more than half of it,

It is precisely because both sides are not in a hurry that the situation outside the West Gate is extremely strange.

The more than 100,000 peasant troops turned a blind eye to the 5,000 officers and men who left the city, and only cared about packing up their things, as if the officers and soldiers in front did not exist.

The 5,000 officers and men who left the city had no intention of attacking at all, but just stood there in a neat formation, as if they were seeing off the peasant army.

However, this situation did not last long, and in less than an hour, the peasant army camp began to be in chaos, because the scouts from the north came back with news that 10,000 officers and soldiers were pressing over from Wei County, and it was less than ten miles away from the peasant army camp.

At this time, the peasant army was finally afraid, and the leaders of the battalions fled with their men in spite of the king's self-dissuasion, and the king had no choice but to follow all the way to the south, leaving behind a large camp in disarray, full of unfinished tents.

This was just the beginning, the main force of the peasant army had just begun to flee, and news came from the west that tens of thousands of Ming army cavalry were rushing from the west of Anyang to the direction of Neihuang County, trying to block the way to escape south.

At this time, the camp of the peasant army was completely chaotic, and the leaders of the battalions led their cavalry to gallop southward, as for the foot soldiers, they could no longer control it, and whether they could escape or not depended on their luck.

Zhang Bin stood in front of the Qi family's army formation, holding a telescope to look at the chaos of the peasant army, but he still didn't react at all, until there was a neat footstep in the north, and the new army led by Lu Xiangsheng had appeared north of the Daimyofu City, he waved his hand and ordered unhurriedly: "Advancing step by step, press up." ”

The order flag waved, and the Qi family army finally moved, they did not desperately chase after them, but followed the peasant army foot soldiers with neat steps, and slowly advanced forward.

"Papapa", the neat footsteps knocked on the hearts of the peasant army infantry like an alarm bell, and everyone was so frightened that they spread their feet and fled frantically, and the south of the Daimyo's Mansion City was suddenly full of peasant army fleeing figures.

Looking at the peasant army foot soldiers in the distance, Zhang Bin still ordered unhurriedly: "Order, all foot soldiers trot forward." ”

There was another wave of command flags, the heralds scattered, and the 5,000 Qi family soldiers and the 10,000 recruits led by Lu Xiangsheng slowly accelerated and ran, but they did not chase with all their strength, but just maintained a certain frequency and ran forward without hurrying.

At this time, the Weihe line north of Neihuang County was also in chaos, because the peasant army Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai's department and the fifth battalion of Gezuo encountered here.

Although the 5th Battalion of Gezuo had already begun to flee south, they did not dare to flee too far, because they still raised grain and grass near the Daimyo Prefecture under the pretense of pretending to be in the vicinity of the Daimyo Prefecture, and it was a bit too much to say that they ran out of the Daimyo Prefecture.

After crossing the Wei River, it is the border of Neihuang County, not to mention Wang Ziyong, even in the face of Gao Yingxiang, they can't explain, how do you raise grain and grass to the territory of Neihuang County, which is more than 100 miles away, doesn't it take time to transport grain and grass back and forth for more than 100 miles, don't you make it clear that you want to escape?

Therefore, they just lingered on the north bank of the Wei River, waiting for the main force of the peasant army to retreat, and did not cross the Wei River.

When the news of the retreat of the main force of the peasant army came, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai happened to lead the army to flee to the north bank of the Wei River.

Although the Wei River is not very wide, there are only a few bridges on it, and even if the seventy or eighty thousand peasant troops line up in a neat line and pass in an orderly manner, it will take a few hours, and at this time the two peasant armies squeezed on the bridge, and the speed of crossing the river became slower.

Here, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, and the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo were still crowded on the only few bridges, and the other leaders of the 36th Battalion, including Wang Ziyong, had already fled with cavalry.

Wang Ziyong saw this situation, without saying a word, and led his cavalry to find a relatively gentle embankment and rushed down directly, wading across the river, and fleeing in the wilderness, the leaders of the peasant army from all walks of life naturally followed the same example, and ran away with the wading, the water of the Wei River is actually not deep, the deepest depth is only two or three feet, and even the horse's legs can't be drowned, but the carriages and mule carts carried by the foot soldiers can't wade across the river, so Zhang Xianzhong and they will crowd on the bridge.

At this moment, looking at this posture, Zhang Xianzhong and they also knew that it was the officers and soldiers who caught up, and they didn't care about the foot soldiers, so they directly hit the horses and waded across the river, and fled frantically to the south, leaving only tens of thousands of foot soldiers still desperately squeezing there, of course, there were also smart foot soldiers who left the carriage and mule cart, jumped directly off the river embankment, and waded and ran.

At this time, the 10,000 cavalry led by Zhang Zongheng finally arrived, and the order he received was to intercept it south of the Wei River and block the way for the peasant army to flee south, because he had a total of only 10,000 horses under his command, and he would definitely not be able to stop the more than 100,000 peasant troops in other places, only on the south bank of the Wei River, the peasant army could be blocked by the river.

Now the peasant army foot soldiers are completely chaotic, crowded on the bridge do not know whether to continue to flee south or turn back to flee north, just across the bridge and were driven back by Zhang Zongheng, did not go to the bridge also hesitated there, whether to flee to the north to join the main force, the entire Wei River, everywhere panicked peasant army foot soldiers.

Soon after, more than 100,000 peasant soldiers appeared in the north, and when they saw the situation along the Wei River, they suddenly despaired, and many of them even fell to the ground and convulsed immediately, because they had been chased by the officers and soldiers behind for nearly 100 miles, and they had already reached the limit.

After about a quarter of an hour, Zhang Bin and Lu Xiangsheng led 5,000 Qi family army foot soldiers and 10,000 recruits to catch up, they didn't spread their feet and run wildly, they just trotted forward, so they were not very tired, the Qi family soldiers didn't even feel tired at all, this bit of intensity, for them it was just a warm-up, only the 10,000 recruits under Lu Xiangsheng ran a little out of breath.

However, their situation was much better than that of the fleeing peasant army, especially the peasant army foot soldiers who had rushed all the way from the north, which would have been almost completely unable to move on the ground.

Zhang Bin did not rush up to tie up people, but ordered 5,000 Qijia soldiers to spread horizontally along the Wei River, lined up in a row, raised flintlock pistols, and aimed at the peasant army foot soldiers in front, which allowed Lu Xiangsheng to go up with 10,000 recruits to tie people up.

Except for Gao Yingxiang, who listened to Li Zicheng's words and led more than 30,000 foot soldiers to escape, almost all of the other 36 battalions of peasant army foot soldiers are here, and the number is at least more than 100,000!

More than 10,000 people have captured more than 100,000 people, what can they do if they are not careful, if they desperately resist, it is really possible to be turned over by them.

It's different when these five thousand Qi family musketeers line up, basically, it is absolutely safe within a hundred steps, and whoever dares to resist will be immediately beaten into a hornet's nest.

Lu Xiangsheng and they were relatively smooth at first, because they were basically running all the way from the Daimyofu City near the north, and they were lying on the ground at this time, and they had no strength at all, so they went up and pulled their trouser belts, tied their hands behind their backs, and threw them on the ground.

At this time, there was no mercy to talk about, Zhang Bin directly ordered, and the five thousand Qi family troops pressed up to shoot a salvo, directly beating the front into a sieve, and the people behind finally threw away their weapons in fright, squatted on the ground, and did not dare to resist.

More than 100,000 people, it took nearly an hour to tie up, until all the peasant army foot soldiers were almost controlled, Zhang Zongheng took more than a dozen generals to fight horses and came to ask, what should I do next?

More than 100,000 peasants escaped, and most of them were cavalry.

Zhang Bin and Lu Xiangsheng discussed for a while, and finally decided to let Zhang Zongheng chase after him, because south of Zhangde Mansion and Daimyo's Mansion is Weihui Mansion, in case the peasant army takes advantage of the situation to break through the city of Weihui Mansion and slaughter King Lu inside, it will be over.

King Lu is Chongzhen's uncle and grandfather, if he is slaughtered, Chongzhen will definitely cut a bunch of people to accompany the burial.

Therefore, Zhang Zongheng must lead the army to chase after and drive the peasant army out of Weihui Mansion, otherwise, even if they win a big victory, they may be dragged out and cut down!