"Boom!" Fastest update on PC::/

"Boom! Boom! Rumble! ”

The first explosion was followed by a continuous burst of explosions, and the position where the Third Army had been stationed an hour earlier had turned into smoke and dust as if the sky had collapsed, covering half of the sky.

After more than ten minutes, the sound of the explosion completely stopped, and at this time, Kong Youde, Zhan Wenbo and others, who had broken through the encirclement network of the Ming Dynasty army, were looking at the position where there was still some faint fire in the smokey and dusty place behind them with various expressions, and they were speechless for a long time.

It wasn't until they were awakened by the sound of fighting behind them and around them that Kong Youde and the others remembered that it was far from the time to think deeply: "Let's go, we will kill back sooner or later!" ”

"I'm going to get it back!"

"Avenge all our brethren!"

Zhan Wenbo, Xiao Shikai and others spoke one after another, with determination, as if they were making a promise to someone.

With the series of explosions on the position, the Ming army behind him blocked the offensive of the Ming army chasing the officers and soldiers of the Third Army, I don't know if it was an illusion, and finally the hand was a little weaker, and when Kong Youde and they marched more than 30 miles in a hurry, leaving most of the Ming army's pursuers behind, it was already past noon.

"Let's rest for half an hour, eat and reorganize!"

On the horizon behind him, a Ming cavalry loomed, this was the only 10,000 cavalry troops in the hands of Zhang Huangyan on the Eastern Front, and it was the cavalry that could be called the strongest mobile force in the era of cold weapons.

"Fortunately, we have not forgotten the drill of the Hongtang army, and we have been practicing the long journey of the soldiers below, otherwise today we will not be able to pursue our army with this Ming Dynasty cavalry There is also a Ming Dynasty infantry, so it is really not easy for us to get rid of the other party's pursuit."

Kong Youde drank water, swallowed the dry fried multigrain flour with the aroma of grain one by one, and occasionally ate fried noodles mixed with the taste of lard and salt, but in fact, it was not as unacceptable as the soldiers at the bottom said.

"But the pursuers are not far behind us, and after the soldiers are rested, let's let everyone continue on their way!"

At the junction of the northwest sky and the horizon, there are already faint signs of flying dust, and the chasing soldiers of the Ming Dynasty seem to have not given up the intention of chasing and killing the soldiers of the Third Army.

But looking at the soldiers around them, almost all of them were injured, and the scale had been reduced by half to more than the right number, no matter how much anger there was, Kong Youde could only swallow it alive.

"Army commander, the battle damage reports of each brigade have been sorted out, although we broke through the Ming army's encirclement network this time, the number of soldiers is only ............"

Zhan Wenbo walked slowly from the army, in addition to being solemn on his face, he was also a little helpless, that is, when he wanted to report to Kong Youde, it was very difficult to report a number.

"How many brothers do we have left, let's be honest, I'm mentally prepared." ::

Kong Youde did not feel sorry for himself, but looked at Zhan Wenbo calmly.

"The soldiers who broke through the siege of our army, together with the wounded soldiers, there are more than 19,700 people in total."

After Zhan Wenbo said this number, his heart felt like a knife, and he believed that Kong Youde, the commander of the Third Army who had single-handedly developed and grown the Third Army to this point, was afraid that he would feel even more uncomfortable.

"In other words, in this battle of Xiangcheng, my Third Army lost more than 30,000 soldiers!!"

Although he had enough psychological preparation, when he really heard the clear number from Zhan Wenbo's mouth, Kong Youde's face couldn't help but twitch, if it weren't for the fact that this was not the time to shake his hand, Kong Youde himself would have taken the initiative to go to Beijing City and ask the Ministry of Defense for his guilt.

"The number of dead in battle may not be so much, when we retreated, many soldiers lost contact with most of the sterile in the war, and some were captured by the Ming army, and the actual number of killed must be less than 30,000."

Zhan Wenbo didn't know how to comfort Kong Youde, since the establishment of their Hong Dynasty army, there had never been such a fiasco as today, think about the retreat to Xuzhou, they also have to deal with the counteroffensive of the Ming Dynasty army, with this remnant army, as well as Xuzhou City Puliqi and Bai Guangen more than 5,000 people, where can they stop the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops pursuing them outside Xiangzhou City.

"Don't comfort me, I have an unshirkable responsibility as the commander of this war."

Kong Youde waved his hand to interrupt the excuse that Zhan Wenbo had found, and said solemnly: "My Third Army has been attacking countless cities and villages, and I, the army commander, have long been arrogant, so I have today's defeat. ”

"If it had been placed in the past, our army would definitely not have done such a reckless thing, even if there were three ambushes around our army, we would not realize it until the other party killed our army for half a day, it was really damned!"

"However, now is not the time to talk about responsibility, as a military commander, I have the responsibility to flee back to Xuzhou with my brothers who are still alive, and I will write to the Ministry of Defense to plead guilty when I arrive in Xuzhou City."

"So, you brigade commanders, cheer up Lao Tzu, we still have a tough battle to fight, even if you feel sorry for the brothers who died in battle, you have to wait until you bring the living brothers out of danger, and then find a separate space to buy a drunken apology!"

"Yes!!"

"Let's go!!"

As soon as half an hour passed, the officers and soldiers of the Third Army recovered some energy after they had eaten and drunk, at least not worse than the physical strength of the Ming Dynasty army that was now chasing them, and took a vigorous step towards the direction of Xuzhou City, moving forward quickly.

"General, if we don't catch up and charge now, and stop the footsteps of the Hong Dynasty's rout, we can really only watch them escape!!"

The cavalry battalion of the Ming Dynasty maintained a safe distance from the Hong Dynasty army, and followed behind, and Gao Degong, the deputy commander of the cavalry battalion, in addition to leading his brothers to follow the pace of the Hong Dynasty army, did not give the order to attack, and Qiao Zhenglin, the general who was anxious to follow him, complained directly.

"Let's go, don't chase it!"

Without the high-powered, large-area lethal weapons of artillery, the lethality exerted by the collective charge of the 10,000 soldiers of their cavalry battalion should not be underestimated.

However, even when the Hong Dynasty army had just broken through the encirclement, their marching formation was still orderly, and the musketeers and melee infantry relied on each other.