For Gao Jie, he has now fallen into a dilemma, the main force on the shore has been defeated, and there is no backup for the attacking fleet.

Do you want to continue the attack and capture Chongzhen, or do you want to flee now and escape while the enemy is not surrounded?

Now, for Gao Jie, the choice is so difficult.

If you continue to attack, you may be able to catch Chongzhen and achieve the final victory, but if you fail, you will no longer have time to escape. But if he escaped like this, Gao Jie was very unwilling, because it meant that all his hard work would be in vain, and his future would be in vain. It is difficult to say how many of these three or four thousand people under his command can escape, and in the future, whether it is the south or the north, the entire Ming Dynasty will no longer have its own place to stay.

Advance or retreat? Gao Jie hesitated.

However, on the battlefield, he was allowed to think carefully about it, Chen Yue led the iron cavalry to defeat the main army of Gao Liu on the west bank of the canal, which undoubtedly gave a dose of stimulant to the water battalion and regimental training of the Pingnan Army of the canal, which were fighting hard, and made their morale suddenly high.

At this moment, no one had the heart to flinch, and the soldiers shouted and counterattacked the rebel soldiers.

Seeing that their main force was defeated, the morale of Gao Jie's soldiers plummeted, and they no longer had the heart to fight to the death, so they broke away from the fighting boat and jumped into the fishing boat when they came.

Before Gao Jie gave the order to attack or flee, many of his subordinates had already made their own choices. More than a dozen fishing boats broke away from the war group and fled south along the canal. If you win, you will move forward, and if you lose, you will be defeated, which is a common problem of the Ming army in this era.

Although there is no shortage of brave soldiers in Gao Jie's army, when they are defeated, no matter how brave the soldiers are, they do not have the heart to fight to the death. After all, from Tongguan to northern Shaanxi, from northern Shaanxi to Shanxi, to Hebei, Shandong and even Xuzhou Huai'an, they fled all the way. If such an army has the will to die, I am afraid that no one will believe it.

"Uncle, let's go!" Li Benshen, the nephew of Ding Qian, shouted at Gao Jie, and couldn't help but pick up a wooden paddle and paddle wildly in the river.

Gao Jie suddenly woke up, and hurriedly ordered a retreat, when is it, it is important to save his life.

More than 4,000 soldiers of Gao Jie's army fled south with 80 or 90 fishing boats and 30 boats. But how could the Pingnan Army fleet watch them escape?

Jin Shenghuan gave an order, the flag of the whole army's pursuit was raised to the mast, and more than 100 ships of the Pingnan Army launched an attack on the fleeing enemy ships.

Originally, the two sides had intertwined combat states, and it was not so easy for Gao Jie's ships to get out of the battlefield.

And what made them even more frightened happened, seeing that the battle was unfavorable, and the fishermen who had been plundered by them and were in charge of the boat, unwilling to sell their lives any longer, jumped into the river without saying a word, and swam towards the riverbank.

The fishermen fled, and the soldiers of the Gaojie Army had to row their own boats, but most of them were northerners, and although they were water-based, they could compare with southerners on rowing boats.

Seeing that the force used was very great, the boat not only did not move forward, but spun in circles, and the Pingnan army who was chasing laughed when he saw it.

There is no way to retreat, and there is no desire to fight, all you can do is surrender. As a result, the soldiers of the Gao Jie Army threw down their weapons one after another, knelt on the boat and raised their hands. For these soldiers, nothing is important except their lives, and surrender is nothing.

Many of them were originally exiles, and they surrendered to the imperial court with Gao Jie, and many of them even changed camps many times, and when they lost the battle with the peasant army, they would surrender, and they turned into peasant armies to fight with the official army, and after being defeated by the official army, they turned into official soldiers again, and surrender was as normal for them as eating and drinking.

As for loyalty, except for the hundreds of soldiers in Gao Jie's lineage, no one will fight to the death for Gao Jie.

Gao Jie took hundreds of personal soldiers, drove more than 20 large and small ships to break through the interception of the Pingnan army, and fled straight to the south, as long as he followed the canal all the way to the south, he could get reinforcements from his own troops, in Yizhen, and Huang Degong's army.

However, before they could escape far, there was a "click", and the boat that had fled to the front seemed to have hit something, and it came to a stop on the river, unable to move forward.

Broken! Crashed into a shipwreck. Gao Jie then remembered that when setting the attack strategy, in order to prevent Chongzhen from escaping, Liu Liangzuo blocked the north and south rivers with a sunken ship, hoping to annihilate all the Pingnan army fleets in the canal, but he didn't expect to lift a stone to shoot himself in the foot.

"Abandon the ship and go ashore!" Gao Jie hurriedly ordered, and at this time, he had to go ashore and escape. However, before his fleet turned around, the pursuing Pingnan army fleet had already caught up, and more than a dozen boats came around, blocking the way to escape to the riverbank.

More than 100 ships surrounded the rest of Gao Jie's more than 20 ships in the middle, and the water in the direct encirclement could not be drained.

On the boat, the bow and crossbow were wound, the fire gun was loaded, and dozens of tiger squat cannons were also loaded, and the bow and crossbow guns were aimed at the lonely hundreds of rebels.

Looking at the bright weapons on the official ship, everyone of the rebel soldiers was terrified, but the last loyalty made them hold the swords and guns in their hands, because they were all Gao Jie's personal guards, because Gao Jie had always treated them more than twice as much as other soldiers, and now, it was time for them to repay Gao Jie!

"Drop your weapon, Rao Er won't die!" Lu Zhenfei stepped on the bow of the boat and shouted to the besieged rebels. The big picture is decided, and he doesn't want to do more killing.

"Spare us not to die! Hahaha......" Gao Jie laughed wildly, he saw Lu Zhenfei when he led the army to flee from Xuzhou to Huai'an, and Lu Zhenfei did not allow him to pass through Huai'an, forcing him to take a detour to Fengyang.

"Lord Lu, I led my troops to attack the current emperor and committed the crime of killing the king, can such a crime be pardoned?" A sarcastic smile appeared on the corner of Gao Jie's mouth.

Lu Zhenfei was silent for a moment: "Can't!" ”

"Can't you still croak? Playing tricks? ”

"That's it, these officials' turbans don't have a good thing, fight with them!"

Gao Jie's soldiers suddenly clamored.

"Shut up!" Gao Jie roared angrily, stopped the noise of his men, and the river was quiet again.

"Lord Lu, you are a gentleman, I understand what you mean. I, Gao Jie, have committed a heinous crime, and I didn't intend to live. It's just that you can really spare my subordinates and my family? ”

Fierce as Gao Jie, his face also showed a pleading look at this moment, he had fought for many years in this troubled world, and he was not afraid of death, but he couldn't let go of his wife Xing Shi and his underage son. As long as he can get a way back for his wife and children, Gao Jie is willing to die.