After Yu Feng led his troops to rescue Chen Jianghe, Chen Yue got the news that the cavalry of the Shun army was chasing him. Unable to clear out the remnants of the rebels at the guardhouse, he immediately ordered all the troops to assemble, and of course the rebels had almost fled at this time.

Leaving Wang Yin and others to settle the frightened Emperor Chongzhen, Chen Yue himself led his troops to the north quickly, rushed five miles to the north, met the returning rear army, and knew that he had defeated the incoming cavalry.

It was already dark, and it was not suitable to continue the march back to the Acropolis, so everyone simply camped on the spot. Ordered Liu Neng to lead his troops to camp by the canal, and send sentinels to investigate the movement on the opposite bank at night to prevent the Shun army from crossing the river at night, although the pontoon bridge has been burned, but the canal surface of more than ten zhang wide cannot stop the army at all, but it is too difficult to cross the river at night, and the Shun army should not.

Because of the looting of the rebels in the daytime, many shops along the canal were looted, and many of the shopkeepers were killed or fled in a hurry, and the houses here were much empty, but I was not worried that there would be no place to live at night.

On the second floor of a larger restaurant, Chen Yue and Chen Jianghe, father and son, sat opposite each other and talked. Chen Yue told Chen Jianghe about the plan to retreat.

"There are not enough ships to carry all the horses, so I plan to personally lead the cavalry to retreat along the land route, and I will leave it to you, my father, by sea." Chen Yue said solemnly to his father.

"Can't we go to Huai'an by boat with our father and son?" Chen Jianghe asked, Hebei and Shandong have been occupied by thieves, and he can't bear to let his son take such a big risk if he wants to break through the siege of thieves by land and go south by land.

"Otherwise, don't bring so many things, the war horses are also thrown away, if you squeeze it, a hundred sea ships should be able to fit these four or five thousand people." Chen Jianghe said tentatively.

"What's the line? This material and war horse are the guarantee of the combat strength of our Xishan Army, and without them, the strength will be reduced by at least half. Chen Yue shook his head and said.

Even if he can escape to the south and support Chongzhen to continue to be the emperor, but the Ming Dynasty is still facing an extremely dangerous situation, and without a strong army in his hands, how can he ensure that the father and son can gain a foothold in the south?

"It's just bitter Ah Yue, you!" Chen Jianghe said sadly, how dangerous it is to march thousands of miles on enemy territory. However, Chen Jianghe did not say that he was replacing his son, because he knew that he was not enough to control the generals under Chen Yue, not because he was not capable, but because he was unfamiliar with the situation of the Xishan Army.

"Father, don't worry, this bit of hardship is nothing, it is much worse than last year when I led my troops into the grassland in winter and braved the heavy snow to attack the Mongolian tribes." Chen Yue smiled and comforted his father. It's just that he ran from Tianjin to Huai'an, his subordinates are all cavalry, and he is in the north of Pingchuan, even if the Dashun army sends thousands of troops and horses to intercept it, how can it stop the mobile and flexible cavalry?

"But your responsibility, Father, is even greater, after all, you have to protect the emperor and princess, and there are dangers at sea, and you have to brave the stormy seas, father, you still need to be careful."

Chongzhen is the guarantee of the development of the Chen family father and son in the future, but there is no room for loss!

"As long as I am here, Your Majesty will be safe and sound!" Chen Jianghe said firmly, in his heart, Chongzhen is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his importance is no worse than the lives of his father and son.

There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, Yu Fengbu was left by the canal to prevent the Shun army from crossing the river, and Chen Yue himself led the army back to the Acropolis. Start deploying the retreat immediately.

Since the cavalry of the Shun army has been chasing, there must be more troops behind, and there are troops of the Shun army in every province between the rivers in Baoding, and there are more than 20,000 main forces of the Shun army led by Liu Fangliang in Baoding. Chen Yue didn't want to have a battle to defend the city in Tianjin.

Fortunately, before the return, Wang Yin had already transported the materials of Tianjin Wei to Dagu Haiphong Yingshui Village by ship, and there were river boats in the canal of Tianjin Wei, Chen Yue immediately ordered as the governor of Tianjin to hire river boats on the canal to transport the remaining materials of the Acropolis to Dagu, and the two battalions of the Xishan Army Infantry Army also set off with the fleet.

It is said that it is a retreat, in fact, it is similar to moving, because there are too many belongings of the Xishan Army, and there are tens of thousands of stones of grain in the Tianjin Wei Grain Depot, because Tianjin is a transit station for the grain, and part of the military rations of the Guanning Army in Shanhaiguan have to be transferred from here, so so there is so much grain stored. Of course, so much grain could not be transported away, and Chen Yue only ordered to take away enough rations for the army to eat for three months, and the rest of the grain was paid to the hired shipwrights as compensation.

Wang Yin hired more than 300 river boats, all of which were grain ships carrying grain, and hired thousands of coolies on the docks to help load money and grain materials onto the ships. The wages were paid for by the grain in the granary, and in these turbulent years, grain was more expensive than silver, and a freighter ship was paid ten stone of grain for a round trip, and the grain was paid in advance, which was enough to make the shipwrights happy.

The hundreds of thousands of taels of silver accumulated must be taken away, and the remaining silver, plus the wealth of the rich merchants extorted by the Japanese iron lion some time ago, and the dirty silver seized when the rebels in the guard station had just been exterminated, add up to more than 500,000 taels, all of which must be taken away.

There are also the original ordnance, more than 70 tiger squat cannons, hundreds of modified crossbows, and various tools of the craftsmen of the Ordnance Division, which were originally mounted on chariots, but now the infantry has to rush to the south by boat, and the chariot is too large to be loaded on the ship, and the walking speed is too slow to go south along the land route with the cavalry, so these ordnance can only be transported by sea ship.

It took a full morning to load all the materials on board, and more than 300 river boats were requisitioned, and the fleet lined up for nearly 20 miles in the Wei River. The Wei River is the Hai River, the north-south canal converges in Tianjin and the Wei River, and from the Tianjin Acropolis along the Wei River to the east for a hundred miles, it enters the sea. With abundant food as a reward, the boatmen did not care where the Xishan army was going, and for these hard-working people who were struggling to survive on the river, the food for their lives was the most important.

As a precaution, a part of the infantry was assigned to escort the boat on the riverboat, and the other part was led by Yang Zhengping and Jin Xin respectively, marching along the riverbank on foot, in order to guard against possible enemy attacks.

Such a large-scale retreat must not be kept secret, and at the same time carrying so much wealth, safety is more important than anything else. Fortunately, although the cavalry had already chased after them, it was not so easy to cross the canal on the other side of the canal. The rebels of the Tianjin Guard had been defeated, and the leader of the army, Daoyuan Yuzong, was captured alive, and the commander Lou Guangxian was shot dead by a musket during the clearance, and although the other commander made Cao Youyi escape, he was certainly unable to gather an army that could threaten the fleet in a hurry.