Of all military operations, retreat is always the most complex and dangerous. When retreating, if there is an enemy army following behind, there are usually two scenarios:

One is that the enemy's marching ability is not as good as our army, this situation is relatively simple, you only need to spread the scuds and run, if the enemy dares to chase, then drag them to run, drag them tired, and then turn around and kill a horse pistol, maybe you can take advantage of it. In the history of another time and space, in the process of a 25,000-mile-long strategic transfer, a certain army took advantage of its own marching ability and used this method more than once to deal a heavy blow to the pursuing enemy army.

The second situation is that your own marching ability is not as good as that of the enemy, which is very dangerous. Because it means that you can be attacked by your opponent at any time while on the march. In the marching state, the defense of the army is far inferior to the formation state, so it is likely to be directly defeated and collapsed in such a state. Generally, when retreating in front of such an opponent, it is often necessary to divide the troops into two parts, one part of which will go for a while, and then stop and set up, and the remaining part will slowly retreat to the place where the front army is deployed, and then in this way, the two battle groups will alternately cover like barrels, and slowly retreat to a safe position. But there is still a very troublesome problem here, that is, the part of the army that has stopped to deploy must be able to withstand the full attack of the enemy in a defensive battle, at least to be able to block the other part of the army to complete the defensive preparations. If it is crushed by the enemy's offensive before then, the entire army will be crushed beyond control. And many times, the reason why the army has to retreat is because the combat strength of the whole army is not comparable to the enemy's army. Under such circumstances, it is also very difficult to use part of the troops to withstand the enemy's attack. In the process of retreating from the front line of Dahu Mountain in Montenegro to Shenyang, part of the troops responsible for defense were quickly broken through by the pursuing troops of Marshal Lin Husan, while the other armies were still on the march and could not effectively organize the defense, as a result, the 200,000 army was completely annihilated by no more than 300,000 pursuers in less than two days, and the enemy's losses were almost insignificant.

If you don't take into account the population and materials looted, the mobility of the Qing army led by Dolgon is significantly stronger than that of Wu Sangui's Guanning army, and the Qing army is generally two-horseed, especially those Mongols, each of whom generally has three horses or more. Although the Guanning Army is known as the "Guanning Iron Cavalry", and the proportion of cavalry is indeed very high in the Ming army, it is far from the entire cavalry, let alone two or even three horses per person. It's just that now Dolgon and they still need to bring the tens of thousands of Han people they have plundered, as well as all kinds of supplies, so naturally they can't go fast. Fortunately, the combat effectiveness of the army under Dolgon's command still significantly exceeded that of the Guanning army, and it was said that even if only a part of the army was delayed for defense, it would be enough to deal with Wu Sangui's attack.

Wu Sangui naturally knew this, so he did not immediately catch up and attack Dolgon, but led his troops to maintain a distance of about half a day from Dolgon's main force, and just kept sending elite Jiading troops to reconnoiter and harass the Qing army.

……

"General Wu, there was originally a small road here, about twenty miles, and you could go directly over the mountain. Compared with the avenue, it can save more than 50 miles. It's just that no one has left in the past few years, so fewer people know about it. A guide said to Wu Guogui.

"Maybe this way?" Wu Guogui asked.

"A few years ago, even the caravan also walked from here, so naturally it was able to walk the horse. No one has left in the past few years, but I don't know how. The guide replied. This guide looks like he is about forty years old, but he is a capital under Yang Wencong. He was a local and was indeed familiar with the local geography, so he was sent by Yang Wencong to serve as a guide for Wu Jun.

"Ma Dutou, all these years, why has no one walked this road?" Wu Guogui asked again.

"General, the world has been chaotic in recent years, this road is remote, and there are many strongmen who cut the path, and there is a section in the middle, which is infested with big insects. The merchants in the past were either harmed by the strongman or eaten by the big worm. The government can't control such things, so they can only ignore it. So, who else dares to walk this road? ”

"There's a big bug?" Wu Guogui was interested, "It's not just a big worm." If you can beat it, it won't be in vain. ”

The head of the horse smiled and said, "The general is now with two hundred iron horses, which big insect is not afraid of death, and dares to come out?" It's just that no one has walked on this road for several years, and there is a section of the forest in the middle, which I am afraid will be blocked by thorns. ”

"Just cut it open. Brothers, let's go from here and see if we can go around to the front and chop off a few Tartar heads and come back! Wu Guogui shouted with a smile.

The surrounding cavalry also responded with a bang. These cavalrymen are all members of the Wu family, and they are all completely off-duty soldiers raised by the Wu family at a great price, similar to the white-armored soldiers of Jianxin in terms of status, and their combat effectiveness and morale are also the best in the Guanning army.

Wu Guogui smiled at the horse Dutou and said, "Please also lead the way." ”

……

Although no one has walked this mountain road for several years, but the road is not too bad, most of the places, the soldiers lead the horses, but they can still walk through, only a few places, thorny bushes have grown, but they need to be cut off with a machete to walk, so after walking for a while, to a dense forest edge. Ma Dutou said: "Be careful, everyone, this is the legendary Huangniling infested with big insects." ”

Wu Guogui listened and looked around, touched the saber hanging on his waist and the bow and arrow hanging on the saddle, and shouted: "Put the tricks in the light, don't be eaten by the big insects!" ”

However, as Ma Dutou said, all the way through, no big worms came out. After the Huangni Ridge, there are five or six miles walked, and there is a mountain beam in front.

Ma Dutou pointed to the mountain beam and said, "General Wu, cross that mountain beam, and below is the official road." ”

Wu Guogui nodded, and was about to speak, but he heard the faint sound of people and horses moving over there. Wu Guogui immediately put his finger to his mouth, made a silent gesture, and then handed the reins of his horse to a knight next to him, and ran towards the mountain beam.

Wu Guogui climbed up the mountain beam and hid behind a large rock. Show half of your face to see. But I saw that on the official road below, there were more than 100 Mongols, escorting hundreds of people, who were coming from the official road. The people were tied with ropes around their necks, and dozens of people were tied together. Everyone carries a load full of things. The Mongols rode one and led two horses in their hands, and the saddles of the two horses were also full of various pockets.