Yang Xiaoshan's western expedition was victorious, but the Northern Expeditionary Army was already struggling.

There were serious logistical problems in the Northern Expeditionary Army, and instead of taking Tianjin, they could only retreat to Jinghai near Tianjin.

The three main officers of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, and Ji Wenyuan, gathered together to discuss how to act next.

"Are you all planning to leave?" Lin Fengxiang looked at Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan.

"Prime Minister Lin, it's not that we want to withdraw, it's that the soldiers really can't support it, we can't recruit troops here, and the whole army has lost almost a third of its people. There were 25,000 people when we set out, but now there are only more than 15,000, and Tianjin can't be defeated with this little force, let alone Beijing. "What Ji Wenyuan said is the truth, and under objective conditions, the Northern Expeditionary Army really has no strength to fight anymore.

"Lao Lin, now is not the time to be emotional, you look at the clothes worn by our heavenly soldiers, don't kill the demons when it's freezing in this cold day. Let's go south first, add more personnel and equipment, do you think I'm right? "Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang are old friends, and they speak with affection.

"But what about the task given to us by King Dong?" Lin Fengxiang still couldn't let go of the task of letting them break through the capital when they first set off. The capital is in front of you, and it is really unwilling to leave at this time.

"We're just temporarily retreating, and we'll fight back after we've got the army in order. I heard that Dongwang's reinforcements have arrived in Shandong, so let's go and join them first, and then it's not too late to attack the capital. "After the Northern Expeditionary Army entered Zhili, it called for support from the Tianjing base camp many times.

The king of the east really didn't have many soldiers in his hands, so he had to recruit 10,000 new heavenly soldiers in the Huaibei area of Anhui Province, and let Zeng Lichang, the deputy prime minister of the summer palace, take them to support the Northern Expeditionary Army.

But what the Northern Expeditionary Army never expected was that because most of the support troops were recruits, their combat strength was far weaker than that of the Northern Expeditionary Army. After they went to Linqing in Shandong, they ran out of ammunition and food in the siege of the Qing army, although Prime Minister Zeng tried his best to go north to rescue the Northern Expeditionary Army. But at this time, he could no longer control his subordinates, and the recruits wanted to retreat south, but they did not listen to his orders at all, and almost mutinied.

Eventually, the support army changed direction and retreated south into northern Jiangsu. But in this way, they did not return to Tianjing, under the various regimental training and private attacks along the way, only a few of the 10,000 Northern Expedition reinforcements fled back to Tianjing, and the rest were almost wiped out.

But the Northern Expeditionary Army did not know about the destruction of the reinforcements, and they were still waiting for the support of Tianjing. Reinforcements had not yet arrived, and the Northern Expeditionary Army had to retreat south again.

At this time, the horse team of Monk Lingqin came up from the north, and the situation became very bad.

"Two prime ministers, I'll cut it off." Ji Wenyuan, the inspector, stood up, the main force of the Northern Expedition was Lin and Li, and if they were surrounded, the Northern Expeditionary Army would be finished.

Ji Wenyuan was really a man, and he led 3,000 infantry alone to meet the 20,000 cavalry from the Horqin steppe on the Great Plains.

The vibration of the horses' hooves on the ground was far and near, and Seng Lingqin was stunned for a moment, he could not imagine that the only 3,000 infantry would dare to block the road of his 20,000 iron horsemen.

"Quickly break up their formation, and don't let the big fish run away." Monk Lingqin was not satisfied with the results of the battle of these 3,000 people, what he wanted was to destroy the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

This Mongol force rushed from all sides with guns in hand, and in order to save time, they didn't even shoot a few bows and arrows, and rushed directly into Ji Wenyuan's infantry formation.

"Brothers, kill the demons!" Ji Wenyuan lifted the big knife and rushed forward. His machete flew up and down, fearless in the face of the Mongol cavalry on horseback. Ji Wenyuan risked his life to fight with the Qing demon in one place, and the machete was rounded, and the force was so strong that he even cut down the people and horses together.

Ji Wenyuan took the lead, and the heavenly soldiers under his command were all not afraid of death, it was time to kill one to save the capital, and kill two to earn one. Although Ji Wenyuan's infantry formation could not stop so many cavalry at all and was quickly dispersed, a few heavenly soldiers, a dozen or so, gathered together to form a small phalanx and confront the Mongolian cavalry that rushed in.

"What's going on?" Monk Greenqin, who was watching the battle, didn't expect this long hair to be so tenacious, he originally thought that his horse team would rush, and these long hairs should be scattered, but he didn't expect that there was not a single deserter, and they were all fighting with their own cavalry.

"I underestimated the long hairs, and Ming Jin withdrew and raised the command banner for them all to use bows." Monk Greenqin was a little heartbroken, all the people in this horse team were his own people, and he couldn't accept it when he was killed by the defeated Changmao, so he changed his tactics.

This Mongolian cavalry was really well-trained, and they took their bows and arrows and circled around the Taiping army's formation, which was their best tactic.

This change of formation, Ji Wenyuan really has no choice, just now the impact of the Mongolian cavalry, his side killed a lot of archers, the archers are the target of the activity, and his side can not shoot with them.

"Everyone put the corpses in front, let's delay a little longer, and the other brothers will be able to go further." Ji Wenyuan was already ready to die here when he made the decision, and it would be safer for the main force of the Northern Expedition to delay a little longer.

"It's too slow!" Monk Lingqin also saw that although his team had an advantage, it was probably impossible to eliminate this gang of bandits with a bow and arrow.

"Let's get on the Tiger Cannon." Monk Lingqin said very reluctantly, he didn't want to use artillery, because the artillery team was all Han Chinese, and Xianfeng supported him in the capital, but at this time he had to use artillery.

The shells passed through the dense infantry formation, and they fell in one fell at once, and the lethality was indeed terrifying. Ji Wenyuan was not concentrated by the shells, but in order to rescue his brothers, he was hit by several arrows and died heroically in front of the battle.

At this time, Ji Wenyuan's army finally collapsed, and they launched a suicidal attack on the cavalry of Seng Lingqin, but the infantry could not resist the cavalry without formation, and in the end, all the 3,000 heavenly soldiers died heroically.

But they did not die in vain, they bought time for Lin and Li, and the rest of the Northern Expeditionary Army retreated to Fucheng and finally took a breath.

At this time, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang both knew that the Northern Expedition was no longer possible, the Mongolian cavalry was fierce, and if their team was in the field, they would not be their opponents at all.

"Let's divide the troops, Lao Li, you go south to receive reinforcements, and I will block these Mongolian soldiers here." Lin Fengxiang made the decision to divide the troops, if they stayed together at this time, they would die together. If Li Kaifang can bring in reinforcements, he will still have a chance to fight back. Until this time, they did not know that the reinforcements were no longer there.

It wasn't until Li Kaifang retreated to Gaotang that he knew that the Northern Expedition reinforcements had retreated. There was only a month to go, and if they had retreated earlier, they might have been able to join up with reinforcements. In fact, even if they converge, it is useless, and the weak combat strength of the reinforcements will not only not be able to support them, but may still be a drag.

Li Kaifang hurriedly sent someone to inform Lin Fengxiang of the news and asked him to hurry south, there were no reinforcements, but the signal corps was caught by Monk Greenqin and did not deliver the news. Since then, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang have been separated from each other and cut off contact.

A few days later, Lin Fengxiang retreated to Lianzhen and was surrounded by Seng Lingqin, while Li Kaifang was surrounded by Shengbao, who was supported by the Qing army north. The Northern Expeditionary Corps reached the point of exhaustion. How they wanted support, but now there was no one to save them. 9110