Zhao Quanzhong led 10,000 Xuanjia iron cavalry to pursue along the direction of the Grand Canal for two days and two nights, and finally chased Bai Guangen's train camp in Linqingzhou.

By the time Zhao Quanzhong's whole army arrived in Linqing Prefecture, Bai Guangen's train battalion had already crossed the other side of the Grand Canal and went to Linqing Pass to garrison.

Zhao Quanzhong didn't want to immediately order the cavalry to chase across the river along the stone and wooden bridges on the three Grand Canals, and continue to pursue.

When he arrived at Linqing Pass, Zhao Quanzhong saw that the train battalion had no way to retreat, and the opportunity to annihilate it had finally arrived, so he immediately ordered the whole army to attack Linqing Pass.

Zhao Quanzhong originally thought that the train battalion at the Qingqian Pass was caught up by him, and the army was already discouraged, and he would inevitably attack it. But as soon as he attacked, he noticed that the train battalion inside the pass was counterattacking very fiercely.

Before the banknote customs, it was a tax collection yamen set up by the imperial court on the Grand Canal, which was directly managed by the tax inspector sent by the capital. The Linqing banknote customs is the most important one of the seven banknotes on the Grand Canal. In the previous dynasty, a large amount of commercial tax silver was piled up in the Linqing banknote pass all the year round, so although the Linqing banknote pass was nominally a yamen, both the anti-theft measures and the stone wall of the banknote pass were very tall and strong, and a military fort was no different.

The front yard is a school yard for collecting taxes and counting goods, at least 4,000 square meters in size, and the backyard is the office of the yamen.

Bai Guangen's train battalion was stationed on the school grounds, and the trains formed a row of active fortifications, and behind the trains, small artillery pieces were erected, and there were two thousand new Ming troops with firearms in three rows, forming a three-stage formation to resist the onslaught of the cavalry. On top of the stone wall in the backyard, ten medium guns were erected, which were condescending and used for long-range attacks.

When Zhao Quanzhong's Xuanjia Iron Cavalry attacked and entered the range of artillery, Bai Guangen immediately ordered the entire army of the train battalion to open fire, and in an instant, at least fifty small and medium-sized artillery pieces were fired in unison, and one by one lead bullets fell from the sky and smashed into the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry that was charging.

For a time, the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry was blown up to the ground, and occasionally the cavalry that rushed through the range of the artillery to the front of the train formation was also shot one by one by the new Ming army's firearms.

Zhao Quanzhong commanded the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry Company to rush three times, losing at least 1,000 cavalry, and still unable to cross the active fortifications of the train battalion, which can be regarded as knowing the strength of the train battalion. This kind of defensive position, which relies on the stone wall of the bank, is extremely strong, and if you want to break through, you will inevitably suffer heavy losses. Even if you lose half of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, you may not be able to break through the first position of the train battalion.

Zhao Quanzhong is a veteran who followed Chigutai south to the south of the Yangtze River, and he has quite rich battlefield experience, and the risk of pursuing is just a meritorious service.

Seeing that the formation of the train battalion was difficult to overcome, and the losses of his own cavalry exceeded 1,000, Zhao Quanzhong immediately ordered the cavalry not to attack again, and instead retreated to other county towns to rest, waiting for the train battalion to start going north again, and then waiting for the opportunity to annihilate the enemy when the formation was loose.

This is where the speed advantage of the cavalry lies, although the train battalion and the new Ming army are well defended, but the marching speed is extremely slow, and they can't chase the retreating cavalry at all, so there is no need to worry.

Zhao Quanzhong's cavalry had just withdrawn from the battlefield of Linqing Pass, and was about to cross the Grand Canal from the bridge of the time, and when they returned to the opposite bank, they suddenly found that a large number of train battalions suddenly appeared in Linqing Prefecture in the distance, advancing to the Grand Canal in all directions, with at least 2,000 trains and tens of thousands of soldiers.

Zhao Quanzhong sighed deeply, and then suddenly he fell into Bai Guangen's ambush!

Bai Guangen was not retreating north to Gyeonggi at all, but had already found the preset battlefield, which was Linqing Pass. First, the train battalion was divided into two teams, one team was deployed at Linqing Pass to repel the first wave of attack of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry; The first team ambushed in Linqing City, preparing to ambush and defeat the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry who had retreated here.

Zhao Quanzhong knew that he had been ambushed, and immediately ordered the whole army to accelerate its retreat to the other side of the Grand Canal. However, there are as many as 10,000 Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, and there are only three stone bridges and wooden bridges on the Grand Canal, and it will take at least two hours to evacuate them all.

The train battalion that was ambushed here, lined up in formation, had slowly advanced, and could launch an attack in less than half an hour, leaving not enough time for Xuanjia Tie to ride across the river.

As soon as Zhao Quanzhong's order to retreat arrived, and the train battalion attacking in front was already close at hand, the formation of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry was chaotic, and they began to scramble to cross the river first, making a mess, trampling and falling horses, crowded and falling into the river.

Zhao Quanzhong was shocked when he saw this, according to this situation, the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry that could return to the other side alive would definitely not exceed 1,000, and most of them would be lost on the side of the Grand Canal. The Xuanjia Iron Cavalry is the most elite division of the Xuanjia Army, and it is also the treasure that Fang Yuan attaches the most importance to, and he has lost eight or nine thousand at once, even if he goes back to the barracks, he will inevitably be severely punished by military law.

Besides, in the Xuanjia Army, which was promoted strictly by military merit, he suffered such a defeat, where did he still have the face to stay in the position of the commander of the cavalry battalion?

Zhao Quanzhong looked at the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry in front of him who was at a loss for what to do, and the men and horses trampled on each other, and all thoughts were already lost, rather than going back to be severely punished by military law, it was better to die on the battlefield like this, in the name of the whole horse leather shroud.

Zhao Quanzhong drew his saber and was about to command the three thousand iron cavalry that were not in chaos, preparing to rush the forced train battalion, and the commander made Zhang Li hurriedly ride to his side and said, "Commander Zhao, the charge is just a self-trapping place, the military situation is urgent, you immediately lead the Xuanjia iron cavalry to retreat, and I will lead the two thousand Xuanjia iron cavalry to break off!" ”

With the large number of train battalions, the speed of advancement, the fierceness of artillery and firearms, and the fact that the two thousand cavalry were completely lifeless, Zhang Li assumed the post of the queen of the palace, that is, to report the heart of death, to cover the retreat of most of Zhao Quanzhong.

Zhao Quanzhong looked at him with tears in his eyes and said, "Zhang Li, I regret not listening to you at the beginning, I am the one who really deserves to be broken!" ”

Zhang Li got off his horse and knelt in front of his horse, and said loudly, "The cavalry battalion can do without Zhang Li, and it can't be without Commander Zhao, and my family will be entrusted to Commander Zhao!" ”

He saluted Zhao Quanzhong, turned over on his horse again, drew his firecracker, and shouted, "Brothers in the cavalry battalion, retreating is death, and charging is death." Backwards are deserters, and there is no pension after the war; Rushing forward is the horse leather shroud, which will inevitably take care of our family members. May those who charge forward come with me! ”

In comparison, the two thousand iron horsemen whose formation was not completely chaotic immediately chose to charge forward in exchange for the compensation of the dead in battle, even if they died, they also wanted to earn some silver and land for their families.

Two thousand men drew their sabers and firearms, and they all responded in unison.

After Zhang Li's leadership was decided, Zhao Quanzhong immediately divided the responsibilities with the two thousand households, one person and one bridge, sat at the bridgehead, and commanded the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to evacuate in a neat and orderly manner. If there are any more people who grab the road, after returning to the country, all the military fields under their names will be confiscated and tried by military law!

Zhao Quanzhong and two thousand households rushed to the side of the three stone bridges, and began to ask the sergeants to convey this harsh military order along the way. Under the deterrence of the military order, coupled with the fact that Zhang Li had already led the army to break the rear, the enemy army would not be able to kill for a while and a half, and the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry was a well-trained force, and the previous panic in the army gradually subsided.

More than 6,000 Xuanjia iron horsemen stopped their horses, lined up on the side of the bridge, and under the command of Zhao Quanzhong and two thousand households, they began to ride two horses at a time, and crossed the bridge in order.

While evacuating in an orderly manner, he was desperately charging. Under the command of Zhang Li, the two thousand Xuanjia iron cavalry that charged broke through more than ten large formations of the train battalion. After the iron cavalry broke through the train defense, they immediately launched a frantic strangulation of the Ming army inside.

However, the number of the train battalion was too much, at least five times that of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, and gradually divided the Iron Cavalry that rushed into the formation into five and ten units of the siege city, and annihilated them one by one.

In the early morning of the battle, the two thousand Xuanjia iron horsemen had been killed and wounded, and the commander Zhang Li did not want to be captured by the enemy, so he also committed suicide with a fire gun before the war horse.

Zhang Li and the two thousand Xuanjia iron cavalry died in a heroic battle, in exchange for two or three hours of precious retreat time, Zhao Quanzhong's side finally commanded the remaining Xuanjia iron cavalry to cross the river safely, and retreated south in a hurry.

When the whole army returned to Liaocheng from Linqing, they saw that the city gate was closed, and the prefect of Liaocheng, who had surrendered before, rebelled again and did not let everyone enter the city.

Zhao Quanzhong had no choice but to go south to Yanggu County again to gain a firm foothold.

Counting the results of this fiasco, only less than 5,000 of the 10,000 Xuanjia Iron Cavalry who attacked were left, with as much as 5,000 losses and 8,000 war horses, which was the biggest defeat since the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry formed the army.

Zhao Quanzhong saw the results of the count, was crying, and ordered the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to rest in Yanggu County, and then go to the order to attack Guantao County, and the two iron cavalry of Gaotang Prefecture immediately returned to Yanggu County and could not fight again. He could only wait for the Chinese army of Chigutai and Su Hongyu to come, and then ask the two of them for their guilt!