Because the army was a hundred miles from beginning to end, and Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin's standard battalion was in the middle and front of the brigade. By the time Ren Jizhong's defeated troops fled to the standard camp to report the attack to Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin, and when Liu Zongmin sent troops to the rescue, it was already a day or two later.

When Liu Zongmin arrived with the elite cavalry, the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry had already escorted these family members from the port in Jiangbei and returned safely across the river.

Liu Zongmin was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, but he had no choice but to destroy the port in Jiangbei and capture a county town and slaughter the city, which could be regarded as venting his anger.

The 50,000 or 60,000 family members seized by Fang Yuan were at least related to nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Chuang Army. When Zhao Quanzhong withdrew to Jiangnan, he had already released rumors among the families of the Chuang army. If the sergeants want to reunite with their families, they can cross the river and flee to Jiangnan, and the Xuanjia Army arranges for a special sailor to meet them at the riverside port.

Those who are willing to join the army shall be assigned corresponding posts according to the number of surrendered sergeants who have crossed the river. Those who are willing to engage in agriculture will be uniformly arranged by the Xuanjia Army for their livelihoods such as houses and cattle.

This news spread in the army, and the sergeants whose families were captured in Jiangnan were already panicked and had no intention of fighting, and the conditions offered by the Xuanjia army were very favorable, not only did they not pursue the charge of coercing the rebellion, but also arranged their livelihood in the future. As long as you cross the river, you can end the days of exile and travel, and live and work in peace and contentment with your family. Who would want to go on an adventure with the army to Nanzhili, where the future and risks are unknown?!

This temptation is not insignificant for low-level officers who break into the army, and ordinary soldiers who break into the army. In less than three days, at least 7,000 people secretly left the team and fled to Jiangnan on their own bamboo rafts. Some fled alone, and many more fled in groups. The highest rank in the fugitive army, there was also a Guoyi general Ma Chongxi, who also took advantage of the riot and led 5,000 people from his headquarters south to the port, preparing to surrender Fang Yuan.

In the port, in order to prevent the spies from infiltrating the invading army or causing riots, Shi Lang arranged for 100 troop transport ships to wait in the center of the river, and arranged for another 100 people to supervise the port. The sergeants who were willing to board the ship, threw down their weapons in the harbor, went naked, and were picked up by small boats to board the troop carriers.

Dozens of small boats kept coming and going to meet the defecting sergeants, and they were busy all day, transporting about 5,000 people across the river. Liu Zongmin led the elite cavalry of the invading army to kill, and brutally exterminated these defected sergeants who had not had time to get on the ship.

The entire port was slaughtered with blood and screams.

Shi Lang on the battleship was helpless when he saw it, he wanted to save but was unable to do it, so he could only watch the remaining 2,000 soldiers being slaughtered, and ordered all the small boats to withdraw to the south of the Yangtze River, and arranged for troop carriers to send the 5,000 people who crossed the river first to Wuchang Mansion to reunite with their families.

Zhao Quanzhong escorted 5,000 surrendered sergeants to Wuchang Mansion and handed them over to Fang Yuan for treatment. After a short rest in Wuchang Mansion, the 30,000 men set off again and continued to harass the eastbound intruders.

Fang Yuan placed the 5,000 troops who surrendered, together with the released family members, in the Wuchang Port of Wuchang Prefecture. The next day, I began to solicit my wishes in batches.

There were 2,000 people who were willing to join the army, and Zhang Ying was divided into a team of 500 people according to the order of drawing lots, and sent them to the three military camps in Hanyang, Hanchuan, and Suizhou to enlist in the army, and their families were uniformly placed in Wuchang Mansion, and then sent back to the Taihu military base in Nanzhili after the war.

There were 3,000 people who were willing to work in agriculture, and because Jiangbei was still a war zone, they were placed in Changsha, Changde and other prefectures in Huguang together with their families.

Although the 5,000 people who surrendered this time were not a large number, the impact on the invading army was huge. Before the two sides officially started the war, some sergeants defected, and there was no doubt that the blow to the morale of the army was undoubted. Moreover, with the beginning of 5,000 people, they were properly placed by the Xuanjia Army and lived a normal life, and the hearts of the people in the army were already floating.

In the next half a month, Zhao Quanzhong made two more sneak attacks according to the gourd painting, and the target of these two times was no longer the family members of the army, but Tian Jianxiu in the left camp and Liu Fangliang in the right camp.

These two battalions are not the main force of the standard battalion of the Chinese army, and their combat power is much worse than that of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry. As soon as they clashed, they were defeated and hurriedly moved in the direction of the standard camp of the Chinese army. People and horses trampled on each other, and countless deaths and injuries were innumerable.

Zhao Quanzhong took advantage of the chaos to take 50,000 family members of the army to cross the river and send them back to Jiangnan for resettlement. Within 10 days, another 6,000 family members were held hostage and the soldiers who crossed the river chose to cross the river and surrender. No matter how Liu Zongmin and Li Guo sniped, it was to no avail.

Li Zicheng and his entourage had not yet left the Huangzhou Mansion, and the rear camp, the left and right battalions, together with the 10,000 soldiers who had defected across the river, had already lost 40,000 soldiers and a population of 100,000.

The combat power of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry is by no means inferior to that of the Manchu Eight Banners, and the number is even more than 30,000, and it also picks the weakest link of the Liukou Brigade to attack, plus with the support of the sailors, it can land from any port along the river and launch an attack out of nowhere.

This is an unsolvable dead end for the Breaking Army, which is completely at a disadvantage of the Sailors.

Li Zicheng could only summon Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing and others to discuss countermeasures.

Li Zicheng first reported the results of these days, the Liukou army has been suffering heavy losses in less than a month, if it continues like this, it is estimated that when it reaches Nanzhili, all battalions except the standard battalion will be lost, and they will be a fart.

Liu Zongmin said, "King Chuang, Fang Yuan is a cunning coward, he specializes in hitting the weakness of our army during the march, and he can't prevent it, I suggest that most of them immediately stop marching to the south of Zhili, stand by in place, and put up a defensive formation to prevent the Xuanjia army from sneaking in again." I led 40,000 elite cavalry to Nanzhili to plunder. ”

The suggestion he put forward was to put forward the risk of resisting the high pressure of the Xuanjia Army, and all the risks would be borne by Li Zicheng and others who stayed behind. And the benefits of going to Nanzhili to loot were all taken up by Liu Zongmin alone. Whether it is Niu Jinxing, or Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Ren Jizhong, Tian Jianxiu and other generals, they are all full of unhappiness.

Li Zicheng was also unpleasant, "You were the one who said that you were going to fight the Liukou, and now you are the one who wants to stop the march." As soon as the elite cavalry left, the infantry of the standard battalion, as well as the sergeants of the other battalions, were not wiped out by the Xuanjia army in one fell swoop? Never! ”

Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Ren Jizhong, Tian Jianxiu and others all agreed, and their attitudes were surprisingly consistent, and Liu Zongmin was not allowed to go first with the elite cavalry. Either they marched to the south and Zhili together, or no one could go.

The crowd was angry, Liu Zongmin could only restrain himself a little, and smashed the saber to the ground, "Okay, good, okay, I'll stop, you say how to fight!" ”

Li Zicheng looked at Niu Jinxing, who had the only hope and had been silent, "Juming, now that the army is at a critical juncture of life and death, you are also proposing mobile combat, do you have a good way to solve the current crisis?" ”

Niu Jinxing twisted his beard and said, "King Chuang, Fang Yuan's treachery and shamelessness did not fight a decisive battle with our army, but used sleepy words to consume our army, and used the surrendered rogues to break the hearts of our army, which is indeed beyond my previous estimate." ”

His gaze surveyed the generals, and he smiled slightly, "However, Fang Yuan's method also has a fatal fate, that is, is the loyalty of those generals who are lured to surrender reliable?!" ”

Li Zicheng's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "Juming, come on!" ”

Niu Jinxing took out a secret letter from his arms and put it in front of Li Zicheng, "King Chuang, this is a secret letter sent by Gao Ze and Li Benshen." ”

Li Zicheng read the secret letter, and it turned out that Gao Ze and Li Benshen, the two thieves, were ambitious and wanted to rebel against Fang Yuan and divide Huguang. They not only exchanged letters with Li Zicheng, but also secretly colluded with the imperial court in Beijing. The three parties worked together, and the inside and outside should be combined to deal a fatal blow to Fang Yuan and the Xuanjia Army.

Li Zicheng's task was to hold back Fang Yuan's main force; The 30,000 soldiers of Gao Ze and Li Benshen attacked Wuchang Mansion and beheaded Fang Yuan who remained in Wuchang Mansion.

As soon as Fang Yuan died, the Xuanjia army was in turmoil, and the imperial court sent troops south to Shandong and South Zhili. At that time, the Xuanjia Army will inevitably return to Nanzhili, and Li Zicheng and Gao Jiajun will be able to carve up Henan, Huguang, and even go to Nanzhili to get a piece of the pie.