Wu Guogui did not chase after the Mongol soldiers who fled separately, after all, this is still the enemy's control area, he can't stay here for too long, and he can't just scatter the power in his hands. So when the Mongols fled separately, he immediately gathered his army, turned back, took with him the common people, and the horses that the Mongols had left behind, and the heads of the dead Mongols, and withdrew back the way they came.

In Huguang in the south, like Wu Guogui, the battalion commander Zhang Ying also led light cavalry to chase the fleeing Shun army. Although Li Zicheng has not been operating in Xiangyang for a long time, strategically, Dashun has regarded Xiangyang as his foundation, and if Xiangyang is lost, the Shun army will lose its most important base and will become a rogue again.

Li Zicheng knew that it would be difficult for his army to fight against the newly emerged Zheng Jiajun in a field battle, but he believed that relying on the city, he should be able to form a standout with the model army. First of all, after more than a year of operation, Xiangyang City already has enough food to support tens of thousands of troops to hold on for more than half a year. On the other hand, in order to repel the Zheng army's army in the battle to defend the city, Li Zicheng carried out a fortified wall clearing near Xiangyang. , and Hui Shiyang and Niu Jinxing suggested that he forcibly relocate the residents near Xiangyang and send them to the direction of Nanyang and Shangluo, so that it would be impossible for Zheng's army to be supplied on the spot near Xiangyang. They had to rely on the water transportation of the river, and in addition, Hui Shiyang and Niu Jinxing also offered Li Zicheng a plan to attack Hankou Hanyang and take the opportunity to use artificial reefs to sabotage the water transportation of the Han River. The volume of the Han River is not small, and such a practice may not completely block the Han River, but it will certainly greatly reduce the efficiency of water transportation on the Han River. As a result, Zheng's army had to transport a large part of its supplies by land. Niu Jinxing offered a strategy of arranging cavalry and harassing along the way. Li Zicheng felt that according to such a plan, he should be able to hold out until the Ming army retreated due to logistical pressure.

This plan went quite smoothly until the Zheng army arrived at the city of Xiangyang. Zheng Jiajun set up a camp under Xiangyang City, and then launched several tentative attacks, but all of them were in vain. This made Li Zicheng more confident in holding Xiangyang. However, one night half a month later, there was a sudden rebellion in the city, and the city gate was opened, and the Zheng family army took advantage of the situation to enter the city.

Xiangyang's defense collapsed in an instant, and Li Zicheng knew that he couldn't do anything, so he immediately asked people to contact important generals and prepare to break through. But at this time, there was chaos in the city, and many people couldn't be contacted, and Li Zicheng knew that he couldn't wait any longer, because he was definitely the most important target of the Ming army. So he took his guards with him and immediately broke through at night.

Although there are those damned traitors leading the way, and the progress of the model army is fast, Li Zicheng is very experienced in how to escape. He quickly changed into the clothes of an ordinary soldier and fled along the road with his guards towards the gates of several cities that had not yet been captured by the Ming army.

At the gate of the city, he met Liu Zongmin. Liu Zongmin was still wounded, obviously had just had a battle with the enemy, and as soon as he saw Li Zicheng, he shouted: "Your Majesty! Niu Jinxing and Hui Shiyang, the two bastards, sold us! They have surrendered to the false Ming, and the gates of the city are opened by them! ”

Li Zicheng immediately understood the thoughts of Niu Jinxing and Hui Shiyang, and they desperately encouraged themselves to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army in Xiangyang, in order to give the Ming army a chance to eliminate their main force at one time, or even kill themselves.

"These two traitors!" Li Zicheng said, "Lao Liu, now is not the time to talk about this, we have to break through immediately!" ”

Both of them are old in battle, and they both know that they no longer have any chance to gather their troops, because even if they can gather troops and lose the city defense, they are not Zheng Jiajun's opponents. If they continue to fight, when the day dawns, they can't run away if they want to.

The number of model troops is limited, and it is impossible to surround the city at all, and at this time, there are many troops entering the city to fight, and there are naturally fewer people outside the city, plus the cover of the night itself, the possibility of escaping at this time and being intercepted is naturally the smallest.

Liu Zongmin nodded, then took the cavalry around him, joined forces with Li Zicheng, and rushed out of the city gate.

"Your Majesty, where are we going?" Liu Zongmin rode a horse, ran to Li Zicheng's side and whispered.

"Go northwest and hide in the mountains." Lee became a self-enlightened man.

From Xiangyang to the northwest, there are continuous mountains, as long as he hides in this big mountain, even 100,000 Ming troops may not be able to find him. And as long as he escapes this wave, Li Zicheng feels that he may not have the possibility of making a comeback. Think about it, when he defeated Shangluoshan back then, why didn't he look at it and it was about to end?

After going out of the city and running for a while, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin asked the horse team that followed them to reduce their speed and finally stopped. Now that they have some distance from Xiangyang City, if they continue to run like this, the war horses will soon be unable to stand it. And in such a dark night, it is also easy to get lost and let the team run away.

The horse team stopped, and Li Zicheng asked everyone to eat some dry food to replenish their strength. Unlike Liu Zongmin, before he escaped with the horse team, he was somewhat prepared, such as his people brought some dry food. And Liu Zongmin's people retreated from the battlefield. Where is the time to prepare these?

Li Zicheng asked the soldiers to give up part of the dry food to Liu Zongmin's soldiers, and everyone finished the meal silently. At this time, the sky gradually brightened. Li Zicheng saw that the soldiers and war horses had rested, so he ordered to continue on the road.

The horse team walked for a while, and there was no pursuer, Li Zicheng thought, this is most likely because the Ming army is chasing in the wrong direction. But at this moment, someone exclaimed: "Enemy! ”

Li Zicheng looked to the left, and saw a group of cavalry coming towards him from a distance.

Obviously, here, apart from the cavalry of the Zheng family's army, there can be no other cavalry!

Li Zicheng immediately turned in with the horse team, and the cavalry of the Zheng family chased after them, and their horses were better, and it didn't take long for the distance between the two sides to be quite close.

Liu Zongmin drove the horse, chased after Li Zicheng and said, "Your Majesty, their horses are fast, we can't get rid of them." Your Majesty, you take people to go first, Weichen will lead people to fight with them first, stop them, Your Majesty, you go first! ”

Li Zicheng looked back at the approaching enemy army, and knew that what Liu Zongmin said was right, so he nodded and said, "Old Liu, you have to be careful yourself!" ”