"Command the flag, turn into a hundred bird formation!"

The battle and retreated reluctantly opened a distance from the Wu army, and the brigade behind had just left the effective range of the Wu army's muskets, Shi Dakai immediately shouted and ordered to change the formation, and the elite of the well-trained Anhui Taiping Army saw the flag and moved, and immediately acted separately in two Sima units, running quickly to open a certain distance between each other, like stars scattering wild, which greatly reduced the possibility of being hit by Wu army's guns, and sharply accelerated the speed of retreat.

If it is to change such a formation on a narrow terrain, then the Taiping army is purely looking for their own death, and the pursuing Wu army behind it may break the Taiping army as long as a cluster charge, but the terrain in this area of Wuwei is too open, after the Taiping army tries to open up the space as much as possible in a group of twenty-five people, although the Wu army pursuing in a cluster can ensure that it has the advantage of fighting more and less, it can easily kill any Taiping army of twenty-five people who can catch up, but it can no longer completely defeat the Taiping army, Slaughtering like a flock of sheep can only be a strenuous pursuit, spending time to eliminate the enemy squad that has finally caught up, giving more enemies a chance to escape for their lives, and gaining the upper hand in the air, but it is difficult to expand the results of the battle, and it is impossible to seize the opportunity to eliminate more elites of the Taiping army in the field.

The pursuit efficiency of the Wu army has further declined, and Shi Dakai, who has been holding his heart to his throat, quietly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that even if today's battle has been lost, the loss will definitely not be too great, and most of the elite soldiers can be kept to continue to compete with the Wu army. Therefore, in addition to being greatly relieved, Shi Dakai also began to consider whether he could take advantage of the favorable terrain in this area to launch a counterattack appropriately, further delay the pursuit speed of the Wu army, and cover more elite soldiers of the Taiping army from the battlefield.

The method of counterattack was quickly thought of, and the Wuwei Taiping Army led by Fan Yunde could undertake this task, even if it was completely defeated by the Wu army, it could directly flee into Wuwei City, which was not far away, and the loss would not be too great. However, just as Shi Dakai was quickly conveying the order to his own soldiers, a fast horse suddenly rushed to the official road in the north, and came straight to Shi Dakai's Winged King banner with a small red flag representing 100,000 urgency.

"Winged King eight thousand years old, no! The demon soldiers of Wuhu suddenly crossed the river and landed in Yongjia Town, and they may attack our Yuncao camp! ”

Sure enough, the herald who hurried from the Yuncao camp really brought the bad news that made Shi Dakai's face turn blue, and in shock, Shi Dakai didn't even notice that the horsewhip in his hand fell to the ground, and he just yelled and asked, "Are you sure?" Did the Wuhu demon soldiers cross the river to attack our Yuncao camp? ”

"Not confirmed yet." The herald replied: "However, the Wuhu demon soldiers are the main force to cross the river, and the first to land are all demon soldiers equipped with fast-firing foreign guns, and the banner of the demon general Cao Yanzhong also appeared on the demon soldier fleet, Ya Tianyi (Huang Yukun) suspects that the demon soldiers are coming for our Yuncao camp, please go back to the division immediately to rescue the Cao camp!" ”

"Go back immediately and tell Ya Tianyi, tell him to defend with all his might, and I'll go back immediately!" Shi Dakai's eyes were red in a hurry, first he ordered the herald to go back to convey the password, and then urged his own soldiers to contact Fan Yunde, telling Fan Yunde to launch a counterattack with all his strength to help his main force get rid of the pursuit of the Wu army as soon as possible.

After receiving Shi Dakai's verbal order, Fan Yunde, who was loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, did not consider his personal gains and losses, and led the army to launch a counterattack without hesitation, and successfully forced the Wu army to stop and face the battle, but it is a pity that the counterattack of the Taiping army was defeated by the Wu army in less than ten minutes.

The battlefield marathon of more than 10,000 people began, and in the sound of shouting and gunfire, the Taiping army who were in a hurry to go back to save food, grass and ammunition were all working hard, everyone was vying for the lead, and the rolling yellow sand behind the buttocks was just running wildly in the direction of Yuncao Town, and the formation was gradually chaotic between the full run, and it was no longer possible to maintain the previous strict order. And the Wu army is the same, in order to catch up with the Taiping army, everyone also keeps walking, and would rather be in a chaotic formation than bite the tail of the Taiping army, and both sides of the chase and escape have gradually become a chaotic formation, but no one has stopped to reorganize the team, but you chase me and run all the way.

After keenly discovering this, Shi Dakai immediately understood that the Wu Army and Feng Sanbao Department behind him must have known the emergency situation in his rear, and also knew that the Wu Army would definitely resolutely pursue to the end in this pursuit battle, and he suddenly complained in his heart, knowing that the situation was likely to be mismatched by Chen Yucheng, and if he didn't do well today, he would have to be forced to fight a strategic decisive battle with Cao Yanzhong and Feng Sanbao's two Wu armies, or a field decisive battle in which the army was not psychologically prepared from top to bottom!

In a hurry, Shi Dakai couldn't think of any good way to avoid this situation, so he could only run wildly with his army, trying to escape back to the camp before Yuncao was broken by Cao Yanzhong, and use the relatively strong camp fortifications to resist the attack of the Wu army. At the same time, under the worry of his heart, Shi Dakai, who had never really believed in worshipping God, prayed to the Heavenly Father for the first time, praying for the blessing of the Heavenly Father, so that Wu Jun Cao Yanzhong did not destroy the pontoon bridge on the Xinyu River in advance, and gave the self-army the opportunity to directly rush across the Xinyu River to return to the aid of the Cao camp.

Usually do not burn incense, temporarily cling to the Buddha's feet, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's revered Heavenly Father will certainly not reach out to the pseudo-believer Shi Dakai at this critical moment, more than three hours later, when Shi Dakai's department panted and ran to the vicinity of the Yuncao camp, the first thing I heard was the dense gunfire like a burst of beans and the continuous explosion of artillery fire, the first thing I saw was also the self-army camp that was already blazing everywhere and the smoke of gunpowder was rushing to the sky, as well as the Wudao pontoon bridge that was about to be burned to ashes.

Shi Dakai still had a chance, and just when his face turned pale, the fleet of the Taiping Army's sailors Hong and Yuanbu, who had been hiding in the upper reaches of the Yuncao River, suddenly appeared, hurriedly descended to the side of the Yuncao camp, and hurriedly erected a temporary pontoon bridge with the boats of the Wu army under the fire of the Wu army. Shi Dakai was overjoyed, first praised Hong Heyuan's quick decision, and then immediately rushed to the direction where the naval division of the army was located.

When the dawn of the Taiping Army reappeared, something unbelievable happened, in the sound of the whistle boiler, a small iron-hulled steamship of the Wu Army suddenly rushed from the lower reaches of the Xinyu River under the protection of dozens of military sampans, and rushed directly to the new pontoon bridge position of the Taiping Navy Division at the risk of being captured and burned by the Taiping Army on the narrow waterway, and fired from a distance, bombarding the new pontoon bridge that the Taiping Army was still erecting! The Taiping Army's naval division, which was rushing to build the pontoon bridge, was in a big mess, and had to hurriedly divide its forces to engage the Wu army's naval division.

"Demon soldiers, you are ruthless!" After roaring angrily, Shi Dakai had no choice but to command the army to form a blocking position on the spot, turn around to meet the pursuing Wu army Feng Sanbao, first try to protect himself, and wait for the sailor to rush to cross the river with a pontoon bridge.

Things have come to this point, Chen Yucheng's previous worst fear of the situation has finally become a reality, on the north bank of the Xinyu River in the east-west direction, the main force of the elite and powerful Wu Army Cao Yanzhong's corps stormed the Taiping Army's Yuncao camp, and the second-line Taiping Army who stayed in the camp was unable to fight back, so they could only rely on the camp fortifications to die and delay the time of destruction. But no matter how desperate the struggle can not change the huge gap between combat effectiveness and weapons and equipment, several battalion positions of the Taiping army have been broken through by the Wu army, and many Wu soldiers wearing white tasseled hats have already entered the Taiping army camp and directly started street battles in the camp with the Taiping army.

The situation of the Taiping army on the water was slightly better, because the water surface was narrow, the Wu army sailors did not dare to put in large warships, but only risked a small ironclad steamship into the Xinyu River to cooperate with the sampan fleet to fight, so the Taiping army was still able to support it, and there were constantly small boats close to the steam ships of the Wu army to seize the side and set fire, and the Wu army fought a big close battle. But correspondingly, it was not useless for the Wu army's sailors to venture into the narrow waterway to drive the steamboat, at least the large-caliber bow guns kept roaring, constantly bombarding the flowering bombs on the temporary pontoon bridge head that the Taiping army was erecting, and several times broke the fleets that the Taiping army had just connected together, and never gave Shi Da a chance to cross the river to return to the camp.

The battlefield on the south bank was once in a stalemate, and the Wu army, which was chasing all the way, could only exchange fire with Shi Da Kaijun with a rifle because of the lack of heavy firepower cover, and there were not many ways to take Shi Da to open the army for a considerable period of time, but when the brigade of the Feng Sanbao Department of the Wu Army gradually chased after and more and more grenadiers were put into the battle, Shi Da Kaijun, who had no fortifications to cover, gradually began to be unable to parry, and the casualties rose sharply under the continuous bombardment of the Wu army's grenadiers, and gradually the formation was in chaos.

The first decisive progress was made on the north bank battlefield, as the Wu army continued to attack the enemy camp from the gap in the Taiping army's position, the Wu army's advance to the Taiping army's central army position was getting faster and faster, and when enough offensive forces were gathered on the periphery of the Taiping army's Chinese army camp, relying on the continuous bombardment cover of grenadiers and grenades to open the way, the Wu army commando team only used a charge to kill the Taiping army's Chinese army camp, and the rear army swarmed in, followed the commando team to the Taiping army's Chinese army tent, and the Taiping army camp was completely chaotic, Soldiers continued to escape from the camp and leave the battlefield, the Wu army was like a rainbow, quickly rushed to the Taiping Army's Chinese army tent nearby, several grenade bombs smashed in front of the big tent, and Shi Dakai's father-in-law Huang Yukun, who was still dying, had to honestly accept his fate, allowing his own soldiers to set up and flee in the opposite direction, Wu Jun rushed into the tent, easily cut down the Taiping army's handsome flag, and completely paralyzed the command system of the Taiping army on the north bank.

The general trend of the battlefield on the north bank has gone, and the battlefield on the south bank is destined to die in vain if it persists, Shi Dakai, who has long been accustomed to suffering defeat in front of the Wu army, is unwilling, and can only order a retreat with tears in his eyes, and flee to the upper reaches of the Xinyu River with the remnants of soldiers and horses. At the same time, the sailors of the Taiping army also lost their courage, and honestly turned the bow of the boat, and fled to the upper reaches of the Xinyu River in a hurry.

Although it was not early, but finally caught such an opportunity to beat the water dogs, the Wu army soldiers on the north and south banks and the Wu army sailors on the water surface of the Xinyu River of course did not hesitate to pursue with all their might, the three armies were chasing and fighting, desperately cutting the enemy and killing the enemy, but the Taiping army was without the fighting spirit, will have no fighting spirit, abandon all the baggage and hold the head of the rat, the willpower is not strong enough The second-line army soldiers surrendered and scattered countless times, and trampled on each other in the gradually coming night, countless dead, and countless scattered fugitives, Including many Taiping veterans of Liangguang Army, they were scattered in the chaos and lost contact with the main force, and the corpses of Taiping soldiers were floating on the Xinyu River, and the Yuncao Taiping Army, which once had a strength of more than 40,000 people, was completely defeated in less than a day and never existed.

In the end, in the second half of the night, Shi Dakai, who fled all the way west, did not hear the shouts and guns of the Wu army anymore, and was able to stop to breathe and rest, but at this moment, there were less than 300 remaining soldiers around Shi Dakai, and most of them were wounded, and the ammunition was almost exhausted. So after the shock calmed down for a while, Shi Dakai not only did not congratulate himself on his escape from death again, but on the contrary, he cried loudly, crying bitterly for the thousands of Taiping soldiers who died in this battle, and also hated his own decision-making confusion and did not listen to Chen Yucheng's contrary advice, which led to the complete annihilation of the Anhui Taiping Army with the power of a war in one day, and countless loyal new and old brothers were innocently buried on the battlefield.

All the generals, including Chen Yucheng, have been separated from Shi Dakai in the chaos, and only the captain of the pro-soldier Wei Pucheng is left next to him, seeing Shi Dakai crying sadly, Wei Pucheng has no shirk responsibility, so he can only pick up the burden of comforting Shi Dakai, and persuade: "The Wing King is eight thousand years old, victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, although we lost this battle miserably, but Chaoxian, Luzhou and Shucheng are still in our hands, as long as the Wing King returns there, it will not be long before you can pull up an army again, and then it is not too late to come to the demon soldiers for revenge." ”

Shi Dakai shook his head painfully, and said with tears in his eyes: "The heavenly army in Luzhou Mansion has been hollowed out by me and defeated, and then go back to regroup, not to mention that there is no place to raise weapons and ammunition, and surpassing the little demon will definitely not give me a chance to make a comeback, returning to Luzhou is just a lingering breath, and sooner or later I will have to surpass the little demon again." ”

"But King Yi, if we don't go back to Luzhou, where can we go?" Wei Pucheng asked.

Shi Dakai hesitated for a moment, and then said slowly: "I can only go directly to Tianjing, the king of heaven doesn't understand military affairs, and he can't stop the demon soldiers from attacking the city, I have to help him, buy time for Li Xiucheng to return to Tianjing, and also give us the last chance to fight for the kingdom of heaven." ”

He was loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Shi Dakai, Wei Pucheng of course did not oppose Shi Dakai's decision, after a short rest, Shi Dakai also crossed the Xinyu River north when it was dark, and collected the remnants of the defeated soldiers all the way to the north in the direction of Hezhou, and at the same time sent his own soldiers to continue to search for the lost soldiers and horses on both sides of the Xinyu River, so that the Taiping soldiers who were still alive went to Hezhou to meet him. But what Shi Dakai didn't expect was that although the personal soldiers he sent out were lucky enough to find Zhang Suimou, Zeng Jinqian, Cao Wohu and other powerful strategists, several strategists were shocked when they learned that he had decided to go to Nanjing......

"Wing King Eight Thousand Years Old, are you confused or stupid? How dare you go back to Tianjing City? Long live the King of Heaven, how can he tolerate you? How could he forget the previous incident when you and the East King joined forces? He didn't dare to settle accounts with you before, because you were strong and strong, but now that it has reached this point, what scruples does he have?! ”