On May 29, early in the morning, the sky was just dawning, the main force of the Fat Army began a comprehensive pursuit of the main force of the Qing army retreating north, the general Han Daren served as the vanguard, Lu Fatzi sat in the middle of the army, Li Guodong commanded the rear army, escorted grain and grass and military supplies, nearly 100,000 troops were mighty, along the canal and land and water and north, all the way to the main force of the Qing army that withdrew to the north at noon on the previous day. At the same time, Gao Dejie, the general of the Fat Army, was left in Yangzhou City by Lu Fatzi to rest because the army was too tired and suffered too many casualties, and he was ready to pursue it after two days.

At the same time, the main force of the Qing army led by Yue Le had fled to the small town of Cheluo in the south of Gaoyou City on the first night, and some Qing generals thought that Cheluo Town was too close to Yangzhou, and suggested to Yue Le that the main force of the Qing army had better withdraw through the Xinghua Canal first, and then rest at ease. And Yue Le considered that the Qing army team attacked the city for two days and two nights in a row, and the top and bottom were very tired, and it was very dangerous to cross the river at night, in case it was raided by the chasing soldiers of the fat army when crossing the river, then the Qing army would inevitably suffer heavy casualties, so Yue Le finally rejected this suggestion, just let Dong Weiguo lead an army to escort the grain and grass to the north first, protect the precious grain and grass and withdraw first, and at the same time build more pontoon bridges on the Xinghua Canal, so as to facilitate the Qing army to quickly cross the river.

Fortunately, the pursuers of the Fat Army did not go north to Cheluo Town overnight, allowing the exhausted Qing army to gain a few hours of precious rest. But for Yue Le and other commanders of the Qing army, the luckier ones were still behind, scouting and reporting, Lu Fatzi really personally led the main force of the Fat Army to the north to chase after - obviously, Lu Fatzi did not have suspicions because of the presence of the Qing army, and completely believed that the Qing army retreated because of the heavy casualties under the city of Yangzhou, and had to retreat north.

Fortunately, Yue Le hurriedly arranged a retreat plan, and ordered the former army led by Dong Weiguo to retreat at full speed at night and make every effort to transport the precious grain and grass to the Xiba camp north of the Yellow River; The cavalry team was in the center, led by Yue Le himself, and the fake luan driver who escorted Kang Mazi then went north; As for the task of the queen of the palace, Yue Le handed over to Lu Fatzi's old friend Jieshu, and asked him to lead more than 10,000 people from the headquarters brought from Chuzhou, and retreat to lure the main force of the Fat Army to pursue with all their might - the more than 10,000 troops brought by Jie Shu from the Western Front are actually the most capable infantry team in the Mites Qing army, and only by letting them be the queen of the palace will not be defeated by the Fat Army in a battle.

In addition, Yue Le, who had no other way, naturally had to send a fast horse to go first, and sent an order to his deputy Tu Hai and his son Seleng to destroy it immediately after reading it - when the main force of the fat army crossed Baoying County and approached Huai'an City, he would start immediately!

Next, a spectacular pursuit and retreat battle began, from the sky bird down, Yangzhou to Huai'an official road, the Qing army of more than 60,000 troops divided into three teams, fast horses and strides to the north retreat, like a colorful flood flowing north. The Fat Army, with a strength of nearly 100,000, was also divided into three teams, and they also pursued northward with great speed and stride, like a pure white tide, rushing north quickly and firmly.

What makes Yue Le, Shang Shan, Jie Shu and others quite puzzled is that although the fat army is the elite this time, they are pursuing with all their might, but the speed of chasing and killing the Qing army is not fast, and it seems that they are still intentionally or unintentionally maintaining the same speed as the Qing army, the Qing army walks eighty miles a day, the fat army only chases eighty miles a day, the Qing army walks sixty miles a day, and the fat army only walks sixty miles, and always maintains the distance from the army behind the Qing army, biting the tail of the Qing army's rear team ten miles away. And it doesn't attack at night, doesn't raid, doesn't take the initiative to start a war, only when the rear team of the Qing army turns around and takes the initiative to meet the enemy, the fat army fights with the rear team of the Qing army, or the rear team of the Qing army runs away, and then continues to chase behind the Qing army unhurriedly.

This kind of pursuit method, especially the pursuit and killing, is more like sending the Qing army out of the country and driving the base area out of the country.

At the beginning, Yue Le, Shang Shan and others were still puzzled by Lu Fatzi's strange pursuit strategy, but when they accidentally saw the yellow dragon lying on the map of northern Jiangsu, Yue Le and Shang Shan and the others suddenly realized, and then scolded together, "The god-damn Lu Yifeng dog thief is really cunning and vicious, and he definitely intends to exert his strength again when our main force crosses the Yellow River!" Maybe after chasing into the territory of Huai'an Mansion, this dog thief will divide his troops to seize the Qinghe ferry, completely cut off our retreat, and catch us in the urn! ”

After scolding and scolding, Yue Le was inevitably secretly happy, and said secretly in his heart: "Since you Lu Yifeng dog thief plan to chase into the territory of Huai'an Mansion and exert his strength again, this king just can't ask for it, and when you get to the vicinity of Huai'an City, this king will fight to sacrifice his life for the country, and he will also fight for these tens of thousands of rabble, and he will also pull you and your main force to die together!" As long as the main force of your dog thief is destroyed, even if there are only 20,000 or 30,000 troops left in our Qing army, there is hope to regain the entire Jiangnan! ”

…………………… The orderly pursuit of the main force of the fat army is naturally extremely boring, so let's take a look at the situation of the Gaojiayan embankment that is regarded as the only hope by the Qing army generals, and by the way, I will introduce the history of this Gaojiayan on the east bank of Hongze Lake, according to legend, the history of Gaojiayan can be traced back to the Dayu era at the earliest, when Hongze Lake was far less big than now, and Gaojiayan at that time was also called reed dam; Later, in the early years of the Three Kingdoms, in order to develop the Huaihe River Basin, Chen Deng, the Taishou of Guangling County, led the people to build a 30-mile-long embankment from Wujiadun to Xishunhe Town, and named it Hanhuaiyan, which laid the foundation of the Gaojiayan embankment of Hongze Lake in one fell swoop. Then in the last years of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yi also sent the famous general Deng Ai to preside over the repair and reinforcement of the Gaojiayan embankment, and accumulated grain in the fields under Gaojiayan, hoarding grain and grass for the Jin State to destroy Wu.

Later, after a thousand years, the Southern Song Dynasty Emperor Song Lizong launched the Northern Expedition, in order to hinder the advance of the Song army, the Mongolian army dug the south bank of the Yellow River Cunjin embankment, artificially created the Yellow River diversion, the Yellow River water seized Surabaya into the Huai River, and seized the Huai River channel into the sea, a large amount of Yellow River water rushed into Hongze Lake, the water area of Hongze Lake was more than doubled, and at the same time, a large amount of Yellow River sediment rushed into Hongze Lake, raised the bottom of the lake, so that the lake water rose, the lake embankment was high, resulting in Hongze Lake finally formed a hanging lake.

Later, in the Ming Dynasty, Liu Bowen and Pan Jixun and other Ming ministers presided over the repair and reinforcement of Gaojiayan, and finally built an earth-stone embankment that was more than 60 miles long. But this has never been able to change the status quo of the hanging lake of Hongze Lake, the water surface of Hongze Lake is still more than three zhang above the horizon, always threatening the lives and property of the people of Huainan. And now, when the main force of the Fat Army and the main force of the Qing Army are about to start a life-and-death final battle on the land of Huainan, the Fat Army and the jackals, tigers and leopards in the ranks of the Qing Army who have lost their conscience naturally have the idea of this Gaojiayan.

After introducing the basic situation of Gaojiayan, back to business, the lunar calendar of 1675 did not have May 30 but there was a leap May, after two days of horsepower at all times and the night and hurry, on the afternoon of the second day of the fifth month of the leap month, Yue Le's secret envoy finally arrived at Gaojiayan on the east bank of Hongze Lake, and in the northeast of Gaojiayan near the Huai River on the stone foreman embankment, he saw Tuhai and Seleng and presented Yue Le's secret order.

In order to prevent the fat army from blowing up the embankment in advance, the 3,000 Qing soldiers brought by Tuhai and Seleng were three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, and guarded the most dangerous embankment at the northern end of Gaojiayan at night. Either they were swallowed up by the flood, or they were caught in the urn of the fat army.

After reading Yue Le's handwritten warrant that was specially marked to be destroyed after reading, Tu Hai first handed over Yue Le's handwritten warrant to Selen, and asked Yue Le's son to destroy it himself to avoid suspicion, and then said with a smile: "The master's fake Luan driver finally hooked the soul of Lu Yifeng's dog thief, and it is expected that the master will not dare to blow up the embankment but the Yellow River, so we will not die." ”

"Come on, the more the better." Seleng said with a cruel smile: "As long as Wu Gou's main force crosses the Jing River and Pingqiao Town, we can take the life of Wu Gou's main force at any time." ”

"General Selene, the next three or four days will be the most critical." Tu Hai reminded again: "If Wu Gou wants to blow up the embankment, he must blow up the embankment in advance in these three or four days, and use the flood to cut off the return of the main force of our army, so we can't be negligent in the past few days, and if we make a slight mistake, you and I dare not think about the consequences." ”

"Tuzhongtang rest assured, it is a matter of the last general Amma's surname, and the last general will not dare to slack off." Selen replied respectfully: "From now on, the last will inspect the embankment every other hour, and will never give Wu Gou the slightest opportunity. ”

"The night is the most dangerous, you should prepare enough torches and firewood, don't be stingy, as soon as it gets dark, immediately build a bonfire every ten steps." Tu Hai was not at ease with the advice, and after a little calculation, he called a personal soldier and ordered: "Take my name to Huai'an City, see Cai Shiying, the governor of Caoyun there, and ask him to send a thousand Cao soldiers to Gaojiayan to listen to it, and by the way, bring some small boats over to strengthen the inspection of Hongze Lake." ”

The soldiers of the Qing army stationed in Gaojiayan also strengthened their patrols of Gaojiayan, and all ordinary people who dared to approach Gaojiayan were immediately beheaded regardless of whom; At the same time, a large number of scout boats were dispatched to closely search the lake near Gaojiayan to prevent the soldiers of the Fat Army from touching Gaojiayan from the water; There is also a close inspection of every inch of land in the northern section of Gaojiayan to prevent the ruthless Lu Fatzi from touching Gaojiayan in advance to bury explosives; And at night, the guard of the Qing army is even tighter, a large pile of bonfires illuminate the Gaojiayan embankment, and the patrols of the brigade and squad are endless, not to mention the big living people of the fat army, even a fly, and they don't want to fly on the Gaojiayan embankment.

Tuhai's worries seemed to be wasted, and the time passed on the second night of the fifth month of the leap month, and there was still no abnormality in the area around Gaojiayan, not to mention the soldiers of the Fat Army, even ordinary people, who dared to approach within half a mile of Gaojiayan -- of course, this was also based on the fact that the Qing army had already killed hundreds of innocent people. And when the sky was just dawning, the father of the hardcore Han Jiancai Yurong, the governor of the Mites Qing Caoyun, and the hardcore old Han Jiancai Shiying, sent the fourth son Cai Yumao to lead a thousand Caoyun flood soldiers to Gaojiayan, and carried thirty small boats, which greatly strengthened the defense of Gaojiayan.

"Report!"

As soon as he closed his eyes, Tu Hai had just fallen asleep in the grass hut built on the embankment, and a herald rushed into the grass hut and said: "Lord Qiyutu, a group of people tried to get close to Gaojiayan, and our soldiers stepped forward to block the expulsion, but not only did they not leave, but they also asked you and General Seleng to meet them. ”

"Did you identify them?" Tuhai asked, yawning.

"Nope." The herald replied.

"None? Why? Thinking of Lu Fatzi's annihilation and viciousness, Tu Hai, who had already suffered enough losses, inevitably jumped in his heart, and blurted out: "Let Sol He take two hundred soldiers and take them all down, if you dare to resist, you will be killed!" ”

The herald took the order and left, but not long after, the herald stumbled into the grass hut again, and said: "Lord Qiyutu, Sol and the general were slapped by the group of people, and then Sol and the general knelt down for the group of people, let the minions come and ask Lord Tu and General Sai, let you go over immediately!" ”

"Who the hell is it?" Tu Hai was even more puzzled, and Tu Hai didn't dare to slack off at the moment, so he quickly limped to the plug forehead, rode the war horse again, and rushed all the way to the place of the incident half a mile away, but when he got to the place of the incident and took a closer look, Tu Hai almost fell off the war horse and broke another dog's leg - the group of people led by a person wearing a stone blue satin gold coat, wearing a black fox leg satin crown, a roe deer head rat eyes, crooked melons and cracked dates, yellow ears and yellow teeth, and a pitted and small pockmarked face.

"The slave Tuhai, the slave stuffed his forehead, and asked the master for peace." Tuhai and Seleng dismounted from the saddle with a rolling saddle, and kowtowed again and again to ask for sin, "The slave doesn't know that the master has arrived, and he has missed the distance, and the crime deserves death!" ”

"Get up, and he who does not know is not guilty." Kang Mazi snorted coldly: "Today's matter, dare to leak a word to the outside world, be careful of the heads of you dog minions!" ”

"Cover." Tu Hai kowtowed to Seleng together, knowing that Kang Mazi must be afraid that the old witch of Xiaozhuang would know that he had secretly crossed the Yellow River, so he wanted to keep it a secret.

"Lead me up to Gaojiayan." Kang Mazi snorted coldly again: "I want to see the situation in Gaojiayan for myself." ”

Tu Hai and Selen agreed, quickly got up and stepped forward to lead the way, leading Kang Mazi up to Gaojiayan to inspect, it was also at this time that Tu Hai found that his good friend Zhou Peigong was also in Kang Mazi's team, and the rest of the entourage were all Su Lun and Wolf Tan and other guards dressed up, among which there were some first-class experts who were good at fighting the camp, but these people all had grim faces, and Zhou Peigong also squeezed his eyebrows and made a look at Tu Hai, implying that Kang Mazi was in a very bad mood, and asked Tu Hai to answer carefully.

All the way to the Gaojiayan embankment that is nearly 20 zhang thick and more than 60 miles long, Kang Mazi walked along the embankment for about two or three miles under the gaze of everyone holding his breath, observing the situation of the embankment all the way, and finally stood down at the most important stone foreman embankment, and what attracted Kang Mazi's attention was a few large piles of newly dug up new soil and gravel, as well as a few large water tanks snatched from the people, as well as a bunch of bamboo that had opened up the bamboo joints, and several caves that were three or four zhang deep for half a person.

Knowing that Kang Mazi had found out that they were preparing to blow up the embankment, Tu Hai and Seleng were so frightened that they didn't even dare to breathe, and lowered their heads and prepared to wait for Kang Mazi's anger. But Kang Mazi didn't speak, and quickly turned his face again, strode to the edge of the inner side of the embankment, and stared at the surface of Hongze Lake in a daze. Kang Mazi's guards and Tu Hai and others all followed, and Tu Hai and Selen also took the initiative to kneel next to Kang Mazi, waiting for Kang Mazi's hadith.

After a long time, Kang Mazi finally spoke, continued to stare at the surface of Hongze Lake, and asked in a hoarse voice without looking back: "That, is the clever plan you are going to use to exterminate Lu Yifeng's dog thief?" ”

"Back to the master, the slave and Prince An think that if you want to exterminate Lu Yifeng's dog thief, this is the only plan." Tu Hai replied cautiously.

"On the battlefield, are you really helpless against Lu Yifeng's fallen talent?" Kang Mazi asked in a hoarse voice: "Except for this method of losing all conscience, there is no other way to exterminate Lu Yifeng's dog thief?" ”

"Slaves are incompetent, except for this method, the minions really have nothing to do." Tu Hai trembled and said: "Maybe the master already knows that Prince An shelled Yangzhou for half a month, and attacked Yangzhou for two days and two nights at any cost, but he never took Yangzhou City. And Lu Yifeng's dog thief only took one day to break through Fanchang, annihilated the 20,000 army of Shuncheng Baylor and our Anqing Navy Division of the Qing Dynasty, and only took one day to annihilate the 40,000 main force of Prince Zhang, and captured Prince Zhang. The disparity between strength and weakness is so great that the minions have no way to win in defeat except for this method. ”

"You still have the face to boast about Lu Yifeng's record as a dog thief!" Kang Mazi snorted coldly, "No matter how powerful Wu Gou's firearms are, the cavalry of our Qing army is still several times that of Wu Gou, and the archery is much stronger than Wu Gou, why did it fight like that?" In such a short period of time, Wu Gou annihilated so many elites of our Qing Dynasty?! ”

"Slaves are courageous, in fact, the Western Front should not be fought like that." Tu Hai said boldly: "If it weren't for Prince Zhang's command mistakes and tactical arrangements, our Western Front army of the Qing Dynasty would have held back the footsteps of Wu Gou's main force for a month or two ......." ”

Tu Hai couldn't go on when he said this, because Zhou Peicheng was looking at him and wiping his neck, and secretly pulled him on his back to put on his clothes and told him to shut up quickly. But it was too late, Kang Mazi really snorted coldly without looking back, "The key is the choice of the coach, the Western Front, and the Northern Front." ”

"Oops!" The sweat on Tu Hai's forehead seeped out at once.

"Zhangtai, you shit!" Kang Mazi really roared wildly at the surface of Hongze Lake and vented, "Yue Le, you are a bigger waste!" I have handed over so many elites to you, so many cavalry to you, and borrowed from the people to provide you with food, grass and military salaries, and you still fight like this! Two days! In two days, you were able to pay me almost 50,000 troops! You've disappointed me so much! What a disappointment for me! ”

Everyone present knelt down, and Yue Le's son Sileng simply pressed his forehead against the muddy embankment, trembling like a dead leaf in the autumn wind. Fortunately, Kang Mazi has no plans to let his son and Lao Tzu carry the account together for the time being, so he just snorted coldly and asked, "Have you investigated the situation of Lu Yifeng's dog thieves?" He has just returned from the Western Front, and the army should be tired, right? The casualties shouldn't be small, right? Ammunition should be almost depleted, right? ”

"Back to the master, the slave has already returned to Gaojiayan four days ago, and I don't know the specific situation of Wu Gou's chasing soldiers." Tu Haizhan replied tremblingly.

"Rubbish!" Kang Mazi finally vented, turned his head and kicked Tu Hai, and roared wildly with a blue face: "I asked you to lead the troops to quell the rebellion, you don't even know how many troops the thief army has and how much ammunition there is, no wonder you have lost battles and lost troops!" Rubbish! Idiot! Dog minion! ”

"Damn it!" Tu Hai had no choice but to kowtow and ask for guilt, and quickly kowtowed and said: "But the slave please rest assured, as long as Gaojiayan succeeds, no matter how many troops and ammunition there are on Wu Gou's side, it will be gone, and the master can also personally lead our Qing army to level the remnants of Wu Gou, and recover the money and grain in the south of the Yangtze River of the Qing Dynasty." ”

Tu Hai's words finally hit Kang Mazi's heart, Tie Qing stared at Tu Hai for a long time, and Kang Mazi finally asked in a hoarse voice: "After you succeed, how much will we have left in the Qing army?" ”

"It's ......." Tu Hai hesitated for a moment, and tried to brag as much as possible: "Back to the master, there should be more than half left, the army under the command of Prince An is mostly cavalry, the speed of travel is fast, and there is a strong city in Huai'an to rely on, and Prince An asked General Dong Weiguo to lead a team of elite soldiers to escort grain and grass first, at least at least the first Huai'an city to avoid water, and even cross the Yellow River first to return to the Xiba camp, so our Qing army should be able to save more than half." And Wu Gou's army is mostly infantry, and there is no city to avoid the water, at least it can drown him. ”

Kang Mazi stopped talking again, and after a long time, Kang Mazi walked past Tuhai, led Zhou Peigong and the guards to leave the Gaojiayan embankment, and threw down a sentence, "Remember, I have never been to the Gaojiayan embankment, leak a sentence to the outside world, and raise my head to apologize to me." ”

"Cover." Tu Hai kowtowed and agreed, and sent Kang Mazi to leave the Gaojiayan embankment and return to the Qinghe County ferry twenty miles away to cross the river.

In fact, Tuhai should be surprised that it is still behind, after going down to the Gaojiayan embankment, Kang Mazi beckoned Zhou Peigong to the front, and whispered in his ear: "In the imperial camp in Xiba, there are more than 1,000 tons of Sanhao explosives, some of which were captured on the battlefield, some were bought from General Wu Gou, and some were secretly paid tribute to me by Geng Jingzhong, so I immediately sent someone back and sent all those explosives to Tuhai." ”

"Cover." Zhou Peigong replied more respectfully, and couldn't help but smile secretly in his heart - master, sure enough, we are all the way.

"Gaojiayan, Hongze Lake, it's all up to you." Kang Mazi glanced back at the magnificent Gaojiayan embankment, and muttered in his heart: "Don't let me down, as long as you can drown the main force of Wu Dog and drown the dog thief of Lu Yifeng, even if you drown millions of barbarian people, I will also give you a title and a new name!" ”

(To be continued)