When the city reported the situation to Liu Zhaoji, he knew that Haoge had escaped from Guide City with his people.

Although Hauge was really determined to live and die with the city of Guide, no one really wanted to die, not to mention that the Wehrmacht was not surrounded by Guide on all sides, and the road out of the city was smooth.

After a while, Wang Zecheng sent someone over, and it was at this time that Liu Zhaoji learned about the not too fierce battle that took place outside the city today.

Just when the artillery of the First Army began to shell the city of Guide, the cavalry of the Qing army stationed in Shuangba and Zhouji had already received an order from Haoge, and the cavalry commanders Nikan and Luo Luohun received an order to desperately attack the Wehrmacht in order to relieve the siege of Guide.

There were more than 40,000 Qing cavalry in two directions, of which more than 3,000 were Manchu cavalry, the Mongolian cavalry was the most, with more than 20,000 people, and the rest were Han cavalry.

Tens of thousands of cavalry dispatched with great momentum is extraordinary, and tens of thousands of war horses are stepping on the land that has just thawed, making people feel that the earth is trembling.

Wang Zecheng, commander of the cavalry brigade of the First Army defending the north, received a report from the scouts early and knew that the cavalry of the Qing army had already been dispatched, Wang Zecheng was a little nervous and a little excited. The reason for the nervousness was that there were too many Qing soldiers, and the excitement was that if these cavalry of the Qing army could be kept here, the first army would be much more free to move in Henan in the future.

However, Wang Zecheng knew that this was just his wishful thinking, and if he wanted to completely annihilate these highly mobile cavalry, unless they didn't want to live anymore and hit the muzzle directly, he had to keep them all. That's basically impossible.

Wang Zecheng smiled self-deprecatingly. Let go of the mind of annihilating the cavalry of the Qing army. Hurry up and set it up.

The cavalry brigade has been divided into two, and several battalions have been sent to the south, and the cavalry brigade is accompanied by the 4th Regiment of the Zhuang Division and the 4th Regiment of the Lou Division, and the two infantry regiments are also evenly distributed, which is to arrange the firepower evenly.

There were only three or four thousand cavalry in both directions, and in the face of more than 20,000 cavalry, it was obviously impossible for them to fight against the Qing cavalry, but fortunately, there were cavalry rifles. There was no problem with dismounting the cavalry to participate in the defense.

The Qing cavalry was discovered as soon as they were dispatched, which gave Wang Zecheng time to carefully inspect the fortifications that had been repaired yesterday. The fortifications are temporary earthen walls, and in front of the one-meter-high earthen wall is a trench, which is the only way to attack an army from the north, although it can also be bypassed from other roads, but it will take nearly two hours to run, and Wang Zecheng estimates that the Qing soldiers will not go so far.

According to yesterday's deployment, the more than 3,000 cavalry of the cavalry brigade began to bypass from the north from the beginning of the Qing cavalry's dispatch, hoping to go around the Qing army and leave them behind as much as possible.

The arrangement of the south side is basically the same as that of the north side, except that the terrain on the south side is relatively flat. The troops of the first army had to lay out the front of the defense very widely, so that the defensive force appeared to be somewhat insufficient. The cavalry brigade could only give up the plan to encircle the Qing cavalry, and all dismounted and entered the fortifications.

Although Hauge gave Nikan and Luo Luohun an order to charge to the death, Nikan and Luo Luohun were obviously not prepared to do so, holding binoculars behind the defensive earthen wall and looking at the Qing cavalry that was trotting over quickly, Wang Zecheng found that the Qing cavalry was less than 2,000 people, and the brigade was about two or three miles away from this group of cavalry.

The cavalry, which numbered less than 2,000 men, came to a halt a mile from the earthen wall, and a few horsemen pointed to the earthen wall and did not know what they were saying, and soon a large group of horsemen and horses ran behind, as if to tell them that the Wehrmacht had built fortifications here.

Wang Zecheng clearly saw from the telescope that the team of less than 2,000 people was basically cavalry of the Han army, and it was obvious that Nikan asked them to test the water first, and if they hit the wall, it was estimated that the team would soon retreat.

Wang Zecheng was a little depressed, it seems that the Qing soldiers have begun to have a deep fear of the firearms of the Wehrmacht, and the cavalry team of such a scale is so cautious and cautious, it seems that the attempt to kill and injure these cavalry in large numbers will fail today.

In fact, although the team of less than 2,000 men charged Wang Zecheng's defensive line, it was a one-touch move, and before the firepower on the defensive position could be fully utilized, these cavalrymen went in a circle and ran away.

On the southern defense line, Luo Luohun ordered the cavalry to charge the defense line several times, and after being defeated by the defenders with more than 200 cavalry, Luo Luohun gave up the attack and began to command the troops to retreat.

Not long after the retreat, Nikan and Luo Luohun both heard the news that the Wehrmacht had entered Guide City, which made both of them dare not return to their original station, and led the team to retreat in the direction of Sui County.

Nikan and Luo Luohun both saw the extremely embarrassed Haoge, there were only more than 200 personal soldiers left around Haoge, it seemed that the Qing army in the city had been wiped out, neither of them dared to ask, but silently led the team to retreat to Sui County with Haoge.

Despite the capture of Guide City, Liu Zhaoji was not in a bad mood at all.

The Qing soldiers in the city were all wiped out, and 30,000 or 40,000 prisoners were captured, and Liu Jinzhong and Huang Ying were both killed in the resistance.

Liu Zhaoji has been sitting on the tower of the East Gate since he entered the city, watching the battle in the city until the battle is over, at first a group of Han prisoners were taken out of the city, and then the corpses of Qing soldiers were brought out, and finally the remains of the soldiers who died in the Wehrmacht themselves were brought out.

Chief of Staff He Ying held a small notebook in his hand, standing at the gate of the city and constantly registering various numbers, Liu Zhaoji was sitting not far away, He Ying looked up and wanted to say a few words to Liu Zhaoji, but seeing Liu Zhaoji's gloomy face, he had to shut up again.

When the bodies of the Wehrmacht soldiers in green clothes were all carried out of the city, He Ying got a specific number of casualties of the First Army, and more than 600 soldiers died in this battle, and more than 1,000 were injured, and most of the casualties were caused by the battle in the city of Guide.

He Ying didn't report to Liu Zhaoji, and he didn't need to, Liu Zhaoji saw the whole process, and He Ying saw an extremely painful and self-reproachful look in Liu Zhaoji's eyes.

From the point of view of a lower-ranking officer or soldier, there is no doubt that the Battle of Guide was a complete victory, with less than 50,000 men in the first army. More than 60,000 prisoners were taken in the Battle of Guide. Already more than the number of an army. What's more, he defeated the heavily guarded city of Guide by the Qing army and drove Haoge away.

But He Ying and the officers above the regiment level would not think so, everyone knows that after a battle, the most important thing is to see whether the purpose of the battle is achieved, rather than the number of casualties and prisoners on both sides.

The purpose of the First Army's march into Henan was to cut off the connection between the north and the south of the Manchu court, and if this was the purpose of the campaign, the First Army did not achieve it. Guide City is the gateway to Henan. But the gateway is only a gateway after all, not equal to the entire territory of Henan, and most of Henan is still in the hands of the Qing soldiers.

The most important thing is that the more than 40,000 cavalry of the Qing army have all run away, these cavalry are all battle-hardened, have rich battlefield experience, not to mention that most of these cavalry are Manchus and Mongols, these people essentially have the potential to fight guerrilla warfare, and the current equipment of the first army determines the full dependence on the logistics supply line, if the Qing army these cavalry as in the past to deal with the Ming Dynasty to take the harassment war, the whole territory of Henan in a short period of time will not be peaceful. The First Army also had to allocate considerable forces to protect its own logistical supply lines.

In these senses, the First Army did not achieve its purpose in this battle. This is the most fundamental reason for Liu Zhaoji's low mood. If the Haoge group is completely annihilated in this battle, even if the casualties of the first army are larger, I am afraid that Liu Zhaoji will be able to accept it.

It was completely dark, Liu Zhaoji silently returned to the command tent outside the city, did not eat dinner, spread out the pen and paper, Liu Zhaoji wrote a letter to Luo Jian and Shi Kefa respectively, reported the details of the Battle of Guide, and made a profound review of the failure of the battle to achieve the purpose of the campaign, and Liu Zhaoji, who was extremely depressed, even proposed to Luo Jian and Shi Kefa to resign from the post of commander of the First Army.

Liu Zhaoji also made suggestions in the letter, asking the headquarters to agree to the First Army's training in Guide and asking Luo Jian to send someone to guide him.

Before dawn, the two letters were sent out by the fast horse. Before receiving updated instructions, the First Army stopped at Guide, and the troops began training from top to bottom.

At the all-army military meeting at and above the regimental level, Liu Zhaoji made an in-depth review. In the past few days, Liu Zhaoji has also been analyzing the entire Guide campaign, and he believes that the most fundamental reason for failing to achieve the goal of the campaign lies in himself.

First of all, after capturing Yucheng, he did not take advantage of the victory to march to Guide, which gave Haoge time to readjust his deployment, especially after obtaining the information that Haoge was preparing to fight desperately, because he was worried that the casualties of the troops would be too large, and he adopted a cautious strategy, and it was precisely because he was too cautious that he caused the later results.

The second is that they do not have a good understanding of the tenacity of the Han army to which Haoge belongs, thinking that these Han troops are no different from the previous Han army, and as soon as the guns rang out, they knelt down and surrendered. However, the Han army to which Hauge belonged had not fought against the Wehrmacht before, and they had killed extremely heavily in the process of moving south, and they were afraid that the Wehrmacht would not let them go, so they resisted desperately. It was these Han troops who dragged an army in the city, which allowed Hauge to escape calmly.

The third point Liu Zhaoji particularly blames himself, that is, he does not have a good understanding of the new equipment, the 8,000 people of the cavalry brigade have all been redressed, and although the training time of the cavalry brigade after the refitting is short, its combat effectiveness has far exceeded that of the Qing cavalry, and in the use of cavalry, Liu Zhaoji thinks that he is too cautious and does not dare to let go of the cavalry brigade and the Qing cavalry, which leads to the Qing cavalry can escape calmly.

Just ten days after the First Army trained in Guide for ten days, Liu Zhaoji received replies from Shi Kefa and Luo Jian respectively.

Shi Kefa was very satisfied that the Qing army could be wiped out of 100,000 Qing troops in the Guide Campaign, and he always believed that it would not be an overnight achievement to drive the Qing troops out of China, and he was very happy to see that a large number of Qing troops could be annihilated in such a way as the Guide Campaign.

Shi Kefa asked Liu Zhaoji to continue to work steadily and steadily and gradually advance to Henan. As for Liu Zhaoji's resignation, Shi Kefa didn't take it seriously at all. As a veteran of the National Defense Forces, no one can replace Liu Zhaoji at present, and from the understanding of the Guide Campaign, Shi Kefa believes that since Liu Zhaoji has realized this, this is enough.

Shi Kefa also brought good news to Liu Zhaoji, that is, the equipment of the First Army's Lou Tingshi was about to be shipped, so that the entire army of the First Army could replace the Yangzhou Type II rifle. Shi Kefa asked the First Army to continue its training in Guide and wait for all the Lou Ting's divisions to change their equipment before advancing to Henan.

Liu Zhaoji received Luo Jian's reply two days later, Luo Jian's understanding is quite different from Shi Kefa's, he very much agrees with Liu Zhaoji's understanding that this battle did not achieve the purpose of the campaign, but he did not blame Liu Zhaoji, only said one sentence, "Learn war in war."

Luo Jian gave the First Army a month of training time, and the entire territory of Henan temporarily calmed down as the First Army stopped its offensive and began to conduct training. (To be continued.) )