On the evening of November 9, about eight kilometers southeast of Taoyuan, a war horse from west to east carried a knight in a dark blue single-breasted military uniform galloping eastward!

In front of him was a slowly advancing army, including Royal Army soldiers in dark blue uniforms, and Allied Defense Force soldiers in the same style, but in gray.

The knight crossed the army, and then went straight ahead, and in a short time he stopped in front of a group of officers on horseback, and then took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to a captain opposite.

After the captain took the letter, he rode his horse backwards again, and walked two steps to Shen Chiyun!

"Commander, letter from the headquarters of the First Army!"

Shen Chiyun, who was riding on a horse, took the letter, tore it directly on the horseback and read it!

This military report was sent by the First Army Command to send a herald, but after Shen Chiyun read it carefully, his face changed greatly!

"This Li Hongzhang reacted quickly enough to abandon the city and flee in the early hours of this morning!" As he spoke, he handed the letter to Song Xiangtang, chief of staff of the Fifth Army beside him.

Song Xiangtang also frowned after seeing it: "I didn't expect it to be a day late, if we are given another day, we will be able to completely surround Li Hongzhang in Taoyuan City this evening!" ”

The military newspaper said that in the early hours of this morning, the First Army outside Taoyuan City found signs of retreat of the Qing army and launched an emergency attack at dawn.

But it is obvious that Li Hongzhang left the broken troops in Taoyuan County, and the broken troops left behind were obviously regarded as abandoned children, all green battalions and other old troops. Not a single new army was seen.

At seven o'clock this morning, Shi Qingxuan made a decision. In addition to leaving behind a Royal Army infantry regiment and some artillery, it will continue to attack Taoyuan County with two auxiliary defense divisions. Shi Qingxuan has personally led most of the main force to pursue north!

A military report from the First Army said that the Fifth Army was also requested to speed up its march north, and instead of going to Taoyuan, it would turn around to the Muyang area to pursue Zhang Guoliang, who had fled north, and at the same time cover the right flank of the First Army.

Faced with this situation, Shen Chiyun immediately ordered the main force of the Fifth Army to change direction, no longer going to Taoyuan County in the northwest, but to the north. At the same time, the 5th Infantry Division of the main force was ordered to go north first, except for the necessary ammunition, the rest of the baggage was left for the time being, and the 12th Auxiliary Defense Division and other troops were left behind!

At the same time, the Fifth Cavalry Regiment was dispatched as the vanguard to pursue northward!

If this Fifth Cavalry Regiment can catch up, it should be able to join up with the Second Cavalry Regiment, and finally join forces to pursue and entangle Li Hongzhang's troops who fled north.

The 10,000 people that Li Hongzhang took away were all the Jianghuai New Army and the newly incorporated Henan and Shanxi training armies, and their importance was far from being comparable to that of tens of thousands of Green Battalion Qing troops.

If he is allowed to flee north, then the follow-up Chinese army will encounter great resistance if it wants to go north to Shandong.

That's why Shi Qingxuan will urgently pursue. And Shen Chiyun will also make the decision to let the Fifth Infantry Division pursue lightly!

They want to catch up with Li Hongzhang, and they can't let Li Hongzhang escape back to Muyang with tens of thousands of new troops, let alone let them escape back to Yizhou!

And whether the lightly armed pursuit will be ambushed or something, will it be too far to break away from the rear baggage troops alone. These risks are present.

But we can't stop doing it just because there is a risk, the war cannot always be steadily advanced, and the necessary military adventures are also needed!

Not to mention. The Chinese army pursued northward and pursued by Qingzhuang, but Li Hongzhang, who fled, commanded a new army of 10,000 people. and the 5,000 backbone green battalion of Zhang Guoliang's department, which fled north from Huai'an, also fled lightly.

If they want to escape, they will definitely not be able to bring too much baggage, and it is estimated that even the military rations will only be carried for a few days. Otherwise, their march would be as slow as a turtle crawling, and they would have been able to escape.

Now that they are fleeing so fast, it can be judged that Zhang Guoliang and Li Hongzhang, who escaped, definitely did not carry too much baggage!

Shi Qingxuan and Shen Chiyun didn't know that when Li Hongzhang led his troops to withdraw from Taoyuan County in the early hours of this morning, even those large-caliber artillery that originally belonged to the Qing army's Green Battalion and other armies, that is, those general cannons of more than 35,000 catties, were directly thrown down, and they fled north with only light foreign cannons under 12 pounds.

Even in addition to the three-day rations carried by the soldiers, the baggage troops only brought an additional three days of military rations, which was less than six days old! All other tents and other materials that needed to be carried by the baggage troops were thrown away, and all the horses and livestock belonging to the Green Battalion were brought with them before leaving.

In this way, they can quickly flee north, and even the First Army can't catch up with the trailing pursuit for a while!

On October 9, Li Hongzhang's 10,000-strong new army marched as much as 30 kilometers in one day, and this marching speed is very rare for a foot infantry, which is usually about 20 kilometers in this era, and rarely can exceed the 25-kilometer marching speed.

And the Jianghuai New Army, which fled for its life, is obviously much better than usual, so it is no wonder that the First Army behind cannot catch up!

On the evening of the ninth, in the temporary garrison of the First Army, Shi Qingxuan listened to the report of the scout, and his face was a little unpleasant!

According to the report of the reconnaissance cavalry, Li Hongzhang's unit in front had arrived at Liuji Town, about 30 kilometers east of Suqian County, about five kilometers away from him.

Moreover, the scout said that when it was close to evening, those Qing troops had not stopped their pace, and they obviously wanted to continue walking at night!

After learning about these circumstances, Shi Qingxuan was a little depressed!

When will other armies in the country be able to compare the speed of the Chinese army on foot, you must know that when Shi Qingxuan led the main force of the First Army to pursue northward today, the front and back have marched 25 kilometers together, although the overall speed is faster than that of Li Hongzhang's division in front, and the distance between the two sides has been reduced from seven or eight kilometers to five kilometers.

However, due to the late pursuit of the First Army, it was not able to catch up for a day.

Now, if the Qing army continues to march at night, it will not be long before they can reach Muyang, and then they will be united with Zhang Guoliang's 5,000 men.

Although the 5,000 people brought out by Zhang Guoliang from Huai'an City are still the old army of the Green Battalion, the part of the people who can be brought out by Zhang Guoliang must also be the backbone of the Green Battalion, and they are all veterans who have followed Zhang Guoliang in the southern and northern wars in recent years.

If Zhang Guoliang did not have this old backbone force, he would have been removed from his post by the Qing court long ago, and the reason why he still sits firmly in the position of the general army today and concurrently serves as the minister of military affairs in the north and south of the Yangtze River is inseparable from the backbone force under his command.

Obviously, Zhang Guoliang and Li Hongzhang are both very clear people, and their power comes from the army under their hands, so whenever they saw that the situation was wrong, they immediately fled with their own horses and horses, and then left the rest of the Qing army as outcasts and threw them to the Chinese army.

For the Chinese army, it was easy to defeat Li Hongzhang and Zhang Guoliang, but it was very difficult to catch them and annihilate their backbone troops.

These two people are different from Seng Lingqin and Du Xing'a and others, and other Qing army generals say that they are short-sighted and that they are stupid and loyal, but in fact, there are still very few people who will run like rabbits when they have a little wind and grass with Li Hongzhang and Zhang Guoliang.

If the positions of Seng Lingqin and Li Hongzhang were reversed, Li Hongzhang would never have taken 60,000 or 70,000 main troops south to rescue Taoyuan, and would only stick to Suqian and run away if he couldn't hold on.

In order to catch up, the Chinese army behind was very tired, and Li Hongzhang, who fled in front, was also as tired as a dog!

Although Li Hongzhang, who was born in a traditional literati, said that he led troops to fight, but in fact, he was the same as Huang Zonghan and others in the past, he was a civil official, and his physical quality was naturally not better.

But now on the way to escape, he can't take care of sitting in a sedan chair with better comfort, but riding a horse like other generals.

On this day, the horse rode down, and the inner thigh was hot and painful, and a horse next to him walked in: "Lord Futai, you can still stand it, do you want to go to the back to catch a carriage?" ”

Li Hongzhang shook his head after hearing this, he didn't choose to take a sedan chair or carriage when he escaped from Taoyuan County, and now that he has been walking for a day, he naturally won't choose it.

Now that he is not out of danger, he will naturally not go to take a carriage or a sedan chair, to put it nicely, it is to share weal and woe with the soldiers, and to put it more directly, in case the enemy army catches up and comes to attack, this stays in the sedan chair or carriage, isn't that waiting for death?

You must know that since noon, the cavalry troops behind the palace have been engaged with the pursuing Chinese cavalry several times, and it is more defeated than victorious, and the cavalry of the Chinese army has been close to the rear several times, fortunately, the cavalry of the Chinese army behind is not arrogant enough to dare to launch an attack only with dozens of cavalry reconnaissance, but after breaking through the cavalry interception of the new army of Jianghuai, it is galloping away to reconnoitre.

All of this shows that there is a Chinese army chasing after him!

Looking up at the surrounding environment, now that the sky is completely dark, and there is no moon in the sky, in order to continue the march, the new army of Jianghuai has put on simple torches, and it is like a fire dragon squirming forward in the night!

The night march of the Jianghuai New Army did not last long, after all, the soldiers were not iron-clad, from the early hours of yesterday morning to now it has been more than ten hours, only a little rest at noon for an hour, after a day of walking, each leg is like being poured with lead, marching to three o'clock, the Jianghuai New Army is to stop moving forward.

At this time, in the camp of the First Army, about six kilometers behind them, except for the troops on duty, the rest of the officers and soldiers had already fallen asleep!

The night in the eastern part of Suqian County calmed down, and it was completely impossible to see that there were two large armies chasing each other only five or six kilometers before and after. (To be continued......)