More than thirty miles northwest of Guangde County, more than a dozen Taiping cavalry galloped on horseback, and in front of them were four Yu Shengjun cavalrymen wearing dark blue military uniforms.

After half a ring, the dozen or so Taiping cavalry did not continue to chase, but stopped their horses, looked at the few Yu Shengjun cavalry who were far away, and the two Sima led by him showed a look of remorse and said: "I almost caught them, but I didn't expect to let them run away!" ”

"Now that we have driven them out for miles, they are no longer able to get close to track down the traces of our army!" One of the horsemen on the side said so.

The cavalry and the two horses also sighed and said, "Damn, let's go!" ”

Just now, their cavalry squad of sixteen or seventeen people patrolled the periphery and drove away those reconnaissance cavalry of the Yu Sheng army, but they did not expect to be ambushed by only four cavalry of the other side.

The opposing cavalry first used a cavalry gun to shoot a round of guns on their side, and at that time, one of their own cavalrymen fell off their horses, and when they rushed over with people to take revenge, the cavalry of the Yu Shengjun army fled directly backwards, and did not fight them in close combat at all.

When this small group of Taiping cavalry gave up the pursuit and turned back, under a low hill in the distance, a deputy platoon commander of the cavalry of Yu Shengjun wearing the rank of second lieutenant showed regret: "It's a pity that they didn't catch up, otherwise we could have ambushed them!" ”

Behind him were nearly twenty cavalrymen of Yu Sheng's army.

This cavalry squad belongs to the second platoon of the first cavalry company, and since last night, the second platoon has been ordered to go out to the north to conduct reconnaissance, but due to the fact that it was too dark last night, they could not figure out the situation of the Taiping army on the opposite side at all, until dawn, the lieutenant platoon commander of the platoon led half of the cavalry company and the platoon commander and deputy platoon commander to advance separately to reconnoitre, so as to expand the scope of reconnaissance.

Fang just saw the cavalry squad of the Taiping Army in front of him, and wanted to ambush them with four cavalrymen, but unfortunately they did not catch up.

Since the ambush could not be fought, but the reconnaissance mission had to continue, the nearly twenty cavalrymen of Yu Shengjun immediately turned over their horses one by one, and then advanced towards the north.

This situation also occurred in many directions in the north and west of Guangde County, and in order to learn the details of the Taiping army as much as possible, Lin Zhe sent most of the cavalry out to reconnoiter the situation.

And he himself personally led the main infantry, artillery and other troops to the north to pursue, and he didn't even enter Guangde City.

They only sent two companies of soldiers into the empty Guangde City, and the task of these two companies was not to capture or defend Guangde City, but their only task was to collect loot.

The Taiping army left in such a hurry, even if they took away some of the goods, but it was impossible to take too much, some bulky and not very important things would definitely leave some of them, as long as it was loot, whether it was cash or food or other messy things, Lin Zhe did not dislike it.

At dawn, Lin Zhe led the main force directly around Guangde to pursue northward, and did not stop all morning, the soldiers were fine, and they were in good physical condition for four or five hours, although they were tired, but they were not to the point where they could not walk.

However, the situation of the large number of mules and horses owned by Yu Shengjun is relatively bad, especially the mules and horses that pull the cannons are basically all tired and sweating, foaming at the mouth, and many of the relatively thin horses have died of exhaustion on the road.

Among the many military horses in Yu Sheng's army, the mounts of cavalry and senior officers are naturally the best, generally excellent Mongolian war horses with a shoulder height of more than one meter three, as for the horses used by artillery units and baggage troops, they are worse, quite a lot of horses with a shoulder height of about one meter and two, and even many mules.

According to contemporary military theory, in fact, the requirements for horses to pull artillery are very high, and the artillery horses in the French army and the war horses of dragoons are of the same specification, and they all require a shoulder height of between 1.53 and 1.55 meters.

However, Yu Shengjun has a shortage of excellent horses, and it is not easy to make up a war horse with a shoulder height of more than 400 meters and a height of more than 1.3 meters, and there is no more excellent military horses to drag artillery, so he can only make do with inferior horses.

In the Western artillery unit, a twelve-pound field artillery company needs to be equipped with about 110 military horses, while in Yu Sheng's army, due to the lack of horsepower of inferior horses, it can only make up for quality by quantity, and the mules and horses of an artillery company are more than 150, which is about 30 or 40 more horses than the six-door 12-pounder artillery company of the foreign army.

However, the increase in numbers did not change the fact that the mobility of the artillery units of the Yu Sheng Army, especially the low ability to march long distances with high intensity.

The sturdy soldiers were fine with the morning march, but the horses marching with several tons of artillery were almost exhausted.

"Marshal, I'm afraid the artillery troops and baggage troops will not be able to keep up with the pace of pursuit!" Fu Linyang said to Lin Zhe: "Now it is difficult for the horses of the artillery companies and baggage companies to continue the high-intensity march, and they urgently need to rest and feed!" ”

Lin Zhe looked at the artillery unit behind him, which was already a long distance behind the infantry unit, and felt a little helpless in his heart, this heavy artillery is easy to use, but the mobility is too scummy.

"Order, rest on the spot, bury the pot and cook, and we will continue to chase after half an hour!" Lin Zhe was forced to have no choice but to order the troops to temporarily rest and recuperate.

At this time, the reconnaissance ahead also sent back news one after another.

"Marshal, Lieutenant Ma from the first platoon of the subordinate department has brought back the news of the main force of the thief army!" Qian Niubei said as he pointed to a young cavalry officer.

"Oh, Lieutenant Ma, have you found out what is going on with the enemy?" Lin Zhe asked.

This young cavalry officer, like most of the officers in Yu Shengjun, was born as a scholar, and joined the army after enrolling in Yu Shengjun's camp school.

Immediately Lieutenant Ma said: "Back to the marshal, the department went north to investigate the thieves in the early hours of this morning, and found most of the enemy's traces at dawn, and then followed for more than two hours, and found out that the thief army of the department has 7,000 people, and there is also the banner of the thief leader Lin Chengting!" ”

The young lieutenant continued, "Before we retreated, the thief army was at the Baiyun Bridge. ”

"Seven thousand, Baiyun Bridge?" Lin Zhe listened to himself while talking to himself, and at the same time set his eyes on a military map of northern Zhejiang and southern Anhui, but he couldn't find the location of Baishui Bridge for a long time.

Immediately, Shi Qingxuan, the supervisor of the training officer, hurriedly stepped forward, then took out several maps and compared them one by one, and finally marked the location of Baishui Bridge about fifteen kilometers north of Guangde County.

"It only took six or seven hours to run more than thirty miles, this Lin Chengting ran fast enough!" Lin Zhe looked at the location of the Baishui Bridge on the map and frowned a little.

You must know that these Taiping troops only began to withdraw at the third watch last night, and it was not easy to smear and rush in the middle of the night, plus this morning's time, it was beyond his expectations to be able to take the army out of more than 30 miles.

"We're still about ten miles away from the thief army, and it won't be long before we catch up with them!" Qian Niubei said: "Our cavalry troops have bitten them tightly, and they can't run!" ”

But Shi Qingxuan said: "But our artillery and baggage troops are too slow, and it is not easy to catch up with them!" ”

At this time, Lin Zhe opened his mouth and said: "Then don't bring heavy artillery, the artillery of the thief army has been lost, and it is not a big problem for us to bring twelve pounds of heavy artillery!" ”

Lin Zhe didn't want Lin Chengting to run back safely, so he immediately said: "Pass the order, after the one-hour rest period is over, all the infantry units will continue to pursue, and the third artillery company will also follow the pursuit, and the other twelve-pound artillery companies and baggage troops will follow!" ”

Anyway, the Taiping army has no artillery now, and if he doesn't bring a lot of heavy artillery, it's not a big problem, just with his own infantry firepower, Lin Zhe is sure to take down the Taiping army!

An hour later, several infantry battalions of Yu Sheng's army, as well as the 3rd Artillery Company, continued on their way, this time not slowing down by accommodating the twelve-pounder guns and baggage troops, but pursued them on their own, and the speed was much faster than the rush in the morning.

At the same time, the cavalry that had been scattered to reconnoiter was also slowly retracted, preparing to gather cavalry forces to prepare for the 800 cavalry of the Taiping army.

The Taiping Army and Yu Shengjun fled and chased, both sides did not delay too much time on the road, and the rest was only a short rest of half an hour, an hour.

However, compared with the infantry units of the Yu Shengjun army that pursued lightly in the rear, the overall speed of the fleeing Taiping army was much slower, which is not to say that the Taiping army brought a lot of baggage, in fact, the Taiping army did not bring much baggage when they withdrew, but only brought gold and silver goods and some rations.

There is a difference in speed between the two, simply because of the physical fitness of the soldiers on both sides.

In this kind of pursuit battle, Lin Zhe's insistence on providing good food to the soldiers finally appeared, and the soldiers were tired and panting after a whole day of continuous pursuit and marching, but they did not fall behind.

On the other hand, the Taiping army in front, some of the elite soldiers who were well fed and drunk were fine, but many of those ordinary soldiers were no longer able to walk, and large-scale falling behind began to appear, forcing the generals of the Taiping army to shorten the marching time and rest frequently.

Otherwise, before they could flee back, most of these 7,000 people would have to disperse, no different from crushing without a fight!

Under such circumstances, the distance between the two sides was rapidly shortened, and by the end of the evening, Lin Zhe could already see the banner of the Taiping Army in the distance.

Since he caught up, Lin Zhe naturally would not be polite, first let the cavalry troops step forward and bypass them to intercept their escape, and on the other hand, let the soldiers continue to move forward.

When he learned that Yu Shengjun had caught up, he came to his senses at noon, and Lin Chengting, who was lying in the carriage at this time, looked at the roof of the carriage and did not speak for a long time, making several Taiping generals waiting for his order outside the carriage anxious like ants on a hot pot.

"Marshal, what should we do now?"

Lin Chengting said in a weak tone after a long time: "I'm afraid I can't go, I'm afraid I can't go, I'm afraid I'm going to lose without a fight, prepare for war!" ”

As he spoke, he struggled to sit up: "Today, we will fight to the death with these Qing Demons!" ”

But as soon as his words fell, he suddenly heard a commotion from behind, and Lin Chengting vaguely heard it: "Run, the Qing Demon is here!" ”

He turned his head to look at the rear again, and saw a large number of his own soldiers fleeing in a hurry, followed by the infantry phalanx of Yu Sheng's army.

I just wanted to say something, but suddenly my eyes went dark, and I fell into a coma again!