In the northern part of Suqian, east of Pizhou, in the field of the later Xinyi region, Li Hongzhang endured the pain in his inner thigh and continued to insist on riding on his horse, and behind him were the soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army lined up in a long column.

It's just that compared with a few days ago, now these soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army are all depressed, some of them are rubbing their hands together while walking, trying to make their hands warmer, and some soldiers have repeatedly tried to wrap their thin light blue uniforms, but they still can't stop the cold wind blowing from the north.

And the rear of the army, the artillery under the command of Li Hongzhang is struggling to push the artillery on the muddy road, a wind and rain in the early hours of this morning made the road on the plains of northern Jiangsu instantly become a difficult muddy road, the soldiers are better when they are infantry, at most they are stepping into the mud, but for the artillery unit is very uncomfortable, once there is a heavy artillery stuck in the mud, no matter how the artillery whips the horse, it is impossible to drag the heavy artillery out.

I had to let the artillerymen go directly into battle to push, to lift, and rely on manpower to push these tons of artillery forward with difficulty!

Following the example of the Jianghuai New Army established by the Chinese Army, the artillery imported from foreigners in the early days was mainly foreign cannons with twelve-pounder and six-pounder guns, and the six-pounder guns were better, but the barrels and gun carriages of those twelve-pounder guns, including wheels, weighed more than a ton, and it was okay to take dry flat roads on weekdays, but when it rained like now, when the roads were full of mud, it was like marching in a swamp, and the speed was unbearable.

These twelve-pounder foreign cannons are actually quite good, originally the Jianghuai New Army also received more than a dozen old-style general cannons from other green battalion Qing troops, which are all big guys known as three or five thousand. It was much heavier than a twelve-pound cannon, and there was no way to get there in the current weather and roads. In the morning, Li Hongzhang had already reluctantly abandoned a dozen or so old heavy artillery, in order to prevent the Chinese army behind from capturing these heavy artillery. Li Hongzhang also blew up the barrel of the cannon before abandoning these heavy guns.

This flight was enough to hit morale, but it was a stormy day, which made the morale of the fleeing Jianghuai New Army fall to the bottom.

In addition to making the roads muddy and difficult to walk, the heavy rain actually caused a sudden drop in temperature, which was unbearable for the soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army, who lacked winter clothes.

Now it's November, the lunar calendar is the end of September, it belongs to the real late autumn, and there are about ten days of 'light snow', and the temperature is falling day by day, but there is no cold air from the north before the large-scale south. It's not obvious yet, it's just that late autumn is cooler.

But the rain in the early hours of this morning, and the sudden drop in temperature, it is obvious that the cold air from the north has begun to move south, this late autumn is likely to be fine today, but after a gust of north wind in the evening, the temperature will plummet immediately.

Nowadays, the temperature of more than 10 degrees Celsius during the day is only a little chilly, but when night falls, it is estimated that the temperature will drop below 10 degrees Celsius. It's even only seven or eight degrees.

Although this temperature is not enough to say that the weather is cold, for the soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army who are still wearing thin military uniforms in summer and autumn, this kind of weather is not easy to endure.

The Jianghuai New Army retreated a little urgently, and the sun was still shining a few days ago, so I didn't worry too much. But now that the temperature has plummeted, Li Hongzhang himself naturally has his subordinates to send winter clothes in time, and some senior generals don't have to worry about this problem. But how should tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers solve the problem of winter clothing?

In this regard, Li Hongzhang frowned!

It was not without his thoughts that he would send his troops out to nearby villages to directly buy or plunder the winter clothes of the people for the needs of the soldiers. But Shi Qingxuan, who was behind, didn't give him this chance at all!

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the Chinese Army and the two cavalry companies of the 1st and 3rd Divisions, adding up to more than 1,000 cavalry, pursued for several days. However, they had already caught up, and even tried to forcibly attack Li Hongzhang's headquarters yesterday evening, forcing Li Hongzhang to slow down his advance and shrink the marching formation to prevent the cavalry of the Chinese army from coming to raid.

In this case, it is impossible for Li Hongzhang to say that he sent a small number of troops out to plunder, because although the cavalry will not take the initiative to attack the main force of the Jianghuai New Army, if the Jianghuai New Army dares to disperse a small part of its forces, these cavalry will pounce on it without hesitation like a hungry wolf.

Looking at the cavalry about a kilometer away from the left rear, Li Hongzhang sighed deeply in his heart!

When these cavalry caught up yesterday afternoon, he just felt bad, if he was entangled by these cavalry, it would be easy to be caught up by the main force of the Chinese army in the rear, and then he would have to fight with these Chinese troops, and this thing was what he had always avoided!

For this reason, he also sent his cavalry to try to stop these Chinese cavalry this morning, and the number of cavalry in the Jianghuai New Army is not small, and there are about 1,500 cavalry in the front and back, and the training system is also modeled after the cavalry of the Chinese Army, and even the sabers used in the cavalry are the kind of scimitars of the Chinese Army, and the cavalry of the Jianghuai New Army played well in the past battles.

According to reason, the two sides should be on par, and even the cavalry of the Jianghuai New Army is slightly stronger, but the counterfeit goods are always copycats, and the genuine goods of the Chinese Army immediately shrank.

At the beginning of the hedging, it was fine, and it was not considered to be a disadvantage, but after the two sides entered the melee, the training level of the two sides was to withdraw the gap, and more importantly, in the melee, the cavalry of the Chinese cavalry left 'round six-shot pistol) brought a great tactical advantage.

In the first large-scale contact and engagement of the cavalry of the two sides, the Jianghuai New Army lost at least 300 cavalry, while the cavalry of the Chinese Army lost only 60 cavalry.

With both tactical and strategic failures, the cavalry of the Jianghuai New Army did not dare to meet the battle at will, and could only sit back and watch the cavalry of the Chinese army on the periphery follow.

But this situation will definitely not last forever, because Li Hongzhang knows that these cavalry of the Chinese army cannot always follow and do nothing.

And Li Hongzhang guessed right, because at this time the First Army marched column a few kilometers away in the rear. Wang Luyun was discussing the latest tactics with Shi Qingxuan and others.

"Later, our troops will strike again, and we will certainly be able to delay the enemy's march further. And when the time comes, if you are lucky, it will be enough to catch up completely in the evening! Wang Luyun said.

Shi Qingxuan also nodded: "Hmm." As long as Brother Wang's cavalry can hold them back for an hour or two, then we will be able to catch up and force them to fight a decisive battle with us!" ”

The distance between the main force of the Jianghuai New Army and the First Army is actually very short, only about six kilometers in general, this distance can be seen at a glance if the weather and terrain are better, but under one chase and one escape, and the physical fitness of the soldiers on both sides is not bad, you chase him and escape. You rest, he rests, and in this case, the distance of six or seven kilometers cannot be shortened under normal circumstances.

The only hope now is that Wang Luyun's cavalry troops can break through the cavalry interception of the Jianghuai New Army, so as to entangle the main force of the Jianghuai New Army, it will not take long, at most two hours, or even only one hour, then it will be enough for the main infantry of the First Army to catch up, as long as the soldiers of the Jianghuai New Army enter the range of the Mini rifles of the soldiers of the First Army, then Li Hongzhang will be forced to fight even if he does not want to fight!

Wang Luyun stood up. Then he tightened the coat on his body and flicked the non-existent dust: "Don't worry, you can rest assured that my Wang Lu Yun will do things!" ”

When speaking, Wang Luyun has great confidence. This self-confidence is built on countless victories!

As the first cavalry in the Chinese army, he has led the cavalry to fight many times without a single defeat!

After getting up. Wang Luyun continued: "Time is a little tight, so I'll go back first. It is expected that our department will launch an attack in an hour, and I hope that you will give you the greatest cooperation at that time! ”

Anyway. Wang Luyun just strode out, his long riding boots stepped in the muddy water, splashing the muddy water, only to see him take the reins of the horse handed by the guards, and then walked two steps to his brown Arabian war horse, turned over and jumped on the horse's back.

The hand with leather gloves waved the whip, and the war horse stimulated by the whipping was like a sharp arrow, raising the horse's hooves and galloping away, and several cavalry officers and guards who came with Wang Luyun also felt that they had turned over and chased Wang Luyun away.

Shi Qingxuan looked at Wang Luyun and the others who were rushing away, and a wry smile appeared on his face: "This Wang Luyun is the same as before!" ”

Bing Qusong on the side also smiled and said: "Director Wang is worthy of being a model of our cavalry, this move is the style of a peerless general!" ”

Shi Qingxuan didn't speak, Wang Luyun is more special in the Chinese army, he can be regarded as the only senior general who can't even recognize words, the officers of the Chinese army are basically all military cadets, and these military cadets used to be scholars, in general, the Chinese army's officer group is still relatively high in cultural level, and most of the classics can also be said, of course, the level can not be compared with those civil officials who are born in Jinshi, but the level of modern science is definitely the top group in contemporary China.

As for Wang Luyun, who was born in the green forest, he was just a courtyard leader before joining the army, and he was able to accumulate merit to this position today, not because of military talent or anything like that, but because of his own bravery.

In today's Chinese Empire, he is the only high-ranking general who dares to personally wield a saber and fight hand-to-hand with the enemy!

Today's Wang Lu Yun is the same as usual, riding his tall horse at the forefront of his cavalry, shouting: "Today, the time has come to fight to the death for the empire and for Your Majesty!" ”

"The Chinese Empire is invincible!"

The cavalry under his command also shouted one by one: The Chinese Empire is invincible!

Wang Luyun pulled out his command knife: "All of them, draw the knife!" ”

After a symphony of gold and iron, a sword forest was erected in the phalanx of thousands of cavalry, and the sword forest reflected the light of the Dao in the sun!

The horses under the crotches of the cavalry began to walk at a normal pace, and then at the orders of the officers, the knights began to urge the horses to trot!

When the speed of the war horse gradually increased, Wang Luyun had already pointed the command knife forward, shouting: "Kill!" ”

Thousands of knights controlled the war horses, running quickly with a unified speed, and the thousands of horses ran around, and their momentum was like thunder in winter, which made people tremble!

At the same time, Li Hongzhang's eyes widened as he watched the thousand cavalry of the Chinese Army emerge from a low hill like a torrent, and then rushed to the front of his own thousand cavalry!

In the next moment, the cavalry battle between the two sides broke out again, and more than two thousand cavalry on both sides combined launched the most direct and brutal charge, and the light reflected by the bright sabers was almost more dazzling than the sun! (To be continued......)