The early morning of March 30 in the fifth year of Chongzhen. Wu Shigong followed Jihua and led nearly 1,000 cavalry to set off first to join the main force of the Ming army.

After walking about ten miles, the cavalry dismounted to let the horses rest and feed the horses to replenish their strength. But at this moment, the spies who were looking forward for news reported the news of the Ming army in front: the Ming army was attacked by the rebels last night and lost most of the heavy grain and grass, and now the Ming army has pulled out the camp and retreated to the rear.

This sudden news surprised Wu Shigong and the others. Everything was fine yesterday, why did it change so much today? Could it be that the night attack of the rebels last night caused great losses to the main force of the Ming army?

It can be seen that Governor Liu Yulie has made another mistake. He did not contact Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing's rear army in time to inform the news of the retreat of the main force of the Ming army, which made Wu Shigong and their rear army unable to grasp the situation of the main force of the Ming army at once, and could not deal with the next situation in time.

After assembling with his military attachés, Wu Shigong immediately sent people to the rear army camp to summon the message, asking Liu Zeqing to immediately lead the elite troops to come and set up a preset defense line at his current location. And Wu Shigong's cavalry will move forward again, understand the situation of the main force of the Ming army, and respond to the retreat of the main force of the Ming army.

And the soldiers and men in the remaining rear army will step up to strengthen the camp.

In Wu Shigong's thoughts, since the main force of the Ming army retreated, it must have been defeated. Now that the battle has been defeated, if it is possible, it is better to save the governor Liu Yulie. In this way, Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing's rear army did not have any major culpability in this battle.

Of course, the premise of all this is on the basis of ensuring the security of the rear army. If Wu Shigong's cavalry found that the rebels were indeed strong, then he would definitely immediately use the speed of the cavalry to leave the battlefield, come back to join the elite troops led by Liu Zeqing, and then withdraw to his own camp together. Anyway, the distance from the rear army camp is not too far, only about ten miles away.

Compared with his own safety, who cares about the life and death of Governor Liu Yulie?

It wasn't until Wu Shigong heard that Liu Zeqing had gathered more than 4,000 soldiers and began to drive out of the rear army camp that Wu Shigong led the cavalry forward again. At this time, Wu Shigong definitely did not dare to let his troops get out of touch. Again: safety first!

Next, Wu Shigong's cavalry marched quite slowly. In addition to sending hundreds of spies to reconnoiter in front of the team, Wu Shigong led the cavalry to ride for a while and lead the horse for a while, just to ensure the physical strength of the war horse and prepare for a battle or escape in case of a fight.

So when I had traveled another ten miles, it was almost noon. All the horsemen dismounted again to rest, had lunch on dry rations, and fed the horses again to store up their horsepower.

But at this time, the spies in front reported the news again: when the main force of the Ming army retreated to the Shahe, because the pontoon bridge was broken, the Ming army was in chaos, and the main force of the Ming army suffered heavy casualties on the east bank of the Shahe.

Wu Shigong was so angry in his heart! Why are you so unlucky today? This rest of my own will have bad news. After another break, there is another piece of bad news. How much more bad news is coming?

From here, we need to know that there were restrictions on the transmission of messages on the battlefield in ancient times. Although Wu Shigong was only more than 20 miles away from Shahe at this time, the news he got also happened an hour ago.

But Wu Shigong didn't know if his news had expired, so he didn't dare to take any more risks. Therefore, Wu Shigong advanced another three or four miles, found a place with open terrain and stopped, gathered the spies sent out, lined up the battle formation, and prepared to meet the rout of the Ming army.

"Defeat is like a mountain" Wu Shigong must understand. Although the road from Qingzhou to Laizhou is still quite spacious, the escape of tens of thousands of rout soldiers will definitely block the road tightly.

If Wu Shigong led the cavalry to face it head-on, unless it was a big slash and killing, then those routs would definitely crush Wu Shigong's cavalry. Even those red-eyed routs would use swords and guns to snatch the horses of Wu Shigong's cavalry.

Therefore, Wu Shigong lined up on that open field, avoiding the road, preparing to let go of the rout and stop the pursuing rebels.

The long wait is really worrying. After another hour and a half, there was finally a rout on the road.

After catching a few defeated soldiers to understand the news, Wu Shigong finally knew that the main force of the Ming army was indeed defeated. Therefore, Wu Shigong immediately reorganized the cavalry again and prepared for the possible battle.

After a while, the first defeated brigade of the Ming army arrived. As expected, it was the team that escorted the escape of the Governor Liu Yulie. This is really the essence of "leaders go first"!

Wu Shigong has such a large group of cavalry on the side of the road, Liu Yulie and they will definitely not turn a blind eye. In addition, Wu Shigong's cavalry platoon was in a battle formation, which made Liu Yulie's rout frightened. You must know that the costumes of the rebels and the costumes of the Ming army are basically the same, and from the point of view of appearance, there is no distinction between the Ming army and the rebels.

However, for the same reason, Wu Shigong is not sure whether this rout is a rebel fake. Otherwise, if this fake rebel army is let through, his rear army camp will be in danger. Therefore, Wu Shigong must also determine the identity of this rout.

So Wu Shigong's cavalry, under Wu Shigong's order, picked up the weapons in their hands and slowly pressed towards Liu Yulie and them. Seeing this situation, the defeated soldiers around Liu Yulie were also panicked, and guarded Liu Yulie with blades.

Suddenly, General Liu of the Shenji Battalion beside Liu Yulie shouted: "Commander Wu! Wu Xiaohou Ye! It's your own family! This is the Governor! Hugh is unreasonable! ”

Liu Shen will happen to know Wu Shigong. No matter what, Wu Shigong was also a popular figure in the capital at that time. Besides, Wu Shigong's father-in-law, Xue Lian, was supervising the Beijing camp at that time, and as a general of the Shenji Battalion, General Liu Shen had certainly met Wu Shigong a few times.

Wu Shigong has no impression of General Liu Shen. However, several officers around him who were born in the Xue Mansion guard also knew General Liu Shen, and after the introduction, the two sides were relieved and knew that they had met their own people.

So Wu Shigong took dozens of guards to meet Liu Yulie, and General Liu also took advantage of this short time to introduce Wu Shigong's identity to Liu Yulie and the staff and military attachés around him.

Wu Shigong rode to Liu Yulie, bowed to Liu Yulie on his horse, and just wanted to speak, he heard a staff member next to Liu Yulie shouting: "Commander Wu!" Your Excellency, your Majesty, take your cavalry to guard Your Excellency. ”

In General Liu's introduction just now, that staff member also knew Wu Shigong's identity. Of course, General Liu didn't know Wu Shigong's detailed resume, so the staff still called Wu Shigong's official position in the capital - Commander Wu.

In the heart of that staff, it has reached the point of burning eyebrows, where did he get the time to talk about Wu Shigong about red tape? And the addition of Wu Shigong's cavalry to guard Liu Yulie's escape can increase the safety factor of Liu Yulie when he escapes! Just give an order to this military man.

But being waved around by that staff, Wu Shigong's heart was a little unhappy. So Wu Shigong said coldly: "The last general is now guarding Runing. It was to receive the army and return back. Rest assured, Your Excellency, the road has been cleared by the Admiral, and there is no invincibility. More than ten miles to the rear, there was a response from General Liu. Adults can rest assured. And the last will still need to move forward. The thing of giving up the robe will not be able to be done in the end. ”

Wu Shigong was a little satirical about Liu Yulie's behavior of running away first regardless of the safety of the army. Of course, in Wu Shigong's previous battles, he had a very good relationship with Qin Liangyu and Liu Zeqing. Therefore, Wu Shigong couldn't do it at this time to give up his comrades-in-arms.

Of course, Wu Shigong is not a noble person. For him, being able to gather more rout troops will also help the defense of his rear army camp. In the end, the rebels have defeated the main force of Liu Yulie's Ming army. In order to ensure the safety of the rear army camp, this extra force is always haode.

Of course, everyone heard the meaning of Wu Shigong's words. However, compared to the blush of the staff, Liu Yulie looked calm. He said, "That's exactly how it should be." Then only please Wu guard! ”

After saying this, Liu Yulie didn't even look at Wu Shigong, pulled out the horse's head, and fled first.

After walking for a while, the staff member Tima approached Liu Yulie and whispered to Liu Yulie: "That soldier is too presumptuous. Dare to be so rude to adults! ”

After hearing this, Liu Yulie smiled slightly and said, "The coming day is long!" The official is still the governor. ”

For mobile phone users, please read it on m.qidian.com.