When he learned that the Ming army had withdrawn to the northwest to Lishui, Li Laiheng had already led his troops to chase Liyang, and the Shun army rushed from Guangde Mansion non-stop, thinking that the Ming army would definitely flee to Changzhou Mansion (which is still under the control of the local troops of the Ming Army), but it was empty.

"Why don't you run east and back again?" Li Laiheng said a little strangely: "Are they going to kill back to Taiping Mansion again?" ”

Yi Meng, who was in a panic, actually chose the route to break through wherever there were few troops, and he felt that as long as he could touch the Yangtze River, he would have a great chance of getting out of danger.

Now the Ming army is Chunhua to the north, and Jurong is to the northeast (a few months ago this used to be the headquarters of the Sixth Army, but later He Feihu relocated the army to Danyang, where there is now an outpost reconnaissance station of the Shun Army.

Li Laiheng, who had already struck the air twice, couldn't judge what the Qingming army wanted to do: whether it wanted to relieve the siege for Chun, or to flee to Zhenjiang through Jurong.

The situation could not be thought about by Li Laiheng, he hurriedly led the army to Jurong, first of all, there were a large number of field troops of the Shun army around Chunhua, and the public servant division would definitely not be able to break through the position for a while, and if the Ming army broke through to Zhenjiang Mansion, it would be difficult to catch them again - of course, this possibility is not great, the sixth infantry wing has been blocked in the center.

However, Yi Meng did not try these two actions and continued to run northwest to the Moling area, and the forward of Li Laiheng, who was in hot pursuit, arrived at Lishui, which was abandoned by the Ming army, at this time, and the sniper battalion and the sixth infantry wing had also joined Li Laiheng's main force. Due to the increasing number of Shun troops around and the increasing density of troops, the Ming army now maneuvered very slowly, and the distance between the two armies was almost gone.

……

"The Thirteen Towns of the Southern Ming Dynasty are cornered," Chen Zhe announced to him that Zhou Dongtian had brought him his tent, and although Yi Meng's irregular scurrying caused great trouble to the Shun army, Li Laiheng was now convinced that the Ming army was planning to bypass Chunhua and flee to Nanjing or the riverside west of Nanjing: "Wang Taisun has ordered the defenders of Taiping Mansion to go out and strictly defend the river from Dasheng Pass to Jiangning, and our army will immediately go out to block their escape route to Nanjing." ”

Li Laiheng feared that once Yi Meng fled to the river, he would establish a position along the river and defend it, and then the Ming army's sailors might risk their lives to break through the river defenses to supply the lone army or help them withdraw. Of course, even if Yi Meng could do this, the 13th Division would suffer heavy losses by the river, and even if the Ming Army's naval division came to help them at any cost, it was estimated that at least half of the Ming Army would have to be wiped out by the Shun Army. However, these days of pursuit made the generals of the Shun army very angry, and the desperate enemy army did not stand firm and make a desperate fight, but kept fleeing, taking advantage of the weak strength of the Shun army in Tianfu to see the needle, and also caused great trouble to the supply and transportation of the Shun army along the way. The angry commander of the Shun army could no longer accept the result of annihilating the Ming army, and was determined to prevent the Ming army from slipping through the net.

On the other hand, the news of the defeat of Huangchi reached Nanjing a few days ago, and this defeat seemed to lead to the elimination of an entire army of the Ming army. And the Nanming newspaper, which had become more and more excited and joyful because of Chunhua's persistence, was speechless again.

Both public opinion and the imperial court are obviously waiting for the news that the Ming army has been completely annihilated, but this cowardly Ming army has been unwilling to go to their doomed end ("Liaodong People's Observer"), Yi Meng's chaotic behavior under the nose of the Shun army has won a lot of points for the Nanming newspaper - because of the close distance, the news is transmitted quickly, and there are even reporters who are not afraid of death disguised and left Nanjing to sneak into the Shun army-controlled area to inquire about the news, they found that the Shun army in Yingtianfu was very nervous to stay in various places, and it did not look like a victory in hand.

Although Yi Cheng, the chief writer of "Liaodong People's Observer", repeatedly asserted: "The cunning beast can't hide from the clever hunter after all." But his Nanming counterparts in Nanming, after recovering from the initial shock caused by the fiasco, began to ridicule each other: "It's hard to say who is the hunter and who is the beast." The reporters applauded Mr. Yi and recently ridiculed Mr. Xu's incompetence in the newspapers.

Li Laiheng's order to Chen Zhe was to block the road of the 13th town of Nanming to Nanjing, and the requirements in the order were very clear: "Do not let Mingkou escape to Nanjing alone." ”

After receiving this order, Chen Zhe immediately convened a general meeting of the whole army, and ordered the Kaishan Battalion and the Fifth Infantry Wing to set off immediately and lay a strong defensive line in front of Nanjing with 10,000 troops.

After hearing Chen Zhe's order, Zhou Dongtian immediately jumped up as if he had been pricked by a needle, if these troops were transferred to Nanjing, there would only be one battalion left around Chunhua, and they would not only have to shoulder the task of resisting the southward movement of the eleventh town of Nanming to relieve the siege of Chun, but also be responsible for maintaining the encirclement and preventing the twelfth town of Nanming from breaking through, which was impossible in Zhou Dongtian's opinion.

"With two wings of less than 6,000 infantry (the cavalry of the Guards Battalion has been sent away by Chen Zhe), and you want to block more than 10,000 Ming troops in the north, and you want to surround more than 10,000 Ming troops in Chunhua, is Lord Chen going to fall into danger in the Guards Battalion?" Zhou Dongtian shouted desperately: "And the guards battalion can't be assembled and defended but must be scattered throughout the encirclement, the Ming army can not only relieve the siege for Chun, but also besiege some garrisons and strongholds of the guard battalion, the insufficient guards battalion can't help these attacked strongholds at all, there will definitely be troops annihilated by the Ming army!" ”

"This is the order of the prince and grandson." Chen Zhe said with a straight face, he did not pursue Zhou Dongtian's faux pas, although the chief of staff had already sprayed all the spit on his face, Chen Zhe said solemnly: "Wang Taisun ordered everything to give priority to the annihilation of the thirteenth town of Nanming. ”

"But the prince is not here, he doesn't know the situation here in Chunhua," Zhou Dongtian retorted vigorously, the council division was still trying to attack Chunhua, they had already approached the outer circle of resistance that Chen Zhe had planned, the first infantry wing of the Guards Battalion was ready to hold on and did not plan to retreat further, and Chen Zhe was now about to suddenly transfer the Kaishan Battalion troops that they were supporting. Zhou Dongtian was very clear about the current threat to the Chunhua encirclement, and he knew that Chen Zhe was also very clear, but Li Laiheng didn't understand: "Lord Chen should quickly send someone to inform Wang Taisun and implore Wang Taisun to take back his order." ”

"That would be a possible delay in the warplane," Chen Zhe pointed out that there was not much distance from Moling to Nanjing, and there were no strong troops of the Shun army along the way, and the local troops of Taiping Province could only hold some fortresses and ferries along the river at most, and it was impossible to divide the army to intercept the Ming army; And even if the Ming army did not go to Nanjing and continued to flee northwest towards the Yangtze River, the local troops in Taiping Province might not last long in front of such a large number of field troops of the Ming army: "We cannot let the enemy escape. ”

Of course, it was more than enough for Chen Zhe to send 10,000 Shun army field troops to deploy defenses near Nanjing, so that if the situation required it, he could also divide the army to assist the local troops to strictly defend the river, and not give the Ming army a chance to hold on along the river.

"The last general is very suspicious of how strong this Ming army still has the ability to attack fortifications," Zhou Dongtian has seen some reports of the pursuing troops, which mention that the Ming army has abandoned all the artillery, and also carries thousands of wounded soldiers, these reports Chen Zhe has also read, if the Ming army kills the Yangtze River, Zhou Dongtian feels that most of them will not be able to capture any of the crossings guarded by the Shun army in time, and if the Ming army kills Nanjing, Zhou Dongtian proposed a compromise plan: "The last general thinks that it is better to only send the fifth infantry wing to intercept." Let the fifth infantry wing be camped, the Ming army has to cover the wounded soldiers, and there is no artillery, and there is not even a broken army, even if there is only one infantry wing, they will not be able to capture it in a short time, and at this time Wang Taisun has already caught up. ”

"Does General Zhou plan to stretch the Fifth Infantry Wing into a line of defense or hold a fortress?"

"Of course, it is to stick to a fortress, not to let the Ming army pass easily, to force them to bypass the main road, and further delay their speed," Zhou Dongtian thought for a while, and felt that this plan was still negotiable: "You can also form a horn formation, clamp the main road, and force the Ming army to detour further, if they leave the avenue, they will have to abandon all the troops who can't go fast, and our army can also find the weak links of the enemy army in the fortress to launch some attacks." ”

"What if the Ming army bypassed? Although they are walking slowly, but there is only one infantry wing, can you not do it out of the battalion to intercept it? ”

"Of course I don't dare, but it's enough to delay the speed of the enemy's army, Wang Taisun's soldiers and horses are coming along the avenue, and there are no wounded soldiers who are much faster than them," Zhou Dongtian felt that it was easy for an infantry wing to block the Ming army for half a day, even after letting the Ming army go, it was not a good thing to decide to abandon the wounded soldiers and bypass it, seeing that Nanjing was in sight, and there were chasing soldiers behind, most of the Ming army's morale would be weakened, and at this time, the Shun army took advantage of the victory to pursue, It is estimated that it will still be able to defeat the Ming army, which has no rest and lacks baggage, and wipe out most of them: "Even if a few thousand defeated troops flee into Nanjing, what is it?" ”

Nanjing is so big, and because it has been undefended for the past few months, and the people are not solid, the thousands of Ming troops who have lost their armor and fled in, and Zhou Dongtian does not think that they will be able to immediately restore their combat effectiveness and hold the city. At that time, if Li Laiheng is willing to continue Xu Ping's agreement not to fight, then this battle will also annihilate the main force of the Ming Army's Seventh Army, which is enough to ensure that this army will not be able to recover for a while and a half; If Li Laiheng planned to take advantage of the victory to take Nanjing, these defeated troops would still be in the pocket of the Shun army.

"And so I have a chance......" Zhou Dongtian continued, so that the two battalions will continue to be used to maintain the encirclement of Chunhua, Li Laiheng's main force has been chased to Lishui, Zhou Dongtian estimates that the council division will not be able to break the encirclement for a while, and if the Shun army does not pursue the annihilation of the thirteenth town of the Southern Ming Dynasty and escapes into Nanjing, and the eleventh town of the Ming army does not know each other and continues to attack and try to break the siege, there will be a new fighter plane in front of the Shun army - they can cut off the retreat of the Ming army council division to Longtan in one fell swoop, Annihilated part of the Ming army, which had not been out of the hole for several months: "It is also an opportunity for the Ming army to come out to fight us, and if we grasp it well, we may be able to take advantage of the situation to inflict heavy damage on the enemy army in Yingtianfu and completely break the deadlock." ”

Chen Zhe pondered for a while, and in his heart he liked Zhou Dongtian's plan, but it meant that he wanted to refute Li Laiheng, so he finally shook his head: "This is not in line with Wang Taisun's order, Wang Taisun is determined to destroy the thirteenth town of Nanming first." ”

"What about Chunhua?"

"I am convinced of the combat effectiveness of the Guards Battalion, they will definitely be able to prevent the Ming army from defusing the siege or breaking through the siege for Chun, as you said, Wang Taisun's army is on the side, as long as they are unable to fortify the city, they will be counterattacked by us, and

"Confused!" Zhou Dongtian couldn't help but shout, he pointed to the map and shouted: "Lord Chen, you are wishful thinking expecting the Ming army to go to Nanjing, but we all know that Yi Meng will stick to wherever he is empty, and if he sends the army to Nanjing, the emptiest thing is not Nanjing but Chunhua, even if the guard battalion blocked the eleventh town of Nanming, and also bravely blocked the twelfth town of Nanming, then what if the thirteenth town of Nanming turns the corner again?" If they go straight to Chunhua......"

"They still have wounded soldiers." Chen Zhe used Zhou Dongtian's reason just now to refute him.

"They are about to be wiped out, they must have to gamble, leave the wounded soldiers and go straight to Chunhua, if the Guards Battalion can't stop them, they will flee more by them, and even the Guards Battalion will encounter great danger."

"I'm a military attaché, and I take obedience to orders as my top priority, and when I give an order, I will do my best to complete it even if I know that there are difficulties." As far as Chen Zhe is concerned, if the interception of Nanjing causes any evil consequences, it is Li Laiheng's order, and the responsibility is not on his shoulder, but if he does not carry out the order to intercept Nanjing, then he will have to bear any consequences. Chen Zhe admitted that the possibility of Zhou Dongtian's statement existed, if the council division insisted on not retreating, and Li Laiheng quickly defeated the public servant division and immediately turned around, it might inflict heavy losses on the Ming army, but this is only a possibility, if the Ming army retreats and the results of the Shun army do not satisfy the court and Li Laiheng, then most likely he will blame himself for not strictly abiding by the military order - in the long run, it is very unwise to make the future emperor lose face (although they are all laughing at Xu Ping's incompetence now, but sooner or later the truth will be revealed, These ridicules will fall on Li Laiheng's head), even if he doesn't think about it in the long term, if the imperial court is angered by the ridicule of those newspapers in the Southern Ming Dynasty, Chen Zhe is worried that he will also become a scapegoat for Wang Taisun, after all, he is a member of the Li family.

Therefore, Chen Zhe said to Zhou Dongtian: "You are the chief of staff, and I am the commander-in-chief, what is the responsibility of the chief of staff?" ”

Zhou Dongtian opened his mouth but couldn't spit out his voice, and finally replied gloomily: "Make a suggestion and help the commander realize his determination." ”

"You've made a suggestion, and I've made up my mind." Chen Zhe asked Zhou Dongtian to lead the staff officers to plan specific military operations.

"So, is the Guards battalion going to assemble for defense?" Zhou Dongtian asked.

"Wang Taisun did not order me to withdraw from the siege of Chunhua." Chen Zhe replied: "So of course we must continue to surround them and prevent the Ming army from breaking the siege." ”

"It's simply impossible." Zhou Dongtian muttered, "At least we should let the Guards Battalion assemble to defend ourselves." ”

"This is my determination."

……

Chen Zhe soon convened a meeting of all the generals and announced that he would resolutely carry out Li Laiheng's order and personally lead 10,000 soldiers and horses to intercept the Ming army, which Zhou Dongtian knew showed that he did not want to take responsibility for the outcome of the battle near Chunhua.

After doing his best to draw up the orderly withdrawal of all units of the Kaishan Battalion and the Armored Battalion of the Shun Army from the encirclement (now the main force of the Shun Army is between Chunhua and Longtan) and completing the plan of marching in the direction of Nanjing after the assembly, Zhou Dongtian led his men to study all night how to maintain the encirclement with the strength of one battalion of the Guards Battalion.

The pressure on the council division in the north was already very great, but the Kaishan battalion and the fifth infantry wing in the south of Chunhua still had to be transferred, so Zhou Dongtian had to transfer the second infantry wing covering the flank of the first infantry wing back to take over the position of the Kaishan battalion and the armored battalion in order to maintain the encirclement. Although Chen Zhe demanded that the encirclement be maintained, Zhou Dongtian still tried his best to make these troops assemble, and he ordered to abandon most of the positions in the inner and outer encirclement of the ring, leaving only the surveillance troops. More than 3,000 people from the headquarters of the Guards Battalion and the 1st Infantry Wing blocked the middle of the Parliament Division and the Constitution Division to prevent the Ming army from coming from the north to break the siege; The second infantry wing was divided into two by Zhou Dongtian, with more than 1,000 people in each country, one in the south and one in the west. Zhou Dongtian judged that the threat in the south was relatively small, the Ming army was unlikely to break through from here, and the public servant division would not have time to go around here if it turned back again, so only two infantry teams and some auxiliaries were placed, and the remaining two infantry teams of the second infantry wing were eight hundred infantry in the west, Zhou Dongtian cobbled together all the remaining forces and units to strengthen them, including some artillery and assault engineering units, as for the teaching team, Zhou Dongtian hesitated again and again, and finally let this team stay in the north and stay with the battalion headquarters.

"To use one battalion against two, and most likely, three towns, of the enemy, and to divide them into three, isolated, and completely incompatible with each other." After a busy night, Zhou Dongtian finally decided on the final plan at dawn, he looked at the sky outside the camp that began to turn white with bloodshot eyes, and suddenly laughed at his subordinates: "Even an illiterate farmer would not make such a decision, but this plan is from my own hands!" From the hands of me, a battle-hardened general. ”

……

The public servant division was blocked again in Fangyou, and the forward reported that the position of the Shun army was discovered, and Yi Meng rushed to the front in person after learning about it, and found that the owl flag was fluttering on the enemy position on the opposite side - this was the fifth infantry wing that had just arrived from the south of Chunhua.

At the same time, the balloons raised by the public servant division also reported that the Shun army was coming from the north, bypassing Nanjing and inserting diagonally in the southwest direction, across the road of the Ming army's breakthrough. In this position where the balloon could already see the city wall of Nanjing, the Ming army was blocked between it and its destination by tens of thousands of Shun troops.

There are now only more than 10,000 soldiers left in the public servant division, and some of the rest have fallen behind, some have deserted, and some have not kept up with the brigade because they have lost their way, and even these forces have not been assembled, and the rearguard troops are still covering the retreat of the wounded soldiers in Moling.

"Report!" A staff officer hurried over, and the rearguard troops found that the 1st Cavalry Battalion of the Shun Army had been killed to the south of Moling, and after they raised the balloon, they found that the endless infantry of the Shun Army was following behind, overwhelmingly looking like more than 10,000 people.

"It's over." Yi Meng had this thought in his heart, just now he was still thinking about whether to fight to the death to see if he could fight a bloody way from the position of the Shun army in front of him, but now that the army had not had time to assemble, the Shun Army West Route Army had already rushed behind him. Originally, 10,000 against 10,000 might not be able to break through the enemy's position, and now tens of thousands of enemy troops are there in an instant, where is there to fight?

After fleeing for so long, he still couldn't get rid of the fate of the annihilation of the whole army.

The staff officers around Yi Meng are also all like ashes, the public servant division flashes all the way, the soldiers have never rested well, because there is no time to collect grain and grass, and the baggage has long been exhausted, and some troops have run out of food yesterday, and now people are sleepy and tired, where can they still rush from the position of the new force of the Shun army?

Then came the urgent report of the 39th Regiment in charge of the rearguard, Zhang Ruiqi said that the rearguard troops had exchanged fire with the pursuers, the cavalry of the Shun army seemed to have an attempt to bypass his troops and detour the flanks, and the rearguard troops still had to protect the wounded barracks, and he asked the division headquarters to send some troops to help him cover and keep the traffic with the 39th Regiment smooth.

Without waiting for Yi Meng to answer, the artillery of the Shun army in front began to sound, and they began to bombard the front line of the Ming army.

"This is to drive us out!" Yi Meng was provoked by this cannon sound, and suddenly shook off the decadent meaning just now, and anger suddenly filled his chest: "Let the 39th Regiment stop caring about the wounded soldiers, tell him that Lao Tzu can't send a single soldier, let him fight desperately with the Shun army, and he must entangle them and break off for the whole division!" ”

After giving this order, Yi Meng cast a fierce gaze on the staff officers around him: "Isn't Chunhua just a dozen miles away to the east?" Lao Tzu go to Chunhua and go to meet with the constitutional master! ”

Yi Meng ordered the 37th Regiment of the forward to turn to the rearguard, and ordered the division headquarters and the 38th Regiment to abandon everything they didn't need and rush westward with all their might: "Tell Wang Xingyun, and let him tell all the soldiers that we have changed our goal and go to Chunhua!" It's only a dozen miles away that we're home, and I don't believe that the Shun army has so many troops! ”

After receiving the order, the Ming army broke away from the avenue one after another, leaving behind all their baggage, shriveled ration bags and empty water bottles, including the officers, with only their own guns, and headed westward with all their might.

Yi Meng was originally riding on his horse and heading west, but after walking less than two steps, he suddenly jumped off his horse, took out his handcuff and shot it at the horse's head, and he suddenly found that with the issuance of this order, his troops suddenly appeared in a huge panic, and as soon as the cavalry ordered to reconnoiter to the west moved, the infantry became more and more panicked.

When the mount fell to the ground with a roar, Yi Meng's eyes widened, and he roared at his subordinates: "No need to scout, the officers, cavalry and scouts have all killed the horses!" Everyone wants to die or live together, rush over and everyone will be home, if you can't rush over, you will die together! ”

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