When the public servant division broke through to the west, it was very good, but there were still many problems in the specific implementation, first of all, although there were not many Shun troops along the way, but the Ming army, which abandoned a large number of heavy weapons, had reduced its siege ability (of course, even if there was Yi Meng, he didn't want to waste time pulling out the stronghold of the Shun army all the way. Now the Ming army is even more reluctant to attack the city, because the use of infantry to storm will lead to casualties, and the Ming army without a stable rear has to take care of and continue to advance with the wounded.

Most of the towns where the Shun army remained behind, Yi Meng ordered to be besieged with troops, so that they would not come out and interfere with the march of the main force of the public servant division; Most of the local troops of the Shun army will not come out to interfere, some of them are miscellaneous troops, although they are not optimistic about the lower place of the Ming army that is deep in this lone army and refuse to surrender, but they also do not want to come out to die. Although some of them are relatively loyal, hundreds of Shun troops will not have the courage to attack the field troops of the tens of thousands of Ming Army, and their best choice is to stick to their posts. No matter how reluctant the servant division was to attack the strongholds of the Shun army, there were still some strongholds that were still difficult to bypass, and in order to destroy these Shun troops who occupied the control road, they still had to launch an attack and pay some price.

Although Li Laiheng's side pounced to the east, as the public servant division went eastward, the Shun army became denser, and soon a large amount of information gathered in Li Laiheng's hands, and he immediately turned around and chased in the direction of the public servant division. When the 20,000 Shun troops marched in the direction of the Ming army, the forward of the sniper battalion who was ordered to chase the public servant division also engaged fire with the rear guard of the public servant division, although the battle was not fierce, and the forward of the Shun army could not force the Ming army rear guard to stop because of its weak troops, but these signs made the atmosphere of the public servant division headquarters suddenly become heavy.

"We have been bitten by the Shun army." Yi Meng and his three regiment commanders discussed the recent military situation with a heavy face, the Ming army still adopted the method of rolling forward so far, the vanguard regiment that opened the road every day was responsible for encircling and restricting all the Shun strongholds encountered on the road ahead, the middle regiment covered the advance of the troops directly under the division, and there was a regiment behind after the break, and then (sometimes a day, sometimes half a day, depending on the specific situation) the middle regiment would become the open road regiment, advancing forward to wrap the stronghold of the Shun army, covering the cavalry to expel the sentry of the Shun army; The broken troops quickly caught up with the division headquarters and temporarily contacted the combat state to rest for a while; The first regiment lifted the encirclement of the Shun strongholds after covering the passage of the main force and the rearguard, and shrunk its forces into a broken rear force...... And so on.

The more east they got to the Chunhua area of Yingtianfu, the more Shun troops the public servant division encountered, and the denser the stronghold became, and this morning the 39th Regiment reported that the largest Shun army they found was as many as 1,000 people, and this regiment immediately used all its strength to oppose it, and then the two wings outflanked this large force of Shun army in the middle, this tactical action has become much more proficient after several days of operation, and there were no accidents in the whole process. But this threat also exhausted the strength of the 39th Regiment, and the 37th Regiment, which had just been released from the fighting state, had to immediately restore its state of alert and rush to the head at full speed to open the way for the whole division.

After observation, Yi Meng and his subordinates judged that the surrounded Shun army was mainly composed of local troops, most of which were probably not combat troops but civilian men in charge of transportation, but the Ming army did not dare to take it lightly. Yi Meng still solemnly carried out a rotation, and the maintenance division headquarters also stopped and waited for a while, both to wait for the formation to be adjusted and to wait for the 38th Regiment of the rearguard to follow.

The continuous march for many days made some officers and soldiers become a little impetuous, and some people in the 39th Regiment and the division headquarters suggested that this batch of Shun troops be eliminated, but both Yi Meng and Zhang Ruiqi, the commander of the 39th Regiment, suppressed this cry for war, they had no intention of wasting time on the local troops of the Shun Army, and they estimated that although they were local troops of the Shun Army, the resistance may not be tenacious - first of all, the Ming Army had a very bad reputation for prisoners, and the public servant division did not do well on the way to break through, Basically, they would not consider taking the captives with them, and they were afraid that letting the captives go would lead to the leakage of military information.

In the afternoon, Zhang Ruiqi began to command the troops to disengage from the Shun army, and before that, there had been no exchange of fire between the two armies of Shun and Ming, so there was no new wounded, but before the 39th Regiment completed the retreat, the cavalry of the Shun army, which had been following the Ming army far away, suddenly rushed to the front. Then the fifteenth infantry wing, which belonged to the sniper battalion, was discovered.

Probably due to the fact that the troops were still weak and worried about the counterattack of the main force of the public servant division, the infantry of the Shun army did not launch a fierce attack, but stayed on the edge of the rear guard fire of the Ming army's rear guard regiment, but even then this was the fiercest battle after the Ming army left Gaochun. After the battle broke out, the 39th Regiment could not march at high speed in order to cover the rearguard, Zhang Ruiqi commanded the troops to retreat alternately, while the infantry of the Shun army followed suit, and the cavalry also swam on both flanks.

Half an hour after receiving the fire, a carriage of the Shun army also pulled a cannon to help the battle, and soon after two light guns arrived, these three guns caused some casualties to the Ming army before sunset, and in order to keep up with the footsteps of the whole division, Zhang Ruiqi did not launch a counterattack - Yi Meng did not agree to do this, let a regiment launch a counterattack on an infantry wing of the Shun army, the consequences are unpredictable, and it is impossible for the public servant division in danger to turn around. Before nightfall, the Shun army stopped tracking, and Zhang Ruiqi commanded his subordinates to leave the battle and hurry to catch up with the main force of the division, and the tension and fatigue of the afternoon made most of the soldiers fall asleep immediately after arriving at the camp.

"It's getting more and more dangerous." Zhang Ruiqi said to Yi Meng, continue to the east will be closer to Chunhua, the place where the Shun army gathers, if the Shun army there casually sends a force to block the head to stop the public servant division, then the fate of the whole division can be imagined, and the whereabouts of 15,000 soldiers and horses cannot remain hidden, now everyone does not doubt that the Shun army has noticed their own movements: "However, the strength of the enemy army following is not strong, this afternoon I saw about 2,500 enemy cavalry, I estimate that they are just a little bit of people." ”

"Yes, if they have tens of thousands of troops, no, even if they have five thousand troops, they won't let you get out so easily." Yi Meng and the others knew that Zhang Ruiqi was right, and the Shun army camped steadily as soon as it got dark, obviously worried about the military strength of the Ming army.

None of the people present had similar military experience, but Yi Meng was not worried about this: "General Xu also had no military experience when he broke through from Shandong, but he still took the troops away. ”

How to retreat the new army has basically not been talked about, and the repeated defeats in Henan are basically brushed aside, all kinds of excuses, as for the commanders Li Jiaminghe and Pu Guanshui have not run, the rest are all running away and have never considered how to bring the army back, so Yi Meng The only thing they can refer to is Xu Ping's textbook, in the textbook of the Shun army, Xu Ping, Yu Shenhe and Zhou Dongtian and other seven or eight Changqing battalion officers jointly completed the memories of the first battle in Shandong.

"General Xu said that after being caught up, he launched a counterattack, and took advantage of the Dongjiang Army's unstable foothold to defeat the nearest enemy army, should we do the same?" There are no other examples, and the public servant division can only dig inspiration from the battle in Shandong: "We send elite raids on the enemy camp tonight?" ”

"No, the enemy army must be heavily guarded at night, and General Xu is a surprise attack during the day, and the enemy army is paralyzed and careless at this time." Another shook his head and said, "We might as well lay down an elite army during the day tomorrow and kill them by surprise when the enemy catches up." ”

"But at that time, tens of thousands of Dongjiang troops were pursuing a thousand Changqing battalions, and the first wave of cavalry pursuing was also 2,000 people, of course they would be careless, and now it is one or two thousand enemy troops pursuing our fifteen thousand troops, will they be careless?" This person's opinion was refuted by others, some people think that this kind of alternate retreat is very good now, and there is another example, that is, the battle of Fengyang where Xu Ping commanded the Guards Battalion to break the army, and Xu Ping, the Ming army under the command of Huangshi, relied on this tactic to get out of danger.

"That time, the Guards Battalion only needed to retreat more than ten miles to be safe, but we are not now, and it was the Jiangbei Army that was chasing at that time, and it is not the one who is following us now."

After a quarrel, everyone still didn't reach an agreement on whether to launch a counterattack, but the officers of the public servant division agreed that they should not fight back at night, and they didn't have the ability to manipulate tens of thousands of troops at night, and at this time, the Shun army would definitely be on strict alert, and in the end they still needed the soldiers to rest well, and they would continue to rush tomorrow.

"Actually, Duke Qi was also pursued once," Wang Xingyun, the head of the 38th Regiment, mentioned the time when Huangshi fled to Lushun, because Kong Youde was already a ruined thief, so there was no mention of his merits in the version that is now circulating, and all the credit was attributed to Huangshi. From the beginning of the New Army, Huang Shi's personal posthumous death was trumpeted as a great act, and Wang Xingyun suddenly said: "It seems that there should be a broken rear army." ”

Theoretically, of course, the military doctrine of the military academy also pointed out that for the freedom of action of the main forces, sometimes it was necessary to sacrifice part of the army to attract the full firepower of the enemy.

But the commander of the broken war is a little troublesome, Lushun was the supreme commander Huang Shi personally commanded the broken rear troops to cover the escape of the large army (in the propaganda after Kong Youde's death, Huang Shi was the supreme commander of the retreat war, in fact, everyone also saw it this way before, because Huang Shi is much more famous than Kong Youde, so everyone thinks that Kong Youde must be the one who made things happen because of people, especially after he became a traitor, it aggravated everyone's concept. In the first battle of Shandong, Xu Ping, the acting commander of the Changqing Battalion, personally commanded the troops after the break, covering the escape of friendly troops and subordinates.

Although Wang Xingyun didn't mean this when he mentioned this topic, everyone couldn't help but think of it immediately, and even Yi Meng himself was a little uncomfortable. However, Yi Meng himself did not want to personally command the broken queen, and at this time, the broken queen would almost certainly not end well, and ...... Yi Meng and others clearly remember: that time when the army of Qi Gong was completely annihilated, he was only spared; And the result of Xu Ping's break in Shandong was the collapse of the army, and he escaped alone.

"General Xu always learns from Duke Qi, no matter where he is," the last regiment commander relieved Yi Meng: "But it may not be right that Duke Qi and General Xu did this, besides, at that time, Duke Qi only had a few thousand people, and he was right after leading five hundred breaks; General Xu also has more than 4,000 people, and after he took 1,000 to break off, we now have an army of 15,000. If the division is cut off personally, won't he give up his responsibility to the whole division? ”

"Yes, General Xu is an example who intends to learn from Duke Qi, who called him the only disciple of Duke Qi? But militarily speaking, it is not beneficial for the commander-in-chief to break off. The others also echoed one or two sentences, which can be regarded as finding a step for Yi Meng.

But in this way, Yi Meng, who was a little tempted to send the troops after the break, was not able to spit out this idea, his prestige was not high enough, and the so-called subordinates were classmates on an equal footing not long ago, and it was not easy for Yi Meng to assign this task that was almost to death to a certain regiment commander.

……

When Yi Meng and the others decided to gradually retreat in an alternate formation the next day, the 6th Infantry Wing had already moved south to the only way for the public servant division to return to Hangzhou in the east.

Since Xu Ping left, Chen Zhe's main energy was no longer on how to capture the position of the Constitutional Division, but on how to defend the Ming army from breaking through the encirclement. After the news of the defeat of the Seventh Army reached the vicinity of Chunhua, just as Chen Zhe expected, the Ming army on the Longtan side first launched an attempted attack and successfully advanced to Chunhua for a distance.

The Ming army knew very well that if they did not seize this opportunity to open up contact with Chunhua, then they would not know how long they would have to wait until Xu Ping led the army back to have this opportunity. And Xu Ping's order to Chen Zhe before leaving is also very clear, that is, it must prevent the constitutional division from breaking through or getting reinforcements from the outside world, this division is far from the original rookie army after fighting with the Shun army for several months, Xu Ping is worried that once they are released, they will provide a large number of competent officers and non-commissioned officers to other newly built divisions of the Ming army.

Chen Zhe had already anticipated the offensive of the Ming army in Longtan, so he was not very alarmed, and he mainly shrank his troops in the Chunhua area, intending to rely on the fortifications to kill and injure a large number of Ming troops. Before Xu Ping left, he left three battalions of troops for Chen Zhe, holding such an elite in his hand Chen Zhe is not very worried about fighting in the field, but Xu Ping also explained that unless Chen Zhe is sure to annihilate a large number of Ming troops at one time, he must try to avoid casualties.

However, Li Laiheng's order ruined Chen Zhe's wishful thinking, and the letter asked Chen Zhe to quickly send a battalion of troops to intercept the 13th town of Nanming, which was fleeing eastward.

"The Fourteen Towns were not wiped out, and the Thirteen Towns were allowed to escape." Chen Zhe was very dissatisfied with the results of the battle, and he remembered that Xu Ping had repeatedly commented that Li Laiheng was "more than enough rules, but not enough offense." Chen Zhe also privately agreed with this evaluation, Li Laiheng was determined, tenacious in style, and his reaction was quite fast, but he was not good at figuring out the enemy's mind: "If it was the general who was in command, he would definitely not have imagined that the Ming army might jump over the wall and flee east!" ”

However, Chen Zhe only dared to complain when he was alone, he would never say this kind of thing in front of outsiders, even if it was his closest confidant Chen Zhe would not confide in Li Laiheng without a word. Chen Zhe had a good life in Shandong, and he was already the earl of Dashun, since he couldn't learn from Xu Ping's resignation of the title and official position, then he didn't dare to point fingers and make irresponsible remarks about Li Laiheng's orders.

So Chen Zhe's first thought was to let the entire armored battalion go south, saying that he would block the retreat of the public servant division, and he must not let them escape.

Zhou Dongtian was resolutely opposed to this, he pointed out that the Ming army is still very powerful, if it is forced to be in a hurry, it is likely to run and collide with all costs, and the armored battalion can completely block the east road at once, but what should the Ming army do if it returns to the north? Now that the Shun army of Ying Tianfu has exhausted its strength to besiege Chunhua, what troops will be sent to intercept the town of the Ming army at that time? If Ying Tianfu suddenly broke in more than 10,000 Ming troops and Li Laiheng did not arrive in time, it would be completely able to turn the deployment of the Shun army upside down, and in the end most of them would still be able to break through, and the worst case was that the Ming army took advantage of the chaos in the rear of the Shun army and even brought Chunhua to relieve the siege.

Chen Zhe knew that what Zhou Dongtian said was right, he didn't think of this, but this was Li Laiheng's personal order, if he let go of Nanming, Chen Zhe would have to face Li Laiheng's anger. In the past, when Xu Ping gave orders, Chen Zhe didn't need to collide with Wang Taisun by himself, and there was no pressure at all, and now he still doesn't want to disobey.

Zhou Dongtian quarreled with Chen Zhe for a night, and finally persuaded him to send only the sixth infantry wing south, and at the same time transfer the fifth infantry wing to a more southerly place.

If the Ming army broke through separately, Zhou Dongtian thought that it was inevitable to escape some, but it was better than letting the Ming army relieve the siege of Chun - sending an infantry wing to assist Li Laiheng and eliminate most of the public servant division before risking losing the siege of Chunhua, Zhou Dongtian felt that this was an acceptable result. If the Ming army really came to Yingtianfu, the Shun army could still piece together a wing in his hand to resist.

Chen Zhe also thought it was acceptable, but he felt that he had to ensure that most of the public servant division was wiped out (if the public servant division really forcibly seized the road from the east), at least the formation should be dispersed, so that Li Laiheng's side would be easier to explain, so he sent most of the cavalry of the guards battalion and the armored battalion to assist the 6th Infantry Wing (the formed cavalry battalion had been taken away by Xu Ping).

When it was found that the sixth infantry wing of the Shun army and the cavalry of the third battalion appeared on the road back to the east, the public servant division had been fighting fiercely with the sniper battalion chasing for two more days, and the next day the scene was provoked by the Ming army, and the main force of the sniper battalion arrived on the first day after the Ming army only walked a few miles, which made Yi Meng unbearable, he ordered the three regiments to storm the sniper battalion behind him, this blow was somewhat unexpected by the Shun army, they failed to dodge but collided with the counterattacking Ming army.

After a day of fierce fighting, the sniper battalion of the Shun army took the initiative to retreat, its two infantry wings had not received any chance to repair after the battle with the honest division, all the way to the rapid pursuit of the Ming army and left many soldiers behind, this battle made the already tired sniper battalion casualties of nearly 1,000 soldiers, its two infantry wings not only seriously lacked strength, but also the physical strength of the soldiers was close to the limit.

The battalion officer felt that it was very dangerous to continue to pursue the Ming army, so he no longer pressed step by step, but opened a distance to give the soldiers a chance to take a breath.

The Servant Division, which had also been delayed by the battle for a day, had a thousand more wounded - they had suffered a loss by attacking the positions of the Shun army, which had artillery support, with their infantry.

Yi Meng and the three regiment commanders, as well as some other senior officers, all felt that perhaps they could go faster by giving up the wounded soldiers, and the carriage that had been saved by throwing away the artillery and ammunition could not hold so many wounded soldiers, not to mention that the seriously wounded could not bear the bumps, and they needed to march slowly—but they had not yet made a slow march.

According to the experience of the textbook, it was still written by the officers of the old Changqing Battalion to escape from Shandong, and the public servant division also felt that it did not seem entirely unreasonable to throw the wounded for the safety of the whole army - at least Yu Shenhe, Zhou Dongtian and other parties thought it was necessary. However, their remarks were ridiculed by the officers of the New Army as an excuse for cowards, and among the instructors of the military academy who gave lessons to Yi Meng and others at the beginning, in addition to the former instructors of the New Army who came from the teaching team, there were also many laid-off officers of the combat units, and they sarcastically and satirized the move of the Changqing Battalion to the point of being indecent, saying that if they were present, they would definitely lead the wounded to break through bravely.

The responsibility for that time was shouldered by Xu Ping, and Yi Meng and several of his regiment commanders did not want to be the first to express this meaning by themselves, and no one picked this head at the military meeting that night, so this issue was not discussed.

In addition, the First Cavalry Corps deliberately flaunted its might in front of the Ming army according to Chen Zhe's orders, and after learning that this unit belonging to the Guards Battalion appeared in their east, Yi Meng and the others were a little skeptical that the Shun army had really sent this battalion to their own face or was just a bluff, but no matter which point of view people were absolutely sure.

As more news came, the Ming army reported the undisguised sight of the Third Cavalry (a cavalry unit attached to an armored battalion) and an unknown number of Shun infantry units, all of which had an owl on their banners, indicating that they were all officers and soldiers of the armored battalion.

In this case, Yi Meng felt that it was too dangerous to continue to break through to the east, and he decided to take a gamble - betting that the Shun army would not sing an empty city plan in the east and let himself go home well.

Since it was assumed that the Shun army had transferred both the guards battalion and the armored battalion to intercept him, Yi Meng ordered the whole army to turn to the north, so that not only could he avoid the two most elite battalions of the Shun army, but also the main force of the Shun army's western route army now knew that it was in his south, and that if he marched north, he could widen the distance from it as much as possible - Yi Meng stubbornly assumed that most of the main force of the Shun army in Tianfu should go south, and the remaining little was still in Chunhua and was pinned down by the constitutional division, so that the public servant division could escape all the way into Nanjing, It may even be possible to rush from Nanjing to Longtan again without stopping.

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