At this time, there was also a crackling sound of fire in the distance, and Xu Ping knew that it was Wu Zhong and Wei Landu who also began to frighten the rebels. The gunfire everywhere made a large number of night-blind officers and soldiers in the Ming army a little uneasy, but the strict training in the past made the soldiers of the new army develop the instinct to obey orders, and they still honestly followed the team to grope forward. When someone tripped over the branches and grass, he gritted his teeth and got up without saying a word, clutching the long rope around his waist to follow the team.

The Ming army, protected by the darkness of the night, was very safe, and the rebels were far from being able to compare with the Ming army in terms of training and organization, and if they rushed out in such a dark night, they could easily collapse on their own. Their current countermeasures are also the standard response of the Ming Dynasty army when they encounter the enemy at night, sticking to the camp to prevent the enemy from robbing the camp; Scatter torches to light the trenches and prevent enemy troops from smuggling; Sit back and wait for the Ming army death squad to come up and send them to their deaths or retreat in the face of difficulties.

A large number of soldiers of the Chinese army were walking behind Xu Ping, and there were no trenches or obstacles on the road ahead, and the only thing that hindered the progress of the Ming army was the night that also protected them. According to Xu Ping's calculations, the Ming army could block the position through the rebels before dawn, and Xu Ping was still very confident in the daytime march, and he was absolutely sure that the main force of the rebels would be far behind.

Hour after hour passed, Xu Ping calculated the time and distance, and ordered the whole army to rest on the spot before the early morning. As this order was conveyed, the thousands of officers and soldiers who had remained silent let out sighs of relief one after another. Those who were still unable to see also let out whispers of excitement. Everyone knew that they were out of danger, and the tension that had been weighing heavily on their hearts was gone.

Several guards around him lit torches, and the scouts were sent in the direction of Changqing County. Now Xu Ping is very uncomfortable, and after the weight is removed, fatigue will come overwhelmingly. His limbs were more sore than when he woke up in the evening, and every breath tore at his chest. The armor he was wearing was as heavy as a mountain, and Xu Ping was almost out of breath.

"Now is not the time to rest." Xu Ping secretly encouraged himself. After briefly pacifying the officers and soldiers of the headquarters, he immediately rushed to the Chinese army, and when he arrived, Wei Landu and Wu Zhong were already waiting for him.

"In order to stop us, the thieves have transferred everyone to Cutting Horse Mountain. In front of us, even if there are thieves, they must be very weak. "Whether it is Xu Ping or Wu Zhong, they don't think that there are still thieves in front of them who can stop thousands of new troops, and now their main concern is the pursuit from behind.

"The speed of our army is much higher than that of the thieves, especially since there are more thieves than us, and they are even slower to move. What's more......" Wei Landu hesitated and didn't say the rest of the words, and the other two people understood what he wanted to say. After dawn, the rebels will definitely go to investigate the situation of the Ming army's camp in Cutting Horse Mountain first, and it will take a lot of time to wait until they understand the situation in Zhang Chengye's place.

"Our army only carries a little more than a day's rations, and a little saved can be eaten for two days. If the enemy is not in pursuit, we can try to collect some food on the way, which will probably be enough for us to cross the Daqing River, and we must not be blocked again. Xu Ping's words made the other two commanders nod slightly. The Ming army abandoned all the baggage vehicles, and only a little of the gunpowder was left with them, probably only enough for a fierce battle. Therefore, although they believed that there could be no main rebel force ahead, they did not dare to risk not letting the large army go ahead - the Ming army had to return to Yucheng as quickly as possible.

"Our army didn't have a good rest last night, and the soldiers' physical strength is definitely insufficient, and it is not a good thing if they are glued by the rebel cavalry." Although the two hours of marching were only a few miles, they consumed more physical strength than a normal daytime march of twenty miles. There is not much time between now and dawn, and the soldiers will certainly not be able to fully recover their strength, and if they are caught up by the rebel brigade, they will inevitably suffer a crushing defeat. If you want not to be overtaken, you have to prevent the rebel cavalry from harassing you. Xu Ping said: "How about breaking off about 1,000 infantry and 200 cavalry?" ”

The 200 cavalry is almost the entire cavalry of the existing two battalions of the Ming army. Wu Zhong and Wei Landu calculated in their hearts that the remaining cavalry would barely be enough if they were only used for reconnaissance. After they agreed, Wei Landu immediately preemptively said: "Give me all the cavalry in your hands, take the Evergreen Battalion and the others to go first, and I will lead the headquarters to break off." ”

"No! I disagree! ”

Before Xu Ping could speak, Wei Landu couldn't wait to interrupt him: "Brother Xu, if your Evergreen Camp hadn't come to save us, it wouldn't have come to this point, Master Zhang...... In short, don't rob me of it. ”

Wu Zhong and Xu Ping shook their heads together. In the past few days, the Shanlan battalion has suffered a lot of consumption from the Qing battalion, and more than half of the original combat units have been lost, and now the teams have been greatly replenished with engineers, baggage troops, and medical soldiers.

"The regulations stipulate that the troops that have been badly damaged are to be protected. The regulations also stipulate that troops with poor combat effectiveness shall not be sent to carry out key tasks, alas. Wu Zhong sighed, looked at Xu Ping and said, "Keqin, you are now the supreme commander of the Evergreen Battalion, and you should be in charge of the military affairs of the whole battalion, so I will cut it off." ”

"Wow, we're really a bunch of gentlemen here." Xu Ping laughed, cleared his throat, and said to Wei Landu: "Brother Wei, don't fight, you take the Shanlan camp to open the way, and our Evergreen Camp organization will be broken." ”

After suppressing Wei Landu's protest with Wu Zhong, Xu Ping no longer looked at the commander of the Shanlan Battalion with a face full of shame, and turned to Wu Zhong and said, "You go with Brother Wei, and I will break the back." ”

"No, you're the commander, you should go first. How can there be a reason that after the main general is broken, the deputy general will go first? Wu Zhong shouted, his face darkened, and he said: "If I had listened to you yesterday and attacked Dongshan directly instead of investigating those suspicious soldiers, I would not have fallen to this point." ”

"Don't talk about that now." Xu Ping waved his hand: "You are abiding by the regulations, besides, I was not the acting commander of the Evergreen Battalion at that time, so I had no right to give you orders." ”

Xu Ping asked Wu Zhong to hand over a few relatively complete teams in his hands to him, and without waiting for Wu Zhong to argue again, Xu Ping raised his voice and said: "It was I who proposed to abandon the wounded soldiers to break through, of course, I will break the rear." Besides, General Ben is now the acting commander of the Changqing Battalion, General Wu, you must obey military orders! ”

……

Of the more than 1,000 soldiers left, everyone knew that they were in danger, and when they saw the friendly troops leaving, their faces were full of nervousness, and Cao Yun and other officers also had a worried face. After dawn, the friendly troops had already moved away, and the physical strength of the soldiers in the rear team had recovered a lot, so Xu Ping ordered to set off, leaving nearly 200 cavalry by his side as a reserve.

At noon, Xu Ping's troops were eating in a town. The people in this town had already fled, so Xu Ping unceremoniously ordered all the houses and materials to be requisitioned, and a cordon was set up outside the town. Although this town is not big, Xu Ping does not have many soldiers, so everyone can squeeze a little to accommodate the whole army and rest for a while. Xu Ping knew that the more tense the situation, the more he could not appear flustered, the so-called general will be brave, if he takes improper measures, then it will only make the soldiers more nervous. Until this time, the rebels had not caught up. After resting in an orderly manner, the officers and men appeared calmer than in the morning, and continued to return north under the leadership of the officers of each team.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Jiang Yizhou rushed to Xu Ping's side with a flying horse, hugged his fists and said, "My lord, the thieves have chased behind us." ”

Xu Ping ordered the war horse to look back, but did not see anything unusual such as smoke and dust, and asked, "Where is the thief?" ”

"In the town where we just rested."

The Ming army guard, who was in charge of monitoring the road, found that a large number of rebel cavalry had arrived in the town, and while continuing to observe covertly, they reported to the headquarters. Xu Ping called the Ming army scout who reported the news to inquire. Visitors said they saw hundreds of rebels hurrying into the town, and the sound of horses' hooves and smoke on the roads to the south, estimated at six or seven hundred.

Xu Ping asked, "Didn't the rebels chase out of the town immediately?" ”

"Back to my lord, no."

At this time, another scout rushed back, confirming that a total of less than 800 rebel cavalry had arrived.

"Didn't you come out in pursuit at once?"

"Nope."

This confirmation made Xu Ping'an feel a lot, but he still needed to make another confirmation: "Can the thief send a horse detective?" ”

"Yes, I saw the thieves with cavalry patrolling outside the town."

"Good!" Xu Ping shouted: "The infantry continues to advance." All the cavalry, return to the division with the general, and kill the thieves without leaving a piece of armor! ”

Cao Yun exclaimed: "My lord, the enemy is outnumbered, is it better to set up an ambush on the road ahead?" ”

"No, we don't have time to dwell on thieves." Xu Ping shook the reins and turned back to the way he came, and Cao Yun, Jiang Yizhou and other cavalry generals glanced at each other, and they all rode their horses to follow.

While quickly moving along the road he came, Xu Ping explained to his subordinates: "The enemy cavalry must be in a hurry to pursue, as long as the thieves leading the army have the wisdom of the middle, they understand that they should try to slow down the pace of our army, and they must move forward cautiously." Therefore, our army has little chance of winning by setting up an ambush...... If I am in the position of an enemy general, and the passers-by who have been driving all morning are sleepy, and I find that the enemy army is close in front of me, I will probably take a short rest so that I can engage the enemy for a long time...... For several days our army has been retreating, and yesterday they abandoned the wounded and fled, and the traitors must have a heart of contempt...... Now we're going to take the thief by surprise. ”

Xu Ping arrived outside the town, and after connecting with the scout cavalry left by the Ming army, he didn't even do the reconnaissance work, and immediately commanded two hundred Ming cavalry to rush straight into the town. The rebel sentries at the entrance of the town were shocked when they saw the galloping Ming cavalry, and they immediately turned back to report the news while sounding their whistles. The Ming cavalry picked up the speed of their horses and rushed into the town almost at the same time as the rebel sentries raised the alarm.

With the rebel sentries "Enemy Attack!" Xu Ping drew his sword and jumped into the town. None of the rebels on the central road of the town were on horseback, not even men with swords. As Xu Ping's flying horse rushed forward, some rebel soldiers were feeding the horses with fodder, and two or three panicked throwing down the well water that had just been laid for drinking the horses, grabbing them aside to untie their mounts. When he staggered, Xu Ping's long sword swept and slashed one of them. At this time, his ears were already full of the shouts of the Ming army and the panicked roars of the rebels.

By the time Xu Ping rushed to the center of the town, Cao Yun of the front team had already cut off the banner of the rebels and was putting a bloody head on the flagpole of the Ming army, and this person was the leading general of the rebel cavalry. This rebel general chased all morning, just sat down to drink water when he heard the alarm, he jumped up and asked the sentry about the Ming army's situation and number, Cao Yun and other Ming troops rode their horses to his eyes, and in the blink of an eye he and his guards were chopped into meat sauce by more than a dozen Ming soldiers with random knives. After the Ming army poured into the town, they did not search for the rebels, but immediately set fire to them. In the rolling fireworks, the Ming army shouted in unison, and then hugged Xu Ping to turn around and kill back to the north.

At this time, some rebels who had grabbed their weapons ran out of the house, looked around, and saw the Ming army's horse team approaching, and fled to both sides of the road. A few rebels on horseback also jumped off their horses, climbed onto the rooftops of the roadside or simply hid in the alleys. The Ming army remained in formation, stepping over the main road, constantly throwing torches at the houses on both sides. In the blink of an eye, the Ming army followed Xu Ping and rushed out of the town like lightning.

After leaving the town, Xu Ping immediately ran up a small hill nearby. The town in front of him was covered with fire and black smoke along the official road, and the uncontrolled horses were frightened and scattered in all directions, and from time to time scattered rebel cavalry fled from the place. Xu Ping nodded, turned his mount, and headed north to catch up with his team. On the way, he sighed to his subordinates with a sigh of relief: "In two hours, they don't want to chase our army." ”

Xu Ping looked around: "Do you remember how General Pu talked about the timing of the counterattack?" ”

"When the enemy thinks the victory is in hand."

"Yes," Xu Ping nodded: "When you and I lead the troops in the future, we should take this thief's fate today as a warning." ”

Taking advantage of the unstable foothold of the rebel cavalry, he fought this small counterattack, which boosted the morale of Xu Ping's subordinates. But Jiang Yizhou immediately complained: "These thieves are simply a rabble, but they have made us fall to such a point. ”

Xu Ping was silent when he heard it. The rebels fought bravely from the beginning to the end, and there was no discipline, but their own army was inexplicably defeated, which was really difficult for the new officers and soldiers to accept.

……

Di Sansi was leading the forward army of the three thousand Dongjiang Army to hurry away, and a rebel probe horse galloped over: "Leader Di, King Ji wants you to go faster." ”

"What's wrong?" Di Sansi saw that the detective horse was full of anxiety.

"It's all Chen Ran's straw bale," the tanma shouted loudly, scolding angrily, "The eight hundred brothers were all defeated by the dog officers and soldiers, and the dog officers and soldiers are about to escape." ”

Tanma told Di Sansi that Ji Huisi was like thunder, and he had ordered all Tanma to attack Xu Pingbu at any cost, and he must slow down his pace: "Leader Di, King Ji wants you to leave quickly, you must block the dog officers and soldiers in the forest, and his old man will arrive soon." ”

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