Zhang Tieniu kept his promise, and all the middle and low-level officers and ordinary non-commissioned officers, as long as they had not escaped, were all distributed food home.

The premise is that their weapons and armor are collected.

This is merciful enough, Zhang Tieniu even wants to kill all those officers, regardless of their positions.

And, you can't go wrong!

These officers and soldiers have been suppressing bandits in Guangdong and Guangxi for three years, and the imperial court has not paid them food, so where does their military rations come from?

All of them were bloody, and they were all executioners who slaughtered the people.

Maybe some officers have even done things to kill good people and make meritorious deeds. As soon as it is killed, it is a village, the money and grain are snatched and put into the pocket, the head is cut off and taken to report the merit and ask for rewards, and then say that this village is slaughtered by thieves.

Some of the officers and soldiers who fled on the day of the seizure of the city rushed to Shixing County to report the news, and the Shixing defenders went to Nanxiong to report the news.

"Bring only a small amount of baggage, and evacuate the whole army!"

Lu Qian, the general soldier of Guangdong, was shocked and immediately withdrew from Nanxiongfu City, and by the way, the troops from Shixing County were also taken away. They must leave early, otherwise they will be blocked there and cannot advance or retreat, because Zhang Tieniu's march route belongs to the chrysanthemum.

In fact, Lu Qian's main army has been blocked by Zhang Tieniu.

At the time of the evacuation, Lu Qian could not take the normal road, so he could only leave through the mountain from a small road called "Qinghua Path".

After crossing the mountains and mountains, and finally came to Wengyuan County, Lu Qian still did not dare to stay, and continued to withdraw to Yingde County to garrison, blocking Zhang Tieniu's main road to continue southward (Wengyuan County in the Ming Dynasty, very close to Yingde County).

The entire northern part of Guangdong has been taken, and there is only one Yingde City left.

To the south of Yingde is Guangzhou!

Although there is still a Qingyuan in the middle to block the waterway, there is a direct land official road between Yingde and Guangzhou.

As long as you capture Yingde again, you can directly kill Guangzhou City.

This is not how powerful Zhang Tieniu is, but Shen Youlong's strategic mistake and did not send troops to defend Huguang's side. As a result, once Shaozhou fell, the main forces in the direction of Nanxiong and Shixing were at risk of being blocked and encircled, and the general army Lu Qian was frightened to withdraw from the mountain road overnight.

Shen Youlong himself, in fact, does not know how to fight, it all depends on the staff to make ideas, and the specific military affairs are handed over to the military generals.

When the news of the fall of northern Guangdong came, Shen Youlong's situation was even more embarrassing.

He wanted to shrink the defensive line, took the initiative to abandon the city, and retreated to the direction of Guangzhou to join forces with Lu Qian, but was blocked by Fei Ruhe in Longchuan and could not come back.

Just that road, he was stuck by Fei Ruhe's troops.

In desperation, Shen Youlong could only work hard, personally leading more than 6,000 old soldiers, as well as the same number of people and a large number of fleets. More than 13,000 people took the initiative to abandon Longchuan City and went to attack Fei Ruhe outside Heyuan City.

There are also 3,000 defenders of Heyuan, which is equal to more than 16,000 people, and 6,000 people (including people's husbands) who are flanked on both sides.

One hundred and thirty miles, the whole march along the river bank.

Set up camp in the evening.

After nightfall, there were shadows on the periphery of the barracks, and a large number of grain transporters fled at night. They were forcibly drafted and did not want to fight at all, so how could they not escape such a good opportunity?

Shen Youlong was woken up by his own soldiers, and after learning about the situation, he didn't dare to stop him at all.

If there is too much movement in the middle of the night, it is very likely that the camp will be bombed directly, and the officers and men will also run after that.

Those officers and soldiers are equally reluctant to fight!

Shen Youlong's advantage is that he knows how to delegate power, he can't fight, and he trusts his generals very much. However, it also led to the corruption of military discipline, and it took three years to crack down on thieves in Liangguang, and many times deliberately let the thieves go unchecked.

For those generals, if they don't fight a tough battle with the anti-thieves, they can raise their own respect, they can preserve their strength, and they can take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

The generals made a fortune by robbery, but the big soldiers did not share much.

Even the military pay was not enough, and the food was very poor. This belonged to the norm of the army in the late Ming Dynasty, and that army could feed the soldiers, but it belonged to the outliers among the outliers.

Shen Youlong can defend the city with a large army, but once he leaves the city and there is a Datong army nearby, the soldiers and people will have to make up their minds.

The march continued the next day, but the march became slower due to the large number of men fleeing and the soldiers being sent out to transport food.

Set up camp in the evening.

This time, Shen Youlong learned a lesson and put the people in the middle and the soldiers on the periphery, so that he could prevent the people from escaping at night.

It was true that the Minfu had no chance to escape, but the soldiers began to run. The outermost units were reduced by as much as 60 percent during the night, and more than 800 escaped overnight.

In the morning, when the number of people was counted, Shen Youlong and the generals had ugly faces.

The deputy chief soldier is called Shi Wangzheng, a very good name. He invited Shen Youlong aside and whispered: "Supervisor, you can't march like this anymore, otherwise when you arrive at Heyuan and engage the thieves, our army will probably collapse before the battle starts." ”

"What can I do about it?" Shen Youlong sighed.

Shi Wangzheng suggested: "Immediately pay the soldiers and people's husbands, and make up the last month's military salary, and the superintendent must pay the salary himself!" ”

"Good!" Shen Youlong is as good as a stream.

Because he doesn't know how to fight, and in order to make the generals obey him, Shen Youlong has not interfered in specific military affairs.

This brought about two results, the military general liked Shen Youlong very much, thought that this governor was a great good official, and usually thought that the governor was working hard. However, military discipline was seriously corrupted, and the deduction of military salaries became commonplace. The low-level soldiers could not get paid, so they relied on robbing the countryside to quietly hide some money to compensate for the loss.

Such officers and soldiers, who have been suppressing thieves for three years, are all veterans, not only afraid of Zhao Han, but also afraid of other anti-thieves.

In a word, unwilling to fight hard!

Shen Youlong called all the generals and announced: "The march is suspended today, you gather the soldiers, and the governor will personally pay the salary!" ”

At this critical time, the generals also understand the governor, as long as they don't let them pay for it, the governor will pay him personally.

The soldiers lined up one by one to receive their salaries, and their faces finally had some joy.

The effect was immediate, with just over 300 deserters that night.

On the third day, the march continued.

Not far away, the mountain search team exploring the road in front came back in a panic and reported: "Supervisor, in the mountains ahead, there are thieves in ambush, and we have seen a lot of anti-thief flags!" ”

"How many thieves are there?" Shen Youlong asked.

The spy replied, "I don't know, the little ones don't dare get too close." ”

Shen Youlong was afraid of being ambushed, so he immediately stopped his advance and sent three hundred soldiers to find out the truth about the thieves in the mountains.

After tossing and turning like this for an hour, the soldiers came back to report that the ambush in the mountains was fake, and that some flags were just planted indiscriminately.

Shen Yulong became more cautious, and the speed of his march became slower and slower.

After walking a few miles, I found the anti-thief flag in the mountains. I had to stop and look carefully again, so repeatedly tossing and turning, I only walked a dozen miles in a day.

Moreover, morale plummeted, and both generals and soldiers felt that there might be rebels at any time in front.

After the camp was completed that day, Shen Youlong instructed the generals: "Be on guard tonight, the whole army is dressed and sleeping, the weapons cannot be left in hand, more sentry posts are set up, and the thieves must be prevented from attacking at night." ”

The generals immediately went to do it and passed on the military order, which made the whole army even more panicked.

This night, many people did not sleep well.

In the second half of the night, a sentry suddenly shouted, "What are you doing?" ”

Hearing the scolding, more than a dozen deserters sped up and ran towards the mountains outside the barracks.

"Stop!"

The sentry was very responsible, and he received a stipend of 300 wen for his sentry tonight.

At this critical moment, you must be generous, otherwise who wants to be a sentinel?

"Is there a night attack by anti-thieves?" An officer rushed to inquire.

Another sentry, who was dozing off, immediately shouted in a panic: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!" ”

"Dangdang, dang!"

A sentry began to sound a gong to warn him.

All the officers and men suddenly woke up and took up their weapons one after another, and some were so frightened that they fled directly, and the entire barracks was inexplicably chaotic.

Finally calmed down, and the number of people began to be counted at dawn, and there were red-eyed yawns everywhere.

That night, more than 200 soldiers ran, more than 700 people, and several ships carrying baggage.

One of them contained a large amount of money, which was the money of Shi Wangzheng, the deputy commander-in-chief.

Fei Ruhe besieged the city of Longchuan for two months, and the deputy chief soldier had to find something to do, extort the rich merchants in the city, and get a lot of silver. Then, they embezzled the army's grain ships to transport goods for themselves, which was a common thing for public and private use.

Especially during the period of the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, a large number of civil officials moved their families south, how could countless wealth be transported away?

The eight immortals crossed the sea, each showing their magical powers.

The most awesome civilian officials directly used warships and civilian troops to transfer their family treasures for themselves. And behind them, there was the Qing army chasing after them, and the scene was indescribably weird.

At this moment, Shi Wangzheng was like thunder, he got thousands of taels of silver in Longchuan, and let his henchmen sleep on the ship to escort him throughout the whole process.

That bastard henchman is his own nephew, but he took advantage of the night to run away last night!

Angry people, not only Shi Wangzheng, obviously there are also generals who use public weapons for private purposes, and they are also using grain ships to carry goods.

In order to stop the loss, the generals demanded that the goods be unloaded, and the people should carry the goods on the shore and carry the heavy grain back to the ship. Even if they escaped, the people couldn't take much with them, unlike the ships that escaped and there was nothing.

Shen Youlong was furious, called the generals over, and scolded him: "When is it, you are still greedy for money." Take out your money, and give a hundred taels to each of you, and I will increase the pay of the soldiers. ”

can only be punished like this, the board fell gently, and the war was about to start, Shen Youlong did not dare to offend the general.

The military generals at the end of the Ming Dynasty did have a low status, and at the same time they were arrogant and domineering.

The six-rank military attache dared to wear a first-grade civilian clothes and swaggered past the civil officials, who could only turn a blind eye to this.

"Kill!"

As he walked, in the mountains ahead, there was a sudden sound of shouting and killing.

"Stop the march!"

"Array, array, don't panic!"

After a while, I saw a few mountain search teams, killed by 500 Datong ambush soldiers, and more than 20 people sent out to explore the road were killed by the ambush soldiers of Datong army.

Shen Youlong was about to be driven crazy, this more than 100 miles of road, all had to walk along the river bank, and both sides of the Dongjiang River were full of mountains, and any section of the road could be ambushed.

Fei Ruhe only needed to send 500 soldiers, constantly creating panic along the way.

More officers and soldiers were sent into the mountains, and the 500 soldiers immediately ran away. Once the officers and men slacken, the fake ambush may turn into a real ambush.

These officers and men are already about to have a nervous breakdown.