Of course, these questions of the Sinking Tree Man were quickly answered.

Even if Zuo Zixiong didn't ask at first, they would be tortured as soon as possible after the order, no matter what kind of torture methods were used.

"My lord, I asked clearly: the messenger said that there were several, maybe five, it should be Zhang Xianzhong who was afraid that he would be intercepted and killed by us, in case it could not be delivered to Li Dingguo, so he sent a few more groups.

Now that we have captured two and killed one, there should be a contact with Li Dingguo that has slipped through the net. As for why they only arrived now, they couldn't say clearly, only that Zhang Xianzhong only sent them last night.

The last general estimated that Zhang Xianzhong couldn't figure out the overall situation at the beginning, so he didn't dare to act rashly? Or is Zhang Xianzhong hesitating? ”

Shen Shuren listened calmly, and raised his hand decisively when he heard the last few sentences: "Okay, it's okay to just paraphrase the confession part, and don't mix the 'you estimate' part with the confession in the future." ”

As a modern person, or a person who often dealt with strategy and magic in his previous life, Shen Shuren knows very well:

Evidence is evidence, and inference is inference. When talking about evidence, it is mixed with inferences, which will affect the judgment.

It's not that you don't have to listen to it, it's not that you have to be arbitrary. Rather, it is the thinking work at each stage, which should be clearly separated and dealt with separately with different brain circuit states.

Shen Shuren closed his eyes and thought for a while, and whispered to himself: "It seems that Li Dingguo may really receive the news of the retreat late...... That's why he resisted so resolutely, thinking that he was helping his father-in-law resist the north and buy time to take Changsha......"

It's actually normal for Shen Shuren to think like this, because Shen Shuren also didn't open his eyes -

There is a very important piece of information that the people who opened the eyes of heaven have known for a long time, but the people of Shen Shu have not yet known, that is, "Changsha has fallen".

That's right, don't doubt it, it's really impossible for the Sinking Tree people to know this. Because the two battalions of Shen Lian and Li Yu's sailors sent out to fight the enemy's supply lines did not know this. They only knew that the thieves had at least arrived in Linxiang County, and were even besieging Changsha, but they didn't know that the city of Changsha had been lost.

They only intercepted a reinforcement sent by Liu Wenxiu to Zhang Xianzhong, and the rogue soldiers who were captured in the reinforcements also did not know the situation on the front line. When Liu Wenxiu sent them, they were still ordered to "support the king in attacking Changsha".

The entire battlefield across Dongting Lake, between each part, has an information time difference ranging from one to three days.

Shen Lian did not capture even one "soldier who had rushed to Zhang Xianzhong's side to support", but only "a soldier on the way to Zhang Xianzhong's side", logically speaking, there would be this result, and there was nothing wrong with it at all.

The information difference that Shen Shuren knows but Li Dingguo doesn't know can help Shen Shuren use the plan. Li Dingguo knows the information difference that Shen Shuren doesn't know, of course, it can also help Li Dingguo use the trick - this is not the IQ problem of the party being used, but the pure lack of information.

Shen Shuren thought about it again and again, and finally only raised a small question:

"It still doesn't feel right...... Why was Zhang Xianzhong's messenger captured? He didn't think that the security of sending messages by land by cavalry was not high enough? Why didn't he use a small boat to deliver letters along the reeds on the shore of Dongting Lake? Isn't that unaware? ”

However, this question did not make his subordinates feel clever, Zuo Zixiong and others have been criticized in the past few days, and they don't dare to point it out, they just look at each other.

In the end, it was Shen Shuren's pen staff Gu Yanwu who couldn't stand it anymore, and reminded casually in a low voice:

"Although the students do not know soldiers, they also know that fast horses can send letters, can travel hundreds of miles a day, and send letters in small boats, which is safe, but from Linxiang to Baling...... I'm afraid I'm going to have to walk for a few days. ”

Shen Shuren was stunned for a moment, and also realized that he was a little stunned, indeed, Zhang Xianzhong also had to consider the time and speed, how could he use a small boat to deliver a letter from the reeds for safety.

Shen Shuren rubbed his temples self-deprecatingly: "That's it...... It may be that I always feel that Li Dingguo is not an easy person, and I am a little suspicious. From this point of view, it is really possible that Li Dingguo received the news late, so he will not retreat.

But now that he has received the news, he will definitely find a way to retreat as soon as possible, once the news is passed on and known to the whole army, then the soldiers will definitely have no heart to fight, and we will cover up and attack the camp, or even rob the camp overnight, we will definitely be able to win a big victory at a small price!

The order went down, and the soldiers were to rest in batches tonight, some of them were on guard in the first half of the night, and some were on guard in the second half of the night. As long as they find that the enemy camp is moving, they will attack immediately with half of their troops - not too many people are needed in the night battle, let alone robbing the camp, and more than 10,000 people are enough. ”

Shen Shuren's words, the people below didn't think it was inappropriate. Because the number of troops that can be effectively dispatched in night battles is already small, and if there are more, it is easy to be chaotic and even trample on each other.

The total strength of the Shen family's army on the Yuezhou side now exceeds 30,000, excluding the casualties of the past few days, and the 6,000 people taken away by Shen Lian Li Yu, there are at least 23,400 left.

Half of them are on standby, and there are 12,000 people, so it is definitely enough to fight a real pursuit battle.

The rest of the troops can also get up and reorganize after the friendly army sticks to the thieves, and then join the battlefield as a new force at dawn, the effect will only be better.

In the end, Shen Shuren did not forget to send someone to take care of Zhu Wenzhen, who had already circled the rear, and asked him to also raise his vigilance and be careful of Li Dingguo's breakthrough. But Shen Shuren didn't pay too much attention to it, because he couldn't say more tactical details, and the situation on the front line could only be improvised by the generals themselves.

Zhu Wenzhen didn't dare to slack off, he kept his troops on patrol in the first half of the night, and he was afraid that the lone troops would be attacked in the dark, so he gathered his troops and dispatched at least three or five hundred horsemen in a group to avoid being stolen.

However, he tossed until midnight, and he didn't see Li Dingguo's retreat, which couldn't help but make him a little nervous.

No one is iron-clad, and the cavalry troops have not rested during the day today, although they have not participated in bloody battles, they have always been awake and on alert, and their energy consumption is also very considerable.

lasted until the end of the third watch, Zhu Wenzhen felt that the soldiers were really not good, and sent someone back to report the news, saying that Li Dingguo had no movement. It's just that the camp is brightly lit, and the patrol soldiers can be seen patrolling in the distance.

Shen Shuren had already slept in the lake, and he was still a little angry when he was woken up, but he quickly woke up and realized that he was on the front line with the army, so he forcibly held back his unhappiness and listened to the report of his subordinates.

"It's past midnight and you haven't moved? Is this not going to retreat? Or do you know that several of the messengers sent to him by Zhang Xianzhong have been caught by us, so they are afraid that the retreat plan will be leaked and intercepted by us? Only then did he temporarily change his plan and continue to conceal the critical situation in the rear internally?

Li Dingguo should know that our army has elite cavalry, if he doesn't retreat, it will be an hour before dawn, how far can he escape with infantry as the main infantry? Wouldn't it be worse to die a worse death when we were chased by our army? Looks like he's really going to play with me tonight? ”

Shen Shuren couldn't give better advice, just let Zhu Wenzhen continue to observe, and at the same time pay attention to let the cavalry conserve their strength, maybe after dawn to find a new situation, and continue to hunt and kill.

As for how to do it, he didn't say anything, Zhu Wenzhen had to make his own choices and solve the dilemma of "not only wanting the horses to run, but also wanting the horses not to eat grass".

Anyway, when the big leaders can't come up with a detailed solution, they only give one direction directly, let the people below lose their hair by themselves, and realize "both ...... Again...... And ......".

At the same time, Shen Shuren once again adjusted the order to Zuo Zixiong, so that he arrived at the fourth watch, no matter what, he must be prepared to rob the camp, once the enemy camp has any abnormality, he will attack, if there is no opportunity to take advantage of it, he will use Hongyi artillery to bombard the camp to scare people and hit morale, and then attack in an all-round way.

……

Zhu Wenzhen and Zuo Zixiong could only adapt to the situation, and the time soon came to more than half of the fourth watch. Seeing that there is less than one shift, the sky is about to be completely bright, and the inside of Li Dingguo's camp is still brightly lit, and it looks heavily guarded from a distance.

This is definitely not some kind of "hanging sheep spine" trick, it is a real human patrol patrolling and can be seen under the fire, so it is definitely not an empty camp.

Zuo Zixiong saw that he had never been able to seize the opportunity to rob the camp, so he had to gamble and attack again.

He mobilized more than a dozen Hongyi cannons, and fired a salvo in the direction of the brightest fire, and then asked the general Jin Shenghuan to immediately lead the new army to rush the camp.

The two sides immediately began to fight, and there was chaos in front of the camp. The thief side did not collapse immediately at first, and there were even resting soldiers who got up and lined up as soon as they heard the sound of cannons, even if they were misty and still dared to meet them.

After the thieves were attracted head-on, soon the cavalry of Zhu Wenzhen's department, which the Ming army detoured to the flank, was also launched, because some of them were physically exhausted and had been patrolling in the first half of the night, so Zhu Wenzhen only drew out a thousand horses,

Fortunately, the range of the Hongyi cannon was enough to cover the camp, and the fortifications around the camp were bombarded with gaps everywhere, and the cavalry behind them could also find a gap to rush in.

As the battle gradually deepened, the fatigue of the thief side was soon exposed, and many thief officers began to ask the Chinese army for help because they could not withstand the front line, and at this time, many middle-level thief officers below the brigade level found that they could not find General Li at all.

This became the last straw that completely crushed the army of the thieves. Commander Pan Shirong was clumsy, and he couldn't suppress the situation at all, and in his consternation, he suddenly discovered that Li Dingguo had changed his retreat plan and actually sold him.

In less than half a minute, the thieves in the camp were completely annihilated, in fact, they killed the first few thousand people, and then they always collapsed, surrendered directly, and did not find a way to surrender, and they also fled everywhere, so that the officers and soldiers wanted to capture them, which was also very troublesome.

……

At the same time, Li Dingguo had already taken 7,000 brothers from the old camp and 2,000 rowers for the elite rowers of the old battalion, gathered all the light boats in the thief army, and threw all the big and slow boats that were difficult to hide traces in the camp, retreated and ran away.

They left the camp on the fourth watch day when the officers and soldiers were already exhausted, but they took advantage of the mentality that "the sky will be dawn in just over an hour" and left the camp in the dark when the officers and soldiers were impatient and their energy was declining.

After walking for twenty miles in the reeds on the shore of the lake, it was estimated that after passing through Zhu Wenzhen's search blockade circle and the sky was about to dawn, Li Dingguo asked the soldiers to abandon the ship and go ashore, and immediately galloped southward.

As for the oarsmen composed of 2,000 strong men of the newly attached army, they were also abandoned by Li Dingguo. Of course, Li Dingguo did not let them be sent to death directly, but only said that they were allowed to pretend to be civilians and flee on their own, and they could surrender if they were bumped into by the official army.

And the official army on the surface of Dongting Lake, in fact, there are also organized patrols, Shen Shuren can not be said to be cautious, just because the elite of the clipper sailors have been taken away by Shen Lian, the rest of the patrol boats are definitely not very fast, plus the dark lights in the second half of the night, Li Dingguo only took some people to go, can only take a small boat to walk the reeds, the big boat and the slow boat can continue to stay in the camp, and the patrol boat of the Shen Shuren is difficult to find.

In the final analysis, Li Dingguo used about 10,000 local recruits in Huguang in the battalion, plus 2,000 oarsmen, as a bargaining chip for the strong man's broken wrist, and directly threw it to the officers and soldiers in exchange for the sneaking away of the brothers in the old battalion.

The generals of Zhang Xianzhong's department actually know in their hearts that the new attached army can catch strong men anytime and anywhere if they have money, and the old brothers who have come out of Shaanxi and Henan for more than five years are the old ones who need to be kept the most.

Ten days ago, when Li Dingguo first arrived in Baling, the total number of troops under his command was more than 30,000, Jiao Guangqi lost thousands of men and horses, and later lost several thousand in several camp battles, and before tonight, there were only 20,000 thieves left.

Li Dingguo, a strong man, broke his wrist, and directly reduced the breakout force to only 7,000 people. In other words, within ten days, he had at least twenty-four or five thousand soldiers and horses that were lost to the Shen family army and annihilated.

On the other side, after Zuo Zixiong broke through the enemy camp and completely controlled the situation, he also rushed to the thief camp to inspect and understand the situation.

Zuo Zixiong and Zhu Wenzhen both looked tired, but their expressions were very excited, and as soon as they saw Shen Shuren, they sincerely thanked them:

"Lord Futai is really a miracle! seized the opportunity of the lowest morale of the thieves, and annihilated 10,000 enemies tonight! Our casualties are minimal! ”

Shen Shuren waved his hand anxiously: "That's not what I want to hear!" What about Li Dingguo? Did you catch it! ”

Zuo Zixiong: "I tortured the prisoners just now, Li Dingguo is nowhere to be found, and it seems that he abandoned the main force and broke through in advance." He asked the various departments carefully, and it should be that the brothers in the old camp in Henan, Shaanxi Province were all run away by him.

However, our army at least won a complete victory, destroying more than half of the enemy, and only a small part of them ran away, and the key is that our army suffered very few casualties. ”

Shen Shuren slammed his fist on the table: "This Li Dingguo is ruthless enough, take out more than half of the people to make a game, no wonder the camp is brightly lit all night long, and the patrols are constantly coming and going, but how can he make his own people not know that he ran away?"

It's a big plan! Let this official use his brains with all his might, and in the end, he just easily destroyed more than 10,000 new annexed troops! I was going to kill Li Dingguo! What are these more than 10,000 soldiers worth! It's just a strong man who can be caught with silver!

Zhu Wenzhen, you hurry up and lead the cavalry to catch up and see if you can make more gains, but if the enemy army returns to fight to the death, don't be impulsive, Li Dingguo has a hand in leading the troops, and the troops at hand may be several times that of yours. It's good if you can stick it, let our army chase it, and if you can't stick it, forget it. ”

Zhu Wenzhen received the order, and had no choice but to continue the exhausting pursuit.

And the generals in the tent, looking at Shen Shuren's eyes, are also complicated and admiring:

The pursuit of Lord Futai is high! It is already very good to be able to annihilate more than 10,000 Li Dingguo's troops at one time with only a few hundred casualties! If he was another general and official, he couldn't help but go to the Ministry of War, the elders, and the emperor to ask for merit and rewards, and he bragged about it.

A mere Li Dingguo is just one of Zhang Xianzhong's godsons who are thieves, and if he runs away, he will run away! It's a big win!

"Lord Futai is really a genius, and he has such high requirements for himself, and he pursues complete annihilation when he uses a plan, we really can't even think of it."

Zhu Wenzhen's pursuit lasted for two or three hours, including the time on the way back and forth. By the end of the hour, Zhu Wenzhen's cavalry troops were completely exhausted.

In addition, there was some sporadic resistance on the way, and the main force of the enemy's escape was not found for a long time, and was misguided and delayed by those chaotic soldiers. So at the beginning of noon, Zhu Wenzhen's department came back tired.

Zuo Zixiong went out of the camp to respond, and found that he had only cut off the heads of hundreds of thieves and captured more than 1,000 prisoners. These people were already physically exhausted, so they couldn't run fast, and they were caught by Zhu Wenzhen first, which also misled the direction of Zhu Wenzhen's pursuit.

After the situation was finally reported to the Sinking Tree Man, the Sinking Tree Man also sighed tiredly:

"All the generals who fought hard and worked hard should be rewarded. You have fought very well, and those who have participated in the two days of fighting will be rewarded with five taels each, double the reward for those who are slightly wounded, and double the reward for those who are seriously wounded.

Your achievements in killing the enemy should be reported quickly, and I will send them to the military headquarters first. As for the final defeat of the enemy, it was because the official did not know what was going on, and he made a mistake, and it has nothing to do with you. ”

When Zuo Zixiong Jin Shenghuan and Zhu Wenzhen heard this, they were all grateful, and the original unpleasant emotions were swept away.

Lord Futai is a clear reward and punishment! He is demanding high, but he is demanding of himself! He didn't ask his subordinates to do those unbelievable and impossible feats!

This is called being strict with the law and being lenient with others! The rewards and punishments are clear, and the faith is simple!

——

PS: Two days before the National Day, there were relatives from other places to receive, and they were all about 5,000 words and one change were merged together. Number Three began to return to normal. There's no need to wait this afternoon.

Everyone, I have been updating a lot of words recently, at least 8,000 words a day last week, and 10,000 words a day on 26/27, so be it. By the way, let's sort out my thoughts and see how to drive Zhang Xianzhong away in the future.

In addition, a few words of emphasis, many book friends are looking forward to capturing Li Dingguo alive this time, I just want to say: If you want to see me write Li Dingguo to death, then I will adjust the outline in the future, and I will catch it and send it to the capital in a few days.

In that way, I can save a little trouble, I don't have to shape the process of the contradiction between Zhang Xianzhong and Li Dingguo intensifying step by step, and I don't need to have too many human dramas.

However, if you want to catch Li Dingguo now and persuade him to use it, it is absolutely impossible. Now these people are all guilty of serious crimes, and now it is the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, not Nanming.

During the Southern Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was swept away, and it was a living person who was willing to resist the Qing Dynasty and could use it, and he could also give him a title.

When Chongzhen was alive, Li Dingguo was responsible for participating in the killing of King Xiang and King Gui, unless he killed Zhang Xianzhong to vote, it was possible to become an official. If he himself surrendered after being surrounded, it would be good not to be cut alive like Ainengqi.

Therefore, this book needs to talk about a certain amount of officialdom logic and the decency of the imperial court, not the kind of systematic text that regards the orthodoxy of the imperial court as nothing. Don't brush up on any posts of "Li Dingguo doesn't need to make meritorious contributions, as long as he surrenders, he can be reused by Shen Shuren", this is impossible, at least not before Chongzhen's death.