After Niu Xuan led his army to escape from Fushun, he did not run wildly, but escorted Liu Quan's army forward, which made his Mongolian cavalry quite puzzled. Many generals persuaded him to leave Liu Quan, but he flatly refused. This exhortation was heard so many times that she was so tired of it that she raised her whip and beat it indiscriminately, and no one ever spoke of it again.

Only a few generals such as Kudu knew why they would rather give up mobility, and did not hesitate to put the whole army at risk, but also took Liu Cheng with him. Of course, there is also an advantage to this, that is, there is no shortage of food and drink. At this time, shortly after the autumn harvest, there was a lot of grain in the cities and forts along the way. The Mongol cavalry didn't care whether the other party surrendered to Mongolia or not, whether they were "obedient to the people", they robbed and raped all the way, and they all ate with round stomachs, and even the horses were shiny because of the abundance of essence.

Liu Quan, who has experienced many defeats, has now become a lost dog, and there are only 1,000 people under his command who have no fighting spirit. However, these subordinates can survive the brutal war, at least the desire to survive and the ability to survive are extremely strong, and the escape for their lives is at least first-class. It was a miracle that they followed the cavalry of Newland all the way, and it was a miracle that most of them had been following them, except for a few who had sprained their legs or fallen ill. On the one hand, this benefited from the light advance and the food and grass provided by the Mongol cavalry. On the other hand, it was also because of the first division of Cao Ergou that pursued them, and its cavalry brigade was still surrounded in Pengxi Village, with only infantry under its banner.

Unlike the heavy infantry in the traditional sense, the two heavy infantry brigades of the 1st Division were not equipped with iron armor, and even leather armor was very small, and the armor rate was even less than 30%. The reason why it is called heavy infantry is because it is equipped with a large number of firearms, as well as powerful heavy field guns, and the proportion of muskets is more than 30%.

The high rate of firearms has led to an exponential increase in logistical pressures and slowed down the pace of marches. You must know that the two infantry brigades of the 1st Division each have hundreds of mules and horses, and the 5,000 backbone militia accompanying them are also equipped with 1,000 light wheelbarrows. Even with so many mules, horses, and transports, even if they hurried and hurried, the 1st Division was still two or three days away from Liu's entire division.

Thanks to the unparalleled mobility of the cavalry, the Mongol army had a strong sense of the battle situation. In the process of escaping, Niu Ling not only sent Kudu as a forward to explore the way, but also sent a large number of rangers to reconnoitre. He first led his army to flee to Changzhou in the east, and when he learned that no reinforcements had arrived in the direction of Dongchuan, he immediately turned to Puzhou in the north, preparing to wait for the opportunity to cross the Jiantan crossing.

At this time, Yang Wenyuan's nephew Yang Wenzhong was leading the Zhen army to besiege Lingquan Mountain and regain control of Jiantandu. As soon as Niu Ling entered the territory of Anyue County, Puzhou, a scout reported that Yang Wenzhong had gone to Pengxi Village, and the Arrow Beach Crossing had been controlled by the Thunderbolt Army sailors who had gone up the river.

Niu Lin had already been beaten out of the psychological shadow by the Thunderbolt artillery, and knew that it was impossible to cross the arrow beach under the artillery of the Thunderbolt army's warships, so he decided to go to Tongchuan Mansion and Mianzhou, and if the war did not go well, he could retreat to northern Sichuan through Zitong. Who expected that in Anju County, they received a report from the scouts that the Thunderbolt army had captured Mianzhou, and the infantry and a large number of warships were besieging Tongchuan Mansion, and their artillery fire was very fierce, and they could not hold the city.

The scout also said that there were at least 20,000 Thunderbolt troops in Tongchuan Mansion and Mianzhou, which made Niu Ling really puzzled in his heart, he really couldn't figure it out, so many soldiers suddenly appeared in the Thunderbolt Army, and they were all elite soldiers who could fight, how could they afford to raise so many soldiers?

No matter how hard you can't figure it out, you have to face reality. At present, there are heavy troops in front of him, and there is a large army chasing after him, so what to do makes it difficult for Niu Ling for a while. One centurion claimed that he would lead his men to attack or raid the Thunderbolt marching array, but was ridiculed by the generals, who even rebuked him for having no brains.

Twenty years into the Song-Mongol War, there have been many examples of Mongol cavalry defeating Song armies several times their size, but since the rise of the Thunderbolt army, it has been difficult to defeat the Thunderbolt army, which has a considerable number of troops. Sensei said that even if all the cavalry under Niu Lu raided, they would not be able to defeat the Thunderbolt army, but would suffer heavy casualties, and even wipe out the whole army, which was a painful lesson for the Mongolian generals such as Niu Lin and Kudu. You must know that although Cao Ergou led only more than 4,000 people from the three brigades of the regular army, with the accompanying 2,000 Banzhou troops and 5,000 basic militiamen, the number can be more than 10,000.

Although Cao Ergou was eager to pursue, he did not rush forward, even if he slowed down the pursuit, he had to ensure the safety of the marching troops, and he had to dig ditches and build walls when he camped at night. The Mongols weakened their artillery through civil fortifications, and the Thunderbolts continued to grow and improve their tactics to weaken the Mongol cavalry raids.

If the Mongols really wanted to surprise the marching array, the Thunderbolts would quickly scatter triangular spikes and form a glittering line with spears up to five meters long, followed by musketeers and a dense number of grenades, which would be extremely heavy in casualties even if they could rush into the formation.

As for the "penalty station" tactic against the cavalry, the Thunderbolts would use one brigade artillery to cover the other two traveling armies. The forward brigade deployed artillery as it advanced to the perimeter of the artillery range to cover the march of the troops behind, alternating between two miles at a time. Although the speed is half slower than the normal march, it is safe.

If there is a slim chance of storming the Thunderbolt marching array, then a night attack on the camp is a send-off. The Mongols will first face triangles and mines, followed by heavy artillery fire and musket fire. When blocked under trenches and low earth walls, dense grenades are thrown from the barracks.

Even if you are lucky enough to rush into the camp, you will be faced with a cold and glistening spear. The Perak had a rule in the field camp, that is, the night guard was two hours in shifts, and at least a quarter of the soldiers in each shift were on duty, and the soldiers who were not on duty slept in their clothes with their weapons by their side. The gunners slept on artillery positions in order to take up combat duty at any time.

200 cavalry were killed on the Fushun pontoon bridge, and another 300 cavalry were separated on the west bank of the Tuojiang River, and Niu Xuan now only had 1,800 cavalry, together with 1,000 new attached troops under Liu Quan, a total of only 2,800 people, less than one-third of Cao Ergou's men and horses, and there was no chance of victory in any case.

More importantly, Kudu and other generals have long been frightened by firearms and have long lost their will to fight. It is said that the reason why the Mongolian army is strong is because its will to fight is extremely firm, and there are very few people who are greedy for life and afraid of death. But the Thunderbolts made them lose sight of the hope of victory, so they naturally lost their fighting spirit, and were even more unwilling to do useless struggles, letting their men die in vain.

Since you can't fight, then you have to continue to escape, just where to escape? Just as Niu Ling was thinking hard, Liu Quan, who was silent along the way, spoke: "Feint to attack Jiantandu and enter Qingshi County eastward." The Qingshi County mentioned by Liu Cheng is a hundred miles downstream of the Jiantan Crossing, and although the conditions for crossing the river here are far worse than those of the Jiantan Crossing, it has not attracted the attention of the Thunderbolt Army because of this.

Liu Zhen's plan was to feint with cavalry to attack Jiantan and Lingquan Mountain, Cao Ergou would lead his army to the two places, and he would lead his new annexed army to Qingshi County secretly and cut down wood to build a pontoon bridge. As soon as the pontoon bridge was built, the cavalry led by Niu Ling could reach Qingshi County in only one day, and quickly crossed the Fujiang River, and the Thunderbolt army would inevitably be unable to catch up.