Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, Lao Huihui... these northwest bandits may have no other specialties, but they are very capable of breaking out of encirclement.
As soon as Zhao Han stuck his butt out, Zhang Xianzhong knew what he was going to do.
You must not go to the west. Zhao Han must still be mobilizing troops secretly. If you withdraw from the west, you will be completely surrounded!
This is the experience heaped with human lives. Zhang Xianzhong spent several years being surrounded and breaking through.
Luo Rucai also knew that if he returned directly to his army, he would be surrounded, so he proposed to flee eastward.
Sun Kewang also knew this, so he proposed to pull the strings repeatedly to take advantage of the constant mobilization of troops on both sides.
Zhang Xianzhong was the most vicious. After Zhao Han's main force appeared, he immediately decided to attack with only his cavalry and counterattack. If the attack was successful, he would make a lot of money. Even if the attack failed, Zhang Xianzhong could easily slip away as long as Zhao Han did not return to the army in time.
As for those elite infantry, in Zhang Xianzhong's view, they were no longer able to fight, at least during the withdrawal process.
After more than half a month of siege battles, especially the last siege, the morale of the entire army dropped to the extreme, and they were already afraid of the Datong Army. If he led such an army to retreat, Zhang Xianzhong felt that he was seeking death, so he might as well take the initiative to send the cavalry
Separate from the infantry!
More than 10,000 cavalry and horse teams rushed quickly with thousands of mules, carrying a small amount of food and kindling on the backs of the mules.
They descended from an unexpected direction, namely the west side of Chilong Lake.
There are crisscrossed rivers and paddy fields there, making it difficult for the cavalry to even move quickly, let alone engage in combat.
But Zhang Xianzhong came, and Sun Kewang personally acted as the guide, because this was Sun Kewang's territory and he was very familiar with various rivers and terrain.
In order to strengthen his control over the prosperous areas, Sun Kewang paved dirt roads in key prefectures and counties. Although these dirt roads were only two meters wide, they could be used for cavalry to pass, making it very convenient to go to the countryside to collect food.
Under the moonlight, among the complex river network and farmland, Zhang Xianzhong's entire army was galloping with torches in hand.
We even crossed two small rivers on the way. The bridges across the small rivers were not built by Sun Kewang, but were built with money from local gentry in the mid-Ming Dynasty.
Sun Kewang stopped and said: "Father, we are still less than ten miles away from Qizhou, so we can order the entire army to extinguish the torches first."
Zhang Xianzhong ordered the entire army to dismount their horses and bind their hooves, put out the torches and then continue to advance.
He also sent envoys to contact the garrison in the city.
Although the Datong Army was said to be a siege, it was actually stationed in the north and south of Zhuhu Lake. There were many ships docked in the middle for communication. The place where the ships stopped was also Li Shizhen's tomb.
Lu Xiangsheng had guessed the direction of Zhang Xianzhong's surprise attack, but his marching route was contrary to Lu Xiangsheng's guess. It did not go around the east side of Chilong Lake, but around the more difficult but closer west side, causing Zhao Han's cavalry to attack
Wrong direction.
It's not a completely wrong direction. As long as it's stuck there, it can prevent Zhang Xianzhong from escaping eastward.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack! Light the beacon!"
About six miles northwest of Qizhou City, there is a camp on a small hill, where a thousand Datong peasants and soldiers are stationed.
Although Zhang Xianzhong hid himself well, his whereabouts were still exposed.
"At full speed!"
Zhang Xianzhong could only launch in advance, not caring about the camp at all, and the entire army rushed towards the main camp northeast of Qizhou City.
After the smoke from the camp rose, it had almost no effect, because it was night and the friendly troops several miles away could not be seen. They blew the trumpets and shouted, but it was also ineffective. This camp was used to spread news during the day.
However, they forced Zhang Xianzhong to speed up his march, and the rumble of horse hooves soon awakened Jiang Liang in the camp.
"Uu! Uu! Uu!"
A copper whistle sounded in the camp, and both peasants, soldiers and civilians quickly got up and rallied.
Many of the civilians here are farmers and soldiers themselves!
A surprise attack can be considered a surprise attack. Jiang Liang was caught off guard when he was killed. In his haste, he was unable to implement a perfect defense. Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong did not find out until he was thrown outside the camp.
The defenders in the city also rushed out to cooperate with Zhang Xianzhong in attacking the camp at night.
The North Camp was attacked, and there was another South Camp on the other side of the lake.
Yu Liangfu, the commander of the southern camp, quickly assembled his troops. Instead of taking a boat to rescue the friendly troops, he led 10,000 peasant soldiers and 10,000 farmers and ran directly to attack Jizhou City!
"Heroes, let's kill together!"
Zhu Hekun drew his sword and shouted, rushing towards Qizhou City like a madman.
This guy belonged to the clan of King Jing, and his father's title was General Zhenguo. Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to kill him. Most of King Jing's family was killed, and the rest fled.
Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong was not passing by, and did not burn down Prince Jing's Mansion, the Prince's Mansion, the Princess' Mansion, the General's Mansion, and the General's Mansion like in history.
Zhu Hekun is lucky. In Jiangxi, he was a target of suppression, but now he can lead the way for the Datong Army.
The fighting had already begun in the North Camp, and the soldiers in the South Camp raced against time. It took half an hour to finally rush to the gate of Qizhou City. Due to time constraints, they did not bring the kind of ladders with winches and hooks. They were all simple ladders that could be easily overturned.
Ladder.
The city wall of Qizhou is about 5.8 meters high. Since half of the troops were deployed out of the city to help Zhang Xianzhong in his night attack, there were only three thousand defenders left in the city.
The first wave of siege failed, and more than 400 Datong soldiers were killed or injured.
At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city.
How could the city closest to Zhao Han's territory not be made in detail?
"Kill the thief Zhang and welcome the King of Wu!"
"Kill the thief Zhang and welcome the King of Wu!"
The first to respond were the big households in the city. The land in Qizhou was so fertile that all their suburban properties had been robbed. They were often exploited when they lived in the city, and their lives were getting harder and harder day by day. Only by driving away Zhang Xianzhong could they be able to move forward.
live.
Since the day of the siege, Xiao Zuo has been linking up with the big players, and now he can finally take advantage of the opportunity to launch.
Moreover, these people did not go to the city wall to help, but ran in groups to attack the homes of the defenders. If they could not get in, they set fire to them. Once they got in, they were massacred, even the children were not spared.
The big businessmen had so much grudge against Zhang Xianzhong that Xiao Zuo could not control the situation at all.
Many city guards looked back and saw fire coming from the direction of their homes, and there were shouts of killing. They all wanted to go back to protect their families.
Finally, some of the city guards left the city wall without permission and ran madly towards their homes.
"Give back the lives of my family!"
Zhu Hekun, the eldest son of the general who ruled the country, was not a Datong army or even a Datong peasant soldier, but he spent his own money to make leather armor and rushed to the front with a waist knife.
His parents, brothers, wife and children were all killed by Zhang Xianzhong.
Zhu Hekun, who was wounded in the shoulder, suddenly turned over from the stomping mouth, and slashed with a knife with a ferocious expression. Seeing an enemy stabbing him, he suddenly bumped forward. After his waist was scratched, he fell to the ground with the enemy entangled in each other's arms.
More and more soldiers from Datong attacked the city tower, and more and more soldiers defending the city fled from the city wall.
After Yu Liangfu, the commander of the southern camp, stormed the city tower, he did not immediately enter the city to strangle the remaining soldiers. Instead, he ordered the entire army to shout together: "The world is unified, the world is unified!"
Direction of Beiying.
Zhang Xianzhong was already alarmed when he saw the fire in the city. Then he heard the shouts in the city. How could he not know that Qizhou City had been captured?
The Qizhou soldiers who came to help in the battle were all frightened. Their families were all in the city!
At this time, the sky was slightly bright, Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that his teeth itched, and he said in frustration: "Withdraw the troops!"
The night raid, with the help of the city defenders, left the Beiying Datong Army no more than ten minutes to assemble.
In such a short period of time, the Datong peasants and soldiers actually gathered together, and more than half of them reached the defensive position.
Such a situation was completely beyond Zhang Xianzhong's imagination, and he could not understand how the enemy army did it.
One of Li Zheng's regular divisions came to rescue in the end, although the rescue was too late.
"Bang bang bang!"
After a volley of gunfire, Zhang Xianzhong's infantry collapsed instantly. Because they lost the city, they were on the verge of collapse.
Zhang Xianzhong abandoned his infantry and headed west. Sun Kewang caught up with him and said, "Aren't we going east?"
Zhang Xianzhong said depressedly: "The enemy's reinforcements have arrived. Our plan has been seen through. There must be Zhao Han's cavalry blocking the way in the east."
Zhang Xianzhong led the cavalry back the same way, and then ran straight north. He had to wait for a while to see if he could find a place to cross the Qishui River. As long as he succeeded, he could help his elite infantry cross the river.
Li Zheng saw the corpses all over the camp and asked, "What's the loss?"
Jiang Liang said angrily: "There were thousands of casualties, and the number of those killed was estimated to be thousands. Several camps were breached, and the cavalry charged into the formation in a hurry."
The Datong army also gained something. Not only did they capture Qizhou City, they also obtained thousands of mules.
It was the mount of Zhang Xianzhong's mule team, carrying fire starters and a small amount of food. He planned to fight all the way to the Wujia Point, but he didn't expect that even the northern camp of Qizhou was not captured. In the end, all the thousands of mules were given to Zhao Han.
Zhao Han sent out a large number of sentry cavalry, looking for traces of Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry everywhere.
An entire day passed before news finally arrived that Zhang Xianzhong had crossed the Qishui River.
Zhao Han finally understood Yang Sichang's feelings. He was "spreading a net from ten sides". Every time the net was not even drawn, Zhang Xianzhong would already run away!
However, only the cavalry and horse teams could outrun Zhang Xianzhong's tens of thousands of infantry, grain and civilian men, all of which were chased by Zhao Han in the mountains.
Zhao Han deliberately pursued him lightly, hoping to lure Zhang Xianzhong back to rescue him.
He even deliberately allowed the enemy's infantry to regroup and flee, but Zhang Xianzhong just didn't show up and seemed to have really abandoned all his infantry.
Who the hell is this?
It would be absolutely impossible for Zhao Han to do such a thing. Even if there was only a glimmer of hope left, Zhao Han would fight for his life together with tens of thousands of infantry.
Lu Xiangsheng sighed: "Zhang Xianzhong will not come back. Let's annihilate all these enemy troops."
Lu Xiangsheng was also very depressed. He led his cavalry to intercept, but ended up blocking an empty space. He misjudged Zhang Xianzhong's marching route every time.
Regardless of Zhang Xianzhong's fighting ability, this guy's ability to escape is definitely an S-level god general.
To be honest, if Zhang Xianzhong were given 50,000 cavalry, he would probably be able to perform tricks and attack unexpectedly.
Zhao Han got on his horse and ordered: "Pursue at full speed and annihilate the enemy's infantry!"