Shi Dakai gave a low shout and immediately ordered: "There are enemy troops, Zeng Guofan's troops have appeared, retreat quickly." Shi Dakai turned around quickly and retreated quickly. In less than ten minutes, Shi Dakai came to the place where the army was resting, and shouted at the top of his lungs. He shouted: "Zhang Suimou, Zeng Guofan's army is approaching the mountains and forests, retreat, retreat immediately."
After Zhang Suimou heard this, he shuddered.
Zeng Guofan's army.
How could there be Zeng Guofan's army?
It's a pity that Zhang Suimou can no longer think too much.
He rolled his eyes and shouted: "Gather the order and retreat through the back mountain." As the saying goes, there are three cunning rabbit caves. When Shi Dakai placed his army here, he had already considered that if there was an enemy attack, there must be a way to retreat. Because the hiding place requires not only the road into the mountains and forests, but also the road to retreat.
The army gathered quickly. The soldiers took some dry food and some food and retreated quickly. As for the food stored in the mountains, it was impossible to take it away. Even Shi Dakai had no time for the soldiers to hide all the food, so he had to hurriedly Leave and run towards the back mountain.
One by one, the soldiers held weapons, carried food, clothing and other things on their backs, and walked quickly towards the back mountain.
Outside the mountain forest, after Li Zhen arrived with his army, he looked at the mountain forest with a smile on his face.
Li Zhen's eyes fell on the soldiers who had already ambushed outside the forest to find out the news, and asked: "Where is Liu Jintang?"
The soldier immediately replied: "Reporting to the prince, Brigadier Liu discovered that there is a road behind the mountain. Therefore, Brigadier Liu led the soldiers to the road behind the mountain to prevent Shi Dakai from retreating from the back mountain with his soldiers."
Li Zhen nodded and ordered: "Chase, let's enter the forest from the front to catch up."
Zeng Guofan's mind was spinning quickly and he suggested: "Your Majesty, if Shi Da drives away from the back mountain to break out, I'm afraid it will be difficult for Liu Jintang's soldiers to stop him. I think that at least one brigade of soldiers should be sent to the back mountain via the road outside the mountain to block it as much as possible. The road from the back mountain prevents Shi Dakai from leaving as much as possible."
"Yeah, it works."
Li Zhen waved his hand and ordered: "Just arrange for someone to go down."
Zeng Guofan immediately asked Zeng Guoquan to lead a brigade of soldiers to make a detour to block the way out of the back mountain.
At this time, Li Zhen led the soldiers into the forest from the front. Under the leadership of the soldiers who had discovered Shi Dakai's lair, the army rushed towards the position of Shi Dakai's army. After walking for about five minutes, gunfire rang out in the forest. When the news came out, Zeng Guofan's face changed drastically and he said: "Your Majesty, it's not good. Shi Dakai must have discovered us and withdrew his troops. He is now fighting Liu Jintang in the back mountain. I'm afraid Zeng Guofan's army is too late."
Li Zhen knew that time was urgent and ordered: "Quick, speed up."
Immediately, Li Zhen led his soldiers and ran all the way towards the back mountain. With the sound of gunfire, the birds inhabiting the mountain forest had already taken flight, and they all went to look for a resting place again. When Li Zhen's army arrived at the exit of the back mountain After that, only a dozen soldiers under his command were seen remaining, and there was no trace of the soldiers from a brigade led by Liu Jintang and Zeng Guoquan.
When the soldiers saw Li Zhen coming, they immediately ran over and reported: "Your Majesty, when Shi Dakai led his army to break through, we were too few in number and could not stop him. Therefore, Brigadier Liu chose to temporarily avoid the attack and let Shi Dakai lead his army to leave. Now, Brigadier Liu has led his army to follow Shi Dakai's army,"
Li Zhen waved his sleeves and ordered: "Keep chasing."
The whole army began to pursue.
On the way, the soldiers led by Li Zhen met up with the soldiers of Zeng Guoquan and Liu Jintang. They were unable to stop Shi Dakai's army and could only follow behind.
During the chase in the middle of the night, the army caught Shi Dakai's army by the tail and kept hanging behind it.
However, Shi Dakai also tried his best and asked his soldiers to run for their lives. Both sides ran hard, and the army led by Li Zhen found it difficult to catch up for a while. The two sides engaged in a chase, and Shi Da ran in front. , constantly ordered the soldiers to speed up, Chen Yucheng was in excellent physical strength, he followed up, ran beside Shi Dakai, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the soldiers are carrying food on their backs. This won't work. If it goes on for a long time, they will be chased. The one above must be abandoned now, lighten the burden, and escape first."
In the past, Chen Yucheng escaped from Nanjing and went to Sichuan to submit to Shi Dakai, who relied on him as his confidant.
Shi Dakai glanced around, saw the tired expressions of the soldiers, and nodded in agreement.
As a result, the soldiers who attacked the bandits left the food on their backs one by one and continued on their way. The speed of the bandits increased again, and was almost the same as the speed of the Qing army chasing behind them.
The whole night, the two sides spent the whole night chasing each other.
Early the next morning, Li Zhen finally gave the order to stop.
After not catching up all night, Li Zhen also secretly lamented the strength of Shi Dakai's army.
This Shi Dakai is indeed a strong man.
Zeng Guofan was breathing heavily, with a tired expression on his face. His eyes were full of weariness, but he was even more disappointed because after chasing him all night, he failed to catch up with Shi Dakai's army.
Li Zhen saw Zeng Guofan's expression and said with a smile: "Brother Bohan, when fighting the enemy, the most fearful thing is not to be able to find the opponent. Now that Shi Dakai has been caught by us, it will be much easier to operate. The day when Shi Dakai is defeated is just around the corner." "
Zeng Guofan said: "Your Majesty's words are right."
Zhang Zhidong continued: "Your Majesty, I think we should immediately mobilize the county magistrates of the surrounding counties and the prefects of each prefecture, and let the officials organize soldiers to intercept Shi Dakai. Although we do not expect these people to defeat Shi Dakai, we can use them to delay Shi Dakai. Considering Shi Dakai's speed and the investigation of Shi Dakai's whereabouts, if our own soldiers continue to encircle him, Shi Dakai will definitely be defeated."
Li Zhen said: "The suggestion is feasible and it is up to you to implement it yourself."
Zhang Zhidong replied: "Yes."
Li Zhen smiled slightly and added: "Let the soldiers under your command rest for a while. If they continue to endure it, they will definitely not be able to bear it. However, we must continue to inquire about Shi Dakai's movements."
Liu Jintang looked depressed and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I'm going."
Last night, Liu Jintang failed to stop Shi Dakai, and he held a breath in his heart. Even though he was very tired now, he wanted to explore Shi Dakai now, so he took the initiative to ask for a fight.
Li Zhen nodded in agreement, and Liu Jintang was responsible for chasing Shi Dakai.
…
Shi Dakai led the soldiers to get rid of the pursuit of Li Zhen's army. Every soldier shouted that he could not stand it. When someone was chasing him before, he ran away to save his life and did not feel tired. Now that there are no pursuers, the soldiers finally couldn't hold on. Shi Dakai ordered the soldiers to stop temporarily to rest and make some adjustments.
However, there is only half an hour of rest time.
The soldiers ate some dry food and continued on their way. A tiger was chasing behind them. Shi Dakai did not dare to be careless and could only continue to run forward. However, the question before Shi Dakai was which direction to go.
Heading north, west, or east.
Which direction to take is what Shi Dakai urgently needs to solve at the moment.
ps: Second update, call it a day, just two updates today.