Chapter 63: The Chief is gone
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The east has turned white, and it is the early morning. The cold mist envelopes outside the city of Peiping. The fighting in the daytime has subsided, leaving only a hint of painful moans in the darkness. The smell of smoke and blood in the air remained in the mist overnight.
Suddenly, a shout came from the official camp: "The general is gone!"
The soldiers were shocked and searched everywhere in the headquarters. Soon after, the generals of various battalions rushed to the central army one after another. Where could they find the commander Li Jinglong?
The generals looked at each other, all stunned in the tent, and did not know how to do it for a moment. At this time, a general said in a deep voice: "The General is probably running away overnight..."
The tent suddenly became an uproar, and in a short while, several generals hurriedly lifted the oil cloth without saying a word. Only then did the people come to their senses and rush to leave the central army...
Before dawn, the sound of horse hooves and the noise of horses and the noise of horses came soon on the plains. The generals of the government and army were retreating south in panic.
In less than two incense sticks, the vast army of officials seemed to have agreed and rushed around. Hundreds of thousands of people ran on the plain, and the formation was earth-shaking! Tents, weapons, armor, weapons... countless supplies were thrown everywhere. At this time, the troops were like they were in a competition, just focusing on running in front...
The men and horses that ran first were very wise. The Yan cavalry inside and outside the city quickly chased out. The first one was that they ran slowly and fell behind the officials and soldiers!
...Zhu Gaoxu was suddenly woken up by someone. The prince sent someone over and ordered him to take the cavalry out of the city immediately. Zhu Gaoxu asked about the situation and quickly got up. Fortunately, he and the soldiers slept last night and didn't even take off their armor. At this time, he got up and brought weapons, and he could quickly lead the horse to gather.
The troops rode to Lizheng Gate and saw that the city gate had opened, a large number of infantry and cavalry were rushing out of the city, even the infantry had gone out!
Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to the city gate, and rushed forward with a look at the gap, and shouted his troops out of the city. At this time, there were torches everywhere outside the city, with noisy people and horses, and the situation was surging. The horse's hooves from far and near were roaring like thunder from the horizon.
Soon, Zhu Gaoxu and other soldiers rushed through the official camp one after another. When he looked at the fire, he saw that the camp was in a mess, as if an earthquake had just happened. All kinds of things were thrown everywhere, and military flags with the word "Ming" written on it were thrown on the ground, allowing horse hooves to trample on them repeatedly.
Zhu Gaoxu didn't come back to his senses for a moment. It took a moment to confirm that the official army had fled...
It turns out that the war can be like this? It changes too quickly! The two sides fought happily some time ago, but although there were round trips, it was very difficult... Unexpectedly, Zhu Gaoxu got up and the situation changed drastically! The army, known as 500,000 people, collapsed overnight.
He didn't have to think too much and led the cavalry to pursue the south until dawn.
During this period, they did not encounter a decent battle. The soldiers only slashed and shot arrows behind the defeated army, and then rushed up to cut the head with a knife.
"Ah! Ah..." Not far away, a sergeant screamed louder than killing a pig. When Zhu Gaoxu looked back, he saw a cavalry dismounted, holding a knife and saw the sergeant's neck, and the sergeant was not dead yet... Zhu Gaoxu was also shocked when he saw that scene.
"Give up your life! Jun Ye, I have an old mother, wife and children in my family...ah!" Another kowtowed soldier was stabbed in the back of the neck, and the man lay on the ground, crawling forward with his hands and feet. With a "bang", the man was shot in the back of his head, and the man lay on the ground and stopped moving.
The chaotic pursuit continued until the morning. Zhu Gaoxu ordered to stop and rest. When he looked back, he saw that the soldiers were covered with heads on the horse's back! Everyone was covered in blood, which was simply terrible!
Everyone was so concerned about picking up anything, just cutting the head... because the head level can be exchanged for rewards! And it is clear and real price.
Soon, a small group of armored soldiers rushed over, one of them waved the flag in his hand and shouted: "The King of Yan is ordered, the official army is defeated and the troops are heading towards Cangzhou, and the troops are chasing towards Cangzhou!"
Zhu Gaoxu responded: "I understand, follow the orders of the father!"
At this moment, Chen Dachui said in his voice: "Prince, why don't we find a place first, hide these heads, and come back before taking them?"
"Okay." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. Anyway, the reward was not something he had to pay, so he had to find a way to the Prince of Yan's mansion. He had no interest in killing the defeated soldiers of the Ming army, but it was not easy for the soldiers to make money.
The soldiers chose a place to dig holes, hid the heads first, and then followed Zhu Gaoxu to continue south.
The scene along the way was extremely terrifying. Zhu Gaoxu had the illusion of traveling to a zombie movie. There were headless corpses everywhere on the road, with flesh and internal organs visible everywhere, just like hell on earth.
Looking back on the cruel battle in Peiping City a while ago, after fighting for so long, the number of deaths that was probably less than one-tenth of the dead in the early morning to the present!
Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but sigh: "Fighting in the battle formation is not terrible, what is really terrible is being chased after defeat!"
"What the prince said is very true." The generals agreed.
The next day, Zhu Gaoxu led his army to the city of Cangzhou. Unexpectedly, it was too late. The Yan army's flag had already been planted on the city tower of Cangzhou. There were still countless corpses inside and outside the city gate, most of which had no heads.
The pace of the war suddenly accelerated, and Zhu Gaoxu felt a little uncomfortable for a moment. Every time he went there, he found that he had finished the battle, and almost just followed him.
At this moment, another soldier ran over, looked at the military flag behind Zhu Gaoxu, and said, "The King of Yan, the generals headed towards Dezhou by cameras, and the remnants of the official army headed towards Dezhou!"
"I understand, follow the orders of the father!" Zhu Gaoxu responded again.
The troops chased all the way, but at this time they were exhausted. Zhu Gaoxu discussed with several generals for a while, and no matter how many, he decided to find a place to station in Cangzhou first, feed the horses, and rest for a night before talking.
I only slept for one night. The next morning, Zhu Gaoxu had just rectified his troops and set off, but was told that the people who were still near Cangzhou would not have to go to Dezhou again...
...
Ten days later, all the people returned to Beiping City. The generals celebrated the achievements at the Yan King's Mansion, and the mansion was very lively. In the seats in the front hall, Fang Kuan and other generals were added to the seats in the front hall.
This battle was indeed an unprecedented victory! The official army claimed to be a 500,000 army, but was defeated, with more than half of the casualties and injuries. The bodies covered the road from Peiping to Dezhou.
The strength of the King of Yan was not weakened by the war, but instead soared to nearly 200,000!
At the banquet in the front hall, Zhu Neng drank wine and grinned and shouted: "Li Jinglong led his troops, and we were really going to laugh to death! We had just had a fierce battle in Zhengcunba that day. Although we defeated the governor of the official army, Chen Hui, and won, our family also suffered heavy casualties... At that time, we were approaching Beiping City. We thought the battle the next day would be even more tragic, but hahaha... cough cough cough!"
Zhu Neng choked on a sip of wine and coughed up tears. While gasping, he continued to be excited with a red face, "Unexpectedly, Li Jinglong actually ran away overnight! Escape!"
After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu stared at Zhu Neng.
Suddenly, the front hall burst into laughter, and the generals were about to overturn the table. Zhang Yu stroked his thick beard and said with a smile: "It's really unheard of. The current coach escaped first in the battle. I've fought for so many years and it's the first time I've met you."
At this moment, Yao Guangxiao, wearing a cassock, entered, stood beside the King of Yan and said, "King Yan, after the banquet, please come inside and talk about the important things?"
The King of Yan looked slightly and nodded, "We will talk in another place later."
Soon after, the King of Yan got up and left the seat, and then the prince, Zhu Gaoxu and a group of generals were called over. The group came out from the back door of the hall and arrived in another house.
When Yao Guangxiao came in, he immediately spoke: "Your Majesty is happy to receive the Daning army. However, if it were not for Li Jinglong's commander, the Your Majesty would not have been so easy!"
The generals agreed.
Yao Guangxiao said: "I have received some news from the capital today. The fact that the army despises Li Jinglong has reached the emperor's ears..."
Everyone suddenly became quiet, but Zhu Neng accidentally burped, which sounded particularly harsh.
Yao Guangxiao continued: "The official army lost hundreds of thousands of troops in this battle, but the court has strong strength and has not been completely defeated. If Li Jinglong can continue to be the commander, it will be more beneficial to the prince! Therefore, in the future, all the officials should laugh at him a little, but they should look for his strengths more so that the emperor can rest assured when he hears it."
A general said in surprise: "Li Jinglong can still be the commander of the official army after this defeat?"
"It's hard to say." Yao Guangxiao said thoughtfully.
At this time, King Yan said, "We have joked about Li Jinglong several times, but there are no outsiders here, how can the emperor know?"
Yao Guangxiao said in a deep voice: "There are spies inside."
Everyone started to mutter and looked back. But the people here were all those who followed the king of Yan when he first started his rebellion. Who would be a spy?
For a moment, everyone shook their heads and refused to believe it. Even Zhu Gaoxu felt that at least these generals were unlikely to be spies, and even Yao Guangxiao and other strategists were unlikely to be.
Zhu Gaoxu casually said, "Can they be from the Yan Prince's Mansion?"
All the generals agreed, "King Gaoyang is right, who would betray the King of Yan?"
The King of Yan had a calm face and said nothing.
After a while, the King of Yan relaxed his eyebrows and said, "Forget it, we will celebrate today. We will not talk about this matter. Then, as Daoyan said, I will not mention Li Jinglong in the future."
Everyone clasped their fists and said, "I will obey the order!"
King Yan slapped his hands on the armrest of the chair, and the man stood up, "It's gone, if you want to drink, go to the front hall to continue drinking."
"Greatly send me off to the prince." The generals said.
At this victory celebration banquet, there were bold laughter everywhere. Only this episode added a hint of gloom to the festive scene.
...
After the banquet, Zhu Gaoxu also returned to his prince's mansion to rest.
It is nearly the end of this year, and the first year of Jianwen is about to pass. Peking is very cold and the outside is covered with snow. In such weather, there may not be any wars in the near future.
Chapter completed!