But Chen Keqiao wanted to fight, but Hong Linquan didn't want to fight, when he learned from the scout that the Jingzhou defenders were caught up by the main force of the puppet Tang thief army, and a battle broke out, he really wanted to speed up and rush over and defeat this pseudo-Tang thief army with the Jingzhou defenders.

But what he didn't expect was that the Jingzhou defenders could not support his arrival at all, although it was said that it was delayed for more than an hour, but in fact this was not the time of the two sides, but the time when each other moved their formations, if the time of the real battle was calculated, the Jingzhou defenders actually failed to hold on for two quarters of an hour and collapsed on the whole line.

The Jingzhou defenders were all defeated, and if he stepped forward again, then the risk would be too great, because the reconnaissance cavalry reported that the losses of the puppet Tang thief army were very small, because the Jingzhou defenders collapsed too quickly, and they failed to cause any casualties to the puppet Tang at all.

In addition, it is very important that if you rush over in such a hurry, it is very likely that you will bump into the puppet Tang thief army that has already finished resting.

On one side is the own army that has been running for more than 20 miles in a row and has not much physical strength left, and on the other side is the pseudo-Tang thief army that has rested for several hours.

Don't say anything else, just talk about the physical fitness of the soldiers on both sides, that is, it is no longer on the same order of magnitude.

Therefore, he decisively chose to suspend the pace of the march, and after a short time, the troops simply ordered the troops to stop the march, because it was about three o'clock in the afternoon.

According to the normal long march, it is almost time to build a camp and set up camp.

That's right, when ancient armies were on the march, they often stopped their marches and stationed them very early, because they needed to leave enough time to build their camps.

In the wilderness, there is no stable camp, and if a small enemy army of thieves comes to disturb it, it may cause the camp to be bombed.

From ancient times to the present, I don't know how many times there have been cases where the camp was attacked by the enemy because of the instability of the camp, so any qualified ancient general, when marching every day, the first thing to consider is to choose a suitable place to camp and build a stable camp.

The Ming army chose to build a camp and did not come, Chen Keqiao naturally would not be stupid to lead the troops to take the initiative to run over, it is now close to evening, and if he leads the army to run over, it will be night, and there will be no battle at all.

Since the Ming army did not come, he naturally chose to retreat, and he was ready to retreat all the way to the outside of Jingzhou City!

He chose to go outside Jingzhou City, but not to attack Jingzhou City, although most of the defenders in Jingzhou City have attacked and been defeated by themselves, there will be at least thousands of defenders left in the city.

And the battle has always been more troublesome, Chen Keqiao didn't want to be killed from behind by the Ming army from Xingquan Mansion when attacking Jingzhou City.

The reason why he chose to go to Jingzhou was because no matter which direction the Ming army behind him went, it would always go to Jingzhou City, otherwise they would starve to death.

Because he had already cut off the grain supply of the Ming army in Xingquan Mansion for seven or eight days, he didn't believe that the defenders in Xingquan Mansion could eat food for several months, and the grain stored in the army could eat for half a month.

The Ming army is short of food, this is for sure, if they want to get food, they must get it from Jingzhou City, so no matter what happens in the end, if these Ming troops want to open up supply lines to get food, they have to go to Jingzhou City in short.

What he wants to go is to go outside the city of Jingzhou to wait for work, and intercept the reinforcements of Yuxingquan Mansion under the city of Jingzhou!

He didn't dare to go a few days ago, because there were still 10,000 defenders in Jingzhou City at that time, but after today's battle, the defenders in the city were only a few thousand at most, and he was already not afraid of falling into the state of being caught between the front and back.

Before Chen Keqiao ordered the troops to retreat, the Fourth Army had basically completed the cleaning of the battlefield, and all kinds of weapons and ordnance left by the armies on both sides had been put away, in addition to a large amount of food.

This batch of grain was originally brought out by the Jingzhou defenders, and in addition to serving as rations for their headquarters, it was also used to receive reinforcements from Xingquan Mansion.

The reinforcements on the Xingquan Mansion side have already cut off the supply line, and it is not only the Ming army that is still staying in Xingquan Mansion who has run out of food, but also the fifteen thousand rations under Hong Linquan's hands are also very little, at most it is only enough for three or four days to eat, so the Jingzhou defenders need to carry a large amount of military rations.

Today, all this grain is in the hands of the Fourth Army.

Hong Lin's entire department can only look at the dwindling grain and worry, whether he wants it or not, he must go to Jingzhou, otherwise, let alone open up the supply line, his army will be directly out of food.

So early the next morning, Hong Linquan once again led his troops eastward into Jingzhou, and early in the morning he had already received a report from the reconnaissance cavalry, saying that the puppet Tang thief army was also heading eastward towards Jingzhou.

"Damn, these thieves are afraid that they are going to stop us!" Hong Linquan felt more and more that the situation was not good.

It was as if he saw a big net coming towards him, and this big net was a lack of food!

But although there is obviously a big net waiting for him, but he also has to rush forward, although if he goes to fight, it is possible to fail, but if he does not go to Jingzhou, the whole army will definitely collapse because of lack of food, not the main force on the Xingquan Mansion side will collapse because of lack of food, but his army will collapse first.

Because when they first set out, considering that after the reinforcements returned to Jingzhou, they could get the grain and grass supplies from Jingzhou, so the food they brought was not much, only the basic rations of the army, which could generally meet the needs of seven or eight days, and the saved food was left for the Xingquan Mansion side, because the defenders on the Xingquan Mansion side needed to hold on for a longer time and had a greater demand for food.

Now the puppet Tang thief army is blocked at the gate of Jingzhou City, if you don't go to fight, it will collapse in a few days because of lack of food, these two days he has already ordered to start reducing the soldiers' rations to save food, but there is only so much food, and the continuous march is extremely physical consumption of the soldiers, and this lack of food can not march quickly.

So even if he knew that it was dangerous to go to Jingzhou now, he had to go!

Besides, if he goes to Jingzhou, he will not necessarily fail, and when the time comes, he can still unite with the defenders in Jingzhou to carry out front and rear attacks, although the defenders on the Jingzhou side have lost a large part, but there should still be thousands of people.

At that time, the sum of the two will be 20,000 people, even if the real thief of the pseudo-Tang thief army is powerful, his 20,000 people will not be without the strength of a battle, and he does not require to be able to defeat the thief army, as long as he can rush into the city, then it will be considered to achieve the strategic goal.

As for how to open up the grain road in the future, that is a matter for the future, anyway, he can't manage so much now.

With this mentality, Hong Lin was quite helpless to continue to move forward with the army, and the speed was not slow!

By the time he arrived the next day, he had already led his troops to a place about five miles outside Jingzhou City!

When he led the army to arrive outside Jingzhou City, Chen Keqiao had already led the troops to prepare for battle!

Naturally, there is nothing to say next, one side wants to stop the Ming army from entering the city, the other side is to rush in, and no one dares to back down, in this case, a big war is naturally inevitable.

This battle can be described as quite tragic, Hong Linquan was already fully prepared before the attack, knowing that the pseudo-Tang thief had sharp weapons, he had prepared many things that could defend against guns and bullets, such as heavy wooden shields and shield cars.

He even deliberately let some lightly armed cannon fodder soldiers attract the gun and artillery fire of the Tang army, and then let the elite troops under his command launch an attack, trying to defeat the opponent in hand-to-hand combat.

But what he didn't know was that although the Tang Dynasty was famous for its sharp firearms, in fact, guns were not their main means of killing, and the real means of killing was hand-to-hand combat.

The bayonet is red, this is the Tang Dynasty's best trick to defeat opponents in the past!

When Hong Linquan paid a heavy price and let the elite hand-to-hand soldiers rush to the front of the puppet Tang thief army, the soldiers were already brandishing long knives and spears and preparing to inflict a heavy wound on these puppet Tang thief army on the opposite side.

The musketeers of the Tang Dynasty and the artillery of the shotguns on the front line also fired the last salvo, and the lethality of this last salvo almost exceeded the sum of the previous rounds of volleys.

And then the old grenadiers throwing grenades!

There are two grenadier teams directly under the Fourth Army, and the grenadiers are the most elite infantry in the Tang Dynasty's division, all of them are strong and strong, and their courage is much better than that of ordinary musketeers.

But now, Chen Keqiao decisively ordered two grenadier teams to come forward and drop bombs and join the battle.

As the grenadiers threw the bombs, the Ming troops on the opposite side fell again in pieces!

At this time, the officers at all levels on the front line were already holding their command knives high in unison, shouting: "The whole army charges!" ”

Launching a counter-charge after firing a salvo and dropping bombs is also an old routine of the Tang Dynasty in a frontal decisive battle, and almost every large-scale field battle, especially this kind of frontal decisive battle in which the two sides line up in formation, will be used almost every time.

The reason why I use it every time is because it works well!

This tactic is almost impossible for the Ming army to defend effectively!

The Ming soldiers who rushed up in the front platoon were put into one piece by a volley of muskets, and then put into one piece by grenades, the formation of the front line was almost full of holes, and more importantly, the morale fell seriously.

After a counter-charge, there was no complete Ming army array in sight on the entire battlefield, and instead of the Ming army routs that were almost all over the mountains, and the dead and wounded on both sides who were also lying in the wilderness!

Hong Linquan, who was in the rear, looked at the routs of his own troops all over the mountains and the pseudo-Tang thief army rushing over like a sea of mountains in front of him!

The mouth muttered: "It's over, it's all over!"