At this time, a large number of cavalrymen who had fled back came to Tian Jianxiu with a sad face, and he wept silently to report to him about the cruel battle situation. Tian Jianxiu frowned and listened, let out a long sigh, waved his hand, and signaled that he didn't have to say any more.

He silently looked east for a long time, his face was blue, and his heart was like a knife. In a pair of blood-red eyes, there were tears flashing.

What a tragic failure, just like this, it is really humiliating to see it happen in front of me!

More than 30,000 troops, the whole army was wiped out, only a few thousand people fled back, and a cronie general was also folded, such a defeat can be said to be the most tragic defeat since he led the army independently.

Tian Jianxiu didn't have time to taste more bitterness and sorrow, so he quickly thought of a more important and urgent question.

That is, now that the elite is gone, the rest of the more than 100,000 people in the Shun army camp outside Jintang City are even more unusable recruits who have no battlefield experience.

Moreover, the Tang army had just won the battle, and it was precisely because of its morale that it was like a rainbow, and there was no reason to retreat and return to the city. The soldiers are sharp, and they have extremely powerful artillery to attack the city, they will definitely continue to make persistent efforts, and the troops will continue to attack their camps in the east and south of the city. There is a way that it is advisable to chase after the poor and not wipe out all the remaining more than 100,000 recruits under his own command, and the Tang army will not be willing.

In contrast, they were defeated in the first battle, and the Qing army in the north had been completely wiped out by the Tang army, and it was impossible for them to come to their aid. If you want to resist, I am afraid that the whole army will die in the camp, and no one will be able to escape.

Now the Tang Army outside is still cleaning up the battlefield, this can be called the last chance, so what should I do now?

Extremely painful in his heart, he pondered for a long time, and finally made a difficult decision.

That is, in order to keep these remaining troops, the only thing I can do now is to immediately lead them, abandon the camp and flee south, which is the only feasible strategy.

Of course, such an emergency evacuation will inevitably lose a large amount of money and food in the camp, and the Tang army will definitely pursue and kill with all its strength when it sees its own troops fleeing in a swarm.

As for after escaping, because he abandoned the camp and the soldiers suffered heavy losses, Li Zicheng wanted to ask what he wanted, but now, he really can't care so much.

Alas, it is not possible to hold the camp, and it is also a painful decision to escape.

It's just that now I have no other choice?

Tian Jianxiu gritted his teeth fiercely, and finally ordered in a deep voice: "If the order goes down, the whole army will immediately abandon the camp and retreat south with all its might." Don't be entangled with the Tang Army, how much can be withdrawn. ”

"Zehou, this ......"

"Don't go yet!"

"Order!"

Soon, under this order, the Shun army camps in the east and south of the city were like boiling water, and a large number of Dashun soldiers rushed out of the door as if they had loose stool pulled out of the anus, and immediately rushed south to withdraw.

They withdrew in a hurry, and many of them did not even bring weapons and armor, hoping to escape as soon as possible to avoid being pursued by the Tang army. The entire team fleeing south was in a chaotic manner, and there was no order at all.

As the main general, Tian Jianxiu, surrounded by hundreds of elite escort cavalry, took the lead in retreating from the back gate of the camp in the east of the city, and was soon drowned in the torrent of Shun's southward flight.

Seeing that the Dashun army did not close the camp and fight a decisive battle as imagined, but retreated to the south, the Tang army's commanders Duan Shidi and Liu Wenxiu were quite surprised, but they reacted quickly and knew that the Shun army was going to abandon the camp and escape, so they immediately ordered that all the cavalry in the soldiers and horses in the two towns should hurry out and chase and kill the deserters of the Dashun army all the way.

At the same time, he ordered the Tang infantry to rush to the large camps in the east and south of the city of the Dashun army at full speed, and take over the affairs of their camps as soon as possible, so as to prevent the money, grain, and baggage that the Dashun army could not take away from being destroyed by the enemy.

The auxiliary soldiers in the soldiers and horses of the two towns followed the Tang cavalry and prepared to capture the surrendered soldiers and horses of the Shun army all the way in the next.

The arrangements were set, and the whole army immediately began to act. As far as the eye can see, the enemy troops that have fled south are like floods that have opened the floodgates, and they are fleeing southward in an endless and disorderly manner.

The cavalry of the Tang Army, which numbered more than 6,000 people, chased and chased all the way.

The Tang army pursued and killed with all their might, but the Dashun army, which fled south with more than 100,000 people, no longer had the slightest fighting spirit, and was like a group of wild boars in the vast wilderness, and wanted to escape as soon as possible, and had no intention of resisting the battle at all.

And in the Dashun army here, Tian Jianxiu, who is the main general in the army, is the one who escapes the fastest.

Surrounded by hundreds of elite guards, he was surrounded by another layer of cavalry that had previously broken back, and a large group of cavalry rumbled and fled all the way south, leaving the entire army behind.

The coach took the lead in escaping, and the soldiers and horses of his own country who followed behind were even more deflated, and there was no longer the slightest spirit to fight. Many people wailed and abandoned their weapons and armor, just hoping to escape from the pursuit of the Tang army as soon as possible.

One side fled, the other side chased fiercely, and the entire huge wilderness became a place for the Tang army to slaughter to their heart's content, and the Shun army that fled all over the slopes was like a cow, sheep, pig and dog that fled frantically, appointing the Tang army to chase and kill and hack to death, and there was no possibility of saving their lives at all.

What's even more terrifying is that in such a scattered rout, even if there were sporadic Shun soldiers who wanted to surrender, they were immediately killed by the red-eyed Tang soldiers, cut or stabbed, and killed on the spot, without mercy.

It's just that the two-legged infantry, how can they outrun the four-legged cavalry, and the soldiers of the Shun army who are desperately running away, constantly wailing and falling under the sabers and guns of the Tang army. In the end, the Shun army, which numbered about tens of thousands of people, was interspersed with the cavalry of the Tang Army, cutting off all retreats, and they were about to be surrounded and killed.

Of course, this group of people understood their own fate, and it was impossible to sit still, so they knelt on the ground one after another, kowtowing in the face of the cold blades of the Tang army approaching more and more, and begged to surrender.

In the end, fortunately, the commander of the Tang Army, Duan Shidi, gave them an order to stop the killing in time before the Tang cavalry attacked, so that a large number of Tang Army auxiliaries who came later surrendered to the Shun army of tens of thousands.

As far as the eye can see, on the entire battlefield, the routs are surging like a tide, and the Tang army is like an arrow rampage, killing corpses all over the field, blood flowing all over the ground, dead people and dead horses are everywhere, and it is shocking at a glance.

And the rest of the soldiers and horses of the Shun army who are still running desperately, all their thoughts now are to chase and kill as soon as possible before the Tang cavalry arrives. Come to the south of the river.

They know that it is the late autumn season, the north is dry and rainless, the south river has reached the dry season, and the water in the riverbed is limited, so it is advantageous for them to cross the river quickly.

On the contrary, because of the complex terrain of the Nanhe riverbed and many sharp stones, the cavalry of the Tang army would definitely not pursue their own tail title out of consideration for their mounts, so that they would have a chance to escape.

This humble and pitiful dream became their only wish when they were out of breath and their lungs were about to explode.

After nearly half an hour of hard running, more than 100,000 Dashun troops ran here, and only more than 60,000 people remained. The rest of the men and horses either ran to death or were killed on the road, or became prisoners of the Tang army and were escorted back to Jintang City.

Without hesitation, these soldiers and horses immediately stumbled into the Nanhe, where the water level had dropped a lot, and ran to the opposite bank with all their might.

In order to cross the river as soon as possible, almost all the Dashun soldiers threw their armor and weapons on the north bank of the Nanhe River, and then spread their feet and ran or swam south, not daring to stop at all.

Among them, Rao is now shallow water, but there are still at least a thousand physically exhausted Dashun soldiers, who fell into the river and could not lie down, and they were drowned, like floating dead fish, rushed downstream by the river in an uproar.

However, the judgment of these Shun soldiers was accurate, the Tang army chased here, tentatively stepped on the riverbed, found that there were strange rocks inside, sharp stones are very many, they are worried about damaging the horse's hooves, and they really no longer pursue, so that those panicked Dashun soldiers are at peace in their hearts, and they are speeding up more and more to run to the other side, and finally escape from the tiger's mouth, and get out of danger.

After crossing the river, the commander of the Shun army, Tamihide, reined in the horse's hooves and shouted loudly to collect the remaining soldiers and horses that had crossed the river, and in the end, after some busyness, he received less than 60,000 men.

At this moment, his heart was full of sadness.

It's hateful, after most of the 150,000 troops fought and retreated, only less than 60,000 people were able to escape, and the rest of the nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses were all lost outside Jintang City, or were killed or wounded, and there was no survivor.

In addition to the loss of personnel, up to now, almost all kinds of ordnance and baggage, as well as weapons and armor, have been lost in the whole army. Now there are less than 60,000 people, which is about the same as a defenceless rabble.

It is not an exaggeration to say that such a war situation is a fiasco.

Maybe the next self, after returning to the capital with his troops, must think carefully about how to report to Li Zicheng, so as to barely escape the crime of losing the army and losing the battle, and being finally beheaded.

Tian Jianxiu sighed, shook his head, pulled Ma Nan and left, the group of cavalry followed him closely, and then, there were a group of people who followed closely with their heads down.

When the Shun army was in a hurry and rolled south, the Tang army had finished cleaning up the entire battlefield, and the whole battlefield was full of joy and thunder.

Duan Shidi, the commander of the Tang Army, listened to the civil official report of the Supervision and Fu Department with a proud face. In this battle, in addition to the fleeing and missing Shun troops, a total of more than 15,800 soldiers and horses of the Shun army were killed, and more than 62,000 enemy troops were captured. In addition, the camps in the east and south of the city of the Shun army all fell into the hands of the Tang army completely, and countless ordnance, grain and grass were captured, which can be described as a hearty victory.

After listening to the civil official's report, Duan Shidi's face was proud. He then thought that Fang had captured more than 10,000 Qing soldiers and horses, and also captured a lot of Qing army ordnance and baggage.

In a happy mood, he immediately reported this rare victory to Li Xiaofei, the king of Tang, and at the same time, in the letter, asked Li Xiao for instructions on what he should do next.

Three days later, Li Xiao received a letter from Duan Shidi in Nanjing, and after reading the contents of the letter, he was overjoyed.

Okay, now that the siege of Jintang City has been solved, the Tang army has successively eliminated 40,000 Qing troops and 150,000 Shun troops outside the city, breaking the siege in one fell swoop, and also beheading the main generals of the Qing army, Abatai and Turge, and seizing countless ordnance and baggage.

Li Xiao was excited and paced back and forth in the room. He thought to himself, now that the siege of Jintang City is lifted, the soldiers and horses in Jintang City are like fierce beasts that have released a cage, and they want to wave their sharp and terrifying claws around to fight for more and bigger territory for themselves.

Li Xiao immediately called his two most trusted military advisors, Jiang Yueguang and Chen Zilong, over to discuss how to let the soldiers and horses of Jintang City act next.

Soon, Chen Zilong and Jiang Yueguang hurriedly came to the Qianqing Palace. After Li Xiao circulated Duan Shidi's letter to the two, he said: "Two, now that the siege of Jintangcheng has been lifted, in the opinion of the two of them, how should our army act next?" ”

Chen Zilong and Jiang Yueguang looked at each other, and Jiang Yueguang took the lead in saying: "King Tang, according to the following, now that the siege of Jintang City has been lifted and the main force of the Shun army has been defeated, then our army will be able to sweep the entire Xuanfu Town next, and it will be an inevitable trend!" If the scope of concern is too wide, and there is fear that the Shun army will come to help, then our army should at least recapture the entire Xuanfu North Road, and then take the opportunity to go south and expand its power to the entire Xuanfu Town. ”

Listening to Jiang Yueguang's words, Li Xiao was silent, but looked at Chen Zilong, who was also silent.

Chen Zilong saw Li Xiao's gaze looking at him, so he arched his hand and said: "King Tang, from the point of view, Jiang Zan's strategy is very reasonable. However, I thought that it was inevitable for our army to reoccupy the entire Xuanfu North Road. But if you want to march into the entire Xuanfu Town, you don't have to rush at this time. From the following point of view, after our army broke the siege of Jintang City, the most important thing is to find a way to connect with the main forces of our army, instead of continuing to make Jintang City and even the entire Xuanfu North Road lonely and unable to rescue. ”

Chen Zilong's words made Li Xiao's eyes light up, and he asked urgently: "Wozi, then in your opinion, my Jintangcheng soldiers and horses, how to act next, is it appropriate?" ”

Chen Zilong's eyes were blazing, he walked quickly to the map on the wall, pointed to the direction of Shanhaiguan, and said loudly to Li Xiao: "King Tang, I think that the next priority of our army is to use troops from Jintang City to the east, and take advantage of the enemy's lack of strength to quickly open the passage from Jintang City to Shanhaiguan, this matter is the most important." ”

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