Hui Wen and Bian Yujing went all the way south, changing into horses that had already been prepared many times along the way, and occasionally driving boats along the waterway, but the speed was extremely fast.

However, the pursuers behind them only brought two horses each, and they had to go around the river, so they were thrown away by the two before they could cross the river.

Until the sky was slightly bright, they fled to the meeting place agreed with the other Jinyi guards, but only saw Liu Hui and a young man covered in blood here.

Huiwen helped Bian Yujing off the horse, stepped forward and asked Liu Hui, "Lao Liu, what about the others?" ”

Liu Hui's eyes were full of grief, and his voice was hoarse: "Just the two of us have to get rid of ......"

The four of them all bowed their heads and fell silent, and after a while, Huiwen raised her head and said, "Let's return this matter to the imperial court first, and wait until we get to Nanjing." ”

Several people simply dealt with their injuries, changed their clothes, and rushed to the direction of Nanzhili non-stop.

On the way, Bian Yujing listened to what Liu Hui said, and realized that if it weren't for Yu Xuezhi's horse-drawn cart full of gunpowder that rushed into the brigade and ignited it last night, causing the enemy to fall into panic and confusion, they might not have been able to escape.

After making such a big move, they didn't dare to take the main road, and after walking along the Tang River for another half a day, Huiwen suddenly raised her hand to signal everyone to stop, and said in a deep voice: "There are twenty or thirty horsemen coming to us from the south. ”

They didn't dare to be careless, so they hurriedly hid in a dense forest next to them.

In a short time, more than twenty well-dressed captives whizzed past them half a mile to the east.

"Are you here to stop us?"

Liu Hui frowned and said, "No, these people are dressed like scouts of thieves. ”

"Scouts in a team of more than twenty?" Hui Wen was surprised, "Is there a big stream of tartars nearby?" ”

Usually only the Jianzhou soldiers, who numbered more than five or six thousand, would send such cavalry to scout in groups, which evolved from their "tradition" of raiding while scouting. In the case of Green Battalion soldiers, scouts are usually in groups of three to five.

Liu Hui made a quick decision, took the horses to the river to slaughter, and pushed the corpses into the Tang River - if the main force of Jianyu passed by, there would inevitably be a large number of reconnaissance cavalry around, covering a range of more than ten miles along the way, and it was very easy to collide with the enemy army if they fled rashly.

After disposing of the horses, they carefully searched for a mound overgrown with bushes and carefully concealed them.

Sure enough, after only one meal, several more groups of Jianyu scouts passed by. Hui Wen and the others lay dead in the bushes, and they didn't dare to come out.

Another hour or so, the rustling of footsteps mingled with the sound of rumbling horses' hooves, like the waves of the sea, stretching for miles.

Except for Bian Yujing, who had no experience in the army, the other three were all shocked, this movement was at least an army of tens of thousands of people.

It wasn't until it got dark that the tail of the team passed by them.

Liu Hui looked up through the night and saw a "fire dragon" winding towards the north, and there were many people and horses walking at night with torches.

He hurriedly shrank back and said in a low voice, "There are 20,000 thieves to say the least. ”

Bian Yujing doubted: "I heard that the thieves are confronting the army in the Huai River area, why are there so many soldiers and horses in Shandong, and they are rushing to the north?" ”

"There's got to be weird." Hui Wen pondered, "After dawn, we will go separately, and we will definitely pass back what we have seen here to the imperial court!" ”

……

Outside Sanyang Castle.

The camp of the Ming army.

Zhu Linmiao looked at Bian Yujing, who was covered in dust, and said, "Miss Bian is sure that there are more than 20,000 thieves going north?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, as far as Liu Qi said, the thief's torches stretch ten miles away, maybe thirty or forty thousand."

Zhang Jiayu on the side immediately bowed his hand and said: "Your Majesty, there are only 60,000 thieves on the north bank in total, and more than half of them are in Shandong at the moment, and they must be retreating in the north!" ”

Bian Yujing nodded and said: "It was already the fifth hour of that day, and Jian Yu was still walking with torches, which showed that he was in a hurry. ”

Zhu Linmiao asked her many details, and asked Shi Lin to take her to rest, and then said solemnly to the generals in the tent: "This time, fortunately, there was an army of captives and thieves in Beizhen, and most of Dolgon had fled.

"Can't wait for heavy artillery. The order was given, and the army immediately crossed the river and began to attack! ”

"Yes!" All the generals saluted in response, and then went out of their tents.

The battle plan had already been prepared, and at this time, there was no need for Zhu Linmiao to give more orders, and the main force of the entire Ming army moved quickly and orderly.

Zhu Linmiao drove his horse past the Ming army that was assembling on the shore and preparing to board the ship, shouting to boost morale, and everywhere he went, the soldiers shouted in response, "Long live my emperor!" ”

"Swear to destroy the thief!"

"Kill!"

In fact, Zhu Linmiao's position at this time was almost at the edge of the range of the enemy's heavy artillery, but he was still fearless, and walked two times in front of the Ming army.

It wasn't until he was sure that all the soldiers had seen his figure and heard his voice that he stopped, stood under the banner of the commander Zhang Jiayu, and stared at the frontal battlefield nearly ten miles wide.

Previously, the Ming army had been in a state of readiness for war, so only more than half an hour after receiving the order for a general attack, the first batch of river-crossing boats had already sailed towards the north bank.

In the middle of the 17th century, the Yellow River flowed into the sea through the Surabaya and Huai rivers. Due to the extremely large flow of the Yellow River, the relatively narrow lower reaches of the Huai River lead to sediment accumulation, forming an above-ground river.

Therefore, the current of the Huai River is very rapid and very easy to run aground, and the big boats of the sailors cannot enter at all, so they can only cross it with flat-bottomed sand boats and small boats that can only transport five or six people.

In addition, the embankment of the Huai River is higher than the surface on both banks, and the soldiers have to pass through the embankment more than ten zhang high to board and disembark, which is extremely troublesome.

This is also the reason why the Huai River has always been easy to defend and difficult to attack. In Chinese history, whether it was the Southern Expedition or the Northern Expedition, the Huai River was a hurdle that could never be bypassed.

At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty was able to resist the invasion of the north and protect the country for more than 100 years because of its dedication to the defense line of Xiangyang and Huaihe.

It was only during the Hongguang Dynasty that the warlords of the four towns had their own ghosts, and Shi Kefa, who did not know how to use soldiers, coordinated the army, which led to the fact that there was no decent battle on the Huaihe front, so it was handed over to Jianyu. Otherwise, the Huai River alone would be enough to hold the Qing army for decades.

It was Zhu Linmiao who was also extremely worried about this battle of crossing the river, and if Jianyu resisted frantically, although with the combat strength of the Dragon Guard, it was almost impossible to lose in the face of an enemy with a close number, but it was bound to suffer great casualties.

However, the Huai River is a very important strategic location.

After seizing the Huai River, the attack is the North China Plain, which can be killed all the way to Beijing. Defend the Huai River, as long as it is operated properly, it is difficult to break through even a million army. Of course, in its current form, the meaning of keeping does not exist for the time being.

It was very far from what Zhu Linmiao and all the generals of the General Staff Department had expected, there was no heavy artillery fire on the north bank, but the Ming soldiers on the ferry kept firing at the earthen wall built by the Jianyu, so that the enemy could not raise his head at all.