After three battles and three victories, Yu Shizhong did not hesitate to order a retreat. The officers and soldiers of the C Brigade withdrew to Yumeng Mountain behind the Song family's nest building, and Yu Shizhong prepared to fight an ambush battle. In order to prevent the Qing army from discovering it, the C Brigade did not light a fire and bury the stove, but the officers and soldiers ate dry food with cold water.

After sending several groups of probes to determine the disappearance of the Ming army's retreat, he reported the situation to the line Guoan on the one hand, and on the other hand, he ordered Liu Desheng, the deputy general of the left wing, and Qi Wannian, the commander of the Han Army, to be the vanguard, and the whole section led the battalion soldiers and the generals Zhou Guoding and Lu Sanxiang in the center, and Xu Tianyou, Tong Zhengliang and other troops in the rear, and more than 14,000 troops from all departments to search and advance to the north.

Regardless of whether the Taiping army under the banner of "Qi" was a reorganized Qi army, the whole festival could not allow him to retreat so safely. The northern front suffered three defeats in succession, and if this Ming army could not be severely damaged or eliminated, the morale of the army would be irretrievable. And such a Ming army that can fight has always wandered around the Qing army like a wolf, which is not a good thing in the end, and the next direction of the line governor is Guilin, and this Ming army is the biggest obstacle in front of the Qing army. Since you have to fight them sooner or later, you might as well do it now. After a long delay, no one knows what changes will be made in the war in Guangxi, after all, the grain and grass of the Qing army are a little tight, but the Ming army in Liuzhou still has the strength to fight.

After the line Guoan received the report, the last resisting Ming army on Xiaobei Mountain had fallen under the spears of the Qing soldiers. Wang Sheng's side also defeated the reinforcements of the Ming army from Liuzhou out of the city, and the Qing army won a complete victory in the battle of Xiaobeishan. The purpose of line Guoan to seize Xiaobeishan is not to attack Liuzhou City, but to lock up the Ming army in Liuzhou, his real target is Guilin in the north, only by taking Guilin, he can cut the tip of the knife to the abdomen of the Hunan Taiping Army, and Luo Keduo, the king of Heping County, flanked the Hunan Taiping Army together, and completely opened up the communication between Guizhou and the north.

According to the confession of the Ming army prisoners, the Taiping army that entered Hunan was personally led by its commander Thief Xiucai, and the soldiers and horses he led were also the main force of the Taiping army's western expedition to King Qin, so the line Guoan became more and more enthusiastic about taking Guilin. For the sake of safety, he ordered Wang Sheng to allocate a cavalry under the command of the whole section, and transferred more than 30 light artillery that could be horse-drawn to the Qing army on the northern line, and the rest of the soldiers and horses immediately took over the Ming military fortifications of Xiaobeishan, and at the same time strengthened the defense of the large battalion.

The Qing army on the northern front regrouped and marched north under the command of Quan Jie, and with the help of cavalry, its morale recovered a lot for a while. Although the previous three battles were lost in a row, the casualties of the Qing army were only more than 2,000 people, and they were not injured. Qi Wannian, Xu Tianyou and others were not afraid of the Ming army, but the difficult weapons in their hands. Now that there are cavalry to help and artillery to bombard, it is no longer the previous way to deal with it, and it is naturally bold

With the passage of time, the Qing soldiers got closer and closer to the Yumeng Mountain ambushed by the C Brigade, and more than 2,000 soldiers of the Qi family army who had eaten dry food to fill their stomachs lay in the mountains and forests, their heads and bodies were densely covered with withered grass, looking from a distance, as if they were blended with the mountains and forests, no one could know that there would be so many soldiers ambushed here.

Yu Shizhong on the mountain frowned, he knew that after he retreated, the Qing army would definitely send troops to the north, so he set up an ambush in Yumeng Mountain, wanting to eat the Qing army advancing north, but he didn't expect that the other party had gathered so many soldiers and horses to come, and he had the intention of looking for him to compete with Shizhong.

More than 10,000 Qing soldiers, cavalry and artillery, only more than 2,000 people on their side, and no artillery, only a small number of tiger squat guns with a short range, how to fight this ambush war, Yu Shizhong is also embarrassed. According to the original deployment, I am afraid that on the way down the mountain, the C Brigade will suffer heavy casualties.

After the reorganization, the Qing army had cavalry and artillery to rely on, and the depressed morale that had just been driven by the Ming army to run wildly was gone, and the momentum crossed the stone bridge in front of the Song family's nest building. Under the bridge, there is a small river that flows down from the convergence of several streams on Yumeng Mountain, and the end of the river is the Liujiang River.

Yu Shizhong regretted a little, if he knew that the Qing army was coming, he would definitely blow up the stone bridge, so that even if the ambush failed, at least the Qing army's artillery could not be transported.

The sound of artillery could no longer be heard in the direction of Liuzhou, and combined with the Qing army's large-scale northward advance, Yu Shizhong guessed that Xiaobeishan had fallen into the hands of the Qing army, otherwise it would be impossible for the line Guoan to draw so many troops and horses to the north.

Yumeng Mountain is not as controllable as Xiaobei Mountain, the Qing army is less, Yu Shizhong can naturally ambush them, but there are more comes, and there are cavalry and artillery, Yu Shizhong feels tricky.

He pondered whether to give up the ambush and evacuate Yumeng Mountain after dark. But this idea was only a flash before he gave up, and he disobeyed the military order and led his troops south without authorization, in order not to wash away the shame of fleeing without a fight for more than ten days, and not to relieve the siege of Xiaobeishan. Xiaobeishan is lost, but his C Brigade is still there, and the enemy is still there!

This battle has to be fought if it is not easy to fight, and it has to be fought if it cannot be won!

Yu Shizhong was ruthless, but now this situation is that he only prepared one table of meals, but several tables of guests came, how to let the guests have wine and food to eat, but it was a very difficult thing for him

Dozens of Qing soldiers scouted their horses in vigilance, and they gradually moved away, opening a curtain for the advance of the entire Qing army, and they were the eyes of more than 10,000 Qing troops at this moment. But if there is a lot of trouble, they will find out as soon as possible and accurately give back the military situation to the army in the rear.

Throughout the ages, although Tanma cannot decide the outcome of a war, it can determine the ownership of the battlefield. Even though the Qing army was huge, it did not dare to take it lightly, and the Qing army also urgently needed to know the information on the battlefield and the front.

Along the way, the Qing army's exploration horses did not encounter the Ming army's exploration horses, nor did they encounter the interception of a small group of Ming troops. They searched the vicinity carefully, and in the Song family's nest building, where they were most suspected of hiding ambushes, more than a dozen Qing army detectives went in with courage and searched carefully, but they were not reassured. The leading Qing army breathed a sigh of relief, looked up at the Yumeng Mountain in front of him, made a gesture, and suddenly four or five of his subordinates touched the mountain.

These Qing soldiers were very careful to scout their horses, as sentinels, of course they knew the danger on the mountain, and they also knew that the mountain forest was the most sudden ambush. The rows of woods on the Yumeng Mountain in front of me, I don't know how many soldiers and horses can be hidden, if they suddenly kill from above, it will definitely be a threat to the main force of the Qing army that will come later.

However, the terrain like Yumeng Mountain in the southwest boundary is really countless, and the Song family nest is the best ambush location nearby, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Ming army did not hide troops here, indicating that they have no intention of setting up an ambush here. Perhaps, the Ming army that had driven them extremely fiercely just now really retreated.

After searching indiscriminately at the foot of the mountain, and after going deep into about a mile, several Qing troops had no strength or interest in searching for horses. The reason why they gave up the search If there were no ambushes for the Ming army within this distance, then their ambush would be meaningless. Because they were hiding too far away, they really rushed down the mountain, and there was enough time for the Qing army under the mountain to react, and it was impossible to achieve the purpose of any surprise attack.

One of the scouts was not at ease, so he took the fire gun in his hand and shot two guns indiscriminately on the mountain, which startled a group of birds in the forest.

Seeing that there were birds coming out, the Qing army Tanma showed a smile on his face, and several companions around him also smiled reassuringly, if there were people in ambush here, there would be enough to be surprised by so many birds coming out. The Qing troops who went up the mountain thought that this place was safe, so they went down the mountain one after another, but they didn't know that at this moment, there were countless pairs of eyes staring at them on the mountain.

Halfway up the mountain, Lei Er and his two companions, whose mouths were gagged with strips of cloth, were about to jump out, and at the same time, they admired these Ming soldiers hiding here more and more, their military discipline was too strict, so strict that there was no movement in this forest, so strict that the birds landed on the treetops and knew nothing about the people below.

The Qing army is going to suffer.

Lei Er and his companions glanced at each other, thinking that the Ming army would attack, but after waiting for a long time, they did not see any signs of these Ming troops going down the mountain to kill.

Yu Youming looked nervous as the Qing army's sentry turned around and went down the mountain, he breathed a sigh of relief and licked his thirsty lips, but he didn't dare to turn around to see where his father was, he still maintained this posture and lay motionless there.

After the Qing army explored the horses and left, they successively mounted their horses and searched ahead. As the Tanma went north, the Qing army brigade in the rear also moved.

Hearing the voice of the Qing army brigade in the distance, Yu Youming was excited, he glanced at Song Jia, a veteran soldier with a gun next to him, and found that Song Jia had a spider with strange hair on his hand. Yu Youming was a little hairy, but Song Jia didn't react at all, just stared at the foot of the mountain, as if he had nothing in his hands.

There was no danger in the vicinity of the Malay Raid in front, but Quan Jie did not dare to be careless, he ordered Liu Desheng and Qi Wannian in front to send a few hundred soldiers over first, and then they followed. In this way, if the Ming army really has an ambush, it can quickly respond to the front team and strangle those ambush soldiers.

Yu Youming didn't know that the Qing army was very stable, so he only sent a few hundred soldiers from the foot of the mountain. Among the dense leaves of a big tree above his head, a very low voice came: "Qinggou has only passed a few hundred soldiers, and the brigade and school flag let them pass." ”

Yu Youming was slightly stunned, then nodded and whispered, "Got it!" ”

The Qi family army on the mountain did not move, and allowed hundreds of Qing soldiers to pass in front of the Song family nest at the foot of the mountain. I have to say that Yu Shizhong led the troops well, and among the more than 2,000 soldiers of the Qi family, there were many talented recruits who joined the army, but all of them firmly guarded their duties and made no sound.

After the hundreds of soldiers in front passed, Qi Wannian rode on his horse and led the rest of his subordinates to set off. He was very cautious, because the Ming army with the banner of "Qi" was so capable that he was a little scared when he thought about it now. Because the other party is too capable of fighting, the more cautious he is, he does not swagger and lead people over like Liu Desheng, but waits until the person in front of him has passed for a long distance and nothing happens, and he dares to take people over.

For the disappeared Ming army may be waiting for him in an ambush somewhere, the whole section is not unexpected, but the vicinity has been searched by the horses, and there is no sign of ambush, and the strength of the Ming army is only two or three thousand people, compared to the army led by himself, the ambush seems to be a bit of a joke. He was quite expecting that the Ming army would really set up an ambush nearby, which would save him from looking for them.

After the whole festival passed in front of the Song family's nest building, it was believed that the Ming army had already withdrawn, and he was likely to find nothing. But it didn't take long for the Malay newspaper to find traces of the Ming army. (To be continued.) )