At this time, in Tan Hong's camp, Qin Xiucai had already learned that the army had been ambushed and the Ming army was coming.

The hundreds of soldiers who fled back were bare-handed, and when they returned to the camp, many of them did not stop at all, but continued to flee eastward after passing through the camp, having completely lost their fighting spirit, and only wanted to stay away from the pursuers who could arrive at any time.

The main force in the battalion has been taken away by Tan Hong, and the remaining more than 100 people are all gangsters, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled.

After the initial panic, Qin Xiucai, who was different, came back to him, ran to the camp, stretched out his arms to stop a few deserters, and shouted at them: "The Ming army cannot have tens of thousands, they are all routed, and they are hungry and cold, there is neither a camp nor food!" ”

"Immediately raise the banner and go to the mountain to inform our brethren." Qin Xiucai remembered the military form that Tan Hong had talked about with himself. Wen Anzhi's army had retreated back to Fengjie, and there was no threatening main force of the Ming army nearby, although Tan Hong was ambushed by the enemy, but the situation was not irreparable. Qin Xiucai said something bad, stopped some defeated soldiers to stick to the camp, and at the same time sent people to withdraw all the posts on the blockade line to the camp.

"Although it is bad, the situation is by no means irreparable, we still have 500 people on the mountain, and it is no problem to transfer back to hold the camp. The Ming army was starving and freezing in the wilderness, and even if the blockade on the mountains was removed and some of them ran away, we would still be many more than them. Tomorrow we will go downstream to rendezvous with the camp on the north shore, and at once we will go after them, who have no ships or food, and cannot go far. While weighing the situation in his heart, Qin Xiucai tried his best to explain what he thought of and the rout in front of him, and tried to arouse their fighting spirit to continue fighting: "...... Wouldn't it be safer to hold on to the camp than to run away? ”

must take Tan Hong back, Qin Xiucai knows that Tan Hong is the backbone of the army, he estimates that Tan Hong is unlikely to leave the army to drill the ravine, leaving the army Tan Hong is just a horseman, only by controlling the army can he have vitality, such a simple truth he Qin Xiucai understands, Tan Hong will definitely not understand. Thinking of this, Qin Xiucai hurriedly ran to the riverside next to the big camp, there were still five river boats there, and he wanted to set off immediately to pick up Tan Hong from danger.

"Don't move this boat!" When Qin Xiucai dragged a few soldiers who were hard to persuade to the river, he found that he had arrived at the right time, and three people were untying the cable of a river boat, it seemed that they wanted to escape across the river by boat, Qin Xiucai hurriedly stepped forward to stop him.

One of the three people was an officer, and when he raised his eyes and saw that the person who came was Qin Xiucai, he shouted: "Master, the big thing is over, run quickly, otherwise it will be too late." ”

"Nonsense!" Qin Xiucai hurriedly told this officer what he had just thought of, and he felt that it was a blessing from heaven to be able to find an officer, so that he could call on more soldiers to stick to the camp and cooperate with the soldiers recalled from the mountain. He gestured desperately with his two hands, and told the officer about the current military situation, pointing out that as long as he held on to the camp and took Tan Hong back, the Ming army was still tied up, and finally Qin Xiucai said in an accentuated tone: "...... There are not a few thieves, at most, at most only one or two thousand, and we are by no means weaker than them, not to mention that we still have a large camp on the north shore......"

"Boom!"

"Ah~~~"

A dull sound, followed by Qin Xiucai's scream, the officer opposite him had a calm face, slammed a stick on Qin Xiucai's head, knocked him unconscious on the spot, and then kicked Qin Xiucai out, continued to untie the cable, and hatefully spat at the unconscious Qin Xiucai: "Poor sour guy, who listens to you!" ”

The soldier had no fighting spirit, the enemy situation was unknown, and this officer managed to escape from the Ming army's interception, and he was not willing to risk staying here - what if the battalion did not hold it? Wouldn't it be to give Qin Xiucai a martyr!

Seeing the few soldiers behind Qin Xiucai staring blankly, the officer scolded again: "If you want to live, come over and help!" ”

This shout woke the soldiers awoke, and they rushed over to help push the untethered boat to the shore, and then jumped on board, and with the stroke of the officer's horn, they sailed the boat into the river, and left the barracks, which had been left undefended, in the direction of the downstream.

When Zhou Kaihuang rushed to Tan Hong's camp with 200 people, it was already dark, and the camp gate was wide open, looking at the empty inside. After Zhou Kaihuang entered the camp, he immediately ordered to tear down the green flag that Tan Hong had erected not long ago, and replaced it with the red flag of the Ming Dynasty.

On the mountainous area south of this big camp, a few red fires became brighter, and Zhou Kaihuang looked at those places for a while. A few of the captives he had just captured confessed that Tan Hong had set up a lot of sentry posts and barracks on this mountain, and it seemed that these were a few of them. After Zhou Kaihuang learned that there were still hundreds of Qing soldiers on the mountain, he was mentally prepared to fight them, but now it seems that there is no need, these are probably the sentry posts and barracks that the defenders themselves set on fire to abandon the sentry posts, and most of the rest of the defenders also fled.

"Report to Mr. Qian, we caught another live one."

Several soldiers dragged the delirious Qin Xiucai to Zhou Kaihuang, who had just found the unconscious guy by the river, and also captured four boats.

"Wake him up with water!" Zhou Kaihuang looked at it and guessed that this guy might be a master, and he might be able to ask for some important information.

……

It had been night for a long time, and the Ming and Qing troops on the shore did not dare to raise torches for lighting, so they could only continue to confront each other in the dark. The Ming army in the woods was more courageous, because there were no Qing troops in the woods, so they had no scruples and could light torches. At this time, Tan Hong still had nearly three hundred soldiers by his side, and he used these soldiers to form a defensive formation, guarding a section of the river bank several hundred meters long with his back to the water. The core position was guarded by Tan Hong's own soldiers and family members, who were not only brave and vigorous, but also well-equipped. In addition to these guards, although the others are battalion soldiers, they are also a relatively good group of soldiers in Tan Hong's hands, many of them have armor, and the bows and arrows of the Ming army do not pose much threat to these soldiers, and they also have long-range weapons such as bows and arrows and firearms, and their defensive ability is no worse than those led by Li Xinghan.

"The boats of the big battalion will come to meet us soon," this is the last section of the river bank that is still under the control of the Qing army, and several of Tan Hong's personal soldiers shouted to boost morale, so that the soldiers can hold firmly: "Hold on for another hour, we will be able to escape and return to the camp, and not a single brother will be left behind!" ”

Several Ming army officers gathered together to discuss the next plan of action, and the hoarse cheering of the Qing army in the distance kept coming into their ears, and the Ming army was also helpless for these hundreds of enemy soldiers who were still fighting. Like the Ming army that blocked the attack just now, now Tan Hong has sent more than 100 people to block it at both ends, and the Ming army will not be able to attack through the narrow shore path, and can only consume with the enemy.

This kind of war of attrition was absolutely not beneficial to the Ming army, and when the Ming army was in a defensive position just now, it killed more than 60 Qing troops, and only one of them was seriously wounded. And as Li Xinghan's side turned to a counteroffensive and needed to bypass the mountains and rocks to attack the Qing army, the Ming army soon lost more than a dozen soldiers, and it is estimated that at most one or two Qing troops were killed or wounded. Seeing this, the Ming army immediately stopped the attack and, like Tan Hong, tried to outflank the Qing army in a roundabout way.

But now that it was night, the road in the forest was not suitable for marching, and in order to avoid becoming a target, it was not possible to hold a torch and go all the way to the Qing army.

"The brethren have not eaten for a day, and they have been able to hold on until now with a deadly spirit, but if they drink cold wind all night on an empty stomach, even those who are beaten with iron will fall." Li Xinghan said worriedly. After surrounding these last enemies on the riverbank, the Ming soldiers knew that victory was imminent, but this victory could not be finally held in their hands, and now most of the soldiers were exhausted and needed to rest and eat.

And Tan Hong's morale-boosting shouts, although the Ming army was angry when they heard it, they had to admit that Tan Hong's judgment of the situation was very accurate. If Tan Hong's camp had sent a boat to pick him up, and the remaining Qing troops still had the ability to fight back, the situation of the Ming army would not have improved much than this morning, and could even be said to be worse - because everyone's stomachs were hungrier.

"At least we slaughtered a few hundred scum who surrendered to the Tartars." Seeing that everyone was looking worried, an officer patted his thigh and shouted: "Lao Tzu killed two and got back to the original!" ”

Deng Ming felt that the top priority was to capture Tan Hong's camp, and the others agreed, but the road was far away, and it was definitely too late to transfer troops from here, so he could only hope that his own people in the east had already marched towards Tan Hong's camp. Everyone estimates that there will be more than 100 soldiers in the camp to watch their homes, plus the rout soldiers who fled back, even if Zhou Kaihuang brought his team of more than 400 soldiers, he may not be able to capture it with one drum, and of course it will not be certain that it will not be able to be attacked, between success and failure.

"Alas, I thought we would have a big battle on the bank of the river, behead Tan Hong, and then attack the enemy camp with the whole army, why did it make such a fuss, and we couldn't advance or retreat here?"

Now Tan Hong is not dead, the whole plan has been disrupted, most of the Ming army is staying here, if he escapes, it will be a waste of all his efforts. However, this cunning guy refused to break through and just blindly defended, not only pinning down the main force of the Ming army, but also cutting off the line of communication on the shore.

Complaining is complaining, the way is still to think, and in the end everyone agrees to attack this lone army from both flanks and the middle at the same time, and the contact method is still to sound arrows. Anyway, the front occupied by the other side is not wide, and it should not be a big problem to launch an offensive at the same time. However, it is more difficult to communicate with each other in the dark night, Tan Hong, who is stuck in the communication line, has also cut off the communication channel of the Ming army, and now the Ming army surrounding Tan Hong can only go over the mountains and mountains to exchange views, although the straight-line distance between the two ends of the encirclement is only two miles, but it will take a long time to walk the mountain road in the dark, and half an hour's work will be wasted back and forth.

In addition, considering that the officers of the other teams also need to communicate, they can only rely on the communication corps to run around on two legs to communicate, and after reaching a consensus, each team must be deployed, and after the deployment is completed, it is necessary to report for unified action.

"Before midnight, I'm afraid I won't be able to clean up Tan Hong's thief." This is the conclusion reached by a group of people.

"We must defeat the enemy in one fell swoop and take Tan Hong's head, so that even if Zhou Qian fails to defeat the enemy camp, we can rely on this to deter the enemy army and calmly get out of danger." The officers, who had woken up from the great joy of the easy victory at the beginning, seriously explained to the heralds that it was now necessary for all the Ming troops to realize that the situation was still dangerous, and that everyone must maintain the momentum of a desperate battle to fight for their lives.

Just as the Ming army was in full swing preparing for the final onslaught, the ship that Tan Hong had been waiting for finally arrived. When Deng Ming saw the little fire on the river, the general attack of the Ming army was not ready, and Li Xinghan was about to go up and do it when he saw this. Deng Ming and Zhao Tianba finally persuaded him. Li Xinghan also knew that in the current situation, there was no benefit in launching an attack except to pay more casualties, if it was Tan Hong's subordinates who came to the ship, it would mean that today's operation would fail in the end, and once Tan Hong fled, the Ming officers and soldiers would still be in a desperate situation.

"Wait a while to see clearly, maybe it's not Tan Thief's ship." Deng Ming could only comfort the anxious Li Xinghan in this way, but he also knew that there was little hope, and most of Wen Anzhi and Yuan Zongdi had already retreated far away, and it was impossible for them to appear at this time. Hearing Deng Ming's obvious words of comfort, Li Xinghan and the other surrounding Ming army officers could only smile bitterly.

On the contrary, seeing the fire on the river getting closer and closer, a burst of cheers erupted from Tan Hong's position, and although Tan Hong cautiously stopped it immediately, he himself was as encouraged as his subordinates.

Tan Hong realized that the appearance of the ships might trigger a strong attack by the Ming army, and hurriedly ordered everyone to be on strict alert. Tan Hong also remembered that there were only a few boats in the camp, and if he saw that there were not enough boats, he might shake the morale of the army, so he asked his soldiers to shout, telling everyone that these boats would transport everyone to the other side of the river in batches, and as long as everyone obeyed the order and listened to the command, they could cross the river safely.

Tan Hong hoped to inspire the courage of the soldiers to resist, so as to buy himself time to board the ship safely, and if Cāo did it right, the soldiers and family members who followed him could also be rescued—these were the forces he valued and relied on the most. Under Tan Hong's instructions, the officers who were originally supervising the battle in the front position secretly moved inward, these officers were Tan Hong's subordinates for many years, and they were the tools he could use to control the troops, and Tan Hong would definitely leave a place for them on the ship.

The river boat came silently in the dark, and the people on board made no sound except for the sound of the oars plucking the river. Approaching the position of the confrontation between the two armies on the bank of the river, the torches on the ships were extinguished, as if to avoid enemy attack. At this time, Tan Hong clearly heard the sound of the ship's slurry hitting the water, and vaguely saw the black shadow of the hull. The sound of the water is getting closer and closer, Tan Jun is holding his breath and paying attention to the movement on the river, waiting excitedly, those Qing soldiers who may be attacked by the Ming army at any time in the front row, and also look back at the water from time to time.

Finally, a familiar shout sounded in the dark night, and Tan Hong and many of his subordinates immediately recognized that it was from Master Qin Xiucai.

"Master Hou! Where are you, Master Hou? ”

The last stone in his heart fell to the ground, and Tan Hong's nerves, which had been tense for several hours, suddenly relaxed, although he had been able to maintain self-control during this time, he broke through, persevered, escaped, and died...... All kinds of ideological struggles, as well as the fierce conflict between hope and despair, never stopped for a moment in Tan Hong's heart, and he was about to be overwhelmed.

"I'm here!"

The joyful Tan Hong personally shouted in response to Qin Xiucai's inquiry, and a cheer sounded around him at the same time, which was the joy of his subordinates. Among them, there are soldiers who are about to be abandoned, but who are still kept in the dark, or ordinary battalion soldiers who have self-hypnotized out of desperation, choosing to firmly believe in Tan Hong's promise.

"Master Hou!" After hearing Tan Hong's response, Qin Xiucai's shout came from the river again, but there seemed to be no joy in it, and it sounded as if he was about to cry.

It was just a sound, Qin Xiucai's voice no longer continued, the sound of oars stopped, and there were new fires in the dark shadows of several boats on the river, like a lot of torches, at first glance there were more than a dozen, but most of them were not very bright, and they didn't seem to be as bright as normal torches.

"Rocket!"

One of Tan Hong's guards was the first to react, and shouted loudly, almost at the same time as his shout, Tan Hong saw the fire rushing to his face, and the sound of breaking the sky was also attacked.

"Master Hou be careful."

Several loyal guards suddenly blocked in front of Tan Hong, and there were screams and uproars in the army, in fact, the number of rockets was not much, and it was not a great threat to Tan Hong's guards in armor, most of them fell to the ground and did not touch people, and the pine resin on the arrows continued to burn after landing, illuminating Tan Hong and the faces around him that had become bloodless.

Qi shè, who sent this demonstration, made Zhou Kaihuang feel very satisfied, because the twelve shè hands deployed on the four boats reacted at about the same speed, and after the leading arrows left the string, the rest of the shè hands were all shè hits at about the same time, although there were not many rockets, but Zhou Kaihuang thought that he was very imposing and deterrent.

The satisfied Zhou Kaihuang pushed Qin Xiucai, who was put on the bow of the boat by two soldiers, and shouted in a low voice: "Shout!" ”

Qin Xiucai felt that with this shout, the dagger on the back of his neck by the soldier on the left side tightened again, and he was about to strangle the flesh, so he shouted loudly again:

"Master Hou, everything is over, the camp has been broken by the Wen Governor, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the mountains and fields are all soldiers of the imperial court......"

According to Zhou Kaihuang's instructions, Qin Xiucai shouted at the dark shore, saying that the Ming army in Kuizhou had killed a horse pistol, and Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi, and Li Laiheng all arrived tonight. Qin Xiucai had already seen tens of thousands of Ming troops marching over before the camp was lost and he was captured.

These shouts spread far away in the night sky, and the silence on Tan Hong's position, which was still excited just now, was like a cemetery, while on both sides of them and on the mountains farther away, cheers erupted one after another. Soon, the news brought by Qin Xiucai was spread by word of mouth by the Ming army, and spread throughout the vast position, surrounding the rest of Tan Hong's land for several miles, and there were thunderous cheers everywhere.