The Qing army on the opposite side did not spread out a formation to form a long battle line, but the hedgehogs formed a group to form a nearly circular formation. Following his companions to the front and back, Zhang Yiqian could clearly see the fear in the eyes of the Qing soldiers in the front row, although they used their weapons in the direction of the Ming cavalry, their bodies involuntarily squeezed backwards, and they could not continue to retreat because they were blocked by their companions behind them.

This is not the first time Zhang Yiqian has seen such a situation, the other party has been frightened, the reason why it has not immediately collapsed is because the Ming army is pressed too tightly, if the Ming army retreats for a while, and then leisurely dismounts to rest for a while, it is estimated that these Qing troops will flee by themselves. It's just that Zhang Yiqian also knew that Admiral Deng had limited time and couldn't wait patiently for the Qing army to retreat on its own. It is not impossible to quickly defeat such an enemy on the verge of collapse, Zhang Yiqian knew a very simple method, but he and the other knights of the three walls did not propose it.

"Admiral." After seeing the appearance of the Qing army, Wu Yuewang and Li Yanpeng, who were around Deng Ming, both said to him at the same time: "Let's take a break and let a few riders spin around their formation a few times." ”

In the eyes of the guards, although these Qing soldiers did not flee but stayed where they were, most of the support for them was not bravery but fear, and the main force retreated farther away, allowing a small number of cavalry to circle around them and intimidate, most of which could make the Qing army keep rotating collectively. When they have exhausted the last fighting spirit in this ordeal, some people will start to run away, and they will not be able to control it.

But this is not a quick solution to the trouble, the best way is to attack them with infantry, but now there are no infantry troops behind Deng Ming to keep up.

"Why bother." Since the crossing, Deng Ming has been on the battlefield almost every month, and even more so when it is fierce, he knows very well how to solve the trouble quickly.

"The front army dismounted." Without hesitation, Deng Ming shouted out the order, then jumped off his mount first, handing the reins to a three-walled recruit in the rear.

After hearing Deng Ming's order, all the guards and veterans of the three walls dismounted and quickly lined up in a long line.

"Attack!" After setting up the position, Deng Ming gave the order to attack.

Faced with this situation, cavalry dismounting and foot combat was the best solution, but hand-to-hand combat with the infantry would undoubtedly put Deng Ming at greater risk, so neither the guards nor the veterans of the three walls proposed this construction.

Although the attacking Ming army was only 100 people, while the Qing army on the opposite side had as many as 300 people, the Ming army in the horizontal column formed a three-bread clamp posture against the Qing army's circle formation. The Qing soldiers pushed each other not only did not give full play to the numerical advantage, but each soldier in the front row had to face multiple Ming attacks, and after several soldiers were cut down, the rest of Hu Wenke's army was shaken to the point where it could not maintain the formation, and began to flee from the side where there were no Ming troops.

More than a dozen Qing soldiers were cut down, hundreds knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, and the rest dispersed in a hurry, and Deng Ming shouted again: "Get on the horse and pursue." ”

The cavalry in the rear rushed forward, returned their mounted horses to their dismounted companions, and then pursued them forward.

After Deng Ming turned over and got on his horse, he found that he no longer had to participate in the pursuit, and the Qing army fled the road one after another, desperately fleeing to the heights and the forest.

"This commander is not bad." Deng Ming gasped and said, in the case of the complete rout of the Qing army, there were only a few or even single-digit guards left around the several Qing generals Deng Ming had met before, and this Hu Wenke was still able to gather about a few percent of his troops to try to resist.

"Is the Admiral alright?" Wu Yue looked at the horse and came to Deng Ming's side and asked with concern, just now he saw Deng Ming being hit by the enemy's weapon.

"Safe and sound." Deng Ming replied with a smile, when he dismounted and started to fight, he felt that his legs were a little heavy, and he felt quite tired from the non-stop fighting. However, Deng Ming still rushed forward with the others, because his movements were a little slow, and he was also swept twice by the spears of the enemy soldiers, fortunately, he lost most of his strength after parrying, plus the armor on his body, Deng Ming was not injured, but the opponent's attack also made Deng Ming feel a faint pain in the chest and abdomen that was hit.

"Keep going." Deng Ming took a moment to breathe and led his troops south again.

…… Zhao Liangdong rushed to the shore and began to form a team, but he did not wait for the main force of the sailor division who was ordered to return, but waited for Daniel Zhang, who was unbearable. After seeing Zhao Liangdong, Daniel Zhang was as excited as seeing his relatives, and pounced on him and shouted: "Hit the plan, hit the plan!" ”

"General Zhang, what's wrong?" After seeing Daniel Zhang dressed as a small soldier, Zhao Liangdong's heart sank and he had an ominous premonition.

Before Daniel Zhang could finish his miserable experience, one of the guards of the standard camp rushed to the riverside on horseback, took Li Guoying's order and shouted to Zhao Liangdong: "The Governor ordered General Zhao to return to the camp quickly. ”

Zhao Liangdong left Li Guoying on the front foot, and a few of the standard camp guards who met Deng Ming on the northern front fled back to the camp, and they also walked very hard along the way, with scattered soldiers and people everywhere, and even defeated soldiers trying to steal their horses. After escaping back to the camp with great difficulty, it took a long time for these guards to make Li Guoying accept the facts, and after Li Guoying confirmed that the battle situation was extremely bad, his first thought was to recall Zhao Liangdong.

After discovering that Zhao Liangdong had left his barracks, Li Guoying's guards searched all the way to the riverside and finally handed over the orders of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to him. Zhao Liangdong did not rush to return with the troops, but first seriously inquired about the guards of this standard battalion, and then asked Daniel Zhang to carefully describe the specific situation of the northern front.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Liangdong asked the pro-military camp to temporarily stay put, and he and Daniel Zhang met Li Guoying together.

After Daniel Zhang and Zhao Liangdong returned to Li Guoying's tent, they found that Wang Jinbao was already standing by the side of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao were stunned when they met, both of them thought that the other party was fierce and unlucky, and just now the two of them respectively told Zhao Liangdong and Li Guoying that the other person had lost the enemy's position. After Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao met, they did not accuse each other, but excitedly held their four big hands together, and if the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was above, the two brothers would definitely be able to hug each other and cry.

"This Deng is a child...... It was possible to reorganize the army in two hours after a defeat of twenty miles......" After receiving confirmation from Wang Jinbao's mouth, Zhao Liangdong muttered to himself, when Daniel Zhang first told him about this just now, Zhao Liangdong was still a little skeptical. At this time, the shock in Zhao Liangdong's heart was not inferior to Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao, and he asked himself if he carried out the same plan, maybe his pro-military battalion could do it. But Zhao Liangdong's pro-military battalion is the old department that has followed him for many years, and he can call out the name of every officer in it, while Deng Ming's army has only been with him for half a year, and the difficulty of a thousand people to defeat is not comparable to that of tens of thousands of troops: "This is simply impossible." ”

"General Zhao, don't think about it so much." Li Guoying's recovery from the shock was the fastest among the crowd, and after seeing Wang Jinbao, he already knew that no matter how unwilling he was to believe it, the facts were already in front of him: "The Deng thief has launched an ambush, and now we have to think about how to clean up the situation." ”

"General Zhang and General Wang have been defeated for a long time, but Deng Ming has not appeared," Li Guoying could not imagine how the four hundred standard battalion armor cavalry could be defeated by Deng Ming in an instant, but since Wang Jinbao and Daniel Zhang both said so, then he could only speculate on Deng Ming's actions on this basis: "This officer thinks that Deng Ming must have gone south, trying to cut off the retreat of the officers and soldiers back to the camp." ”

"Do your best to inform the army to return." Wang Jinbao said excitedly: "Deng Ming is unstoppable, he must let the army return to the camp as much as possible, and then stick to the camp." ”

"No!" Zhao Liangdong hadn't lost his mind yet, he hurriedly stopped: "The army must be allowed to retreat slowly, if rumors spread, the officers and soldiers will be in chaos without a fight, it will only be worse." ”

Shut down

"General Zhao is right." When Li Guoying recruited Zhao Liangdong to return, he had already sent out orders and asked them to give orders to every Qing army officer they encountered. But Li Guoying did not tell them the truth, but said that Ren Tang was in a hurry to break through the siege, and asked all officers to quickly lead their troops back to the camp to coordinate the encirclement and suppression.

And Li Guoying is now thinking about how to act next in addition to trying his best to save the army that is about to collapse.

"Hold on to the camp!" Wang Jinbao said excitedly: "As long as you make sure that the big camp is not lost, you can collect the rout." ”

Although Daniel Zhang felt that it was dangerous, like Wang Jinbao, he also hoped to buy time for his subordinates to escape, so he agreed: "If you don't stick to the camp, you will put the army still outside the camp to death." ”

At this time, Li Guoying was also hesitant, since this was Deng Ming's plan, it was only a matter of time before the Ming army sailors returned-Li Guoying was still a little strange why he had not seen the Ming army sailors appear on the river for a long time. Although I don't know what happened to the middle and south roads at this time, Li Guoying felt that the heavy losses were certain, and Deng Ming would definitely be able to gain an advantage over the Qing army through this battle. At that time, the Ming army, naval divisions and land forces will have advantages, and the Qing army will not have to expect reinforcements in the short term, and there will be a possibility that the whole army will be annihilated.

"Maybe it's time for a strong man to break his wrist." Li Guoying repeatedly had this idea in his heart, but it was difficult to make up his mind, after all, these generals were Li Guoying's subordinates, and if he suffered heavy losses, Li Guoying's power would be greatly reduced, and it would be even more difficult to hold on in Sichuan.

"We should fight back." Zhao Liangdong suddenly proposed another one.

"Fight back?" Daniel Zhang said in surprise: "Where to fight back?" ”

"Fight back against the thieves who returned here first." Zhao Liangdong replied: "No matter how Deng Ming managed to defeat twenty miles, his subordinates still traveled back and forth forty miles today, and when pursuing the rout of our army, even if his previous system was not chaotic, it should be chaotic now." And I think he should have been a little messy before, and he should be a little messier now......"

"What do you think?" Wang Jinbao said excitedly: "General Zhao, you still think that Deng Ming can't be defeated, and you also say that you can beat him for 5,000 with 1,000 armor!" ”

"I'm not done yet!" Zhao Liangdong raised his voice and overwhelmed Wang Jinbao's protest: "The thieves are definitely not iron-clad, they hurriedly retreated in the morning, and then pursued our defeated troops at full speed." They seem to be strong, but in fact they are already at the end of their strength, and we can completely defeat them, even if we can't turn defeat into victory, we can fight to a draw, so that we can gather the rout and calmly retreat to chóngqìng. ”

Neither Daniel Zhang nor Wang Jinbao agreed, because this meant that the Qing army had to make the final desperate bet, and if it was defeated again, it would be a problem to even hold the camp.

"Don't defend at all, if you don't win, you have to run quickly." Zhao Liangdong shouted without any psychological burden: "If Deng Ming's army returns and we don't dare to fight, what if he goes around and camps behind us to block the retreat?" We had no choice but to abandon all our auxiliaries and flee by boat, and then we were chased by the thieves' sailors all the way to the foot of Chóngqìng. If we can't defeat the thieves, we must flee without hesitation, and don't think about anything to collect the rout. ”

Daniel Zhang, Wang Jinbao and Zhao Liangdong quarreled, and Li Guoying listened silently on the side, and finally coughed to silence the three generals.

"As General Zhao said, it's too dangerous to stay here." Li Guoying gave an order to the standard battalion guards in front of the three generals, asking the sailors to empty the unnecessary things and load the troops to retreat at any time.

"What about the officers and soldiers who are still fighting outside?" Daniel Zhang asked, "Maybe they can fight a bloody way back." ”

"So we're going to do them a favor and get them back soon." Li Guoying made up his mind and ordered all the remaining soldiers to put on armor and go out with an empty camp to launch a counterattack against the Ming army.

"What about the big camp?" Hearing that Li Guoying wanted to sing about the empty city plan, Daniel Zhang hurriedly pointed out that there was Ren Tang watching not far away.

"I can only gamble, this official bets that the order given to him by the Deng thief is to block the retreat of our army, not to attack my camp, as long as we can repel the ambush of the Deng thief by surprise, even if it is a little frustration of the thief, it can make Ren Tang even more dare not act rashly, and we must go all out to defend the camp of the Deng thief. If you can't fight back......" Li Guoying smiled bitterly and looked at Zhao Liangdong: "If we can't even defeat the Deng thief at the end of the crossbow, then wouldn't we stay here and wait for death?" Hurry up and take a boat to go. Although I don't know what the thief's sailor is doing, the official thinks that they may come back at any time. ”

...... "Caught Wang Mingde!" ”

The Ming soldiers let out a burst of cheers, and the Qing army on the southern road that was attacked from the front and rear was also quickly routed, the general soldier Wang Mingde and three other Qing generals were captured, and the remaining generals also fled into the wilderness with the rout, and the Ming army had already let the auxiliary soldiers start the search.

"Good." Deng Ming had already joined up with Li Xinghan, and just now when Deng Ming was commanding the cavalry and infantry to cooperate with Wang Mingde's remnants, he was mounted by the stubborn Qing soldiers. But after seeing Deng Ming's fall, many Ming troops on the battlefield let out exclamations, after getting up from the ground, Deng Ming didn't care about the pain caused by falling off the horse, and hurriedly changed horses to appear in front of the three armies again, after seeing Deng Ming's figure, the Ming officers and soldiers were relieved, and the Qing army, which was already close to despair, was even more depressed, and Wang Mingde's last resistance came to an end.

Today is the third time that Deng Ming has changed his mounts, and the cavalry that followed him, except for those who were wounded and retired, have also changed horses, and they are all captured from the standard camp, although these horses are also not small, but they are still stronger than their original horses.

"Would you like to take a break?" Seeing that the tiredness on Deng Ming's face was already obvious, Li Xinghan persuaded: "The overall situation has been decided. ”

"Basically, just the last little bit." Deng Ming shook his head, until now his own sailor still did not appear, when he set off last night, Deng Ming repeatedly explained that he would place the more than 10,000 Guizhou people in a perfect place and then return, and would rather walk a little more than let the Qing army find out. As a result, the heavily loaded ship traveled a long way upstream before stopping, and the speed of unloading the prisoners was much slower than the Ming military had planned - for example, a large number of Guizhou people suffered from seasickness, and many of them were dizzy, vomiting, and slow, which was completely unexpected by the Zhejiang sailors.

"Calculating the time, it's almost time for Zhao Qianhu to return to the camp." Deng Ming glanced up at Tian Sè, and said goodbye to Li Xinghan: "You do your best to lead the troops to attack, I'll rush back first to see how the battle goes." ”

"Why should the Admiral worry, Zhao Qianhu is both wise and brave." Li Xinghan has to persuade again.

"It's almost there, as long as Li Guoying is scared out of the camp, we can completely annihilate the Qing army here." Deng Ming had already thought that if Li Guoying tried to hold on to the camp, then Deng Ming would show off his might outside his camp, and take the opportunity to let an army drive around the Qing army camp and surround Li Guoying's remnants.

"If you completely annihilate Li Guoying here, as well as Zhao Liangdong, it will not be difficult to defeat Chóngqìng." After breaking up with Li Xinghan, Deng Ming received a report from Zhou Kaihuang and Mu Tan, saying that they were about to return to the vicinity of the Ming army camp. This battle seems to be able to not only eliminate Li Guoying, but also eliminate Zhao Liangdong together, the more Deng Ming thinks about it, the more excited he becomes, although Zhao Liangdong's military appearance makes him secretly jealous, but he is difficult to support the building alone, in the case of the complete defeat of the Qing army, even if a thousand soldiers are sharp, they will not be able to resist tens of thousands of newly victorious Ming troops: "Hurry up, don't be escaped by them." Deng Ming secretly encouraged himself in his heart: "The momentum of total victory has been achieved, don't slack off." ”

…… When they rushed back to the vicinity of the camp, there were only more than 500 armor soldiers left around Zhao Tianba, and these Ming troops were also quite tired, but the excitement of the victors supported them to continue the pursuit. More than 1,200 armor soldiers brought out by Zhao Tianba were given to Deng Ming 500, and although some were collected on the road later, the Ming officers and soldiers kept falling behind in the long-distance pursuit. Although the Ming troops sent to the middle route were willing to let them return to the Zhao Tianba system, there were scuffles everywhere, and many of them were merged into the middle road system.

"Is this the first thief to return?"

Zhao Liangdong inquired about Tanma, and after receiving an affirmative answer, he immediately ordered the whole army to be on alert: "Prepare for battle!" ”

Now Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao took the rest and part of Li Guoying's armor to cover Zhao Liangdong's wings, while Li Guoying took the rest to monitor Ren Tang's movements.

"Don't pursue." Zhao Liangdong once again stressed to the generals that Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao's troops on both wings were weak, and Li Guoying's men behind the cover only had more than 1,000 armor, and it would be very difficult to deal with Ren Tang. Zhao Liangdong's 1,000 soldiers were the last main force of the Qing army, and they had to be clenched into fists at all times. The pursuit will disperse the small number of troops of the Qing army and consume precious bodies, and whether more defeated Qing troops can escape back to the camp and thwart the victory of the Ming army depends on Zhao Liangdong's play: "The thieves on the main road are also chasing a large number of officers and soldiers who have just returned, we will first repel the thieves along the way, and then turn around and defeat the arrogance of the next wave of thieves, so that the thieves know that the officers and soldiers are not easy to mess with!" ”

"Let the thieves taste our awesomeness!" Despite knowing that the shape was sinister, Zhao Liangdong's pro-military battalion was still highly motivated, and after hearing the order, the officers shouted in response to the commander-in-chief's call.