Three hundred and fortieth chapters escape from the battlefield
Ma Xianglin did not pursue the pursuit along the bank of the Yellow River himself, but directly pursued the pontoon bridge and firmly occupied all the pontoon bridges before returning to the Shanxi border.
Not many bandits escaped to the other side of the Yellow River through the pontoon and successfully ran far away. Ma Xianglin was not interested in chasing them to the end. He focused more on the bandits in Shanxi because most of them were here.
In this one-sided battle, there was no resistance from the bandits and they all ran away desperately. The white pole cavalry easily pursued them.
Therefore, the Jinyiwei's loud orders can be well heard and accepted by both the enemy and ourselves.
After hearing so many Jin Yiwei conveying the military order "kneel down and surrender without killing", the bandits felt as if they heard the most beautiful and beautiful voice in their lives. They all knelt down one after another, even if the inertia of running away made them kneel down.
A man would not hesitate to beat a dog to eat him, all he wanted was to kneel down and surrender as soon as possible.
Because they know that a two-legged horse cannot outrun a four-legged war horse no matter what. Since the officers and soldiers ordered to surrender without killing, they finally have a glimmer of hope. Who wants to die if they want to live?
After hearing the Jin Yiwei's order, the White Guard Cavalry no longer paid attention to the bandits who were kneeling in surrender, and directly passed them and continued to pursue the bandits who were still running wildly, especially those who fled on horseback.
The battlefield was still quite chaotic, so although Zhong Jinwei wanted to go to the ferry, Gu Baichuan refused to let him go.
He also knew that Gu Baichuan had good intentions, so he stayed where he was to observe the war.[
Zhong Jinwei knows that those who have horses in the peasant army are the backbone and elites. These people can catch the best, otherwise it is likely to be a spark that will start a prairie fire in the future.
Therefore, when he saw that some of the peasant army's cavalry were running farther toward the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and that the white pole cavalry pursuing them might not be able to catch up, he pointed at the peasant army and ordered: "Gu Baichuan, Hu
Hao, you and your men should go and intercept them. Anyone who dares to resist or continues to try to escape will be shot to death."
Hu Hao cupped his fists and accepted the order: "Yes, Lord Marquis." Then he grabbed the horse's belly and rushed out. At the same time, he greeted his men: "Brothers, let's go."
Gu Baichuan did not accept the order immediately. He was a little worried and said: "Master Hou, my subordinates should stay here to protect you. If any thieves see that Master Hou is unprotected and come over to disturb him, they will not do it."
alright."
Zhong Jinwei just smiled and said: "It's okay. The winner has been decided on the battlefield now. The bandits are just running away. If they escape, it will be very troublesome. Just listen to me and go ahead."
Although Zhong Jinwei's words were not harsh at all, his words had once again shown his attitude. Gu Baichuan knew that if Zhongxing Hou didn't listen to his advice the first time, he still wouldn't listen if he used the same reason to persuade him again.
Therefore, he had no choice but to lead the Dongchang squadron to take a detour to intercept the fleeing thieves.
Zhong Jinwei continued to observe the scene on the battlefield, but there was nothing interesting to see at this time, because the war was basically over.
Zhong Jinwei had a panoramic view of the battlefield from the top of the slope. He could see that all the people standing near the Yellow River ferry were white-poled cavalry.
The bandits were either lying on the ground or kneeling on the ground. Apart from that, only a small part were still trying their best to escape up and down the Yellow River.
Zhong Jinwei made some estimates and found that after dispatching Hu Hao and Gu Baichuan to intercept the bandits who had fled far away, there should be basically no fish that could slip through the net, at least in this Shanxi area.
Seeing this, Zhong Jinwei couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered that there were two turning points in the spread of peasant uprisings in the late Ming Dynasty. One was when the Shaanxi peasant army he encountered entered Shanxi, and the other was when the peasant army fled to Henan. Now at least One of them happened to be hit by me and was eliminated.
Zhong Jinwei remembers discussing on the Internet that the disaster was most serious at that time in Shaanxi, but the people in Shanxi and Henan were actually barely able to survive.
However, after the peasant army entered these provinces, it destroyed the final balance, looted and killed all the way, and coerced the people whose homes had been confiscated by the peasant army to join their camp. Farmers everywhere no longer worked hard to produce to save themselves, but lived by robbing and killing. .
On the Internet, "locusts" were even used to describe the peasant army at this time. Wherever they passed, there was ruins.
Of course, if we look at it from the perspective of the peasant army at that time, we cannot say that they were wrong. They had no food to eat in Shaanxi and could not survive, and they were hunted down by officers and soldiers. If they stayed any longer, they would have no way to survive. Those who did not run away were Fool.[
Zhong Jinwei looked at the situation on the battlefield and said to Li Laosi: "Let's go and take a look."
Li Laosi and other six followers were all promoted from civilians to guards. Although they went to Dongchang for special training, the time was too short, and the training content could not include the details of the battlefield.
Therefore, none of them realized the common sense that the battlefield was not safe until it was cleared. Zhong Jinwei came from a later generation. Although he had experienced several wars, he first vomited after seeing various human remains on the battlefield and lost interest. Later, I was at a disadvantage and never thought about visiting the battlefield.
Now the Ming army led by Zhong Jinwei has an overwhelming advantage. The peasant army did not put up any decent resistance at all. It was defeated in minutes and was defeated so miserably that Zhong Jinwei subconsciously did not regard this place as a battlefield at all. .
Moreover, Zhong Jinwei comes from the Diaosi class and has been influenced by many years of education. He always consciously believes that the peasant army is the embodiment of justice, so he has no sense of opposition to the peasant army or disgust for the poor. On the contrary, he also wants to understand these peasants. military.
Therefore, as soon as Zhong Jinwei said that Li Laosi and others had no objection, the seven of them came down from the top of the slope and headed for the Yellow River Ferry.
There is a law on the battlefield that has remained unchanged since ancient times. That is, soldiers are easier to survive than civilians, and veterans are easier to survive than recruits. Compared with most peasant soldiers, Zhang Xianzhong was born in the frontier army. Those companions who hold hoes all day know better about battlefield survival.
When he saw that the situation was wrong, he did not run with the crowd because he knew that blindly running away was not advisable.
He kept observing the situation of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield. First, he avoided the front direction of the charge of the White Guard Cavalry. Then he did not run along the upstream and downstream banks of the Yellow River, as most people's first instinct would be. Yes, but this must be the key pursuit target of the Ming army, and he knows this very well.
Originally, he planned to see if there was any chance of escaping to the other side of the border in Shaanxi, because relatively speaking, that side was the safest.
But he only knew how to swim a little. Those companions who relied on their ability to swim and blindly tried to swim to the other side were swallowed up by the seemingly calm Yellow River or washed downstream. Only one out of ten people made it to the other side alive.
The other road leading to the other side was the pontoon bridge, but the Ming army immediately attacked and occupied the pontoon bridge. Not to mention there were so many Ming soldiers there, the leading Ming army general, Zhang Xianzhong himself, was not necessarily there Can win.
After thinking about it like this, Zhang Xianzhong came to the conclusion that the direction from which the Ming army came was actually the safest direction to escape, because the Ming army there was the smallest in number. As long as he could grab a horse, he would have great confidence in escaping.
.
Therefore, based on this course of action, Zhang Xianzhong chose a suitable place and pretended to be dead there.
He made up his mind, even if he couldn't escape, it would be better to wait for the Ming army to clear the battlefield and then surrender if they couldn't get through, rather than surrendering while killing each other, because when the soldiers on the battlefield were killing each other smoothly, they would kill more surrendered soldiers.
, is a common occurrence. After the battle, the soldiers regained their rationality, and this kind of unjust manslaughter was basically impossible to happen.
What Zhang Xianzhong didn't expect was that as soon as he lay down and pretended to be dead, another person also lay down next to him and pretended to be dead.
Zhang Xianzhong recognized him and greeted him in a low voice: "Captain Ma, it's true that heroes think alike!"