Cao Bianjiao walked at the forefront of the army. Except for Hu Hao's Ye Bu Shu team, he led all the Ye Bu Shu troops and acted as the vanguard of the army, paving the way for the army.
Because when the Ming army returned, there were tens of thousands more civilian troops. This team was too large and could no longer sneak and gallop like when they came.
The tens of thousands of people's troops were walking in the middle of the team. Of course, these people's soldiers must be in quotation marks. If they really meet the elite of the Jianlu, these people's soldiers will only fail more than they succeed.
Instead of walking, they emptied Shenyang City of all the means of transportation. Such as mules, horses, donkeys, and even cattle. Vehicles of all sizes crowded the official roads.
However, even though there were so many vehicles and people, they were all moving in an orderly manner under the command of the soldiers assigned to each team.
Of course, there are also some disharmonious situations, that is, when walking, the vehicle breaks down, and the mules, horses, and donkeys have problems. Once such problems are discovered, the vehicles or mules, horses, and donkeys will be pushed off the official road immediately to avoid It hindered the subsequent march.
Behind the civilian army, there were about 500 Denglai Ming and Korean troops, led by Qian Zongzong Zhang Xianzhong of Lu Xiang's Shengbiao Battalion, protecting the retreat.
As for Lu Xiangsheng and Zhong Jinwei, as well as the remaining Denglai Ming Army and the New Army, they were nowhere to be seen.
Although the march of the army is much slower than when it came, it is still much faster than the starting army.
After the army crossed the Hun River, they found traces of Jianlu.
As Cao Bianjiao's personal guard, Zhu Yuanzhong performed very well and gained Cao Bianjiao's trust. He led twenty riders on the left side of the official road. They were the first to discover Jianlu's traces.
Five Jianlu people appeared on the hillside in front of Zhu Yuanzhong. Their attention was focused on the large Ming army in the distance, and they did not notice the existence of a group of Ming troops under their noses.
Zhu Yuanzhong began to worry that it might be Jianlu's vanguard who was probing the horse. He sent a man to report the situation to Cao Bianjiao and ordered his men to rush towards Jianlu on the hillside in a fan shape.
The sound of horse hooves woke up the Jianlu prisoners. They found that the Ming army was less than thirty or forty steps away from them, and their number was several times greater than theirs. They were so frightened that they quickly turned their horses around and tried to escape.
But Zhu Yuanzhong's team had already picked up their horse speed, and the slope of the hillside was not high, so they easily caught up with the captives.
They killed two of them without any effort, captured two of them, and he luckily escaped with the other one.
Zhu Yuanzhong used to be in the Guan Ning Army. He had dealt with Jianlu for a long time and knew the Jianlu quite well. He understood that these Jianlu were not regular Jianlu troops, otherwise they would not have been killed so easily.
When he interrogated him, he found that the confessions of the Jianlu were indeed in line with his suspicions. These Jianlu came from Fengji Fort in the front. They heard that Shengjing was attacked by the Ming army and came out specifically to inquire about the news.
At this time, the rumble of hoofbeats came from behind. Zhu Yuanzhong turned around and found that Zhang Liwei was leading more than a hundred horses to support him.
The truth of the matter was quickly reported to Cao Bianjiao, and he breathed a long sigh of relief. Because the burden on Cao Bianjiao's shoulders was very heavy, he had to ensure that the Jianlu could not approach the advancing army.
From this, he dispersed about a hundred Ye Bu far away. As soon as he found the Jianlu, if there were few people, he would directly kill or expel them to prevent them from getting close to the army. If there were many people, he would report the news to Cao Bianjiao. Cao Bianjiao looked at the situation and led the main force to drive them away.
The false alarm just now made Cao Bianjiao realize that this journey would not be easy. Not far away from Shenyang, there are already traces of Jianlu. If he continues further, he doesn't know how many more he will encounter. .
Cao Bianjiao immediately sent an order to those who had dispersed in the night, asking them to be vigilant and guard against the enemy's raids.
Sure enough, in the following time, some more Jianlu and Tanma were discovered one after another. However, the number was small, so Cao Bianjiao was not bothered.
As soon as the situation was reported to Cao Bianjiao, he learned the preliminary situation.
These Jianlu troops were basically sent from the nearby Wujing Camp, Hupiyi, Fengji Fort and other places. Among the larger Jianlu garrison troops in these places, Huang Taiji had transferred most of their troops, while the smaller ones had The army itself does not have many troops. Therefore, the number of Jianlu discovered in advance was relatively small, and there was no need to alert him, so he could be dealt with by the front without stopping at night.
The tasks of these captives are the same as those of Fengji Fort. Most of them are sent from various places to investigate the situation. Those lucky captives who escaped in time quickly reported the situation they saw from a distance to their respective leaders, and reported in panic It shows that the army has 40,000 to 50,000 people, covering the sky and covering the earth, and is marching.
Some Jianlu leaders didn't believe it, so they came out to investigate in person. When they saw the Ming army's troops from a distance, they were so frightened that they immediately went back to their own territory and closed the village gates or fort gates tightly. Report the situation to the respective superiors.
Why did Jianlu Tanma say that there were 40,000 to 50,000 Ming troops, and the leader of Jianlu himself also verified that there were indeed 40,000 to 50,000 Ming troops? In fact, the reason is very simple. When the Ming troops were counting their loot in Shenyang City, they found a The warehouse is full of Ming army armor and flags, etc. These are Ming army equipment that have been captured by the Jianqi in the past.
The items in this warehouse have been sorted out once by Jianlu, and both good and bad equipment have been sorted out. Although the remaining items are still usable, they are either shoddily made and can be made do with. They are just worn; or they have been used for many years and are very worn out. To Jianlu, these things are like worthless things, they are despised, and it is a pity to abandon them.
Therefore, all these equipment were stored in the warehouse and not used. When Huang Taiji prepared to form more Han armies in the future, he would use this batch of equipment. However, he did not expect that he would end up giving the Ming army an advantage.
Previously, in the square in front of the Jianlu Palace, the Han people who had completed their formation were led by their leading soldiers and lined up to receive armor and other equipment from the warehouse. However, there were too many Han people, and there were still a small number of people who could not receive them. to armor.
Even so, it doesn't matter much. Zhong Jinwei didn't expect these militiamen to fight and be of any help. The only purpose was to bluff and scare the Jianlu soldiers and small troops in the distance. It made Jianlu dare not act rashly. It would be ideal if you could sneak into Zhangzi Island.
But Jianlu is not a fool, and he will definitely wake up after a long time. Moreover, Zhong Jinwei is afraid of encountering Jianlu's elite troops, or large groups of Jianlu, such as Jianlu who rush back from the front line. In this way, those Jianlu will be killed. One charge would probably result in the entire army being annihilated.
In order to solve this problem as much as possible, Zhong Jinwei and Lu Xiangsheng disappeared from this team. So where did they go?