Chapter 184: First let the Ming army go (seeking a monthly ticket)
Butcher Chen's proposal obviously attracted the attention of many people. After hearing this, Fang Dongquan and Wang Shanxu both had expressions of emotion on their faces.
Wang Shanxu said: "It would be a good thing if we could hit them back. At least they would have some scruples when chasing!"
Wang Shanxu didn't say how many enemy troops could be killed and wounded after firing a carbine, because it didn't make much sense. Their goal from the beginning to the end was not to kill as many Ming troops as possible. Even for the sake of grand strategy, they had to avoid causing damage to the Ming troops as much as possible.
huge loss.
Even if God now gives the Huangzhushan bandits a chance to completely annihilate the two thousand households of the Ming Army, they would not dare to do it.
Once these two thousand-household offices are annihilated, ten or twenty thousand-household offices will be waiting for them in the future. These two thousand-household offices, like Longhua Town and Zhengtai County, are a hornet's nest and cannot be poked!
Therefore, when Wang Shanxu said he was going to turn back the enemy, he was actually just killing the Ming army with arrogance, which made the Ming army have some scruples when they pursued them, and not pursue them as fiercely as they did now.
At this time, Fang Dongquan also said: "I think it is possible, but the scale cannot be too large, otherwise accidents will easily occur, and it will be difficult to handle once the main force of the Ming army catches up!"
Listening to Fang Dongquan's words, you can tell that Fang Dongquan is still afraid of the Ming army. After all, the Ming army following behind is not only the more than 100 forwards, but also more than 400 Ming troops a little further away. As for the further directions, there are also spies.
It turned out that at least a Ming army of 500 people was on the way.
In other words, the total number of Ming troops chasing them exceeded a thousand.
However, as for the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, the full strength before the expedition was only more than 350 people. A few hours ago, a baggage team of almost fifty people escorted the civilians to transport food and took a detour. In other words, the total strength of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty at this time is
Only three hundred people.
These three hundred people were less than one-third of the Ming army. Even if the Tang Dynasty's new army had a certain weapon advantage by relying on the musketeers, the gap in military strength would not be eliminated so easily.
Therefore, it is normal for Fang Dongquan to be worried.
After the three main generals Fang Dongquan, Chen Tufu and Wang Shanxu expressed their intention to launch a small counterattack, Li Xuan also set his sights on Qian Mengjiu.
This great scholar of Jianji Palace in the Tang Dynasty was also the Minister of the Ministry of War. He was also the chief physician in the Tang Dynasty and the only doctor in Huangzhu Mountain. His mental state was obviously not very good at this time.
Although he is the second person in the Tang Dynasty Wangshi who does not have to walk, except for Li Xuan, this is purely because of his poor physical fitness, so he is lucky enough to ride on a donkey, but even so, running all the way is quite tiring for him
.
After all, he is a literary man, and he is also old, and his physical condition is not good.
However, although his mental state was not very good, Qian Mengjiu's voice was still full of energy when he spoke: "If we fight back rashly, the effect will not be great if there are fewer people going. On the contrary, it may lose manpower, and if there are more people going, it will affect
Our speed can easily be overtaken by the main force of the puppet Ming thief army, so from my point of view, it is better to be cautious!"
Unlike those generals who only wanted to fight back and eliminate the frustration of being pursued, Qian Mengjiu was very cautious.
Just listen to him continue: "Now we are not far away from the mountain. If we work harder, we can return to the edge of the mountain before dark. Then it will be easier to get rid of the Ming army!"
At this time, Cai Erhu also said: "What if the Ming army chases us into the mountains? We can't let them chase us all the way to Huangzhu Mountain, right?"
At this time, Qian Mengjiu also fell silent, and after a while he said: "If this is the case, we can also fight back at the edge of the mountain!"
"But it is too dangerous to fight back outside the mountains. Even if we want to fight back, we have to go back to the mountains we are more familiar with!"
After listening to Qian Mengjiu's words, Li Xuan also nodded slightly!
Outside the mountains and inside the mountains, there are two completely different environments. The former is the home field of the Ming army. The Ming army can be said to occupy the right time and place. The risk of rashly starting a war with the Ming army is too high, and it is easy to be entangled by the main force of the Ming army.
.
But if it is in the mountains, even if it is only on the edge of the mountains, it is a terrain that the Huangzhushan bandits are more familiar with. They can advance, fight back, retreat and escape, which is more conducive to the actions of the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
Looking at the crowd, Li Xuan knew that it was time for him to make a decision, because everyone who should speak had already spoken.
During this expedition, Liu Bagou and Wang Wenhua did not come, but stayed in Huangzhushan to take charge of the busy summer affairs. When the troops were divided at the front, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi led a baggage transport team of more than 300 people to take a detour.
The only ones left here are the four main generals, Fang Dongquan, Chen Tufu, Wang Shanxu, and Cai Erhu, and Qian Mengjiu, a civil servant who serves as military advisor.
Li Xuan pondered for a moment and then said: "In this case, let's release the Ming army first and let the soldiers have a good rest, and then hurry up and hurry up and try to get back to the mountains before dark."
Speaking of this, he paused and then said: "If the Ming army dares to continue to catch up, then we will find an opportunity in the mountains to knock out their forwards!"
Li Xuan knew very well that running all the time was not an option. Since he couldn't fight a big fight, he would just fight a small one. As long as he could kill dozens of them, it would be enough to make the pursuing Ming army have some scruples. Then they would
Being able to get rid of these Ming troops will give them greater strategic room for maneuver.
After Li Xuan made the decision, Fang Dongquan and others naturally had no objection, and soon made their own arrangements and prepared to set off again.
The new troops of the Tang Dynasty did not rest in place for long, but hurriedly ate dry food and drank water before setting off. When Ying Tianhu behind him saw this scene, he ignored the fact that his soldiers were exhausted and urged them to get up and continue.
pursuit.
Even if they can't catch up and entangle these pseudo-Tang rebels, they still can't let these pseudo-Tang rebels escape. Otherwise, Diao Leixun may not know how to punish him later.
So even though they were very tired, the more than one hundred Ming Army forward soldiers had to get up.
Ever since, there was a situation of chasing each other in this wilderness again, and the speed of both parties was getting slower and slower.
There was no other way. Both of them had been marching at high intensity for several hours, which consumed a lot of physical energy. It was normal for them to move slower and slower, but even so, they still did not stop.
As for the main force of 400 people from Tong'an Qianhu Station led by Diao Leixun further behind, they were also very tired. They were actually chasing all the way, and the distance they walked was not much less than that of the forwards under Ying Tianhu in front. Many of them were not physically fit.
The soldiers have already begun to fall behind.
It can be seen from this that the physical fitness of the soldiers in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty is actually better than that of the Ming Army. At least no one among the soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty has fallen behind.
As the sky gradually darkened, Li Xuan and the others finally reached the edge of the mountain, and Ying Tianhu, who was following them, was still chasing after them, and the distance between the two sides was always within two or three miles.
Regarding this, Li Xuan also knew that if these Ming troops were not given a hard blow, they might really be able to chase them all the way to Huangzhu Mountain.
Immediately, he called Fang Dongquan and the others over to start a discussion. There was only one topic of discussion, and that was how to kill an enemy!