It would be too dangerous to pursue them directly at night, but Diao Leixun could not let the puppet Tang rebels escape without a trace. Although he did not let the army move that night, he still sent out scouts to monitor the puppet Tang rebels.
Wait until early the next morning to continue the pursuit with the troops!
It was impossible not to pursue him. In the early morning, Su Jiakang's envoy arrived with his letter. In the letter, Su Jiakang lost his usual politeness and scolded him directly, and even threatened to write to the governor.
This made Diao Leixun feel a lot of pressure. He couldn't sleep well that night, and he couldn't sleep well. Naturally, the soldiers got up before dawn the next day and started to light a fire to cook. It was already dawn.
It's time to start the journey again.
But even if he started to pursue again, he knew very well that the pseudo-Tang thief army would not be able to catch up. The spy reported that the pseudo-Tang thief army did not stop walking even when it was dark yesterday, so that after one night,
Those puppet Tang rebels had already fled almost twenty miles away.
Although the traces of these pseudo-Tang rebels have not been lost, it is basically impossible to catch up again.
But even so, he still had to bite the bullet and continue the pursuit. This was not to gain credit for catching up with the puppet Tang rebel army and annihilating it, but just to avoid punishment from above.
Although the main responsibility for Ying Tianhu's fiasco yesterday evening lies with Ying Tianhu, in the final analysis, Ying Tianhu is still the deputy Qianhu of his Tong'an Qianhu Office. His subordinates, Ying Tianhu's failure,
In fact, it can be regarded as his failure.
In order to avoid punishment from above, he must show that he is doing his best!
As for Su Jiakang at the back, he wanted to annihilate the main force of these puppet Tang rebels, and for this purpose he continued to put tremendous pressure on Diao Leixun. At the same time, he also personally led the pursuit from behind.
As a result, the Tang Dynasty King once again played a game of circles with the Ming army in the mountains.
Even in order to better contain the Ming army and prevent the Ming army from losing the motivation to pursue, Li Xuan kept the distance between the two sides at more than ten miles, and even once brought the distance as close as seven or eight miles.
Let the Ming army see hope of catching up.
While the Ming army and the Tang army were circling in the mountains, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi successfully returned to Huangzhu Mountain with their baggage train.
When they came back, they not only brought a large amount of food, but also brought with them more than 30 craftsmen, including those who had been captured semi-forcedly or attracted by various promises such as full meals and women.
Return to Huangzhushan.
The arrival of a large amount of food finally alleviated the food crisis that had been hanging over Huangzhu Mountain. With this batch of food from Fengjiazhuang, and the army was eating at the enemy outside, there were hundreds left for Huangzhu Mountain.
The food needed to grow young and strong, so these ordinary old and weak women and children in the mountains save some, which is theoretically enough to sustain them until the autumn harvest.
Watching a large amount of grain being carried into the warehouse, Liu Bagou also smiled: "With this grain, it will be enough for us to sustain us until the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest, we will be able to harvest enough grain here."
Huang Xueren said with a tired look on his face: "That's good. It'll be good if we can survive until autumn. But now that there are so many of us, I'm afraid there won't be enough food even after the autumn harvest!"
Liu Bagou smiled and said: "When we are busy in the summer, we are busy from morning to night, planting food in all the places where food can be grown, and in a few days I plan to lead people to start construction
Ditches and flood control structures will never happen again like this spring. After the autumn harvest, we will have enough food to feed 5,000 people, and we may even have more!"
"That's true!" Bai Yunqi said on the side: "Now we only have a little more than four thousand people in total, and now that the army is still outside, we can also save a lot of food. In this way, we can also kidnap people from outside.
The population of several villages has come!"
The population growth of the Tang Dynasty never relied on natural growth, but relied heavily on captives.
These prisoners included Ming army prisoners, hostile bandits and their families, as well as ordinary villagers kidnapped from outside the mountains.
In order to expand the strength of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Bagou and Li Xuan both wanted to expand the population, and bandit leaders like Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren were extremely keen to capture them in order to have more soldiers under their command and control more power.
The prisoners supplemented the strength of the Tang Dynasty king's army.
Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, whether it was Emperor Li Xuan, Liu Bagou, the chief minister, or generals such as Fang Dongquan, Wang Shanxu, etc., they were all extremely keen on capturing prisoners.
The last time they went out to the mountains, they just brought back more than a thousand ordinary villagers.
The reason why I didn't plan to go out this time was because there was a shortage of food in Huangzhu Mountain. The original four thousand people couldn't feed them, let alone capture a large group of people. However, now that the food crisis has been solved,
After the initial relief, it is normal for Liu Bagou and Huang Xueren to have the idea of expanding the population.
Therefore, Liu Bagou nodded: "This can be done, but it is up to His Majesty to decide how to do it specifically!"
Capturing hundreds or even thousands of prisoners to expand the population was a major matter for the Tang Dynasty regarding its future strategy. Naturally, Liu Bagou and Huang Xueren did not dare to decide on such a strategic matter without permission.
Li Xuan, who went on the expedition himself, let Li Xuan decide for himself.
In the past six months, Li Xuan's influence in the Tang Dynasty has been growing. Especially when the Guards became famous in the first battle, and the subsequent establishment of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan was finally able to effectively control the armed forces of the Tang Dynasty.
, even though this control still requires compromise with Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Wang Shanxu, as the supreme commander-in-chief, he cleverly used the contradictions of generals such as Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Wang Shanxu to always put himself in the position of arbiter.
and thus took complete control of the entire army.
Now that Li Xuan asked the soldiers to kill Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and the others were unlikely to do so. However, without infringing on the vital interests of Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and the others, Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and Wang Shanxu were unwilling to defy Li Xuan and allow others to attack.
Your own excuses.
Therefore, Huang Xueren also said: "This matter naturally needs to be reported to Your Majesty and let Your Majesty make a decision personally. When this matter comes to an end, I will bring the baggage team to join Your Majesty!"
Bai Yunqi also said: "Now that the army led by His Majesty has been holding back the Ming army for many days, I'm afraid there is a crisis of food shortage. We'd better set out to meet Your Majesty in the next two days!"
Liu Bagou said: "That's very good!"
After saying this, Liu Bagou paused and continued: "But the army is out there, so we should give priority to feeding the enemy!"
Liu Bagou didn't make it clear, but Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi were not stupid either. Naturally, what Liu Bagou meant was that they should not be allowed to take away too much food. If the army outside was short of food, it would be best to
Go directly to the mountains to 'collect grain'.
The food here in Huangzhu Mountain needs to be eaten by the old, weak, women and children in the mountain. If too much is taken away, there will not be enough food in the mountain.
But Liu Bagou should never say such words on his own initiative, because once he said it, he would be suspected of framed Dajun.
Especially now that Li Xuan is still leading the army to deal with the Ming army. If Huang Zhushan refuses to allow Huang Xueren and the others to take away food, what if the army is really short of food? This matter is the leader of Liu Bagou.
It is a responsibility that Suke is not willing to take nor cannot bear.
So after hearing this, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi didn't say anything, but just said in unison: "This is what it should be. If we can harvest more grain, we still need to harvest more grain!"
They did not say they would not bring any food, but said they would try to 'collect food' outside.
Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi's baggage team did not stay in Huangzhu Mountain for long. They set off again the next day, but the number of people who set off again was reduced by nearly half, with only about a hundred people, and they did not carry much food.
The more important materials are actually various weapons.
Including more than a dozen muskets and ammunition recently produced by the Ministry of Works workshop, in addition to arrows, swords and other weapon supplies.
After all, no matter what kind of weapons, they are actually consumables, and the loss rate of individual weapons is still very high. For example, the steel knives used by heavy armor sword and shield soldiers, even if the blade is covered with steel, but in a battle
It is also very common for the waist knife to have chips.
Not to mention pure consumables such as lead bullets, gunpowder, and arrows. In a battle, archers can shoot more than ten arrows, and some can shoot seven or eight arrows. Although some of these arrows are used in the battle,
It can be recovered later, but this is based on the early stage of cleaning up the battlefield after victory, and the number of arrows that can be recovered is not large. If you lose the battle or are in a hurry, these arrows will most likely not be recovered.
of.
In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, timely replenishment of equipment is very necessary.
Early that morning, Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi set out again with the baggage team to meet Li Xuan at the edge of the mountain. Empress Dowager Bai in the palace sent someone to bring a large bag of things for Huang Xueren and the others to deliver to Li Xuan.
Empress Dowager Bai, who was worried about her son's safety, didn't put anything messy in the package. She just put a stainless steel waist knife made by craftsmen and a piece of soft armor.
In this package, there are also things sent by Dong Yunyun and Ye Shi. Dong Yunyun sent a pair of clothes that she claimed to have sewn by herself, but in fact most of them were made by Zhu Er. What Ye Shi sent was made by herself.
Sewn leather gloves.
Climbing upstairs and watching the baggage train go away, Queen Mother Bai sighed and then slowly turned around and went down the stairs. As she walked, she whispered softly: "They are all a bunch of rubbish. How dare Xuan'er do something like a war?"
go!"
After hearing this, the old woman who was following her couldn't help but murmur in her heart, when we went out for the expedition, you encouraged your son to go on the expedition yourself, saying that you wanted to establish prestige and completely control the new army, so as not to let down the generals below.
They control the army to rebel.
However, there are really not many of these old ladies who can follow Queen Mother Bai who are stupid peasant women. All of them have the unique shrewdness of women. Naturally, they know what can and cannot be said, so even if they hear this,
There was something murmuring in their hearts, but no one dared to say it out loud.