When Cao Mingda and his cavalry retreated, Chen Butcher also led dozens of people to provide support and cover, and the Ming army was spared to rush out to chase after him again.

You should know that the defeats of most battles occur during the retreat, and a slight tactical retreat will turn into a strategic defeat.

Once a defeat occurs, no matter how strict the military discipline, how strong the faith is, or how high the quality of the soldiers is, they are unable to resist an instinctive survival psychology, which leads to the inability to reverse the situation.

Even generals at the level of the military god-level were only sighing when they were defeated. The only thing they could do was to wait until the defeated soldiers were tired from running away by themselves before they could slowly gather the defeated soldiers.

In order to avoid the retreat of the cavalry team becoming a retreat, which will lead to turmoil in the entire army, necessary cover must be provided.

Not only was the hand-to-hand combat troops led by Chen Butcher Chen to cover, but the musketeers were also ready at this time. The musketeers' muzzles were always aimed at the direction of the city. Once someone on the Ming army on the city dared to shoot arrows, they would immediately receive a volley of dozens of muskets.

However, the concerns of Wang Shanxu and the Butcher Chen did not appear. The Ming army at the gate of the city had long been disintegrated, and it could still stop the troops from counterattacking or even pursuing. As for the Ming army on the top of the city, the ordinary soldiers and young men were helpless, and the archers who could counterattack, they were already scared by the musket team of the Tang New Army. This emergence of archery would attract the volley of the Tang New Army, so they did not dare to lean out to counterattack.

It can only be like before, hiding behind battlements to make effective counterattacks by shooting. In such a situation where people cannot see them, if there are hundreds of archers on the Ming army, the results of the battle under the cover of the arrow rain will definitely not be small.

But the key is that there are not so many archers in the Ming army. Archers have always been an extremely scarce group of troops, and they are difficult to train and have a small number.

For example, there were not many archers in the Tang Dynasty New Army, and only forty people were gathered out in full swing. These forty people accounted for less than one-tenth of the Tang Dynasty New Army.

The Ming army was not as good as that. Although the proportion of archers was higher, this was in the regular army. At this time, there were only more than 200 regular guards in Zhengtai County. It was already very good to have twenty or thirty people who knew how to bend the bow and shoot archery. In addition, the few young and strong people who could shoot archers were only fifty or sixty.

These archers have suffered considerable casualties after being hit by the Tang Dynasty's New Army Musketeers several rounds.

Only dozens of people shot targetlessly into the sky, and could not form a large rain of arrows to cover and shoot, so the hit rate would naturally be less than there.

Cao Ming just brought his men and walked slowly, and soon he evacuated from under the city wall and returned to his own array.

Fang Dongquan looked at his old subordinate at this time, his face was gloomy and a little scary. He stared at Cao Mingda for a long time and said, "Just just now, because of your temporary greed for me, I almost destroyed my Tang Dynasty's military strategy. You should apologize to Your Majesty!"

Although Cao Mingda thought on the way back that he had thought that this time he would attack without authorization might cause trouble, at the last moment, he resisted the intention of capturing Zhengtai County and took people back. In this way, it would not be considered disobedience. At most, he would have taken the initiative to chase the Ming army for dozens of meters. He accidentally chased the city gate and accidentally knocked down the city gate. This behavior was at most he acted without authorization.

In the past, he had acted without permission many times, but he never really got punished that time.

But now he looked at the face of Fang Dongquan, the old leader, and had a bad premonition in his heart. This time, he was afraid he would really cause trouble.

Fang Dongquan, the old boss, said that he naturally did not dare to neglect. He soon rode his horse to the hill, and before he could step forward, he would turn over and get off the horse, and then walk up.

He knelt down a few meters away from Li Xuan, and said at the same time: "I know that I am guilty and should not be greedy for a moment of merit and advance lightly. Please punish Your Majesty!"

While talking, he took off his helmet and acted like he took off his official hat.

Looking at Cao Mingda, Li Xuan's face was still not very good-looking. It was because of Cao Mingda's unauthorized actions that he almost captured Zhengtai County, thus causing the matter to become so big that he could not handle it.

However, looking at him looking willing to take the crime, he had to resist his greed and lead his army to obey orders and retreat, which made Li Xuan very difficult to deal with it too much. After all, now that the Tang Dynasty was first established, it was necessary for all kinds of talents to serve.

Li Xuan needs civil servants like Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu, and Wang Wenhua, as well as strategic talents like Zeng Ziwen, and also people like Chen Butcher and Cao Mingda who charge in battle.

So Li Xuan would not really kill Cao Mingda, but even if such a person is brave, he would not dare to reuse it. Who knows whether he will cause any trouble next time?

After glanced at Cao Mingda, he immediately said, "Cao Mingda disrespects the order and acted without authorization. He immediately removed the position of captain of the cavalry team!"

Cao Mingda, who was still kneeling on the ground, was slightly stunned when he heard this. Obviously, he did not expect Li Xuan to directly revoke his captain position, but after a moment of stunnedness, he did not say anything else, but said: "I thank you for your kindness!"

Just when Li Xuan had just removed Cao Mingda's position, a scout suddenly ran towards him on the periphery. As soon as the scout reached the top of the mountain, he turned over and dismounted and ran directly to Li Xuan with a hint of panic on his face, "Report to Your Majesty, a large number of pseudo-Ming bandits appeared five miles behind our army, with no less than a thousand troops!"

As soon as these words were said, the hill immediately fell into silence, and only the sound of people breathing was heard.

After counting breaths, Qian Mengjiu, who was standing up, stood up and spoke: "You can see clearly that there are really as many as a thousand people? Are they regular soldiers or young and strong?"

The detective cavalry ran too fast when he came back to report the news, so his breathing was a little unsmooth, but he still said: "That's right, there are at least a thousand people, and they are all regular soldiers, not young and strong!"

It is actually very simple to tell whether the soldiers in the army are regular soldiers, young and strong, or even elite soldiers. You can tell if you look at their clothes. Those who wear tattered military uniforms must be ordinary soldiers, while those who wear neat military uniforms and even cotton armor are elite soldiers in those soldiers, namely low-level officers and even personal soldiers.

Needless to say, the soldiers who were holding weapons and not wearing military uniforms were all young and strong people who were temporarily recruited.

But the Ming army, who had no military uniforms or even standard weapons, had only one shoulder pole or some messy weapons, were 100% the eldest husband.

More than a thousand Ming troops appeared in their side and back position, which was not normal no matter how you looked at it!

How could this be possible? The Ming army had only about 1,000 regular troops in Zhengtai County. There were hundreds of people in Longhua Town. At this time, there should be hundreds of people in Zhengtai County. The remaining Ming army was rumored to have been taken away by Su Jiakang.

Even if Su Jiakang brought all the Ming troops out of the city, there would be only four or five hundred people at most. How could there be as many as thousands?

Moreover, according to the consistent configuration of the Ming army, there will definitely be a large number of young and strong men behind the regular army. In other words, the total number of the Ming army, including the regular army and young men and long men, is probably more than 2,000.

After hearing the words of the detective cavalry, Li Xuan's face changed several times, from panic at the beginning to calm down, and lasted only a few seconds. After a few seconds, he looked up at the scout and spoke, "Can we find out which Ming army the Qingming Army is? Who is leading the army? Where is its vanguard and main force located, and how far is it from our army?"

Although Li Xuan was not speaking quickly, he asked many detailed questions in a series of questions.

When the detective heard Li Xuan ask in person, he naturally did not dare to hide anything. He immediately said it one by one, and knew that the situation was urgent now. When reporting, he tried to be as brief as possible when he made a clear statement, without any unnecessary nonsense.

After Li Xuan asked clearly, he became silent again.

Qian Mengjiu and Zeng Ziwen looked at each other at this time, and they both saw the worry from each other!

The detective cavalry just said that there was a flag of the king in the Ming army. If nothing unexpected happens, this "king" should be the Qianhu Wang Zhitan of the Fairy Stone Qianhu Institute. In addition to the king, there is also a flag of the Chen. There is no senior general in the Fairy Stone Qianhu Institute and Tong'an Qianhu Institute in Zhengtai County. From this, it can be seen that this general named Chen must have just arrived here from other places.

In addition to these general flags, the scouts also saw the ceremonial guards of the third-class Jinshi and the seventh-rank civil servants, which means that the Ming army in the rear was really led by Su Jiakang, because in this acre of three-point land in Zhengtai County, Su Jiakang was the only seventh-rank civil servant who was born in the Jinshi.

Only Su Jiakang can use this kind of ceremonial guard!

Is this a coincidence that Su Jiakang led a large army to appear behind him suddenly?

Absolutely impossible!

Su Jiakang and the others may have been ambushing nearby, and after the Tang Dynasty's new army began to attack the city, they probably wanted to attack the Tang Dynasty's new army forward and backward, otherwise it would be impossible to be such a coincidence and appear behind themselves, showing a siege.

What does this mean?

This shows that all this is a conspiracy. Su Jiakang did not bring people into the mountain. The Ming army in Longhua Town probably only had a cover to enter the mountain.

All this is to lead oneself and others to the city of Zhengtai County and then encircle and annihilate it.

Now, something big is wrong. If you don’t do it well, you may have to settle down in Zhengtai County!

At this moment, the expression on Li Xuan's face continued to frown. After being silent for more than ten seconds, he suddenly said: "Immediately send the entire army to prepare for war immediately, and prepare for the transition!"

Qian Mengjiu asked, "Your Majesty, where are we going?"

Li Xuan looked up at the southwest. It was the direction of Huangzhushan, but he quickly turned his head to look northwest, and raised his hand to point out: "Let's go to the northwest, Yangjia Village!"
Chapter completed!