When Cao Mingda retreated with his cavalry, Butcher Chen also led dozens of people to provide support and cover, preventing the Ming army from rushing out to pursue him again.
You must know that most battle defeats occur during the retreat. A slightly careless tactical retreat can turn into a strategic defeat.
Once a defeat occurs, no matter how strict the military discipline is, how strong the faith is, or how high the quality of the soldiers is, they are no match for an instinctive survival psychology, making it impossible to reverse the situation.
Even a military god-level general can only look forward to sighing in the face of such a defeated army. The only thing he can do is to wait until the defeated soldiers are tired of running, and then slowly gather the defeated soldiers.
In order to prevent the cavalry squad's retreat from turning into a rout and causing chaos to the entire unit, necessary cover must be provided.
Not only were the melee troops led by Butcher Chen providing cover, but the musketeers were also standing ready at this time. The muzzles of the musketeers were always aimed at the city head. Once someone from the Ming army on the city head dared to come forward and shoot arrows,
Immediately there will be a salvo of dozens of muskets.
However, Wang Shanxu, Chen Tufu and their worries did not appear. The Ming army at the gate of the city had already been defeated. There was still a way to prevent the troops from counterattacking or even pursuing them. As for the Ming army on top of the city, those ordinary soldiers and young men were powerless. As for those
The archers who were able to fight back had been frightened by the musketeers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty before. The sudden arrow shooting would attract a volley of fire from the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, so that they did not dare to lean out to fight back.
The only option is to hide behind the battlements and launch an effective counterattack as before. If no one can even see the projectile counterattack, if the Ming army has hundreds of archers,
Then the results will definitely not be small under the rain of arrows.
But the key thing is that there are not so many archers in the Ming army. Archers have always been an extremely scarce unit, which is difficult to train and the number is small.
For example, there are not many archers in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, and only 40 of them can be found in the new army of the Tang Dynasty. However, these forty people account for less than one-tenth of the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
The Ming army is not much better. Although the proportion of archers is higher, this is in the regular army. At this time, in Zhengtai County, the regular guard army only has more than two hundred people, and there can be twenty or thirty people.
A person who knows how to bend a bow and shoot an arrow is already very good. Adding in the few young people who can shoot, there are only fifty or sixty people in total.
These archers had already suffered a lot of casualties after being attacked several times by the Tang Dynasty's new army musketeers.
There are only a few dozen people shooting aimlessly into the sky, and it is impossible to form a large rain of arrows to cover the shooting, so the hit rate is naturally not that high.
Cao Ming came quickly with his people just now, and he was not slow when leaving. He quickly evacuated from the city wall and returned to his own formation.
Fang Dongquan looked at his old subordinate at this time, with a gloomy and scary face. After staring at Cao Mingda for a long time, he said: "Just now, because of your greed for success, you almost ruined the military strategy of the Tang Dynasty. You
Please go and apologize to His Majesty yourself!"
Although Cao Mingda thought on the way back that he might cause trouble if he attacked without permission, at the last moment he resisted the idea of capturing Zhengtai County and led his people to withdraw. In this case, it was not considered disobedience.
At most, he pursued the Ming army for dozens of meters on his own initiative. He accidentally chased the city gate, and then accidentally knocked down the city gate. This kind of behavior can be regarded as unauthorized action at most.
In the past, he had acted without authorization many times, and he had never been really punished that time.
But now when he looked at the face of the old boss Fang Dongquan, he had a bad feeling in his heart. This time, he might really get into trouble.
Fang Dongquan, the old boss, had said it, so naturally he didn't dare to neglect. He quickly rode his horse to the top of the hill. Before he could step forward, he got off his horse and walked 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 temporary success. Please punish me!"
As he spoke, he also took off his helmet, acting like he was taking off his official hat.
Looking at this Cao Mingda, Li Xuan still looked unhappy. It was because of Cao Mingda's unauthorized actions just now that he almost captured Zhengtai County and made the matter so big that he could not handle it.
However, seeing that he was willing to take the blame, he had resisted his greed at the last moment and led his army to follow the order to retreat. This made it difficult for Li Xuan to really take too drastic measures. After all, now in the Tang Dynasty
The establishment of a dynasty requires the services of talents from all walks of life.
Li Xuan needs civilian officials like Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu, and Wang Wenhua, strategic talents like Zeng Ziwen, and people like Butcher Chen and Cao Mingda who can lead the charge.
So Li Xuan would not really kill Cao Mingda, but he would not dare to reuse such a person no matter how brave he was. Who knows if he would cause any trouble next time.
After he glanced at Cao Mingda, he immediately said: "Cao Mingda did not respect orders and acted without authorization. He will be relieved of his position as captain of the cavalry immediately!"
Cao Mingda, who was still kneeling on the ground, was slightly stunned when he heard this. Obviously, he did not expect that Li Xuan would directly revoke his position as captain. However, after being stunned for a moment, he did not say anything more.
He said: "I thank the Lord for your kindness!"
Just when Li Xuan had dismissed Cao Mingda from his post, suddenly a scout came galloping from the periphery. The scout had just arrived at the top of the hill, turned over and dismounted, and without stopping, ran straight to Li Xuan, with a hint of panic on his face.
: "Your Majesty, a large number of puppet Ming thieves appeared five miles behind our army, with a strength of no less than a thousand people!"
As soon as these words came out, the hilltop immediately fell into silence, and the only sound that could be heard was the increased breathing of everyone.
After counting, Qian Mengjiu stood up and said, "Can you see clearly, are there really a thousand people? Are they regular troops or young men?"
The scout cavalry ran so fast when he came back to report the news that his breathing was still a little rough, but he still said: "Yes, there are at least a thousand people, and they are all regular troops, not young and strong!"
To tell whether the soldiers in the Ming army are regular soldiers, young and strong, or even elites, it is actually very simple. You can tell by looking at their clothes. Those wearing tattered military uniforms must be ordinary guard soldiers, and those wearing neat military uniforms and even cotton armor
They are the elite of the guards, that is, low-level officers and even private soldiers.
As for the soldiers who carry weapons and do not wear military uniforms, it goes without saying that they are young men recruited temporarily.
But the Ming army, which had no military uniforms, not even standard weapons, and at most only had a shoulder pole or some messy self-prepared weapons, was 100% a long-term soldier.
More than a thousand Ming troops appeared at his side and behind him. This was not normal at all!
How is this possible? The Ming army only has about a thousand regular troops in Zhengtai County. There are hundreds of people in Longhua Town. There should be hundreds of people in Zhengtai County at this time. The rest of the Ming army is rumored to be
Taken away by Su Jiakang.
Even if Su Jiakang showed up with all the Ming troops who had left the city, there would only be four to five hundred people at most. How could there be thousands of people.
And according to the consistent configuration of the Ming army, there will definitely be a large number of young Zhuang and Changfu behind the regular army. In other words, the total number of the Ming army behind them, the regular army plus Qingzhuang and Changfu, is probably
There are more than two thousand people.
After Li Xuan heard the scout's words, his expression changed several times in a row. From panic to calm at the beginning, it only lasted a few seconds. After a few seconds, he looked up at the scout and said: "
Which Ming army is it? Who leads it? Where are its vanguard and main force located, and how far away are they from our army?"
Although Li Xuan spoke unpleasantly, he asked a series of detailed questions.
When the detective heard Li Xuan ask the question in person, he naturally did not dare to hide anything. He immediately spoke out one by one. He also knew that the situation was urgent, so when reporting, he tried to be brief and clear, without any extraneous information.
nonsense.
After Li Xuan asked clearly, he fell silent again.
Qian Mengjiu and Zeng Ziwen looked at each other at this time, and they both saw worry in each other!
Just now, the scout said that the incoming Ming army had a banner with the character "王", and if nothing else happened, this "king" should be Wang Zhitan of Qianhu, the fairy Shi Qianhu. In addition to the king, there was also a banner with the character "Chen", and
There are no senior generals named Chen in the existing Fairy Shi Qianhu Office and Tong'an Qianhu Office in Zhengtai County. This shows that the 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 top three Jinshi and the seventh-grade civil servants. This meant that the Ming army in the rear was really led by Su Jiakang, because in this three-acre land of Zhengtai County, Jinshi
Among the seventh-grade civil servants, Su Jiakang was the only one.
Su Jiakang is the only one who can use this kind of guard of honor!
Su Jiakang suddenly appeared behind him with his army. Is this a coincidence?
Absolutely impossible!
Su Jiakang and the others may have been lying in ambush nearby, and they started to attack after the new army of the Tang Dynasty began to attack the city. They probably wanted to attack the new army of the Tang Dynasty from both front and rear. Otherwise, it would not be such a coincidence and they would appear behind them.
It presents a situation of encirclement.
This shows what?
This shows that all this is a conspiracy. Su Jiakang did not lead anyone into the mountains. The Ming army in Longhua Town's entry into the mountains was probably just a pretense.
All this was to lure him and others to Zhengtai County, and then surround and annihilate them.
Now, something serious is going wrong. If something goes wrong, I and others may be killed in Zhengtai County!
At this moment, the expression on Li Xuan's face continued to be frowning. After being silent for more than ten seconds, he suddenly said: "Immediately send an order to the entire army to prepare for war immediately and prepare to move in!"
Qian Mengjiu asked: "Your Majesty, where are we going?"
Li Xuan looked up to the southwest, which was the direction of Huangzhu Mountain, but he quickly turned to the northwest, raised his hand and pointed in the distance: "Let's go to the northwest, Yangjia Village!"
After that, he looked at Qian Mengjiu, then showed a smile and said: "Don't worry, I will take you back to the mountain." He paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and said: "Go back alive!"