If you look carefully at the sword in Li Xuan's hand, you will find that the long sword in his hand is pointing in the direction of Zhengtai County.
At the same time, the flag bearer beside him also waved the flag. The meaning of the flag language was to launch an all-army charge to the northeast!
Where is the place in the northeast? Zhengtai County!
What prompted Li Xuan to change his mind about breaking out to the northwest at the last moment and instead attack Zhengtai County?
The reason can be simple or complex, and the first factor that prompted Li Xuan to make this choice was that what came out of the city gate of Zhengtai County was not the Ming army he expected, but a group of gentry and young men.
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There were no civil servants and generals of the Ming army, no guards in uniforms with standard weapons, but a group of gentry and young men!
One of the leaders was holding a big white flag!
At the same time, as soon as the gentry opened the city gate, a few people with loud voices shouted at Li Xuan and others: "The general is dead, the war has ceased and peace has been negotiated."
Even though they were still some distance from the city gate, Li Xuan could still tell from the chaotic and crowded crowd that these gentry were extremely frightened, especially when they saw the new army of the Tang Dynasty looking like they were about to fight a decisive battle.
That's true.
They didn't know that Li Xuan and the others were preparing to break out to the death, not to attack the city.
When Li Xuan saw this scene, he chose to attack the city without hesitation!
He didn't care whether the Ming army in the city really collapsed and fled, or was still ambushing in the city, but now that the city gate was wide open, as long as he rushed up, he could break the city and finally capture this kind of Zhengtai County. After capturing the county, he didn't care.
Whether to choose the right time to evacuate from other city gates and pick out the Ming army's encirclement, or to directly rely on Zhengtai County to launch a defensive operation, it would be a hundred times better than the current situation.
If he does not enter Zhengtai County, he can only break out in the northwest direction. As for the southeast direction, it is also possible, but that is the direction of Fucheng, the hinterland of the Ming army. Once they enter the hinterland of the Ming army, they will face countless Ming troops.
, there will definitely be no escape by then.
Otherwise, the Ming army's encirclement would not have left the southeast direction vacant, not only because they surrounded three buildings, but also because there seemed to be no enemies in the southeast direction, but that would be a dead end.
There are three hundred Ming troops intercepting them in the northwest. To be honest, it is difficult to say whether they can break through. Even if they succeed in the end, it is estimated that half of the five hundred people will be lost.
If it doesn't go well, the entire army may be destroyed.
After a short analysis in his mind, Li Xuan didn't have time to think too much, so he could only make a choice based on his intuition, which was to attack Zhengtai County, at least first break out of this encirclement.
Li Xuan issued a signal for the whole army to attack the city, and even personally led the guards to launch the attack. Although at this time, Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and Wang Shanxu, the generals still couldn't figure out why Li Xuan suddenly changed the direction of the breakout, but the Chinese army
It means the direction in which they will launch their attack.
Immediately Wang Shanxu raised his command knife high: "The Musketeers obey the order and step forward in unison!"
Attacking a city requires fire support from the musketeers. The musketeers must go forward to provide early fire cover for the troops ascending the city.
At the same time, Butcher Chen also raised his butcher knife high: "Brothers, charge!"
Whether they climb the city or rush in directly from the city gate later, the main force will definitely be these heavily armored sword and shield soldiers under Butcher Chen.
However, Chen Tufu and the others will not fight alone. Fang Dongquan will also lead the spearmen forward to guard against a sudden attack by the enemy.
As Li Xuan issued the order, the entire New Army of the Tang Dynasty moved at high speed, and almost immediately launched a charge towards Zhengtai County ahead.
This frightened the gentry and young men who opened the city gates and raised flags saying that they wanted to surrender. When the new army of the Tang Dynasty strode forward, a few people tried to come forward and shouted that we were willing to surrender and offer wine, meat and military rations.
wait.
But when they saw that the new army of the Tang Dynasty did not stop at all, and when they all killed the gentry and young men at the city gate, within ten seconds, they all turned around and fled back to the city.
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Only a big white flag was thrown on the ground!
At the same time, three miles away from the rear of the Tang Dynasty King's Division, a group of Ming soldiers were rushing on their way. Judging from the physical fitness, age and mental state of the soldiers of this group of Ming soldiers, it can be found that this group of Ming soldiers is absolutely impossible to be.
Those serf guard soldiers.
The soldiers in the guard camp have been soldiers all their lives. Some are only in their teens and some are in their forties or fifties. However, this group of Ming soldiers are all young and strong, and most of them are in their twenties and thirties.
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In the surrounding Ming army sequence, such an army can only be a recruiting force.
Looking at the entire Xingquan Prefecture, the only recruits who can appear in Zhengtai County are those recruited and trained by the prefect Song Zhiwen and brought over by Wu Nuanzhi.
Behind the three hundred soldiers recruited by Xingquan Prefecture, there was the main force of the Ming army with thousands of people. Su Jiakang was riding a horse and walking in the middle. He occasionally raised his head and looked forward. Unfortunately, because of the undulating terrain, he could not
Unable to see the New Army of the Tang Dynasty and Zhengtai County, which were only a few miles away in front of them.
At this time, he did not know that Deputy Qianhu Long Dajun had been shot and died of serious injuries, and that Xu County Prime Minister had already fled in panic.
What he didn't even know was that Zhengtai County had been breached by the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking, this was the second time that the New Army of the Tang Dynasty had broken into the city. The difference from the last time was that this time the New Army of the Tang Dynasty had entered.
Withdrew.
Therefore, after he crossed the undulating low hills, what he saw was the scene of the new army of the Tang Dynasty rapidly entering the city.
When he saw this scene, he was stunned for a long time without saying a word.
His expression suddenly changed to anger, then to fear. In the end, he didn't care about the other people around him or his dignity as a Jinshi official. He cursed on the spot: "How did Long Dajun defend the city?
I left him two hundred officers and soldiers and six hundred young men. Is this how he defended the city? He couldn't hold it for several hours, and I wanted to kill him!"
"There is also that bastard named Xu. I asked him to help defend the city. Long Dajun wants to surrender. Why doesn't he stop me? I will kill him!"
He dared to say that he would cut off the former on the spot, because as Su Jiakang, for a deputy Qianhu like Long Dajun, to be honest, it would be cut off. At worst, it would not cause too much trouble if he went back to make up for it.
It's troublesome, but Xu County Cheng can't just cut it off.
Although Xu Xiancheng was not a Jinshi, he was still a Juren. It was really hard to kill Su Jiakang with a single blow, so he could only be cruel to him.
Seeing that the puppet Tang bandit army in front was not surrounded by him, but ended up being attacked from both sides, and instead invaded Zhengtai County, this made Su Jiakang furious.
Because now there is a situation that he does not want to see, and it is also a situation that he was extremely worried about before, and even wanted to reject Song Zhiwen's suggestion at one time, that is, the puppet Tang thief army has invaded Zhengtai County.
Half a month ago, the governor Song Zhiwen sent his confidant Wu Nuanzhi to Zhengtai County again, and proposed a plan to Su Jiakang to wipe out the puppet Tang rebel army.
That was to use a series of plans to attract the puppet Tang rebels to Zhengtai County, and then gather troops to annihilate them. To this end, the prefect Song Zhiwen sent 300 soldiers and also transferred a thousand-household unit from Linxian County.
If the two Thousand Household Stations originally stationed in Zhengtai County and Longhua Town are added, then in this plan, Su Jiakang's men will be able to gather about 1,500 guard soldiers and 300 guards from the three Thousand Household Stations.
Recruiting troops, and this troop strength does not include the young and strong civilian men recruited locally in Zhengtai County.
According to the plan, he wanted to confuse the puppet Tang rebels by sending troops out of the city many times. At the same time, in order to make the puppet Tang rebels dare to come, there were not many regular troops left in Zhengtai County, only a total of two hundred troops.
After all, if there are too many troops in Zhengtai County, those pseudo-Tang rebels are so cunning that they will definitely not dare to come.
At the same time, he asked Diao Leixun of Longhua Town to send troops into the mountains with great fanfare to put pressure on the puppet Tang rebels.
According to the practice of the last time the puppet Tang thief army attacked Longhua Town, it is very likely that these puppet Tang thief army will come again to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao in an attempt to attack Longhua Town or Zhengtai County.
As for Su Jiakang, he led a regular army with a total strength of 1,200 men and 600 young men lurking in a remote valley between Zhengtai County and Longhua Town.
When the Puppet Tang thief army went straight to Zhengtai County, he also returned to Zhengtai County at the same time. According to the plan, he would arrive at the gate of Zhengtai County in the evening this evening, and surrounded and annihilated the main force of the Puppet Tang thief army under Zhengtai City, killing or alive
Capture the false emperor Li Xuan.
All these plans were so perfect that Su Jiakang was willing to risk Longhua Town or Zhengtai County being captured.
However, he never imagined that Zhengtai County, which was defended by two hundred regular troops and six hundred young men, would not be able to hold out for even a few hours.
He had expected that Zhengtai County could not stop the main force of the puppet Tang Dynasty, but it would be able to sustain it for a day or two, and this time would be enough for him to lead his troops back to annihilate the puppet Tang rebel army.
He had never expected that as soon as the battle started, Long Dajun, who had been entrusted with the important task, was seriously injured and died after a short period of time, leaving Xu County Cheng and the rest of the group of cowards who were afraid of death.
, as soon as Long Dajun died, they all ran away in a swarm, leaving the entire Zhengtai County to the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
In order to avoid being massacred after the city was breached, the gentry and the few petty leaders in the city decided to follow the old example of Longhua Town and surrender, offering wine and food, in order to save everyone's lives and property.
And Li Xuan was also surrounded and needed to sort out the encirclement, so a situation that neither side wanted to happen occurred: the new army of the Tang Dynasty actually invaded Zhengtai County!