In the agreement reached between Li Xuan and Su Jiakang, Su Jiakang was forced to agree to give Li Xuan a way out of the encirclement in order to save his own wealth and life and even the lives of his whole family when Li Xuan threatened to massacre the city.
The passage comes.
However, Su Jiakang also made several demands for Li Xuan. The first and most important point was that the new army of the Tang Dynasty could not massacre the city, and they could not take a large number of people in the city and flee.
Secondly, he made a small request to Li Xuan. He asked Li Xuan to help him deal with several large households in the city.
Li Xuan was not familiar with the big families in Zhengtai County, and he was even less clear about the relationship between Su Jiakang and their struggle. However, although Li Xuan promised Su Jiakang to deal with these families, Zhou Yibao did not say that he would definitely kill them.
They.
Taking these people away can be regarded as fulfilling the agreement with Su Jiakang to a certain extent.
Li Xuan maliciously guessed that Su Jiakang must have a grudge against them, so he wanted to kill someone with a borrowed knife in this chaotic moment.
Li Xuan didn't mind being killed by Su Jiakang, but why?
The Tang Dynasty was an orthodox dynasty, with its own bottom line and sense of justice. It was not good to shout and kill, but it was okay to just kidnap and take them back to the mountains!
You might be able to use these people to blackmail Su Jiakang later, and you might be able to reach some kind of deal with Su Jiakang.
The preparations of the new armies of the Tang Dynasty were quite fast. How could this not be fast? They were escaping for their lives.
The bandits in Huangzhushan have always had great enthusiasm and motivation for escaping. As soon as they heard that they would break out of the encirclement and escape at dawn, and the people above them swore that they would be able to escape, the lowly soldiers
They also act quickly.
Before escaping for their lives, the bandits in Huangzhushan did not forget their glorious traditions and plundered wherever they went!
They first removed all the grain and silver from the official warehouses, and then selected a group of wealthy households in the city to collect the so-called city defense fee.
That's right, this time the bandits in Huangzhushan no longer used slogans such as robbery. When they pried open the door of a wealthy family, they no longer shouted: "Stop, rob, take all the money."
Hand it over!"
Instead, he would say: "By the order of such-and-such general, I came here to collect the city defense fee!"
Moreover, the levy was specially selected from high-profile households. Depending on their family background, the levy ranged from dozens to hundreds of taels of silver. As for ordinary people, even if all their property was searched, they could not find a few taels of silver.
Bandits in the Tang Dynasty generally did not bother to collect city defense fees from them.
That night, the soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty extorted money from the wealthy households in the city one by one, and actually "collected" more than two thousand taels of silver, a hundred taels of gold, and countless other fines.
Coupled with the money and grain harvested from the official warehouse, it can be said to be a huge harvest!
At four o'clock in the morning, when Li Xuan led his ministers to the city gate and prepared to formally lead his army to break out, he looked at the rows of carts behind him filled with various property and food. He couldn't help but sigh: "It's still a city."
The people here are rich!"
They had robbed many villages in the past, and had also robbed a lot of gold and silver, but most of them were dozens of taels, not more than a hundred taels.
Like today, it was the first time that I got thousands of taels of silver in just half a night.
Fang Dongquan on the side said with a pity look on his face: "We still have a little time. If we have enough time, we can collect the city defense fees one by one. Even if it is tens of thousands of taels of silver, we can get it!"
Butcher Chen on the side didn't take it seriously: "What's the use of having more gold and silver? If you can't eat or wear it, these grains are better. With this batch of grains, we won't have to worry about food for half a month after we break through."
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For the army, no matter how much gold and silver they rob, it is actually of no use. The most important thing is food and weapons. Don’t worry about the weapons. The weapons in the new army of the Tang Dynasty do not suffer much loss, and they also bring a lot of ammunition.
, don’t worry for now.
But as for food, they have always been fed by the enemy, and they are not rich in food on weekdays. However, when they entered the city yesterday because of the rush, they threw a large amount of food directly to the Ming army.
If we can't get enough food in the city this time, we will probably go hungry even if we break out.
Fortunately, a large amount of food was found in the official warehouse of the Ming army, otherwise they would have searched for food throughout the city.
Li Xuan said at this time: "Okay, now that everything is ready, let's start leaving the city. It will be dawn in a while, and there is no telling what changes will happen!"
Although Li Xuan has reached an agreement with Su Jiakang, who knows if Su Jiakang will change his mind midway. If Su Jiakang doesn't keep his promise and wants to make a surprise attack when they leave the city, wouldn't it be very passive?
So in order to prevent accidents, this time they were planning to leave the city in the middle of the night!
At this time, the cavalry sent out for reconnaissance also returned and reported to Li Xuan and others: "The Ming army in the northwest has withdrawn into their camps. If we leave the city now, we should have at least half an hour."
Safe time, half an hour later, they can catch up even if it's still dark!"
Li Xuan nodded: "Well, something will happen if it's too late. I'll tell you to go down and leave the city immediately!"
He couldn't trust Su Jiakang, and he was even more unwilling to wait until almost dawn before leaving.
Although it would be troublesome to walk at night now, it would be equally troublesome for Su Jiakang to catch up if he regretted his decision. Otherwise, when daybreak, all his actions would be exposed under the eyes of the Ming army, which would be too passive.
After Li Xuan gave the order to leave the city, more than 500 new troops of the Tang Dynasty also officially took action. The cavalry team left the city in advance. They wanted to explore the way for the army to avoid an ambush by the Ming army in front. Later, the vanguard led by Chen Tufu
, this is also to avoid an ambush by the Ming army.
In the middle is the Chinese army led by Li Xuan himself, including the musketeers and a large number of spearmen, while the baggage troops are also following behind.
As for the remaining troops, they are still in the city. They will not retreat until the main force has all left the city or even successfully left.
Their intention to cut off the rear was not to stop the Ming army's pursuit, but actually to start massacring the city when the Ming army repented!
In order to ensure that the Ming army would not catch up with Li Xuan as soon as he left the city, Li Xuan left his uncle Bai Yunqi in the city, led more than fifty bandits, and escorted hundreds of people to the city.
, lit the torch and let the Ming army watch.
Once the Ming army makes any changes, they will directly start massacring the city!
After the main force led by Li Xuan successfully leaves the city, Baiyun Qi will evacuate Zhengtai County.
Li Xuan and others led the main force to begin to evacuate. This news could not be hidden from Su Jiakang. Su Jiakang, who was also sleepless tonight, learned the news almost immediately.
After learning the news, he once again set his sights on the top of the city. There were many torches burning on the top of the city. Under the bright lights, he could clearly see a group of puppet Tang rebels escorting many ordinary people.
Others didn't know why, but Su Jiakang knew that Li Xuan was threatening him.
After taking a deep breath, he immediately said to Wang Zhitan and others who came after hearing the news: "Send the order for the soldiers to get up and prepare to attack the city!"
"Siege the city?" After hearing Su Jiakang's words, the others were a little confused.
At this time, we should pursue the main force of the puppet Tang thief army as soon as possible. Instead of chasing the thief army, we should attack Zhengtai County, which has not many thief troops to defend it. Isn't it a bit putting the cart before the horse?
Seeing everyone's doubts, Su Jiakang naturally did not explain anything, and immediately said: "Our top priority now is not to chase down hundreds of thieves, but to recover Zhengtai County. Yesterday, someone already went to Fucheng.
Reported, if nothing unexpected happens, the soldiers and horses from Fucheng will leave today, and the vanguard may arrive today. Before they arrive, Zhengtai County must be recaptured!"
After saying that, Su Jiakang looked around and said: "This way, we have room for maneuver!"
At first, everyone didn't quite understand, but when they heard Su Jiakang say the words 'room for maneuver', everyone came to their senses.
Yes, is it important to hunt down the puppet Tang rebels now?
It is indeed important, but compared with taking back Zhengtai County, it has become less important.
However, some people will murmur in their hearts that it is important to recapture Zhengtai County, but it is also important to pursue the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army. Anyway, we have many troops, so we can just divide our troops, one part to recapture Zhengtai County, and the other to pursue the rebel army.
There are many people who think this way, but no one dares to say it at this time. Su Jiakang has already given the order. If you talk nonsense at this time, isn't it a slap in Su Jiakang's face?
And besides, the risk is not small if you divide your forces to pursue them. There are more than 500 people in the Puppet Tang Dynasty bandit army. If you go less, you still don’t know who will hit whom. If you are not careful, you will be ambushed by the Puppet Tang bandit army.
That's a big deal.
So everyone shut their mouths!
Su Jiakang, on the other hand, was muttering in his heart, of course I know that I might split up my troops to chase him, but if he splits up his troops to chase Li Xuan, that bastard will massacre the city immediately!
The best option for now is to recapture the Zhengtai County seat first, so that the pseudo-Tang traitor army will not continue to threaten him with massacre. After recapturing Zhengtai County, the next step is to continue to hunt down the pseudo-Tang traitor army.
The agreement with the puppet Tang rebels was nothing more than a temporary measure. As long as he ensured that there would be no massacre in the city, he would immediately send troops to pursue the puppet Tang rebels.
The Ming army outside the city also took action quickly at this time. A large number of Ming troops were called up, and then they held torches and launched another attack on Zhengtai County.
At this time, Bai Yunqi on the top of the city saw many Ming troops rushing up outside the city holding torches. He dared to stay in the city and ran away with more than fifty people behind him.
Anyway, he couldn't defend it if he stayed in the city, and since the main force of the Ming army did not pursue the main force of the new Tang Dynasty army, but attacked the city, the safety of the main force would be initially guaranteed.
If you don’t leave now, when will you wait?
As soon as the puppet Tang thieves left, hundreds of people who had been detained all night on top of the city also ran away in a swarm.
For a time, Zhengtai County fell into chaos again!
Not long after, Su Jiakang led his people into Zhengtai County. After entering the county, he did not even have time to go to the county government office. Instead, he ordered on the spot: "Send troops immediately to pursue the puppet Tang rebel army, and the puppet emperor Li Xuan must be left behind."