The collapse of the Ming army in front of him made Li Guoying a little unexpected.

He observed carefully for a while and confirmed that the Ming army did not line up the cover troops, nor did they march in an orderly manner, but instead rushed towards the western mountainous areas in groups.

"What is Deng Ming doing? It's dawn. Even if he wants to march, can't he wait for another hour?" Li Guoying thought that even if he marched with a torch, the troops would easily become confused. If there was no absolute necessity, he would not choose to march at night.

When the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi were puzzled, the soldiers at the camp gate suddenly reported that an outside sentry probe was requesting to return to the camp. These spies were all deployed by Li Guoying near the Ming army camp to prevent the Ming army from launching a large-scale attack to rob the camp. Under normal circumstances, they would wait until dawn to return to the camp, which was also for safety - to prevent the Ming army from posing as an intruder. Especially when the opponent was an enemy like Deng Ming, Li Guoying did not dare to be careless at all. Hong Chengchou, Hu Quancai, and Lang Tingzuo had too many bloody precedents.

Li Guoying looked around the camp. Most of the Qing army officers and soldiers were awakened by the movements outside. It was impossible for the Ming army to launch a sneak attack, so he ordered: "Let them in."

The soldiers at the camp gate bent their bows and arrows, pointing to the dark areas outside the camp gate. The soldiers behind the camp gate also unsheathed their swords and were on full alert when they opened the camp gate. No accident happened, and the death squads of the Ming army were not followed by the visitor. After being put into their own night exploration, the soldiers immediately closed the heavy camp gate again. When the solid bolt fell, the Qing soldiers on the wall and behind the door were lifted from fighting alert.

The spy was quickly brought to Li Guoying. Before the spy could finish the salute, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi hurriedly waved his hand to ask the visitor to stand up: "What happened to the thief?"

This was a spy lurking near the Ming army camp. About half an hour ago, he heard a burst of shouts from an enemy camp, saying that Deng Ming had abandoned the army. Soon the shouts spread throughout the Ming army camps, and then a large number of Ming soldiers left with fire.

"Has Deng Zhe abandoned his army?" Li Guoying was surprised and happy, almost unable to believe his ears, and his arms couldn't help but tremble slightly.

"That's right, I heard a thief leader sending orders under the flag." The spy told Li Guoying that he heard someone shouting, saying that Deng Ming ordered the entire army to concentrate in the east and prepared to leave at full speed.

"Oh?" Li Guoying immediately asked: "Can the thieves who leave the camp carry flags? Is there a flag to lead?"

"No, no flag was seen under the mark." The spy replied without hesitation.

"Yeah." Li Guoying immediately concluded that this could not have been an order issued by Deng Ming on purpose. There was absolutely no such way to assemble troops. This was probably because some generals were making excuses for him to abandon the camp with his personal guards.

"Is it really Deng Ming abandoned his army?" Li Guoying looked at the Ming army camp again. A large number of torches were leaving, still looking messy.

At this time, several spies asked to enter in front of the camp gate. Although Li Guoying was eager to ask about more information, he still did not dare to be careless at all. The Qing soldiers guarding the camp gate were also focused on guarding the first time they released people into the camp.

These people indeed brought back more news as Li Guoying hoped. A spy lurking near the river reported that after the sunset yesterday, people kept secretly boarding the ship, and without raising fire, and they went tossed all night. The spy was unable to sneak into the Ming army's closely guarded mooring ground, but he was sure that countless people left the Ming army's camp through the water.

Because these ships did not drive towards the Qing army camp downstream, the spy did not issue a battle alarm, but continued to lurk and observe. It was not until the chaos in the Ming army camp that the spy knew of a major change, so he secretly returned. Another spy close to the Yangtze River also confirmed the statement of the first person, and he also heard the sound of a large number of ships passing by on the river.

Some people said that he heard the Ming army refuting the rumors, saying that Deng Ming was still there, but the voice was overwhelmed by more shouting. In short, there were all shouting in the Ming army camp, and some people said that reinforcements were thirty miles west and asked everyone to rush to meet.

"This is all nonsense." The more Li Guoying heard it, the more he understood. It seemed that Deng Ming had indeed escaped, so the Ming army had such chaos: "Deng Ming, Deng Ming, I am so arrogant to you. You actually ran away after just a few days."

Several Qing army generals stationed in the same camp as Li Guoying could no longer bear it at this time and asked Li Guoying for battle. However, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi thought for a moment and still shook his head: "It's dark to pursue our army, and our army will easily run away."

Looking up at the sky that was about to turn white, Li Guoying ordered a fire to cook: "Let the soldiers have a full meal first, and it will not be too late to chase after dawn."

When Li Guoying ordered cooking, the generals from several other camps sent envoys to Li Guoying's camp. The envoys did not ask to enter the camp, but kept shouting to the walls. It turned out that the generals also learned about the Ming army's bombing camp from the whistle detectors, so they sent people to report to Li Guoying, and at the same time asked the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to order the entire army to be dispatched to pursue the fleeing enemy.

Li Guoying asked these envoys to go back and tell the generals of the battalions that they would be at ease and set off again after dawn: "Anyway, there are no strongholds for thieves on the way from here to Xuzhou, and these thieves have no way to escape."

Although Li Guoying said it well, it was a waste of credit to pursue such defeated soldiers. Seeing that the sky was already dawn, Zhang Yong and others pulled the army out of the camp and waited for Li Guoying to set off. The generals from other camps followed suit when they saw this. Even the generals around Li Guoying could not help but demanded to go out of the camp and set off immediately as soon as the sky was dawn.

After finally waiting until dawn, Li Guoying found that the riverside was indeed empty. All the Ming army ships that were still there last night had disappeared, and Deng Ming indeed fled. Li Guoying estimated that Deng Ming had taken away the most elite troops first, and the remaining Ming army's combat power was not scared.

The Ming army had captured more than 10,000 Guizhou auxiliary soldiers. Since Deng Ming had escaped, most of these Guizhou soldiers should have taken the opportunity to escape. Li Guoying had always wanted to find a few people to ask about Deng Ming's reality. But after waiting for so long, there was no Guizhou soldiers who fled to the Qing army camp. This made Li Guoying a little strange. Did the Ming army cheat them all?

In addition to the possibility of being cheated, there is another explanation that they were all locked up in the original Central Army camp of the Ming army. Li Guoying had discovered that there was another Ming army that had not left the camp. The spy he sent to reconnaissance came back and reported that the banner of Deng Ming generals above the Ming army camp had disappeared, and now he was carrying a large banner with the word "Ren". According to the spy report, there were still thousands of Ming soldiers on the wall of the camp, and were waiting for the inevitable attack of the Qing army.

"It must be Ren Tang. I heard that he is from Zhejiang, Zhang Huangyan's aide, and later came to Sichuan with Deng Ming." An aide immediately reported the information they knew to Li Guoying: "But I heard that he is already Deng Ming's confidant, why didn't he follow him?"

"It's probably because I don't want to give up these fellow villagers in Zhejiang." Li Guoying couldn't help but cherish his talents when he heard this: "Whether Deng Ming doesn't take him away or he doesn't want to follow him, he will no longer have any thoughts of loyalty to Deng Ming. Send someone to persuade him to surrender and tell him that as long as he surrenders to this Governor, I will protect him and his men from wealth and safety."

But Ren Tang refused Li Guoying's persuasion to surrender, stood on the wall of the camp and shouted at the envoy, saying that he was a Ming person in his life and a Ming ghost in his life.

"I really don't know the current affairs." Unexpectedly, his kindness would be treated like this. Li Guoying was furious and wanted to order his troops to attack Ren Tang's garrison camp. But before the order was expressed, Li Guoying changed his mind: "There is no need to lose his troops for this little defeat and pursue those who escaped first. As for Ren Tang, he might be willing to surrender after surrounding him for two days."

The surrounding generals were almost the same as Li Guoying. Ren Tang and his men were already in a turtle, and they could just be monitored. There were prisoners everywhere that could be caught casually, and no one wanted to chew the hard bones of the Ming army camp when their colleagues easily achieved credit.

After dawn, Li Guoying made another confirmation with the spies. When he learned that the Ming army fleeing west was indeed not under any banner, he ordered the entire army to start pursuing. Of course, Li Guoying would not forget his own camp and asked them to dispatch together, instructing them to eliminate all the escaped enemies.

After Biaoying and most generals rushed to chase westward, only Zhao Liangdong remained unmoved. After learning that Deng Ming abandoned his army, Zhao Liangdong felt unspeakable disappointment and sadness: "It seems that Deng Ming is obviously not strong and cannot control these new subordinates. But that day, Zhang Yong, Wang Jinbao and the others refused to attack him with me, and were frightened by his fame. Later, Governor Li was the same. If he had listened to me, how could he escape so easily?"

His subordinates were a little puzzled by Zhao Liangdong's failure to participate in the pursuit.

Zhao Liangdong sneered: "Deng Ming took away all the elite soldiers and generals. This is a pursuit, but I am not interested in participating." After a pause, Zhao Liangdong finally said his thoughts: "Catch prisoners all over the mountains and fields. They will be exhausted after chasing them for a day. When they are almost caught, the governor will inevitably ask the navy to pursue Deng Ming. Deng Ming's ship will definitely be slow, and a group of ships will be caught by our army, and the thieves on the ship can only escape to the shore. By then, the others are already half exhausted, and only our battalion can use them. Then we can only leave the matter of sweeping the thieves on the shore, right? You said, how much credit can we get from so many people? Is it a great credit to chase and annihilate the auxiliary soldiers, or to capture Deng Ming's direct generals, and the elite soldiers have great credit? Maybe we can still capture one or two of Deng Ming's confidant followers."

...

Deng Ming and his guards stood at the entrance of the valley, so that every soldier who walked through the valley could see him.

When the soldiers passed by Deng Ming, they raised their weapons to greet him. From the joyful look on the faces of these soldiers, they still had a little doubt about whether he would really wait for the army here. After the doubts were dispelled in the end, the soldiers were all full of energy, as if not a war was about to be imminent, but had just won a great victory.

Many of the auxiliary soldiers carrying armor were already panting when they arrived. After seeing Deng Ming, they ran quickly, ran past Deng Ming's horse, and hurriedly sent the equipment to the valley. The auxiliary soldiers who were already waiting there would disassemble the equipment from their backs and hand it over to the combat soldiers who had been impatient.

According to Deng Ming's plan, Ren Tang led the two thousand armored soldiers and the auxiliary soldiers who had no transport tasks to continue to defend the camp. His main task was to stick to the Qing army leaving the camp and force them to fight with the Ming army. The remaining six thousand armored soldiers were divided into four teams and handed over to Zhao Tianba, Zhou Kaihuang, Li Xinghan and Mu Tan Commander, and Deng Ming led the remaining fifteen guards and two hundred cavalrymen with three walls.

The Ming army would retreat westward in a fan-shaped shape, southwest and southward. The army would be scattered, in addition to confusing the Qing army, and also to make full use of the road and quickly retreat and reorganize. Finally, the Ming army would complete assembly in the valley surrounded by several hills, cover up the military appearance through the valley, and then attack the pursuers. After defeating the enemy, the counter-sweeping chase twenty miles, and Ren Tang waited for an opportunity to intercept the main force of the Qing army. After the battle, the army happened to return to the camp to rest and have dinner.

After being familiar with so many heaven and geography, each lieutenant and his soldiers walked on this road more than three times. Deng Mingben believed that the entire army could complete the march in one to one and a half hours, and could rest for an hour after reorganization, and then fight with the Qing army that was chasing. However, more than two hours have passed since the camp, and there are still a large number of soldiers who have not arrived. The number of lost people and the number of lost people and the chief officers is far beyond imagination, and there are also a large number of road congestion.

"Fortunately, the Qing army did not pursue immediately, otherwise we would have to respond in a hurry." Deng Ming also made the worst plan before the war, that is, the army was caught up by the Qing army before it could not escape. If that were the case, Deng Ming would order the Ming army to react and fight a complete melee. Originally, Deng Ming believed that as long as the Qing army could not react quickly, his plan for retreating would be successful, but now it seems that it takes much longer than expected.

"It's much slower than I thought." Deng Ming said softly to the guards beside him.

"If we hadn't used the swearing formation to arouse the enemy these days, maybe Li Guoying could have chased him out a little late." Deng Ming guessed the actions of the Qing army. Originally, Deng Ming was afraid that Li Guoying would not pursue him or siege Ren Tang with all his might, so that even if the Ming army returned, it might not have been forced to fight with the main force. But now seeing that the troops were unable to complete the assembly, he began to worry about the safety of the officers and soldiers behind him.

Hearing Deng Ming's words, many guards smiled on their faces. Li Xinghan said: "Admiral, except for the Romance story, probably no one can successfully verbal battles?"

During this nervous time, Deng Ming and the guards usually chat to relieve the pressure. The soldiers will gain more confidence when they see the commander chatting and laughing.

"As far as I know, there is only one time. In the Battle of Chenggao by Emperor Taizu of Han, Xiang Yu ordered the Grand Marshal Cao Ju to command the Chu army to guard the army and ordered the war. The Han Taizu sent people to curse under the city for ten days. Cao Ju couldn't calm down and came out of the empty city to pursue Taizu. When the Chu army was hiking across the Sishui River, it was just halfway through when it was suddenly attacked by Taizu of Han, and as a result, it wiped out the Chu army."

Not only Deng Ming's guards, but also the officers on the three walls listened with relish, and the current tension of the enemy was dissipated a lot. Immediately, many people lamented for Xiang Yu, or ridiculed Cao Ju's stupidity.

Mu Tan, who was in charge of commanding the first army, was also beside Deng Ming at this time. After laughing a few times, he suddenly showed a confused look on his face: "Well, Cao Ju came out of the empty city because he was scolded, and even asked the Chu army to cross the water on foot?"

After hearing what Mu Tan said, several other fast-witted guards and officers with three walls also felt something was wrong.

"Yes, when I was reading books when I was a child, I also thought Cao Ju was too stupid, but when I thought about it later, I felt something was wrong." Deng Ming nodded and said in a lengthened voice: "Everyone of the Chu army was brave and hiking across the Sishui River to pursue the Han army. Is it because the Han army scolded not only Cao Ju, but also scolded every Chu army officer and soldier in a hurry? It sounded like..."

"It's like the Chu army thought it was a sure victory and was pursuing the fleeing enemy." Mu Tan immediately said the second half loudly.

"Yes, I also have this feeling. If Cao Ju ordered the entire army to go out of the city to chase after him because he was scolded just to be scolded and to kill a few Han soldiers in the swearing formation, and was so angry that he didn't care about looking for ships when crossing the river, then Cao Ju was the biggest idiot in a thousand years. King Xiang didn't notice it at all, and promoted him to the Grand Marshal and handed half of the Chu troops into the hands of this man." Deng Ming looked around the officers around him and saw that there was a look of thought on their faces.

"Or it's another situation," a moment later Mu Tan thought he had sorted out his ideas: "This only example of the success of the curse formation in history was not actually won by the curse formation. The curse formation of the Han Taizu confuses the enemy like us, making Cao Ju firmly believe that the Han army has weaknesses that he can grasp; it is precisely because he has no doubt about victory that Cao Ju gave up the strong city and attacked the Han army. What Cao Ju saw in front of him was as expected, the Han army seemed to be defeated by the Chu army and escaped from the Sishui River in a defeat. Cao Ju concluded at this time that the Han army had collapsed and was eager to achieve results, and perhaps he could capture the Han Taizu himself, so he ordered a hike to trek through Sishui River without thinking."

"Not only Cao Ju, but the entire Chu army believed that he would win, or even if he ordered to interfere, he might not be able to implement it." An officer next to him added.

"That's right." Mu Tan nodded and said, "The Chu army rushed to cross the river to pursue the Han army. Perhaps their establishment was completely chaotic because of the pursuit, and the officers and soldiers were separated. But when they crossed the Sishui River, the Han army, which was obviously waiting to be slaughtered chickens and ducks, suddenly gathered and attacked the Chu army that was scattered by the scattered sand. Just a moment ago, the Chu army, from commander to soldiers, thought it would be a sure victory, but the situation suddenly changed. Generals, officers, soldiers, everyone would suddenly understand that the 100,000 army shouted "under the trap" in their hearts at the same time! Although they were elite soldiers following King Xiang's expeditions and confrontation, in this case, the morale of the army would collapse and no longer be able to be attacked."

"Yes, my speculation about the Battle of Chenggao is similar to yours. It's a pity that the records of the battle formation of the historians have always been cherishing the mourn like gold, so we don't know how Taizu of Han won the specific victory." Deng Ming nodded.

"But..." Wu Yuewang thought, shook his head: "Han Taizu wanted to command the army to pretend to retreat from Chenggao Pass to the riverside, and then cross the river in a hurry. After crossing the river, you must grasp the standard. You must not let Cao Ju see the flaws, but also make the Chu army unwilling to retreat. When counterattacking the Chu army, you must be just right. You must let the Chu army cross the river, and you cannot wait for them to stabilize your position. All of this is still done in broad daylight, in front of the Grand Sima of Chu. This is too difficult, ten times more difficult than our fraudulent defeat today, but we..." Wu Yuewang looked at the valley behind him, and the dense soldiers were still chaoticly gathering the team. It was already an hour longer than expected, but the work of restoring the establishment was only two-thirds completed. Although Wu Yuewang did not continue, everyone could hear his implication.

"Han Taizu can lead 100,000 troops, like an arm, and finger, which is more than ten times stronger than me, a younger generation? I can't even command 20,000 people." Deng Ming smiled and said, "We can also believe the original saying, that is, Cao Ju knows nothing about military affairs, but he is brave. King Xiang even less eyes promoted this person to a high position of commander second only to him. This is simple, and we don't have to worry about it."

"It's simple, but it's even more unreliable." The guards and the officers and soldiers on the three walls shook their heads together, and many people frowned and thought hard, obviously speculating in their hearts about the details of the Battle of Chenggao.

"In other words, the admiral's deception was not unprecedented?" Mu Tan suddenly remembered something again.

"No, as long as I win, it will be unprecedented." Deng Ming flatly refuted: "Shi Gong said that the battle between Chenggao and Taizu Han was just a good fortune. Cao Ju was stupid, so of course I was the first person."

Mu Tan felt that Deng Ming was obviously a fallacy, but he didn't know how to refute it for a moment. After a moment of stunned silence, Mu Tan suddenly shouted again: "The historians cherish the mourning as gold. Maybe in history, the record of our great victory today is: the admiral sent people to scold the enemy for five days, and Guoying was outraged. The empty camp went to fight, and the admiral wiped out his army." After creating the pseudo-history, Mu Tan laughed and said, "It's good. After Qianqiu, Cao Dasima finally had a companion."

"Haha, haha." Deng Ming smiled at the sky and said, "I hope we don't suffer such bad luck."

Everyone laughed, all full of confidence, and they had already regarded victory as a matter of course in their hearts.

"Report!" A surveillance horse galloped and set the war horse in front of Deng Ming.

There are many roads leading to this valley. The horse explorer reported that Li Guoying's battalion had approached and chased him from a road on the left. Not only did he defeat the slowest Ming army on the road, but he also surrounded the other Ming army in front of him, blocking their way to meet Deng Ming.

"It's coming so fast." Wu Yuewang said softly.

Wu Baoping corrected on the side: "We are walking too slowly."

The people in charge of the two wings and two armies were Zhao Tianba and Li Xinghan. Their gathering place was not in this valley. Until now, Deng Ming had not seen their envoys, which means that their assembly work had not been completed. The assembly point was Mu Tan and Zhou Kaihuang. According to the plan, they should have three thousand armored soldiers. Now there are about two thousand people wearing armor.

Deng Ming made a quick decision and ordered Zhou Kaihuang to first allocate some of his subordinates to Commander Mu Tan, who would follow him to fight the pursuers with 1,500 soldiers. Zhou Kaihuang stepped up his contraction of troops, sorted out subsequent troops, and came to reinforce him as soon as possible.

At the same time, Deng Ming sent someone to send orders to Zhao Tianba and Li Xinghan, asking them to act cheaply according to the situation - they were responsible for gathering the Ming army retreating westward and southward, and the two of them must have followed the Qing army to pursue the army. Now the Ming army and the Qing army are scattered, and Deng Ming cannot command the entire army, nor does he intend to command the entire army.

After Deng Ming had just issued the order, another explorer arrived and said that Li Guoying's battalion cavalry had begun to attack the Ming army on the road they intercepted. Seeing that they could not get rid of the pursuers, the Ming army also stopped and began to resist.

"Li Guoying has been scolded by us. Now it's time for us to wipe out his army." Deng Ming smiled and drew out the horse sword and raised it straight up: "You guys, follow me to kill the thief!"

"Kill the thief!"

"Kill the thief!"

Fifteen guards and the cavalrymen on the three walls also raised their weapons together and shouted loudly in unison to respond.

"Set out!" Deng Ming took the lead and rushed out of the valley. Behind him, a Ming cavalry raised the three wall flags that had just been tied to the flagpole. Today, this will be Deng Ming's general flag.

When the cavalry rushed out of the valley, the dense Ming army infantry in the valley were also taking action. Mu Tan took over the command of some troops from Zhou Kaihuang's hands. After Mu Tan's flag was raised high, 1,500 Ming army soldiers took steps and followed the flag back to the road.

"Give the Tartars some color!" Many auxiliary soldiers of the Ming army sat on the ground. When they saw the soldiers wearing the armor they had worked hard to carry, they walked out of the valley with great enthusiasm, regardless of their fatigue, they waved their fists at Mutan's army: "Let them know how powerful we are!"

...

Deng Mingxing, who was the first to rush out of the valley, heard a shout of killing coming from the front. He guessed that this was the situation reported by the Explorer just now. Li Guoying's battalion and the intercepted Ming soldiers were fighting.

"Go to explore the reality and reality..." An officer with three walls beside him clasped his fists and asked Deng Ming for advice.

"No need to explore." Deng Ming whispered: "The Spartans only ask where the enemy is, not how many enemies are."

Deng Ming clamped his horse's belly hard and let his mount gallop away. Neither Deng Ming's guards nor the cavalry officers and soldiers nearby had understood who he was talking about, but they all understood what Deng Ming meant, and everyone shouted and followed closely.

After crossing the highest point of the hills, the entire battlefield suddenly appeared in front of you. Deng Ming's mount ran towards the fierce battle without stopping.
Chapter completed!