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Chapter 46: Escape (Part 1)

Before Zhang Yong kicked down the general flag, Yuan Zongdi left the western front and returned to the center. The artillery attacks started by the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty still had a serious impact on the morale of the Ming army. Except for Yuan Zongdi, almost no officers and soldiers had seen cannons use in field battles. The first time he saw cannons bombarding him, which put great psychological pressure on the soldiers. After seeing Yuan Zongdi's general flag, these soldiers finally felt some comfort, and did not experience chaos as quickly as the previous front line.

When he learned that the support soldiers had arrived, the morale of the Ming army further increased. Yuan Zongdi felt that the army was not at risk of collapse immediately, so he hurried back to personally direct the attack on Zhang Yong, and strive to clear the remaining Qing troops behind him to relieve their worries.

As a result, before Yuan Zongdi arrived at the position, he heard the five-tone cannons in front of him, and five wolf smokes rose up at the same time in the shape of plum blossoms.

"This... looks like the order of the general attack." Yuan Zongdi and the Ming army have fought many times. The green camp inherited the Ming army, which is basically the same. Therefore, Yuan Zongdi couldn't help but be dazed when he saw the scene in front of him. Zhang Yong's allies around him no longer existed. He didn't understand what Zhang Yong was doing for a moment: "Is he crazy?"

While Yuan Zongdi was still shocked, a group of people hurriedly ran in front of him. Zuo You, the leader, had received Yuan Zongdi's order and was determined to take down Zhang Yong first. Even the Ming army soldiers who had just returned from the north spontaneously moved towards Zhang Yong's position of the flag instead of going west to fill Yuan Zongdi's front line.

But after Zhang Yong's general flag fell, the Ming army immediately lost interest in him. Once the general flag was lost, the enemy would be a group of defeated soldiers without any threat. More than 800 Ming army soldiers and auxiliary soldiers began to clean up the war and pursue the fleeing Qing soldiers. The rest of the Ming army turned around and reinforced Yuan Zongdi's general flag one after another, and Zuo You arrived first with his team of soldiers.

Hearing that Zhang Yong's flag was overturned, Yuan Zongdi no longer planned to invest too much energy in the entire fleeing enemy. Now there are threats from the west. He needs every soldier to guard against Wang Mingde and the unknown number of Han Eight Banners.

Just as Yuan Zongdi asked Zuo You about the specific situation of the battle, the drums suddenly sounded loudly on the Western Front behind him, and thunder-like shouts rolled in.

"Oh?" Yuan Zongdi turned suspiciously. Since the Qing army has been paying attention to concealment and the Ming army cannot launch a counterattack for reconnaissance, Yuan Zongdi just observed that about one thousand Qing army was wearing armor. Seeing that the Qing army was reluctant to attack, Yuan Zongdi concluded that the Qing army's strength was limited and lacked confidence in breaking through his own defense line to rescue Zhang Yong. Although the Qing army had always mistakenly believed that Yuan Zongdi had only more than two thousand combat soldiers, Yuan Zongdi did not expect that the other party would always despise him so much, so he could not infer the true psychology of the Qing army. They were not trying to save their lives because of their lack of strength, but they did not want to lose too much in the battle that would win, and wanted to take advantage of it less.

After seeing Zhang Yong sending a general attack signal, Wang Mingde, who was riding on the horse, slapped his thigh: "Admiral Zhang can't help it!" Then he lamented: "Yuan Zongdi really doesn't know how to fight at all."

There were 800 Yuan soldiers on the opposite side, so Zhang Yong and Hu Wenke had only two or three hundred Ming soldiers on the opposite side. Zhang Yong only needed to release a little force to block Yuan Zongdi's reinforcements. The armored soldiers who launched an attack on Yuan Zongdi could reach ten times that of the opponent, and victory was naturally easy. With such a long front, Yuan Zongdi could not do it even if he wanted to delay for some time. Moreover, Zhang Yong still had a large number of five-armored soldiers to assist, and Yuan Zongdi's auxiliary soldiers were dispersed a lot by himself. Of course, Wang Mingde didn't know that Zhang Yong's unarmored soldiers had long been defeated by the Ming reinforcements.

As for Zhang Yong's use of fireworks and null artillery, this further shows how large the Zhang Yong's general attack is. It is obvious that the 2,200 armored soldiers and thousands of unarmored soldiers around Zhang Yong are scattered on a wide area. The command soldiers have communicated the attack plan in advance. Now the use of fireworks and null artillery is to ensure that the entire army can operate in a unified manner.

"After all, I can't compare to Admiral Zhang." In the end, Yuan Zongdi still focused his main energy on his side. Wang Mingde couldn't help but sigh that Zhang Yong was too good at showing weakness. Now that the signal came out, the Qing army in the east might have defeated the Ming army, and began to capture prisoners everywhere and pick up equipment.

Wang Mingde hurriedly asked someone to stop the Eight Banner artillery soldiers who were still shooting wildly. After finally dispelling their shooting, Wang Mingde, who was impatient, took the lead and shouted with his personal soldiers to launch a charge: "Assault of the whole army!"

The other Qing generals on the front launched an attack earlier than Wang Mingde, especially the one who did not have the artillery in the Han Eight Banners. They even hurriedly dispatched after they discovered that friendly troops on the Eastern Front began to pursue. When the generals rushed to charge, they couldn't help but curse Zhang Yong again: "I was asking for help just now, but I was attacking in a blink of an eye. I was so shameless that I didn't even want to take credit." These Qing generals were also angry. They rushed to launch an attack, not prepared at all, and were a little busy. Now no one was waiting for Wang Mingde to unify the command. General Wang had the most tiger squat cannons and the slowest movement. He ran slower and everyone could grab more prisoners and equipment. This was all property.

After seeing the Qing army launch an attack, Yuan Zongdi reacted a little and vaguely realized the meaning of the signal sent by Zhang Yong. He felt that the Qing army used himself as soft tofu and pinched whatever he wanted.

"Can you still fight?" Looking at Zuo You with sweat on his face, Yuan Zongdi asked quickly: "Do you need to take a break?"

"No?" Zuo You's sweat kept dripping from his eyebrows. As long as he didn't block his sight, he was lazy to wipe the sweat all over his face. He smiled at Yuan Zongdi and said, "It's almost too hot. It's a waste of life to rest in armor. Take all the Tatars early, and take off the armor early, and then soak it in the river water."

"Okay." Under Zhang Yong's prompt, although Yuan Zongdi was relatively late, he finally guessed Wang Mingde's mind. He immediately ordered to go to the front line to convey the order to retreat, and at the same time ordered Zuo You and other troops who arrived one after another not to go up to support, but began to gather and prepare for the war.

Yuan Zongdi deliberately let go of several holes. Seeing that Yuan Zongdi's general flag disappeared, Wang Mingde and others thought that Yuan Zongdi had fled. Since the Ming army had lost its chief general, there was nothing to worry about. Although there were still a few on the front line that were almost controlled by the Ming army, and the Ming army that had made the gap did not escape without abandoning their armor but gathered them to those dangerous strongholds, the Qing army was still not worried about the problem of the retreat - so the Ming army could not pose a threat to the powerful Qing army, and there were thousands of troops of Zhang Yong's opposite, and these Ming army were just struggling to death.

The Qing army sang rapidly and pursued in depth.

"Many Tartars." Yuan Zongdi was also worried when he saw two thousand Qing army soldiers and a large number of reinforcements rushing towards him in several directions: "This day, the Tartars' support was continuously coming. The Eight Banners of Han did not fight. I wonder if there would be new Tartars to arrive again." Now Yuan Zongdi's subordinates were quite tired. If there were new Qing army forces to arrive, Yuan Zongdi felt that his subordinates would reach their limit: "It's time to stop when they are ready. Defeat Wang Mingde so that they can't pursue us, and then return to Wanxian." The Qing army and the reserve team of the Eight Banners of Han. Yuan Zongdi knew that the Eight Banners soldiers were well-equipped and were powerful enemies that should not be underestimated: "If the Eight Banners of Han came up to save Wang Mingde, I would avoid his edge and make a way out. As long as Wang Mingde and others dare not pursue us again."

Yuan Zongdi did not plan to clean up the battlefield seriously. It was the primary goal to defeat the last group of Qing troops and allow the Ming army to return calmly. Captives could be captured if they could arrive, and they could pick up the equipment when they saw it. However, Yuan Zongdi did not plan to send people to search every corner carefully. The Qing army arrived one after another, which made Yuan Zongdi become more and more guilty as he fought.

When several Qing troops rushed into the depths of the Ming army, the Ming army hidden in the middle suddenly came out from the side, dividing the Qing army's column into two. The cut back team first became in chaos. When they turned around and fled, they found that the shrinking Ming army rushed out to close the gap. These armorless soldiers followed in to get the bargain and could not resist the attacks of the Ming soldiers on both sides. Those who could escape were all escaping, and those who had no time to run knelt down and begged for mercy.

The Qing army, who was rushing forward excitedly, did not encounter defeated troops, but hit Yuan Zongdi's defense line head-on. This simple fortification on the defense line towards the West was built by Zhang Yong. The Qing army garrison gave up and fled without a fight. Now it was just used by the Ming army to block Wang Mingde.

"No, I'm trapped!" An enemy soldier in front of Wang Mingde blocked the way, and there were also shouting killing sounds from behind. Because he was afraid that all the prisoners would be captured by Zhang Yong, the Qing army rushed all the way, thinking about meeting with Zhang Yong as soon as possible. Of course, Zhang Yong could not come and rob the Ming army behind him. This time, the Qing army was bound to be long and could not react quickly when they encountered a raid by the Ming army.

"Break through, break through!" Wang Mingde turned around and clashed with his personal soldiers, intending to fight a bloody path. Not far behind him were the Eight Banners of Han, which was about two miles away. Yuan Jiawenbi could rescue Wang Mingde as long as he advances a little, at least it could make the Ming army afraid, and at least it could contain a considerable number of enemy soldiers, so that Wang Mingde could have a chance to escape.

...

"Secretary of the Deputy Chief." A Niu Lu ran over to report to Yuan Jiawenbi: "General Wang and the others seemed to be in a vain."

"I saw it." After Wang Mingde and the others charged, Yuan Jiawenbi led the Eight Banners of Han to observe the situation of the war. Anyway, the prisoners agreed to Wang Mingde. Since that's the case, why did the Eight Banners of Han try to capture the prisoners? It's better to enjoy the cool under the shade of the trees on this hot day.

"Retreat!" Seeing that the Ming army had closed some gaps, some people showed vigilance in the direction of the Eight Banners of Han, and the defeated soldiers were rushing back, Yuan Jiawenbi made a quick decision: "The enemy's situation is unknown, safety is the first priority!"

Pointing at the tiger squatting cannons, Yuan Jiawenbi further ordered: "Blast these stupid guys and withdraw immediately."

A Niu Lu showed a look of pity on his face. Yuan Jiawenbi observed his expression and smiled: "The Green Camp is so incompetent, begging us for artillery to help with the war, but in the end, we can't even protect the safety of our artillery. Let's go to the Governor to judge and ask the Governor to compensate us with their military pay."
Chapter completed!
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