The next morning, there was no sunshine in the sky, and there was a strong wind since sunrise. In the Ming army camp, braving the biting cold wind, soldiers from various departments of the Ming army came out to clean the battlefield early in the morning. Although there were many Qing army corpses scattered on the ground, no one showed any joy at all. Not only did the brothers in the army suffer heavy casualties, but reinforcements also took a long time to arrive. Even the superior officers were confused and frightened about where the Ming army would go in the future, let alone the ordinary soldiers.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming army just blindly collected the corpses and collected the weapons and flags on the ground. There was no movement in the Qing army camp in the distance, and there were very few sentries scattered outside. It can be seen that yesterday's bloody battle was too much for the Qing army.
Each battalion is responsible for cleaning up their own positions. On the New Army position in Xiahezhai, the strong smell of blood has not gone away. Looking at the dry and hard corpses of the Qing soldiers everywhere, as well as the scattered limbs and limbs everywhere, there are several earthen walls in front of the trenches. Soaked in blood, the new soldiers of Xiahe Village still dealt with it silently. They put away the weapons and flags scattered on the ground, piled the corpses of the Qing soldiers into a pile, stripped off their armor, and chopped off their heads.
Groups of Ming army soldiers gathered around the pile of corpses and beheaded them. Although the scene was bloody, no one was afraid, and the soldiers felt extremely happy. Liu Yan was standing in the cold wind, motionless, looking at his soldiers quietly. Behind Liu Yan, all the generals also stood still.
I don't know how much time passed, but Xun Jingyun, the governor of the town, came over and reported to Liu Yan: "Sir, there are a total of 3,156 heads of slave thieves, 5,272 pieces of armor seized, and 257,000 silver seized. One thousand five hundred and forty-two taels, in addition to the capture of slave thieves' swords, guns and flags..."
Liu Yan listened quietly to Xun Jingyun's report. Including yesterday and the results of the previous days, the above number of Qing army heads captured in Julu, most of which were Qing army armored soldiers. The armor on their bodies became Liu Yan's trophies. In this way, since Liu Yan went to war, he has seized more than 6,000 pieces of armor from the Qing army and beheaded more than 4,000 people.
The hands and feet of the Tatar soldiers in the Qing army were not clean, and they generally had the habit of hiding silver. After they were captured in various places in the Ming Dynasty, each of them had at least ten or twenty taels of silver hidden in his body, and their bodies were searched. After that, the silver went to the Xiahe Village New Army. m.
Liu Yan nodded and said: "Seal all the heads and captures and keep them under the care of the officers and soldiers of the various ministries."
"yes!"
On that day, Xuanda and Shandong Army officers were seizing the time to rest and reorganize. After the reorganization, Liu Yan still maintained the independent organization of the Cavalry General, while the other generals temporarily merged into two generals: Chen Xun's former General, Wang Yue's rear General Merger, with Chen Xun as the main body and Wang Yue as the assistant; Zhang Yi's Zuo General Manager and Wang Bo's Right General Manager merged, with Zhang Yi as the main body and Wang Bo as the assistant; Miao Shao's Personal Guard General Manager and Shen Tuo's Central General Manager merged, Miao Shao is the main one and Shen Tuo is the supplementary one.
Of course, this round of mergers is only temporary. It is mainly to ensure that the new army units in Xiahezhai are fully staffed to facilitate operations. After the troops of each unit are replenished, the original independence of each general will naturally be restored.
Now Xuanfu Town Counselor Zhang Yan has died in the battle, and his subordinates have also dispersed. These days, basically all of them have joined Yang Guozhu's main camp.
At the same time, Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei's main barracks and Lu Xiangsheng's supervisory camp were also reorganizing and preparing for their retreat in the early morning of tomorrow.
Of course, the news of the entire army's retreat was not sent out at this time, and not even Chen Xun, Wang Bo and other generals knew about it. Among the Ming army, only Liu Yan, Lu Xiangsheng, Hu Dawei, and Yang Guozhu knew about it, in order to keep it secret and prevent the morale of the army from being shaken.
Within a day, there has been no movement in the Qing camp in the distance. It seems that as Liu Yan said, the Tatars suffered heavy casualties and were unable to attack. Now is a good opportunity to break out.
"Two military gates, it is three hundred miles from Julu to Zhending Mansion. Our army only needs to cross the Lufang River. In addition to the official road, there are many rivers and fields on all sides. It is not easy for the slave thieves to pursue and siege, although the distance seems to be very far. , but our army can also rely on the terrain to retreat north safely. Then our army will go up the Di River, and then go north, and then enter the mountains of Zanhuang County. In the vast mountains, our army can rest and regroup calmly, and then the army will enter Baoding Prefecture, and then Arrive in the capital."
"What worries me the most now is the sixty miles from Julu west to Lufeng River. Our military must strictly guard the morale of the army. The officers and soldiers of each department must not panic, let alone collapse, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous."
When night fell that day, in Lu Xiangsheng's Chinese army tent, when Hu Dawei, Yang Guozhu and Liu Yan gathered to discuss a breakout, Liu Yan suggested this.
Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei are both veterans on the battlefield, so they naturally understand this truth. Lu Xiangsheng also strongly agrees with Liu Yan's suggestion. Everyone discussed in detail, and finally modified the previous decision slightly, and decided to use the new army of Xiahezhai under Liu Yan as the rear army, with Hu Dawei's army as the front army, Yang Guozhu's army together with Lu Xiangsheng's army as the middle army, and hundreds of A chariot accompanied the Chinese army, as well as numerous chariots and horses, also carrying provisions and wounded soldiers. All armies respond to each other. If they encounter an enemy in the wild, the entire army will immediately unite and form a car camp. Even if you walk slower, you should take every step steadily.
In addition, the heads and seizures captured in these days must also be taken away. These will be used to discuss rewards with the court in the future and impeach Gao Qiqian, and must not be discarded.
Finally, Lu Xiangsheng said loudly: "Send the order: Make rice at midnight tonight, and at dawn tomorrow, all the ministries will set off in order to break out!"
During this battle, thousands of soldiers from the Xuanda and Shandong armies died. Except for some important officers, it was impossible to transport the bodies of these thousands of soldiers back to their hometowns, and they could not find firewood for cremation. They had to collect their clothes and belongings. Take it home and build a tomb. During the day, the soldiers of various ministries had dug several huge pits inside the second earth wall. The bodies of thousands of Xuanda and Shandong Army soldiers who died in the battle were all put into the pits for collective burial.
It was just dark at night, and in the gloomy light, accompanied by a cold breeze, in front of the high-pitched tomb, all the soldiers of the Ming army stood in awe, and the new musketry soldiers of Xiahe Village fired their muskets.
At this time, to see off the fallen soldiers, there was no tribute, no paper money, only the constant roar of the army's blunderbuss.
A moment later, amidst the bursts of gunfire, a low military song sounded, echoing over the river.
"Fuck Wu Gexi, wearing rhinoceros armor. The car is on the wrong side, and the soldiers are fighting..."
"The sun is blocked by the sky, and the enemy is like clouds. The arrows are falling, and the earth is fighting for the lead."
"The sky is full of anger, and the mighty spirit is angry. Kill them all and abandon the wilderness..."
The armies in various parts of the Ming Dynasty generally used Qu Yuan's "National Sorrow" as their military song, and everyone in the new army in Xiahe Village also sang this song. Along with the ups and downs of singing, everyone burst into tears. Chen Xun and Wang Yue howled loudly, and the others also burst into tears.
Seeing thousands of soldiers crying in unison, Lu Xiangsheng, Hu Dawei, and Yang Guozhu were all moved. They sighed and Liu Yan was also silent, but his eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Liu Yan no longer shed tears. He said silently in his heart: "Brothers, let's go!"
At the same time, Liu Yan turned his head and looked in the direction of the Qing army camp, staring for a long time.
At dawn the next day, all the orders for the Ming army to retreat had been issued. The soldiers of various ministries had collected all the tents and put them on the carts, mules and horses together with the numerous baggage and beheaded heads. All injured people who could not move were placed in vehicles.
The bodies of generals such as Hu Zichen and Zhang Yan were also carried in special carts, and the surroundings of the carts and horses were guarded by the remaining soldiers of the Dubiao Battalion.
Thousands of soldiers of the Ming army, all wearing helmets and armor, were neatly dressed. They only waited for an order to break out of the encirclement. Thousands of soldiers have experienced a series of bloody battles and have become elites in hundreds of battles. It can be said that in this era, this army is the most elite and powerful army in the Ming Dynasty.
In front of the whole army, Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei and Liu Yan stood in front. Lu Xiangsheng directly encouraged the army. Lu Xiangsheng's voice was fierce and he said loudly: "...Now our army has severely damaged the army of slaves and thieves here, but reinforcements have been waiting for a long time. No, there is no need for us to stay here and die in vain. Next to us is an army of tens of thousands of slaves and bandits. If we want to return home alive, we must keep marching in order and not panic. As long as we cross the land and water, we will You can survive if you wait. During the march, the troops are not allowed to make any noise or leave without authorization. Anyone who violates this will be killed without mercy!"
The crowd roared like thunder: "I will obey the orders of the governor."
"Breakout, breakout, breakout!"
"Go back to my hometown, go back to my hometown, go back to my hometown..."
Thousands of soldiers raised their weapons and roared in unison.
Looking at the thousands of shouting soldiers, Liu Yan, Yang Guozhu, and Hu Dawei looked at each other with satisfaction: In this way, the morale of the army can be used.
"Master Governor, let's go."
Liu Yan came to Lu Xiangsheng, who said hello, then looked at Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei and nodded.
Then Lu Xiangsheng shouted loudly: "The whole army sets off."
The front army led by Hu Dawei took the lead, crossed the Haoshui Bridge and headed for the other side. Then came the Chinese army officers and soldiers led by Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Guozhu, as well as densely packed vehicles and artillery, which also passed through Haoshui Bridge.
Finally came the Xiahe Village New Army led by Liu Yan, with hundreds of Xiahe Village New Army soldiers holding down the formation behind.
In this way, the front army, the middle army, and the rear army marched in order. It would not take long for the entire camp on the right bank of Haoshui Bridge to be emptied out. It was like the fierce fighting in the past few days was just a deep dream.
On the left bank of Haoshui Bridge, along the upstream and downstream of the river, there are some Qing army tents. It seems that out of consideration of surrounding three buildings, there are not many tents here, and there is still a two-mile wide tent in the middle of the bridge. In the open space, the whole army passed through the open space silently.
It seemed that they did not expect that the Ming army would break through, and the sky was just getting light at this time, and the Qing army here did not react at all. It wasn't until Hu Dawei's front army had passed that the Qing army camps on both sides woke up. Suddenly their horns sounded, and some sentries were forced out of the camp.
Upon seeing this, Xuanda and Shandong Army units were in commotion. Lu Xiangsheng immediately ordered all units: "Anyone who dares to flee in panic will be killed!"
He also ordered his generals from the Chinese Army to lead some soldiers to meet him, as did Hu Dawei and Yang Guozhu. There weren't many Qing soldiers on guard, so they only dared to surround them from a distance. More and more Qing soldiers in the camps on both sides were alerted and came out of the camp one after another.
At this time, the new army of Xiahe Village led by Liu Yan also crossed the bridge. Seeing that there were not many Qing troops on the left bank, they were completely relieved. To form a charge formation, the cavalry need to form a whole team, which takes at least half an hour. And there is no numerical scale. In front of the strict infantry, the scattered cavalry are nothing.
As long as most of the Qing army on the right bank did not catch up, it was only a matter of time before they could escape from this place.
The Qing soldiers on the left bank also saw this and rushed to the camp of Dorgon, Yue Tuo and others.
Some people died, but not completely...
