The people sent out to look for Haoge soon returned to Haizhou City and brought Daishan the news that Haoge was going to Gaizhou.
Daishan had no choice but to mobilize all his troops and send troops from Haizhou to build the city.
For this reason, some soldiers and horses were transferred from Haizhou and set off with the army.
Wakda stood on the top of Haizhou City, looking at the army that was gradually retreating.
As the defender of Haizhou City, he needs to stay in Haizhou City to take charge and cannot leave with the army.
The distance between Haizhou City and Gaizhou City is only over a hundred miles. Even if the cavalry is not in a hurry, it can take a little more than a day to get from Haizhou to Gaizhou. The infantry is a little slower, and three days is enough. .
In the Tangchibao area, Daishan caught up with Hauge's team.
"Where's Prince Su!"
Daishan pulled up a dejected Eight Banners white-armored soldier on the ground and asked sternly.
The white-armored soldier slowly turned his head and glanced in the direction behind him, then raised his hand and pointed.
Daishan left the person behind and strode towards the direction pointed by the other person.
Not far away, he saw Hauge sitting on a mat with half of his armor removed, holding a water bag in his hand and drinking a gulp of water.
"Hauge!" Daishan shouted, and then walked over quickly.
Hauge, who was drinking water, saw his face change when he saw Daishan walking over. He put away the water bag and threw it to Ye Bilong next to him.
"Prince Li came too soon. Did he come to see my joke?" Hauge's tone was mixed with self-deprecation.
Daishan glanced around.
Hauge left Haizhou and took away five or six hundred cavalry. At most, there were only three or four hundred left around. Some of them were still wounded. In addition, these people were in a low mood. It was not difficult to see that they had suffered a defeat.
"Are you fighting the tiger thieves in Gaizhou City?" Dai Shan asked.
Hauge said with an ugly face: "I didn't go to Gaizhou City, so I suffered a loss here in Tangchi Fort."
"How many defenders are there in Tangchi Fort?" Daishan asked about the situation of Tangchi Fort.
Tangchi Fort is famous for its hot springs. Daishan once presided over the war in the Liaodong Peninsula, so he was not unfamiliar with Tangchi Fort.
"There are probably thousands of people!" Haug said.
Daishan twirled his beard and asked again: "How is the military preparedness? How many cannons are there in the fort?"
"There are more than a dozen cannons. Although the cavalry brought by the king are highly mobile, they are not good at attacking the city and cannot forcefully break through the fortress wall. This is why they suffered a loss." Hauge was unwilling to admit that he was not good enough and failed to attack Tangchi Fort. The blame lies with those who are not good at attacking cities.
Daishan didn't bother to say anything about the excuse he gave himself, but he looked down on Hauge more and more in his heart.
Huang Taiji, such a powerful person, actually gave birth to such a useless and irresponsible son.
"If there are only a thousand defenders in Tangchi Fort, it means that the defenders inside are a detachment of tiger thieves." Dai Shan said, "A brigade of tiger thieves is equipped with at least four cannons, and a detachment has twelve to sixteen cannons. There are so many cannons in a small Tangchi Fort, so of course you can’t take them down, Hauge.”
There have been many battles between the Qing army and the Tiger Flag, and the Qing army has long been familiar with the military status of the Tiger Flag that distinguishes it from the Ming army.
Hauge said with a dark face: "If I had brought the infantry here, I would have captured Tangchi Castle long ago."
"Prince Su, are you blaming me for being late?" Daishan looked at Hauge.
Hauge snorted and turned his face away.
"Pack up and go back to Haizhou." Daishan said.
"ah!"
Hauge was stunned for a moment, and then said with an ugly face: "Tangchi Castle is right in front of you, don't you want to fight?"
Daishan's words of retreat were completely beyond his expectation. In any case, he never expected that Daishan would take the initiative to say retreat.
"If you don't retreat, do you still expect to win the Tangchi Fort in front of you?" Daishan asked in return.
Hauge said: "Of course we have to take Tangchi Fort. I suffered a loss in Tangchi Fort because I only had cavalry with me. Now that Prince Li has arrived, you have not only brought the army, but also the troops in the army." We have soldiers and artillery, but are we still afraid that we won’t be able to capture a small Tangchi Fort?”
After suffering a loss at Tangchi Fort, he naturally wanted to take revenge and go back to wash away the shame of his defeat at Tangchi Fort.
"It's not that easy to take Tangchi Fort." Dai Shan said, "You said it yourself, there are more than a dozen cannons in this fort, and there are thousands of defenders. If we attack by force, we don't know how many soldiers and horses will be lost. Here, and once the attack fails, all we need to do is send a troop of troops from Gaizhou City to bypass Yaozhou Station to cut off our army's retreat, otherwise there is the risk of the entire army being annihilated."
However, when Hauge heard these words, he felt that they were all excuses. He thought that Daishan wanted to deliberately embarrass him and did not want him to make meritorious deeds.
He immediately said with an unconvinced look: "We have brought ten or twenty thousand soldiers and horses from Shengjing. If we attack Tangchi Fort with only eighteen hundred defenders, it won't be a big problem even if we can capture it easily. It won't be a big problem at all." It’s not as alarmist as you said. I believe that we should go all out to capture Tangchi Fort. After capturing Tangchi Fort, we can take advantage of the victory to recapture Gaizhou City. Now we are afraid of dealing with a small Tangchi Fort. How can we do it in the future? Take Gaizhou City."
"What will happen if we lose our troops and generals here at Tangchi Fort?" Dai Shan asked.
After hearing this, Hauge waved his hand and said: "It's impossible. We have so many soldiers and horses. We just need to push the cannon to the front of the formation, bombard Tangchi Fort, suppress the cannon in the fort, and then send another team of soldiers and horses. If we attack the fort wall, Tangchi Fort can be captured in an instant."
"The tiger thieves are not the Ming army. Even the fortress guarded by the Ming army is not that easy to capture, let alone the tiger thieves who are more powerful than the Ming army." Daishan was very disappointed with Hauge, but he still patiently persuaded him.
Hauge didn't listen to Daishan's advice at all, and directly showed his cards: "Prince Li, since you are unwilling to take the responsibility of attacking Tangchi Fort, then I will bear it. You don't need to intervene in the next matter, and I will leave all the power to it. When Gaizhou City is recovered, your share of the credit, Prince Li, will be indispensable."
Daishan's obstruction made him want to get rid of Daishan even more.
It was obvious that as long as the army attacked Tangchi Fort, they could capture Tangchi Fort in front of them. Daishan resisted and refused. He felt that Daishan did it on purpose and did not want him to have the opportunity to make contributions.
"Hauge, don't forget, I am the commander-in-chief of the army." Daishan's face sank when he saw that Hauge refused to listen to his advice.
Hauge said without any sign of weakness: "I am also the deputy commander of the army."
"Since you know that you are only the deputy commander in the army, you must know how to obey orders. Now I am ordering Prince Su and the blue flag soldiers and horses under his command to immediately withdraw to Haizhou City with the army." Dai Shan forced Hao Ge. Ordered.
If Hauge dared to disobey the general's orders in the army, he would not mind cleaning up Hauge and letting him understand who is the commander-in-chief of the army. I believe that even if Huang Taiji knew it, he would not say anything.
(End of chapter)
