Chapter 718 0713 [We Have to Continue to Retreat]

The Jin infantry who were left behind could not hold on for long either.

They lined up and blocked the streets, and some even climbed onto rooftops to shoot arrows. In other words, bows and arrows can cause sporadic damage to the Ming army, and frontal confrontation cannot withstand the impact of a mixture of hot and cold weapons.

"Woooooo~~~"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

But it was Chen Ziyi who led the cavalry and entered through the city gate of Chitangguan. After learning that the Jin soldiers on the main road in Guancheng had been defeated, they immediately rushed out with their cavalry, trying to leave more retreating enemy troops behind.

Thick smoke came out of the granary in the city. Since the Jin soldiers set the fire in a hurry, at least half of the grain and grass could be saved with the quick rescue of the Ming soldiers.

At the north gate of Guancheng, many Jin infantry were blocked.

There were Jurchens, Bohais, Khitans, Xis, Hans... They were all frightened. Their fear of the unknown outweighed their bravery. At this moment, they only knew how to run for their lives, and instead blocked themselves at the city gate.

Chen Ziyi could only lead his cavalry to attack with arrows repeatedly. The defeated Jin troops on one side of the city were so frightened that they fled to both sides, running along the walls of the city with their weapons thrown away.

The defeated soldiers in the city gate had nowhere to escape and could only squeeze forward more crazily.

The crowds became tighter and tighter, with no room to even turn around. A large number of defeated soldiers were squeezed to the ground and then trampled to death alive.

The defeated soldiers were very anxious, and so was Chen Ziyi. He still wanted to chase them out, but now they were completely blocked by the defeated soldiers.

"Put down your weapons and kill only the Jurchens!"

"Put down your weapons and kill only the Jurchens!"

Chen Ziyi shouted twice, and his cavalry followed suit.

In order to survive, the defeated Jin soldiers on the inside of the city wall, who were not Jurchens, knelt down and surrendered. Some even took the opportunity to kill Jurchen soldiers to perform meritorious deeds.

The defeated soldiers in the city gate cave found it difficult to surrender. They shouted for mercy while involuntarily squeezing out.

After struggling for a long time, the city gate was finally opened. There were corpses everywhere inside, and 99% of them were trampled to death.

Outside the northern city wall of Chitang Pass, the broken soldiers who had broken free were running away, stretching out for two miles in small groups. Chen Ziyi led his cavalry to kill all the way, shouting "Only kill Jurchens" along the way, but in fact he only killed the unlucky ones who blocked the road.

More and more defeated soldiers leaned against the mountain walls on both sides, leaving the valley passage and kneeling down to surrender.

After running for several miles, the valley entrance was already in front of us, and the outside of the valley suddenly opened up.

Wanyan Zonghan had long since escaped with his cavalry, and even brought a large number of spare horses for the infantry who had escaped from the valley to ride away.

Chen Ziyi continued to run for ten miles, with tens of thousands of gold cavalry arrayed in front of him.

Jin Bing, who had been psychologically affected, was frightened, frightened and tired at the moment, but he could still form a formation in the field, and even organized cavalry to launch a counterattack against Chen Ziyi.

"Retreat to the valley!"

Chen Ziyi's thousands of cavalrymen rushed all the way to pursue the defeated troops. Now that they had made enough money, there was no need to trade lives with the top elites of the Jin Kingdom.

Seeing the Ming cavalry withdraw, Wanyan Zonghan also breathed a sigh of relief.

He can't retreat anymore, he must block this place. Because once they get out of the way, the Ming army can turn to the southeast, block the retreat of the Jin soldiers at Shiling Pass, and then attack Shiling Pass from the north and south together.

…

Several Jin light cavalry galloped towards Shiling Pass, which was twelve miles away.

Wanyan Loushi was responsible for guarding there. Since the terrain was easier to defend and harder to attack, the number of Jin soldiers here was only a few thousand.

As for the Ming army attacking Shiling Pass, Li Jinyi was the main general, and Yao Pingzhong and Guo Yaoshi were deputy generals.

This is also a valley terrain, but at the mouth of the valley in the north, there is a ridge of earth and rocks. Shiling Pass is built on the ridge. The artillery can only shoot at an elevated angle, and it is very difficult to hit.

After two months of shelling, Shiling Pass remained unmoved.

If the military rations are sufficient, Wanyan Loushi believes that he can defend it for several years.

The light cavalry entered Guancheng and asked Wanyan Loushi to lead the troops to evacuate quickly.

"Why is Chitang Pass gone? There were 20,000 troops there!" Wanyan Loushi said in horror.

The light cavalryman responsible for delivering the message said: "The enemy has a kind of firearm that can explode in the crowd. Our warriors can't stop it. The marshal only took more than 10,000 soldiers to evacuate, and our army lost seven to eight thousand people at Chitang Pass." Evacuate north quickly, the marshal is leading troops to support you in the north, it will be too late if you delay any longer!"

Wanyan Lou's room immediately organized the infantry and civilian men to carry the baggage, and sent all the cavalry to join Wanyan Zonghan, while the soldiers at the top of the city pretended that nothing happened.

After nightfall, all the troops in the city withdrew northward, leaving Shiling Pass to chase the transport troops.

The next morning, Li Jinyi, Yao Pingzhong, and Guo Yaoshi came out to bombard the city as usual. They didn't notice anything strange. The Jin flag was still erected on the top of the city, and the Jin soldiers couldn't see it even if they usually hid behind the female wall.

From the mid-morning bombardment to noon, several Ming army light cavalry rushed from the south.

The reason why the Ming army's messengers were slower was because the journey was much longer and they had to go south and then east in a large circle.

The messenger came to Li Jinyi and said: "Li Hou, Chitang Pass has been broken, Shiling Pass may be empty!"

Li Jinyi was overjoyed: "I will immediately send troops to test."

The soldiers of Yao Pingzhong and Guo Yaoshi sent two teams respectively to test the attack from the east and west sides, and soon occupied the city wall without any surprise.

"Chitang Pass, which is heavily garrisoned, can be captured by our army. The Jin army is not far from defeat." Guo Yaoshi smiled happily.

He is now a Viscount of the Ming Dynasty, with a military rank of General Ningyuan, fifth rank, and a military position of Deputy Division Commander. The veterans under his command suffered a lot last year by sticking to Shouyang, but they have all been replenished and expanded.

Yao Pingzhong said: "You have to chase him quickly, maybe you can catch him."

Li Jinyi left a thousand soldiers to guard Shiling Pass, and threw all the civilians inside the pass to assist in the defense. He personally led the army to pursue at full speed without baggage.

…

"How many thunder bombs are left?"

"I couldn't help throwing them all."

"Next time...use them sparingly."

It's hard to criticize Zhang Guangdao, after all, the grenadiers fought very well in this offensive.

The thunder bombs on the Shanxi battlefield were made by the Cizhou Arsenal.

Cizhou is the second iron smelting base of the Ming Dynasty, and its steel production is second only to Xuzhou. Porcelain is also produced here, and natural magnets are also produced. It is said that the earliest compass in China came from Cizhou.

In addition, Cizhou is the Hebei end point of Fukou Xing, and the weapons made there can be quickly transported to Shanxi.

After most of the Ming army entered the pass, Zhang Guangdao left the assault troops to guard the city, asked the doctors to quickly rescue the wounded, and then led the rest of the troops out of the pass to pursue.

All the escaped Jin soldiers rode horses, even the infantry.

After pacifying the troops, Wanyan Zonghan not only did not continue to retreat, but instead fought back to block the valley entrance.

It was not until nightfall that Zhang Guangdao arrived with the main force, mixed the fire gun soldiers into the infantry formation, and tried to fight out of the valley without waiting for the artillery to arrive.

It was dark, and both sides were just fighting randomly.

All the Jin soldiers rode on horses and fought and retreated, just to delay time, delaying Wanyan Loushi to withdraw safely.

At dawn, a scout came to report that Wanyan Loushi had led his troops to withdraw to the designated location, and Wanyan Zonghan left quickly with the army.

Zhang Guangdao could not figure out what was happening on the opposite side, and was afraid of being ambushed by the Jin cavalry in the dark, so he sent light cavalry to inquire around, and waited for the artillery to arrive before chasing and killing at dawn.

But after Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Loushi joined forces, they had not yet withdrawn their troops into Xinzhou City, and a messenger suddenly came from Dingxiang County in the east.

The messenger said, "Marshal, Wutai County is gone!"

Wanyan Zonghan was shocked and said, "Isn't there a heavy garrison at the entrance of Yangxing Valley? Could it be that Wutai County was breached by a group of rioters?"

The messenger explained, "The Ming army did not come from the southern valley, but from the east along the Hutuo River."

"Nonsense, the Hutuo River Valley is simply not accessible to a large army!" Wanyan Zonghan was furious.

The messenger said, "It really came from the Hutuo River, and the Ming army was flying the Yue character flag."

Wanyan Loushi sighed, "Xinzhou can no longer be left, we must abandon this place and withdraw the entire army to Shuozhou."

The two Ming armies in the south can catch up to Xinzhou City at any time.

And the Ming army in the east that broke through Wutai County will definitely unite with the local rebel army, and will soon kill to Dingxiang County, attack the Jin soldiers at the entrance of Yangxing Valley from the rear, and help the Ming army and the rebel army in Shouyang County to open up the valley.

By that time, if the Jin soldiers still stayed in Xinzhou, they would be in a dilemma of being attacked from three sides.

…

Wutai County.

Yue Fei's soldiers were exhausted, and only one-third were left to maintain law and order, and to clear out the Jin soldiers and spies in the city.

The rest of the troops all lay down to rest.

Their raid route did not belong to the Eight Xings of Taihang, but was forced to march along the Hutuo River Valley. From time to time, they had to cross mountains and ridges, and the baggage could not be carried at all. The medium-sized armor seemed cumbersome, and the whole army directly changed into light armor to rush on the road.

The monk Zhenbao from Mount Wutai served as a guide, and the Wutai County Volunteer Army was there to meet them all the way.

After more than a month of traveling, all the food and grass they carried with them were eaten up. The Wutai County Volunteer Army did not have much food, so they took out their only rations, and then ate grass roots and tree bark with the Yue Family Army, and finally successfully arrived in Wutai County.

There were not many Jin soldiers stationed in Wutai County, only a few hundred people, and the rest were all Shanxi Han troops.

As soon as Yue Fei led his troops out of the mountains, several monks in the righteous army went to Wutai County to inform the garrison. It was not to treason, but to contact the Han army guarding the city to defect.

The next night, the tired and hungry Yue army rushed to the county with the Wutai righteous army.

Many people noticed along the way, but no one informed the Jin soldiers.

Even the local gentry and big families hoped that the Ming Dynasty would recapture Wutai as soon as possible, so that they would not be repeatedly robbed by the Jin soldiers and the righteous army in the future.

Countless torches were lit outside the city, and the Han soldiers in the city took the opportunity to set fire, and there was chaos inside and outside Wutai County.

Hundreds of Jin soldiers were terrified.

They woke up in the night and rushed to defend the city, but the city was also on fire, and then the Han soldiers guarding the city defected on a large scale. In this situation, the Jin soldiers could only abandon the city and flee.

The Yue army was too tired and hungry, and they had no physical strength to chase, so they could only let the Jin soldiers escape.

"General, a group of bandits have come to surrender."

"Are they local volunteers?"

"They are not local volunteers, but Liaodong Han people. The local volunteers hate them to the core, and they are all clamoring to kill people."

"Quickly restrain them and don't let them fight. I will deal with them immediately!"

When Yue Fei arrived outside the city, the Liaodong Han army that came to surrender had been surrounded by the local volunteers.