After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked.
"Nonsense, all of Zhang Wuji's troops are trapped in the city, so how could they have more troops to attack my camp?"
The sentry said, "Your Majesty, I am willing to guarantee this with my life. Zhang Wuji's reinforcements will arrive here in a moment."
…
The deafening shouts of killing as the two armies fought had already numbed Zhu Yuanzhang's hearing.
Otherwise, he would have noticed the sound of more than 100,000 people rushing towards him.
Although the sky was still dark, the wave of more than 100,000 people not far away still made him know the answer.
"Zhang Wuji's reinforcements have really arrived."
Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was suddenly in a mess.
But as a general who had led troops in battle for many years, he calmed down in a flash.
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly remembered what Liu Bowen had said to him before the expedition, that is, no matter what, there must not be an avalanche-like defeat.
Even if we are unfortunately defeated, we must lose in an orderly manner.
Zhu Yuanzhang quickly called several sentries to his front.
He passed on the orders one by one: "Near Zhigu Village, there are 100,000 of my troops, and the commander of that team is Tang He."
"Go and pass the order quickly, tell him to take a shortcut and retreat back to Jiangnan as quickly as possible."
"Go and tell Zhu Wenzhen who is attacking the city west of Dadu to withdraw his troops immediately and ignore everything else. He should retreat to Dahukou first. No one can tell how many reinforcements Zhang Wuji will bring. If I cannot defeat Zhang Wuji, Dahukou will be the only retreat for my army of hundreds of thousands."
"Finally, send a message to Xu Da. His camp is thirty miles behind me. The incident happened suddenly, and it is too late for him to lead troops to reinforce."
"Let him prepare for battle quickly. When my army retreats to the vicinity of his camp, we will join forces with him and fight a decisive battle with Zhang Wuji."
…
Zhu Yuanzhang remained calm in the face of danger and quickly made preparations for both scenarios.
Asking Zhu Wenzhen to retreat to Dahukou shows that he has made preparations for the worst.
In war, it is not just about having more soldiers and more generals.
In the Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang's 560,000-strong army with only 30,000 men.
No matter how many troops there are, once the command system is disrupted, they are doomed to fall apart.
The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang asked Xu Da to prepare for a decisive battle was that he thought he had just been caught off guard.
Throwing aside the 100,000 troops taken away by Tang He and his men, and the 80,000 troops in Zhu Wenzhen's hands, as long as Zhu Yuanzhang could join forces with Xu Da, his military strength would still be several times that of Zhang Wuji.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself, "The military books left by our ancestors are still somewhat useful. If it weren't for Xu Da's unshakable army, I would have ended up like Chen Youliang today."
After deploying all the orders, Zhu Yuanzhang shouted to a guard beside him: "Sound the retreat and let the soldiers who are attacking the city withdraw quickly."
Although Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the troops to withdraw as quickly as possible, it was already a little late.
Zhang Dingbian's army of more than 100,000 was already in sight.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that he could not defend his camp, and all he could do now was to minimize the losses.
He raised the sword in his hand and shouted loudly: "Soldiers, don't panic. We still have 200,000 soldiers where General Xu is. Let's retreat to General Xu Da and then fight Zhang Wuji to the death."
…
On the top of the city wall, Zhang Wuji saw it all clearly.
He couldn't help but laugh in his heart, "Zhang Dingbian is indeed quite capable. He was able to catch Zhu Yuanzhang off guard at this time."
Yang Buhui on the side smiled and said, "Brother Wuji, I said our reinforcements should be arriving soon. Look, General Zhang is here."
Zhang Wuji said: "General Zhang arrived at the right time, but Zhu Yuanzhang was just caught off guard."
"Zhu Yuanzhang's troops are several times larger than ours, not to mention that Xu Da has not yet appeared on the battlefield."
"The outcome of this battle is still unpredictable."
Yang Buhui smiled and said, "Don't we still have us? There are still tens of thousands of people in the city who can fight."
"The credit for repelling Zhu Yuanzhang cannot be taken entirely by Zhang Dingbian alone."
Zhang Wuji laughed and said, "Girl, you really are worthy of being Yang Xiao's daughter. You think the same as I do."
Then, Zhang Wuji shouted loudly: "Soldiers, our reinforcements have arrived. Now is the time for us to take revenge. Hurry up and ride our horses into the city. Today, we must not let Zhu Yuanzhang escape no matter what."
…
The tens of thousands of soldiers that Zhang Wuji led to defend the city were all from cavalry backgrounds. They fought very unfairly in this battle of defending the city and were unable to use their strengths at all.
When they learned that they could ride on war horses and gallop across the country, all the soldiers present cheered with joy.
They have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
On the other side, just when Zhao Linger and Zhou Zhiruo were gradually feeling exhausted, Zhu Wenzhen had already received Zhu Yuanzhang's order to withdraw his troops.
Zhu Wenzhen couldn't believe that his uncle actually asked him to retreat to Dahukou. This already meant that the worst outcome might occur.
Lan Yu, who was standing aside, asked Zhu Wenzhen in disbelief, "What should we do?"
Zhu Wenzhen said: "No one expected that Zhang Wuji's reinforcements would arrive at this time."
"I'm afraid my uncle's central military camp can't be defended."
"Once the central army camp was lost, hundreds of thousands of troops lost their command system."
"Returning to Dahukou first is also a good idea."
Lan Yu said unwillingly: "What a pity, we were so close to taking over Dadu."
Zhu Wen Zheng said: "I think that we are not even close to the enemy. Even if we attack for another three hours, we may not be able to break into Dadu."
"Retreat and preserve your strength. At least, our army of hundreds of thousands will not end up like Chen Youliang."
Zhu Wenzhen resolutely ordered his troops to retreat.
Zhao Linger and Zhou Zhiruo were still a little overwhelmed by all this sudden happening.
Zhou Zhiruo said: "Sister, what's going on?"
Zhao Linger smiled and said, "What else could it be? It must be Zhang Dingbian's reinforcements that have arrived."
Zhou Zhiruo said: "Let's deal with Zhu Wenzhen. He has caused a lot of harm to Sister Yu. We can't just let him get away like this."
Of course, Zhao Linger’s thoughts were the same as Zhou Zhiruo’s.
However, when Zhao Linger was about to order a pursuit, she was met with a rain of arrows.
Hundreds of Ming army soldiers who were at the forefront were either killed or injured.
Zhao Linger was furious. Just as she was about to rush forward, a voice behind her stopped her.
"Empress, Zhu Yuanzhang's army has retreated. His Majesty is summoning you, Madam Zhou, and two generals to go back."
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