Seeing the granary on fire.
The military and civilians in Pei County spontaneously organized to put out the fire.
Before they arrived at the scene, they heard someone shouting, "The rebels are coming, everyone run!"
When everyone heard this, they immediately scattered like birds and beasts.
The soldiers from Pei County were the old, weak, sick and disabled in the army. They had poor combat effectiveness and even worse organizational discipline.
If the rebels appeared outside the city, they would have the courage to stand on the city walls and fight them.
Now, suddenly hearing that rebels appeared in the city, they lost even the courage to fight.
The soldiers either took off their armor and threw away their weapons to pretend to be civilians, or followed the crowd and fled out of the city.
The people also returned to their homes as quickly as possible and locked their gates.
The soldiers of the Royalist Army rushed out of the west gate as planned and returned the same way.
That afternoon, the news reached Shi Kefa's ears.
He didn't believe it at all. He scratched his ears and asked, "The grain and grass in Pei County were burned?"
"yes."
“How much was burned?”
"When the message was delivered, more than half of the fire had been burned. The fire was too big to be put out. I guess it's almost burned out now."
"Oh!" Shi Kefa sighed heavily and pounded his right hand weakly on the table.
Before he could express his enthusiasm, the army's food and supplies were burned.
Now he has two choices.
One was to take advantage of the fact that there was still some food in the army and fight Zhu Guobi to the death with the determination to fight to the death.
But doing so is very risky, and the entire army will be wiped out if you are not careful.
Xuzhou will also fall into enemy hands.
The second is to withdraw troops immediately and stabilize the morale of the army.
Wait until enough food and grass are prepared before sending troops to fight a decisive battle with Zhu Guobi.
This move would make the soldiers and civilians in Xuzhou think that the court had abandoned them.
When they see no hope, it's easy for them to surrender.
The city of Xuzhou will still fall into the hands of the rebels.
What to do?
Shi Kefa fell into hesitation.
While he hesitated, the rebels did not.
Zhu Guobi began to launch a tentative attack on the north bank of the Yellow River.
Ma Shiying's Western Route Army began to attack Guide Prefecture.
The defenders of Guide Prefecture held the city firmly and vowed not to surrender until death.
Seeing that he could not capture Guide Prefecture in a short time, Ma Shiying intended to attack Xuzhou instead.
Zheng Zhilong's navy easily took the opportunity to capture the East China Sea.
Just when everyone thought that Zheng Zhilong would take the opportunity to head north to Shandong, he stopped.
"Brother," Zheng Zhibao said to Zheng Zhilong, "We are neither landing to support Zhu Guobi nor heading north to Dengzhou. What are we doing here?"
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said, "Of course, it is to preserve our strength."
From the perspective of comprehensive combat power, the Fujian Navy led by Zheng Zhilong has the strongest combat power.
Because the Fujian Navy was not the imperial army, but Zheng Zhilong's private army.
These people are in the same group as fathers and sons, and in the same camp as brothers.
He really fights hard in battle.
It was also because of this that Zheng Zhilong was reluctant to let these people fight to their death.
After all, if one person dies, there will be one less person, and his strength will be weakened.
Zheng Zhilong's idea was to let Zhu Guobi and Ma Shiying fight hard in the front while he would hide behind and take advantage of the situation.
It would be best if you could find a leak, but even if you can't, there is no loss.
in addition.
Zheng Zhilong did not have big ambitions.
His biggest ideal is to live in peace and contentment in a corner and be a local emperor.
He would not have rebelled if he had not faced the prospect of death.
So he had to stop marching and wait for news from Zhu Guobi.
Although Zheng Zhibao had different opinions in his heart, Zheng Zhilong was the leader of the Zheng family army after all.
He didn't know what to say and could only order the army to stop marching.
July 5th.
The news that Zheng Zhilong had docked at the East China Sea on the pretext of encountering a storm and his grain being soaked by sea water reached Zhu Guobi's ears.
Zhu Guobi was very angry, but helpless.
In order to capture Xuzhou as soon as possible, Zhu Guobi began to build a pontoon bridge, preparing to attack Shi Kefa on the other side of the river.
At this time, Shi Kefa was still hesitating.
"Sir," the quartermaster came to the central military camp and reported to Shi Kefa, "The army still has seven days of food in reserve. If we still can't raise food and grass, I'm afraid..."
Shi Kefa was silent for a while.
In the last few days.
His troops fought more than a dozen small-scale battles with Zhu Guobi's troops, and he won few battles and lost more.
Zhu Guobi won more games than he lost.
The combined strength of both sides is already evident.
In order to avoid total defeat, Shi Kefa had no choice but to order a retreat.
To the north of Xuzhou are the Nishan Mountains, Yimeng Mountains and Taiyi Mountains.
Going directly north is not conducive to raising food and fodder, nor is it conducive to marching.
He could only retreat to the northwest, along the canal.
On the sixth day of July, Shi Kefa began to withdraw his troops from the north bank of the Yellow River.
Zhu Guobi was overjoyed.
Surprisingly, he did not order a pursuit, but also ordered a retreat.
However, he did not actually retreat, but pretended to do so in front of the defenders in the city.
The next morning, an army under the imperial flag appeared outside the city of Xuzhou.
The guards on the city wall asked, "Who is coming?"
"Imperial reinforcements, this is the order from the rebellion suppressing governor, Lord Shi!"
The governor of Xuzhou opened the transfer order and examined it carefully.
There is no problem with paper, handwriting, or seal.
The commander of Xuzhou Guard took a look but couldn't see any clues.
Zhang Huangyan and Zhang Mingzhen also found nothing unusual.
I asked some more questions and the other party answered fluently.
After a brief discussion, they ordered people to open the city gate.
Not long after this army entered the city, Zhu Guobi returned and began to attack the city.
The defenders of Xuzhou had just climbed up the city wall to prepare for defense when the reinforcements that had entered the city earlier attacked them.
In an instant, the defenders were killed or wounded.
"Those people are not reinforcements, they are rebels disguised as reinforcements!" Guerrilla General Zhang Mingzhen ran to Zhang Huangyan and shouted.
Zhang Huangyan’s face darkened instantly.
While defending Yangzhou, he was betrayed by a traitor.
Forced to abandon the city and flee.
Now we are defending Xuzhou, and a traitor has appeared in the city.
He mounted his horse and planned to lead his men to wipe out the rebels in the city.
Zhang Mingzhen grabbed the reins of his warhorse and shouted, "There are not many defenders in the city to begin with. Now there are traitors inside and rebels outside. You and I cannot change the situation alone. We can only find a way to escape and make plans."
Zhang Huangyan refused to believe it and rushed to the street with a dozen of his trusted followers.
Zhang Mingzhen had no choice but to follow behind and protect him.
Soon, they were forced back by the rebels who took the opportunity to rush into the city.
Zhang Huangyan was somewhat disheartened: "There are enemies everywhere. I'm afraid I can't escape!"
"Go through the East Gate," Zhang Mingzhen shouted, "I'm in charge of guarding the East Gate. The rebels there are in disarray. They are a makeshift team, not an elite force. As long as we get out of the gate, we can fight our way out of the rebel camp."
Zhang Huangyan took a deep breath and said, "Okay, you lead the way, and I'll be in charge of the rear."
The two men, accompanied by more than a hundred followers, rushed out of Xuzhou City one after another.
Zhang Huangyan arrived outside the city and found that the situation was exactly as Zhang Mingzhen said.
The rebels in the east of the city were in disarray and their camp was in disarray.
They took advantage of the chaos to pass through the camp, leave Xuzhou and flee to Yanzhou Prefecture.
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