Chapter 256: Great Defeat 4
Liu Zongmin and his men were chasing happily, and more and more Kenan soldiers fell to the ground on both sides, as if they had fought their way out of a bloody battle.
Just when he was feeling proud, the cavalry in front of him stopped. Then many cavalrymen ignored the general's orders and retreated. A cavalry officer ran over and shouted, "General, retreat quickly! The Ming army's iron chariots are coming!"
The term "iron chariot" was given by the Chuang army to this type of imitation chariot. They had seen it charging into battle from the city walls. It was much more powerful than the heavy armored cavalry of the Jianlu, and it ran much faster!
Liu Zongmin cried out in his heart: I forgot! The Ming army still has this powerful weapon! So he immediately turned around and ran back. I have killed enough people today. The siege of Xi'an has been resolved. When I go back, the emperor will make me a prince, so there will be no problem.
Zhao Xiaofei, Wanshan and others knew that it was not easy for an army of over 100,000 to retreat. Unless they scared off the pursuers, they would not be able to leave peacefully.
So they planned to use chariots to charge, defeat the enemy, and then gather the defeated troops to march towards Sichuan. As for whether they could return to Nanjing, we would decide when the time came.
The chariot rumbled, and the soldiers on it were not holding matchlock guns or flintlock rifles, but hand-cranked Gatling guns made by Wanshan himself.
One soldier aimed, cranked the handle, and fired. Another soldier, holding onto the ammunition bag, immediately unleashed a fan-shaped net of fire. Everywhere they looked, the Chuang army cavalrymen fell to the ground. Some of the cavalrymen's heads exploded like watermelons, spraying red and white everywhere.
The cavalrymen behind were stunned when they saw this. In the moment they were stunned, countless more cavalrymen of the Chuang army were killed. The cavalrymen behind immediately turned around and ran back.
This led to the scene later where a cavalry officer told Liu Zongmin to run fast.
Liu Zongmin's order was very timely. Most of the cavalry did not continue to advance, but turned around and headed towards the city gate.
Zhao Xiaofei picked up the intercom in the car and said, "Brother Zhou, Brother Wan! The cavalry has withdrawn! Let's go back to the camp, reorganize our forces, and gather up the defeated soldiers!"
Wanshan picked up the intercom and said, "Let's charge again. We'll retreat after the bandit cavalry has returned to the city!"
"Yes! To prevent them from making a surprise attack!" said Zhou Shuai.
"There is a general on horseback in front of us! He should be a senior officer of the bandits. Let's rush up and kill him!" said Zhao Xiaofei.
"Great! If we kill him, the cavalry will be able to escape faster!" said General Zhou.
So several chariots accelerated and rushed towards Liu Zongmin's troops. How could horses outrun modern agricultural vehicles?
Although Liu Zongmin and his guards and personal soldiers rode their horses desperately, they were still caught up by Zhao Xiaofei first.
Seeing that they were getting closer, Zhao Xiaofei shouted to the people behind him: "Shoot!"
But there was no response from behind, Zhao Xiaofei looked back while driving and found that except for the couple, the remaining three soldiers in the car had been shot to death.
Li Sihong also saw it, and she immediately rolled up her sleeves and jumped from the passenger seat into the back of the truck. She picked up a musket, placed it on the roof and took aim.
Li Sihong took a deep breath and shot at Liu Zongmin's forehead.
With a bang of gunfire, Liu Zongmin fell off his horse. The surrounding soldiers and guards were immediately in chaos, and the other cavalry surrounded Liu Zongmin regardless of their own lives.
It wasn't that Zhao Xiaofei didn't have a Gatling gun in his car, but Li Sihong didn't know how to use it. The only weapons she knew how to use were muskets and bows and arrows. She had learned how to use muskets when she was helping Zhao Xiaofei with his affairs in the army.
As soon as Liu Zongmin fell to the ground, no one in the rebel army dared to chase him anymore.
Zhao Xiaofei and General Zhou of Wanshan turned back to camp to gather their troops and gather the defeated soldiers. They sent a message to Fang Xinyu to lead the White Pole Army as a rearguard, while Zhao Xiaofei and his men headed south, intending to reach Huguang.
After retreating fifty miles from Xi'an, they counted their troops. A careful calculation revealed a loss of 70,000 new recruits and 20,000 veterans. The inventory of supplies and weapons was even more difficult to calculate. Few new recruits had weapons, so they could only perform logistical tasks. The veterans, however, felt frustrated by the battle and the inexplicable defeat.
At night, after setting up camp, Zhao Xiaofei and Wanshan Commander Zhou held a meeting to summarize the reasons for the failure and prepare for future training of the troops.
The other thing is how Zhao Xiaofei will clean up the traitors!
Traitors are so scary. The most frightening thing is that while you are fighting in the front, others are plotting against you from behind.
The hot air balloon corps was the most serious example of this, and his betrayal led to a major defeat of the entire army.
Moreover, there were still many traitors in the new army, and they had not yet been dealt with urgently. Zhao Xiaofei requested that the new army not be mixed with the old army and that they be reorganized tomorrow. The new army would be led by General Zhou, and the old army would be led by Wan Shan and Zhao Xiaofei. They also gave General Zhou 10,000 old camp guards.
At night, in a seemingly ordinary tent of the new army, several low-ranking officers were discussing something.
A middle-aged man in his thirties said, "News has come from Nanjing! Let's wait for an opportunity to act. I think tonight is the perfect time. If Zhao separates us from the old camp tomorrow, it will be extremely difficult for us to do anything!"
"Okay! Brother Zhang! We brothers will listen to you and do whatever you say!" The rest of them agreed.
"Okay! At four o'clock tonight, you guys take your trusted aides and set fires everywhere, and shout that the Tartars are coming! I will go to the granary and burn all the food and grass! When the reinforcements arrive tomorrow, we will charge towards the central camp together. From now on, the wealth and glory of you and me will depend on this!" said Brother Zhang.
At night, Zhao Xiaofei cuddled Li Sihong and slept in her clothes. He was exhausted, but couldn't sleep. He was thinking about the past two years and wondering if God had seen things go so smoothly for him and wanted to make him suffer.
In fact, with each victory he won over the past two years, he'd become increasingly inflated. He wouldn't listen to anyone's advice, and his military training was out of touch with reality. He just wanted to bombard the troops with artillery, then charge them with infantry. If the infantry couldn't handle it, he'd bombard them with artillery, then line them up and shoot them, to turn the world upside down and bring peace to the world.
But it wasn't that easy. First, his methods were more than adequate for defending the city, but insufficient for field combat. Killing those weak Ming rebels was fine, but wiping out the Jianlu cavalry was impossible. Unless he could import weapons and equip them with thousands of Maxim machine guns, victory would be impossible.
Although Li Sihong had her eyes closed, she knew her husband couldn't sleep. So she opened her eyes and sat up, saying to Zhao Xiaofei, "Husband, can't you sleep? Why don't you talk to me?"
Zhao Xiaofei gently hugged Li Sihong into his arms, sighed and said, "I really didn't expect this!"
"Didn't expect to lose?" Li Sihong asked.
"Lose? Who hasn't lost? I didn't expect to lose to a traitor, lose at the hands of a traitor! Don't those Donglin Party members have any sense of the overall situation? Even if we fight, we have to wait until the north is recovered!" Zhao Xiaofei said.
"Once you recapture the capital, how can they still have the ability to fight against you? This is the most appropriate time to take action! Later they will find some generals to continue the Northern Expedition for you! Anyway, the Jianlu are now badly damaged, and Li Zicheng is trapped in one place. And the Ming Dynasty still has half of the country!" Li Sihong said.
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