I want to be emperor

Chapter 162 Sun Hongcai Returns to the West

Faced with such a predicament, Lu Xiangsheng was extremely depressed, and the generals and several civil servants around him were afraid to speak out, for fear of offending Lu Xiangsheng and losing his life.

Lu Xiangsheng killed a lot of people today, several of the generals who were beheaded by himself, let alone the people who were beheaded by his orders.

Although these people are all people who escaped without authorization before the battle, killing so many people is still frightening.

After all, Lu Xiangsheng killed not only ordinary generals, but even a general soldier.

During the battle, Zhang Mingbo, the commander-in-chief of the right-wing army, was hacked by him himself.

This Zhang Mingbo was an old man who had been with Lu Xiangsheng for many years, and was promoted to the chief soldier all the way under Lu Xiangsheng's recommendation.

Before this battle, Lu Xiangsheng entrusted him with the important task of serving as the commander of the right army with more than [-] people. As a result, under his command, the right army was first attacked by the bandit cavalry, and hundreds of people were killed before being restrained. Lived at least two battalions.

When the subsequent charge was launched, the right army was also the first to be defeated!
Lu Xiangsheng could bear all of the above. The difference in strength between the two sides was too great. If his side couldn't beat him, he couldn't just blame a certain general. He wasn't that pedantic yet.

But before the defeat of the right army, Zhang Mingbo, who was in command of the right army, ran away ahead of time, so he couldn't bear it.

When the soldiers of the right army under Zhang Mingbo were still fighting bloody battles, this bastard just because a shell from the bandit army fell near him, and then quickly withdrew from the battlefield with dozens of soldiers like a frightened bird.

Even to some extent, it was precisely because of this person's unauthorized retreat that further shook the morale of the right army, which in turn led to the complete collapse of the right army.

The soldiers of the right army looked around and saw the banner of their own commander running towards the back. They thought they had ordered the whole army to retreat. Under such circumstances, why did the soldiers have any intention of fighting? They must have turned around and fled.

After the right army was finished, the Chinese army, which had been struggling to support, was completely finished.

Zhang Mingbo is quite stupid, it's fine to run away before the battle, and he ran back to Lu Xiangsheng, thinking that he would not be punished if he was Lu Xiangsheng's confidant, when he just came back, he said blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. ...

Before he finished speaking, Lu Xiangsheng chopped him down with a single knife...

At that time, blood spattered Lu Xiangsheng's face, and he did not forget to say: "I don't know anyone!"

Even a confidant like Zhang Mingbo was hacked because he escaped before the battle, and the others dared not act presumptuously.

However, even if these generals who escaped from the battle were killed, it would not be able to change the reality that Lu Xiangsheng's remnants were besieged in Sanyuanzhuang, and he was not even sure of holding Sanyuanzhuang.

Now what Lu Xiangsheng can hope for is that Sun Hongcai, who is dozens of miles away, will return to help as soon as possible after receiving the news. Although Sun Hongcai has only more than 3000 people under his command, the combat effectiveness of those infantry is just that.

But at least there were five hundred cavalry.

Even if the five hundred cavalry were not considered elite, they were considered professional cavalry. Among the many officers and soldiers in northern Chu, they were the only professional cavalry.

With this cavalry, it is impossible to say whether they can defeat the bandits, but there is still some hope to cover Lu Xiangsheng and lead the army to retreat.

As for Sun Hongcai, who Lu Xiangsheng placed high hopes on, he was still under Xinye City at this time. He had just learned that Lu Xiangsheng's army had encountered the main force of the bandit protection army in Sanyuan Village.

As for the news of Lu Xiangsheng's defeat, he still doesn't know it yet.

After all, this morning, Luo Zhixue led his troops to the area of ​​Sanyuan Village to contact Lu Xiangsheng. At that time, although Lu Xiangsheng sent an order to go to Xinye City, it would take time along the way, and it was impossible to get there in a few hours. know the news.

The order sent by Lu Xiangsheng traveled all the way, and it was around four o'clock in the afternoon that Lu Xiangsheng's order was passed on to Sun Hongcai.

When the order came, it was Lu Xiangsheng who asked Sun Hongcai to immediately lead his army back to the west to cooperate with the main force of Lu Xiangsheng's troops to encircle and wipe out the main force of the thieves.

As for Xinye City, we will talk about it later.

Sun Hongcai looked at Xinye City, which was still holding on, and couldn't help but sighed. In the end, it was still a little bit short.

Yesterday, he had driven a large number of people to fill up the moat and opened up the passage to the city wall of Xinye City.

Today, his army has already launched an offensive against Xinye City.

It's just that because of the short time, it is impossible for his army to manufacture some large-scale siege equipment. They can only make some iron hooks and long ladders for climbing the city wall, plus some things like wheelbarrows for cover and advancement , and some large siege equipment cannot be handled.

It's useless to do it. The bandit army has more than a dozen cannons at the top of the city. Although they are all short robes, they are still accurate in hitting traditional siege equipment, and they are not as practical as small shield vehicles.

However, after fighting all morning today, the effect was not great. Several attempts to rush up and climb the city failed.

In the afternoon, Sun Hongcai's troops had already stopped the offensive, and he was preparing to send people to the surrounding area to forcibly plunder more people for tomorrow's siege.

As a result, he received Lu Xiangsheng's order.

Regarding Lu Xiangsheng's orders, although Sun Hongcai had always been domineering and domineering, he had to obediently obey them.

Just like Zuo Liangyu, no matter how much he usually does, he still has to be obedient to a top boss like Hong Chengchou.

Although Lu Xiangsheng's status is not as good as Hong Chengchou's for the time being, he is not far behind there now. His succession as governor of Huguang is a certainty. not come.

The imperial court intends to let Lu Xiangsheng take over more regional defense, and cooperate with Hong Chengchou to encircle and suppress the bandit army.

If this is the case, it won't be long before Lu Xiangsheng becomes a top boss like Hong Chengchou.

Facing such a person, Sun Hongcai had to be obedient no matter how arrogant and domineering he was usually.

Therefore, after receiving Lu Xiangsheng's order, he didn't care about attacking Xinye City, but began to pack up his belongings and move the camp back, preparing to return west early tomorrow morning.

As for now, it's already afternoon, and it will be dark in a few hours, and it won't take long to go back west.

It's better to rest early and set off at dawn tomorrow, trying to get to the Sanyuanzhuang area as soon as possible.

So, after entering the afternoon, whether it was around Sanyuan Village or Xinye City, the fighting had initially stopped, and everyone was making preparations.

It was not until the next morning that Sun Hong officially led his army back to the west. The cavalry under his command was even elected, and the five hundred cavalry galloped westward early.

This situation made Li Duo and other generals of the rural protection army in Xinye City very puzzled.

"Why did they retreat? Could it be that the casualties were too high if they were unable to attack for a long time?"

"They didn't have many casualties. Although they tried several times yesterday, they retreated in a hurry after only killing or injuring dozens of people. In total, they only killed or injured a hundred people. It is impossible to let them injure It's bone-shaking."

Li Duo looked at the enemy army that was retreating westward, thought for a moment, and then said: "Could it be that the main force of the general killed them behind them, and that's why the enemy army retreated?"

Immediately, a subordinate said: "It's possible, we got news from the general before, saying that they are continuing to go north, and they are going along the Dengzhou area."

"Before we also discovered that the main force of the enemy's [-]-strong army was advancing eastward."

"According to calculations, the main force of the generals should have met Lu Xiangsheng's main force in the Dengzhou area."

"In this way, it is very clear that Sun Hongcai led the army to retreat westward. They stopped fighting not because of the difficulty of conquering my Xinye City, but because of the great generals behind them."

Li Duo felt that this should be the case, and immediately said: "Send the order, prepare to go out of the city to follow, bring the artillery, and bring a batch of carriages as a formation."

"But don't get too close when the time comes, and you must guard against their cavalry."

"Prevent them from retreating and kill a carbine."

It didn't take long for Li Duo to lead the Seventh Infantry Brigade as the core, and dozens of cavalry and more than a hundred soldiers followed.

This time Li Duo was much more careful when he led his army out of the city. Not only did he not get too close, he only followed behind him more than ten miles away.

He also brought out all the horse-drawn carriages in the city, regardless of whether they were free from the rural protection army, or ordinary horse-drawn carriages in the folk, even wheelbarrows and so on, and temporarily bought a large number of wooden distance horses. bring it on.

Following from such a long distance, and having so many carriages and distance horses, is purely to guard against the cavalry in the Ming army.

Once the enemy army turned around and wanted to kill the carbine, then Li Duo would not hesitate at all, and just strode back and retreated back to Xinye City.

These carriages are designed to provide marching speed and increase mobility.

Even if one is accidentally overtaken by enemy cavalry, it is possible to rely on carriages and distance horses to form a chariot formation on the spot for defensive operations, waiting for the main force of the general to rescue.

Li Duo cautiously followed up, but Sun Hongcai in front ignored the tail behind him.

He continued to head back westward, rushing to rescue Lu Xiangsheng.

This morning, not long after he led his troops to the west, he encountered a group of rout soldiers from the west, and these rout soldiers brought him an extremely frightening news: There was a big battle in Sanyuanzhuang.

In the end, Lu Xiangsheng was defeated and was forced to retreat to Sanyuanzhuang.

After hearing the news, Sun Hong hesitated for a while whether he still needed to go west, and also wanted to go directly north to find Hong Chengchou's troops, or even go east to Runing Mansion and other places.

But in the end he decided to continue westward to rescue Lu Xiangsheng.

This is not how loyal Sun Hongcai is to Lu Xiangsheng. In fact, Sun Hongcai is not a direct subordinate of Lu Xiangsheng. He is a local general in Huguang, but he is only temporarily under Lu Xiangsheng's command.

It's not that Sun Hongcai is so loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and he is dedicated to killing thieves.

But don't go!

(End of this chapter)