Bring the whole war back to Nanming

Chapter 120
Yan Yingyuan naturally discovered the changes in Fang Guoan's army. When ten red cannons appeared together, he understood that the south gate could not be defended.

"Brothers under the city gate, run!"

It is a pity that it is still too late. Ten red cannons let out a terrifying roar. The huge shells carried potential energy and impacted on the iron-covered city gate. The south city gate that had been in disrepair collapsed. Died on the spot.

"Guard the door!"

Yan Yingyuan was unwilling to give up the city wall to fight street battles, and his own numbers were at a disadvantage. If he lost the city wall and other innate geographical advantages, it would be difficult to survive the time stipulated in the plan, and casualties were inevitable.

Fang Guoan seemed to see hope: "Rush in! Those who capture Huzhou will be rewarded with officers and soldiers! A reward of one thousand taels!"

However, in the eyes of many rebel soldiers, his promise was not so alluring. The only red-eyed rebel soldiers in front of them were Yan Jun (here is the abbreviation of Yan Yingyuan's department) in red and white uniforms, and their arms were waving mechanically. With a big sword, he fought with Yan Jun soldiers.

Yan Yingyuan quickly ran down the city wall and came to the south gate of Huzhou. At this time, the imperial swordsmen had just calmed down from their panic. Facing the tide of rebels, they had firm eyes and nailed to the city gate.

"Hold on for 10 minutes! The giant swordsman will be here soon!"

As soon as the words fell, the sound of orderly footsteps came from the city, and more than a thousand giant swordsmen walked in orderly steps, accompanied by the sound of metal collisions, and appeared at the corner of the street.

"Say Cao Cao Cao Cao is here!"

Yan Yingyuan rubbed his eyes that were dry from the thick smoke and breathed a sigh of relief: "The troops led by Mr. Hou are indeed extraordinary. There was no sign of retreat in such a fierce battle. If Fang Guoan and I had swapped places, he would have been killed long ago. Run away without a trace."

Finding joy in bitterness is the Tao that Yan Yingyuan has realized in the past few years as an official, and it belongs to him.

The battle is still going on, and the rebels who suffered huge casualties are faintly unstable under the sword of the giant swordsman.

Coincidentally, the sun was setting on the western mountain, and the sky was gradually darkening. Fang Guoan, who had been unable to attack for a long time, knew that fighting at night was not good for him, so he had to order Ming Jin to withdraw his troops and set up camp.

After a day's fighting, both the Yan army and the rebel army were exhausted and unable to fight any more.The rebels dug pits and set fires to cook. Yan Yingyuan also led the imperial soldiers to repair the city walls, repair the city gates, and collect the corpses.

Both sides are like wounded lions, each licking its wounds, preparing for tomorrow's battle.

It was late at night, and the rebels were exhausted from fighting all day. After a hasty dinner, they went back to their tents and fell asleep. The candles in the tents were extinguished, and the earth seemed to be calm again.

In the main tent, Fang Guoan didn't feel sleepy. In a bloody battle in one day, more than [-] people were killed or injured, and countless siege equipment such as ladders were damaged.

"I didn't expect Fang Xiaobai's army to randomly pull out an unknown person to lead the battle, and he would be able to advance and retreat with rules and tactics. I was the one who underestimated him before."

Then by candlelight, looking at the simple military map, he found that Huzhou was an unavoidable nail if he wanted to threaten Nanjing. He hoped that Jiaxing could last a little longer and win the Huzhou capital for himself.

Sometimes, life is unsatisfactory. One second, I was still thinking about how to conquer Huzhou, and the next second the tent door was opened, and the guard walked into the handsome tent with a man covered in blood.

"Duke! It's an emergency, so I didn't report it." Seeing Fang Guoan's gloomy face, the guard hurriedly explained.

"Speak up if you have something to say, if it's an insignificant matter, soldier, you can lead the whip yourself."

Fang Guoan said angrily.

The man covered in blood fell to his knees and clasped his hands together: "Duke! The city of Hangzhou is gone!"

call out!Fang Guoan stood up from the chair like a frightened rabbit, staring at the other party: "How is it possible? I have [-] troops stationed in Jiaxing. Even if I can't beat Fang Xiaobai, I can support him for a while. Maybe Fang Xiaobai made a detour?"

"My lord! Jiaxing's [-] troops have surrendered in less than a day! Tonight Fang Xiaobai sneaked into Hangzhou City. Our army was caught off guard and suffered heavy casualties. Fortunately, His Majesty has already crossed the Qiantang River to Shaoxing Mansion. The little one fought his way out of the encirclement. Just to report this matter to the Duke, please retreat quickly."

Fang Guoan sat back on the armchair, he never imagined that Fang Xiaobai was so fast, he traveled hundreds of miles in two days, and went down more than ten cities, cutting off his retreat.

For the current plan, the only option is to retreat: "Junzi, wake up the whole army immediately, let's retreat at night, Huzhou can't stay, let's go back to Hangzhou."

…………

In the early morning of the second day, Yan Yingyuan came to the south gate early. He thought that the rebels would attack the city early this morning. Who would have thought that the rebels would not be seen until the sun was high.

Standing on the tower, overlooking the rebel camp, Yan Yingyuan noticed some clues: "There are no guards at the gate of the camp, and the wheelbarrow transporting grain and grass is turned over and there is no sound at all. Could it be..."

In order to confirm his conjecture, he ordered a team of hundreds of swordsmen to go out of the city and come to investigate and test near the rebel camp.

Not long after, the spies reported: the enemy camp was empty, the enemy retreated hastily, and a lot of food and supplies were not taken away. It seemed that they were mostly evacuated in the middle of the night.

After receiving the news, Yan Yingyuan felt regretful and carelessly let Fang Guoan run away. If the rebels were told to run back to Hangzhou City, wouldn't the Marquis be in danger?
"Order! Chen Mingyu led 2000 cavalry to track down the whereabouts of the rebels and inform Poluhou of the news in time! I guess the rebels didn't go far."

Without further ado, Chen Mingyu immediately packed up his luggage, led 2000 cavalry, and left from the south gate of Huzhou.

…………

Yan Yingyuan's guess was right. Fang Guoan's [-] troops were still more than half away from Hangzhou. Since they set off in the middle of the night, although they successfully avoided the eyes and ears of Huzhou City, due to lack of sleep and low morale, many rebels fell behind one after another during the period (not ruled out Seeing that something is wrong, part of sneaking away), by the time they arrived in Deqing County, one-fifth of the [-] troops had disappeared.

The rebel soldiers were exhausted and needed rest urgently. After a night of exhaustion, Fang Guoan couldn't keep up physically. He ordered the whole army to go to the city to rest, and then fell asleep on horseback.

Everyone was thankful that Deqing County had not fallen, and they could rest in the county town without worrying about a group of enemy troops being killed somewhere.

When Chen Mingyu arrived near Deqing County, he learned that the rebel army was resting in the county town. Get ahead of them and cause trouble for the rebels.

"Brothers, work harder! The rebel army is ahead, we have to set up some traps to slow down their marching speed."

When he said these words, a light flashed in Chen Mingyu's mind: The rebel army is a tired army, why not do both?On the one hand, he notified Lord Hou in Hangzhou to send troops to support him, and on the other hand, he led cavalry to harass him.

From the traces left by the rebels marching on the official road, it can be seen that most of them are infantry, and there are not many cavalry. It is estimated that there are about 1000 to 2000 people. Most of them are mules and horses. They can't run fast. This is an opportunity.

　Thank you for the recommendation tickets from Brother Laiqu, Brother Qianqiuyue, and Brother Xuelong!
　　


(End of this chapter)