weaving

Chapter 1462 Worried about the Jurchens...?
Gao Yigong, Li Mou, Gu Ying, Zhang Nai and others only had two or three thousand men left, almost one-tenth less than before the Battle of Zhuxian Town.

They ran for more than ten miles before shaking off the pursuing Yongyi Army, but even so they dared not stop to rest and continued to march southwest.

Many people even lost their shoes while running, walking barefoot through the weeds, leaving bloody trails that attracted countless ants and flying insects to swarm and desperately suck the rare blood.

Of the two or three thousand men in the army, nearly two thousand were cavalry, indicating that those who managed to escape after a defeat were primarily cavalry.

Infantry are destined to be outrun by pursuing cavalry!
Gao Yigong's bandit troops traveled another four or five miles southwest. As darkness fell, they turned north and traveled another four or five miles before unexpectedly encountering a messenger sent by the rebel king.

After reading the letter from the rebel leader, Gao Yigong was furious. He clenched his fist and slammed it hard against a big tree next to him, making the leaves tremble.

Li Mou hurriedly asked, "Uncle, what did the King of Chuang say?"

"See for yourself." Gao Yigong handed the letter to Li Mou, saying, "That bastard Zhang Cheng has tricked us all!"

Li Mou glanced at the letter and immediately knew its contents. He said softly to Gao Yigong, "All's fair in war. The Grand Marshal also tricked Zhang Cheng, but Zhang Cheng didn't fall for it and struck first. I'm just curious, where did he gather these 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops?"

"Ugh……"

Gao Yigong looked at Li Mou, sighed, and said, "Of the 30,000 to 40,000 troops, only a few thousand remain, and we've lost so much military supplies and provisions. How can I face King Chuang?"

“This is nothing,” Gu Ying chimed in from the side. “Even at its worst, it’s still better than when we were in Shangluo Mountain.”

Li Mou also advised Gao Yigong: "Yes, Uncle, it's okay to lose Zhuxian Town. No one wins every battle. Victory and defeat are common occurrences. We suffered a loss this time, but we can make up for it in the next battle. The most urgent thing is to go and find the Grand Marshal."

Hearing his words, Gao Yigong regained some confidence, immediately mounted his horse, and said to the crowd, "Let's go find the Grand Marshal!"

…………

The fighting at the Dragon King Temple has also ceased.

Liu Zongmin led a group of bandits in an attempt to storm the Dragon King Temple, but they were blocked by the infantry and could not get in at all. Seeing that Chen Zhong's infantry and chariots had returned to reinforce, they could only retreat hastily.

The most tragic group were the more than two thousand child soldiers mixed in with the starving people...

To appear as starving people, they wore no armor and carried no long weapons, only short weapons like daggers, which indeed caused great chaos in the early stages of the uprising.

But as Chen Yongfu led his men to a swift retreat, the chaos they had created became useless.

Two or three thousand elite cavalrymen guarded the outside, and the child soldiers would be eliminated as soon as they showed their faces. The starving people also hid from them. Soon, the child soldiers were exposed one by one, and most of them were eliminated before they could kill the brave soldiers.

Only a few child soldiers managed to escape by discarding their hidden weapons in time, pretending to be harmless, and mingling among the starving people as orphans.

Before nightfall, Chen Yongfu and Hu Zichen successfully took in more than 60,000 starving people, divided them into several teams of a thousand people each, and stationed them at intervals of one mile apart. They also told them, "Hang in there tonight, and we will start serving porridge tomorrow."

…………

Chen Zhong left two thousand men with Chen Yongfu to help him receive and manage the starving people. The remaining infantry and chariots returned to Longwang Temple, including He Zhenxiong's standard cavalry.

"He Zhenxiong, send out all the standard cavalry to follow the enemy army and see where they are headed."

"Here!"

"Zhenxiong, tell the soldiers that they must not engage the enemy in battle. If the enemy attacks, they should avoid it. If the enemy retreats, they should follow closely. They only need to find out where the enemy is going."

"Here."

After He Zhenxiong went out to carry out the military order, Chen Zhong stepped forward and asked, "General, should we just follow without killing them? Isn't that too easy on the bandits?" "Don't you understand the principle of not pursuing a cornered enemy?"

Zhang Cheng glanced at him and said, "The battle these past two days has already cost many brothers their lives. If we press the bandits too hard, they will fight us to the death. Even if we win, our army will suffer heavy casualties, which would be a losing proposition!"

Pointing to the map, he continued, "Now that the bandits have retreated, we only need to follow behind them and gradually recover the lost territory. Unless absolutely necessary, we should not engage in a major battle with them."

"This..." Chen Zhong looked bewildered. "Logically speaking... with the bandits running out of food, low morale, and no will to fight, it would be the perfect opportunity to wipe them out in one fell swoop!"

"Hey hey hey..."

Zhang Cheng smiled wickedly and said, "Chen Zhong, do you also think I'm 'raising a bandit to enhance my own power'?"

Chen Zhong replied firmly, "Chen Zhong dares not. The Commander-in-Chief must have had a profound reason for making this decision. Although Chen Zhong cannot guess the mystery, he believes that the Commander-in-Chief is not the kind of person who 'raises bandits to enhance his own importance'."

"Our division has been in Henan for more than half a year. It's inevitable that the soldiers are homesick. We should end the fighting here as soon as possible so that the soldiers can go home and spend time with their families."

Zhang Cheng's expression turned slightly serious. He looked at the Liaodong region on the map and said, "Who knows... we might have another major battle to fight in the second half of the year!"

Chen Zhong was taken aback by his words, as were Sun Shixiang and Hu Yiwen. They couldn't guess what the Marquis of Yongning meant by "the next great battle," and they all stared at him intently...

"Does the commander mean... that we should go and attack the bandits?"

Faced with Chen Zhong's question, Zhang Cheng smiled slightly and did not explain, but he had already made it very clear to him that Chen Zhong was wrong.

Chen Zhong looked bewildered and turned to Sun Shixiang, hoping to get some answers, but all he got in return was an awkward smile from Sun Shixiang.

Instead, Hu Yiwen looked at the map and said softly, "Does the Commander mean... that he is worried about the Jurchens...?"

Zhang Cheng smiled slightly and said, "I wonder if Chen Zheng and his men have already taken Zhuxian Town by now."

Although Zhang Cheng did not respond to Hu Yiwen's words and continue discussing the "next big battle," his expression told everyone that Hu Yiwen's guess was correct!

“There are still tens of thousands of bandits stationed in Zhuxian Town, and Gao Yigong, who commands them, is also an old bandit. It might not be easy to defeat them,” Sun Shixiang added.

Zhang Cheng's face turned cold, and he said in a deep voice, "If it were easy to fight, would I risk leaving my main camp empty and transferring five battalion commanders to Chen Zheng?"

"Pass the order..."

Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng kept clicking on various places on the map and continued to say: "After capturing Zhuxian Town, Zhang Guodong returned to the camp to regroup the troops left behind and then marched towards Zhengzhou and Mixian; Chen Zheng, Wei Zhice, Wang Pu, Li Fuming and other troops first marched into Weishi County.

Xu Jinyong's troops then remained stationed in Weishi County; Chen Zheng's troops recovered Weichuan, Xinzheng, Changge, Yuzhou and other cities; Wei Zhice advanced his troops into Xuzhou and Xiangcheng, and after joining forces with Zhang Guangda, advanced his troops into Jia County and Baofeng in Ruzhou to obey orders;
Wang Pu led troops from Datong south through Xuzhou and recovered Linying and Yancheng; Li Fuming joined forces with Li Jiyu and marched south from Weishi County, recovering Yanling, Fugou, Xihua, Shangshui, and Xiangcheng.

Furthermore, Jiang Mingwu was ordered to lead troops south from Tongxu to recapture Taikang, Chenzhou, and other places.

At this point, Zhang Cheng suddenly raised his voice and said, "Tell all the generals that you should make use of the reward plaques I gave them. Wherever my Yongyi Army has recovered a place, those without officials must be filled immediately; wherever there is no owner, once confirmed, it must be registered and taken over as military settlement land; wherever there is no one to cultivate the wasteland, it must be registered and taken over as military settlement land."

Liu Chengzhu immediately accepted the order: "Yes, sir."

Sun Shixiang, standing to the side, cautioned, "Commander-in-Chief, such hasty actions may invite criticism from court officials and bureaucrats!"

"Hmph. I'm just waiting for them to come and attack me."

The Earl of Yongning looked at Sun Shixiang and the others with piercing eyes and said loudly, "What are my sons from Xuanda doing, abandoning their families and businesses? We finally drove away the rebels, can't we even share some land with them?"
Besides, Yuan Shizhong and Luo Rucai still have nearly 100,000 people on their side, and we've also rescued over 100,000 starving people from the rebels. How can we settle them without taking some land?"

"Anyone who dares to gossip, I'll borrow their head!"