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Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, Lao Huihui... these northwest bandits may have no other specialties, but they are very capable of breaking out of encirclement.

As soon as Zhao Han stuck his butt out, Zhang Xianzhong knew what he was going to do.

You must not go to the west. Zhao Han must still be mobilizing troops secretly. If you withdraw from the west, you will be completely surrounded!

This is the experience accumulated with human lives. Zhang Xianzhong spent several years being surrounded and breaking through.

Lao Huihui also knew that if he returned directly to his army, he would be surrounded, so he proposed to flee eastward.

Sun Kewang also knew this, so he proposed to pull the strings repeatedly to take advantage of the constant mobilization of troops on both sides.

Zhang Xianzhong was still the most vicious. After Zhao Han's main force appeared, he immediately decided to attack and counterattack with only his cavalry. If the attack succeeds, the profit will be huge. Even if the attack fails, Zhang Xianzhong can easily slip away as long as Zhao Han does not return to the army in time.

As for those elite infantry, in Zhang Xianzhong's view, they were no longer able to fight, at least during the withdrawal process.

After more than half a month of siege battles, especially the last siege, the morale of the entire army dropped to the extreme, and they were already afraid of the Datong Army. If he leads such a force to retreat, Zhang Xianzhong feels that he is seeking death. He might as well take the initiative to separate the cavalry from the infantry!

More than 10,000 cavalry and horse teams rushed quickly with thousands of mules, carrying a small amount of food and kindling on the backs of the mules.

They descended from an unexpected direction, the west side of Chilong Lake.

There are crisscrossed rivers and paddy fields there, making it difficult for the cavalry to even move quickly, let alone fight.

But Zhang Xianzhong came, and Sun Kewang personally acted as the guide, because this belonged to Sun Kewang and he was very familiar with various rivers and terrain.

In order to strengthen his control over wealthy areas, Sun Kewang paved dirt roads in key prefectures and counties. Although these dirt roads are only two meters wide, they can be used for cavalry to pass, which is very convenient for going to the countryside to collect food.

Under the moonlight, among the complex river network and farmland, Zhang Xianzhong's entire army ran with torches.

We even crossed two small rivers on the way. The bridges over the small rivers were not built by Sun Kewang, but were built with money from local gentry in the mid-Ming Dynasty.

Sun Kewang stopped and said, "Father, we are still less than ten miles away from Qizhou, so we can order the entire army to extinguish the torches first."

Zhang Xianzhong ordered the entire army to dismount their horses and bind their hooves, put out the torches and continue to advance.

He also sent envoys to contact the defenders in the city.

The Datong Army was said to be besieging the city, but in fact it was stationed in the north and south of Zhuhu Lake. There were many ships docked in the middle for communication. The place where the ships stopped was also Li Shizhen's tomb.

Lu Xiangsheng had already guessed the direction of Zhang Xianzhong's surprise attack, but his marching route was contrary to Lu Xiangsheng's guess. Instead of going around the east side of Chilong Lake, they went around the more difficult but closer west side, causing the cavalry under Zhao Han to attack in the wrong direction.

It's not completely wrong. As long as it's stuck there, it can prevent Zhang Xianzhong from running eastward.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack! Light the beacon!"

About six miles northwest of Qizhou City, there is a camp on a hill where a thousand Datong peasants and soldiers are stationed.

Although Zhang Xianzhong concealed himself well, his whereabouts were still exposed.

"At full speed!"

Zhang Xianzhong could only launch in advance, not caring about the camp at all, and the entire army rushed towards the main camp northeast of Qizhou City.

After the smoke from the camp rose, it had almost no effect, because it was night and friendly troops several miles away could not be seen at all. They blew their trumpets and shouted to no avail. This camp was used to spread news during the day.

However, they forced Zhang Xianzhong to speed up his march, and the rumble of horse hooves quickly awakened Jiang Liang in the camp.

"Uu! Uu! Uu!"

A copper whistle sounded in the camp, and both peasants, soldiers and civilians quickly got up and rallied.

Many of the civilians here are farmers and soldiers themselves!

A surprise attack can be considered a surprise attack. Jiang Liang was caught off guard when he was killed. He was unable to defend perfectly in his haste. Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong did not find out until he was thrown outside the camp.

The defenders in the city also rushed out to cooperate with Zhang Xianzhong in attacking the camp at night.

The North Camp was attacked, and there was another South Camp on the other side of the lake.

Yu Liangfu, the commander of the southern camp, quickly assembled his troops. Instead of taking a boat to rescue the friendly troops, he led 10,000 peasant soldiers and 10,000 farmers and ran directly to attack Qizhou City!

"Heroes, let's kill together!"

Zhu Hekun pulled out his sword and shouted, rushing towards Qizhou City like a madman.

This guy belongs to the clan of King Jing, and his father's title is General Zhenguo. Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to kill most of the Jing kings, and the rest all fled.

Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong was not passing by, and did not burn down the Prince Jing's Mansion, the Prince's Mansion, the Princess' Mansion, the Zhenguo General's Mansion, and the Fuguo General's Mansion like in history.

Zhu Hekun is lucky. In Jiangxi, he was a target of suppression, but now he can lead the way for the Datong Army.

Fighting had already begun on the North Camp side, and the soldiers of the South Camp raced against time. It took half an hour to finally rush to the gate of Qizhou City. Due to time constraints, I did not bring a ladder with a winch or a hook, but a simple ladder that could easily be overturned.

The Qizhou city wall is about 5.8 meters high. Since half of the troops were deployed out of the city to help Zhang Xianzhong in his night attack, there were only three thousand defenders left in the city.

The first wave of siege failed, and more than 400 Datong soldiers were killed or injured.

At this moment, a fire suddenly broke out in the city.

How could the city closest to Zhao Han's territory not be made in detail?

"Kill the thief Zhang and welcome the King of Wu!"

"Kill the thief Zhang and welcome the King of Wu!"

The first to respond were the big households in the city. The land in Qizhou was so fertile that all their suburban properties were robbed. Living in the city, they were often exploited, and their lives became more and more miserable day by day. Only by driving away Zhang Xianzhong could they live a normal life.

Since the day of the siege, Xiao Zuo has been connecting the big players, and now he can finally take advantage of the opportunity to launch.

Moreover, these people did not go to the city wall to help, but ran in groups to attack the homes of the defenders. If they couldn't get in, they would just set fire to it. If they got in, there would be a massacre, even the children would not be spared.

The big businessmen had so much grudge against Zhang Xianzhong that Xi Zuo could not control the situation at all.

Many of the city guards looked back and saw fire coming from the direction of their homes, and shouts of killing. They all wanted to go back to protect their families.

Finally, some of the city guards left the city wall without authorization and ran madly towards their home.

"Give back the lives of my family!"

Zhu Hekun, the eldest son of the general who ruled the country, was not a Datong army or even a Datong peasant soldier, but he spent his own money to make leather armor and rushed to the front with a waist knife.

His parents, brothers, wife and children were all killed by Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhu Hekun, whose shoulder was injured, suddenly turned over from the stomping mouth and slashed with a ferocious expression. Seeing an enemy stabbing him, he suddenly bumped forward. After being scratched on his waist, he fell to the ground hugging the enemy.

More and more soldiers from Datong attacked the city tower, and more and more soldiers defending the city fled from the city wall.

After Yu Liangfu, the commander of the south camp, stormed the city tower, he did not immediately enter the city to strangle the remaining soldiers. Instead, he ordered the entire army to shout together: "The world is unified, the world is unified!"

North camp direction.

Zhang Xianzhong was already alarmed when he saw the fire in the city. Then he heard the shouts in the city. How could he not know that Qizhou City had been captured?

The Qizhou soldiers who came to help in the battle were all frightened. Their families were all in the city!

At this time, the sky was slightly bright, Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that his teeth itched, and he said in frustration: "Withdraw the troops!"

The night raid, with the help of the city defenders, left the Beiying Datong Army no more than ten minutes to assemble.

In such a short period of time, the Datong peasants and soldiers actually gathered together, and more than half of them reached the defensive position.

Such a situation was completely beyond Zhang Xianzhong's imagination. He could not understand how the enemy army did it.

One of Li Zheng's regular divisions came to rescue in the end, although the rescue was too late.

"Bang bang bang!"

After a volley of gunfire, Zhang Xianzhong's infantry collapsed instantly - they were on the verge of collapse due to the loss of the city.

Zhang Xianzhong abandoned his infantry and headed west. Sun Kewang caught up and said, "Aren't you going east?"

Zhang Xianzhong said depressedly: "The enemy's reinforcements have arrived. Our plan has been seen through. There must be Zhao Han's cavalry blocking the way in the east."

Zhang Xianzhong led the cavalry back the same way, and then ran straight north. He wanted to make a time lag to see if he could find a place to cross the Qishui River. As long as they succeed, they can help their elite infantry cross the river.

Li Zheng saw the corpses all over the camp and asked, "What's the damage?"

Jiang Liang said angrily: "There were thousands of casualties, and the number of those killed was estimated to be thousands. Several camps were breached, and the cavalry charged into the formation in a hurry."

The Datong army also gained something. Not only did they capture Qizhou City, they also obtained thousands of mules.

It was Zhang Xianzhong's mule team, carrying fire starters and a small amount of food. They planned to kill all the way to the Wujia Point, but they didn't expect to capture even the northern camp of Qizhou. In the end, thousands of mules were all given to Zhao Han.

Zhao Han sent out a large number of sentry cavalry, looking for traces of Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry everywhere.

A whole day passed before I finally got the news that Zhang Xianzhong had crossed the Qishui River.

Zhao Han finally understood Yang Sichang's feelings. He was "spreading a net from ten sides". Every time before the net was set up, Zhang Xianzhong would already run away!

However, only the cavalry and horse teams could outrun Zhang Xianzhong's tens of thousands of infantry, grain and civilian men, all of which were chased by Zhao Han in the mountains.

Zhao Han deliberately pursued him lightly, hoping to lure Zhang Xianzhong back for rescue.

He even deliberately allowed the enemy infantry to regroup and flee, but Zhang Xianzhong just didn't show up and seemed to have really abandoned all his infantry.

Who the hell is this?

It would be absolutely impossible for Zhao Han to do such a thing. Even if there was only a glimmer of hope left, Zhao Han would fight for his life together with tens of thousands of infantry.

Lu Xiangsheng sighed: "Zhang Xianzhong will not come back. Let's annihilate all these enemy troops."

Lu Xiangsheng was also very depressed. He led his cavalry to intercept, but ended up blocking an empty space. He misjudged Zhang Xianzhong's marching route every time.

Regardless of Zhang Xianzhong's ability to fight, this guy's ability to escape is definitely an S-class general.

To be honest, if Zhang Xianzhong was given 50,000 cavalry, he would probably be able to perform tricks, and his interspersed attacks would often surprise people.

Zhao Han got on his horse and ordered: "Pursue at full speed and annihilate the enemy's infantry!"

(Just two updates today.)