In the Revolutionary Army's food production, there were very few sources of vegetable oil. Peanuts, vegetable seeds, sesame seeds, and soybeans were not grown on a large scale. Therefore, the oil that the army could eat could only come from animals like pigs, cows, and sheep. As for animal oil … it smelled good!
In the biting cold wind, Gao Hongzhong was already regretting his night attack plan. He felt that he had overestimated the brainwashed soldiers under him. Although they were more obedient and patient than before, when it came to risking their lives, these people actually became more clear-headed and became like headless flies.
The encirclement of more than twenty thousand people seemed fierce, but those who could actually kill their way to the Revolutionary Army's first brigade were very few. If these few people were not willing to go forward, no matter how many people there were behind them, they would not be able to display any advantage.
Gao Hongzhong was anxious about this matter, but suddenly, he smelled the smell of food in the cold wind. This smell was very good, it made his tongue salivate and his stomach beat like a drum. Even he was stunned for a moment, as if he wanted to find the source of this smell.
In just a short while, a few generals of the Tian You Army hurriedly ran over from the front. They anxiously shouted at Gao Hongzhong, "Sir, quickly retreat. We can't hold on any longer. "
"It's not like there's a fight, why can't you hold on?" Gao Hongzhong only thought that these slippery subordinates wanted to slack off, and his heart was filled with anger. The entire battlefield did not have the sound of guns and cannons, there was no sound of fighting, nothing happened.
But the guerilla warfare officers who ran over were more anxious than expected, they all shouted, "Sir, we really can't hold on any longer. A few hundred people ran in front of us, some of them ran away, some of them ran away, they are all crying now. The people below are not enough to hold on, some of their personal guards ran away, disappearing in the blink of an eye. "
"Run? Why would they run? "Gao Hongzhong suddenly jumped up," Could it be that someone really ran over to eat? "
When Gao Hongzhong said this, his nose could not help but inhale. That smell was clearly coming from the opposite side, he could smell it from far away.
The officers who complained even more bitterly shouted, "Sir, you don't know! Thief Zhou on the opposite side set up dozens of large pots, starting a fire to boil water to make a hot soup. This fragrance wafted over and no one could resist it. It was even more powerful than blades and spears. The soldiers were all very hungry. They couldn't help but go over when they smelled the aroma. Those shamans and priests aren't very useful either. Now, no prayer is better than a bowl of hot soup. "
Was there really such a thing?
Gao Hongzhong cried out in shock, lifting his official robe and running toward the front line in large strides. At this time, he couldn't care less about the danger. When he reached the front line, he saw that in the dark night, there were indeed many soldiers running towards the opposite side.
Not only were there people fleeing to the opposite side, but there were also people who came back after drinking the hot soup. The one who tried to pull them over was very enthusiastic. He waved his hand and shouted at the top of his voice, "Brothers, don't risk your lives for these officials. We don't even have food to eat in the middle of winter, and you want us to fight with our lives? That doesn't make sense! Come over. As long as you hand over your guns and surrender, the 'revolutionary army' will have food and drinks, and you don't have to fight. "
Gao Hongzhong was dumbfounded when he heard the shouts coming one after another. He quickly shouted to his subordinates, "What are you waiting for? Quickly send someone to stop them. If they can't stop them, then kill them! "
"We can't stop them. We really can't stop them!" The generals complained, "It's useless to kill them. These soldiers are relying on the 'revolutionary army' on the opposite side. They are not afraid of us anymore. We sent soldiers to suppress them, but they killed a lot of them. My Lord, please retreat quickly. If we don't retreat, our people will become the 'revolutionary army' people. "
"This is really hateful!" Gao Hongzhong was so angry that he stomped his feet, and he lost all his dignity. But it was useless for him to order a retreat. The thousands of people in front of the encirclement were defeated by such a burst of fragrance. At first, only sporadic soldiers ran away, but later, groups of soldiers abandoned their weapons and surrendered to the enemy. Even the lowest leader of the team ran away, and the team couldn't be pulled back at all.
Gao Hongzhong led the team to evacuate in exasperation. After a night, he found that only 15,000 of the 20,000 people who went out came back, and the remaining 5,000 were all taken advantage of by the 'revolutionary army'. When he returned to the camp, there was bad news waiting for him. The 'revolutionary army' was also gradually advancing in the camp, constantly compressing the space of the 'heaven's blessing' army. The west side of the camp had been completely lost, and several thousands of people were defeated.
Facing such a situation, Gao Hongzhong could only give the order to go all out. He took out all the gunpowder in the camp and used them as explosives. When they faced the attack of the 'revolutionary army', they would take the initiative to explode. This was equivalent to self-harm, but it was the only way to stop the enemy from nibbling at them.
After a night of explosions, the morale of the 'heaven's blessing' army had dropped to a freezing point. No matter how fanatical the Han cannon fodder were, they couldn't hold on anymore. When Gao Hongzhong did a headcount in the morning, he found that his men had started to flee, and there were even a large number of them begging to surrender. There were only 20,000 people left in the camp, and the rest were either missing or had surrendered to the revolutionary army.
Waiting for the sun to rise, Gao Hongzhong was already helpless. At this moment, the 11th regiment of the national defense army had already landed. Apart from the cannoneers, the other three infantry battalions, one cavalry battalion, and one engineer battalion were already prepared for battle. A few thousand people appeared behind the 'heaven's blessing' army, and a pincer attack from the north and south was already a foregone conclusion.
"First head north, then head west." When he found that he was in a critical situation, Gao Hongzhong, who had a strong desire to live, was decisive, "Take out our own men and throw the rest to Zhou. Since they like to take in poor people, then let's give them to them. "
Gao Hongzhong's men were mostly the sons of the officials in Liaodong and the capital. There were four to five thousand of them, and they were the best trained and equipped, forming the backbone of the 'heaven's blessing' army. They didn't lose much last night, and even without brainwashing, they were enemies with the revolutionary army. Gao Hongzhong relied on these men to pull up the 50 thousand strong 'heaven's blessing' army, and protecting these people was the foundation.
Gao Hongzhong's eyes were red after a night of tiredness, but his speed of saving himself was really quick. Taking the chance that the 11th regiment hadn't charged up yet, he immediately led his men out of the camp and headed west.
The Liaoxi Corridor was really narrow, and the Yan Mountain Range in the west was just two to three kilometers away. Gao Hongzhong's move was really out of Zhou Qingfeng's expectation. He originally planned to send another wave of rockets from the sea, and then launch a general attack from the north and south to completely destroy Gao Hongzhong's men.
"Little Zhou, Mangurtai in Ningyuan is on the move."
Just as Zhou Qingfeng was thinking about whether to chase after Gao Hongzhong, 'Flat Hair' flew back. In the past few days, it acted as a scout in the air, flying north before dawn, and was responsible for monitoring the movements in the north of Shanhai Pass. At this moment, it returned to Zhou Qingfeng's shoulder and said, "Those female Zhenren seem to be using a kind of flying crane to communicate, and I pecked one to death when I came back."
"Tell me, what happened to Mangurtai?" Zhou Qingfeng put down the binoculars in his hand and watched Gao Hongzhong's men quickly go around the 1st regiment's defense line and head west. There were tens of thousands of prisoners and abandoned soldiers of the 'heaven's blessing' army that needed to be suppressed, and he really didn't have extra men to chase after Gao Hongzhong. Now that he heard news about Mangurtai …
'Flat Hair' said, "Mangurtai seems to know that Gao Hongzhong is finished, and he probably regrets not going south earlier. This morning, he led the thousands of cavalrymen. His 30,000 men have all left Ningyuan and are heading towards Shanhai Pass. I see that his cavalrymen are all riding two or even three horses, and their speed is very fast. "
If Mangurtai and Gao Hongzhong joined forces, Zhou Qingfeng would definitely defend Shanhai Pass and not come out to fight in the field. But now Mangurtai has just gone south, and he is one step slower, no … he is half a step slower. If he had decisively gone south last night, a large number of cavalrymen would have been able to take turns and arrive at Shanhai Pass this morning. Zhou Qingfeng, who was entangled with Gao Hongzhong, was really not easy to deal with.
"From Ningyuan to Shanhai Pass is 200 li, if the cavalrymen have a few horses, they can get here in half a day. That way, although the horses are tired, they can still fight. But now we are about to finish … Mangurtai probably doesn't know yet. He probably still wants to save Gao Hongzhong, or maybe he thinks that we will definitely lose and he wants to take advantage of the situation. "
Zhou Qingfeng could predict his opponent's thoughts, but now he was facing a difficult problem. Gao Hongzhong lost miserably and threw tens of thousands of captives to him. It was troublesome to take these people in, but it was even more troublesome to not take them in. He didn't dare to take the risk of sending all these captives into Shanhai Pass, because there were only 5,000 soldiers in Shanhai Pass, but there were still tens of thousands of Du Song's men waiting to be dismissed.
"We don't have enough soldiers, this time we are really full." Zhou Qingfeng controlled the number of soldiers and saved a lot of money, ensuring the development of his power. But now he was in pain, because he didn't have enough soldiers. "Order the 11th brigade to attack Gao Hongzhong's troops, we can't let that traitor's troops leave so easily. Order the 1st brigade to take the captives and send them to the south of Shanhai Pass. "
After fighting for a night, the 1st brigade was also very tired. Zhou Qingfeng pondered for a while and decided to withdraw the fist he had thrown out. Before Mangurtai arrived, it would be best if he could deal with Gao Hongzhong, but if he couldn't, then forget it. He had two brigades guarding Shanhai Pass, so he wasn't afraid of Mangurtai.
At this moment, Mangurtai, who was heading south, really did what Zhou Qingfeng thought, and decided to quickly head south to take advantage of the situation. Gao Hongzhong had asked him for help last night, saying that he was already in a fierce battle with the revolutionary army, and Shanhai Pass only had 10,000 soldiers of the revolutionary army, so it was empty.
Hearing that there were only 10,000 soldiers in Shanhai Pass, Mangurtai couldn't believe it. He had waited a night for this news, so he immediately decided to head south to join the battle. No matter what, he had to take advantage of this opportunity to take down one of Zhou Qingfeng's main forces. In his opinion, no matter how fast the revolutionary army was, the cavalry wasn't slow either. If he took the opportunity, it would be too late when Zhou Qingfeng gathered his troops.
This news flew all the way to Shen Yang.
Nurhachi had a headache last night, and it was only at dawn that he felt better. He also agreed with Mangurtai's opinion, and immediately asked Mongolia, Haizhou, and Dandong to move out at the same time. They had to restrain the revolutionary army and prevent Zhou Qingfeng from moving troops to Shanhai Pass.
"It is said that the revolutionary army doesn't even have 100,000 soldiers, and they are scattered everywhere to defend. How can they deal with the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Great Jin Dynasty? Now that Zhou Qingfeng's situation is settled, it is time for the Great Jin Dynasty to head south. We will attack from four directions, and the Han people will be in chaos. As long as we can break through Shanhai Pass, the entire Central Plains will be my land. "
Nurhaci's judgment was based on various newspapers published by the 'Revolutionary Army'. It was indeed written in black and white that the main force of the 'Revolutionary Army' was less than 100,000. Mr. Zhou never said how many militiamen he had. In his opinion, they were not regular soldiers. He also wouldn't say how many soldiers he could mobilize during wartime. This was an unimaginable number for the barbarians.
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