Although Zu Dashou had already led his army to turn around and go south, he also sent people to the surrounding areas and even further places to collect food.

Damn it, he’s fed up with being controlled by others when it comes to food and grass.

In fact, he was not opposed to going south to fight the Chu bandits. When Hong Chengchou asked him to lead his army south, he did not hesitate at all and led tens of thousands of his troops south.

But when to fight, where to fight, and how to fight, you must carefully consider the gains and losses before fighting!

In Zu Dashou's opinion, this situation is not a good time to fight.

The Chu thieves had already understood our intention to go south in a roundabout way, and the Chu thieves responded tit-for-tat and directly sent out large armies to intercept them.

And for this kind of interception, you know it with your toes, so you must be fully prepared.

Based on the reports from the forward reconnaissance cavalry, the Chu thieves dispatched nearly 5,000 cavalry and more than 10,000 infantry and artillery troops.

The total strength is 20,000.

This force is twice the strength of Zu Dashou’s 10,000 soldiers.

Moreover, the Chu thieves on the opposite side also have a large number of cavalry, and our own cavalry does not even have a numerical advantage.

As for the quality advantage, although it is stronger, it is also limited.

After all, Zu Dashou had also heard that many of the large number of cavalry among the Chu thieves were from the frontier army and were capable of riding and shooting. Especially the three cavalry brigades among the Chu thieves.

The frontier cavalry transferred to Jiangbei to fight.

Although Zu Dashou was very confident in his Guan Ning cavalry, he did not think that his cavalry could fight against the elite cavalry from Chu thieves and these frontier cavalry.

Not to mention one against ten, one against two is enough.

When thousands of cavalry are fighting, without an absolute numerical advantage, it will easily turn into a melee. Even if his Guan Ning cavalry can win, they will probably suffer heavy casualties.

Killing one thousand enemies will cost you eight hundred... Well, even if you lose five or six hundred, this kind of thing is still a huge loss in Zu Dashou's opinion.

Because Guan Ning's cavalry was his ancestor's cavalry. It was not easy for him to accumulate thousands of armored cavalry. Not to mention the hundreds and thousands of casualties. Even if there were dozens of casualties, he would be heartbroken for several days.<

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What's more important is that a lot of his cavalry died, and Hong Chengchou would not give him any more soldiers!

Therefore, the battle must be fought, but the losses must also be controlled, and the situation of all troops must not be exhausted.

Even if he annihilated one hundred thousand Chu thieves on the opposite side and achieved an unprecedented victory in this war, if his Guan Ning army suffered heavy losses, it would still be a loss outweighing the gain.

It is very likely that it will happen when the time comes. Although he has won the battle, his ancestor Dashou will end up being accused and imprisoned soon.

These days, any Ming army general who does not have direct troops on hand can be stepped on by any civilian official, and Chongzhen will kill him whenever he wants.

Zu Dashou has a very clear understanding of this.

In this Tianjin battle, we were able to win a complete victory without too much loss. Naturally, you are good, I am good, everyone is good.

If something went wrong, Zu Dashou would not hesitate to abandon Hong Chengchou and Tianjin, and lead his troops to retreat to Shanhaiguan without looking back.

In this process, Guan Ning Cavalry must not suffer too much loss.

If you want to retreat later and want freedom of movement, the food and grass problem must be solved.

It is useless to look for Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou has been in charge of the army for many years and has long known the importance of food and grass. He regards food and grass very seriously and has long been prepared to collect all the folk food and grass along the way.

In the past, Hong Chengchou used food and grass many times to force the frontline generals to fight according to his will. If you don't obey, you will be cut off from food in minutes!

Otherwise, how do you think Hong Chengchou relied on a large group of generals who led private armies to fight under him?

It can’t really be because he relies on his official title and so-called prestige as governor...

Without money and food, it’s a shame those generals who fight with private soldiers can listen to you.

Therefore, Zu Dashou has to solve this food and grass problem by himself!

Sending troops to the surrounding areas or even further places to collect food and grass was related to his retreat, so he did it very carefully.

Zu Dashou has no intention of fighting with the Chu thieves. If he is intercepted by a large number of Chu thieves, if he really can't survive, Zu Dashou will still turn around and return north.

By then, he is unlikely to even return to Tianjin, but plans to go straight to Shanhaiguan.

As for the safety of Beizhili, Hong Chengchou's life and death are none of his business.

He just had to have food all the way back to Shanhaiguan, so he sent people to search for food nearby.

As for turning around and going south to fight, it is more about showing off to Hong Chengchou, and whether or not to continue going south depends on the choice of the Chu thieves.

On the Ming army side, Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou had their own thoughts, but the Chu army on the opposite side did not know that they were leading their troops towards the northwest, preparing to intercept Zu Dashou's army Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa, who was still carefully considering the deployment of troops on the opposite side.

and marching route, heading for a large-scale encounter or even a decisive battle.

Army Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa was one of the earliest cavalrymen in the Chu Empire. He has profound qualifications and outstanding military exploits. He has served as the cavalry sentry commander, regimental commander, and deputy cavalry director.

During the Jiangbei Campaign, he resigned as deputy director of cavalry and was transferred to the front line by Luo Zhixue. He served as commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade with the rank of Army Major General, leading the only elite cavalry in the Chu Empire to fight in Jiangbei.

Later during the Battle of Jiangbei, he also coordinated the 1st Cavalry Brigade and several other divisional cavalry regiments against the enemy cavalry in Jiangbei on many occasions.

With the end of the Jiangbei Campaign and the large-scale surrender of the Ming Army cavalry in the Jiangbei area, Zhu Xingfa was immediately promoted to Army Lieutenant General and Deputy Commander of the Third Army due to his considerable military exploits.

With the title of deputy commander, he took charge of the two cavalry brigades under the Third Army to continue the Northern Expedition.

This person is the highest-ranking cavalry general in each ministry of the Northern Expedition, and his status is second only to the three generals.

This is also because in this operation to intercept Zu Dashou, the highest commander was not Meng Junli, commander of the 10th Division, but Zhu Xingfa.

In terms of position, he is the deputy commander of the Third Army, while Meng Junli is only the division commander of the Third Army.

In terms of military rank, Zhu Xingfa is an army lieutenant general. Looking at the entire Chu Empire, he is also the cavalry general second only to Wang Xiazi, with outstanding military exploits.

As for Meng Junli, his qualifications, prestige and military exploits are far from being comparable to that of Zhu Xingfa. This man gradually rose to prominence after he enrolled in the second formal class of the Military Academy after Luo Zhi proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country.<

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Although he was promoted very quickly, he successively held the positions of battalion commander, deputy regiment commander, regiment commander, and deputy brigade commander in the main division. Last year, he was transferred to the 10th Division and served as the deputy division commander of the newly established 10th Division.

However, during his tenure in the 10th Division, because the 10th Division was a new unit, although it was very important, since he did not go to the battlefield, his military achievements were naturally not much, so his promotion was slower.

After the Battle of Jiangbei, the 10th Division performed outstandingly, and the division commander Zhang Malin finally passed the rank of Army Major General, was promoted to Army Lieutenant General, and was transferred back to Gyeonggi Province by His Majesty to once again serve as the Artillery Director.

Meng Junli, the deputy commander of the 10th Division, has now ushered in his real rise to a high position. He succeeded Zhang Malin as the commander of the 10th Division and was promoted to the rank of Army Major General.

There is naturally a huge gap between this army major general, who has just been promoted for a few months, and Zhu Xingfa.

Therefore, in this battle, it seemed that there were only a few thousand cavalrymen, but the 10th Division actually had 14,000 to 5,000 men. However, the commander-in-chief was still the cavalry general Zhu Xingfa.

Zhu Xingfa led his army all the way westward, in order to increase the marching speed and prevent Zu Dashou's troops from passing through their interception and then fighting to the rear to stir up trouble.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa led three cavalry brigades to march one step ahead, and the 10th Division followed behind with baggage and artillery troops.

Zhu Xingfa led more than 4,000 cavalry all the way, and finally outflanked Zu Dashou's headquarters on July 16.

Blocking Zu Dashou’s passage southward!

When Zu Dashou heard that thousands of Chu thieves and cavalry appeared in front of him, he knew without asking that they must be enemy cavalry running from the canal to intercept him.

Even the numbers can be guessed directly. They must be the first cavalry brigade and other three cavalry brigades of the thieves. It is said that the commander of these cavalry is Zhu Xingfa, a powerful cavalry general among the Chu thieves.

What should you do after you discover that the Chu bandit cavalry is running in front of your side?

What else can I do? Give the order to stop, and then make some inquiries to see if there is a chance to go around...

If not, we can only stop moving forward.

As for running away, he also thought that the soldiers sent out to collect food and grass had limited gains, and now they had to continue to rely on the food and grass from Hong Chengchou's side.

And Hong Chengchou was not allowed to let him retreat casually.

Therefore, when Zu Dashou learned through the reconnaissance cavalry that the rebel cavalry on the opposite side was extremely well prepared, they had even begun to dismount and build an artillery position along a small valley that they must pass through.

He simply ordered the troops to camp in a small mountain range that was easy to defend, difficult to attack, and convenient for escape.

He doesn't want to continue going south to fight with the Chu thieves!

He didn't even go to Wen'an County, which is about twenty miles away in the southwest. Now that he's in the city and wants to escape, it's not that easy. It's easy to become trapped in an isolated city.

This is Liaodong again, and Wen'an is not his territory. He does not plan to defend the city, and there is no need to defend the city. It is better to stay in the wild and escape easily!

It would be difficult to explain to Hong Chengchou if he just ran away, so he could only leave him where he was...

He waited for the Chu thieves to kill him, and then after a little contact, he pretended to be defeated and ran away.

Looking back, he would be able to explain to Hong Chengchou: It's not that I don't want to go south, nor that I don't want to fight the Chu bandits, but the Chu bandits are really sharp with guns and cannons, and I, who is short of soldiers and food, really can't defeat them.
p>

How should I put it? I have to give Hong Chengchou some face.

When Zu Dashou's leader stopped and then built a defensive position on the spot, Zhu Xingfa on the opposite side was stunned for a moment...
Chapter completed!