The Zhenbei Army followed Lu Zhi's instructions and retreated toward Zhongren Pavilion, thirty miles away to the north.
However, rumors spread among the army, which inevitably cast a haze on the morale of the Zhenbei Army. More and more officials believed that their retreat was due to the defeat of the Hejian Army.
Such a situation is very dangerous. Behind them is the invincible General Zhang Chong, and there is no trace of their reinforcements on the land of Hebei.
All the officials who could figure this out were depressed and frightened.
Lu Zhi was aware of this situation and was worried that the demoralized troops would even collapse because of this, so he ordered some troops in the front to make fires and cook on the spot, cooking more, so that the troops coming from behind could have hot food.
With the supplement of calories, the morale of the army has also recovered a lot.
At the same time, in order to avoid congestion, Lu Zhi ordered the cavalry troops to march from both wings, leaving the straight road for the infantry and baggage.
When the Zhenbei Army reached the Dingxian area, they also encountered an infantry army coming from Yangcheng in the north. The number was about a thousand people. The general was Minchun, the commander of Zhongshan. He brought the volunteers he had recruited. He Buqu came to join the Zhenbei Army.
Lu Zhi met Min Chun during the march and admired his loyalty to the country. After learning that Min Chun's troops had not eaten for many days of marching, Lu Zhi also gave Min Chun some dry food from the Chinese army.
After that, Min Chun joined Lu Zhi's Chinese army and continued northward with the army.
This made Min Chun's tribe who had turned back very dissatisfied. Later, when they saw Min Chun marching on an ox cart, they even mocked him: if Min Jun opens his mouth, his brothers will break their legs.
Minchun's troops were almost all Guizhou disciples from the Dingxian area of Zhongshan. They generally did not have much recognition of the Han army. The reason why they followed Minchun south was nothing more than being hijacked.
Originally, Min Chun told everyone that they would be given a reward for departure fees when they arrived on the battlefield, but that was gone now, because Min Chun meant that they didn't even go to the battlefield, so what reward would they want.
Okay, if you, Min Chun, play this trick with your brothers, then the brothers will have to fend for themselves.
These people first plundered a batch of luggage that was left behind, and then divided it all equally, and then began to plunder the houses and houses of bad people along the way, and plunder people's money.
Even some local villagers who had been arranged by the Zhenbei Army to take care of the wounded were robbed by this group of arrogant soldiers. It can be said that it has greatly ruined the reputation of the Zhenbei Army.
But Lu Zhi didn't know all of this. The entire retreat was in chaos, and he had lost control of the military discipline of his team.
How far does this confusion even go?
For example, Lu Zhi almost lost the map of Zhongrenting.
As early as when he was still in Lunu, he had chosen the location of Zhongren Pavilion as the place for the decisive battle. So he specially asked a cartographer to draw a detailed map of the Zhongrenting area.
Originally, this map had always been in charge of Lu Zhi's admirer Yang Lin, but when he retreated, Lu Zhi discovered that Yang Lin was missing.
Lu Zhi asked people to search for it for a long time but couldn't find it. Later, Yang Lin came back on his own.
It turned out that when he was looking for water, he encountered two hunters wandering nearby, and they wanted to sneak attack him while he was looking for water. Fortunately, Yang Lin's swordsmanship was good and he killed the two hunters after a fight, but he found that his mount was missing.
The map of Zhongren Pavilion is right there.
Yang Lin panicked now, and finally found the mount grazing on a grassy field after searching for a long time, and then retrieved the map.
After that, Yang Lin didn't dare to run around anymore, and hurried to Lu Zhi's car with the map to wait.
The Zhenbei Army's retreat was so chaotic.
But even with such chaos, Lu Zhi was still making subsequent military arrangements.
He obtained the map of Zhongrenting from Yang Lin, and then discussed it with several staff members and began to dispatch the troops already stationed in the area of Zhongrenting.
This map is very detailed and well reflects the landforms, buildings, and roads of Zhongren Pavilion, which provides support for the deployment of troops.
Relying on this map, Lu Zhi began to deploy troops to the corresponding battlefield.
At the same time, Lu Zhi also ordered the sentry cavalry of Junzi Camp to rush towards the troops in Zhongrenting in the north, telling them that he had led the main force to Zhongrenting and asked them to step up the construction of fortifications.
Lu Zhi also wrote a military order to the defeated Hejian Army, and asked the three guards to quickly rush to Zhongrenting to regroup after receiving the military order.
Because the location of the Hejian Legion was unclear, Lu Zhi directly sent out ten sentries in order to allow the military order to be conveyed.
These sentry riders from the Gentlemen's Camp set off toward the northeast with feathered notices, three horses and a companion, and three days of dry food.
Along the way, these gentlemen's camps witnessed the chaos of the Zhenbei Army's retreat.
Because there was no one to restrain them, from time to time you could see scattered officials looting the countryside. In the ravines on both sides of the straight road, you could always see overturned baggage trucks, and some precious military supplies were abandoned in the ravines.
There were also some wounded soldiers lying under the green shade of the straight road, staring at the sky numbly and motionless.
But it is also possible to always see some officials who are loyal to their duties and still manage the team competently, amidst the chaos. In short, the Sentinel Cavalry of Junzi Camp went north this time, and they saw the differences between the Zhenbei Army's battalions.
They also saw some cavalry rudely pushing down the infantry's baggage train because these people were blocking the passage of the cavalry.
In any army, the contradiction between cavalry and infantry is always not small. The Han army is naturally no exception, so at this time, a riot is inevitable.
But in the end, the infantry always lost, and the result of the defeat was that they could only walk through the fields on both sides, and even had to walk through some swamps.
So when the infantrymen covered in mud appeared in front of the cavalry, they were always laughed at.
Compared with the cavalry, these infantry are undoubtedly pathetic, but compared with the infantry who were left at the head of the two battalions on the Dingting battlefield, these people are lucky.
When the sentry riders from the Gentleman Camp finally made their way through the chaotic military columns, they finally ran to nearby Lunu. They want to look for the broken troops of the River Legion here and ask them about the location of their main force.
Only when they arrived in Lunu did these people realize that the chaos in the Zhenbei Legion just now was really nothing.
Ever since Lu Zhi led the Zhenbei Army southward, Lu Nu's powerful men have been paying attention to the war in Dingting.
Each family's walking servants have to run here three times a day, just to keep abreast of the latest trends.
So when the Zhenbei Army abandoned its position and retreated northward, and its marching location was not to the northeast of Lunu but to the southwest, the powerful Lunu forces panicked.
They knew that they had been abandoned by Lu Zhi, an old thief.
When I rushed home covered in mud and sweat from walking, the powerful people were still eating. But as soon as they received the news of the defeat of the Han army, these powerful men did not eat anything and asked their servants to drive the prepared carts out of the north gate to escape.
It’s not just one or two families that are smart, and the troubled times are no longer just one or two years ago, these powerful people have also evolved a strong ability to survive.
So gradually, the whole city began to boil, and ordinary Nulu people saw everyone in the city fleeing north with their families and carts.
Seeing the opportunity, some captives ran directly to these people's homes and plundered the remaining large items, which the powerful men could not take away. Seeing such an advantage, some nearby gangsters also rushed into the mansion and picked up the things no one wanted.
As a result, Lunu City soon fell into chaos.
The local powerful people are well prepared, with cars, cattle, horses and troops, so they can go the fastest and safest. The powerful people who had fled to Lunu from other areas of Jizhou could no longer stay at this time. And they knew that the powerful local team was safer, so they followed these people with their families.
So when Lu Zhi's Junzi camp sentries arrived at Lu Nu, Lu Nu was already in chaos.
Here, they finally found a few defeated troops of the original Hejian Army. They told the sentries that the remaining Hejian Army was at Maoting, five miles southeast.
After getting the news, the sentry riders changed their horses and ran to Maoting again without rest.
Along the way, they once again saw wounded soldiers and slaves along the road, and various military supplies were abandoned on the road unattended.
It is obvious that the situation of the River Legion is serious.
It turned out that earlier today, one of Zhang Dan's outpost cavalry finally caught up with the turbulent Hejian Corps.
The last one left in the army was the baggage camp. They panicked when they heard the sound of horse hooves behind them.
Fear dominated them and they fled, their belongings scattered all over the ground.
We can't blame the heavy baggage soldiers. These people are just ordinary people in the army who have no courage and courage, and they don't have fighting ability in the first place. What's more, he was beaten to death by Zhang Danjun before?
But those in front were the Bohai soldiers. They were honorable, and a lot of the baggage was their military pay, so they were extremely reluctant to part with it.
The Bohai soldiers turned around and went south to defend, but Zhang Dan's vanguard sentry cavalry was too small in number, so they withdrew after a little harassment.
Although he repelled the pursuers and recaptured the baggage. However, after discussion among the three giants in Hejian, they felt that they should move north quickly, so they ordered the entire army to carry their own baggage, and left everything that could not be taken away on both sides.
After doing this, they gathered a group of local people and took them to hide in a forest valley and prepare to rest.
Later that day, the sentries from Junzi Camp actually found the Hejian Legion, and waited for them to hand the feathers to Chen Yan, the Prime Minister of Hejian.
At this time, Chen Yan's face was dark and his thick beard was sparse. He took a look at the letter and couldn't help but said:
"You want us to go north to Zhongrenting?"
Chen Yan couldn't bear it anymore and said a little bit:
"We, the children of Hejian, have only been out of our hometown for a few days, and we are dead and injured. We finally escaped and were asked to go to Zhongren Pavilion? Do I understand that the Taishan army is like tigers and wolves, and it is still not suitable for a head-on confrontation. .”
Seeing that Chen Yan didn't want to fight, Yang Xuan, the governor of Bohai, couldn't help but said:
"Mr. Chen, there's no need to say angry words. At this point, do we still have any choice? Either we join Lu Shuai's main force to fight against the Taishan bandits, or we have to kill ourselves in Lin'ao right now. No matter where there is It’s worthy of the country.”
After Yang Xuan said this, Anping Prime Minister Linghu Yu couldn't help but muttered:
"Country? Which country? The one in the east or the one in the west."
Yang Xuan glared at Linghu Yu, then stared at Chen Yan to see what he thought. Among them, Chen Yan has the strongest military power. Without his consent, nothing can be done.
Chen Yan sighed. He really hated living like this. He was worried all day long and had nothing but food and shelter. How could a human being live such a life? Thinking of this, Chen Yan wanted to die.
Thinking about it, Chen Yan was about to take out his saber and wipe it on his neck.
Yang Xuan was shocked. How could she have thought that Chen Yan was so arrogant? If you stop me in a hurry, please advise:
"Old Chen, we are not at the end of our rope. Don't we know what kind of person Lu Shuai is? If we don't fight an uncertain battle, we will definitely win with our troops."
It didn't matter whether Chen Yan died or not. He pushed his seal into Yang Xuan's arms and said:
"Old Yang, you understand me. I am good at talking, but I am impatient in practical matters. I will give this seal to you, and my Hejian soldiers will also give it to you. But Old Yang, you must leave it for me. A truth.”
Yang Xuan squeezed Xiangyin tightly, looked at Chen Yan's serious expression and said seriously:
"Old Chen, you ask."
"Can we really win this battle?"
Yang Xuan didn't dare to fool him and told Chen Yan her thoughts. He used branches to draw pictures on the ground and explained:
"Old Chen, Linghu, look at this. This is the location of the Zhongren Pavilion, and there is the Ding Pavilion where the Taishan Army is located in the military report, and we are probably at this location."
Chen Yan and Linghu Yu both squatted on the ground, listening to Yang Xuan continue:
"I can probably guess three points of Lu Shuai's current arrangement. Now he is going to have a decisive battle with the little thief Zhang Chong at Zhongrenting. In terms of the strength and combat power of both sides, they are right between the two. But with us, it's different. As long as we rush to Zhongren Pavilion now and catch up during the battle, it will be a fatal blow to the Taishan bandit. So whether we can win this battle depends on whether we can get to Zhongren Pavilion."
Chen Yan was also loyal to the emperor. After listening to Yang Xuan's words, he did not refuse and asked him to lead the army to set off. We have to rush to Zhongren Pavilion.
In this troubled world, he, Chen Yan, has had enough. No dog can live like this.
……
On August 9, the rain continued to pour.
This rain has been falling since the latest, and it has not yet fallen.
But Zhang Chong couldn't wait any longer. He wanted to pursue Lu Zhi who fled north and must annihilate him in Jizhou.
Therefore, even if it rains heavily, the Taishan Army still gathers into battle wearing raincoats.
Four miles away were the two battalions left by Lu Zhi to snipe, with a thousand people.
Unfortunately, the camp leaders who were ordered to stay behind were Lu Chong and Xue Shen, the powerful men from Daibei.
At this time, in the heavy rain, Lu Chong said loudly to Xue Shen through the thick fog:
"The enemy is out to fight. I will lead my troops out of the camp to fight first, and then you will take my turn."
Xue Shen nodded hurriedly, and then watched Lu Chong go down the wall.
Soon, Lu Chong led five hundred soldiers out, and then disappeared into the rain, leaving Xue Shen alone and troubled.
I don’t know how long it took, but there was no sound of fighting in front of me. Xue Shen said secretly:
"Is Lu Chong lost?"
But soon, Lu Chong came back with his team, followed by a dense Taishan army.
Lu Chong was at the foot of the wall and said:
"Xiao Xue, I have abandoned the dark and surrendered to the light. For the sake of you and my fellow countrymen, and for the sake of my own children, please come out and surrender."
Xue Shen was furious and never expected that Lu Chong would abandon him and surrender.
Brother, if you surrender, you should also tell me. I will go with you.
You, Lu Chong, are really a traitor and you really deserve to die.
Although Xue Shen hated Lu Chong deeply. But at this point, he had no choice but to surrender.
In this way, the Taishan Army effortlessly captured the sniper unit deployed by Lu Zhi. The pursuit was earlier than Lu Zhi expected.
Lu Chong, you really deserve to die. Why don't you take me with you when you surrender?