The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 236
"Master, you can't go any further south."

Du Wenhuan took the reins of Lu Xiangsheng's dismounted horse, stood in front of the horse, and shook his head slowly.

"The soldiers can't move anymore..."

Lu Xiangsheng, who was on the horseback, had a gloomy expression, and the tiredness that could not be concealed was between his frowning brows.

"Where is this place?"

Lu Xiangsheng raised his head slowly, looked at the city that had been burned to ruins not far away, and asked aloud.

"Nangong."

"Nangong?"

Lu Xiangsheng's expression changed slightly, and his heart was bleak.

He had been to Nangong before. At that time, Nangong was full of people and cars, and it was very prosperous.

But now, Nangong City is deserted and deserted.

Looking up, in the endless snow-covered wilderness, the houses outside Nangong City have already been reduced to scorched earth, and there are only dilapidated hills and ruins one after another.

Nangong City was set on fire by the Qing army, and the houses in the city had already been turned into ruins. The city was deserted and deserted, and there were no living people.

"Jiannu filled all the wells inside and outside the city. If our army camps in the city to get water..."

"Isn't there a river in Nangong City..."

Lu Xiangsheng frowned slightly. He saw Du Wenhuan's head hanging down. He already understood what happened in the city.

"Go southwest, find water and set up camp."

Along the road, the Qing army plundered the city, plundered the city, burned the buildings, blocked the wells, and threw the corpses into the river.

The waterways in Nangong City are probably already blocked by piles of corpses, which water cannot be imported at all, even if it can be drunk, no one is willing to drink it...

Lu Xiangsheng raised his head and took a last look at the Nangong in front of him, which had turned into a ruins, then turned his horse's head and headed southeast.

The queue of Xuan Dajun was terribly silent, and the flow of people on the official road turned around, following Lu Xiangsheng and continuing to move southwest.

However, the speed of the flow of people is surprisingly slow, even slower than ordinary pedestrians walking...

After walking for another five miles, they finally found a suitable place to camp near the river. The soldiers of the Xuanda Army arrived at the designated location and began to slowly set up camp and build defenses.

With the setting up of the camp, dozens of small teams of rangers also rushed out of the large group.

Their task is to investigate the surrounding situation and take over from the scouts who were previously scattered around the periphery.

As the camp was built, puffs of cooking smoke slowly rose from Xuan Dajun's camp.

It's just that the smoke rising from the kitchen...for the 8000-strong Xuan Dajun, it's really too little...

Lu Xiangsheng lowered his head and sat in the newly built Chinese military tent, lowered his head and leaned on the desk, carefully observing the map placed on it.

The map is the map of Shunde Prefecture, which records the distribution of cities and rivers around Julu in quite detail, and also draws the surrounding situation of this part of the nearby Guangping Prefecture.

In the tent, Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu were sitting separately. They had already made arrangements for setting up the camp, and now they were entering the tent to wait for Lu Xiangsheng's order.

Hu Dawei led the vanguard scouts and cavalry were still on the outskirts and had not yet returned to the camp, so they were not in the tent.

Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu sat upright in the tent, neither spoke nor moved, they just sat quietly.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the map on the desk with a calm expression. After a while, he slowly raised his head and opened his mouth to break the dull atmosphere in the tent.

"It seems that Jiannu wants to make Shunde Mansion my burial place..."

Lu Xiangsheng's words made both Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu look over.

"You two should have seen it too."

Lu Xiangsheng glanced past Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu, and then landed on the map on the desk.

In late November, when he led the troops to Zhending, Sun Chuanting led the troops north to Baoding.

The Jiannu who were scattered and looting suddenly began to gather a large number of troops, and then turned to attack the city all the way south, passing through Zhending Mansion, and went straight to Shunde and Guangping Mansions, and ignited the flames to the south of Beizhili.

So he led the army all the way from Zhending, passing through Zhaozhou, Ningjin, Longping, and all the way south to help Shunde.

I also encountered Jiannu along the way, but Jiannu did not love to fight, but retreated after a little fight.

The more they went south, the faster Jiannu retreated, even before they arrived, Jiannu's troops retreated ahead of schedule.

This is very unusual.

Jiannu is not an army that is afraid of battle and the enemy, and it is impossible to blindly escape like this because of a few small defeats.

And since he led the troops into Shunde, he encountered more and more slave-building troops along the way, and the harassment along the way also began to intensify.

The sentry reported that Jiannu had changed frequently, and a lot of Jiannu cavalry suddenly appeared in Xinhe to the north.

This is the biggest anomaly, because Jiannu obviously marched all the way from Zhending Mansion to Shunde Mansion in the southwest, entered Shunde through Zhending Mansion, first broke through Nangong, then turned west to attack Ren County, and surrounded Shunde Mansion.

Lu Xiangsheng led his troops all the way south to lift the siege of Shunde Prefecture.

But at this time, a large group of slave cavalry suddenly appeared in the north where they came from.

Lu Xiangsheng has been on the battlefield for a long time, how could he not understand his situation at this time.

The main force of slave building lured him south to rescue in the southwest, probably wanting his life and annihilating the army he led in the Shunde mansion.

When he led the army into the territory of Nangong, Jiannu's hidden cavalry blocked his way. At this time, the main force of Jiannu was not far from them in the southwest of Nangong.

Jiannu has a lot of troops in the east of Nangong at this time. The vanguard led by Hu Dawei has encountered two or three attacks today, and Jiannu's rangers are also increasing, oppressing his rangers.

A few days ago, we could receive urgent documents from Shunde Mansion, but these days we haven't heard any news from Shunde Mansion.

All kinds of signs indicated that the main force of building slaves was approaching. The purpose of building slaves was not in the city of Shunde Mansion, but in Lu Xiangsheng.

Jiannu put down the bait to lure him to come. Above the bait was a big net woven by Jiannu, a big net that wanted his life.

Lu Xiangsheng saw it, and so did Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu.

Du Wenhuan said at the beginning that he could not go further south. One reason was that all the soldiers in the army were indeed exhausted, and the other meaning was to dissuade them.

The Qing army had woven a siege net against them in the Shunde Mansion. If they went further south, they would undoubtedly be in the hands of the Qing army, and it would be impossible to go any further.

Du Wenhuan clasped his hands into fists, lowered his head slightly, his eyes slanted out of the tent, did not look at Lu Xiangsheng, and said in a deep voice.

"Our army has traveled all the way, sleeping in the open air, without any supplements. The food and grass in the army have already bottomed out. Although the soldiers below have no complaints or clamor, they have already reached their limit. The distance traveled in the past few days Every day is getting shorter because of physical strength..."

Starting from November, the army has cut off the salary, and the cut off is still a trivial matter, after all, the salary only affects the morale.

However, the impact of food shortages is difficult to eliminate.

Beginning in mid-November, the rations provided to them came and went, and the soldiers in the army could only get half of the rations in the past every day, and they couldn't eat enough.

If you can't even eat enough, where does your combat power come from?

This is also why, Gaoyang City is obviously next to Baoding Mansion, but they can only sit back and watch Gaoyang City fall.

In the Zhending Mansion, they received very little supplement along the way. Even if the military rations were halved, the rations in the army were almost exhausted.

Lu Xiangsheng's expression was gloomy, he knew Du Wenhuan was right.

Make bricks without straw.

In another two or three days, the army will be completely out of food, and there will be no need for the Qing army to attack, and they will collapse first.

After Du Wenhuan finished speaking, the atmosphere in the tent became silent again.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't say a word, he lowered his head and didn't raise it.

The sun was setting on the western mountain, the light was dim, and the light in the tent was weak, and it was dark.

Lu Xiangsheng's face was hidden in the darkness, no one could see his expression.

There was silence in the tent for a long time, I don't know how long it took, the sky outside the tent was already completely dark, and the silent atmosphere was broken by a rush of horseshoes.

Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu followed the sound to the outside of the tent, and when they raised their eyes, they happened to see Hu Dawei, who was covered in wind and rain, walking in from outside the tent.

"Tiger Dawei, see the supervisor!"

Hu Dawei strode into the tent, knelt down on one knee, and saluted Lu Xiang with great vigor.

Lu Xiangsheng, who was always on the top and lowered his head, also made a movement at this time, slowly raised his head to look at Hu Dawei.

"Master, I am in the southeast, and I met a group of people from Guangping Mansion, who seem to be local gentry."

"What is it that I heard that the supervisor is leading the army, so I must see the supervisor."

"The supervisor warned me to lead the army to be humble when meeting people. I didn't know how to deal with it, so I brought them here first."

Hu Dawei lowered his head and reported to Lu Xiangshenghui respectfully.

Hu Dawei is the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Town. He usually does not accept Lu Xiangsheng's supervision, but he still respects Lu Xiangsheng very much.

He had only been fighting with Lu Xiangsheng for a few months, but it was during these few months that Lu Xiangsheng had already convinced him.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't hide in the rear like other governors and gesticulate indiscriminately, and he never said official nonsense to them.

In the past few months, Lu Xiangsheng has always been clear about rewards and punishments, followed his words, and commanded well. He led them to fight many battles, and every time he was in the front line, and even led his personal guards to charge into the battle.

So he took Lu Xiangsheng's instructions to heart.

"Guangping Mansion?"

Lu Xiangsheng's eyes were slightly fixed, and he was a little puzzled.

Guangping Mansion is just south of Nangong.

They passed Nangong and walked all the way to the southeast. The scouts were scattered for a distance of [-] to [-] miles. Guangping Mansion could indeed know that the army was coming.

For the time being, there is no news of Jiannu appearing in Guangping Mansion. He knows this news, but right now the army is in turmoil, how could someone come all the way from Guangping Mansion?
(End of this chapter)