Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 155 The Left Army Retreats
Next, the Zuo army launched several successive waves of attacks, and desperately piled up corpses, arrows and ammunition under the walls of Jiujiang City.

However, Jiujiang City still stands firmly on the river bank, and the remnant walls that are occasionally blown down will be repaired in time after the left army retreats.

Huang Degong led the supervising team to personally patrol around the city gate, holding the heads of many officers and soldiers who fled due to timidity in the battle, so that the guards did not dare to fight.

Governor Tang Xiangtai took a group of officials to send broth and hot rice to the tower for distribution.

As a result, the city of Jiujiang, which is filled with gunpowder smoke, emits warm air.

In the Zuojun camp on the other side of the river, Zuo Liangyu's illness became more and more serious, and the officers and soldiers of the Zuojun also sat on the ground dejectedly.

Most of them are troops that can only bully and bully the common people. In addition, the generals have their own selfish intentions, so they are unwilling to attack the strong city of Jiujiang.

Coupled with the shortage of food and grass, the Zuo Army is now beginning to experience the consequences of its troubles in Huguang. The officers and soldiers on the other side can still have enough to eat, while many auxiliary soldiers of the Zuo Army are already suffering from hunger and cold.

"Father, morale is low now, and Jiujiang City is backed by the Yangtze River, coupled with the high walls and thick walls, we can't spend it here. If Huang Degong delays us for one more day, we will lose one day's food. If you don't die in battle, you will starve to death." No one dared to persuade Zuo Liangyu at this time, and only his son Zuo Menggeng dared to fight at this time.

Zuo Liangyu sighed, and had to order: "Order the three armies, except Jin Shenghuan's troops to guard against the enemy's attack, the rest are ready to break out of the camp and go northward, from Huangmei and Susong to attack Anqing. If you capture a city, you will slaughter it!"

In order to meet the military needs, and because he was really depressed, Zuo Liangyu issued the order to massacre every city.

Hundreds of thousands of left soldiers heard that they could plunder the people and massacre the city again, and their low morale recovered a bit, and they began to cooperate with the northward withdrawal.

As soon as the Zuo Army began to withdraw from here, someone immediately came to Jiujiang City and told Huang Degong the news of the Zuo Army's northward march: "Marshal, the Zuo Army has retreated!"

"What, the left army has retreated!"

Tang Xiangtai first asked excitedly.

Immediately afterwards, the officials and citizens of the entire Jiujiang City shouted excitedly.

"The left army has retreated!"

For the officials and citizens of Jiujiang City, the retreat of the Zuo Army means that they no longer have to tense their nerves, and no longer have to worry about the consequences of the Zuo Army with corrupt military discipline once they break through Jiujiang.

But Huang Degong and Wu Mengming were not happy about it.

As the general in charge of guarding against the Zuo army in the entire Jiangyou area, Huang Degong knew that the Zuo army's northward move meant that Weng Zhiqi's troops would face the attack of the Zuo army, and Anqing would become the next main point of contention between the two sides.

"We can't let the left army retreat so easily. All the cavalry will bring three days of dry food and follow me across the river to chase the left army!"

After finishing speaking, Huang Degong, the Marquis of Jingnan, immediately went down from the Jiujiang City Tower, entrusted the task of city defense to Governor Tang Xiangtai, and immediately rode out of the city on his horse.

Huang Degong knew that the left army would definitely have an army to guard the rear, so Huang Degong ordered the navy to avoid the Dehua border, waited for the shore from a small ferry, and led thousands of cavalry directly to the right wing of the left army Jin Shenghuan's troops.

Although Huang Degong's cavalry is no match for the Jiannu Eight Banners, they are also brave cavalry raised by Huang Degong at the expense of the [-] soldiers allocated by the court, so they slashed and killed as soon as they rushed into Jin Shenghuan's tribe.

Jin Shenghuan had no choice but to abandon the rear army while the front army was not in chaos, and run immediately with the front army, throwing away helmets and armor along the way, and abandoning countless luggage. Following the army's distraction, he mistakenly thought that Huang Degong's army was chasing him, and fled northward in a hurry without order.

Huang Degong killed all the way and surrendered tens of thousands of Zuojun. In addition to sending the navy as a deposit to accept the surrendered Zuojun back to the city, he continued to chase north with his cavalry.

However, after Huang Degong arrived near Huangmei County, he had no choice but to retreat to Jiujiang because he learned that Zhang Yuanliang's troops had joined forces with the main force of the Zuo Army.

Zuo Liangyu's army arrived near Huangmei County, but because there were no pursuers behind, and Huangmei County was in the hands of the Ming general Li Shichun, they had to set up camp near Huangmei County and prepare to conquer Huangmei County after they had enough energy.

The Zuo army plundered everywhere. In order to raise enough military supplies for hundreds of thousands of troops, they almost scraped the entire Huangzhou government.

Li Shichun, the general in charge of guarding Huangmei County, was a member of Yuan Jixian, and his official position was deputy general. He left Jiujiang with Weng Zhiqi and came here, and volunteered to take charge of the defense of Huangmei County.

Huangmei County is just a small county town. Apart from being able to withstand part of the pressure for Susong City, it has little defensive significance, and the city wall is not a brick wall, but an earthen wall. I don't live in Huangmei County.

"The governor has ordered that the left army is soldiers, bandits and beasts. The deputy general Li Shichun immediately transfers the people in the city to Susong. After the transfer, he voluntarily abandons the city. There must be no mistake!"

When weng Zhiqi's scouts learned that the entire Huangzhou Mansion was being crazily destroyed by the left army, Governor Yuan Jixian resolutely decided to abandon the defense of Huangmei and other undefensible cities, and decisively ordered Li Shichun and others to transfer people's property to Susong, and then transferred to Anqing , He also wants to learn from Huang Degong to fight the Zuo army under the city of Anqing in a war of attrition.

This can be regarded as the greatest demonstration of Yuan Jixian's military ability, and the Zuo Army did not realize that he was about to face the next war of attrition. After occupying Huangmei without a single soldier, the Zuo Army was like a bandit without any ground The meaning of raising soldiers was to plunder and kill frantically until they reached Susong City. Because the people of Susong City had heard of the atrocities committed by the left army, they all went up to the tower and defended the city with Weng Zhiqi's troops.

The Zuo army could not break through Susong City after attacking for several days, so they had to bypass Susong City and attack Anqing directly, but Anqing was stronger than Susong City, so naturally they could not break through.

Therefore, throughout March and April, the Zuo army was trapped in the Anqing area of ​​Susong, unable to make any progress. Fortunately, it was the season of warm spring and the temperature was suitable, so they could still persist.

However, Zuo Liangyu's condition was getting worse and worse. In order to reach Jiangnan as soon as possible, he could only issue another military order to attack Anqing ten days later.

Even this time, Zuo Liangyu made a formation.

On this day, Yuan Jixian waited for the city wall to hear the drums of war as usual, but he saw women and children outside the city stripped naked, exposing unsightly things, which made the officers and soldiers on the city wall stare wide-eyed, and even had the nerve to bear it. He kept putting his hands into his trouser pockets.

"What kind of formation is this? It's really shameless to take women and children as hostages!"

Yuan Jixian couldn't help scolding.

His student Fu Qingzhu replied: "Teacher, this is called the Yin-0 Gate Formation. Zhang Xianzhong used it in the battle with Zuo Liangyu in the past. Now I didn't expect Zuo Liangyu to learn this trick. They captured women and children to expose their lower body. Deliberately diverting the yang energy of the guarding officers and soldiers, so that people have no intention of fighting, if you want to break this formation, you can only set up the Yangmen formation!"

"What is Yangmen Formation?" Yuan Jixian asked.

(End of this chapter)