Southern Ming Rebel Army

The distance of more than a hundred steps seemed very close to the cavalry. Meng Jun's breathing began to rapid, his mouth slightly opened, and he breathed heavily under his nose.

For a moment, the only sound in Meng Jun's world was the sound of horse hooves hitting the ground, as dull as the gloomy thunder in a thunderstorm.

"Kill!" Meng Jun rode forward on his horse, and his horse hit a Qing soldier sideways, who was immediately knocked several meters away, and his life or death was unknown. The personal guard Gao Yi was fearless and unstoppable, and rushed straight to where Li Chengdong was. The more than one hundred riders behind him were like a spike, quickly digging into the Qing army's line.

The scene of the cavalry's charge was extremely horrifying. Gao Yi, holding a long sword, leaped into the enemy's formation on his horse, hacking left and right, killing several people in a row. The sound of killing continued in the camp. Under the charge of the cavalry, the Qing soldiers retreated step by step, and their corpses covered the ground.

Li Chengdong's personal guards stood in front of Li Chengdong. In the darkness, the panicked Green Camp soldiers on the periphery fled in all directions or knelt on the ground begging for mercy when they were attacked by the cavalry. Only Li Chengdong and his generals' personal guards were still resisting desperately.

The line of the Green Camp soldiers was not tight, and the impact of the cavalry was too strong. Meng Jun fired a shot in the direction of Li Chengdong. In the darkness, Meng Jun just threw it based on his feeling. One of Li Chengdong's bodyguards in front of him was stabbed in the neck and died on the spot. He fell in front of Li Chengdong with a tragic face. This shot scared Li Chengdong so much that his face turned pale, and several bodyguards hurriedly blocked him with shields.

Seeing this, Meng Jun shouted loudly, his voice even a little hoarse, "Charge over, capture Li Chengdong alive!" The knights around him followed suit and shouted, "Capture Li Chengdong alive, capture Li Chengdong alive!"

People's fear had already been magnified in the darkness. When they saw the roars of the rebels and the screams of their friendly forces everywhere, the already panicked Green Camp soldiers became even more frightened, and their will to resist became weaker.

Li Chengdong, Li Yuanyin and the others looked extremely unhappy. They were all veterans who had experienced many battles, so how could they not see that they were now helpless? However, Li Chengdong could not accept that he was defeated by an army composed of a group of villagers.

Seeing this, Li Yuanyin grabbed Li Chengdong's sleeve and said, "Foster father, this is impossible, let's go!"

Li Chengdong's face turned pale and blue. Seeing that Li Chengdong did not respond, Li Yuanyin hurriedly urged him a few more times. Yan Keyi also said beside him, "General, withdraw first, keep some useful people and reorganize the army. Things can still be done."

Under the persuasion and pulling of the crowd, Li Chengdong said helplessly and angrily, "One day I will destroy the entire Suzhou City." After that, he led everyone to the stable.

Li Chengdong's retreat immediately caused a chain reaction, and the Qing army collapsed even faster. After Meng Jun knocked down a Qing soldier in front of his horse, there were no more Qing soldiers blocking the way. Looking carefully, some Green Camp soldiers dropped their weapons and fled in all directions, while more Green Camp soldiers knelt directly on the ground, not daring to resist at all.

Meng Jun stopped his horse and laughed, "We have won a great victory." Gao Yi, who was standing beside him, heard it and shouted, "Great victory, great victory!" The shouts of great victory continued, and the shouts spread throughout Suzhou City in the silent night. The soldiers who stayed on the Suzhou city wall heard the sound and said excitedly, "Did we win? This sounds like our victory!"

Li Chengdong's figure had disappeared in the darkness. Meng Jun felt a little regretful, but he could not take care of him at the moment. The Qing army camp was ablaze. The summer heat and the fires around made Meng Jun and everyone sweat profusely. They stopped to rest. At this time, except for some scattered Qing soldiers who escaped from the camp, most of Li Chengdong's Green Camp had surrendered, and the shouting and killing on the battlefield had gradually subsided.

The rebel soldiers had already begun to gather the surrendered soldiers and put out the fire. Meng Jun sent a fast horse back to the city to ask Meng Bizhi to bring people to clean up the battlefield.

"Governor, look who I caught, two high-ranking officials." Qian Biao came over with two people in triumph and asked them to "kneel down." Several volunteers beside Qian Biao escorted Du Yonghe and Guo Hu, two lieutenant generals of the Qing army, and as soon as they arrived in front of Meng Jun, they forced the two men to kneel down.

The two men knelt down as if they had accepted their fate. Meng Jun looked at them and asked calmly, "Will you surrender?"

Du Yonghe glanced at Meng Jun and said with some shame, "I am willing to surrender." Guo Hu looked at Du Yonghe and said helplessly, "I am willing to surrender too." Meng Jun waved his hand and said, "Take him down first."

Li Chengdong, his adopted son Li Yuanyin, general Yan Keyi, Huang Yingjie and several others fled the camp with dozens of riders. After a while of galloping, they stopped to restore the horses. Li Chengdong looked at the camp in the distance and couldn't help but shed tears. This defeat was so tragic that his foundation of many years was destroyed in an instant. What would he do next?

"Marshal, where are we going? To Jiangning?" Yan Keyi asked in a panic.

Li Chengdong just shook his head and said nothing, staring fixedly in the direction of Suzhou.

"Foster father, why don't we go back to Songjiang Prefecture and recruit new soldiers? You are the general of Wusong. If we go back to Wusong, we will be able to guard the area with justification. If we go to Jiangning, I will be at the mercy of others," Li Yuanyin said with a bow.

Hearing this, Li Chengdong seemed to come back to his senses, thought for a while and said, "Yuan Yin is right. We must not go to Jiangning, but go back to Songjiang. I was a refugee in the past. I didn't have enough food to eat, and I had no land or wife. What should I be afraid of?" Li Chengdong waved his hand and said, "Let's go back to Songjiang Prefecture." After that, everyone mounted their horses and continued on their way forward.

Turning back to Han Xiong, after Han Xiong left Suzhou City, his good friend Zhao Yongping organized a righteous army near Luzhi Town, with nearly 800 people. Although the weapons were incomplete and the food and grass were not sufficient, under the command of Zhao Yongping, they attacked and harassed the Qing soldiers in Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture several times. Although they did not achieve any major results, they were also a famous righteous army leader in the vicinity. When Li Chengdong's army passed by, Zhao Yongping knew that there was a huge gap in strength, so he took the righteous army to hide in the nearby mountains and forests, and reoccupied Yongzhi Town after Li Chengdong passed by.

Han Xiong led his army to Luzhi Town. On the one hand, Zhao Yongping was his good friend and also a well-known rebel leader. On the other hand, Yongzhi Town was neither far nor close to Suzhou City. If it was too close, this surprise army would easily be discovered by Li Chengdong's scouts, and if it was too far, they would not be able to catch up.

As soon as Han Xiong left Suzhou City, he sent dozens of people to the locations of the various rebel armies to persuade them to gather together in Luzhi Town. Unfortunately, the effect was not very good. Han Xiong's prestige was not enough to make others trust him, and only two small rebel armies agreed to come to Yongzhi Town.

On the second day after Han Xiong arrived in Luzhi Town, he sent people back to Suzhou City to report, check the situation of the war in Suzhou City, and reorganize the rebel army. But he did not expect that the war in Suzhou would end so quickly. At this time, Meng Jun did not know that Han Xiong was in Luzhi Town at all. He just sent people out to look for him, and the people sent back by Han Xiong had not seen Meng Jun yet.

Under the cover of night, Luzhi Town was completely silent. Only the patrolling sentinels of the rebel army were still looking around. Han Xiong didn't know that Li Chengdong was actually less than thirty miles away from him at this time.