Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Just after the You hour, the war, which had lasted for more than five hours, finally ended in failure.

As Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Nengqi fell into coma due to their injuries, the left and right wings of the bandits began to retreat.

The rout was like a wave, quickly spreading across the entire battlefield. Even though Zhang Kewang's sword had bent its blade and his exhausted hands had begun to tremble, even though he tried his best to hold on, he still could not reverse the overall defeat.

Zhang Xianzhong, who was left with only a few thousand elite soldiers, cursed Zhang Shikang's ancestors in the central army tent, but finally had no choice but to order a withdrawal.

As soon as the order to retreat was issued, the bandits, who had already been exhausted and had lost all morale, suddenly fell into chaos on the entire battlefield.

Zhang Xianzhong seemed to have anticipated this. As a veteran with rich experience in escape, after giving the order to retreat, he immediately evacuated with his remaining several thousand elite troops.

He ordered Zhang Kewang to gather all the soldiers and save as many of his men as possible.

Zhang Kewang wanted to curse after receiving the military order, but it had come to this point. Except for a part of his direct elite troops, even if the king of heaven came, he would be powerless to deal with those subordinates who had already lost their fighting spirit.

At this moment, they may have only one thought in their minds, which is to save their own lives.

They don't need to be able to run faster, as long as they can run faster than their colleagues around them, they can save their lives.

Zhang Kewang and his guards rushed back and forth on the battlefield, using all his strength, and only then did he manage to win over the elite troops directly under Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Nengqi.

Looking at the other troops fleeing in all directions around him, and the imperial army rushing towards them like ferocious monsters, Zhang Kewang no longer hesitated and took this group of people to chase Zhang Xianzhong.

Thus, a grand hunting feast began.

Before hot weapons such as the Gatling gun that emitted blue flames became popular, the real chance to achieve results in any large-scale war was basically after one side began to retreat.

The retreating party not only lost their command but also their morale, becoming a lamb who only wanted to escape.

Also at this time, the competition is about which side can run faster.

As we all know, when it comes to long-distance running, the Guards have always been very good at it.

Until now, the Guards' training program requires them to run ten miles before breakfast every day.

Every ten days, there would be a 20-mile training march with loads, and the chosen venue was not a good place.

The reason why Xishan Camp is called Xishan Camp is because Xishan is next to it. In the past two years, as the Guards have recruited more and more soldiers, the several narrow paths in Xishan have been turned into two-meter-wide roads by the Guards soldiers.

The 20-mile march included flat roads, rugged mountain roads, and almost all kinds of terrain.

Long-term rigorous training has made every Guards a long-distance runner.

And every seemingly strange training program developed by Zhang Shikang can be verified in actual combat.

For example, now, one side is running for its life, and the other side is chasing for its life. In less than two quarters of an hour, those bandits are already out of breath and can hardly run anymore.

Although the White Spear Soldiers were good at mountain warfare, they were still panting after running for a long time on such a plain.

But the swordsmen of the Guards who had finished changing their uniforms were all calm and composed, breathing evenly. Their eyes were like the most shrewd hunters, staring closely at their prey when they saw it.

Approach it, kill it, and then look for the next prey.

Long-term weight-bearing training has enabled all the Guards soldiers to learn how to adjust their breathing to ensure that they can gain more military merits at such a good opportunity.

From the beginning of the You hour to the Xu hour, and then to the gradual darkening of the sky, the entire operation of pursuing the defeated soldiers never stopped.

Qin Liangyu knew that this was the best time and she must maximize the results of the battle.

Once the pursuit stops, these bandits will gather together and retreat to other surrounding cities.

Once they have calmed down and assembled and received dispatch commands, they will need to devote tremendous energy to fighting again.

To this end, General Qin Liangyu deployed all of his scouts, using these hundreds of scouts as a network to inform and contact each other so that the pursuing troops of all sizes would not lose contact.

This is actually a somewhat risky move. After all, the visibility is poor when chasing the enemy at night, and it is easy to encounter accidents.

The pursuit continued until the end of the Xu time (21:00 at night), and only then did they begin to return under Qin Liangyu's military order.

Among them, the one who chased the most enthusiastically and ran the farthest was the Lieutenant General Wang Jingduo of the Third Battalion of the Firearm Battalion.

During the two hours of pursuit, the Third Battalion, led by Wang Jingduo, chased for more than sixty miles and did not return until four quarters past three in the morning (two o'clock in the morning).

Since the 40,000 troops of the Guards were drawn from the entire Guards army, in addition to Wang Jingduo, there were also Zheng Chong and Chen Tao in the Third Battalion.

These three guys were addicted to hacking people and even started competing with each other secretly.

This made Qin Liangyu very worried, and she once thought that the Third Battalion was ambushed by Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Shikang joined the pursuit. The reason he gave was that he had been fishing all day and wanted to stretch his body.

He brought with him more than a thousand personal cavalry guards, and these thousand personal guards had not joined the battlefield all day, so they could be said to have been waiting for the opportunity for a long time.

This was a force of the elite among the elite of the guards, and in full condition. Although the risk was extremely small and they could run away if they couldn't win, Qin Liangyu still worried for a long time.

She also told her granddaughter to keep close to the Marshal and protect him.

Seeing the two of them chasing the enemy happily, Qin Liangyu felt a headache. Her granddaughter was playful, but she didn't expect that this Marshal...

After all, it was night time, and even with the bright moon, visibility was not very good, so Zhang Shikang did not run very fast.

But Ma Lingqi grew up in the mountain city, so chasing the enemy at night did not seem to have much impact on her. In just over half an hour, Ma Lingqi easily killed several people.

At the beginning, when she made some gains, she would show off to Zhang Shikang and Hong Xiucheng, but as time went on, she no longer had the heart to show off and only focused on hunting.

Ma Lingqi had every reason to hate those bandits. The last time Zhang Xianzhong's troops surrounded Shiqu, many of the folks she knew left their homes.

The fire killed many of the White Spear Soldiers she knew, and even burned her beautiful hair into half a curl.

So, Ma Lingqi was left alone.

Zhang Shikang and more than a thousand personal guards ran frantically for a long time before they finally caught the man.

According to Ma Lingqi, she killed a total of seventy-two people in revenge for the seventy-two older brothers she knew who died in the fire.

Zhang Shikang was so nervous that he went back home immediately, fearing that this non-mainstream Barbie doll would cause trouble again.

But Ma Lingqi seemed not to have had enough and kept muttering to herself on the way back.

When they were almost at Yongchuan City, Ma Lingqi suddenly said to Zhang Shikang:

"Brother Wuji."

"Call me Marshal." Zhang Shikang reminded helplessly.

"Brother Wuji, can you talk to my father and grandmother?"

"say what?"

"I want to go to war with you, but my father won't let me, and my grandmother..."

"No, no girl would go to war."

"My grandma! My grandma started helping the imperial court fight wars when she was my age!"

"If I remember correctly, your grandmother was already married at the time, and she must have accompanied your grandfather in the war."

"Only after marriage?

Then...then how about we get married?

If you marry me, I will help you fight. I am very powerful!"

……