The scene of the bandits retreating well illustrates the scene of defeat as if they were defeated.

Thousands of people ran desperately towards the rear, crowded and pushed, cursed each other, and some even picked up weapons and slashed at their companions next to them, just to steal a way out.

Faced with such a scene, even the most wise commander can only express his inability to turn things around.

Gao Yingxiang retreated, Luo Rucai retreated, and Ma Huihui was naturally no exception.

However, compared with Gao Yingxiang and Luo Rucai, Ma Huihui's performance was much better. Ma Huihui divided his troops into five parts. He personally supervised the battle with his confidant, allowing these troops to resist in turn. In the end, his troops miraculously did not collapse, and most of them returned to the city of Mengjin safely. This was a miracle.

However, Ma Huihui's luck ended here. When he arrived at the city of Mengjin, he encountered Yan Di's infantry. Faced with the continuous attacks of the catapult, Ma Huihui finally followed Luo Rucai and Gao Yingxiang's footsteps.

The killing of the city of Mengjin was shocked by the sky. Cao Yingchi commanded the cavalry to attack back and forth, constantly dividing the bandits into unconnected pieces, while the infantry commanded by Yan Di swallowed these pieces like a black hole.

The battlefield was full of enjoying the wailings and begging for mercy. Many bandits who had no time to escape knelt on the ground, raised their hands high and begged for mercy loudly, while some bandits were lying on the ground pretending to be dead, trying to get away.

Faced with the chaotic battlefield, Yan Di could only order the troops to slow down their attack speed, accepting prisoners while advancing slowly. By the time he commanded the troops to advance to the Dream City, more than an hour had passed. At this time, Gao Yunxiang and others had withdrawn from Mengjin City, closed the city gate and became turtles with a head-shrinking.

Gao Yingxiang stood on the city wall and watched the Ming cavalry outside the city galloping and killing the rebels to defeat. He closed his eyes in pain. Li Zhicheng behind him also looked very bad. Li Guo's eyes contained tears and asked, "Uncle, are we just watching the brothers slaughtered by the Ming army?"

"Then what do you do?" Li Zicheng lowered his voice, "You have seen the battle just now. Our people are no match for the Jiangning Army at all. There are nearly 100,000 troops. After a series of shocks, the entire army collapsed and only 30,000 to 40,000 people came back. Isn't this a problem?"

Speaking of this, Li Zicheng looked around and saw that no one around noticed his uncle and nephew, and said, "Fortunately, we retreated early and did not suffer any losses. It is a blessing in disguise. What else do you want?"

Li Guo thought about it again and found that what his uncle said was indeed reasonable, so he nodded.

Li Zicheng pulled Li Guo to a quiet corner aside and whispered, "This defeat may not be all bad things. Maybe the day for our uncle and nephew to make a comeback."

Li Guo's eyes lit up when he heard this. Yes, why didn't he expect it?

Among the bandits, strength has always been the most respected. Why were Luo Rucai, Ma Huihui, He Jin and others able to be arrogant in front of them? Isn’t it because of their strong strength?

Although he and his uncle had a team a few days ago, they were nominally a leader, but they were still far from being stronger than Luo Rucai and Ma Huihui. When they were having a meeting in the Juyi Hall, they didn't even look at him or his uncle at all. When they made the decision, they did not ask their uncle or nephew's opinions.

Why? Isn’t it because my uncle and nephew have too few soldiers? Although I have also raised a soldier of more than 2,000 people, in the eyes of He Jin, Luo Rucai, and Ma Huihui, his strength is nothing to do, and he can be destroyed at will.

But now it is different. After this great defeat, everyone's strength has dropped very seriously. Just like He Jin, he would have more than 7,000 soldiers, but now it would be nice to have two thousand people. Luo Rucai is the same. The original more than 10,000 people only ran back more than 5,000.

Gao Yingxiang and Ma Huihui were better. Although there were also losses, Gao Yingxiang's strength was originally the strongest. Now he still had more than 10,000 troops left under his command. Ma Huihui withdrew most of his troops with his strength.

It's really ironic to say that Li Zicheng and Li Guo's uncle and nephew never dreamed that one day he wanted his team to defeat the battle, but this also proves that the saying "If you don't do it for yourself, heaven and earth" really points directly to human nature.

Although Gao Yingxiang and others had fled into the city, the battle outside the city continued until the evening before it ended.

Yan Di commanded 5,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to carefully clean up the bandits outside the city and then set up camp two miles outside the city and began to count the results.

In this battle, Yan Di wiped out more than 8,600 bandits and captured more than 48,000 people, which was a great victory. However, Yan Di, as the main general, not only did not feel excited, but instead looked sad. The reason was that they did not have enough food and grass.

"Quartermaster, how long can our food and grass last?"

"General, since we were marching urgently, we only carried five days of food. I ate some of the food in the past few days, and the remaining food was enough for us to eat for two days. Originally, there was no problem with these foods to support the Duke and the others, but now we have captured so many bandits, so the food and grass are not enough."

Yan Di frowned. On the surface, they captured nearly 50,000 bandits in this battle and achieved a brilliant victory. However, most of these 50,000 bandits were elderly, weak, women and children, and young and middle-aged people accounted for less than 20% at best.

And the most deadly thing is that although most of these prisoners are elderly women and children, their appetite is not less than that of young and middle-aged people. There is absolutely no problem for each person to eat a pound of food after a meal.

With so many mouths, Yan Di and the others were not enough to distribute all the rations to them, so things would be troublesome.

If these prisoners were Tartars or Red-haired Japanese outside the pass, Yan Di would not be so embarrassed. He would not be able to starve to death if he had eaten a few meals. He would not feel any big deal if he had starved to death. Anyway, he would not feel any distress.

But now they are different. Now they are fighting in the country, and these prisoners are all the people of the Ming Dynasty, and most of them are old, weak, women and children. If they are allowed to starve to death, don't say that his conscience cannot be overcome. If the news reaches the court, the saliva of the censors can flood him.
Chapter completed!