stubborn thief

Qinzhou Acropolis.

The past few days have not been easy for Zuo Liangyu.

He and Deng Qi are good friends, fighting side by side, and close friends.

Since the sixth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu rescued Deng Qi from the Tuqiao nest in Tangyin. Seamless.

They fought successively in Hebei, and quelled the rebellion in Henan, making great contributions to the imperial court.

It was a very happy day.

The news of Deng Qi's death came so suddenly that Zuo Liangyu didn't believe it at first, and even tied up the Sichuan soldiers who reported the news and beat him up.

He wondered if this method of death was farting. Longzhou was a military center in ancient times, but with the end of the dispute, Longzhou is just a small city in the inland. The spear was high, Zuo Liangyu thought to himself, even if he stood on it and let him jump down, he wouldn't be able to fall to his death.

But Lu Ding, a freshman from Henan beside him, interjected, causing Zuo Dashuai to fall into deep thought.

Lu Ding said: "If the city wall of Longzhou is higher, Marshal Deng will definitely not run to the wall."

When the authenticity of Deng Qi's death was verified, in fact Zuo Liangyu's sadness of losing a friend has been washed away a lot, and what is left is more sorrow of hurting others.

But right now Zuo Liangyu didn't care about mourning for Deng Qi at all, because Liu Chengzong's soldiers had already controlled the outskirts of Qinzhou, he had a premonition that if he mourned for a while, he would go down to find Deng Qi.

"Am I being deceived?"

Zuo Liangyu frowned while facing the map hung by the garrison department and listening to the report of his troops.

The situation is very serious. The day before yesterday, the west and south suburbs of Qinzhou were sealed off by the Marshal Tangqi, but his Tang soldiers were still able to go out to the north bank of the Weihe River in the north and Baoji in the east under the protection of Ding Xuanfeng. The official road is also unimpeded.

It was because of this that his people were able to contact Wang Yuncheng and other generals of the Sichuan Barracks, and asked them to move the garrison to Qinzhou to join forces with the Left Army.

But today, the north bank of the Weihe River has been completely occupied by the marshal's army Tangqi. Even the Yongchuan River and Maiji Mountain in the east have Tang soldiers shaking their flags and spears. Zuo Liangyu has lost contact with the Sichuan barracks. A thousand households can not be contacted.

Zuo Liangyu sensed that something was wrong, he had never seen anyone use Tang Bing like this.

The purpose of the Tang soldiers is to raise an alarm during the march, whether it is temporary or permanent, usually 24 Tang cavalry are equipped with an army along the way. Even if a battalion is divided into three groups, there are only more than 300 people, and more things can be done. no.

Where is it like Liu Chengzong, Tangqi who is all over the mountains and plains, directly pulled out blockades one after another around the periphery of Qinzhou City, and started to encircle them.

Under normal circumstances, when you see the enemy's Tangma, most of the large troops are already twenty miles away. If you don't want to fight an encounter, you have to stay away from the enemy's Tangbing.

This is also the reason why Zuo Liangyu asked the servants in Qi Miliu to choose the front to drive away the marshal's army a few days ago, but after fighting several times, his servants failed to find the main force of the marshal's army.

To this day, Zuo Liangyu recalled that he was deceived, and most of Liu Chengzong's main force was not around a few days ago.

After all, the scale of Liu Chengzong's Tangqi was too weird. Not only Qinzhou was attacked, Zhang Yingchang, Deng Qi, He Renlong, Yang Yanchang and others in the north were all attacked by Tang soldiers at almost the same time earlier.

The problem is that the Ming army has calculated the strength of the Marshal's Mansion that can be transferred to Shaanxi for combat. After removing the rogues attached to the south, Liu Chengzong's headquarters can have as many as [-] elite soldiers capable of mobile combat. According to this strength, Tangqi It is impossible to make such a big commotion.

Now that the Tang soldiers are making such a battle, they can't have five hundred soldiers, divided into 250 groups, with 24 Tang and Tang cavalry in each group, and five cavalry in each pond, forming a total force of [-], right?

Zuo Liangyu was thinking about this when he suddenly heard a report from his servant that several cavalry cavalry soldiers from the direction of Baoji in the east had rushed through the blockade of the marshal's mansion and asked to enter the city outside the trench.

Liao soldiers?

Liao soldiers are Wang Yuncheng's soldiers.

Today, the Sichuan Barracks is the same as Zuo Liangyu’s Changping Camp, with few troops, but the factions are very mixed. There are not only Sichuan officers and soldiers who followed Deng Qi out of Sichuan, but also Shi Jiebaigan soldiers who were recruited after Zhang Fengyi’s death. As far as the Liao soldiers in Zunhua, there are supplementary Henan soldiers and the surrendered Shaanxi and Shanxi bandits.

Zuo Liangyu was overjoyed and said: "Verify that they are upright, let them enter the city quickly!"

Not long after, Zuo Liangyu saw two Liao soldiers in a panic at the official office of the Qinzhou Guard, and his servant reported beside him: "Marshal, there are 12 of them, only five of them entered the city, and three of them entered the city." Injured by a gun, he was placed in the northwest small camp, and he has already gone to call for a medical craftsman."

As he said that, the servant handed over a three-eyed blunderbuss and said, "This is the weapon they used to capture Liu Thief Tang Ma."

Zuo Liangyu could tell that it was the three-eyed gun of the Marshal Army.

In a country as vast as the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for any kind of weapon to have only one shape, and the three-eyed gun is no exception. There are several versions, usually longer in the north, shorter in the south, longer in the east, and shorter in the west. , Short made by the people.

Like in the south, the function of this thing is hunting, sacrifice, cannon, and anti-thief, and the pipe is not short if it is six inches.

As for the Northwest, to defend against shirtless Mongolian men running around on horseback, the length is not the most important thing. The requirement is to be lighter and stronger at the same time. It can shoot out eight or nine scatterers with one shot, ensuring that there will be lead paste. On the human body, it should be short and thick.

But in Liaodong, the length is very important, not to mention whether it can hurt people or not, it can't even give yourself courage, it's better to shoot with a bow and arrow.

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong, the three-eyed gun is longer than that of Liaodong.

Zuo Liangyu only glanced at it, then asked his servant to put the three-eyed blunderbuss aside, and asked Liao Bing, "How are your people? Where have you been?"

"Back to Commander-in-Chief, there are Liu Zeitang horses everywhere. I dare not go to Qingshui, so I can only go west along the river from Chencang, Baoji, and am ambushed by his Tang soldiers halfway. Commander-in-chief report."

"wrong."

Zuo Liangyu frowned upon hearing this, shook his head one after another and said, "No, no, the army of thieves is not here."

The Liao soldiers who broke through reminded him that the road from Qinzhou to Baoji is difficult to travel by the Weihe River, and soldiers and horses can only move along the river bank path. Qinzhou is meaningless to Liu Chengzong.

The significance of Qinzhou lies in the stationing of its own army.

Liu Chengzong wouldn't force tens of thousands of people to storm the Weicheng of Qinzhou, just to beat himself to death here.

Zuo Liangyu judges others by himself, and now all the ministries of the Ming army are harassed by the marshal's army, and every city on the thousands-mile-long front thinks that the marshal's army is staring at him. What does this mean?
It meant that no one dared to move, and they all wanted to ask the friendly army for help, but in this way... the Longshan defense line seemed to be empty, and Liu Chengzong thought that he could pass it at any time.

"Longzhou, who will defend Longzhou after you leave?"

The Liao soldiers bowed their heads and did not make a sound, Deng Qi was forced to death, who else could defend Longzhou, they all withdrew anyway.

After thinking and thinking, Liao Bing said, "Hu Erchun, the Zhizhou."

Zuo Liangyu raised his hand to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything. He just walked back to the table and tapped twice with his fist.

He thought: It's broken, the thief is going to break through from Longzhou.

But at this moment, there was a sudden commotion in the city, and a moment later, the commander of Qinzhou Wei ran into the official office like a gust of wind: "Marshal, a large group of thieves came from the west of the city, and they couldn't see the edge at a glance. !"

Zuo Liangyu didn't think about where Liu Chengzong was at the moment, he just let those Liao soldiers go down to rest, and ordered his relatives to pack up his armor and weapons, and hurried to the city.

Before I went to the city, I saw smoke and dust billowing from the west of the city.

Soon, Zuo Liangyu saw countless horse infantry marching westward along the Xihe River from the mouth of the Xiekou. The drums were beating from far to near, and the hillsides, terraced fields, and river banks were covered with banners.

The menacing posture made Zuo Liangyu, who was wearing armor on the top of the wall, squint his eyes, his heart pounding, and he thought: Is my judgment wrong?
Could it be that annihilating his own army is so important to Liu Chengzong?How could he let the unsuspecting Longzhou not fight, and run over to fight his own Qinzhou guard?

Not in line with common sense.

According to Zuo Liangyu's thinking, Liu Chengzong should have already entered Longshan Mountain, and two days later he would cross the dangerous zone and enter the Guanzhong Plain. Is it worth using so many troops in such a small place as Qinzhouwei?

The mighty soldiers and horses, the military flag that stretches to the sky, the mighty thousands of people look at it makes people feel flustered.

But Zuo Liangyu is not afraid, he has seen bigger formations than this before, the posture of the Donghu Tartars when they attacked his position in Songshan and Xingshan was even scarier than this, so what?

In the end, it wasn't a shame to burn the corpse and get out!
But the head servant handed over the binoculars, Zuo Liangyu looked over and discovered something strange.

On the largest flag, he saw five large characters: Henan General Military Officer.

Zuo Liangyu wondered what a general military officer in Henan was. Daming did not have such an official position, and Henan did not have a general military officer.

And why did he feel so familiar, as if he had heard of this official somewhere.

In this tense environment with a large army pressing down on the border, the soldiers on the city were busy arranging defenses, and rows of guards and flag troops were running around pushing all kinds of defense equipment above and below the city. Zuo Liangyu frowned and struggled. Brain, suddenly clapped his hands, startling the general beside him.

Zuo Liangyu's frowning brows were full, and he laughed and cursed: "Damn it, I remembered!"

The general officer of the Marshal's Mansion in Henan is Zhang Yichuan, the sweeping king who defected to Liu Chengzong.

Luo Dai, the general beside him, saw Zuo Liangyu suddenly relaxed, and asked, "Marshal, what's the matter?"

Zuo Liangyu handed out the binoculars and pointed to the western outskirts of the city with a smile: "Who are you supposed to be here? I didn't know until I saw the banner that it turned out to be Zhang Yichuan, our old acquaintance in Henan. Yes, I thought it was your country party who came in person!"

Luo Dai is from Yan'an Prefecture, and he is from the same hometown as Liu Shizi, but he was transferred to Jiliao in the early years and had no contact with Liu Chengzong. Later, he fought with Xu Dingguo, the deputy general of Jiliao, in Denglai, and then transferred to Henan. Get on board.

When he heard that it was Zhang Yichuan who came from outside the city, Luo Dai was equally astonished, picked up the binoculars and looked at the army formation to the west, and said in amazement: "I haven't seen him in the past few months, but Zhang Yichuan's formation has changed. "

To be honest, with the spread of Zhang Yichuan's name in the city, it seemed that the army formation outside the city was weakened a bit.

They fought Zhang Yichuan several times in Henan, and every time they beat him to the ground, now the veteran general of the Ming army in the city calmed down when he heard this name, and then observed the enemy's formation with a normal heart. It can be seen that the situation of the so-called Henan General Army Officer is false.

The formation of troops is indeed scary, but it is nothing more than the visual and auditory effects caused by the large number of troops, horses and drums. When people calm down and look carefully, there are many infantry and few horse soldiers. There are no mules and cavalry - they are indeed not Liu Chengzong's soldiers.

For a while, the generals enthusiastically challenged each other.

Liu Chengzong has never seen it before, so he can't fight; Zhang Yichuan and the others have seen it a lot, and they are like sweeping kings!

Zuo Liangyu inspected the banner and estimated the strength of the troops according to the formation. There were quite a few children, old men and women mixed in the formation. Just looking at the soldiers, he reckoned that they were two small battalions of 2000 people. He said to Luo Dai: "Zhang Yichuan has made progress. Hidden soldiers, I heard that he recruited 4000 troops last year, and now there are only [-], you lead the infantry out of the city to attack him for a while to boost morale."

Hearing this, Luo Dai put on the bowl he was holding, embraced his fists to accept the order, and asked, "Do you want to chase?"

"Hmm..." Zuo Liangyu shook his head first, and then paused: "Who doesn't know that Chuangjun defeated Fanna's three axes, but it's okay to chase for two miles. Let's see what skills he learned from Liu Chengzong."

After finishing speaking, Zuo Liangyu warned again: "But don't rush out of the city, first let the family Ding Xuanfeng take the Tang soldiers out for a stroll, and then go out to fight if there are no ambush soldiers around."

And on the other side.

In Ershilipu outside the city, halfway up the mountain was covered with Qingluo two-eave canopy on the top of the pagoda, and on the other side of the river, at the foot of Mount Chuankou, teams of soldiers climbed the mountain with heavy rocket boxes on their backs to build a preset launch site.

Near the canopy, Zhang Yichuan, with his arms akimbo, was instructing his subordinates to bury steel mines under the canopy. In the field to the west, Liu Yiyong, the head coach of the Henan Fifth Battalion, who was on the battlefield for the first time, was directing the artillery to fire the general cannon and the Franc machine. Hidden in the wilderness, the entire rear of the army was busy.

After the artillery was set up, Zhang Yichuan rode over to look for Liu Yiyong, looked at Qinzhou Acropolis with his binoculars, frowned and muttered to himself: "Why don't they go out of the city yet? Don’t they think I’m the commander-in-chief of the imperial court? Or...the flag of King Sweeping is raised again?”

Liu Yiyong also murmured in his heart, after all, although he grew up in Haierying and was taught a lot of military tactics and military drills by those chief soldiers and generals in Xincheng Academy, it was actually his first time on the battlefield.

But hearing Zhang Yichuan's words, he quickly waved his hands and said, "That's not necessary. They know it's you, and they must be on guard against knocking you down. Even if they don't know it's you, seeing the messy formation, they probably have to fight in a while."

"We'll blow them up for a while when they're going to fight, and kill their vigor; if they don't fight, we don't panic. They're not the main force anyway, and it's enough to contain their energy."

Zhang Yichuan was kind and good, and he felt relieved when he heard that fighting was not necessary. He had a psychological shadow on Zuo Liangyu, and it would be best not to be cannon fodder in front of him.

But for him, this is not the most important thing. Zhang Yichuan looked around and saw that there was no one around him, so he leaned over to Liu Yiyong and asked, "Brother, what did the commander leave? I have kept it hidden for two days. It's all on the battlefield, can you tell me?"

Before dispatching troops, Liu Chengzong sent a letter to Liu Yiyong, requesting Zhang Yichuan to march to Qinzhou, but he also left other words to prevent him from telling Zhang Yichuan at that time, so that the Henan General Soldier was restless these two days, asking what he said , Liu Yiyong did not say either.

But this time Liu Yiyong didn't refuse him anymore, instead he ran to the canopy and searched for the engraved leak near the flag and drum. He estimated that the time was almost up, so he turned to Zhang Yichuan and took out the letter in his arms, and said seriously: "Shuai Zhang , Commander-in-Chief has orders."

"It is said that Zhang Yichuan, the commander-in-chief of Henan, at this time I have led the army into Fengxiang Mansion in Guanzhong, and ordered your troops to encircle Qinzhou Guard, and send messengers to the west to call for friends. When I capture Baoji, I will send troops to Guanzhong immediately!" (End of this chapter )