stubborn thief

Just as Duan Fuxing was rushing to Qianzhou with his mother, wife and concubines, and Cao Wenzhao led his army to Longxi, the fighting in the west of Qinzhou was also intensifying.

Facing Zhang Yichuan's offensive, Zuo Liangyu had already completed the reversal of the situation. During two days and one night, the two sides clashed several times at the southern foot of Maiji Mountain. Zhang Yichuan was unable to break through Zuo Liangyu's camp regardless of day or night attacks.

They even almost collapsed because of the two troops sent by Zuo Liangyu to attack the rear earlier to come back for reinforcements.

In fact, it was not dangerous, even though they were beaten so hard that they ran around and collapsed. But everyone ran and felt that there was no other way out. Zuo Liangyu's army was not so enthusiastic about chasing and killing, so they spontaneously formed their team again and came back. Then fight Zuo Jun.

After all, in Longxi at this time, no matter the official army or the civilian army, it was difficult for large-scale teams to survive, and they could only fight for life and death.

However, the battle was more difficult than Zuo Liangyu imagined. Originally, the two cavalry teams he released wanted to cut off Zhang Yichuan's retreat and engage in a battle of annihilation against him, but he did not expect that Zhang Yichuan would also have support.

The North Route general Luo Dai who he sent out led nearly a thousand cavalry and crashed into the battalion of the troubled king Guo Shengpin. The South route general Zhou Shifeng also led more than a thousand cavalry and crashed into the Xie Kuai Tuo Yangkun's battalion. As a result, the two The outflanking rangers arrived at the battlefield later than Li Zicheng, who had made a large circle.

Zhang Tianlin, on the other hand, ran over from Baoji happily. Zuo Liangyu's camp at the foot of the mountain was almost completely cleared, and she returned to Fengxiang Mansion without firing an arrow.

"Commander, the elite soldiers of the fifth battalion of the Chuang Army are indeed brave. They pretended to attack the mountain stronghold, pulled out one wooden fence after another, and fought fiercely."

Zhang Tianlin ran away in vain, but she was very excited when she came back: "Essentially, attacking a city and setting up a stronghold has its own uniqueness. Li, Guo, Tuo, Zhang and others from the fifth battalion of the Chuang Army are all led by General Chuang. This man really has rules and methods for field battles." Use the army of soldiers and cavalry to charge forward forcefully. If the enemy cannot rush forward, then the auxiliary soldiers will turn into regular soldiers. The army of soldiers and cavalry will act as a bandit and charge from left to right."

"When attacking a stronghold, the main soldiers dismount, put on armor and fight to the death. The auxiliary soldiers advance forward with chisels and axes. They can take a stone or piece of wood and return to the camp. They beat it in front and demolish it in the back. It's very neat."

Liu Chengzong pondered over Li Zicheng's tactics and army organization, and then discovered that Zhang Tianlin had a contemptuous attitude towards Zhang Yichuan.

He could understand who Zhang Tianlin said were the "Li, Guo, Tuo, Zhang and others" who broke into the fifth camp of the army. Li was Li Zicheng, Guo was Guo Yingpin, the king of troubled times, Tuo was Scorpion Block Tuo Yangkun, and Zhang was Zhang Yingjin, the king of chaos. , the last person waiting... is of course Mr. Zhang Yichuan, the commander-in-chief of Henan Province at the Marshal's Mansion.

As early as when Zhang Tianlin first arrived in Qinzhou, she had written a letter from beginning to end with the intelligence of this battle and sent someone to report it to Fengxiang Mansion.

It is a fact that Zhang Yichuan was quite humiliated in this battle, so it is not surprising that Zhang Tianlin treated him like an equal.

However, Liu Shizi would not blame Zhang Yichuan. He looked at Zhang Tianlin and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter what the generals in the camp think of Mr. Zhang, but my brother must not feel contempt for his defeat to Zuo Liangyu. If Mr. Zhang had not led the newly recruited rabble If we block the Zuo army in Qinzhou, how can we easily enter Guanzhong? General Zhang should be rewarded and encouraged."

After hearing this, Zhang Tianlin realized that the Chuang Army was an outsider and Zhang Yichuan, who had surrendered, was one of his own. The reason why Zhang Yichuan wanted to fight Zuo Liangyu in Qinzhou was precisely because of Liu Chengzong's order.

It doesn't matter whether the fight was humiliating or not. What is important is that Zhang Yichuan successfully restrained Zuo Liangyu in Maiji Mountain and prevented him from moving around, allowing the [-] main force of the Marshal's Mansion to leap into the third auxiliary force.

Zhang Tianlin lowered her head after hearing this, clasped her fists and said, "What the commander taught me is that General Zhang has indeed made meritorious service."

"There is only Mr. Habayashi in the hall and no one else. This is not a lesson, it is just a personal conversation between me and my brother. I know that my brother is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, but others don't know."

Liu Chengzong smiled, but in fact Zhang Tianlin was not cold on the outside but hot on the inside. She just looked down on people and looked down on everyone who was weaker than him.

Moreover, he is the reincarnation of a thankless hapless person who is willing to help others. The recipients are often weaker than him, so he will always look down on the people he has helped.

This kind of help is basically ineffective. If you help, most people will be more or less grateful. But if you look down on others and expect others to be grateful, it is a bit too test of character.

Anyway, Zhang Tianlin couldn't hear the flattery, and felt that the commander was praising him, so she was very happy, and even joked with Liu Chengzong.

After Yu Linqi, who was writing in the hall, finished recording the information about the fifth battalion of the Breaking Army, Liu Chengzong said seriously: "Then my brother burned down Maiji Mountain? The smoke can be seen sixty miles away."

Zhang Tianlin's head was shaking like a rattle, and she quickly denied Sanlian: "It's not me, I didn't, that mountain was burned by Zuo Liangyu. When he saw our army arriving on the battlefield, he wanted to run away. He couldn't take away the food, grass and baggage, and he was afraid that I would go up the mountain. If you chase him, he will be set on fire."

"But as soon as the fire started, the south wind blew, and the wind helped the fire burn to the mountains and forests outside the camp. The commander did not see it. The fire was burning up below, and Zuo Liangyu led the troops running above. I have never seen anything in my life. I’ve never seen anyone run that fast!”

Liu Chengzong was amused and laughed, and then asked about the casualties of the fifth battalion of the Intruder Army, especially Zhang Yichuan's department, before asking about Zuo Liangyu's whereabouts.

But Zhang Tianlin shook her head reluctantly and said: "Our army was chasing slowly around the mountain to avoid the fire. When we chased them to the Wei River to the north of Maiji Mountain, Zuo Liangyu had already crossed the river, destroyed the boats and set up camp, and his troops were coming from the north. Reinforcements.”

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly. The Wei River in the west of Qinzhou has a relatively deep water in the upper reaches, and it is difficult to cross without a boat.

But what attracted his attention more was the reinforcements coming from the north. He asked, "Have the Ningxia border troops come down?"

Zhang Tianlin shook her head decisively and said: "I have seen Ai Wannian who leads the troops. He is from Yansui Town."

"Ai Wannian?"

For Liu Chengzong, he had not heard this name for several years, and it felt like time and space were confused.

I remember that when he, his brother, and Cao Yao returned home from Yuhebao, and passed through Mizhi, Ai Wannian's servant gave them a sum of money to buy their way.

This familiar yet unfamiliar name made him blurt out and ask: "Are you not dead yet?"

Zhang Tianlin applauded at that time: "Commander, I thought the same thing when I saw him. I heard from General Chuang and others that Ai Wannian was already seriously ill. Last year, he was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of Gushan. He is old, but he didn’t expect that the imperial court would recruit him to lead the army again this year.”

"I can't talk across the Wei River, but I think his condition is not very good. Everyone else is riding horses, and he can only walk. He must be ill."

Zhang Tianlin thought that after she finished speaking, Liu Chengzong would ask about the situation of the army again, but she didn't expect that Liu Chengzong stopped talking after hearing this. He just frowned and walked in the hall of Fengxiang Mansion, looking up after walking a few steps. He glanced at the map hanging in the hall and fell silent.

What Liu Chengzong was thinking about was how dare Ai Wannian's army move southward from Liupan Mountain to the north bank of the Weihe River.

He estimated that Cao Yao's offensive against Ningxia was not going well, otherwise Ai Wannian was subordinate to the north, and the one who should be supported most at this time should be Ningxia, not Guanzhong in the south.

This situation is worthy of analysis in Liu Shizi's view. After all, this Eastern Expedition was forced by current circumstances against the background of drought, locust plague and plague spreading from Shanxi to Shaanxi.When he launched the army, he was not sure of victory, so he decided to command the Gansu Governor's Department and invite Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, to launch the Eastern Expedition with the tactic of three-pronged advance.

After all, we have to use the three armies of Gansu Governor Cao Yao on the north road, Marshal Liu Chengzong on the middle road, and Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang on the south road to deal with Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, and Hou Liangzhu, the Sichuan marshal. No one dares to say that this kind of battle is safe. win.

To put it bluntly, Liu Shizi is racing against Tian Ji. The north and south routes can hold back Hong Chengchou and Hou Liangzhu. If he overthrows Chen Qiyu's Shaanxi army and returns to the army to help out, then everything will be fine.

If they can't delay it, they will overthrow Chen Qiyu's Shaanxi army, rob Xi'an Mansion, and then escape back to Longxi.

At this time, Ai Wannian, who was affiliated with the three northwest sides, led his troops south to help out, which meant that Cao Yao's attack on Ningxia did not go smoothly. However, since it was Ai Wannian who was sent, it also means that Hong Chengchou was facing the governor of Gansu at this time. Although the enemy's attack was powerful, it could not win quickly.

Otherwise, there is no need to use a useless general like Ai Wannian who is plagued by old illnesses.

"There's still time."

Liu Chengzong thought for a long time and then murmured to himself: "But not much."

After a while, Yulin Cavalry marked the latest changes on the map. The gap in the west of Longzhou had been blocked, but Qinzhou's Zuo Liangyu retreated north to the north bank of the Weihe River, and Ai Wannian's Yansui Shenmu Camp also arrived. battlefield.

Obviously, the retreat routes of the Marshal's army in the four passes are being blocked by the Ming army. If Liu Shizi wants to retreat to Longxi with the entire army at the minimum cost - now is the last chance.

But the same thing is that Fengxiang Mansion and Xi'an Mansion are completely exposed to the threat of Liu Chengzong's [-] main force. On the other hand, Liu Chengzong cannot withdraw his troops. He has no better opportunity.

Therefore, even if faced with the possibility of border troops from Ningxia and Yansui towns going south, Liu Chengzong's determination to continue the attack could not be shaken. On the contrary, it made his intention even firmer: to capture the large and small cities in Guanzhong as soon as possible, and use the Qin Dynasty's 200 years of savings to Fight a decisive battle head-on with the Shaanxi Ming Army on the Guanzhong Plain.

Soon, the new order was conveyed to the brigade commander and generals while the cavalry was running around. Along with the dispatch orders, the [-] troops of the Marshal's Mansion soon made big moves.

The first one to receive the order was brigade commander Wang Wenxiu stationed in Longzhou. After defeating Tang Jiuzhou's troops, Wang Wenxiu began to shrink the defense line and gradually deployed his three battalions eastward to avoid losing touch with Liu Chengzong.

When receiving the order, Wang Wenxiu had already led Luo Rucai and Li Wanqing to Longzhou, leaving only one battalion of Yang Chengzu's troops in the mountains to recruit and surrender the defeated troops of Tang Jiuzhou's troops who had collapsed in the mountains.

The order Liu Chengzong gave him was to lead his army to Fengxiang Prefecture, with Fengxiang County as the center, and the three battalions to garrison in Longzhou, Baoji, and Fengxiang counties respectively, and attack Anyi Pass, Erlisan Pass, and Daguan from the inside. Sanguan and Jinyaguan.

Wang Wenxiu was happy when he saw the order. These passes sounded like a arduous task, but in fact they were extremely simple, because they were all passes within the Ming Dynasty and were used as tax cards on weekdays. The garrison was already very few. , the combat difficulty is very low, which can just make up for the losses of the three battalions under his command when they deployed troops to Monan earlier.

In addition, he does not need to worry about military rations. After all, the generalissimo has just appointed Li Jiayan, the magistrate of Baoji County who surrendered, as Fengxiang magistrate in Fengxiang Mansion. At this time, the entire western part of Fengxiang Mansion is busy raising food and grass, forget about feeding horses, There is a place to raise troops and repair weapons.

This is a good thing for Wang Wenxiu.

Taking good care of the rear, Liu Chengzong's next order was issued to all active soldiers and horses under his command. First, Ma Xiang, the commander of Tangqi Qian in Huben camp, was led by Ma Xiang, who was ordered to secondment Tangqi from three battalions to cooperate with the Tangqi from the headquarters to assemble as a vanguard. The army spread out on the Guanzhong Plain and advanced eastward to Xi'an Prefecture. The mission was to explore the location and strength of the Ming army, gentry armed forces, and landlord regiments they encountered.

The second order was sent to Xie Erhu and Mo Yujing of the Mongolian Brigade, as well as Shi Xiang of the Lintao Brigade.

The Mongolian brigade has 3000 cavalry, and the Lintao brigade of Shixiang had the largest consumption when it was mobilized to Monan. This time, only [-] people participated in the expedition, which was basically a battalion. The two brigades totaled [-] troops, following Ma Xiang. Responsible for destroying and holding back enemy forces that Tangqi cannot deal with.

The third order was issued to Ding Guodong, Mila Yin, and Zhang Zhen of Gansu's third small battalion. As a support force for the Mongolian Brigade and Lintao Brigade, they carried heavy weapons to destroy the stronghold and attack the city.

As for Liu Chengzong's three most elite battalions and the Huben Battalion, they marched eastward with the main army as the Chinese army. As a result, they had only gone thirty miles away when the battle reports from the front line fell on him like snowflakes.

The large-scale mobilization of the marshal's army created a rare window period for the gentry and regiment training in the counties to the east of Fengxiang Prefecture. At the same time, because Chen Qiyu called on the gentry to form armed forces in Xi'an Prefecture, the landlords and gentry in the counties to the west of Xi'an Prefecture had also completed their mobilization. There were regiment-trained troops attacking Marshal Juntang's soldiers everywhere.

Most recently in the west of Qishan County, when Wei Qian'er captured Fengxiang Fucheng, one of the defeated Tuanlian leaders was named Qu Xuezeng. He was a scholar. He was not discouraged after being defeated and fled to Qishan County. After gathering the defeated troops and regrouping, he also absorbed the local The Minzhuang regiment practiced and gathered more than [-] people to attack Marshal Tangqi's mansion.

Qu Xue once led his disciples to gallop their horses and fire arrows in the formation, and attacked and killed seven Tang soldiers in the conflict. In the end, they were hit by three-eyed muskets and fell off their horses. This group of regiment soldiers was also defeated by the Mongolian cavalry who came to support them. But this group of troops was not the only one who launched an attack on the Marshal's Army at the same time.

Li Pingji, a student from Feng County in the northern part of Hanzhong, led a regiment to support the army when Luo Rucai attacked Dashan Pass, but was killed by a Franco machine gun in the battle; Zhang Jingyao, a talented student from Yusun County, Xi'an Prefecture, and Han Shi, a Confucian scholar from Wugong County , organized a regiment training to stop the Tang soldiers, and fought with Mo Yujing, who arrived later, and also died in the battle.

Then Wugong County opened its doors as the defeated troops attacked the city defenses, and was immediately captured by Mo Yujing who pursued them.

However, Lintao Brigade Commander Shi Xiang, who was advancing in the northwest of Xi'an Prefecture, encountered a little trouble, because his attack direction was Qianzhou, where Shaanxi Councilor Duan Fuxing was stationed.

Faced with Shi Xiang's persuasion to surrender, Duan Fuxing, who led the rural soldiers to defend the city, remained unmoved because he had already found foreign aid.

There has always been a rebel army near Xi'an Prefecture that wants to be appeased. Its refugee commander is named Yang Guodong. He has three thousand soldiers and horses, and there is also a group of elite soldiers who are double-armed. Because of this, the governor does not dare to believe his request for appeasement. Will, always worried that Zhao'an will not be able to control him in the future.

But when Duan Fuxing entered Qianzhou City, he didn't want to get out alive. He didn't care about so many things. He directly agreed to Yang Guodong's request, recruited him, and allowed him to be stationed in Qianzhou to deal with Liu Chengzong.

Now Yang Guodong is preparing his troops and watching the situation on the battlefield in Guanzhong. At this time, Liu Chengzong also led the army into Xi'an Mansion.

The direction of his advance was not the much-anticipated city of Xi'an due east, but Qianzhou in the northeast.

It's not that Liu Chengzong saw through Chen Qiyu's plan to use Qianzhou as foreign aid, it's just that... Liu Chengzong was going to Yaozhou, and Yaozhou had more than 4000 horses left to him by the guarding eunuch Li Qimao.

After all, the gold and silver treasures of Prince Qin's Mansion in Xi'an cannot escape within the city, and the more than 4000 horses have more than 1 legs. Liu Chengzong must grab the ones that can run first to make it cost-effective.

And Qianzhou is on the straight line from Fengxiang to Yaozhou.

good evening!