weaving

Yanli Village, twenty miles away to the west of Kaifeng City, is full of flags. Groups of soldiers from the invading army are constantly coming and going. Some are carrying burdens and carts to sort out various military supplies, and some are patrolling with knives and guns.

It has been more than ten days since Cao Cao's army besieged Kaifeng City on all sides, but there has not been a single attack on the city. They have only fought intensely with the soldiers and civilians who were defending in the city to seize the vast wheat fields outside the city.

As in the past, the more wars came, the more attention was paid to military inspections. According to news coming back from various places, the former governor Yang Wenyue went to station near Luoyang in Henan Prefecture after the last battle of Kaifeng.

Now, taking advantage of the opportunity of Chuang Cao's army to conquer the east of Henan, he led his troops south. In Runing Mansion, Shang Cai met up with Ding Qirui, Zuo Liangyu and others who came from the south. They were stepping up their efforts to collect food and grass, and would soon go north to rescue Kaifeng. .

In addition, an army was also found on the bank of the river north of Xingze. Although the specific size of the army was unknown, its banner seemed to be that of the local army in northern Henan. Neither King Chuang nor Luo Rucai paid enough attention to it. of attention.

But there was a rumor that had not yet been confirmed, but they paid great attention to it - the imperial court mobilized the border troops of Zhang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, to rescue Kaifeng - the same troops that defeated King Chuang in the first battle of Kaifeng - -It is said that this time they came with the remaining power of Jinzhou's defeat of the Tatars.

Mentioning the name Zhang Cheng, there was a burst of curses in the camp. Many people were unwilling to be defeated by Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army!

They all thought that because they wanted to attack Kaifeng in a hurry, they only brought a few elite cavalry and infantry. After being ambushed by Zhang Cheng's dog bandits, they seemed to have insufficient troops. This led to the failure of the siege of Kaifeng, not It was defeated by an upright battle formation.

Especially Liu Tichun, the general who broke into the camp known as the "Two Tigers", disapproved of this!

When the Chuang army first laid siege to the city, he was the first general in the Chuang camp to actually fight against the Xuanfu army led by Zhang Cheng, and the only general in the Chuang camp who had truly faced the power of Xuanfu's fine cavalry.

However, in the past two years, the Chuang army has been growing stronger. Not only has it experienced many battles, but it has also formed its own elite cavalry. The Chuang king Li Zicheng is already testing his own cavalry "three walls" battle. Law.

"Every time we approach a battle formation, we have 30,000 horses, which are called three walls. The former look back and the latter kill them. The battle is long and the horse soldiers pretend to be defeated in order to lure the officers and soldiers. The infantry has 30,000 spears, and the thrusts are like flying. The horse soldiers If you fight back, you will be victorious."

In fact, this cavalry tactic called "Three Walls" was not invented by Li Zicheng, but was learned from the Yansui frontier army in Shaanxi. Chuang Wang Li himself had been a frontier army, and he also knew the three walls tactics early. Just understand.

However, due to lack of strength, I have never thought of this tactic. However, since I entered Henan, I have overcome obstacles all the way and continued to grow smoothly. Especially after killing Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian one after another, I captured more than 10,000 war horses and recruited several With an army of ten thousand officers, he had the conditions to implement the Three Walls strategy.

And not only the cavalry has been strengthened and developed, but also the infantry has "replaced shotguns with cannons." Not only do they use more sophisticated weapons, but their armor coverage has also been greatly improved. In addition, the invaders now have abundant food and grass, and they are full of food. , the soldiers are even more brave.

The strongest cavalry in the army was followed by the armored infantry under the generals, then the newly recruited local bandits, and the newly recruited soldiers. They belonged to the third echelon, while the hungry civilian servants formed in the army were the strongest. It can be regarded as the fourth echelon, basically belonging to the role of cannon fodder.

Today's invading army has become so powerful that they even defeated and killed former governor Yang Wenyue, two governors of Shaanxi Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian. Compared with a year ago, they are completely different.

Liu Tichun also heard that Zhang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu of the Ming Dynasty, led his army in a battle with the Tatars in Liaodong last year, and it was said that he also won a complete victory. This shows that Zhang Cheng has not been idle in the past two years. Judging from this Come on, he is indeed a rare and strong opponent for Chuangjun!

But so what?

According to Liu Tichun's estimation, even if Zhang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, has become more powerful in the past two years, he will never be stronger than today's Chuang Army. After all, Zhang Cheng is within the imperial court's system, and King Chuang is After two years of traversing the land of Zhongzhou, countless cities were broken, money and food were abundant, and there were successive battles. The number of officers and soldiers recruited alone was tens of thousands. Who would be afraid of Zhang Cheng, the general soldier of the Xuanfu!

At this moment, Liu Tichun was still asking himself in his heart - was his defeat at the hands of Zhang Cheng unfair or not?

He was thinking about having another battle with Zhang Cheng, but he still didn't believe it. Could it be that Zhang Cheng was a three-headed and six-armed Nezha who could also master magic and magic? With his current powerful army of hundreds of thousands, Still can't beat him?

In addition, it is said that the imperial court has transferred the new governor of Baoding, Zhang Fuzhen, to lead the Jinan army to assist Kaifeng. It is expected that they will arrive in the near future. If nothing unexpected happens, Zhang Cheng, the general of the Xuanfu, is also very likely to come to Kaifeng with Zhang Fuzhen.

After all, Zhang Fuzhen is the former Governor of Xuanda, so he can be said to be Zhang Cheng’s old leader!

King Chuang, who was stationed outside Kaifeng City, was also paying close attention to the movements of the various reinforcements coming from all directions. His strategy this time was to besiege the city and mobilize reinforcements. His intention was to defeat the reinforcements from all directions of the Ming Dynasty, rather than rush to attack Kaifeng City.

When he learned that Ding Qirui, Yang Wenyue, and Zuo Liangyu's reinforcements had marched north from Runing Mansion, he immediately sent an order to Tian Jianxiu and other generals, asking them to quickly retreat from Zhengzhou, Rongyang, and Xinzheng and rush back to Kaifeng. They met up with the army at the foot of the city, and at the same time sent flying cavalry to chase Li Guo, asking him not to fight with Yuan Shizhong's Xiaoyuan camp. They defeated him, taught him a lesson, and then withdrew and returned.

According to rumors, Ding Qirui's reinforcements from the south alone had more than 200,000 troops. Even if the rumors were bluffing, even if half of the imaginary number was cut off, the reinforcements along this route would still have at least more than 100,000 troops.

Among them, Zuo Liangyu alone has more than 100,000 soldiers under his command, and his capable soldiers are more than 70,000 to 80,000. The former governor of Baoding Yang Wenyue also has more than 10,000 troops with a powerful general force, which is also relatively elite. Although the Biao camp with Ding Qirui suffered considerable losses in the previous battle of Kaifeng, there were still thousands of elites.

Although in the past year and a half after entering Henan, Li Zicheng led the army of rebels to attack the prefecture and Pofu one after another and continuously defeated various imperial officials and troops, this time the three openings were too important for him.

In his heart, he has regarded this battle as the beginning of his domination of the world. He must win, and there is no room for mistakes!

…………

On the seventh day of May, at dusk.

Yanli Village, twenty miles west of Kaifeng City, was full of generals and cavalry from Chuangying Laofu, and a large landowner's house was requisitioned by King Chuang as his camp.

At this moment, a military meeting is being held here. In addition to Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Li Yan, Liu Zongmin, Gao Yigong, Tian Jianxiu and other civil and military personnel who broke into the camp, Luo Rucai, Ji Gua, Yang Chengzu, Yang Mingqi, Wang Long and other civil and military personnel from Cao camp All the dignitaries attended.

This round of military discussions has been going on for a long time, and everyone has already made plans on how to besiege Kaifeng. There is no disagreement on this, but how to fight the imperial reinforcements and which reinforcements to deal with first cannot be finally determined.

According to the information currently available, the imperial reinforcements can be roughly divided into three groups. One is Ding Qirui, Yang Wenyue, and Zuo Liangyu. They are now heading north from Ruzhou and have passed through Yancheng; the other is Xuanfu, The border soldiers from the three towns of Datong and Shanxi are unknown, and everyone speculates that they may have arrived somewhere on the north bank of the river; the third is the officers and soldiers of the new governor Zhang Fuzhen, who are reported to have entered the territory of Zhangde Prefecture in northern Henan. They will be stationed on the north bank of the river to wait and see the situation in Kaifeng.

Both the civil and military forces of the two battalions of Chuangcao believed that the current focus should be on Ding Qirui's road. They stepped up their sentry reconnaissance in the direction of Weishi, Tongxu, and Qixian, and paid close attention to the advance route of Ding Qirui and others. Keep your direction, station a partial division, and build fortifications in key places first to be prepared.

Near the third watch, the military meeting had just dispersed. Luo Rucai and other civil and military officials from Cao Ying took the lead to leave. Song Xiance, Liu Zongmin and others said goodbye to Luo Rucai. When they were saying goodbye to King Chuang, they suddenly heard the news: "General Li Guo is back!"

When everyone heard this, they were all refreshed and no longer sleepy. Before King Chuang could give the order, Li Guo had already stepped through the door and said, "King Chuang, I'm back." Seeing that the war was about to break out, Li Guo As an important general in the Chuang camp, with him around, King Chuang would have an effective helper by his side, giving him a better chance of winning.

Before Li Zicheng could sit down, he asked eagerly: "Bu Zhi, I'm waiting for you to come back. Okay, let's talk about your pursuit of Xiao Yuan Ying first."

It turned out that after Li Guo led his troops from Yanli Village, he thought about King Chuang's order and was worried about Huimei's safety. He personally led 5,000 cavalry to march forward day and night, and ordered most of the infantry to march behind alternately.

When they entered Lanyang County, they had already met the sentry cavalry from Xiao Yuan's camp. Although they were all elite, they could not compare with the elite cavalry from the camp under Li Guo's command. After several attempts, they left in despair.

Although Li Guo and his jingqi were exhausted, seeing the traitor Yuan Shizhong right in front of them, how could they give up so easily? He personally led his five thousand jingqi in pursuit...

Finally we caught up with Xiao Yuanying's team at the border of Yifeng County. At that time, most of Xiao Yuan's camp was concentrated on the bank of the river and were crossing the river in batches.

Upon seeing this, Li Guo, without waiting for the infantry to catch up, led thousands of cavalry around him to attack Xiao Yuan's camp. The two sides defended and attacked. Although they were evenly matched, they also suffered casualties on each other.

However, judging from the situation, Li Guo was unable to prevent Xiao Yuan's camp from crossing the river, but he could delay its crossing and at the same time dealt a fatal blow to the troops that had not crossed the river.

But everything backfired!

At dusk, when it was still dark, he sent someone to deliver the letter from King Chuang advising Yuan Shizhong and the letter from Mrs. Gao to Huimei to Xiao Yuan's camp, and invited Yuan Shizhong to come out of the camp to meet him. Trying to persuade him to return in person.

But there was no reply. Even the two brothers who went to write the letter were detained in Xiaoyuan's camp and did not come back all night.

The next day, when it was still dark, in order to confuse Yuan Shizhong, Li Guo sent another junior high school officer to Xiaoyuan Camp to ask for an audience with Yuan Shizhong, claiming that Li Guo, the general who broke into the camp, asked him to come out of the camp to meet and talk.

At the beginning of Chen time, there was still no movement in Xiaoyuan Camp. Li Guo suddenly led five thousand cavalry under his command and approached Xiaoyuan Camp from the east. He first sent out more than ten soldiers with loud voices to announce to the soldiers of Xiaoyuan Camp that the battle was coming. Marshal Li Zicheng's kindness called on them to leave Xiaoyuan Camp and return to the banner of King Chuang.

Some people in Xiao Yuan's camp were really swayed by their shouting, but they did not dare to do anything because they were in the camp.

But when Li Guo led his cavalry soldiers to charge, they retreated and surrendered as soon as they engaged, and defected to Li Guo's banner before the battle. However, most of the soldiers in Xiao Yuan's camp were still loyal to Yuan Shizhong, and they formed a formation to wait. The war is about to break out.

However, just when Li Guo thought he had gained the upper hand, a group of troops suddenly came out from the north of Xiao Yuan's camp. Although he didn't have time to take a closer look on the battlefield, at a glance - it was undoubtedly the banner of the official army.

"You bastard, did you really surrender to the imperial court?"

Although there was an extra army of officers out of thin air, Li Guo was also a veteran of the battlefield and was not frightened by this sudden scene. He loudly ordered his deputy Zhang Neng to lead a thousand cavalry to intercept the officers and soldiers rushing from the north. He led 2,000 cavalrymen directly towards the central formation of Xiaoyuan Camp, and ordered another deputy general, Lu Yingbiao, to lead 2,000 cavalrymen to the south to intercept the flank of Xiaoyuan Camp.

As expected of being a famous general in the camp, Li Guo has gone through a lot of battles in recent years, both winning and losing. He can be said to be rich in battle experience. Although five thousand versus thirty thousand, he did not take Xiao Yuan's camp seriously at all. They did not take the officers and soldiers who suddenly appeared from the north seriously.

As he expected, Xiao Yuan's camp also sent more than a thousand cavalry to fight. However, not long after the battle, they were defeated and quickly retreated behind the Chinese army's formation. Although Li Guo wanted to pursue him, he could not. , was blocked by the formation of infantry.

He was about to lead his cavalry to rush south to cooperate with Lu Yingbiao's cavalry, and wanted to tear a hole in Xiaoyuan's camp in the south, but suddenly he found that Zhang Neng's more than a thousand elite cavalry in the north were attacking. Retreat...

Rather than saying it is retreat, it is better to say it is the reality of defeat!

The incident happened so suddenly that Li Guo didn't have time to think about it. He shouted loudly and immediately turned his horse and rushed north. The more than two thousand knights who broke into the camp behind him also turned their horses and followed Li Guo to meet the enemy. Toward the army and cavalry rushing towards the north.

When Li Guo met Zhang Neng, he saw that the original thousand cavalry had lost twenty-three-tenths. Before he had time to ask the reason, he realized something was wrong!

He saw the official cavalry rushing towards them. They were not very fast, but they gave people a strong sense of oppression. It seemed that he had not seen this feeling for almost two years.

Taking a closer look, he was even more surprised. Although there were only five or six hundred cavalry on the opposite side, all of them were wearing armor. What shocked him even more was that even the war horses were wearing armor.

"Where do these officers and soldiers come from?"

Seeing the general's question, Zhang Neng rode his horse and replied hastily: "Master Li, I don't know. It's so evil. Even the horse is covered with armor. We can't shoot with arrows, and we can't even cut with swords."

Li Guo glared at him, ignored him, and shouted loudly: "Form up, spread your wings, and outflank the flanks!"

Soon, Li Guo's less than three thousand cavalry formed a fan-shaped formation, with their wings extended far forward, intending to outflank the oncoming cavalry formation.

Just when Li Guo was about to give the order to attack, a private soldier rode up to him to report that the road markings to the south were also intercepted by the army's cavalry. After a hard battle, they retreated.

Li Guo was stunned when he heard this. He gritted his steel teeth and said painfully: "Retreat, the whole army retreats, joins the infantry, and then we make further calculations."

Since entering Henan, the Chuang army has suppressed the officers and soldiers all the way. Has it ever suffered a defeat?

He was unwilling to give up. Before leaving, he still did not forget to look back at the approaching cavalry. However, he saw a large rectangular flag in front of the cavalry. The flag was red, with red flaming legs and the heart of the flag. There is a pattern of the sacred bird Suzaku, a unicorn pattern is embroidered on the edge of the flag, and there seems to be a golden gun on the top, lined with red lantern spikes, and an apricot streamer under the banner.

There were several large characters embroidered on the side of the flag. Li Guo looked carefully and he could recognize these characters. They were the five golden characters of "Ming Dynasty Brave Army"!