The million-strong army led by Tokhtar divided his troops halfway and sent several troops to besiege Gaoyou, Liuhe, Chuzhou, Hezhou and other places. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The army attacking Chuzhou was led by his brother Timur, who led an army of nearly 100,000 men to Chuzhou with great vigour. When he was about to approach Chuzhou, the scouts spotted that there was a Red Turban army of several hundred people fifty miles ahead.

Geng Zaicheng's troops did not engage the Yuan army head-on, and while pretending to be invincible and fleeing in all directions, they deliberately or unintentionally led the enemy towards the mountain stream.

Although the mountain stream is not far from the city, it is under a cliff, the two banks are lined with trees, covering the sky and the sun, and a silver snake-like stream flows down the steep rock, sometimes urgently, sometimes slowly, splashing clouds of mist.

Munda led the vanguard army to pursue all the way to the mountain stream, and saw that the defeated army was crossing the river, although the Yuan was born in the north, and there were not many good swimmers, but the river was not up to the knees, and the stones in the water could be seen, so he hurriedly dismounted and chased after him.

Unexpectedly, the Yuan army had just crossed to the middle of the river, and suddenly the horns and drums were contending, and many horses and horses were killed between the woods on both sides, and the ammunition and arrows were densely packed like locusts flying in, and there was even a kind of explosives wrapped in iron sheets that were thrown towards the crowded places, and every time they exploded, they stirred up a high splash, and the iron sheets were cut on the Yuan army as sharp as a blade.

The Yuan army couldn't dodge, and fled back with a wolf howl. I only heard a few loud rumbling sounds, the mountain shook the ground, countless stones fell down, killing many soldiers, and after a while, the stream converged into a waterfall and fell from the sky, and it turned out that the Red Turban Army had blown up a breach in the cliff. The unhindered stream rushed down, wrapped in countless rocky branches, and the river was swollen with dense blisters, and soon became a vast river.

The Yuan army hurriedly ran to the shore, but how could there be land convenience in the water, the torrent was like an invisible big hand dragging them downstream, and the Yuan army who only cared about fleeing for their lives pushed each other, and many soldiers who did not know the nature of the water struggled desperately in the river. When Munda fled ashore with the help of his own soldiers to reorganize the team, he found that at least half of the soldiers had lost their lives in the mountain stream.

The Yuan army was frightened by the ambush of the mountain stream, and fled back one by one despite Munda's orders. At this time, the army was in turmoil, and the situation was uncontrollable, so Munda had to return with the remnants of the army to restore his life.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the Yuan army really hit the plan, and immediately led a large team of men and horses to beat the water dogs.

When the other generals in Chuzhou City saw Zhu Yuanzhang's success, they were afraid that he would snatch the credit away by himself, so they didn't wait for Guo Zixing to give orders, so they rushed out and stepped forward to fight for merit.

Before Munda's team left the mountain stream, they were surrounded by the Red Turban Legion, and the Yuan soldiers had already lost their fighting spirit and simply abandoned their weapons and surrendered. Seeing that the general trend had gone, Munda knew that the defeat was all due to his underestimation of the enemy, so he killed himself under his horse before the Red Turban Army approached, and only a small part of the Yuan army fled in a hurry.

Timur also heard that the vanguard army was annihilated, and he was filled with grief and anger, and saw the thick smoke billowing in the direction of Chuzhou, and the horses' hooves bursting, and he didn't know how many men and horses came. His army, which claimed to be hundreds of thousands, was actually only tens of thousands, and the vanguard army had suffered a lot of losses, so he had no choice but to lead the army to retreat from Chuzhou and join forces with Toto.

The temporary retreat of the enemy army did not relieve Guo Zixing's pressure, several wars were fought, and the food in Chuzhou City became more and more scarce, Guo Zixing convened the generals to discuss the strategy of raising food, and everyone's eyes fell on Zhu Yuanzhang.

Guo Tianxu blamed in a strange way: "You have relieved the siege of Liuhe, why haven't you collected grain from Liuhe? And when will your grain from Hezhou arrive?"

Liuhe was besieged by the Yuan army for half a month, and the grain had long been exhausted, did he want him to take away the last bit of rations from the people? Zhu Yuanzhang was unhappy in his heart, and he had to say: "When I rushed to Liuhe, the city was broken and the grain was destroyed, but fortunately, there was still a little grain stored in Hezhou, and I had already sent someone to transport the grain before I set out on the expedition, and it was estimated that it would be in the next few days. ”

Unexpectedly, as soon as his words fell, a scout came to report: "The prince of the Yuan court, the prince of the Yuan court, the privy deputy Shi Fei Renma, and the marshal of the People's Army, Chen Yexian, respectively stationed troops in Xintang, Qingshan, Jilongshan and other places, cut off the grain route of Hezhou, and prepared to attack Hezhou. ”

As soon as he heard that Hezhou was besieged, Zhu Yuanzhang's face suddenly changed, and Ma Xiuying and other family members did not know their safety in Hezhou City. He hurriedly asked for the help of the leading troops.

Everyone didn't care about the safety of Zhu Yuanzhang's family, but they were worried that the grain road would cut off and the grain could not be delivered in time, so they all agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang to send troops.

Guo Zixing asked him to lead his troops to Hezhou.

Guo Tianxu originally wanted to suggest that Guo Zixing intercept the artillery in Zhu Yuanzhang's team, but seeing this situation, he couldn't speak, and watched Zhu Yuanzhang's team leave in a hurry with a large number of captured weapons.

It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to support Liuhe, he was afraid that the war would affect Hezhou, so Li Shanchang discussed with other generals to block the city gate, and unless Zhu Yuanzhang returned from the expedition, no one was allowed to open the city gate without permission.

When the news of the Yuan court's army going south arrived, the situation in Hezhou suddenly became tense, and the people who could not leave the city hurriedly rushed to buy food, some black-hearted profiteers began to increase the price of grain, and some hooligans and ruffians also took the opportunity to jump out to make trouble, and the atmosphere in the city became more and more panicked.

Ma Xiuying had heard many things about people's mood fluctuating and grabbing grain and burning houses during the war, and as early as when the city gate was blocked, she ordered the guards in the palace to be under martial law to prevent small chaos, and at the same time asked Li Shanchang and the Feng brothers to strengthen the vigilance of the soldiers left behind in Hezhou. Once there are lawbreakers who make trouble, they can't help but say that they will be imprisoned first, and those black-hearted profiteers will be warned by the government as soon as the price of grain increases, and at the same time, the government will open the granary to save the market, and the women's army led by Yang Yunhua will also walk the streets and alleys to appease the people's emotions.

With the orderly implementation of one policy after another to appease the people, the panicked people gradually settled down.

However, just when Ma Xiuying, Li Shanchang and others were just breathing a sigh of relief, bad news suddenly came, and a large group of Yuan troops was approaching in the direction of Hezhou.

Fortunately, the city gate had already been closed, and the army was also ready to prepare for war at the first time, and the menacing Yuan army had a closed door, and the sky was dark, so the camp had to be temporarily stationed in Shilipo outside Hezhou City.

In the past, the Zhu Mansion was full of relatives, only the candlelight that never went out all night exposed the panic in people's hearts, and from time to time there were intermittent sobs, which made people feel more and more heavy.

Standing in the garden, you can see the fire outside the city that goes straight to the sky, and Ma Xiuying frowned. This time, the Yuan court dispatched so many troops, I don't know if Zhu Yuanzhang's rescue of Liuhe went smoothly.

Xun Ying persuaded in a low voice: "Master, it is better for you and the others in the mansion to evacuate Hezhou first, and then come back when it is safe." ”

Ma Xiuying stroked the sleeve arrow on her arm and shook her head, "The people in the city are already panicking, if I leave again, I am afraid that the morale of the army will be shaken even more." Besides, there are Yuan troops outside the city, and if you go out, you will fall into the net, and it is better to be safe in the city, otherwise I would like to send my sister-in-law and a few children away. You ask Yang Yunhua to send someone to the mansion to guard the sisters-in-law, and then ask the shadow guards to secretly protect them closely, don't let the young people take advantage of the chaos. Don't worry, if the starling knows that Hezhou is besieged, he will definitely lead the army to rescue immediately, we just need to survive this period of time. ”

Xun Ying sighed softly and silently stepped back to arrange everything. As Ma Xiuying said, there are Yuan troops outside the city, where can you flee to, it is better to stick to the city and wait for Zhu Yuanzhang to rescue.

Immediately after that, more detailed information came that this Yuan army was led by the prince of the Yuan court, Bal Jian, and there were about 30,000 or 40,000 people. Bal Jian originally planned to join the Privy Deputy Shi Fei Renma and the Marshal of the People's Army Chen Ye to reinforce the forces attacking Chuzhou, but who knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had beheaded Luan Mahai and defeated Yexian Timur, and the three of them saw that there was no hope of seizing Chuzhou, so they turned around and came to attack Hezhou, trying to take advantage of the emptiness of Hezhou's troops to pick up a bargain.

If Zhu Yuanzhang's army is still there, the 30,000 or 40,000 people in Bald Jian are not to be feared at all, but Zhu Yuanzhang took most of the soldiers away when he rescued Liuhe, and Hezhou is equivalent to an empty city, not to mention that 30,000 or 40,000 enemies are serving, even 10,000 or 20,000 people may not be able to resist. Bald Jian also knew that Hezhou was not heavily guarded, so he dared to come arrogantly.

In order to avoid causing greater panic among the people of Hezhou, the military did not dare to let the news leak out of half of it. That night, no one could sleep with the state soldiers, and they all gathered in the barracks to discuss countermeasures.

Ma Xiuying and Yang Yunhua did not avoid suspicion, they changed into men's clothes respectively, and appeared in the barracks with everyone in the same account to give advice.

"What good plan do you have? The city of Hezhou is not large, if the Ming Japanese army rests and besieges Hezhou, our army will be worried. Li Shanchang was so anxious that the corners of his mouth were blistering, a few of his beards were plucked out and he didn't know the pain, there were a few obvious creases on his neat and decent robe, and there were also ink stains between his fingers. He was anxious, Zhu Yuanzhang told him to take good care of Hezhou when he left, and handed over the tiger talisman to him, which was Zhu Yuanzhang's great trust in him, if there was a mistake in Hezhou, he didn't know how to explain to Zhu Yuanzhang. Before the Yuan army approached the city, he wrote hard and asked for help from all sides. However, regardless of whether there are reinforcements coming or not, if the state can't hold it before this, everything will be in vain. That's why Ma Xiuying and Yang Yunhua disguised themselves as men and followed the army to ask politics, and he was in no mood to care.

Lu Zhongheng stood up and said, "Why don't you lead the army to attack the Yuan army's camp tonight and catch him off guard." ”

"No!" Feng Guosheng and Li Shanchang dissuaded at the same time, "Our army is now less than 10,000 troops, less than one-third of the opponent's, and rashly attacking is like a praying mantis blocking its arm." Besides, the candles in the opponent's camp are bright, and they must have been prepared for a long time, even if the sneak attack is estimated to not be smooth, but our army can't afford any damage at present. ”

"Then what should I do? Waiting for people to attack the city?" Lu Zhongheng sat down depressedly, the enemy was outnumbered, if he didn't sneak attack, would he still have to face it head-on?

Feng Guosheng looked at everyone and said: "The only way to do this now is to stick to Hezhou and drag it out until the chief soldier returns." ”

In fact, Li Shanchang also had this intention in his heart, but he didn't want to say this kind of words to increase the enemy's momentum first. First, he did not follow Zhu Yuanzhang for a long time, and second, there were several belligerent generals in the battalion who definitely could not accept this kind of stubborn tactics. After Feng Guosheng said his thoughts, he followed: "I have sent several scouts out of the city, and I believe that the chief soldier will receive the news soon. ”

Li Xincai and the other generals shouted, "The chief soldier is attacking Liuhe, what if I can't pull away?" I agree with General Lu's suggestion and rush to kill him while the enemy army is still resting. ”