The next day, Gou Xingwang, He Zhen, and Dang Shousu took the Sanwei Restoration Army out of Baoning City and drove to the south. At noon, when he arrived at Hexiguan, Gou Xingwang saw that there were more than 20,000 people in the army, and the march was very slow, so he said: "The two marquis, now that the army is inconvenient, I think it is better to let me go first, and then the two marquis will move slowly behind, so that they can also rush to Nanchong as soon as possible." ”

Dang Shousu said: "That's fine, then please General Gou take the first step, and we will arrive later." As soon as Gou Xingwang broke away from He Zhen and Dang Shousu's army, he ordered the whole army to march to the south.

Gou Xingwang hurried to a place called Lao Yao with the 3,000 people of the Broken Guard, and it was almost dark in the evening. At this time, Gou Xingwang saw a team of about 50 people in front of him, covered in blood. The army also carried a man from the south, and when he found Gou Xingwang's army, he formed a defensive formation with great tension, and then shouted: "Where are you army and what are you doing?" ”

Gou Xingwang saw that this group of remnants did not fight, so he said: "Who are you? Why don't you fight the flag, can't you see our flag? The person on the other side took a closer look at the banner on Gou Xingwang's side, and when he saw it clearly, he immediately cried. Gou Xingwang hurriedly sent someone to check what the situation was, and the person who went to check walked over and carefully checked their waist cards, and after asking a few more questions, he shouted at Gou Xingwang: "General, they are the defenders of the south, and they are carrying the southern defender General Cheng Dequn." ”

Gou Xingwang was taken aback, and hurriedly ran over to see who Cheng Dequn was. I saw that Cheng Dequn's armor had been shattered into several pieces, and his chest was also red with blood. Gou Xingwang hurriedly called Lang Zhong to bandage Cheng Dequn, but after Lang Zhong untied Cheng Dequn's armor, he shook his head at Gou Xingwang and did not speak. Gou Xingwang looked at Cheng Dequn's injury, the entire upper body had been cut off indecently, several ribs in his chest had been cut off, the internal organs were completely exposed, and the heart that was still struggling could almost be seen. The other organs were even more blurry. When Gou Xingwang saw this situation, he also knew that Cheng Dequn basically couldn't be saved.

It turned out that the southern part was garrisoned by the regimental battalion Deng Shigan before, but later Zhou Dazhu and Gou Xingwang both considered that if Li Guoying came to attack Baoning, he would definitely attack the southern part first. If there was only Deng Shigan, a regimental battalion garrison would not be able to hold it, and Deng Shigan was transferred to the town guard, and followed Zhu Dashan to Kuidong. Zhou Dazhu and Gou Xingwang discussed that Cheng Dequn should be stationed in the south with a thousand households, and let Cheng Dequn guard it. Gou Xingwang never thought that he had sent more than 1,000 reinforcements to Cheng Dequn two days ago, how could it be like this. Gou Xingwang looked at Cheng Dequn, who was already angry and in, and said to Cheng Dequn's soldiers hatefully: "Say, what's going on." ”

At this time, Cheng Dequn struggled and said to Gou Xingwang: "Don't blame them, they tried their best, you have to recapture the south as soon as possible, they are not on a firm foothold now, you have to be fast." Gou Xingwang took Cheng Dequn's hand and said, "Don't worry, I will definitely recapture the south." Who attacked the south? Cheng Dequn said with difficulty: "It's Wu Yiding's old dog and Lu Guangzu who should be together." Saying that, Cheng Dequn was getting weaker and weaker, and suddenly suddenly tightened my grip on Gou Xingwang's hand and said: "Kill Wu Yiding, the dog thief for me, and tell Hou Ye that Cheng Dequn went first, and he can't kill Tartar with Hou Ye." After Cheng Dequn finished speaking, his eyes immediately lost their luster, and he no longer had the strength to clench Gou Xingwang's hand. Cheng Dequn left gloomily in front of Gou Xingwang.

Gou Xingwang watched Cheng Dequn's hand slip out of his hand, as if he wanted to cry, but there were no tears. Just gritted his teeth and said, "When was the south lost?" The pro-soldier carrying Cheng Dequn said: "Not long, less than half an hour, when we withdrew from the south, there were still our people fighting with them. Yao Zizhou and Xie Shun still have about 200 people around them. ”

When Gou Xingwang heard this, he said, "How many of them are there?" The soldier said, "There are about 7,000 people." Gou Xingwang looked at the sky that had already darkened, and ordered: "The whole army immediately rushed to the south, and when they arrived, Ma Rong, you take Nong Kaiguo, Zhou Xi detour to the south gate, Chen Fuyi, you take Kong Lingying and Qiu Xingyuan to the east gate, and the rest of Dong Erchang and Jiang Bochong attack the north gate for the two of you and me." The previous A-word Qianhu C-shaped regimental battalion has been stationed in Baoning for Zhang Chang to train, and now he is also following Gou Xingwang to issue a certificate, seeing that everyone else has something to do, he doesn't have it, Zhang Chang hurriedly said: "What about me, what am I doing?" I want to avenge General Cheng Dequn. ”

Gou Xingwang looked at Zhang Chang and said, "You take your people and the firearms team of the Dadu Governor's Mansion to a place called Sanzhai three miles outside the West Gate, where the road is narrow. If Lu Guangzu wants to escape, that is the only way for him, where do you go to ambush, if you let Lu Guangzu go, you don't even want to come to see me. Zhang Chang said happily: "General, please rest assured, if he is allowed to let Lu Guangzu get rid of a soldier, there is no need for the general to say, I will apologize for my own crimes." Gou Xingwang glared at Zhang Chang and said, "There is no joke in the army, don't talk nonsense." Then he said to everyone: "Extinguish all the torches, advance while it is dark, and in half an hour you must arrive and attack." ”

Since the reorganization of the Ming Army, Wu Hongrong and Wu Yiding have secretly discussed how to surrender to the Qing court, but the messengers sent out have never received an answer. However, just five days ago, the two received a reply from Lu Guangzu, saying that as long as the two of them made contributions, he promised to say good things to the two in front of Li Guoying. The two discussed it at a glance, Wu Yiding went to the south to help Lu Guangzu capture the south, and then Wu Yiding took Lu Guangzu to fight Baoning, and then Wu Hongrong was in Baoning to do internal response, so that he could recover Baoning Mansion in one fell swoop, as long as Baoning was broken, Jianmen Pass would be attacked from both sides, and it would be no problem to capture Jianmen Pass. But Wu Hongrong counted one less person, that is, Feng Shuangli, the king of Qingyang who was recuperating from his injuries in Baoning. After Zhou Dazhu was woken up by Feng Shuangli, he directly arrested Wu Hongrong. Wu Yiding, who came to the south, didn't know that Wu Hongrong had been arrested, and it wasn't that the spies of the Qing army didn't want to tell Wu Yiding. But at that time, Zhou Dazhu directly blocked the entire Baoning City to search for it, so even if the spies of the Qing army escaped the search, they were not able to escape out of the city.

After Wu Yiding came to the south, he hurriedly sent an envoy to contact Lu Guangzu, and Lu Guangzu was also very happy after receiving Wu Yiding's letter. If he can recover Baoning in one fell swoop, he won't know who listens to whom compared to Li Guoying in the future. Lu Guangzu was originally the chief soldier of the Ming Dynasty and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong very early. And Li Guoying was the general soldier who later surrendered with Zuo Mengeng, but this Li Guoying came to the top and became the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and became Lu Guangzu's top boss. And Lu Guangzu is still a general soldier in Kuizhou, and this Kuizhou is still in the hands of Daming, so this general soldier is still a nominal position. Lu Guangzu has always been unconvinced in his heart, but this time the surrender of Wu Yiding and Wu Hongrong gave him hope. If Baoning, who didn't even beat Li Guoying, was beaten down by himself, the imperial court would have to arrange a real position for himself, and it was very likely that Li Guoying would be convicted, and he would be the governor of Sichuan.

Lu Guangzu will not let go of this opportunity, Li Guoying asked him to join Du Xue and others to attack the south together, Lu Guangzu has been waiting there for so long, and now Wu Yiding is already in the south. Immediately, Lu Guangzu took the 7,000 troops he had looted and attacked the south alone.

When Wu Yiding arrived in the southern county, the news that Lu Guangzu was preparing to increase his troops and was about to attack the south had already arrived, so Cheng Dequn had always paid attention to defense. Wu Yiding wanted to go to the city several times to help defend the city, but Cheng Dequn was not good at dealing with civil officials, so he always refused Wu Yiding to come to the city. Seeing that the day agreed with Lu Guangzu was coming, Wu Yiding was also anxious to see that he had not been able to go up the city wall. When Wu Yiding was at a loss, Baoning suddenly sent two regiments and battalions to garrison, led by Ma Tengyun.

Wu Yiding saw that it was Kuidong's general, and his eyes turned to his heart. Wu Yiding said to Ma Tengyun: "General Ma came to assist in the defense, I shouldn't have said this, but General Cheng Dequn has not had a good rest for more than ten days in the south, can General Ma go to the city to replace General Cheng Dequn for a few days." When Ma Tengyun came, He Zhen repeatedly explained that he wanted to cooperate with Cheng Dequn in Baoning to guard the city, and now when he heard that Cheng Dequn had not had a good rest for so many days, he immediately patted his chest and said: "Governor Wu rest assured, let General Cheng Dequn rest tonight, and let the army I bring go to the city to defend the city." Wu Yiding was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately thanked Ma Tengyun.

When Ma Tengyun found Cheng Dequn and said that he wanted to replace him, Cheng Dequn was originally unwilling, but Ma Tengyun was a person from Kui Donglai, and everyone had never fought together, so it was inevitable that they would be a little rusty when they met. Cheng Dequn refused, but he didn't insist, and he hadn't rested for a few days, so he agreed.

Wu Yiding saw that his plan was successful, and immediately sent information to Lu Guangzu, asking him to attack the next night and open the city gate for him. In the afternoon of the next day, Lu Guangzu led the army to the southern county town quietly by small road, hiding in the mountains and forests outside the west gate. Lu Guangzu saw that there was no longer Cheng Dequn's banner on the city tower, and he knew that Wu Yiding had succeeded.

As soon as Lu Guangzu saw that the opportunity was in front of him, he immediately arranged for his subordinates to wait until midnight to start the siege. Although the rear army in the city had not yet discovered the arrival of Lu Guangzu's army, they were still well guarded against the heat. As night fell, the southern defenders did not realize that danger was coming.

Lu Guangzu's men and the Qing soldiers took advantage of the dark night to slowly touch the southern city wall, and after arriving under the city wall, they could clearly hear the conversation of the defenders on the city. At this time, the Qing army did not dare to rush to the city, and the Qing army under the city worked together to slowly set up a ladder, and then evaded the patrols on the city from time to time. Finally, a Qing soldier climbed to the edge of the city wall, looking at the Ming army asleep on the city wall, there were patrols walking around in the distance, and occasionally people who were not asleep were talking with each other.

Suddenly, seven or eight Qing soldiers climbed the city wall at the same time, and there were also Qing soldiers who climbed the city wall one after another. Suddenly, the screams of the Ming army on the city wall came and went, and some people woke up and were hacked to death before they could see what was going on. The patrol in the distance also discovered the situation, and shouted while beating the gong: "The enemy is attacking, and the Qing soldiers are coming to attack the city." The soldiers of the Ming army who heard the shouts kept gathering to the place where there were Qing soldiers, but without the organization and command of the generals, the Ming army that rushed over was like a plate of scattered sand, fighting separately.

When the Qing army attacking the city saw that the Ming army began to counterattack, they were no longer silent, and some generals shouted loudly: "Kill, go and open the city gate." The Qing soldiers who attacked the city immediately formed a formation and attacked the gate under the city. The Qing soldiers wanted to capture the city gate and enlarge the army into the city, and the Ming army wanted to drive the Qing army down the city to defend the city wall.

At this time, Ma Tengyun, who was patrolling under the city, came with people, and when he saw this, he hurriedly asked people to first take down the city wall and the Qing army that wanted to open the city to surround them, and asked the archers behind to shoot them to death. Then lead people to the city wall, while directing people to go to the Qing soldiers on the city wall to rush down, and let the archers behind suppress the Qing army that is still on the city behind. In this way, the offensive of the Qing army suddenly weakened, and the Qing army in the city had no follow-up support, and it was also precarious, and it continued to retreat.

Lu Guangzu under the city kept cursing Wu Yiding for making mistakes, and cursed for not opening the city gate for so long. However, seeing that the attack of the Qing soldiers in the city was frustrated, they hurriedly called the archers behind to suppress the defenders on the city wall, and suddenly the arrows on the city were like rain, and many Ming soldiers were shot by bows and arrows and were forced to withdraw from the battle. In this way, the Qing army in the city stabilized its position again, and the Qing soldiers behind also began to climb the city wall.

At this time, Cheng Dequn in the city also rushed over, and when he saw Wu Yiding also standing under the city, he asked, "How is the situation?" Have the Qing soldiers been driven down? Wu Yiding was anxiously thinking about a way to open the city gate, and wanted to open the city gate. I saw the Qing soldiers capture the city before, and I was about to add my own people to open the city gate with the Qing soldiers, but Ma Tengyun rushed to save the situation. Now even if these people under his command go up, they can't open the city gate, and when Wu Yiding was anxious, he was asked by Cheng Dequn like this, and said casually: "Not yet, General Ma is commanding the recapture of the city wall." As he was talking, he saw that the city wall was covered by a rain of arrows, and many Ming soldiers retreated with arrows.

Wu Yiding's eyes lit up and said: "General, now that the Qing soldiers have not attacked the city gate, transfer the defenders of the city gate to drive the Qing army down as soon as possible." Cheng Dequn came from the city, with only a dozen personal soldiers by his side, and he felt justified when he heard Wu Yiding say this. So he sent all the men who were at the gate to the wall, and then went to the wall themselves.

Wu Yiding saw that he couldn't miss the opportunity, and he was busy with the few people he brought. Those people had long known about Wu Yiding, and now when they saw that Wu Yiding had given instructions, they rushed directly to the city gate to open the city gate. When the Qing army, who had been waiting outside, saw the city gate open, their morale was immediately boosted, and they shouted loudly: "The city gate is open, the city gate is open, rush into the city to kill." ”