Li Dingguo, the leader of the peasant army in Fang County, was a little uncertain at this time, he was just twenty years old this year, with a slender figure, a mighty appearance, and a pair of bright eyes.

A stack of intelligence on the desk next to it shows that the Ming army stationed in Zhushan in the north went to Henan and no longer defended itself, while the Ming army in the west and south came to dispatch troops for several days and was ready to move.

It's a pity that the father-in-law and eldest brother are not allowed to lead the troops to attack Sichuan, otherwise they would have already arrived under the city of Chengdu. Li Dingguo is still quite conceited about his military talents.

However, although his political acumen is not as good as Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang, he is not an idiot, and recently, his father-in-law and eldest brother look at him differently, and they no longer trust him as much as before.

Leave him alone! As long as you have a clear conscience, you don't care what others think. His current task is to block the westward advance of the official army and buy time for the main force of the righteous army to enter Sichuan.

"Report, young marshal, according to the report of the detective horse, a large group of Ming troops is coming from Zhangcheng to our place! It will arrive about tomorrow afternoon. Just as Li Dingguo was thinking wildly, a sentinel reported the latest news.

"Oh? Revisit. Be sure to find out the commander, strength and firepower of this Ming army! Li Dingguo's eyes flashed and he commanded.

The Ming army came from Zhangcheng and went straight to Fang County by bypassing Baokang, interesting! It seems that the generals of this Ming army obviously want to meet themselves, okay, let you know the strength of my righteous army, Li Dingguo doesn't care.

The next morning, the sentry reported again: "Young marshal, the origin of this Ming army has been ascertained, and the person who led the troops is called Zhu Hao, what is the general soldier of Xuzhou." ”

"Xuzhou General Soldier Zhu Hao? Could it be the new army of the imperial court that wiped out He Yilong and severely damaged Luo Rucai the day before yesterday? Li Dingguo was surprised.

"That's him! This time, it is estimated that there are seven or eight thousand soldiers and horses he brought, although the troops are not many, but he brought a lot of artillery! ”

"A lot of cannons! This one is trickier. Li Dingguo frowned.

He has also heard of Zhu Hao's name, as an excellent general, you must not only be able to fight, but also know yourself and your opponent. After Zhu Hao exterminated He Yilong in the first battle, he immediately sent people to inquire everywhere, and generally knew Zhu Hao's origin and tactics, and knew that his department was a pure firearms unit, with fierce firepower, whether it was a siege or a field battle, it had huge combat effectiveness, although his troops were more elite in the righteous army, I am afraid they could not withstand the blow.

Li Dingguo didn't expect to encounter the new army so quickly, a little dignified, but soon made adjustments, the new army is so powerful firepower, it is impossible to defend the city, Fangxian's city defense is very fragile, although he spent a month repairing the city wall, it can only block the attack of the ordinary Ming army, it is estimated that it is difficult to block several rounds of artillery salvos, so it is unwise to defend the city.

He immediately decided, anyway, his task was not to defend Fang County, but to buy time for the main army, then abandon the county seat, the whole army moved outside the city, relying on the terrain of the mountainous areas of western Hubei to carry out guerrilla warfare, sniping at the new army layer by layer, making full use of the advantages of the strong mobility of the righteous army, and delaying the advance of the new army.

I have to say that Li Dingguo is indeed an excellent general, and his tactics are indeed the best way to weaken the firepower of the new army, but he never dreamed that the opponent he met this time was not Zhang Xianzhong but him! It is also for this reason that no matter how clever his tactics are, he is always a bad move.

Li Dingguo immediately issued an order to retreat, swept away all useful materials in Fangxian County, and the army withdrew and scattered in the mountains around Fangxian in batches, waiting for the arrival of the new army.

However, what he didn't expect was that the new army did not arrive in the afternoon of the same day, but rushed to Fang County the next morning, and let him suffer a night in the open air in vain. This is not to blame him, Zhu Hao was not in a hurry to march, and on the way, he had a stomach stretch because of eating bad things, so he was delayed for a night.

Zhu Hao frowned slightly when he saw Fang County, which had become an empty city, thinking that this Li Dingguo was cunning, knowing that he couldn't hold this broken city, so he fled in advance.

As soon as the new army entered the city, there were villagers from behind to report that they had found traces of the rebels in Laohuling, west of the city. Zhu Hao began not to doubt him, and immediately ordered Zhang Huangyan to lead two battalions of troops to go and wipe out this group of thieves.

Zhang Huangyan got the opportunity to lead the army independently for the first time, so he was naturally very excited, and he rushed out of the city and went straight to Laohuling.

The team marched for a long time, and finally entered the boundary of Tiger Ridge, which was in late autumn and early winter, and the whole mountain range was full of dense woods, and the ground was full of large areas of dead branches and leaves, and the march was not smooth.

Zhang Huangyan was in an unhappy mood, and the head of the regiment, Xu Guo, said abruptly: "Young General, my subordinates always feel that something is wrong, the marshal has told many times that this thief leader Li Dingguo is good at using soldiers, and it is impossible to easily expose his traces, besides, if you look at the terrain in front, it is a good place to ambush." ”

"Yes, I almost made a big mistake, the entrance to the valley in front is narrow, and the trees on both sides are thick, and it is indeed very easy to be ambushed, and if the enemy is ambushed in it, it will be difficult for our army's firepower to exert it. Immediately ordered the whole army to stop and be on guard, and the scouts went to probe first. After all, Zhang Huangyan is a general, and as soon as he was reminded, he immediately noticed the danger and hurriedly remedied.

It should be said that caution this time is very necessary, and in the dense forest of the valley in front of the new army, more than 100 meters away, there is an ambush of a righteous army led by Li Dingguo, who has already drawn its sword and waited for the new army to enter the net.

Li Dingguo crouched behind a big tree, nervously staring at the new army in front of him, behind him was the two thousand archers and five hundred musketeers he had painstakingly cultivated, and the official army had fought for many years, he knew the importance of firearms, and also tried his best to build a musket team of eight hundred people, although his muskets were all backward birds, but in the lack of supplies of the righteous army has been a standout.

Seeing that the new army was about to enter his range but suddenly stopped, Li Dingguo secretly said that it was a pity, it must be that the place he chose was too conspicuous and was recognized by the other party, but even if the enemy did not come in, he couldn't just let them go, after all, the new army was in the Ming and the righteous army was in the dark. Li Dingguo's eyes flashed, and he ordered the firearms battalion to open fire.

The new army here was on guard, and suddenly there was a loud gunfire in the dense forest in front, and a group of birds were startled by Hulala, and several scouts who were exploring the way in front were knocked to the ground, and even the infantry in the formation fell dozens of people.

"There is an ambush ahead, all of us are fifty meters back!" Xu Guochong decisively gave the order, and the new army immediately retreated a few dozen meters. Fortunately, the firearms of the rebels were not as advanced as those of the new army, and during the retreat, they did not have time to fire a second shot.

"It's all there, one hundred and fifty meters of woods in front, covered with fire!" Zhang Huangyan was very annoyed, this was the first time since the new army went into battle that there were casualties without seeing the enemy, it was really a shame to be thrown home!

"Bang bang bang" The musket fire unique to the Forces nouvelles rang out, and rows of bullets whizzed into the dense forest in front of them, smashing branches and flying wood chips.

Although the rebels were hiding behind trees, they didn't expect the muskets of the new army to have such a long range, and secondly, they didn't expect the firepower to be so powerful that they covered almost all the space. The exposed rebel soldiers were instantly knocked down by the dense rain of bullets and stray bullets, and the casualties were several times that of the new army.

Li Dingguo was angry and anxious, he didn't expect that stealing chickens would not be a loss of rice, the other party had already taken precautions, and the firepower was several times that of his own, and it was very unwise to fight again, so he decisively ordered a retreat, the dense forest was the natural barrier of the righteous army, and soon thousands of people were withdrawn cleanly, and even the corpses were not left.

When the new army entered the dense forest, there was no trace of human beings, only a pool of bloodstains were left, judging by the traces, this exchange of fire killed and wounded nearly 100 righteous soldiers, which is also a big gain, but the new army suffered more than 30 casualties, and the ratio of casualties between the enemy and us was actually three to one, such a high casualty rate, and let Li Dingguo retreat calmly, so that Zhang Huangyan was not happy.

After Zhu Hao knew about this, he just smiled and didn't say anything to blame, if Li Dingguo was taken down so easily, he would not be Li Dingguo.

"Xuanzhu, I know how powerful Li Dingguo is, this person is unconventional in the use of soldiers, has a long-term vision, is good at using his own strengths to attack the enemy's shortcomings, and never cares about temporary gains and losses, he is a talent! That's why I had to take him in. Zhu Hao patted Zhang Huangyan's shoulder and smiled.

"It's uncle, my nephew is old, I didn't expect this Li Dingguo to be really difficult to deal with, next time my nephew will be ready to defeat him in a dignified manner." Zhang Huangyan sincerely accepted failure, which made Zhu Hao more satisfied, people, no one was born invincible.

"But this Li Dingguo really has brains, I didn't expect him to use this guerrilla war against us, interesting! This is indeed a clever way to deal with enemies who are stronger than yourself. Zhu Hao not only was not angry, but also touched his chin and said happily.

Xu Guochong on the side looked at Da Shuai's evil eyes and suddenly felt a chill, he was an old man who followed Zhu Hao, whenever Da Shuai had this expression and action, Bacheng was seriously interested in someone, and he had to get it!

Zhu Hao did not take Zhang Huangyan's defeat to heart, but continued to send troops to search and suppress Li Dingguo's troops along the area around Fang County with battalions and companies as units.

After all, there is only one Li Dingguo, in addition to the main force of the righteous army led by him, when the other righteous army is against the new army, although they use harassment tactics, they can't fight and run, but due to the gap in tactics and equipment and the quality of soldiers, the losses are still far greater than the new army, and Li Dingguo does not dare to force the new army to be anxious.

In order to confuse the new army, Li Dingguo, who was hidden in the mountains, came up with an idea to lead the main force to attack Fangxian County while most of the new army was outside, so that the new army had no time to take care of anything else.