As soon as the third regiment participating in the white-knuckle battle entered the battlefield, it immediately became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the peasant army, which was already close to collapse, suddenly had more than 2,000 fierce new troops, how could this battle be fought.

At this time, the battlefield was full of peasant soldiers who were running around and even raising their hands to surrender, and only a few of Li Dingguo's descendants were still struggling to hold on.

Seeing that the situation could not be reversed, Li Dingguo sighed and Mingjin withdrew his troops. The peasant army, which was still fighting fiercely, heard the retreat order and didn't care about anything else, so they ran back with joy and moved closer to the commander.

Looking at the figure of Li Dingguo riding away, Zhu Hao did not order a pursuit, but ordered the troops to enter Baokang City, which had been basically taken.

The city was also in chaos at this time, compared to the few people in the city, the peasant army was very recognizable, almost casually caught one, Liu Wenxiu's ability to lead troops was a big difference to Li Dingguo, so Liu's combat effectiveness was not high, although the new army only had one regiment of troops into the city, it still quickly controlled the strategic points of the county with an overwhelming advantage.

The so-called defeat is like a mountain, Liu Wenxiu heard that the city was broken, and he was frightened, and he heard that Li Dingguo was also defeated and fled, and he had no fighting spirit, and just organized a counterattack to no avail, he took advantage of the chaos to escape.

Zhu Hao didn't care, his main purpose was to subdue Li Dingguo, as for Zhang Xianzhong and the others, it didn't matter, and Zhang Xianzhong couldn't be completely wiped out at present, so he didn't pursue again after hearing the news.

At this time, Wang Yuanhui sent a message that the grain of the new army was robbed, and the righteous army also wanted to cut off the baggage transportation of the new army, but he did not expect that the new army was strictly guarded, and he lost a lot of people, so he did not fight again.

"Alas, things are already like this, even if you rob the new army of food, it will not help." Li Dingguo sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"Baokang has been breached, and there is a large amount of grain hoarded by the three generals in it, which is much more than the grain transported by the new army! Looks like we'll have to find another way. ”

Li Dingguo walked back and forth a few steps, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration, "Yes, just do it, give him a siege to save Zhao!" ”

Zhu Hao, who was stationed in Baokang, also quickly got the news that the grain road was cut off.

"Hehe, Li Dingguo, this kid is really cunning, he actually cut off my food channel, it was my negligence. Fortunately, I was prepared, and the important ammunition and baggage were guarded by elite soldiers. But this time Li Dingguo thought about it, Liu Wenxiu has always been conservative, this Baokang City has hoarded a large amount of grain from the peasant army, enough for us to eat for more than a month, I see what other tricks this kid has. Zhu Haohun said indifferently.

In this battle of Baokang, the new army for the first time had a "large number" of casualties, and according to later statistics, in the white-knuckle battle inside and outside the city, the new army killed more than 300 people and wounded nearly 1,000 people! More than 6,000 peasant troops were killed, including more than 2,000 enemies killed in white-knuckle battles, more than 3,000 wounded and captured, and the main forces of Li and Liu's rebel armies were almost completely wiped out.

Zhu Hao estimated that the peasant army of these two people combined would be five or six thousand, and they couldn't make a big wave, but they didn't know Li Dingguo's next plan, and this kid was cunning and tight.

After occupying Baokang, Zhu Hao pacified the people step by step, dealt with the prisoners, and sent the backbone of them to Xiangyang for trial, and the rest of the honest people were escorted back to Xuzhou for reform.

Liu Wenxiu left a lot of things in Baokang City, in addition to the full granary, there are tens of thousands of taels of silver and nearly 100 beauties that Liu Wenxiu looted from nearby. These are the property of everyone's rich families, and before Zhang Xianzhong could enjoy it, Zhu Hao was cheaper.

As for those beauties, all of them were sent home with families and families, and those who suffered accidents in their families basically voluntarily stayed in the army, almost thirty or forty. Zhu Hao did not bring many military doctors with him this time, and there were too many wounded in this battle, so he asked these women who stayed behind to help in the army, which was regarded as setting a precedent for women to be military guards, fortunately, they had poor backgrounds, good looks, and excellent popularity in the army.

"Report, Dashuai, news came from the north that the thief Li Dingguo's department suddenly appeared near Xiangyang, and Liu Wenxiu was nowhere to be found." Just as Zhu Hao was thinking about the next strategic plan, someone came to report.

"Oh? Li Dingguo near Xiangyang? This kid can really turn upside down! Zhu Hao smiled.

"Uncle, Li Dingguo is not a joint venture with Liu Wenxiu, but why did he go to Xiangyang?" Zhang Huangyan was a little puzzled.

"It's very simple, it's just Wei Wei to save Zhao." Zhu Hao said disdainfully.

"Ah, the marshal means that Li Dingguo deliberately made a gesture of attacking Xiangyang to attract us to relieve Zhang Xianzhong's pressure?" Wang Boda immediately understood the intentions of the peasant army.

"Yes, Li Dingguo, this kid really has ideas, I like it!"

"But Dashuai, how can he conclude that we will definitely rescue Xiangyang?" Wang Boda was puzzled.

That's where he excels! Do you think, with Li Dingguo's current strength of only three or four thousand, plus Liu Wenxiu's only five thousand, even if he recruits troops on the road, he will never exceed 10,000 people, why fight with our new army? He deliberately made a gesture to show the old men in Xiangyang City, and if my expectations were correct, there would soon be an urgent document from Xiangyang. Zhu Hao explained.

Everyone was stunned.

The governor of Xiangyang City.

"Lord Yang, hurry up and make an idea, now the army is outside to suppress bandits, there are only a few thousand people in the city, how can you stop more than 10,000 thieves?" Xiangwang Zhu Yiming said in a panic.

Hearing that Li Dingguo's army suddenly broke through the encirclement of various officials and troops and appeared under Xiangyang City, it frightened this prince of Anle, who was not familiar with military affairs, and heard that these thieves specially attacked the towns with vassal kings, and killed them after taking them!

"Don't be impatient, Xiangyang is a big city, it's not so easy to be attacked, Li Dingguo is just bluffing." Although Yang Sichang was dissatisfied with Zhu Yiming, he didn't dare to blame, but patiently explained.

Xiangyang City originally had 15,000 soldiers and horses from Wang Zhifeng, but the war in the north was tight, Li Guoting repeatedly asked for reinforcements, Yang Sichang had no choice but to draw 10,000 soldiers and horses to aid Henan, and now there are less than 5,000 people left in Xiangyang City, no wonder Zhu Yiming is nervous to death.

"Lord Yang is really good at saying cool things, what if Li Dingguo attacks Xiangyang with all his might, this king will not gamble with you with his life, if you don't call someone to save him, this king will run away!" Seeing that Yang Sichang didn't care, Zhu Yiming became angry and threatened him.

"Lord Wang, alas, okay, I immediately ordered Zhu Hao and Wang Zhifeng to come to the rescue!" Yang Sichang was quite helpless, if something happened to the vassal king, it would be a trivial matter for his black yarn to be insecure, and maybe he would have to take his life.

In a valley not far outside the city of Xiangyang.

Li Dingguo was pacing irritably, not because of the battle, he had already received the news that Zhang Xianzhong's main force had won three victories over the Ming army, and his entry into Sichuan was in sight. He was very sure that the new army would return to Xiangyang, and when the time came, he would evacuate, lead Zhu Hao's nose, get rid of the entanglement of the new army, join Zhang Xianzhong, break into Sichuan, and escape the encirclement and suppression of the Ming army in one fell swoop.

What annoyed him was that Liu Wenxiu refused to listen to his advice, but took the troops back to the division without authorization and went to Zhang Xianzhong's main force, if Zhu Hao knew about it, this righteous army would be dangerous, and it was likely to destroy Zhang Xianzhong's overall plan! For this reason, he also had a big quarrel with Liu Wenxiu, and the brothers did not have a good relationship as before.

Here Zhu Hao has received Yang Sichang's urgent order, after thinking for a while, Zhu Hao decisively gave an order: Wang Boda led the second regiment back to Xiangyang, the cavalry battalion quickly pursued Liu Wenxiu's remnants, and the remaining three regiments also evacuated Baokang, brought enough food and ammunition, marched 300 miles in a day and night, caught up with Liu Wenxiu near Mao'er Pass, and surrounded his troops.

Liu Wenxiu only had 2,000 remnants left, and he was alone, so he desperately sent more than a dozen death squads to desperately break through the encirclement of the new army, and asked Li Dingguo and Zhang Xianzhong for help respectively! Of course, Zhu Hao deliberately let them break through.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong was leading the main force to fight fiercely with the Ming army in eastern Sichuan, and he had no time to take care of Liu Wenxiu, but he couldn't sit idly by, after all, he was also his own son, so he sent the general Chang Guoan to bring 10,000 soldiers and horses to rescue.

Surrounding Liu Wenxiu is the main force of the new army under the personal command of Zhu Hao, there are more than 8,000 infantry cavalry, Chang Guoan's ability is average, only 10,000 people are the opponent of the new army, under the siege and reinforcement, Chang Guoan suffered heavy losses, and was pursued by the cavalry on the way to retreat, and almost the whole army was annihilated. Chang Guoan was killed by a stray bullet, and in the end, only more than 3,000 people fled back to the camp of Xianzhong, and the rest were either annihilated or scattered.

Zhang Xianzhong almost vomited blood, after nearly half a year of attrition, his elite troops have lost more than half, although a lot of people were recruited in the middle of the period, barely enough 70,000 people, but the number of people with combat effectiveness has been sharply reduced to less than 30,000, mostly concentrated in the hands of Sun Kewang and Ai Nengqi.

The new army did not wait for Li Dingguo's return to help, while continuing to besiege Liu Wenxiu, while chasing Chang Guoan's defeated soldiers to occupy Mao'er Pass in one fell swoop, staring at Zhang Xianzhong with fierce eyes.

Mao'er Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if this is used as a base, when the Ming army mobilizes heavy troops, Zhang Xianzhong's demise is not far away.

Zhang Xianzhong couldn't take care of the counties in eastern Sichuan, which were already close at hand, and ordered Sun Kewang to personally lead an army of 30,000, including 10,000 elites, to rush to the aid of Mao'er Pass.

Li Dingguo was taken aback when he received the news of Liu Wenxiu, if Liu Wenxiu was killed, Zhang Xianzhong would be directly exposed to the artillery of the new army! immediately gave up the plan to besiege Xiangyang, and regardless of Wang Boda's department, which was already close at hand, he hurried back with his men and horses. Wang Boda also smelled the fighter plane, and chased after Li Dingguo's buttocks.

In less than three days, Li Dingguo finally arrived at Mao'er Pass. At this time, Liu Wenxiu had almost collapsed.

However, what the two didn't expect was that the new army did not put on an offensive posture, but took the initiative to evacuate and join the main force of the new army in Mao'er Pass, so that Li and Liu could meet smoothly!