Compared with Jingle County, Lan County can be regarded as a big county.

There are more than 20 large villages in the county, and under the condition of drought and banditry rampant for many years, many villages have already been exterminated by the bandits of Luya Mountain, or the village fled to become a hungry people, but now there are still eight villages of Dongcun, Puming Town, Tuyu Village, Chenjiazhuang, Shangming Village, Shanghe Village, Huqin Village, and Chijianling, and the total population of the whole Lan County is still about 20,000 people.

Basically, there are one or two large households in these villages who have trained to protect the courtyards and townships, and the villages have become forts, blocking the rogues who have fled south from the Hequ and Lanzhou areas, and it has also made the big mountain thieves and horse bandits dare not attack the idea of these villages.

Of course, these villages belong to those large households, and most of the cultivated land in the entire Lanhe Plain belongs to these large households.

When Zhenxiwei commanded Xue Dongting to lead an army of 3,000 into Lanxian County, the county seat of Lanxian County and the gentry of the eight villages sent food and troops one after another to help the imperial court exterminate the rebels.

A total of 12 large families have gathered a total of 2,600 villagers, 1,000 people, and 800 stones of grain and forage.

In the end, Xue Dongting led 5,600 troops and 1,000 people to Jingyou Town along the Lan River.

Xue Dongting knew that there were a few artillery pieces in Jingyou Town, and he also brought more than 20 tiger squat cannons and Franco machine guns, which were enough to deal with the surnamed Qin.

Before the army arrived at Jingyou, they received a report from the sentry: the soldiers and horses of the Qin thieves had already built defensive fortifications on the Wolf's Head Ridge in the south of Budou Gorge, and were ready to take up a strong formation.

Hearing the news, Xue Dongting and several gentlemen couldn't help frowning.

Budou Gorge is the confluence of the Lan River and the Longquan River, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, when the Longquan River dries up in the past, you can also climb up the Wolf's Head Ridge from crossing the Longquan River, and there is no danger in Budou Gorge.

But now the snow has just melted, and it has rained for several days, according to the outpost, the deepest part of the Longquan River is not above the shoulder, the river is as wide as three zhang, and it is basically not feasible to wade across the river.

Moreover, the south bank of the Longquan River is the Wolf Head Ridge, and when crossing the river, it is bound to be attacked by the thieves on the ridge.

It is even more impossible to attack from Budou Gorge, the terrain of that canyon is dangerous, you only need to carry more rocks and rolling logs on it, and you can wait to block thousands of troops and horses.

Someone suggested that they simply ignore the thief army of Wolf Head Ridge and directly cross the north bank of the Lan River, bypass from the north bank, and go straight to the Qin thief's nest.

As soon as this proposal was put forward, it was immediately vetoed by a guerrilla general in Lanzhou.

Five or six thousand men marching on the north bank will pull out at least a two-mile long rank, and the thief army of Wolf Head Ridge will inevitably attack their weak point across the river on the south bank.

The widest part of this section of the Lan River is only six or seven zhang, but at a distance of fifteen paces, all long-range weapons such as bows and arrows, javelins, bird guns, three-eyed guns, tiger squat cannons, and Fran machines can sneak attack across the river.

You must know that the Qin thieves' javelin tactics are famous, roaring and leaving, they can catch the army off guard, if they stop to fight them, they will inevitably avoid the main force of the army, look for weak points, let the army ignore the tail, and the formation is in chaos.

If they want to cross the river, they will inevitably attack halfway, and even the thief army of Jingyou will take advantage of the situation to attack from the north bank.

When the time comes, it will be a dilemma, and it will even be a complete defeat.

Therefore, we can only set up a position on the Longquan River, force the river under the cover of artillery, and storm the Wolf Head Ridge to defeat the enemy army, and then we can continue to advance towards Jingyou.

Hearing the guerrilla general's words, the old men present were all speechless, and had to look towards Xue Dongting, hoping that the commander would come up with a good way.

Xue Dongting frowned tightly and pondered hard over a simple map.

Of course, he knew that Wolf's Head Ridge was not easy to fight, and although he had more than 5,000 troops under his command, it was not an easy task to force the Longquan River under the noses of a thousand enemy troops who were waiting for him.

At least 20 or even 30 percent of casualties must be paid before it is possible to hit Wolf's Head Ridge.

He knew that the guards under his command had some ability, and if it didn't happen, even one percent of the casualties would make these crooked melons crack and ruin.

Therefore, this Longquan River cannot be beaten.

Anyway, his road was not the main direction of attack, and the task given to him by the imperial court was only to contain the enemy army, so that Wang Dehua's army on the north road would be like a bamboo, all the way south.

Thinking of this, Xue Dongting slapped his thigh and ordered the army to continue to advance, camp at Hongshaling on the north bank of the Longquan River, confront the thief army on the south bank of Langtouling across the river, and send someone to Beishan Jingle to inform Wang Gonggong to lead the army south to swim quietly, and then attack this group of thieves on both sides.

Xue Dongting's decision made the big guy smile and be happy.

In the afternoon, the army arrived at its destination, and set up six large camps along the Hongsha Ridge, lined up, across the river from the 1,000 Guan Imperial Army led by Li Dingliang on the other side of the Longquan River.

……

In the Ming army camp five miles north of Jingle City, Wang Dehua and Wang Kun collapsed on the Taishi chair in the camp tent, sweating profusely and panting.

The traitor surnamed Qin is too bold, and there is no one in his eyes!

They dared to treat their army of nearly 10,000 as if they were nothing, and only a thousand people dared to chase after them and shout and shout to kill, and they chased them all the way to the outside of the camp.

Defeated, defeated, really defeated.

Fortunately, they were guarded by their own soldiers, and they rode fast on horseback, otherwise they would have broken into the hands of the traitor.

Along the way, I don't know how many people were killed by the traitor surnamed Qin.

Before he could regain his senses, he saw a general in iron armor with messy hair running into the camp tent and throwing his waist knife on the ground in hatred.

"General He, what's going on outside?" Wang Dehua asked with a gasp.

The person who came was He Sheng, the general of Datong, glanced at Wang Dehua, and then said dejectedly: "The army has fled at least two or three thousand people, and the Qin thieves are chasing and killing the routed army everywhere, and there is already a mess outside." ”

"Huh?"

Wang Dehua opened his mouth and didn't say a word.

Wang Kun on the side also turned pale, and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief.

Wang Dehua came back to his senses after half a sound, and hurriedly jumped up and said: "Quick, quickly go out and kill the defeated soldiers, defeat the Qin thieves in one go, and then take advantage of the situation to recover Jingle City." ”

He Sheng glanced at him again, and said: "Father-in-law, when the army was defeated, General Zhu Shen, who stayed on the north road, led two thousand standard battalions to break the army, but he couldn't withstand the enemy's blow at all, and the first to break the formation was the Qin thief, who led a hundred or so red-clothed enemy troops like wolves and tigers, roaring back and forth, and the 1,200 men and horses behind him were also like entering a no-man's land, and the 2,000 standard battalions were defeated in the blink of an eye, even General Zhu was ...... He also died at the hands of Qin thieves. ”

"Now, the soldiers who fled back to the camp were so frightened that they would put knives on their necks, and they would not fight."

"Huh?"

Wang Dehua's face was like gold leaf, and he slumped on the Taishi chair.

Wang Kun wiped his sweat desperately and shouted: "Quick, quickly order all the soldiers to strictly guard the camp, and never let the Qin thieves step into the camp." ”

"The defense has been arranged, and General Zeng and several guerrilla generals are also personally commanding the soldiers to deploy the defense."

"So what are you waiting for? Why don't you go and arm with your colleagues? ”

"Yes......"

"By the way, what about artillery? Put those sixty cannons at the camp gate, no matter how fierce the Qin thieves are, they can't defeat the cannons. ”

"Father-in-law, those sixty cannons...... Staying outside the south gate of Jingle, I am afraid that it has fallen into the hands of Qin thieves. ”

"Huh?"

……

At dusk, Qin Chuan led more than 1,000 Guan Emperor troops, led more than 800 captured war horses, carried the corpses of 120 Guan Emperor soldiers who died in battle and captured armor, and held hundreds of prisoners, slowly retreated to Jingle City, and then called hundreds of people out to clean the battlefield in the south and west of the city.

The 60 artillery pieces of the Ming army fell into the hands of Qin Chuan, as well as more than 200 birds, more than 100 armor, and countless swords and guns.

In this battle, Emperor Guan's army killed and wounded nearly 100 people at the head of the city, and when they chased out to break the 2,000 Ming army, they lost 120 killed and more than 200 were wounded.

He didn't know how many Ming troops were killed and wounded, but it was estimated that there were about 2,000, and more than 700 prisoners alone.

After this battle, Wang Dehua's army could no longer pose a threat to him.