Although there was a big battle on the side of the official army, but did not block the breakthrough of the peasant army, Zuo Guang arrived first, so angry that he scolded these officers and soldiers for not working hard, at this time Liu Hanru rushed to come, hurriedly comforted, although Zuo Guangxian was short-tempered, but after all, he wanted to give the governor some face, and finally stopped scolding.

Liu Hanru brought with him an order from Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of the six provinces, to follow Gao Li's righteous army and drive them into Shaanxi as much as possible.

Lu Xiangsheng's idea was the result of discussions with Sun Chuanting, Zhang Yi and others.

Sun Chuanting believed that instead of letting the peasant army light fires everywhere and smoke eight times, it was better to force them into Shaanxi, and then mobilize heavy troops to fight a decisive battle in Shaanxi, so as to complete the work in one battle, and avoid the unrest of the provinces.

Zhang Yi also supported this opinion, because he knew that although the Qin army occupied Xi'an, it was fighting alone after all, and it was very dangerous to not respond. As long as Gao Li's peasant army could enter Shaanxi, the two sides would definitely join forces against the official army. In this way, the winning side is bigger.

Lu Xiangsheng also thinks this is a good idea, at present, these rebellious peasant armies, led by Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, are the most fierce and tough, and they will not surrender to death, as long as they are eliminated, the rest of them will collapse the sky, shoot the sky, and reform the left camps, all of them will look at the wind and surrender.

So he gave an order to Liu Hanru, the governor of Sichuan, to drive the rebel army into Shaanxi together with Qin Liangyu.

At the same time, Lu Xiangsheng also gave a recital to the court to explain what he meant. Because Shaanxi is not under his control, it is still under the jurisdiction of Hong Chengchou, and if there is a decisive battle in Shaanxi, the two sides will have to carry out some power coordination.

Chongzhen received this recital, after researching, he also felt that this was a good plan, the court was most afraid of these rebels in the Central Plains, which province they went to, which province would turn the world upside down, stirring up a miasma, not to mention that the taxes there could not be collected, but also the court allocated money to the officials there to defend the county seat. Therefore, it would be best if the thieves could be gathered together and annihilated by them.

Soon, the return order of the Ministry of War was issued, agreeing to Lu Xiangsheng's battle plan, and at the same time giving Hong Chengchou an order, asking him to fully cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng and be sure to annihilate Gao Li and the rebels in Shaanxi.

In terms of position, Lu Xiangsheng was higher than Hong Chengchou at this time, but Chongzhen was afraid that Hong Chengchou would not accept Lu Xiangsheng, after all, Hong Chengchou's qualifications were old, so Chongzhen ordered that Hong Chengchou be reinstated as the governor of the three sides, and asked him not to rush to besiege Xi'an first, but only wait for these thieves to join forces together, and then attack together.

That's why Hong Chengchou didn't come to attack Xi'an.

Hong Chengchou received the holy decree and settled down. He doesn't know much about Lu Xiangsheng, he only knows that this person is an honest official, loves the people like a son, loves soldiers like a son, and likes to charge when he goes into battle. But I don't know what this person's temper is, and whether he can get along with himself.

At present, he was not in a hurry to march into the army, so he stationed in the Jingbian area, replenished ammunition and firearms, recruited new soldiers, and stepped up training to prepare for the next big war.

The peasant army did not know about these things.

After Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin got rid of the chasing soldiers, they quickly caught up with Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, Zhang Luo and the two of them were also very happy to see their safe return, and everyone joined forces and came north.

After the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, there are many mountainous areas, and there are hardly any smooth roads, so it is very difficult for the group of people and horses to come, and most of the people have never been here, and the direction is not familiar. After some discussion, several leaders of the peasant army decided to send someone to find the locals as guides, so that they could quickly pass through this mountainous area and rush to the vicinity of Xi'an City.

They could not afford to delay too long, because the officers and soldiers of the brigade were still following, and the distance between them was only a day's journey.

The people who sent out soon returned, and they really found a woodcutter, who claimed to be a local, who had been chopping wood in the mountains more than ten years ago, relying on the mountains to eat the mountains. Gao Yingxiang interrogated and found nothing abnormal, this person's wooden appearance does look like a person who has been in the mountains for a long time.

So Gao Yingxiang rewarded him with more than a dozen taels of silver and asked him to lead the way. When the woodcutter saw so much silver, he danced with joy and promised to lead the way.

During this march, Zhang Luo and the two were in front, Li Zicheng had a killing, and he needed to rest, so he walked in the middle, after Gao Yingxiang's men and horses were broken, the team followed the guide and walked into the mountains.

The guide didn't know how to ride a horse, so Zhang Xianzhong found a little donkey in the logistics team, asked him to ride it, and followed the guide with Luo Rucai. Luo Rucai is a fine person, and he talked to this person without words: "Fellow nobleman, this year's Guigeng?" ”

The guide smiled: "The general is really knowledgeable, we can't understand it as soon as we open our mouths." ”

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Ask what your name is, how old are you?" The guide said, "My surname is Zhang, and I am thirty-one years old this Chinese New Year's Eve." Zhang Xianzhong smiled: "My surname is also Zhang, we were a family five hundred years ago, and we must have stirred a spoon together." ”

The guide smiled hesitantly: "I don't dare to kiss you, the general, but I can't write two words in one stroke, so we are fate." Luo Rucai said: "Who else is in the family?" ”

The guide sighed: "There is only one dad left, my mother went the year before last, my dad is alone, blind, hunchbacked, can't do anything, it's all up to me to feed." ”

Luo Rucai said: "Needless to say, your livelihood is needless to say, seeing that you are dressed like this, there are no two buckets of rice at home." ”

The guide's eyes widened: "Two buckets of rice? I've never seen what Erdou rice looks like since I was born. The family usually eats wild vegetables, and only eats coarse grain yam noodles during the New Year. If we don't starve to death, God likes us. ”

Luo Rucai said: "Do you want to come out and mix?" Follow our rebels to fight the world, drive Ming'er to overthrow the big tomorrow, and let you eat white rice every day. ”

The guide smiled: "That's good, but I'm leaving, my dad will starve to death, I'll send his old man to the end first, if you still want me at that time, I will definitely come." ”

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Have there been officials and soldiers in this mountain?" ”

The guide was stunned: "I haven't been here much, because the rebels don't come much, this place is too remote, the people are too poor, and there is no food, what are you doing here?" There is nothing to rob. It is precisely because of this light that officers and soldiers never come to us. ”

As they spoke, they walked forward, and soon entered a large canyon, which covered the sky and the sun, and the cliffs on both sides were like cutting, and strange rocks were everywhere, and only a line of sky could be seen in the narrowest place, and the terrain was very steep.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at the top of his head, looked around, and asked the guide, "What kind of place is this?" ”

The guide said: "This place is called the Carriage Gorge, which is dozens of miles long, and out of this canyon, the road in the future will be much easier." Zhang Xianzhong said: "Have you been here?" The guide said: "I've been there, we cut wood, we go anywhere, this mountain is my food and clothing, so the terrain is very familiar." ”

Luo Rucai looked at the road in front of him, a little uneasy in his heart, and suddenly said: "When you chop wood, you use a flat pole to carry it back and forth, but what kind of livestock help carry it?" The guide laughed and said, "Where do I have the money to buy livestock?" Back and forth on two legs. It's not bragging, more than 200 catties of picks, I can pick dozens of miles without much effort. ”

Luo Rucai sneered: "So, this mark was pressed out of your shoulder. ”

As he spoke, he reached out sharply, grabbed the guide by the collar and pulled it down, revealing a dark red mark on his shoulder.

The guide was taken aback, but immediately regained his composure: "Exactly, it's strange that I have been picking picks for more than ten years, and I don't press out the seal." ”

Luo Rucai said: "But your mark is not a flat shoulder, but a gun." ”

As soon as these words came out, even Zhang Xianzhong was taken aback, where did the gun mark come from on the shoulder of a mountain man?

The guide's face changed, but he still smiled: "General, you're kidding, I'm really flattened." ”

Luo Rucai sneered: "I am known as Cao Cao, do you think it is called in vain?" As he spoke, he asked someone to take the guide's shoulder and press it on the guide's shoulder.

Zhang Xianzhong also discovered that the flat pole was much wider than the seal.

As soon as the guide saw that he couldn't hide it, he suddenly pulled out the axe from his waist and wanted to throw it at Luo Rucai, but before he could make the axe, several soldiers around him hugged his arms and waist ribs, tore him off the little donkey, pressed him to the ground with all hands and feet, and tied him up.

Zhang Xianzhong shouted and ordered the team to stop, and the rear team changed to the front team and immediately withdrew from the carriage gorge.