In Guangxi, the Qing army's dispatch to Leping Mansion this time was only the beginning, so Hong Chengchou mobilized the left and right wings of the Dingnan Domain, the right town, the rear town and the former association of the southwest meridian standard, and part of the green battalion soldiers set off from Guilin. This is already the scale of no less than 20,000 troops, with this strength, if Li Dingguo is naturally in the city, he will have to defend it to the death, but now that the tiger is not in the mountain, their group of monkeys can be filled with kings, and fight the remaining troops of the Ming army, it is not a matter of holding a handle?

The army left the city of Guilin and swept all the way south, and the Ming army left behind fled in despair. The gap in strength between the two sides is too large, and the Ming army in Pingle Mansion has already determined that it is not defending, because Li Dingguo is not in Guangxi at the moment, and it will only be a loss of troops in vain to defend there.

Before the army arrived, the Ming army had already withdrawn in advance, and the Qing army was no longer in a no-man's land, but really took over those undefended cities one by one, and it was just a march along the way. If there is one thing that makes them lose some of their mind and strength, it can only be said that they show off their power after entering various cities, and the other processes are like going out to travel. Even if tourism is not popular in this era.

The restoration of Pingle Mansion is imminent, and Quan Jie, Ma Xiong, and Jingbiao Daniel Zhang, Hu Maozhen, Wang Yongzuo and others have already set their sights on Wuzhou Mansion. There is the key to connecting the two Guangzhou, and the strategic location is very important in the current situation of the Ming army joining forces, so Li Dingguo left a headquarters of soldiers and horses, led by the governor Gao Wengui, sitting in the capital of Wuzhou, which will probably be the most difficult bone to gnaw on this expedition.

For the next battle, the generals are full of confidence. Unexpectedly, before the Pingle Mansion was fully taken here, Hong Chengchou's order had already arrived. According to the new military order, the three troops of the Southwest Economic Standard were to return to Guilin immediately, in exchange for some ordinary green battalions as replacements. This is undoubtedly weakening the strength of the Qing army, which is very detrimental to the achievement of their next strategic goals.

However, Hong Chengqing's military order was issued, and Quan Jie and Ma Xiong had no choice, so they could only watch the figures of Daniel Zhang, Hu Maozhen and Wang Yongzuo go away, their faces were not obvious, but they were reluctant to find a powerful actor who might be able to shoot a scene of bitter separation.

The 7,000 Jingbiao of the two towns and one association were ordered to return, but when they returned to Guilin, they couldn't find time to rest and rest, because Hong Chengchou had already set off with other Jingbiao troops at this time, and they needed to catch up with Hong Chengchou's footsteps as soon as possible.

The pace of the chase starts from Guilin, the waterways of the Li River and Lingqu, through Lingchuan, Xing'an, and Quanzhou, and is almost out of the boundary of Guangxi to catch up with Hong Chengchou.

Catching up with Hong Chengchou, this is just the beginning. Next, they did not return to Hengzhou Mansion first as expected when they set off, and then traced the river upstream, passing through Chenzhou Mansion to the east to aid Ganzhou Mansion. However, after leaving the border of Guangxi and arriving at the capital of Yongzhou, he turned south, went against the river of Xiaoshui, passed through Ningyuanwei, Jianghua County, Jintiansuo and other places, and directly appeared in Lianzhou, the northernmost part of Guangzhou Prefecture.

Although the three counties of Lianzhou, Lianshan and Yangshan belong to the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture, they are in northern Guangdong, close to Shaozhou Prefecture, and even compared with Guangzhou Prefecture, the distance between them and Shaozhou Prefecture is closer.

Those three counties are now also the last territory of the Qing army in Guangdong, just like the Tingzhou Mansion in Fujian before. When the army appeared there, the local officials and local forces immediately responded, the former preparing grain and grass for the army, and the latter, after symbolically offering some grain and grass, watched vigilantly through the cracks in the walled gate.

The army had no intention of staying, let alone uprooting these land snakes. When you arrive in Lianzhou, there is a waterway of Huangshui that can be used by the army, and from there, the water flows down, which is Yingde County in the south of Shaozhou Prefecture, which is a water and land transportation hub on the Beijiang River!

The Beijiang waterway was the lifeline of the Ming army in the north, and the army's grain, grass, military supplies, and personnel supplies all had to pass through this waterway in order to realize the transportation from Guangzhou to Nanxiong. Although this lifeline can not go all the way from Guangzhou Fucheng to Ganzhou Fucheng, but this road has gone most of the way, and as long as you take a small amount of land in the future, you can continue to use the capacity of the Zhangjiang waterway, which is definitely the main artery of the Ming army in the north.

In order to ensure the strategic goal of going north to advance into Southern Jiangxi, Chen Kai's current defense is also lined up along the Beijiang waterway. The heart of the city - Guangzhou, where the most effective troops of the Ming army in Guangdong were stationed there as the auxiliary troops and emergency response forces of Guangzhou; To the west of Sanshui County, Chen Yaoce, who guarded Zhongzhen, commanded a town's soldiers and horses; Turning to the north, Qingyuan has Zhou Quanbin's Qianchong Town and Ma Bao's 3,000 headquarters soldiers and horses; When he arrived at the capital city of Shaozhou, there was Xiao Gongchen's guard Zuozhen; And when it came to the boundary of Nanxiong Mansion, there were soldiers and horses guarding Houzhen to ensure the smooth flow of the grain road.

These troops lined up in turn, like a long snake, and in Yingde County, between Qingyuan and Shaozhou, Chen Kai also left the troops of Huangxing in Zhongquan Town, which was a war town that had been formed for many years, with 2,000 soldiers and horses, guarding a county seat, which was a bit overkill on weekdays. But now, in the face of tens of thousands of Qing troops, it is still the Southwest Economic Standard carefully selected and formed by Hong Chengchou, which is a little insufficient.

"Quick, report to the Fu army, to the neighboring prefectures and counties!"

The water transportation of the Bac Giang must not be cut off, otherwise the dispersal of a soldier without food would be enough to put the army going north into an even more dangerous situation.

The Qing army was still on the way, but fortunately, the Ming army had a detailed presence in the three counties of Lianshan, and as soon as he got the information, Huang Xing hurriedly asked for help everywhere. This general, who has the same name and surname as the hero of the Xinhai Revolution in later generations, is not a prominent figure within the Zheng group, but his years of experience in commanding troops made him the most natural choice at the first time, because he knew very well the importance of his position. It's just that his urgency was issued, but the first reinforcements that arrived were the ones he didn't expect the most.

"Wang Shuai is high-minded, and the last general is very impressed."

Wang Han, the leader of the rebel army in Qingyuan Mountain, had already reached a trade agreement with Chen Kai on the iron ore in Qingyuan Mountain, so Chen Kai sent him a deputy general. However, the deputy general's job at this stage is not to train troops to fight, but to become the mine owner and contractor of the Qingyuan Mountain Iron Mine, and his auxiliaries and people under his command have basically been engaged in the mining work, and those soldiers act as supervisors and mine security.

It was this mine owner who, when he went to Qingyuan County as a guest, received an urgent message from Huang Xing to Zhou Quanbin, and returned to Qingyuan Mountain without saying a word, and came to help with his headquarters soldiers and horses. At this moment, what appeared in front of Huang Xing's eyes were ragged clothes, and many weapons were rebels who used wooden guns and bamboo guns as substitutes, like a group of beggars. Only, the morale seems to be reasonable, and even if you look closely, it seems to be a little high, and I don't know what this army is about.

Such an army must not be able to compare with the towns of the Zheng group, and it is much different from the battalions of Li Dingguo's headquarters, and it is even estimated that even the soldiers and horses of Wang Xing and Chen Qice are much better than them. However, at the moment, Huang Xing knew that he was going to use 2,000 soldiers against about 10,000 soldiers of the Qing army. At this time, everything that is put on the plate is a dish, and there is nothing else to care about.

Yingde County was recovered by Chen Kai half a year ago, when he arrived close to the city with a large army, sent someone to roar, and asked the defenders whether they had fought Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and Zhu Mala, and the defenders in the city were very self-aware that Kaicheng surrendered.

Recovering the city without causing any damage to the city is indeed a good thing for the current defender Huang Xing. But the problem is that Guangdong has been recuperating in the past year, and the investment in the repair of the city wall is very limited, not to mention, it is concentrated in those cities that have been destroyed by the Ming army, such as Xinhui and Guangzhou. The county seat of Yingde has not been damaged, but there has been no repair and addition in the past six months, and it is still the same as it was, except for the color of the flag, there is no difference.

After receiving the military information, Huang Xing seized all the time to collect the people outside the city into the city, and at the same time organized the people to repair the city walls and prepare guards. When Wang Han's troops arrived, there were about 500 people, Huang Xing did not hesitate, and directly asked people to open the arsenal of the county seat, which will be temporarily stored here, ready to be shipped north, and take out the military uniforms and weapons to equip this friendly army - he is a person who understands, and now that he is equipped with friendly troops, he can at least have one more help when fighting, but if he cherishes himself, the city is broken, and these things will be cheap Hong Chengchou Not to mention, he will also face the possibility of being taken off the military law.

Wang Han's troops happily changed into new uniforms and weapons, and the quartermaster in charge of the arsenal was helpless, but at the same time, he also heard some voices without any cover-up.

"The marshal is really right, when you come to this Yingde county town to help, you can immediately change into new military uniforms and weapons. Look at this fabric, this stitch, it is much more comfortable to wear than ours. And this weapon, shiny and shiny, this sharpened edge, and not yet blown, it is good. ”

"Yes, when we hold the city, in the future, the boss of the army will be rewarded for meritorious deeds, and we will be officially officers and soldiers. The color of one or two or five dollars a month, the true color of a stone, if you want to marry a daughter-in-law, it all depends on this. ”

“……”

The beggars helped the shotguns change, and no one really had the heart to listen to these short opinions. With 500 more soldiers, Huang Xing, who only had 2,000 soldiers, actually didn't go out too much, because the opponent he had to face was many times stronger than him. Today, it is nothing more than reducing the pressure from five times to four times, which is still a crushing advantage.

The Qing army made a little preparation in Lianzhou, and the army went down the Huangshui. Yingde County also seized all the time to prepare, and for this reason, Huang Xing has been working hard for several days, if it weren't for the fear that a pair of panda eyes would affect the morale of his subordinates, maybe he wouldn't even sleep.

Going down the river, the speed of the Qing army was very fast. Time passed minute by minute, but Huang Xing also knew that although his urgency had been sent out for many days, he was about to react, but it was far from being faster than the Qing army, especially Chen Kai who was far away in Ganzhou. In the final analysis, the only thing he can rely on is himself, at most counting the reinforcements from Shaozhou Prefecture and Qingyuan County, that's all.

Soon, the advance of the Qing army approached the outside of Yingde County. The Ming army closed the city for this reason and made a posture of strict defense. Fortunately, on the eve of the Qing army's control of the Huangshui River flowing into the Beijiang River, another Ming reinforcement arrived, and finally reduced this pressure to twice as much as itself.

"It's just the right time to settle down, and the Tartars are coming soon. The news intercepted by Tanma risked his life said that it was Hong Chengchou's old thief who led the troops this time! ”

Ma Bao's 3,000 headquarters soldiers and horses, most of these troops were his troops in the three counties of Lianzhou to resist the Qing Dynasty, and the more far-reaching ones can even be traced back to the time when he was a breaking army. These soldiers must be more able to rely on in terms of combat effectiveness than Wang Han's troops, so Huang Xing couldn't help but feel joy when he saw this person coming to help. It's just that at the same time of joy, there is also worry - not that Ma Bao, a former intruder, will be frightened when facing the Hong butcher who once killed a sea of corpses and blood in the Northland, but more worried about the issue of command.

"By the way, what about Zhou Shuai?"

In terms of titles, Ma Bao is An Dingbo, an earl, while Huang Xing has no title at all; In terms of troops, Ma Bao had more reinforcements than he and Wang Hanjia together. If Ma Bao wants to seize the command of this Yingde county, Huang Xing's best choice is to give it up, otherwise the Ming army will have internal strife, and this city will not be able to defend it.

Here, Huang Xing asked Zhou Quanbin in his words, and Ma Bao also understood what he meant. After a little explanation, I will pass it off. At this point, Huang Xing heard that Zhou Quanbin would not come to help for the time being, but would stay in Qingyuan County to prevent a possible attack by the Qing army. Please Andingbo preside over the defense, and the last general should obey his orders. ”

Speaking of which, Huang Xing would not be willing to give up his command. But in order to avoid being filthy and hindering the overall situation of the war, he still said this. At this time, Ma Bao was quite surprised, and immediately stepped forward to salute, but categorically rejected Huang Xing's suggestion.

"Huang Shuai was ordered to guard this city, and he must know better than my Ma Bao about the defense of the city. The command is still dominated by Huang Shuai, and our reinforcements are at the mercy of orders. Speaking of this, Ma Bao and Huang Xing looked at each other, and smiled calmly: "Our task is to defend the city, but if we want to retreat from the enemy, we still have to look at the side of the boss of the Fu army." ”

In the county seat of Yingde, three people who understand are responsible for the affairs of the city guard. At the same time, Chen Kai, who was highly anticipated by them, made a decision quickly after scolding that sentence at the camp in Tanbei Town.

"It's not a good day, since Hong Chengchou wants to force me to withdraw from the army, and even wants to use the turtle shell of Ganzhou to drag me to death, then I, Chen Kai, just don't let him get his wish. The offensive in Ganzhou remained unchanged, and the northbound group was still under the command of Ke Shuai, and continued to advance to the capital city of Ganzhou. Early tomorrow morning, Guangdong Fubiao and Hussar Town will go south with their officials to meet Hong Chengchou! ”