The 10,000 cavalry, led by the general Su Zhen, marched south, arrived at Changzhou at dawn, replenished with dry rations and fodder, and rested for another hour, before the army began to march westward.

They still take the northern line of Taihu Lake, this road is flat, but there are many mountains around, it is relatively hidden, and more importantly, this road is far away from Liyang County, even if the enemy scouts find them, 5,000 enemy troops rush to intercept them, it is too late in time.

Another reason is that the cavalry can be resupplied a second time in Yixing County, which is very important for cavalry without logistical support.

The cavalry did far outpace the infantry in their high-speed maneuvers, and it took only one day to reach Yixing County, where they rested for two hours, replenished their food and grass, and set out again at one o'clock in the evening.

The reason why they chose to set off at night was also the rich experience of the Jin army, even if they were discovered by the enemy scouts, because it was night, the enemy scouts could not use the eagle or the carrier pigeon to send the message, so they could only rush to Liyang County to deliver the letter, and it was too late in time.

After coming out of Yixing County, the cavalry increased their speed, and on the official road thirty miles west of Yixing County, seven or eight soldiers rested on the side hillside, they were the first scouts sent by Liyang County, and they had entered the boundary of Changzhou.

These scouts have been in this area for more than ten days, and the dry food they carry is almost exhausted, according to the custom, they will return to Liyang tomorrow, and then another group of scouts will come over on duty.

Nothing had happened for more than ten days, and the scouts had already slackened, and they slept on the grass wrapped in blankets, leaving only one person on duty to prevent the beasts from attacking at night.

Suddenly, the soldier on duty woke everyone up, and the commander of the brigade said unhappily: "What happened? ”

"Listen, boss!"

The brigade commander listened carefully, only to hear a rumbling sound in the air, like a muffled thunder echo, but also the night sky was clear, the sky was full of stars, and there was no sign of rain.

The brigade commander sat up and listened carefully for a moment, and suddenly shouted: "This is cavalry, give it all, there are cavalry coming!" ”

The nine scouts got up one after another, hid behind a pile of boulders, and looked out toward the official road a mile below.

In a short time, a black-pressed cavalry contingent appeared in the distance, and with no end in sight, they ran at a moderate pace, getting closer and closer, and soon passed in front of them, and quickly went west.

All the scouts were shocked, they had never seen such a large cavalry, the momentum was terrifying, and when the cavalry brigade passed, the brigade commander finally came to his senses, got up and ordered: "We will return to Liyang County immediately to report!" ”

The 10,000 cavalry of the Jin army rushed across the border in a running way, and continued to run in the direction of Xuancheng, when the defenders of Liyang County got the news, it was already the soldiers of the morning of the next day, and the cavalry of the Jin army had penetrated more than 100 miles into Xuanzhou, and there was still a day's journey from Xuancheng.

Generally, there are two ways to attack and capture the city, mainly depending on the strength of the opponent's defense of the city, if the opponent's defense force is strong, the cavalry will generally take the way of sneak attack, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the defenders at night, sneak attack on the city.

However, if there are few soldiers defending the city, the cavalry attack will usually be suppressed with momentum, forcing the other party to abandon the city and flee.

For the Jin army, they also have another big weapon to attack the city, and they are not worried about not being able to take the city.

Li Feng, the commander of Liyang County, was shocked when he learned that the cavalry of the brigade had crossed the border, and he immediately sent a pigeon letter, informing Liu Shining, the lord of Xunyang County, Jiangzhou, of an urgent military situation.

He is more worried about Xuancheng County, the cavalry is obviously aimed at Xuancheng County, the key is whether the two grain delivery teams have returned to Xuancheng County, if they return to Xuancheng County in time, Xuancheng's troops can resist for a while.

If the two food delivery teams have already come out, it will be troublesome.

They did not establish a pigeon communication with Xuancheng County, so Li Feng sent a soldier to rush to Xuancheng County on horseback and inform Xuancheng to take precautions.

At the same time, the money shopkeeper also sent an urgent pigeon letter in Runzhou, informing Liu Shining that the Jin army sent 3,000 cavalry to attack Xuancheng.

........

Xuancheng is located in the middle of Xuanzhou, is a large city with a large population, the city here is tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, three official roads meet here, the city also hoards a large number of food materials, the strategic position is extremely important, once the Xuancheng is occupied, you can attack Jiangnan to the east, Raozhou and Hongzhou can be attacked to the west, and Jiangzhou can also be attacked to the north.

More importantly, the attack on Jiangnan was a major strategy that Liu Shining had planned for five years, and for this reason, he hoarded all the grain and grass materials that his father had accumulated for more than ten years in Xuancheng, making Xuancheng County an important logistics place for attacking Jiangnan.

Of course, Liu Shining also invested heavily in defense, he had a total of 35,000 troops, and he put more than 20,000 people in Xuanzhou, but after losing 10,000 troops in the first attack on Changzhou, Xuanzhou's army was only 13,000 people.

Liu Shining divided his troops to defend again, stationed 5,000 heavy troops in each of the two counties in the north and south of the border, and left 3,000 people in Xuancheng to defend, he considered that once he could not resist the counterattack of the Jin army, the two armies could quickly withdraw to Xuancheng.

But his assumption is that on the premise that the other party is infantry, if the other party is cavalry, Liu Shining will not dare to deploy troops like this, and the high-speed raid of the cavalry will tear his defense line and make his defense appear a big hole.

The Qian family's pigeon letter said that there were only 1,000 defenders in Xuancheng, in fact, it was not wrong, Xuancheng was originally 3,000 defenders, but Xuancheng County was also responsible for transporting materials and food to the defenders in Liyang and Sui'an, and each transport team had to send 1,000 soldiers to escort it, so that Xuancheng County was left with only 1,000 soldiers in many cases.

When the 10,000 cavalry led by Su Zhen was still more than ten miles away from Xuancheng County, they happened to encounter two grain convoys and set off for the second time, and the two grain convoys would soon go their separate ways, one to Liyang County in the northeast and the other to Sui'an County in the southeast.

After receiving the news of the forward, Su Zhen immediately stopped the advance of the army, and he was surprised not by the grain transport team, but by the two escort armies.

Su Zhen was also a veteran of a hundred battles, and he knew that once the two thousand grain guards returned to the county seat, the surprise plan against them would be a huge variable.

Su Zhen immediately said: "Where is General Li Mengrong?" ”

Li Mengrong, the deputy general of the cavalry, stepped forward and said: "The last general!" ”

"You quickly take 5,000 cavalry to go around behind the grain team to prevent the enemy army from retreating to Xuancheng County!"

"Obey!"

Li Mengrong took the arrow and shouted: "Follow me from the sixth battalion to the tenth battalion!" ”

The 5,000 cavalry left the brigade and, under the leadership of the adjutant general Li Mengrong, made a detour and ran behind the opponent.

Su Zhen led the remaining 5,000 cavalry and temporarily hid in the woods next to the official road.

The grain convoy consisted of nearly 5,000 carts, carrying not only grain, but also a cage of fat pigs and sheep, and at least 1,000 carts full of 100,000 copper coins, which were given to 10,000 soldiers for five months.

The two thousand soldiers, of course, could not walk, and they sat on their carts and swayed forward with the ox carts.

After walking about five miles, a low trumpet suddenly sounded in the woods to the north, and countless cavalry came out of the woods and lined up on the grass.

Su Zhen waved his spear, "Attack!" ”

"Woo-woo-"

The horn of the attack sounded, and the five thousand shouted in unison, urging the horses to kill the grain caravan, and the coachman who was driving the car was so frightened that he jumped out of the cart and fled, and the soldiers also jumped down from the cart, only to hear the general shouting: "Go back to the city!" Return! ”

The soldiers turned around and fled, desperately running in the direction of the county seat, the cavalry of the Jin army pursued and killed in the back, and ran less than three miles, and the soldiers behind were caught up by the cavalry, stabbed with spears, slashed with horizontal knives, and groups of soldiers were killed and fell to the ground.

Unable to escape the horses, the soldiers had to kneel and kowtow to beg for mercy, and the soldiers who fled at the front had already seen the county seat, but suddenly an equally large cavalry team appeared in front, blocking their way and making the soldiers desperate.

10,000 cavalry flanked back and forth, 2,000 soldiers had no way out, hundreds were killed, and the rest of the soldiers surrendered on their knees.

The overwhelming cavalry frightened a thousand soldiers on the head of the city, the main general is called Lai Wenbo, a general, he is also flustered, I don't know what to do, abandon the city and flee, he is afraid that Liu Shicheng will not spare himself, but if he defends the city, he only has a thousand soldiers under him, what to defend the city?

At this time, the soldiers cut down dozens of big trees and piled them up two hundred steps away from the east city gate, and several soldiers of the firearms battalion placed a large iron fire mine under the big tree, lit the fire rope, and the cavalry retreated one after another, covering the ears of the war horses with cloths, and covering their ears at the same time.

The thousand soldiers at the head of the city did not know what was happening, and gazed curiously at the trees hundreds of paces.

Suddenly, a red light burst out, followed by an earth-shattering explosion of iron fire and thunder, the whole earth was trembling, the city was shaking, hundreds of steps away, the war horses were sparse and screaming, dada retreated, gunpowder smoke was filled, and the broken wood in the sky fell in a flutter.

Most of the soldiers at the head of the city were unsteady on their feet and fell to the ground, and most of the soldiers saw the explosion of iron and fire for the first time, and they were so frightened that they fell to the ground and shouted, as if the end was coming.

Lang General Lai Wenbo slowly stood up, looked out, the smoke faded, and he could see the situation at the explosion, and he was stunned.