Shaozhou Mansion is located in the north of Guangdong, adjacent to the Southern Jiangxi region, because the main force of the Qing army in the southern general Manchuria Zhenghuang Banner Gushan Ezhen Tan Tai has been suppressed in the south, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren had to lead the troops to withdraw to Nanchang to hold on, and the siege of Southern Jiangxi was relieved. But this place is located at a key point, even if the Qing army did not go south from here, Li Chengdong was bound to go north from there, crossing the southern Jiangxi region to aid Jin Shenghuan's department.

Shi Lang, Huang Ting and others knew Li Chengdong's temperament and temperament, and after receiving the holy decree, they did not dare to delay any longer, and set off after the army was reorganized only a few days later, planning to go south through the south of Shaozhou, the north of Huizhou, and the north of Chaozhou to join Zheng Chenggong's department.

Sure enough, at the same time as this Fujian army set off, Li Chengdong had already sworn in Guangzhou, and sent lobbyists to contact the Qing generals in the Southern Jiangxi region. To put it mildly, if they leave a few days late and are bumped into by Li Chengdong, they can be annihilated in one fell swoop by the way, a lone army from other provinces that their grandmother does not hurt and their uncle does not love.

When the army set out, the prefectures and counties along the way gave military rations as agreed, but the amount of military rations given was insufficient, and it was inevitable that it would be mixed with gravel, which made this army full of complaints. What's even worse is that all the prefectures and counties are all waiting for them, as if the enemy army is crossing the border, that is, the supply of military food, and it is also in accordance with the old custom of the army arriving in the county at the end of the Ming Dynasty and distributing the grain the next day, which further aggravates the instability of the army's morale.

For this reason, Shi Lang, Huang Ting and others had to walk slowly, as much as possible so that the officers and soldiers in the army could eat a few more days of food before entering the boundaries of the next county, and it would be good to be able to walk more than ten miles a day.

On weekdays, perhaps with Shi Lang's violent temper, he would always have to deal with the civil and military officials in those counties, but soon after they set off, the news that Li Chengdong went north came, and in the face of the terrifying existence of tens of thousands of soldiers, where did they dare to make a mistake, they had to be like a little daughter-in-law who was angry with her mother-in-law, grinding towards Chaozhou in the east little by little.

Out of Shaozhou, over Baoshan, through Wengyuan County, Yuelian Pingzhou, to Zhongxinli, all the way to the east, through Longchuan County, Laolongbu, Qingxi and even Changle County.

Changle County is now under the control of Hao Shangjiu's department, which is an important layout for Li Chengdong to control the whole of Guangdong and deter the Zheng family's uncles and nephews in Chaozhou. However, for the Fujian army that passed by since then, Hao Shangjiu did not make it as difficult as along the way, but warmly invited them to enter the city.

"Nothing to be courteous, either a traitor or a thief."

"Are you still going?"

When this question was spoken, it did make Shi Lang frown. However, the military food is insufficient, after the two counties of Changle and Xingning, once it enters the boundary of Chaozhou, there will be no county seat for food, and it is impossible for five or six thousand troops to go to the capital of Chaozhou without eating or drinking.

"Go talk to Hao Shangjiu and see what tricks he has."

said that he would go, Shi Lang simply took Hong Xishan out of the camp and ran to the county seat. However, Huang Ting, Su Mao and others were left to stay in the camp in case of contingency.

The group rode their horses and went straight to the county seat. Walking on the road, Shi Lang looked around from time to time, always feeling a little uneasy, but he didn't say anything, and still continued to move forward. However, when they came to the gate of the county seat, they slowed down their horses as usual, and the people around them were scattered, and the soldiers guarding the city gates and battlements could also be seen, lazy and lazy, and even the officers did not have much control.

"No, let's go!"

As he spoke, Shi Lang was about to turn the horse's head, but Hong Xishan looked puzzled, and immediately grabbed him and asked, "Honorable Marquis, what's wrong?" ”

The movements of the two were different, and Shi Lang didn't want to attract the attention of the people around him, so he simply lowered his voice and leaned over to explain to Hong Xishan: "Along the way, which county town have you seen such an undefended appearance? ”

Shi Lang's words woke up the dreamer, Hong Xishan subconsciously looked around, and immediately sweated profusely. Mo said that they set out from Shaozhou Mansion this time, that is, earlier, all the marches, the cities they passed, no matter the prefectures and counties, were all on guard, even those people, they also saw the army and ran away, which is like now, those people did not panic when they saw them, so they entered the city step by step.

Now is a troubled time, especially in this era, the military discipline of the army has reached the point that there is not the worst, only worse, at this moment, whether it is the defenders or the people, the more calm and composed, the more wrong it is.

This time, I am afraid that it will be said that it is a Hongmen banquet, and I will waste a table of wine and food for Hao Shangjiu. Nine times out of ten, as soon as they entered the city, the city gate was closed and killed, and the defenders besieged and killed. As long as you get rid of them and attack the big camp again, you will get twice the result with half the effort!

Thinking of this, Shi Lang and Hong Xishan just looked at each other, and the accompanying soldiers turned their horses' heads without hesitation and rushed back to the camp.

Sure enough, the group turned back and immediately attracted the attention of the officer leading the group in the city. I saw that this man did not hesitate to send people out of the city and ran to a hidden place. And there, it was where Hao Shangjiu took the elite of his department and prepared to fight this Fujian army without a leader.

Shi Lang and the others hurried back, and without saying much, the army moved. But the problem is that such a large army must carry a large number of baggage, and in the midst of chaos, it is inevitable to take care of one or the other. But in such a situation, Hao Shangjiu knew that his strategy had failed, so he simply showed a spicy appearance and rushed towards the Min army who had just hit the road.

"Huang Ting led the troops as the vanguard, Hong Xishan and Su Mao led the Chinese army, guarding the baggage, I personally made the palace, we must not let the Hao thief drag the army here."

A Hao Shangjiu, in fact, is not a very important person, the key is that Hao Shangjiu dares to do this, it must be instructed by Li Chengdong, God knows if that guy will be coming with a large army, and how dare they continue to stay in this strange land?

The army fought and walked, the direction above, in fact, has already been determined, that is, first run to Xingning County, to there, there are boats on the Xingning River, which can be used to transport baggage, and can also be supplemented there with some grain and grass, and then go down the river, it is the Chengxiang County in the north of Chaozhou, where is the Meizhou City of later generations, as long as you go along the Meixi, you can enter the Hanjiang River waterway after crossing the Sanhe Dam.

On the first day of the confrontation, Hao Shangjiu didn't take advantage of Shi Lang, but he stayed behind this army for the next few days, like a small tail, and refused to give up anything.

In fact, Shi Lang and the others were really too optimistic, they did not send troops to intercept the messenger, but by the time they arrived, the gate of Xingning County had already been closed, and they had to plunder in the villages and towns outside the city attached to Guo, replenish the grain and grass, and then load the baggage onto the limited collection of ships, and then continue to advance eastward.

In the following days, Hao Shangjiu harassed several times from time to time, sometimes just harassment, but sometimes he really came to fight for a wave. On the contrary, it was Shi Lang and the others, while guarding the baggage, fighting and leaving, Rao is their strength is superior, but they are also exhausted by this tactic. But whenever they wanted to fight to the death with Hao Shangjiu, this guy would not respond to the battle at all, and every time they chose to start on the terrain that could facilitate the retreat, it was simply a slippery hand.

In the final analysis, although Hao Shangjiu is not a famous general, he is also a veteran general who was killed from the sea of corpses and blood in the north of Chongzhen, and he has been in battle for a long time, and he has fought a lot more battles than them. As long as he decided that he wanted to drag down this Fujian army, he didn't think too much about it, and sometimes he simply tended to be conservative in the face of temptation, which was also due to his character, but if it went on like this, this Fujian army would not be able to hold it sooner or later.

"Hold on any longer, it's almost time to Chengxiang County, Huang Ting, you lead people to raid the city and take the county seat of Chengxiang, so we can repair it for a while."

After a long period of high-intensity and high-tension marching, the fatigue of the soldiers could not be relieved, and both physically and psychologically they were already close to the limit. They are not the iron stream that can span 25,000 miles in later generations, they are just a feudal army, not very elite, and now they are a tired army, and if they continue like this, it is estimated that it will not take a few days to fall to the point where Hao Shangjiu can completely destroy them with a single charge!

Fortunately, the Huang Ting's raid on the county seat of Chengxiang was very smooth, and the army received the good news, and its morale was greatly boosted, and they stepped up their pace and poured into the city, relying on the protection of the city wall to temporarily rest.

This period of rest is what they need at the moment, but Hao Shangjiu, who followed behind, did not intend to let them go, and simply contacted a large number of local tyrants and thieves in the northwest of Chaozhou, claiming that they were ordered to pursue and suppress the rebels and not occupy an inch of Chaozhou's land, and repeatedly hinted that these people Shi Lang and others were going to defect to Zheng Chenggong, but relying on Zheng Chenggong's huge threat to the local tyrants in Chaozhou in the past half a year, they really organized a coalition army and surrounded Chengxiang County!

The coalition forces outside the city gathered more and more, and Shi Lang and the others suddenly found that this place had become a dead place. While the siege was not yet complete, they planned to abandon the city and leave, but Hao Shangjiu's cavalry was eyeing the side, and if they left the city, they would probably soon fall into the encirclement of the coalition army. And what's even worse is that after they entered Chengxiang County, they learned that according to the original route, there was a group training leader named Wu Liuqi in Sanheba, who was the strongest local tyrant in Chaozhou, and it was absolutely impossible for that person to let them pass.

Compared with the original history, Shi Lang, Huang Ting and others have fallen into a greater predicament, and they can even be called desperate. All of this is due to the butterfly effect caused by Chen Kai, so that Hao Shangjiu was not able to launch a plot against Shi Lang and others in the capital of Chaozhou. However, they were not completely lifeless than they were then.

"Send the dead out of the city and ask for help from the country!"