In Kaifeng Mansion, Henan, Cao Bianjiao finally ordered to stop the pursuit and camp the whole army.

Since learning that Cao Cao and Luo Rucai had a tendency to join forces with Li Zicheng's troops, Ding Qirui, the governor of the Central Plains, was shocked and hurriedly dispatched Cao Bianjiao, Zuo Liangyu and other general officers to surround Luo Rucai everywhere, and it was imperative that these two bandits could not be allowed to join forces.

Cao Bianjiao's subordinates are all elite soldiers, and after Cao Wanyi married Liu Ximing, the relationship between the two families became closer and closer.

In order to prevent Cao Bianjiao's troops from becoming as evil as Zuo Liangyu and others, Liu Ximing has begun to quietly fund Cao Bianjiao, and by the way, he has also begun to arrange nails.

After all, it was under his own command, and Liu Ximing's move to install people did not hide from Cao Bianjiao, but firstly, in the name of donating salaries, and secondly, the people sent by Liu Ximing were all officers in the Liu family's army, and no matter how poor they were, they also received formal military education, which was much more convenient than Cao Bianjiao's promotion of talents from the army.

After Cao Wanyi vaguely sent a few letters, Cao Bianjiao accepted it half-pushed and half-on-the-spot.

Not to mention, with the addition of this group of people from the Liu family, the combat power of Cao Bianjiao's department has increased, not to mention, this military supply is much more convenient, it seems that as long as these people from the Liu family come forward, military supplies are basically not a problem.

After coming and going, Cao Bianjiao began to enjoy such convenience with peace of mind.

It's just that his command is brave and daring to fight, but it doesn't mean that the other chief officers of the Ming army are the same.

Zuo Liangyu, who was dispatched by Ding Qirui to cooperate with Cao Bianjiao to intercept Luo Rucai, was a well-known fleeing army.

That is, in the area of Funiu Mountain, Zuo Liangyu's troops fought timidly again, and Luo Rucai successfully escaped from him and went straight to Li Zicheng in Luoyang.

Cao Bianjiao, who was full of depression, had to write to the court to impeach Zuo Liangyu on the one hand, and stop at Xingyang east of Luoyang on the other.

Five days later, however, a powerful message came from the west.

"Report, general, the thieves broke through Luoyang Dasuo for three days, killed the Fu King, and at this moment they have come to the east with the Cao thief, looking at the posture, maybe it is towards Kaifeng."

"Click"

Cao Bianjiao, who has always been calm, heard the news, and when he missed, he directly crushed the tea cup in his hand.

"Bastard, why are these dog thieves so powerful, attacking the city is like entering a no-man's land, damn it, this battle can't be fought."

Cao Bianjiao finished complaining, and a young general with a slightly dark face and a slight stubble in his tent hugged his fist and said:

"The general town, the Cao thief has a lot of soldiers and horses, and the thieves have broken through the big city, and it is even more prosperous, we only have 20,000 horses at the moment, if you want to attack these two thieves, it is like a mantis arm as a car, and please give the order of the general town to retreat to the east as soon as possible, and at the same time report to Governor Ding for support."

Cao Bianjiao glanced at the young general, and a flash of appreciation flashed in his eyes.

"That's what I said, Ma Baohua, you go to reorganize the troops quickly."

"Whoa"

Cao Bianjiao's troops were very fast, but the rest of the Ming army was much worse.

About fifteen days after Cao Bianjiao's troops arrived in Kaifeng, the 400,000 troops led by Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai approached Kaifeng, and at this time, the other troops who came to aid the Ming Dynasty could not see a shadow.

Cao Bianjiao is known as Cao Yanluo, even if Li Zicheng and other troops are more than ten times that of several parties, he still dares to rush into battle.

However, after all, he was weak, and after finding that Cao Bianjiao was just fighting alone, Li Zicheng personally commanded the troops to engage in the battle, and at the same time ordered Luo Rucai to surround some of his troops.

Fortunately, Ma Baohua and others sent by Liu Ximing found out that something was wrong, and a golden drum called Cao Bianjiao back, so that he was not made dumplings.

In desperation, Cao Bianjiao had no choice but to retreat southeast to the vicinity of Huangjia Town, while keeping an eye on the Liukou while waiting for reinforcements.

The city of Luoyang was broken, and the news that the thieves were marching east into Kaifeng had already shocked the government and the opposition, Chongzhen ordered people to go to Huaiqing with their jade belt to seal Zhu Yousong as the blessed king, and on the other hand, he issued a holy decree urging Ding Qirui to lead the troops to intercept.

It was not until ten days later that the superintendent Ding Qirui rushed to the vicinity of Kaifeng with Yang Wenyue and Wang Qiaonian to lead Shao Derong, Hu Dawei, Zuo Liangyu, Yang Dezheng, Zheng Jingcai and other general officers with a total of 160,000 troops.

Due to the fact that Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others broke through Wuchang earlier, and Cao Bianjiao, Shao Derong and others had already arrived around Wuchang Mansion, Zuo Liangyu failed to pick up the great credit for recovering Wuchang from the retreat of Li Zicheng and others, and his troops were still controlled at about 30,000 people, which was much weaker than in history.

In Li Zicheng's army, Song Xiance rushed into Li Zicheng's big tent excitedly.

"King Chuang, this is a good opportunity, if our army can destroy the main force of the official army in one battle, then there is no one in the world to control our army."

In the account, Li Zicheng was discussing with Liu Zongmin, Yuan Zongdi and a group of other generals about the reorganization of the army.

The transfer to Shaanxi and Henan, especially the capture of Xi'an and Luoyang, not only brought a lot of political capital to Li Zicheng, but more importantly, absorbed a large number of officers and troops from these two places to join the army.

Although Li Zicheng's troops were already approaching like the official army in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, it was not until this time that his army really had the combat strength to defeat the official army.

Not to mention that Li Zicheng and others have already been out of the army, and after so many years of exploration, they also have a lot of experience in the use of battle formations, and the officer group is gradually taking shape.

"Complete the reorganization of the cavalry as soon as possible, whether we can defeat the officers and troops depends on them, and we can do it according to our method in the border army."

Li Zicheng threw down a sentence at Yuan Zongdi and the others, and turned his head to look at Song Xiance.

"Mr. Song, what do you mean by that?"

Song Xiance nodded to the generals, and excitedly entered the big tent and said: "King Chuang, our army is several times larger than the official army, and the official army is far away, and our army is waiting for work, this is the advantage of our army, if the Ming court does not have these Central Plains soldiers and horses, then the world is not for me to get." ”

Li Zicheng was a little moved when he heard this, but when he thought of the number of officers and soldiers, he was still a little worried:

"There are nearly 200,000 people in the official army, and it is still a question whether we can eat it in one bite, but don't steal chickens and rice."

"Oh, when the judgment continues to suffer from the chaos, break into the king, this opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, among the officers and soldiers, except for Cao Yanluo and Shao Judge, who are really fierce, which of the other general soldiers is not from the strong Dingla, please think twice about the king."

Li Zicheng was persuaded hard by Song Xiance, and finally made up his mind: "Go and invite Cao Cao quickly, I want to discuss with him in person." ”

Within half a day, Cao Bianjiao and others found that the Liukou army besieging Kaifeng City was divided into two routes, one way tens of thousands of horses continued to besiege Kaifeng, and the other went south to Zhuxian Town, and confronted himself and others.

As soon as Cao Bianjiao got the news, he immediately went to find Shao Derong and Zheng Jingcai, and the group went straight to the big tent of the superintendent Ding Qirui.

However, what a few people didn't expect was that as soon as they saw Cao Bianjiao in person, Ding Qirui's first question was:

"Is General Cao willing to be the vanguard of the army?"

If it is according to Cao Bianjiao's own meaning, then it is natural that there is a battle that can be fought, so why not be afraid of what pioneer is not a pioneer.

But before he could agree, Shao Derong, who was walking behind him, immediately pulled the back of his clothes.

Cao Bianjiao, who noticed the abnormality behind him, quickly glanced at the situation in Ding Qirui's tent, and found that Zuo Liangyu, Hu Dawei and other general soldiers were also inside, he instantly understood, and said with a bitter face:

"The superintendent has an order, and the last general should have obeyed, but our army was the first to engage the thieves, and the thieves were dozens of times larger than our army at that time, and my command also suffered heavy casualties."

Ding Qirui froze for a moment when he heard this, and then he became angry again, he turned his head to look at Zuo Liangyu and the others in the tent, and scolded directly:

"This is also pushed, that is also pushed, what is the use of the imperial court raising you soldiers."

Seeing this, Cao Bianjiao couldn't help but look back at Shao Derong and the others, and a sigh rose in his heart.

Although the number of officers and soldiers is small, if they can work together, they may not be able to break the thief army, but now that each general soldier has its own evil intentions, then this matter will be difficult.

However, speaking of which, Cao Bianjiao can also understand the psychology of Zuo Liangyu and others, and there are only a few thousand soldiers under the command of each general soldier who really dare to fight, if all of them are lost here, the court will not give you any benefits.

Now in these chaotic years, if you don't have soldiers in your hands, wouldn't you wait for death?

Thinking of this, Cao Bianjiao briefly told Li Zicheng and the others about the move to Zhu Xianzhen, and then sat down with Shao Derong and others to watch the prevarication in the tent.

Although Ding Qirui was a supervisor, he did not have his own descendants, and at this time, the prestige of the imperial court fell to the bottom because of the successive killings of the clan.

Zuo Liangyu and these people are such people, they have already seen the reality of the imperial court, and they basically put their left ear in and out of their right ear for Ding Qirui's words, and they don't pay attention to them.