Although Zhang Xianzhong was pursued and suppressed by Hou Liangzhu and Liu Ximing once in Sichuan, since he entered Shaanxi again, his troops have increased instead of decreasing.

If Liu Ximing and Yu Yongkai of the Long Xiang Brigade were present, they should be able to know that this is the role of grassroots officers.

Although the thieves are often exterminated by the official army, most of the elite backbones escape, and tens of thousands of displaced people can be recruited again by pulling up the banner in another place.

After only a few major battles, the living nature can be called elite.

This is something that even the Long Xiang Brigade can't match.

Liu Ximing regards the Longxiang Brigade as his heart, although he also has to be pulled to the battlefield for training.

However, he chose to start the war at a time that he was familiar with and sure of, but he did not dare to take human life seriously like a thief.

Of course, this kind of behavior of the Longxiang Brigade is not necessarily a bad thing, at least in terms of the quality of the officers and other aspects far surpass the thieves and the officers and soldiers.

This is also the biggest advantage that Liu Ximing has found after comparing with the official army since entering the Central Plains.

Anyway, Zhu Guoxiang and the 20,000 officers and troops left behind couldn't resist Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers, so he had to lead his troops to retreat into the inner city to defend.

At this time, Zhu Guoxiang was not completely desperate, the inner city was not like the outer city, and he might not be able to hold it with the remnants of his own army.

At this time, the gentry and people in Fengyang City also began to be frightened, not only the families of each family were lined up at the head of the city, but even the people in the city gathered to help defend the city under the summons of several small officials.

However, to the despair of the city sergeants and people, in the afternoon, the east gate of Fengyang City was forcibly captured by Neiying, who had been infiltrated by thieves in advance.

Zhang Xianzhong's troops took this opportunity to lead the army into the city from here.

Hearing that the city gate was missing, the remnants of thousands of combat forces were panicked, how to stop it.

When Zhu Guoxiang got the news, the thieves had already entered the city, and seeing that the general trend had gone, Zhu Guoxiang drew his sword angrily.

"The eldest husband is born and dies, gentlemen, fight with me."

In just one day's effort, all the 20,000 soldiers and horses left behind in the Central Capital Division were lost.

"Phew, thief, I thought the official army was so powerful, it turned out to be just a bunch of soft-footed shrimp, Erlang, loot quickly, there are good things waiting for us outside."

"Roar"

Why did Zhang Xianzhong want to grab the name of this pioneer, it was not because he had long taken a fancy to the imperial mausoleum outside Fengyang City.

Since the beginning of the army, he and his subordinates have dug up many tombs of dignitaries and nobles, and the luxurious treasures inside are a major reliance of the rogue.

Now that the royal ancestral tomb is in front of him, Zhang Xianzhong is already salivating.

He was like this, and so were his generals, tens of thousands of people swept through Fengyang City like locusts, and the army went straight to the imperial tomb fourteen miles away from the city.

As for Fengyang City itself, naturally there were follow-up troops such as Gao Yingxiang who came to accept it.

The Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum is mainly where Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestors are, and no emperor has set up the mausoleum here since the beginning of the dynasty.

But even so, this imperial mausoleum is still on a grand scale, not only the imperial city, the brick city, but also the palace and the palace, led by the eunuchs guarding the mausoleum, a total of more than 6,000 soldiers and horses guarding the mausoleum.

When Zhang Xianzhong's troops arrived, martial law had already been locked here, and Gao Qin, the eunuch guarding the tomb, and others had already gone to the city to defend.

"Siege"

Zhang Xianzhong stared at the imperial mausoleum in front of him and salivated, and he didn't need to repair it at all, so he waved his hand directly to attack the city.

In his opinion, how much effort could it take for his army of more than 10,000 to attack such a small place.

I'm afraid that as soon as the GIs arrive, the defenders should surrender.

I'm afraid Zhang Xianzhong couldn't have imagined that when he attacked the city on a large scale, a team of nearly 1,000 soldiers and horses had been ambushed in the pine and cypress on the east side of the imperial tomb for a long time.

In the darkness, a little moonlight reflected a little light on the chain mail, and more than a thousand people lined up, but it was as quiet as a sculpture.

Seeing that the imperial tomb a few miles away has been in flames, these people have already sat like a mountain.

It wasn't until Zhang Xianzhong's troops began to break through the wall of the Imperial Mausoleum that the shouts of killing were everywhere on the wall, and suddenly, a fierce artillery bombardment came from the woods.

The bomb exploded above the rogue like a fairy scattering flowers, causing a burst of screams and panic.

"Enemy attack!"

"Reinforcements have arrived!"

Behind the thieves, Zhang Xianzhong watched with a grim face as the cluster sparks exploded on his head, causing bursts of shouting and roaring.

"Holy shit, why does this cannon look so familiar?"

After watching it for a long time, seeing the cry in his ears as nothing, Zhang Xianzhong first wondered.

Sun Kewang and the others rushed over anxiously.

"Grandpa, what should I do, to fight this imperial tomb or not?"

Zhang Xianzhong glared angrily, "Fuck it, Lao Tzu is on the side of the meat, how can there be anyone who doesn't eat a bite, Dingguo, you take 3,000 people to see it immediately, if there are not many people, eat him." ”

"The rest of the people, by attacking the city for Lao Tzu, if the officials and soldiers are really crowded, they will rush up directly, where can they still use these means."

Hearing Zhang Xianzhong's order, Li Dingguo stubbornly took the men and horses and began to march towards the east of the city.

However, under the darkness of the night, Li Dingguo walked with 3,000 men and horses, and his heart became more and more empty.

The dark forest in front of him, except for the continuous fire light behind the woods, there is no other sound, which makes people unable to figure out the reality in it.

There weren't many archers among the thieves, and most of the siege was consumed, and now Li Dingguo could only lead people to bury his head in the woods.

"First row, shoot."

The sound of "bang" and "bang" gunshots rang out with the firelight, and the screams of his men being hit woke up Li Dingguo, who was thinking.

"Charge"

didn't have time to think about it, Li Dingguo held the idea of sharing the firepower for the main force, and yelled and urged his thieves to start attacking the woods.

When he was still more than twenty steps away from the woods, a series of sparkling fires lit up, accompanied by iron bumps thrown out of the woods.

Li Dingguo's eyes widened, and his face was full of horror.

This is the gang of people encountered in Sichuan!

The battle of Pengzhou has always been fresh in Li Dingguo's memory, and the whistling projectiles, brilliant fireworks-like bombs, and the iron lump in front of him that can be used at close range all made his heart tremble.

"Retreat", a hoarse cry came from Li Dingguo's mouth.

However, by this time the grenade had already flown into the crowd, and what was the use of his shouts alone.

The explosions of "boom" and "boom" continued to sound, and the thieves were suddenly overwhelmed.

These horses in the woods are not the personal guard group led by Liu Ximing, who else can they be.

With Shao Derong, an internal response in the army, Liu Ximing is simply aware of the current trends in the Central Plains War.

Since March, Shao Derong's flying pigeon biography has been coming continuously.

He followed Cao Bianjiao's department to pursue Cao Cao Luo Rucai, this guy went straight to the east, met the city without fighting, and the soldiers did not stop, it seemed that he wanted to run around.

At that time, Liu Ximing felt that this guy had some conspiracy in it.

Later, combined with the movements of Gao Yingxiang and other departments, Liu Ximing was quite moved to find that the marching route of these thieves was to advance towards Nanzhili.

An old piece of historical news suddenly popped into Liu Ximing's mind.

Zhang Xianzhong burned Fengyang!

Even in the last years of Chongzhen, where major events are frequent, this matter can be regarded as a major event like a collapse.

After all, even the ancestral grave of the old Zhu family was dug up, how could Liu Ximing not be impressed.

Moreover, judging from the distribution of the military strength under Hong Chengchou, Nanzhili is also the most likely breakthrough direction chosen by Gao Yingxiang and other thieves.

At present, the five provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shanxi have all been mobilized, and there is a net of heaven and earth laid by Hong Chengchou everywhere, but there is no large army to defend it in the direction of Nanzhili and Shandong.

Shandong is located in a corner and is easy to be trapped in the middle, Liu Ximing believes that Gao Yingxiang and others can crisscross the Central Plains for many years, and they should not fail to see the disadvantages.

Combined with history, Nanzhili is the only choice.

This is a great opportunity, Liu Ximing was ecstatic in his heart.

He doesn't care if the ancestral tomb of the old Zhu family is safe or not, but this is a great opportunity to brush up on credit.

The imperial court has the so-called saying of expanding the territory and stabilizing the society, if you can save the ancestral grave of Comrade Xiao Zhu, not to mention anything else, at least you can be in the heart of the emperor.

Therefore, after analyzing this possibility, Liu Ximing did not hesitate to inform Shao Derong and asked him to find a way to lure Cao Bianjiao to Fengyang to help in the battle.

He only has a thousand men in his own hands, and it must be beyond his strength to rely on such a few people to resist the rogues.

It's just that I don't know where Cao Bianjiao and the others have traveled at the moment.