On the mountain road more than 30 miles east of Zhujiping, a force of tens of thousands of people is winding its march. Unlike the marching methods of other Ming troops, the majority of the vanguard of this army wore tattered peasant clothes, weapons of all colors, and little armor, and only a few officers had relatively sophisticated equipment. However, the morale and military appearance were quite strict and high.

After the advance of thousands of troops, the equipment and clothing of the army began to be neatly assembled.

The Chinese army brigade of nearly 10,000 people is full of armor, with a clear banner and a neat military appearance. Among the ranks, there are many veterans in their thirties and forties who serve as officers such as small flags, general flags, and general officers. Most of the horses in this army used spears. Spears several meters long, all with a meter-long mourning spear head, with a hook and ring at the back of the spear shaft, these spears are all ash wood poles, without the flashy decoration common in the Ming army.

Because this army once participated in the war against the rebellion of Yang Yinglong, one of the three major expeditions in Banzhou, and participated in the war against the Qing soldiers inside and outside the Great Wall since the early years of the Apocalypse, and also participated in the war of pacifying the extravagant Chongming, so it is famous throughout the country and is called the white pole soldier.

Its commander is the one marked on the banner, Shizhu Xuanfu Envoy, the chief military officer with the title of governor, and the second-grade crown uniform, the real female general Qin Liangyu.

The Chinese army stopped marching and began to build a camp based on the mountainous terrain, and soon, a well-guarded barracks with complete horse-blocking trenches began to take shape, and there was silence in the barracks, and there were officers leading soldiers in the temporary school yard to practice seriously.

At the end of a Yong road is Qin Liangyu's Chinese army tent, and on both sides of the road are the camps and outposts of each battalion. In the middle of the tent hangs a pair of "Zhongtang" written by herself on gold-sprinkled orange-red calendered wax paper. All silk Seiko mounted, the two ends of the fall inlaid with jade nan wood shaft, with Gong Kai to write Chongzhen two years when she was edicted to enter the king of Jingqin Emperor Chongzhen one of the four imperial poems: "Shu brocade robes handmade, peach blossoms immediately please long tassels." How many strange men are there in the world, who is willing to travel thousands of miles on the battlefield? ”

Around the big tent and inside the tent, dozens of male and female soldiers under the command of the stone pillar Xuanfu envoy stood solemnly with guns and swords. However, Qin Liangyu, the owner of the big tent, was not in the camp.

According to the original marching plan, Qin Liangyu needed a day before he could come to Zhuyiping. At noon yesterday, she learned that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai jointly attacked Zhang Ling, and she was afraid that Zhang Ling would be brave and unscrupulous. Defeat the enemy lightly. Therefore, regardless of the fatigue of the soldiers who marched for days, they urged to hurry. She herself was originally in the Chinese military supervision team, because she estimated that Zhang Ling might not be able to help but go out of the village to fight today, and she was definitely not the opponent of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, who were full of scheming soldiers. led hundreds of standard battalions to the front team. Rush to the aid of Zhang Ling. Even at noon, he didn't ask the people to stop and sharpen.

About less than five miles away from the bamboo mushroom ping, Qin Liangyu got a report and knew that Zhang Ling had died. The bamboo mushroom flat has been lost. She was taken aback and immediately ordered her men to stop where they were, and the whole team was ready to fight. She took a group of personal soldiers and a few personal generals to climb the high post to lookout, and sure enough, she saw a group of routed soldiers who escaped from Zhuyiping rushing along the main road. The rest scattered in all directions, and some were killed by Zhang Xianzhong's pursuers. She understood that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai would inevitably take advantage of the victory and rush to kill her men with an unstoppable momentum. Under the present circumstances, she should quickly retreat, occupy a dangerous place, set up a camp, defend against the danger, avoid the enemy's sharp spirit, and then try to counterattack, but she also understands that if she orders to retreat, her men and horses will easily panic and flee immediately under the pursuit of Zhang and Luo's cavalry, and they will be out of control. So this method only flashed in her mind and was not adopted. She used the second method: to set up a position in place, meet the enemy, buy time for the rear army to occupy the dangerous terrain, and set up a strong camp. So she immediately galloped down from the high post, relied on the spot to set up a position, and at the same time sent an order to the rear team for 100,000 urgent generals, ordering them to come with 3,000 men and horses to reinforce, and the rest of the army to go down to the village in danger.

She thought about the safety of Sichuan and whether she could maintain her prestige for the rest of her life and decide this battle, so although she was shocked in her heart, she tried her best to maintain her majesty and composure, and immediately stepped forward and said to the soldiers on the left and right: "You must fight to the death. When we keep this place, we keep our home. After this step, the thieves will be killed at our doorstep. She also ordered that these two words be communicated to all the soldiers.

Although the Shi Yan soldiers were famous throughout the country, they were not at all as rigorously trained as the Qi soldiers, and they mainly relied on the blood relationship between the Tujia people and the personal dependence of slaves on their masters, and fought on barbarism and courage. It would have been impossible for them to establish a firm foothold in the relatively empty hilly area here and resist the cavalry of Zhang and Luo, not to mention that the soldiers had already been afraid of Zhang Xianzhong since the defeat of the official army in the land ridge and the death of Wang Yunfeng, the deputy general of Huguang. Qin Liangyu also saw that the soldiers were all timid, so he issued a strict order: "After taking the battle, those who take a step back will be killed!" She repeated the words "Guarding this place is guarding the family", telling everyone to remember and not forget.

"The Governor has ordered again! Whoever kills a thief will have his clothes, property, weapons, and armor all belong to him! No one else is allowed to be greedy! Violators, behead! ”

This series of orders boosted the morale and courage of the former army. Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai entered Sichuan from Huguang, attacked the city all the way, and captured a lot. These white-pole soldiers have long heard that the thieves in Xiying and Caoying are all tired, and now the governor has grace, as long as he kills the thief, his property, clothes, armor, weapons, and horses are all owned by the slasher, which makes the white-pole soldiers who were born in the poor land of Shizhu all have bright eyes.

Although in recent years, Qin Liangyu has opened mines in Shizhu Tuntian, collected medicine and hunted, developed production, reorganized the army and fought the military, and also built the embankment of the Nanbincheng River, so that the people under his subordinates can live and work in peace and contentment. However, on the one hand, it was necessary to transport the goods obtained from mining and hunting to the Chaotianmen wharf in Chongqing, and load them on ships to Yueyang, Wuchang, Xiangyang, Shashi and other wharves to exchange them for the weapons and armor that the white pole soldiers urgently needed, and on the other hand, the white pole soldiers had to be continuously trained. In this way, the life of the common people of Shizhu can be imagined.

Among Qin Liangyu's several orders, there were no other beheading orders, but this order to behead those who embezzled other people's military merits was responded to by the whole army, and there were more than 4,000 people in the forward. Immediately relying on the mountain road to spread the formation, like a huge hedgehog spreading its sharp thorns.

When the formation was not long, a noisy and noisy scream of terror was heard in the distance. In the blink of an eye, about 2,000 rout soldiers who had escaped from Zhujiping arrived.

Although there were only two or three hundred cavalry under Zhang Dingguo and Cao Cao shouting to chase and kill, the peasants, soldiers and horses of the brigade were still searching for the remnants of the defeated soldiers near Zhang Ling's camp in Zhujiping, collecting horses, weapons, and property, and had no intention of pursuing at all. However, the routs of about 2,000 soldiers discarded their weapons along the road and did not dare to turn back to resist.

Under the fear, countless people only know how to run desperately, running for several miles in a row. Many people even lost their straw sandals on their feet. The mouth is white, but he still can't care about running wildly.

Suddenly, when they saw the military formation in front of them and saw that the banner was the army of the Ming Dynasty, they roared with joy. Run to the army.

But they forgot. The rout rushed head-on to the military formation. This is a big taboo. According to the military law of the Ming Dynasty, it is a capital crime to attack the military formation head-on. You can kill on the spot.

In the white pole barracks, a voice came from the densely set up spears: "My family has an order!" All the troops of General Zhang's army were defeated, and they all handed over their weapons first, knelt on the spot, and those who had horses also rolled off their horses for Lao Tzu and lay on the ground! ”

A person who seemed to be a general or a guerrilla general, led dozens of family members by his side, roared loudly at the white pole soldiers behind the densely inserted spears: "Lao Tzuri, you ancestor plank!" Lao Tzu is a guerrilla of the Ming Dynasty, born and died and fought for decades, what qualifications does the old widow surnamed Ma have to confiscate Lao Tzu's weapons and horses? Get out of the way for Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu wants to go to Qin Liangyu, the old widow, to argue with her! ”

"The general of the defeated army still dares to insult the officials. Kill! A cold order came from the crowd, and a dozen spears were handed out, and the guerrilla immediately added a dozen blood holes to his body. The rest of the soldiers immediately became silent, and did not dare to say more, so they had to honestly hand over their armor, weapons, and horses, while they were tied up by the white pole soldiers and dragged to the back of the battle to take care of them.

The simplest way is the most direct, and the thunderous means of the white pole soldier immediately stabilized the situation. When the two or three hundred cavalry rushed to them, they were greeted by a dense rain of arrows, and after the crossbowmen fired fiercely, they were pierced by spears like a forest of firewood, and dozens of cavalrymen were stabbed off their horses.

This small victory in the contact battle at the outpost immediately boosted the morale of the white pole soldiers, and when they saw that the more than 200 cavalrymen who were still chasing the officers and soldiers just now turned their horses and fled, they couldn't help shouting in unison, but they didn't chase after them.

"The grace of the governor, the vanguard soldier has slain the enemy, and the thief is slain, and the thief is rewarded with horses, armor, clothing, property, and weapons. The rest of the participants will be rewarded! At such a time, the old lady Qin Liangyu will naturally not be stingy with rewards, not to mention that she doesn't have to pay for these rewards herself, naturally there are two people surnamed Zhang who pay for her.

When the reward was in hand, the love of the white pole soldier was immediately another scene. Those who received the reward touched their clothes, armor, and the silver on their waists, and grinned widely, and those who were not so lucky only hated that the thieves came less.

However, in the blink of an eye, the cavalry of the brigade rushed to the mountain road where the two small mountains faced each other like an angry tide under the banner of the Eight Kings of Xiying and Luo Rucai of Cao Ying.

Qin Liangyu already knew at this moment that the Chinese army and the rear army had already selected a dangerous terrain in the rear to build a camp, so he immediately relaxed a little, and immediately ordered the rear army to rush to reinforce the 3,000 men and horses to immediately go up the mountain.

She summoned the generals to stand in front of them and set out tasks for everyone. The White Pole Soldiers and the Eight Banners are actually quite similar in terms of a large number of dù, both of which are organized by Tusi with family blood relatives and in-laws as the bond. The vast majority of its officers and generals at all levels were family members and relatives of the Ma family and the Qin family.

"The leader of this group of thieves is Zhang Kewang, the adopted son of the thieves. This thief is no less fierce and cunning than a thief, we must not be careless, just rely on the terrain to kill and injure the thief's horse, and do not chase lightly, in case we fall into the thief's treacherous trick and repeat the mistake of Zhang Ling. ”

In the face of the old lady Qin Liangyu's tactics of defending and not attacking, Zhang Kewang can be regarded as being hit on the head. Old Lady Qin's tactical thinking of not seeking merit but seeking no fault made Zhang Kewang leave the corpses of at least dozens of soldiers behind every time he attacked. For such tactics, Rao was the "wall" of the later Qin king, Sun Kewang, although he had always been known for his bravery, cunning, composure, and fickleness. But there is nothing to be done.

Zhang Kewang, who is burly, is covered with three layers of heavy armor that are rare in the peasant army, and his body is wrapped in chain mail, cotton armor, and Nanban armor to become more and more burly and huge. He almost reined in the reins of the horse in front of Zhang Xianzhong's big tent, and rushed into the big tent in a few steps, his face was full of hideous color except for sweat. A feather arrow on his shoulder was still stuck diagonally on it, if it weren't for the three-layer armor bodyguard, I was afraid that this arrow would turn him into a second Zhang Ling.

"Father! Cao Shuai! Qin Liangyu, that old lady is a turtle that doesn't come out of the hole! Defend the hill and the road, and keep transferring her white pole soldiers to take turns to fight against our brothers! Our brothers of the rebel army have been fighting for a few days in a row, and this old woman is playing with this hand and waiting for work. It's really a pit man! ”

Zhang Ling's camp in Zhujiping was already Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's camp at this time. This battle. In one fell swoop, he overturned Zhang Ling, a veteran of the Sichuan army, and beat the morale of the Sichuan army to the bottom, not to mention, Xiying and Cao Ying also captured thousands of Sichuan troops and captured countless grains, grasses, armor and horses.

I opened the road to the east of Sichuan, not to mention. In the past, the people and horses of the two towns of Fierce Tiger and Zuo Liangyu, who followed behind their buttocks, also stopped in place. How could this not make Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao happy?

"I heard that Yang Sichang is a salty and light supervisor. However, a lot of grain, grass, armor and military salaries were stored in Chongqing Prefecture. That's all for us! ”

"That's it! The brothers rushed out of the road and went directly to Chongqing Mansion and fought their way out of Kuimen along the river. Go straight to Huguang to have a walk! ”

There are a few pots of charcoal fire in the big tent, warm as spring, and a song and dance are leveling. The aroma of wine and meat continued to waft outward, and several groups of female musicians kept singing, dancing. Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son, Zhang Dingguo, Zhang Wenxiu, Zhang Nengqi, Bai Wenxuan, Ma Yuanli, Feng Shuangli and other generals, together with Cao Cao's descendants Wang Long, Sun Chengzu, Yang Shengzu and others were also happy and happy.

If Zhang Kewang hadn't brought such unfavorable news, I am afraid that the joyful atmosphere in the tent would continue for a long time.

"Jing Xuan," Luo Rucai called Zhang Xianzhong's words, he was resourceful in the peasant army, alias Cao Cao, and he was sleek, good at reconciling the relationship between various departments, conquering the city, and his children's property was also willing to share equally, so many peasant army leaders liked to cooperate with him. From Wang Ziyong and Gao Yingxiang in the early days, to Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng in the early days, they had good cooperation with him and fought many commendable battles. Historians once called him the soul of the peasant army.

He wants to give Zhang Xianzhong and Zhang Kewang a step down.

"Mao Tang and Ning Yu, the two virtuous nephews, have been fighting hard for days, and they are tired for a while! This time, I will look at my Cao Ying soldiers! Wang Lung! Yang Chengzu! The two of you immediately go and pick up the people and follow our Lao Tzu to the front, our Lao Cao wants to see what kind of three-headed and six-armed figure this old lady Qin is! ”

Seeing Qin Liangyu's position, Rao is Cao Cao has been fighting in the north and south for many years, and he has also fought countless famous generals in the official army, but this is the first time he has encountered such a formation.

There was a team of about 2,000 people in front of the mountain road, and the ash pole spear filled the mountain road that was not too wide, and there were more than a dozen wounded and undead war horses lying in front of the mountain road, still struggling in vain in a pool of blood, and the owner of the war horse was beheaded by someone, leaving only a smooth body on the mountain road. I think that the head and the armor and property on the body were taken by the white pole soldiers as trophies.

On the hills on both sides, the flags of guerrilla generals fluttered in the mountains and forests, and about 15,600 people lined up on the top of the hills.

"Father! Cao Shuai! You see, as soon as we attack, as long as we engage the white pole soldiers in front, the men and horses on both sides will rush down the mountain to attack our two wings, and the brothers are no matter how brave they are, and they are also invincible in the face of three-way attacks! ”

Moreover, Qin Liangyu built a camp behind the mountain road, in order to maintain the vigorous fighting spirit and physique of the officers and soldiers, the old lady Qin strictly ordered that the troops on the hills on both sides immediately take over the defense of the troops on the mountain road after rushing down from the mountain, and confront the peasant army, and another troops went up the mountain to take over their defense, and the troops that were originally defending on the mountain road withdrew to the camp to rest. In this way, when Zhang Kewang attacked, he was always faced with the energetic white pole soldiers, coupled with the narrow mountain road, the cavalry of the peasant army could not use their own speed to carry out the killing, how could there be no reason not to suffer in the face of the white pole soldiers' spears?

"Jing Xuan! Why don't we bring in our pikemen too! Let's use spears against spears to see if our soldiers are strong or his Qin Liangyu's white-pole soldiers are ruthless! ”

"Handsome! Cao Shuai! Zhang Xianzhong's generals, Ma Wu, the king of the world, and Wang Xingguo, the three harriers, breathlessly reined in the reins of the horses, "The brothers who rode on the side horses told us that following our fierce tiger and Zuo Liangyu, the two dogs, suddenly accelerated the speed of the march, thinking that we were blocked by Qin Liangyu here in Zhujiping, and wanted to pick up the bargain!" ”

"Donkey balls! The nose is a real spirit! Let's get our old Zhang's idea! ”

In the white pole camp behind the mountain, Qin Liangyu, who had just received the official documents and private letters from Governor Shao Jiechun, spoke with the generals with excitement, her voice trembled with excitement, her eyes were filled with tears, she waved two documents, and the white temples exposed under the bronze helmet were extremely dazzling in the lamplight, which made her daughter-in-law Ma Fengyi's eyes couldn't help but be moist.

Governor Shao's letter was written very humbly and politely, in addition to expressing his appreciation and admiration for the behavior of the Governor of Qin in order to defend the land of Sangzi in the year of the sixtieth year, he also patted his chest and told the Governor of Qin that the military salaries and grain of the 30,000 white pole soldiers had been shipped from Chongqing, and "it will arrive within three or five days!" In addition, Governor Shao even informed Qin Liangyu that in order to complete his work in one battle, he had implored Inspector Yang to level the rear of the two artesian thieves of the thief general Zuo Liangyu and the general soldier who were as fierce as a tiger, and to transfer the Wu Biao Division, a model brigade that was being trained and repaired in Chongqing at the moment, to gallop under the stars and nights as the support of the white pole soldiers.

"The governor of this battle will definitely be able to fight and return to the father and elder of Sichuan, and the father and old man will be clear!" (To be continued......)