When the thieves in the city saw the breach of the city gate, they came to their senses and rushed to rush into the city. Seeing that the situation was not good, Ma Tingshi called for officers and soldiers to meet the enemy, and at the same time personally pushed the Saimen knife cart to plug the gap in the city gate. The Semen knife cart is very heavy, and although it has wheels, it also requires several strong men to push it. But at this moment, the situation was urgent, and Ma Tingshi didn't think so much about it in a hurry, just thinking about blocking the gap in the city gate, and he actually blocked the door knife car on his own. The thieves who rushed in front of them rushed too quickly, couldn't hold back their steps, and slammed into the knife wall lined with steel knives, and were stabbed in the heart.

The officers and soldiers who came back to their senses saw that Ma Tingshi had personally gone into battle, how dare they fall behind, and immediately pushed up three or four Saimen knife carts, so that the impact of the thieves did not succeed.

The nest car and the crash have all failed, and the thieves have no choice but to return to the ant-attached tactics. A large number of thieves and crossbowmen began to shoot locust-like arrows at the city, and the sword and axe men set up bamboo ladders and began to climb, followed by a large army of thieves. At the same time, some thieves began to storm the gap in the city gate. Up and down the city, they were caught in a fierce battle.

During this period, He Yilong used the bed crossbow many times. However, the thieves were only new to the use of bed crossbows, and they were not proficient, and the number of crossbow arrows was not large, so they did not cause substantial damage to officers and soldiers.

He Yilong also let go this time, preferring to use refueling tactics rather than withdraw his troops. In the face of the rising thieves, the officers and soldiers took out the wolf's tooth slap, the yaksha and other instruments to make fierce resistance, and the two sides fought from noon to unitary time, until the sunset on the horizon was like fire, and He Yilong had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

The thieves dispersed, and when they looked up from the city, they saw that the corpses on the ground were like mountains, blood flowed like streams, and the stumps and broken arms and damaged blades could be seen everywhere, and the embers were still dancing in the stars, which only made people feel that the hell was nothing more than that.

It was only at this moment that the officers and soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. Compared with the thieves, the officers and soldiers also suffered heavy casualties, and the sacrificed officers and soldiers were dragged to a clearing in the city and arranged neatly. A careful count shows that there were nearly 350 casualties in this battle, which was a heavy blow to the officers and men, who were already small in number.

Li Yanlang walked up to the city. After the battle, the anxious officers and soldiers rested one by one with their backs against the women's wall. They were so tired that they were so tired that they always won and didn't have the strength to cheer. Li Yanlang waved his hand, and the people behind him immediately trotted to find officers and soldiers and serve clean water. The officers and soldiers drank water and recovered a little, but they heard Li Yanlang say: "Brothers, in today's battle, our officers and soldiers have played a majestic and powerful show. Think about it, the thief army on the opposite side is a fierce army that has conquered many states and counties, and when we encounter it, we can only run away with our tails between our legs! Although our army is small and the city is small, as long as we are united, it is enough to defeat the thief army! As long as we hold on, reinforcements from all over the country will come to help in the near future, and at that time, the thief army will be defeated by internal and external attacks! He looked at the exhausted soldiers and said, "I have decreed that each of my brethren be honoured with meritorious service." For each day, five denarii were added to each of the brethren, and for each of the thieves who were killed, an additional five penarii were added! ”

The promise of this reward did not obtain Chen Hongfan's consent, but Li Yanlang knew that Chen Hongfan's family background was solid, and at such a critical juncture, morale was important, so he had to cut first and then play. In short, if he can defend the city, Chen Hongfan probably won't say much.

Ma Tingshi was also so tired that he couldn't speak at this time, but he still raised his hand and shouted: "Kill the thief army, receive the reward!" With him starting up, all the soldiers did not care about fatigue, and they all began to shout slogans, and their morale was greatly boosted.

Under the city, the thieves retreated into the distance; In the city, Chen Hongfan, who was dressed in military uniform, did not know when he appeared, and was being supported by more than a dozen family members to encourage the officers and soldiers.

"Today's big victory, Chen Shuai rewarded, all the soldiers who participated in the war, each person returned to the camp to receive ten yuan. If there is a level, the first level will be rewarded with ten dollars! The family members shouted loudly, listened to the content, and the reward was twice as much as what Li Yanlang had promised before. When the officers and soldiers at the head of the city heard this, they were overjoyed, and they didn't care about any taboos, and they all shouted long live.

Li Yanlang shook his head and had nothing to say, but thinking that although this Chen Hongfan was useless in the war, he was willing to give up something outside his body, and this advantage alone saved a lot of trouble.

Although the scale of the siege of Beitaishan Temple Town was not large, it had a great impact. He Yilong, who had touched the nail, fled back to the Tang County camp with the defeated soldiers, and had a dispute with Ma Shouying. The officers and troops on the outskirts of Tang County took advantage of the situation to cover up, forcing Ma and He to abandon the camp and continue to flow south.

However, the southern road is difficult to cut off because of the Chen Hongfan Department in the North Taishan Temple Town. Li Yanlang asked Chen Hongfan to sit in the small city, and he led troops out of the city with Xu Qizuo and Ma Tingshi to invite the attack. On the same day, Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Yongwei Battalion, led Huang Degong, Zhou Yuji and many Yu generals from north to south, and Chen Hongfan's department from south to north, joined forces in the northwest of Taishan Temple Town, North Taishan Mountain, the foothills of Kuma Mountain, and the second battalion of Ge Battalion, killed and captured no plan, Ma Shouying and He Yilong escaped from death, and they were nowhere to be found, and they were pacified by the thieves in southern Henan who had been suffering for a long time.

At the end of the war, the Beijing camp and the Yu generals returned home, and Guo Ruke, who had been fighting with the Yu generals, also completed the mission, joined forces with Chen Hongfan's troops, and triumphed in the valley city.

Zhao Dangshi went out of the camp for ten miles to greet him, Chen Hongfan Zhi was proud, and said that he was lucky, but the red light could not hide the excitement. This is his first real victory in the past 10 years, although the actual commander is Li Yanlang, but as the head coach, according to the reporting rules, all kinds of Tang newspapers and newspapers will definitely take great credit.

"Good work." Facing Chen Hongfan, Zhao Dangshi found Li Yanlang and held his hands tightly, "You can win this battle, you are indispensable." ”

With just this sentence, Li Yanlang's depression in the past two days was swept away, and a smile bloomed: "The lord commands, he will not be dishonored." ”

Guo Ruke then also came to ask for a meeting, and first briefly described the situation of the away battles in the past few months, which was generally decent and in line with Zhao Dangshi's requirements at the beginning. But he then mentioned the Henan Tukou Li Jiyu, and said: "Li Jiyu has prestige among the Henan Tukou, and is now regarded as the leader of the alliance by the Zhutukou." There are 30,000 or 40,000 miscellaneous soldiers under his command, and he exhales with a shout, estimating that he can gather 60,000 or 70,000 in the green forest of Henan. He intended to make friends with the lord, and his subordinates also felt that he was reliable, so he reported to the lord that he knew. ”

The Ming court initially divided the rebels into "border thieves", "thieves" and "coercion" according to their identities as rebels, rebels, people, hungry people, refugees, etc. "Border thieves" refer to the deserters of the Jiubian and Siyi rebels, many of them are good soldiers and horses, and they are highly mobile, so they are also called "rogue thieves" and "rogue bandits". The "thieves" were peasants and craftsmen who started riots in various states and counties, and their military quality was relatively low. At first, there were many thieves and few border thieves, but the more later, the proportion of the two became more and more blurred, and many thieves also slowly grew into brave and warlike thieves in actual combat experience, so in the end, border thieves and thieves were collectively called rogues by the Ming court.

However, in the past two years, the original powerful thieves Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, etc. have been weak, and the green and yellow have been handed over, and there are younger generations, especially Henan, which is located in the Central Plains. These newly emerging thieves are at the most basic stage in terms of tactical literacy and equipment level, and their combat effectiveness is very weak, so they are lightened by the officers and soldiers, and they call them "Tukou" - Li Jiyu is the helmsman of the Henan Tukou, with tens of thousands of soldiers, and Guo Ruke is only 2,000 people, so he dares to climb the mountain to attack the village, which also shows the weakness of the Tukou.

Zhao Dangshi had no hope for the combat effectiveness of Li Jiyu and his ilk, and he was not particularly interested. However, Guo Ruke already had a prejudice, and said a few words to him with his ear, Zhao Dangshi couldn't help but move in his heart, nodded and said: "What you said is reasonable, this Li Jiyu can really make friends." Then he asked, "How does he want me to help Fa'er?" ”

Guo Ruke said: "It's nothing more than money, food and weapons." My old Guo estimated that there was no surplus food to share with him, so he said a few vague words at that time and passed perfunctorily. It doesn't hurt that the ordnance might have stuffed him with some of the old antiques in the battalion. ”

Zhao Dangshi glanced at him and said, "You old Guo, you are very slippery." He Li Jiyu has never eaten pork and has never seen a pig run? Can't tell the difference between good and bad? ”

Guo Ruke smiled: "In front of him, I didn't say that. I only said that there are so many Hongyi cannons and broken cannons in our Zhao camp that they can be surrounded as wall envoys, and he is fascinated by what he hears, and his five bodies are thrown to the ground. ”

Zhao Dangshi said with a smile: "How can there be any Hongyi cannon, I saw you firing the cannon with your mouth." When the time comes, if he really wants to see the cannon, he will push you out to deal with it. ”

Guo Ruke patted his chest: "You are not wrapped in my old Guo." ”

Zhao Dangshi thought for a moment and said: "This matter should not be under the control of the military academy, I will go to Mr. Chang to discuss." "The Military Academy, the Political Academy, and the Thinking Academy were established, and Zhao Dangshi began to pay attention to the separation of powers, and the Military Academy was only responsible for leading the troops to fight.

Guo Ruke was very conscious, and he held his head high and said: "My subordinates obey orders!" ”

As soon as the Qihun camp came, there were 5,000 soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion stationed in Gucheng County. Perhaps under the pressure of Zhao Ying, after a few days, Zuo Liangyu led his troops to move to Fang County silently. Afterwards, Zhao Dangshi asked, and only said that he was prepared. Zhao Dangshi knew his temperament and didn't say much.

Chen Hongfan won the battle, Xiong Wencan seemed to be happier than him, and when he heard that he was dancing in the office, he shouted: "Chen Gong save me!" I hope to use Chen Hongfan's credit this time to clear some of my guilt. However, his hopes were eventually dashed. In late September, in just over a month and a few days, Yang Sichang, the new governor in charge of the suppression of the invaders in various provinces, rushed to Xiangyang City from Beijing, thousands of miles away, and after meeting and talking with Xiong Wencan, he was immediately put in prison and escorted to Beijing.

On the first day of October, the banner of the superintendent was opened in Xiangyang, including Zhao Dangshi, Chen Hongfan and others, including Shaanxi, Henan, Chu and other places. Yang Sichang, the new official, took office three times, and only when he arrived in Xiangyang, he immediately beheaded Yin Dabai, the supervisor of Xing'an Road, on the charge of delaying the meeting, and claimed to rectify military discipline, but everyone knew that it was for Liwei. However, when Zhao Dangshi arrived in Xiangyang, he stood in the superintendent's festival tent, looked left and right, but found that Zuo Liangyu was nowhere to be seen.

"Why didn't Zuo Shuai come? He is in Fang County, not far from here. Zhao Dangshi and Chen Hongfan stood together and asked secretly.

"I heard that Zuo Shuai excused his leave for recuperation from the cold, and Inspector Yang also approved it." Chen Hongfan said in a low voice.

Zhao Dangshi nodded, knowing that this was just Zuo Liangyu's excuse. Zuo Liangyu has always been arrogant and domineering, and he barely stopped it when he had Hong Chengchou. As soon as Hong Chengchou left, because of Xiong Wencan's series of unreliable actions, Zuo Liangyu had lost trust in the supervisor and others, especially the defeat of Luo Monkey Mountain, which hit him particularly hard. Zhao Dangshi also felt in Zuo Liangyu's communication that he had already decided in his heart that only by relying on himself could he avoid a fiasco. Yang Sichang has never had experience in leading troops in a local area, and Zuo Liangyu's failure to come this time actually has a bit of a sense of temptation.

Before he finished thinking about Zuo Liangyu in his heart, there were two light coughs at the top of the silent tent, and Yang Sichang was about to speak. Zhao Dangshi hurriedly turned his mind and looked there.