The dispute in Hejiang County was mediated by Qin Qigong and soon calmed down. According to the secret rumor, Tan Hong also took his two brothers to visit Ma Wannian and took the initiative to turn the war into a jade silk.

Wang Shangli's troops of the Western Army were defeated and defeated, and Wang Laixing was not in a hurry to pursue, but ordered Santan to lead his troops to slowly advance westward. At the same time, the city defense was strengthened with Jinghe Houying to maintain order; Zhao' Ronggui and Ma Wannian were stationed outside the city and guarded the county seat. Not long after, there was a fierce battle in the area of Qingshan in the northwest of the county seat, and Zhang Dangxian and Zeng Ying, who had been stationed there for a long time, encountered the defeated Wang Shangli department.

Santan got the news, accelerated the march, and soon arrived at the battlefield from behind, and joined Zhang Dangxian and Zeng Yingtong, a total of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, to intercept and besiege thousands of Western troops. The battle lasted from the afternoon to the twilight, climbed the corner tower in the northwest of Hejiang County, overlooked by the railing, under the sunset, there were bursts of frightened birds flying out from the mountains in the distance, and the mountain wind that was blowing and flickering was even mixed with the faint sound of soldiers and shouting to kill.

When the sunset sinks over the undulating black mountains, the twilight drums of Hejiang County are ringing. Good news came from the direction of Huiqing Mountain, Wang Shangli, the head of the Western Army's Mabu Army, and Guan Youcai, Di Sanpin, Yao Zhizhen, and Liao Yubiao were all beheaded in battle, and more than 2,000 heads of soldiers of the Western Army were chopped, and more than 3,000 were captured. Horses and ordnance were also seized, and more than 10 carts carrying gold and silver treasures were intercepted and brought back in vain attempts by soldiers of the Western Army to advance the river.

"This battle was fought happily, but it's a pity that Liu Jinzhong and Jin Tongwu ran away!"

When night fell, the army returned to Hejiang County in triumph, Wang Lai held a banquet to reward the generals, Zeng Ying, who had fought all afternoon on the banquet, was not tired, his eyes were full of energy, a few sips of wine, and he sighed with a smile.

"If you run for a while, you can't run for a lifetime, just hold it next time." The war was won, and the big stone that had come to earth in the past few days fell to the ground, Wang Laixing was also happy, and Da Ra said, "Come, I respect you." If you didn't work together today, how could you win this hearty victory! This is the first defeat of the thief into Sichuan, but it is by no means the last defeat. We will take advantage of the situation and destroy the sacrifice thief just around the corner! ”

All the generals raised their glasses and shouted loudly.

"Zhang Zhongjun can open Zeng's eyes this time." Zeng Ying was in armor, but he took off his hood and hair, his face was handsome, pointing to the sky with one hand, raising a glass with the other, shaking his head and flying with black silk flying in his head, looking at it was dashing, "The thieves are clustered, our army is still in formation, Zhang Zhongjun yelled 'When the thief is not stable', I also said that he laughed, I never thought that Zhang Zhongjun had disappeared in a blink of an eye." Five people stood out in front of the thief soldiers, Zhang Zhongjun charged ahead, fired three arrows in a row, shot over two people, the thieves were in an uproar, and our army immediately took the opportunity to advance, and the thief formation was not so broken! Zeng looked at the ancient books and saw that there was a sentence of 'one husband wants, ten thousand men are invincible', and at the beginning he only felt that it was very mysterious, and he could see the majesty of Zhang Zhongjun, and he knew that the ancient sayings were true! ”

Zhang Dang, whose cheeks were flushed, heard this first, and shook his hand again and again: "Brother Zeng is exaggerating. I put three arrows, but I only hit one. ”

"How could it! I saw two of them fall! Zeng Ying insisted, "Just look at Zeng's wife, you can know Zeng's eyesight." On the battle array, you can't be mistaken! Saying that, with a smile in his eyes, his wife Dong Qiongying, who was sitting next to him, nudged him in disgust, which immediately caused everyone to laugh.

Zhang Dang Xian said: "Brother Zeng is not wrong, and he is not wrong. After dropping three arrows and shooting one over, the other thought it was going for him, but he was so frightened that he fell! ”

As soon as these words came out, the room burst into laughter.

"The thieves are terrified, and they will be defeated in one battle, which is the power of our army!" Wang Lai said angrily, speaking of this, he stood up and saluted Ma Wannian, "But to be able to make our army accumulate such prestige, Brother Ma is indispensable." If it weren't for the bloody battle of other troops in Tianniu Rock, how could there be this overwhelming victory of our army! This cup, I respect Brother Ma's command, and I also respect Shi Yanerlang's courage and fearlessness! ”

Seeing this, everyone also got up and followed Jing Ma Wannian. Ma Wannian was extremely useful, ate several cups in a row, sat down with two red cheeks and said: "Thank you for the love of Manager Wang and all the brothers, I will either not do anything, but I will do my best." Didn't he claim to be the king of the West and the king of the West? As the saying goes, 'to send the Buddha to the West', I worship the Buddha in stone, and I don't have the ability to send the Buddha, so do good deeds, fulfill the dream of offering thieves, and strive to send him back to the West. ”

Everyone laughed and said, "What a thief to send back to the West!" ”

Ma Wannian was relieved, and after speaking, he got up and replied to Wang Laixing and said: "Don't worry, the chief manager, kill the thieves, and I will go all out." I have already repaired a book and sent a fast horse to Shi Yan, and I want the division to send another 3,000 people to cooperate with the thief! ”

"Good!" Wang Laixing slapped the table and drank with Ma Wannian, and the other generals listened to it, first surprised, and then all cheered with Wang Laixing's attitude.

Wait for Wang Laixing to put down the wine glass. In a blink of an eye, Qin Qigong nodded at him.

Regarding the arrangement of Shi Yanbing, Qin Qigong later had a deep discussion with him again. Through several exchanges with Ma Wannian, Qin Qigong saw that although this young man was arrogant and belonged to the type of mixing, he was actually simple-minded and relatively easy to control. And the two cousins who assisted him, Qin Gongming and Qin Zuoming, valued interests and were better able to accept them. As long as Zhao Ying can ensure the interests of Shi Yanbing and ensure Ma Wannian's safety, they are actually not resistant to uniting with Zhao Ying, but on the other hand, Zhao Ying, these two points are not difficult to do.

The headquarters of the Zhao battalion, the battalion of soldiers and horses, the battalion of Jinghehou and the Sichuan leading yamen together had a total of 8,000 people, of which 2,000 people from Sichuan led the yamen temporarily guarded the city of Chongqing and did not accompany the army, so there were only 6,000 descendants of the Zhao battalion in the army. If the Zhao battalion fought independently, these manpower would be sufficient. However, according to the situation of Zhao Ying's continuous absorption of the attached army and joint camp since it entered Sichuan, in the long run, 6,000 people will be overstretched as the backbone of Zhao Ying's maintenance of the leading force of the coalition army.

Now the five battalions of Tan Hong, Tan Wen, Tan Yi, Zhao Ronggui, and Zeng Ying who are sitting at the banquet are approaching 9,000 soldiers, and if Ma Wannian invites reinforcements, then there are 5,000 Shi Yan soldiers. Compared with all the troops, the proportion of Zhao Ying's descendants is barely enough to one-third, and it is foreseeable that this proportion will continue to decline in the future.

On the premise that Zhao Dangshi had not clearly stated that he would send more Zhao Ying's descendants to Sichuan, Qin Qigong took precautions and suggested that Wang Laixing consolidate his position through "alliance". Under the joint venture model, there are many camps, and it is impossible to take care of all aspects, so it is inevitable that there will be differences between relatives and relatives. Frankly speaking, what Qin Qigong should do in the so-called "alliance" is to pull the mountain together, that is, to form an absolute core "backbone group" in the coalition army with Zhao Ying as the core, so as to maintain the concentration of power and maintain the stability of the entire coalition. This is what Zhao Ying did in the early days, but the strength of Zhao Ying at that time was particularly prominent, and there was no need to operate too many joint ventures, but the current situation in Sichuan is different, Zhao Ying's strength is weak, and Qin Qigong naturally has to spend more effort, after all, he has worked hard, and in the end, he can't make wedding clothes for others.

Qin Qigong's proposed wooing targets mainly include Santan and Shi Yan. There are four or five thousand people in Santan, who belong to the earliest partners, and currently have a very strong relationship with Zhao Ying, with a sense of ownership, and the relationship is relatively stable. Shi Yan also has a lot of troops and stronger combat effectiveness, while Ma Wannian himself has fewer thoughts and is easy to socialize. As long as these two sides are closely united, Zhao Ying's position in the coalition army will be difficult to shake. Of course, with the development in the future, the members of the "backbone group" of the joint venture will inevitably be replaced, but at least according to the current situation, it is enough to win over the Tan family brothers and Ma Wannian. It can be seen from the fact that the Tan brothers disregarded their past suspicions and Ma Wannian went home to ask for soldiers, and the progress at this stage is basically smooth.

After eating for a while, the wine disappeared for three or four minutes, and Wang Laixin asked: "We won here, but I don't know what happened to Luzhou?" "The Western Army that remained in Hejiang County to block the attack collapsed, and Zhao Ying had to go straight to Luzhou Mansion next.

"During Zeng's stationing in Huiqingshan, there was no shortage of news there." Zeng Ying was a little drunk, and said leisurely, "A few days ago, the thieves attacked the city, Lord Huang gathered troops to fight to the death, and the thieves attacked to no avail, so he temporarily camped outside the city. ”

"The thief is cruel and cunning, and he is cunning. Solid as Chongqing, it also fell into its poisonous hands overnight. The capital city of Luzhou is far inferior to Chongqing, and it may not be possible to hold on for two days or three days if it can be held for one day, so we still have to rush to the aid as soon as possible. At the banquet, Qin Qigong, who was originally called a large amount, was the only one who replaced wine with tea, and his words were gentle and powerful.

Wang Laixing said with a calm face: "What Mr. Qin said is true. Then he looked around and raised his glass and said, "Come on, this toast." After a stick of incense, the banquet is over, and they go back to the camp to rest, and they will be ready to march tomorrow! ”

"Yes!"

Several wine glasses were raised into the air at the same time, and spilled wine all over the table.

However, when he opened his eyes the next day, Wang Laixing heard heavy news - the capital city of Luzhou had fallen.

The Western Army had the experience of attacking the capital city of Chongqing, and searched for rammed earth around the city of Luzhou to blast. There are many flaws in the city of Luzhou, Zhang Xianzhong pretended to storm the city gate during the day, but at night he repeated the old tricks, secretly sent soldiers to touch the roots of the city, dig the soil and bury gunpowder. The defenders in the city were tired during the day, and they were bent on fighting the western army again in the morning, but they did not notice anything unusual.

After the gunpowder exploded, the city wall collapsed, the western army took advantage of the situation to enter, and Huang Jiqing, the deputy envoy of the southern military preparation road in Xiachuan, who presided over the defense of the Luzhou capital city, was held and died unyieldingly, and Luo Yuxin, the general of Luzhou, and Xu Mingjiao, the general of Fubiao, were killed in a street battle. Luzhou Wei commander Wang Wanchun was leading two thousand guards to resist the enemy outside the West Gate City, knowing that the accident led the men and horses back to the city to pick up the family, retreated to the south of the city when the Western Army caught up, Wang Wanchun fell from the horse with an arrow, his wife and a group of family members were all killed by the Western Army, only his son Wang Yu Fan was saved by the servants, and he fought out of the siege.

The news of the fall of Luzhou is the best sobering soup, and without waiting for Wang Laixing to urge, the generals will feel that the situation is serious and take the initiative to gather in the county office. The original plan to leave at noon was directly advanced by two hours.

Luzhou Mansion is the gateway to southern Sichuan, and the capture of this place by the Western Army means that it can bloom in all directions to Jiading Prefecture, Xuzhou Mansion and other places, and even drive straight to the south of Chengdu.

Without delay, the battalions and horses of Hejiang County quickly advanced into the capital city of Luzhou. Within a day, the pioneer training camp led by Zhang Dangxian arrived in Fucheng. At this time, the alert main force of the Western Army had long since disappeared, and Zhang Dang first killed the small number of Western troops left behind in the city, reoccupied the city, and sent someone to deliver the news.

Wang Laixing received the letter halfway and said to Qin Qigong: "I'm afraid that the thief already knows about Hejiang County, so he left in a hurry." If he goes to Jiading Prefecture, Xuzhou Mansion and even Mahu Mansion and Wumeng Mansion, it can be said that swimming fish into the sea is not easy to catch! ”

Qin Qigong had an early insight, and responded: "Southern Sichuan and southwestern Sichuan are mostly Tusi jurisdictions, poor mountains and bad waters, and if you sacrifice thieves and run again, you can't get oil and water, but there is the possibility of hurting your muscles and bones." It is an old trick of thieves to disturb the pursuers by wandering, and if our army is led by his nose and follows behind his ass, we will never want to see him in this life. It is better to go to the important place where the thief must go. ”

"Land?"

"Yes, as long as our army leaves a soldier and horse in Luzhou Mansion to block the way for the thief to return east, if the thief doesn't want to shed his skin, he won't get dizzy and drill into the ravines and ravines in southern Sichuan and southwest Sichuan, he wants to raise soldiers and catch soldiers, and there is only one place he can go."

"Chengdu." Wang Laixing's face was pale.