Since the beginning of August, the Zhaoying Firearms Workshop, which has perfected the mold, began to make full efforts to mass produce artillery and corresponding gun trucks. With the cooperation of the prefect Fan Ju'an, all the old firearms supervision departments and gunpowder manufacturing bureaus in Xiangyang Mansion have become resources that Zhao Ying can directly call.

Lu Qiqing, who went to Sichuan, has sent a message back that by mid-October at the latest, the copper, iron, sulfur, saltpeter and other raw materials needed by Zhao Ying will be officially transferred to Xiangyang Mansion through the distribution of Yankou Town. Prior to this, the materials urgently needed for the manufacture of artillery were first procured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent special personnel to Wuchang Mansion. Wuchang Mansion itself has a copper class, an iron class, after the fall of the Hui and leather thieves, the trade routes are unimpeded, and the rest of the raw materials are also circulated, as long as it is not particularly huge, it can be supplied in full.

Under the instructions of Zhao Dangshi, the production focus of the firearms workshop was first tilted towards field artillery. After all, field warfare is not as good as defending the city, and the soldiers of the Zhao battalion are experienced in defending the city and artillery and can get started quickly, but with the new field artillery to the troops, it is also necessary to train tactics and coordinate the march, which takes more energy and time. Therefore, the No. 1 Hongyi artillery is prioritized to the back row, the No. 2 Hongyi artillery is urgently needed by the main force of the field, and the auxiliary firepower Da Folang machine gun is second. On behalf of the firearms workshop, Lu Puyi issued a military order that by the end of October, he would be able to deliver 10 No. 2 Hongyi cannons and 15 Da Folang machine guns.

However, this military order was urgently revised with the results of the battle between the official army and the Chuang army in Henan in September.

On the first day of September, Yang Wenyue, the military governor of Baoding, Shandong, and Hebei, and Zhang Dechang, the deputy general of Baoding, led the army into Xincai County, Runing Prefecture, and joined the Baoding general Hu Dawei stationed here. Soon after, Fu Zonglong, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, also commanded Li Guoqi, the deputy general of the Zuoyong battalion, and the second battalion of He Renlong, the general of Yansui, to meet him, and the two sides had nearly 40,000 soldiers and horses, and the momentum was extremely strong.

The army is not far behind. At the end of August, Zhang Xianzhong, who had run into a wall in Yunyang and Nanyang Prefecture, returned to Xinyang Prefecture and happened to encounter Zuo Liangyu, who was squatting there. Zuo Liangyu rose up to meet the battle, defeated Zhang Xianzhong, and beat Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers and horses that were finally entangled during this period. Li Zicheng took the opportunity to send people to snare Zhang Xianzhong's remnants and picked up a big bargain.

Zhang Xianzhong's power declined, and Li Zicheng even sent someone to recruit Zhang Xianzhong, but Zhang Xianzhong refused. Under the persuasion of Luo Rucai that "it is advisable to stay in Handong and divide the strength of the official army", Li Zicheng dispelled the idea of killing Zhang Xianzhong, and Zhang Xianzhong was able to escape. However, since then, the thieves of the Chu and Yu tribes have completely "sacrificed their dedication to Fengchuang", ended the swing between the camp and the western camp, and submitted to Li Zicheng one after another, and Li Zicheng's forces further expanded.

After learning that Fu and Yang Erdu were plotting against him, Li Zicheng immediately made arrangements. He first gathered the main forces of Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, Gu Kecheng, and Li Guo's five battalions scattered in various places, and stationed them all in Xiangcheng County, which is adjacent to Runing Mansion at the southern end of Kaifeng Prefecture, and made a posture of preemptively attacking the officers and troops of Runing Mansion with all their might.

Seeing the situation, Fu and Yang decided to send troops to Xiangcheng County in advance to encircle and annihilate the main force of the invasion army. Li Zicheng immediately led the army to retreat north, and the officers and soldiers thought that the intruding army was cowardly and pursued closely. Li Zicheng took advantage of the psychology of the official army to rush to war, gathered the army and crossed the Yingshui first, and separated Li Guo's army to move eastward alone, as if he wanted to detour back to the back of the official army to cut off the retreat.

Fu Zonglong thought that Li Zicheng must be afraid of a decisive battle with the official army, and divided his troops just to bluff, so he ordered to continue to advance and reach Yingshui. Because they believed that the Chuang army was cowardly, the officers and soldiers were not worried that the Chuang army would take the initiative to attack, so they followed the military orders of Fu and Yang Erdu, and temporarily stationed in Mengjiazhuang to rest and replenish before crossing the water, so as to recuperate for the pursuit and decisive battle after the crossing. Most of the officers and soldiers scattered into the villages and houses to collect food, but the ambush soldiers who broke into the camp and lay in the pine forest not far from Mengjiazhuang were exhausted, and Li Guo, who thought he was a suspicious soldier earlier, also came to attack and attack.

"Offering thieves to run without permission, and thieves to ambush without permission", this proverb familiar to the officials and soldiers is really to the point where it still has no warning effect.

The official army was defeated like a landslide, Yang Wenyue fled to Chenzhou under the protection of Zhang Dechang, Hu Dawei saw that Yang Wenyue had left, and he had no intention of fighting, so he also retreated. Fu Zonglong was supposed to fight bloodily with his soldiers, but He Renlong and Li Guoqi were completely unrestrained by him, and ran away with Hu Dawei.

Fu Zonglong had no choice but to rely on his own soldiers to defend the village and dig trenches for help. Li Zicheng surrounded him and attacked the fortifications every day, Fu Zonglong gradually couldn't resist it, so he wrote a letter and sent people to fight his way out of the encirclement and ask He Renlong and Li Guoqi for help. But the two of them shirked in every possible way, using the excuse that it was difficult to distinguish the authenticity of the book from the thieves, and ignored it.

On the 18th, Fu Zonglong saw that his troops were running out of ammunition and food, gritted his teeth and broke through the siege and went straight to Xiangcheng County. Unexpectedly, he was caught up by the intrusive army eight miles outside the city and became a prisoner. The army falsely called Fu Zonglong's family Ding, and coerced him to the city to call the door, but Fu Zonglong shouted loudly, "This thief is also a Fu Inspector, unfortunately fell into the hands of the thief, and the city quickly shelled it" and other words. The army was annoyed and angry, and stabbed his ribs, his eyes and his nose with a sharp blade, Fu Zonglong swore to die unyieldingly, and finally died of scolding. The officers and soldiers fought a decisive battle, but in the end it ended like this, and Yang Wenyue, He Renlong and other officers and soldiers could only retreat and avoid the edge of the army.

The news quickly spread to southern Henan and northern Chu, and Zhao Dangshi received a handwritten letter from Yan Yueyu, the prefect of Nanyang, at the same time. In his letter, he bluntly said that since the army had broken through the army of the Second Governor, the next step was to take advantage of the situation to continue to develop in the east and south of Henan. Nanyang Mansion as the core town of southern Henan, by the attack of the army for a period of not far away, although there is a fierce tiger army sitting in Nanyang to assist in defense, but 40,000 officers and soldiers can not deal with the army, only by the town of 10,000 how is the opponent. Therefore, he hoped that Zhao Dangshi would immediately send an army to Nanyang Mansion as a backup. In addition, he also mentioned that in addition to Zhao Ying, he also wrote a letter to Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Yongwei Battalion who was stationed in Gushi County. Liu Yuanbin now has six or seven thousand people in his hands, as long as Zhao Dangshi and Liu Yuanbin are willing to come to Nanyang Mansion, plus the fierce tiger and the county soldiers, it is not impossible for the four parties to join forces to thwart the breaking army.

Even if he has an agreement with Li Zicheng on the iron top of Laojun, but the army is so powerful, if Yunxiang Town, which is a stone's throw away, still watches the fire from the other side, it will inevitably be difficult to escape the criticism of the government and the opposition. In late September, a few days after the defeat of the official army and the death of Fu Zonglong, Zhao Dangshiqin led his troops and horses north into Nanyang Mansion, and temporarily stationed in Xinye County, where the two prefectures were handed over, under the arrangement of Yan Yueyu.

At present, the soldiers and horses of the Zhao battalion are mainly divided into three major units, a total of 6,000 people from the Xiaojie Battalion, the Changhong Left Battalion and the Changhong Hou Battalion led by Xu Hui are stationed in Yunyang Mansion, a total of 5,000 people are stationed in Suizhou under the command of Hou Dagui and the Tuntian Hou Battalion, and the other is the main force of Zhao Dangshi with the command of Xiangyang Mansion, including the Qihun Battalion, the Feijie Battalion Left Battalion, the Feijie Right Battalion, the Changhong Front Battalion, the Guoan Battalion, the Wuya Battalion and the training battalion of Fanhecheng, the Tuntian Left Battalion, and the Tuntian Right Battalion totaling nearly 20,000 people.

The situation is turbulent, Yunyang Mansion, Suizhou, and Fanhecheng need to continue to be strictly guarded, and Zhao Dangshi's main force this time is mainly drawn from the army of Xiangyang Fucheng. The national security battalion and the Wuya battalion were newly established, and the training was not in place, and the Changhong front battalion was slightly better, but the combat power was still inferior to the elite battalions of the Zhao battalion, so Zhao Dangshi left the three battalions in Xiangyang Fucheng,

Among the three battalions, the Changhong front battalion was the core, and the person in charge was Chen Weifu in name, but in fact it was Pu Guoyi, a Chinese officer. Pu Guoyi was originally from the official army, and he was also very clear about the affairs in the officialdom, with him in the middle of the coordination, Chen Weifu and generals on the Zhao Ying side, and Fan Juan of Xiangyang Mansion and other officials could do it with ease.

Qihun Battalion, Feijie Left Battalion and Feijie Right Battalion fought. Before the start of the firearms workshop, Zhao Dangshi made adjustments to the military order of the firearms workshop, and the 10 No. 2 Hongyi guns and 15 Da Folang machine guns, which were originally planned to be accepted at the end of October, were temporarily changed to be delivered ahead of schedule in late September. The firearms workshop lived up to its trust, and five No. 2 Hongyi cannons and seven Da Folang machine guns were tested and handed over on time.

The gunner training in Zhao Ying's army was short, and Zhao Dangshi decided to let the Franco machine gunners be in charge of the artillery with the army this time. After all, the actual combat power of artillery is also an important investigation item, and it can only be used by skilled Francophone gunners. Several cannons were all placed in the camp. Guo Ruke, the commander of the Qihun Battalion, who has never been fond of firearms, couldn't help but grin when he saw that the heavy barrel could be pulled by a horse.

On September 19, the frost fell, the temperature turned low, and the coolness was gusting. Thousands of soldiers of Zhao Ying solemnly swore in the face of the sassy autumn wind in the city of Xiangyang Prefecture. Fan Ju'an, the governor of Xiangyang Prefecture, Chen Hongfan, the chief soldier of Changping, and other local civil and military officers went out of the city for ten miles to send teachers to practice. The secret agreement with Li Zicheng, even Chen Hongfan doesn't know, he has lived in a simple house in the past few months, and he has raised himself to be more oily and a little richer, Rao is so, and he is still difficult to hide his worries when he is opposed to Zhao Dangshi under the military flag.

"The thieves are full of tricks, the morale is like a rainbow, and the virtuous brother can be careful."

Zhao Dangshi smiled heartily: "Brother, don't worry, isn't there still a fierce handsome?" Gonggong Liu also sent someone over a few days ago, saying that he was already on his way to Nanyang Mansion. Our three armies work hand in hand, why worry about breaking thieves and not breaking them! ”

Liu Yuanbin, the eunuch of the Yongwei Battalion, sent someone to test Zhao Dangshi's attitude, and said that he had dispatched Sun Yingyuan, the general soldier of the Yongwei Battalion, and Zhou Yuji, the guerrilla of the Yongwei Battalion, as the vanguard. Sun, Zhou, and Huang Degong, like Huang Degong, were the most famous generals of the Yongwei Battalion. Sun Yingyuan used steady troops, Zhou Yuji led the troops fiercely, each with its own strengths, and was afraid of the thieves, Liu Yuanbin sent them out, which shows that they did not dare to take the army lightly.

Chen Hongfan sighed and said: "The virtuous brother is heroic, and it is convincing to have this ambition. But the trend of thieves is different from the past, and the fierceness of the thieves to defeat the two governors has never been seen, and there is no harm in taking on more responsibilities. At this time, seeing the soldiers on the road pushing the gun cart past, he smiled reluctantly, "I hope these iron bumps can perform miraculous feats this time." ”

Zhao Dangshi said solemnly: "Inherit my brother's auspicious words." Then he said, "The younger brother went to Nanyang, the past is uncertain, although there are Weifu and Pu Zhongjun here, after all, it is not as good as the elder brother to control the scene." At that time, the front line will be really tight, and I will send troops to support in the future, and I hope that my brother will come forward to control it. ”

Not afraid of 10,000, just in case, the troops of Yunyang Mansion, Fanhe City, and Suizhou seem to be unable to be easily mobilized at present, and the most direct source of Zhao Dangshi's successor troops is only Xiangyang Fucheng. Even though Pu Guoyi is capable, his status in Zhao Yingzhong is not too high after all, and it is unknown whether he can hold up Odaiba at a critical time. With Chen Hongfan's identity and influence, it is no problem to come out at the right time and completely control the situation in the rear. Although Chen Hongfan joined Zhao Ying very late, the two have been friends for so many years and have cooperated together to fight a lot of combination boxing.

Chen Hongfan patted his chest and said: "Lao Ji is in charge and ambitious, your brother and I can't be the word 'old', even if we are dull, we can still help my brother share his worries." Rest assured, outside your lord and inside my lord, there is an old brother in Xiangyang Mansion for a day, and a virtuous brother can rest assured that he will work hard outside! ”

On the side of the winding dragon-like and dusty road, the two clasped their fists against each other.

Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji, who were the pioneers of Liu Yuanbin's letter, did not arrive until more than ten days after Zhao Dangshi's army entered Xinye County. They were stationed in Yuzhou, northeast of Nanyang Province and at the southern foot of Baizhong Mountain and Fangcheng Mountain. It is located in the south of Henan, in the middle of the passage of Henan is the north gate of the Nanyang Basin surrounded by mountains, and the army must pass through this place if they want to go down to Nanyang Mansion from the north to the south.

Sun Yingyuan wrote a letter to Zhao Dangshi, explaining the reason for his belatedness. It turned out that Zhang Xianzhong was confident that Yangzhou had suffered a fiasco, and instead fled into the Ying and Huoshan districts of Anqing Mansion, taking over the former position of the Hui and Ge Second Battalions, integrating the thieves from all directions, and rapidly expanding his forces again. Then he led troops to attack Tongcheng County nearby, and Lu Jiude, the eunuch who had supervised the army in the Yongwei Battalion in Lu'an Prefecture, urgently transferred Huang Degong and Lin Baoguo to expel him. These two exterminated Hui and Ge, and saw the new defeat of Xiying, carelessly underestimated the enemy, and was lured into the ambush circle by Zhang Xianzhong, Lin Baoguo was shot dead when he broke through, and Huang Degong was lucky to pick up his life with three arrows in his body.

Lu Jiude was afraid that Zhang Xianzhong would meet with the Huaiying thieves, so he asked Liu Yuanbin for help, and Liu Yuanbin collected his troops and returned to Defu to observe the situation. It wasn't until a few days ago that the two departments cooperated, Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji worked together to defeat Zhang Xianzhong in Fengyang Mansion, temporarily relieving the crisis in Anqing, Fengyang and other places, Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji set off again and rushed to Nanyang Mansion non-stop.

"What people who don't have eggs say, they just can't believe it!" Guo Ruke scolded and scolded, "Why doesn't he delay it for a few days, until the New Year, my old Guo pats his ass and goes home, so it's good!" ”

Zhao Dangshi said: "I have to do it. Fortunately, Sun and Zhou Guoyong were fearless, and they went to block Yuzhou as soon as they came. ”

Guo Ruke thought for a while and said: "Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji have a total of 2,500 horses, and it is enough to defend the city, but it is not so easy to repel the thieves in the field." ”

Zhao Dangshi frowned and said: "Sun Yingyuan's letter said that the rest of the Zhang Cong, Ma Wenzhi, and Diao Mingzhong departments of the Yongwei Battalion supervised by Gonggong Liu have to enter Nanyang Mansion one after another. ”

"Coming in one after another?" Guo Ruke was keen, and suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Zhao Dangshichang sighed and said: "And Sun Yingyuan also wants me to change my guard, mentioning the north of Nanyang Mansion City and the south of Yuzhou, ......" That's it, it's over.

"Huh?" Guo Ruke's big mouth was so shocked that he couldn't close it. First said that the follow-up troops of the Yongwei Battalion came slowly, and then let the soldiers and horses of the Zhao Battalion move north, and the meaning was clearly revealed when it was written again in black and white - the eunuch who had no eggs was actually going to be a turtle with a shrunken head now?