Two days later, Liu Juntao led an army of 8,000 to the south, and Hu Dexing led his headquarters to garrison Dongpingzhou.

The 8,000 army marched south along the official road, and continued south in two routes when passing through Ziyang County.

According to the news sent back by Liu Zi'an's Investigation Department, the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department were wreaking havoc in Jinxiang County, Yutai County, and Teng County, and the person leading the troops was Wang Neng, the number one general under Ye Zongliu.

Because Teng County, Jinxiang County, and Yutai County are separated by Dushan Lake, in order to avoid the thieves on both sides from scattering in a hurry, Liu Juntao can only attack at the same time in two ways, and strive to sweep away the army of thieves in Yanzhou Mansion in a battle!

After the division of troops, Liu Juntao personally led the Central Military Department, Zhang Xiao's Military Department, and Gao Ran's Department as the Left Route Army, passing through Ziyang County to Jining Prefecture, Jiaxiang County, all the way south, and went straight to Jinxiang County.

And the cavalry department led by Zhou Zongsheng was used as the right army, taking advantage of the speed advantage of the iron cavalry army to kill Bento County!

When Liu Juntao led the army on the left to Jining Prefecture, Li Qianhu sent a team of fast horses to catch up and sent the order of Lei Bo, the commander of the city guard.

Liu Juntao smiled and said to Zhang Xiaojun and Gao Ran: "It seems that our commander is still sensible!" However, the Xu family is going to be sad, especially the head of the Xu family, Xu Zhaohui, will definitely scold the commander for not being faithful! ”

Zhang Xiaojun and Gao Ran both laughed when they heard this, and said one after another: "For people like the Xu family, what faith is there to say!" ”

Within a few days, Liu Juntao led the army on the left road to Jiaxiang County, which was only more than 70 miles away from Jinxiang County, and could be reached in three or five days.

At this time, the news that Liu Juntao led an army of "tens of thousands" to the south had spread throughout Yanzhou Prefecture, and all the "big men" in Yanzhou Mansion were closely watching the development of the situation.

And Wang Neng, who was leading his troops to loot everywhere, also got the news, and scolded Xu Zhaohui, the head of the Xu family, for not doing things well, spending so much silver, but he couldn't slow down Liu Juntao's pace of going south!

At this time, Wang Neng didn't have time to clear the walls of Jinxiang County, Yutai County and Teng County, and the men and horses under his command were only coerced by thousands of villagers, and their strength did not expand much at all!

At the same time, Ye Zongliu, who was in Xuzhou, only sent six or seven thousand young men to Wang Neng.

Although Wang Neng's men and horses increased from 20,000 to 30,000, in the face of the menacing Liu Juntao's army, he still had no power to parry, and he couldn't change the fate of the imminent defeat, so it was no wonder that Wang Neng was angry.

However, even so, Wang Neng did not plan to withdraw his troops and retreat, at least he had to fight with Liu Juntao's army, even if it was to consume the firepower of Liu Juntao's army.

At this time, 5,000 of Wang Neng's men and horses were plundering in the area of Teng County, 20,000 main forces led by Wang Neng were roaming in Jinxiang County, and the remaining 5,000 men and horses were stationed in Guting Town in the south of Yutai County.

Guting Town is an important ferry port for Yanzhou to go south to Xuzhou, and crossing the Yellow River from Guting Town can go straight to Pei County!

Because of this, Wang Neng will send heavy troops to guard Guting Town.

At the same time, Wang Neng also understood that Liu Juntao must have the intention of a decisive battle when he went south this time, and after thinking about the situation and terrain in front of him, Wang Neng keenly believed that Liu Juntao would definitely attack Teng County and Jinxiang County at the same time, so that he could not take care of each other!

Therefore, Wang Neng hurriedly ordered the 5,000 troops who were wandering in Teng County to retreat westward, retreat directly to Guting Town, and join the 5,000 men and horses stationed there, and gather 10,000 troops to guard the retreat.

After that, Wang Neng led the main army of 20,000 to occupy the Wanfu River crossing north of Jinxiang County, preparing to establish a defensive line with the Wanfu River and start a war of attrition with Liu Juntao's army.

At the same time that the 20,000-strong army occupied the Wanfu River crossing and began to seize the time to build horse walls, trenches and other fortifications, Wang Neng also sent people back to the Wubao of Jingoukou in Pei County, and informed Ye Zongliu that Liu Juntao had led his troops south, and continued to urge Ye Zongliu to ask for reinforcements!

After receiving the news from Wang Neng, Ye Zongliu's heart also sank sharply.

Although he had long known that Liu Juntao would definitely lead his troops south, but when the matter came, Ye Zongliu's heart was still a little weak in the south, and the terrifying scene when he led his troops in the battle between the escort team of Weishan and Yushan Town was still fresh in his memory!

Ye Zongliu pondered for a long time, while seizing the time to collect young people from all over the country, and at the same time sent people to ask the Xu family for help, asking the Xu family to immediately send people to Guting Town to assist in defense.

However, after Xu Zhaohui, the head of the Xu family, received Ye Zongliu's letter for help, he scoffed.

In Xu Zhaohui's opinion, the thieves in Ye Zongliu's department were just a watchdog taken in by himself, and now that the enemy is coming to the door, this watchdog should fight to the death to win time and opportunities for the Xu family, how can he spend the Xu family's precious strength to help defend Guting Town?

As a result, Xu Zhaohui ignored Ye Zongliu's pleas for help, and there was no more support except for continuing to send some money, food, and weapons.

In this regard, in addition to scolding, Ye Zongliu could only do his best to provide reinforcements for Wang Neng.

It didn't take long for Wang Neng to receive the news that the Xu family refused to send troops to support, and he was also angry in his heart, but he had no choice but to continue to prepare for war.

At the end of May, all the 5,000 thieves in Teng County had withdrawn to Guting Town, while the cavalry led by Zhou Zongsheng was a step too late and pounced.

Seeing this, Zhou Zongsheng did not stop at all, and directly led his troops to advance westward from Luqiao Town in the north of Teng County, and only two days later he joined up with Liu Juntao's main force stationed in Jiaxiang County.

At this time, Liu Zi'an had already led his subordinates to understand the general deployment of Wang Neng's department.

After all, Wang Neng's thieves and soldiers were scattered, burning and looting everywhere, and it was not difficult to know the exact location of his troops.

Liu Juntao learned that Wang Neng had led 20,000 horses to garrison the Wanfu River north of Jinxiang County, so he said to Zhang Xiaojun: "It is a hot summer, the weather is changeable, and there is a lot of rain!" That Wang Neng still has the courage to be stationed along the river, it is simply looking for death! ”

Zhang Xiaojun also said: "That Wang Neng is known as the number one general under Ye Zongliu, and it seems that it is nothing more than that, and he actually stationed himself in the dead place with 20,000 horses!" Could it be that the king could think that he was Han Xin, who could break the cauldron and put it to death and come back to life? ”

Liu Juntao sneered and said, "He Wang can not be Han Xin, but we are better than Qin Jun!" ”

After two days of marching, they rushed to Gaoping Mountain, fifty miles south of Jiaxiang County, and chose an open mountain area to set up a camp.

Just two days after Liu Juntao led his troops to set up the camp, the weather changed abruptly, the original clear sky turned into a rainy day, and it was pouring rain for four consecutive days, and in the valley around the camp of the Yushan Town Guard, several streams turned into turbulent rivers in a blink of an eye, and flowed down the valley to the Wanfu River in the south.

Seeing this, Liu Juntao couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh, and said to Zhang Xiaojun, Gao Ran, Liu Zi'an, and Zhou Zongsheng: "God really helps me!" The king of thieves will be captured by me! ”

After speaking, Liu Juntao strictly ordered all the troops to stick to the camp, and they could not go down the mountain without their own orders, and those who violated the order were severely punished!

A few days later, Wang Neng never saw Liu Juntao leading his troops to kill, and he was always uneasy in his heart.

Wang Neng saw that the rain in the area of Wanfu River was getting heavier, and the defense line was like a heavenly river pouring out, and his men and horses were miserable, if it were not for Wang Neng's strict order to restrain his men, it was estimated that the 20,000 army had dispersed in a hurry at this time.

Seeing that there was no way, Wang Neng could only send a partial division of 2,000 people to the north, hoping to lure Liu Juntao to lead his troops to attack, or to take advantage of the heavy rain for several days to drag Liu Juntao's men and horses in the area of Wanfu River!

Tang San Chinese Network