Li Xuan looked at this rudimentary map, trying to analyze the movements of the enemy and the enemy marked on the map, what did these Ming troops want to do.

The rudimentary map is based on the original official abstract map of the Ming army, and then added a lot of oral experience and a few field trips by spies.

If the map is used as a detailed military map and directly uses the markings on the map to act and fight, then it is impossible to know where to go while walking.

But in any case, it's better to have a map with a simple mistake than nothing, and it's barely enough to have this map as a reference, and at the same time grab some locals along the way and replenish them at any time.

On this simple map, the movements of the new army of the Tang Dynasty and the Ming army and part of the deployment of the Ming army are clearly marked.

Judging from the map, the Ming army seems to have sent a large number of troops from Zhengtai County to advance in the direction of due north, and the new army of Datang is in the north of Zhengtai County.

How could the Ming army suddenly run out of Zhengtai County? That's a strange thing!

Previously, the main forces of these Ming troops were afraid of the loss of Zhengtai County or Longhua Town, so they had been shrinking in Longhua Town and Zhengtai County, but the spies stationed in Zhengtai County three days ago suddenly ran back to report, saying that the Ming army in the city had great changes, and there were frequent large groups of Ming troops out of the city.

If it was just a few Ming soldiers going out of the city, it would not be worth noting, but several groups of Ming troops with a number of fifty or sixty people in a row went out of the city one after another, which had to attract Li Xuan's attention.

Since he couldn't figure out what the Ming army wanted to do for a while, he could only stop the looting first, and after finding a night to get rid of the tracking of the Ming army spies, he secretly hid in the remote Yangjia Village.

On the one hand, this is to temporarily hide the traces and avoid the tracking of the Ming army, and on the other hand, it is to use static braking to see what the Ming army wants to do, and then make corresponding targeted measures.

After looking at the map for a long time, Li Xuan suddenly said: "In this way, the Ming army on the side of Zhengtai County has already dispatched at least two hundred and fifty people out of the city, if they continue to send people out in the future, then wouldn't Zhengtai County be extremely empty?" ”

Zeng Ziwen said: "The county seat is a more important place than Longhua Town, the Ming army knows that we are nearby, it is absolutely impossible to relax the defense of Zhengtai County, and now the Ming army stationed in Zhengtai County is mainly the fairy Shi Qianhu and some of the recruited young and strong and county officials, the total number should be able to reach the scale of 1,000 people." ”

"Even if they sent more than 200 people out to look for us, there should be at least 700 people in the city at this time!"

However, Li Xuan showed a hint of sneer: "Qingzhuang? Just rely on the young and strong, they want to hold Zhengtai County? Is it possible? ”

The combat effectiveness of the young Zhuang who have not undergone complete training and are only temporarily recruited in the way of pulling Zhuang Ding is quite poor, especially the young Zhuang recruited by the government organization, and their combat effectiveness is even inferior to that of the rural landlords and heroes who organized themselves to fight bravely.

Li Xuan and the bandits of Huangzhushan have also fought with the Ming army many times, and they have a certain understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. Among the Ming army, the strongest combat effectiveness was the personal soldiers commanded by officers at all levels, followed by the recruits from the Fucheng side, then the ordinary guards, and then the young men who were temporarily recruited and equipped with weapons, and the last was the people who transported the baggage.

Among these Ming troops, what Li Xuan was more afraid of was the regular army in the Ming army, including the guards and recruits, and as for the young men who were temporarily recruited, they were basically used to make up the numbers.

Li Xuan, when they were trying to figure out what the Ming army wanted to do, the movement of the Ming army was getting bigger and bigger, and in the next two days, the Ming army came out one after another with a Ming army patrol, and the size of this Ming army had reached one hundred and fifty people.

Moreover, with the increase of the Ming army patrols, the scope of activities of the scouts of the Datang New Army was seriously reduced, making it difficult for the spies of the Datang New Army to monitor the movements of the Ming army as unscrupulously as before.

At this time, Li Xuan and others in Yangjia Village also noticed that the Ming army must have a greater goal, otherwise, the Ming army would be so frequently mobilized for no reason.

After staying in Yangjia Village for five days, Li Xuan chose not to continue waiting, but left Yangjia Village with people.

And this way, he did not go to the north or west, but went directly to the county seat of Zhengtai over there.

The reason why he went directly to Zhengtai County was not just to contain the Ming army or scare the Ming army like before, he wanted to test the Ming army, is Zhengtai County really empty, if the troops are really empty, what do the Ming troops want to do?

This was an armed test to see if we could lure out the main force of the Ming army.

In the dozens of miles of plains outside Zhengtai County, there were already spies from both sides, and it was good that the new army of the Tang Dynasty was hiding in the remote Yangjia Village, and the Ming army could not find them.

But as soon as they came out, they were immediately informed by the spies of the Ming army.

At the beginning of the next day, there was a steady stream of small-scale Ming troops surrounding them, trying to maintain monitoring and even harassing them, in order to expel these small-scale troops of the Ming army, which was less than a few people, and no more than a dozen people, the small-scale cavalry of the Tang New Army also frequently attacked to expel them, and even paid the price of one dead and one wounded!

However, after the new army of the Tang Dynasty arrived at Zhengtai County, there was only a distance of less than ten miles, and there was still no trace of the main force of the Ming army, and only received a report from the spies, saying that Zhengtai County had been completely closed and was ready for defense.

That night, there was a tense atmosphere in the Datang New Army stationed in the field, because the main force of the Ming army composed of many Ming army patrols from Zhengtai County still did not appear, and if they continued to go towards Zhengtai County tomorrow, they would be able to reach Zhengtai County tomorrow.

What to do then?

Is there really going to be a fight? Let's not mention whether it can be beaten or not, this hit on Zhengtai County is equivalent to stabbing a hornet's nest, and how the next situation will develop is completely beyond Li Xuan's control.

This night, Li Xuan and Zeng Ziwen, Fang Dongquan, Wang Danxu and other military generals discussed for most of the night, but in the end there was no consensus, some people thought that they should continue to advance, whether they fought or not to fight Zhengtai County, they had to test the reality of the Ming army.

Some people also believe that the Ming army is showing weakness to the enemy and attracting them to Zhengtai County, and the Ming army that went out of the city in batches must be ambushed somewhere, waiting for them to go to Zhengtai County, and finally come to a front and back attack.

Seeing that his subordinates were arguing, Li Xuan's brows furrowed even tighter!

This time the Ming army is really strange, and the most important thing is that it has not been able to find the Ming army that has left the city in batches.

According to the reports of the spies lurking in the city, there were five batches of Ming troops before and after the Ming army, and the total strength reached 400 people.

And the spies are very sure that those Ming troops have never come back after leaving the city, and it is not the kind of illusion that they go out of the city during the day and then sneak back to the city at night.

In the end, Li Xuan looked at the map alone for most of the day, gritted his teeth and made a final decision: send cavalry to search for the Ming army around, and the main force was stationed for a day of rest.

The next day, before the sky was bright, the cavalry squad of the Datang New Army galloped out, looking all the way in several possible directions, trying to find out the main force of the Ming army that might exist nearby.

On the same day, Diao Leixun in Longhua Town received a secret letter from Su Jiakang, asking him to immediately send troops into the mountain!

"Into the mountains? Into the mountains at this time? Diao Leixun didn't understand why Su Jiakang would let him enter the mountain at this time.

Diao Leixun knew very well that the puppet Tang thief army was less than ten miles away from Zhengtai County, and he thought that Su Jiakang would let him reinforce Zhengtai County as soon as possible, but he didn't expect Su Jiakang to let him enter the mountains to find and encircle Huangzhu Mountain.

What's more, now Diao Leixun himself doesn't know where Su Jiakang is now, he only knows that Su Jiakang has secretly left the city a few days ago, and then gathered the Ming troops who went out of the city in batches, but now Su Jiakang ran away with the five hundred Ming troops, but he doesn't know.

Damn, Su Jiakang, this bastard, is hiding it, so how can Lao Tzu fight!

Diao Leixun even hid it from Su Jiakang, which was quite unhappy, but unhappy was unhappy, since Su Jiakang sent a secret letter, he could only do it.

If you enter the mountain, you will enter the mountain, anyway, now the main force of the puppet Tang thief army is outside, and it is impossible to meet the main force of the puppet Tang thief army when you enter the mountain now, and the danger is not great.

The Ming army in Longhua Town entered the mountain in a big way, and this news was known to Li Xuan for the first time.

"The puppet thief army in Longhua Town has entered the mountain? Li Xuan frowned and muttered, "This time they don't follow the routine!" ”

Their main force is still hanging around Zhengtai County and Longhua Town, how can the Ming army dare to dare to enter the mountains, aren't they afraid that they will take the opportunity to attack Longhua Town or Zhengtai County?

I have to say that in the past few days, Li Xuan has been a little confused by the actions of the Ming army not following the routine, and these actions of the Ming army do not look like normal actions no matter how you look at them.

And the more abnormal it is, the more Li Xuan is worried about what big moves the Ming army is planning!

Li Xuan has a hundred reasons to believe that the Ming army's plan this time is definitely not simple, and there must be a conspiracy behind the seemingly abandonment of Zhengtai County and Longhua Town!

Since the Ming army has a conspiracy, and since the Ming army does not play cards according to the routine, then he can't let them lead the way, and the deadlock must be broken!

And how to break the deadlock?

The simplest and most effective way is to make a gesture of attacking Zhengtai County, he still doesn't believe it, Su Jiakang and they can watch Zhengtai County fall!

Although the main task this time is to test the reality of the Ming army, no matter what, Li Xuan is finally going to attack Zhengtai County with the Tang Dynasty!

And this, for the Tang Dynasty, has great historical significance!