On November 10, the fourth year of Chongzhen, the sky was gloomy, and the goose feather snow fell from the sky, shrouding the vast land in a white snow.

In the Jingbian Fort school field, the 3,000 field troops stood neatly, motionless as a pine, tall and mighty, and the military flag was hunting, fluttering in the wind.

On the stage, Liu Renyu is in the center, Li Jiye, Yang Desheng, Zhang Tieniu, Liu Renjie, and Wang Zuo are separated on both sides.

"Soldiers, since the first year of Chongzhen, we in Shaanxi have been poisoned by thieves for three years, and the people have been displaced, and the bones are looking at each other, which is really unbearable. Our generation is in charge of the army, so why we came, it is nothing more than to resist the enemy outside and suppress the rebellion inside. Today, you will go out with me, and you must do your best to fight bravely, exterminate the thieves, return Shaanxi to a prosperous world, and return the people of Shaanxi to a peaceful world. Liu Renyu shouted loudly.

"Use me in the first battle, use me to win, ten thousand wins, ten thousand wins." The Jingbian Fort army roared loudly, and the sound could only penetrate the sky.

"Kill the sheep and sacrifice the flag, and go." Liu Renyufu shouted again.

His own sergeant brought a lamb and killed it on the spot, and sacrificed the flag.

Then the Jingbian Fort Army was drawn in turn.

The army went out on an expedition, and according to the custom, the people spontaneously sent out to say goodbye.

The expressions on the faces of the people who saw them off today were relaxed, and they were not nervous at all, because even the people knew that the combat effectiveness of the thieves was extremely low, and they were definitely not the opponents of the Jingbian Fort Army.

On the other hand, the last time I went out to go outside the customs, I was not sad to say goodbye to life and death.

Sun Yuyun and Du Ruonan came to the street early to see them off, and the two of them came with Liu Renjie's wife Tan Jiyun, Zhao Cuizhi, and the wives of Li Jiye and others.

These Jingbian Fort gathered the lord's wife together, the scenery was very beautiful, the ordinary people knew them, knew their noble status, respected and feared them, and the people automatically kept a distance from them, so that there was no one within two meters around them, so that it was naturally very pure.

They stood on the street and waited for a while, and then they saw their husbands slowly walking out of the barracks with their men and horses, and coming straight to the West Gate, and their eyes were immediately nailed to their husbands, and they could no longer move.

And the crowd of onlookers immediately boiled.

"I wish our army a victory."

"Flatten the thieves and clear the world."

All kinds of slogans, one after another.

Liu Renyu and other cadres are used to seeing such scenes, and they have nothing special to say.

It was only when they passed by the place where their daughters were that the generals turned their faces away, made a salute, and then withdrew their gaze and never looked again.

Sun Yuyun and the other women still stared at their husband's back, and until these backs disappeared, they turned back three times and reluctantly returned to their mansions.

The procession of 3,000 people was not long, nor was it short, and it was over in half an hour.

When the army marched outside the city, Liu Renyu shouted to his soldiers: "Hong Zhishuai is suppressing thieves in the central county, and his old man has specially ordered me to go to support as soon as possible, the central county town is six hundred miles away from our Jingbian Fort City, and we still need to march with all our strength, travel 100 miles a day, and rush to the central county seat within six days." ”

"Yes, General." The generals responded in unison.

"Renjie, I order you to quickly send detectives to ride sentinels on all sides, probe for ten miles, and report to me at any time if there is a police." Liu Renyu ordered at Liu Renjie.

"Yes, General." Liu Renjie received the order, so he went straight to deploy a reconnaissance mission.

"No illness, I order you to quickly bring a few capable generals to the central county town of Hong Zhishuai, and report to Hong Zhishuai, saying that our army can come to the central county within six days." Liu Renyu ordered.

"Yes, General." Sun Wu was sick and received the order, so he took a few capable men, quickly whipped his horse, and went straight to the central county town.

After Liu Renyu made these arrangements, he continued to march with his men.

When the Jingbianbao army marched, it still followed the old formation, with the baggage wagons in the center, the chariots around the sides of the army, and all the officers and soldiers on horseback in the middle.

Liu Renyu's men and horses are all mobile, either riding horses, or sitting in carriages, there is no infantry army, so the marching speed is quite fast, the central county town is six hundred miles away from Jingbian Fort, one hundred miles a day, can save horsepower, will not cause irreversible damage to the health of horses, although the speed is not fast, but not very slow.

Now it is Hong Chengchou who is leading the troops to surround the thieves in the central county, and it is not the thieves who surround Hong Chengchou in the central county, Liu Renyu is not in a hurry at all.

****

Outside the central county seat of Shaanxi, Hong Chengchou rode his horse and stood in the snow, quietly staring at the central county town in the distance, his brows furrowed, without saying a word, looking very heavy.

It stands to reason that the trilateral governor is already a relatively high official in the official sequence of the Ming Dynasty, and he is second only to the existence of the Jiliao governor in importance among the feudal officials, Hong Chengchou should be happy, but he really can't be happy.

In the past, Yang He was kind-hearted, and he was bent on appeasing the thieves, causing the thieves to be arrogant, and when they were poor, they surrendered, and when the situation was good, they rebelled, and when the situation was bad, they surrendered, and they rebelled again when they had a good opportunity.

When Hong Chengchou was the governor of Yansui, he saw the essence of the thieves, this is a group of people who have gone from thrift to luxury, from luxury to thrift, and when they have tasted the sweetness of being a thief, they want to be a shameless person who has been a homeless person for a lifetime.

Words like 'who is not a child' sounded like a joke to them, so Hong Chengchou repeatedly violated Yang He's orders and killed many bandit leaders who had surrendered.

This move may be a factor in forcing the rebels to surrender to the thieves, but it is not the main factor, the thieves just want to be unrestrained, happy and freehand robbers, spend every day drinking, be a groom every night, and the power of life and death is in their own hands, kill whoever they want, that's it.

When the thieves who surrendered to the government rebelled again, Yang He, the 'dove' who advocated appeasement, then resigned gloomily, and was replaced by Hong Chengchou, who saw through the evil nature of the thieves.

The ideal is beautiful, but the reality is cruel, Shaanxi has been in drought for many years, there is no harvest, but the government is severely urging taxes, and the people have no choice but to be thieves, so the thieves in Shaanxi are always inexhaustible, and they are killed.

The killing of the north side is dispersed, the south side has an accident again, the south side has finished killing, and the north side is in a frequent emergency.

Hong Chengchou led his subordinates all the way, killing and killing, so busy that his feet did not touch the ground, and finally forced a large group of thieves who were uncertain into the central county town, but he found that the thieves were no longer flowing, and he planned to stick to the city.

Speaking of which, the field combat ability of the Ming army is naturally far stronger than that of the thieves, but the thieves are no longer flowing, and they are cowering in the city, and Hong Chengchou has no good way for the time being.

Hong Chengchou had 7,000 troops in his hands and more than 20,000 thieves.

It is said in the book of war that if you have five times the enemy's strength, you will attack it, and if you are ten times the enemy, you will surround it.

Now this Hong Chengchou is facing the situation that his own troops are not as many as the thieves, if he attacks the city, it will inevitably bring huge losses, if the soldiers in his hands are too damaged, the entire Shaanxi will lose its elite mobile forces.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou's strategy is to besiege but not attack, and only surround three sides, leave one side, and set up an ambush on the side that is not besieged, and wait until the thieves' food is exhausted, and when the thieves break through, he can lead his troops to chase and kill all the way, and wipe out the thieves all the way in one fell swoop.

Hong Chengchou originally thought that according to the consistent nature of the thieves, they would eat and drink all the food immediately after grabbing it, and there would be no collection, and the thieves could be forced out in a few days after a siege of a few days, but they did not know that after two months of siege, the thieves showed no sign of lack of food. On the contrary, some of his own grain and grass cannot be helped.

Shaanxi has been in drought for many years, the treasury has long been empty, there is no grain in Shaanxi, Shanxi is making trouble, there is no grain, Henan's grain is only enough for the people of the province to eat, the imperial court can only transport grain from Huguang, this takes time, during this time, if the army runs out of food, the thieves fight back, and the army will collapse.

Or, even if the thieves don't fight back, the army will still collapse when it runs out of food.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou is very entangled, very nerve-wracking, unable to attack and attack, besieged and short of food.

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to send people to urge the transportation of grain and grass on the one hand, and on the other hand, the food supply of the army could not be reduced, because the thieves could break through at any time, if the soldiers were not fed, how to kill the enemy?

Every time he is in such a dilemma, Hong Chengchou can't help but miss Liu Renyu, a capable general.

"If Liu Wudi leads the troops here, there must be a magic way to break the enemy." Hong Chengchou muttered to himself.

This is what Hong Chengchou says every day, and today he just said it again, but he didn't think about it, but he was right by him.

"Newspaper, commander. A spy came from the Jingbianbao army, saying that Liu Zongzhen was galloping towards the central county with 3,000 elite soldiers, and he could come to meet with the commander six days later. "A herald came out of nowhere to report.

When Hong Chengchou heard this, his spirits lifted and said: "Okay, my blessing is coming, and the thief can be expected!" ”