Chapter Eighty-Eight: First Encounter with a Thief

The day before departure, Li Zhi told Cui He what had happened, and Cui He was a little panicked. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Husband is going to Huguang to fight?"

"I am the military attache of the Ming Dynasty, of course I want to lead the troops to fight!" Li Zhi grabbed Cui He's hand from behind and said confidently: "But don't worry, my army is strong and strong, and it will be fine!" ”

Cui He bit his lip and whispered, "But I'm still afraid!" ”

Li Zhi gently hugged Cui He from behind and said with a smile: "Don't worry, lady, only I beat others, no one else beats me." A few months later, I'll be back! ”

Cui He said: "Can the husband not go?" ”

Li Zhi shook his head and said: "The governor personally came to the door to order the generals, and he couldn't escape!" ”

Cui He lowered his head and did not speak.

After a while, Cui He turned his head and said, "Then it's okay, six months, no, I'll be back in five months!" ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Don't worry, lady!" ”

On July 20, the eighth year of Chongzhen, Li Zhi left Li Xing in Fanjiazhuang to sit in the town, and he took two infantry battalions of Zhong Feng and Li Laosi and an infantry company and two artillery companies under Zheng Kaicheng to drive towards the lake.

On the day when the troops left the city, the people of Fanjiazhuang saw off and cheered loudly for Li Zhi's troops to fight the thieves. Unlike the destitute peasants in the northwest, the people of Fanjiazhuang, who live comfortably and affluently, are very disgusted with the thieves who go out to plunder and specialize in destruction. If these thieves are not defeated, the good life of Fanjiazhuang will not be safe.

Looking at the Jianma cannon of Li Zhi's troops, the people of Fanjiazhuang were very confident in their own soldiers.

Li Zhi's troops marched all the way south, marching thirty miles a day, and drove to Zhangde Mansion in Henan in a month. It was already August 21 when he arrived at Zhangde Mansion, and Li Zhi met the envoy he had sent to Lu Xiangsheng. The envoy told Li Zhi that Lu Xiangsheng had been promoted, and now his identity was the right deputy capital Yushi, the squire of the military department, and the prime minister of Jiang0bei, He0nan, Shan0dong, Hu0guang, Si0chuan, Shan0xi, and Shaanxi 0xi. Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng asked Li Zhi to abandon Huguang and go to Luo 0yang, where he joined the army.

The envoy also told Li Zhi that Lu Xiangsheng was very unhappy when he heard that Tian0jin had only sent a guard officer to help suppress it.

Li Zhizhi and Lu Xiangsheng's official rank was shocked, and secretly said that such a big official was actually in charge of so many places.

Li Zhi knew the strength of the selection team, and he didn't care if Lu Xiang was uplifted or unhappy. He asked the envoy to go to Lu Xiangsheng's place again, and told Lu Xiangsheng that he would be ordered to drive to Luo 0yang, looking forward to seeing the prime minister in Luo 0yang.

Bidding farewell to the envoy, Li Zhi commanded the troops to march south, walked for ten days, and met the returning envoy. The envoy said that there were many thieves in the area of Luo 0 Yang, and the Prime Minister would go to Ru 0 Prefecture south of Luo 0 Yang to gather all the troops, so that Li Zhi abandoned Luo 0 Yang and gathered in Ru 0 Prefecture.

Li Zhi asked the envoy to reply to Lu Xiangsheng that he had been ordered to leave for Ru 0 Prefecture.

In the next few days, the envoys shuttled back and forth, sending orders between the Xuanfeng Regiment and Lu Xiangsheng.

After walking for another ten days, Li Zhi passed through the suburbs of Luoyang City, and felt a strong atmosphere of war.

It was September 12th, it was already late autumn, and the soldiers were wearing thick autumn clothes. Li Zhi rode on his horse and looked into the four fields, but he couldn't see a single place of people. The villages passed on the way were all empty, not knowing whether they had fled or had been sacked by thieves. The granary was empty. The broken doors and windows of the villagers' houses were ajar, and there was nothing in the houses.

Seeing the dilapidated appearance of one village after another, Zhong Feng said: "Fortunately, Tian0jin is not in He0nan, He0nan has been repeatedly robbed, and the countryside is ruined like this." ”

Zheng Kaicheng shook his head and said: "The Yellow River is dangerous, and thieves can't cross the Yellow River." ”

Li Laosi frowned and said: "If the thieves arrive in Tian0jin, I will fight with them!" ”

A few people were talking, and suddenly they saw something moving in the distance, and it was the thief's scout Tangma.

When he encountered the enemy, Li Zhi did not dare to be careless, and released a hundred scouts to reconnoiter the enemy's situation in front and back, left and right, and accelerated towards Ruzhou 0 in the south. However, when the Xuanfeng Regiment went to the south of Luoyang City near Ru 0 Prefecture, it was surrounded by more and more Tang Horses, that is, the cavalry of the thieves.

At first, there were only a few dozen thieves' pond horses in the distance. Li Zhi ignored these scattered horses, continued to walk south, and walked for an hour, and there were more and more pond horses outside, and they became hundreds of people. Later, there were two or three thousand horses shuttling around, whistling and howling, surrounding the Xuanfeng regiment, so that Li Zhi's scouts could not be reconnoitred.

Those Tang Ma didn't know which thief's team it was, and probably felt that there were few soldiers in the Xuan Feng regiment, and it seemed that they wanted to eat Li Zhi's team.

It is said that the thieves have developed to this day and have become strong and strong, and their equipment has even surpassed that of officers and soldiers. Li Zhi saw it with his own eyes today, and he knew that this was true. Where are there so many cavalry in the ranks of the officers and soldiers?

Li Zhi asked the soldiers to form a circle to protect the baggage artillery in the middle, load the rifles, and march slowly, ready to enter the battle at any time.

In the afternoon, the more than 2,000 horses in the distance shouted loudly, shrinking the encirclement smaller and smaller. Later, a large number of pond horses were tested to be 200 meters away from the selection group.

Most of Li Zhi's soldiers had never experienced a battle, and they were surrounded and oppressed by cavalry, and they were very nervous.

Li Zhi did not wait for these stragglers to continue to suppress the morale of the Election Regiment, and loudly asked the soldiers to shoot in three stages. The heralds shouted loudly, and the soldiers raised their rifles. Only a few hundred gunshots were heard, and the first soldiers of the three-stage shot opened fire, and a large thick fog came out of the barrels, and the air was filled with the smell of gunsmoke.

The soldiers practiced shooting for several months and had good accuracy. Four hundred rounds of mini bullets were fired at the bandit's pond horse. In a single salvo, nearly 200 thieves were killed by rifles, fell off their horses, and died in the deserted fields of early winter. More than 30 thieves were shot in the hands and feet and other non-vital places, but they also fell off their horses. Thirty or so other thieves' horses were hit, and the horses twitched and struggled, knocking the thieves off their horses.

The thief who fell off his horse under the force of the impact was immediately injured and killed and lost his combat effectiveness.

The thieves in the distance were frightened by the power of the Mini rifle. Where have they ever seen such a powerful "bird gun"? This killed 200 people before they could make contact, what would it be like if they were contacted. The thieves understood that the Election Regiment was not a weak army, and immediately abandoned the plan to besiege the Election Regiment, and fled into the distance with their tails between their legs.

The horse's hooves kicked up the smoke and dust, and the pond horses disappeared in a blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, the four fields became extremely empty again. If it weren't for the fact that there were two hundred corpses not far away, and wounded soldiers screaming and groaning, it would have been hard for people to believe that a great battle was about to break out in the open field in the distance.

Li Zhi asked the soldiers to cut off the heads of the dead and wounded thieves, and brought the horses that had lost their owners to distribute them to officers and veterans at all levels. The Selector Regiment captured more than 200 heads and 200 horses.

The slain horses were bled and fleshed, roasted and eaten.

The first time he fought with the thief, the thief gave Li Zhi a big gift.

――――――――

Thanks to cesium hydroxide CSOH for the tip.