The soldiers of the Pingyang Army listened to Cao Bianjiao's order, and immediately looked for cover on the spot, grabbed their weapons and began to counterattack. After a brief period of confusion, the soldiers, under the command of officers at all ranks, reacted and began to fight back non-stop.

These soldiers of the Pingyang Army as pioneers, almost all of them were equipped with advanced flintlock pistols, as well as traditional weapons machetes, bows and arrows, after stabilizing their positions, the advantages of advanced weapons were quickly brought into play, Luo Rucai's peasant rebel army was just a group of hungry people who robbed homes and houses, and there was not much training at all, and the weapons were not complete, but they took advantage of the sudden attack and the gift of terrain at the beginning.

However, with the counterattack of the Pingyang Army, under its powerful firepower, and Cao Bianjiao's subordinates as the vanguard soldiers, they were naturally composed of the best of the best elite soldiers selected, who were well-trained in peacetime and had high combat quality.

Many peasant army feathered arrows rushed out of the woods with spears and clubs, but the long-range strike ability of the Pingyang army was not weak, in addition to muskets, there were also grenades that also exerted a very powerful force, and for a time only killed the peasant army to collapse.

Luo Rucai, nicknamed Cao Cao, is treacherous and scheming, seeing that this officer and soldier have strong firepower, and fight bravely, and the number is not small, although his own strength is almost three times that of the other party, but he himself also understands what kind of goods his rabble are under his command.

Luo Rucai was about to order the retreat and collect the troops, when suddenly a cloud of dust was raised from the road behind the Pingyang army, and the cavalry was blackened and killed with the murderous aura and earth-shattering momentum of Pingling. Cao Bianjiao saw that it was Ma Jinzhong who led people to come.

At that moment, Cao Bianjiao was even more energetic, and shouted: "Brothers, General Ma is here with his brothers to support, kill quickly!" It's time to make a difference! ”

With the strong help of Ma Jinzhong's reinforcements, the morale of the Pingyang army was like a rainbow, and the sound of killing shook the sky, which scared Luo Rucai and others so that their legs and feet were weak, and seeing that the situation was not good, Luo Rucai hurriedly ordered a retreat.

After only half a day's effort, Luo Rucai's seven or eight thousand men and horses were almost half lost, and the remaining bandits followed Luo Rucai in a panic and retreated to the depths of the mountain.

Cao Bianjiao, Ma Jinzhong and others were not familiar with the terrain of the mountains because they had just arrived, and it was getting late, and they were afraid that Luo Ru would be the trick to lure the enemy, so they chased for a while, and then withdrew their troops and stopped pursuing.

After cleaning up the battlefield, a total of more than 900 thieves were killed, countless were wounded, of which more than 1,300 were captured, and nearly 1,000 people scattered and fled.

After Mo Li led the army to arrive, the battle had already ended, and Ma Jinzhong and Cao Bianjiao had already ordered the soldiers to set up camp.

After listening to Cao Bianjiao's battle report, Mo Li nodded and praised: "General Ma and General Xiao Cao won the first battle, which is worth rejoicing, and in the future, I should ask the court for the merit of the two generals." ”

Ma Jinzhong and Cao Bianjiao hurriedly thanked Moli. Ma Jin Zhongfu said again: "General, this Cao Cao Luo Rucai has also heard of it before, he is cunning and strategic, this ambush will not succeed, I am afraid that he will not give up on this, and he must be careful not to take advantage of the enemy to steal the camp at night, after all, they are often active in this area and are familiar with the terrain." ”

Mo Li nodded and said: "General Ma is reasonable, he ordered all battalions to send out guard posts in turn, and the rangers scattered thirty miles away, and immediately warned if there was an enemy situation. ”

"By the way, what about the captured thieves?" Cao Wenzhao suddenly spoke.

Yes, there are more than 1,300 prisoners in total, and it is inconvenient for so many people to march with them, and it also requires a lot of soldiers to come to the detention, and it costs a lot of food, and it is not a way to bring them in the barracks.

Gao Qiqian said: "This matter is easy to do, we will send a team to escort these thieves to Taiyuan Mansion and hand them over to the local government for detention and disposal." ”

Mo Li nodded, clapped his hands and said: "Gonggong Gao's plan is good, Taiyuan Mansion is not far from here, so Gonggong Lao will send someone to escort the prisoners to Taiyuan Mansion." ”

"Okay, since General Mo has an order, then our family will send someone to escort it." Gao Qiqian said.

The next day, Gao Qiqian sent his Jingying Zhenwei battalion to command Lu Chaoji to lead a thousand men and horses to escort the thieves and prisoners.

This Lu Chaoji is also a hereditary military attache in command of the Beijing camp, and he is Gao Qiqian's confidant, and like Lin Jianyue, he does not have much real talent. However, Gao Qiqian thought that it was not very far from Taiyuan Mansion to come here, not to mention that a thousand soldiers of the Beijing Battalion escorted these more than 1,000 prisoners, and it was expected that nothing would happen. If a thousand people can't even look at a thousand or so unarmed and bound homeless people, then what kind of face does this Beijing camp have?

Mo Li and the others led the army to continue to march towards the river meander, which was only a few dozen miles away from the river meander, and it could be reached in half a day. It's just that this area is the stronghold of Wang Jiayin and other thieves, Wang Jiayin is said to have developed an army of nearly 100,000 in the past two years, although it is mostly a rabble, but after all, there are many people, so they have to be careful to guard against it.

In the morning, the army approached the county seat of Hequ.

Although Hequ is only a small county town, because it is located at the junction of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Mongolia, it has a more important position, and is adjacent to the Yellow River, most of the goods of the three merchants and water transport stop and transit here, so it is quite lively, if it is not for the frequent disasters and famines, wars and chaos for many years, the economy of Hequ will be more developed.

It was probably Luo Rucai who fled back and told Wang Jiayin, Wang Ziyong and others about the strength and strength of the Pingyang Army, because Wang Jiayin decided to close the city and not come out, stick to the city, and not set up a field battle with the Pingyang Army.

Hequ City is not tall and majestic, at this time the city is full of peasant troops with weapons in their hands and nervous expressions, from their panicked performance, it must be that Luo Rucai's defeated army returned and talked with other peasant soldiers about the terrifying firepower of the Pingyang army, so that these peasant troops defending the city saw the arrival of the officers and soldiers of the brigade, and began to beat drums in their hearts, wondering if Hequ City could be defended.

Ma Jinzhong and Cao Bianjiao led the vanguard troops to the city of Hequ, and saw that the city gate was closed, and the peasant army was waiting for it, as if facing a great enemy. Most of them were cavalry, and siege was the weakness of cavalry, so they decided to wait for the arrival of the army before asking Moli.

Before Moli's army arrived at the city, Ma Jinzhong and Cao Bianjiao ordered the soldiers to set up a formation four miles outside the city, preparing to start attacking with the infantry as soon as the army arrived.

Suddenly, I only heard the earth-shattering shouting of killing from a forest on the western outskirts of Hequ City, but I saw countless peasant troops killing Ma Jinzhong, Cao Bianjiao and others.