"The holy decree says, let me obey the eunuch Gao Qiqian's promotion. {[ Bayi Middle School?} ((〈文 <( 〕.) Cao Bianjiao replied when he heard this, and his face was quite resentful.

"Huh? Wouldn't that be bad? Guan Feng, Ma Jinzhong and others blurted out.

You must know that after Gao Qiqian asked the court for help this time, the court also newly appointed Zhu Dadian as the governor of Shandong, and was responsible for countering the rebellion together with Gao Qiqian. From the perspective of a clear division of labor, Zhu Dadian was mainly responsible for counterinsurgency in Shandong, while the Denglai area was jointly led by Gao Qiqian and Zu Dacheng.

However, Gao Qiqian, as the eunuch of the army of various counterinsurgency armies, is actually equivalent to the commander of the army, and Gao Qiqian is nominally responsible for unified command.

"That's right! It would be bad if Gao Qiqian's bastard used our new Liao army as a gun and deliberately depleted our strength! Xiao Yang said.

"Is this high dive really so bad? After all, the New Liao Army is the army of the imperial court! After all, Su Su was not deeply involved in the world and was relatively simple, so he couldn't help but ask.

"That's hard to say." Mo Li frowned, pondered for a while and said, "Let's try not to get involved with Gao Qiqian anymore, and find a way to transfer to the account of Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, so that at least we don't have to directly face Gao Qiqian's guy." ”

"But how can I be transferred to Zhu Dadian's account? The holy decree said that we should rush to Denglai to obey the dispatch of Gao Qiqian! Cao Bianjiao asked puzzled.

Mo Li raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "Although Li Jiucheng has been defeated by us now, the Kong Youde rebels who are heading south are overwhelming!" According to the information obtained, since the south of Dengzhou, Kong Youde's department has conquered more than 10 cities and towns, large and small, all the way, and just conquered Lingshanwei the day before yesterday, and yesterday led troops to attack Zhucheng, but according to reliable information, Zhucheng has not yet been captured. ”

"What does the general mean?" Cao Bianjiao seemed to understand a little.

"The soldiers and horses in the world are one family, and the soldiers are in trouble, how can we sit idly by?" Mo Li laughed.

"But we don't have an order, but we can't casually go against the will of the imperial court and change the marching route without authorization! What's more, there are still four eunuchs in General Xiaocao's army, can you hide from them? Xiao Yang said again.

Mo Li glanced at him, and said angrily: "Stupid! Who said you can't change the route of the march without an order? Now the thieves in Shandong are strong, and there may be accidents at any time! Tomorrow, we'll ...... like this."

When the generals listened, they were all convinced. That's right, who said that you can't change the route of the march and change the battle plan without an order from the imperial court?

Before dawn the next day, Mo Li asked Guan Feng to collect the weapons that had been given to the captives, and ordered them to continue walking westward, as long as they reached Lingchuan City, someone would help them and give them food.

Although the captives will be suspicious, but at present, there is no way back, except to obey the arrangements of the new Liao army, they really don't know what else to do.

So more than 2,000 people continued to run in the direction of Lingchuan in the dark.

About two hours after the captives left, the new Liao army, which had joined forces, was preparing to set up camp and start the camp, when suddenly there was a shout of killing from the southern hillside, and the number seemed to be small.

Then there was a sound of gold and iron fighting, and it was obvious that the new Liao army on the periphery had started a fierce battle with the comers.

Soon, the sound of the fight gradually disappeared, but I saw a team of personal soldiers hurrying to report to Cao Bianjiao: "General Qiyu, our army's vanguard has just encountered a rebel army, the rebels were defeated, but they fled a lot, General Ba Shen asked whether to pursue?" ”

"Bold thieves are too rampant! How many men are there in the rebels? Cao Bianjiao changed color and said.

"General Qiyu, there are about three or four thousand people."

"Humph! Only three or four thousand thieves and soldiers dare to walk sideways in Shandong, if the emperor knows, then Long Yan will not be furious! Cao Bianjiao said angrily, turned his head to a middle-aged eunuch beside him and said, "Father-in-law Lu, it seems that we have to delay to get to Laizhou for a while!" These thieves, after General Ben destroyed them, rushed to Laizhou to join Gao Gonggong. ”

That Lu Gonggong called Lu Hanzhang, who was the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, is now the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, who is quite trusted by Wang Chengen, and can be regarded as a number one figure in the inner court. This time, Chongzhen sent him with three other little eunuchs to accompany Cao Bianjiao's New Liao Army to the prison army, also because he did not trust the New Liao Army.

I saw him touch his white chin, and said lightly: "With the method of war, the general is much better than our family, so I just listen to the general's arrangement." ”

Cao Bianjiao had a gathering with Mo Li and others yesterday, but he avoided Lu Hanzhang and other eunuchs and inner court guards, so Lu Hanzhang did not know the inside story of the march route discussed between Cao Bianjiao and Mo Li.

Lu Hanzhang knew about Mo Li and Cao Bianjiao's joining forces, but he didn't say anything.

Mo Li said that he was chasing the rebels to this place, but Lu Hanzhang did not doubt it.

As a result, the 30,000-strong army began to pursue the rebels, but the rebels in front seemed to move very quickly, always keeping a distance from the new Liao army.

In this way, they chased all the way until the afternoon, when the army came to Taojiazhuang in Zhucheng, but the rebel army in front suddenly disappeared.

Lu Hanzhang heard that the rebel army was gone, and he was feeling suspicious in his heart, and he was about to discuss with Cao Bianjiao and rush to Laizhou, when suddenly Cao Bianjiao's subordinates hurriedly came to report: "General, the front Mo Shen General, Ba Shen General and other troops are fighting fiercely with Kong Youde's rebels!" ”

"Oh!" Cao Bianjiao was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "How many people are there in the rebels?" ”

"About four thousand."

Cao Bianjiao put his mind at ease and said, "How can a mere 4,000 rebels be the opponent of my new Liao army?" In the autumn, you will bring 2,000 people to support and exterminate these rabble as soon as possible! ”

"Yes! Checkmate! Lian Yiqiu took the order and left.

Cao Bianjiao understood that this time he had met a real rebel.

It turned out that the "rebel army" that fought with the Ba Lao Dao Department in the morning was the pretense of Mo Li's subordinates, in order to create an excuse for the New Liao Army to pursue the rebels, and then they could advance into Zhucheng and have a decisive battle with Kong Youde's rebels, without having to rush to Laizhou to listen to Gao Qiqian's envoys.

And when Mo Li's department entered Taojiazhuang, he really encountered a rebel army. So Mobu transformed, found a secluded place, changed into the military uniform of the new Liao army, and reappeared in the eyes of Lu Hanzhang, the eunuch of the prison army, and others, and fought with Ba Laodao and Lian Yiqiubu against the rebels who came after hearing the news.

Taojiazhuang is still more than 20 miles away from Zhucheng, at present Kong Youde's army is besieging Zhucheng, yesterday after a day of fierce fighting, still did not capture Zhucheng, Kong Youde is not reconciled, continue to storm Zhucheng.

After conquering Huangxian, Kong Youde's rebels marched south from Qixia and attacked large and small towns such as Clayyang, Laixi, Jimo, Jiaoxian, Jiaozhou, and Lingshanwei one after another.

Not long after arriving in Zhucheng, Kong Youde received news from Laiyang, saying that Laiyang and Laixi had been recovered by the official army, and Marshal Li Jiucheng led his troops to retreat to Haiyang.

Kong Youde, who learned the news, scolded Li Jiucheng for being incompetent, and even if he couldn't capture Laizhou, he didn't even hold Laiyang and Laixi, and let the officials and troops take it back, and also damaged many brothers.

But scolding and scolding, the current situation has to be faced. The official army took advantage of the victory to recover the two cities of Laiyang and Laixi, and will inevitably continue to go north to recover Dengzhou, Huangxian and other places.

Dengzhou is his old nest of Kong Youde, and it is also the foundation, if Dengzhou is lost, then he may only be a rootless duckweed, a rogue without a stable territory, and then he can only be chased away by the officials and soldiers.

Therefore, Dengzhou must be preserved, and Dengzhou must be kept in order to have more room for exhibition. Otherwise, Kong Youde would have gone south to win the battle of Zaidu and capture more towns, and he would be a flashy rootless duckweed.

But here comes the problem, Kong Youde's ministry has just arrived in Zhucheng now, and the imperial court has gathered six or seven thousand troops in Zhucheng, if he returns to Dengzhou all the way north, the officers and troops of Zhucheng will inevitably take the opportunity to send troops to recover Lingshanwei, Jiaozhou and other places.

And if Kong Youde wants to go back to rescue Dengzhou's lair, he must not leave too many troops to guard these places. There are too many to spend, and the situation in Dengzhou is also not optimistic. If it is less, it will definitely not be the opponent of the official army.

Therefore, after discussing with Geng Zhongming and others, Kong Youde decided to capture Zhucheng first and then return to Dengzhou, using Zhucheng as a barrier to resist the official army in Shandong.

Therefore, early this morning, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming commanded more than 67,000 people to begin to storm Zhucheng.

In order to facilitate the siege of the city and the state all the way, the German army of Kong You carried eight Hongyi cannons, 30 new Western artillery, more than 200 Fran machine guns, more than 500 other kinds of earthen cannons and small cannons, 60 large pole guns, and more than 8,000 other types of firearms.

In addition, Kong Youde is also very strong in terms of troops, nearly 8,000 elite Dongjiang Liao soldiers in the original Dengzhou battalion, of which 5,000 followed Kong Youde south, in addition to dividing 500 troops to Chen Qiliang to attack Haiyang, 500 to stay in Jiaozhou, Jimo and other cities, the remaining 4,000 are currently in the main force besieging Zhucheng.

In addition to the 4,000 original Dongjiang Liao soldiers, there are about 8,000 Ming officers and soldiers who have surrendered along the way since the beginning of the army, and there are more than 10,000 ringing horse thieves who have defected from all over the country, and the rest are the people who have been coerced from all over the country, and their combat effectiveness is not high.

But no matter how bad the combat effectiveness is, under Kong Youde's heavy reward, there are still brave men, not to mention that the rebels are strong, with the power of victory all the way, the momentum is still very scary, in order to survive, and for the sake of fame and wealth, the rebel soldiers also risked their lives to attack Zhucheng.

Under the city of Zhucheng, the sound of cannons rumbled, the sound of killing shook the sky, and the rebel soldiers carried a long cloud ladder and rushed frantically towards the walls of Zhucheng, and the arrows and fire guns on both sides flew everywhere, and the fight was not fierce.

Kong Youde was watching the battle on the city wall with a clairvoyant mirror behind the battle, and suddenly his subordinate Xie Zhong hurriedly reported: "Deputy Marshal, our Mu Xiaoshan Department on the periphery is on guard with the imperial court reinforcements in Taojiazhuang!" ”