Almost at the same time, Song Youliang, Chen Yongfu and Gao Qian set up camp at the foot of the mountain in the northeast of Mi County. Even if Chen Yongfu's military discipline was relatively good, it was inevitable that the local people would be requisitioned to cut down trees and dig up soil to build a camp for themselves, and the local people were greatly disturbed. On the other hand, in Song Youliang's department, the construction work is all responsible for full-time and professional work, and the construction of the camp is fast and efficient.

Song Youliang's big tent of the Chinese army had just been set up, and he was about to discuss with the two masters, Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi, how to retreat from the enemy, when he suddenly heard someone outside the door: Li Xin, the commander of the Xinzi battalion, asked to see him.

"Let him in!" Song Youliang hurriedly said

After Li Xin entered the account, he first bowed to Song Youliang, and then saluted Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi, "My subordinates received two letters and wanted to present them to the military gate!" Li Xin looked at Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi

Song Youliang smiled: "These two are my mentors, what's inconvenient?" Show me! ”

"Yes!" Li Xin presented two letters in both hands

Song Youliang took a look, only to see that the envelope did not write the recipient or signature, but drew a small beast, and there was no recipient and signature on the other letter, and it was drawn in a very inconspicuous place in the lower right corner of the cover that it should be a hill-like map drawing

Song Youliang opened the letter and took a look, and the letter with the painting of the little beast wrote: Returning to Germany. Only six words were written on the envelope with the small hill drawn: Jianshan West, three walls

"What does that mean?" Song Youliang folded the letterhead, put it back in the envelope, and returned the envelope to Li Xin

Li Xin replied: "The military gate trusts me, and my subordinates no longer hide it. The subordinate's original name was Li Hesun, and he was the son of Li Jingbai, the secretary of the Ministry of War. After that, he pointed to the little beast on the envelope and said: "This is a letter from my brother Li Xu, my brother's original name is Li Linsun, so I take the little beast unicorn as a token." He pointed to the envelope with the mountain pattern and said: "This is the letter of the third brother Li Mou, the third brother's original name is Li Daisun, so the mountain is a token." ”

"Li Xu? If I'm not mistaken, he should be living in Yingzhou as a staff general now. And Li Mu~~" Song Youliang rolled his eyes, "He should be in the thief camp now, right?" Song Youliang said

"That's right." Li Xin admitted calmly: "My brother will be able to reach the Guide Mansion in a few days, and he can fight the thieves in front and behind the military gate." As for the third brother Daisun, he was really forced to be a thief, and now he knows that I am under the military tent, and he is willing to come to serve and help the military to kill the thief. ”

"Oh?" Sun Chuanting looked straight at Li Xin with an old spicy gaze, and Li Xin greeted him without showing weakness

Song Youliang's mind was filtering the historical information in his memory over and over again. Li Xu was Li Xin's eldest brother, who was later killed by Yuan Shizhong; Later, Yuan Shizhong secretly fornicated with the governor Su Jing, and after Li Xin found out, he provoked Li Zicheng to kill Yuan Shizhong to avenge his eldest brother. And in later generations, there is indeed a saying that Li Linsun (Li Xu), Li Hesun (Li Xin), and Li Daisun (Li Mou) are all the sons of Li Jingbai. Moreover, Li Daisun was first captured by the peasant army, and in order to save his life, he changed his name and surname to call himself Li Mu.

"So, how does Brother Ling Li Mou plan to help the officers and soldiers kill the thieves?" Song Youliang asked

Li Xin replied: "There is a large open plain at the western foot of this Jianshan Mountain, and it is the only way for us to go to Mi County. The three walls are a kind of tactics for the thieves: when facing the enemy, the striker is 30,000 horses, and the name is three walls. The former looked back, the latter killed, and so on in turn to impact the enemy's formation. If the battle is not won for a long time, he orders the horsemen to feint defeat and lure the officers and soldiers. When the officers and soldiers were exhausted in pursuit of the cavalry, they sent 30,000 foot soldiers, each using spears, stabbing like flying, and at this moment the horsemen fought back, outflanking from both flanks, all of which were victorious. ”

At that time, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were generally short of horses, except for Liaodong and Datong, which had a slightly more cavalry. However, because Li Zicheng attached great importance to the mobility of the army's combat and obtained horses by various means, his soldiers had three horses each. In order to make the horses fat and strong, when the horses were fed, he ordered the bellies of the captives or captives to be cut open, and the rice beans were put into the belly, so that the horses could be eaten with blood. In some cases, human flesh is cut off, minced and mixed with forage to feed the horses. So his horse was accustomed to eating, and when he saw a person and asked to recognize the smell, his teeth were so loud that he wanted to pounce on him and bite it. Therefore, in the event of a battle, the war horse will move forward bravely.

"Three walls?" Song Youliang said with a smile: "His three walls are just three adobe walls in front of my army array, and my army is the real iron and copper wall." Song Youliang tapped the table lightly with his fingers again, "But you still haven't told me how your cousin Li Mu plans to help the officers and soldiers kill the thieves!" ”

Li Xin replied: "Indeed, the content of my brother's letter is too brief. But my brother is now also a leader of 3,000 men in the army of thieves, and I expected that if he would not defect in the middle of the night, he would lead his troops back in battle. ”

Sun Chuanting smiled and said, "It seems that the thieves plan to set up an ambush at the western foot of Jianshan, to wait for work, and to use the advantage of more cavalry to use the tactics of three walls. ”

"I wonder if the teacher has any good ideas?" Song Youliang asked

Sun Chuanting twisted his beard and said with a smile: "The thief is good at controlling the enemy by walking, so we will also concoct the same method, and we will plan it." ”

On March 13, when Li Zicheng's scouts came to reconnoitre, they were surprised to find that the officers and soldiers did not continue southward, but were divided into three parts: Chen Yongfu advanced in the direction of Kaifeng; Gao Qian seems to be going to Zhengzhou to station; And Song Youliang turned to the northwest, and his movements are unknown

Li Zicheng was very strange after hearing Tanma's return, and immediately found Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance to ask for advice.

Song Xiance took out a turtle shell, put in five copper coins, shook his eyes, and then poured out the copper coins, touched them with carrot-like fingers, shook his head and said: "Judging from the hexagram, there is no good luck in this matter, and it will take some time to see the clues~!" ”

Niu Jinxing touched the beard on his chin and said, "Going west is nothing more than Luoyang." Shao Shichang of Luoyang said that he had recovered a batch of stolen money from officials and was about to send it to King Chuang, could it be that Song Youliang went for this batch of silver? ”

Li Zicheng's right eye jumped, "Luoyang is just a few thousand newly recruited soldiers, where can it withstand the attack?" Li Zicheng stood up, "Order, pull out the camp, take the Ma Army as the vanguard, and pursue Song Youliang at the end!" ”

"Think twice about the king." Niu Jinxing hurriedly got up to stop him, "Maybe this is Song Youliang's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain!" ”

"Turning the tiger away from the mountain?" Li Zicheng said with a smile: "There is nothing in the Jianshan camp, but Luoyang has gathered millions of taels of silver, which is the capital for advancing Shaanxi in the future." ”

"But in case Chen Yongfu and Gao Qian detour to the rear of our army from behind, in case~~" Niu Jinxing said very solemnly: "It's better to besiege Kaifeng again, and lure Song Youliang back to save the army, this is a plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao!" ”

Li Zicheng frowned, "Kaifeng is far away, Zhengzhou is near, it is better for our army to attack Zhengzhou Gaoqian~"

"No, Gao Qian is just a guerrilla general, not enough weight." Niu Jinxing said: "You have to attack Kaifeng." ”

Li Zicheng was a little depressed and said: "It's only three days to go to Luoyang, it's no more than six days to go to Luoyang, and it will take us two and a half days to get to Kaifeng." So can the news of our siege of Kaifeng reach Song Youliang in time? In case we haven't captured Kaifeng yet, and Song Youliang has already captured Luoyang in advance, wouldn't it be a camel wrestling and not hitting the ground at both ends? Besides, if I want to open the seal, what should I do if Gao Qian in Zhengzhou gives me a knife in the back? ”

"This~" Li Zicheng's question made Niu Jinxing speechless for a while

Li Zicheng grabbed a steel knife from his hand and pinned it to his waist, "Order~ The whole army will pull out the camp and follow behind Song Youliang's army." ”

Li Zicheng's army marched overnight, and when it reached the vicinity of Zhengzhou, Li Zicheng was not worried about Gao Qian in Zhengzhou, so he ordered Liu Zongmin to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses to attack Zhengzhou tentatively. Who knew that Gao Qian retreated without a fight and retreated to Zhongmu.

Niu Jinxing explained: "In the past, when officers and soldiers were encircled and suppressed, they also fought separately, and all the commanders and deputy generals only wanted to preserve their strength, and it was easy to say that they had soldiers in their hands. Now it seems that this is also the case, Gao Qian and Chen Yongfu are both Yuzhou soldiers, and Song Youliang's Shandong soldiers are guest soldiers, so Gao and Chen are unwilling to cooperate with Song Youliang. ”

Li Zicheng was overjoyed and said: "The officers and soldiers are so deceitful, just give me a chance to break through, if it weren't for this, I, Li Chuang, would have been killed by the officers and soldiers ten times." Li Zicheng immediately ordered the three armies, accelerated their advance, and changed their tailing to pursuit.

Li Zicheng's army marched to the Suo River in Xingyang and found that the river was very shallow, so he waded across the river. As soon as he heard that he was going to wade across the river, Li Shuangxi, who was in charge of the artillery battalion, hurriedly ran to Li Zicheng from the rear team, "Father-in-law, our artillery battalion has gunpowder, Franc machines and sports cars to bring. ”

Li Zicheng crooked his mouth and said with a smile: "Why do you want that Laoshizi?" Those few Franc machines and a dozen shotguns were used to top a ball. I heard from the spies that Song Youliang had a brand-new Hongyi cannon there, and then my father-in-law asked your artillery battalion to change its guns. ”

Li Shuangxi was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly returned to the artillery battalion, asking the soldiers to bring only rations and personal weapons, and discard all artillery and gunpowder.