(The time of Shengyong's retreat has been revised, I hope you will forgive me!) ）

Although there were many discussions in the court, the views of the Military Aircraft Department and Wenyuan Pavilion were not like this, they were arguing about another issue, and after a few days, their focus completely changed, of course, this is a later story.

Zhu Di suddenly withdrew his troops on the evening of 30 January. Early the next morning, Ping'an sent scouts to look around, and finally confirmed that Zhu Di's army stayed in Xiongxian and Bazhou, but the specific number could not be reconnoitred. Zhu Di dispatched a large number of cavalry to strangle all the scouts who approached Xiongxian, so Ping An could only determine that Zhu Di's Wang Qi was in the county seat of Xiongxian, and everything else was unknown.

When Sheng Yong set off to Tongzhou, he informed Ping An of the news, so soon after Zhu Di withdrew, Ping An and others understood the reason for Zhu Di's withdrawal, but they were a little puzzled by his stay in Xiongxian. According to the usual understanding, Zhu Di should immediately retreat north to attack Sheng Yong in Tongzhou, after all, Tongzhou is much closer to Beijing than Baoding, and in comparison, Tongzhou is more important than Baoding. Ping'an, Qu Neng, Wu Jie, Song Xuan and others discussed it, thinking that Zhu Di was bluffing, so they sent Song Xuan to lead 5,000 cavalry to try to attack Xiongxian, but Song Xuan and the Yan army had a cavalry battle outside Xiongxian, and finally Song Xuan won, and the Yan army fled back to Xiongxian County and closed the door.

After discussing with Ping An and others, they decided to attack Baoding, but in order to prevent the dispersion of forces, Ping An decided to attack the west gate and the south gate, feint to attack the east gate, and leave the north gate not to attack, that is, the common tactic of encircling three ques, giving the defenders of Baoding a way to live and avoid their death.

But the result of the siege was very unexpected by Ping'an, who had 30,000 cavalry and 100,000 infantry in his hands, and he sent 80,000 people to attack the city, and the remaining infantry defended the large camp, and 30,000 cavalry took turns cruising around.

Baoding does not have the conditions of Tongzhou, can not take the water to water the city, because Baoding city is dependent on the spring water of an acre of spring water, now an acre of spring water is safely diverted, the water gate in the city falls, the people in the city can only live by the lake in the city, so they are reluctant to water to the city wall.

But Chen Xuan, the general of Baoding, is extremely tenacious, perhaps because he knows that he is guilty of a lot of crimes, and he will definitely not end well if he is caught by the imperial court. It is no exaggeration to say that if there was no Chen Xuan, Zhu Di would have perished a long time ago, if Juyong Pass was still in the hands of Chen Qian, then Zhu Di would have been unable to sleep and eat, and if it wasn't for him to indulge Feng Sheng into Juyong Pass, Chen Zhen would not have died. In the end, if he hadn't attacked Badaling, the Zhou army would not have surrendered to Zhu Di. But in the same way, there are many people who hate Chen Xuan, Zhu Yunwen will not say it, just say that Qu Neng outside the city is eager to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin, if it were not for his strong recommendation, Chen Xuan would not have sat in such an important position, although Zhu Yunwen did not blame him after the incident, but Qu Neng felt ashamed, whenever he thought of it, he was heartbroken.

Meng Shan is also not ambiguous, to be sent to Baoding by Zhu Di, he must be Zhu Di's die-hard loyalist, and his ability is secondary. Therefore, the combination of Chen Xuan and Meng Shan was also carefully selected by Zhu Di.

The two also lived up to Zhu Di's expectations, not only convening the strong defenders in the city, but also calling the old and weak women and children to cook, make clothes, and maintain weapons and armor for the military guarding the city; not only commanded the soldiers to defend, but also personally went into battle to fight; Not only desperately defend the city during the day, but also send a death squad to attack the Ping'an camp at night, because Ping'an did not arrange an army outside the north gate, so the death squad entered and exited from the north gate, and entered the Ping'an camp at night, slashing and killing, so that the Ping'an army was frightened overnight, and the pain was unspeakable. In the end, Ping'an had to set up a lookout post at the north gate, but Chen Xuan then changed his tactics, put down a group of dead soldiers from the city wall, and attacked at night. There was even a time when the death squad left the city, instead of attacking the camp, but hiding nearby, and when the army of Ping An attacked the city, they entered the camp, although it was quickly extinguished, but it also scared Ping An into a cold sweat, because he was in the camp at the time, and the nearest soldier in the death squad was less than ten zhang away from him.

But Ping'an was ruthless, no matter what, he must capture Baoding City, although his tiger squat cannon is not as many as Sheng Yong, but there are also hundreds, and there are many rockets, and he knows that the more crazy Chen Xuan is to send out a death squad, the more it means that he can't hold it and has to make a surprise move to win.

Ping'an began to attack the city on February 3, and by the fifth day, that is, on February 8, the Ping'an army had suffered more than 30,000 casualties, and its total number had dropped to 100,000, but the city of Baoding was still standing. Wu Jie and the others gradually retreated, but Ping An blocked them with a word: "It's already hit to this point, and it is estimated that there are not many people in the city, as long as you hold on, you can break the city." ”

But on the morning of the 8th, thick smoke burned at the head of Baoding City, and Ping'an immediately ordered the whole army to be on alert. Soon, the scouts reported that the Xiongxian rebels began to move and attack Baoding, with an estimated number of about 40,000.

40,000 people? Ping An and the others looked at each other, this number far exceeded their expectations, could it be that Zhu Di did not transfer the main force to attack Sheng Yong? Instead of waiting to attack their own side? Although puzzled, Ping'an had to stop the siege of the city, shrink his forces to the south of the city, block the way of the Yan army, he could no longer let the Yan army enter the city, otherwise he could only give up the siege and return to Zhending. Now that most of the firearms and siege equipment have been lost, and another 10,000 people have entered Baoding City, Ping An knows that he will not be able to attack it.

In the afternoon, Zhu Di's army rushed to the city of Baoding, but was blocked by Ping'an. Seeing Zhu Di's royal flag, Ping An was shocked, and he knew that the only way to fight to the death was to fight. Ping'an left 10,000 infantry to defend the camp, and at the same time asked Long Kai to lead 5,000 cavalry to monitor the south gate to prevent the soldiers in the city from rushing out and protect his own back. Ping'an personally led the remaining 20,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry to fight against Zhu Di, the left wing was commanded by Wu Jie, the right wing was commanded by Liu Sui, and he commanded the army, and Song Xuan led 20,000 cavalry as a reserve.

Zhu Di couldn't help laughing when he saw the Ping'an army blocking in front: "Ladies and gentlemen, now that Ping'an has been planned, and his strength is exhausted under Baoding City, I have 40,000 iron horsemen to recuperate and recuperate, come, and fight peace with this king." ”

"Yes!"

Zhang Fu suddenly shouted: "The prince is mighty! ”

"The prince is mighty!" The army shouted.

Zhu Di raised his long knife and shouted: "Victory!" "Victory!" "Victory!"

The high morale of the Yan army invisibly gave the Ping'an army a sense of frustration, and Ping'an immediately ordered: "Beat the drum!" ”

The rumbling war drums drowned out the shouts of the Yan army, and also boosted the morale of the Ping An army a lot.

Zhu Di carefully observed the camp of the Ping'an Army and said: "Zhu Neng, Zhang Wu, the right wing of Ping'an adopts a chariot formation, although it can restrain the cavalry, but it is not easy to move, it is a turtle shell. The two of you will lead 20,000 men to attack the right flank of the Heian army, attract the attention of the Hean army, and keep an eye on the king's orders. This king leads his army to attack the left flank of the Heian army, and when it is in chaos, you turn around together, and work together with this king to break the left flank, and then break the middle army, then Heian will be defeated. ”

"Yes!" "Yes!"

Liu Sui is Geng Bingwen's old subordinate, and he used the tactics of the chariot formation, that is, the four-wheeled carriage was connected, the chariot was densely packed with archers and musketeers, and the chariot was densely covered with shield bearers, pikemen and Pu knife hands, so that the infantry could rely on the chariot formation to effectively resist the impact of the cavalry, so Zhu Neng and Zhang Wu did not rush up at once, but circled around the chariot formation, relying on their excellent horsemanship and archery skills, killing and injuring the right wing sergeants in the move. But the sergeants in the formation did not show weakness, and the arrows rained down, and they also shot and killed many Yan soldiers.

Wu Jie on the left flank faced the enemy with a phalanx of shields, spears, bows and arrows, and there were tiger squatting cannons in ambush in the array, preparing to attack the Yan army. Seeing this, Zhu Di smiled and said: "It is not easy to turn the phalanx on all sides, only one side can meet the enemy, if it is not for the cavalry of the Ping'an Chinese army, this king can easily break it." ”

Zhu Di ordered Xue Lu to select elite soldiers to attack the east side of the phalanx, Xue Lu was extremely brave, and sent a wrestler to throw a spear, the spear fell, penetrating the shield, or penetrating several sergeants, for a while, the sergeant on the east side of Wu Jie's phalanx was busy dodging, and the formation was scattered. Xue Lu took advantage of the chaos to attack, and the east side was in chaos. Wu Jie hurriedly dispatched troops to reinforce, but although Xue Lu's army rushed into the formation, it also reduced its speed, and the pikemen reinforced by Wu Jie stabbed to the ground one after another, and even the horse of the main general Xue Lu was stabbed to death, but Xue Lu's long knife waved, broke the gun of Wu Jie's sergeant, and fled.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Di immediately ordered the army to attack the southwest side of the phalanx, because Wu Jie sent nearby troops to reinforce, resulting in the emptiness of the southwest side, and at this moment was killed by Zhu Di, and it became chaotic all of a sudden. At this moment, Xue Lu had already escaped from the gun array, changed his horse and continued to attack.

Seeing that Wu Jie's formation was scattered, Ping An immediately ordered Song Xuan to send cavalry reinforcements to copy Zhu Di's army from behind. Zhu Di's army was immediately caught in a two-sided attack, and Wu Jie's phalanx gradually adjusted, turning around to compress the space of Zhu Di's army.

But at this moment, Zhu Neng and Zhang Wu, who were still besieging the right flank of the Ping An Army, suddenly turned around and killed the left flank, wanting to outflank Song Xuan's cavalry from the rear. Seeing that the battle situation was in a stalemate, Ping An couldn't help but look back at Baoding City behind him, hesitated, and ordered the troops to press up and reinforce Wu Jie's army, and at the same time waved the flag to order Song Xuan to withdraw as soon as possible to protect his back.