"Since Thanh Hoa and Nghe An have been occupied by the Ming army, let's go upstream along the Zhu River, cross the river in the Blue Mountains, and go to Quang Binh Province by bypassing Thanh Hoa and Nga in the deep mountains and old forests." Hu Jichen said.

At this time, except for the area around the Red River Plain, the other inland areas of Annam had a very low degree of development, and basically they were swimming up the river, and where there was no river, they were blinded. This is true of the Yue people (the name of the Annamite ethnic group) who have been developing here for hundreds of years, not to mention the Han people who have just arrived here. They will never encounter the Ming army when they walk through the mountains and forests. The only thing to worry about is that most of the people in the mountains and wilderness live by fishing and hunting, and they do not obey the king, and the safety of the places passing by them is very problematic. But Hu Jichen always has hundreds of people around him at this time, so he doesn't have to worry too much.

The calculation was decided, and Hu Jichen asked the soldiers who were sitting on the ground to rest to get up, and turned west to the Blue Mountain.

But the soldiers were not happy. They hadn't rested for almost two days, and at this point they were very tired and just wanted to lie down and sleep. If you go to Thanh Hoa City, you may still have the motivation, but when you hear that you are going to the Blue Mountains, you are lazy and don't want to move; The colonels went to urge, and the soldiers' buttocks seemed to be stuck with the dirt, but they just didn't get up; Some of the generals were very impatient to drag them from the ground, the soldiers had angry looks on their faces, and some of them put their hands next to their swords, intentionally or unintentionally.

Hu Jichen immediately realized that it was not good. Ordinary soldiers are soldiers who are only for the sake of eating imperial food, and they can't talk about much loyalty, even if they are elites, and the 'Imperial Forest Army' with the best treatment is stronger. Now only more than 100 of these three or four hundred people are from the Royal Forest Army, and the rest are ordinary elites, and now he is at the end of his rope, and he is afraid that if he blindly persecutes them, he will cause a mutiny.

Hu Jichen immediately ordered to stop the general's behavior, said kind words to appease the soldiers, and ordered his cronies to take out the dry food made of cured meat and fine rice that was hard to leave and distribute it to the soldiers, so as to calm down their grievances.

The people rested for another half an hour before they got up and walked westward.

In this way, Hu Jichen took Bai Mingjing as his guide, walking through the rugged paths in the mountains and forests to the south. In fact, after walking for a few days, he no longer knew whether Congqi in the south of the garrison had surrendered and whether he had been wiped out, but he was unwilling to surrender to the Ming army: after all, he was a person who had been an emperor, although he was an emperor who entertained himself, he was also an emperor, how could he surrender to the Ming army? Not to mention that the name of the Ming army's conquest of Annam was to avenge the Chen Dynasty, and even if he surrendered, he would probably not die well. So he headed south with little hope.

On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, he led his troops through the Blue Mountains and turned south to Chalin; The twenty-first day of the first lunar month came to Chalin, and it was discovered that the defenders of Chalin City had surrendered to the Ming army, and turned west again, bypassing Chalin from the west and marching south.

On the 23rd day of the first lunar month, they came to Ha Tinh province. Hu Jichen instructed his cronies to inquire about the news, and learned that the Ming army did not send many soldiers south to attack Hejing after occupying Yi'an, and this place was still in the hands of Annan at this time, so he suddenly felt a burst of spirit and said to the soldiers: "Soldiers, Xinping City is still in the hands of my Dayu, all the soldiers hurry up and continue to move forward." When you arrive in Tan Binh, you can completely relax and rest. ”

When everyone heard that Xinping was still under control, they also raised their spirits and reluctantly stood up and continued to move forward.

But at this moment, suddenly a terrible howl came from the west, and it did not sound like a human voice at all.

But Hu Jichen's face suddenly changed! During breaks he would send out sentries on all sides, and the sound would come in the same direction as the men he had sent out.

"Quick, there is an enemy in the west, hurry up and prepare for battle!" Bai Mingjing also shouted loudly.

The soldiers immediately drew their swords from their waists and lined up to face west, nervously preparing to fight the enemy.

But the soldiers waited for a while, but no one came out of the west, and was slacking off, when suddenly there was another scream from the north, and everyone hurriedly turned to the north, and saw hundreds of people in simple clothes rushing out of the mountains and forests with knives and guns, and the few people who ran in front were stained with blood on their knives, and several corpses with arrows stuck in their feet rushed towards this side.

Hu Jichen immediately recognized them as people from the Wailao Kingdom in the west. Annan has been fighting against Ailao for many years, and he himself has led troops to conquer Ailao many times, so he is very familiar and can be recognized at a glance.

"What's going on? Ailao is not a vassal of the Ming Kingdom, how can they be in my Dayu country? Hu Jichen thought with some surprise.

But this is not the time to think about this, Hu Jichen's thoughts are just a flash, and then he shouted: "Soldiers, fight bravely to kill the enemy!" ”

"Soldiers, follow me to kill the enemy!" Bai Mingjing also shouted, and rushed forward with his cronies.

The Mourners attacked from the north unexpectedly, and the formation they formed did not work; However, the sneak attack of the mourners also fell short, and no one on either side took advantage of it, and suddenly thousands of people on both sides fought together and killed each other.

Hu Jichen originally planned to wait for the retreat of this group of mourning soldiers before continuing to Xinping City, but suddenly a whistle sounded in the mouth of the general who led the mourning guards, and Hu Jichen immediately recognized that they were calling other mourning soldiers nearby, and immediately became anxious, so that the dozens of guards who had not fought with the mourning soldiers escorted him to the south to escape, and the people who were fighting with the mourning soldiers could no longer care about it.

It didn't matter if he ran, the Annan soldiers who were fighting suddenly began to retreat, and soon they were completely defeated in the pursuit of the Ailao people, and they scattered in the mountains and forests in groups of three or five, and the Ailao people chased after them.

It wasn't until it was almost dark, and the generals of Ailao were afraid of suffering at night, that the shouts of the generals of Ailao calling the soldiers sounded everywhere, and they stopped the pursuit and joined the generals. Most of the returning soldiers were smiling, holding gold, silver, treasures, swords, swords, and halberds from the slain Annan soldiers, thinking about how much they could be worth.

One of them held a jade pendant in his hand and said to the people around him: "Look at this jade pendant, I have never seen such a transparent jade, it must be very valuable, maybe it is worth several silver cakes." ”

"What are you, I saw a Yue man with a jade pendant pinned to his waist, which is better than yours." Another said.

"Shall I see?"

"I want to show you too, but that person's identity seems to be quite valuable, I couldn't catch him and let him run away, and of course I didn't get my hands on Yu Pei."

"Then what do you say, what is there to say if you don't get it."

The other man was speechless, and bluntly changed the topic: "It seems to be much easier to come to Annan to grab things this time, many places are not guarded, and today is the first time I have met Annan soldiers." ”

"I heard that a big country in the north is fighting with Annam, and the Annam people have transferred all their soldiers to the north to fight, so no one is guarding it."

"Then when the battle is over, won't you be able to grab things so smoothly? This time, you must grab enough money! ”