Although the captives did not understand why the New Liao Army gave them food and weapons, and then chased after them fiercely, under the threat of Moli Chiguoguo, they did not dare not run, and they rushed to flee one by one. ( ?[{[八一Chinese{ ]>〉.>8〉1?Z]>.〉C]O]M〉

The new Liao army chased all the way behind, although it raised a lot of dust, but in fact, the new Liao army began to slow down and slowly catch up as soon as it came out of Laixi City.

Mo Li's move is really good, in the name of chasing and suppressing the rebels, he led his troops to the west, and took this opportunity to escape from the encirclement of Gao Qiqian, so as not to be secretly hacked by Gao Qiqian.

Just when the New Liao Army chased out of Laixi City about thirty miles west, Gao Qiqian, Zu Dacheng and others led tens of thousands of troops into Laixi City.

The empty Laixi City surprised Gao Qiqian, and there were only a hundred or so people left in the city to maintain order under the command of the original officials of Laixi County, and in addition, there were panicked people, and there was not a single soldier.

When I found the official who came to greet him, he said that the new Liao army had pursued the fleeing rebels, and that they had not even had time to clean up and appease the people in Laixi City, which had just been captured, so they hurried to pursue the remnants of the enemy.

Gao Qiqian is full of suspicions, even if you chase the remnants of the enemy, you don't need to leave no one left, all of them run to pursue, right?

"How long have you been there?" Gao Qiqian asked with a gloomy face.

"Big, about two, almost two hours." An Yangong, the former head of Laixi County, who was asked, said tremblingly, Gao Qiqian's face made him feel scared. What's more, he is a small master book, when has he ever seen such a big scene, Gao Qiqian, Zu Dacheng and other big people? Inevitably, there will be some timidity.

"Bastard!" Gao Qiqian's white skin suddenly became a little red, and his face was gloomy and terrifying. He originally thought that the new Liao army had just suffered a great injury in the Battle of Laizhou, and then let them attack Laixi, which in his mind was a brilliant plan to kill people with a knife.

If Moli didn't attack Laixi City, then he could justifiably disobey the military orders and order all the armies to enter the New Liao Army and take Moli.

And if Mo leaves to attack Laixi City, then with the lineup of their new Liao army, which is almost all wounded, and its weak combat strength, it will definitely not be the opponent of the rebels, and the probability of defeat is very high.

In this way, no matter whether the new Liao army goes to attack Laixi City or not, they will be in a desperate situation and will not be able to escape.

Therefore, in order to let the New Liao Army fight fiercely with the rebels in Laixi City and consume their troops, Gao Qi sneaked out of Laizhou City for most of the day, thinking that he would only appear when the New Liao Army was exhausted, or simply wait for the New Liao Army to be wiped out and reappear.

However, when approaching Laixi City, he heard from a distance that there was no movement in Laixi City, and Gao Qiqian felt that something was wrong, and as a result, the New Liao Army actually defeated the rebels and broke through collectively!

The performance of the new Liao army made Gao Qiqian feel that they were definitely not so simple as chasing the rebels.

Zu Dacheng also felt that it was a pity to let the new Liao army get out of the encirclement, but he was not so depressed as Gao Qiqian, in his opinion, although the new Liao army ran away, but at least it also captured Laixi City, and he was relieved of his worries about attacking Laiyang City.

Last time in Laizhou, it was Gao Qiqian who gave him military merits, and this time he wanted to really make his own military merits and capture Laiyang City to prove that he was not worse than the New Liao Army.

Gao Qiqian's face changed for a while, and he suddenly smiled again: "Congratulations to Zu Zhentai!" He Xi Zu Zhentai! led the troops to recover Laixi City, and made new contributions to the court and the Son of Heaven! ”

Zu Dacheng's face suddenly felt a little stunned, and he became uncomfortable. However, since Gao Qiqian said so, of course he couldn't refuse, not to mention that there was no Mo Li here. He saluted and said, "Thank you father-in-law for your kindness!" ”

"Zu Zhentai doesn't have to be polite, it's getting late today, let's rest in Laixi City for one night, and attack Laiyang City early tomorrow!" Gao Qiqian said, our family doesn't believe it, you Moli can win the battle, can't we win the battle!

Gao Qiqian, Zu Dacheng and others were stationed in Laixi City that night, and they began to fight in Laiyang City early the next morning.

Zu Dacheng ordered Zu Dabi to be the vanguard, Liu Zeqing to be the deputy general, led 3,000 cavalry to Laiyang, and then he and Gao Qiqian, Tao Kewang, Wu Sangui, Zu Zechuan and others led the army to Laiyang.

Zu Dacheng urgently needed to fight a real victory to improve his prestige and status, because in the first battle of Laizhou, he won the military merits of the new Liao army of the Moli Division, Zu Dacheng felt that Tao Kewang, Xu Congzhi and others were not so kind to him, and seemed to be alienating himself intentionally or unintentionally.

This time to quell the rebellion, it can be said that the ancestral family turned over, and if you fight well and make military achievements, you can naturally re-establish the prestige of the ancestral family in Liaodong, return to the nourishing days when the ancestor was alive in the past, and restore the glory of the ancestral family. If they can't perform well in this counterinsurgency, then the ancestral family is doomed to continue to decline.

However, the power of the Confucian thieves is now soaring, and it is impossible to achieve much success by relying on his ancestral family's decisive strategy, so Zu Dacheng must have a good relationship with the officials and troops from all walks of life in order to suppress the Confucian Thieves' rebellion as soon as possible.

Therefore, now Zu Dacheng urgently needs to improve his relations with other friendly forces with a truly outstanding victory in order to achieve his goal and eliminate the Confucian thieves.

Zu Dabi led 3,000 cavalry to the city of Laiyang first, surrounded the city gate in array, and prepared to attack the city when Gao Qiqian and Zu Dacheng's army arrived.

The city gate has been closed for a few days earlier, and Li Jiucheng, Zhang Tao and others in Laiyang City were worried when they saw the imperial army approaching the city, and strictly ordered the soldiers defending the city to guard the city wall to prevent the officials and soldiers from attacking the city.

At this time, when he heard that the official army had arrived at the city, Li Jiucheng was taken aback, and hurriedly climbed to the top of the city with Zhang Tao, Li Yingyuan, Huang Wei and others to observe the enemy's situation.

I saw that the official cavalry was in a good position under Laiyang City, ready to attack the city.

In the distance behind the cavalry, there were a large number of officers and soldiers rushing towards Laiyang City, and under the smoke and dust, I don't know how many people and horses there were.

Yesterday, Pan Yanfei was sent to lead 3,000 troops to aid Laixi, but only a few dozen horsemen escaped, which immediately caused the rebels in Laiyang City to fall into great panic.

Now there are only about 8,000 people left in Laiyang City, and there are many wounded soldiers, and they have experienced two major defeats in succession, and the morale of the rebels is very low.

In this case, Li Jiucheng and others felt a headache.

Looking at the surging officers and troops outside the city, Li Jiucheng was a little troubled, should he stick to the city, or abandon the city and flee?

Gao Qiqian, Zu Dacheng and others led the army to the city of Laiyang, and then began to attack the city.

Laiyang City is much taller than these small towns such as Pingdu and Laixi, and the city defense facilities are relatively complete and perfect, and there are 20 Franco cannons on the city tower, but compared with the fortified cities such as Dengzhou and Laizhou, it is much inferior.

In order to capture Laiyang City as soon as possible, Zu Dacheng brought dozens of artillery pieces from Laizhou to attack the city this time, because Laizhou is a logistics base in Liaodong, so gunpowder shells and other materials are quite sufficient, which is also one of the bases for Zu Dacheng's confidence in this siege.

With an order, dozens of artillery guns fired in unison, countless artillery projectiles roared towards the city, and all kinds of guns of the Ming army also fired together, and for a time I saw the projectiles flying in the sky above Laiyang City, arrows flying wildly, and the sound of artillery was deafening.

Li Jiucheng finally made up his mind to defend Laiyang City, because if even Laiyang City was lost, then he, the marshal, would really lose face and lose his position.

Laiyang City is Qixia on the top, and Huangxian, Penglai, and Dengzhou on the top, which is the base camp of the rebels' lair, if they are forced to Dengzhou by the official army, then Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming will not be able to continue the southern expedition, and can only return to Dengzhou. It's just that in that case, no matter whether Dengzhou can be defended or not, is he Li Jiucheng still embarrassed to sit in the position of Marshal Du?

Therefore, Li Jiucheng also relented, personally commanded the rebels to defend the city, and launched a fierce battle with the official army.

Due to the fact that Marshal Li Jiucheng personally commanded the formation, the morale of the rebels actually rose a lot, and they fired artillery under the city with all their might, throwing wooden boulders, and suppressed the Ming troops who came to attack the city so that they could not advance, and the war fell into a stalemate for a while.

Zu Dacheng saw from a distance behind the battle that thousands of siege soldiers were suppressed by the rebels' artillery fire, bows, arrows, fire guns and other weapons, and he couldn't help but be anxious and angry. Damn, the New Liao Army successfully captured Laixi with so many men and horses, but he went out to attack Laiyang City but did not make progress for half a day, doesn't this mean that the ancestral Liao soldiers are far inferior to the New Liao Army? Doesn't this mean that he can only rely on robbing him of Moli's military exploits? This is Chiguoguo's slap in the face!

Thinking of this, Zu Dacheng called Zu Dabi with a gloomy face, and said in a deep voice: "Dabi, what's the matter, it's been a long time and there is still no progress?" ”

Zu Dabi wiped the fine sweat on his forehead and said: "Third brother, I didn't expect this Laiyang City to be built quite strongly, and there are a lot of rebel artillery, it is really difficult to fight, and the brothers have been beaten down after rushing four times......"

Zu Dabi has always been known for his bravery, known as Zu Er's madman, what he said was that he didn't want to die when he started a battle, just like a madman, and his subordinate soldiers were also brave and good at fighting, so naturally he would not be afraid of the enemy, Zu Dacheng also knew this, and couldn't help frowning when he heard the words, and secretly thought about it.

At this time, Xu Congzhi, the deputy general of Laizhou, suddenly said: "Chief Soldier Zu, the last general has a way, I don't know if it is feasible." ”

"How? General Xu, please speak! Zu Dacheng asked anxiously.

Xu Congzhi said: "When the last general resisted the rebel siege in Laizhou that day, the rebels sent a small team of men and horses to quietly break into the city where our defense was weak, and then dig a hole under the city wall, fill it with gunpowder and blow up a corner of the city wall, the last general thinks, can we also do the same......

Zu Dacheng clapped his hands and said loudly: "Okay! Yes, then let's give them a while! ”

As he spoke, Zu Dacheng said again: "Da Bi! Take your brothers and storm the gates to get the attention of the rebels! Tell the artillery battalion that the artillery fire should be fierce! ”

"Ze Chuan, you lead five hundred people to quietly spare the past and rush to the bottom of Laiyang City to dig a pit for me!" Zu Dacheng pointed to a remote corner of Laiyang City and said.