On February 15 of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the Xingtian Army that had been suspended for two or three months in Yongning and Lu finally had action again, nearly 5,000 soldiers of the Xingtian Army, plus 2,000 new battalions as auxiliaries, suddenly crossed the Luohe River in the south of Yongning County, and it took only two days to enter the territory of Song County in the south of Yongning County.

However, what the officials, soldiers and officials of Song County did not expect was that after the Xingtian Army rushed all the way into Song County, they did not wave their troops to attack the county seat of Song County, but only left Liu Bao's two companies of troops, entered the jurisdiction of Song County, and directly captured a village fort called Maozhuang at the intersection of the road leading from Song County to Ruyang County and Yichuan County, and stationed here.

Maozhuang seems to be an inconspicuous small Zhuangzi, but the terrain is very critical, here is just the key crossing between Song County and Yichuan County and Ruyang County, the Xingtian Army seized this place in one fell swoop, it is equivalent to choking the passage of Song County to the outside world, cutting off the channel between Song County and the outside world, which is equivalent to isolating Song County.

If the government of Song County wants to connect with the outside world, then Mao Zhuang is a card blocking them from going out of the mountain, which is equivalent to putting a knife on Song County's neck.

After Xiao Tianjian arrived in Song County, he immediately divided his command into two routes, one with Luo Li as the main Liu Bao as the auxiliary, and at the same time allocated him a new battalion of troops as an auxiliary army, and quickly drove northeast along the Yihe Yihe River, and rushed to Yichuan County east of Song County, and swept several gentry forts in Yichuan County along the way.

Xiao Tianjian personally led Li Xuanzhu's third battalion and Liu Yaoben's teaching battalion, plus a new battalion and a 700 battalion of soldiers, and with the cooperation of the engineer company, he quickly erected a pontoon bridge over the Yi River south of Maozhuang, crossed the river, and rushed straight to Ruyang County, which was directly east of Song County.

After entering February, the weather has begun to warm, the river has begun to thaw gradually, there is still a relatively thick ice layer by the river, but the ice in the middle of the river has melted, but there are still some floating ice floating down the Yi River, Xiao Tianjian immediately on the bridge head of the pontoon bridge, watching a team of soldiers of the Xingtian Army step across the bridge deck of the pontoon bridge, striding towards the south bank of the Yi River, a gun truck is also dragged by mules and horses, rolling over the bridge deck of the pontoon bridge, crossing the Yi River, and there are large groups of carts loaded with grain and materials and military tents, They also marched slowly on another pontoon bridge, and the army rushed across the Yi River in one day.

The goal of Xiao Tianjian's action is very clear, that is, to take down Ruyang County, this time he will target the reason why Ruyang County is locked in Ruyang County, the reason is not complicated, Ruyang County is located in western Henan, but it is the east gate of western Henan, out of Ruyang County to the east is the plain of Pingchuan, and Ruyang is also an important strategic place, the city reserves a large amount of grain, is the largest granary around Luoyang, as long as Ruyang County is taken, the Xingtian Army will get the front base to the east to attack the central part of Henan, and obtain a large amount of grain and grass, to support the next operation of the Xingtian Army in central Henan.

And the defeat of Ruyang, for the Henan government, is also a big blow, here in the eighth year of Chongzhen, it is the place where Hong Chengchou assembled the army, Hong Chengchou is sitting here, commanding nearly 100,000 officers and troops from all walks of life to enter Henan Thirteen righteous troops to suppress and appease, so as long as Ruyang County is defeated, to a certain extent, it also hits the confidence of the government.

But this time Xiao Tianjian did not gather all his troops to attack Ruyang County, before he decided to take Ruyang, Jiang Qin's fine work had already infiltrated the territory and city of Ruyang County, and explored the situation in Ruyang County clearly, the number of official troops in Ruyang County is very small, only less than 1,000 troops, and they have been dispersed to several places to garrison, and the strength is not enough to confront the Xingtian Army, so it basically does not need too many troops to fight Ruyang, in terms of the combat power of the Xingtian Army, one battalion is enough.

However, the disadvantage is that Yichuan, north of Ruyang, has an official army transferred from Guide Mansion to garrison at this time, with more than 5,000 troops, and these 5,000 officers and troops were originally sent by Wang Jiazhen to attack Yongning County.

Xiao Tianjian is not afraid that these 5,000 officers and troops will come to the rescue of Ruyang, if that is the case, it can be said that he is in his arms, with the combat ability of the Xingtian Army, he is the best at field warfare, if they really dare to come to the rescue of Ruyang, then Xiao Tianjian is fully confident that he will be defeated outside Ruyang County.

I'm afraid that these officers and soldiers will not come to save Ruyang, but they take this opportunity to send troops to Yongning, and Wang Shaoyu to attack Yongning together, in that case, only with a semi-new battalion stationed in Yongning County, I am afraid it will be difficult to block their attack, and now it has spring, the land has thawed, it is an important season for spring ploughing, once the official army is allowed to attack Yongning, then this year's grain fields in Yongning County do not expect any harvest.

What is the most critical thing in fighting a war now? Weapons are still secondary, the most critical is the food problem, no food even if the army is strong, without food for one day, the combat effectiveness will be halved, without food for two days, basically there will be no more war, this is also the main problem of the current rebel army, for the lack of food, forcing them to use mobile combat methods, relying on continuous raids to meet their demand for food, it is precisely because of the frequent lack of food, so that they have no time to train troops, and there is no strong combat effectiveness.

The Xingtian Army was different from other rebel armies, Xiao Tianjian was extremely concerned about the problem of food from beginning to end, and always put the issue of military rations in the first place in all affairs, and would rather give up many opportunities to ensure that one place was occupied and one place was operated, and the local agricultural production could be restored as quickly as possible, so that it could ensure that the Xingtian Army could be provided with a relatively adequate food supply as soon as possible.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian led his troops to attack Ruyang this time, and the most worried thing was the official army stationed in Chen in Yichuan County, in order to ensure that they would not take this opportunity to counterattack Yongning, so the soldiers sent Luo Li and Liu Bao two battalions to Yichuan in two ways, and used one of their partial divisions to contain the officers and troops in Yichuan County.

The government of Ruyang County never thought that they would become the first target of the Xingtian Army's attack this time, and they were not unprepared, but in their opinion, if the Xingtian Army wanted to expand its territory, it was likely to choose Songxian or Yiyang, and it was basically impossible to choose to attack Ruyang County.

However, when the sentinel reported the news that the Xingtian army had crossed the Yihe River and advanced in the direction of Ruyang, the officials of Ruyang County panicked and hurriedly sent people to Luoyang for help.

It's a pity that they reacted a little slowly, Xiao Tianjian didn't give them much time to prepare this time, and after crossing the Yi River, it took less than a day for the striker to rush to Ruyang City.

The people who were still busy outside the city to set up deer bars and reject horses suddenly heard the alarm, so they immediately fled towards the city gate in a hurry, wanting to retreat to the city, but before these people outside the city and a few officers and soldiers entered the city, Situ Liang's cavalry team swept towards the west gate of Ruyang County like a whirlwind.

"Close! Hurry up and close the door and raise the suspension bridge! Fast! "When a general guarding the city gate saw the cavalry of the Heavenly Army appearing on the horizon, he almost screamed at the guards in a voice that had changed his tune.

"Mr. Shaw! The people outside the city have not returned! Wouldn't closing the gates now be tantamount to leaving them out of the city? A small flag officer hurriedly said to this commander.

"Damn, I can't care so much! Who would have thought that the thieves would come so quickly! Hurry up and close the door, and they should be out of luck! If you don't close the gate, the gate will be lost! This Xiao general was so anxious that he couldn't care about anything at this moment, and roared and ordered the soldiers to close the door.

The people who were building fortifications outside the city and a small number of officers and soldiers flocked to the city gate, but at this time, they saw that the city gate drawbridge was slowly being pulled up, and even the city gate was slowly closing, so they exclaimed loudly one by one, screaming for the soldiers guarding the gate not to raise the drawbridge and close the gate, but their shouts did not play a role at all, the drawbridge was still pulled up, and some of the red-eyed officers and soldiers or the people even jumped directly into the icy moat. Struggling to swim towards the city gate, but some people did not know how to water, and the temperature of the moat was almost zero degrees, some of them were so cold that they cramped as soon as they entered the water, and sank into the river with convulsions and screams.

Seeing that the city gate had been closed and they had no hope of entering the city, many people who were locked outside the city saw the cavalry of the Xingtian Army getting closer and closer, so they immediately scattered and fled in all directions outside the city.

Situ Liang led his troops to urge the war horses, and swept towards Ruyang City like the wind, seeing that the city gate had been closed, he did not slack off, and immediately rushed to the next city gate, surrounded these people and officers and soldiers who had not had time to enter the city, and shouted loudly to make them kneel and surrender.

After a short time, these officers and soldiers and civilians outside the city who did not have time to enter the city became prisoners of the Xingtian Army and were confined outside the city to watch them.

At this time, a warning gong and horn sounded everywhere on the city wall, and the entire Ruyang county was completely chaotic.

The guard of Ruyang was a garrison surnamed Feng, and at this time, he had already heard the news, hurriedly put on his clothes, and quickly caught up with the city wall of Ruyang County with his family, and looked out of the city.

When he saw that hundreds of cavalry of the Xingtian Army were galloping back and forth outside the city, and more flags were raised on the main road west of the city, this Feng garrison was immediately shocked into a cold sweat, and ordered the officers and soldiers to be sent to the city wall to prepare for the imperial guard.

Groups of village warriors and soldiers were driven up the city wall by the officers, and more people carried various guards to the city wall.

By the time Xiao Tianjian led the main force to arrive at the city, the defenders of Ruyang were basically ready, and even a gate and bowl gun and a Fulong machine gun on the city were set up and loaded with cannon shells.

Xiao Tianjian stood still, and with an order, the Xingtian army camped on the spot outside the city, and the soldiers of the army immediately led the soldiers of the new battalion to start building various siege equipment.

Xiao Tianjian took Li Xuanzhu and Liu Yaoben and other generals around Ruyang County, the area of Ruyang County is not large, it is slightly smaller than Yongning County, and the city wall is far less solid and tall than the city wall of Yongning County, and the number of defenders is not much, although watching Xiao Tianjian and other generals of the Xingtian Army wander around outside the city gate, observing the city defense situation, the city did not dare to send troops out of the city to chase and kill, but retreated in the city and looked out of the city in fear.

"Ruyang is nothing more than that! I'll give you three days to take Ruyang County for me! Xiao Tianjian stopped outside the south gate of the county seat, and after seeing the situation of Ruyang City Defense, he sneered, and said to Li Xuanzhu and Liu Yaoben and others with a wave of his horsewhip.

"Obedience! ......," several men immediately answered in a loud voice on horseback.