Even when they were forcibly crossing some rivers along the way, they didn't have time to build temporary bridges or anything, so they could only send good water drags to swim across the river first, and pull up dozens of ropes on the river surface, and the rest of the soldiers pulled these ropes to cross the river, and many soldiers were accidentally swept away by the torrent, and soon died in the turbulent river.

This is also the guards division of the Xingtian Army, if it is replaced by other armies, it is forced to march in such an environment, and it is impossible to imagine that it will be more than 100 miles every day, if it is replaced by the official army, the officers and soldiers estimate that they have already mutined on the road, but Liu Yaoben finally led his troops to complete this almost impossible task, and led the army to pick some small roads along the way, avoiding densely populated areas as much as possible, and in three days, he finally arrived outside the city of Anqing Mansion in the heavy rain.

In the past three days, although God made it difficult for them, but it was also regarded as helping them, the heavy rain caused them a lot of trouble, and in three days, the thousands of people under Liu Yaoben's command were attrition of at least three or four hundred, most of them were sick and couldn't keep up with the team, so Liu Yaoben temporarily found a place to settle down on the road, sent someone to take care of them, and let them return to Fengyang Mansion on their own after recuperating from their injuries to wait for his news, so that many people who were in good health were also left to take care of them, and the other was when crossing the river, Some soldiers who accidentally fell into the water and were swept away by the torrent, these people basically have no chance of surviving, so they did not go to Anqing Mansion, and Liu Yao's department has reduced at least more than one percent of the troops in the past three days, which shows how hard the three-day march is.

However, God is making things difficult for them at the same time, the heavy rain is also very effective in providing them with a cover to greet each other, the officers and soldiers are in the barracks or hiding in the city at all, Liu Yaoben of several county towns along the way does not provoke them, they naturally did not find that there is such a army of soldiers and horses passing under their noses, even if some people from Zhuangbao along the way saw them, but because they did not show their banners, they saw them from a distance, and did not figure out their identities, Few people are interested in finding out what they do and where they are going.

So even if there are people with good deeds, they reported this matter to the government afterwards, but it was already too late, and when the government sent someone to investigate, Liu Yaoben had already led his troops to leave their territory, so the officials and military offices along the way did not understand what the origin of this force through their territory was, and where they were going, so naturally there was no way to report to Anqing Mansion so that the officials and defenders of Anqing Mansion could prepare for precautions in advance.

When Liu Yaoben led thousands of exhausted subordinates to five miles outside the city of Anqing Mansion, the defenders in the city of Anqing Mansion did not even get any news, most of the soldiers and generals on duty on the city tower hid in the city gate cave to avoid the rain, scolding and discussing the ghost weather, from time to time to say some yellow jokes, discussing with each other which kiln sister in the city has good kung fu in bed, in short, no one thought at all, under the cover of the rain curtain outside the city, there would actually be a group of people and horses rushing towards them.

Liu Yaoben was also tired in the past three days, he not only had to march on foot like the generals, but also constantly cheered up his subordinates, but also carefully chose the route, and chose a place to camp and rest at night, and constantly got up to check the camp and patrol, so in three days, the hardest thing is probably even him, don't look at only three days, Liu Yaoben lost at least a few pounds of meat, he was already a little thin, and his cheeks were also sunken, and his eyes looked bigger. Severe sleep deprivation caused him to have two big dark circles under his eyes, and his beard was also unkempt, and the whole person looked very haggard.

However, there was an indescribable flame jumping in his eyes, although his body was extremely tired, but his spirit still seemed to be very good, when he arrived five miles outside the city of Anqing Mansion, they still did not encounter any accidents, nor did they expose their whereabouts, which made Liu Yaoben very happy, raised his hand and ordered to temporarily stop advancing, take a short rest, and let all the troops take this opportunity to eat some dry food that they carried with them, saying that it was dry food, but in fact, they were some cakes that had been soaked in the rain, at best, someone had a little pickles, But for those of them who are tired, it's not bad.

"Let's make do with some food first, after we enter the city in the evening, Ben will definitely reward the brothers, and the big pieces of meat will let the brothers eat until they are full!" Liu Yaoben chewed some food casually, and promised the soldiers under his command.

At this time, a scout who had gone out to explore the way ran back out of breath and said excitedly to Liu Yaoben: "General Qiyu, there is nothing abnormal in Anqing Mansion, and the city gate has not been closed until now!" Basically, there are no defenders in the city, only dozens of soldiers at the city gate, all hiding from the rain in the city gate tower, but the city gate will be closed after a while! I didn't see any pedestrians on the road! ”

Liu Yaoben dropped the half-gnawed rotten cake, jumped up, and laughed: "Haha! God help me! Brethren, this is the time to make a contribution! In addition, take down Anqing Mansion with one drum! Lao Tzu told you to wait for three days of rest! ……”

After listening to Liu Yaoben's words, the generals who were already tired and didn't want to get up suddenly came to their spirits again, and after shaking up their spirits, they all began to check the armor on their bodies, and the muskets were definitely useless at this time, all the musketeers pulled out the short blades from their waists, and clicked on the front end of the firearms, erecting a forest of short spears in the army, not to mention the knife players, they all pulled out their waist knives one by one, took off the soaked rattan cards from their backs and put them on their left arms, Each soldier found their respective officer, and immediately followed Liu Yaoben towards the north gate of Anqing Mansion.

As an important town on the Yangtze River, Anqing Mansion was originally garrisoned a lot, but some time ago Ding Qirui transferred troops to attack Huguang, and transferred a lot of people from Anqing Mansion, and later withdrew his troops, Ding Qirui left a large number of men and horses in Jiujiang Mansion, and as a result, Anqing Mansion now has less than 3,000 soldiers and horses garrisoned, including 2,000 people in the barracks in the west of the city, so there are only 1,000 troops in the city to guard.

This is not the carelessness of the Anqing prefect, but he has no reason to be nervous at all, although the Xingtian Army has committed a large attack on the south this time, but what he knows at the moment is that the Xingtian Army is still besieging Luzhou City, and it has been raining heavily for more than half a month, there are still three hundred miles away from Luzhou Mansion, and there are still several counties on the way, and the soldiers and horses of the Xingtian Army will never come to fight his Anqing Mansion.

Although the Huguang war has come to an end temporarily, the main force of the thieves' troops and horses in the direction of Huguang is also concentrated in the Ezhou area and confronts a large number of officers and soldiers in Jiujiang Mansion, and Anqing Mansion is not a threat to him at all for the time being.

And the prefect just married a concubine in the first few days, these days is just beautiful and tired of being at home, enjoying the newly married concubine, so for the city defense, it is now in a very lax state, everything runs as usual, the city gate is opened early in the morning, and someone naturally closes the city gate on time in the evening, this time to look at the time, and then half an hour should close the city gate, and the weather is not good, and few people enter and exit the city gate, so that the guards at the city gate feel bored.

A few soldiers stood lazily in the gate of the city and laughed with each other, discussing where to drink after the night, but they did not know that at this time thousands of men and horses had appeared outside the city gate not far from them, and were walking on the mud towards them.

A soldier suddenly had a little urgency to pee, and saw that the commander was not there, so he didn't bother to find a place to pee, so he turned around and unbuckled his trouser belt, and prepared to fire directly outside the city gate hole, the rain outside the city gate hole was a little lighter at this time, but there was still a loud sound full of raindrops falling to the human ears, the soldier suddenly stopped moving, listened with his ears pricked up, and then looked towards the rain outside the city, but his eyes immediately began to widen, and suddenly he screamed in a voice that had changed his voice: "The thieves are coming! Close the gates and raise the drawbridge! ……”

Before the words fell, he turned his head and ran, but he forgot that the belt of his trousers had been untied, and his pants slipped out and fell down, tripping his legs, and I saw that after he was tripped by his trousers, he lay on the ground with his hands wide open, revealing his bare feet, but he didn't care at all, pulled his trousers with one hand, got up and ran towards the urn city in the city gate hole, and shouted in a voice that had changed his tone because of fright while running: "The thief army is coming!" Run! The thieves are coming! ……”

The rest of the soldiers who guarded the city gate with him were stunned at first, and some people actually laughed when they saw this guy so embarrassed, but then they felt that something seemed to be wrong, so they all turned their heads to look out of the city, but then their eyes widened, and they immediately turned around and screamed and ran towards the city.

Although the soldiers and generals of the Xingtian Army were exhausted, when they saw the wide-open city gate and the falling drawbridge in front of them, they still worked hard one by one, squeezed out the last strength in their bodies, and swooped towards the city gate one by one, until they were about to pounce on the city gate, and no one in the city gate let out an exclamation.