Li Zicheng received the message an hour earlier than Sun Chuanting, and after the first and second battalions jointly intercepted the Ming army's transport convoy and wiped out all the soldiers transporting grain, Liu Yunshui and Li Guo immediately sent people to send a message.

Niu Jinxing took the message and looked at it, pondered for a moment, and suddenly said: "Governor, my subordinates understand!" ”

Li Zicheng smiled lightly: "What does Mr. understand?" ”

"The Metropolitan Governor gave Sun Chuanting a letter of war, agreeing on a decisive battle on the 20th," Niu Jinxing stroked the long beard under his chin, but there was also a little fairy wind and bones, "It turns out that the Metropolitan Governor has calculated the date, the Ming army's grain and grass have been robbed, and the army's heart is unstable, at this moment, how can the soldiers have the heart to fight?" ”

"So I said, this time I didn't deceive Sun Chuanting, as long as he is willing, he can still fight tomorrow!" Li Zicheng said with a smile: "According to Mr., will Sun Chuanting fight with us?" ”

"Even if you want to fight a decisive battle, you have to have grain and grass," Niu Jinxing thought for a while, and said: "As far as my subordinates know, the Ming army in Jiaxian County, the grain and grass will not exceed three days, and at this time, Sun Chuanting is probably worrying about grain and grass!" ”

"Will Sun Chuanting retire?" Li Zicheng stroked his chin with his right hand, paced two steps, and said: "If you want to withdraw at this time, I'm afraid it's too late, and after receiving the battle book of the Heavenly Mandate Army, can you still leave?" ”

"The Governor is saying that we are going to pursue along the way?" Niu Jinxing was overjoyed and said, "Governor, do you want to go out of the city tonight?" ”

"The pursuit is to be pursued, how can the 20,000 cavalry of the first and second battalions allow Sun Chuanting to escape back to Tongguan?" Li Zicheng said: "With Li Xin going out of the city tonight, the independent battalion is the vanguard, and the rest of the armies will go out of the city after dawn tomorrow!" ”

Niu Jinxing nodded, thought for a moment, and said: "Dadu Governor, his subordinates are a little worried, the cavalry can't take the intercepted grain, so they will distribute it to the people nearby, in case the Ming army learns, they will recover this batch of grain from the people......"

"Mr. Niu don't worry, the grain is distributed to thousands of households, how long will it take for Sun Chuanting to claim back this batch of images?" Li Zicheng secretly admired in his heart, Liu Yunshui and Li Guo also knew that waste was used and food was distributed to the people, Henan grain has always been tight, it would be a pity if it was burned, "Sun Chuanting just wants to get back the grain, and we won't give him time!" ”

At this time, Sun Chuanting was already as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and the grain stored in Jiaxian County would last for three days at most, and after three days, the army would be out of cooking.

Even if there is grain to be transported around Luoyang, it will be impossible to reach Jiaxian in three days.

If there is no food, the soldiers themselves will be in chaos, how can they fight?

He can't care about the appointment with Li Zicheng anymore, and the most urgent thing at the moment is to find food.

After discussing with the main generals, Sun Chuanting decided to personally lead the main force back to the division and open up the grain road: Gao Jie and Niu Chenghu led 20,000 troops first, Bai Guangen's 30,000 train battalion followed, Chen Yongfu stayed in Jiaxian, Gao Jie allocated 10,000 troops, plus the original 10,000, Chen Yongfu's 20,000 army was broken off to prevent the Heavenly Mandate Army from pursuing.

In order to save food, on the evening of the same day, Sun Chuanting left Jiaxian with Gao Jie and Niu Chenghu, and at dawn the next day, Bai Guangen opened the north gate and also left Jiaxian.

Chen Yongfu's 20,000 army belonged to the lineage he brought from Huaiqing Mansion, only 5,000, and the remaining 15,000 were all allocated to him by Sun Chuanting, and the soldiers had not yet returned to their hearts.

Hearing that Sun Chuanting personally led the main force back to the division, rumors spread in the army, and the soldiers were in chaos at noon:

"Jiaxian has run out of food, and it will be out of cooking in two or three days!"

"The Inspector has already returned to Tongguan......

"The army has withdrawn, why are we left to be substitutes for the dead?"

……

Chen Yongfu did not know that it was the people of the Han Qing Bureau who were instigating, and he could not control the situation, so the city gate was opened by the brave soldiers, and they fled north one after another.

The situation in Jiaxian County was unstable, and there was indeed no food, so Chen Yongfu was forced to abandon Jiaxian, leading the remaining soldiers, and also returning north along the official road, hoping to join the army.

Li Xin's independent battalion had been increased to eight regiments, and when he hurried to Jiaxian, he heard that the Ming army had abandoned Jiaxian, and he didn't even enter the city.

The independent battalion caught up with Chen Yongfu's department, and slaughtered for a while, the Ming army was defeated, with countless casualties, and more soldiers surrendered and fled, and Chen Yongfu fled to Ruzhou with less than 3,000 soldiers.

Sun Chuanting saw that the Heavenly Mandate Army was chasing in a hurry, and Chen Yongfu couldn't resist it later, so he was forced to stop in Ruzhou.

Li Zicheng personally led the 4th Battalion, 7th Battalion, Independent Battalion, and Fengtian Battalion to Ruzhou, and the cavalry of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Ming Army's transport troops also rushed to Ruzhou.

Twenty-three infantry regiments, four cavalry regiments, and 140,000 troops, nearly three times the size of the Ming army!

The Mandate of Heaven army surrounded the city of Ruzhou and was not in a hurry to attack.

Sun Chuanting wanted to hold on to Ruzhou, but there was no food in the army, and the army of fifty or sixty thousand killed mules and horses to satisfy hunger, but unfortunately, there were too few mules and horses, and they only lasted for half a day.

Looking for the prefect Fu Ruwei to ask for food, Fu Ruwei cried with a sad face, scolded Song Xiance in Luoyang City, and found countless reasons, which boiled down to one sentence: no food!

Sun Chuanting asked someone to open the state treasury, and there was indeed no food in the warehouse.

Gao Jie and Niu Chenghu suggested to Sun Chuanting that they should search the big households and people in the city, but Sun Chuanting did not allow them: the officers and soldiers were either rogues or lacked food, and they should not disturb the people!

If the food problem is not solved, Ruzhou will not be able to stay, and Sun Chuanting is forced to break through from the north city gate.

Gao Jie's 20,000 troops were in front, followed by Bai Guangen's 30,000 train battalions and 50,000 or 60,000 Ming troops, posing as if they were fighting a decisive battle.

Li Zi divided the third regiment of the seventh battalion into the city, cleared the remnants of the Ming army in the city, guarded the city gates, cut off the rear road of the Ming army, and the remaining 22 infantry regiments and four cavalry regiments were all lined up in the north of the city.

The decisive battle on the 20th was delayed for two days, and it was replaced by the city of Ruzhou!

The Ming army is in the west, with Rushui on its back, and the Mandate of Heaven army is in the east, preventing the defeated Ming army from escaping into Keishan!

Sun Chuanting sacrificed the train battalion, and countless artillery pieces were facing the Heavenly Mandate Army, and the Heavenly Mandate Army only had forty mountain cannons in the fourth and seventh battalions.

Outside the city of Ruzhou, the 200,000-strong army was divided into two camps, east and west, and both sides were in front of artillery, counting on the use of artillery fire to extinguish the morale of the other party.

At the forefront of the Mandate of Heaven Army's position, eighty mountain cannons stood at the forefront, and the artillerymen measured the distance and moved forward another two hundred paces.

The train battalion of the Ming army is still moving forward, and the mountain artillery of the Mandate of Heaven has begun to shoot, and the flowering shells are drawing a graceful arc at low altitude, flying towards the train battalion of the Ming army.

In the first wave of shelling, only about half of the flowering shells that fell on the train battalion were borne, but the huge roar had already stunned Sun Chuanting.

There is a comparison to see the gap.

The range of the artillery of the Mandate of Heaven is at least twice that of officers and soldiers, and perhaps more than twice as long!

What shocked Sun Chuanting even more was that the Heavenly Mandate Army used all flowering shells, and after landing, there was another round of explosions, and the artillery and trains of the officers and soldiers were seriously damaged, and the artillery also suffered heavy casualties, and it was impossible to fire back at all.

Hundreds of artillery pieces had been destroyed by nearly half of them before they were fired......

Sun Chuanting's heart was dripping with blood, these were his treasures, almost all his hard work in the past two years, and Li Zicheng, who was in the rear of the Heavenly Mandate Army, was calmly looking at the train camp of the Ming Army with a telescope, and muttered: "The artillery casualties of the Ming Army are nearly half, right?" ”

Niu Jinxing stroked his long beard and said with a smile: "Governor, these are artillerymen, if you stay and train a little, you can become our qualified artillerymen......"

Li Zicheng put down the binoculars and said coldly: "Stop the shelling, let the cavalry come out, first disperse the infantry of the Ming army, and then let the gunners of the fourth and seventh battalions clean up the artillery ...... of the Ming army."

Liu Yunshui and Li were impatient for a long time, compared with the mountain artillery, the hand-to-hand combat of the cavalry was both thrilling and exciting, and the speed of killing the enemy was much faster.

The cavalry on both flanks attacked, and the fourth and seventh battalions of the Chinese army also attacked, and the rest of the armies temporarily stood still.

Sun Chuanting saw that the Mandate of Heaven Army dispatched cavalry, and the officers and soldiers had few cavalry, so he did not dare to engage in the battle, so he hurriedly asked the soldiers to retreat behind the train, hoping to use the train to block the cavalry of the Mandate of Heaven Army.

Liu Yunshui and Li Guo had to detour to both sides, but left the middle road to the gunners of the fourth and seventh battalions, and the fourth and seventh battalions, taking advantage of the range of rifles, strafed the Ming army behind the cart until the Ming army all cowered behind the cart.

The independent battalion and the Fengtian battalion took the opportunity to kill and smashed the train battalion, and Gao Jie was forced to retreat to the north.

As soon as Gao Jie's soldiers moved, the train battalion lost its support, and could not stand for a while, the soldiers dropped the train and began to flee to the north, Sun Chuanting couldn't drink the soldiers, so he had to flee with the rout.

Li Zicheng waved his hand, and the Heavenly Mandate Army pursued with all his might.

The cavalry of the first battalion rushed into the enemy formation, constantly scattered the Ming army, and left the infantry behind, while the second battalion of Li Guobu, which was specially chasing the cavalry of the Ming army, got countless war horses......

The commander of the Mandate of Heaven drove straight in, pursued to the city of Luoyang, and Wang Ding and Guanfu, who were stationed at Longmen Pass and Dagu Pass, responded to the pass, and Sun Chuanting had just established a firm foothold, and was killed by Wang Shaoyu of the Shuntian camp in the city for a while.

Sun Chuanting had four or five soldiers at this time, far exceeding Wang Shaoyu's Shuntian battalion, but he understood that the army of the Heavenly Mandate Army was on the way to Luoyang, and there were tens of thousands of cavalry......

The Ming army had no intention of fighting, Sun Chuanting fled, with less than 30,000 defeated soldiers, hurriedly bypassed Luoyang, and fled back to Tongguan.

Half a day after Sun Chuanting's rout escaped, the cavalry of the first and second battalions rushed to Luoyang, and then Li Zicheng led the army to Luoyang.

Li Zicheng did not chase after the Ming army, but stationed the army outside the city of Luoyang.

Song Xiance, the civil envoy who controlled the Henan army, Wang Shaoyu, the chief general of the Shuntian camp, and Feng Yijun, the prefect of Luoyang, welcomed out of Luoyang City and knelt down at the south city gate to greet them, "Metropolitan Governor! ”

"Get up!" Li Zicheng helped up the personnel led by Song Xiance, Wang Shaoyu, Feng Yijun and others, and said with a smile: "In front of Sun Chuanting's 100,000 army, Luoyang City is as solid as a rock, and you have made great contributions. ”

Song Xiance's face was full of pride, but he said: "It's all the Metropolitan Governor's strategy, if it weren't for the Metropolitan Governor to lure Sun Chuanting south, if Sun Chuanting attacked Luoyang, my subordinates would probably not be able to keep Luoyang City......"

"It's all over," Li Zicheng patted Song Xiance's thin shoulder, and said with a smile: "Sun Chuanting fled back to Shaanxi, and next time I will wait for the Heavenly Mandate Army to attack Tongguan!" ”