Now that the decision had been made, the whole revolutionary army immediately began to run like a huge machine. The first is to use the nearby victims to spread rumors that Huang Zide's unit is preparing to go north and withdraw to Shanxi. He also said that Huang Zide was preparing to go south, make peace with the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution, and go south to Jiangnan, and also said that Huang Zide was dead, and now his generals were divided into several factions, and they were not convinced by each other and had dispersed in a hurry. He also said that Huang Zide's injuries were almost healed, and he was preparing to regroup and launch a new attack on Kaifeng.

The purpose of these contradictory rumors is not to deceive Zuo Liangyu into believing any of them, but to make Zuo Liangyu think more.

A lot of times, it's not a good habit to think too much. It is recorded in the Analects that "Ji Wenzi thinks twice before acting." Zi Wenzhi, day: "Again, Si Ke." In this regard, Song Ru Zhu Xi explained that if you think too much, selfish distractions will come out. Zhu Xi's statement has a lot of moral preaching, but it is not completely unreasonable. Throwing away "selfish distractions", that is, thinking too much, will make people interfere with themselves, so that they can't grasp the key. So many rumors will also confuse Zuo Liangyu.

But these are all small tricks that have nothing to do with the big picture. It is of course good to be able to interfere with Zuo Liangyu, make him make a wrong judgment, and speed up the march. But if he just keeps his normal speed over, then he can honestly fight him.

Then there is the dispatch of personnel to conduct reconnaissance. This is also a regular operation. Then it was time to make all sorts of pre-war preparations. The army went to the predetermined battlefield to familiarize itself with the battlefield and conduct relevant drills. For example, the artillery shelling of a predetermined position.

In this way, after another ten days, the scouts of the revolutionary army encountered Zuo Liangyu's scouts near Mengzhuang, and both sides did not entangle too much, so they returned separately.

At noon that day, the main force led by Zuo Liangyu arrived at Mengzhuang. At this time, there are still more than 60 miles away from Zhongmu, and there are all large plains in between, if in later generations, most of this plain is planted with corn, forming an endless green gauze tent, but at this time, there is not much grass in the field, just a piece of withered yellow. A gust of wind blew, and suddenly a cloud of yellow dust rolled up.

Zuo Liangyu asked the army to stop in Mengzhuang, and now it was only sixty miles away from Zhongmu, where the thief army was entrenched. Encountering the thief's scout cavalry at such a distance shows that the thief army is not ignorant of his arrival, otherwise, he would not have arranged for the scout to be mounted from such a distance.

"The whole army camped here and rested for a day, so that the soldiers could have a good rest. Tomorrow, we will still cook on the fourth watch, set off on the fifth watch, and continue to move forward to Zhongmu. Zuo Liangyu commanded.

"General Left." Ding Qirui asked, "It's only been half a day today, how can you stop?" ”

"Lord Governor," Zuo Liangyu now has a military salary, and he is a lot more polite to Ding Qirui, and when he encounters a problem, he is willing to answer carefully, "Our army has encountered the scout cavalry of the thief army, which shows that the main force of the thief army is still in Zhongmu." The thief army is still in Zhongmu now, which means that Huang Zide is not dead. Otherwise, the thief army would have dispersed long ago. If Huang Zide is not dead, there are several possibilities: first, Huang Zide cannot manage things. But if that happens, the thieves should still flee in all directions. The second is that Huang Zide can still manage things, control the thief army, and even manage the reconnaissance of the thief army. If he doesn't leave, then he's either seriously injured and can't walk or fast, or he's bent on fighting us. Therefore, the last general should let the soldiers rest early, rest well, and continue to march tomorrow, maybe they will engage the thief army. ”

"I see." Ding Qirui hugged his beard and said, "I don't know what kind of situation General Zuo thinks, Huang Zide should be?" ”

Zuo Liangyu said with a smile: "The reason why the Liukou are difficult to exterminate is not that they can fight, but that they can go." If it is a battle, when will the rogues be able to defeat the official army? If Huang Zide recovers from his injuries and learns that our army is coming, he will definitely flee, where do he dare to wait in Zhongmu? So he's just here to fight with us. Since this is the case, then we must naturally be cautious and not give the thief army a chance. ”

"General Zuo has a point! In the coming day, General Zuo will break the thief in one fell swoop, and the feudal marquis will be in front of him! Ding Qirui also said with a smile.

Before dawn the next day, Zuo Liangyu sent a brigade of scouts and cavalry to the direction of Zhongmu. At noon, there was a report from the front that the scouts had encountered the thieves and the scouts more than ten miles ahead, and a battle broke out, and both sides were injured by each other.

When Zuo Liangyu heard this, he asked the army to stop again, set up camp, and rest.

Of course, Zuo Liangyu's move couldn't hide it from Huang Zide, after hearing Zuo Liangyu's move, he said to Xuan Yi and Liu Jiexuan: "Although Zuo Liangyu is not a good thing, he is still cautious enough on the battlefield." ”

"Can't beat it, be cautious and have a fart?" Liu Jiexuan said, "But after this battle, if he can go back alive, he will definitely be more cautious." ”

"Marshal, now that the enemy army is only thirty miles away from us, tomorrow should be the time for a decisive battle." Xuan Yi also spoke.

"Let's have something good to eat tonight. Treat the brethren well tomorrow morning, and then we'll go out to defeat them! Huang Zide finally said.

……

A few scouts, with flying dust behind them, ran towards the main queue that was stretching forward. They soon found Zuo Liangyu's general banner in the queue and ran there.

"Report!" The cavalry ran to a small mound where the banner of the general army stood, and the cavalry jumped off their horses and ran towards the mound with shouts. Zuo Liangyu's personal guards stopped these scouts, checked them slightly, and then took these scouts to Zuo Liangyu's face.

"Marshal, ten miles ahead, there is a large army of thieves." The Scout Trail.

"How many there are, what they look like, let's be clear." Without Zuo Liangyu to speak, one of his personal guards scolded like this.

"Marshal, there are tens of thousands of thieves in the army, and they are waiting there on the official road. There are spear formations on the left and right, and there seems to be a formation of miscellaneous soldiers on both sides. The scout hurriedly added, "The thief army has played the banner of Huang Zide, in addition, there are also the banners of Liu Jiexuan, Tian Xiucheng, He Zhangqi, Shang Yigong, Huang Guo and other big guys. "The miscellaneous soldiers in the mouth of this scout do not refer to the miscellaneous troops, but to the use of various weapons.

"Hehe, the yellow thief is so bold, he actually dares to play a dignified battle formation?" Zuo Liangyu sneered, "Pass the order, let the soldiers go another five miles, and then stop, put on armor, and set up a formation." Approaching slowly. ”

In this way, he put on armor and set up a formation, and walked for more than half an hour, and at two o'clock, Huang Zide's army finally appeared in Zuo Liangyu's eyes.

"The posture of these thieves is really a bit of a look!" Zuo Liangyu looked at the "thief army" on the opposite side and sighed.

"Isn't it easy to fight the thief army?" Ding Qirui asked.

"It's just a look." Zuo Liangyu said, "But they really grabbed a lot of things in Luoyang!" You see, Lord Governor, many of their soldiers are armoured. ”

Ding Qirui looked at the opposite side and saw that the "thief army" on the opposite side was neatly lined up one by one, and the armor on the soldiers at the front of the phalanx was clearly visible.

"Among the thieves there are some former officers and soldiers. If they don't follow the thieves, then these thieves can't get out of such a position. But in just a few months, what can they practice? Zuo Liangyu said again.

While speaking, Zuo Liangyu boarded the watchtower car and looked at the enemy formation opposite.

The so-called watchtower car is a vehicle with a tall wooden pole erected on it and a small fenced platform on which people can stand and look from afar.

Looking over from the watchtower car, Zuo Liangyu noticed that the enemy army had divided the general formation into two layers, and in the front layer was the soldiers with the mandarin duck formation.

"Mandarin duck array? This kind of formation is not easy to practice, since Qi Dashuai, no one has been able to play with this thing. These thieves don't know how high the sky is, and they also want to play Mandarin Duck Formation with us? I'm not afraid of playing with myself! It's not easy for them to play a gun array in a rough way, most of these mandarin duck arrays are used to scare people, right? Zuo Liangyu thought so, and at the same time ordered below: "Let the Huwei Camp and the Broken Camp go to the left flank first, and see the reality of their thieves." For the other divisions, walk slowly two hundred steps ahead, taking care not to mess up the formation. ”

With this order, the entire array of officers and soldiers began to move forward, not very quickly, for every ten paces they advanced at most, they needed to stop and reorganize their ranks to avoid the formation being scattered. After advancing two hundred paces, the brigade stopped. Only the Huwei battalion on the left flank continued to approach the bandits.

The Huwei Battalion and the Po Camp, like most of the armies of the Jokhang officers, had a fairly high proportion of firearms. Of his more than 1,000 soldiers, nearly half of them fought with muskets and tiger cannons, while the rest were spearmen and swords and shields. Based on their years of experience in fighting the bandits, they could break the right flank of the thieves by closing in on the bandits and firing a few volleys with muskets and tiger cannons.

At this time, a few puffs of white smoke rose from the side of the thief army, and then there was a rumbling sound of cannon from that side.

"What can the thieves shoot if they are so far away?" Seeing that the thief army actually used the artillery in the middle of the line to fire at the target on the flank, Zuo Liangyu said with some disapproval.

However, to his surprise, several shells fired by the artillery of the thief army flew into the approaching Huwei camp and the queue of the broken camp as if they had eyes, and the heavy solid shells instantly knocked down a long platoon of people. In fact, the arrays put forward by the Huwei Battalion and the Broken Camp are not the most standard phalanxes. It's actually not too thick. If you are shelled from the front, even if the shell hits, you will not be able to kill a few people with one shot. But now they were shelled from the flanks. In this direction, there are quite a few people, so once they hit, they can immediately knock down a row of people.

"This ...... How could their luck be so good, how could they be so accurate? Zuo Liangyu's eyes widened.