It took two days for the Xingtian army to finally arrive at the bank of the Yellow River, although it was impossible for so many of them to hide their whereabouts, it was certain that the officers and soldiers guarding Hancheng County would definitely receive the news that they had entered the territory of Hancheng County, but those officers and soldiers guarding Hancheng County did not take any action at all, but just closed the four gates of Hancheng and resolutely closed the doors. They just let the thoughts they don't see and let them go.

This made the action of the Xingtian Army much more convenient, and Xiao Tianjian also gave a rare order for the Xingtian Army to rest for a few days in the area of Shanyu Township, north of Hancheng County.

This is not the reason why Xiao Tianjian felt sorry for his subordinates and let them rest, but that they have now arrived at the bank of the Yellow River, and the next step is to cross the river into Shanxi, and the Yellow River has become a moat in front of them, so that they have to stop advancing and rest on the spot by the Yellow River in Shanyu Township for a few days.

Although the weather is already very cold at this time, and it can almost turn into ice at night, the Yellow River is always in a state of flow, so except for some thin ice on the bank, the river surface is not frozen at all, so if they want to cross the river to the east bank of the Yellow River, they can only be ferried by boat.

Looking at the surging Yellow River in front of him, Xiao Tianjian couldn't help but feel a little powerless, people in front of nature, it seems so weak, this way, they also encountered a lot of rivers on the way, but in most cases, they can rely on the craftsmen in their own army, and build a pontoon bridge for the Xingtian army to cross the river, to some extent, the craftsmen of the army have been used by Xiao Tianjian as an engineer battalion, and among these craftsmen, the blacksmiths and carpenters are complete, and the number is quite a lot, and it can be said that they are familiar with this kind of thing. Xiao Tianjian initially built the framework of an engineer battalion, and it was the actions of these craftsmen who greatly guaranteed the availability of the army's baggage vehicles, so that the vehicles accompanying the Xingtianjun could be well maintained and repaired along the way, so that they could be used for long-distance marches while carrying a large number of materials.

But seeing that the purpose of his trip was on the opposite bank, but in the face of the surging Yellow River, they had to stop, facing the wide and turbulent Yellow River, even the craftsmen of the army could not build a pontoon bridge here in a short time for the Xingtian army to cross the river.

After discussing with the generals, there is no better way to cross the river, there are only two ways at present, one is to camp in the area of Hancheng on the spot, and wait until more than a month later, the weather is even colder, and the surface of the Yellow River is frozen, and then they cross the river into Shanxi, and the other is to start searching for nearby upstream and downstream boats that can be ferried, and after gathering a group of boats, they will ferry across the Yellow River and enter Shanxi.

After thinking about it again and again, Xiao Tianjian still chose the latter, more and more news indicates that the imperial court has begun to mobilize more soldiers and horses into Shaanxi to suppress the rebel army from all walks of life, and the news that their Xingtian army has arrived in Hancheng will definitely be transmitted to Chen Qiyu or Hong Chengchou soon, he can't estimate how these court officials will choose, if they have been entrenched in the Hancheng area for a long time, not to mention that it is not easy to solve the problem of long-term food supply here, once it attracts the attention of the government, send a large number of officials and soldiers to suppress it, His plan to cross the Yellow River to the east and enter the Jin Dynasty this time may be bankrupt, so after thinking about it again, he decided to cross the river into the Jin Dynasty as soon as possible and leave Shaanxi, a land of right and wrong, and according to his later understanding of history, at most before the end of the year, the righteous army from all walks of life will be forced out of Shaanxi again under the encirclement and suppression of a large number of officers and soldiers, and return to Henan, so that it is just for him to gain a firm foothold in Shanxi and attract the attention of a large number of officers and soldiers, which is also the most important reason why he chose to enter Jin. It is likely that his original plan will be completely reversed.

After thinking about these things clearly, Xiao Tianjian had to send people to closely monitor the movements of the officials and troops in Hancheng County, and at the same time sent all his scouts, divided them into two groups, searched upstream and downstream along the Yellow River, and gathered all the boats that could be used by people to assemble by the river on the east side of the camp.

However, the Xingtian Army did not use force to forcibly requisition the boats along the Yellow River, and after discovering the boats, the scouts under their command had to negotiate with them warmly, and take out some money to pay these fishermen, rent their boats, each boat according to its size, and during the requisition period, whether they did it or not, they were given five coins or two taels of silver, and if these fishermen also recruited more ships for the Xingtian Army, then each of them would also give some reward.

As a result, these fishermen who had just seen the Xingtian Army began to be very afraid of the Xingtian Army and avoided it, but after someone rowed the boat to the shore of Lingao Village, where the Xingtian Army was stationed, some people really received silver from the Xingtian Army, so the news quickly spread through the first batch of recruited fishermen in the surrounding Yellow River, so that some fishermen and boatmen who were originally suspicious began to believe that this righteous army was indeed different from other armies, and their words counted. So they began to row boats towards the area of Lingao Village.

In this year, the fishermen on the Yellow River also had a hard time, sailing on the water all the year round, and being exploited by all kinds of cool officials and bullied by local bullies, so compared to the common people who farmed, their lives were not much better, and it was unimaginable for them to earn a few dollars a day or a tael of silver, so when they heard that this rebel army really paid to rent their boats, many fishermen on both sides of the river rowed their small boats to hear the wind.

On the fifth day when Xiao Tianjian led his troops to the Yellow River in Hancheng County, more than 100 fishing boats of all kinds had gathered on the edge of the Yellow River outside Lingao Village, which could basically meet their needs for crossing the river.

Although Hancheng County itself is under the jurisdiction of Tongguan Dao in Tongzhou, Xi'an Prefecture, but because Hancheng is east of the Yellow River and is biased towards the east of Shaanxi, it is not a place for soldiers to fight, and from the beginning of the seventh year of Chongzhen, after a large number of people entered Shaanxi again, the officers and troops in various parts of Shaanxi were transferred to follow Chen Qiyu to conquer the people's army, which made the strength of the officers and troops around Hancheng County even more empty. So much so that when they learned that a rebellious army of thousands of people suddenly appeared in Hancheng County, the first thing they thought about was not how to exterminate them, but they collectively decided to adopt an ostrich policy and close the city gate to close the door.

When they learned the news that the thief army was gathering ships by the Yellow River, the officials in the city breathed a long sigh of relief, since the thief army was searching for boats, then there was only one possibility, that is, the thief army did not plan to stay in Hancheng County for longer, but to cross the river to the other side, then this is good news for them, the thief army crossed the river in the past, and that is the place under the jurisdiction of the Shanxi Political Division, so it is not their officials in Shaanxi who should have a headache.

Therefore, after learning the news that the Xingtian Army was searching for boats along the river, the government of Hancheng County continued their ostrich policy and ignored the matter, and even the officials who usually collected fish taxes along the river retreated into the city and let the fishermen gather around Lingao Village.

On the third day of the 11th month of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Xingtian army finally began to board the boat by the river, each boat or four or five people, or a dozen or so people, the first batch of Xingtian soldiers who crossed the river will begin to board the boat, under the rocking of those fishermen and boatmen, slowly sailing towards the east bank of the Yellow River.

The first batch to cross the river were the soldiers of Luo Li and Yan Chongxi, as well as a dozen scouts and their horses led by Li Lingfeng, after two hours of ferrying, they safely landed on the east bank of the Yellow River, and then immediately dispersed, and began to build a camp on the east bank of the river, Li Lingfeng led his scouts, and immediately went out to investigate the enemy situation in the area of Hejin County.

After unloading them, the boat carrying them immediately turned around and returned to the west bank of the Yellow River, where it once again loaded the people and ferried them to the east bank of the Yellow River.

Xiao Tianjian led Zhao Erdonkey and Li Xuanzhu two sentinels to take charge of the palace, standing on the bank nervously looking at the river, although it is now winter, entering the dry season of the Yellow River, but the Yellow River water is still rushing in the river, and the turbid waves beat on the bank from time to time, flooding with clumps of foam.

Most of these fishing boats are very small, the ability to resist wind and waves is very weak, and if you are not careful, you will be overturned in the river by the water of the Yellow River, although the first batch of soldiers to cross the river have crossed the Yellow River without danger, but then there are still a large number of people and horses to gradually cross the river, he still does not dare to be careless.

However, as Xiao Tianjian expected, when the second round of personnel began to cross the river, several small boats were impacted by the river in the middle of the river and collided together, and a small amount of ice floes had begun to float on the river, only to hear a burst of exclamations sounding in the river, and more than a dozen people on the boat fell into the cold and turbulent river, most of the Qin people are not good at water, plus the river water is extremely cold, and the Yellow River water is also surging, once people fall into the water at this time, it can almost be said that there is no possibility of survival, In a short time, the dozen or so people were swallowed up in the turbid water, and no one was seen again.

"Give the order to go down, let the ship distance between the ships, be careful!" Xiao Tianjian frowned and ordered.

In this way, boats and boats of people went down to the river and slowly crossed the Yellow River, until before dark, all the horses of the Xingtian Army crossed the Yellow River.

However, because of the limited number of ships and most of them small boats, many of the carts brought here by the Xingtian Army could not be transported across the Yellow River, so they could only be discarded on the west bank of the Yellow River and left to the local fishermen.

When Xiao Tianjian's two feet landed on the east bank of the Yellow River, Xiao Tianjian turned his head to look at the surging Yellow River behind him, took a deep breath and said to himself: "Shanxi! I'm here! ”