At noon on the second day, Zhu Pingjin, Song Zhenzong, Shu Guoping and Dong Kezhi led the cavalry to Qu County.

After the local rioters plundered and destroyed, Quxian County has become an empty city. The only anger came from the three companies of the Eighth Battalion led by Lu Yinchang and Cao Xun stationed in the county seat of Fangqu.

The 8th Battalion was reorganized from the Fubiao Zhenwu Battalion and originally had four companies. The participating company of the Hanzhou Huzhuang Brigade in the formation was not in the city, but was led out of the city by the company commander Zhou Zizhuang and the supervisor Fan Mingshan to go on an armed parade, striving to reunite the fleeing gentry and people in Quxian County, and to incorporate the population and land into Wangzhuang.

Zhou Zizhuang was born in Mianzhou and was the squad leader of the first company of Bifengxia. Fan Mingshan is a member of Nanchong, over forty years old, and participated in the Shu examination. Zhu Pingjin issued a decree to rebuild the Quxian Huzhuang Brigade, and it was the Hanzhou Huzhuang Brigade that participated in the battle company as the seed force.

Local armies are different from field armies, and combat effectiveness is not the only criterion for evaluating their merits. The Hanzhou Huzhuang Brigade is a unit developed by Tao Xiansheng, a so-called red flag unit with both military and political excellence, and has rich experience in land donation and army expansion.

Zhu Pingjin chose the Hanzhou Huzhuang Brigade to participate in the battle and expand the Quxian Huzhuang Brigade in the hope that Zhou Zizhuang and Fan Mingshan would transplant the experience of Hanzhou to Qu County, so that Qu County, which is located on the edge of Bashan and controls the Ba River and the Zhou River, will become a strong forward base for the National Protector Army.

Lu Yinchang and Cao Xun were extremely respectful to Zhu Pingjian, who came on a light horse. Zhu Pingjin learned about the combat and military discipline situation from the two of them, and felt that it was not bad, so he planned to stay in Quxian County for the night, and by the way, talk with the officers and men and exchange views on the current situation in depth.

However, the situation on the front line has developed rapidly, greatly exceeding Zhu Pingjin's expectations.

Less than an hour after Zhu Pingjin arrived in Qu County, he again received an urgent report from Chen Youfu and Luo Jingyun, saying that the Zagu Tusi Battalion, the vanguard of the Fourth Regiment, had captured Sanhui Town last night, and that Yuan Tao, the king of the struggle for heaven, was fleeing along the Ba River to Jiangkou (present-day Pingchang County) with tens of thousands of people in Qu County.

In addition to reporting the results of the battle, the emergency report also described in detail the capture of Sanhui Town by the Zagu Tusi battalion.

Yuan Tao, the king of the heavens, did not take the initiative to give up Sanhui Town, but attached great importance to it, leaving more than 1,000 elite bandits to garrison. In the face of the Zagu Tusi soldiers who came from the whole battalion, the more numerous Tusi rebels put up fierce resistance, and even launched counterattacks many times.

However, the Zagu Battalion, which went into battle for the first time, carried forward the spirit of fearless fighting and completely crushed the local tyrants from the momentum. The local tyrants defended, and the Zagu battalion attacked; The local tyrants counterattacked, and the Zagu battalion attacked.

The emergency newspaper quoted the battalion commander Xu Yinhuan as saying that he was extremely shocked by the spirit of the Zagu soldiers who fought to the death. A Zagu soldier was stabbed and shot several times, his left arm was cut off from the elbow, and his intestines flowed out three feet. But before he died, the soldier strangled a thug to death with his only remaining hand! Another miscellaneous grain soldier stabbed to death more than a dozen local tyrants, and drove dozens of frightened local tyrants into the Qujiang River and drowned!

The local tyrants couldn't hold it, they couldn't attack, and they had no hope of even surrendering. In desperation, he had no choice but to set fire to the town in an attempt to delay the attack of the Tusi soldiers, but the Tusi soldiers did not hesitate to rush into the sea of fire to continue the pursuit, and a force made a detour to capture the ferry.

As a result of the battle, except for the sporadic thyrs who swam and escaped, the rest of the thugs were either drowned in the river or buried in the fire. The captives were killed, and the red-eyed Tusi soldiers immediately dismantled eight pieces. If it weren't for the strong intervention of the battalion commander Xu Yinhuan on the grounds of interrogating the prisoners and asking for confessions, I am afraid that there would be no survivors!

After reading the emergency report of the Fourth Regiment, the tenacious fighting will and strong combat effectiveness of the Zagu Battalion also shocked Zhu Pingjian.

The total strength of the Zagu battalion was less than 400, plus 15 officers including Xu Yinhuan, who had been transferred from the Tianquan Tusi Infantry Platoon, and only three companies were formed in total.

In addition to the incomplete formation, the battalion's equipment was also the worst among the Protector Army. The knives and guns they used were old goods that had been exchanged by the officers and soldiers, and they did not even have simple leather armor on their bodies.

However, it was such an army, in the face of more than a thousand local tyrants who defended the city, it launched an attack without hesitation, and won a great victory.

Why?

It wasn't until Zhu Pingjin rushed to Sanhui Town that he found out what happened. It turned out that his clever brother-in-law Luo Jingyun made a wish to the slave soldiers in the Zagu camp without authorization: if they captured Sanhui Town and made great contributions to His Royal Highness the Prince of Shu, His Royal Highness would exempt them from the status of babies according to the size of the merit and become free people. Raise the army's salary, marry a daughter-in-law, and even return it to his family.

It's better to die in battle than to be a baby!

The slogans shouted by the Zagu battalion during the battle were the source of their spirit of fighting bravely!

……

After receiving an urgent report from the Fourth Regiment, Zhu Pingjin immediately set about ending his inspection of Qu County. He led the crowd to bow three times in front of the burial mound of Li Hanyi and other martyred gentry and the martyred soldiers of the caravan, personally wrote the inscription "Life has an end, the spirit is immortal", met and shook hands with the officers and soldiers of the 8th Battalion present, and gave them a speech of "I have a dream". He concisely described the political goal of "protecting the country and the people, and bringing peace to the world" in a picture that everyone can understand and see:

It was a beautiful era of food, clothing, housing and horsebacking; It was a peaceful era of birth, medical treatment, and burial; It was an era of prosperity, well-being, leisure, comfort, and abundance of materials; It was a just era of political clarity, high morality, honest officials, and benevolent people. In short, the sky was bright, the water was sweet, the people were happy, and the smiles were bright!

The officers and soldiers of the 8th Battalion were no strangers to Zhu Pingjian, the son of Shu who gave an impassioned speech on the stage. Many of them were fortunate enough to participate in the duty and standing guard duties at the unveiling ceremony of the portrait of Emperor Taizu Gao of Duanlimen. The sound of the mountains and the tsunami of long live once permeated their ears.

The beautiful scene described by Zhu Pingjin for them corroded their hearts and stimulated their fighting spirit. As soon as Zhu Pingjin's speech ended, dozens of officers and soldiers surrounded Lu Yinchang and Cao Xun to ask for battle. Some rumor-mongers lied that the old soldier of Neiyi lost control of his emotions on the spot, fell to Zhu Pingjian's feet with tears in his eyes, and shouted in a vague crying voice:

"Hooray! Banzai! Long life for the son! ”

Who this rumor-monger is, history has not left any record. It is alleged that this person's name is Wang Luobin (Note 1), who was the clerk of the 8th Battalion at the time. Some people also said that soon after Wang Luobin returned to Chengdu due to illness, and soon died tragically in the rebellion because he liked to discuss current affairs. However, people did not confirm it, but the rumors did not subside, but spread farther and farther, and the more they penetrated the mysteries. In the end, the official media had to come out to refute the rumors, saying that there was indeed an old soldier who was moved by the prince's daily affairs, and out of concern, he sincerely wished the prince:

"Healthy! Healthy! The son of the world is always healthy! ”

……

Zhu Pingjin ended his trip to Quxian County and immediately hurried to Sanhui Town. At nightfall, he finally joined up with Chen Youfu, Luo Jingyun, He Qiukou, Lin Yan, Xu Yinhuan and other cadres of the Fourth Regiment.

Without having time to greet his subordinates, Zhu Pingjin rushed to the camp outside the town to visit the Zagu Battalion, which had suffered nearly half of the casualties, and personally arranged for the minor and serious injured to go to Hezhou for medical treatment. It's just that the thugs set fire and burned most of the captured ships. Only a small number of critically wounded soldiers could be transported onto the ship in time, and the rest of the wounded could only wait for the arrival of the sailors and the Qiu family's grain ship before they could get on board.

Early in the morning of the 30th day of the lunar month, the 1st Company of the Tianquan Cavalry Battalion, the 1st Company of the Guard Cavalry, and the Dongbu Cavalry Battalion began to pursue upstream along the right bank of the Ba River. Their main purpose was not to kill or injure the enemy, nor to capture places, but to leave behind the people and treasures that the tyrants had plundered. Lin Yan's third battalion and Sun Deren's Pengzhou Huzhuang Brigade followed behind the cavalry and fought in response to the cavalry.

At the same time, the messenger and the tanma also left the camp separately and contacted He Zengshan, Tan Sigui, Feng Ruhu, Yu Dajiang, Qiu Ruhui's sailors, and grain ships.

For the others, Zhu Pingjin is actually not worried, the only person he is worried about is Feng Ruhu.

Feng Ruhu is a rare general in the left guard. This person is as brave as a tiger on the battlefield, dares to fight, and has a great talent for leading soldiers. But this person does not obey military discipline, is cruel and murderous, and is a political fool.

The superintendent Cai Shaojun said in a secret report that Feng Ruhu and Ding Xianjue were like-minded and had an excellent relationship. At present, they have knelt down and burned yellow paper, and they are called brothers to each other. Feng Ruhu also incorporated a large number of local rebels, and the number swelled dramatically. In addition to the township soldiers who stayed in Dazhu and Linshui counties, the troops who went north with Feng Ruhu alone had 15 temporary infantry companies, and a company of about 3,000 firecrackers. These 3,000 troops have obtained a large amount of equipment and supplies from the logistics fleet, and their morale is currently high, and they are trying to fight with the local tyrants.

Cai Shaoyun, the supervising army, also reported that Feng Ruhu recently complained publicly, saying that there were too many numbers of troops and it was inconvenient to command.

What does Feng Ruhu's whining mean? If you want to compile and want to be promoted, it's not like it.

Zhu Pingjin guessed that Feng Ruhu's true meaning was more like expressing dissatisfaction with him not receiving the order to attack Dazhou: The contemptible people are now strong and politically well-connected, why don't you let me continue to attack, is it because I am afraid that I will have the glory of war alone?

Unfortunately, Zhu Pingjin did not arrange for Feng Ruhu's troops to attack Dazhou, in addition to the reason that he was afraid that he would be greedy for merit and suffer losses, he really had the idea of not letting him enjoy the war merits alone.

In Zhu Pingjin's view, Feng Ruhu is more like a traditional Ming officer than other generals in the caravan: he likes military exploits, heads, silver, official positions, and likes to collude with other officers and generals who have the same smell, such as Ding Xianjue. Military affairs are his strengths, and politics is his shortcomings. Zhu Pingjin put Cai Shaoyun, the backbone of the Youth Federation, next to Feng Ruhu as a prisoner, in order to restrain his behavior and transform his thinking. But judging from his current performance, this goal still has a long way to go.

Xinning County, that is, Kaijiang County in Zhu Pingjin's previous life, is Chen Youfu's hometown, only more than 100 miles away from Dazhou. Zhu Pingjin had already decided in his heart that the Dazhou area would be captured by Chen Youfu and that he would carry out the strategic task of sending troops to Xing'an Prefecture in the future. At present, Liu Sangen's battalion is stranded in Jianzi Zongzhuang. When Tian Qian and Shu Guozhi completed the formation of the Wang Zhuang and Huzhuang teams, this main battalion would be reassigned to Chen Youfu to strengthen the strength of the Fourth Regiment.

Because of this, Zhu Pingjin decided to take advantage of Feng Ruhu's temperament and pit Feng Ruhu a little. He ordered his attendant eunuch Zhang Wei to personally deliver the edict to Ding Xianjue and Feng Ruhu.

Feng Ruhu will receive the following order from Zhu Pingjin: The two brigades of Dazhu and Linshui are still under his command, but they will be transferred to the direct jurisdiction of the Chongqing Military Region. Feng Ruhu can decide the task independently according to the battlefield situation.

What Ding Xianjue received was a letter of appointment from Zhu Pingjin appointing him as the deputy brigade-level deputy commander of the Chongqing Military Region of the National Protector Army.

The logic of Zhu Pingjinkeng's people is that Ding Xianjue is an official and army general who must be wooed. Through the sworn brotherhood between Feng Ruhu and Ding Xianjue to Guan Gong and burning yellow paper, supplemented by high-ranking officials and Houlu, it is the best way to win over Ding Xianjue.

Ding Xianjue accepted the order, which naturally showed that the wooing was successful. But in this way, Ding Xianjue became the deputy of Song Zhenzong, the commander of the Chongqing Military Region. If Feng Ruhu and Ding Xianjue are determined to capture Dazhou, then whoever takes Dazhou will be the military exploits of the Protector Army, the territory of the Shu Palace, and the first credit of the main general Song Zhenzong;

But if Ding Xianjue does not accept the order, it can only show that Feng Ruhu's influence on Ding Xianjue is very limited. This pair of sworn brothers who worship Guan Gong and burn yellow paper are not as good as a bullshit.

Note 1: Chairman Wang has a long life, Ma Inspector is always healthy, and Wen is always the reddest and reddest red sun. Haha, they're all book-set.