To put it bluntly, it is to conduct a real test in advance for the next step in Henan, and see how the combat effectiveness of each battalion is through this battle.

After a few days of preparation, each battalion was quickly mobilized to the starting place, and with Xiao Tianjian's order, several battalions of soldiers and horses set off together and rushed towards Gaoping County.

After the war, the officials and troops of Gaoping County and the local armed forces were beaten and had no power to fight back, and hurriedly asked for help from Lu'an Mansion and Zezhou, but after several battles in Zezhou, the surrounding areas of Zezhou were constantly encroached upon by the Xingtian Army, and now they have been isolated by the Xingtian Army, and the army is still unstable in defending the city, and there is no ability to transfer troops to rescue Gaoping County.

However, Lu'an Mansion reacted relatively quickly, and immediately put together 2,000 soldiers and horses and rushed towards Gaoping County, wanting to stop the Xingtian Army from capturing Gaoping County.

After the news reached the Yamen of Shanxi Governor, Wu Fu was even more of a head and two big, in the past six months, he didn't want to get rid of the trouble of the Xingtian Army, but after the catastrophe at the beginning of the year, all parts of Shanxi were full of smoke, and the chaos was a mess, and within a short period of time, there were hundreds of large and small thieves, looting and harassing everywhere, so that he had to put out fires everywhere, and the soldiers and horses that could be called were even more exhausted, and they couldn't take out their hands to deal with the Xingtian Army again.

After seizing Qinshui County, Zezhou, Yicheng, Fushan and other places, they no longer used troops on a large scale, and seemed to be a little content with the status quo, which more or less reduced the pressure on the Shanxi officials, otherwise, he really didn't dare to think to what extent the current situation in Shanxi would be erosive.

But when he learned the news that the Xingtian Army suddenly used force against Gaoping County, he knew that the Xingtian Army had recovered its vitality, and he was afraid that there would be a big move in the next step, and he looked at the map and knew that as soon as Gaoping was captured by the Xingtian Army, then Zezhou would become a lonely city completely, and there would be no hope at all except for the surrender of the city to the Xingtian Army.

If Zezhou is lost, it will be lost, anyway, in the past year, Zezhou has basically become an isolated city, but once the Xingtian Army captures Gaoping, if the appetite is greater and the idea of Lu'an Mansion is raised, then things will be even more troublesome! The Xingtian Army can completely take Lu'an Mansion again, and then raise troops to approach Taiyuan Mansion in the heart of Shanxi, at that time, even if Chongzhen does not kill him, he can only find a rope to hang himself to thank God.

So in order to keep Lu'an Mansion from losing, he urgently ordered Xu Dingguo to immediately lead a team of 3,000 soldiers and horses to Lu'an Mansion, and sit in Lu'an Mansion to prevent the Xingtian Army from going down to Gaoping, and then use troops against Lu'an Mansion.

The soldiers and horses of the 2343rd Battalion, with the support of the artillery team, attacked Gaoping County along the third road, and some Zhuangbao along the way could not resist the onslaught of the Xingtian Army.

The firepower of the Xingtian Army at this time is unparalleled in this era, a large number of sharp bird guns, so that they have obtained the long-range firepower that absolutely overwhelms the enemy, and the three-stage and five-stage gun platoon tactics are even unable to meet the regular army of the imperial court, not to mention the miscellaneous local armed forces such as local village warriors, which are often collapsed at the touch of a button, and they can't stop the attack of the Xingtian Army at all.

To deal with those strong forts, after the Xingtian Army was equipped with a large number of thunderbolt cannons, a new branch of the Xingtian Army began to appear, that is, similar to the Western grenadiers in later generations, but at the moment it is mainly as a sword player in the army, but more often, they have begun to undertake the task of attacking the fort, against some of the fierce resistance of the Zhuang Fort, the knife players will use the shield as a cover, holding a thunderbolt cannon to rush close to Zhuangbao, after igniting the thunderbolt cannon, into the Zhuang Fort, although the exploding thunderbolt cannon can not catch up with the grenades of later generations, But the power of the explosion can be said to be quite good, at least the shock of the explosion is great, not necessarily able to kill a few people, but it is no problem to scare people, often as long as it is thrown, the resistance of the villagers will be immediately blown to pieces, and then will be attacked by the Xingtian Army into the village, and end the battle in a short-handed way.

Xiao Tianjian personally led the guards back and forth between the battalions to watch their combat situation, and after watching it, Xiao Tianjian's confidence became even more full.

Even this time, the training battalion led by Liu Yaoben, who has just been expanded and has not yet undergone rigorous training, has also shown extremely strong combat effectiveness, outside the city of Zezhou, and tried to go out of the city to intercept the Xingtian army to attack Gaoping A hand in hand, these teenagers with a thousand recruits just recruited, stunned in the first battle to the battalion officers and soldiers out of Zezhou City, to beat back, if it is not for the lack of training of recruits, they can almost eat the battalion of officers and soldiers in Zezhou City, At this time, the officials and soldiers of Zezhou were completely honest, and all of them retreated into Zezhou City, making a posture of strict defense, and even those Zhuang forts outside the city, which were originally under official control, were also swept away by Liu Yaoben's troops.

On 17 September, the three or four battalions each went to the city of Gaoping County, and their troops were in one place, and more than 1,000 defenders of Gaoping retreated into the city with the intention of defending to the end.

But Huang Shengqiang's artillery battalion two sentry six-pounder guns lined up at the city gate, after a fierce bombardment, the city gate of Gaoping City was bombarded with holes, coupled with the help of the battalion artillery team, only half a day, the two battalions entered Gaoping County, after a short street battle, the defenders announced their surrender, Gaoping County magistrate died of self-immolation in the county office, it can be regarded as martyrdom, Gaoping immediately announced the fall, and became another county town completely controlled by the Xingtian Army.

And Luo Li led the second battalion, and also quickly captured Sizhuang and Yonglu in the north of Gaoping County, cut off the only official road connecting Gaoping and Lu'an Mansion, and blocked an official army sent by Lu'an Mansion to rescue Gaoping.

Luo Li in the north of Sizhuang Town, opened the formation, and the Lu'an Mansion officers and troops from the head-to-head confrontation, after the newly established artillery team directly bombarded, this officer and army actually collapsed directly, and fled back to Lu'an Mansion without looking back, even a lot of baggage accompanying the entourage were thrown on the battlefield, and Luo Li, who was ready for a big battle, chased after them fiercely, and failed to annihilate them, and scolded the officers and soldiers for being a waste of snacks, if he knew it, he would not let the artillery team open fire, and simply pounced directly on them and tore them more happily.

After Xu Dingguo led his troops to Lu'an Mansion, the situation in Gaoping had been decided, so he was intimidated by the fierceness of the Xingtian Army, and did not dare to lead his troops to try to restore Gaoping County, but stopped in the south of Lu'an Mansion, and made a posture of defending Lu'an Mansion to prevent the Xingtian Army from attacking northward again.

As soon as Gaoping County was lost, the entire Zezhou Basin became the bag of the Xingtian Army, leaving only the lonely Zezhou City Pestle in the center of the Zezhou Basin.

What Xu Dingguo didn't expect was that after taking Gaoping, the Xingtian Army stopped continuing to advance north, packed up its troops and turned around to surround Zezhou City.

At this time, the officials and soldiers in the city have long lost a little fighting spirit, this year or so of the waste, Zezhou suffered a lot, every battle will be defeated and seriously hit the morale of the defenders of Zezhou, seeing a group of soldiers and horses of the Heavenly Army driving to the city of Zezhou with high spirits, there are actually many officers and soldiers even if they take off their mandarin duck jackets, directly plunged into the city to hide, even if the remaining officers and soldiers did not escape, they have already been scared of the six gods.

Xiao Tianjian didn't give them politeness, as soon as the army arrived, they immediately launched an attack on Zezhou City, dozens of large and small cannons aimed at the west gate of Zezhou together, and the officers and soldiers in Zezhou City shouted that they would quit and asked Kaicheng to surrender, but there was no big war, and Zezhou was declared to fall and became the bag of the Xingtian Army.

The fall of Gaoping County and Zezhou, for the Shanxi official, is naturally another earthquake, the voice of the crusade is suddenly in the "people" is very noisy, Wu Fu and Hong Chengchou are also very angry after hearing it, and they want to send troops to suppress the Xingtian Army again, but the defeat at the beginning of the year is still fresh in their memory, if they send fewer soldiers, they are simply going to send food to others, if they send more troops, but they don't have so many elite soldiers at hand!

At present, Jiannu is still raging around Beijing, Jingshi has been under martial law for more than a month, and the troops in the north are basically taking Jiannu as the main goal, strengthening the defense of Jiannu in the north, coupled with the frequent changes in the people in various parts of Shanxi, making the already insufficient official and military strength even more overstretched.

And the movement of the Xingtian Army, it seems that the various mutant armies in Shanxi have smelled the smell, especially the newly rising several mutant armies in the past six months, suddenly began to move towards the Xinzhou area, it seems that there is a posture of generals until Xinzhou, and Xinzhou is the north gate of Taiyuan Mansion, once it is lost, Taiyuan will be in a critical situation, so Wu Fu has no power, so he has to temporarily throw his troops to the Xinzhou area, first to ensure that the north will not change greatly, as for the Xingtian Army, he can only hope that Xu Dingguo can hold Lu'an Mansion and be content.

At the same time, the news came out from the Beijing Division, Gao Yingxiang, the leader of the People's Army, was finally escorted into Beijing by Hong Chengchou, Chongzhen was not polite to Gao Yingxiang this time, when even if he ordered Gao Yingxiang to be imprisoned in the city, it is said that Gao Yingxiang was tortured, and did not beg for mercy, and was tortured to death in the scolding.

However, according to careful investigation, this time Hong Chengchou escorted Gao Yingxiang into Beijing, and in the end, for the sake of safety, he did not choose to take the road of Shanxi, but first escorted him into Henan, and then took the Daimyo's Mansion all the way to Beijing, so that he avoided the area within reach of the forces of the Xingtian Army, so that even if Xiao Tianjian wanted to help, he did not have such an opportunity.

In this way, Xiao Tianjian does not have to bear the name of not saving him, and Li Zicheng naturally has nothing to say, but after Gao Yingxiang was escorted to Beijing, Li Zicheng was finally pushed as the new king of Chuang, and carried the banner that Gao Yingxiang once carried.

And Li Zicheng also quickly gathered many of Gao Yingxiang's old troops who had been scattered in Shaanxi, and suddenly became the largest force among the rebels from all walks of life, and set up a banner of revenge for Gao Yingxiang in Shaanxi, and entangled with Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting.