As soon as dawn the next day, Li Zhong led his troops, under the guidance of the scouts, to continue to pursue Luo Rucai's troops.

In the next two days, Li Zhong knew that it was not easy for the official army to chase down the thieves. Luo Rucai's troops were scurrying around in front, but he didn't have enough troops to intercept them, so he could only chase the thieves around. What's even more frustrating is that it is difficult for them to fight the thieves, so they cannot kill and destroy the thieves.

Luo Rucai's several teams successfully converged under the county seat of Qi County, but they did not attack the county seat. They are self-aware, and they can't even fight those small villages, and it is even more impossible to hit the county seat.

After they converged, they divided into several teams again and continued to attack eastward. Fortunately, Li Yan had planned the entire Qixian County as a dangerous area before, so the villages in the entire Qixian County had been notified to beware of the invasion of thieves. And Li Zhong also implemented Li Yan's decision very well, and added some arrows and ** to each village, so that the siege of the thieves could not break through a village.

However, the situation behind was not good, and Luo Rucai's men and horses soon entered the boundary between Suizhou and Kaocheng. Although there are soldiers left behind, there are also strong people, and there are also some weapons. However, there was no warning there, so the thieves soon broke through the two villages.

At this time, it is almost the time of the Chinese New Year, and the people finally have a stability, so it is natural to make good preparations. Therefore, the people in the village are very easy to prepare for the New Year, and they want to have a stable New Year with their families. In this case, it was suddenly attacked by thieves, and it was naturally caught off guard.

In order to vent their grievances in the past two days, Luo Rucai's subordinates burned all the two stockades to the ground, and all the people inside were killed. They didn't dare to stay long, so they searched for food, but they didn't find much food, but a round lump the size of half a fist came out. It's just that they don't know the potatoes, so they have to leave quickly with little food to avoid being surrounded by the pursuing officers and soldiers.

Li Zhong had no choice, so he had to send people to make a detour to inform the villages along the way to strengthen their vigilance, and at the same time let people send a letter to Li Yan. Now the situation has become uncontrollable, and he can only report to Li Yan.

Li Yan has also been paying attention to the war in Qixian County, so when Luo Rucai's men and horses did not stop in the county seat of Qixian County, but continued to diverge eastward, he knew from Feng Cheng's pigeon letter that something was going to be wrong.

However, he didn't expect Luo Ru to be so persistent, and at the moment of attacking and opening the seal, he actually kept attacking eastward, and arrived in Kaocheng and Suizhou. As soon as he arrived in Ningling County with the assembled 1,000 troops, he received a letter from Li Zhong asking for help.

There was no way, and he didn't have enough troops to intercept it at this time, so he could only continue to move westward with part of Ningling's troops first, and planned to make plans after arriving in Suizhou. At the same time, he issued an order to all the counties in the territory, telling them to keep all the fortresses on guard against thieves.

Li Yan left Ningling with 1,500 troops and marched towards Suizhou. Although his troops were small, he carried nine guns, of which five were three-inch breech guns, and the remaining four were still the original three-inch Franc machine guns. Fortunately, when Li Yan decided to melt down the four Franky cannons and recast them with new three-inch cannons, the thieves suddenly attacked Tongxu and asked Li Yan to keep the four Franky cannons, otherwise his current artillery strength would be four less guns.

"General," one of the cavalrymen ran back, and reported, "the thieves have been found in the first five miles, more than 10,000, and half of the cavalry. They found me, too. ”

Li Yan immediately ordered: "Line up on the spot and prepare to fight." ”

The troops began to change rapidly from marching formations to hollow phalanxes. The artillerymen also pulled artillery and ammunition wagons to their respective positions.

Li Yan looked at his subordinates being busy in an orderly manner and nodded with satisfaction. The training of these soldiers was not in vain, nearly half of them were new recruits, but they were able to carry out the orders of their commanders quickly and accurately. After this battle, he will slowly grow into a veteran.

He suddenly thought, is it okay to use this opportunity to encircle and annihilate the enemy? The thieves divided their troops to attack and harass, and his subordinates could only divide their troops to pursue. But the thieves blindly avoided the war, and his subordinates had nothing to do. Rather than spending it like this, it's better to destroy one and count it as one.

But now the rest of his men don't know where they are, and they don't know how long it will take to arrive. And will there be a situation where his troops surround this bandit army, and other bandit troops also come and surround his troops?

He hesitated, not making up his mind. After a while, he saw the smoke and dust kicked up by the cavalry of the thieves in the distance. He finally made up his mind and ordered: "Sun Sifu, you take three people to find our people behind the thieves." Tell them not to rush over and let them find a place to rest. Then send someone to inform the other pursuing troops, and immediately converge here. Let them contact each other, and when they all come over, they will surround this gang of thieves, and let Li Zhong send two red and green fireworks as a signal. ”

"Let Liang Zhenfang go, I'll stay with you." Sun Sifu refused.

Li Yan frowned and said, "This is an order!" You're the captain of my own army, and you don't have time to write orders now, and you can't write orders! It can only be verbal instructions. You've got to get it to me, and fast! ”

Sun Sifu knew that the responsibility was heavy, and only if he went, the generals would believe that this was really Li Yan's order. So he nodded, went to choose three of his own soldiers, and immediately rode out of the phalanx, and ran in the opposite direction from which the thieves came.

The cavalry of the thieves came and stopped at a distance. They had tasted the power of this group of officers and artillery, and it was not safe for two miles.

Luo Rucai also got the news that there were officers and soldiers in front. He is now very entangled in whether to fight this official army or not.

Since they breached two villages the day before yesterday, they haven't broken down any more villages. Those villages are heavily guarded, and they are all well located, either on the mountain or next to the river ditch, and there are quite a few crossbow arrows and bombs in them, so that they can no longer be easily attacked.

In addition, the officers and soldiers who pursued behind were also ruthless, and they chased very tightly along the way. Except in the morning, when it can be more than seven or eight miles, it will definitely be within three miles by noon. He didn't even know how he could run so fast with so many cannons?

But now they are facing a food crisis, and they don't have much food with them, and they can't find much after breaking through the stockade. They had all gone all the way to rob before, but this time they encountered such a strange place and tenacious officers and soldiers. So they have to find food, otherwise it's hard to say whether they can go back to Kaifeng.

...