Hezhou, located in the middle of Nanzhili, east of Yingtianfu, west of Luzhou, north of Chuzhou, south and Taiping across the river, and the state is not big, a total of two counties and counties and Hanshan, but its location is quite important, because after Hezhou less than 100 miles is the southern capital of Jinling.

At this time, the peasant army has begun to besiege Chao County, which is less than ten miles west of Hezhou, but the imperial army has never been seen, and Hezhou Zhizhou is so frightened that he is almost panicked, if he hadn't fled his jurisdiction without authorization, he would probably have been cut down by the emperor, and he would have run away a long time ago!

Question, it's useless for him to stay here, I heard that there are at least hundreds of thousands of anti-thieves, and the central capital Fengyang Mansion and Luzhou Mansion have been captured by anti-thieves, he is a small Hezhou, and the total number of men, women, and children is only more than 100,000 people, how can he withstand the attack of hundreds of thousands of peasant troops!

That afternoon, just as he was standing on the west city wall, thinking about how to break the martyrdom law when the thieves came over, the "guard" of the south gate, that is, the magistrate of Hexian County, suddenly ran over with a herald and said excitedly: "Lord Zhizhou, Lord Zhizhou, reinforcements are coming, reinforcements are coming!" ”

This is not as optimistic as the county magistrate, not only did he not show excitement when he heard this, but his brows were slightly furrowed, and he seemed to be very unimpressed.

Reinforcements?

Really?

Why did this man run to the south gate, shouldn't the reinforcements come from the north?

Even the reinforcements sent by Jinling should have come from the east, where did the reinforcements come from the south?

He carefully looked at the herald who came to report the news, this guy is tall and strong, full of resoluteness, and his clothes are not wrong, he looks like a herald of the imperial army, the problem is still not quite believable, because there has been news from Fengyang Mansion and Luzhou Mansion, anti-thieves like to play internal and external attacks, they will generally send fine work to disguise themselves as various identities to blend into the city, and when the main force of anti-thieves arrives, they will make trouble in the city, and the defenders are unable to prevent it, is this guy a real herald or a fine work sent by anti-thieves?

He cautiously asked, "Which general are you under and how many reinforcements have come?" ”

The herald arched his hand and said: "The villain is the commander of the Qi family's army, under the command of General Qi Yuangong, the right governor of the rear army of the five armies of the Southern Capital, General Qi is crossing the river with 10,000 soldiers of the Qi family's army, and there is still one hour at most to arrive in Hezhou City, please arrange it, our Qi family army will camp on the inside of the city wall." ”

Hearing this, his brows furrowed even deeper, and he even secretly signaled to the surrounding townspeople to prepare to take this guy down.

Of course he has heard of the Qi family's army, invincible, invincible, even Jiannu was beaten by them, the problem, the Qi family army was disbanded by the emperor's order last year, this matter, because it is too absurd, has long spread in the Ming officialdom, and now some people actually say that it is the herald of the Qi family's army, how can people not suspect that this guy is a fine work sent by the thief!

He thought for a moment, and cautiously tried again, "Which of your lords came to support on your orders?" ”

The herald arched his hand and said: "We have been ordered by the Imperial History of the Right Capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Book of the Military Department, and the Governor of the Five Provinces, Lord Zhang, to come to support. ”

He has also heard of this Lord Zhang, it is indeed the newly appointed governor of the five provinces of the imperial court, and it seems that there is still no problem, what should I do?

Hezhou Zhizhou thought about it, and simply pointed out: "This army is in chaos, and the official doesn't know if what you said is true or false, or the official will send someone with you to take a look at the place where the Qi family's army crossed the river, if there is no problem, the official will prepare again, how about it?" ”

He really can't distinguish the authenticity from the fake, so he can only make it clear that if it is a meticulous work, he will definitely find a way to stay in the city, and there will definitely be no Qi family army crossing the river on the side of the Yangtze River, because the opposite side of the river is the Taiping Mansion, and the thieves will only hit the Luzhou Mansion at this time, and it is impossible to send tens of thousands of people to the Luzhou Mansion.

The herald had already seen that people were suspicious of him, just take a look, he didn't care, so he nodded and said, "Okay, please send someone to check with me to the river, it's not too early, or hurry up, it should be dark before our camp is settled." ”

At this time, he finally believed a little bit with the governor of the state, he thought about it, ordered a servant of the yamen of the state capital, and asked him to open the south gate carefully, let him ride out, and let him go to the riverside with this herald to see if there was a so-called "Qi family army".

At this time, the Qi family army was already crossing the river, and there were dozens of various merchant and fishing boats of various types hired in advance by the Dongshengtang branch of Nanzhili, and the speed at which they crossed the river was very fast, three or four thousand people at a time, three or four thousand people at a time, one trip in a quarter of an hour, and it would not take half an hour to cross the river.

The herald was the first batch to cross the river, and when he came to the riverside with the officials of the governor of Hezhou, the second batch of Qijia troops had already crossed the Yangtze River, and the whole team was formed in the open space by the river.

It was the Qi family army, it was definitely the Qi family army, and the official hurriedly bowed to Qi Yuangong and other generals, then turned the horse's head and galloped back.

Hezhou Zhizhou heard that the Qi family army was coming, it was called an excitement, and he almost didn't run to the riverside to greet him, at first he didn't believe it, it was really not that he was suspicious, nor that he was too cautious, it was really because the current Ming Dynasty was too strange, from the beginning of the anti-thieves to capture Yunyang, to take Xingyang, and then to the raging capital Fengyang, there were almost nearly three months before and after, even if the imperial army was crawling, it should have climbed to, but, until the anti-thieves took Yingshan, Huoshan, and Lu'an, He didn't even see any imperial army in Luzhou's capital city, and at this time, the thieves entered a small Hezhou, and the imperial army actually came to help, and he really couldn't believe it for a while.

This is nothing, less than three days after the Qi family army entered Hezhou, the right capital of the Imperial Palace, the military department is still the book, and the governor of the five provinces, Zhang Bin, Lord Zhang, personally led an army of 50,000 to rush over, this reaction, this speed, he knows that this Lord Zhang has been in office for less than half a month, and according to the procrastination of those previous officials, this Lord Zhang may not have rushed to Fengyang Mansion at this time!

Zhang Bin's speed is indeed amazing, he did not stay much after arriving in Hezhou, but rested for a night, and the next morning, he led an army of 60,000 to Luzhou Mansion.

At this time, it is indeed the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution entrenched near the Luzhou Mansion, the old leather left horse Shouying, the eye of the leather He Yilong, the king of the left Jin He Jin, the king of the reincarnation Liu Xiyao, and the king of the troubled times Lin Chengcheng The relationship between the leaders of the five peasant armies has always been very good, they are now because of the rapid expansion of their power, and their self-confidence is also a little inflated, and they are unwilling to follow Gao Yingxiang as a junior brother, just right, Li Zicheng also wants to distract the attention of the officers and soldiers as much as possible, so as to take Guanzhong and dominate the world in one fell swoop, so he will plan and persuade Gao Yingxiang to help the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution to Yingshan, Huoshan, and Lu'an, Luzhou City, Macheng, Mall and other state capitals and counties around Dabie Mountain have all been beaten down, giving them a place to live, and letting them stay here to "develop well".

Ma Shouying and He Yilong and others were naturally very happy, they all knew that it was the "King Chuang" who distracted them from the attention of the officers and soldiers, but they were happy to stay here, anyway, they had to face the encirclement and suppression of the officers and soldiers wherever they went, this Dabie Mountain is much better than other places, the entire mountainous area is hundreds of miles in circumference, and it is not a problem to hide 100,000 troops at all, and the disaster in the surrounding state capitals is not very serious, compared to the northwest, I don't know how many times richer, and it is not a problem to "raise" the grain and grass of the 100,000 army.

They all thought that they could rely on the Dabie Mountains to deal with the officers and soldiers, and when the officers and soldiers came, they would retreat into the mountains for temporary refuge, and when the officers and soldiers left, they would go down the mountain to plunder, and it didn't matter if the officers and soldiers stayed and didn't leave, the officers and soldiers stationed in Nanzhili, they plundered Henan and Huguang; Officers and soldiers stationed in Henan, they plundered Nanzhili and Huguang; The officers and soldiers were stationed in Huguang, and they plundered Henan and Nanzhili.

In short, it is impossible for the officers and men to surround the entire Dabie Mountains, because then even if the army of one million is not enough, they can completely rely on the Dabie Mountains to evade the encirclement and suppression of the officers and soldiers and be at ease!

Will Zhang Bin let them get their wish?

Of course, this is impossible, if you want to hide in the Dabie Mountains to escape encirclement and suppression, they always have to hide in, at this time Zhang Bin has figured it out, the main force of the five battalions of the Gezuo is in Lu'an, Luzhou, and Chaoxian County, and the four entrances of Dabie Mountain, Yingshan, Huoshan, Mall, and Macheng, they don't have many people stationed at all.

They may think that whether the imperial army comes from the north or from the east, they can fight and retreat, and slowly retreat into the Dabie Mountains, of course Zhang Bin will not do as they wish, he just came out of Hezhou and the troops divided into three routes, one route Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu led 10,000 soldiers from the west of the mountain to cross the Lujiang River and Shucheng, rushed to the north of the Dabie Mountain, and raided Huoshan and the mall; One route, Ai Nengqi and Feng Shuangli led 10,000 western soldiers through Wuwei Prefecture and Tongcheng, rushed to the south of Dabie Mountain, and raided Yingshan and Macheng; And he led the Qi family army, the Tianxiong army and 20,000 Shanxi Tunwei to move slowly in the direction of Chao County.

At this time, the south of Chaohu Lake was still under the control of the imperial court, and Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others were advancing lightly, Zhang Bin also equipped them with all the carriages and most of the war horses, so that their running speed even exceeded two hundred miles a day, because most of them rode on horses or sat in carriages, and only a small part followed the carriage.

Ma Shouying, He Yilong and others also attached great importance to the collection of intelligence, but at this time, their main attention was near Luzhou Mansion, as for other places, they had not had time to disperse the scouts, and they didn't know anything south of Chaohu, so they only knew that the imperial army had approached Chaoxian from the direction of Hezhou, and they didn't know anything about the two armies in the south.

The people in charge of attacking Chaoxian were Zuojin Wang He Jin and Troubled King Lin Yangsheng, and their goal was not to take Chaoxian County and force Hezhou, but to attract the attention of officers and soldiers, and at the same time loot the surrounding areas of Chaoxian.

To put it bluntly, their main purpose is to get a handful of escape, because Chaoxian is a little far away from Dabie Mountain, they can't stay here forever, since Gao Yingxiang asked them to make a posture of attacking Jinling to attract the attention of the officers and soldiers, they simply took advantage of the officers and soldiers to come, looted the surrounding Chaoxian County, and then, Shi Shiran returned to Luzhou to meet them with Lao Gezuo Ma Shouying, and slowly retreated to the Dabie Mountains.

Therefore, they didn't attack Chaoxian at all, they just surrounded Chaoxian, and then took turns to loot around Chaoxian.

When Zhang Bin led the army from Hezhou, they had already plundered almost, so before the imperial army arrived in Chao County, they began to retreat in the direction of Luzhou Fucheng, they thought they were superior, but they didn't know how many times higher Zhang Bin was than them.

As soon as the 40,000 army led by Zhang Bin arrived at Chao County, Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu had already left their foot soldiers and led the cavalry to Huoshan, and the peasant army in the city did not even have time to close the city gate, so Li Dingguo led more than 2,000 horsemen to rush directly from the east gate.

The peasant army in the city really didn't expect it, because this is the big rear, they just received the news that the officers and soldiers entered Chao County, who knew that the officers and soldiers suddenly appeared outside the city, and Li Dingguo was still very yin, he didn't let people play any flags at all, just rode so lightly, like a whirlwind, straight to the east gate of Huoshan City, the peasant army in the city even thought that this was the main cavalry under Ma Shouying and He Yilong, so they didn't think about closing the city gate at all, and they didn't even prepare to put the arrows!

When Li Dingguo led the army to the front, the peasant army in the city found out that these people were officers and soldiers, but it was too late at this time, Li Dingguo's bravery, it was really scared to death, he didn't care how many defenders there were in the city, and he didn't care that the rain of arrows had begun to fall on the city wall, so he brandished his spear and rushed directly into the city.

Although there are four or five thousand defenders in this city, they are all recruits who have just joined the peasant army, and they are not even equipped with weapons, and they will be the opponents of the Ming army's elite cavalry.

At this time, the old management team guarding the city has organized people to block the top of the steps tightly, if it is an ordinary person, he must be stabbed into a hornet's nest by random guns, but Li Dingguo is not an ordinary person, his bravery is famous, and his nickname is also scared to death.

At the beginning, the world only called him "Little Captain Chi", that is to say, when he first began to lead the troops to fight, the world compared him to the founding general of the Tang Dynasty, the Duke of Eguo, and the general of the Right Wuhou Wei Chi Jingde.

However, when he got to the back, people found that "Xiao Wei Chi" was not enough to describe his bravery, so the people of the world gave him a more powerful nickname, "Ten Thousand Enemies"!

With one enemy and ten thousand, of course, it is an exaggeration, but just the hundreds of peasant army recruits on the east city wall still can't stop him, only to see a burst of gunfire flashed, and the peasant army foot soldiers on the city wall fell like dumplings, and soon, Li Dingguo led the army to rush onto the city wall, making Liu Wenxiu behind him shout: "Brother Dingguo, don't kill them all, so leave a few for me!" ”

When the defenders on the city wall heard this, they directly fell to the ground and descended, just kidding, blocking the stairs so many people was not enough for him to kill alone, and they rushed up to find death!