Li Yan soon received the food sent by the Ye family, and he also released all the arrested Ye family members as promised. Although the potatoes have been planted, it is still unknown whether the people, especially the army, can survive until next year's wheat harvest.

And he is still unwilling to use force against these officials and gentry, although the imperial court lost the battle in Liaodong, but there are still many officials and soldiers in Henan. There are more than 40,000 people with He Renlong and Li Guoqi led by Fu Zonglong, 20,000 people with Hu Dawei led by Yang Wenyue, and troops led by Ding Qirui, Zuo Liangyu and fierce as a tiger, and the imperial court has no less than 100,000 mobile troops in Henan. So what he has to do now is to prevent any party from entering his territory, so that he can have time to integrate the resources of the Guide Mansion.

Two days later, before his troops had yet to assemble in Fucheng, they received news that the official army had been defeated, Fu Zonglong, the governor of the three sides, had been surrounded, and the other commanders had fled.

"What's the matter" Li Yan asked in surprise: "Doesn't the official army have tens of thousands of troops, why was it defeated so quickly?"

Sun Sifu handed the note to Li Yan and replied: "This is a pigeon letter sent, detailed information, it is estimated that it will come over tomorrow." ”

Li Yan took the note, and there were only two short lines on it: the official army was defeated, Fu Zonglong was besieged in Mengjiazhuang, and the other officers and troops fled eastward.

Carrier pigeons are now kept in every county, and they are regularly transported to each other. If there is an emergency, some of the past will be transported at zero time to ensure that the carrier pigeons around the country can cope with a large amount of information transmission. However, carrier pigeons are not too safe, and they may be shot down and eaten, so they will send personnel to ride horses to deliver letters. Fortunately, Guide is not very large, and even if there is no post station system, the transmission of information will not have much impact.

"A bunch of waste" Li Yan put down the note and said dissatisfiedly: "In just two days, at least 40,000 officers and troops have been defeated. If they had formed a formation, I would not have believed that the thieves would have been able to defeat them so quickly."

After that, he instructed Sun Sifu: "Send a letter to Li Zhong and Li Mou, and ask them to speed up the assembly of troops, let Li Zhong go directly to Tuocheng County, and let Li Mu go directly to Luyi County." Also, let them leave reliable troops behind to continue to exterminate the bandits and stabilize the local order."

"Yes," Sun Sifu hurriedly went to give the order.

Li Yan instructed his own soldiers again: "Let the troops prepare and set off tomorrow." Let's go to Luyi County first, lest the thieves rush in and make a mess of our territory."

After a while, Sun Sifu came in and asked, "General, do you want to bring some recruits with you?" ”

"No," Li Yan refused: "Taking them there will only be bad things, and they have only been practicing for more than a month, which is not enough." After that, he instructed: "Let Wu Ding go to Tian Yong and bring all Tian Yong's subordinates over, so as not to stay here and cause trouble." ”

"What the general means, to put the news out," Sun Sifu asked.

Li Yan said: "We also use us to spread the news, and the news of those officials and gentry is not much slower than ours, and they will know it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." ”

Sun Sifu hugged his fists and said: "I understand my humble position." ”

From this time on, the troops in Shangqiu County were busy, and troops outside the city continued to enter the city. The barracks in the city were also noisy, and various supplies began to be prepared.

Early the next morning, Li Yan finally received a detailed report. It turned out that after Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue converged, they came to Mengjiazhuang with their troops. When they found that the thieves had crossed the river to the west, they began to disperse and go to the villages to steal food from the people. They don't get much food, so they have to settle on the spot.

But what they didn't expect was that the bandits' river crossing force was only a small part, and most of the troops were hiding in the pine forest. While the officers and troops were scattered to get food, the thieves rushed out, so the officers and troops immediately dispersed.

He Renlong, Hu Dawei, Li Guoqi and others desperately gathered most of the troops, but they did not dare to fight the thieves, and they all fled with their troops. But Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue were surrounded.

However, Yang Wenyue has been the governor of Baoding for a few years, and he still has a few henchmen. So with the help of his henchmen, he finally broke through and ran towards Xiangcheng. At this time, in the encirclement, only the new trilateral governor Fu Zonglong and his superintendent battalion were left.

Fortunately, Fu Zonglong also led the troops, so he asked the Dubiao battalion to dig a trench, defend the village, and wait for reinforcements to come to the rescue. So now the thieves are still surrounding Fu Zonglong, and there is no sign of marching everywhere.

Li Yan was relieved. However, he still planned to lead the troops over first, after all, there were more than 100,000 people in the joint camp of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, and it was enough to divide a force into the surrounding counties.

By noon, Su Jing also came to Li Yan to inquire about the news. At this time, Li Yan no longer concealed it, because Tian Yong's troops also entered Fucheng, but they wore the clothes of the official army.

"What" Su Jing listened to Li Yan's news, stood up from his chair in surprise, and said distractedly: "The official army has been defeated again, and it has just suffered a defeat in Liaodong, and then it is a big rout here, is this all providence?"

Li Yan persuaded: "Fuzun, let's ask God when I have time in the future." Xiangcheng is not far from our Guide Mansion, and I will take the troops to deploy them. ”

Su Jing came back to his senses and said in a loud voice: "Okay, good, it should be like this, it should be like this." Guide Mansion has the protection of the general, which is really a blessing for the people and a blessing for the people. ”

Li Yan said: "But I still lack some grain and grass here, please discuss with the officials and gentry and wealthy households, and give Li a thousand stones of grain, so that the soldiers can have the strength to defend the safety of the Guide Mansion." ”

"Okay, okay, I'll go and discuss with them." Su Jing immediately nodded and said, "In addition, I will allocate you a hundred stones from the treasury, you must fight bravely to kill the thief, and you can't let the thief return to morality." ”

Li Yan hugged his fists and said: "Fuzun, rest assured, as long as the grain and grass are enough, Li will definitely be able to keep the thieves out of the mansion." ”

Su Jing could only trust Li Yan, and he immediately went to lobby the official gentry.

This time, those officials and gentry are not fighting anymore, the examples of King Fu and King Xiang are in front of them, so it is better to gather some food for Li Yan first, and let Li Yan block the thieves is the most important thing. As for the truth of the news, they are not sure for the time being, but it will not be long before they know the exact news. Even if it is fake news, it should be a peace of mind that has been bought for a few days with these grains.

In the afternoon, Li Yan set off with his troops. He took two-thirds of his descendants with him, leaving the recruits to continue training and assisting in the defense. And Tian Yong's troops also set off for Luyi with Li Yan.

...