Ganzhou, Futai Yamen.

Governor Mei Zhihuan, Chief Soldier Yang Zhaoji, and Eunuch Yue Shiquan heard the messenger's return, and they all frowned, and their faces were so gloomy that they could drip water.

"Father-in-law, adults, that Li Zicheng is very rampant, small...... Small ......"

Mei Zhihuan's eyes were introverted, and the afterglow fell on the porcelain cup in front of him, he waved his hand impatiently, and the soldier who was the messenger seemed to have a thousand grievances that had not yet been exhausted, but he also had to salute and leave the hall.

Yang Zhaoji was surprised in his heart, when did Xining have a hero? He's the chief soldier...... It must be that the commander of Xiningwei deducted food and salary excessively, this Zhao Feng, this is the case, Lao Tzu must not pick his skin, and he doesn't know how to do everything...... Seeing that the envoy had already left the lobby, he hurriedly said carefully: "Father-in-law, Master Mei, Li Zicheng obviously wants to rebel, whether it is for food or not...... Shall we report to the court? ”

"Lord Yang, you have a little brain, okay?" Mei Zhihuan glared at him fiercely, then closed his gaze and stared at the air on the right side, "If the imperial court knows about the Xining Mutiny, you, the chief military officer of Ganzhou, will wait to go to the prison of the Criminal Department!" ”

Although he was talking to Yang Zhaoji, his eyes turned to Yue Shiquan, obviously communicating with Yue Shiquan.

Yue Shiquan didn't want to speak, it was not his business to fight, he just had to be optimistic about Ganzhou's money and grain, and supervise Ganzhou's civil and military officials, but Mei Zhihuan signaled with his eyes that he couldn't be silent anymore, "Master Mei, General Yang, as the supervisor of Ganzhou, our family must be responsible for the imperial court, and Li Zicheng is about to hit the door...... In this way, our family will give you five days, no matter what means you use, within five days, if you can exterminate the Xining thieves, our family will treat this as if this has not happened, if you can't quell the Xining thief army, the time will be ...... But don't blame our family for not talking about daily love. ”

His words were completely from the position of the supervising army, standing in the position of the imperial court, fulfilling his duties, and taking into account the feelings of his colleagues, he did not immediately report to the imperial court, but gave Yang Zhaoji five days to wipe their buttocks by themselves, if they have the ability to wipe it in time and eliminate the unjustified disaster, the imperial court does not know, this matter will pass, Ganzhou will also turn a new page, if it can't solve it by itself, then it has to be done officially.

Yue Shiquan was only a supervisor of the army, and he did not need to bear military responsibilities.

Now the pressure mainly falls on Yang Zhaoji's shoulders, Mei Zhihuan, as the governor of Gansu, although he is also in charge of military affairs, but his main responsibility is still in civil affairs, he has the right to supervise military affairs, and he can also let it go.

But Yang Zhaoji is different, as the chief military officer of Ganzhou, his only responsibility is the military affairs of Ganzhou, although many times, he has to obey Mei Zhihuan's orders, and at the same time, he must also obey Yue Shiquan's orders.

If Ganzhou turns the sky upside down, he is directly responsible, and he is arrested and imprisoned, which is quite light, and it will be the same as Xiong Tingbi in Liaodong back then, and he will end up showing the public and spreading the head of the nine sides, then ......

Yang Zhaoji was anxious, these cunning foxes, the benefits of weekdays, all took the lion's share, but at the critical moment, they pushed all the stakeholders to himself, he pondered for a moment, and turned his eyes to Mei Zhihuan for help, "Master Mei, this Li Zicheng, can you use the strategy of appeasement?" I heard that he is only a thousand households in Xining, if he is promoted to a guerrilla general......"

"Don't dream about it," Mei Zhihuan said with a gloomy face, as if teaching a primary school student, "Judging from his attitude towards the envoy, this guy is indeed too arrogant, and now he is on a winning streak...... Why didn't Lord Yang consider extermination? Could it be that the thousands of soldiers in Ganzhou have lost their monthly salaries? ”

Yang Zhaoji didn't think of extermination, but Li Zicheng fought all the way from Xining to Ganzhou, passed through several guards, and the soldiers were in full swing, and it was by no means as easy as the civil officials and eunuchs imagined, originally he heard Li Zicheng's message, and his first reaction was to exterminate immediately, he participated in the battle with the Liaodong Tartars, and he would be afraid of Li Zicheng?

But the Xining army is a battalion step by step, before he was found in Ganzhou, he has been connected to more than ten forts, this situation is by no means the eyes of ordinary thieves, and Li Zicheng was born in the military guard, not an ordinary person, he is familiar with the situation of the guard, but Ganzhou has no idea about Li Zicheng, so he hesitated.

If you can use the way of appeasement, even if you lose some face and silver, as long as you temporarily recover the Xining army, Li Zicheng is not a fish on the chopping block? These losses will soon be recouped.

"Lord Mei, I'm afraid the Xining Army has become a climate, it is said that more than 1,500 soldiers have been gathered, and there are hundreds of cavalry, if it is exterminated, I am afraid that it will be ...... for a while."

"There are many soldiers in the guards among the thieves in Shaanxi, but Cao Wenzhao only used more than 1,000 cavalry to start, chased the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of the thieves, defeated King Gao Yingxiang in one fell swoop, destroyed the god Yikui, lit the sky lantern, Li Zicheng is only more than 1,000 people, how many of them are real soldiers? If we assemble the fort post near Ganzhou, we can fight at least 3,000 men and horses, could it be that the soldiers in Ganzhou are all vegetarians? Mei Zhihuan glared at him, and said angrily: "What about hundreds of cavalry?" Are you so good at training? Ganzhou is not even afraid of the Mongolian cavalry, can it still be afraid of a rabble like Li Zicheng? ”

Yue Shiquan also nodded frequently, "If you can't give Li Zicheng a blow to the head, even if you appease, how can Li Zicheng be willing to surrender sincerely?" Our family doesn't understand military affairs, but people's hearts are the same, there is no fear, how can we surrender? ”

"This ......" Yang Zhaoji is not worried about the disadvantage of the war, he just faintly has a trace of fear, the more Mei Zhihuan and Yue Shiquan despise the Xining army, the stronger his feeling is, Li Zicheng and the thieves in Shaanxi, there are too many differences, and even hit the door of Ganzhou's house, Ganzhou only learned from the mouths of the people that he ...... How exactly did he keep it secret?

Also, what kind of situation is Xiningwei festering? With Li Zicheng's secrecy methods, I am afraid it is even more serious than any of my imagination! Yang Zhaoji regretted a little, since he became the commander-in-chief of Ganzhou, he put almost all his energy on the Mongols along the Qiulai River, but neglected to inspect the various guards, causing Li Zicheng to sit big and not know it.

Maybe Yue Shiquan is right, Li Zicheng has already sat down, if he can't be the first blow, how can he easily surrender and hand over his life to Ganzhou?

The words brought back by the messenger also bear witness to this.

Although the imperial court knows that the thieves have no choice but to open up to them, the main culprits are appeased, and the followers are not prosecuted, but after all, Ganzhou is far away from the emperor, and if he lets Li Zicheng disappear silently in the long river of history, the court will not know that Li Zicheng is just a thousand households, and the military department has not filed it.

Since Mei Zhihuan and Yue Shiquan both advocated extermination, then at least they should be suppressed first, Yang Zhaoji reset his own thinking, and from Li Zicheng's arrogant attitude towards the envoy, it was really difficult to directly appease him.

Li Zicheng wants to fight, then fight a battle happily, outside Ganzhou City, should be the best battlefield for the decisive battle between the two sides, here is close to Ganzhou, which is extremely beneficial to Ganzhou.

"Father-in-law, Master Mei, since you want to suppress it, your subordinates suggest that the nearby soldiers be recalled to Ganzhou overnight!"

Mei Zhihuan smiled coldly and said proudly: "Gather all the strong troops, so as to win the battle, tomorrow, set aside hundreds of soldiers for me, I will personally defend the city, and cheer for Lord Yang at the head of the city!" ”

Yue Shiquan showed two big white teeth, and said in a sharp voice: "Our family is ready to fold the child, ask the court and the emperor for the merit of Lord Yang, Ao, and Mei Zhihuan, who is not afraid of danger and sticks to the lonely city, but our family must think carefully about this excerpt, and do not let the court know that the Xining army has been killed under the city of Ganzhou......"

"Father-in-law Mingjian," Mei Zhihuan arched his hand and said: "Sticking to the city is the responsibility of the next, and the credit is not needed, just ask the father-in-law to see it for the sake of his colleagues, this is the fold...... I also hope that my father-in-law will be merciful and be rewarded in the next place! ”

Yang Zhaoji said in his heart: Recently, I heard that Mei Zhihuan was going to return to Beijing, and he was appointed, I thought he was going to grab merit and leave Gansu as soon as possible, but I didn't expect him to be abnormal, this time he didn't even want military merit, maybe he was afraid that it would be extraneous and affect the upcoming promotion.

Just as he was about to speak, Yue Shiquan showed his two big white teeth again, "Our family knows Lord Mei's intentions, everything, and when the war is over tomorrow, our family will consider the words." ”

…………………………………………………………

In the middle of the day, the sky just revealed a glimmer of light, the Xining army was woken up by the rallying call, the firefighters had already prepared a hot breakfast, in addition to the white flour steamed buns, each person also had a mutton salted fish soup, which is extremely rare in the weekday breakfast, most likely indicating that there will be a hard battle today.

For the soldiers, the battles of these days basically repeat the same rhythm, psychologically, they have despised the soldiers of Ganzhou, so when they get the white flour steamed buns and hot soup, most of them talk and laugh, and they do not regard today's battle as a thing, and they are only responsible for cleaning up the remnants of the other party.

After breakfast, it was almost hour, and the Xining army began to leave the fort in whole formation.

Li Zicheng had just left the enemy fort, and Liu Yunshui rode his horse and galloped over, "My lord, in today's battle, do you want to let the cavalry rush to kill for a while?" ”

"Cavalry is not omnipotent," Li Zicheng glared at him, and said in a deep voice: "The main enemy of Ganzhou is the Mongolian cavalry, who knows that they have no way to deal with cavalry?" We are only a few hundred cavalry, and the lives of each and every one of our brothers are very valuable. ”

"Yes, my lord, my subordinates understand!"

Liu Yunshui was included in the headquarters, and Li Guo took two steps as a vanguard, and moved forward slowly, Li Zicheng's Chinese army gave up the grain and grass baggage, and they all went into battle lightly, and the marching speed was not slow.

The terrain here is extremely open, and there are no villages to block it, it is really an ideal place for the duel of large armies, the outline of Ganzhou City has clearly appeared in front of you, even the defenders at the head of the city are pointing and pointing, and you can see it from the telescope.

Li Zicheng reined in the reins of his horse, although it was a cultivated land and desert, but there were very few low hills and hills, which were very suitable for cavalry to charge, so he began to arrange his troops.

Ma Youshui's 600th household, as the Chinese army, is the main force of this operation, all the soldiers are divided into three, the front, middle and back three rows are lined up in turn, the soldiers in the front row are half kneeling on the ground, and the soldiers in the middle and back rows are standing behind them, and the distance between the soldiers in each row is only two steps.

In order to confuse and lure the Ganzhou army, Li Zicheng asked the cavalry on both sides to retreat slightly and hide behind the infantry.