Ma Xianglin is a lot older, white hair appears on his head, and his back is a little hunched, the demeanor of "White Horse Zhao Zilong" is completely gone, he has had a hard time these years! The thieves have no head, but they are more and more, but the people around them keep leaving - his wife Zhang Fengyi died in battle, his cousin Qin Yiming returned to Sichuan, and there were few of the world-famous stone and white pole soldiers left, he listened to the encouragement of his mother Qin Liangyu to continue to serve the country, and led thousands of Sichuan troops to defend Xiangyang, Zuo Liangyu entered Xiangyang and annexed this team casually, and put him under house arrest in the camp, until Zuo Liangyu escaped from Xiangyang, he and hundreds of Shi Yan disciples walked out of the camp and hid in the mountains to wait for change.

"Hanmin, Zuo Liangyu took away the officials, soldiers and people, I can't go back to the sky to defend Xiangyang, I wanted to die in battle, a few of them said that you have arrived in Huguang, and you will definitely recover Xiangyang, we are cold and hungry in the mountains and grit our teeth and insist, we are finally waiting for you!" Ma Xianglin sat down in the big tent and said with tears in his eyes.

"Big brother, you have suffered, take a good rest for a while, and when your body is well, I will give you soldiers and food, you are still a hero who stands up to the sky," Li Yu took Ma Xianglin's hand and said comfort, and then gritted his teeth and scolded: "Zuo Liangyu, this bastard misleads the country and harms the people, I have disarmed the Zuo battalion and reorganized, and the Zuo father and son have also been handed over to the governor of Huguang for disposal. ”

"Forget it, I don't want to fight anymore, I thought a lot when I was in the house arrest camp, no wonder the thieves are in today's troubled times, they are just helping farmers, they don't rebel only starve to death, no wonder people like Zuo Liangyu, the court suppresses thieves but doesn't allocate food and salary, and the soldiers are also extremely poor, and there is no way to live if they don't loot," Ma Xianglin shook his head, and suddenly said with some excitement, "Do you know? The left battalion is a robbery, but Zuo Liangyu does not store private wealth, lives simply, and some property must be distributed to his subordinates, and the left battalion can have the strength to fight all by his painstaking efforts. ”

Li Yu let out a long sigh and asked softly, "What are the plans of the eldest brother in the future, do you want to go back to Shi Yan's hometown?" ”

"It's even more sad to go back, Sichuan first fought the Southwest Yi and the Shuixi thieves, and then fought the Dongyu and the thieves, fought for more than 100 years and lost countless people, my hometown Shiqi is almost no green and strong in the field, what a good place in Sichuan, now it is ruined and hungry everywhere, how to survive in the future has become a problem, this kind of bad war can no longer be fought." Ma Xianglin said and shed tears again.

Li Yu held Ma Xianglin's hand tightly, and the two were silent for a long time.

"Fight down, don't kill the thieves and swear not to stop!" There was a cry outside the tent, Li Yu shouted loudly, Tie Biao pulled Ma Hu into the big tent - Tie Biao has always liked Ma Hutou, I heard that he came to visit immediately, the two met and hugged and cried, Ma Hu cried that there were more than 80 Sichuan Army brothers who returned from Fengzhou and now there are only a dozen left, Tie Biao shouted and shouted and killed with red eyes.

"Uncle Guihua, we want to take revenge, the thief's mother-in-law Gao and his old camp are in Xiangyang City, I will take the lead and kill all these thieves." Sloppy head and eyes breathing fire roared.

"Crazy people want to kill, get out!" Li Yu shouted angrily.

It's not just Tie Biao and sloppy who want to kill people, the local gentry have already made the first move - Li Yu sometimes really admires them, the thieves disappear as soon as they come, and when the sky changes, they suddenly appear again, and they can easily pull up a group of family members and tenants to counterattack.

The villagers slaughtered the thieves in the vicinity of Xiangyang and Fancheng, not only killing the thieves living in the villages, but also the locals who followed the thieves. People don't want to die if they kill red-eyed, these guys actually dare to fight against the large group of thieves who went out of the city to fight back, the Datong army repelled the thieves, and they poisoned the prisoners, and they also said that the thieves did the same.

The main force of the Datong army arrived in Xiangyang City, and Zhou Yuji, Hu Dawei two divisions, Jin Shengheng also brought Wang Guangen's younger brother Wang Guangtai to see Li Yu at this time, Wang Guangtai said pitifully: they have been recruited since the shortage of money and food, can only survive hard, now Yunyang is a lonely city, it is difficult to continue to hold, since everyone is Yansui people, they also want to live in a group with the rich Hanyang, in order to give the naturalized uncle a meeting gift, his eldest brother Wang Guangen is attacking Gucheng, it is estimated that two or three days can be successful.

"I welcome anyone who is willing to come to farm, and I have provided cattle, farm tools, seeds, and winter rations." Li Yu nodded in agreement, but scolded Wang Guangen in his heart for not changing his thief nature, and he couldn't forget to grab a handful before leaving.

"We are all from farming, and we are not afraid of hardship, but we are afraid of not having land to plant." Wang Guangtai replied excitedly.

Li Yu then ordered the fleet to blockade the Han River to cut off the connection between Xiangyang and Fancheng, the cavalry left to be on guard, the guns and the right to attack the southern city of Xiangyang, and the other troops camped along both sides of the Han River to rest. Jin Guoding and Wu Laoba immediately took action, and the artillery of the whole association was pushed to the city, repeatedly bombarding the south city tower, and the ten Hongyi cannons came in handy, beating the city tower to pieces, and the city gate would definitely be pierced if it was not blocked with bricks and stones in advance.

The Datong army lacked the skills to attack the city, except for bombarding the city with guns, the battle of the city would neither fight nor want to fight, the auxiliary troops rushed to the moat and stopped, set up a wall to cover the volley of the infantry guns, and the mortar artillery temporarily transferred from the infantry battalion also kept opening the flower shells to the city. The thieves in the city did not use firearms, the guns were repeatedly blown up, and the gunpowder was detonated by flowering shells, and they were unable to fight back at all, and there were too many casualties to hit the red eyes, so they simply filled it with people, and the dead batch was made up for a batch, and the city wall was always full of defenders, and the offensive and defensive battles seemed to have become a target shooting drill for the infantry of the Datong army.

Zhou Zhuzi picked up the baby, Chen Ershui is too godly, hit at least three times with ten guns, this result is very remarkable, others may not be able to hit the target with a volley of guns, the only disadvantage is that this guy must use his old-fashioned arquebus, and he can't touch it when he changes the gun. The left post of the left battalion was lively, and there was an endless stream of people who came to see the performance of the gods, and even Jin Guoding, the co-commander, was also alarmed, and after witnessing the magic skills, he immediately announced the promotion of Chen Ershui to a regular soldier, and also ordered the left battalion to recommend him to the association to evaluate his military merits.

Chen Ershui became more energetic, and with two deputies loaded with gunballs, he guarded under the wall day and night, constantly beating the thieves in the city.

When the thief met this killing god, he didn't think about it for a long time, why didn't he see that this guy had this ability before-Zhou Zhuzi thought very proudly. However, Chen Ershui came to cry after working for two days: he killed a woman, planted it from the city and exposed her long hair, obviously a big girl, it was too embarrassing to kill a woman as a soldier, the people in the village would laugh, this kind of work can no longer be done. Zhou Zhuzi was angry and funny, and even coaxed and deceived to send this guy back to the wall, but Chen Ershui's performance in the next few days plummeted, and he often couldn't hit a target for half a day.

The Datong army has no substantial progress in fighting Xiangyang, Li Yu is not anxious at all - the families of the thieves are in the city, this is the best hostage, just put on a posture to scare the people in the city to ask for help quickly, and the real purpose is to mobilize the main force of the thieves to the field for a decisive battle, the siege of the city has never been done, not to mention that it is a tall and strong city, so he will not consume troops to find trouble with other people's wives and children, but a letter from the old commander forced him to change the established strategy.

In mid-December, Chen Ruimo, the governor of Biyuan, fled to Yueyang with the king of the clan, and the people of Jingzhou opened the city gate to welcome Li Zicheng, and the thieves took Jingzhou without a fight, killing five ancestors and grandsons of the king of Xiangyin. With the money and grain in Jingzhou, the thieves naturally wanted to go back and take care of the old camp in Xiangyang, but they were scared, and they did not dare to go to the Datong army after receiving an urgent report from Xiangyang. Luo Rucai came up with a clever plan to besiege Wei to save Zhao, the Datong army dared to fight Xiangyang, and the righteous army beat Zhongxiang, where there is the ancestral tomb of the emperor today - Xianling, even if the Datong army ignores it, the governor of Huguang will also force them to come back to help, and the predicament of Xiangyang will be solved without a fight. The thieves were stunned, so they broke into the camp and sent Yuan Zongdi, Cao Ying sent Luo Dayong, and the fifth battalion of Gezuo sent Lin Yangsheng, and the three of them each rode 10,000 steps to attack Zhong Xiang, the main force, and they didn't dare to move for the time being.

The rebel army marched along the west bank of the Han River, easily occupied Jingmen County, and immediately collected ferries and rafts to prepare to cross the river. Song Yihe and Li Zhensheng panicked, pulled up the Huguang General Soldier Qian Zhongxuan to guard the Xianling Mausoleum, and forced Zhong Xiang to Du Wenhuan. Du Wenhuan only had Xu Sheng's Shanxi Zuo Xie's and Wang Zhong's auxiliaries in his hands, and the troops were obviously insufficient, but he calmed down and sent a large number of scouts to investigate everywhere, and found that the thieves had only 30,000 coming, and immediately came to the spirit, and ordered Cao Bianjiao to find all the soldiers and ruffians in the left battalion for a meeting.

More than 100 guys were brought to the old man's tent, and the look of the hanger Lang looked like the old camp bastards, most of them were from Shaanxi, and the old man asked them directly how much money they were willing to fight. These guys are also not polite, at a fixed price, you can cross the river for one month's military salary, win the three-month military salary, and take Jingmen County for half a year's military salary, and pay a full amount of cash for a 20% discount.

That's what the old marshal wanted, and immediately led people to search the treasury of Chengtian Mansion and Zhongxiang County, and put together tens of thousands of taels of silver and a few piles of copper coins by the Han River, and shouted to the officers and soldiers of the left battalion - the commander chooses the bag to win, and if there is a seed, he will come to receive the money. The officers and men of the left battalion saw that the money was open, and they rushed to squeeze up, and the soldiers were honest and willing to do things if they took the money, and immediately followed Cao Bianjiao to board the boat and rush to the opposite shore.

Zuo Liangyu has a vision, the soldiers he collected are really not a bad breed, his combat power is not bad at all, and he can definitely beat the thieves all over the ground to find his teeth - five or six thousand officers and soldiers screamed and rushed to the west bank desperately, the thieves were frightened by this scene that they had not seen for many years, and they involuntarily retreated, and hundreds of horseback bandits who broke into the camp mustered up the courage to fight back, but they were beaten to the ground by this group of soldiers, and the general Yuan Zongdi was almost hacked to death by Cao Bianjiao. When the thieves were struggling to parry, Xu Sheng's Shanxi Zuo Xie and Wang Zhong's Datong auxiliaries also joined the battle group, and the fluttering three-color black eagle flag and the rain of arrows in the sky appeared again, and the thieves were frightened and did not dare to fight again, and were defeated and ran all over the ground, but fortunately, the officers and soldiers of the left battalion abided by the agreement, and only won the battle regardless of the siege, and Yuan Zongdi and Lin Yangcheng retreated into Jingmen City. What's more funny is Luo Dayong, this guy volunteered to fight in the palace, Xu Sheng challenged with the Qinglong Yanyue Knife, but he threw away the big knife and stopped fighting, and kept saying that he wanted to find the commander of the Datong Army.

This prisoner of war captured 3,000 enemies, beheaded more than 1,000, and surrounded Jingmen, and he only lost three or four hundred people, which can be described as a complete victory, Du Wenhuan was in a very good mood, and ordered someone to bring Luo Dayong for questioning. Luo Dayong walked into the tent and said nonsense: Cao Shuai is a good person, righteous, conscientious, never wanted to harm people, the previous bad things were all forced by the eight kings and thieves, if it wasn't for these two guys playing scoundrels and being dumped by Cao Shuai, in fact, Cao Shuai admires the naturalized uncle the most, and always talks about how many good things the naturalized uncle has done for us Yulin people......

"Northwest people are straight, if you have something to say, just say it." Du Wenhuan waved his hand and said.

"Everyone is a fellow countryman, why do you have to fight and kill, it's better to talk about peace, we Cao Shuai thinks that if the main artifact of the eighteen sons works, it also means that the naturalized uncle sits in the world, what is Li Zicheng, even his wife has to go out to steal people's blind man, what kind of climate can he become? We Yulin people are waiting for the light of naturalized uncle, please naturalize Uncle don't be in a hurry, Cao Shuai will offer a big gift sooner or later. Luo Da said in a low voice.

"Joke, you are thieves, we are officials, how can there be a reason in the world for officials and thieves to make peace, you Cao Shuai thinks too highly of yourself." Du Wenhuan couldn't help laughing.

Luo Da replied with a dry laugh: "Cao Shuai also asked me to tell you that the thieves used their troops to make a desperate bet this time, and the main force of 300,000 people went south lightly to eat, leaving 100,000 people and enough grain and grass for three months in Xiangyang, and now that Jingzhou's grain has also arrived, it will be protracted to fight, if my righteous army insists on the hot weather, what should I do if the naturalized uncle does?" It's better to talk early and avoid losing both! ”

"You Cao Shuai are really multifaceted! Okay, Ben Shuai knows, you go down and rest. Du Wenhuan's face was expressionless, but he was shocked in his heart - the Datong army didn't have time to drag on, and he had to inform Hermes-Epitek immediately to make plans as soon as possible.

Three days after the urgent letter was sent, Li Yu hurried back to Zhongxiang, and when he saw the old handsome, he asked, "Is the situation very bad?" ”

"Here are a few urgent reports that I just received, read for yourself." The old man shook his head with a wry smile and handed a few letters to Li Yu.

Li Yu first unfolded a letter from the Presidential Palace, which was a joint letter from the Presidential Office, the Department of the Great Justice, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Senate -- the letter said that the current situation was critical, and that the Ming armies of Zhili and Shandong were afraid of the enemy and were cowardly, and even though the Qing army was rampant and entered the hinterland of Shandong, despite Datong's repeated advice, it continued to advance southward, and the Senate angrily decided to severely punish the Qing state, and the Presidential Office also announced a mobilization order, and Datong's financial burden increased suddenly, and it had to issue an additional 500,000 taels of bonds again. They suggested abandoning Huguang for the time being and leading the army north as soon as possible, because after all, the north is the foundation, and if the two battlefields of the north and the south continue to be fought for a long time, Datong will inevitably run out of financial resources and collapse without a fight. In addition, there is another important situation, Chahar refused to accept the dispatch of the presidential palace, gathered men and horses in the east on his own, and threatened to attack Liaodong to take revenge, the presidential palace was not optimistic about this risky action, but Chahar's Tuba, Jintu and others did not listen to their advice, and it is estimated that they will advance eastward in early February, and the situation will inevitably change drastically at that time, and the president must make plans as soon as possible.

Sun Fuhu, commander of the Shandong Tuntian Army, sent a letter: The Qing army went south, Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou were all attacked, and the canal towns of Linqing and Yanzhou were lost successively, and its vanguard had entered Qingzhou Mansion, and the Tuntian Army sent people to negotiate, but Abatai said that the Qing army was fighting too smoothly, and the various departments were scrambling to go south, and he did not dare to stop easily, and persuaded the Tuntian army to get out of the way and move to Yimeng Mountain. At present, the Tuntian army is transferring the old and weak women and children into the mountains, and the young and strong are assembled and ready to fight, but the Tuntian military defense area is too large and the strength is too weak, it is difficult to resist the invasion of the Qing army, and the president is asked to send reinforcements.

A letter from Liu Liangzuo, the commander in chief, sent a letter: The official army defeated the rogue Zhang Xianzhong's troops in Qianshan, but Zhang Xianzhong and most of his bandits escaped, and their whereabouts are unknown.

Datong's ambassador to Huguang and commerce, Zhou Xuan, sent a letter: There was a split in the Huguang Joint Defense Bureau, the gentry headed by He Fengsheng moved to Wuchang to merge with the court officials, and the merchants and landlords headed by Jia Jingzong stayed in Hanyang to join forces with Wang Fang, Zhang Mengcun and others, and the two sides shared a signboard and sang their own plays, while the king of Chu, who was the superintendent, was busy transferring property to Shanxi and preparing to run away, and no one cared about the survival of the big government, and the local state capital was like scattered sand.

"We're embattled!" Li Yu whispered in pain, covered his head and lay on the table for a while before saying, "Call that Luo Dayong in, and I'll talk to him." ”

Luo Dayong was pulled by Li Yu to sit down as soon as he entered the big tent, and asked long and short questions in a Yulin dialect, I heard that he was a native of Anzhai in Yan'an Prefecture, and immediately said that his ancestral home was Ningzhai in Yan'an Prefecture, a veritable fellow countryman, the more the two talked about it, the more affectionate they became, Luo Dayong had lived for half his life, and no big man had ever been so good to him, and he was a little flattered.

"Brother Luo, Yansui people are suffering, how many people have died in more than ten years of natural and man-made disasters! Cao Shuai is right, let's live together as a group, we can't kill each other anymore, I trust Cao Shuai, I am willing to make peace with the righteous army, he must tell me if he has difficulties, the Datong Federation does not recognize the imperial court, only recognizes brothers, no matter what happens, he will be his backer. Li Yu patted Luo Dayong's hand and said sincerely.

Luo Dayong was also emotional, wiped his eyes and said: "Uncle Guihua, you have saved hundreds of thousands of Yansui people, the brothers in the righteous army remember it, Cao Shuai admires you the most in his life, you can rest assured, I will go back immediately, and I will definitely promote peace talks as soon as possible." ”

"Brother Luo, we can trust you and you Cao Shuai, but we can't trust Li Zicheng, this person is too ambitious, what if we try our best to obstruct it?" Du Wenhuan asked.

Luo Dayong nodded and replied: "Lao Shuai is right, Li Zicheng is indeed a bit of a ghost, so let's go back to Jingmen, Lin Chengcheng is a person from the Fifth Battalion of the Revolutionary Left, but the first group of Yuan Zong is Li Zicheng's person, if it doesn't work, he will be arrested as a hostage and force Li Zicheng to negotiate peace." ”

Luo Dayong returned to Jingmen that night, and the next morning he took Yuan Zongdi and Lin Yangyang to the Datong army camp - the three of them discussed it and wrote a letter to Jingzhou together to ask for peace, Yuan Zongdi also said that King Chuang was originally a kind person, but he was taught badly by scholars in recent years, and if he was obsessed, the old brother would also turn against him.