The news that the left, right, and rear battalions were attacked by the Xuanjia Army at the same time reached the standard battalion in front.

Li Zicheng looked at the military reports one by one, and was angry, this was clearly a major offensive launched by the Xuanjia Army in a premeditated manner, but the army did not know anything about it before. This kind of play, that is, a blind person fighting against a clear-eyed person, how many chances can he win?

General Li Zicheng reported on the case of the army and said sharply, "Juming, Zong Min, hurry up and send reinforcements to rescue the battalions." ”

Liu Zongmin was motionless and said slowly, "King Chuang, we are in Yunmengze, and there are lakes and swamps everywhere, which is not conducive to the march of the cavalry. When the cavalry arrived, it was estimated that all the battalions would be destroyed. ”

Li Zicheng saw that he was clearly looking for an excuse to avoid the war, and said unhappily, "According to General Quan's words, we will sit back and watch the three battalions be destroyed?!" ”

Liu Zongmin spread his hands and said, "King Chuang, it was you who led the army into Yunmengze, not me." As the commander of the standard battalion, I should put the safety of the standard battalion first, and the battalions are not under my jurisdiction. ”

Li Zicheng's layout, although Liu Zongmin controls the standard camp, how can he trust Liu Zongmin? arranged for Li Guo to be the deputy general of the standard battalion. and arranged other battalions to contain Liu Zongmin's standard battalion.

At present, Liu Zongmin is clearly setting up a stall, and he is unwilling to use the main force of the standard battalion to rescue the other three battalions, and naturally wants to break the situation of the battalions under Li Zicheng containing each other.

Li Guo was so angry that he pulled out his sword, pointed at Liu Zongmin and said, "General Quan, you want to rebel?!" ”

Liu Zongmin also unceremoniously pulled out his saber, pointed back at Li Guo, and scolded, "Bold, you are a deputy general, dare to draw a sword from General Quan." If you have a knife in your hand, I don't have a knife? ”

Li Zicheng wanted to immediately ask someone to drag Liu Zongmin down and cut him down, but he knew that as soon as this military order was spoken, Liu Zongmin would completely turn his face with him. At the juncture when the camps were attacked, it was still unknown who would cut off whose heads.

Moreover, even if Liu Zongmin was cut through fire, the standard battalion would suffer huge losses, how could it deal with the next wave of the Xuanjia Army's offensive?

Li Zicheng had no choice but to focus on the overall situation, and swallowed this breath, "Zong Min, Li Guo, the Xuanjia Army is overpowering, we can't fight any more, all of them have put their knives!" ”

After Liu Zongmin and Li Guo put away their knives stupidly, Li Zicheng asked Niu Jinxing again, "Juming, you are the one who led our army north, say it!" The left, right, and back three battalions, save or not? ”

Niu Jinxing said lightly, "What General Quan said is reasonable, and it can't be saved!" Since Fang Yuan had already launched a three-way offensive, how did he know that there was no fourth way to target the soldiers and horses of the standard battalion? The sentry came to report from the front, and countless Xuanjia sergeants were also stationed in Jinju Pass. If our army goes to the rescue of other battalions, and the Xuanjia army of Jinjuguan takes advantage of the situation to attack the standard camp, won't it be broken one by one?! ”

Li Zicheng saw that he and Liu Zongmin were connected into a line, and sighed, "Zongmin, Juming, if you don't save the third battalion, our army will only have 70,000 soldiers and horses left, and 270,000 dependents, and the general trend has gone!" ”

Niu Jinxing said, "Nothing is more important than the safety of King Chuang, General Quan, and Biaoying." Fang Yuan had been tossing for so long, but he was just the elite division of the standard camp. The soldiers and horses of the battalions were vulnerable, but dragged down. Our standard battalion is lightly armed, but we can get out of Yunmengze faster and break into Henan. ”

At this point, Liu Zongmin avoided the battle, what else could Li Zicheng say, he couldn't fill the bottomless pit of the third battalion with the 10,000 elite cavalry and 20,000 soldiers led by Li Guo. This army of soldiers and horses is Li Zicheng's life-saving family, if it is cleaned, it is estimated that the throne of the king will change hands.

Li Zicheng could only adopt Niu Jinxing's suggestion of abandoning the battalions to break into the army, his family, and go into battle lightly, and ordered the standard battalion of 70,000 sergeants and 270,000 family members to speed up the march, and take advantage of the Xuanjia Army to annihilate the left, right, and rear three battalions to get out of Yunmengze as soon as possible.

Three days later, Li Zicheng successively received the defeat report that the three battalions were destroyed, the two generals, Liu Fangliang was killed in battle, and Tian Jianxiu was captured alive.

He howled and cried by the lake, sacrificed his confidant Liu Fangliang, and once again accelerated the pace of the march. Before it was twenty miles a day, after that it must reach fifty miles a day, and within four days of getting out of Yunmengze.

The accompanying family members were all old, weak, sick and disabled, and they also carried a lot of food and silver, and as soon as the march speed accelerated, most of them could no longer keep up. The soldiers and horses of the standard battalion came out of Yunmengze, and there were less than 150,000 family members accompanying them, and 120,000 were left alive in Yunmengze.

Out of Yunmengze, Li Zicheng also breathed a sigh of relief, ordered the whole army to rest in place for a day, and then continued to move forward.

The front sentry suddenly reported that the Xuanjia Army had attacked from Jinju Pass, set up camp on the plain fifty miles away from Yunmengze, and sniped Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses going north. Judging from the number of military camps, this Xuanjia army has at least 60,000 or 70,000 troops.

The main force of the Xuanjia Army finally attacked, and the purpose was, of course, to snipe Li Zicheng in Yunmengze, and he could no longer go north and enter Henan.

Half a day later, Fang Yuan's letter asking for battle was also sent to the camp of the Chuang army, and the content of the letter was that at Li Zicheng's request, the two sides were engaged in a positive and fair decisive battle on the Great Plain in front of them.

Before Li Zicheng's five battalions were full of soldiers and horses, with 180,000 soldiers, and when the soldiers were strong and strong, the Xuanjia Army had been avoiding war. At present, the army is demoralized, the battle is dead, and the surrender is surrendered, but the Xuanjia army proposes to have a decisive battle, which is clearly the rhythm of taking advantage of your illness to kill you.

But Li Zicheng has no choice, if he can't repel the sniper Xuanjia army in front as soon as possible, and wait for the Xuanjia army to outflank the left and right rear three lines, the breaking army will have no chance of winning.

Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and Niu Jinxing reached a consensus after a simple discussion. The decisive battle, although the chance of winning is not great, but it is better than being consumed and exhausted by the Xuanjia army along the way.

Li Zicheng immediately replied to Fang Yuan, agreeing to a decisive battle in two days.

Two days passed quickly, and the scouts of the army came to report that the sergeants of the left, right, and rear battalions of the Xuanjia Army were still collecting the fallen sergeants and their families a hundred miles away, and they would definitely not be able to catch up with the battlefield in a short time. As long as you can defeat the Xuanjia army in front of you, especially the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry who has harassed the intruding army for three or four months, it will be convenient for you to pass unimpeded.

After Li Zicheng discussed with Niu Jinxing, he decided to put out the most handy five-fold battle formation for this decisive battle when he fought in the previous Liukou battle.

The so-called five-fold battle formation, the first is the hungry people, followed by ordinary foot soldiers, then ordinary cavalry, again elite cavalry, and finally Li Zicheng's most confidant, the most well-armed elite infantry, and the family members of the army.

The most fundamental principle of the five-fold battle formation is to use ordinary hungry people, ordinary foot soldiers, and even ordinary cavalry to consume the enemy's combat power and morale. When the battle is deadlocked, the most elite cavalry and elite infantry are sent to attack, and the battle is decided.

Historically, Sun Chuanting and Li Zicheng fought a decisive battle in Jiaxian, and only broke through three of the five battle formations, and were defeated by the elite cavalry of the fourth formation.

After several days of marching, the army was no longer enough, Li Zicheng could only order that men over the age of 10 and under the age of 60 must participate in the battle, and finally cobbled together a force of 30,000 old, weak, sick and disabled among the 150,000 family members and threw them to the first formation to serve as the first human shield.

In the second formation, among the main force of 30,000 infantry, 10,000 with slightly weaker combat strength were screened out again to serve as the second human shield, commanded by Liu Tichun.

The third formation was 10,000 ordinary cavalry led by Li Guo; The fourth formation was 30,000 elite cavalry led by Liu Zongmin; In the fifth formation, Li Zicheng led 20,000 elite infantry to sit in the middle barracks, and the families of 120,000 standard battalion sergeants were also in the middle barracks.

Li Zicheng completed the formation of troops, and a black and oppressive military formation also appeared in the distance, and the black flag of the Xuanjia Army was fluttering, and there was a kind of compelling momentum that the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was full of buildings.

The decisive battle between the two sides has finally begun!