Among the "rogues" in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong was almost the most mobile one. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoZhang Xianzhong has always attached great importance to the mobility of the army, and its core troops, that is, his old battalion, are basically cavalry, many of them are even two-horse cavalry, and their marching ability has always been good. There is even a record of traveling more than 300 miles in one day and one night. Zhang Xianzhong defeated Yang Sichang, relying on the use of his old battalion's better marching ability to take Yang Sichang's Ming army around, and finally walked the Ming army under Yang Sichang's command like a dog, and then through a beautiful rapid march long-distance attack, took the strategic Xiangyang, and asked for Yang Sichang's old life. Long-distance running has always been Zhang Xianzhong's forte.

In a sense, the ability to march also reflects the combat effectiveness of the army. In the history of mankind, there has never been an army that has a strong ability to march at high speed in formation, but there is no corresponding combat effectiveness. Zhang Xianzhong's men and horses have not been particularly outstanding in terms of numbers, at least compared with Li Zicheng, they are not outstanding. But to talk about the combat effectiveness of his old battalion, it is really good. Many capable generals of the Ming army, such as Cao Wenzhao or something, died in the battle with his old battalion. Later, after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the old battalion of Xiying also performed well in the confrontation with the Eight Banners, and even until his death, those generals of Xiying, especially Li Dingguo, who was the famous king of the two times, were the biggest opponents of the Manchu Qing for a long time.

It's just that Zhang Xianzhong's style of high-speed mobile combat also makes it difficult to expand the number of his army. Because the army composed of the displaced people who came with it could not catch up with Zhang Xianzhong's old camp in the high-speed march anyway. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong has always used these displaced troops as a disposable army, basically throwing them away when they run out. Now in the vicinity of Tongcheng, he has also gathered a lot of such one-time troops, and the number of them is so large that Zhang Xianzhong is a little confused and can't command it. Therefore, it was only natural that he chose to leave behind these one-time troops and launch another surprise attack on Fengyang.

However, even if you leave these one-time armies behind and run away, you can't be completely unarranged. If the commander of the defenders of Tongcheng was a civilian official who would block the city gate with bricks, of course it would be great, Zhang Xianzhong only needed to leave those one-time troops to make them dare not leave the city for a long time. But now Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo, who are defending the city, not only do not do stupid things to block the city gate, but even come out to fight back every day. At the beginning, only that Huang Degong did this, but later, seeing that Huang Degong took advantage, Liu Liangzuo couldn't help it, and as a result, these two guys had to send people out to play counterattack almost every day. If Zhang Xianzhong and his old camp are still there, then there is naturally no problem. Even if Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo played a beautiful exchange ratio, Zhang Xianzhong didn't care. That kind of disposable army, if you die, you will die, and you can save a little military rations. But if Zhang Xianzhong took his old battalion away all at once, with the combat effectiveness of these disposable troops, he was afraid that the next time Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo came out to fight back, these guys would collapse completely. Then, it is impossible to say that a Ming army will be hoisted behind him. Although this is nothing, there is a team or even an N team of Ming troops behind the butts of the eight kings, which is already the norm. But it is best if you can do it, and it is still not the best. So he decided to leave some men, some troops, to sustain a little bit, so as to buy time for the transfer and rush of the old battalion.

"Second brother, Lao Tzu will leave you and the three harriers behind this time and continue to surround him for a day or two." Zhang Xianzhong said to his godson Li Dingguo, "Lao Tzu left 500 cavalry and 1,000 horses for you." Be careful yourself and don't accidentally get bitten by a dog. After two days, you will take the three harriers and them to Fengyang to find Lao Tzu. Got it? ”

"Don't worry, Daddy, it's just to watch those fools for two days, what's so difficult. What's more, my father left me so many people. If you can't even do this thing, is it still human? Li Dingguo said with a smile.

Zhang Xianzhong nodded, stopped talking, and just patted Li Dingguo on the shoulder.

After arranging for Li Dingguo and the Three Harriers to break off, Zhang Xianzhong quietly left with his old camp. Zhang Xianzhong's old camp also had about six or seven thousand people at this time, and it was not easy for such an army to leave completely from the Ming army in the city. Because the operation of such a large force is unlikely to take place at night. This is not because Zhang Xianzhong's old battalion lacked the ability to march at night, but because such actions may cause chaos and even cause camp roars in those "one-time troops" on his side. Therefore, the transfer could only be carried out during the day, although Zhang Xianzhong used the woods and mountains as a barrier as much as possible to block the sight of the Ming army, but using the towering city tower, the Ming army could still find some signs more or less.

In Tongcheng, Huang Degong was discussing the battle situation with Liu Liangzuo.

"Someone saw today that there seemed to be some people in the army of thieves leaving." Huang Degong said.

"Ben Shuai, someone here has also noticed this. However, these days, the thieves have men and horses leaving to plunder in all directions, and they have also returned every day. Liu Liangzuo didn't seem to care.

"This time it's different!" Huang Degong said, "The people who walked were all cavalry, and they walked a lot one after another. I think that the thief Zhang has robbed the neighborhood, and he can't attack the city, so he plans to change places to rob. ”

"And these people over here?" Liu Liangzuo asked.

"When did Zhang Thief really take these people in his eyes?" Huang Degong said, "These people will definitely not be able to keep up with the Zhang thief, most of the Zhang thieves left them to drag us down, and they took the opportunity to sneak attack other places." ”

"What if the thief deliberately made this appearance to deceive us? When the time comes, we will really be fooled, and that is ......" Liu Liangzuo still shook his head disapprehantly.

"That makes sense." Huang Degong also nodded and said, "Let's go out every day and make a small counterattack as usual, and see how those thieves react." ”

Huang Degong's peaceful attitude greatly surprised Liu Liangzuo's expectations. Liu Liangzuo couldn't help but ask: "Huang Shuai, aren't you worried about Zhang Thief going to attack Fengyang?" ”

"Fengyang?" Huang Degong shook his head and said, "It's better for them not to go, it's better to go over there in Fengyang?" If they did, they would not have any good fruit to eat. Hehe, the Governor's pro-barracks is not so easy to deal with. I think we still don't care about 3721 and hold Tongcheng first. Tomorrow send a few more people to test and probe the temptation, if the thief really leaves, we will bite these thieves he left behind, and the credit should already be not small. ”

"I heard that the Governor's personal barracks are only newly built, where can there be a war?" Liu Liangzuo said in disbelief.

"Lao Liu, you don't know, this pro-military camp of the Governor was smashed out with money. I'll tell you...... You lean your ears a little bit" Huang Degong looked around and made a mysterious look.

"What can't you say out loud?" Liu Liangzuo frowned, but he still moved his chair and leaned over.

"I'll tell you......" Huang Degong began to bite his ear with Liu Liangzuo.

"Really? I don't believe it! How much silver does that cost? Governor Ma: He has been idle for many years...... If he wanted so much money, he would have ...... long ago What the? I don't believe it...... Unbelief! Liu Liangzuo shook his head again and again.

"Don't believe me? Don't believe what I'm saying? Huang Degong's eyes widened, and he looked very dissatisfied, "Let me tell you, don't believe it, have you seen my horse?" What do you think? Have you ever seen such a good horse before? ”

Speaking of the horse, Liu Liangzuo was a little convinced: "Lao Huang, did you get that horse from Governor Ma?" Well, that's a good horse! When Lao Tzu saw the horse for the first time, he was almost scared to death. How much money did you buy it? ”

"I can't buy it with any amount of silver. The horse was not Governor Ma's, it was borrowed by Governor Ma from Zheng Zhilong in Fujian. Zheng Zhilong, the Dragon King of the Fujian Sea, have you heard of it? ”

"Why haven't you heard of that? His family's business is getting big, and there are whale oil lamps selling his family everywhere. In addition, his family also sells armor and swords, which are all first-class good things, and my guard's armor and swords are all bought from his family. It's a pity that the price is a little expensive. But things are really nice. Well, those elites of Zhang Thief are also all guys from their family, so it's hard to mess with. Liu Liangzuo said.

"It's all Zuo Liangyu who is too stupid, with such a thing, he can actually lose to Zhang Thief." Huang Degong shook his head, in the recent battle, he also captured some weapons from Zhang Xianzhong, and the quality was indeed much better than that of his soldiers.

"Lao Huang, let's not digress, let's talk about your horse ......" Liu Liangzuo quickly pulled the topic back.

Zhao Feihu jumped off his horse, handed the reins to the other cavalryman who was with him, and then walked towards the top of the small hill next to him. This small hill is the commanding height of this area, and when you climb to the top, you can see far away, but this small hill is covered with all kinds of dense bushes, but the horses cannot go up. So he had to climb up on his own.

The mountain is not high, but it is not easy to climb. It took a lot of effort for Zhao Feihu to climb up. He stood still on a rock at the highest point and looked into the distance.

The gray-white official road passed near the small hill, and now the news of the war in this area has long since spread, so there are no pedestrians to be seen on the official road that is crooked like a dead snake. Zhao Feihu raised the telescope again and looked at it, although the production of telescopes has increased now, but because the navy wants more, the result is that the telescope is still a precious thing here in the army, except for the battalion commander-level officers, and they are the cavalry who perform reconnaissance missions.

Looking along the official road, he suddenly noticed that seven or eight miles away, there seemed to be movement under several big trees. Zhao Feihu stabilized the binoculars and stared carefully, only to see clearly that it was a small group of cavalry, and these cavalrymen were now resting under the tree.

Zhao Feihu counted carefully, there were about a dozen people, but there were more than twenty horses, and those people were not wearing armor, only waist knives were hung around their waists, and bows and quivers were also hung on the saddles.

"It's mostly a thief's scout cavalry." Zhao Feihu made such a judgment.