In the next few days, Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng anxiously waited for Li Banghua's next instructions, and at the same time reorganized their armies and prepared to go north to Ningxiang and Yongning Prefecture, intending to "recover" the two cities that had been ravaged by the main force of thieves before, as well as the nearby fortresses along the Yellow Line. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Because after many days of repeated sentinel reconnaissance by Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng's sentry horses, Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng have been very sure that there are not many bandits stationed in Yongning Prefecture and Ningxiang County, and the pass fortress near the Yellow River, which originally belonged to Xiwei, Dusi Town, Shanxi, has been abandoned by thieves.

The musket team led by Li Wenyun, the commander of the Chinese army under Hong Chengchou, had already gone north and approached the vicinity of Yongning Prefecture City, dozens of miles northwest of Ningxiang County.

And Pei Shize, the commander of the Shanxi township soldiers under Zhang Zongheng, also led his men and horses to the north, and approached the mouth of the river where the Shihe River flows into the Yellow River, that is, Qinglongdu outside Liulin Fort.

The two teams heading north did not encounter the thieves' men and horses to the west of Liulinbao and the south of Qinglongdu, but when they continued to approach Yongning Prefecture City and Ningxiang County Town to the east, they encountered the thieves' patrol twice.

Ten miles west of Yongning Prefecture City, when he encountered the thief patrol for the first time, Li Wenyun was not polite at all, leading a musket team of 300 people, and with only one charge, he cleanly annihilated the patrol team of more than 100 people on the other side, while only two musketeers who rushed to the front were wounded by arrows in the legs.

The second time they encountered the thieves, it was on the way back to Shilou by Li Wenyun and Pei Shize, probably because they had disturbed the thieves when they used Chongzhen's flintlock musket before, and this time there were more than 2,000 thieves coming out of the direction of Ningxiang.

As soon as the battle began, Pei Shize's archers and thief archers threw arrows at each other, causing the Shanxi township soldiers who were blocking the front this time to be killed and wounded, and they retreated one after another, but it also caused the leader of the thieves to order a rush forward, trying to eliminate this small group of officers and soldiers who dared to go north in one go.

Half of Pei Shize's 500 township archers were killed and wounded, and half of them retreated, but the musket team standing not far behind them did not move at all under the command of Li Wenyun, a martial artist and a graduate of the martial arts hall.

The result, of course, was dramatically reversed.

When the leader of the thieves, who did not know whose name was, shouted loudly, rode his horse and charged, and rushed to the front of the musket team with minions armed with knives and guns, suddenly the gunfire was loud, and after three rounds of gunfire were fired intensively at almost no intervals, the screams and cries were heard one after another in front of the gunsmoke.

In front of the formation laid out by the three rows of musketeers, within a hundred paces, there was no more thief army who could stand or dared to stand.

There were more than 200 people who fell to the ground, or lay on the ground groaning and wailing.

And the thieves outside this death zone are either stunned and hesitant in place, or they have already begun to retreat.

Then, the drums in Li Wenyun's musket team sounded, and the musketeers in the third row stepped forward in unison with muskets, and then the drums stopped, and Li Wenyun gave an order, and the muskets shot out hundreds of projectiles again "bang bang bang", and in the dense team of thieves 100 steps away on the opposite side, another miserable cry came, and at the same time, dozens of people fell to the ground in response.

Next, Pei Shize, who was deeply ashamed, and his village soldiers saw a scene that they would never forget, some of the thieves in front of the formation dropped their bows, arrows, knives and guns, and surrendered on their knees, while most of the people behind the formation scattered in a hurry, running for their lives towards the way they came.

Pei Shize led his rural soldiers to pursue for a while, and captured a group of injured and slow-running thief minions, and came back happily, as if the collapse of the army had never happened.

When the news came back to Shilou, Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng learned that the musket team had performed well, and they were relieved.

After all, at this time in Shilou City, Hong Chengchou's army of 1,200 people, of which 200 people were still wounded, and although Zhang Zongheng's department had many people, it was the Shanxi township soldiers who had not fought and the Shanxi fugitives who were about to collapse in front of the thieves before, and the two people now know that Guangwuzhuang to the east of Shilou is likely to be a stronghold of the main force of the thieves, and the mountains east of Guangwuzhuang, that is, the area of Huangluling, Shanshenyu and Shennanyu, is where the main force of the thief army is. Of course, I am worried in my heart about whether the officials, soldiers, and horses of Shilou can stop the thieves, or whether they can make meritorious contributions.

At this time, I was overjoyed to hear that the Fubiao Chinese Army Musket Team led by Li Wenyun had only 300 people, and it had such great power and played such a great role.

Thinking of the mine camp under the command of Minister of Military Aircraft Li Banghua, which was equipped with all new firearms, Hong Chengchou was full of confidence in this encirclement and suppression of thieves.

Li Wenyun and Pei Shize returned to Shilou City that night with the wounded in the township soldiers and the captured thief soldiers.

Hong Chengchou quickly got several important pieces of information from the prisoners of the thief army: First, the thief army of more than 100,000 people is now divided into five roads, with the King of Hengtian in the middle, and the other thieves guarding one side.

Second, the thief army stationed in Ningxiang County is the North Road, and the leaders are the two brothers "Big Red Wolf" and "Little Red Wolf".

Third, the brothers of "Big Red Wolf" and "Little Red Wolf" stationed in Ningxiang are under the command of "King Daliang".

Fourth, the "King of Liang" is stationed in the steep mountain valley, as for how to go to the mountain god valley and where the old camp of the king of Liang is, these minions are not clear.

Fifth, the local inspection department of Guangwuzhuang in the northeast of Shilou County has long been killed, and now it is guarded by a large group of thieves led by the right prime minister of the thief army, "Zijin Liang".

And the most important thing is that from the mouths of these thieves, Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng accurately concluded for the first time that the co-owner of all the thieves in Shanxi is now the "Hengtian One Word King" in the mountains to the east.

Of course, apart from the well-known nicknames among the thieves and rebels, these captured minions could not tell the real names of their leaders.

However, according to the information they said, coupled with the thieves in Huangluling and Shikou that had been confirmed before, it was enough for Hong Chengchou to make a clear judgment on the situation in front of him.

Therefore, on the second day after receiving these information, on the morning of the seventh day of the fifth month, Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng jointly wrote a letter about these precious first-hand information and sent them to Fenxi on a fast horse to transfer it to Li Banghua, Minister of Military Aircraft.

As soon as Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng's joint letter was sent out of the city, they ushered in an order from Li Banghua from Lingshi.

Li Banghua's judgment was made based on the information sent by Hong Chengchou before, and of course it was basically the same as that of Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng, except for some specific details, there were no problems.

But at this time, a new situation has just appeared, and they have just sent this situation out, so they don't know what to do at this time.

But this hesitation lasted only one day.

Because on the morning of the ninth day of the fifth month, the will of the imperial court was finally sent by the second wave of messengers urgently sent by Li Banghua to Shilou County, and it was transmitted to Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng.

Zhang Zongheng's township soldiers and guards were organized into economic battalions on the spot, named "Zhenxi Battalion", which was still led by Zhang Zongheng, the envoy of Shanxi, and was under the control and command of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi.

Of course, the Zhenxi Battalion, which was originally set at 3,500 people in the emperor's holy decree, has lost nearly 300 people before it has been formed, and only 3,200 people remain.

And Hong Chengchou also took advantage of the situation to incorporate Zhong Dewu and his 200 people into the camp in the west of the town, but he still listened to orders under his own account.

At the same time, Wang Chengen, the deputy general of Shaanxi under Hong Chengchou, also succeeded Zhang Guoxing as the general of Shaanxi.

The coming of Emperor Chongzhen's will made Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng, who didn't know how to be good, suddenly had something to do.

However, two days later, as soon as the shelves in the camp in Zhenxi were erected and the reorganization had just come to an end, Hong Chengchou, who was in the stone building, received the third wave of messengers sent by Li Banghua.

This time, Li Banghua sternly reiterated the previous military order, ordering Hong Chengchou's headquarters and Zhang Zongheng's headquarters to newly organize the town of Xiying, hold the stone tower, do not move lightly, and wait for the new Shaanxi army commander-in-chief Wang Chengen to lead the army to reinforce.

Li Banghua didn't say the reason, but it didn't take long for Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng to understand that something big must have happened in the Huangluling area at the eastern foot of Luliang Mountain!