After Li Laiheng left Weishi County, he led the twist army to approach Kaifeng.

The Kaifeng Qing army was like a great enemy, closed the city gate, and held out.

Originally, there were nearly 1,000 Eight Banner soldiers stationed here, but after several transfers, there are now only more than 200 Eight Banner soldiers left in the city, and more than 1,000 Green Battalion soldiers. Although the Eight Banners claimed to be able to fight ten with one, they were really very cautious in the face of the Twist Army, which was ten times their size, and did not go out of the city to fight.

Let's defend Kaifeng first - I heard that Luoyang was attacked by this group of southern thieves, if the limited forces are sent out, in case the southern thieves repeat their old tricks, the sin of losing the provincial capital Kaifeng will be too great.

After waiting for three days, he didn't even see the shadow of the Twist Army, but he received the news of the loss of Qixian County, and Li Laiheng directly intervened from the south, and he had no intention of attacking Kaifeng at all.

At this time, Bamburshan also sent people to Kaifeng, asking Kaifeng to send troops to cooperate with him to exterminate the Twist Army, and the commander of the Eight Banners in the city wanted to agree to him, but was unanimously opposed by other officials. Although Wu Jingdao, the governor of Henan, was not there, there were other civil and military officials such as political envoys, and they worked hard to persuade the Eight Banners Taijun not to act rashly, and the main general of the Eight Banners was just a small third-class A Lazhangjing, and he didn't dare to make up his mind, so the matter of sending troops was delayed.

Li Laiheng broke through Qixian County, swept the surrounding forts again, cut off thousands of braids, and got more than 200 horses. So far, the Twist Army has more than 2,700 horses, and almost two cavalry can have three horses.

On both sides of the official road from Qixian to the east, there are neat wheat fields like a ruler measuring out. Divided by ridges and paths, it stretches to the horizon in the distance, and seems to be boundless. There are also wood-shaded villages and forts.

In the green wheat fields, there are no farmers to be seen, and the Twist Army Brigade has passed by, and the farmers have long fled back to the village to hide. Although these forts may not be able to stop the attack of the army, they are already the safest places on the Qianli Plain.

Li Laiheng looked at the sun, pointed to a fortress on the left with a horsewhip and said, "It's still too late, turn around and go to that village." Such a big stockade. There should be a few horses, and we won't be allowed to run empty. ”

Following his order, the troop of the Twisters turned down the path. Come to a fort. At the same time as Li Laiheng set up his position, he sent people to shout in front of the wall, revealing the identity of the Twist Army, and ordering the village to surrender within the time limit of a stick of incense...... Minutes and seconds passed. When the incense stick that was planted in the ground looked like it was about to burn out. The gate creaked open.

Cut the braids.

Collect horses.

After doing these two things very skillfully, the Twist Army turned and left, hula and walked away like the ebb tide, as if they had never been here at all, leaving only the men in the village touching the broken hair on the back of their heads one by one, with complicated expressions.

"The cavalry of the Eight Banners under Bambulshan is one man and one horse, even if they advance lightly and quickly, leaving behind the horsemen and auxiliaries who have no horses. It's slower than ours, as long as he doesn't sneak up on him. The Tartar cavalry will certainly not be able to catch up with us. Li Laiheng said to Zhang Nai and other generals: "Bambulshan has not reacted yet, and has not collected the horses in the various forts, let's take this opportunity to get more horses, and strive to achieve one person and two horsemen, and then slowly circle with him, and drag the Tartar cavalry to death." ”

Zhang Nai nodded: "It's a good thing that there are more horses, but the supply of grain and grass is a little troublesome." The rations that people eat are okay, but the horses can't bring too much forage, and in the past few days, many horses have lost weight, and they can't make up for it with a lot of soybean essence. ”

"Then I'll have to eat green." Li Laiheng thought for a while and said: "Now that the wheat seedlings are fattening, let the war horses go to the field to eat the green seedlings, eat all the fields tightly, and then leave some silver as compensation." Let's go back to Henan this time, we can't ruin the reputation of the Chu army, anyway, the silver we snatched from the Tartars is just right to help us pay......"

An hour later, in an unknown village, Li Laiheng met the representatives of the Yuyuan Army such as the monk Doudong who came to greet him.

The monk Ludong was the ancestor who killed his wife and proved the ancestral tomb of Daoping, and Yan Ermei, who did not share the sky with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, came with him, and Ye Tingxiu, another former Ming official who participated in the Yuyuan Army.

Ye Tingxiu was a jinshi in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, and in the Southern Ming Dynasty, he was the highest right servant of the military department, and after the Qing army invaded Fujian, he fled back to his hometown in Puzhou (now Heze, Shandong), and shaved his head to become a Shunmin. At first, he had illusions about the Qing court and cooperated with the Manchu magistrates as a reclusive squire, but later his thinking changed and he joined the Yuyuan Army and joined the struggle against the Qing Dynasty.

Last summer, the Yuyuan Army was surrounded and suppressed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and suffered heavy losses, and the leader of the rebel army, Li Huajing, surrendered and was captured. However, the Yuyuan Army was a loose alliance, and the other rebel army departments were still insisting on resisting the Qing Dynasty, among which the larger ones were Zhang Qi, Ren Qi, Liang Min and other units, and Ye Tingxiu served as a military advisor under Zhang Qi.

"I heard that General Xiao Li arrived in Henan, Zhang Shuai, Ren Shuai and Liang Shuai were very happy, and together with 20,000 troops to attack eastern Henan, from both sides of the Yellow River to Kaifeng, my family Zhang Shuai is on the south bank of the Yellow River, less than seventy miles away......

After a few brief greetings, Ye Tingxiu began to introduce the situation, and then put forward a grand battle plan: "I heard that General Xiao Li has two thousand iron cavalry under his command, and my Zhang Shuai intends to cooperate with your army to fight a decisive battle with the Tartars under the city of Kaifeng, and if he wins, he will capture Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, and shake the Central Plains; If you lose, you will be transferred to Xuzhou and find another good strategy......"

Ye Tingxiu was a soldier in the end, not only eloquent is very good, but also when it comes to marching and fighting the head of the war, according to the plan he described, the Yuyuan army and the twist army cooperate with each other, with Caozhou in Shandong as the center, open the seal in the west, enter Xuzhou in the south, and go to the daimyo in the north.

Li Laiheng shook his head: "Xuzhou and the Daimyo are going to fight, but they can't fight now, and Kaifeng can't fight now." I came to Yudong this time, just to meet Zhang Shuai, Ren Shuai and Liang Shuai, after some words are said, turn around and leave, Mr. Ye does not have to worry. ”

I didn't expect him to be so direct, Ye Tingxiu's face was slightly red, and he was very embarrassed.

As a military advisor under Zhang Qi, of course he knew the thoughts of several leaders of the Yuyuan Army, who not only wanted to get the support of Nanming, but also feared being swallowed and eaten by Li Laiheng...... Hearing that Li Laiheng had arrived in Henan, Zhang Qi, Ren Qi and Liang Min had already discussed countermeasures, and they wanted to put the Twist Army in front as a gunman, and the Yuyuan Army followed behind to pick up the cheap.

"Withdraw the troops, Bamburshan is behind my ass, we don't have to fight with him, let's go to Caozhou first." Li Laiheng is going to the lair of the Yuyuan Army. (To be continued......)