In late May, the days are long and the nights are short, and just after midnight, the sky gradually brightens, and by the time the sun is over the eastern horizon. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Although there are mountains blocking the morning sun, Shennanyu still ushered in the dawn of the morning.

Because Lu Xiangguan's subordinates took the heads of Wang Jiayin and Wang Er to surrender everywhere, and because most of the thief army in Shennanyu had surrendered to the official army at this time, those thieves who had robbed the property and fled all over the mountain after the fire in Yunfeng Temple quickly walked out of the mountains and forests around Shennanyu in groups after dawn, took the property they had looted before, laid down their weapons, and surrendered to the various official and military detachments under the command of Lu Xiangguan.

In the end, when the troops were withdrawn around the time of Mao, the fires in Yunfeng Temple and Niangniang Temple had been basically extinguished.

And Lu Xiangguan's command also brought back nearly 2,000 thieves and prisoners to Lu Xiangsheng one after another.

When the sun arrived, the sun rose on the southeast mountain, and Lu Xiangsheng took Li Bei, Chen Tan, Lu Xiangguan, and Liu Guoneng who entered Shennanyu this time, accumulating a total of more than 5,000 people, and finally finished breakfast in turn, and according to the previous division of labor, each performed his own duties and started to work.

Some continued to guard the prisoners of the thieves who had surrendered, confiscated their long and short weapons, tied their hands behind their backs, put nooses around their necks, and escorted them in batches in the direction of Shikou.

Some relied on the walled camp of the thief army before Shennanyu, supervised some of the selected thief army and began to rebuild and rebuild.

And Lu Xiangsheng took part of the elite musket team under Li Bei, led by Zhang Liwei, and explored the terrain of Shennanyu non-stop.

He had already learned from Wang Guozhong and Zhang Liwei that Bai Wenbo, the "Heavenly Dragon", led another brigade of men and horses to carry many heavy family members to the direction of Ningxiang.

At the same time, he also learned from the mouths of the two of them that there was a mountain road southwest from Shennanyu, which could lead to the Guangwuzhuang camp at the foot of Shilou Mountain, which was used by another thief king.

Now that Huangluling, Shimenguan and Shennanyu have all been uprooted by the official army, then the remaining thieves are only in the two directions of Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang.

And in these two directions, you can start from Shennanyu and attack the officers and troops of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi, who have already arrived on the western front.

Once this strategic intention is realized, then the main force of the thief army in the southern section of Luliang Mountain will not be far from complete annihilation.

After some on-the-spot investigation, Lu Xiangsheng wrote a long letter to Li Banghua, who was sitting on the front line of Shimen Pass, in the newly established Shennanyu camp of the officers and troops of his subordinate that night, putting forward the idea and plan of launching an attack from behind Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang.

The specific idea is to drive a part of the thief army to repair the mountain road leading from Shennanyu to Guangwuzhuang and Ningxiang as in the attack on Toudaoling from Shikou, widen and pave it, and then transport several Chongzhen rear-loading smoothbore mother guns up the mountain, using the sharpness of the artillery and musket team, mainly in the direction of Ningxiang, supplemented by the direction of Guangwuzhuang, and the men and horses under the command of Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi, to flank the thief army of the "King of Daliang" Wang Zuohang and the "Zijinliang" Wang Ziyong.

Of course, if Lu Xiangsheng knew how important Luo Ru was under Wang Ziyong's command at this time, then he would definitely choose to focus on the direction of Guangwuzhuang.

But it's a pity that he didn't know, not only did he not know, but the mountain road leading from Shennanyu to Guangwuzhuang was not only narrow and difficult to walk, but also needed to cross the mountains and mountains, and many places had to rebuild the plank road to allow the artillery to pass.

In stark contrast, the mountain road leading to Ningxiang was originally a northwest-southeast mountain valley, and there was an old road to follow, so it was not difficult to renovate, and it was convenient for people and horses to pass through the baggage and the most important artillery today.

Therefore, after Lu Xiangsheng learned that the "Heavenly Dragon" took a large number of heavy family members from the old camp of the thief army and took this mountain road leading to Ningxiang, he personally went to the field to investigate, and quickly made up his mind to put forward such a suggestion in Li Banghua's letter.

Early the next morning, Lu Xiangsheng's letter was delivered to an official camp in Shikou, where Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft and the supervisor of Shanxi's anti-thief warfare, was now there.

After learning that the thieves Wang Jiayin and Wang Er were killed, and Lu Xiangsheng also successfully occupied Shennanyu, Li Banghua quickly handed over the defense of the Shimenguan camp and the care of a large number of prisoners to Wei Xian, the general of the Shaanxi army, and Dong Xueli, the cavalry general of the Tianxiong battalion, who were ordered to escort a large number of heavy grain and grass, and then took some of the men and horses of the Chinese army in the mine camp to Shikou to meet Lu Yuanding, and sat in Shikou to coordinate the overall situation.

After receiving Lu Xiangsheng's letter and knowing Lu Xiangsheng's plan, Li Banghua immediately agreed.

Now under the command of Shaanxi Governor Hong Chengchou, he has been stationed on the front line of Shilou and Ningxiang for many days, although the outpost battles and encounters between the thief army continue to occur, but they have never launched a decisive offensive.

First, it is because there are not enough people under the command of Shaanxi Governor Hong Chengchou, in addition to the new town of more than 3,000 people, there are only more than 1,000 people in Shaanxi Fubiao Central Army brought by Hong Chengchou, and they really do not have the ability to launch a powerful offensive in the two directions of Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang.

But counting the days, by this time in late May, Wang Chengen, the new chief military officer of Shaanxi who was sent to reinforce Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng, should have arrived at Shilou, and the troops under Hong Chengchou's command were close to 7,000, so he should be able to launch an offensive.

It may be difficult to defeat the enemy in a single offensive alone, but if you fight back and forth with Lu Xiangsheng's troops, who have now captured Shennanyu, then the chances of victory are much greater.

Li Banghua has been away from Beijing for almost four months, although the emperor did not chase and urge him to make meritorious contributions as soon as possible, and he has always behaved calmly and calmly, but he is still a little anxious in his heart, after all, the problem of grain and grass transportation, with the protracted war, has become more and more a problem.

This time, the reason why he let Lu Xiangsheng lead his men and horses to attack Shennanyu was not because he felt that Shennanyu was a hard bone to gnaw on, and he was afraid that he would lose face if he couldn't beat it, nor because he deliberately wanted to use this battle to cultivate and promote Lu Xiangsheng, but that he had to stay in the camp near Shimen Pass and sit in charge of transporting a large amount of heavy grain and grass needed by the army.

Whether it was in Jiexiu before or in Lingshi later, the grain and grass transported from Lu'an Mansion and Taiyuan are still relatively easy to arrive.

And the consumption on the road is not much, but only two percent.

But at this time, he led the army, from Lingshi along the mountain road west for nearly two hundred miles, all the way to Shikou, and now the army has entered the Shennanyu, which is difficult to travel on the mountain road, and the problem of transporting grain and grass is immediately highlighted.

Especially now is different from the past, the food carried in the past can be simply used by the officials and soldiers for their own use, and now in the battle of Shimen Pass, more than 8,000 thieves have been taken prisoners before and after, except for more than 1,000 people in the Chinese army under Liu Guoneng's department who were temporarily incorporated into the Tianxiong camp and followed into Shennanyu, the remaining more than 7,000 people were in several large camps before and after Shimen Pass, and were guarded by the officers and soldiers.

Although they have long been disarmed, and there is no danger of turning elbows and armpits, and causing trouble to the wall, since you have taken these prisoners of the thief army, you can't stop them from eating, even if you give them one porridge a day, and suddenly there are seven or eight thousand mouths for eating, and the food problem will soon become a fatal problem.

Therefore, as soon as the First Battle of Shimen Pass ended, Li Banghua sent people to Fenxi to give an order, asking Wei Xian, the general of the Shaanxi Army who was guarding Fenxi, to bring his own orders to Fenxi, Huozhou, and Pingyang to collect and transport grain and grass, and send them to the army for backup.

Fortunately, the rain fell from the sky before, which greatly alleviated the drought in Pingyang Prefecture, and the government offices of Fenxi, Huozhou, and Pingyang dared to be bold and lend the life-saving grain in the treasury to Guan Weixian, who was holding the order of Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft, to collect grain.

The problem of food not only troubles Li Banghua, but also troubles Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng, who are now on the Western Front, as well as the leaders of the thief army in the direction of Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang.