"Open the meal! It's time to eat! ”

Hearing this long-awaited shout, the long hungry Twist sergeant immediately lined up in front of the improvised stove, holding tattered rice bowls, and urging his companions in front of him to hurry up to receive the meal, during which many people complained, "Why is it Yam (Huai Yam)?" With so many wild vegetables, can't you give us something decent? ”

"Fuck you, don't you look at what place this is? It's good to have something to eat. The general scolded and said: "If you want to eat well, wait until you have passed the Dabie Mountain, after this Dabie Mountain is Hubei, where there are as many villages and towns, some are food to eat and beautiful girls, and you will have a good life when you arrive in Hubei." ”

"Sun Xiaoqi, is the village in Hubei good to fight?" A soldier of the Twist Army asked curiously, and said worriedly: "Don't be like the last time you fought the Tulou Village, the village was not defeated, and a lot of people died." ”

"Your shitty little crow's mouth!" Sun Xiaoqi scolded, and said very proudly: "Don't worry, Hubei is not like us Anhui fights every day, the village market has not repaired the wall and dug the trench, you can fight directly if you want to, you don't need to fill the trench and turn over the wall, you just have to enjoy the blessings when you get to Hubei." ”

"Really? Is there still a village in the world that has not built a wall, dug a trench? ”

"! When your baby was young, the village where your family lived built a wall? Hubei is not like our Anhui village, life is hard, and if you don't repair the wall, you don't even dare to sleep peacefully. ”

Similar conversations of gossip come and go in this twisting army team, and before and after this twisting army team, there are fifteen or sixteen twisted army teams with different banners, the scale is different, most of them reach more than 10,000 people, and there are thousands of people in the few, stretching for more than ten miles on the narrow mountain road in the Dabie Mountains, among which there are also cavalry riding war horses, mules and donkeys, and the weapons and equipment are varied, iron knives, spears, axes, halberds, halberds, bird guns, flintlock guns, and a certain number of mini guns and carbines, and even a few mountain splitting cannons and pine cannons, as if it were an exhibition hall of old-fashioned weapons.

Among these twisted army teams, the largest number of troops, the most war horses and the best weapons and equipment is the main force of the Twist Army Zhenghuang Banner led by Zhang Lexing himself, followed by the strength of the Twist Army led by Gong Deshu General White Flag, and the other dozen or so twisted armies of different sizes are all in response to the call of Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu, the two big twisters, the purpose is to prepare to pass through the Dabie Mountains, bypass the defense line of the Wu army in the north of Huangzhou Mansion in Hubei, and go south from the road of Liubo Xindian to the west of Qiyindian, enter Hubei to kill people and set fires, loot supplies, and also surround Wei to save Zhao by the way, to share the pressure of the Wu army for the Taiping army, an ally of the Twist Army.

Because the narrow mountain road is not conducive to cavalry action, Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu originally didn't want to go through the mountain road of Heishidu, Shangtuji and Qiyindian, but there was no way, and the information provided by the Weng brothers who secretly agreed to borrow the road to the Twist Army showed that the Wu army of Huangzhou had long been heavily defended in the area of Changling Pass, Songzi Pass and Duoyun Town, and it was difficult for the Twist Army to enter Hubei from this road in the southeast of Gwangju, and at the same time, there were also the troops of Jiang Yili of the Henan Wu Army and the cavalry of Shubao entrenched in Gwangju. Once the Twist Army, which is not good at frontal combat and even less good at attacking fortifications, is blocked by the Hubei Wu Army in the north of the Changling Pass defense line, it is possible that the Hubei Wu Army and the Henan Wu Army will be surrounded at any time, and there will be no place to be buried. So there is no way, if the Twist Army wants to avoid the real attack and enter Hubei, the only choice at present is to take Yingzhou to go south to Lu'an, cross from Heishi into the mountains and pass through the Shangtu Market in the mountains, and then go south to Qiyindian and go west to Hubei.

Fortunately, when the Weng family brothers who led the remnants of the Qing army in Anhui kept their promise and did not send troops to intercept the battle, even if the Twist Army detoured from the state city of Lu'an Prefecture, the Qing army in Lu'an City also never went out, allowing the Twist Army Brigade to cross the border, and also turned a blind eye to the inevitable stealing of chickens and dogs by the Twist soldiers, and the Twist Army with a scale of more than 30,000 people was also able to quickly penetrate Yingzhou and Lu'an, and went south to Huoshan from Heishidu into the mountains.

In addition, in order to deliberately disgust the old enemy Wu Chaoyue, the Weng brothers also quietly arranged a few guides for Zhang Lexing and others, so after going south from Heishidu, the Twist Army who came to this place for the first time still marched fast, and it only took one day to rush to the vicinity of Xinpugou, and there was only half a day's journey from Shangtu City. Then because the sky was already slightly dark, Zhang Lexing, who was unwilling to walk the mountain road at night, ordered to bury the pot and make rice, and then there was the previous scene.

While the soldiers were eating, the banner owners of the Twist Army led by Zhang Lexing and Gong Deshu also gathered together to drink wine, enjoy the game they hunted on the way, and discuss their next actions by the way. And because of the smooth march of the army, more than a dozen large and small banner owners are quite good, some talk and laugh, and some people suggest that after going to the soil, should we find a few mountain village girls to come to Le and Lehe? As a result, Gong Deshu laughed and scolded, and said: "The people you are all fools when you become the soil, seeing so many of our troops entering the mountains, can you hide in the mountains early, so why are you looking for the same girls?" ”

"Even if there are girls, they are absolutely not allowed to rob!" Zhang Lexing, who had the most bizarre conduct in the army, said sharply: "We borrowed the road to enter Hubei, the Weng brothers are so trustworthy, and we still harass the people under their rule, how can it be justified?" Besides, Lu'an is already poor here, and the villagers in the mountains are even poorer, if we bully them again, God will not let us go. ”

Knowing Zhang Lexing's upright temper, the leaders of the Twisted Army didn't dare to say anything, and even Gong Deshu, who was the second strongest, could only change his words obediently and said: "King Wo is right, the people here in Lu'an are not stronger than when we were ordinary people before, so don't make things worse for them." Everyone restrain their soldiers, want the girls to eat and wear, and wait until they get to Hubei, where it is beyond the territory of the little demon, we don't need to be polite. ”

The leaders of the Twist Army said yes one after another, and Zhang Lexing's face slowed down at this time, and said: "Blind Gong is right, everyone works hard to restrain their subordinates, and if you want good things, wait until you enter Hubei, you all know what kind of temper I Zhang Laole has, and if you have good things, you will never eat alone." But you also have to remember to me that after entering Hubei, don't just care about grabbing silver and grain, but try to fight as much as possible in the interior of Hubei, where there are not only more good things, but also force the little demon to quickly withdraw the army on the front line, which is the purpose of our hard detour into Hubei. ”

"Of course, who are you, King Wo, who do we know? If we don't have absolute trust in you, we can pull our brothers here so hard? ”

The flag owners of the Twisted Army said yes again, and after gossiping with Zhang Lexing for a while, they didn't know if it was the Twisted Army Banner Owner who suddenly came out with such a sentence, and said: "I hope to enter Hubei smoothly, otherwise, it will be difficult for us to go back to this road, whether it is a demon soldier or a clear demon, as long as we find a dangerous place to block it, none of us want to live." ”

"Phew! Crow's beak! Lu Xiaofa, can you fucking talk auspiciously? ”

When the leaders of the Twisted Army heard this, they all opened their mouths to angrily reprimand the banner owner's unlucky words, and the little banner owner surnamed Lu also quickly gave himself a few mouths, apologized to everyone again and again, and admitted that he had spoken too much. Zhang Lexing did not participate in the condemnation of the banner owner surnamed Lu, and raised his head to look at the dense mountains and forests on both sides, and said in his heart: "Lu Xiaofa is right, it is indeed dangerous for us twisters here, but there is no way, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, the King of Heaven and the King of Wings, I have to take this risk." ”

In fact, in terms of personality alone, Zhang Lexing should be more qualified than Shi Dakai to be called the righteous king, born in a landlord family, opened a grain shop and sold smuggled salt, but he likes to act chivalrous and righteous, jealous and hateful, especially like to fight for the poor people, because he cut off local bullies for the people and was forced to go to Liangshan, robbing the rich and helping the poor never harmed the people, and becoming the general flag owner of the Twisted Army was extremely firm in his anti-Qing position, and refused to surrender to the Qing army countless times, and cooperated with the Taiping Army to fight the Qing Army was also more active than any of the flag owners of the Twisted Army. After the Taiping Army and the Wu Army turned their faces, Zhang Lexing kept his promise and kept in mind the alliance with the Taiping Army, regardless of the strength of the Wu Army, resolutely stood on the side of the Taiping Army, and took the initiative to call on the Twist Army to oppose Wu, in order to share the pressure on the frontal battlefield for the Taiping Army, he did not hesitate to take the risk of attacking the rear hinterland of the Wu Army.

Fortunately, maybe it is the sky that has eyes to protect the righteous soldiers, Zhang Lexing led the Twist Army soldiers to spend the first night after going deep into the mountains safely, and when they were ready to set off the next morning, Zhang Lexing specially ordered the whole army, asking all units of the Twist Army to speed up, not to delay in the Shangtuji in front, and strive to rush to Qiyindian before dark, and at the same time did not forget to explain that they should not harass the people of Lu'an. Then he continued to take Gong Deshu's general white flag as the main vanguard, and drove at full speed to Qiyindian.

It was just after ten o'clock in the morning, and the front team of the Twist Army led by Gong Deshu had already arrived in Shangtuji, and the result was not as expected by Gong Deshu, the people in this small mountain market had indeed fled, leaving only dozens of dilapidated houses with closed doors. And then it was uncontrollable, and there were still some soldiers with a white flag who couldn't control themselves, and quietly pried open the doors and windows of the house and sneaked into the room to rob, and then continued......

"you, you're rich! There are clothes, and there is food! And wine! ”

After being pleasantly surprised to find that Shangtuji, a small mountain market, was quite rich, the discipline was far inferior to the total yellow flag, and the white flag team of the Twisted Army soon fell into chaos, the soldiers smashed the door and entered the house to rob, the small boss extorted the soldiers who succeeded in stealing, and some soldiers also fought for the goods in a small mess shop, Gong Deshu began to order restraint, but after seeing that he could indeed grab something, Gong Deshu also sighed, signaled the team to pause, and let the soldiers enjoy looting this unexpectedly rich mountain market.

And then, more naturally, when a large number of soldiers gathered in the open space of Shangtuji, the ground under their feet erupted one after another with a loud noise, the fire and earth and stone rushed to the sky together, the soldiers of the Twist Army screamed and fell in a pool of blood, and at the same time, there was a loud sound of gunfire in front of the road and on both sides, and countless soldiers of the Wu Army wearing white tasseled hats suddenly killed like heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals, and the Twist Army was suddenly in chaos, and the screams came one after another, "Demon soldiers!" White Hat Demon Soldier! There is an ambush, an ambush by the demon soldiers among us! ”

"Retreat!"

Almost didn't think about it, Gong Deshu, who was good at escaping, immediately ordered to escape, and took the lead in rushing to the way he came, and was ambushed by the Wu army and killed a surprise white flag twist sergeant like a soldier, you push me to run for my life first, striding just to charge the way from which he came, and the invincible main force of the white flag of the army of the general white flag of the army of the landlords who bullied the landlords in the countryside at the junction of Henan and Anhui almost collapsed in the blink of an eye. - But this really can't be blamed for the incompetence of the White Flag of the Twist Army, which was first blown up by mines in the narrow area, and then immediately hit by mountain splitting cannons and grenadiers, even if it was replaced by the second-line team of the Wu Army, it had to collapse immediately.

The vicious intentions of the Wu army to set up an ambush on the narrow mountain road immediately received the desired effect, crowded and fled, in addition to trampling on each other and constantly pushing their companions down the mountain road, the defeated soldiers of the Yellow Banner of the Twist Army in addition to trampling on each other and constantly pushing their companions down the mountain road, and unceremoniously rushed to the back of the friendly army columns, resulting in the subsequent collapse of the Twist Army without firing a shot, and joined the defeated crowd in a daze, and then the defeated army of the Twist Army was like a snowball, and the other two Twist Army directly rushed away, and it happened that there were many donkeys, horses, and mules in the Twist Army. Countless soldiers of the Twist Army died tragically under the barefoot straw shoes of their companions, and more soldiers of the Twist Army were pushed down the ravine and fell to death and were injured, either becoming prisoners of the Wu Army, or becoming the mouths of snakes, insects, tigers and leopards, and the clamor of crying and pleading directly overpowered the gunfire and grenade explosions of the pursuers of the Wu Army.

Fortunately, Zhang Lexing's luck was not bad, when the defeated soldiers of the Twist Army fled from the mountain road, the main force of the Yellow Banner of the Twisted Army led by Zhang Lexing happened to be in a relatively open position, and found that the situation ahead was not right, Zhang Lexing, who was experienced in the flow, immediately ordered the army to spread out on both sides, let the road open for the defeated troops of the friendly army, and at the same time set up a blocking position on the spot, preparing to catch the pursuing soldiers for the friendly army.

But there are still some regrets, the mountain road is still too narrow, no matter how Zhang Lexing's men and horses avoid, the crowd that rushed to twist the army still disrupted the blocking position of Zhang Le's march, trampling to death and overturning a lot of Zhang Le's marching soldiers who were ready to fight, resulting in the Wu army's pursuers chasing and killing when they were near, Zhang Le's march was no longer able to rely on the narrow terrain to effectively block the attack, and could only flee in embarrassment under the pursuit of the Wu army, and the formation was a little chaotic and retreated towards the way it came. - This is also thanks to the strict discipline of Zhang Le's marching army, and the quality of the soldiers is relatively high, and if it was replaced by other twisted troops, it would have completely collapsed long ago.

Zhang Lexing's army did not care about the gains and losses, and took on the heavy responsibility of the palace, but the other twisted army banner owners were more selfish than one another, taking advantage of the opportunity of Zhang Lexing's palace to escape faster than one, Zhang Lexing sent people to contact other flag owners several times, asking them to find favorable terrain to build a blocking position, help themselves get rid of the Wu army's pursuit, and give themselves a chance to breathe and adjust, but none of the twisted army banner owners, including Gong Deshu, obeyed, all of them only cared about their own lives and refused to eat the loss of the palace, and they continued to trample on each other in the escape, causing each other to die and hurt each other and destroy the road, increasing the difficulty of Zhang Le's march to escape, Zhang Lexing was so angry that he shouted, but he was helpless. In the end, Zhang Lexing had no choice but to yell: "Fuck it, Lao Tzu will beat the queen of the palace by himself!" Leave it to your death! ”

Relying on the relatively much stricter military discipline and the quality of the soldiers, as well as rich battlefield experience, Zhang Lexing quickly dispatched troops, divided an elite army to step forward, found a favorable position to establish a blocking position, and then relied on the cover of this army's death, Zhang Lexing's brigade finally got a chance to breathe, quickly readjusted the queue, and then relied on the favorable terrain of the narrow mountain road and fought and retreated, without giving the Wu army a chance to disrupt the situation, while sheltering the defeated soldiers and lost materials of the friendly army, while retreating quite calmly. The Wu army suffered a loss in that the troops could not be deployed, and the advantage of empty weapons could not be brought into play, so they could only chase Zhang Lexing's ass and beat slowly, and tried to charge and disrupt Zhang Lexing's formation several times, but they were also repelled by Zhang Lexing's marching army, who had already relieved his breath, relying on the narrow terrain, and many soldiers were killed and wounded in vain.

If it continues to fight like this, as long as it withdraws from the mountainous area of Dabie Mountain, Zhang Le's marching army will definitely be able to rely on the advantage of a large number of horses, donkeys and mules to quickly get rid of the pursuit of the Wu army's infantry and return to the sea, but just when Zhang Le's marching army decided so, when the sky was dark and there was still a considerable distance from the exit of the mountainous area, the defeated brigade of the Twist Army, which had rushed out of the long distance, rushed back again, and collided head-on with Zhang Le's marching army, which had already adjusted the queue.

Zhang Lexing was furious and sent someone to inquire about the reason, only to learn that the cavalry Shubao Department of the Wu army had joined forces with the Lu'an Qing army to block the road out of the mountain in the narrow part of the mountain road.

"I want Lao Tzu to be the queen of the palace, and I want Lao Tzu to open the way, you should be Lao Tzu with three heads and six arms?! Command the rear army, seize the advantageous position to set up temporary fortifications, block the demon soldiers first, and buy time for Lao Tzu to arrange the deployment! ”

Relying on the advantage that the narrow mountain road is conducive to blocking, Zhang Lexing's sergeants really temporarily blocked the pursuit of the Wu army, and then Zhang Lexing quickly convened a meeting of the banner owners of the Twisted Army to discuss the strategy of breaking through, and decided to let the Twisted Army Banners take turns to go into battle, attack the Wu Army's blocking position and open the escape road, and also agreed in advance on the offensive scale of each flag and the prerequisites for being forced to retreat, and decided the order of attack by drawing lots and drawing lots.

Blocked by the Wu army and the Lu'an Qing army on the narrow mountain road, the time of death is just around the corner, the flags of the Twisted Army even have to agree on the scale of the troops and the conditions for retreat in advance, selfishness to the point that the breakthrough effect of the Twisted Army Banners can be imagined - fierce battle for a day and two nights, no Twist Army can rush through the Wu Army's blocking position in formation, the soldiers and soldiers scattered and fled into the deep mountains and old forests are countless, and the Twist soldiers who took the initiative to lay down their arms and surrender under the persuasion of the Wu Army and the Qing Army are even more numerous, and finally even Gong Deshu relies on his night vision expertise, with a few personal soldiers fled into the dense forest in the middle of the night.

Of course, Zhang Lexing was the hardest working to block the front and back, but unfortunately the strength was not as good, the weapons were at a disadvantage and the terrain was unfavorable, and Zhang Le's marching army suffered heavy casualties and still failed to kill the Wu army to surround him. What's even more vicious is that when Zhang Le's march suffered heavy casualties, Li Qinbang, the banner owner of the Twisted Army, also seized the opportunity to take down the exhausted Zhang Lexing with a group of cronies, and put him in front of the Wu army in exchange for his own life.

After receiving the news that Shu Bao and others captured Zhang Lexing, Wu Chaoyue's first order was to prohibit the abuse of Zhang Lexing, and he was determined to make every effort to make this rare righteous man in troubled times his own use, and use his influence in the Twist Army to deal with the Twist Army Banners. At the same time, when there were no major hidden dangers in the rear, Wu Chaoyue also began to consider personally leading the Third Route Eastern Expeditionary Army eastward into Nanjing, and personally commanding the decisive battle with the Taiping Army in Nanjing.