What happened in Gongchang Mansion at the end of August was that Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao Luo Rucai, the eight kings, suddenly turned against Bai Minghe, who had been helping them directly, and led his troops to kill Bai Minghe and rob Gongchang Mansion (where Longxi City, Gansu Province was located in later generations).

Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's respective teams, with a total of more than 40,000 men and horses, retreated all the way west from the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu, and after arriving in Anding (later Dingxi, Gansu), so many men and horses had nowhere to get enough supplies.

So soon after they settled down, the two of them began to go south to Gongchang Mansion to borrow grain from Bai Minghe, the local leader of Musuman.

At first, of course, it was to borrow grain, but it didn't take long for it to become a food grab.

Now that the towns and villages in this area are depressed, the countryside is ruined, and there are no Han Chinese people, these westward thieves are like fish and turtles that have left the pond, and there is no place to get supplies.

Fortunately for the first month, under the constraints of Gao Yingxiang's repeated orders, there was no large-scale fire fight between the two sides.

However, at the end of August, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's two large battalions, with tens of thousands of men and horses waiting to be fed, had reached a time when they could no longer survive, and it was impossible to coexist with Bai Minghe's subordinates, who had money and food in the city of Gongchangfu.

Therefore, at noon on August 28, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai each led their elite men and horses to Gongchang Mansion City in person, looking for Bai Minghe, the head snake, to discuss the matter of Zhang and Luo's troops entering the city and stationing them.

Bai Minghe thought that in the city of Gongchang Mansion, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were bold, and they didn't dare to do anything to themselves on their own territory, so they let Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai each enter the city with their own teams.

As soon as the results appeared, Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king, turned his face, and Zhang Xianzhong's left and right guards rushed up and went straight to Bai Minghe.

Under a fierce battle, Bai Minghe was killed on the spot by Zhang Kewang, the son of the Eight Kings Zhang Xianzhong, and Mu Suman in the city, after the pseudo-commander made Bai Minghe die, not only did not avenge him, but also fled in all directions.

And Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's men and horses left outside the city quickly waved their troops to attack the city, and in less than half an hour, they grabbed Gongchang Mansion City.

The Xiying and Cao Ying men and horses under the command of the Chuang Army immediately burned and looted in Gongchang Mansion and started killing.

Bai Minghe's Musu barbarian army robbed the Han people in the whole city before, as well as robbed the surrounding Han talents to accumulate a lot of wealth, and this time, it also fell into the hands of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai.

After the news of Gongchang Mansion City reached Lintao, Ma Guangyu, the commander of Mu Su Barbarian, who had always been very deep in the city, resisted the urge to escape from this big thief's den under Gao Yingxiang's command, while patiently waiting and looking for opportunities.

On September 20, Ma Guangyu found that if he didn't leave, he might really not be able to leave.

Because of the pressure of the Shaanxi army pressing step by step, and the stench of the whole city emitted by the tens of thousands of corpses of Mu Subarian in Gongchang Mansion that were not buried, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai gave up Gongchang Mansion City, and a partial division returned to Anding, while the remaining main force was continuing to come westward.

In this way, on September 21, Ma Guangyu took the opportunity of inspecting the city defense of the West Gate and suddenly led his troops to seize the gate and go west.

Ma Guangyu took away all the Musu barbarians and horses that could be taken away, fled westward to Hezhou, and attached himself to the pseudo-commander of Hezhou Musu Barbarian, Ma Jinzhong, but also put Ma Jinzhong in a dilemma.

At that time, Ma Jinzhong's command had already taken in Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying, and later took in Tuluntai, who had fled all the way from Pingliang.

There are more people and horses, and the strength is greater, which seems to be a good thing, but so many people have defected from Gao Yingxiang and defected to his command, which makes Ma Jinzhong have a headache.

Especially after Ma Guangyu defected to himself, there are two priorities that must be solved in front of Ma Jinzhong:

One is to solve the problem of food and grass faced by tens of thousands of horses and horses about to spend the winter, and the other is how to get along with the thieves from the west.

On the afternoon of September 22, the day after Ma Guangyu and his men and horses abandoned everything and only brought gold and silver, they fled from Lintao.

Ma Jinzhong summoned several leaders gathered in Hezhou to speak in the back house of his commanding envoy.

Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying knew that the overall situation was going to be bad as soon as he heard that Gao Yingxiang abandoned Pingliang, so he hurriedly fled from Anding to Hezhou, and officially changed his flag and served Ma Jinzhong of the Ma family in Hezhou.

At this time, seeing that Tuluntai also fled, and Ma Guangyu, who had already attached Gao Yingxiang, also fled, he knew that it was not appropriate to stay here in Hezhou for a long time.

Therefore, when Ma Jinzhong convened several leaders to discuss the matter, Lao Hui Ma Shouying said to Ma Jinzhong:

"Now the official army is marching westward, but Gao someone does not dare to look at it, just flee all the way to the west, although the city of Hezhou is strong and there are many soldiers and horses, but there is no strong reinforcement outside and there is a shortage of food and grass inside, this place is not a place to stay for a long time! It's better for the eldest brother to plan early! ”

Regarding the statement of the old Hui Ma Shouying, whether it is the newcomer Ma Guangyu or the Tolontai who came to vote before, they all immediately agreed with it.

Even Ma Jinzhong himself knew that it was not advisable to stay here for a long time, otherwise he would not have come to them to discuss, so he immediately nodded in agreement with Lao Huihui's statement, and asked him what he should do.

Lao Hui returned to Ma Shou and said to him: "After my brother came to Hezhou, I was taken in by my eldest brother, and I was grateful, and I also knew that once the battalions under Gao Yingxiang came to the west, it would be unfavorable to my eldest brother.

"These days, the brother has been thinking and meditating, and he has to come to the upper, middle and lower three strategies, and the matter is urgent that day, and the brother and the plate are dedicated to the eldest brother!

"First, the brothers followed the eldest brother, abandoned Hezhou, went out of Guanxi from Jishi Pass, went to Xining, or defected to Lin Dan Khan, all of which can be regarded as a way to live.

"Second, the brothers followed the eldest brother, abandoned Hezhou and went north, risked bypassing Lanzhou, crossed the river to the west, or defected to the Mi family in Ganzhou and the Ha family in Suzhou, or the brothers took the eldest brother as the king and stood on their own!

"The third is to quickly send someone to contact someone Gao, whether it's to sacrifice the brothers, or let the brothers fend for themselves, the eldest brother will from now on attach someone to Gao with the money and food of Hezhou City, and if you want to come to someone, someone Gao can also let the Ma family in Hezhou continue to keep Hezhou."

The three strategies that Ma Shouying said back to the old man have actually been churning in Ma Jinzhong's heart, because in front of him, there are only these few choices left.

Which of these choices is good and which is not good, the situation was not so urgent before, and he couldn't make up his mind, but after Zhang Xianzhong killed Bai Minghe in Gongchang Mansion, especially after Ma Guangyu did not allow himself to escape under the command of King Gao Yingxiang, he had already seen which was the best policy.

So, on the morning of September 23, Ma Jinzhong took the people and horses who gathered in Hezhou Musuman, and immediately made a decision, abandoned the city and fled to Hexi.

As a result, the Northwest situation has been formed.

Let's say that Gao Yingxiang, the generalissimo of Fengtian Changyi, with his troops on the left, right and middle roads, with a total of more than 128,000 people, known as 200,000, went north to storm Lanzhou, and after winning a big victory again, he incorporated several Han township brave army in Lanzhou that defected to him in battle, and the momentum was even greater than before he went north to Lanzhou.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to regain momentum, Gao Yingxiang took the Suwang Mansion in Lanzhou City as his Generalissimo Mansion of Fengtian Changyi, and Lanzhou City as the garrison of his Middle Route Army, and "sealed" his cronies and generals:

Li Zi, the nephew who made meritorious contributions to the war, became the former general of the Generalissimo's Mansion;

named his nephew Gao Yigong as the generalissimo's general;

Hao Yongzhong, who was newly nicknamed Hao Shaoqi, was the generalissimo of the generalissimo's mansion;

Liu Tichun, who made meritorious contributions to the battle, was the right general of the Generalissimo's Mansion;

Liu Zhe, a confidant general under his command, was appointed as the deputy marshal of the Generalissimo's Mansion of the Chinese Army, commanding the cavalry of the original camp and controlling the generals of the Generalissimo's Mansion.

After Gao Yingxiang was in Lanzhou City, the generals of the Dafeng Middle Route Army in Lanzhou City, the civilian army team that surrendered in Lanzhou City was dispersed and incorporated into the generalissimo's mansion before and after the left and right general camps, Li Zicheng, Hao Yongzhong, Liu Tichun and Gao Yigong and others under the command of Li Zicheng, Hao Yongzhong, Liu Tichun and Gao Yigong and others increased rapidly, each of them exceeded 5,000, and once again became the head of the battalion that could stand alone.

It's just that although the city of Lanzhou is good, there is not much grain and grass in the city.

Even if there is still a lot of grain reserves in King Su's Mansion, it is not enough for nearly 150,000 people under the command of Gao Yingxiang!

Therefore, after the generals were sealed, Gao Yingxiang, the generalissimo of Fengtian Changyi, fulfilled his previous promise and handed over Lintao, Anding and other places to the soldiers and horses on the right road, and Hezhou to the soldiers and horses on the left to garrison.