In fact, for today's officers and soldiers, the food problem has been alleviated a lot compared to the same period in the second year of Chongzhen in history. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

When Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft, left the land of Gyeonggi, he transported a large amount of grain and grass from the Hubu warehouse in Tongzhou with the army, although people ate horses and chewed along the way, and when they arrived in Lu'an Mansion, it was already ten percent and fifty percent was consumed, but when they went to Jiexiu from Lu'an Mansion, the first batch of grain and grass delivered by Shen Wangfu in installments was also in place, and it was carried to Lingshi and Shimenguan by the mine camp and Tianxiong Battalion.

The second batch of grain delivered by Shen Wangfu has also left Lu'an Mansion, and Yuan Jixian, the deputy envoy of Shanxi's military garrison, is leading some township soldiers to urgently transport spirit stones, in addition to the food donated by Jiexiu businessmen, and so on.

Therefore, the grain baggage itself is not an absolute shortage, but is trapped by the road conditions and transportation capacity of this era.

Because it takes too long to collect and ship, and there is too much wear and tear on the road.

This problem is especially prominent for Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng, who are on the front line of Shilou and Ningxiang at the western foot of Luliang Mountain.

According to the original plan, the officers and troops on the southern front under Hong Chengchou's original command were mainly supplied with food by Lu'an Mansion, where Li Banghua was in charge, and Pingyang Mansion, where Hong Chengchou himself was located at the time, but when Hong Chengchou urgently marched westward and stationed in Shilou, Li Banghua came out of Lu'an Mansion and personally led the army to Lingshi and Shikou, and the logistics supply of Hong Chengchou's officers and troops became difficult.

Because whether it is Lu'an Mansion or Pingyang Mansion, and the western line where Hong Chengchou is located today, there is a Luliang Mountain separated by it.

Although the shortage of food is not an absolute one, there is no way to properly solve the problem of transportation for a while.

Fortunately, at the beginning, Zhang Guoxing led 3,000 Shaanxi troops to loot and extort in Puzhou and Suizhou, and got a large number of grain and grass supplies, but they were wiped out without much consumption, and finally returned to the Zhenxi camp led by Zhang Zongheng.

Therefore, in the more than half a month after Hong Chengchou arrived at Shilou, plus a total of more than 4,500 soldiers and horses under the command of Zhenxi Battalion, there was no shortage of food supplies.

However, more than half a month later, when Wang Chengen, the new chief military officer of Shaanxi, rushed to Shilou with 2,000 elite soldiers from Shaanxi Fubiao, the problem of food supply, which was not yet in short supply, immediately became the biggest problem restricting the officers and troops from launching an attack in the direction of Lishi, Ningxiang, and Guangwuzhuang.

Since mid-May, Hong Chengchou has asked Zhang Zongheng, the Shanxi Governor, to send people to collect grain and grass from Maozhou, Puzhou, and other places, and on the other hand, he has asked his subordinates to cross the Yellow River west with the warrant of his Shaanxi governor and go to Shaanxi Prefecture near Shanxi to collect grain and grass.

Hong Chengchou has thought of the methods that can be counted on in the short term, and he has done it.

And what he can do now is to reorganize and train the men and horses under his command, especially to supervise the training of the Zhenxi Battalion, and on the other hand, to wait for the men and horses sent out to contact the military rations to come back.

On the morning of 16 May, just after breakfast, Hong Chengchou received a piece of news that made him restless:

Li Banghua and Li Ge personally led the main force of the official army to capture Shimen Pass, and Liu Guineng, the king of thieves, led the people to surrender, and the southern gate of Shennanyu was wide open.

For the whole morning after receiving the news, Hong Chengchou was pacing back and forth in the backyard of the Shilou County Ya, and his heart was always restless.

It's not that he doesn't want to see the progress of the current situation, but he suddenly realized that if he waits like this and doesn't make a move, the main force of this gang of thieves in the southern section of Luliang Mountain will be completely wiped out by figures like Wang Guoliang and Lu Xiangsheng.

When that time comes, where will you still have your own business!

His Majesty the Emperor now has such an appreciation for himself, and has trusted himself as much as ever under the pressure of impeachment from the government and the opposition many times, if he can't make any achievements in this war to enter the Jin Dynasty and suppress the thieves, wouldn't it seem that His Majesty the Emperor doesn't know people well, and it also seems that he is incompetent and useless?

If you add the fact that the 3,000 elite Shaanxi army of Zhang Guoxing, the former general soldier of Shaanxi, was wiped out because of the light enemy, then can he, the governor of Shaanxi, still do it?

Therefore, after receiving the report of the Shimen Pass battle reported by Li Banghua, especially the news of Zhang Guoxing's death mentioned in it, this young but always very steady and experienced governor of Shaanxi suddenly became as restless as an ant on a hot pot.

A few days ago, the smoke of the fire burning in the east of Luliang Mountain, he already knew what was going on, and Wang Guoliang, the chief soldier of Shanxi Town, who originally seemed to him to be quite mediocre and incompetent, actually used such a means to take down the steep Huangluling, which made him simply impressed.

Of course, Hong Chengchou, who has always been scheming, has also considered using fire attacks, after all, he also sees the situation of dry weather, but he is just waiting for the wind direction to change, and he has never waited for the wind direction to be beneficial to him.

There is a way that fire and water are ruthless, and there is no perfect certainty, and recklessly lighting a mountain fire is the consequence of playing with fire and self-immolation.

However, in the days when the fire was burning in the direction of Huangluling, and the entire Shanshenyu and Shennanyu were shrouded in smoke, Hong Chengchou also took advantage of the situation to send men and horses to launch a tentative attack in the direction of Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang.

In the successive outpost battles, although there were victories and defeats, and no major results were achieved, they also succeeded in scaring back the men and horses used by the "King of Great Liang" Wang Zuohang and the "Zijin Liang" King himself.

Because of the mountain fire that spread from the direction of Huangluling, the fire was very fast, so while Hong Chengchou wanted to take the opportunity to launch an attack and pick up a little cheap, he took his men and horses all the way from Shanshenyu to Wang Zuohang, the county seat of Ningxiang, and he was also thinking about how far he could run west, how far he could run.

After all, Wu Yangui's nearly 20,000 horses suffered a huge loss in the mountain fire, which made Wang Zuo frightened.

So after arriving in Ningxiang County, although Wang Zuojiao has been far away from the center of the spread of the mountain fire, he still has palpitations, still feels unsafe enough, and is worried that the mountain fire that he left behind will spread to the surrounding area of Ningxiang in the next step.

With this kind of worry and fear, there are also Wang Ziyong and Luo Rucai, who are guarding the area of Guangwuzhuang.

The idea of rushing to Shennanyu to fight the fire in the face of the mountain fire, Wang Ziyong was dispelled by himself only in a flash.

And Luo Rucai never had the idea of going back to rescue Shennanyu or Shanshenyu.

Therefore, when the fire burned to Shanshenyu, Wang Zuohang, the "King of Liang" who originally guarded Shanshenyu, led his men and horses to retreat to the direction of Ningxiang, and the news that the imperial court officials and troops concentrated their main forces to storm Shimenguan reached Guangwuzhuang, Wang Ziyong and Luo Rucai faced the orders of Wang Jiayin, the king of Hengtian, and Wang Er, the prime minister of Zuo, but finally they were indifferent and chose to ignore them.

Not only did they ignore it, but they were all like Wang Zuohang, and they all had the idea of evacuating this place of right and wrong as soon as possible.

And all of this was nipped in the bud in the end because of the tentative attack launched by Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng under the command of the men.

Because when Wang Zuohang was from the direction of Ningxiang and Wang Ziyong from the direction of Guangwuzhuang, after several outpost battles, he finally tested the reality of the official army and decided to leave the mountains with the army and avoid the mountain fire, a heavy rain suddenly fell, and the rain lasted for three or four days in a row, which not only hindered the evacuation of Wang Zuohang and Wang Ziyong's headquarters, but also extinguished the mountain fire that they were most afraid of.

Soon, Wang Jiayin and Wang Er, who were in Shennanyu, got in touch with Wang Zuohang, Wang Ziyong and others.

In this way, Wang Zuojiao and Wang Ziyong and others had no reason to evacuate, so they chose to stick to it again.

If this is not the case, it will be difficult for the soldiers and horses under the command of Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng to stop the thief army in the two directions of Ningxiang and Guangwuzhuang from breaking through, and once the thief army breaks through and flows again in the southwest or northwest of Jin, then the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou, who was anxious to make contributions at this time, had actually made a lot of contributions to the overall situation of Shanxi's suppression of thieves through the exploratory attack launched before.

Regarding this point, Li Banghua, the Minister of Military Aircraft who is in Shimen Pass and controls the overall situation, is very clear in his heart.

Therefore, after the capture of Shimen Pass, Li Banghua only mentioned the plan to attack Shennanyu from Shikou to the north in his briefing to Hong Chengchou, and did not put forward the requirements of how Hong Chengchou's troops must be.

However, although Li Banghua did not put forward any hard requirements, he couldn't stand Hong Chengchou's very high requirements for himself, so after receiving the news that Li Banghua led the army to take Shimen Pass, he was anxious and restless.

Just after Hong Chengchou was anxious for a long time in the backyard of the county government in Shilou County, at noon that day, the messenger sent to Yan'an Mansion in northern Shaanxi a few days ago to find Ma Maocai returned.

In Yanchang, the messenger met Ma Maocai himself, who was supervising a large number of people in the local area to dig fierce fire oil, and Ma Maocai, the superintendent of Yansui Town, also promised to collect 5,000 quintals of sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other coarse grains from the Ganquanyu reclamation area.

And within five days, they must cross the river from Wubao, take the waterway directly, and send it to Qinglongdu near Liulinbao on this side of Shanxi, and ask Hong Chengchou's department to collect the handover at Qinglongdu on the other side of Wubao, and give the receipt paper.

Hong Chengchou was overjoyed, and the worries in his heart were swept away.

He didn't care whether the 5,000 quintals of grain were coarse or fine, whether they were gifts, temporary loans, or even if they were considered purchases.

Because the five thousand quintals of grain are enough for the men and horses under his command to eat for more than ten days, plus the two days' food that is still in Shilou County, within half a month, he will launch an attack no matter what, and he will make some achievements.

Therefore, after receiving the news that Ma Maocai promised to transport 5,000 quintals of coarse grain to Qinglongdu, Hong Chengchou ordered Zhang Zongheng and Pei Shize to take Zhenxiying to stay in Shilou County and strictly prevent the thief army from breaking through in the direction of Guangwuzhuang.

As for himself, he gathered the elite of Shaanxi Fubiao brought by the new Shaanxi commander-in-chief Wang Chengen, a total of more than 3,000 people, and quickly went north to Liulin Fort near Qinglongdu the next day, preparing to launch an attack on the thief army of Wang Zuojiao in the direction of Ningxiang.