At the same time when Li Xin returned to his hometown to recruit troops and horses with a few low-level military attachés who had just graduated from the martial arts hall, the war on the front line of Shanxi's suppression of thieves finally broke the dull deadlock and a new change appeared. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the night of 20 May, a detailed military report from the Shanxi Thief Governor's Office made Emperor Chongzhen's heart mixed, and his attention was also shifted from the assessment and distribution of the third batch of students of the Emperor's Loyal and Righteous Lecture Hall to the front line of Shanxi's thief suppression.

Let's say that since mid-April, the Ming official army that was transferred to the Jin Dynasty to suppress thieves first achieved a great victory in Jingle on the northern front, but immediately afterward, there was news that the light enemy under Zhang Guoxing, the general soldier of Shaanxi, had rushed into the army and annihilated the whole army, and the general soldier Zhang Guoxing was nowhere to be found.

These two pieces of news were not long apart, and one was a great joy and the other was a great sorrow, which made Li Banghua, the always calm Minister of Military Aircraft, suddenly a little confused, and the battle situation on the front line of Shanxi's suppression of thieves also fell into a state of adjustment and anxiety.

Since Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong battalion entered the Jin, it has been a rare battle for several months, and it is somewhat unbearable.

When he followed Li Banghua to the south of the Mouse Bird Valley, Lu Xiangsheng also found Li Banghua under the pressure of his subordinates taking the initiative to ask for help, hoping to go to the front line to fight, and asked him to lead the Tianxiong battalion to Fenzhou to help in the war.

Although Li Banghua also wanted to break the deadlock in front of him as soon as possible, and after the entire army of Zhang Guoxing's headquarters of the Shaanxi General Army was wiped out, he won a battle to boost his morale that was a little low, but he still did not agree to Lu Xiangsheng's request for battle.

Because Li Banghua took his subordinate mine camp and Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong camp from Jiexiu to the south, through the narrow strategic Gopher Bird Valley, when he just came to Lingshi County, he received new news sent by Hong Chengchou on a fast horse.

This news allowed Li Banghua to finally judge the approximate location of the main force of the thieves.

Although he still does not know the specific location of the so-called "Hengtian One-word King" Wang Jiayin and his subordinates Shennanyu, he deduced from the various information reported by Hong Chengchou and Wang Guoliang and others that the main force of the thieves should be in the Luliang Mountains east of Shilou, south of Ningxiang, west of Lingshi, and north of Suizhou.

In the midst of the temporary trip to Lingshi County, Li Banghua took Lu Xiangsheng and Wang Chengen, who temporarily acted as the chief military officer of Shaanxi, to study and study the map of Shanxi provided by the Ministry of War, and finally further narrowed the location of the main force of the thieves and set it in the mountains east of Guangwuzhuang, west of Huangluling, within Ningxiang County, and north of Zijing Mountain.

After making this judgment, Li Banghua no longer went to Fenxi with the main force under his command, but sent two messengers overnight, all the way to Shilou, to find Hong Chengchou, who had now arrived in Shilou County, and ordered him to lead Zhang Zongheng's men and horses to hold Shilou, and wait for an opportunity to attack Guangwuzhuang in the north of Shilou Mountain.

The other way was to rush to Jinsuo Pass west of Fenzhou, and ordered Wang Guoliang to lead his army in Shanxi Town to storm Huangluling to the west, so that he could capture Huangluguan at least by mid-May.

At the same time, he ordered Wang Chengen, the temporary acting chief of the Shaanxi army, to stay in Fenxi to garrison Fenxi, and the main force to the west, to the front line of Suizhou and Shilou, to reinforce Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng.

And he personally led the mine camp and Tianxiong camp under his command from Lingshi to the west and went to Shikou Town north of Bauhinia Mountain.

This so-called Shikou Town is the later Luliang Jiaokou County.

To the north, south, and west of this place are high mountains, and only to the east are shallow hills and valleys, which can lead to Lingshi and Fenxi.

After Li Banghua made a new deployment in Lingshi, the situation on the southern line of Shanxi's suppression of thieves suddenly changed.

And the reason why Li Banghua was able to locate the general location of the main force of the thieves from the thief report transmitted by Hong Chengchou and others within half a month was because he fled back.

This is always Zhong Dewu.

Let's say that Zhong Dewu found a weak spot in the thieves and chaos all over the mountains, and led hundreds of people to fight desperately, and finally fought a way out, although there were less than 200 people left, but all of them were fierce pawns who died in their lives.

Although there are several generals among them, Zhong Dewu's bravery has been more recognized by these people, and he soon became the leader of this "fish that slipped through the net".

At the end of the bloody battle in Shilou Mountain, it was almost dusk, Zhong Dewu and these people in order to avoid the pursuers, first crossed the mountains and crossed the mountains to the east, until they came to the vicinity of Shikou Town, which is located in the depths of the mountains, only to find that Shikou Town, deep in the mountains, was also stationed in a large army of thieves.

Because the number of Zhong Dewu's troops was too small, and they were all injured and exhausted, and Shikou Town was stuck in the middle of the valley to the east, just listening to the name Shikou, he knew that the situation here was dangerous, so there was no way, Zhong Dewu had to take everyone to hide in the mountains and rest for a night.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhong Dewu led everyone to turn to the south, walked over the mountains and mountains for a day, and finally came to a col at the northern foot of Bauhinia Mountain.

Zhong Dewu, as a guide, followed the Shaanxi army north from here, and then returned to Lizhou at this time, and there were only less than 200 of the 3,000 troops left around him.

When this small group of surviving Shaanxi soldiers came to the outside of the city of Suizhou exhausted and even half-dead under the leadership of Zhong Dewu, it happened to coincide with Hong Chengchou and more than 1,000 horsemen of the Fubiao Chinese army under his command who were entering the city.

Zhong Dewu hurriedly stepped forward to ask for a meeting, and was soon brought to Hong Chengchou.

Seeing the legendary Shaanxi governor Hong Chengchou, Zhong De's five Shaanxi army forwards rushed into the ambush, and the general soldier Zhang Guoxing led the army to the rescue, but he was besieged, and finally he was captured, and most of the officers and troops surrendered, 1510 said again.

In the end, Zhong Dewu also said: "Report to my lord, the humble post was too far away from the place where Zhang Zongzhen was besieged, whether Zhang Zongzhen was coerced by others, or took the initiative to surrender, the lowly position is not clear, but at that time, I heard rumors on the battlefield that it was Li Xing, the subordinate general of Zhang Zongzhen, who suddenly turned against the water and took Zhang Zongzhen to ask the thief army to surrender. As for the later situation of Zhang Zongzhen and Li Xing, he broke through the siege with his brothers in a bloody battle at that time, and fled in hiding everywhere in the mountains, without knowing it. ”

Under the leadership of Zhang Guoxing, the chief soldier of the Shaanxi Army, what he did after going north in Puzhou has now reached Hong Chengchou's ears, although the inducement is that Liu Lingyu, the governor of Puzhou, closed his door to the Shaanxi West Route Army, but in the final analysis, Zhang Guoxing connived at the robbery of the people under his command, and after all, he still committed the taboo of civilian officials.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou doesn't really care about the life and death of Zhang Guoxing himself, he dies when he dies, and after he dies, Wang Chengen, the deputy general soldier who is opposite him, can take over immediately.

However, the thousands of elite Shaanxi soldiers who accompanied the funeral made Hong Chengchou heartbroken.

Therefore, after listening to the battlefield situation described by Zhong Dewu at this time, he hoped that the general soldier Zhang Guoxing could die on the battlefield or be captured and killed by the thieves, instead of surrendering on his knees, after all, if the general soldiers under his command surrendered to the thieves like this, it would really be the only one since the thieves were suppressed, if this is the case, then the impact will be great, how will the Shaanxi army gain the trust of the imperial court and the trust of the emperor in the future?

Therefore, at this time, Hong Chengchou secretly hoped in his heart that Zhang Guoxing would be able to die unyieldingly.

Zhong Dewu didn't let Hong Chengchou worry for long, because after he reported that Zhang Guoxing fell from his horse and was captured, he immediately said: "Report to my lord, when I took my brothers out of the siege and fled into the mountains, I found that there was an army of thieves stationed in Shikou Town at the eastern foot of Shilou Mountain, and there were countless camps outside Shikou Town. ”

Zhong Dewu said this situation made Hong Chengchou both surprised and happy, and on the tower of the city gate, he asked his soldiers to spread out the map, found the location of Shikou Town, and muttered: "No wonder this is the case!" No wonder so! ”