The Dongyu thieves entered the land of Gyeonggi, and the center of the Ming Dynasty was broken into by the Tartars and ran rampant. But at this time, there are still people who want to make peace with the Qing army.

Lu Xiangsheng clearly remembered that when he was going to go to Zhuozhou, Yang Sichang, a cabinet scholar and a secretary of the Ministry of War, actually went to his camp to persuade him not to fight, but to go to peace.

What kind of peace did Yang Sichang talk about, Lu Xiangsheng naturally wouldn't listen, and asked rhetorically:

"Isn't Zhou Yuanzhong already going to talk about peace, why bother with me."

Zhou Yuanzhong was the peace envoy sent by Yang Sichang adhering to the emperor's hint, but as soon as he arrived at the border, Huang Taiji led the army to besiege Jinzhou, which naturally returned in vain. Now that I think about it, Huang Taiji's should be a feint to attract the attention of the Daming Jiliao army, so that Dolgon and Yue Tuo can lead the army to break through from the mouth

Yang Sichang, Lu Xiangsheng and other central ministers of the imperial court, a few people at the top of the ruling core, said things to such an extent, obviously torn their faces, and the relationship between the two sides was regarded as fire and water.

However, the three people who led the army this time happened to be Yang Sichang, Lu Xiangsheng, and Gao Qiqian, and Gao Qiqian, the eunuch who supervised the forbidden army outside the city, was used as a supervisor this time, Gao Qiqian and Yang Sichang were both leaders of the main and faction of the central government, and the internal was to recruit the camp and Zhang Xianzhong's department, and externally it was to make concessions in peace talks.

has been a high-ranking official for many years, Lu Xiangsheng naturally knows what means these colleagues will have, so he has to ask the court for a clear order, leading the troops of Xuanda Border Town, and Gao Qiqian leading the troops of Guanning.

However, Lu Xiangsheng led the army to Zhuozhou, went south to Baoding Mansion, and pursued and intercepted the Qing army all the way. The Qing army moved quickly. People can't feel the law, not to say, Lu Xiangsheng is still helpless, what his friends and colleagues have done, or far beyond their own expectations, the soldiers and horses led by Gao Qiqian will never rush forward, although there are states and county capitals calling the police for help, they will never send troops, Lu Xiangsheng soldiers and horses to one place, after making sure that there is no Qing army, Gao Qiqian only camped in the rear.

And Yang Sichang in the center is even more ruthless. The cabinet bachelor is actually in charge of the military department, which is a rare example, and the power position is extremely heavy, so it can be said that he can call the shots in the affairs of the military department.

Ever since Lu Xiangsheng left Beijing, the amount of military salaries that should have been allocated has been delayed. The Qing army's entry into Kou was a sudden thing, the imperial court sent troops to pursue and intercept, and it was also a fireman, Lu Xiangsheng only brought a month's food and salary to lead the troops to pursue, originally thought that the internal line was fighting, and it was in the north around the Beijing division, and the supply was not a problem. Who would have thought that on December 3, there were less than six days of supplies left in the army, and it was extremely embarrassing.

Counselor Yang Tinglin also suggested that Lu Xiangsheng go to the court a few days ago, but there are some things that Yang Tinglin didn't know, Lu Xiangsheng's letter to the Beijing Division. It's all sunk in the sea, and there is no response at all.

Less than six days' worth of pay was not enough, and in fact some soldiers were already starting to go hungry. The morale of the army was a little unstable, but fortunately, Lu Xiangsheng was quite authoritative when he was the governor of Xuanda, and the three general soldiers who led the troops also listened to his orders, which was to maintain the situation.

The Qing army entered the customs with no more than 20,000 soldiers, but it was divided into eight routes, crisscrossing vertically and horizontally, and attacking prefectures and counties. Lu Xiangsheng divided his troops to intercept it. But it has no effect, and the Xuanda border soldiers are known as elite. But he didn't dare to fight with the Qing army in the field, according to the strategy of Lu Xiangsheng and several general soldiers after the sum of the army, it was to arrive before the Qing army attacked a certain city, and rely on the city to fight.

But the degree of action often can't keep up with the Qing army, just a few days ago the general soldier Hu Dawei went to Anping County, after arriving there, the city is already dilapidated, the young men and women in the city have been taken captive, it stands to reason that the other party with prisoners and baggage, inconvenient to move, just to pursue, but Hu Dawei did not dare to pursue at all, can only go back to the camp.

When there was no one in the middle of the night, Lu Xiangsheng said to himself:

"Yang Sichang, Gao Qiqian, you want me to die!"

Ma Gang led 2,000 troops into Jingzhou, Beizhili, and Li Meng's camp stationed in Dezhou echoed from afar, and Tang Erdi's horse team divided into 1,000 cavalry was also stationed in Jingzhou, with a team of ten people every day, a large-scale reconnaissance, but there was not much movement in Hejian Mansion near Dezhou.

For the direction of the cavalry's exploration, Ma Gang deliberately leaned towards the west and south, but he didn't dare to let the cavalry run too far and go back and forth in a day, this is the limit.

Since the end of November into Dezhou, the cavalry of the Jiaozhou battalion has been in Shandong and Beizhili on both sides of the activities to investigate, but did not encounter any enemies, only the people who fled after hearing the wind, this time the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs mainly to plunder the population, so after breaking a certain city, young and strong men and women were taken away, and the rest of the old and weak were either slaughtered, or could not escape too far, they could only die of cold and starvation.

The refugees who were able to escape were those who had not been attacked, and through these panicked refugees, it was impossible to judge the direction of the Qing army.

At present, the Jiaozhou battalion knows about the Qing army, but it is through the intermittent transmission of those military departments and other yamen in Beizhili and Shandong.

After such a period of time, the cavalry who went out to search were a little relaxed, the Jiaozhou battalion was different from other Ming officers and soldiers, and the other Ming officers and soldiers lacked courage.

The horse team of the Jiaozhou battalion is divided into four battalions, each battalion has 500 people, and each battalion has a general, so this cavalry general can be called a thousand general level among the foot soldiers.

The horse team has ten squads under the general headquarters, and there are five squad deputies under the squad leader, and the deputy commander of the squad is ten people, who are regarded as the most basic officers of the Jiaozhou battalion horse team, and Wei Li is the deputy of the fifth squad of the third battalion, and is the earliest member of the Li Meng cavalry to join the cavalry from Xiangma.

After a few days of searching without results, Wei Li felt very frustrated, and the several cavalrymen with him were also in a similar mood, because the cavalry was investigating outside, there were always many situations that happened immediately, and the autonomy of the cavalry outside was quite high.

Wei Li and the nine people under him combined, decided to expand the search area outward, and when the time came, if the above asked the reason for going back late, they would say that they were lost, anyway, they were not familiar with the place of Beizhili.

On the sixth day of the first month of December, Wei Li led a total of ten people to the west, and there were many rivers along the way, but because of the great drought and the fact that it is now a cold winter, the rivers are frozen, and it was easy in the past.

When it was almost dusk, Wei Li's ten people arrived near Hengshui, and after walking for more than half an hour, they could enter the city of Hengshui County.

When the man went to the empty village, many of the family's food had not yet had time to be taken away, and Wei Li and the others were happy to replenish the fodder for the horses.

When they arrived at Hengshui, they began to gradually have some hills and slopes, according to Wei Li's plan, tonight they are now looking for a place to rest in Hengshui for a night, and then continue to walk towards the west for a day the next day, to see what they can gain, but today they didn't see anything.

In winter, the land is uninhabited, and it is easy to feel tired, and these cavalrymen on the horse want to find a place to rest as soon as possible.

"Wei Tou, look over there!"

It was when he was listless, a cavalryman beside Wei Li shouted in a low voice, as soon as this sentence was shouted, these people in the company immediately became energetic, not far from the hills, there were more than a dozen horsemen appearing on the mountain bag, Wei Li and their group were walking towards the sun.

At dusk, because of the light, looking at the dozen or so horsemen on the opposite side couldn't see clearly at all, but the other party looked at Wei Li and them clearly, and obviously noticed this side, and even heard the sound of shouting and beating horses, and chased towards this side.

Wei Li put his feet in the stirrups, his body stood upright on the horse, trying to see as far as possible, his mount was a little anxious and snorted a little uneasy, but he still couldn't see clearly.

"Wei Tou, is it an officer or a Tartar?"

The surrounding officers and soldiers asked a little nervously and excitedly, Wei Li shook his head, it is inevitably difficult for a grassroots officer to make a judgment and make a decision, but according to Li Meng's system training, there is a drill code to tell the officers below what to do when they encounter such a situation.

"It doesn't matter who he is, first ignite the fire rope and press the fire gun."

In these years, even the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty may take advantage of your unguarded black hand, Wei Li ordered, some tired soldiers immediately turned over and dismounted, and took out the hanging fire gun from the side of the saddle, and another soldier held five reins in one hand and slowly retreated, this person is the so-called horse stake. Calculating, the other party should have turned over two more low mountain bags to get here, and the reconnaissance cavalry sent by the Jiaozhou battalion did not hold a cavalry spear but a short spear and a firecracker, because the long weapon was too ostentatious and inconvenient, and the firearm was also half a foot shorter than the firearm used in the usual daytime, and the range was about fifty steps.

Before the cavalry gets on the horse, the gun must be loaded with ammunition and plugged with a wooden stopper to avoid delaying the loading of ammunition when facing the enemy.

The dozen or so riders on the opposite side finally arrived at a distance of about 100 paces in front of them, no matter what the light was, they could see clearly, some people were wearing fur hats, some were wearing helmets, and some were bareheaded, and a big braid hung down.

"Tartar!!"