On the third day of the 11th month of the fifth year of Yongli, in the hall of the Chinese army in Luochengyan, Dongyang County, Jinhua Prefecture, the leaders of the local rebel army led by Zhou Qingui were entertaining an uninvited guest.

Luochengyan is located at the junction of Jinhua and Taizhou, a radius of 100 miles is mountainous, and this place is easy to defend and difficult to attack from the terrain, so the Qing army repeatedly encircled and suppressed in vain, so it had to garrison troops in the two towns of Fangqian and Dapan, in order to curb the development of this anti-Qing army.

It's just that it's easy to defend and difficult to attack, Luo Chengyan can farm, but it is extremely difficult to feed these hundreds of rebels and their families, all the food on weekdays is used for food, but there is very little wine, and there have been many days like this when there is enough wine and meat.

The aroma of wine and meat on the table filled the hall, but at this moment, these people were not moved at all, but the white-haired guest attracted their attention more.

There is no other reason, and the information provided by the person who came is really appalling. As the leader of this rebel army, Zhou Qingui pondered the wording before asking: "Brother Yu, the scale of the Tartars this time is far greater than in previous years, is Chen Shuai so confident that he can defeat it?" ”

Zhou Qingui's brother Yu is the new Changbo Yu Guowang canonized by Lu Jianguo, after the Qing army went south, the righteous divisions in eastern Zhejiang rose up under the national oppression and wanton slaughter and looting of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Yin Can, Zhou Qingui and others are like this, and Yu Guowang is also the same.

Although Yu Guowang has never met Zhou Qingui, he has a very good relationship with some acquaintances of Zhou Qingui, such as Xianju Dong Keshen, Jinhua Xu Shouping and others, and Yu Guowang is generous and tolerant, and he is praised by others. At present, Chen Wen, Sun Yu, Wu Dengke and others are all struggling with the Qing army, so they invited Yu Guowang to persuade Zhou Qingui and others, not to ask for a joint army, but to let them not come out to make trouble.

"Since the defeat of Master Jiang. There are few kings and divisions from all walks of life who can fight with the Tartars and not fall behind, even if they are as strong as the Marquis of Danghu, they died unexpectedly two months ago. However, Chen Shuai has been under the command of Wang Jingluo, governing the army and practicing martial arts, and even winning battles, even Tian Xiong's dog thief's standard battalion cannot compete with it. It is not clear whether the old man of the Tartars will be defeated as scheduled. But if even Chen Shuai can't do it, I'm afraid no one in Zhejiang can do it anymore. ”

Chen Wen had heard about Chen Wen's defeat of the Tibiao Battalion in the battle behind the palace of Siming Mountain earlier, and they had heard from the mouths of the people earlier, and there were rumors that Chen Wen and Qi Jiguang's descendants had an inexplicable relationship, plus Chen Wen, whom Yu Guowang had mentioned before at the banquet, was able to gain insight into the strategic layout of the Qing army's encirclement and suppression of Siming Mountain and the siege of Zhoushan with only a very small amount of information, so sharp strategic vision really made people shudder.

However, compared with these legends from the ears of others, what they saw more intuitively was that Chen Wenshuai's army sneaked around Fangqian and Dapan, camouflaged and defeated the remaining troops of the Qing army, and after the Qing army withdrew from these two towns, they sent troops to continue to monitor Luo Chengyan's movements.

took so much pain, it is clear that I believe them. This made Zhou Qingui and others hesitate on whether to go to Sun Yu's appointment. Even when the news of the Qing army's large-scale encirclement and suppression came, there was a wave of thought on Luocheng Rock that came out to make a big fuss when the Qing army encircled and suppressed Chen Wen, in fact, it all stemmed from the distrust of these local rebels for outsiders like Chen Wen, and the rebound of Chen Wen's undisguised defensive psychology.

But at present, the green battalion soldiers of the five prefectures of Jin, Qu, Yan, Chu, and Shaoxing gathered in Jinhua, and the Qing army of such a scale was far beyond their imagination, and Zhou Qingui and others did not dare to say that they would be able to defeat it and keep this base even if they were ruthless.

After all, when Yin Can was alive, the huge momentum of the Baitou Army could only collapse in front of the local green battalions of Jin, Taiwan, Shao, and Chu. What's more, it is the local green camp of the five prefectures, plus the elite of the superintendent and the fubiao.

Yu Guowang had a very good reputation in the rebel army in eastern Zhejiang, and his personal power had nothing to do with it. It's that this person's character is trustworthy. At present, including Sun Yu, who they are familiar with, and Yu Guowang, who is well-known, all have great respect for Chen Wen, and it is bound to affect Zhou Qingui and others' views on Chen Wen.

"Dare to ask Brother Yu, what does Chen Shuai need me to do?"

Yu Guowang knew very well that since Chen Wen invited him to come, he naturally wanted to borrow his credit to stabilize the rebel army in the rear. And he was not disgusted by this, because he had also heard about Chen Wen being excluded by the generals in Siming Mountain before. At present, since Chen Wen is willing to invite him to persuade Zhou Qingui and others, at least in Yu Guowang's opinion, this is at least a kind of trust in his character, which is a good thing.

Here, in addition to Yu Guowang's not sharp tongue, the wine, meat and food on the table and in the warehouse were also brought by him. Etiquette must be demanded by others. Since Zhou Qingui is willing to accept this gift and asks such a sentence, then the matter can be regarded as a settled situation.

Hearing Zhou Qingui's words, Yu Guowang shook his head with a smile. "The original words that Chen Shuai conveyed to the old man to you is that when he drives away the Tartars of Jinhua Mansion, he will naturally come to meet with you, and ask you to wait for good news."

………………

The news of Yu Guowang's success in persuading Zhou Qingui and others was not delivered to Chen Wen in the military camp outside Xiaoshun Town until a few days later, and yesterday the two battalions of Nantang and Yiwu defeated the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army on the southern front in one fell swoop, but at the same time, the news of the Qing army's naval division attacking Fotang Town came.

Although the Ming army's newly formed naval division and auxiliary defense troops managed to drive away the Qing army's naval division, some of the military supplies planned to be transported by the naval division were burned by the Qing army. Fortunately, under the hard work of the soldiers of the Ming army, most of the military supplies were preserved, and the threat of Luo Chengyan could also be temporarily eliminated at the moment, Chen Wen couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In this predicament, Chen Wen faces threats from four different directions. The Fubiao Battalion in Zhuji, the Shaoxing Green Battalion in Shengxian County, the Qing Army on the Southern Front in Jinhua Fucheng and the Zhou Qingui Righteous Army in Dongyang County.

At present, although the backbone of the Qing army on the southern front has not been severely damaged, the green battalion of the four prefectures of Jinquyan, which is fighting in concert, has been completely disabled, especially Ma Jinbao's Jinhua Town standard battalion, three consecutive field battles in two months, and the veterans under Ma Jinbao's command have suffered serious losses.

The threat of the Qing army on the southern front was only the Dubiao battalion, which did not know where to go, and Zhou Qingui was successfully persuaded by Yu Guowang; Some time ago, the Shaoxing Green Battalion once again clashed with the Nantang Battalion covering the old battalion, although it was good with its legs and feet, and the terrain was familiar with the loss, but it was chased and beaten by the Nantang Battalion twice last year and this year, and they may not dare to do anything if they think about it.

Chen Wen only sent a small unit to Li Ruixin before, but he only intended to use it to serve as a deterrent, and since there has been no bad news until now, it is thought that Li Ruixin has done a good job.

As for the Fubiao battalion, because the Qing army had two routes to the south, Chen Wen handed over the entire Dongyang battalion to Yin Yue, and it is difficult to say how effective it will be, but the 1,56 mandarin duck array against the 2,000 Fubiao battalion should not have too many mistakes.

In this way, the four-way threat is only halfway left, as long as the superintendent battalion without reinforcements is gathered and annihilated in Jinhua, then the Qing army in the four prefectures of Jinquyan in western Zhejiang will be left with the three battalions guarding each county, with a total strength of no more than 2,000, and the next few days can be a large-scale counteroffensive to prepare for the Ming army's counteroffensive in the sixth year of Yongli.

For a while, the situation was very good, and Chen Wen accelerated the rest and recuperation of the troops participating in the battle. In this battle, the two battalions beheaded more than 1,000, and the captured Qing army was close to 3,000, as well as a large number of people. In addition, not only armor, weapons, artillery, and baggage, but even some of the Qing troops who successfully escaped from the battlefield also left a lot of armor and weapons in a panic, all of which were captured by the Ming army.

In contrast, the wounded survived due to the occupation of the battlefield by the Ming army. The Nantang battalion suffered little losses in the previous battles, but the Qing army paid negligible casualties during the artillery bombardment and the initial engagement, and then defeated the coalition forces of the Sifu Green Battalion in one fell swoop. The Yiwu battalion is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength and equipment due to its direct face to the standard battalion, and the proportion of recruits is very large, so the losses are very heavy.

Therefore, Chen Wen stuffed all the reserve soldiers of the bureau he brought into the Yiwu battalion, and distributed the captured armor and artillery to the soldiers of these two battalions, realizing the initial exchange of shotguns for artillery.

The Nantang battalion had already escorted the captives to set off the next day, while the Yiwu battalion had also completed the most basic rest two days later, preparing to catch up with the Nantang battalion to participate in the siege of Jinhua. The ships that operated the water to deliver military supplies had also set sail, but at this moment, Chen Wen received two letters.

The first letter came from Li Ruixin, who sent troops to attack the territory of Shengxian County and had a confrontation with the Shaoxing Green Battalion, and had successfully driven the Qing army back to the county seat, asking Chen Wen if he needed him to return to the division to participate in the war.

Now that he had captured so many Qing troops, Chen Wen still planned to use these captives as dead soldiers to fill the trenches in order to reduce the loss of troops. As for the people, they are all Jinhua people anyway, so they can just give each of them a little captured dry food and let them go directly, which can also save some food. Therefore, at the moment, his troops are quite sufficient, and it is better to let Li Ruixin deter in Shengxian County for a while, in case the Qing army takes advantage of the emptiness of Dongyang County to come to burn, kill and loot.

As for the second letter, Chen Wen only glanced at it cursoly, and the previous spirit disappeared in an instant.

The letter is very long, but Yin Yue reported to Chen Wen in detail what happened these days like Li Ruixin, which is what it should mean. However, from beginning to end, there was only one sentence in the central idea -- "The Fubiao camp sneaked through Pujiang County a day ago and went straight to Yiwu." ”

The so-called day before is the time when the letter was sent, not the time when Chen Wen received the letter. (To be continued.) )