When Wang Huan was collecting gunpowder in Xinhua, Li Maozu, the governor of Guangxi in the Qing court, led the commander-in-chief Yu Shizhong and Ma Jiaolin, commanding half of the Qing army in Huguang, a total of more than 30,000 people, and was taking advantage of the limelight in Baoqing and Chenzhou, marching on the official road that Wang Huan had just walked a few days ago.

Li Maozu, the former Daming Huguang Binggui Bing Beidao, in the year before last Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming attacked Huguang, surrendered to the Qing court, because of the surrender of outstanding performance, very hard, for the Qing court to take Guangxi Quanzhou line made great contributions, because of military merits awarded Guangxi governor, in order to encourage him to make persistent efforts, and strive to take the whole Guangxi as soon as possible, become a veritable governor of Guangxi.

Such a wish-making reward in advance is equivalent to a blank check that does not cost money, that is, it can stimulate the Nanming regime that can be used to fight bravely for the first place and fight for a title and official position, and the Nanming regime that paid them salaries not long ago does not need to spend a tael of silver from the Qing court, and the effect is surprisingly good.

Yu Shizhong and Ma Jiaolin, both of whom are former Ming generals, both of them are general soldiers, seeing the generals of the same level as themselves attacking the city and plundering the land, flying and soaring, but they have no chance, trapped in one place, don't mention the jealousy in their hearts.

Both of them have the motivation to fight and make meritorious contributions, and they want to show their faces in front of the new master, so when Plug Yinxi exerts his strength in Guilin, Guangxi, relying on the loyal battalion to advance in one drum, and even many state capitals, Li Maozu is driven back to Huguang with a disgraced face, the two immediately found Li Maozu and offered a strategy of borrowing the territory of the Miao people from Luxi and attacking Yinxi's back road by surprise.

After hearing this, Li Maozu thought about it and felt that this plan was feasible, so he immediately bought the leader of the Miao people with a lot of money, promised a few titles of toast, and led his troops through the Miao realm, which was regarded as a forbidden land by the Ming court, without much effort, and unexpectedly appeared in the rear of Plug Yinxi.

Plugging Yinxi focused on the front line, the elite troops were transferred to the Changsha area of Changde, and those who stayed behind were some miscellaneous villagers who could not be on the table, and they were not the opponents of Li Maozu's elite soldiers at all.

So Li Maozu is very satisfied, this strategy is actually very dangerous, he and Yu Shizhong, Ma Jiaolin claimed to lead 30,000 troops, in fact, it is only more than 10,000, calling 30,000 is just a bluff to scare people, and Huguang alone blocked Yinxi's hands, there are tens of thousands of troops, if the Ming army can deal with it calmly, so as not to panic and collapse without a fight, then he will die.

But now it seems that the Ming army has a virtue when he is preparing for the army, the morale is low, the team is decadent, and when he sees the banner of the Qing army from afar, he is afraid to turn around and run, and he is leading the troops to run, and the remaining big soldiers have no one to command even if they want to fight, besides, the officials have all run away, who is still stupid to sell their lives?

Therefore, Li Maozu ran rampant in Huguang, Guangzhou, and three prefectures, and did not even fight a decent battle, and his daily work was to rush to grab things and burn houses, which made the generals smile, and their purses were full of booty.

It's just that what made him a little uneasy was that a few days ago, he heard the report of the scouts, and there was a Ming cavalry, when he led the army to attack Baoqing Fucheng, it rushed by more than ten miles away and walked in the direction of Changde, not knowing what its intentions were.

Li Maozu was a little worried, but when Yu Shizhong and Ma Jiaolin learned about it, they comforted him and said: "If the Ming army really dares to fight, those cavalry should take advantage of our attack on the city, and now they are not here, which can only prove that the Ming army is cowardly and cowardly, such a weak army, don't mind." ”

This is reasonable, Li Maozu soon forgot about this matter, and the continuous victories made him more and more excited, and his heart was also bigger, and he was already thinking in his mind, and when he arrived in Changsha, how could he block the retreat of the Ming army, annihilate the main force of the Ming army in Huguang in one fell swoop, and decide the outcome of the battle.

As for Yu Shizhong and Ma Jiaolin, they were also elated, after all, they were the ones who came up with the idea, and when the overall situation was certain, the two of them could at least be promoted to the governor of any province, and they would be lucky, plus a top flower feather inlaid with gems, it was not impossible.

The three of them were full of joy, and they drove their horses in the direction of Changde, and they had already found out that Du Yinxi was in Changde, and by his side, but a few thousand Fubiao camps, it was a good time.

The weather has entered the dog days, the heat is unbearable, and it is sweaty to sit still, not to mention the rush to wear armor and helmets, which is why the situation in Huguang suddenly deteriorated, but the Qing Army's Eight Banners did not move like a mountain.

The weather is too hot, and the Eight Banners brothers can't stand it.

Brothers can't come, but the Han army can come, but because they don't worry about the Han generals sitting big, the Manchu nobles have more eyes, once the Han people are successful, they should retreat, not long with armor soldiers, so as not to breed rebellion over time, this is also the Qing court's experience in using the Han army for many years, so Huguang decided at the beginning of the year, Dolgon couldn't wait to transfer the Pingnan heroes, the three kings of the Han army, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Geng Zhongming, to Liaodong.

Therefore, in the whole province of Huguang, the remaining generals are all newly attached generals, and there are not many generals and not many generals, which objectively also creates excellent conditions for Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao.

Li Maozu walked on the dusty official road, sweating all over his body, and his soldiers fell crookedly, pulling their collars and sweating like rain, and went to the roadside to pick wide leaves to block the scorching sun overhead.

"Lord Governor, if it continues to be so hot, brothers, don't talk about fighting, marching will be a problem, and if there is a large-scale heat stroke, it will be troublesome." Yu Shizhong took off his iron helmet, wiped the sweat on his head with his hands, and shook it casually, I don't know if it was thrown on the face of the person who followed the horse, and said to Li Maozu himself: "Shouldn't you find a shady place to rest and recuperate, avoid the sun, and wait until the cool air comes up before leaving?" ”

Li Maozu is not tall, in his early forties, he is strong and powerful, his cheeks are red, and he has been living in the army all the year round so that he has trained a body of tendon meat, and he is from the same Jinshi, but he is a talent who is both civil and military, at this moment his clothes are also wet with sweat, although a set of chain mail is light, but it is hot under the scorching sun, but Li Maozu did not take off his armor because of this, and he still took the lead in wearing a neat drape.

However, in his hand, he was not holding a sword, but a folding fan, which was spread out to cover the top of his head, and there was cursive calligraphy on the folding fan with dragons flying and phoenixes dancing: Ying is outstanding to my generation.

Hearing what Yu Shizhong said, Li Maozu hesitated, shook his head and said: "Ben Fuguan Ming army, the good fighters are arrogant, the cowardly are squeamish, the roads are muddy on rainy days, and the hot roads on sunny days can't work, and on sunny days, then the food is insufficient or can't be done, in short, the greed is not enough, and they don't want to march to fight, so the troops, can they still be called the army?" ”

He retracted the folding fan in his hand, slammed it into the palm of his hand with a "snap", and said hatefully: "Benfu has long disliked this arrogant soldier, but it is a pity that the Ming court is erosive, and there is nothing to be done. As long as Benfu is still walking, no one can stop! ”

Yu Shizhong touched the nail, so he had to reluctantly agree, and retreated to the side, and Ma Jiaolin next to him was naturally inconvenient to persuade again, so he had to hold on to the fire and put a huge lotus leaf on his head.

After walking for a while, Li Maozu felt that his tone was too heavy just now, and he turned his head with a smile again, and said to Yu and Ma Erjun: "The two general soldiers don't need to be anxious, there are more than 30 miles forward along the official road, and there is a county seat, called Xinhua County. ”

The second general smiled and complimented: "The governor is in his chest, but the two of me are anxious." ”

The three of them laughed and went to the front suspicion, and while they were talking, they heard a horse galloping in front of them, and when they looked closely, it was a scout who was released by the army.

The scout rolled his saddle and dismounted, and galloped to the three, shouting, "Report! There is a military emergency! ”

Li Maozu frowned, for so many days, the scout had not been so eager to reciprocate, so he stopped and shouted: "Speak! ”

The scout knelt on the ground and said: "Thirty miles ahead, there is a Ming army blocking the road according to Xinhua City, and the Ming army has detected that our army is approaching, and has already cut off the official road at the city gate, and formed a formation according to the city, waiting for our army to fight!" ”

"What?" Li Maozu asked in a surprised voice: "There is a Ming army that dares to line up in a field battle?" ”

Yu Shizhong and Ma Jiaolin were also surprised, the two exchanged glances, Yu Shizhong stepped forward and asked, "How many people are in the Ming army?" ”

The scout replied: "Looking at the small one from a distance, there are about 1,000 people in the Ming army, all of whom are cavalry. ”

"Cavalry? Thousands? Li Maozu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, a thousand people, what can they do? Benfu has an army of 10,000 people, even if the Ming army is cavalry, it can't block my way, so he asked in a obviously relaxed tone: "Can you see clearly, the Ming army is only a thousand people?" ”

"The small ones can see clearly, count and count, only a little." The scout replied in the affirmative.

"My lord, this is probably the Ming army that slipped past from Baoqing a few days ago, I thought they had escaped, but I never thought that they would run into it in Xinhua." Ma Jiaolin drove him up immediately, stood behind Li Maozu, and said: "This is a bit abnormal, we have always been the only one who intercepted the Ming army, but today we actually met the bold ones who dared to intercept us, adults should be more vigilant." ”

However, he said that he was vigilant, but his tone was full of banter and disdain, and there were more jokes than seriousness, and Li Maozu listened to it, but he didn't take it seriously.

"A thousand heads, another great military feat!" Li Maozu's eyes lit up, squinted and smiled: "There are also a thousand war horses, but it is a great gift, and the sage must not give it, hahaha!" ”

"My lord, the last general is willing to be the vanguard, and make the first contribution to the capture of his main general and the defeat of his army!" Yu Shizhong was tall and strong, and his speech was buzzing, and when he smelled the smell of military exploits, he immediately squeezed up.

"There is no need for this, General Yu can save his strength and follow Benfu." Li Maozu said with a smile: "This battle cannot be defeated, the Ming army has horses, it is difficult to chase if they escape, Benfu wants to encircle and annihilate it, and do not let one person and one horse get away, the thousand good horses, Benfu will be decided!" ”

(End of chapter)