This night is not for 5,500 soldiers of the Liangshan Army, or for tens of thousands of residents in the city, it will be a night that they will never forget, a series of five earth-shattering thunderbolts exploded around the county, the strong and shocking explosion sound and shock wave made them seem to have experienced the end of the night, more than 1,000 soldiers stationed at the head of the city were shocked to death more than 300 people, and the rest of the soldiers were so frightened that they ran down the city wall and hid in the people's houses.

A quarter of an hour after the continuous explosion, Zhang Cen and Guan Sheng led nearly 5,000 troops to the four city walls with their armor on, and the north and west cities of the four city walls were the most seriously damaged, each collapsing dozens of zhang wide city walls, and the east and south cities also collapsed to varying degrees.

And the north gate was blown open a two-zhang high hole, only the four sides of the gate were hung on the city wall, more than 20 soldiers in the city gate were all killed, if the officers and soldiers attacked the city at this time, then Shen County must have been breached.

Zhang Cen quickly took a look at the damage, they had already heard a huge explosion from the dock before, Zhang Cen knew that this was a new type of firearm with great power owned by officers and soldiers, he did not think it was strange, but when he heard the huge explosion with his own eyes and witnessed the damage caused, he knew how powerful this firearm was.

After inspecting around, Zhang Cen knew that the city was difficult to repair, and he sighed and said to Guan Sheng: "It seems that Shen County can't hold it at all, and we have to retreat north to Bozhou at dawn." ”

Guan Sheng said worriedly: "The situation in Bozhou is unknown, I'm afraid there will be an accident." ”

"There's no way to do that, now the morale of the army is sluggish, morale is low, if you don't retreat, I'm worried that there will be deserters."

Guan Sheng groaned and said, "Do you want to inform the eldest brother and ask him to send a boat to the dock of Gaotang County to pick us up and cross the Yellow River?" ”

This suggestion was also what Zhang Cen was thinking, he nodded, "I will send an eagle letter early tomorrow morning, and I will ask the virtuous brother to prepare dry food, let each soldier bring five days' dry food, and we will set off early in the morning!" ”

There was enough food in the city for them to eat for half a year, but there was no way, they did not have enough carts to transport, so they could only leave with dry food.

The two finally decided to abandon Shen County and retreat north to Bozhou, just after dawn, the gate of Dongcheng opened, and more than 5,000 soldiers of the Liangshan Army left Shen County under the leadership of the main general Zhang Cen and the deputy general Guan Sheng, and quickly evacuated to the north.

As soon as the Liangshan army left, a large number of county residents poured out of the north and west cities, with the family property that could be carried and the old and the young fled in the direction of the famous city, the explosion of the earth-shattering thunder frightened the residents of the city, no one was willing to stay in the county anymore, or fled to the famous city, or fled to the countryside, without the blockage of the Liangshan army, and soon formed a grand situation of fleeing the city.

An hour later, Li Yanqing led 2,000 troops from Dongcheng into the county seat, most of the residents in the county had fled, and the remaining 1,000 or 2,000 people were also packing up their belongings and preparing to leave the county seat.

Li Yanqing went to the warehouse to inspect again, and there was still a lot of grain and grass in it, so he said to Lu Fei, the head of the capital: "I will leave three hundred brothers for you, and all your residents will be dismissed from the city, and then set fire to the city for me, and all the grain and grass must be burned, so as to completely cut off the hope of the Liangshan army to withdraw and return." ”

Lu Fei hurriedly bowed down and said, "Obey the order!" ”

He turned around to leave, but Li Yanqing stopped him, "Don't be in a hurry to leave, this is not your real task!" ”

"Shame on your duty!" Lu Fei hurriedly came back and continued to listen to orders.

Li Yanqing groaned and said: "On the wharf of the Yellow River ten miles away, there are ten of our ships, after you burn the county seat, you will immediately take a boat north to Gaotang County, there is likely to be an enemy receiving ship over there, I will give you all the oil and oil, you must destroy all these ships for me, this is the most critical link, remember!" ”

"Rest assured, the Commander will destroy all the ships!"

After explaining the most important thing in this matter, Li Yanqing immediately led 1,700 troops to leave Xincheng, and chased north along the trajectory of the withdrawal of the Liangshan army.

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Although the Liangshan army did not do a good job of clearing the walls near Shen County, it does not mean that the Xuanwu battalion did not do a good job, along the official road all the way to the north, the villages within dozens of miles along the way have long been uninhabited, and all the food and population have been moved into Liaocheng County, and the official road is deserted, and there is not a pedestrian in sight.

Two days later, the 5,000 Liangshan army arrived in the south of Liaocheng County, only to see the city gate closed, the drawbridge hanging high, hundreds of soldiers rushed forward and shouted: "Open the city quickly, spare you from dying, otherwise you will be killed all over the city if you break through the city!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums of war at the head of the city suddenly sounded, and thousands of heavily armed soldiers appeared on the head of the city, and the bow and arrow were aimed at the hundreds of Liangshan soldiers who called the door under the city, Niu Gao waved his gong and shouted: "Shoot me!" ”

Suddenly the head of the city was shot with arrows, and the dense arrows shot at the Liangshan army who was calling the door under the city, and most of the soldiers were killed and wounded at once, leaving only dozens of uninjured soldiers to turn around and flee, and the soldiers fled to Zhang Cen and shouted: "General, there is an ambush at the head of the city!" ”

Zhang Cen had already seen that there were thousands of ambush soldiers on the head of the city, which made him secretly surprised in his heart, whether these troops were forbidden troops or village soldiers, it meant that they would be in big trouble.

"General, what should I do? Do you want to siege the city? Several generals stepped forward and asked.

Zhang Cen shook his head, the siege is not realistic at all, the other party has too many people defending the city, and they don't have siege weapons, what to take to siege the city?

He had no choice but to shout: "Continue north to Gaotang County!" ”

"But our dry food is only two days, I'm afraid we can't support Gaotang County."

Zhang Cen gritted his teeth and said: "Then plunder all the way to the north, pass on my orders, and the three armies can let go of their hands and feet to loot grain and grass." ”

When Guan Sheng heard this order, he couldn't help but be furious in his heart, and urged him to step forward and shouted: "Does the general want to completely ruin the reputation of the Liangshan Army?" ”

Zhang Cen looked at Guan Sheng calmly and said: "I don't want to do this either, but it will take at least three days to walk from here to Gaotang County, and our dry food can only support two days, what do you say?" ”

"You can borrow food from the villagers, if you let the soldiers grab food, then there will inevitably be burning**, and our military discipline will be completely ruined."

Zhang Cen's original intention was to indulge the soldiers in looting property and food, which was a good way to boost morale, otherwise the soldiers would have fled if they couldn't go to Gaotang County.

Zhang Cen snorted and said in a faint tone: "Now is not the time to talk about morality and military discipline, let's save our lives first!" ”

"You-" Guan Sheng was so angry that he couldn't speak.

Zhang Cen ignored him and shouted, "Let's go!" ”

Thousands of troops marched north, and Guan Sheng had no choice but to follow the army north.

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After traveling 40 miles north from Liaocheng, a soldier pointed to a town not far away and reported to Zhang Cen: "Three miles to the east is Xingli Town, and there are several densely populated villages nearby, and the population does not seem to have moved away. ”

Zhang Cen originally planned to loot Boping County, which was thirty miles away, but now he saw that the morale of the soldiers had been extremely low, and now it was dusk, and he would not be able to arrive in Boping County until tomorrow morning. ”

When the order was laid, the 5,000 soldiers of the Liangshan Army immediately thundered with joy and rushed to the town and nearby villages three miles away......

Xingli Town is a big town, with a population of about 1,000 people, there are more than a dozen villages within a radius of 20 miles, the population is relatively dense, although some people have moved to Liaocheng County, but there are still many people who are reluctant to give up their property and do not move away, 5,000 Liangshan soldiers killed and suddenly brought them a catastrophe.

The soldiers rushed into the town like wolves, and soon the town was on fire, and the cries of the women, the cries of the children, the cries of the old men...... The soldiers had a wolf in their hearts, and they began to plunder frantically unscrupulously, taking away money, food, livestock, and everything they could carry, and the women would not let go, and when they encountered resistance, they were hacked to death, and several villages closer to the town also rushed into the soldiers, and there were cries and shouts everywhere, and the whole vicinity of Xingli Town was in chaos.

In Baishui Village, southeast of Xingli Town, hundreds of soldiers rushed in, they were in groups of three or five, smashing doors and looting from house to house, many young women were dragged out of the house openly, and the whole village was full of chickens and dogs, crying.

At this moment, a cavalry of more than 100 people killed from the path in the east of the village, they were as fast as a violent wind, the knives were sharp, and they ruthlessly killed the lone soldiers of the Liangshan Army, only a moment, the situation in the village was reversed, the soldiers threw away the looted property and fled in all directions, but the cavalry refused to let them go, all the way to chase and assassinate, the soldiers were dead all over the place, there were screams and wails everywhere, and the villagers also fought back, besieged those lone soldiers, and beat them to death with hoes and sticks.

Not only Baishui Village, but also other villages invaded by the rebel army appeared cavalry, they galloped on horseback, chasing and killing the frightened Liangshan Army soldiers everywhere, and even a cavalry of 500 people appeared in Xingli Town, heavy horses' hooves beat on the stone road, cold spears pierced the chest, and the cold swords slashed the heads.

The soldiers of the Liangshan Army, who had plundered people's property and food, became the prey of the Xuanwu cavalry, and under the threat of death, they had to abandon their belongings and flee to the official road.