On the morning of 11 May, Li Banghua did not wake up as usual, but slept very rarely, and the sudden strong wind in the middle of the night did not wake him up, and he did not wake up until midnight. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Li Banghua's personal soldiers and Lu Xiangsheng, who helped him take care of the affairs of the army, and other civilian and military generals did not come to call him, after all, the situation at this time was becoming more and more favorable to the officials and soldiers, and the "Li Gebu" in their eyes was too hard and tired in these days.

Although there are special personnel to take care of and handle large and small affairs, as the highest official of the imperial court in Shanxi responsible for suppressing thieves, there are still a lot of things that need him to judge, Shanxi Governor Zhang Xiao, Yansui Governor Sun Chuanting, Shaanxi Governor Hong Chengchou and even Shanxi Chief Military Officer Wang Guoliang and others, every three or five times there are all kinds of military intelligence reports to him, and now in front of the army, there are various situations every day that need to make a decision immediately, and there is not much time to sleep peacefully.

This time is very rare, the battle is going smoothly in front of him, and since Wang Guoliang sent reinforcements from Li Xianzhong, there has been no bad news for many days.

There is no bad news in itself, it is good news, at least in Li Banghua's eyes, Wang Guoliang's side will not be in chaos, he can keep the golden lock pass, and not let the thieves enter the Fenshui Valley, even if he keeps the bottom line he drew for him.

Therefore, when Li Banghua woke up from a rare slumber on the morning of 11 May, smelled the smell of fireworks in the air, and went out of the tent to see the smoke floating from the back in the sky, he did not think about the direction of Huangluling at all.

After calling Lu Xiangsheng, the two of them thought that there might be a wildfire somewhere in the Luliang Mountains in the north, after all, they had long seen the severe drought in this mountainous area.

Not a drop of rain for two consecutive years, the winter is dry and cold to the extreme, but it just doesn't snow, this situation lasts for a long time, Shaanxi, Shanxi's yellow earth, has been dry to an unprecedented extent, now it is the early summer season, every day the scorching sun is exposed, the occurrence of mountain fires is also a reasonable thing.

Therefore, neither Li Banghua nor Lu Xiangsheng took this matter to heart, but concentrated on arranging troops and preparing to launch a new attack on Shimen Pass in front of them.

Unlike Li Banghua, Lu Xiangsheng and others, Liu Guoneng, who was in the thief camp behind Shimen Pass at this time, was very panicked by the smoke drifting from the north.

At this time, he didn't know that it was smoke drifting from Huangluling, because there was still a mountain Shenyu and Shennanyu between him and Huangluling.

Whether it is Shanshenyu or Shennanyu, such a large-scale mountain fire has occurred in these two places, which is not good news for such a group of bandit leaders who live with Wang Jiayin, especially him, who broke away from Gao Yingxiang and defected to Wang Jiayin.

Wang Zuojiao was the first person he defected to, and he was also the matchmaker he defected to Wang Jiayin, and he was the only network and backer in this gang of thieves.

He didn't really care about Wang Zuojiao or Wang Jiayin's life or death, what he was worried about was that no matter which of these two people had an accident, he would not be able to leave under the stone gate now, and his position in the thief gang would not be guaranteed in the future.

Besides, he also saw the battle that happened yesterday, the dangerous place on the north peak of Shimen Pass was seized by the official army, and the battle at Shimen Pass was not smooth, and at this time there was a mountain fire in the rear, and the northeast wind was blowing to the death, if the fire spread from Shanshenyu or Shennanyu to Shikou Town in the south of Shennanyu, then the foundation that he Liu Guoneng had worked so hard to accumulate would be destroyed.

In an anxious and anxious mood, this morning, Liu Guoneng sent people early in the morning to call another brother of the same clan who was originally ordered to garrison the north peak of Shimen Pass, but because he was afraid of the artillery bombardment of the official army and left the cap without authorization, called Liu Guoding, to return to his camp, and as soon as he entered his camp, he was taken down by him in public, and then summoned all the leaders under the command of the "King of the Collapsed Heaven", especially the relatives surnamed Liu who followed him into the rivers and lakes to fight the world, all of them were called to their big tents, and in front of everyone, they personally cut off the head of their brother Liu Guoding. The camp of the thief army, which was originally a little panicked and had scattered military discipline, suddenly became forbidden and neat and solemn.

After Liu Guoneng made this decision, he immediately sent one of his own uncles, named Liu Wengui, to replace Liu Guoding, and added a group of men and horses to build a camp on the mountain west of the north peak of Shimen Pass, so as to prevent the officers, soldiers, and horses from making a detour from the mountain to attack Shimen Pass.

At the same time, he also hurriedly sent people to Shennanyu, while exploring the situation of the old camp in Shennanyu, and on the other hand, reporting the news of the arrival of the main force of the imperial court officers and troops here.

Liu Guoneng vaguely knew that the north peak of Shimen Pass was high and steep, and the location was important under the Guancheng, but he didn't realize how important it was.

The reason why he beheaded Liu Guoding, who left his post without permission, was not because he lost the mountain, but because he wanted to kill chickens and monkeys, and strictly enforce military discipline by killing relatives with righteousness, lest the old brothers under his command, especially the relatives of his old Liu family, follow the example and run away from the battle when guarding the pass and fighting.

This trick did work, after killing Liu Guoding, the uncles and brothers of the old Liu family, especially Liu Wengui, the clan uncle who likes to rely on the old and sell the old, were more obedient, and let him go up the mountain to guard, and he didn't pick and choose.

However, it didn't take long for him to quickly understand that no matter how much the generals under his command tried to lead by example, he was still far from the "Li Gebu" in front of him.

At noon on May 11, seeing the smoke coming from the north getting thicker and thicker, Li Banghua knew that the mountain fire in Luliang Mountain must be getting bigger and bigger, and at this time, the northeast wind that had been blowing non-stop for most of the day would definitely lead this mountain fire to the south of Luliang Mountain.

At the very least, the mountain fire has spread to the north of Shikou, and the thief army in this gate in front of him will definitely be chaotic, and it will be more time-saving and labor-saving to attack at that time.

At this moment, Li Banghua suddenly felt that no matter the time, place and people, the court officials and troops led by himself were in absolute upper hand.

On May 11 and May 12, the thick smoke drifting from the north covered the sky and the sun, and countless ashes of plants and trees fell in a row, as if the end had come.

In the past two days, in addition to letting Lu Xiangsheng continue to supervise the construction of siege vehicles, Li Banghua arranged for his subordinates to continue to rest, and at the same time, in the camp, in front of all the soldiers, rewarded the elite leaders who participated in the battle to seize the north peak of Shimen Pass, and personally issued an order for them to be rewarded.

A large number of soldiers who were originally just ordinary soldiers dared to fight and chose the front, and they became the commanders of the battalions of the economic system, and the generals who were originally the generals or above the generals jumped to the commanders, divisions or garrisons.

This is now the Chongzhen Emperor, specially given Li Banghua a privilege, that is, in the front line of the various thieves army, the deputy chief soldier and the military attache below the promotion of rewards and appointments or life and death can be cut first and then played, at the same time, he also gave him a lot of low-level military officials, and he used it to reward those who dare to fight, if not, he would not have said so much when he swore to go on the expedition before.

Now that the "Li Gebu" has done what he says, and he has finished it the first day, he will quickly cash it out the next day, which has made the morale of the generals and soldiers of the mine camp and the Tianxiong camp even higher, and they are not so panicked about the inexplicable celestial anomalies.

As for Li Bei and Chen Tan, who led the troops to the top, their positions were not low, and they had meritorious service before, and they may make meritorious contributions in the next step, so Li Banghua told them that until the end of the war, all the merits would be reported to the emperor, and the emperor would personally reward them.

This is also the rule of the imperial court, even if Li Banghuagui is the minister of military aircraft, he cannot make decisions on the appointment of relatively high-level military positions.

In addition, during the two days of waiting and waiting, Li Banghua also ordered Lu Xiangguan to come to Shimen Pass with a new heavy craftsman as a camp, because he didn't want to wait any longer, because the wind had stopped, but the fire did not burn to Shikou, and the idea of waiting for the fire to spread and the thieves to mess up seemed to have failed.