One morning, two days after Li Banghua was stationed in Jiexiu, he received the news that the messenger had brought back from Jinsuo Pass, learned about the general situation of the central line, shook his head and sighed, and thought in his heart that he was going to go to Jinsuo Pass in person, and take advantage of the fact that the mine battalion under Li Bei's command was equipped with a large number of new muskets and grenades to take Huanglu Pass. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

However, when he ordered the whole army to prepare for their departure, he received an urgent military report from the messenger from Fenxi County, Binh Duong Province.

Shaanxi General Soldier Zhang Guoxing's troops rushed into the enemy and were ambushed, and now the news is cut off, and life and death are uncertain!

Shaanxi Governor Hong Chengchou left Wang Chengen, the deputy commander-in-chief, to guard the front line of Fenxi and Huozhou, and he brought a Fubiao elite to the direction of Huizhou!

Li Banghua and Lu Xiangsheng were taken aback when they heard the bad news, the northern front first reported the good news, and the middle line made no progress, although it was more or less unexpected to him, but the bad news from the southern line made him have to reconsider the entire previous deployment.

At noon that day, Li Banghua ordered the whole army to pull out the camp, leave Jiexiu, turn south, and hurry all the way to the direction of the Mouse Bird Valley.

It is said that after Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi, met with Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft from Lu'an Mansion, he returned to Wenxi's army on the third day of April with the preliminarily agreed strategy for marching.

After Hong Chengchou returned to the Wenxi army, he quickly led the army north to Pingyang Fucheng, which was later Linfen City, and after some deliberations with Zhang Zongheng, the Shanxi envoy who sat in Pingyang, and Zhang Guoxing, the general soldier of Shaanxi, the troops went north in two ways to implement the resolution of the Lu'an Governor's Office.

Among them, Zhang Zongheng and Zhang Guoxing were ordered to take a total of 2,000 Shanxi township soldiers and 3,000 Shaanxi officers and soldiers to take the west road from Pingyang to the northwest to occupy Puzhou and Mengzhou, while he himself took 4,000 people under his command to take the east road and continue along Fenshui to Hongdong, Huozhou and Fenxi in the north.

On the sixth day of the first month of April, the two armies set off successively, Hong Chengchou personally led this road very smoothly, because the places passing through were all river valley plains, and there was no military disaster at this time, so it did not take much effort, the officers and troops on this road arrived at Hongdong and Huozhou successively, in addition to the division of 1,000 troops in Huozhou to garrison this important place, by the middle of April, the remaining 3,000 elites under his command all entered Fenxi County according to the plan.

Hong Chengchou's side had a smooth journey, neither encountered a thief army, nor did there be any difficult mountain road, but Zhang Zongheng and Zhang Guoxing's west road was not very smooth from the beginning.

First from Pingyang to the west, the road to Puzhou most of the time is undulating mountain road, the road lost a lot of ox carts and mule carts transporting grain and grass, and so on to Puzhou, Puzhou Zhizhou Liu Lingyu and the guards refused to accept, even if Shanxi according to the inspector Zhang Zongheng personally came forward, Puzhou city is still strictly guarded, resolutely do not open the city gate, do not let Zhang Zongheng's rural soldiers and Zhang Guoxing's Shaanxi army enter the city to rest, so angry that Zhang Guoxing and his generals jumped outside the city gate and scolded, once threatened to attack the city.

In the end, it was only under the persuasion of Zhang Zongheng, the envoy of Shanxi, that the city of Puzhou agreed to send a batch of grain from the labor army, which temporarily calmed the dispute.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zhang Guoxing's requirements for military discipline were no longer so strict, and the officers and soldiers of Shaanxi under his command were of course not so polite to the Shanxi villages and towns they encountered near Puzhou.

Although it has not yet reached the level of murder and arson, it is not uncommon to break into villages and towns to forcibly expropriate grain, grass and livestock.

Zhang Zongheng, the accompanying Shanxi envoy, repeatedly dissuaded him to no avail, and was worried that the township soldiers recruited from Pingyang under his command would have infighting with the Shaanxi officers and soldiers, and finally simply turned out of sight and was not upset, and under the pretext of his duty, he led his rural soldiers to the southwest of Puzhou to recover Jizhou, which had been occupied by thieves.

Zhang Zongheng is an envoy in Shanxi, a high-grade civil official, and he has the responsibility to defend the territory, and it is indeed his duty to recover the prefectures and counties occupied by thieves.

Zhang Guoxing couldn't say any reason for opposition, and he was also very angry about what happened to his army under the city of Puzhou, and he didn't even have a good impression of Zhang Zongheng, the Shanxi envoy, and the local Shanxi villagers under his command.

Because in his opinion, the 2,000 township soldiers under Zhang Zongheng have no role at all except for consuming food, and even at a critical time, they may turn against the Shaanxi army under their command.

In this way, soon after Zhang Zongheng and Zhang Guoxing had a closed door outside Puzhou City, they each led their troops to advance.

Zhang Zongheng turned to the southwest and went to recover Jizhou, while Zhang Guoxing continued to carry out the order with his 3,000 Shaanxi troops and went north to Weizhou.

In the north of Puzhou, more than 100 miles away, Zhang Guoxing led his Shaanxi army to march and loot the villages and towns along the way to obtain grain and grass fostering.

On the evening of April 14, 3,000 Shaanxi troops on the West Road finally arrived outside the city of Xizhou, and after some negotiations, the city guards opened the city gate with suspicion and let these tired officers and soldiers enter the city to rest.

That night, on the brightly lit Ya Ertang of the Zhizhou Mansion, Jiao Shengchang, the Zhizhou who had held on to Weizhou and had not lost it, was sitting opposite Zhang Guoxing, the chief soldier of Shaanxi.

Jiao Shengchang said: "Previously, Jiao received news from Pingyang, saying that Mr. Zhang, Shaanxi Province, and Mr. Zhang, the envoy of Shanxi, came to Benzhou together, but I don't know where Mr. Zhang, the provincial secretary, is at this time? ”

Zhang Guoxing ate a closed door soup under the city of Puzhou, and had no good impression of Shanxi officials, but the Zhizhou in front of him was different from Puzhou, after all, the city gate was opened, so that his men and horses could enter the city to rest, and he still gave some affection, and said at the moment: "On the way north of our department, passing through Puzhou, the Puzhou guards closed the door, so that the army lacked food and food, which was not enough to meet the needs of 5,000 people. Therefore, Lord Zhang led 2,000 township soldiers to recover Jizhou! ”

After saying this, Zhang Guoxing continued: "Master Jiao is the governor of Benzhou, and this place is not far from Yongning, so what is the current situation of thieves in the north?" ”

It is an inferior state, which means that there are no counties under the state, and although it is close to Yongning Prefecture and Fenzhou, it is under the jurisdiction of Binh Duong Prefecture.

Zhang Zongheng used to sit in Pingyang Prefecture and had contact with several prefectures and counties west of Luliang Mountain that had never been captured by the thief army, and informed each other of the basic situation.

At the beginning of the year, when Wang Jiayin broke into Shanxi from Shaanxi on the other side of the Yellow River, he first occupied Jizhou, and then because Jizhou was not in danger to defend, the thieves burned and looted in Jizhou, and quickly went north to meet the thief army who crossed the river from Jiaxian County to occupy Wubao, and then captured Yongning Prefecture and several nearby county seats.

In addition to capturing a few passing counties on the way north, he did not have time to send troops to capture Puzhou and Xizhou, which were a little farther away from the Yellow River.

Therefore, at least Puzhou and Xizhou have not been fired, the city is still intact, and the people are still stable.

At this time, after listening to Zhang Guoxing's words, Jiao Shengchang was slightly disappointed that Zhang Zongheng, the envoy of Shanxi, could not come, but still said: "Xu is thief is eager to go north to capture the important place of Yongning, although he passed not far outside the city of Suizhou, he did not attack.

"Not long ago, I heard that the thieves left Yongning Prefecture, and the nearby people were taken away, divided into several shares, and went east into the reckless mountains.

Most of the basic information that Hong Chengchou heard in Lu'an Mansion before was a report from Suizhou, and these situations had already been told to Zhang Guoxing by Zhang Zongheng.

Zhang Guoxing was in doubt, and suddenly heard Jiao Shengchang say: "Jiao also asked the lord of the town to understand, after the previous thieves, Benzhou accepted a lot of refugees from the south, and porridge sheds were set up in the city for relief, and the state treasury was empty, I am afraid that it may not be able to supply much grain and grass to the headquarters of the town!" ”

When Zhang Guoxing heard this, his face was pale, and he was about to have a seizure, when he suddenly heard Jiao Shengchang say again: "But a defender general who fled from Yongning Prefecture a time ago, named Zhong Dewu, is the nephew of Lord Zhong Wanli, the governor of Yongxing Prefecture, if Zhang Zongzhen wants to understand the situation in Yongning, he might as well call him to ask carefully!" ”