The officers and soldiers who chased and killed the Ganquan thieves still failed to recover their salaries in the end, and at the same time, unexpected things happened next. On the fifth day of the twelfth month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the Ganquan thieves wandered to the territory of Yansui East Road Bingbei Road, killed Guo Jingsong of Yansui East Road Shenmu Bingbei Road, and broke through Jiazhou near the junction of Shaanxi and Shanxi. (Note 1)

Zhang Mengcheng was very surprised by the action of the Ganquan thief. In less than ten days, Bailiuxi, a thief in Ganquan, was able to cross almost half of Yan'an Mansion, repeatedly escaped the pursuit of the official army, robbed the official army of 18,000 taels of silver, and killed two soldiers and a magistrate. The thief's excellent athleticism made Zhang Mengcheng have to make a new evaluation.

However, Zhang Mengcheng was not able to study the action route of Bailiuxi, and another group of thieves who were driven over from Ganquan were rushing towards the security guards. On the ninth day of December (Ding Chou), Hong Chengchou sent Cao Wenzhao, Zhang Yingchang and others to attack the thieves in Ganquan, and the thieves went north. Dai Junen dispatched Cai Zhongming and led 500 infantry cavalry south to intercept it. And Zhang Mengcheng took a hundred "village warriors" and joined Cai Xiaozi's team again.

Regarding Dai Junen's dispatch of Cai Xiaozi instead of Zhang Mengjin, Zhang Mengcheng somewhat understood Dai Junen's thoughts. When Ningsai first sent troops to rescue Ansai, Cai Xiaozi led the team, which can also be explained as being close to Cai Xiaozi's hometown, and it was more conducive to commanding the battle with him as the leader. The second time the pursuit was not muddy, it was Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi who attacked alternately and did not let one side dominate.

So this time the thieves obviously planned to flee to the mountainous areas of Huanxian County through Zhang Mengjin's territory. But Dai Junen insisted on transferring Cai Zhongming in order to stick to his previous ideas. Originally, in terms of official positions, Ningsai's garrison Zhang Mengjin and ethics Cai Zhongming were not as suitable as the general Wu Hongqi.

But in reality, the elite soldiers in Ningsai Fort are all under Zhang Mengjin and Cai Zhongming, and both of them are from Ding after all. But Dai Junen still let the two go on the expedition instead of supporting Wu Hongqi. Most of them saw that Wu Hongqi was embarrassed and useful, and the two people who were born in Ding Ding had no backers, and as long as they had more support, they could easily cultivate their own lineage.

In fact, Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi also vaguely understood Dai Junen's thoughts, so after Zhang Mengjin became the garrison of Ningsai, he did not rapidly expand his troops, but let many of his subordinates return to Jinding Mountain later. However, Cai Xiaozi transferred a lot of people from Artemisia Peak, and expanded Ningsai's team to more than 400 people. But fortunately, the two sides have cooperated for many years and will not engage in some too fierce fighting.

……

"Brother Cai, the thief brigade has discovered our ambush. Now he is turning around and fleeing to Heshui County. Zhang Mengcheng held the horsewhip in his hand and quickly reported the latest movements of the thieves to Cai Xiaozi. This time, the thieves were very vigilant, and the thieves' sentry rode more than ten miles away from the old camp and began to patrol around. On the way back with the sentry cavalry reconnaissance, Zhang Mengcheng had a fierce battle with the other party.

Cai Xiaozi, who was still presiding over the ambush, saw Zhang Mengcheng who was still stained with blood, and understood that the ambush preparation was meaningless, so he said to the others under him: "All the cavalry gather and pursue the old camp of thieves to the south, don't give Zhang Yingchang's rabbit cub a little credit." ”

Although he has become an official army, Cai Xiaozi and Zhang Yingchang have a blood feud after all. Therefore, Cai Xiaozi only wanted to get things done by himself, and he didn't plan to join forces with Zhang Yingchang and others who were rushing. This time, he brought 500 steps from Ningsai, and Jinding Mountain and Artemisia Peak each provided 100 "Xiangyong". Seven hundred elite soldiers, there is no need to fear more than a thousand rabble.

Hearing Cai Xiaozi's order, the leaders of Artemisia Peak and Jinding Mountain each began to form a team. The leaders of the infantry began to lament that they were useless, and the leaders of the cavalry were very happy. The old battalion will always carry a lot of mules and horses, and if they do not take the initiative to fight against the official army, the official army can usually only rely on the cavalry to pursue. Therefore, except for going into the mountains to destroy the lair of some thieves, the officer and army infantry team rarely had the opportunity to perform.

Li Yang, who was unable to make meritorious service this time, could only keep complaining on the sidelines. "This time it's none of our business, I said that these thieves have been running around all the time, why don't they dare to gather people to fight with us. If this continues, what's the use of us foot team members keeping it. ”

"yes, I haven't seen blood on my knife in almost two months. I said Xiucai, why don't you take me on this time. If this continues, I have to hold back my mistakes. Yu Baocheng didn't move his muscles for too long, and even whimsically planned to leave his troops.

"What are you doing all those useless things, you guys just stay in the back. Xiucai, you have a lot of blood on your body, this time you went out to kill a few people who didn't have long eyes? Fan Shunjiang expressed disdain for the complaints of the two infantry leaders, and turned his head to ask Zhang Mengcheng about the status of the sentry battle.

"Suddenly, they met each other, and they slaughtered three rogues in one round. After that, the chase shot two and ran one. My subordinate was a stab in the shoulder, but it was fine. "This time on patrol, Zhang Mengcheng also took seven subordinates and touched it. With better training and high-quality armor, I didn't suffer anything.

Guan Zhiqing looked at the leaders of their Jinding Mountain, still chatting procrastinatingly, and immediately reprimanded loudly: "One by one, they are all grinding here, the people and horses at the top of the mugwort are almost ready, what do you want to make us embarrassed in Jinding Mountain, let me run quickly." ”

The second boss was already angry, and several leaders of Jindingshan naturally did not dare to continue to waste time, and they all returned to their posts to organize the team. It didn't take long for more than 100 cavalry from Jinding Mountain to join forces with more than 200 cavalry from Artemisia Peak and quickly march to the south.

On the 13th day of December in the fourth year of Chongzhen, the thieves fled from Ganquan and intended to move from the security guards to the deep mountains between Qingyang Mansion and Yan'an Mansion. Ning Sai guarded Cai Zhongming and led 500 infantry to the south to intercept it. The thieves detected and changed the direction of the march again and headed for Heshui County in Qingyang Province. Cai Zhongming immediately led the elite cavalry in pursuit, and at the end of the day, he fought with the thieves who were responsible for covering the retreating cavalry.

……

In the bitter cold of the northern Shaanxi winter, an officer army was shooting at each other with the cavalry of the thieves. A troop of dozens of horsemen at the top of Artemisia formed a wedge-shaped formation and rushed towards the thieves who were several times their size. Under the personal leadership of the cottage leader "Whirlwind Team", everyone ignored the oncoming feather arrows and bravely rushed into the enemy formation to fight. The nearly two hundred rogue cavalry in the center of the battlefield were completely suppressed by this group of fearless officers and cavalry at this time.

Cai Zhongguang, who was still holding a feather arrow in the cotton armor on his body, held a line gun in both hands, and a right front stab knocked an enemy soldier off his horse. Then he continued to rush forward, and after stabbing to death another rogue cavalryman, he was finally stopped. The man who came was a three-foot-long goose feather knife, with a ridge near a quarter of the point. Several slashes failed to make a difference, and then he roared and stabbed Cai Zhongguang in the throat.

Cai Zhongguang dodged the stab while striking, and at the same time used the barrel of his gun to knock the opponent off the horse. After that, Cai Zhongguang stabbed the enemy who fell to the ground with a shot, and while urging the war horse to march, he dragged the screaming opponent on the ground with a line gun. After attracting an enemy, he quickly dodged the enemy's spearhead and grabbed his own bones to kill an enemy again.

The other cavalry who followed at Artemisia Peak were demoralized by the brave appearance of their captain. Constantly slapping horses and swarming forward, the cavalry of the thieves kept forcing back. Cai Zhongguang thoroughly understood the lives of the fallen enemy soldiers, and at the same time spat at the enemy's corpse, and said disdainfully: "You think you are a showman, and you still want to stab me with a knife, learn to be smart in the next life." ”

At this time, from the right side, another group of cavalry from the top of Artemisia rushed over. The thieves, who were already in chaos, could not withstand the blow and fled to the rear. The cavalry of the thieves, who saw that the situation was wrong, finally couldn't bear it anymore and rushed towards the center of the battlefield.

Seeing that the thieves had already put in the last reserves, Cai Zhongming and Guan Zhiqing also led the last more than 80 cavalrymen and rushed forward to kill them. At this time, the Jindingshan cavalry, which was shooting at the thieves on the left flank, finally ended the chase between them. The two sides drew their sabers and finally began to get into a scuffle.

……

Yang Cai knocked to death a Jindingshan cavalryman with a bone, and then beckoned several subordinates around him and rushed towards the target he had already targeted, an officer and army officer riding a jujube red horse. He was the one who shot one of his leaders, and he shot many of his own soldiers and horses.

This group of officers and soldiers was quite good at fighting, and more than 300 horsemen dared to attack their 600 horsemen. And the two officer and army cavalry teams entangled with Yang Cai and them are very extraordinary.

More than 100 of their own people shot at them, but they were suppressed by more than 60 of them, and even Zhang Hu, who had the strongest riding and archery skills among his own people, was shot to death by the leading officer of the other side. Knowing that he couldn't just continue to shoot at Yang Cai, he decisively launched an attack.

A miserable scream came from beside him, which quickly alerted Yang Cai. He reflexively leaned over and dodged a goose knife that slashed at his head. After that, he smashed the bone in his hand at the head of the attacker.

The other party also quickly avoided it, and at the same time rode his horse around several steps. One of Yang Cai's soldiers took the opportunity to go around behind this person and cut out the saber in his hand.

But the other party leaned back very calmly and lay flat on the horse's back. At the same time, he stabbed his saber backwards, stabbing Yang Cai's subordinates who tried to sneak attack to death.

Yang Cai saw that another cronie had been killed, so he was very angry and rushed over to kill this person with his own hands. However, the other party behaved very flexibly, and after killing Yang Cai's subordinates, he quickly drove the horse out of the encirclement of Yang Cai and others.

Yang Cai was about to pursue further, when several more officers and cavalry appeared and met the nimble opponent. The thief Yang discovered that this brave officer and cavalry was another officer who had performed very well in the confrontation just now. As long as you can kill him and kill another officer, the group will definitely collapse.

Therefore, Yang Cai did not let go of this opportunity, and rushed forward with other subordinates around him, trying to kill the opponent as soon as possible. With the help of Yang Cai's subordinates, the other officers and soldiers were pinned, and he successfully approached this officer and army. So he held his bones high, intending to rely on the hard armor on his body to take a knife and smash the opponent's head at the same time.

When Yang Cai swung out the Gu Duo in his hand, the other party quickly changed his move and cut off Yang Cai's hand holding the Gu Duo with a knife. While Yang Cai was covering his wounds and screaming, the enemy stood up from the stirrups again and smashed Yang Cai's helmet and brain melon with a saber in one go.

The other thieves around them fled after seeing the leader killed in battle. The officers and troops took advantage of the situation to pursue and completely defeat the thieves on the left flank, and then rushed into the center, and finally settled the situation on the entire battlefield.

PS: Note 1: According to the records in the "Records of the Martyrdom of the King James Dynasty", Guo Jingsong's position is to rectify the affairs of the middle road in Yulin. The author also consulted the two books of "Yansui Town Chronicles" and "Yan'an Mansion Chronicles", which about the military officials of Yansui Middle Road and East Road during the Chongzhen period, and did not find Guo Jingsong's name. However, the Jiazhou area should be the defense area of Shenmu Bingbei Road, East Road of Yansui (Yulin) Town. Therefore, this book is written here as Shenmu Bingbeidao.