On the 13th day of July in the third year of Zhenghe, it was cloudy in the afternoon.

A team of soldiers and horses under the banner of Wuwei Army, is slowly approaching the city of Anqing Mansion from the north, east and south from the north, east and south, and it is only more than ten miles away for almost an hour, only to set up a position at the foot of the wall of Anqing City less than two miles, and then I saw the flag into the ground, the officers and soldiers either sat on the ground to rest or hurriedly shouted, and soon the officers and soldiers on three sides set up camps, and it was also a mule, horse, ox cart and set up a wooden fence camp under the city.

Huang Gui, the Wuwei Army Zhizhou who came to the unified army this time, looked like he was also around forty years old, but he did not dress as a civilian official, but wore a half-body bronze armor, and there was no pocket on his head, but he used a jade crown to tie his hair, and a four-foot Qingfeng hanging under his waist, and the whole person was quite capable. Seeing that he led a few personal retinues and military divisions to approach the two arrows under the city, he stopped and watched, but also saw that the banner of the broken stone army on the head of the city was clear and dazzling, and the garrisons and the baggage guarding the city were also fully prepared.

Huang Gui and his relatives looked at it for a while, then pointed to the city with the horsewhip in his hand and said: "This stone-breaking army is also bold, but it is not able to leave, and if I want to capture this city, I am afraid that it will be a little difficult." ”

After listening to a general Zuo beside him, he also said: "The army is worried, it is said that Wang Qing is just a bow head, this is afraid of this kind of defending the city, but it is just learned from the weekday drills, a silver wax head looks like goods, many of the five thousand sons under my command are swept through the bandit village and seen blood knives and awls, I am afraid that as long as one round of attacks and killings can take the city." ”

In local administrative units such as the Wuwei Army, the chief is generally appointed by the central government, and his full name is "Quanzhijun Prefecture Affairs" (which means temporarily presiding over local military and civil affairs), also known as Zhijun or military envoys. Under normal circumstances, he is generally not responsible for leading the troops to go out to fight, but the situation of suppressing bandits and the like is another matter, this time the imperial court asked him to send troops to exterminate Wang Qing, and the banner of the fight is to suppress bandits, so of course Huang Gui can personally lead the troops to fight, if the smooth and smooth suppression of bandits is successful, it will naturally take the first credit.

said that Huang Gui folded the horsewhip in his hand, but shook his head and said, "Don't worry!" Commander Deng, press the camp today, and hang up the battle exemption card from tomorrow, so that the soldiers can rest well. Thinking that Captain Tong's army went to the west, at least it would take more than a month to arrive, we had time to concoct Wang Qing, and now we are besieging the city and trapping the thieves before the deadline, so we have already won the first credit this time, why hurry? ”

Commander Deng and the others also laughed when they heard this, when they originally received an urgent order from the Privy Council to send troops, whether it was Huang Gui or the generals of the Wuwei Army, they were unwilling to send troops to recruit. Because this Wuwei army is known as the 19,000 men and horses of the regular army, but in fact, in recent years, because of the erosion of regulations in the army, generals at all levels are eating empty salaries and playing with flowers from top to bottom, in fact, the regular army in the camp will definitely not exceed 4,000 people, and the reserve system of the box army archers and village warriors is too overstaffed, and even many people have to pay money to buy a service identity document in order to get the identity of a box army archer exempted from labor.

When it's time to really go to war, let alone the people who can't get together, even if they can really get together, who would dare to lead this kind of army to fight?

But the Privy Council's troop transfer documents were rushed one by one, forcing Huang Gui to be helpless, and finally he barely made up 5,000 soldiers and horses of the regular army, and 15,000 partial troops (auxiliaries) were pulled, and if he could travel 20 miles a day on the road, he would never travel 25 miles, as long as it rained, no matter how heavy or small the rain was, he would not move forward, and he could go as slow as he could.

However, when the news came that Tong Guan was the envoy of Xuanfu and personally led 50,000 forbidden troops south to help exterminate Wang Qing, Huang Gui hurried slowly and unhurriedly, and finally arrived at the city of Anqing Mansion at noon on July 13.

This is calculated, the distance from Wuwei County to Anqing Mansion is less than 300 miles in a straight line on the map, even if it is a detour to Lujiang, it is not too much 200 miles, but Huang Gui's 20,000 officers and troops have walked for more than two months, and this kind of marching speed is really overwhelming!

In other words, Huang Gui has made up his mind, he is not strong and not greedy, although he is the main army, he wants to give up the stage to the guest army to perform, as long as the deployment is completed before the specified deadline in accordance with the military order of the Privy Council, everything will be fine.

However, this Huang Gui still has some means in his hands, and the marching arrangement is also decent, although he only brought 20,000 horses and horses this time, he set up a camp of at least 15,000 people and horses on the three sides of the southeast, north and south of Anqing Mansion, and also carried out three rounds of official and military transfers before nightfall, and the lights, stoves and camp tents are also configured according to the scale of 50,000 people.

The official and military camps outside the city are busy, and the city is also in full swing, only to see that hundreds of military pots have been erected in the Xiangjun Academy behind the former Anqing Mansion, and hundreds of women are busy making fires and making rice, only to see that the pot is cooked with dried corn and rice, as well as pickled vegetables and stewed meat.

Wang Qingzheng, who wore a bronze armor, a gold-plated head with wind wings, and a five-foot knife under his waist, led a group of leaders under his command to inspect the school field, and saw that the old and weak women were performing their duties, and the school field was filled with the aroma of corn and stew in addition to the smell of firewood and charcoal, so he also nodded his head with a smile.

After a while, a personal entourage came to report the news, and after listening to it, Wang Qing couldn't help but confirm with joy: "Is it true that Huang Gui set up the boss's big tent in Beiying?" ”

After getting the affirmative reply from his entourage, Wang Qing led the leaders to get on the horse and go straight to the north of the city, and after going up to the north city wall, he looked at himself by the afterglow before sunset. It is also strange that Huang Guituo is big, the official army camp is located in the place two miles in front of the city, which is just as far as the eye can see, and it is also true for people to see it.

This Huang Gui came to suppress the bandits on behalf of the imperial court, and naturally sat in the south and faced the north in a dignified manner, so it was normal to set up the commander's tent in the north.

Wang Qing took a look, and walked to the gate tower of the urn city, and saw a small leader wearing half-body armor, although it was the Song army's uniform and the number on the back with broken stones written on the back, walked over, and just saw that he was holding the bow in his hand and putting the arrow on the camp of the official army, Wang Qing asked: "Potter carpenter, how is it?" ”

When the potter carpenter saw that it was Wang Qing, he also replied with his crossed hands: "The other party is also a master of construction, but he is not in the field, and now he has deviated by almost thirty steps, but he has set up a storage account at the exit, and the small ones have just sent the news, saying that they have not found the secret passage." ”

Wang Qing was overjoyed when he heard this, stretched out his hand and patted the potter's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Okay! If you can break the official army tonight, the potter carpenter will be the first achievement! ”

Then Wang Qing shouted: "Pass the order, eat at three o'clock when you trap the camp, attack at two o'clock, if you can kill Huang Gui's head, the reward will be one hundred taels, and the official will be promoted to three levels!" ”