The battle, first of all, began in Zishi County, Taiyuan County.

For the attack on Taiyuan to expand the territory, the Taixing army was extremely enthusiastic from top to bottom. There's no way, who let Taixing's background be the Yellow Turban Army back then? Even if Zhang Qiang tries to downplay the influence of Taiping Dao in the army, the position of the sergeant and pawn in the army still tends to be different from the current imperial court.

Since everyone wants to actively participate in the war, make meritorious contributions, and accumulate a military merit for themselves, the competition for vanguard candidates is inevitably a little fierce.

Yu Ban's Zhichong battalion is the main force in the army, and the candidates of the Chinese army are automatically excluded from the vanguard competition. Dian Wei is not good at commanding troops, and he thinks of himself as the "first fierce general of the Taixing Army", and he has no intention of competing for the vanguard. But Zhou Cang and Xie Xun refused to let go of the position of pioneer. In addition, there is also Guo Wei on the side, watching the competition between the two coldly, as if he can jump out at any time to cut off his beard.

Seeing that everyone's desire to fight was so strong, Zhang Qiang's heart was overjoyed. As for the position of the vanguard, Zhang Mad thought about it for a while, and still settled on Zhou Cang.

Zhou Cang was the earliest to follow Zhang Qi, and his loyalty to Zhang Qi was extraordinary. However, due to his limited talents, whether it is brave or commanding, he can only be counted as second-rate in the Taixing army, and he has not made much credit over the years.

Between a group of powerful generals such as Dian Wei and Zang Ba, Zhou Cang's status is inevitably a little inferior. And when comparing his merits with others, Zhou Cang doesn't have any special credit. This caused Zhou Cang to secretly complain to Zhang Qi many times, hoping that when Zhang Qi went on the expedition, he would be able to consider him more.

As for Zhou Cang as a pioneer, can he successfully complete the task of the pioneer?

After five or six years of fighting career, even if Zhou Cang's talent is average, he has good experience in marching and fighting. And. According to the information that Wei Xiao had secretly gathered in advance, the county order of Zishi County was mediocre and had no combat experience. That guy was able to become the county magistrate, and it was completely because of his identity as a child of the family that he was able to succeed in filial piety.

This Zishi county commander, after learning about the military preparations of the Taixing army. Verbally, he shouted very loudly, saying that he wanted to defend the land for the country and eradicate the Taihang bandits. Under this banner, the gang visited several big heroes in Zishi County many times in the past few days, and asked them to provide people and food.

However, the heroes of Zishi County are obviously not easy to talk to. They were well aware of the county commander's temperament and did not trust his command ability. Therefore, the county order of Zishi ran for a few days, and there were few strong responders in the county. And the fine work that lurked in the county town earlier. I didn't find any effective means of defense for the county order.

On the contrary, the small officials in the county temple took the opportunity to lock up a group of innocent people and identified them as spies of the Taixing army, which was very extorted, and the harvest was not small. The Taixing army has not yet been dispatched, and the county seat of Zishi is already full of chickens and dogs.

With such a soft persimmon, Zhang Qiang is still very relieved to hand it over to Zhou Cang to pinch.

As for the result after Zhou Cang accepted the task, it was obviously not unexpected.

Although Taiyuan's Haoqiang got relevant information before the war. However, under the condition that Taiyuan County was too guarded and had no mental matter, the preparations for war in the entire Taiyuan County were extremely bad. Especially the county order of Zishi County, which bears the brunt. I have already made up my mind. Don't look at this guy's loud verbal shouting, in fact, as soon as he saw the banner of the Taixing Army's forward, he immediately smeared oil on the soles of his feet - and slipped away.

As soon as the backbone of the defense fled, even if a few powerful families in the county still had the heart to resist, they were in the absence of organization and cooperation. They can only fight on their own. In the face of this one-sided desperate situation, the county lieutenant, who took over the military power of Zishi County after the county order fled, chose to surrender to the Taixing army very wisely.

Zhou Cang, the pioneer who was originally ready to storm the county seat, got a complete county seat without bloodshed, which made him smile on his face for several days.

But. The fall of the county does not mean that the resistance in Zishi County has completely stopped. Due to the strict restrictions imposed by the Taixing army on the powerful families under its rule in the ruling area, most of the Haoqiang in Zishi County did not intend to submit to the Taixing army. There were even a few powerful families, relying on the strong defense of the fort, and openly sent troops to attack the baggage convoy of the Taixing army.

Due to the limited number of troops, when Zhang Qiang went out to fight, he ordered Zhou Cang that as long as the local wealthy clan was not hostile to his side, he could ignore them for the time being. However, if there are heroes who don't know what to do, then don't be polite, and you must exterminate those heroes who openly oppose them!

Geographically, Zishi County is very close to Xihe County, which is controlled by the Taixing Army. Therefore, it is quite convenient for Taiping Dao to preach among the people in the county. No matter how much the upper-class Haoqiang family hated the Taixing Army, there were still many Taoists who believed in the Taiping Dao in the Haoqiang tribe. Therefore, when the Taixing army attacked the dock fort, there was no need for the Taiping Dao sacrificial wine to agitate, and naturally there were Taiping Dao believers in the dock fort who spontaneously rioted, so that several powerful families were in chaos.

As a result, as the vanguard side Zhou Cang, just led a thousand soldiers under his command to supervise the attack of the five hundred county soldiers who had just surrendered, and easily wiped out the two Haoqiang, forced four to surrender, and beheaded more than 150 levels. His headquarters soldiers and horses, except for the wounds on the march, did not lose a single person in this battle!

However, the next Pingtao County is not so easy to overcome.

Pingtao County is backed by Luliang Mountain, facing the famous "Zhaoyu Qi" (1), the terrain can be described as relying on mountains and rivers, easy to defend and difficult to attack. If the Taixing army wants to attack the city, it can only be launched from the west, and it cannot give full play to its own military superiority. Due to the inability to effectively besiege the city, Pingtao City was also able to receive a steady stream of soldiers and food and grass supplies from the rear. In this way, the strategic actions of the Taixing army were greatly restricted.

Moreover, the county commander here is quite familiar with the art of war, and has long contacted several local heroes to prepare for the city defense and war equipment. Zhou Cang was only a little tempted, and he was shot by the strong crossbows in the city, and his subordinates lost more than ten people. Seeing that Pingtao City was heavily guarded, it was impossible to break the city on its own, so Zhou Cang had to set up camp five miles outside the west city and wait for the main force to come.

When the arrogant army came to the city of Pingtao County, the situation changed again.

According to the detailed work of Taiping Dao in this generation, the number of enemies in Pingtao City has increased significantly. This made it more difficult for the Taixing army to attack the city, and it invisibly increased a few points.

Under the circumstance that Taiyuan Taishou pretended to be sick and resigned, Cao Peng, a soldier from the Li clan of Jinyang in the county town, successfully took charge of the military power in the county. At this moment, there were 1,300 county soldiers, under the leadership of the soldier Cao Peng Li Xuan, who had come to Pingtao City to strengthen the garrison of the city.

Counting the original hundreds of county soldiers and nearly 2,000 powerful troops, the garrison strength of this small city within a radius of 1,100 steps is close to 4,000. Even if the soldiers in it are a little uneven, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult to storm them under the favorable terrain of the defense.

The city wall of Pingtao County was originally two feet six feet high, and now in order to resist the attack of the Taixing army, the people in the county spent a month under the leadership of the county order to increase the wall head by three feet. At the same time, the slightly larger trees within ten miles of the county seat were all cut down by the local powerful mobilization troops. If the Taixing army wanted to make siege equipment, they had to transport it from the mountains ten miles away.

In addition, Cao Peng Li Wei, a soldier who led the Taiyuan county soldiers from the county town, also led the soldiers, and fought against the captive cavalry of the Southern Xiongnu in the past. He knew very well the principle that he could not sit in the city to defend the city, and he did not blindly stay in the city of Pingtao County, and sent a small group of elite soldiers many times to take advantage of the night to attack and disturb the Taixing army.

Although these harassment actions did not bring much substantial loss to the Taixing army, they could effectively boost the morale of the soldiers defending the city. Even if there were two harassment actions, Zhou Cang sent the elite of the army to design and kill some of the harassers. However, as long as these harassers fled to the vicinity of the city wall, they could get long-range support from the arrow tower at the head of the city, so that the pursuers of the Taixing Army had to retreat.

After the initial offensive and defensive contact, the battle losses of the two sides were roughly equal, and the defenders of Pingtao City also fully demonstrated their fighting spirit through these skirmishes. Considering the number of troops in the city, the generals of the Taixing army knew that this city must be a hard bone.

Now, what Zhang Crazy needs to face is such an enemy city that is ready to stop and wait.

There are many enemy troops, the defenders are calm, and they have the advantage of defending by mountains and rivers, which restricts the deployment and dispatch of the besieging forces, and it is difficult to even besiege the city. In addition, the city also has enough grain stored for half a year, and it can be supported from the county town in the east at any time, and anyone who knows a little about the art of war can judge that the city is difficult to conquer.

If Zhang Qiang decides to attack bent on attacking without killing or wounding one or two thousand people, it will take ten days and half a month, and I am afraid that he will not be able to capture this county seat. It is more likely that after paying so many casualties, it still could not capture Pingtao.

Sun Tzu Youyun: The army is strategic, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city. If Zhang Qiang could only choose the thankless method of fighting the city, then he would not have sent troops at all this time.

In order to entangle these elite soldiers in his hands, it took the boss's mental strength to be arrogant. The future of these strong soldiers is to be used to conquer the world, how can Zhang Qiang be willing to lose them under a nameless city?

In the face of Pingtao County, where the defenders were heavily armed, Zhang Qi not only did not have the slightest worry, but also heard the news that there were more troops in the city, but became more and more happy. He commanded his subordinates to build a camp for the siege of the city five miles outside the city, on the basis of the forward camp of Zhoucang according to the mountainous situation, and then began to wait.

Insolence is waiting for a man, a man who is going to lead an army to arrive.

This person is Xu Sheng, who was recently promoted to the head of a thousand people. (To be continued......)

PS: PS: (1) Zhao Yuqi, the name of the ancient lake. It is one of the nine servals in the ancient world, and now it has been silted up and disappeared.