"yes." Liu Qingyan responded, "Judging by the situation, this Central Army should be a mixed battalion of Zhao Xin, the Governor of Huguang, maybe it was ordered by Zhao Xin to come from Wuchang to rescue Xiangyang, but there is a situation that is very puzzling, at that time, this Central Army was obviously marching in the opposite direction. ”

"In the opposite direction?" Liu Ru said in a condensed voice, "That means that when this Central Army was discovered, they were marching along the Han River in the direction of Wuchang?" ”

"That's right." Liu Qingyan nodded, "That's the situation at that time. ”

"Oops!" Liu Ru changed his color suddenly, "This Central Army is not the real Central Army, but the Daxi rebels in Xiangyang City are pretending to be!" ”

"What?" Liu Qingyan lost his voice and said, "This Central Army is impersonated by rebels?" ”

"It must be so." Liu Ru said in a condensed voice, "Why didn't Xiaomei think that the Daxi rebels would pretend to be the Central Army?" No wonder the rebels in Xiangyang City have fled for two days, and none of the gentry and people along the way have discovered their whereabouts. ”

Liu Qingyan said in disbelief: "But, where did the rebels get the equipment of the Central Army?" ”

Liu Ru smiled bitterly: "Sister, don't forget that He Tengjiao's temporary governor Xingyuan is located in Xiangyang. ”

"This ......" Liu Qingyan's face also changed greatly, "If it's a girl, maybe the rebels may attack Wuchang?" ”

"Not a possibility, but a certainty!" Liu Ru took a deep breath of cold air and said, "Since this group of rebels can pretend to be Zhao Xin's Central Army mixed battalion, they can naturally also pretend to be the Central Army Baggage Battalion under Xiaomei, and the Central Army guarding Wuchang will have a great chance of sneak attack if the rebels are caught off guard!" ”

"Oops." Liu Qingyan exclaimed, "If Wuchang is lost, then the matter will be big." ”

Looking up at the sky, Liu Ru breathed a sigh of relief and said in a low voice: "Fortunately, the rebels just passed Yicheng at noon yesterday, and there are more than 400 miles from Yicheng to Wuchang, even if the rebels can fly, it is impossible to fly to Wuchang so quickly!" In this way, Sister Qingyan, you immediately use the flying pigeon to send a message to Wuchang, so that the mixed battalion of the Central Army left behind in Wuchang will be vigilant! ”

"Hmm." Liu Qingyan replied with a solemn expression, "Sister, I'll arrange it." ”

Waiting for Liu Qingyan to leave, Liu Rushi called the two heralds to him and ordered the two scout brigades of the Central Army to all be dispatched to reconnoiter the movements of the "suspicious Central Army" in a carpet manner, especially to focus on reconnoitring Yicheng to the direction of Wuchang, and report back immediately once the tracks were found.

■■■

Badong, tightly choking the Yangtze River, is a male pass stuck on the main road into Sichuan!

In order to guard against the Sichuan thief Zhang Xianzhong, Zhao Xin, the governor of Huguang, drew one of the only three mixed battalions to garrison here, even when hundreds of thousands of Dashun and Daxi coalition troops advanced to Qingtongguan and Xunyang, Zhao Xin did not transfer a single soldier from Badong, which shows that Zhao Xin attached great importance to the defense of Badong.

In fact, Zhao Xin's caution is completely justified, if Zhao Xin transfers all the main forces to the front line of Qingtong Pass and Xunxian, the defense line of Badong and the Yangtze River waterway will be wide open, and if Zhang Xianzhong leads the Great Western Army out of Sichuan, Zhao Xin will fall into a desperate situation of being attacked by the enemy on his back, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

But now, Padang, which is heavily garrisoned by the Central Army, is facing a crisis!

After Li Dingguo fled from Xiangyang unknowingly, he once again gained the upper hand in the duel with Liu Ruye.

When Liu Ru used flying pigeons to warn Wuchang to be prepared, and sent a large number of scouts and cavalry along Yicheng to Wuchang to reconnoiter the whereabouts of the Daxi rebels, Li Dingguo had already taken more than 2,000 Daxi troops pretending to be the Ming Central Army swaggering through Mao'er Pass and was approaching the military town of Badong.

Li Dingguo had long known that a mixed battalion of the Central Army was stationed in Badong, and if it weren't for this mixed battalion, the Great Western Army would have left Sichuan from the plank road on the left bank of the Yangtze River! As early as the night of abandoning Xiangyang, Li Dingguo had already thought about the next step, which was to surprise attack Padang and kill the central army in Badong City.

Li Dingguo's strategic vision can not be described as ruthless, he knows that the Dashun and Daxi coalition forces seem to be strong, but in fact, it is difficult to break through the Qingtong Pass defense line that Zhao Xin painstakingly managed, not to mention that now there is Wang Pu's main force of the Central Army, and the chances of victory of the coalition army are even smaller, and now the Daxi Army has only a chance to win, that is, to pull out the nail of Badong!

As long as the nail of Badong is pulled out, Zhang Xianzhong, the Great Western Emperor, will be able to lead the main force of the Great Western Army out of Sichuan and sweep the hinterland of Huguang, so that the Central Army of Zhao Xin and Wang Pu will fall into the adversity of being attacked by the enemy on the back and being difficult to take care of, so that the water of the Huguang battlefield can be muddy, and the Great Western Army can win in chaos!

The moon was dark and the wind was high, and more than 2,000 Western elite soldiers led by Li Dingguo appeared under the city of Badong unconsciously!

The city of Padang in the night is very quiet, a torch is inserted every few steps on the low tower, the blazing fire illuminates the city as bright as day, under the bright firelight, more than a dozen central army sentries stand like javelins, the central army sentries hold muskets, their eyes vigilantly search the dark wilderness outside the city, although they can't see anything, but they still do not let down their vigilance.

The walls of Patong City are not high, and there are no moats or moats, so two or three people can climb it calmly by setting up a ladder.

What is difficult is the central army sentry at the head of the city, looking at the central army sentry standing like a javelin in the cold wind, Li Dingguo couldn't help but sigh again in his heart, what kind of person is Wang Pu? How did he train this disciplined and brave Central Army? Although Li Dingguo was young, he never presumptuously belittled, but he did not think that he could train such an army.

In the dark night, a general of Onishi leaned forward and asked in a low voice, "Dashuai, do you want to kill the sentries first?" ”

Li Dingguo shook his head and rejected the general's proposal without hesitation, it was not difficult to shoot a sentry with a hidden arrow, but it was not easy to shoot a dozen sentries on the city head silently! As long as one of the sentries is not killed on the spot, a warning will be issued to alert the defenders of the city, which means that the surprise attack has failed.

Fortunately, Li Dingguo did not send people to hunt the sentinels at the head of the city, in fact, the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty has always adopted the security system of open posts and dark posts, and in addition to the dozen or so clear posts on the head of the city, many secret posts were also buried in secret.

General Onishi said again: "Then what now?" ”

Li Dingguo said in a deep voice: "Pretending to be Wang Pu's direct subordinate Central Army, deceive the city!" ”

General Onishi said, "Is this okay?" ”

Li Dingguo called a general Onishi to him and whispered to him, and the general Onishi took the order.

A moment later, a team of men and horses came out of the mountain road, and was slowly driving towards Padang City, by the light of the fire, the sentry of the Central Army at the head of Padang City saw it squarely, it was actually a team of Central Army, with a strength of about 400 people in two brigades, but the guns in their hands were not muskets, but spears.

When the Central Army of these two brigades drove outside the city, an officer of the Central Army suddenly appeared at the head of the city of Padang and shouted to the outside of the city: "Stop! ”

The Central Army outside the city stopped when they heard this, and a man who looked like an officer walked out of the queue, looked up and responded: "Open the city gate and let us in!" ”

The officer of the Central Army at the head of the city was unmoved, and shouted: "Password!" ”

The officers of the Central Army outside the city were confused and asked rhetorically, "What password?" ”

The officer of the Central Army at the head of the city frowned for a moment, and asked again, "Which part of you are from?" ”

"What so much nonsense!" The officer of the Central Army outside the city was furious, and said impatiently, "We are the Central Army directly under the Governor, don't blame Lao Tzu for being polite if you don't open the city gate again!" ”

"Your Excellency?" A chill flashed in the eyes of the officer of the Central Army at the head of the city, and he asked, "Which governor?" ”

"Nonsense." The officers of the Central Army outside the city became more and more impatient and said, "Of course it's Wang Pu, the governor of the five provinces of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

"I know, you wait outside the city first, and I'll let people open the city gates."

The officer of the Central Army at the head of the city nodded, turned around and went down the tower, when he turned his back to go, a little chill in his eyes had turned into a cold murderous machine, but it was a pity that the officers of the Central Army outside the city and the Central Army of the two brigades did not find it, and they were still waiting outside the city.

About a meal later, just when the two brigades of the Central Army outside the city were waiting a little impatiently, the officers of the Central Army who had just turned around and left appeared above the city again, and the officers outside the city immediately became angry and said angrily: "What the fuck are you doing, why don't you open the city gate?" ”

"Hey, hey." The officer of the Central Army at the head of the city sneered, "Shameless thief, suffer death!" ”

The next moment, the head of the city of Padang suddenly lit countless bright and flickering torches, almost illuminating the inside and outside of the city tower as bright as day, under the firelight, hundreds of soldiers of the Central Army came out from behind the battlements at the head of the city, these soldiers of the Central Army were holding muskets with good bayonets in their hands, and hundreds of bayonets reflected a dazzling cold light under the light of the fire, and the Central Army of the two brigades outside the city was immediately dumbfounded.

Li Dingguo, who was secretly observing the situation in the distance, also stood up in shock, he couldn't figure out what was wrong?

"You, what do you want to do?" The officers of the Central Army outside the city shouted fiercely, "Do you want to rebel? We are Governor Wang's direct Central Army! ”

"Hahaha......" The military officer of the Central Army at the head of the city laughed loudly, "You dare to pretend to be our Central Army when you are dying!?" Let me tell you, the Central Army is the Central Army, and there has never been anything directly under the Central Army! Also, we never know what Governor Wang is, we only know Master Hou, the supreme commander of the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty is the Marquis of Jingnan and not the governor of the five provinces, idiot, pig, now you should understand, right? ”

Li Dingguo, who was in the distance, hated and said: "I see, hateful!" ”

After all, Li Dingguo had never served in the Central Army, and many details were customary for the officers and men of the Central Army, but Li Dingguo and the officers and men of the Great Western Army did not know at all, and it was precisely because of the negligence of these details that Li Dingguo's plan to attack Padang finally fell short.

The next moment, a dense burst of gunfire rang out from the head of Padang City, and the approximately 400 officers and men of the Daxi Army who were crowded under the city walls fell like weeds that had been cut down, and at such a close distance and under such dense firepower, basically no one was spared.

"Withdraw!"

The muscles on Li Dingguo's face twitched twice, and a cold word burst out from between his teeth.

As soon as the guns rang out, the plan to attack Padang was completely failed, and it was undoubtedly looking for death to attack Badong with the remaining thousand people, and now, the only thing Li Dingguo could do was to take the remaining more than 1,000 remnants of the army back to Sichuan, Li Dingguo was indeed an excellent general, not chaotic in the face of danger, unchanged in shock, with brains and more courage, but he still lacked carving.

■■■

Xiangyang, former enemy headquarters.

Liu Ru didn't sleep all night, and the next morning, Wuchang sent back the flying pigeon to pass the book, and at the same time, the reconnaissance brigade that spread out also sent back the news one after another, but what puzzled Liu Ru was that Wuchang reported that no army was found within a radius of 100 miles, and the reconnaissance brigade that was scattered out did not find any traces of the "Central Army"!

In fact, Li Dingguo's more than 2,000 Western troops had already turned west from Yicheng, but Liu Rushi scattered the only two scout brigades in the area of Yicheng to Wuchang, and of course the whereabouts of the Great Western Army could not be detected, and as for Wuchang, of course, it was even more impossible to discover the whereabouts of the Great Western Army.

It wasn't until the evening that Padang forwarded an urgent delivery, saying that it had been attacked by an unknown fake Central Army last night, Liu Ru was shocked into a cold sweat when she heard the news, she never thought that this group of cunning Daxi Army did not go to attack Wuchang, but instead went to attack Badong, which was heavily guarded by the Central Army!

The only thing to be thankful for is that the officers on duty at night in Padang were very vigilant, and the ruse of the Onishi rebels did not succeed.

Otherwise, once Badong is lost, Zhang Xianzhong, who is stationed in Sichuan, will be able to lead the main force of Daxi out of Sichuan, so that the central army will fall into an unfavorable situation of being attacked by the enemy on the back of the belly, even if Liu Ru believes that the central army has enough strength to deal with the two-sided attack of the Dashun army and the Daxi army, but the people of Huguang will inevitably be ravaged by the war.

Things are really going to get to that point, Liu Ru really has no face to go back to see Wang Pu, Wang Pu told him again and again before leaving, let Liu Ru is protect the people of Huguang no matter what, Liu Ru is also full of promises, after all, the Central Army has even defeated the invincible Jiannu and Tartar coalition forces, can it still defeat the thieves?

"It seems that there are capable people among the thieves." Liu Ru sighed, turned her gaze to Liu Qingyan, and said in a quiet voice, "Sister Qingyan, you tell Master Hou about the recent series of events, and ...... Let him appoint someone else as the former enemy commander, the little sister is not capable enough, and she is enough to take on this important task. ”

"Silly sister." Liu Qingyan stroked Liu Ruxiang's shoulder, and said softly, "You still don't understand Master Hou's thoughts?" Hou Ye seems to be risky and bold, but in fact he is extremely cautious, he will never do anything that has no bottom in his heart, and he will hand over the heavy responsibility of the former enemy commander to you, he is also carefully considered, this army ...... He can only rest assured if he leaves it to you. ”

(To be continued)