Zhao Yan's army took the official road by land, first from Jinan to Xuzhou, then from the Xuzhou official road to the west to Shangqiu, Henan, then to the southwest to Xiping, and then from Xiping along the official road straight south, straight into Huguang De'an Mansion Xiaogan, and then turned to the east of Huangzhou Mansion, first to exterminate the Gao Yingxiang Department entrenched in the Yinghuo Mountains (Dabie Mountain).

At the same time, Zhao Yan wrote a letter to Zhu Dadian, asking him to send troops to cooperate with the blockade of various places in the mountainous area, and even notified Yingzhou to send 30,000 people to assist in the battle.

Zhu Dadian quickly replied, saying that 20,000 people would be transferred to help suppress the thieves. For Gao Yingxiang's bandits, Zhao Yan mobilized 80,000 troops.

To deal with the thieves is to block, and it is to be surrounded by heavy troops. It is a good thing to have superior forces, and if there are fewer troops, although they can be defeated, they cannot ensure total annihilation.

Yingzhou is responsible for encircling the northwest and northeast, and Zhu Dadian is responsible for encircling the southeast and southwest.

Although the 20,000 soldiers and horses mobilized by Zhu Dadian were not elite enough, they were also different from most of the officers and soldiers, and 5,000 of them used the equipment provided by Zhao Yan, and at the same time participated in training in Yingzhou, which was competent enough to deal with Gao Yingxiang.

…… Gao Yingxiang wandered to the Yinghuo Mountains, and the five battalions of the Gezuo of the year, using the natives to collect intelligence and plundering everywhere, but Zhu Dadian's soldiers and horses had a very rich experience in dealing with thieves in the mountains, Gao Yingxiang's soldiers pointed to Lu'an Prefecture, that is, Zhu Dadian led the troops back to the mountains, and also lost more than 10,000 people, so that Gao Yingxiang did not dare to attack the east for a while.

So Gao Yingxiang attacked Yingzhou in the north again, but this time Gao Yingxiang kicked the iron plate.

Yingzhou's Xiangyong was originally to be organized into a 50,000-strong Yingzhou regiment, but later it was abolished by Zhao Yan, Yingzhou has more than 100,000 capable of fighting Xiangyong, of which 30,000 are the most elite, and they receive first-line equipment during the battle, including howitzers and other field weapons.

The Yingzhou garrison officer temporarily organized the 30,000 Xiangyong into four battalions, all equipped with first-line configurations, and a permanent cavalry battalion.

After assembling the troops, they fought with Gao Yingxiang's troops fifty miles away from Yingzhou City.

Gao Yingxiang was frightened by Yingzhou's soldiers and horses in a cold sweat, and at a glance at the equipment, he knew that Yingzhou's soldiers and horses were directly related to Zhao Yan's Shandong army.

If Gao Yingxiang is most afraid of that army and horses, only Zhao Yan's Shandong army.

It was an army like steel, the Shandong army was so strong, even if it was 1,500 cavalry, it was not something he could defeat, Gao Yingxiang ordered the brigade to retreat in a hurry.

The four temporary infantry battalions in Yingzhou pursued all the way from behind, and drove Gao Yingxiang's team back to the mountains.

In the case of only one cavalry battalion, in order to prevent the thieves from escaping from the mountainous areas, the Yingzhou guard mobilized another 30,000 people from Yingzhou and formed a brigade of 3,000 people to encircle the northeast and northwest sides, so as to prevent fish from slipping through the net.

The combat strength of Gao Yingxiang reached 100,000 people.

At the same time, Gao Yingxiang, who was hiding in the mountains, was in a predicament, he had not grabbed many large households for a long time, and the army's food was already in serious shortage, and it would be exhausted in a few days. However, it didn't take long for a strange thing to happen. Those soldiers and horses in Yingzhou actually sent people to send grain into the mountains, although it was only some sweet potatoes, but for those displaced people, it was to save the people.

Gao Yingxiang thought at first that the officials and soldiers must be cheating, maybe they poisoned the sweet potatoes, but after checking it, they didn't find any poison at all.

Don't take it for nothing.

With this idea, Gao Yingxiang sneered and asked people to share the sweet potatoes, thinking that the officers and soldiers were really stupid, and when they were full of food and strength, they would see how they died.

However, Gao Yingxiang couldn't imagine that the reason why Yingzhou provided them with food was just that they were afraid that they would starve people to death, and when Zhao Yan arrived, they couldn't grab a few people when they encircled and suppressed.

Zhao Yan went around in a circle, walked for nearly half a month, and arrived at Huangzhou Mansion, along the way Zhao Yan ordered two cavalry battalions to go out to fight small groups of thieves, and collect the homeless, along the way the thieves were wiped out by Zhao Yan more than 20 shares, but they were all small thieves. However, the displaced people have gathered more than 100,000 people, which is very cost-effective, and if they go directly south from Xuzhou, they will not be able to collect these displaced people.

These days, the newspaper has been tracking Zhao Yan's marching route, but it will not be leaked, after all, the newspaper has a delayed surname.

These displaced people were escorted by cavalry detachments from the cavalry battalion all the way north from the official road to the ferry port in Kaifeng, and transported by water to Shandong.

As soon as Zhao Yan arrived at Huangzhou Mansion, he immediately spread out the map and issued the task of containment.

The Yinghuo Mountains are an irregular quadrangle, and the northeast and northwest sides are the most difficult to contain, but the number of troops has increased to 60,000, and it is no longer a problem to encircle them.

The southeast and southwest directions that Zhu Dadian was responsible for were very easy to contain, because the Yangtze River flowed from there, and as long as some people were arranged to prevent thieves from crossing the river, and at the same time the pockets at both ends were tied up.

However, in the southwest, the Yangtze River only encircled half of it, and the other half belonged to the section of the road that Zhao Yan was responsible for encircling, and a cavalry battalion was arranged by Zhao Yan there. The other cavalry battalion was split into two teams by Zhao Yan, one team assisted the northeast and northwest of Yingzhou. A team patrolled the banks of the Yangtze River to prevent thieves from crossing the river.

The two infantry battalions in his hands went into the mountains to clear up.

When Zhao Yan's soldiers and horses arrived, Gao Yingxiang's spies detected that the soldiers and horses used a 'Zhao' flag, Gao Yingxiang's heart suddenly chuckled, and he hurriedly asked about the details of the military flag.

There are only two people in the Shandong army who can use the military flag of the word 'Zhao', one is Zhao Yan, and the other is Zhao Yong, and the military flag of Zhao Yong and Zhao Yan is different, Zhao Yan's military flag is green and blue alternately, and there is only one Zhao character on it.

Zhao Yong's military flag is green, and the Zhao character on it will be smaller. Green for the Army and blue for the Navy. The alternation of blue and green represents the Supreme Leader.

The spies reported that it was blue and green, Gao Yingxiang immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly led the team to escape from the mountain, running as far as possible.

But just when Gao Yingxiang wanted to run, he was shocked to find that the southeast, northwest, and northeast were blocked by the official army.

In the southwest, Zhao Yan's soldiers and horses were blocked there, and it was impossible to run there. On the northeast and northwest sides, there are also soldiers and horses from Yingzhou.

Only to the southeast is Zhu Dadian's soldiers and horses. When Gao Yingxiang came, it was better to deal with some. So Gao Yingxiang chose to break through from the southeast, then jumped into Chaohu Lake, and then found a way to break through to the west.

On May 23, Gao Yingxiang finally divided the 150,000 young men in his hand into two parts, one part of 50,000 people, and broke through to the northeast, hoping to divert the defenders in the southeast.

And he took 100,000 men with him and broke through from the southeast.

When Gao Yingxiang was preparing to break through, Zhao Yan also sent two infantry battalions to the mountains to clear Gao Yingxiang.

"I'm afraid it will take some time to search the mountain, if it is appeased, it will be very certain." Mao Yuanyi said to Zhao Yan.

"Even if it takes a month, Gao Yingxiang will be exterminated." Zhao Yan said resolutely. This time, he planned to use both appeasement and purging, but Gao Yingxiang was the most famous and prestigious among the thieves, but Zhao Yan did not plan to surrender, he wanted to kill the monkey to show the chicken, so as to establish his authority again, so it would be much more convenient to appease the thieves of other tribes later.

Gao Yingxiang's breakthrough began, 50,000 people broke through from the northeast first, but was beaten back by the Yingzhou side, Yingzhou mobilized 60,000 people, in the mountainous area to encircle, artillery or anything is not lacking, every defensive point, as long as a few artillery pieces are mounted, you can be multiplied by thieves to block back.

Not only was it blocked, but the officers and soldiers in the southeast did not move at all, and they did not cooperate with the encirclement in the northeast at all, which made Gao Yingxiang feel extremely troublesome.

Gao Yingxiang gritted his teeth, gathered the men and horses, and broke through directly from Huoshan.

Zhu Dadian with 5,000 elite men and horses, immediately at the foot of Huo Mountain, Gao Yingxiang personally supervised the battle, those who retreated were killed, and the thieves burst out with strong combat effectiveness, and rushed to Zhu Dadian's troops.

In the narrow combat area, the two sides fought fiercely for nearly a day and night, and the thieves kept falling under the spears, unable to advance an inch at all, and more than 10,000 people were killed and wounded in a day and night.

Second, Zhu Dadian transported the artillery.

As soon as the cannon exploded, the thieves finally couldn't support it and retreated like a tide.

Gao Yingxiang had no choice but to gather his men and horses and hide in the mountains.

You Xuefeng and Han Sheng went into the mountains with soldiers and horses, and the first battalion of the Liaodong Army led by You Xuefeng had just withdrawn from North Korea and was very familiar with mountain operations.

However, the mountainous area is indeed a little bigger, and the two battalions entered the mountain, but they couldn't find Gao Yingxiang's hiding place for a while.

Five days have passed, and there has been no progress.

"Lord, we have to change our strategy, with the strength of two battalions, I'm afraid it will be difficult to catch Gao Yingxiang." Mao Yuanyi suggested to Zhao Yan: "Let Yingzhou enter the mountains from the southeast and northeast, deploy defenses at dangerous locations along the way, and then mobilize 30,000 people from Yingzhou to search the mountains, and it is possible to end the clean-up in half a month." ”

"Hmm!" Zhao Yan thought about it and felt that the plan was very feasible, so he agreed: "Then so be it!" ”

…… The order reached Yingzhou, and mobilization began again.

Unlike Shandong, Yingzhou grows rice, and now is the slack period, when the people have enough time to fight, and mobilization does not affect production.

As soon as the mobilization began, the registration was very enthusiastic. The trained people have no fear of thieves, and those young men dream of going to the battlefield to build up their exploits and get ahead.

Zhao Yan's military system has a relatively strict system of combat merits, for example, those young men can directly enter the front-line troops if they have made meritorious contributions in suppressing thieves.

The establishment of second-line troops has now been stopped, and in the near future, the salaries of second-line troops will also be raised, and the differential treatment within the army will be abolished.

The 30,000 men were quickly recruited, and the long-term training of the tun people was quickly organized into ten search teams, and they rushed to the front line with weapons on their hands.

The number of people besieging the mountain has increased to 140,000, and the number of troops participating in the search has reached 106,000, which is definitely a big deal, almost half of the officers and soldiers in various places to suppress thieves.

Among them, 46,000 are carrying out the main task, and the other 60,000 are just constantly compressing the living space of the thieves. Throughout the Yinghuo Mountains, there is the presence of officers and soldiers everywhere.

Gao Yingxiang scattered his troops into several teams and scurried in the mountains, and Gao Yingxiang was also chased and scurried in the mountains, hiding everywhere.

Fierce battles were fought in the mountains every day, and the thieves were crushed at the slightest touch, and the homeless people were captured one after another.

Gao Yingxiang's troops were finally bitten near Baizhangyan on the seventh day of the battle of 30,000 villagers, and under the pursuit all the way, Gao Yingxiang fled to Camel Ridge with more than 3,000 people, and all walks of life arrived one after another, surrounding Gao Yingxiang.

Gao Yingxiang was at the end of his rope at the moment, and at this moment, Gao Yingxiang's subordinate Zhang Rooster suddenly rebelled, captured Gao Yingxiang, and then surrendered to the official army.

Gao Yingxiang was captured by Zhao Yansheng like this.

Zhang Rooster was rewarded by Zhao Yan, rewarded with 3,000 taels of silver, and gave a hundred households.

The purge of Gao Yingxiang finally ended after 21 days, and the time had entered mid-June, which was the longest purge that took the longest time.

However, this is also the most thorough time, very few thieves ran out of the mountains, captured 130,000 homeless people, killed 20,000, and captured Wang Gao Yingxiang alive.

"These 130,000 homeless people are all young and strong, and they really make a lot of money this time." Zhao Yan was overjoyed after seeing the results of the battle, 130,000 men and women were young and strong, and they usually recruited homeless people, but they had to recruit four or five hundred thousand.

Such displaced people are more easily resettled, but their families are in tatters and it will take some time to recover.

At the same time, Gao Yingxiang was also escorted to Beijing by Zhao Yan, and at the same time, Kuaima sent a good news to Jingshi. Zhao Yan's big victory, the war correspondent capitalized the close-up, and sent out the war report.

Five days later, a piece of the name was: "Zhu Dadian commanded Ruoding, King Gao Yingxiang was captured, and the general wiped out his troops." The article appeared on the military page of the "Daming Newspaper", and the newspaper was quickly sent to the provinces for typesetting and printing.

Among them, Zhu Dadian commanded Ruoding, surrounded the thieves on all sides, and then Zhao Yan sent troops into the mountains to encircle and suppress, and finally captured Gao Yingxiang in the camel ridge on the twenty-first day.

Zhu Dadian is Zhao Yan's best ally, Zhao Yan naturally wants to share some of his benefits, and it is a great benefit for him to build momentum in the newspaper and make him famous all over the world.

Those who seek Confucianism are all fame and fortune!

After Zhao Yan finished cleaning up the battlefield, he immediately left a part of the education committee to count the military exploits in the local area, and at the same time asked 130,000 young men and women to be sent back to Shandong for resettlement.

As for these displaced people who participated in the thieves, they are now free from any labor reform, and they are resettled with equal treatment.

There are two ways to resettle them: one is to stay in Shandong as a laborer or give them 50 mu of arable land, and the other is to go to Liaodong and give each household 300 mu of arable land, which they can choose by themselves.

Not everyone in Liaodong is willing to go, first of all, it is a cold and bitter place, and then there are Jianyu there, and few people are willing to go, even if Zhao Yan promised them 300 acres of land.

However, with the continuous victory of the Liaodong war, there will be more and more people in the past.

So far, Zhao Yan has gotten more than 200,000 people outside, but it took nearly a month, and another half a month on the road.

Not high in terms of efficiency.

However, after capturing Gao Yingxiang and destroying this thief with the highest reputation, it will be easier for other thieves to appease him, and his efficiency will be much improved.

Then Zhao Yan immediately led 60,000 horses and horses to the south. At the same time, he wrote a consolation document - "The Book of Changing People", which was posted everywhere in Huguang.

"Today, Jianwei General Zhao Yan sent troops to recruit thieves, and Gao Yingxiang has been destroyed in June. However, this time the army was not sent to slaughter the people, the changes of the people in the world mostly started from hunger and cold, the changes of military households, mostly from the lack of salary, and the people with hunger and cold, all because the officials did not care about the lives of the people, natural disasters broke out, and the lack of salaries of military households was due to the continuous battles in Liaodong, and the military attachés withheld military salaries. The people thought they were thieves, and they knew it because the generals knew it. Those who are willing to go to Liaodong will be given 300 acres of land, and will be given rations, farm tools, cattle, seeds, cattle, sheep and horses to graze them, and the field will be exempted for three years, and after three years, the mu will be given five catties of rice and wheat, and no more will be levied. Those who are willing to stay in Shandong will be given 50 acres of land, and will be given rations, farm tools, and ploughing cattle. Where the thief is willing to bring the people to the general to care, but also in the past, the general is willing to ask the court to ask a hundred households to the post of general, the general promised a thousand gold, never killed a person, when it is said that the monkey Han Sheng was cared for, and now it is also a guerrilla in Shandong. If you and others are obsessed, the general will destroy it with the power of thunder, repeat the previous lesson of King Gao Yingxiang, and hope that you and others will act cautiously. ”

As soon as the documents were issued, the thieves in Huguang trembled, the king Gao Yingxiang was captured, and the Shandong army was menacing, making most of the thieves feel disheartened and have a bleak future.

Liu Guoneng, who jumped into Dongting Lake, received a letter written by Han Sheng more than half a month ago.

Liu Guoneng was very moved by Han Sheng's letter, he had read books and knew some loyalty, although he was not really loyal, but he aspired to become a court official and return to his hometown with fine clothes. However, the thing that was cared for was afraid that it would not be entrusted to anyone, so it has been wandering. At the same time, his subordinates did not agree to accept Zhao Yan's appeasement, and some people said that it was better to find Xiong Wencan to be appeased by Zhao Yan.

In contrast, Zhao Yanxiao's reputation for being brave and good at fighting is far and wide in the provinces, but the name of appeasement is even better than Xiong Wencan, Xiong Wencan has appeased Zheng Zhilong, so that the southeast is in a state of stability, and it has a great reputation in Daming.

And the most important thing is that although Zhao Yan is not an ordinary military attaché, but a military general, Xiong Wencan is a civil official, and everyone knows that in the imperial court, civil officials have more weight and higher status than martial artists.

Even a fool can see who it is better to cared for. Of course, this refers to superficial phenomena.

After Zhao Yan's victory, Han Sheng immediately sent another letter to Liu Guoneng, in which he said: "Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, has been captured by the general, and his troops have been wiped out. If the national energy brother thinks that the position of the general is too low, it is not necessary, and the Shandong army does not pay attention to the rewards of the imperial court. Today, no one can stop the general's troops, it is really a good minister in the world, he said that he will definitely sweep all the Yi, if the national brother has the ambition to fly yellow, there will be nothing wrong with the general. ”

After reading the letter, Liu Guoneng was shocked for a long time.

Gao Yingxiang was destroyed!

Gao Yingxiang has cooperated with other bandits, and his department is strong and good at fighting, and he is bold, so he is a 'hero' in all departments, and he is the most prestigious of the thieves in all departments.

However, Gao Yingxiang was destroyed by Zhao Yan's words, and he didn't even have a chance to escape.

Han Sheng's meaning in the letter, although he didn't say it very clearly, but Liu Guoneng was not an illiterate person, looking at his words, although he used the words 'good minister', he was telling him that Zhao Yan was not a bird in the imperial court. Although the word 'Siyi' was used, it was to imply to him that the general would inevitably sweep the world.

(To be continued)