Xuchang County is not only an important grain producing area, its strategic position is also extremely important, it is the heart of the entire Yuzhou, it is connected to Xingyang in the north, Runan in the south, Chenliu County to the east, and Dugi region where Luojing is located in the northwest.

Politically, Xuchang County also has a pivotal role, a Liang County, a Xuchang County, is the center of the entire Yuzhou, the political trend of these two counties, directly affects the position of other counties in Yuzhou, once Xuchang County surrenders to the Chu army, then the other counties will no longer support the King of Qi, without the support of the local government and the people, the King of Qi and his army will immediately fall into a huge crisis, the brunt of the food crisis.

The food of Xuchang County is also equally important to the King of Qi, his army of more than 200,000 people needs great supplies, only relying on the grain production in the Luojing area, it is simply impossible to meet the needs of the army, and Luojing has a million people to feed, only relying on the grain of Xingyang, it is difficult to meet, although the Qi army still occupies Nanyang, Xiyang, Xiangcheng and other counties, and once Xuchang changes hands, these counties will no longer support the King of Qi, only one grain transportation, to trap the Qi army.

Therefore, the competition for Xuchang County will be the most important step in the entire chess game.

Huangfu Wujin used a strategy of elite soldiers first, he sent not many vanguard troops, only 8,000 people, but they are the elite of the entire Chu army, with few troops, but the combat effectiveness is extremely strong, once this army opens the gap, the main force behind will surge in, so that the king of Qi is too late to transfer troops, he will not be able to return to the sky.

At present, Xuchang County is controlled by the Qi army, and Huangfu has 20,000 troops deployed in Xuchang County, mainly concentrated between the two big cities of Yingchuan County and Xuchang County.

Huangfu Yuan values Huangfu Handsome very much, not because Huangfu Yingjun has any talent, Huangfu Yuan also knows that he is a gentleman, but because Huangfu Yingjun is a descendant of the royal family and the great-grandson of King Xia, he has an important role in Huangfu Yuan's accession to the throne, so Huangfu Yuan did not send him to the front line, but put him in Xuchang County, the most concentrated place of the royal manor, let him stock up on food for himself, Huangfu Yuan never dreamed that the war would start from Xuchang County first.

The Qi army barracks are located in Yingchuan County twenty miles north of the official road, is a large military camp left by the Yuzhou army, complete facilities, can accommodate at least 50,000 troops, this military camp is thirty miles away from Xuchang County, just between the two big cities, can directly control these two cities.

On the morning of this day, Huangfu Yingjun received an urgent report that a fleet of more than 1,000 flat-bottomed tugboats entered Xuchang County, and the 3,000 troops accompanying the fleet captured Caikoucang, which was dozens of miles away in the north of Fugou County.

This information made Huangfu Yingjun very nervous, but also very surprised, Caikoucang is one of the three official warehouses in Yingchuan County, close to Caishui, can store millions of stone grain, the key is that it is the grain harvest season, the arrival of the Chu army, the purpose is very obvious, is to snatch the fruits of the autumn harvest.

Huang Fu Yi had just given himself an order to transport one million stone of grain into Beijing, and if the Chu army succeeded, he would not be able to complete Huang Fu Chen's order.

The opponent's army was not much, only 3,000 people, but despite this, Huangfu Yingjun still attached great importance to it, and he personally led 15,000 troops to kill Cai Koucang.

On the official road, the 15,000 Qi army lined up and ran quickly, Huangfu rode handsomely, his slender eyes flashed with a cunning light, the news he got was very accurate, it was a thousand flat-bottomed tugboats, not the Chuzhou warships he was afraid of, with thousands of people, the number of troops was not much, only about 3,000 people, but the most important thing is that this army is not the descendant of Huangfu Wujin, but a local miscellaneous army, it is the army of He Qianjue of Liang County, and it is obvious that He Qianjue's military rations are insufficient.

This is undoubtedly a very tempting achievement, the ship, the Chu army, and the grain, these three things are Luo Jing's most sensitive affairs now, if he can make a great contribution, his status will be greatly improved, even surpassing Luo Qiyu.

Huangfu Yingjun has already calculated his own merits, he will not say that he will burn a thousand flat-bottomed tugboats, but destroy hundreds of naval warships, not to defeat the army of 3,000 He Qianju, but to defeat the 10,000 Huangfu Wujin naval army, in this way, he will make an unprecedented contribution.

The more Huangfu Yingjun thought about it, the more proud he became, he urged the war horse, and shouted: "Speed up, you must rush to Caikoucang before dark!" ”

The army was rushing on the official road, and Huangfu Yingjun sent scouts one after another to Caikou granary to inquire about the news, and the news he got was that the other party had begun to transport grain onto the ship, and he was even more anxious.

"Annihilate the enemy and take the ship!"

Huangfu Yingjun gave the order again, and the thousand flat-bottomed tugboats he thought of were just to help him solve the transportation problem of sending grain to Beijing.

It is about seventy miles from the Qi army camp to the Cai Kou granary, the Qi army has no cavalry, they can no longer afford to raise war horses, only there are 5,000 cavalry in Huangfu Yuan's direct family guard.

They set out early in the morning, marched all the way, and reached the Cai Granary as fast as they could, and it was dusk, and they had been running for nearly two hours, and by noon, the soldiers were exhausted.

The soldiers complained, how to rest for only a quarter of an hour, but complained about what to do, but they complained and complained, they had to hurry up and sit by the official road to drink water and eat dry food.

The dry food of the soldiers of the Qi army is very simple, a pound of coarse bread, a piece of dried meat, a pot of water, although it can barely be fed, but it is difficult to swallow, looking at the yellow and clear rice fields on both sides, many soldiers have homesickness, their hometown should now be the harvest season, complaints and dissatisfaction like an epidemic, began to spread among the soldiers.

For the emotional changes of the soldiers, Huangfu Yingjun does not care, what he cares about now is whether he will be ambushed, although he is a gentleman, but he is not stupid, he is also worried about being ambushed halfway, and the Chu army has lost several battles, he is already a frightened bird.

However, the plain area is indeed difficult to ambush, although there are endless rice fields all around, but the mature rice is not high, only the waist of the people, ambush hundreds of people may be, but ambush tens of thousands of people, that is absolutely unrealistic, this Huangfu Yingjun knows in his heart, he dares to pour troops to Caikou granary, Huangfu Yingjun has a pen in his heart, go to Caikou granary to annihilate the enemy army and seize the ship The benefits are far greater than the risk of him being ambushed, the benefits are greater than the risks, and it is profitable.

There is a town in the northeast, called Luxu Town, about three miles away, from him you can faintly see the town, and the surroundings, very quiet without any abnormality, Huangfu Yingjun relieved, he was about to give the order to raise troops, at this moment, a scout rushed to the city, panicked shouting: "General, there is an army in Luxu Town, and it is rapidly moving here." ”

Huangfu Yingjun was taken aback, and hurriedly turned around and shouted: "Hurry up, the enemy army is coming!" ”

The Qi army panicked and stood up one after another, but they didn't know where the enemy army was? At this time, someone shouted: "Ahead, ahead!" ”

I saw a black-pressed army two miles in front of the official road, rushing towards this side.

"It's coming later, too!"

An army also appeared in the rear, cutting off their retreat, as the enemy army got closer and closer, their attire was already clearly recognizable, not He Qianjue's army, but the Chu army, Huangfu was handsome and cold, he realized that he had been fooled, the so-called surprise attack on Cai Koucang was just a bait, that is, to lure his army out, and he fell into the encirclement of the Chu army.

"General Huangfu, it seems that the number of enemy troops is not large!" His lieutenant found a clue.

Huangfu Yingjun calmed down from the panic, and he also found that the number of enemy troops was indeed small, and the total number of people before and after was only seven or eight thousand, which was only half of them, and there was no sign of ambush around him, Huangfu Yingjun couldn't help but curse himself, and immediately shouted: "The whole army is in formation, ready to attack the front." ”

The officers ordered the soldiers to line up, and the army hurriedly prepared for battle.

The Chu army waiting for them halfway was the eight thousand Chu army musket army led by Zheng Yannian, and at this moment, Zheng Yannian was staring coldly at the chaotic Qi army in front of him, his heart was full of contempt.

This time to deal with the Qi army, they did not need to send heavy troops, but to meet the battle with fewer troops, more to test the military spirit of the Qi army, the Qi army's heart is unstable, this is well known, but to what extent is it unstable, the emperor is not sure of Jin, so the battle of Xuchang is also out of this consideration.

Seeing the Qi army lining up to kill, Zheng Yannian immediately ordered, "Line up, face the battle!" ”

The rice fields within hundreds of steps on both sides of the official road have been stepped into the ground, thousands of Chu soldiers brushed the ground and raised their flintlock pistols, the muzzle of the black hole hole was aimed at the surging Qi army, the black oppressive army, boundless, at this time Huangfu was handsome not to break through, but to annihilate the five thousand Chu army in front, he was high-spirited, fifteen thousand people against five thousand people, he had no reason to be cowardly.

The officers drove the soldiers to charge, and the Qi soldiers were forced to fight in anger and helplessness, and at this time none of them wanted to fight, and most of them had the same thought: 'Defeated, go home!' ’

'Three hundred steps...... Two hundred steps ......'

Spears and shields were held high, and arrows as dense as raindrops roared and weaved a web of arrows in the air, but the distance was too far to form a lethal force.

'One hundred and fifty steps.....

Zheng Yannian waved his order: "Release!" ”

'Bang! Bang! The gunshots were loud, the barrel of the gun spewed out white smoke, and the bullets shot out like a torrential rain, the dense gunfire shocked the Qi army, the pace of impact slowed down, and as the soldiers in the front row fell, the panic immediately spread among the Qi soldiers, and the rumors that the Chu army had a new weapon 'thunderbolt' had already made fear take root in the hearts of the Qi soldiers.

Now, black iron rods are spewing white smoke, rows of comrades are falling, death is just around the corner, and hometown and relatives are far away, and the long-suppressed fear and strong war-weariness have suddenly exploded among the Qi soldiers.

The queue began to be chaotic, countless soldiers scattered and fled, running in the boundless rice fields, one person led ten people, ten people led a hundred, a hundred people led a thousand people, the officers couldn't stop shouting, the Qi army began to collapse on the whole line, the soldiers were fleeing all over the sky, and even the Chu army was stunned, they only put a row of guns.

Zheng Yannian sighed softly, even he didn't expect that the Qi army's war-weariness had reached this level, and a camel was crushed by the last straw.

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(To be continued)