The 2,000 officers and soldiers led by Wu Fu were still preparing to go on the expedition, so they released a large number of scouts first. What's this called? Know your opponent and win all battles! Although Wu Fu didn't fight very much, he still knew a little bit of basic common sense like this, and Zhang Fushun, the deputy chief soldier of Tingsui, was also by his side, so it was impossible for him to make such a low-level mistake.

After the scouts were released, Wu Fu was not in a hurry to go out, but first let the soldiers have a good rest, and then gathered the soldiers on the flat ground outside the city, and first told the soldiers that it was glorious to sacrifice their lives for the country, and it was nonsense to fight for the emperor to kill thieves. Of course, he himself did not think that these were nonsense, but felt that it was honorable to talk about these things, and it was his duty as a minister.

In short, after doing all these messy things, some of which were not available, Wu Fu slowly ordered the army to set off, and under the leadership of Zhang Fushun, the deputy commander-in-chief, 2,000 officers and soldiers left Baishui City and marched slowly in the direction of Chengcheng.

The army was less than twenty miles away from the city, and the news of the first batch of scouts had already arrived, and it was bad news, so frightened that Wu Fu almost didn't hide back in the city.

What's the news? The scouts sent out were killed by a dozen people! And it was killed by the villagers!

"Why? Why did the villagers kill our scouts? These villagers have eaten the bear's heart and leopard gall, or have they lost their minds and gone crazy? Wu Fu hurriedly found Zhang Fushun and asked.

When it comes to fighting openly and secretly in the court, smearing other officials, or using some conspiracies and tricks to frame Zhongliang, Wu Fu is handy and effortless, but when he uses tactics in this kind of war, his eyes are black, and he doesn't know anything. It's not that his IQ is not high, it's that his IQ is not used in this direction at all.

Zhang Fushun thought silently for a while, and said, "Lord Qincha, these villagers, I'm afraid they are not real villagers...... They are supposed to be disguised after the thieves of Baishui Zhuba killed the local villagers. ”

"Huh? Hasn't Baishui Zhuba returned to the mountains yet? Wu Fu was a little confused: "Since this guy has killed the villagers and robbed the property, he should go back, right?" What tricks are you still playing in Chengcheng? ”

"This subordinate can't figure it out!" Zhang Fushun smiled bitterly: "But if you think about it in combination with the fake letter sent by Xin Lancheng in Chengcheng last time, you can understand a truth, Zhu Ba's two thousand thieves did not attack Chengcheng, nor did they return to the cottage, so what is their real purpose...... All you have to do is continue to loot nearby villages and plunder more wealth! According to the lower officials' guesses, after they killed the people in the village, they were carrying goods and food, and our scouts arrived, Zhu Ba, a thief, was very smart, and when he saw these scouts, he guessed that our army would soon go to Chengcheng, so they disguised themselves as villagers and killed our scouts...... They want to set up an ambush in that vicinity and ambush us. If he succeeds in ambushing and defeating us, the two county towns of Baishui and Chengcheng will fall into his hands. ”

"I see...... Wu Fu didn't think about it, and hurriedly said: "Go back to the city...... Let's hide back in the city, the thieves want to ambush us, of course we can't be fooled by this. ”

"Lord Qincha, is it really okay to go back to the city at this time?" Zhang Fushun's expression changed suddenly, and he said seriously: "We have been studying hard for ten years, what are we doing?" It's not self-cultivation, Qi family, governing the country, and leveling the world! If you cower at the sight of a thief, will you not live in vain? After all, Zhang Fushun is a member of the Donglin Party, and the Donglin Party is arrogant, although ability and arrogance are not necessarily linked.

"But...... The thieves are ferocious, and our army is probably not their opponent! "Wu Fu is not very bold.

"If the thieves are really so vicious, why do they ambush us and others? Just set up a formation in front to meet our army! Zhang Fushun sneered and said: "If the thief is really so cruel, Chengcheng has been breached, how can Xin Lancheng write a fake letter to ask for credit?" According to the opinion of the lower officials, Baishui Zhuba does not have much great combat effectiveness, and the reason why he was able to defeat Du Wenhuan was just because of the geographical advantage. ”

Zhang Fushun continued: "At this time, there is a rare opportunity, the thieves gave up the location of the cottage and ran to the plains to fight with us...... Hey...... Lord Qincha, this is an enemy that even Du Wenhuan has not won, if he is captured in our hands, wouldn't it be even more obvious that my Donglin Party members are using their methods? ”

When Wu Fu heard this, his heart was pounded!

After all, he was sent by Emperor Chongzhen to supervise Pingkou in Shaanxi, that is to say, if he wants to get the emperor's reward when he returns to Beijing, he must make some achievements in Pingkou, but obviously, he has no performance now, 100,000 taels of silver is lost, Shaanxi is still a mess, although there is a trilateral governor Yang He, the general soldier Du Wenhuan can be used to help him carry the black pot and prevent disasters, he does not have to worry about being punished by the emperor, but no meritorious service is considered a trip in vain.

Nobody likes to travel thousands of miles for nothing, that's what neurosis do.

Wu Fu couldn't help but ask, "Lord Zhang, do you have a plan to win?" Victory! ”

Zhang Fushun said confidently: "As long as we use the ambush circle laid by the thieves, we can get a chance to win." ”

"What's the explanation?"

"Since ancient times, the biggest advantage of ambushes is that they can make the ambushed army feel frightened, shake the morale of the enemy army, and then surround the enemy army in all directions, so as to achieve the goal of completely annihilating the enemy." Zhang Fushun said seriously: "The scouts we sent out were killed in several villages, that is to say, there were ambushes of thieves in these villages...... When our army marches to the center of these villages, the thieves will suddenly come out of the villages, and they will be surrounded on all sides, and our army will be defeated without a fight. ”

"But...... Now that we have seen through the thieves' ambush strategy, the situation is completely different. Zhang Fushun said confidently: "I only need to inform the soldiers in advance that our army will be ambushed there, and when we go there, if the thieves appear as I said, the soldiers will not be afraid, but because I expected the actions of the thieves in advance, and their morale will be greatly boosted." At this time, the thieves came from all sides, but their total strength was the same as ours, 2,000 men, and with 2,000 men surrounding 2,000 men, they made the mistake of not concentrating their forces, and the military formation was certainly not tightly formed, and the depth of the four sides was not enough. Our army only needs to twist into a rope and set up a square array in a neat and round formation, and the thieves can be easily defeated. ”

"Hmm...... What a clever plan for Mr. Zhang! Hearing you say that, even I think this battle will be won. All the doubts in Wu Fu's heart disappeared, and he said with great joy: "Great, let's continue to march according to Lord Zhang's words, deliberately step into the ambush circle, and lure Baishui Zhuba out and kill him." ”

Next, there was nothing to do with Wu Fu, Zhang Fushun brought a pen and paper, wrote and drew on it, and arranged in advance which formation to use to deal with the ambush of the thieves, and he listed each of the thousand households under his command, and which position each of the hundred households occupied in the military formation after the start of the battle.

The army continued to advance slowly, and Zhang Fushun was not in a hurry, because it was still twenty miles away from the expected ambush site, and there was still a mountainous area in between, and there was still plenty of time for him to arrange his troops and arrange this battle as beautifully as possible.

When it was getting dark that night, the officers and men had already come to a place not far from the mountain, and the black outline of the mountain could be seen in front of them...... After crossing this mountain, he was about to arrive at the ambush site scheduled by the thieves, Zhang Fushun thought to himself: At this time, the soldiers should be allowed to rest well, and tomorrow they can meet the thieves with full energy, so he ordered to camp here and let the soldiers rest for a good night.

Anyway, the location of the thieves had been determined on the other side of the mountain, and Zhang Fushun did not let the soldiers set up the kind of long-term garrison camp with strong defense, because the kind of camp required cutting trees and planting piles, which took time and physical strength, and he thought that it was not necessary, so he let the soldiers simply set up a marching camp. The so-called marching camp is to put the general's tent in the middle, the soldiers' tents are lined up in a ring on the periphery of the Chinese army's tent, and a few teams of sentries are sent to patrol the outermost area.

After it was all dark, Zhang Fushun was not in a hurry to sleep, he lit the oil lamp in his tent, and continued to plan how the battle would be carried out tomorrow...... He had already written all the plans on paper, and he would only wait for the day dawn to be drawn out of the camp and then promulgated them to the officers and men of the whole army.

However, what he couldn't have imagined was that in the night outside the barracks, a 1,500-strong thief army was quietly sneaking towards his camp under the leadership of Zhu Yuanzhang......

Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting upright on a small hill about a mile away from the camp of officers and soldiers, and because of the cover of night, the officers and men could not see anything on this hillside at all, but Zhu Yuanzhang could use the torches of the camp to determine the position of the other party. Several important leaders were waiting for orders by Zhu Yuanzhang's side.

"Wang Er...... Take five hundred men and sneak through from the north, and under the signal of my attack, you will make all the soldiers shout loudly, and then they will be killed in the camp of officers and soldiers......"

"Miao Mei...... Thou shalt take five hundred men and sneak through from the south, and shout with all thy troops under the pretext of my attack, and break into the enemy camp......"

"I took five hundred men of my own possession and surrounded them from the east......

"Huh? Zhu Bugs...... I! What about me? Yang Hong was anxious: "Kill Wu Fu, a dog thief, how can you not arrange me?" ”

"Don't worry!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "I only arranged three directions in the southeast and north, isn't there still the west for you?" ”

"But...... There are five hundred men on your side, and all of them are divided, what shall I fight on the west side? Yang Hong was sweating profusely.

"It is precisely because we have divided all the people on these three sides that you can intercept Wu Fu in the west!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled faintly: "Attacked in the middle of the night, attacked on three sides, the timid Wu Fu will definitely flee to the west where no one has attacked, and the west is the direction of Baishui City, he will definitely come!" Yang Hong, I order you to take your own fifty soldiers to lurk in the official roads of the west, take the stumbling rope, and only wait for Wu Fu to escape on horseback, and capture him in one fell swoop! ”

Yang Hong was overjoyed: "Obey!" ”