In June, Li Zicheng's troops besieged Ningzhou (now Ningxian County) in Gansu Province, and the deputy commanders Ai Wannian, Liu Chenggong, Liu Guozhen, and guerrilla Wang Ximing were ordered to lead 3,000 troops to help, and the two sides fought in Xiangle Town, Ningzhou. The officers and troops could not support it and were forced to retreat, and when they arrived at Bajiazhai, the thieves ambushed the soldiers and surrounded the officers and troops tightly. Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen were both killed, and more than 1,000 of his soldiers were annihilated. Liu Chenggong and Wang Ximing were seriously wounded, and led the remnants of the defeated soldiers to break through and escape.

The news of Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen's defeat and death reached Cao Wenzhao's ears, and Cao Wenzhao scolded with a daze, pulled out his knife and cut the ground, and asked Hong Chengchou to die to fight the thief.

Hong Chengchou said happily: "It is not enough for a non-general to do this." Gu Wu's soldiers have been divided, and there is no one to deal with. The general line, I will be from Jingyang to purification, thinking that the general has stamina. ”

Cao Wenzhao marched to Gansu with 3,000 soldiers and met the thieves in the town of Hutou on the border of Zhenning (now Zhengning) County. Li Zicheng's subordinates saw the characteristics of Cao Wenzhao's indiscretion of the enemy, and adopted the tactic of luring the enemy into depth, "ambushing tens of thousands of horsemen, encircling in all directions, and flying arrows and insects." ”

Cao Wenzhao was besieged, and knowing that he could not get out, he drew his sword and killed himself. After Hong Chengchou got the report, he looked up to the sky and wept and regretted it. In the official army at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Cao Wenzhao has always been famous for "daring to fight", and the officials and soldiers of Yu and Chu outside the Guanxi heard about it, and they were all angry.

Li Zicheng and other thieves won major victories in Shaanxi in succession, dealing a heavy blow to the officers and troops of the governor Hong Chengchou's department, and the thieves were prosperous for a while.

After eight years of tug-of-war, Shaanxi has long been in a depression. The peasant army formed by the thieves increased rapidly, and it was already difficult to find enough rations in Shaanxi, and some of the thieves starved to death every day, or were abandoned because they could not keep up with the pace of the march.

Therefore, in addition to Li Zicheng's subordinates who remained in Shaanxi, hundreds of thousands of people from the Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying, the Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, the Yizi King, and the King of Hitting the Sky left Tongguan and marched eastward to Henan.

The general soldier Zu Kuan's soldiers and horses were separated by 40 miles from the thieves, Zu Kuan personally led a team of people to climb a high mountain close to the thieves and look at it from afar, only to see the thieves brigade going east, the dust rose to the sky, forty miles wide, and hundreds of miles, like a moving earth dragon.

The thieves are old and weak in the middle, the fine riders are outside, there are at least 50,000 thieves on horseback, and the sound of horses' hooves like thunder can be heard from a distance.

However, at this moment, a cavalry suddenly appeared in the distance. There were about four thousand in number, and all of them were dressed in iron armor, which was polished and shiny, and was very dazzling in the light.

Zu Kuan's face was surprised, where are the soldiers and horses? Zu Kuan took a clairvoyant mirror and looked closely, only to see that the cavalry had two kinds of flags.

On one side the word 'Lin' and on the other side the word 'Wu', it was obvious that the four thousand cavalry were divided by two generals, and the 4,000 cavalry were in an orderly formation during the run, and they were slowly rushing towards the thief's brigade.

"It could be two partial generals under a certain general." Liu Chongzhen estimated on the side.

"What are they going to do?" Zu Kuan asked Liu Chongzhen on the side in confusion.

"They...... I guess I'm going to die! Liu Chongzhen shook his head, with a hint of contempt in his words.

The corners of Zu Kuan's mouth also showed a hint of a smile, but he said: "It seems that their armor is good. ”

"That's just a false appearance, is there any army in the Ming Dynasty that can compare to our Liaodong Iron Cavalry?" Liu Chongzhen said proudly. The implication was that even they didn't dare to invite the thieves, and the cavalry must have been overwhelmed.

Although the Liaodong cavalry was defeated in Liaodong, it had long faced the Manchu soldiers, and it was the ace army created by the imperial court with the most money and grain, and it felt extremely easy to fight in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. It's like a person who has been tied to a sandbag for a long time, and suddenly untied the sandbag and became as light as a swallow.

While Zu Kuan and Liu Chongzhen were talking, the cavalry of 4,000 people had already come into contact with the forward force of the thieves, and the forward force of the thieves was an elite cavalry composed of 5,000 people, the horses were good horses, and the people were strong.

As soon as they met, the official army of unknown origin had already urged the war horses, and the horses' iron hooves made a roaring sound on the ground, and the four thousand cavalry formed a sharp arrow, directly ramming the thief riders in front.

The thieves over there were obviously unprepared, and after hastily assembling together, they had no time to put up resistance.

The cavalry in front of the "bang bang ......" was armed with a cavalry gun, and fired a shot at the thief in front of him, and the white smoke of gunpowder suddenly filled the air.

The thieves on the opposite side were shot down on their horses, and then the officer army of unknown origin quickly drew their sabers and crashed into the thieves in front.

The officers and soldiers had already crashed into their formation with great momentum, like a constricted fist, hitting a fragile piece of paper.

A thief with superb horsemanship leaned back directly, and very successfully dodged the saber cut by the officer, so that he saw him swing the big knife in his hand and drag it towards a cavalryman in front.

With the sound of "dang ......", the big knife slashed the chest of the official army very accurately, but the tragedy was that the knife only cut a small hole in the iron armor of the official army.

The thief looked stunned, and before he could come back to his senses, his head suddenly flew up with a 'snort', and his head had been cut off by an officer and soldier beside him.

The thieves and horsemen with the advantage of numbers were cut off from their horses because they were rushed into chaos, and the formation became extremely loose, but they lost their numerical advantage, and the thieves who dared to resist were soon besieged by the two or three horsemen of the officers and soldiers and were cut off their horses.

The thieves and horsemen immediately broke down, and each rode their horses and fled in all directions, and the officers and soldiers pursued and killed the fleeing thieves and horsemen in the melee, and the battlefield suddenly became a 'bang bang' gunshot, and clouds of white gunpowder smoke came out of the muskets, and many thieves were directly shot and fell off their horses, or the horses were shot and fell down, and went crazy.

However, after the officers and soldiers fired a shot, they quickly reined in the main horses and then turned around and returned to the team. In the distance, the sound of horses' hooves was already ringing like thunder, and the thieves' brigade of elite horsemen had arrived.

As early as when the vanguard cavalry battalion was attacked, Gao Yingxiang had already received a report, which immediately aroused Gao Yingxiang's great attention, without any carelessness and underestimation of the enemy, and immediately let the following concentrate on the elite cavalry to help the forward cavalry battalion.

When they arrived at the far end of the battlefield, they immediately saw a large number of defeated thieves, and in the distance, they saw a group of cavalry wearing iron armor and a clear banner rapidly gathering.

The cavalry looked chaotic, but they were rapidly adjusting, and in less than a moment they formed a neat formation. Gao Yingxiang was secretly shocked in his heart, which officer and army is this?

Zu Kuan and Liu Chongzhen, who were looking at the mountains in the distance, also had solemn faces, completely devoid of their previous contempt, and at the same time extremely confused, which way were the soldiers and horses?

"That cavalry, compared to our Liaodong, I'm afraid it's ......," Zu Kuan muttered.

"It's comparable." Liu Chongzhen took over the words, Zu Kuan laughed wistfully, and didn't say anything more.

The official army that attacked the thieves was Lin Yi's first battalion and Wu Yongliang's second battalion, and ten days ago Zhao Yan ordered them to rush to Henan to meet the eastward thieves, and each added a thousand recruits from the new barracks, a total of 4,000 people.

Lin Yi saw the thief's brigade of cavalry arrive, and ordered: "Withdraw." ”

The 4,000 cavalry immediately turned their horses and retreated eastward, not making contact with the rogue cavalry that had arrived. The thief riders behind saw the retreat of the officers and soldiers, and they were obviously helpless.

Although their number is large, there are 50,000 cavalry, but most of the cavalry's horses are used for work, Shaanxi people themselves have the habit of raising mules and horses, but most of them can not be called war horses, regardless of horsepower and endurance, can not be compared with the strict selection of war horses Denglai cavalry battalion.

Soon, the first and second battalions of the cavalry withdrew from the sight of the thieves, and Gao Yingxiang had to gather his men and horses to strengthen the reconnaissance and vigilance of the surrounding area.

In the afternoon of the same day, Lin Yi and Wu Yongliang's cavalry reappeared, this time attacking the rear team of the thieves, and they scattered the thieves of the rear team of the thieves with just a rush, and then they withdrew from the battlefield before the cavalry of the thief brigade arrived.

Like maggots attached to bones, they attacked the place where the thieves camped again that night, and the cavalry battalion fired nearly 300 rockets at the thieves' camp, causing chaos in the darkness, and the cavalry battalion immediately retreated.

The task of the cavalry battalion this time is very simple, that is, to bite the thieves' brigade before the infantry battalion arrives, and constantly harass them.

The infantry battalion had departed from Handan five days earlier and was expected to arrive in two days.

When Gao Yingxiang and several other thieves counted the personnel the next day, they found that there were tens of thousands of people who were separated last night, and they didn't know where they ran at night.

Gao Yingxiang was very angry about this, but he had a feeling that he had nowhere to go. But in the midst of the anger, there was a feeling of cold and murderous from the heart from time to time.

Not long ago, Gao Yingxiang fought with Hong Chengchou three times in Shaanxi, and although he lost slightly, he never felt like this.

"King Chuang, a brother under his command just now, that cavalry seems to be Zhao Killing's troops." A backbone member of Gao Yingxiang's side said to Gao Yingxiang.

"Call me and ask questions." As soon as Gao Yingxiang heard Zhao Killxing's name, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, and couldn't help but think of the thirteen leaders of Fengyang who was beheaded.

"Yes." The backbone hurriedly ran to find someone, and after a while, he brought a thief over, and the thief looked a little uneasy when he saw Gao Yingxiang.

"You said that the soldiers and horses are Zhao Killxing's people, but is it true?" Gao Yingxiang asked directly.

"It's true, the little one is sure that the soldiers and horses are under Zhao Killxing. The small one fled back to Shaanxi from Fengyang last year, and saw the soldiers and horses in Fengyang, when the small one fled all the way with the sweeping king, and the soldiers and horses chased all the way behind for two days, and finally the sweeping king was captured alive, and then was escorted to the capital to die. Among the people of the sweeping king, only the little one and a few brothers escaped. The thief remembered that experience, and was obviously very afraid.

"Then Zhao Killing Star is really as terrible as the rumors?" Gao Yingxiang asked with a frown.

According to rumors, Zhao Shuxing is nine feet tall and has four hands, one holding a sword and one hand, holding a knife in one hand and a boring handle in the other......

(To be continued)