In the eighth year of Chongzhen, in the spring, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xue Hongqi, and Bai Yuzhu allied forces to camp Lingbao, which is exactly one hundred miles away from Tongguan, bordering the Yellow River in the north, Lushi Mountain in the south, and a slender corridor in the west leads directly to Tongguan. After settling down here, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the scouts to go out and try to find out the intelligence near Tongguan.

It didn't take long for the spies to report: "There are 8,000 officers and soldiers stationed in Tongguan, and the leading general is Cao Wenzhao." ”

Hearing that Cao Wenzhao was in front, Bai Yuzhu's face changed color, and he was really frightened. This fierce general has been chasing the rebels in the past few years, invincible, second only to Hong Chengchou in reputation, and is a monster that everyone in the rebels hears of.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xue Hongqi, Xu Renjie, Wang Er and others had calm faces and did not see the slightest panic. Bai Yuzhu saw that he was the only one who panicked, and he couldn't help but blush, and he couldn't wait to find a crack in the ground to get into.

Xu Renjie leaned into Zhu Yuanzhang's ear and whispered, "Brother Zhu, do you really want to fight?" I thought you were going to hide your tracks until we were already very strong. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said in a low voice: "Huanglong, Baishui, Chengcheng, and Dali are only three and a half counties together, although we have accumulated a lot of strength by planting taro, but with the ability of these three and a half counties, it is not enough to support a larger army...... "The so-called three and a half counties are because Huanglong can only be regarded as half a county, and the population and productivity are far behind.

Xu Renjie nodded, indicating that he understood.

The biggest problem in the three and a half counties is not only food productivity, but also population. Shaanxi is not a densely populated area in the first place, with a population of three and a half counties, it supports more than 10,000 troops, and it has reached the limit for Zhu Yuanzhang's army. It is impossible to expand any further. They are not the kind of rogues like Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, and it is not advisable to pull the old and weak women into the army.

Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "Taking advantage of the high morale of the rebel army after the Xingyang Conference and attacking from all sides, we want to expand our territory...... Occupy more places, and at the same time expand our influence, for the past two years, we have been lurking in the shadows, and the influence in the green forest is no longer as good as that of the 36th battalion, which is very unfavorable for recruiting new soldiers, so this battle must be fought. ”

Xu Renjie said: "That is to defeat Cao Wenzhao...... This guy isn't easy to deal with. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, in fact, according to the information that Zhu Yuanzhang had seen in his previous life. Cao Wenzhao should not have appeared in Tongguan at this time, he should have been active in the southern region of Henan Province to pursue and suppress the Liukou. At this time, it should be Hong Chengchou himself who was sitting in Tongguan, but because of Zhu Yuanzhang's activity, history has subtly changed. Cao Wenzhao appeared where he shouldn't have been. Hong Chengchou was attracted by the Hengtian King and the mixed 100,000 to the vicinity of Wuguan.

"Eight thousand officers and soldiers, and sixteen thousand of our army." Bai Yuzhu said cautiously: "This battle feels very difficult to fight......

According to Bai Yuzhu's previous experience, the thieves often need more than ten times the strength of the officers and soldiers to win the battle, and they are surrounded from all sides, and they can only win the victory if they are frightened by the officers and soldiers first, and it is difficult to win the officers and soldiers with only twice the strength, not to mention that Cao Wenzhao has 3,000 officers and soldiers from the Liaodong border army, which is not an opponent who can be easily frightened.

Bai Yuzhu was not very optimistic about the outcome of the battle.

But the leaders under Zhu Yuanzhang looked relaxed. said with a smile: "Our army accompanies the officers and soldiers, and this battle seems to be very easy to fight." ”

Bai Yuzhu's Adam's apple bulged upward, and it seemed that he had swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say it.

Zhu Yuanzhang hugged his fist at him. smiled and said, "Brother Bai Yuzhu, I want to ask you to take the lead, are you willing?" ”

"Take the lead?" Bai Yuzhu was taken aback: "I...... I'm afraid I won't be able to win against Cao Wenzhao...... Won't I break the morale of our coalition forces if I go to the lead? ”

"It's okay, what you want is to lose......" Zhu Yuanzhang whispered in Bai Yuzhu's ear: "You just have to be ...... like this"-

Tongguan. Loess Plateau, Cao Wenzhao's camp.

Although Tongguan is a pass, in fact, there are three gates, the north gate is called the North Camp, the south is called the South Camp, and the middle is a small highland called the Loess Plateau, the imperial court has always stationed a thousand garrisons here, directly under the central government, does not belong to the local army system, this thousand soldiers are stationed in the north and south battalions, and when encountering wars, the local soldiers are transferred to garrison the Loess Plateau. If there are no local reinforcements, the north and south battalions will each send a part of their troops to garrison the Loess Plateau.

In the winter of the sixth year of Chongzhen, the starry sky, the rampant wolf and others took 100,000 thieves to break through Tongguan, and since then the garrison of Tongguan has been revoked, and the garrison has never been arranged, and the army responsible for suppressing bandits has been concurrently serving as the garrison here.

At this time, Cao Wenzhao led 3,000 Liaodong border troops to be stationed in the Loess Plateau, and the two battalions in the north and south respectively said that the Yansui Army and the Xi'an Army were stationed with 2,500 people each. Cao Wenzhao has made countless contributions in the suppression of bandits in the past few years, but a recent defeat caused him to almost lose his position.

It turned out that in July of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Manchu Tartar soldiers invaded westward and attacked Huairen County, Jingpingbao and Yingzhou. Cao Wenzhao was transferred back from the front line of the suppression of bandits by the imperial court and was ordered to be stationed in Huairen to defend it. In August, the Qing army was besieged, and Cao Wenzhao moved to Zhencheng, where he failed to fight the Qing army and was convicted of serving as a border guard. Fortunately, the governor of Shanxi (note, the governor of Shanxi at this time should be Wu Fu, but Wu Fu is dead in this book, so it has become a passer-by, please don't take it seriously) knew that Cao Wenzhao was brave and good at fighting, and tried his best to protect Cao Wenzhao, and recommended him as the commander of the army to aid and suppress him, and he made meritorious service to redeem himself, so Cao Wenzhao was able to keep his official position.

At this time, Cao Wenzhao sat in the big tent of the Chinese army in military uniform, and his nephew Cao Bianjiao sat next to him, and the two Cao generals were heavy-faced, and a spy knelt in front of Cao, and reported: "Two generals, three thief armies, a total of more than 16,000 people, have been stationed with Lingbao a hundred miles away from here, and the other party has sent many probes to explore Tongguan, it seems that they want to defeat us and enter Shaanxi from Tongguan." ”

After Cao Wenzhao heard this, he hummed lightly and waved his hand to let the spies go down. Cao Bianjiao next to him said, "Uncle...... This army of thieves really doesn't know whether to live or die......"

Cao Wenzhao snorted and said: "The news from the inside line we arranged in the Xingyang Conference is that this time the thieves have adopted the strategy of dividing the troops, and these thieves who are assigned to the west road must take the west road, even if they know that there is Lord Hong and us stationed in the west, they have to attack with a hard pass, otherwise they will not be able to raise their heads in front of other rogues." ”

Cao Bianjiao let out an "oh" and asked, "Uncle, which thieves are coming?" ”

"This ...... The information is not detailed enough, and Uncle doesn't know which way he came. Cao Wenzhao shook his head and said: "Our intelligence is by bribing stupid thieves, these stupid thieves are illiterate, their brains are not flexible, their speech is mixed and unclear, and the information they want is always out of order." (Note, this is the case with historical facts, the imperial court basically did not figure out what the leaders of the rebel army were, and the historical materials circulating in various places were messy and could not be put together)

He paused, and said to Cao Bianjiao: "You send more scouts, look at the flags raised by the thieves from a distance, and we will come to reconnoiter which thieves are coming." ”

Cao Bianjiao responded and hurriedly passed the order.

He looked at the northeast sky and said faintly, "Uncle...... This time, let's strive to make a great contribution and solve this thief beautifully, and the sin of the defeat against Jiannu last time can be atoned for......"

"Hmm!" Cao Wenzhao's eyes couldn't help but glance to the northeast, and said depressedly: "Jiannu (that is, the Manchu Qing)...... Alas...... It is extremely difficult to deal with the fact that it has become a climate of slavery...... Uncle was only a little careless last time, and he was defeated by the slave soldiers...... Damn it...... This time, we must make a great contribution to the suppression of bandits, and re-transfer back to Liaodong, this revenge must be avenged......

"Uncle, don't worry, my nephew will definitely fight bravely to help you defeat the thieves, we must return to the battlefield in Liaodong and give the Tartars some color." Cao Bianjiao said.

The two uncles and nephews were talking about this, when they suddenly saw that the scout who had just been sent out turned around again, and the scout hurriedly shouted: "Two generals, the big thing is not good, take the report of the spies in front, and the thieves have sent troops to attack Tongguan......"

"What?" Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao's two uncles and nephews stood up together: "The thief army has eaten the ambition of the leopard, can it be brave?" Dare to take the initiative to tease us? How many people came? ”

The scout said profusely: "The 16,000 thieves have all pulled out of the camp, and they are coming to Tongguan in three parts, and the vanguard of the thief army is the 3,000 people led by the rebel Bai Yuzhu. ”

Cao Wenzhao sneered: "White Jade Pillar? That capricious villain? What virtue does he have, how dare he come and provoke me? Change Jiao, you lead a thousand people to take the first step, break the enemy's vanguard, frustrate its spirit, and your uncle will come later. ”

"Yes!" Cao Bian gave a military salute and rushed out.

Although the 3,000 border troops led by Cao and Xiao Cao are all border troops, in fact, there are good and bad, 1,000 of these 3,000 border troops are elite, and the other 2,000 are relatively ordinary border troops, which are slightly inferior to the elite in terms of combat effectiveness and morale, of course, they are still much stronger than the elite soldiers in the interior.

Cao Bianjiao gave an order, and a thousand elite border troops gathered first and acted as vanguards. Cao Bianyi took the 1,000-person switch to the east and went to the white jade pillar, and Cao Wenzhao came to reorganize the army carefully. he

Leaving 2,500 Xi'an soldiers stationed in Tongguan, 2,000 border troops were gathered, and then 2,500 Yansui elite soldiers were raised, a total of 4,500 people, out of Tongguan, and advanced behind Cao Bianjiao.

Don't look at the total number of officers and soldiers who left Tongguan to meet the thief army this time, there are only 5,500 officers and soldiers, and the thief army has 16,000, but Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao, and even the whole army of officers and soldiers, no one thinks that they will lose. According to the usual situation, the strength of the thief army is very large, at most only 30% are young and strong, so the 16,000 thief army can take out the battleable soldiers, at most there are only more than 5,000 people, and the same is more than 5,000 to fight more than 5,000, in the eyes of the officers and soldiers, especially in the eyes of the border army, it is simply effortless. (To be continued.) )