With the resurgence of the Shun soldiers, the entire territory of Anqing Mansion was included in the sphere of influence of the Dashun Dynasty, and Du Ming, the county governor of Huaining, was also transferred from the acting magistrate to the actual grant of the Dashun court, which made him even more happy, and used all his skills to raise grain and grass for Li Laixiang's army that came again.

Zhou Shining, the former prefect of Anqing in the Ming Dynasty, saw that the general trend had gone, and he had to bring a few entourages, and took the official seal to cross the Yangtze River while the soldiers had not yet entered the city, abandoned the city and fled for his life. For a time, the city was full of hungry people, and thieves were everywhere.

Li Laixiang was dumbfounded, the Ming army was not playing like this, taking the lives of 300,000 people was not a life, this kind of court deserved to be overthrown, he had no plan, the army came in a hurry, and the food brought was not much, within ten days, the army would definitely mutiny because of the lack of food, and when the time came, the whole city would be robbed by the army.

For this reason, he had to write to Xi'an on the one hand, let Li Zicheng speed up the adjustment of grain, and on the other hand, he sent scouts to find out the movements of the army, but the military report he got made him very distressed, Huang Degong, who was stationed in Hezhou by the Ming army, was actually divided into two roads, stationed in Hezhou City and Luzhou City, these two cities are less than 100 miles apart, which city to take first? It's not easy to take which one first, look at the opponent's frame is to let yourself take the initiative to attack, take the other is this, take this and that, if you divide the troops to take it, the art of war has a saying, the strength of the siege army should be at least three times more than the defender of the city, without this overwhelming advantage is difficult to capture the city in a short time, if it is a long time, the army is trapped under the city, this grain and grass is a big problem.

But this is not the most important thing, the scouts came to report, saying that Wang Lanping, the former Huaining guard, took the fifteenth battalion of troops out of Nanjing City, and was stepping up the training of soldiers and horses, and the strength of the troops shook the sky, and another Daming water division had been assembled on the river, and the troops did not move, and their purpose was unknown.

This made Li Laixiang a little puzzled, if the Ming army wants to increase troops, it can only transfer troops nearby, looking at the general trend, the Fengyang garrison is the closest to Hezhou, and the reinforcements from Nanjing are more than 800 miles, is this the Ming court dizzy, or is there another purpose? What does this Wang Lanping want to do? Li Laixiang, who has always been marching quickly, hesitated this time, and stayed in Anqing City for five days without any action, but this delay did not give the Ming army and the state general Huang Degong time to deploy calmly, strengthen the city wall, prepare all kinds of city defense equipment, and there are 30 artillery pieces on the city wall of Hezhou alone.

Li Laixiang really couldn't understand it, and he never thought that Wang Lanping would be able to support and control the fifteenth battalion of the Ming army in such a short time, if he came down the river, it would be very unfavorable to himself, but Li Laixiang was wrong, Wang Lanping was still the same Wang Lanping, and he wanted to transfer the 60,000 Beijing battalion army from Nanjing to the front line in Anqing, which was a fool's dream.

In a dense forest on the edge of the Yangtze River, Li Dingguo was sweating profusely, walking with difficulty with Mrs. Wang on his back, Yun Niang supported a stick in her hand and followed behind step by step in despair, her face was pale and unkempt, allowing tears to flow down her cheeks, drawing two shallow tear stains on her dusty face.

Since Li Dingguo rescued the two of them in the hands of the Shun soldiers outside Huaining City, he hid all the way to Tibet, and was almost caught by the Shun soldiers who came to search for him several times.

Passing through the woods, there is an open green barren meadow in front of you, rustling when the river breeze passes.

Li Dingguo put Mrs. Wang down gently with great difficulty and leaned against a tree at the edge of the forest.

"Come, Mrs. Tai, let's rest, it's good to cross the river" Li Dingguo carried her on his back and walked five or six miles of mountain roads in one breath, and his physical strength gradually became exhausted.

"Ah Guo, you are also tired, the old woman has dragged you down" Old Lady Wang looked sickly, her eyes were hazy, but her consciousness was quite clear.

This fled all the way from Huaining, sleeping in the open air, Mrs. Wang is old, where can she withstand such a toss, sick, cold, weak, it is difficult to find a family to rest, the Ming Dynasty has regulations, the people go out without a road to lead an inch, if there are people to receive outsiders, through the official uniform, the light is fined, the heavy is the prison and the board, although now the dynasty has changed, but this concept has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not to mention that now the army is in chaos, the four are thieves infested, and the villages and villages organize the township to protect themselves, No village dares to take in outsiders, and if it is a thief's internal response, the whole village will suffer.

Along the way, there was no medical treatment, no medicine and no money, but fortunately, I could still meet a few people who fled from time to time, and they were also fallen people at the end of the world, and some well-wishers gave them something to eat, which saved three lives.

Li Dingguo helped the old lady to do it, touched her forehead, as if it was not hot in the morning, and felt a lot more relieved, and took out the kettle he carried with him and gave the old lady some water.

At this time, Yun Niang also slowly followed, Li Dingguo hurriedly put down the kettle and ran over, and said with concern, "Miss Yun Niang, come, you also come to rest, drink some water, I'll go find a boat in a while, let's cross the river."

Li Dingguo didn't dare to support Yun Niang's body, just stretched out his hand on the side, after all, this Yun Niang is a yellow flower girl, listening to Wang Zhuangyuan's attitude of concern for her, she may be able to become the champion lady in the future.

Yun Niang's eyes were empty, she glanced at Li Dingguo, and walked to the old lady's side without saying a word.

When Mrs. Wang saw Yun Niang coming, she sat up straight and patted the ground, "Girl, come, sit down" After speaking, she gasped a few more breaths, her body was too weak.

Yun Niang put down the wooden stick, squatted beside her, didn't make a sound, reached out and rubbed the old lady's chest, and gently beat her shoulders, and the tears on her face rolled down the old lady's gray hair.

Mrs. Wang saw the pain in her eyes, and saw her parents die so miserably, but she couldn't do anything as a daughter, this pain was all pressed in Yun Niang's heart, and along the way, Yun Niang never said a word, never showed a smile.

The old lady took Yun Niang's hand and patted it, "Girl, don't cry, hurt your body, you can't be resurrected after death, you are still young, you have to live well, wait until you cross the river, just find your brother Lan Ping"

Wow! For so long, Yun Niang seemed to cry out loud the grief in her heart, she lay on the old lady's shoulder, her body kept twitching and shaking, the sad cry was enough to make the listener cry, and the listener was sad.

Li Dingguo hurriedly looked around, don't make a noise in this empty mountain field, it can be transmitted down the wind for several miles, in case Du Ming's people find out, it will be bad.

"Miss Yun Niang, it's not safe here, don't ......" Li Dingguo walked over and interrupted a little unbearably.

Yun Niang raised her head very sensibly and stopped crying, the tears on her face dissolved with dust, covering her original beauty.

"Auntie, I miss my father," Yun Niang twitched and whispered.

The old lady nodded, and stroked the hair that Yun Niang had suffered in front of her forehead, "Auntie knows, girl, I want to open more, I'd rather be a peaceful dog than a troubled person, it's not easy to live in this world, but everything is liberated when I die, like my old wife, now it's useless except to drag you down, girl, for a while, wash your face when you cross the river, let you take a good look at Brother Lanping, as long as the old woman doesn't die, you are the daughter-in-law of my Wang family..."

Yun Niang sobbed and hurriedly interrupted her, "Auntie, don't say unlucky words, Yun Niang is your relative now, you can't leave Yun Niang"

Mrs. Wang smiled kindly, "Okay, good, aunt will watch you marry Ping'er and give the Wang family a few more children and grandchildren."

"Auntie!" Yun Niang burst into tears, full of shyness and longing for Brother Lan Ping.

Mrs. Wang sighed melancholy, and said to herself, "I don't know how Ping'er is now, hey, I thought that being an official would be able to live a peaceful life for a few days, hey!" ”

Li Dingguo didn't want to disturb their family chat, and after checking around, he made sure that there was no danger, so he went to look for boats along the river.

The Ming army of Chizhou on the other side of the river patrolled the river, but whenever they saw a boat crossing the river, whether it was the people or the Shun army, it was a bombardment, in order to prevent spies from crossing the river.

The corpses floating on the river are increasing day by day, and the corpses on the sparkling water that have been soaked by the river water and have white bellies and round bellies slowly surged to the north bank with the southeast wind, Li Dingguo stood by the river, looking at several corpses in the aquatic grass in front of him that had been eaten by fish and shrimp, and couldn't help but sigh.

Several crows circled in the sky a few times, landed on a corpse, pecked greedily, Li Dingguo picked up a stone and threw it hard, the water splashed, the crows flew, and a large group of flies also rose, Li Dingguo shook his head, sarcastically muttering to himself, "I will never eat fish in the river again in this life"

Along the north bank, you can see simple grass huts everywhere, Li Dingguo stepped forward to inquire, it turned out that they were all refugees, they didn't dare to cross the river and didn't want to go back, so they set up a shack by the river, waiting for when there would be no war or a boat before leaving.

Along the riverbank, Li Dingguo walked back and forth for five or six miles, but he didn't find a boat, and because he was worried about Mrs. Wang, he could only turn back and find a way.

Back at the edge of the forest, Yun Niang was sleeping in the arms of Mrs. Wang, and Yun Niang in her sleep let out a dreamlike murmur from time to time, Dad, Mother, where are you? Brother Lan Ping, you wait for me......

Li Dingguo's heart was sour for a while, and he secretly said that he would send them to General Wang no matter what.

Hungry, Li Dingguo wanted to find some wild fruits in the forest, but now it is May, how can there be such a thing, helplessly returned empty-handed, and when he came back, Li Dingguo suddenly found that there were more than a dozen soldiers wandering around the edge of the forest, led by the new Huaining Zhixian Du Ming.

Li Dingguo scolded secretly: Bastard, I have eaten the scales, I have been chasing us for half a month, and I still don't give up, sooner or later I will kill you with my own hands.

Taking advantage of the fact that the other party didn't find out, Li Dingguo quickly ran back, took Yun Niang and the others, and hid in the rolling barren meadows.

I had to hurry across the river, after nightfall, Li Dingguo ran to a nearby village alone, the village knocked quietly, turned around a few times only to find that this is a deserted village, maybe the people here have fled, leaving only the ruins that can be seen everywhere, but unfortunately there is nothing to eat.

Fortunately, there were collapsed houses everywhere, and the door panels and thick roof beams were within reach, which made Li Dingguo very excited to build a raft to cross the river.

Li Dingguo kept going back and forth all night, and blood was grinding out on both shoulders, and finally moved more than a dozen roof beams and abandoned door panels to the meadow by the river, and then returned to the forest to find some vines, knotted into ropes, and when it was dawn, everything was ready, and when it was dark, he could go into the water and cross the river on a raft.

It was dark again, and the river wind was much lighter than during the day, Li Dingguo carried Mrs. Wang and Yun Niang to the freshly set raft one by one, and looked at the little fire on the other side, he knew that it was the Ming army brothers who guarded the river.

Li Dingguo secretly prayed that he would not bombard us as spies.

In the night, a bend of the raft slowly made its way to the opposite shore.