On 3 May, a group of Wendeng battalions patrolled outside the west city wall of Luanzhou at night, constantly provoking the Jiannu on the city wall.

After Chen Xin received the military order from the military department in Jizhou, he set off with the main force of the Qinwang army in Jizhou, and Ma Shilong took Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu as the vanguard and went to Luanzhou through Yutian Fengrun. These two men had cooperated many times in February, and they were not afraid to fight with the Jiannu cavalry in the field, and after passing through Hazelnut Town, they clashed with the Jiannu sentry cavalry several times, compressing the reconnaissance line of Jiannu continuously.

It has been half a year since the entrance of Jiannu, the army of the Ming Dynasty has gathered, and the number of families of each army is more than that of Jiannu, although more than 1,000 Jiannu in Luanzhou have sent many rangers to harass, but they cannot make up for such a huge gap in numbers.

Chen Xin followed Zhang Fengyi's pacesetter battalion for the Chinese army, because there were Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu in front, plus the general soldiers in Yansui, Shaanxi, Lintao and other places, the Chinese army was almost not harassed.

Most of the Guanning army set out from Funing County and approached Luanzhou through Changli, and Jiannu had to shrink back to the city, and they sent sentry horses to report to Amin who was staying in Qian'an. But Amin received military information from Zunhua, Yongping, and Luanzhou almost at the same time, and a Ming army also appeared near Qian'an, and they were cautiously approaching Qian'an.

After Chen Xin arrived in Luanzhou, he was stationed at the West Gate nearby, Ma Shilong asked him to be in the front, Chen Xin asked Cao Wenzhao, who arrived first, and made sure that there was no Hongyi cannon at the head of Luanzhou City, so he left the city two miles under a solid camp, and dug two deep trenches around, which were covered with sharp wood, and the excavated soil built an earthen wall behind the trench, and under the earthen wall lay out a horse rejection, a string of iron thistles and ghost arrows, and set up a tiger squat cannon every other section, set up a gate on each side, and built a wooden watchtower on both sides of the gate, and the watchtower and the gate were made of tree trunks, There was also a trench dug at the door, on which wooden planks were erected to pass, so that after withdrawing at night, they were not afraid of a sneak attack.

At this time, the west gate of Luanzhou opened, and a group of hundreds of cavalry came out, and many rangers were divided around, they came straight to Chen Xin's camp, probably planning to harass and reconnoitre, the night of the Wendeng camp was retreating, Chen Xin on the watchtower waved his hand below, Zhu Guobin took the other cavalry of the Wendeng camp out of the trench, Chen Xin's order to him was to face to face with the Houjin soldiers, even if it was just a confrontation, it was also a kind of exercise for the soldiers. At the same time, such skirmishes can maintain the morale of the army.

The sound of horses' hooves sounded on the right, and the one-foot-long red staff general recognized the flag and waved it in the wind, and Cao Wenzhao personally led more than 300 cavalry to meet him. Cao Wenzhao still attacked the enemy as usual, he was not afraid of the Houjin army at all, his personal martial arts were very strong, Chen Xin had seen him shoot arrows, accurate and fast, I was afraid that it was more powerful than Bayala, and the cavalry he led was also quite strong, although there were only less than a thousand, but every time he saw the Houjin army, he dared to take the initiative to attack, and Zuo Liangyu, who often partnered with him, was not weak, and he could shoot more than 20 arrows in a row with his left and right hands.

Cao Wenzhao's department is basically cold weapons, mainly horse lance, boring palladium, knives and sticks, fast robbery, at this time slowly unfolded, about five or six rows before and after, the front line is roughly straight, to Jiannu pressed over, Zhu Guobin saw this with the Wendeng battalion cavalry to the north to go over, ready to encircle the Jin army, that Jiannu saw Cao Wenzhao's momentum, turned his head and ran, ran back to the city with a smoke, relying on the bow and arrow on the city to cover, Cao Wenzhao and Zhu Guobin stopped two hundred steps away from the city wall in the south and north, confronted each other for a while, and then the Jin soldiers saw that there was no chance to take advantage of it, and returned to the urn city. The two cavalry roared loudly, and their morale was high.

Chen Xin also rode to Cao Wenzhao's place at this time, and observed the defense of the west city with Cao Wenzhao, there were many Houjin soldiers and people on the city tower, but there were no tools to defend the city such as the bumper bar, the wolf's tooth slap and the yaksha.

Chen Xin said to Cao Wenzhao: "General Cao, it seems that Jiannu doesn't know how to defend the city, and probably only has a wooden boulder. ”

Cao Wenzhao said with a smile: "That Jiannu has never defended the city, every time he fights with my Daming, it is the wild land that wins, these barbarians in the mountains and wilderness, I am afraid that they have never studied the defense of the city." ”

Chen Xin was a little weak-hearted, in fact, he had never studied siege techniques, there were no strong enemies around Wendeng, all he prepared was field battles, fortunately, Cao Wenzhao himself said: "Prime Minister Ma did not assign General Chen the work of building equipment, and the other Qinwang troops are cutting down trees everywhere, making trenches, chariots, and ladders, and the equipment is piled up. ”

A young officer behind Cao Wenzhao said to Cao Wenzhao: "General, there is a herald coming." ”

Cao Wenzhao and Chen Xin looked back and saw that two herald cavalrymen with flags were running.

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Chen Xin and Cao Wenzhao traveled between the barracks, Sun Chengzong had gone to the south of the city, and today the generals gathered, the two of them went to Ma Shilong's camp first, and after waiting for all the people, they rushed from the west of the city to the south of the city to attend the meeting, and passed through the military camps of Henan, Yansui, Ningxia, Shanxi, and Lintao along the way, which were all in full swing to build equipment, and the most conspicuous was a variety of tall ladders.

After they went around the Lintao military camp, they had already seen the big camp in the south, the south had become a sea of banners and military camps, and in the south, the sea of black oppressive people was approaching, the gongs and drums were noisy, and all kinds of cheers were endless, Ma Shilong said to the generals: "This is the righteous people of Yongping in Luanzhou, who brought their own food and weapons to avenge their families, it is said that there are 20,000 or 30,000 people." ”

Chen Xin replied loudly: "Jiannu has done a lot of bad things, and of course there are many people who take revenge." ”

Everyone rode their horses and continued to go to the Chinese army, all the way to the south was the Guanning army camp, also building equipment, to Sun Chengzong's camp, everyone went into the outside of the Chinese army's big tent, and the banner at the door said that the prince of the Zhongji Temple and the secretary of the border military department Shangshu Sun, Chen Xin secretly smacked his tongue, such a long official name.

At this time, the first drum was beaten, Ma Shilong was far away, but he was the first to arrive, Chen Xin looked around, they were all Qinwang generals from Jizhou, and there were soldiers and horses from Yansui, Henan, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Lintao, Huguang and other places. Everyone didn't go in for a while, just talked and laughed at the door.

After the second drum, other officers arrived one after another, because the Guanning Army was nearby, and the first group of people were all known by Cao Wenzhao, although Cao Wenzhao was a member of the Guanning Army, but this time he did not escape with Zu Dashou, so he was temporarily commanded under Ma Shilong, they had not seen each other for a long time, and they talked and laughed together for a while, Chen Xin could see that those people were somewhat separated from Cao Wenzhao, perhaps because Cao Wenzhao did not follow them at that time.

Then Cao Wenzhao introduced Chen Xin to them, those people heard that they were the generals of Gu'an Dajie, they were all a little jealous, Guan Ningjun took the most money, but it was not as good as the Wendeng camp that he had never heard of, of course it was not a taste.

They admired on the surface, but in fact they were a little cold, Chen Xin was also not arrogant or humble to deal with, after this time, the Guanning army probed the bottom line of the imperial court, as long as they were strong and strong, the emperor could not take them, it is conceivable that the warlordization tendency will be more strict. These people only look at the actual profits, not a few words can be acquainted.

After talking for a while, Chen Xin returned to Ma Shilong's side, and everyone went into the big tent together, which was very spacious, with a few chairs on the top and a screen behind the chairs. There is a passage in the middle of the hall, and there are also some chairs on both sides.

A few of Sun Chengzong's standard battalion soldiers led the general soldiers to sit, Ma Shilong sat on the right side, and after a while, everyone in the Guanning army also came in and sat down, but it was on the left side, a big man with a mountain armor came over and met Ma Shilong with a haha, the two greeted each other affectionately for a while, and then the big man and several other general soldiers met the salute, and returned to the left side to sit down, needless to say that it was Zu Dashou, the core figure of the Guanning warlord. After he sat down, a group of Guan Ning generals and guerrillas all went to surround and flatter, and a few people pointed at Chen Xin, Zu Dashou looked at their fingers and nodded slightly, Chen Xin also smiled and hugged his fists and bowed, and at the same time looked at this Zu Dashou carefully.

This time Zu Dashou escaped from the city of Jingshi, all the way back to Jinzhou, Chen Xin thought that he might have the intention of surrendering when the situation was not good, but Chongzhen did not cure his crime, and also sent Sun Chengzong to persuade him with good words, promising not to punish him, and took Yuan Chonghuan's handwritten letter, Zu Dashou himself on a Chen, saying that he didn't want to run, that night was going to go to the night attack on the camp of Jiannu Nanhaizi, but as a result, those soldiers somehow fled, so that he was also coerced and left, delaying him to serve the emperor, this thing was handed over, Chongzhen pinched his nose and admitted, and also promoted him to the crown prince, and it is difficult for this young son of heaven to finally see the ability of these old Qiu Ba.

Guan Ningjun and these people finally have to sell Sun Chengzong's face, after all, they are their old leaders and emperors, Ma Shilong is also Sun Chengzong's old subordinate, as well as the dead Man Gui, and Yuan Chonghuan, who was imprisoned, were all promoted by Sun Chengzong back then, so it is most suitable for him to lead all the Qinwang Army.

In addition to the Guan Ning army, some came in one after another, and those pacesetters led them to their respective positions to sit down, these people did not seem to be from Jizhou, nor did they belong to the Guan Ning soldiers, Chen Xin estimated that they were the soldiers and horses of King Qin who had just arrived, and after the people basically arrived, they were all waiting for Lord Sun to arrive.

After the third drum was beaten, Sun Chengzong strode out from behind the screen, followed by Zhang Fengyi and Hu Fuhong, followed by two personal soldiers, one of whom was holding a Shang Fang sword, and two rows of standard battalion soldiers also came in from the gate and stood behind the military attachés.

Chen Xin is the first time to see this celebrity, Sun Chengzong is wearing a first-class civil official uniform with a crane complement, and he is wearing an ordinary black gauze hat on his head, his figure and cheeks are very thin, although he is in his sixties, a pair of eyes are very clear and bright.

As soon as he came in, all the military attaches present stood up in unison, and when Sun Chengzong and the three of them sat down in the right seat, they all knelt down together and said loudly: "See Sun Gebu!" ”

Sun Chengzong's expression was calm, and he raised his right hand lightly and said, "All the soldiers have worked hard, please get up." ”

Chen Xin stood up with everyone, Sun Chengzong cleared his throat, and before he could speak, a person hurriedly ran in and stood at the end of the right side, Sun Chengzong glanced at the man coldly: "Song Sanwei came out." ”

The man who had just come in cowered and came out, and said in a trembling voice: "Sun Gebu, the villain went to patrol the camp, and the news was ...... late."

Sun Chengzong didn't listen to his explanation, and said lightly with a wave of his hand: "Take the standard camp and tie it up for fifty." ”

The man no longer argued, and several standard battalion soldiers tied him up and took him away, and beat the military sticks outside the big tent, listening to the sound of military sticks outside, and the needles could be heard falling in the big tent.

Then Sun Chengzong's banner official came out with a little name, the surname Zu was the most, Chen Xin also heard the names Zhang Chun and Huang Long, which were people who he had a little impression of, and the others were basically not heard.

When he arrived at Dengzhou Town to guerrilla Chen Xin, Chen Xin took a step forward to respond, and the military attachés in the tent paid attention to him, and even Sun Chengzong, who had not moved, turned his head to look over, Hu Fuhong next to him said something in his ear, Sun Chengzong kept nodding.

After finishing the order, Sun Chengzong sat up straight, majestically glanced at the military generals in a circle, and said: "The entrance of Jiannu, wreaking havoc in Gyeonggi, Yuzi half a load, tens of millions of people in Jifu were killed and injured, villages and villages were broken, and there are still four cities occupied by Jiannu, and the people are all barbarian slaves. ”

Sun Chengzong slapped it on the table, and his voice increased several times: "The lord humiliates the ministers to death!" The emperor sent it again, and all the people eagerly hoped that the old man was here to kill the Tartars today, and he only talked about the war, and only listened to the war. ”

The military attachés in the hall were silent, and Wu Zimian and the general soldiers listened honestly, not daring to say strange things as in Jizhou. Even Ma Shilong and Zu Dashou were stern.

Ma Shilong stood up at this time and bowed down and said, "Lord Sun, when will the Guangdong Hongyi artillery team arrive?" In case the day after tomorrow does not come, the ants will attack the city, and I am afraid that there will be heavy casualties. ”

Wu Zimian also stood up and said: "The Hongyi cannon is a necessity for attacking the city, and the lower officials feel that it is better to have this weapon than wait." ”

Sun Chengzong said undoubtedly: "This battle is not a battle in Luanzhou, there are still Zhu Mei's one attack on Qian'an, He Kegang's one attack on Yongping, and Liu Kexun's one attack on Zunhua, so that Jiannu is all soldiers everywhere, weak everywhere, there is no Hongyi artillery, and the city must also be attacked in the day after tomorrow." ”

Wu Zimian swallowed a mouthful of saliva and sat down by himself.

Zhang Fengyi, the governor of Jiliao, replied: "The Hongyi artillery team will arrive tomorrow, and this official has sent a standard battalion to escort it, so it should be foolproof." ”

Sun Chengzong continued: "In the day after tomorrow, the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen under the general army of the ancestors attacked the east wall, the soldiers of the Qin Wang of the Prime Minister of Ma attacked the west wall, Zhang Chun, You Shilu and the soldiers and horses of the Qin King of Henan attacked the south wall, but the north gate was not attacked, and the troops of Zu Dashou and Ma Shilong each left a cavalry, and when the slaves fled, they were covered and killed, and they were not allowed to retreat as a whole. ”

Chen Xin felt that he was most likely the pioneer of Xicheng, and he was afraid that there would be no Hongyi artillery team at that time, and his Wendeng battalion would suffer heavy losses, so he hurriedly stood up and said: "Sun Gebu, the lower officials have mentioned yì, I don't know if I should say it or not." ”

"General Chen, please speak."

"The Sun Pavilion Department is from a high position, and the deployment is lawful, and the lower officials just think that my army is gathered, and they can be surrounded on all sides, and the enemy of Luanzhou will be annihilated. When everyone in the hall heard this, they all began to talk about it.

Sun Chengzong looked at Zhang Fengyi, both of them shook their heads slightly, and then he turned his head and said lightly: "General Chen's Wendeng camp, this official has already arranged to protect the Hongyi artillery team in Xicheng, and he is not allowed to leave without permission." ”

"Huh?" Chen Xin raised his head in surprise, so that his losses were small, but his military merits were less.

Sun Chengzong was quite patient with this Gu'an hero, explaining: "There are a large number of Hongyi cannons this time, 60 small cannons of 1,000 catties (Note 1) in Guangdong, 10 cannons of 2,700 catties, and there is still a Franco machine soldier. As for the siege of the city, the siege of three and one, so as not to build slaves and trap beasts, General Chen still followed Prime Minister Ma to attack the West Gate. ”

When Chen Xin heard that it was the emperor's request, he had to retreat helplessly.

Sun Chengzong finally glanced at the generals: "This battle is the world's attention, there is no room for mistakes, I hope you will take the lead, save my people from hanging upside down as soon as possible, those who have merit will be rewarded, the title of the shadow of the knight, the name of the history is not a problem, where there is a battle formation to retreat, the old man recognizes you, Shang Fangjian does not recognize!" ”

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Note 1: There are a total of 120 Hongyi cannons in Guangdong, all of which are 1,000-kilogram Hongyi No. 2 cannons, with shells weighing 2 to 3 catties. Another 10 2,700 pounds of heavy artillery, to Beijing in advance, should be Gongsha's Xilao led by the Franco mercenaries, that is, the Huang Taiji sent the Mongolian left and right flanks to intercept the batch, after the Jiannu retreated, they escorted the artillery from Zhuozhou, on the third day of the first month to Beijing. In the original history, it seems that due to the opposition of the imperial history, he did not participate in the Battle of the Four Cities.