From the very beginning of the command to plug the gap, Qian Qi felt that his body was a little fluttering. The days of exertion and freezing weather caused him to suffer from a severe cold, which made his head dizzy.

Qian Qi no longer knew that he had repelled several attacks from the camp.

The first assault on the camp was devastated, and a wounded gunner, who had fallen with the collapse of the city wall, desperately ignited the gunpowder and caused a massive explosion, causing heavy losses to the soldiers at the front of the camp. But the explosion also made the gap in the wall even bigger.

But this explosion also made the camp bloody up, and they began to charge repeatedly, that is, to attack the city of Ningling County through this gap.

The battle was boiling hot all at once. Two swarms of bees were launched; The ammunition that the musketeers carried with them was also fired, and they all drew their swords and went into battle; The soldiers of Runing on the city wall and some of the young men defending the city also joined the phalanx; When they arrived in Zuihou, even some of the men in the city were engaged in battle around the phalanx.

Everyone can see that the camp is so frantically attacking the city, so if it attacks the county seat of Ningling, it may be a massacre.

And the Runing army had already retreated to about twenty steps behind the gap, because it was no longer possible to fight at the gap. The gap was full of corpses, and most importantly, the ground was covered with a mixture of ice and water made of blood congealing, making it too easy for people to fall when they stepped on it.

More than 700 people had fallen in front of this gap. It's not that no one is sober, and several leaders around Gao Yingxiang have persuaded each other: "King Chuang!" You can't fight anymore! Otherwise, our old people who broke into the camp will still be in it! ”

In fact, Gao Yingxiang's heart is also hurting. But he was still silent. How can we retreat in this situation? Since the confluence of the three rivers into Henan, the number of peasant rebels has continued to swell, and they have easily attacked one city after another, and the morale has just risen, but they have to retreat in front of this small county town defended by only a few hundred Ming troops in front of them, so which day will the camp transform from a rogue into a real army?

The sun gradually sets to the west. Another siege of the camp was repulsed. At this moment, several fast horses came to report quickly: "King Chuang!" Thirty miles to the southwest came an army of more than 1,000 men, and they came in the direction of the county seat. Our horse team can't stop them, so I hope King Chuang will arrange troops to intercept them quickly! ”

When Gao Yingxiang heard the fast horse report, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, because there was finally a step to go down. So he immediately ordered: "Withdraw all the troops besieging the city." If more spies are sent to the southwest, the official dog will not only have these thousand troops, they will definitely follow the main force. Let the other troops concentrate and we will go in the direction of Tuocheng County. ”

When the troops were almost concentrated, Gao Yingxiang first pulled out his horse and headed towards Tuocheng County. When Gao Yingxiang left. He glanced at Ningling County, and muttered to himself: "If the officials and soldiers are all like this, then what is the use of our rebellion?" ”

And Qian Qi, who commanded at the gap, didn't know that the camp had retreated, and he was still mentally preparing for another siege of the camp. But this time the waiting time was quite long, and Qian Qi also felt that her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

Qian Qi finally couldn't support it anymore. Before he fainted, Qian Qi gritted his teeth and issued an order: "Arrange for someone to go to the warehouse." As soon as the thieves enter the city. Just burn down the warehouse! ”

All the grain and property in Ningling County have been concentrated in the county office. Qian Qi's order was to let the camp break into the camp even if it captured the county seat of Ningling. It will also be a grain without harvest.

On the evening of the fifteenth day of the seventh month of Chongzhen, a regiment of the Guide Corps led by Xue Yong to help finally arrived. They lined up the carts in two rows to form a marching vehicle formation, and under the cover of artillery, rockets and firearms, they broke through the blockage of the horse team that broke into the camp, forcing Gao Yingxiang to take the initiative to give up the attack on Ningling County.

In the battle with the horse team, the regiment that returned to the reinforcement suffered a total of more than 30 casualties, but in the rush of the march. There are more than 70 non-combat attrition such as frostbite and illness.

And when the troops led by Xue Yong entered the county seat of Ningling, the people in the county town still couldn't believe that they had been rescued. But when they came to their senses, the whole county suddenly fell into a carnival. The singing of "Katyusha" also soars into the sky.

In this battle to defend Ningling County, more than 800 Runing soldiers brought into the city by Qian Qi survived only 132 people survived the battle. And basically everyone is injured. More than 900 men in Ningling County were also killed or wounded.

But the old, weak, women, and children in the city miraculously suffered no casualties. The houses between the two city walls were basically burned down, so the entire county was a heavy loss.

But the losses from the camp were even more severe. More than 6,000 were killed and wounded, including thousands of trilateral veterans. And in this siege battle, the camp was also fruitless. But Seon lost his horse, and after such a fierce battle, many of the homeless people in the camp had grown. Although they are not as good as those veterans of the three sides, they have experienced the baptism of war after all. It should be said that after the war, the strength of the camp was stronger than before the war.

At this time, Luo Rucai's troops, who were one step ahead, had also joined up with the peasant rebel army on the North Road. These nearly 200,000 people drove to the city of Guide with great pomp. However, at this time, there were more than 3,000 reinforcements from all over the city and nearly 5,000 young people in Guide to help defend the city. Moreover, the height and solidity of the walls of the city are not comparable to those of the county seat.

Therefore, after an unsuccessful attempt to attack Fucheng, this peasant rebel army immediately ravaged the area around Fucheng like a swarm of locusts.

The peasant rebel army on the South Road, which returned to Henan Province, first moved to the northeast, because it was too close to Luoyang City, so that Henan Governor Xuan Mo was forced to personally lead the army to block it. What I didn't expect was that although the peasant rebel army on the South Road had more than 300,000 people, after they suffered losses in front of the Runing army, they immediately turned to avoid the Ming army like a frightened bird and entered Kaifeng Mansion in the east.

But Kaifeng Mansion had been looted by the peasant rebels on the East Road, and seeing that there was no oil and water, they turned back again and entered Ruzhou again. However, at this time, Zhang Xianzhong and the others were still afraid of Wu Shigong's Runing army, so they did not attack Ruzhou City, which had almost become an empty city. Of course, the place of Ruzhou must have been ruined by them.

After Gao Yingxiang's camp left Ningling County, he also joined up with the peasant rebel army and Luo Rucai's department on the North Road. At this time, except for Li Zicheng's troops who contained Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi, the entire peasant rebel army formed two large armies of more than 300,000 people in the east and west in Henan.

On the 16th day of the lunar month, the cavalry corps of the Runing Army also marched to Ningling County. On the 20th, Wu Shigong led the main force of the Runing Army to also enter Guide Mansion. (To be continued......)