Around three o'clock in the afternoon.

On the official road north of Dawangzhuang, a large number of orderly figures appeared. There is no doubt that these officers and soldiers who are advancing rapidly along the official road are the defenders of the Second Garrison Brigade of Songjiang, that is, Daqing Pass!

"Brigade commander, there is Dawangzhuang in front."

Looking at the familiar village in the distance, the soldiers who were fighting at the front station rushed to report.

Luo Tianze, the brigade commander of the 2nd Garrison Brigade, is also not unfamiliar with the nearby terrain. Even if there is no comparison map, the current progress of the official army has emerged, and it is only less than forty miles away from Yuyang Mansion. If you hurry up for a while today, you should be able to arrive outside Yuyang City before tomorrow evening.

The remnants of the thieves who came from Taiping County, although their combat effectiveness is not weak, they have no siege weapons after all. Even if the city defense battalion of Yuyang Mansion is damaged by nearly half, it should still be no problem to support it for a few days.

Thinking like this, Luo Tianze breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

"My lord, the brothers are a little tired after a long day's walk, do you want to rest here in Dawangzhuang?"

The captain of the first wing of the hand leaned over and asked in a slightly flattering whisper. The guards of Daqingguan are stationed in this Xiongguan all the year round, and they rarely go out to move, and suddenly they are in such a hurry to hurry, and many soldiers are really a little uncomfortable and complaining.

"The military situation over there in Yuyang Mansion is urgent, and there is no delay, so let's set up camp for another hour!"

Luo Tianze was a little more dissatisfied with the soldiers of the opponent.

It seems that I am still too comfortable on weekdays, and I must practice strictly for a while after I go back this time.

However, the human will is not omnipotent. After a few days of driving, the soldiers were indeed a little tired. happened to pass by Dawangzhuang, and the officers and soldiers who took the lead invariably slowed down their pace, and peeked at the officers from time to time. Seeing this, considering that there was indeed not much clear water brought with the army, Luo Tianze hesitated, but his attitude softened, and allowed the army to stop for a quarter of an hour, and by the way, he went into Dawangzhuang to get some water.

The order spread, and the soldiers burst into cheers.

Some of them were already tired and squatted directly on the side of the road and rested on the spot. Because of the thieves in Yuyang Mansion, there are almost no merchants on this road, and they are not afraid of taking advantage of the official road and delaying things. Some of the soldiers who had drunk all the water in the thirsty bamboo tubes followed a group of recruiters, preparing to go into Dawangzhuang to get water to moisten their throats.

"Gentlemen, stop!"

Unexpectedly, Dawangzhuang did not let them in.

Because Songjiang County is quite peaceful, there are few strongmen who make trouble, and the soil fence is not high, so it is symbolically repaired two meters. However, the villagers' precautions were very strict, and the two thick wooden gates were tightly closed. There were no more than thirty young men armed with sticks and axes, and six or seven men dressed as hunters standing on it, with a vigilant face, and the hunting bow faintly pointed at the officers and soldiers.

"We are from the Second Garrison Brigade of Songjiang County, what do you want to do?"

The villagers of Dawangzhuang dared to point at the officials and soldiers with hunting bows, is this a rebellion?

The officers and soldiers who came to fetch water were immediately annoyed when they received such treatment.

With such a simple earthen fence, if the army really wants to do it, it can be easily taken in one round.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's not that we won't let you in, but I really can't tell the truth from the fake. Just now, a group of officers and soldiers came to enter Zhuangzi, dressed like you. The people who fled from Yuyang had already reminded us that there were thieves pretending to be officials and robbing everywhere. Where can we small people distinguish these things, in case we get it wrong...... Well, please go back! ”

"Are there any other officers and soldiers?"

A captain who came over was stunned, and immediately became a little more vigilant, and asked, "How many people?" From which direction? How long have you been gone? ”

"There are quite a lot of people from the south, but they can't compare with the official." Orion, who spoke, gestured with his arm to the officers and soldiers, circled the number of about seven or eight hundred people, and said, "Look at that posture, maybe we will storm our Dawangzhuang reads();." But a party of horsemen came from the south, and they didn't know what had happened, so they called them back. ”

Seven or eight hundred? Those who came from the south and returned to the south?

In the territory of Yuyang Mansion, it is impossible for there to be so many officers and soldiers, so this group of thieves from the south can only have one identity!

That gang of bandits attacking Yuyang Mansion!

Realizing this, the captain immediately became excited and asked, "How long have they been gone?" Say it! ”

"I came here in the afternoon, and I haven't been gone for long." Orion recalled for a moment, and said, "At that speed, it would have taken three or four miles at most. ”

I only walked three or four miles!

The captain cheered up and asked for some details. Seeing that Orion couldn't answer, he didn't care about going to the village to get water, so he quickly ran back and reported to Luo Tianze, the brigade commander.

"Seven or eight hundred thieves, just left?"

Luo Tianze's eyes lit up.

The outposts they placed in front of the army were at most three miles in advance. In this way, the gang of thieves should have just left on their front feet, and their army rushed over, just staggering.

According to the cavalry reported by Yuyang Mansion, the number of thieves was only 2,000 at most, and they had suffered a lot of losses in the previous battle. These seven or eight hundred thieves should be almost half of the main force of the thief army! It seems that they should have been thwarted in their attack on Yuyang Mansion, so they dispersed to attack the villages along the way.

Could it be that what happened to Yuyang's side that he hurriedly called them back?

Luo Tianze's head spun quickly, this is a great opportunity. The thief army coincidentally didn't find them, and they shouldn't have known that the official army was still there. If you speed up and catch up, you can eat these seven or eight hundred thieves first, and then deal with the other half of the thief army outside Yuyang City.

Poor Luo Tianze, he didn't expect that the entire Dawangzhuang had become a den of thieves, and the villagers and hunters who talked to his soldiers were all pretending. More than 2,000 Taiping troops hid in Dawangzhuang through a simple earthen enclosure.

His heart was full of thoughts, and he had already put it on chasing and killing the "seven or eight hundred" thief army in front.

"Throw away the baggage, bring only one dry ration, and the army will march lightly!"

After only half a minute of silence, Luo Tianze reached the order.

The defenders of Daqingguan are, after all, regular troops. Although some people complained about being tired before, the military order, the thief army was in front of them, and they still took action immediately. Everyone knows the scene of disobeying military orders, whether they are thirsty or tired, they all obediently shut up and speed up to chase forward.

At the same time, the outpost was further extended, and on the premise of not startling the snake, the location of the Taiping army was searched as much as possible.

The news came back quickly.

What surprised Luo Tianze even more and more was that the thief army did not go too far, and rested on the spot a few miles away. However, the number is a little more than the villagers of Dawangzhuang said.

It's normal for a few uninformed peasants to be counted.

Luo Tianze didn't suspect it at all, or, if the Orion was right and directly reported a team, he would suspect that the Orion had a problem.

Because there was still a battle to follow, and the thief army was resting, Luo Tianze immediately ordered the troops to slow down again in order to maintain a certain body lìreads();.

However, what the officers and soldiers did not know was that as soon as they crossed Dawangzhuang and headed south, the camouflage on Dawangzhuang was quickly lifted. A large number of soldiers began to assemble, ready to rush out of the official road and cut off the back road. Chen Wu, Mo Guohao, Sun Tian and others came to the Tuweizi of Dawangzhuang together, looking at the officials and soldiers who were gradually moving away.

By now, even if the two sides have not yet fought each other, the 2,600 defenders of Daqingguan have already entered the encirclement!

………

Bypassing a small grove of trees in front of them along the official road, the lightly armed Daqingguan garrison soon caught up with Xu Shizhong's second wing of the Taiping Battalion.

Seeing the number of officers and soldiers more than twice as many as himself surging over, Xu Shizhong did not panic in the slightest, but showed an expression of eagerness, and his body was burning with fighting spirit. On his orders, the 2nd Wing of the Taiping Battalion was quickly assembled. Unlike in the past, because it was guessed that there might be a large number of archers in the defenders of Daqing Pass, the soldiers of the second wing were generally equipped with shields!

In Luo Tianze's imagination, seeing the official army chasing and killing, these thieves should be panicked. But Xu Shizhong's obviously prepared appearance made Luo Tianze very vigilant in his heart.

Sensing something, he waved his hand and passed the order, and the officers and soldiers of the Songjiang Second Garrison Brigade quickly slowed down.

"Stop on the spot and form a team!"

The formation, which was slightly flustered because of the pursuit, quickly became tight, and the officers and soldiers also took the opportunity to breathe. Soon, led by the officers and troops of the 1st Wing of the Garrison Brigade, the infantry formation began to advance again with a slow but overwhelming momentum. At a distance of 100 paces, 300 infantry archers ran out of the gap in the queue, quickly came to line up in front of the infantry army, and began to fire a volley at the Taiping army.

Whoosh!

In the dense bowstring tension and whistling, three hundred arrows flew densely towards the Taiping army like a storm!

However, as soon as Xu Shizhong gave the order, the soldiers of the Second Wing of the Taiping Army quickly raised their shields.

At a distance of 100 paces, in the face of a wooden shield covered with iron, ordinary arrows could hardly penetrate it. Even if an arrow occasionally penetrates, its strength will be weakened to the extreme, and it will not be able to hurt a soldier wearing a shield wearing leather armor. A round of arrows rained down, and in the face of the Taiping army guarding against Senran, only a dozen people were wounded!

Moreover, most of them were minor injuries!

Just when Luo Tianze's heart was awe-inspiring, the Taiping Army's fierce counterattack followed.

It's not just the officers and soldiers who have archers!

Although the number is not as large as that of the official army, Xu Shizhong's side is equipped with almost all the foot archers of the Taiping Army at this stage. As many as two hundred archers, including nearly thirty Gaochang archers, began to counterattack!

Before the Daqingguan defenders set off, they didn't bring such a thing as a shield. Although the infantry archers are also equipped with leather armor, they lack the protection of shields, and the lethality of the rain of arrows is significantly increased.

Two hundred arrows were fired here, and the number of people killed and wounded was twice as high as the results of the officers and soldiers!

Luo Tianze originally wanted to rely on the advantage of the foot archers to shoot the thief army from afar, collapse its ranks, and then cover the past. But in this way, the thief army seems to have an advantage over the official army.

For three rounds, he, who was forced to accept this fact, had to make the decision to attack the whole army!