"Where is Sun Chuanting now?" Xu Ping asked.

"Heading towards Jiaxian," the middle-aged man reported, "The villain once fought with Sun Thief in Jiaxian with General Xie, and is very familiar with the terrain there. ”

"Then where is General Xie?" Xu Ping knew that the nearby militia should be commanded by Li Zicheng's general, Xie Junyou, and when the main force of the camp went south, he was ordered to stay behind to protect the local officials promoted during the camp imperial examination this year.

"General Xie was unfortunately wounded and captured, and was killed by Sun Thief." This middle-aged man looked resentful, he was also from Jiaxian, Xie Junyou resisted desperately in Jiaxian, but there were only more than 1,000 militiamen under his command, and he couldn't stop Sun Chuanting's army. After the bandit army broke through Jiaxian, they killed all the people in the county who did not have time to escape.

While talking to this man, it was reported that other militiamen had rushed to meet Xu Ping, and one of them led the team was Xu Ping's old acquaintance, Yuan Feng, the hero of the Central Plains, and now he was also one of the leaders of the camp. Before the main force of the camp went south, Yuan Feng helped Xu Ping train the militia sticks, and after the bandit army invaded Henan, the Central Plains heroes took the newly recruited disciples and militiamen to fight guerrillas, and these days they also robbed and killed a lot of lone bandit soldiers, and when they heard that Xu Ping returned, he led the guerrillas to help Xu Ping.

After seeing Xu Ping, Yuan Feng shouted without saluting: "It's okay, it's okay, it's finally caught up, I'm afraid that the general has chased me and left me behind." ”

Xu Ping noticed that although there were thousands of people who came to fight with him, everyone was armed with wooden sticks, and only a few people had iron weapons. ”

"I personally handed over their sticks," Yuan Feng said with a big grin: "Don't worry, general, I don't even hide my ancestral skills." ”

With the improvement of the equipment of the new army, the flintlock musket became more and more popular in the Ming army, according to Xu Ping's intelligence, there were a large number of these new firearms in the bandit army, and the imperial court allocated some field artillery to Sun Chuanting in addition to these.

"Sun Chuanting has an army of 200,000 people, and they still have muskets." Although he didn't want to pour cold water on these militiamen, Xu Ping felt that he had to make them understand what kind of enemy they were facing.

"We know," many of the leaders of the camp shouted at Xu Ping, they had been fighting with the bandit army for more than ten days, and they knew the equipment of the officers and soldiers, and the militia behind them waved the sticks in their hands: "We can fight them!" The general gives the order. ”

"They also have artillery." Xu Ping added.

"We have guys too!" The militiamen responded with a bang again, and they swung the sticks in their hands harder: "The general gives the order!" ”

"Okay." Xu Ping finally nodded, and said loudly to the herald: "The Guards Battalion is advancing at full speed and pursuing Sun Chuanting. ”

"Kill the officers and soldiers!"

"Kill the officers and soldiers!"

Without waiting for Xu Ping's heralds to respond, the militia in Henan shouted in unison.

……

"Although the military heart is available," Yu Shenhe ran to Xu Ping's side and whispered while there was no one on the left and right: "But this group of rabble, even if there are tens of thousands of people, how can they fight with the officers and soldiers?" ”

"I guess we can't catch up with Sun Chuanting, he will inevitably stay behind the troops, he would have gone away long after we fought with these broken rear troops," there are 200,000 troops on the opposite side, and they don't need much military talent to understand the need to march in separate ways, there are strikers in the attack, and there are guards in the retreat, Xu Ping's plan is to pursue the Ming army troops in these rearguards, and how much they can fight: "When the battle is frontal, these people should understand what is going on in the battle formation, and now they are chasing forward with enthusiasm, and when they have seen the battlefield, I don't think I'm going to keep chasing it. ”

"Then if you encounter the guards of the officers and soldiers, how do you plan to set up the formation?"

"Of course, the guards battalion is in the center, and we will first disperse the officers and soldiers, and then hand over the pursuit and clearance work to these civilian training." Xu Ping believes that this has two advantages: first, he will not be swept up by the militia and scatter his formation; The second is that the Guards Battalion also needs to conserve its physical strength, so as not to be killed by Sun Chuanting.

On the way to Jiaxian, surrounded by an endless stream of Henan militia who came to help in the war, some of them were originally separated from the camp, but this time their mountain kings also came with their men.

After seeing Xu Ping, a mountain king apologized to him: "General, the villain has no eyes, he has done a lot of bastard things in the past, the general has a lot, don't worry about the villain." ”

Xu Ping looked at this person very facedly, and had no impression at all, and after being reminded by the Central Plains hero, he learned that this person was a bandit who was free from the camp, and he was doing business of robbing houses on weekdays.

This time, the bandit army passed through Jiaxian, and the city was full of jade and stones, and the hometown of this mountain king on the outskirts of the county was also washed clean by the bandit army. If Xu Ping didn't come back, these mountain kings wouldn't have the courage to go to the bandit army alone to fight hard, and no one would have the prestige to be able to put together all these heroes in the green forest.

There were more and more people, and when it was less than fifty miles away from Jiaxian, Xu Ping found that he already had an army of 40,000. And what surprised him even more was that after chasing him all the way, he never encountered the rear guard of the bandit army.

Seeing that it was getting late, Xu Ping ordered to camp on the spot, and tens of thousands of militiamen led by nearly 100 leaders divided the territory and camped separately.

Looking at the chaotic camp breaking, Yu Shenhe's face became even more worried: "My lord, what should we do if the officers and soldiers attack us at night?" ”

"It's really hard to be guarded against." In the past, the commander's camp should be located in the center for overall command, but this time Xu Ping ordered the guards battalion to go forward in the direction of Jiaxian, and let the rest of the army camp camp in the rear of his main camp. That night, the Guards Battalion sent out double posts, not only to take care of their own camp, but also to take care of the surroundings of friendly troops.

Although Xu Ping had been worried about this night, he was still safe in the end, and after seeing the newborn Chaoyang early the next morning, he breathed a sigh of relief and ordered to continue the pursuit.

When he arrived at the outskirts of Jiaxian, Tanma brought a few surviving civilians, and he reported to Xu Ping that the main force of officers and soldiers led by Sun Chuanting had just left Jiaxian early this morning and was returning along the way they came.

"No rearguards?" didn't expect to really catch up with Sun Chuanting, Xu Ping was taken aback.

"Originally, the officers and soldiers were left behind to guard Jiaxian, but Sun Chuanting walked on the front foot, and they withdrew on the back foot." These people escaped by hiding in tree hollows, cellars, and even dry wells, and they said that they would not have been able to leave the city if the officers and soldiers in the city had not walked cleanly.

Xu Ping nodded silently and instructed Tanma to be more vigilant and continue to march forward.

Soon the horse scouts reported that they had discovered the officers and soldiers who were heading south, and had a battle with the guard sentry of the officers and soldiers on this road, and captured one of them, and the rest of the officers and soldiers spies immediately fled after seeing the well-equipped cavalry of the Guards Battalion.

From this spy, Xu Ping learned that Chen Yongfu, the general soldier of Henan, was left in Jiaxian by Sun Chuanting, and this Chen Yongfu was the hero of the Ming court who blinded Li Zicheng in the second battle of Kaifeng. Chen Yongfu knew that he was an eye-catching target, and he didn't want to stay and die, so he immediately withdrew from Jiaxian after Sun Chuanting left, for fear of being surrounded by the army that broke into the camp.

"Why did Chen Yongfu go south?" Yu Shenhe was a little puzzled by this.

"Although King Chuang got this person quickly, he also knew that Sun Chuanting was a bigger target, Chen Yongfu was the general soldier of Henan, not the chief soldier of Shaanxi and Shanxi, if he escaped too fast, it was inevitable that he would not be used as a scapegoat." From the mouth of the Ming army spy just now, Xu Ping also learned that Sun Chuanting left several teams of Ming troops to guard them in various ways when he retreated, including several general soldiers of the Jin army and the Lu army: "We obviously didn't see them along the way, I guess they may have withdrawn on their own, so as not to be a substitute for the dead." ”

In the previous investigation, because Xu Ping was worried that the bandit army would ambush and cut off his retreat, he paid more attention to the southern flank, because some of the reconnaissance forces were relatively sloppy in the north, and Chen Yongfu might not have been found if it was not difficult to escape: "General Chen probably wanted to wait for us to pass, and then return to Jiaxian, so that he could find a way to excuse himself, saying that he did not escape from the battle but that we did not follow his way." If Sun Chuanting's main force goes away, it doesn't matter if he goes again. ”

"Then are we chasing Chen Yongfu?"

According to Xu Ping's principle of pursuit, this Chen Yongfu is the best target.

But Xu Ping shook his head: "No, let's go after Sun Chuanting, the morale of the officers and soldiers has fallen, and if we don't fight at this time, we will wait for when." ”

"Besides," Xu Ping pointed to the militia of the brigade that was pursuing with the Guards Battalion, although they had followed Xu Ping for a day at the speed of a rapid march, although half of the militiamen were not even walking barefoot, but their morale was still high, and it was getting higher and higher, and only a few people were left behind: "Although it is a rabble, do you remember the battle of Shandong, Brother Yu?" Our evergreen battalion was defeated by these peasants. ”

The expression on Yu Shenhe's face was complicated, and he muttered after half a sound: "There were a lot of people at that time." ”

"Can Sun Chuanting compare with the Evergreen Camp? What's more, there is also our guard battalion. ”

……

Since leaving Tongguan, Sun Chuanting has had a smooth journey, without any strong resistance, and the troops have not received any losses.

In order to avoid unnecessary losses, Sun Chuanting took the initiative to withdraw from Henan and return to Shaanxi, anyway, the order given by the imperial court was to respond to Huguang, and now that Xu Ping has returned to the division, will Li Zicheng be far away? The so-called cheap and obedient, the task is successfully completed, and it is time to go.

The Qin army is the descendant of the governor of the three times, of course Sun Chuanting must be taken away safely, and Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, is also quite well-connected in the officialdom, and he is a jinshi like Sun Chuanting, of course, he can't leave the 40,000 Hebei elites he brought to die. Therefore, Sun Chuanting sent all the other soldiers and horses to break off, forming a fan-shaped defensive line, if the camp offensive is not strong, they hold Henan, then naturally Sun Chuantong's credit will be greater - to recover a large number of lost territory and defend the land without loss. If they failed to hold it, it was not Sun Chuanting's fault - he recovered Henan, but because of the lack of food and grass, he returned to Shaanxi to eat, and the incompetent other general soldiers lost the land that Sun Inspector had worked so hard to recover to the Chuang army.

Now there are only 100,000 people left with the Qin army and the Hebei army around Sun Chuanting, the number is less than half, and the speed of the march is much faster, according to Sun Chuanting's estimate, it will not be long before they can return to Tongguan safely.

When the guard sentry reported that the camp was approaching, Sun Chuanting's surprise could no longer be described in words, he had arranged so many blocking lines, how could the army approach his core army so quietly and so easily?

However, there was no time to ponder the unreasonableness of this now, so Sun Chuanting hurriedly sent all the tanma in his hand out, and at the same time asked the front team to slow down and shrink the 80,000 army into a compact group.

When he learned that the approaching army was under the banner of Xu Ping, the sweat on Yang Wenyue's face suddenly appeared, Sun Chuanting had not fought with Xu Ping before, and when he saw the nervousness on Yang Wenyue's face, he hurriedly asked, "How powerful is Xu Ping?" ”

Sun Chuanting heard that Xu Ping was the eldest disciple of the Marquis of Zhendong, and he also knew that he had defeated the new army several times, but he still had no emotional understanding.

"It's better than the generals Qi Tu and Xiahou Kuanfu under the lower officials combined."

"I see, that's a powerful thief." Sun Chuanting said this, but he couldn't help but think in his heart: "If Xu Ping is only equivalent to the sum of Qi Tu and Xiahou Kuanfu, it is not very terrifying. Well, he is the eldest disciple of Zhendong Hou, and he should still be much more powerful than these two combined. ”

But what kind of powerful method is, Sun Chuanting still doesn't know.

At the same time that the Qin army was ordered to retract, Yang Wenyue also hurriedly ordered the Hebei army to retract, and at the same time instructed his generals to be careful, this is the enemy Xu Ping.

"Quickly let General Qi retreat," Yang Wenyue knew that Qi Tushen was ashamed of being captured that time, and he was always gearing up to avenge that arrow, he was afraid that Qi Tu would be reckless to face the battle, if the battle was unfavorable, it would not only shake the morale of the army, but also destroy Sun Chuanting's unified arrangement.

"Let General Xiahou go to deploy a defense and block that Xu Ping," Yang Wenyue remembered that the camp arranged by Xiahou Kuanfu last time was also praised by Xu Ping, and Xiahou Kuanfu's defensive talent was even praised by the thief chieftains who defeated the new army several times - this has become a good talk in the Hebei army.

In less than an hour, the 60,000 Qin army was gathered, and the reconnaissance horse gathered the enemy situation like flowing water, and the invasion army biting on the tail of the main force of the bandit suppression army was indeed Commander Xu Ping, but these invasion camps did not look like the main force of the invasion camp, and they did not even have many cavalry to cover the intelligence line of the Ming army, so that Sun Chuanting's exploration horse could see the appearance of the army in the camp clearly.

After hearing that the pursuing army was dominated by militiamen in ragged clothes and armed with wooden sticks, and looked like militiamen who were being chased all over the mountains and fields by the bandit army, Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue couldn't help but look at each other.

"Is Xu Ping's soldiers very bad?"

"It's not bad, Xu Ping is a disciple of Huang Hou, and he pays special attention to the military appearance banner, although his subordinates do not wear armor, but the felt hat and hat are well organized, and they will never shorten straw shoes and clean military uniforms."

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