Jingle County, located in the northwest of Taiyuan City, is about 70 kilometers away from Taiyuan City, which is the straight-line distance on the map, and the marching distance is about 100 kilometers, even if Wang Zhi's Wang Jiajun wants to go from Jingle County to Taiyuan, it will take two to three days.

As for why Wang Zhishe sought the near and far, and did not go directly to Taiyuan to surprise the officers and soldiers there, but came to this small county town, he made this decision from a strategic point of view.

As we all know, the army of the last dynasty generally has no military discipline, and the Ming army is not exempt from vulgarity, and when there are no enemies around, it is too unrealistic to expect them to stay in the barracks honestly. In addition, the officials of the Ming Dynasty have been corrupted to the bones, embezzlement of military salaries is not an unspoken rule, but a rule on the surface, even if the military salary is Chongzhen with the money of the imperial treasury, but after passing through the hands of officials, layers of deductions, to the hands of the soldiers may be less than one percent, the military salary is so small, the Ming army naturally cannot have morale, in order to maintain morale, the superior officers can only let them go out to "eat", that is, to the countryside to loot.

Therefore, in the absence of war, the soldiers either go to the city to spend their days drinking, or go to the countryside to eat, and there may be no one in the barracks at all.

If Wang Zhi directly attacked Taiyuan, he could only lay down an empty barracks, which might be considered a victory, but it did not meet the strategic goal of completely annihilating the enemy. Once the scattered Ming army learned that their camp had been breached, they would definitely scatter and flee, and it would be difficult to wipe them all out.

Therefore, Wang Zhi did not attack Taiyuan directly, but chose to release troops and horses in this small county town northwest of Taiyuan City, and the two or three days it took for Wang's army to travel from this small county town to Taiyuan was the time for Wang Zhi to gather his soldiers and horses for the Ming army generals outside Taiyuan City.

As long as they will gather. Wang Zhi's army arrived. It's instantaneous.

As a small county town located in the hinterland and without much military affairs. Jingle County's military strength will not be too strong, the troops are not as many as Wang Zhi's men, and the Wang family army has never had much defense in the city to raid, the defenders are almost crushed in one blow, less than half an hour, news of the control of the city gate came everywhere, and the entire county was controlled.

In the lobby of the county office, sit on the seat of the original county lord. Wang Zhi looked at the county commanders, masters, wardens and others who were pressed by the soldiers of the Wang family army below as if he were examining prisoners, and informed them of his identity and origin: "I am the person who Zhu Youzhen sent the three-way army to exterminate, but your marching speed is too slow, I can't wait, so I came to the door by myself with an army of 10,000, I will stay in Jingle for half a day, and then immediately go south to attack Taiyuan City." ”

After speaking, looking at the county order and others who were trembling and almost frightened ** below, Wang Zhi felt a wave of disdain in his heart, and turned his gaze elsewhere in disgust. "Let them go, and let the captured officials and the defenders of the city go with them. Let them go to Taiyuan City to report the news. ”

Hearing this, the county commander and the others all showed expressions of surprise and disbelief, they really didn't expect these thieves to let themselves go like this, even if they were brutally pressed away by the soldiers, they didn't feel pain and humiliation, only full of joy, although they still had a sin of losing the city on their heads, but as long as they could survive, they could throw out the hat.

After the soldiers escorted away the county commander and others, Wang Zhi said to the herald on the side: "Let the four to eight battalions of the garrison arrest the big families in the city, take their families as a unit, drive them out of the city, let them go to Taiyuan City, and the rest of the people gather outside the east city gate." ”

Outside the gate of the East City, the space door of the space-time corridor was wide open, and the laborers wearing cloth clothes and waist knives went in and out, and moved out of the materials that had been put in the city before - because it was necessary to put pressure on the imperial officers and soldiers outside Taiyuan City to gather the scattered soldiers and horses, Wang Zhi decided to unfold the troops, marching all the way, and walked from Jingle County to Taiyuan City in a bright way, and at the same time let the troops adapt to marching with baggage, after all, they could not always follow the army as logistics, and many times they had to rely on themselves.

Because it was time to report the news to the released captives, Wang Jiajun rested outside Jingle County for half a day, mainly sorting out the materials brought and collecting enough mules, horses and vehicles to pull heavy loads.

At about two or three o'clock in the afternoon, the army set off and marched south along the Fen River, riding cars and horses, people neighing and barking, mixed with the roar of tractors, so it was not lively.

Before dark, the army ran into several large families who had been driven out of the county before, which made Wang Zhi very suspicious that their slow speed was not because the people who had been driven to report the news were still on the road after the army arrived at Taiyuan City.

Facts have proved that Wang Zhi was wrong. Although because of his surprise attack, Jingle County was controlled by the Wang family army before he had time to send people to report and ask for help, but after the county order and others were let go by Wang Zhi, they knew that at their own speed, they might wait for the thief army to arrive in Taiyuan, and a group of their own people were still walking on the road, and without the credit of reporting the news, the crime of losing the city must be deducted, so the master came up with an idea, they collected a few boats, and let a few henchmen carry the autographed letter of the county order down the river by boat, faster than riding a horse, and they did not rest day and night. In the afternoon of the next day, the letter was delivered to the prefect of Taiyuan.

After reading the letter from the Jingle County Order, the Taiyuan prefect immediately convened the chief military officer of the Three Route Army, with the idea that he would rather believe it than not.

The three-way army, although it is known as the three-way army, should actually be the seven-way army, because the Qinwang army on the three sides of Shaanxi is composed of five guards and troops, they are not subordinate to each other, and there is no boss above.

After the Taiyuan prefect passed the letter of Jingle County's order to several leaders, Wang Guoliang, the general army of Shanxi, first shouted: "Impossible, Jingle County is located in the hinterland of Taiyuan Prefecture, only two hundred miles away from Taiyuan, how can the Yanchang thieves avoid the outposts by the Yellow River and arrive at Jingle County silently, unless they can fly." ”

"Mr. Wang is right, there are 10,000 thieves in the army, such a big target, it is impossible to hide from the guards along the way, there are really 10,000 thieves coming to Taiyuan, we should have received the report a long time ago, it is impossible to wait for them to arrive in Jingle County to receive the news." Ma Shilong also said.

Everyone else nodded in agreement, and the castles scattered around were not blind. There is really such a large army of thieves entering the country. It's long overdue. It is impossible to receive information until the other party's troops are about to enter the city.

Seeing that these Qiu Ba dared to doubt the news sent by the civil officials, the Taiyuan prefect felt that his dignity as a literati had been trampled on, and immediately threw away his sleeves, "The letter of the Jingle County Order said that the thief army is moving south along the Fen River, whether it is true or false, you will know it at a glance. ”

The words of our civil officials are also suspicious of you Qiu Ba, I really don't know what to say, and we must impeach them in the future.

Although I don't understand why the Taiyuan prefect is angry. However, all the people present were either the chief soldier or the deputy chief soldier, and they were not afraid of an ordinary prefect, and they did not care about him, and sent Tanma in the spirit of believing that he had something to believe or not, and as a result, that night, Tanma brought back information: 10,000 troops were moving south along the Fen River, waving the king's banner, and half of them were wearing iron armor.

The generals of the Ming Army, who gathered together to discuss countermeasures, unconsciously gasped when they heard that "half of them were wearing iron armor". Obediently, how much does it cost to have so much iron armor? They have tens of thousands of people in the whole army and don't know if they can make up a thousand pairs of iron armor, how can you be a thief who is more willing to spend money than the imperial court.

According to the ratio of one armored soldier to five five-armored soldiers, their whole army is only more than 20,000 people, just enough for these armored soldiers to fight, everyone was silent all of a sudden, originally thought that the opponent was a soft persimmon, and it was useless for the three-way army to attack together, but now I found out that this is not much inferior to Jiannu!

"It is said that the entire army of Yanchang thieves is wearing armor, which seems to be an exaggeration!" Liang of the Shanxi General Soldier Wang Haha smiled, his expression was very dry, and he looked stupid, but he broke the silence in the hall.

Sensing the fear in the eyes of some generals, Wang Guoliang continued: "Five thousand pairs of full-body iron armor, how much silver does it cost, and we will send it when we defeat this thief army." ”

Hearing this, in addition to fear, some generals had more greed in their eyes, this thief army was rich enough to wear iron armor for so many miscellaneous soldiers, if they captured their lair, how much silver would they have.

"Also, no matter how strong the iron armor is, it can't withstand the artillery bombardment, and our entire strength adds up to more than 20,000 people, hundreds of cannons, and the bombardment can also kill them." Ma Shilong also laughed.

"Mr. Ma is reasonable, it's just a group of anti-thieves, with a cannon and a hundred cannons, the thief army may be scared to pee his pants."

The other generals also followed the Dao one after another, cheering themselves up, as if this extended thief was no different from the ordinary rogues he had encountered before.

"According to the report of the exploration horse, the Yanchang thieves are less than eighty miles away from Taiyuan City, and they seem to be able to march day and night, as fast as one day, or as slow as two days to reach Taiyuan City, I don't know how many soldiers and horses under your command are in the military camp?" Wang Guoliang, the chief soldier of Shanxi, suddenly said that he was reminding these people to gather the scattered soldiers and horses back as soon as possible.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there are still some things to deal with in my camp, and I will retire first."

One of the generals stood up and said, the others knew that he hurried back to gather the soldiers and horses who were feeding around the country, and did not stop him, and let him go.

Immediately afterwards, some of the other rangers also left, and in the huge hall, only Ma Shilong and Wang Guoliang were left, and they had their own hands to collect the scattered soldiers and horses, so they didn't have to ask in person.

"General soldier Wang, when do you think the prolonged thieves will be able to reach Taiyuan City?" Ma Shilong asked.

"When marching and fighting, everything should be prepared for the worst. Do you think we can gather all our men and horses before it gets dark tomorrow? Wang Guoliang asked rhetorically.

"I can't." Ma Shilong thought that his Liaodong army was quite disciplined, and he didn't dare to guarantee that he would be able to gather all his soldiers and horses tomorrow, let alone those guards who were no different from the thief army.

"In that case, if the thief army arrives outside Taiyuan City tomorrow, what should we do? Will you resist with the remnants of your army? Wang Guoliang said a very pessimistic possibility.

"No, the speed of the thief army will not be so fast, even the officers and soldiers will have to walk for two days for eighty miles." In ancient times, the average marching speed was forty miles a day.

"Taiyuan and Jingle are more than two hundred miles apart, but in one day, the thief army is only eighty miles away from us, which means that they have walked one hundred and twenty miles in one day, what else is impossible? When we march to war, we should think of the worst in everything, Lord Ma. ”

Ma Shilong also felt the pressure and asked, "What does General Wang think we should do?" ”

"I have heard for a long time that Guanning's iron cavalry is unparalleled in the world, and Lord Ma can send his cavalry to harass the enemy army and buy us time." Wang Guoliang spoke his mind.

"Good idea, tomorrow I will send cavalry to meet the enemy." Ma Shilong thought that with the mobility of the cavalry, even if there were fewer people, he might not be able to fight the prolonged thieves, but the thief army could not do anything about them, so he agreed to Wang Guoliang's proposal.

"Lord Ma, as the so-called army cannot have two masters, now the army from all walks of life outside Taiyuan City gathers, and it is a taboo for the army to order more than that. Lord Yang is still in Fenzhou now, unable to control the overall situation, Lord Ma has been the prime minister of the capital from all walks of life, before Lord Yang arrives, it is better to ......"

"Needless to say." Ma Shilong knew what Wang Guoliang wanted to say, and directly interrupted him before he could say it: "How can Ma Mou be virtuous, then please ask the generals to discuss it together." (To be continued.) )

PS: I went home, lying on the familiar bed, full of emotion.

Then today is 13, the most lively day of the Lantern Festival, everyone else is watching the dragon lantern outside, but I am hard to code words at home.