Unlike Zhang Huangyan's small army of more than 100 people, Li Yanzhi commanded an army of 30,000 people, a huge number of troops. It is not an easy task for such a large team to pass through the vast mountains for hundreds of miles.

Although there is no need to worry about being attacked by enemy troops in the mountains, the mountain roads are too rugged and difficult to navigate, especially for transporting heavy food. Although it is said that they did not carry heavy artillery, armor, shields, weapons, and necessary food were also needed. These have to be loaded by special vehicles, and the roads in the mountainous areas are difficult for vehicles to travel in many places, and manual transportation is required.

Even if Li Yanzhi did his best to command the marching army, the army would only march more than 30 miles a day, and no matter how fast it was, it would inevitably be unbearable. Hundreds of miles of mountains, just marching took more than half a month.

Zhang Huangyan was a pioneer, responsible for raising money and food for the army after entering Jiangxi. It stands to reason that Zhang Huangyan should stay outside the mountain pass and wait for the army to come out of the mountain. However, a few days ago, Zhang Huangyan sent people into the mountains to deliver a letter, saying that he was leading people to attack Xincheng County, and Li Yanzhi was very uneasy at that time. After all, Zhang Huangyan has more than 100 subordinates, how can he fight a county seat?

However, Zhang Huangyan cut first and then played, and Li Yanzhi had no choice but to urge the army to speed up and quickly get out of the mountains.

And just the day before yesterday, Li Yanzhi received a report from Zhang Huangyan again, saying that he had taken Xincheng County, which made Li Yanzhi very surprised. The capture of Xincheng County meant that the Fujian Janissaries controlled a stronghold in Jianchang Province in Jiangxi, and the rebels in Jiangxi could not block the mountain pass without taking Xincheng County. And as long as he leads his army out of the mountains, he will no longer be afraid of any rebels.

However, since then, Li Yanzhi has never received any news from Zhang Huangyan. It stands to reason that Zhang Huangyan has already conquered Xincheng County, so he should send someone to welcome him out of the mountain, why has he arrived at Binguan, but he hasn't even seen a single figure?

Could it be that Xincheng County is being besieged by rebels and the news cannot be delivered?

"Pass on Xu Liu!" After thinking about it carefully, Li Yan said in a deep voice.

"Commander!" General Xu Liu soon came, and saluted Zhang Huangyan with his fists.

"Xu Liu, I'll give you a thousand men and horses, you take them with dry food and necessary weapons, nothing else, march lightly, and go to Xincheng County immediately!" Li Yan said in a deep voice.

"The last will obey." Xu Liu hugged his fists.

"If the rebels besiege Xincheng County, you attack the back of the rebels and rush into the city to support Zhang Huangyan. If so," Li Yanzhi paused in his tone, "If Xincheng County has been captured by the rebels, don't act rashly, Chen Bing is outside Xincheng County, just monitor the rebels, and wait for me to lead the army there." ”

"The last will obey." Xu Liu clenched his fists and left.

Although Li Yanzhi was very anxious, he did not order the whole army to continue to advance, but decided to rest and recuperate at Binguan so that his subordinates could recover their strength.

However, after counting the food in the army, it was found that there was only one day's ration left.

According to the pre-plan, at this time, Zhang Huangyan should send someone to transport the raised grain. Li Yanzhi had no choice but to send several troops to collect grain and grass in all directions.

However, before the grain collection team could set off, someone suddenly came to Shanguan, but it was Wu Fu, the steward of the Wu family.

"The villain meets Mr. Li." Seeing Li Yanzhi, Wu Fu hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed.

"Zhang Huangyan sent you?" Li Yanzhi hurriedly asked.

"It's General Zhang." Wu Fu hurriedly replied, "General Zhang's preparation of grain for the army is stored in Tong'an Town, ten miles away, and the villain learned that the general has arrived at Binguan, so he specially brought someone to send 1,000 stone of grain, and there is still 6,000 stone of grain in Tong'an Town. ”

1,000 stone of grain, enough for the army to eat for two or three days, Li Yanzhi's heart finally relaxed, and secretly said that Zhang Huangyan was still capable of doing things.

"Where is Zhang Huangyan now?" Li Yanzhi asked.

Wu Fu replied: "General Zhang led his troops to fight Xincheng County and successfully defeated the county seat, but unexpectedly, within two days, thousands of rebels in Jianchang Mansion launched a counterattack on Xincheng County, and General Zhang was leading troops to defend the city. ”

Li Yan nodded straight, and secretly said that it was really as he thought, Zhang Huangyan was really in Xincheng County.

"But just yesterday, a rout fled to Tong'an Town from the direction of Xincheng County and was caught by the villain, but it was said that the rebels had been defeated by General Zhang, but General Zhang did not send anyone back to report the news." Wu Fu continued.

"What? Zhang Huangyan defeated the rebels? Li Yanzhi was shocked. Zhang Huangyan only has a few people, only a hundred soldiers, plus two thousand people who were hastily gathered, it is possible to take Xincheng County without an army to defend the city under a sneak attack, and it is no problem to hold the county seat for a while, but if you want to defeat five or six thousand rebels, to be honest, Li Yanzhi is not sure.

After all, Zhang Huangyan's subordinates could only fight with those 100 soldiers, and those tenants gathered by the gentry could defend the city, but they could not go to the battlefield to fight head-on.

"What's going on, you tell me in detail." Li Yanzhi ordered.

"The specific situation is not very clear, and what those defeated soldiers said is also vague. It is said that General Zhang took advantage of the rebel army to attack the city, led people to suddenly kill out of the city, defeated the rebel army, intercepted the men and horses, directly took the rebel army, and defeated the rebel army with the thunder method, making the entire rebel army collapse. Wu Fudao.

"......" Li Yanzhi was speechless. The thunder method of bullshit, Zhang Huangyan understands the thunder method of a fart, it's really nonsense. It should be Zhang Huangyan who defeated the rebels with grenades, when he set off, because his troops were too small, he specially allocated him 300 grenades, and Zhang Huangyan should have used these grenades to blow up the rebels.

"Any other news?" Li Yanzhi continued to ask. By now, he had completely relieved himself. In any case, Xincheng County is holding on. His army also got enough food and grass, paving the way for the attack, Zhang Huangyan contributed a lot!

"Just yesterday, I arrested a few defeated soldiers, and some confessions were interrogated from them, and there was no other news, and General Zhang never sent anyone to Tong'an Town to deliver a letter." Wu Fudao.

"You have also made a lot of contributions to General Zhang this time, rest assured, this general soldier will not treat you badly, after handing over the grain and grass, go down and rest." Li Yanzhi smiled.

"It's all the credit of General Zhang, and the villain just acts according to orders." Wu Fu hurriedly said humbly, but his heart was ecstatic. With Li Yanzhi's approval, he may be able to be reused, and it is not impossible to get a job.

After getting the news that Xincheng County was unharmed, and the army had enough food and grass again, Li Yanzhi was finally able to let the army rest in Shanguan for a few days with peace of mind.

However, it didn't take long for the news to come again, but it was learned that Zhang Huangyan had actually led his troops to fight Jianchangfu City.

"This bastard, do you want to take all the credit?" Li Yanzhi couldn't help but laugh and scolded.

It is said that after Zhang Huangyan took Xincheng County, the situation was stable, and he only needed to wait for the arrival of the army. But he has to take people to Jianchangfu City, what is this not a robbery?

But Li Yanzhi couldn't say anything, after all, Zhang Huangyan was the vanguard he sent, and he had the right to fight alone, and he had the right to decide what to do according to the actual situation when the army did not arrive.

But Li Yanzhi sent Zhang Huangyan as the vanguard only to raise grain and grass for the army, and he was not expected to attack the city, only a hundred people, how to attack the city? But Zhang Huangyan defeated Xincheng County with 100 people, and now he is going to Jianchang Mansion again......

"Give Xu Liu an order and ask him to quickly lead troops to Jianchang Mansion to support Zhang Huangyan." Li Yanzhi sighed, he wanted to ignore Zhang Huangyan, he wanted to see how capable this turtle son was, but he was still worried that Zhang Huangyan would have an accident.

When such a thing happened, Li Yanzhi had no intention of continuing to rest and recuperate in Binguan, so he ordered a night's rest and continued to march tomorrow.

"Let's go to Jianchang Mansion City first, and then have a good rest." Li Yan said directly to the generals.

The generals agreed in their mouths, but secretly complained, and privately scolded Zhang Huangyan for this doggy.

"What? Going to Jianchang Mansion City? Before Xu Liu and his troops arrived in Xincheng County, he received Li Yanzhi's next order and was very surprised.

"General Li said that General Zhang has defeated the rebels in Jianchang Mansion and has already led people to attack Jianchang Mansion, and General Li ordered you to bring people to support General Zhang." Herald the soldiers.

"Zhang Huangyan is this shit!" Xu Liu couldn't help but scold. Grandma, it's just that you can defeat the rebels in the county seat, and you have to attack the Fucheng, so you can just go to Nanchang alone! But I want Lao Tzu to lead the troops to run around and give you a hand!

"The military order arrived, and I went back." The herald clasped his fists at Xu Liu, turned his horse's head and left.

"Let's go, go to Jianchang Mansion!" Xu Liu's face changed for a while, and he said in a deep voice.

"General, we don't need to be in such a hurry, let General Zhang fight first." Some subordinates observed their words and looked at their expressions, and smiled at Xu Liudao.

"What!" Xu Liu glared and scolded. Annoying Zhang Huangyan is annoying Zhang Huangyan, but he can't watch him fight alone, after all, Zhang Huangyan has a hundred people. It is too arrogant to attack the city with 100 men, and if the rebels counterattack, it is likely that the whole army will be annihilated.

"Grass! When he saw Zhang Huangyan, Lao Tzu had to beat him up! Xu Liu smacked the ground and scolded angrily.

......

At this time, Zhang Huangyan had already led the army outside the city of Jianchang Mansion.

Xincheng County is only sixty miles away from Jianchang Mansion, and it only takes more than a day for the army to arrive.

It is said that it is a large army, and the total number is more than 3,000 people, of which there are 100 Praetorian Guards under the real lineage, and the rest are either tenants or prisoners who have just been reorganized.

However, after these captives have been brainwashed, they are still honest one by one, but they don't know if they will be obedient when they start a war.

According to normal thinking, it would be crazy to attack Jianchang Mansion City with such a force.

Although most of the army in Jianchang Mansion was defeated outside Xincheng County, there were still more than 1,000 troops left in Jianchang Mansion, plus the official servants in the city, the troops were not much less than Zhang Huangyan. Moreover, the dignified city, the city walls are tall and strong, and there is a moat outside the city, which is a hundred times more difficult to fight than the new city and county.

Not to mention anything else, just breaking through the moat is impossible without a certain number of troops and time.

Not to mention, there are nearly 100,000 people in the city, and if the rebel military palace is urgently mobilized, there is no problem in recruiting 10,000 or 20,000 young men to participate in the defense of the city. With the amount of troops in Zhang Huangyan's hands, let alone conquering the city, it is very difficult to break through the moat and touch the city wall.

It's no wonder that Li Yanzhi, Xu Liu and others all say that Zhang Huangyan is crazy, and normal people do think so.

But what they didn't know was that the reason why Zhang Huangyan decided to attack Jianchang Mansion was also after careful consideration.

Through a battle outside Xincheng County, Zhang Huangyan realized the strength of the rebels in Jianchangfu, which was not so much an army as a rabble. The combat effectiveness of the defenders of Jianchang Mansion was inferior to that of those rebels who attacked Nanjing. It is estimated that Yuan Chonghuan transferred all the elite troops in Jiangxi at the beginning, leaving only some troops with extremely poor combat effectiveness to guard various places.

Since even Zhang Huangyan, the main force of the 5,000 rebels, was defeated, how could he be afraid of the remaining troops in Jianchang Mansion? At most, it won't be able to defeat the city, but it will never be defeated.

If the rebels in the city dare to take the initiative to attack, they can talk to Zhang Huang and completely defeat the other party in the field and take the opportunity to take the city. And if the rebels don't even dare to leave the city, what is there to fear?

After leading the army to the outside of Jianchang Mansion, Zhang Huangyan ordered to camp five miles away from the city. 、

It stands to reason that when attacking the city, the camp should be at least more than ten or twenty miles away from the city, so that it is not only convenient to mobilize the army to attack the city, but also to effectively prevent the other party from attacking the city. And the reason why Zhang Huangyan ordered to camp so close was to hope that the rebels in the city would take advantage of the camp of the army to go out of the city to attack. In this way, there is a chance to defeat the opponent in a field battle.

The prisoners and young men were responsible for setting up camp, and Zhang Huangyan took the soldiers of the Eighty Praetorian Guards to guard on the side, but until the camp was set up, there was no movement in Jianchang Mansion, and no army came out of the city to attack, which made Zhang Huangyan very disappointed.

Since the rebels refused to leave the city, they had no choice but to take the initiative to attack. But with the little force in hand, it is impossible to storm it.

But Zhang Huangyan has a way. He ordered a dozen loud voices to be selected from among the captives, and then had people take the head of Niu Yonggui, the rebel commander, and come outside the city to shout.

The long bamboo pole carried Niu Yonggui's head, and the rebel defenders on the city wall were horribly discolored.

"That's General Niu?"

"Yes, it's General Niu's head."

In the previous period, a small number of defeated soldiers successfully fled back to the city, bringing back the news of the defeat, which made the people in the city panic. The prefect of Jianchang ordered the city gate to be closed and the young and strong officials were recruited to defend the city. However, thousands of armies have been defeated, and with the remaining less than a thousand troops, plus these young men and women recruited, can they hold the city? Most of the defenders had no confidence.

Because until now, the people in Jianchang City did not know the true strength of the Praetorian Guards who came to attack. I didn't know that there were only a hundred Janissaries in the army outside the city, and the rest were rabble. After all, in their opinion, the opponent can defeat their own 5,000 army, and their strength must be extraordinary. The strength of the city is far from being comparable to that of the other party. Now that the other side is approaching the city, and seeing Niu Yonggui's head with his own eyes, how can the hearts of these defenders in the city not waver?