Li Rufeng couldn't ask for it, and the two of them took the troops to Lu'an Prefecture the next day.

At this time, Gao Jie's forward troops also rushed to Lu'an Prefecture in the starry night, Gao Jie's troops came from many sources, there were old troops who rebelled with him from the army, there were also Ming troops in Yangzhou and other places, local garrison troops, and local village bravery, and the combat effectiveness was high and low, uneven.

Its forward general is Hu Maozhen, who is an old subordinate brought by Gao Jie from the army and has rich combat experience.

He led a thousand light cavalry to arrive in Lu'an Prefecture, Lu'an Prefecture was occupied by the Qing army before, burned and plundered here, and was later recovered by the Dashun army, the two armies fought over and over again in this place, and finally because Emperor Chongzhen was born, the two armies withdrew separately, and this place became a chicken rib.

Hu Maozhen was better than Li Rufeng, and Jiang Xuan had to arrive in Lu'an Prefecture half a day earlier, but they were only stationed in the southern part of Lu'an Prefecture.

After resting for one night, at dawn the next day, Hu Maozhen dispatched troops, divided the whole army into 20 teams, and advanced in four directions, southeast, northwest, and northwest.

Gao Jie specially told Hu Maozhen this order, Hu Maozhen was not stupid, Gao Jie told him that their army was in a very dangerous situation, and if something happened to them, it would be annexed by the Qing army, the Dashun army, and the puppet dynasty.

In comparison, Gao Jie's rival is the Dashun army, after all, he brought Li Zicheng a green hat, and led the troops to defect from the Dashun army, so that he returned to the hands of the Dashun army again, which was more painful than killing him.

The second is the Qing army, as the commander of the expedition, he surrendered to the Qing army when he crossed the river, or was wiped out by the Qing army, not only by his subordinates, but also by the people of the world ridiculed, he himself is not willing to wear a money pigtail and be called around by the Manchurians.

Then there is only one choice, that is, to become a subordinate of Emperor Chongzhen again, although the strength of the Chongzhen court is weak, but it has a righteous name, and there is the support of the Dashun army behind it, and the Dashun army will not sit idly by and watch the Chongzhen court be wiped out by the Qing army and ignore it.

Gao Jie's meaning was very clear, Hu Maozhen also obeyed him, and led the troops to advance cautiously in Lu'an Prefecture, and at noon the next day, a cavalry unit found that there was an army headed for Licheng, Lu'an Prefecture.

Licheng is an important city in the northeast of Lu'an Prefecture, and the occupation of Licheng can lay a nail in Lu'an Prefecture, which will greatly threaten the logistics of passing troops.

After Hu Maozhen got the report of the general, he led the troops to Licheng, Li Rufeng and Jiang Xuan brought more than 2,000 people, and Hu Maozhen had more troops, but most of them were infantry troops, and they did not have an advantage on the way out.

When they arrived in Licheng, Hu Maozhen led a thousand cavalry and looked at them coldly under the city.

Li Rufeng and Jiang Xuan saw the dress of Hu Maozhen's troops, and they sighed infinitely in their hearts, they hadn't seen the pure Ming military uniform for a long time, Hu Maozhen looked at Li Rufeng and others, and said very mightily: "I am Hu Maozhen, the forward of the Ming Imperial Court, dare to ask the famous people?" ”

Jiang Xuan just wanted to sign up. Li Rufeng grabbed him and whispered in his ear: "Brother Jiang, I know this person?" ”

"Oh, you know him?"

Li Rufeng nodded, and talked to Jiang Xuan about Hu Maozhen, who used to be the Dashun Army, and was also the general of Gao Jie, the most outstanding general under Li Zicheng.

Speaking of Gao Jie, Jiang Xuan has also heard of the contradiction between Gao Jie and Li Zicheng, and Hu Maozhen's appearance in Licheng means that it is the Hongguang Dynasty army that attacked Taiyuan Mansion this time, and it is Gao Jie's troops?

Li Rufeng rode forward and said loudly to Hu Maozhen: "General Hu Bing, don't come to harm?" ”

Hu Maozhen was stunned for a moment, looking at Li Rufeng's young appearance, there was no such person in his mind, he clasped his fists with both hands: "Dare to ask if this general is a general of the Chongzhen Imperial Court, or a soldier of the Dashun Army?" ”

Li Rufeng smiled coldly, rode forward, and came to a distance of only more than 20 meters from Hu Maozhen, Hu Maozhen is not a rat, seeing that Li Rufeng dared to ride forward alone, regardless of the persuasion of the generals, he also walked forward with one person and one horse.

After the two met, Li Rufeng said: "Hu Zongbing, I used to be a border army of the Ming Dynasty, then a cavalry of the Dashun army, and now a commander of the imperial court, dare to ask which imperial court forward you are?" ”

An inexplicable expression appeared on Hu Maozhen's face, he used to be a Dashun army, and later followed Gao Jie to become an official army, when Li Rufeng said this, he gritted his teeth and said: "I am the forward general of Ying Tianfu, you should be the commander of the puppet dynasty, right?" ”

Li Rufeng was not frightened, Hu Maozhen had Jiang Xuan's troops and the cavalry corps under his command, and the light cavalry of Hu Maozhen could not exert much combat effectiveness.

"Mr. Hu, where did you come from, where are you going back, this Licheng is the territory of my Ming Dynasty, you have to take a step forward, don't blame me for turning my face and not recognizing people?"

Hu Maozhen always kept Gao Jie's words in his heart, and tried to avoid conflicts with Chongzhen's soldiers and horses, but he wanted to try to see if this Li Rufeng was a general of Chongzhen, so he and Li Rufeng said contemptuously: "Your Majesty Hongguang Yingtianfu is my true son of heaven, we are here on the orders of Your Majesty, come to conquer the puppet dynasty such as Er, if you know each other, it is better to return to our army, break through Yuci City together, and capture the puppet emperor alive, this is good?" ”

Li Rufeng saw that he was not speculative, turned his horse's head and went back, and put down his cruel words before leaving, the Hongguang army took a step forward, and the army under his command would launch an attack until the winner was decided.

"What a big breath, so I'll give it a try?"

Hu Maozhen's right hand was raised, a thousand light cavalry showed their weapons, driving the war horse forward, Li Rufeng was angry, this person did not listen to the advice, he insisted on coming to die, he returned to the army, and Jiang Xuan nodded, and the two gave the order to attack.

An encounter broke out between the two armies under Licheng, Hu Maozhen originally wanted to show off his strength, try to see if Li Rufeng was real?

But who would have thought that Li Rufeng would kill him without saying a word, forcing him to fight hard.

More than 1,000 light cavalry fought against Jiang Xuan and Li Rufeng's troops, there was no advantage, after a fight, Hu Maozhen's army lost more than 200 people, and Chongzhen's army lost more than 400 people.

Hu Maozhen took the lead in retreating, and Li Rufeng did not pursue, but ordered Wang Hong to rush back to Yuci City, report the military situation to Ling Jingyang, and suggested that Jiang Xuan lead the troops to enter Licheng, where he resisted the long-term advance of the Hongguang army, smashed Qinzhou and Liaozhou, and compressed the activity space of the main combat forces of Taiyuan Prefecture.

Wang Hong rode a fast horse to rush back, Jiang Xuan also led the troops to garrison Licheng, the city defense of Licheng is very old, the city wall is also damaged in many places, Jiang Xuan led four thousand soldiers and horses to garrison here, everyone collected firewood and the flame was high, it only took one day, the city wall of Licheng was repaired, and it could barely be used for defense.

Li Rufeng continued to wander around the front end of the battlefield, and in Lingjingyang, Yuci City, he received information from Wang Hong, and he didn't care about this Hongguang Expeditionary Army.