Xie Xuelong's plea was received by Emperor Chongzhen in early November, and Chongzhen learned that Tian Younian was defeated by a group of thieves, so he slapped the table angrily, and immediately issued an order to dismiss Tian Younian from office.

Tian Younian is a good official, but who will replace him has become a problem.

And now that Yuanzhou has been surrounded by anti-thieves, even if someone takes office now, he will not be able to take office before the anti-thieves are eliminated.

In desperation, Chongzhen could only let Tian Younian stay in Yuanzhou Mansion first, and gave him a death order, asking him to make meritorious service for his crimes, and cooperate with Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong to exterminate the anti-thieves in Yuanzhou Mansion.

Tian Younian thought that he would definitely die, but he didn't expect that he would be able to escape death.

At the moment of receiving the holy decree, Xie Xuelong knelt north on the street of Yuanzhou Mansion and shouted long live.

On the eighth day of December in the seventh year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Xie Xuelong finally led his troops to Xinyu County, which was only forty miles away from Fenyi County.

At this time, the cold winter has arrived, the river water in the Ganjiang River basin has plummeted, the flow is not as good as half of the usual, and the big ships of the sailors cannot enter the waters of the Yuan River from the west of the Ganjiang River.

Xie Xuelong could only abandon the water route and move forward by land instead, but in this way, the speed of the march was greatly reduced.

Originally, it only took three days to travel, and it took the army eight days to get there.

By the time the 12,000 army reached Xinyu County, the army was already exhausted.

Xie Xuelong himself was not lightly tired, he was fifty-two years old, he dragged his tired body against the cold wind, and when he arrived in Xinyu County, Xie Xuelong soon fell ill.

The governor was originally a provincial official who inspected and pacified the emperor for the emperor, but with the outbreak of peasant uprisings in various places at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the governor's responsibility was not only to manage the government affairs of a province, but also the military affairs of the province gradually began to pick up.

Since the founding of Jiangxi, except for the rebellion of King Ning of the Wuzong Dynasty, there has been no major war.

The people live and work in peace and contentment, and the place is peaceful.

There are pros to this, but there are also disadvantages.

Jiangxi has not fought a war for more than 100 years, and this has led to the complete erosion of Jiangxi's guard system, and the officers and soldiers and generals are extremely poorly paid.

According to the imperial court system, there are 13 prefectures in Jiangxi, not counting the official government officials and fast arrests, and there are more than 70,000 people armed in the local guard posts alone.

But in the Chongzhen period, these more than 70,000 soldiers have not survived to the present, and Nanchang, as the provincial capital, is a little better, and the guard post of 5,600 people can barely make up four or five hundred soldiers until now.

However, the other twelve prefectures were not so good, and the Nankang Mansion in the north of the provincial capital Nanchang did not even have a thousand soldiers and horses, and only sent a hundred officers and soldiers of the guards, and the remaining 900 people were all locally recruited villagers.

The other 11 prefectures are not much better, and the ratio of officers and soldiers to village warriors is basically between 28 and 19, and some are even 19 open.

Xie Xuelong calculated, his subordinates were full of real officers and soldiers, but they were only more than 3,500 points, and the remaining half of the men and horses were all village warriors.

As for the 5,000 people, they are a group of laborers who carry the burden, and once they have some defeat in the battle against the thieves, these people will definitely disperse in a hurry.

The sorrow in Xie Xuelong's heart!

He was already preoccupied, and the cold wind blew on the road for eight days, but as soon as he arrived in Xinyu County, he couldn't do it, and fell ill in Xinyu County.

When the Xinyu County Commander saw that the governor was ill like this, he was immediately frightened, and hurriedly invited the best doctor in the city to come for treatment.

This time it was delayed for another five days, and after five days, Xie Xuelong's condition gradually improved.

The first thing Xie Xuelong did when he recovered from his illness was to call Wang Tingmei, who was on the expedition with him, and asked him to immediately gather troops and prepare to attack the rebel Mo Wen in Yuanzhou.

Wang Tingmei saw that Xie Xuelong's health was not completely well, so she wanted to persuade him to rest for a few days, and it was not too late to attack the thief when he was completely cured.

As a result, he was scolded by Xie Xuelong, and there was no way, Wang Tingmei could only call a few guerrillas and generals who led the troops to assemble the team.

At this time, the officers and soldiers had been resting in Xinyu County for five days, and they were all recuperating.

The next day, the weather began to clear, and the sun slowly rose from the southeast, and the sun drove away the cold wind and brought warmth.

Xie Xuelong's spirit is also very good on this day.

He immediately called Wang Tingmei and instructed him to pull the team out of the county seat to practice every day, and especially instructed him to pull it to the root of the city wall of Fenyi County, where anti-thieves stole evidence.

After showing off his might in Fenyi County during the day, he pulled the troops away in the afternoon, but he did not go far, and set up camp three miles away from Fenyi County.

An army of 7,000 plus 5,000 people, and an army of 12,000 were stationed under the nose of Cao Guoqi, the commander of Fenyi County.

In the evening, Xie Xuelong asked 10,000 troops to rush back to Xinyu County, leaving only 2,000 old and weak people in the camp.

Wait until the next morning, the army went out of Xinyu County again, and then provoked and scolded under the city of Fenyi County, and after some insults, the army returned to the camp and continued to camp next to the original camp tent.

After repeating this for three days, Cao Guoqi was stunned.

Early the next morning, Chengsun Bangzuo of Fenyi County couldn't help but say to Cao Guoqi: "My lord, the 50,000 horses boasted by Lord Futai seem to be true. ”

Wang Yishang, the chief bookkeeper, also agreed with Sun Bangzuo's words, and he said to Cao Guoqi: "My lord, the governor will lead an army of 50,000 to attack, and the city wall of Fenyi County will be high, as long as the army will lose a charge to the county, we have to make plans early!" ”

Cao Guoqi sighed and said: "I know that this time the governor is here with the intention of annihilating us, I have sent a letter to the king, and the king said that he is transferring troops to punish the generals, and he will arrive in less than two days!" ”

"But it's the second day!" Wang Yishang was a little anxious.

He and the county Cheng were originally guarding the city in Fenyi County, and the county commander led troops to support the prefect in the battle, and all the official affairs in the county were handled by the two of them.

Last month, when they heard that the prefect was defeated and his own county commander was captured, the two thought that Cao Guoqi would definitely die.

But the two never expected that Cao Guoqi not only did not die, but also came back intact.

Originally, it was a happy thing for the county order to come back, but I didn't expect that as soon as the county order came back, he persuaded the two of them to be thieves, and if they didn't follow the thieves, they would drive the two of them out of the city.

The two of them have not been with Cao Guoqi for a year or two, and they can only follow Cao Guoqi as thieves.

Now that the governor led a large army to conquer them, their lives were in danger, and the two of them couldn't help but regret being thieves, knowing that it was better to leave the county.

Just when the two of them were mourning, the county militia ran up the city wall and reported: "My lord, my lord, the king has arrived!" ”

As soon as the three of them heard the news, their spirits were immediately lifted, and Cao Guoqi excitedly took the militiaman's hand and asked, "Are you talking about the arrival of the king's reinforcements?" ”

The militia shook his head and said, "Not only have the reinforcements arrived, but the king himself has also arrived!" ”

"What? The king is here too? ”

When Cao Guoqi heard that Mo Qian had come to the front line in person, he immediately didn't dare to hold it up, and hurriedly led his subordinates to greet him.

At the west gate of Fenyi County, Cao Guoqi saw Mo Qian riding a tall horse, and behind Mo Qian was the 5,000 soldiers and horses he led.

"Wechen meets the lord!"

Cao Guoqi saluted Mo Qian as soon as they met, and Mo Qian quickly got off the horse, supported Cao Guoqi with both hands and helped him up.

"Cao County's order has worked hard, how is the military situation?"

"Back to the lord, Xie Xuelong's army has arrived three miles outside the city."

"Oh? Xie Xuelong has already arrived? ”

"Yes!"

"Does he have a siege?"

Cao Guoqi shook his head and told Mo Qian about the strange movements of the officials and troops outside the city in the past few days.

The county prince Sun Bangzuo also said in a timely manner: "Lord, I see that there are at least forty or fifty thousand officers and soldiers!" ”

Mo Qian couldn't help but laugh when he heard this.

This joke made everyone present feel inexplicable.

Sun Bangzuo couldn't help but ask, "Why is the lord laughing?" ”

Mo Qian stretched out his finger and pointed at the three people: "You guys, you were deceived by Xie Xuelong!" ”

"Scammed?"

"Of course I was deceived, 50,000 horses, and the whole Jiangxi since the founding of Taizu was founded, the total number of officers and soldiers in the province's health guards is only 70,000. Since King Ning's rebellion, there have been fewer officers and soldiers in Jiangxi's guards, and now he Xie Xuelong is transferring all the officers and soldiers of Jiangxi's guards here, and it is impossible to have 50,000 people, you are falling for Xie Xuelong's suspicious plan! ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's not simple, if I'm Xie Xuelong, I can also play this hand, send troops to the city every morning to challenge and scold, and then go back to camp in the afternoon, and wait until the evening? In the evening, I will transfer the soldiers and horses back to Xinyu County. Wait until the next morning, I will transfer the soldiers out of Xinyu County, and repeat this for three or four days, and you will think that he Xie Xuelong has 50,000 horses in his hands! ”

When everyone heard this, they suddenly realized.

Cao Guoqi clapped his hands and said: "I said, the official army obviously has 50,000 people, but if they don't attack the city for a long time, they can divide this small city, and they can take it with 3,000 people." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden sound of shouting and killing outside the city.

The crowd did not dare to be careless, and immediately went up to the city wall to observe the enemy's situation.

I saw that the city was full of people, and the officials and soldiers were shouting and scolding outside the city.

Since there are people from all over the country brought by Xie Xuelong, this has caused the scolding to be extremely chaotic.

"The thief of the wrong big wooden girl, I have the ability to come down and fight with my grandfather!"

"Hey, your old mother~" Fenyi Xiangyong on the city wall couldn't help but scolded back.

"Wrong En paralysis~~" The Jiujiang soldiers under the city also joined the scolding battle.

"I'm wrong for selling turtles in your house!" The Yuanzhou soldiers who came to support were not to be outdone.

For a while, there was a scolding in the city, and the whole vegetable market was general.

Mo Qian glanced at the officers and soldiers under the city, although there were many of them, they stood extremely loosely, staggering, and they didn't have a good rest last night.

Then he suddenly had an idea.

He said to Lu Zhao beside him: "General Lu, you immediately gather men and horses for me, kill me out of the city, and give these officers and soldiers a little color!" ”

Lu Zhao was scolded by the Nanchang soldiers under the city just now, and now when he heard that the lord called him to send troops, he immediately went down to the city tower happily and prepared to go.

A quarter of an hour later, the rebels in the city had assembled, and the gates slowly opened.

The officers and soldiers of the various prefectures outside the city were scolding the rebels at the head of the city at the moment, and suddenly found that the city gate was actually opened, and then a group of rebels shouted and killed.

The officers and soldiers were not prepared at all, and they were caught off guard for a while, so they could only retreat frantically.

When the border retreated, there was still a scolding voice in the official army, scolding the righteous army for not talking about martial arts.