Lu Xiangsheng led 30,000 troops to aid Luzhou Mansion, and Mo Qian, who was celebrating the New Year in Yuanzhou, was ecstatic after receiving the news.

He immediately recruited his civil and military officials to discuss the expansion plan for the new year.

Mo Qian was in the main position, and said to everyone in the hall with a smile: "Lu Xiangsheng led the troops to Luzhou, and now the defense in Nanchang Mansion is empty, I plan to wait for the Japanese Festival to pass tomorrow, and immediately lead the troops north to attack Jing'an, Anyi, Fengxin and Fengcheng counties, what do you think?" ”

Cao Guoqi got up and said: "My lord, now that the situation in the Central Plains is chaotic, the imperial court has deployed all the soldiers and horses in the four provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, Nanzhili and Huguang, and now is the best time for us to strengthen our strength."

According to the humble opinion, we should not only attack the above four counties, but also send troops to the west to quickly capture the three cities of Liling, Zhuzhou and Liuyang in Changsha Prefecture.

Even if the officials and troops of Huguang come to conquer, with the above three cities, we are enough to build a barrier to the periphery, which can give us enough time to deploy troops. ”

When Mo Qian heard this idea, he couldn't help but nod.

"Okay, according to Cao Guoqi's idea, our troops are divided into two roads, all the way to the west, all the way to the north, this expedition, the commander will not personally lead the troops, I plan to send two cadres to lead the troops independently, what do you think?"

Cheng Zhidun got up and said: "The safety of the lord is the future of the whole army of my righteous army, the lord does not have to do everything himself, since the main and deputy generals of the two battalions are here, I think that I can send the two generals Lu and Qian to lead the troops and horses of the headquarters, and the lord only needs to sit in the center and command Yuanzhou." ”

Cheng Zhidun's suggestion is very reasonable, and Mo Qian basically thinks so in his heart.

He said to Lu Zhao and Qian Dayou, who were waiting under the hall: "The two of you each led 7,000 soldiers and horses from the base camp to go on the expedition, tell me where you want to go?" ”

Lu Zhao was the first to stand up and shouted: "Dashuai, I'll go to the north road." ”

Qian Dayou saw that Lu Zhao took the lead in grabbing the North Road, which was originally a front he liked, without him, because there were four cities on the North Road, and there were only three on the West Road.

If the time comes to reward meritorious deeds, the number of people who have conquered four cities will certainly be higher than those who have conquered three.

However, at this time, Lu Zhaodu had already preemptively said it, and Qian Da had no choice but to raise his head and say: "Dashuai, the last general will attack the three cities of Huguang!" ”

Mo Qian saw that the two of them were full of fighting spirit, and his heart was overjoyed, he clapped his hands and smiled: "Okay, then according to your wishes, if anyone takes the lead in completing the task, Ben Shuai will give him the first credit!" ”

Hearing this, Lu Zhao couldn't help but squint at Qian Dayou beside him, and shouted in a sonorous tone: "Don't worry, Dashuai, this work must be from my first battalion of soldiers!" ”

......

As soon as the battle order was issued, the whole army was mobilized in an instant, and the soldiers of the two battalions stationed in Linjiang and Ji'an were transferred to Pingxiang County in Yuanzhou Prefecture and Gao'an County in Ruizhou Prefecture.

In addition, for the sake of insurance, Mo Qian also requisitioned 5,000 reserve peasants and soldiers to garrison troops in Taihe County and Zhangshu Town respectively to make up for the temporary vacancy in the city defense force.

In this expedition, in order to make the war go smoothly, Mo Qian specially dispatched 300 earthen bombs to the two of them from the firearms battalion.

These earth bombs were all made up by Mo Qian and the craftsmen during these days.

Earthen bombs are made of jars, in which they are filled with gunpowder, gravel and iron nails, and this kind of thing is thrown in a densely populated place, and it is definitely a big killing weapon for a dead piece.

Mo Qian gave him a very loud name - Boom Thunder!

On the eighteenth day of the first month of the ninth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, the sky was cloudless, and Lu Zhao and Qian Dayou respectively set off with 7,000 men and horses from their headquarters and headed towards their destination.

The fastest march still belonged to the first battalion of troops, because the distance between Gao'an County and Fengxin County was more than 20 miles shorter than the distance from Pingxiang to Liling County.

On the afternoon of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Lu Zhao's 7,000 soldiers and horses came to Fengxin City.

Lu Zhao did not grind, and launched an attack directly on Fengxincheng.

However, because of the 4,000 villagers raised by King Fengxin to help Cheng Shaoru of Zhixian County, Lu Zhao's siege was extremely unsmooth, and the siege battle lasted from afternoon to evening, fighting for a full hour and a half, and a battalion of soldiers still failed to break through the Fengxin city wall, but lost more than 300 soldiers because of the siege.

Lu Zhao was greatly annoyed and furious at Yi Dayong, the general of the 1st battalion and 1st brigade responsible for the siege.

In the camp tent, Lu Zhao pointed at Yi Dayong's nose and scolded: "Damn, you have a rice bucket, Fengxin is only three or four thousand mud legs, you actually have three thousand soldiers and horses, why can't you attack it?" ”

Yi Dayong was very aggrieved in his heart at the moment, he said aggrievedly: "Big brother, there are thousands of people on the city wall, our brothers don't have any good guys attacking the city, Dashuai has ten red-clothed cannons, but that thing belongs to the second battalion, we are not qualified to transfer." ”

As soon as he talked about the red-clothed cannon, Lu Zhao was angry.

They are also rebels, since the defeat of Liu Liangzuo in Qingjiang County, the marshal has been very fond of the ten red-clothed cannons, and every day he has nothing to do in the firearms camp, he takes a group of craftsmen to tinker there.

However, the firearms battalion is the establishment of the second battalion, and it has nothing to do with their first battalion, Lu Zhao wanted to ask the marshal for a few artillery pieces, but the marshal did not assign it to him on the grounds that it would be useful in the future.

The more Lu Zhao thought about it, the more angry he became, this expedition, he and Qian Dayou were better than the two of them in the future.

Whoever can complete his task first will be the first general in front of the marshal in the future.

It has been more than a year since the incident, and Lu Zhao has already transformed from a farmer to a qualified general.

The chief clerks around him also gave him ideas and explained to him the importance of military exploits.

Whoever can make great contributions in the process of winning the world, who will be the first father of the founding of the country in the future, not to mention anything else, at least when the marshal ascends the throne and becomes the emperor, he will be given a hereditary duke, and he can be a county king.

Lu Zhao has been working hard towards the goal in his heart, he wants to prove to the marshal that he is the right-hand man of the marshal, and he is the first general of the righteous army.

Thinking of the firearms battalion, Lu Zhao suddenly remembered the three hundred earth bombs that Mo Qian gave him.

He immediately called Yi Dayong and asked him, "What about the three hundred thunderbolts that the marshal sent to us?" ”

"It's in the baggage team!"

"You immediately take someone to cut down trees, make ten small trebuchets overnight, and tomorrow morning, take fifty out, throw them on the city wall with trebuchets, and kill them!"

"Yes!"

Yi Dayong immediately led his troops into the woods outside the city, cut down trees overnight, and made trebuchets.

A small trebuchet doesn't need a lot of thick wood, and the wood as thick as an ordinary thigh is enough to throw dozens of pounds of things into the city.

After a night of overtime, ten small trebuchets were made at dawn the next day.

Lu Zhao first found a stone that weighed as much as the thunderbolt and put it in the trebuchet, and after several rounds of testing, he soon found a suitable place.

The defenders of Fengxin City couldn't help laughing when they saw that the stones were not as big as a human head, and they thought that the rebels had some ability to attack the city with such small stones.

Soon the defenders on the city wall could not laugh, and they were all stunned when the black jars were thrown on the city wall and exploded.

Many of the defenders only felt a scream buzzing in their ears, and their whole minds were dizzy.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder, and when we looked at the ground, the officers and men killed by the bombs were extremely tragic.

They are not satisfied with iron nails and other things on their bodies at any time.

As soon as the earth bomb exploded on the city wall, a large number of defenders on the wall would die, and Lu Zhaocai dropped three rounds of earth bombs, and there were no more standing officers and soldiers standing on the south wall of Fengxin City.

The soldiers of the rebel army thought that the things given by the marshal could be blown up and heard a sound, but they didn't expect the power to be so huge.

Not only were the officers and soldiers defending the city stunned, but even the soldiers of the rebels outside the city were also stunned.

It was still their general soldier Lu who reacted, directly took out his sword, pointed at the head of Fengxincheng and shouted: "Kill!" ”

Yi Dayong led people to attack the city again, and this time the siege went very smoothly, and the soldiers of the first brigade soon climbed the city tower.

As soon as they reached the city wall, they encountered other soldiers who had rushed to support the city, and two groups of men and horses were about to rush up to defend the city and open the city gates.

The two sides met in a narrow corridor!

When you meet on a narrow road, the brave wins!

The eyes of the people on both sides were red, and they drew their knives and slashed.

Soon there was a river of blood on the corridor, and the two sides fought extremely fiercely.

Yi Dayong took the lead bravely, stabbed with a spear in his hand, and stabbed five officers and soldiers to death one after another, killing the officers and soldiers below at once.

After a while, the officers and soldiers defending the city who did not have much training could not resist the brave attack of the rebel soldiers, and they were soon defeated and retreated.

This is how it is to fight, once one side is the first to retreat, it will usher in a rout.

Yi Dayong led people to open the city gate, and the army outside the city swarmed into the city.

The remnants of the 3,000 villagers in the city did not dare to resist at all, and they scattered and fled outside the north city gate.

Yi Dayong led his subordinates to chase 3,000 men and horses, chasing for 30 miles in a row, all the way from Fengxin to Jing'an County.

Jing'an County is just a small city, there are less than 100 soldiers and horses defending the city, and the highest military commander is also a sentry general.

When Yi Dayong led his troops to chase the rout all the way to the outside of the city, Zhang Mingqian of Jing'an Zhixian County did not know that the righteous army had entered the city.

When the officers and soldiers guarding the city in Jing'an saw that there were thousands of rebels outside, they didn't dare to defend the city at all, so they ran away from the east city gate.

The city guards all ran away with their people, and the villagers who had just escaped from Fengxin County could only follow him.

All of a sudden, the east gate of Jing'an City was crowded.

Yi Dayong saw that some officers and soldiers had escaped from the east city gate, and immediately left 300 soldiers and horses to capture the county seat, and he personally led 1,500 people who followed behind his ass to chase eastward.

This road pursued eastward, and after thirty miles in one go, he chased directly to the city of Anyi County.

Anyi County, like Jing'an County, is a small county town, with few soldiers, and the defender of the city is just a general.

The general manager saw that the rout soldiers who came forward from outside the city were confused, and they didn't know what was going on outside.

Suddenly, he saw that the rout was followed by a large army with well-armored and well-defined banners.

Take a closer look, it was actually a Mozi banner before the fight.

This time, I always understood that this was the army of King Mo of Yuanzhou.

Mo Qian's name is now known to everyone in the north-central part of Jiangxi.

Since the position of the magistrate of Anyi County was vacated last year, the imperial court has not sent anyone to alternate, and now all the affairs in the county town are in charge of the county and the general.

The general didn't dare to defend the city at all, and he didn't even bother to report to the county, so he also learned from the example of the general Jing'an sentry, changed his clothes, took some fine and soft and went out directly from the east gate, and fled towards Nanchang Mansion in the southeast direction.

Yi Dayong chased sixty miles in one day, and won two cities without much effort.

Lu Zhao was overjoyed in his heart after getting the battle report from the front, he was very happy in his heart now, four cities, he had only sent troops for two days, and he had already taken three of them.

Now only Fengcheng County is left alone in the south.

At this time, a staff member beside Lu Zhao suddenly said to Lu Zhao: "Lord Commander, the immortal merit from heaven is due to the adult, if the adult does not take this merit, it will be a pity!" ”

Lu Zhao saw that the person who came was his staff member Jing Wenfu, and he couldn't help but be interested.

Jing Wenfu is a native of Ji'an Taihe, a Xiucai background, and he is only 27 years old this year.

Jing Wenfu originally wanted to go to Nanchang Mansion to take the exam, but he was just about to go out to take the exam, when suddenly Mo Qian led the soldiers and horses to occupy Taihe the next day, and also blocked the Ganjiang waterway.

This cut off Jing Wenfu's way to the exam, and Jing Wenfu had no choice but to give up the exam.

When he returned home, he couldn't help but feel that his future was slim when he thought that he was twenty-seven years old, that he was still just a showman, and that he himself was doing nothing.

After being idle at home for three months, one day when it was the day of spring ploughing, his wife was just about to carry the burden to plant seedlings, and Jing Wenfu also planned to help.

But when they arrived at their fields, they were dumbfounded, only to see dozens of soldiers bending down to plant rice in their fields.

When Jing Wenfu asked, he learned that they were King Mo's army.

Jing Wenfu made a decision immediately, he wanted to serve Mo Qian.

He personally went to the Taihe County Ya and recommended himself to Lu Zhaomao, who was guarding Taihe, and asked for his life.

Lu took care of him as a scholar, so he adopted him as his staff.

At this time, Jing Wenfu suddenly said this, which made Lu Zhao a little curious.

He asked, "What do you mean by that, sir?" ”

Jing Wenfu pointed his hand to the east and said, "My lord, now that Lu Xiangsheng has led his troops to Luzhou Mansion, the defenders in Nanchang City have no more than five thousand skills.

If you have the courage to lead your seven thousand Erlang all the way to the east and directly attack the city, you will definitely be able to fight down.

The capture of Nanchang, isn't this merit immortal? ”

When Lu Zhao heard this, he was immediately shocked.

After thinking for a while, Lu Zhao immediately ordered the whole army to march east to Nanchang Mansion!

Lewen