It took a little longer than Li Xin expected.

By the time the official offensive of the official army began, a month had passed, that is to say, after taking Huozhou, the small strong brigade of Long Thirteen had been training for two and a half months!

Two and a half months, for a small strong brigade that trains at full capacity every day, it has become an army.

The Li Xin brothers officially joined the Xiaoqiang Brigade, and Long 13 asked Li Zhong to serve as the marching Sima, and Long Xiaoshi became the deputy Sima, but Long Xiaoshi still served as the commander of the Fire Gun Battalion.

As for Li Zhong (Li You), Long 13 made him his personal guard, and in wartime he served as the deputy general of the cavalry battalion he personally led.

In July, the gold flowed like fire.

Cao Wen's edict in the north took the lead in attacking the Lingshikou Pass at the northern end of the Bird Mouse Valley and the Jingsheng Fort on the road leading to Lingshi County on the east side of the Bird Mouse Valley!

Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, among all the encirclement and suppression of the official army, the military discipline of Cao Wenzhao's troops is not bad, but this time he seems to be in a hurry, whether it is Lingshikou Pass or Jingsheng Fort, he has dispatched a large number of ravines and baits captured by the officers and soldiers in the past two months when they fought against Zijinliang and Bu Mud.

Cao Wenzhao was very cunning, he hid the officers and soldiers in ravines and bait, so that the offensive was loose for a while and tight for a while, so that the soldiers and young men of the Xiaoqiang Brigade almost landed.

However, at this point, Long Thirteen not only had more than 6,000 soldiers under his command, but could also mobilize almost the same number of young men at any time.

Some of these young men have been following from northern Shaanxi, and some have been absorbed before entering Jinzhong, and there are a large number of recruits from Jiexiu County, Lingshi County, and Huozhou.

This time, Long Thirteen requisitioned 4,000 people, and in Lingshikou Pass and Jingsheng Fort, in addition to the pikemen with 400 people each, they also strengthened the same number of young men.

Because Lingshikou Pass and Jingsheng Fort are stuck in dangerous places, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, as long as the defense materials are sufficient, it is difficult for the officers and troops to succeed in a short time.

Therefore, although Cao Wenzhao made up his mind to take the two places in one go, after three days, not a single one of Long Shisan's troops was injured, and Cao Wenzhao's men and horses did not even come up to the city wall seriously.

To the west, Hu Dawei of Fenxi County drove his troops to the west bank of the Fen River, where Long Thirteen had defeated Po Xi Mu last time.

However, this place is stuck between the Yin Pass of the Bird Mouse Valley and Huozhou, and for Hu Dawei, not only will he face the danger of crossing the river, but even if he crosses the river, he must always worry that he will be attacked by the thieves of the Yin Pass and Huozhou.

Of course, he could also follow the trail on the west bank of the Fen River to the Xiamen Fort in Yindiguan and Lingshi County, where he could cross the river, but the Xiamen Fort was also easy to defend and difficult to attack.

As a result, the Hu Dawei Department could only station its troops on the west bank of the Fen River as a containment.

The key offensive direction of the officers and troops is obviously in the direction of Huozhou.

The Ai Wannian Division, which had just completed the suppression of the thieves who stayed there in northern Shaanxi, returned to the command of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, and became Hong Chengchou's mobile force together with Wang Chengen, the general soldier of Shaanxi, and Yang Jiamo, the general soldier of Gansu.

Together with Li Bei and Bai An, who had arrived in Zhaocheng County in the south of Huozhou, adding up to tens of thousands of horses, after the arrival of grain and grass, Hong Chengchou immediately set out, he let Ai Wannian and Yang Jiamo advance to Zhaocheng County, and he took Wang Chengen to Hongdong County to take command.

Hongdong County, county hall.

About forty years old, the thin Hong Chengchou sat on the main seat, and under him, Yang Jiamo, a descendant of the Yang family who was nearly sixty years old, was originally transferred to Jizhen to serve and was temporarily transferred to Shanxi, and sat in the first place on the left.

The Shaanxi general soldier, 50-year-old Wang Chengen sat in the first place on the right side, and under Wang Chengen, sat his deputy, Du Hongyu, the son of Shaanxi deputy general and former Gansu general Du Wenhuan, Du Hongyu was about 30 years old, but when he was in the prime of life.

Under Yang Jiamo sat the former deputy general of the Xuanfu Bai An, Bai An was originally pulled up by Zhang Zongheng, the governor of Xuanda, and now Zhang Zongheng was transferred to Luzhou, but Bai An still served under Hong Chengchou.

Under Bai An is Li Bei, the general of Yulin.

Bai An and Li Bei are both fierce generals in their thirties and forties.

And under Du Hongyu sat the Shenmu Ginseng General Ai Wannian, who was also about thirty years old.

This person is tall and thin, with a fierce face, with three strands of yellow beard, and he looks like a bearded person.

At this time, there is such a sentence in northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, "Ai Qiang, Zuo Strong, Cao is both strong and strong", which means that in the various armies chasing and suppressing the thieves, there are three people who are the most powerful, namely Shenmu General Ai Wannian, Changping Deputy General Zuo Liangyu, and Lintao General Cao Wenzhao.

As far as the Ming army is concerned, all strong armies do not have elite families, and these three people are no exception, each of them has about five hundred cavalry, in this era, cavalry is almost equal to family ding.

Zuo Liangyu and Cao Wenzhao are all from Liaodong, and their subordinates often fight with Jiannu and Tatar slaves, and their elite can be imagined, but the land of Shenmu is next to Yuan'er Dusi, and it is also the favorite place for the Mongols to pass through when they enter the Central Plains, so the people there are really fierce people.

In recent years, Ai Wannian has been able to keep pace with Liaodong generals Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu, apparently because he has absorbed a large number of Mongolian cavalry.

Yes, he only had five hundred cavalry on the surface, but in fact the number had already exceeded eight hundred, but he did not dare to report the number.

Eight hundred horsemen, half of the Shenmu and Fugu Han army horses, and half of the Mongolian cavalry who are good at riding and shooting, the strength is still above all of you.

At present, in addition to Hu Dawei, who is stationed on the west bank of the Fen River, and Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, who are chasing Gao Yingxiang, the generals under Hong Chengchou are all here.

Behind Hong Chengchou, there was a big man standing with a sword, I saw that the big man was about 20 years old, with a majestic figure, it was Cai Jiuyi, who had studied art in South Shaolin, Putian, Fujian, Hong Chengchou's hometown.

Behind Hong Chengchou's side, there was a scholar about forty years old who was holding a pen and writing a blank piece of paper.

Xie Sixin, a native of Xin'an, had martial arts when he was young, and he could be regarded as a martial artist, who had been waiting for a vacancy in the capital for a long time, and after meeting Hong Chengchou, he was asked by Hong Chengchou to be the chief staff member after some earnest talks.

At this time at the end of the Ming Dynasty, if there was no background and connections, there was nowhere to place a large number of people waiting to fill the vacancies, so a considerable number of people simply joined the governors, governors, political envoys, envoys, and general soldiers to become staff.

Don't underestimate this staff, first, because the remuneration is very high, and second, there is a great possibility that he will make military achievements in the post of "staff officer", so that he will be directly promoted to a better position than filling in the vacancies.

Hong Chengchou has been convening the generals for a while, and has roughly decided on the strategy of taking the veteran Yang Jiamo as the general and Ai Wannian as the vanguard, and going north to besiege Huozhou in two ways.

One of the roads is naturally dominated by Yang Jiamo, and Li Bei and Ai Wannian are led to go north along the Fenhe Post Road.

The other road is the valley road at the western foot of Huoshan Mountain, that is, the Nanzhao line of later generations, with the chief soldier Wang Chengen as the mainstay, and the governor of Bai Anbu from this road to the north, and then from the east of Huozhou City to the city.

"Dashuai"

In the end, Hong Chengchou was about to say a few words of encouragement of "sharing worries for the king and fighting bravely to kill the enemy", when Yang Jiamo suddenly spoke.

Yang Jiamo is a descendant of Yang Ye of the Northern Song Dynasty, in the entire Gansu town jurisdiction, the Yang family almost occupies the main military positions in various important places, can be called the first army general family in Gansu, the original court was ready to transfer him to Jizhen as the chief soldier, and was called to Shanxi to participate in the encirclement and suppression of thieves.

Yang Jiamo has the title of "Right Governor", so he is qualified to have a straightforward dialogue with Hong Chengchou.

"Old General, please speak"

"Dashuai, this small strong brigade can defeat Zhou Yuji, Sun Chuanting, Po Ximu, Zuo Guangxian, and Niu Chenghu in a short period of time, there must be something outstanding, we must not be careless."

"Therefore, the last general suggested that the Hu Dawei Army, which is on the west bank of the Fen River, should go north along the mountain path and attack the Xiamen Fort between Yindiguan and Lingshi County, not expecting it to capture Xiamen Fort, but at least let the thieves take care of one another."

"In addition, I don't know what the situation is with the encirclement and suppression of Gao Yingxiang's left and He departments, these two departments are the elite of our official army, if these two departments can join in, then there is a great certainty that all this stubborn force will be annihilated."

Hong Chengchou shook his head, "Gao Yingxiang has more than ten units, each of them has at least five hundred fine horses, this is five thousand fine horses, and there are also a large number of ravines and baiters, at least tens of thousands of people, although the two generals of Zuo and He are brave, but they add up to three or four thousand people, it would be good to be able to keep an eye on the department."

"How easy is it to wipe it out in a short period of time?"

"At present, the high department is still coiling in the area from Yueyang to Qinyuan, and it is very likely to converge with another large group of thieves and kings for their own use, once they succeed, I am afraid that the entire Qinzhou will not be restored!"

Yang Jiamo's expression was grim, but he still said: "That tiger is ...... might."

Hong Chengchou replied: "If all the tigers go to Xiamen Fort, it will allow the thieves to deal with it calmly, and if it is still on the west bank of the Fen River, it will make the thieves overwhelmed, and it is necessary to reserve a large number of troops to deal with it......"

Yang Jiamo hurriedly got up and saluted, "The last general understands"

......

When Hong Chengchou convened the generals to discuss the combat strategy, Long 13 also discussed his own response strategy, and finally formed such a consensus:

For the Cao Wen edict in the north, it is mainly defensive, and the enemy is outside Lingshi County;

Before Hong Chengchou's main force went north to Huozhou, he first defeated the Hu Dawei troops who were wandering on the west bank of the Fen River to frustrate him;

After Hong Chengchou's main force arrived, he also focused on defense first, waiting for the enemy to be tired before waiting for an opportunity to attack.

After receiving Hong Chengchou's order, Hu Dawei only kept a 500-strong infantry camp on the west bank of the Fen River, accompanied by 100 families, and continued to deter the small strong brigade on the post road of the Bird Mouse Valley on the east bank of Xi'an, but he himself led the remaining men and horses back to Fenxi County to station.

Since it is a standby move, there is nothing wrong with Hu Dawei's arrangement.