Due to the limited terrain, the official road leading from Quanzhou to Tingzhou is to first go south to Zhangzhou, and then to the northwest.

In order to smooth the traffic, two bridges across the Jinjiang River have been built outside Quanzhou City, one is the Shunji Bridge outside the Deji Gate, and the other is the stalagmite bridge outside the Linzhang Gate.

If these thieves besieging Quanzhou City find that the situation is unfavorable, the first choice is to evacuate south through the stalagmite bridge.

In addition, although they suspended the siege, they still put more than 3,000 people in the small village outside the Linzhang Gate.

In order to prevent the thieves from escaping, it is necessary to control or destroy the stalagmite bridge, but the Linzhang Gate is blocked, so it is necessary to go out of the city through the Tongjin Gate.

Tongjin Gate is between Deji Gate and Linzhang Gate, and is the southwest gate of Quanzhou.

The moat outside the gate is less than two miles away from the Jinjiang River, and the terrain is too narrow, so there are no thieves.

Yuan Miao took five hundred monks out of the city and quickly rushed upstream along the Jinjiang River.

At this time, the bridgehead thieves had already learned the news of the arrival of reinforcements from the officers and soldiers, and then they heard the earth-shattering thunder, and they all became nervous.

Therefore, they discovered Yuan Miao's department from afar, and realized their intentions, so they hurriedly asked for help from their accomplices outside the Linzhang Gate, and sent someone to report to the camp.

In terms of the establishment of the army, the thieves also used the same set of officials and soldiers, and the one who commanded the more than 3,000 people outside the Linzhang Gate was a 'commander' named Guo Qing.

After receiving the request for help, he did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly led all his subordinates to the bridgehead a mile away.

Although the thieves were in formation, they could barely put up a formation, but they didn't have much formal training, and when they moved, they couldn't talk about any queues, and they were completely chaotic.

Guo Qing was also helpless about the current situation of his subordinates, after all, most of these people were just farmers a month or two ago, and it was already very good to be able to obey orders.

He is a son of Haoqiang, he has read books and practiced martial arts, and he has also read a lot of military books and war strategies, but it does not mean that he has the ability to turn a group of farmers into elite regular soldiers in a short period of time.

They hurried to the bridge, and saw that the distance between the monks and soldiers was only about 300 paces.

Guo Qing hurriedly shouted, "Archery, archery, archers hurry up and shoot arrows at the enemy...... The shields went to the front and stood in a row, and the spearmen stood behind the shieldmen,......"

Compared with most of the grass thieves, the weapons of the thieves are still relatively complete, including wooden shields, knives and axes, long and short spears, earthen bows, etc., and they still have a certain combat effectiveness.

More than 1,000 archers began to shoot in a panic, not to mention whether they could shoot people, the main thing was to strike first......

The other thieves began to reluctantly set up an array under the urging of the big and small 'officers'.

Yuan Miao and the others who were rushing saw the arrows 'floating', but they were not afraid, and while preparing for the arrows, the charging speed became even faster.

Monks and soldiers do not need to work, in addition to chanting sutras and chanting Buddha every day, they are boiling their bodies to practice martial arts, and their individual qualities are actually stronger than many soldiers in this era, and they are also very proficient in the method of fighting and attacking.

The weapons are mainly long iron rods, but there are also some swords, shields, bows, and arrows, and they wear light armor, but they don't wear helmets, and they are bareheaded.

The arrows shot by the thieves were weak and scattered, and the monks and soldiers were all quick and quick-eyed, and when they encountered a threat, they either blocked them with a round shield or used their weapons to open them.

If the more than 1,000 archers of the thieves could shoot a salvo, it would definitely play a certain role, but they couldn't do it, so they could only shoot so continuously but unevenly.

Under this drizzle-like arrow, Yuan Miao took the lead, leading the monks who were still in formation and quickly rushed to the front of the thief formation.

Most people in this era are in awe of God and Buddha, especially farmers who can't read a few big characters, and when they see these big bald heads rushing in front of them, their hearts are in turmoil and they are afraid before they fight.

"Amitabha!"

Yuan Miao Gao Xuan Buddha deftly entered between the two spears, but the cooked copper stick in his hand was extremely fierce and smashed on a long shield.

The shoddy wooden shield burst instantly, and the shield-wielding thief screamed and stumbled backwards, rolling with the completely useless spearman behind him.

The already loose formation was opened, and Yuan Miao stepped forward and smashed the back of the shield soldier next to him with a stick.

Not to mention that the thief soldier has no armor, even if he wears an iron scarf, he can't resist the blow of the heavy stick of more than 20 catties.

The burst of brains made several nearby thieves even more frightened, and they dropped their weapons and turned around and ran away.

The chaos and fear created swayed in all directions like water waves, and the already loose array was like a rotten wooden boat floating on water, ready to fall apart at any moment.

Closely following Yuan Miao's Faben and Fahua, one holding a knife and the other wielding a hammer, he jumped into the gap and fought hard, not giving the thieves the slightest respite.

Soon, more and more monks shouted the Buddha's name and burst into the chaotic thief array, killing all directions, but the blades in the hands of many thieves did not dare to greet these great monks, but they just resisted.

Perhaps the Chinese people can bear any suffering in this life, but they are very afraid of punishment and retribution after death......

Under the protection of the Buddha's light, the 500 monks and soldiers became more and more courageous, and the more than 3,000 thieves could only resist and support with all their might.

"Stop them! Those who dare to retreat will be killed! ”

"Brothers, we are six or seven times more than thieves, don't be afraid of them, kill me!"

"Buddhism is compassionate, these bald donkeys are definitely not true monks, and the Buddha will not be blamed for killing them!"

"This bridge can't be lost, otherwise our way home will be broken, hold it, you must defend it!"

"Hold on, the battalion will soon have support!"

Guo Qing and other 'officers' at the rear of the thief array shouted wildly, ruthlessly killing many thieves who tried to escape.

These practices gave birth to the fighting spirit of the thieves, and the counterattack gradually became fierce.

As if they had suddenly stepped into the mire, the monks and soldiers became more difficult, and often as soon as they killed one thief, two or three of them immediately pounced.

Finding that the battle situation was beginning to stalemate, Yuan Miao couldn't help but be anxious, and attacked even more fiercely, smashing the head of a young thief soldier with a blow.

"San Lang!" When a thief soldier not far away saw this scene, he instantly went crazy, "The thief who entered the mother, return my brother's life!" ”

The mad thief soldier's eyes were red, and he picked up a long knife, and rushed towards Yuan Miao with all his strength, slashing at the bald head with all his strength.

Yuan Miao caught a glimpse of Sen Han's sword light coming from the air, hurriedly returned to the stick to block, and raised his foot to kick the mad thief upside down and fly out.

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, four sharp spears pierced in unison.

Yuan Miao turned around, and took advantage of the intersection of the four spears to reach out, put all of them under his left armpit and clamp them firmly, while holding the copper stick in one hand and swept over, smashing the four thieves or wounded.

But at this moment, another spear came from the side, like a poisonous snake, and stabbed Yuan Miao in the left waist.

Yuan Miao had no time to dodge, so he could only try to bend over and swing back.

The tip of the spear missed, but the cold blade of the spear slashed through Yuan Miao's abdomen, cutting out a bloody wound three or four feet long.

"Uncle Shi!"

Seeing that Yuan Miao was in distress, Faben flew over and hacked the thief spearman to death.

Yuan Miao was in unbearable pain, covered the wound that was leaking out of her intestines, and fell to the ground.

"Uncle Shi, hold on, I'll take you down......" Faben dropped the knife and held Yuan Miao.

Yuan Miao sweated like pulp, but gritted his teeth and shouted, "I can't die, leave me alone, you go and kill the thieves, you must kill them and take them off the bridge, otherwise the thieves will continue to poison the place after fleeing to the other side!" ”

Faben had no choice but to pick up the knife and pounce on the nearest thief.

At this time, although the thieves were pressed back step by step, the casualties of the monks and soldiers were increasing, and the camp of thieves was approaching with thousands of people.

Zhao Shijian, who was at the head of Linzhangmen City, saw that the situation was becoming more and more critical, so he decisively led two companies of Dongwei out of the city to support.

Their new force entered from the traitor's flank and threw a dozen grenades into the middle of the bandits' formation, causing great chaos at once.

The thieves were quickly crushed, and no matter how much the 'officers' shouted and shouted, no matter how much they killed and deterred, it would be useless.

The morale of the army was completely lost, like a flock of ducks being chased, and the thieves who came out to support the battalion saw this scene, and they also knew that they were powerless to return to the sky, so they simply retreated, and they could no longer care about what the bridge was not over.

The stalagmite bridge is more than 80 zhang long, and there is a section of wooden beam bridge with a length of four zhang at the end of the bridge near Quanzhou City, which can be hoisted when needed, in order to defend against the enemy or the passing ships.

The Ban Zhi quickly tied more than 40 grenades into several bundles and placed them at the junctions of the wooden beams and structures, blew up the wooden beam bridge, and pushed it into the river.

The violent explosion reached the ears of the thieves, and they thought that the monks had used some powerful spells, and they didn't even dare to stay in the small village, but fled directly to the camp.

Soon after, the original Lin family's mansion, where the thieves were located, fell into a quarrel.

"I don't believe it, we still can't get back a bridge with more than 40,000 people?"

"What's the use of snatching it back, the suspension bridge is gone......"

"Can't you fix it if it's gone!?"

"It's a fart, the official army destroyed the bridge obviously to cut off our back road, then it must be a large number of reinforcements to give them this confidence, let's evacuate quickly, save being rounded."

"How to withdraw? Where to retreat? There may be an official army coming from the north, and if you cross Anxi to the west, you can only drill a ravine......"

"That's better than waiting to die here!"

"Smack!"

Zhang Yanran slammed a porcelain pot on the ground, "Don't make any noise!" ”

When everyone looked at him stunned, he said with a solemn face, "Although I don't know why the situation suddenly took a sharp turn, but in my opinion, we should withdraw to Zhangzhou first, and then see the situation decide, at worst, we can withdraw to Tingzhou, and then we can defend according to the danger, rearm and wait for the opportunity, otherwise, we can continue to retreat west." ”

Someone asked suspiciously, "But the bridge is gone, how can we retreat south?" ”

Zhang Yanran replied disapprerovingly, "If there is no bridge, let's use the ferry, fortunately, I have someone to collect more than fifty ferries before." ”

"Huh? There are so many of us, when will we be able to cross the boat with this little point? ”

"There are so many people, we just need to take away 10,000 old people, the others are just mud legs that were wrapped all the way, do you still take them back to raise? Okay, without further ado, quickly send someone to deliver a letter to Wang Xiu of Chaotianmen, as for Renfengmen, he will not be left alone, maybe he can buy us more time. ”

Zhang Yanran made a decision, and the core of the thieves immediately took action.

Half an hour later, less than 10,000 of them walked eight or nine miles upstream of the Jinjiang River, arrived at the ferry port at the foot of Jiuri Mountain, and began to cross the river.

And the other thieves all collapsed when they found themselves abandoned.

Those who knew how to swim immediately jumped into the Jinjiang River and fled to the other side, some ran in a random direction, and some simply asked the officials and soldiers in the city to surrender.