The Guanzhong War is about to break out, and although the course has changed, the wheel of history is still rolling forward.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, on September 5, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Ma Huihui and others gathered an army of 300,000 and marched under the city of Jingyang.

On 7 September, the Ming troops of all battalions in Shaanxi were ordered to gather in the two cities of Jingyang and Sanyuan, and a total of 15,000 troops were gathered in the two cities.

Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong, Zhang Quanchang, Sun Shoufa, Gao Jie, and other generals are all to.

On September 8, Hong Chengchou came to Jingyang in person, left a letter of death, and swore to die.

Gao Yingxiang led the main force to attack Sanyuan, and Zhang Xianzhong and Ma Hui led the division to attack Jingyang.

The 300,000-strong army garrison spread out for hundreds of miles, and the lights outside the two cities of Jingyang and Sanyuan were full of lights, almost wanting to connect the heavens and the earth.

Hundreds of miles of company camps, beacon fire shines on the city.

A large number of rogue cavalry scattered out and plundered the surrounding towns and villages.

All parts of Xi'an Prefecture suffered from man-made disasters, and the flames outside the cities of Guanzhong were soaring, and many villagers were taken prisoner and plundered.

During the seven-day siege, the number of rogues increased instead of decreasing.

Under Jingyang and Sanyuan, the corpses were full of wilderness, and the blood accumulated under the city walls did not even reach people's ankles.

The battlefield of the two cities was regarded as a huge training ground by Gao Yingxiang.

The hungry soldiers of the various battalions of the Liukou were constantly filled into the battlefield, and every day from the dawn of the rooster's crow, the war drums were already sounding under the city.

It wasn't until the sun went down and night fell that the golden sound of the troops would be heard in the camp.

A large number of people fell on the battlefield, but many more survived.

After the baptism of swords and blood, everyone's hearts became strong.

Those who cannot cross the threshold of this path will not be able to survive in this cruel world.

The two cities of Jingyang and Sanyuan continued to strengthen their city defenses as early as August, and at the same time, Hong Chengchou also transferred a large number of firearms.

On the city walls of Jingyang and Sanyuan, there are a total of 24 general cannons.

These cannons, which were only much less powerful than the Hongyi cannons, were mostly used as heavy cannons on the walls of the nine-sided town.

Half of them were newly made cannons from the artillery factory, and the other half were directly dismantled from the city of Datong and transported all the way to Xi'an.

Not only the guards of Xi'an Mansion were pulled up the city wall, but also a large number of young people who assisted in the defense.

The Ming army relied on fortified cities, heavy artillery, and all kinds of firearms, and occupied the advantage of armament.

But it was only barely able to hold the two cities, and both the generals were embarrassed.

However, all of this has nothing to do with Chen Wang, who is in Pingliang Mansion.

The southeast gateway of Pingliang Province, Jingzhou.

Chen Wang led his troops through Jingzhou, but the gates of Jingzhou were closed and they were not allowed to enter the city.

Chen Wang sent Chen Gong to ask for grain and grass, but the governor of Jingzhou Prefecture did not answer positively.

Just sent a scribe to open the door of the granary and let Chen Gong check it carefully, and then took Chen Gong to see the porridge shed in the city.

Not to mention supplying troops, Pingliang Mansion has suffered several disasters, and Jingzhou City is about to run out of food.

Chen Wang did not send any more people into the city, and he knew very well that these were all in vain.

The governor of Jingzhou sent people to lead the granary, and he didn't have anything to say.

The fire outside Chunhua City burned almost all the grain that Li Zicheng had looted.

Fortunately, before the outbreak of the Guanzhong War, Hong Chengchou sent people to transport a lot of grain and rice, and the surplus grain and grass before and after were about 2,000 stones, and even 4,000 taels of military funds were allocated.

Chen Wang exchanged all of them for grain, and the price of grain in Xi'an Mansion had risen to more than four taels and one stone.

However, no matter how high the price of grain is, it must be bought, and the total military capital of 4,000 taels is less than 1,000 stones.

The two battalions now have more than 4,500 men and more than 1,500 horses.

The baggage was all transported by mule cart or mule, and there were more than 500 mules in total.

A human eclipse is one liter, and a horse's eclipse is three liters.

Chen Wang now has 4,500 people under his command, and he needs 45 stone of grain a day.

There were more than 2,000 horses and mules, and they cost 60 stone of grain a day.

Together, men and horses need more than 100 stone of grain a day.

The consumption of food by mules and horses is much greater than that of ordinary soldiers, so this is why Chen Wang sold most of his mules and horses.

Mules and horses can indeed improve the mobility of a troop, allowing it to maintain a faster marching speed and increase its combat power.

However, its consumption of grain and grass is unbearable.

During the raid, many places were dilapidated, the price of rice was extremely high, and even if there was money, it was difficult to buy food.

Although the nearby prefectures and counties have the responsibility to provide help, many times the governors and counties insist that they are unwilling to give food if they have no food.

Directly close the city gate, and in the end, most of the things will just be over.

More than 3,000 stone of military rations can be used for about a month, and the savings can be extended for a little longer.

However, it is also extremely limited, and mules and horses cannot go hungry, because once they are hungry, they will lose weight, and their combat power will be greatly reduced.

And people can't go hungry either, if they don't have the physical strength to fight, it's a dead end.

The ordnance, grain and grass allocated by Hong Chengchou were only distributed to the guerrilla battalion under Chen Wang's command, and the 2,000 stone issued was already an extremely high amount.

Chen Wang estimated that a large part of Hong Chengchou was allocated military rations for the sake of Cao Wenzhao's face.

After all, the other battalion was not included in the establishment, so naturally Chen Wang paid out of his own pocket to raise it.

The city of Jingzhou was extremely dilapidated, and the entire southern part of Pingliang Province was severely affected.

As early as July, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng led the army through Jingzhou.

Although it did not capture the state city, it destroyed most of the towns around Jingzhou.

Today's Jingzhou City is full of gloom, and everywhere you see it, it is all yellow.

The trees were scorched and lifeless, with no leaves, no bark, and barely blades of grass.

The light and convex trees stood in the wind and sand, and the west wind swept the yellow sand in front of them, and the surrounding area was a ruined scene.

The flow of Jingshui has just reached the original water level, which is much lower than the previous riverbank.

Most of the towns you pass through are in ruins, and you can see many people who have died on the road.

In the wilderness, bones are strewn and corpses are everywhere.

All the way from Ningzhou to the boundary of Jingzhou, hundreds of miles away, almost no living person was seen.

It wasn't until I was about to leave Jingzhou, passing by an empty town, that I finally met a group of about 20 homeless people on the outskirts of the town.

The outcasts gathered in a wilderness, lighting a fire and not knowing what they were stirring up.

When Chen Wang smelled the aroma of meat, he couldn't help but clench the horsewhip, what kind of meat was boiled, it was already very obvious.

Chen Wang repeatedly clenched and released the horsewhip in his hand, but he still couldn't hold back the anger in his heart in the end.

Because he saw a group of people tied to a rack in the camp there.

These gathered exiles did not cut flesh from the dead, but from the living......

Dozens of Liao cavalry rushed out of the marching column, and the more than 20 homeless people were easily shot to the ground.

Chen Wang's face was gloomy, and he led the war horse all the way to the humble camp where the group of displaced people was before.

Rao is Chen Wang is used to seeing mountains of corpses and sea of blood, and he is used to seeing corpses and remains.

But Chen Wang still felt that his stomach was overturned.

In the boiling cauldron, several severed arms were already a blur of boiled flesh and blood.

In the camp, there were several bloodied arms and legs.

After being rescued, several homeless people couldn't stop kowtowing, and they said incomprehensible words in their mouths.

Those who were tied up were already extremely weak, and they couldn't even stand after being freed, and one of them remained in a coma.

"Pile it up, burn it all down......"

The town has long been reduced to a scorched earth.

Chen Wang did not give the order to stop, he distributed some food to the rescued homeless, let him look east and walk in the direction of Jingzhou, and then led his soldiers all the way to the west.

As he continued to move westward, Chen Wang encountered more and more displaced people on the road.

Those who were displaced went east in droves, and those who died on the road and on the wilderness have mostly become bones.

I just don't know if it's because of the passage of time, or because people passing by cut their flesh......

Rao had seen such a scene countless times, but Chen Wang still found it difficult to accept.

In memory, there are even more bleak scenes in Shaanxi and Shanxi.

The thieves in Pingliang Mansion had already left, and the government re-released the rescued people to their neighbors.

But Li Guo's arrival made the calm Pingliang Mansion, which had just been restored, turbulent again.

A large number of people who had returned to their hometowns were once again coerced, and production, which had been restored with great difficulty, was once again disrupted.

Chen Wang originally had the idea of chasing Li Guo all the way to Hanzhong, but now Chen Wang was already a little unable to hold back the killing intent in his heart.

Along the way, not only did they encounter a large number of displaced people who had fled, but almost all the towns and villages they passed through turned into empty hills.

More and more corpses are being found on roads and around towns and villages.

There were ruins everywhere, and the ruins of the roads were covered with bones.

Years of famine have almost destroyed Shaanxi's production, and the two disasters have made Shaanxi's situation worse.

Only a city like a prefecture and county can barely survive the tide of rogues.

In addition, only those Zhuangzi who have merged together for heating still exists.

However, the periphery of these villages and villas is all dug and built with deep walls and high village walls.

There is a large village, and the village wall is even higher than the city wall of some county towns that Chen Wang has seen.

Much of the land outside the village is dark red, and not far from the village, there are several large mounds, some of which are still burning.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of blood.

Chen Wang's gaze only glanced at the big village near the mountain in the distance, and then looked away.

It was now September 15, and he had already led his troops through Chongxin, and the Tanma in front had finally discovered the trajectory of Li Guojun's march.

The messenger sent from the direction of Pingliang Mansion also sent the latest information to Chen Wang's hands yesterday.

There were 5,000 horses and 20,000 remainers, both men, women and children.

The battalion of Pingliang Mansion was ambushed and defeated for a while, and now they are holding Pingliang Mansion and do not dare to go out of the city to fight again.

The information heard was also completely careless and extremely sketchy.

This information is from three days ago.

Now Li Guo's army is only afraid that there will be more.

"Thirty miles ahead of our army, we found that the army horse team behind the Liukou was about 1,000 horsemen and 2,000 infantry."

"The rogue cavalry is well-dressed and armored, and most of the infantry are young and strong, with not many weapons and no armor."

"Its brigade kicked up a lot of smoke and dust, and it was difficult to observe the number of most of the rogue from a distance."

The scouts sent to the front were extremely meticulous.

These people are all in Liaodong at night, and they often need to go out of the fort to investigate the situation in Liaodong.

Few of the people who can be able to stay at night are simple characters, and they are all the best in the army.

Chen Wang also used to do not collect at night, and one of his military exploits in Liaodong was when he encountered a Houjin scout cavalry team when he was investigating intelligence.

"Continue to hang behind Yaoyao to observe, probe both sides of the road, and check whether there are ambushes."

Chen Wang raised his head and decisively issued a military order.

"Life, the whole army is in armor!"

What the rogues are best at is setting up ambushes on the official road.

Once the officers and soldiers are in pursuit, they will speed up and look for opportunities to hide ambushes on both sides of the road, which is difficult to guard.

From the third year of Chongzhen to the current five years, although the Ming army has been careful repeatedly, it will still be defeated from time to time.

Although Li Guo is now just a lost dog, fleeing all the way.

But capsizing in the gutter is not out of the question.

All the Liao cavalry basically marched on two horses, one horse carried the armor, and the other rode the army, but sometimes they would also dismount and lead the war horse to march.

Although the armor was a bit cumbersome, there was a specific training, and everyone quickly completed the armor.

is the recruits of the three bureaus recruited by Pizhou, as well as the auxiliary soldiers recruited, who are already quite skilled.

Hundreds of miles along the way, not many of those auxiliaries were left behind.

A big part of this is because most of these people are farmers and have good stamina.

Part of the reason is because of the leggings.

Gaiters can prevent blood from accumulating to the legs after walking for a long time, thereby reducing leg fatigue and increasing the mileage of the troops.

Leggings are the simplest and cheapest piece of equipment available.

When he was in Chunhua, Chen Wang asked people to buy a lot of numb from Xi'an Mansion and cut it into long strips of cloth, so that all the soldiers could wear leggings.

Chen Wang led the war horse and looked around.

Then he took out a map from the side of the saddle.

Now it has passed by Chongxin for three days, and it is about to arrive at the location of Huating.

The terrain of Huating is much flatter than Chongxin, the terrain is open, and there are not many places to set up ambushes.

In pursuit, it only takes one blow to break through the rear team.

According to the consistent behavior of the rogue, he will inevitably choose to cut off his tail to survive.

Huating is further southwest to Gongchang Mansion, to the southeast is Fengxiang Mansion, how to pursue is a huge problem.

If Li Guo fled to Fengxiang Mansion, it would be difficult to stop him from fleeing all the way to Guanzhong after that......

(End of chapter)