In the thirtieth year of Ming Hongwu, Ningqiang Wei was built in the county seat, and Ningqiang Prefecture was placed later.

Ningqiang Prefecture is located at the intersection of the Qinling Mountains and Bashan Mountain Range, occupying the main road, Guangyuan in Sichuan Province in the south, and Chuxian County in the Hanzhong Basin in the north.

Ningqiang Prefecture was originally the acropolis of Ningqiang Wei, and it was originally built and set up with the specifications of a military city.

Although more than hundreds of years have passed, and the acropolis has become a state city, the city defense is stronger than that of ordinary state cities.

The moon is dark and the wind is high, and the cold wind erodes the bones.

At this time, there was a brazier standing on the wall of Ningqiang City every few steps.

The flames burned in the brazier, illuminating most of the city walls as bright as day.

Under the bright firelight, there was one strong soldier after another wearing winter clothes.

They were at the battlements of the wall, and there was no one who was sloppy or lazy to rest.

They were all vigilantly observing the situation outside the city, and from time to time armoured and heavily armed soldiers patrolled from one end of the city wall.

The atmosphere in the entire Ningqiang Prefecture can be described as serious.

They have received a message from Lüyang.

There is a group of rogues who fled from Gongchang Mansion into Hanzhong Mansion, Yuguan still did not hold this time, this group of Liukou who entered Hanzhong Mansion is enough to tens of thousands of people, and they are coming all the way to the south.

Lüyang is located on Chencang Road, although Chencang Road is extremely dangerous, but the mainland Fuzhou has been peaceful for a long time.

The rise of the rogue did make the prefectures everywhere begin to prepare for defense.

But it is not easy to build a city and build a walled city, and recruit troops.

When Chongzhen was seven years old, the rogues came from Chencang Road, and the officers and soldiers couldn't stop those rogues at all.

Now the officers and soldiers must also be unable to resist, Hanzhong Mansion only recently summoned strong men from all over the country to serve, and the soldiers and horses were all assembled in Xixiang, where are the soldiers to defend the west.

Ningqiang Prefecture has been under martial law for nearly three days, and during these three days, no one dared to slack off.

If there is no war in Xixiang, then Ningqiang Prefecture can still gather hundreds of soldiers and more than 2,000 strong guards to help defend Yangping.

But now there are only more than 70 soldiers in the entire Ningqiang, and they have no ability to go out of the city to fight in the field.

In the past three days, no one has stepped out of Ningqiang City.

Naturally, no one knew that just east of Ningqiang City, a group of soldiers and horses was hiding in a dark valley at this time.

The soldiers and horses hidden in the dark valley are Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan.

At this time, Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan were both embarrassed, and they didn't have the slightest prestige in the past.

Li Yangchun is now unkempt, and the original black crow-sleeved makeup and woven gold yarn are now not even clear to the pigs on it.

The jade belt around his waist didn't know where it had fallen, and now it was just tied with a tattered leather belt, and he didn't even know where the net towel on his head had fallen.

Lin Shengquan was even more embarrassed than Li Yangchun, and now only a pair of gold-plated fish scale breastplates remained in the original golden helmet and gold armor.

The breastplate was covered with dust and dark red bloodstains, and there were many marks of slashing and fire, and his face was a mess of dirt in the east and west, like a cat.

Both of them are still like this as leaders, and the soldiers under their command are even more embarrassed.

"Ningqiang City is already under martial law inside and outside the city, and our spies can't get in......"

Lin Shengquan sat beside Li Yangchun, he pressed his abdomen, and said with grinning teeth.

"The surrounding villagers are all gathered together, everything has been taken away, there is not much place to rob, last time ......"

He was hit by an arrow in the abdomen, which didn't go deep into the flesh, but it almost killed him.

This arrow was shot from the bow in Chen Wang's hand, and no one around him reacted at all, and the feather arrow had already shot in, directly penetrating his golden armor.

If the flesh is not deep, it will heal quickly if it is dealt with in time, but Chen Wang, who was raised by the son of a bitch, did not give them a chance at all, and the cavalry from Liaodong followed them like a shadow.

The bumps along the way and the fatigue of the car and horses made the wound in his abdomen crack and heal continuously.

Li Yangchun nodded a little blankly, his eyes didn't have much brilliance.

"How much food is left, how much is still alive brothers......"

They went south through Luoyang, passed through the Ma Ming Pavilion Road, crossed the ancient pass, and then crossed Yangping, and wanted to directly turn to the county, but they were ambushed in Jinniu and were forced to flee into the boundary of Ningqiang Prefecture.

Although Ningqiang is a state, it is much poorer than several county towns in the Hanzhong Basin, and the terrain is complex, and the people are fierce, so they have suffered as soon as they come.

They left dozens of corpses under a large village, not only did they return in vain, but on the way to retreat, they were ambushed by the villagers, and nearly 100 soldiers were lost.

"When we entered Ningqiang, we still had more than 1,400 people...... Several of the people who were seriously injured yesterday have already ......"

Lin Shengquan's expression was low and his voice was hoarse.

"Now there are only about 1,300 people left in the valley......"

Lin Shengquan paused, lowered his voice and said.

"The grain ration is only enough to eat for another three days......"

"1,300 ......"

Li Yangchun's eyes moved slightly and looked at the valley.

It was late at night, and the valley was quiet, and there was not a single sound, and in order to avoid hiding, even the lights did not dare to light up.

Li Yangchun opened his mouth, he wanted to say something, but in the end, thousands of words just turned into a sigh.

Not long ago, on the Lingzuka Mountain, the two of them had more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, and they were rampant.

At that time, Li Guo led the troops to arrive, and he was secretly happy, as long as it took a while, he could rightfully swallow Li Guo's elite cavalry.

Two thousand horsemen were enough to put him at the forefront of the camp and give him more power.

But now, less than a dozen days have passed, and everything has turned into ashes.

"Ningqiang ......"

Li Yangchun's eyes were blank, and he sat on a dead tree.

His throat moved, but he only said the word Ning Qiang.

In the battle of Sanshan, the Ming army broke through the camp he had established, and he could only lead the elite cavalry to flee.

But Li Yangchun just felt that with the help of artillery, he did not lose his courage.

But the battle of Lüyang was a dignified battle.

At that time, Chen Wang's vanguard cavalry of 900 suddenly arrived, and the horse army behind the palace was completely routed by it, and the Chinese army was raided when the various troops were plundering outside.

They could only rely on the rudimentary camp to fight back with difficulty, and then by the time the troops hurried back, the officers and soldiers of the brigade had already swarmed in.

The officers and men had a large number of firearms, and from the beginning of the pick-up station, the sound of Franco's planes, tiger squat guns, and large and small firearms almost did not stop, and countless rockets whizzed overhead, and most of them were killed or wounded before they could get close.

Li Yangchun really drove the hungry soldiers into battle at that time, and even sent elite cavalry and horse soldiers as dead soldiers to lead the charge, but no matter how they attacked, the infantry formation of the officers and soldiers was as solid as a rock and stood still.

"Chen Wang drove us all the way to Ningqiang, what does he want to do......

Li Yangchun closed his eyes and said angrily.

It is not so much that they fled to Ningqiang, but that they were driven to Ningqiang.

Starting from Gongchang Mansion, all their movement trajectories are the roads paved for them by Chen Wang.

Lin Shengquan looked fixedly at the dark woods in the distance, Li Yangchun's problem was also his problem.

Obviously, they could be directly captured and killed many times, but Chen Wang let them go in the end, just like a cat playing with mice.

Under the city of Luoyang, he saw Chen Wangzhen beheading Li Guo.

Between the horses, the blade of the horse lance in Chen Wang's hand directly cut Li Guo's throat.

The more than 300 elite horsemen who followed Li Guo to rush into battle were all broken by the Liao cavalry just by looking at each other, and there were not many waves at all.

You must know that many of the elite cavalry under Li Guo's command are all from the military background of the border towns in the north.

I don't know how long it took, Li Yangchun's voice sounded in Lin Shengquan's ears again.

"We now have two paths ahead of us."

Lin Shengquan opened his eyes, turned his head to look at Li Yangchun on the side, and happened to see Li Yangchun's shining eyes in the dark.

"The first is to the southwest."

Lin Shengquan groaned for a while and shook his head.

"You can't ...... to the southwest"

The southwest is Guangyuan in Sichuan, and there is a checkpoint called Qipanguan on the way to Guangyuan.

Qipanguan is located at the throat of the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, under the Qipanling Mountains, known as the first pass of the Western Qin, together with Baishui Pass, Jiameng Pass, Jianmen Pass, it is one of the four famous passes in northern Sichuan.

It is a well-known thing that the Sichuan soldiers are strong, and others have not thought about entering Shu.

Shu is rich and has the reputation of the country of abundance, so why don't they want to enter Shu to get a piece of the pie.

But the road to Shu is difficult, it is difficult to go to the blue sky, the road of the four passes in northern Sichuan is rugged, and a husband is not open.

At the beginning, Gao Yingxiang gathered more than 100,000 people and did not dare to ask about Qipanguan, but now there are only more than 1,300 remnants of the defeated soldiers under their command to go to Qipanguan, is it not intentionally looking for death?

Lin Shengquan raised his head, looked at Li Yangchun and asked.

"Where does the second road go?"

Li Yangchun's hoarse voice came from the darkness.

"Northwest."

"Northwest?"

Lin Shengquan was slightly stunned, there was indeed a road from Ningqiang Prefecture to the northwest, and this road did not lead to any other province, but to the hinterland of Hanzhong, to the destination they had originally decided-Chuxian.

"Northwest ...... I can't go......"

It just so happened that a cold wind was blowing, and Lin Shengquan couldn't help but shiver.

Chen Wang drove them to Ningqiang naturally with his own plan, and he would not let them run around easily.

He felt that if they went to the northwest, they might encounter an ambush or interception by officers and soldiers.

"I really can't go."

Contrary to Lin Shengquan's expectations, Li Yangchun finally echoed his words.

"I'm afraid the officers and soldiers have already gone to the northwest to cut off the road, we can't go to Chu County, that Chen Wang wants to trap us in Ningqiang......"

Li Yangchun's eyes were terrifyingly bright in the dark.

"The two paths in front of us are dead ends, and we don't really have a choice at all."

"The only way to survive is actually to stay in Ningqiang, stay in this forest valley......"

Li Yangchun slowly stood up, his eyes cast outside the forest valley.

……

It is located in the hinterland of Hanzhong Province and the westernmost part of the Hanzhong Basin.

The north is based on the Qinling Mountains, the south is the Bashan Mountain, and the key points of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Ganzhi have always been the places where the soldiers must fight.

During the Three Kingdoms period, fierce battles broke out between Liu Bei and Cao Cao in Hanzhong, among which a series of battles such as the Battle of Dingjun Mountain were triggered around Chu County.

Dingjun Mountain is located about ten miles southeast of Chu County, but what is said here is Dingjun Mountain in a broad sense.

Dingjun Mountain in the broad sense belongs to the Daba Mountain Range, and its veins enter the flat land from the high temple, and there are 12 Xiu peaks uplifted.

From Shishanzi to Dangkou Temple, more than ten kilometers from east to west, collectively referred to as Dingjun Mountain, the mountain is endless, the peaks and peaks are undulating, just like the dragon playing with pearls, so it is called "a pearl in the twelve mountains".

Dingjun Mountain in the narrow sense is actually the main peak of these twelve consecutive peaks.

As the main peak, Dingjun Mountain has an altitude of more than 800 meters above sea level, and is the most towering.

This used to be the garrison of the Han army, in order to compete for Hanzhong in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Bei led the army to cross the water, directly inserted into the Dingjun Mountain, occupied the favorable terrain of the Dingjun Mountain, the Cao army Xiahou Yuan Department to fight, the battle of the Dingjun Mountain began.

But after thousands of years, everything is wrong, and now there are no longer a large number of garrisons in Dingjun Mountain, and the mountains and forests here have flourished again.

Standing on the top of the mountain, all the scenery is in full view of Chen Wang.

"Dingjun Mountain ......"

Chen Wang held a horsewhip in his hand and stood in front of a stone tablet.

There are four characters written on the stele - "Guding Army Mountain." ”

Chen Gong and Hu Zhili followed Chen Wang's back, while Zhao Huailiang and Tang Shiping stood around with dozens of armor soldiers.

"Where are Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan now?"

Chen Wang tilted his head slightly and asked Chen Gong on the side.

"Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan are now stationed in the mountains in the southeast of Ningqiang Prefecture, occupying the mountains and building villages, and it seems that they want to hold on."

Chen Gong took a step forward and said in a low voice.

Chen Wang's slight chin is clear, Li Yangchun is indeed a smart person.

Chen Wang's gaze only stayed on the stone tablet for a while, and then shifted to the north of the mountain.

The fertile field and vast desert in the north of the mountain, the flat domain of Longmu, the vertical and horizontal of Qianmo, the village houses are like, from the top of the mountain, you can clearly see the city of the county.

Although Hanzhong Province also belongs to Shaanxi Province, it has not suffered much from the drought invasion and impact, so the people here can still survive and order can still be maintained.

The mountains in the south of the mountain are scattered, there are clear rivers that linger with clear streams, and there are also many houses and farmlands.

There is a big depression in the shape of a natural pot bottom in the south of the mountain, which should be the "Yangtian Depression" of "Ketun Ten Thousand Soldiers" in the record, and now it has become a gathering place for the people, sweeping the scattered at a glance, but there are as many as 100 households.

"Hanzhong ......"

Chen Wang tightened his grip on the horsewhip, traveled thousands of miles, all the way, and finally entered the Hanzhong Mansion as he wished......

No one can understand his current mood.

It is now November of the eighth year of Chongzhen, at this time the Liukou is huge, known as millions of people, under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, they practice and win, and several defeats of officers and soldiers.

Many people have begun to have ambitions and look back at Xijing, wanting to establish a country to compete with the Ming Empire.

It's a pity that it was at this time that Lu Xiangsheng entered Henan, and a large number of border troops were transferred to the hinterland to quell the rebellion.

What awaits them is not a bright prospect, but endless darkness.

The seventh and eighth years of Chongzhen were the initial flourishing periods of the Liukou, but the next nine, ten, and eleven years were their darkest moments.

Although the Ming Empire of this era has decayed, it is still the largest country in the world.

I wish you all a happy new year, a safe year, and eternal blessings