The viscous dark and rainy night passed with the rain, and the officers and soldiers temporarily set up camps, and people came and went.

The camp began to take shape, and the officers wore clothes and armor to fight the wind and rain, shouting and commanding at the top of their voices.

The generals and the generals trampled the muddy water on horses, and kept urging to speed up the camp.

In the layers of camp tents, two generals in armor climbed the mountain and looked. Lightning flashed, revealing the black and slimy shape of Yingcheng.

"My lord thinks that the thieves will attack tonight?" The person who interrogated him was about forty years old, and he was born with a bearded face, but he had a general elegance and elegance between his speech and demeanor.

This person's name is Wang Mengyin, the word Uncle Ren, born in Jinshi, and the current Yushi of the right capital, and the governor of Huguang.

The person next to him is named Yu Yinggui, the name is Mengyu, he was born in the same Jinshi, he is a patrol for Huguang, he is short in stature, and he is older.

The latter said: "It has been some time since our army has traveled eastward, and the thieves must have known that Yingcheng was besieged, and the longer they delayed, the more unfavorable it will be to them. ”

Looking up at the sky, "Look at this hour......" snorted softly, "At most an hour, the thief will come." ”

"In my opinion, I'm afraid it won't." Wang Mengyin narrowed his eyes and looked at the front of the camp for a while, the rain was heavy and the night was dark, and he couldn't see anything, and his face was gloomy.

"The thousand-man cavalry army that the thieves came to attack last night dared to fight. The last general was about to go into battle, and when he saw that he was very good at riding arrows, he broke three of my generals in a row.

Our army relied on the terrain and wanted to lure the enemy deeper, but no one was fooled. ”

"If it weren't for the fact that I had too few cavalry. How can thieves come and go so easily? Yu Yinggui was very angry and arched his hand at Feng Shibao, who was beside him.

"Floods and droughts have been out of balance for many years, and the 20,000 troops are out of the country, and the treasury is embarrassed. I only hope to break the thieves as soon as possible and solve my worries. ”

Wang Mengyin nodded in agreement.

In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, he was given the engineering department to the middle of the matter, and then changed to the military department to the middle of the matter, and in the first year of Chongzhen, he was promoted to the right of the engineering department to the middle of the matter, and then changed to the right of the household department to the middle of the matter. In the second year of Chongzhen, he served as the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. Three years later, he was promoted to the right senator of the General Political Department, and then to the left general administration. He knew a lot about the situation in the imperial court.

Not to mention natural disasters, it doesn't matter that there are many parties in the court, and the infighting continues. Let's just talk about bandits, and so far in a row, thieves have invaded the lake no less than 100 times.

Burning villages, looting silver grain, and plundering people, not to mention far away, let's just say that a year ago, more than a dozen groups of rogue alliance troops in Jingmen wanted to use Jingmen to open the gateway to Huguang.

When the bandits were serious, the year before last, Nanjing was under martial law twice. The taxes in the south of the Yangtze River were levied in the south, and the northwest and even the current Zhongzhou became barren land, and the central government and the central government could not even pay the salaries of hundreds of officials and the army.

Thinking of this, he was worried, and said: "The last general Guanjingling military report that the Japanese indirectly attacked the enemy several times, but they couldn't break it once, but they broke a fierce general like Ma Hualong. ”

Wang Xieyuan inherited the discipline and supervision of Tianfu, and is now supervising the army in Jingling.

Yu Yinggui disdained it and said: "Wang Tongzhi Wenchen, rhetorical articles, and sycophant kung fu, he will be willing to bow down." If you talk about fighting with soldiers,......" smiled lightly and didn't say any more.

He has been serving as the Huguang Inspector for the fourth year, and has completed the transformation from a civilian official to a military general; Although Wang Mengyin was Chongzhen for nine years before becoming the governor, the two of them had commanded the Jingmen victory together, and they were old partners who knew each other, and they were familiar with each other and spoke directly.

Wang Mengyin was silent.

Wang Xieyuan's appointment is related to the court, and his identity is different, so he sighed and changed the topic:

"Man is not as good as heaven. This time God does not bless my Ming Court, in the opinion of this official, although Wang Tongzhi is not good at military affairs, the reinforcements will arrive in these two days, and Jingling can still hold it. ”

The destiny of heaven is determined, Yu Yinggui has always believed in only three points, shook his head and said: "Before our army has completed assembling in the occupied position, the weather suddenly changed, and there was strong wind and rain, which made all our firearms ineffective, and it would delay the arrival of our reinforcements. Liukou did get God's help this time. ”

Pouted, he continued, "Jingling is far away from the main position of the Liukou, even if there are thieves, the minority is also, after many days of fighting, the time, place and people are lost, and if you and I change the command, of course, it will be broken early; Now Wang Tongzhi is in charge, hey, don't talk about breaking the enemy, he can keep his ability. ”

Wang Mengyin didn't want to dwell on this topic, so he asked about the military situation in front of him instead, and said: "Our army has a fixed layout. General Yu, what countermeasures will the thieves have? What will the Yingcheng Military Horse Club do? ”

Yu Yinggui has been in the army for a long time and is skilled in military affairs, so he didn't even think about it, and blurted out: "Once the city is broken, De'an will not be protected, and De'an will definitely not sit idly by and not save it." ”

"How to save it?"

According to the exiles, the Liukou held the banner of the camp, and was the leader of the reorganization of the remnants of the King of Chuang, probably relying on the Diao people to lead the way, so he flew forward and coerced the people to help him gain momentum, and this kind of army was the weakest.

threatened to attack my Chengtian, but he intended to defend Wuchang and Yingcheng, which shows the importance of the position. If you look at the ambush points in front of you, you can see that they are delaying the attack of our army.

On this trip, the thieves made the best move, and when they took advantage of the rainy night to break through the mountain pass, block the connection between the mountain pass on the west side and our main camp, take a long detour, surprise troops, and rescue them for a long time. ”

The battle on the battlefield is also the wrestling of the main general, you guess my mind, I guess your mind, whoever guesses more accurately wins. Although Yu Yinggui was born in a family of cultivators and scholars, he was involved in the business of marching and fighting, and he was not sloppy at all.

Wang Mengyin said: "Then how should our army respond?" ”

"First, maintain the connection between the main battalion of our army and the front, and be able to command at any time; Second, if the thieves really want to attack me, the mountain pass will be lost,......"

Yu Yinggui seemed to want to see this scene, a contemptuous smile appeared on his mouth, and said, "Then the right thing to do, our army just sit still." ”

He paused, and then explained, "What our army fears is nothing more than mountain ambushes and city walls, and if the thief dares to come out, he will cross the rich river in the west of Yingcheng and travel a long way in the rain.

Our army can relax the defense of the mountain pass and let the battalion sergeants recuperate, so that the two sides can make a judgment. The thieves are cunning and cunning, and it is difficult to escape the ambush of our army on three sides. ”

"It's a clever plan. However, the thieves may not be blind to the ambush of our army. "Wang Mengyin Jinshi was born, thoughtful, and thought of the other end.

"Did Meng Yu forget? The first time our army tried to bring the thief into the mountains, they didn't get it, could their master make such a mistake again? There will be precautions. ”

"It doesn't matter if he can think of it, it's just to push the front forward a bit, can they afford to wait? But we can afford to wait. Yu Yinggui disagreed.

"The only thing our army needs to guard against is the large-scale attack and surprise attack of the thieves."

Wang Mengyin pondered for a moment and said, "Yes." Out of the mountain pass, it is a horse Pingchuan, Fushui is indeed a major obstacle to our army's attack, Jingling thieves ......" The words did not come out, he vetoed his own opinion, shook his head, and said, "With the mountain pass army responding to me, the thieves will probably not be stupid enough to come out of the city and attack my frontal camp." ”

Yu Yinggui wished that the thieves would come to attack, and when they came out of the Chengtian Mansion, they formed a unified idea: strictly guard Jingshan and Jingling; Wait for Jingling's side to win a big victory, wait for the reinforcements from behind to come up, and if their side wins another game, the thieves will inevitably collapse.

Although Wang Mengyin didn't say it explicitly, the implication was that Yingcheng could not move recklessly for the time being, and entering the territory of Yingcheng was already beyond the thunder pool. The idea formed still has to be abided by, and he looks down on Wang Xieyuan's cowardly bureaucrat, and he is a little unconvinced.

According to the intelligence, there are at most about 10,000 thieves, and although the refugees and squires who escaped have a lot of thieves, Yu Yinggui feels that this number is too much. It is necessary to divide the troops to attack Wuchang, where are there so many troops. So there is a high probability that this side is a disguise, Jingling is three or four thousand, and Yingcheng is not more than seven thousand, which should be their limit.

I heard that it was a mobile battle, and there were many cavalry; can still think of the above arrangement, he can be regarded as recognizing the ability of this thief, but now that the rain is pouring and the roads are slippery, their two advantages are gone; This is a great opportunity for them to be helped.

Looking from afar, the rain is grounded.

Wang Mengyin's words aroused Yu Yinggui's interest. He thought in his heart, if the thieves really came to attack the city, how should he take advantage of the opportunity? How to get rid of this seemingly capable thief army.

Just as he was thinking about it, he heard Wang Mengyin sigh lightly, took two steps forward, and said, "I have to admire Meng Yu or see that the thief is really here again, but this time it is the other side." ”

When I looked up, there was a lot of shadows, and it was blurry.

But it doesn't seem to have any flags, and roughly speaking, about one or two thousand people, all of them are foot soldiers. The soldiers who stayed in the camp at the foot of the mountain drilled out the temporary canopy, operated their weapons, and the high-pitched shouts were faintly in their ears.

Yu Yinggui couldn't help it anymore, and bowed: "The thieves have changed their footmen, and the offensive is not as good as last time, my lord, please climb up and watch the battle; The last general will go and meet this group of thieves for a while. ”

went straight down the mountain, he had a slightly lower official position, but he had always been on the front line in everything.