Dongjun was already under the control of Xuanzong, so Li Jing went very smoothly from this side, and after Dongjun, it was Dongping County, where there were two rebel forces, Xu Yuanlang and Du Yanbing.

Li Jing was afraid of irritating the other party, so he had been marching along the riverbank, and the scouts sent by Xu Yuanlang learned the news, and instantly felt like a great enemy.

Juancheng, here is Xu Yuanlang's lair, north of the Yellow River, on the road that Li Jing must pass.

There are six counties in Dongping County: Yuncheng, Juancheng, Xuchang, Sucheng, Leize, and Juye, of which Xu Yuanlang occupies three counties, Du Yanbing has one county, and the capital Yuncheng is still under the control of the government.

Dongping Taishou's name is Yang Xuanjing, and Xuangan is the same generation, grandfather Yang Jin is the Northern Wei Dynasty Shangshuling, and his father Yang Su is the right servant of the Northern Qi Shangshu, Kaifeng King Yang Su.

Their Hongnong Yang is more miserable, grandfather's generation, was almost killed by Er Zhurong, his father escaped by luck, became an official in Qi, and assisted the young emperor Gao Yin, but in order to protect the young emperor's power, he launched a coup d'état against the powerful minister Gao Yan, and was killed in failure.

This is a loyal minister, Gao Huan helped the Northern Wei Yuan family to eliminate the remnants of the Erzhurong family, and posthumously sealed this Hongnong Yang, known as "the prosperity of chasing glory, unprecedented in ancient and modern times".

Yang Xuanjing, his life did not die, after the founding of the Great Sui Dynasty, with the help of Yang Su, he successively worked in Shangshu Province and Taichang Temple, and now serves as the Taishou of Dongping.

The family style dictated that the people had not lost Yuncheng so far, and the 150,000 rebels passed under his nose and did not trouble him, because the clan was too famous in Shandong and full of loyalty.

Xu Yuanlang originally had an army of 20,000, but after the battle in Xingyang, he came back and ordered a few numbers, but there were less than 10,000 left, so he was now seeking an alliance with Du Yanbing.

Du Yanbing is also miserable, there are only a few thousand people left, and he has promised to attach himself to Xu Yuanlang.

On the city wall of Juancheng, Xu Yuanlang was worried and personally deployed the city defense.

"The scout came to report, the banner of this imperial army is Li, I heard that it is the Duke of Lintao County, it can't be Li Jing, right?" General Shi Hongzhou said.

"It's not him," the corners of Xu Yuanlang's mouth twitched: "Who else could it be?" ”

Many of the rebels under his command have participated in the expedition to Goguryeo, so they naturally know Li Jing's prestige, in fact, Li Jing is very famous in the entire Great Sui, and he is already the best among the young generation of generals.

"So what are we going to do?" Shi Hongzhou said.

Xu Yuanlang frowned and said, "You ask me, I don't know, what else can I do besides stubbornly?" I hope that we are here, Li Jing will not fight. ”

As a native of Shandong, Shi Hongzhou couldn't get used to Xu Yuanlang's inverted sentences, and said:

"What if you hit us?"

"It doesn't look like it, I think," Xu Yuanlang said: "Walk along the riverbank, he is, this place in Dongping County, don't wait, get through this time, let's retreat south." ”

Li Jing didn't care whether he beat them or not, as long as he appeared in this place, Xu Yuanlang was already scared, and the scout came to report, and the other party was a neat elite, all of them were equipped with refined weapons, and there were a lot of people.

If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't walk in the ice and snow, Xu Yuanlang would want to escape from Dongping County now.

Just worried about it all day, the following came to report, Li Jing passed, as if he was going to Shandong.

Xu Yuanlang finally let go of his heart, and then arranged for people to abandon Juancheng County and slowly withdraw to his other base land, Lize County.

Under the dangerous wall, the gentleman does not stand, and Xu Yuanlang is already timid.

In fact, Li Jing is also false, although he judged in his heart that most of the rebels would not trouble him, but when he really passed by, he was also panicked.

He has a task on him, and he can't be delayed.

"This section of the river is narrow, so instead of collecting ferries, it is better to build a pontoon bridge," Liu advises.

With an army of 10,000 and a section of pontoon bridge, it won't take long.

Li Jing nodded and said: "Arrange it immediately, we must build a pontoon bridge before nightfall, and we will set up camp after crossing the other bank." ”

In this way, those who cut trees cut down trees, and those who looked for boats found boats, each with a division of labor.

As a result, when the evening came, the rangers sent downstream made an urgent report, and there was also a large army building a bridge on the opposite bank ten miles away from Li Jing's pontoon bridge.

Who is this?

Pei Xingyan took five hundred people to check downstream, on the other side of the river, that is Hebei, who will come from Hebei at this time? Anyway, it won't be your own people, because there aren't many of your own people in Hebei.

It's a cloudy day, and by the end of the day, visibility is not good, especially when the river is intermittently foggy.

When Pei Xingyan arrived here, it was already evening, and when it was dark, he had the courage to move forward and enter a distance.

"Listening to the accent, it seems to be from Jiangnan, how can the southerners be here?" The next lieutenant said.

Pei Xingyan bared his teeth and grinned: "This is the rebels of Xiaoguo, which way will it be?" If we bump into Xiao Mill, we won't be able to do it. ”

Xiao Mo himself has more than 30,000 people, and he has gathered 50,000 people all the way south, otherwise the thieves from all walks of life would not have watched him go south, mainly because he couldn't stop him.

"You go back and report to General Li first, as for whether it is Xiao Mo or not, I will observe and observe," Pei Xingyan sent ten people to return to the west in three ways, and he led people to continue to sneak forward.

Get closer to figure out what's going on.

"Those who crossed the river within a quarter of an hour are all refined weapons, most of them are Xiao Milling, what should we do? They're also sending out ranger scouts everywhere, and if we don't leave, we'll be discovered," the lieutenant said.

Pei Xingyan shook his head: "Which of you has fire oil on you." ”

"I have."

"I have."

"I'll take it."

After a while, Pei Xingyan collected twenty pots of fire oil and whispered:

"At present, the rebels are crossing the river, only a small unit, we still have a chance to burn his pontoon bridge, and after most of the enemy army crosses the river, its rangers will inevitably find our main force, which will inevitably affect our crossing of the river, now who strikes first will benefit, I said in advance, which of you dare to withdraw later, my knife does not recognize people."

Several lieutenants hurriedly nodded.

The Modao team of nearly 500 people jumped out of the forest like this, slowed down their steps, and rushed towards the direction of the pontoon bridge.

At the same time, Li Jing's side had already begun to cross the river, and when he received the information about the military downstream, he hurriedly urged the army to speed up the crossing of the river, and it must be fast.

"This is really a narrow encounter," Liu Hongji said: "Who would have thought that Xiao Mo would go south so quickly, if he was allowed to leave, it would be very difficult for Wei Gong, who was in Jiangdu." ”

Han Xiaoji said: "I will bring another thousand people over to prevent them from crossing the river." ”

"No," Han Shige said: "The main force of the enemy should be on the opposite bank, we have only crossed the river with only 2,000 people, and I am afraid that we have already been discovered on the other side, we should be withdrawn, I have no camp on the opposite bank, and I can't fortify it." ”

Li Jing shook his head: "You can't withdraw, you can't cross the river, the impact is too great, immediately send a message to Xuanzong in Baima County, telling him to rush here as quickly as possible, Xiao Mo must not let him go, once this thief goes south, I am afraid it will become a big disaster." ”

Next, Li Jing ordered the 2,000 people who had already crossed the river to take the initiative to go east to find suitable terrain to line up, and he himself took his two brothers to cross the river in advance, intending to have a hard fight with Xiao Mo on the other bank.

Pei Xingyan's side, 200 people died, but they still couldn't get close to the pontoon bridge, so they had to retreat.

The other party did not chase after it, after all, it had been discovered by the officers and soldiers, so protecting the pontoon bridge became the top priority.

So the current situation is that Li Jing crossed the river from the south, and Xiao Mo crossed from the north, separated by twelve miles.

After Li Jing crossed the river, he directly led 3,000 people to the east in a battle formation, slowly advancing, and before he had gone far, he had already found traces of the rebels.

After all, there are too many people in Xiao Milling.

As for Xiao Miao, he actually sent an envoy to negotiate with Li Jing, which means, if you don't trouble me, I won't deal with you, and it's best for everyone to be safe.

Li Jing directly cut down the messenger, which can be regarded as a show of attitude.

Taking advantage of this time difference, he directly led people to rush into battle.

It was a head-on battle with a huge disparity in strength.

It was precisely because Pei Xingyan did not burn the pontoon bridge that Xiao Mo did not fall in love with the battle, but sent his general Guo Hua to lead 5,000 people to block the enemy, and the rest were still crossing the river.

He doesn't want to consume here, and returning to the south is the stage for him to show his strength.

It's just that he didn't expect that Guo Hua was defeated too quickly, and the main force of 5,000 people was killed by Li Jing in less than an hour, and then he realized that he had met the main force of the imperial court.

The southerners couldn't fight in the first place, and the way south was too smooth, they didn't realize that they would encounter hard stubble here, and they were psychologically unprepared.

And under Li Jing, he is the left and right guards of the East Palace, the elite of the elite.

Xiao Mo had no choice but to lead the remaining army that had not crossed the river to retreat to Yuancheng, and he couldn't figure out the enemy's path, so he would not choose a decisive battle.

Li Jing's side was unable to chase anymore, so he had to rest in a nearby township and build a camp.

Dong Jingzhen, who crossed the river, was Xiao Miao's absolute confidant, and when he learned that the army gave up crossing the river and withdrew to Yuancheng, he knew that he had to intercept the imperial army crossing the river in the west, so he took the Xiaoguo army that crossed the river and went west frantically.

He had already guessed that there were definitely not many officers and soldiers in the west, and if there were too many people, after the fire just now, there should have been a large army coming to prevent them from crossing the river.

There are few people who can be the leader, and his judgment is completely correct.

It's just that he didn't know that Pei Xingyan was opposite.

Fifteen hundred elite foot soldiers were already waiting for him, hiding in the woods on the shore, waiting for him to come.

Pei Xingyan was ordered to be behind the palace, and the front of the formation was the knife and axe hand, with the pikemen and Mo knife team in the middle, and the bow and arrow team in the back.

Dong Jingzhen has a total of 5,000 people in his hands, 5,000 against 1,005, and the advantage is not in him.

As soon as his vanguard arrived at the ambush site, he was killed by the officers and soldiers killed in the woods, Dong Jingzhen was also a thief no matter what, and it didn't take long for Xiao Mo to entrust him with a heavy responsibility, and he had limited control over the people below.

Not long after the battle, half of the army was about to disperse, and in desperation, Dong Jingzhen gave the order to withdraw the army.

Pei Xingyan chased and killed for a few more miles, and then stopped.

"A bunch of wrecks," Pei Xingyan licked his chapped lips and shot a wounded rebel next to him: "Cross the river, this place is not under our control." ”

Yang Xuanzong, who received the news, was rushing here in the starry night. (End of chapter)