Zhou Shixian didn't know that Gu Kecheng and Hao Shaoqi had already joined forces in Qingxian, and at that time he had already gone straight to Cangzhou, and the scouts on the shore who were in charge of reconnaissance had also shrunk to within thirty miles to the north.

After all, within a hundred miles, horses are faster than boats, and hundreds of miles away, boats and boats travel day and night, where can they catch up with horsepower alone?

Unless, the Shun army is also one person and three horses, and he does not hesitate to chase after him, or the river is bent, the boat is blocked, the wind direction changes, etc., so that Zhou Shixian delayed time in vain.

And after the two armies met, Hao Shaoqi naturally understood that he was calculated by Gu Kecheng, but he could only swallow this breath by himself, after all, Gu Kecheng had already taken this into account and didn't let him catch any handle at all.

Besides, what if you catch the handle? There is a reason why Gu Kecheng dares to be so fearless.

He is an old brother who has followed Li Zicheng from birth to death for more than ten years, one of the well-known "Eighteen Riders", and he also followed closely when Li Zicheng was at his most depressed and lowest point.

Although Hao Shaoqi is rude and fierce, he also understands some sophistication, so he naturally does not dare to offend the other party by being reckless. Not to mention, one is the general of the forward battalion, and the other is just a middle-level general of the Shun army.

However, when the two learned that Zhou Shixian had successfully captured the Cao boat and had already gone south along the river, these filthy things were no longer important.

If Emperor Chongzhen was really on the ship and successfully fled south, it would inevitably be a big hidden danger for the Great Shun Dynasty. At least the resistance of the remnants of the Ming army in the south will be stronger, and many major battles will inevitably be inevitable.

And for the two generals who carried out the pursuit mission, it would be an irreparable fault.

At the beginning of the new dynasty, it was the time to make meritorious contributions, if it was left out in the cold for this reason, it would be eight lifetimes of blood mold!

But in the same way, if they can catch Chongzhen and arrest the former emperor back to Beijing, it will be a great achievement, and the future is limitless.

In such a situation, the two immediately abandoned their previous suspicions, Gu Kecheng quickly gathered the 2,000 cavalry under his command, and Hao Shaoqi also separated the more than 1,000 cavalry under his command alone, and immediately pursued and left.

At this time, Zhou Shixian had successfully passed through Cangzhou, and there was indeed a Shun army in the city, but the nearby Cao Gang did not have a clear banner to return to Li Zicheng's Great Shun Dynasty, but their family businesses were in Cangzhou, and they were also powerless to the Ming court.

Zhou Shixian naturally took this into account, and just asked the other party to cooperate in a scene, and the ships of both sides chased me on the canal for a long time, but without much delay, Zhou Shixian's fleet was able to continue south.

It's just that when Zhou Shixian continued to go south and entered Dongguang County at noon on the second day, he ran into trouble.

Although there is no big gang here, Gu Kecheng has already sent scouts to ventilate and report in advance, and after receiving the news, the Shunchao County Order, which has taken over Dongguang County, immediately organized the people and wanted to set up obstacles on the canal to intercept Zhou Shixian's fleet.

Fortunately, the eight scouts sent by Gu Kecheng were intercepted and killed by Zhang Hong, and although the other two successfully broke through the blockade and entered the city to report the news, it was too late.

It was also at this time that Zhou Shixian knew that the Shun army's pursuers were less than a hundred miles away from him, and the Shun army's scout ability was not weak at all. After Zhang Hong fought with them, he basically confirmed that these were the elite of the original border army.

In other words, the ones who came to pursue them should also be the veterans of the Shun army and the elite of the original border army of the Ming court, if Zhou Shixian collided with them in the wilderness, I am afraid that he would not be able to take any advantage.

What Zhou Shixian never expected was that while deploying obstacles, the county order of Dongguang County also asked people to dig up the berm of the canal, although Xue Lao Er dispersed those people, but he was still one step late.

In just one hour, more than 10 outlets have been dug out of the canal's long causeway, which makes it difficult for the canal, which is not too deep to run smoothly because of the spring flood.

Zhou Shixian had no choice but to organize soldiers, recruit those people who had no time to flee back to the city, and quickly started to repair the berm of the canal.

As a result, Gu Kecheng, who had just set off from Cangzhou, and Hao Shaoqi's two main forces of 3,000 cavalry had already pursued Nanpi County, which was about sixty miles north of Dongguang.

The speed of action of the main cavalry and scouts naturally varied widely, especially after a brief outbreak of the ancient war horses, the staying power was not good.

Although Zhou Shixian didn't know the actual distance between himself and the pursuers, according to the speed of the scouts, after calculating in his heart, he realized the severity of the situation.

But at this time, Dongguang had been occupied by the Shun army, and most of the soldiers in the city could equip his army, so Zhou Shixian had no choice but to continue to go south and enter Shandong.

However, the situation is grim, Zhou Shixian did not panic because of this, and still remained sober - it is naturally best not to fight this battle, and it is more advantageous to fight it later if it can be fought later.

The elite cavalry of the Shun army that came after must have extraordinary combat effectiveness, and the equipment is definitely not bad, which is by no means comparable to those routs that Pang Lun temporarily gathered, this is the reason why they can not fight without fighting.

But the problem is that the staying power of the cavalry is not strong, and if the Shun army pursues it desperately, it will definitely be tired and tired. And his soldiers and horses sailed south, if after obtaining the armor and equipment, he waited for work, and it was not impossible to fight.

Therefore, what Zhou Shixian has to do now is first to appease the restless soldiers and horses, as the backbone of the entire team, his performance at this time will directly affect the morale of the whole army.

In the face of the crisis, Zhou Shixian's calmness, calmness, and orderly command once again gave this "southern deserting soldiers" a shot in the arm.

"Listen to the horse's command and follow the horse, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it!" Slowly, this became the consensus of everyone up and down the entire team.

After pacifying the morale, he organized the soldiers to take turns rowing, speeding up the boat, and keeping a distance from the Shun army as much as possible.

And these soldiers are all well-trained veterans, and these days they are well fed and drunk, and it is naturally not difficult to row the boat in unison and hard.

In a hurry, at this moment, Zhou Shixian's fleet finally arrived in Dezhou, and entered the city overnight, and began to deploy defenses, while Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong led their troops into the city one step earlier and controlled this important town on the canal.

Dezhou is the water and land hub of Shandong into the north of Zhili, and the grain, merchants, goods, and officials and students in the south enter Beijing, basically have to pass through this city.

Therefore, Dezhou City is also in the process of expansion and repair, from an ordinary acropolis in the early Ming Dynasty, to become tall and strong, becoming the "Shenjing Gateway", and there are countless warehouses in the city to reserve materials.

But at this time, the Ming court officials in the city had already fled, and even the people were no longer left, and the huge city was occupied by a group of government warehouses, controlling the grain and armor in it, and colluding with more than 100 gangsters to take advantage of the chaos to control it.

Since the Shun Army's Eastern Crusade, the officials of the Ming Court in the Shandong prefectures who heard the news either chose to wait and see, or dragged their families to take their mouths, and after packing up the gold and silver, they fled directly south, and only a few were still holding on.

Although Shandong has not yet entered the soldiers and horses of the Shun army, it has already been in chaos, not only many civilian officials have fled, but most of the troops that were supposed to resist the Shun army have disappeared.

And when Xue Lao Er and Zhang Hong led the troops into the city, they were obstructed by the group of officials and green-skinned gangsters.

At this time, the sky was already a little dark, and seven or eight officials with twenty or thirty green-skinned thugs armed with knives and guns, wearing armor, and even some with bows and arrows, did not intend to let this group of cavalry of unknown origin into the city on the grounds that "the situation is chaotic, the city is curfew, and there is no excess".

After all, one mountain does not tolerate two tigers, if the Ming army enters the city, how can they continue to dominate the city? Moreover, with the virtue of the Ming army, after entering the city, I am afraid that they will also be eaten by black and destroyed.

It's just that these people have not undergone formal military training at all, and Xue Lao Er and Zhang Hong knew what level these people were when they saw that one of the officials who came to stop him was only wearing a cotton armor and a helmet.

As for Zhang Hong's violent temper, Zhou Shixian is not here, can he bear it?

And the fact was just as they expected, in less than a quarter of an hour, these dozens of officials at the city gate were defeated.

Then, the officials in the city were either captured or beheaded before they could figure out the situation, which was much worse than the villagers in Lujiazhai.

After all, they can just bully the people.

And such a disparity in strength, coupled with the fact that the people in the city have already been bullied by these people, and the people's grievances are boiling, at this time, seeing the fully armed, the Ming army that has not committed any crime in the autumn enters the city, although it is still afraid, and it is not supportive, but there is also no way to obstruct the attack.

Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong sent troops to take over several city gates, and after controlling the government office, they immediately followed Zhou Shixian's instructions to first post a list in the county government, gather the rich merchants in the city, and make three chapters of the law. Then, with the influence of these people, he presided over the opening of warehouses to help the people and distribute grain.

However, because those officials Qingpi have done too much evil these days, and they didn't even wait for Zhou Shixian to enter the city, Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong acted for Tianxing and killed all the eleven small leaders in the captured government service Qingpi, making the people angry.

And this set of combination punches can be described as unclever, nor can it be said that it is ineffective.

In less than two hours, by the time Zhou Shixian entered the city, the escort army had already won the full support of the people in the city, and Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong had already controlled the whole city under the guidance and cooperation of the locals.

But under the pursuit of Gu Kecheng and Hao Shaoqi at any cost, when it was approaching evening, they were only less than twenty miles away from Texas, and the 3,000 cavalry under their command were still 2,000 people.

Two thousand cavalry, six thousand war horses, and more than 20,000 horses' hooves were like dense raindrops hitting the ground, rumbling, and the yellow dust was rolling in, surging.