In the middle of the winding mountains to the north of Jizhou.

Li Guo sat in front of the fire, stuck a piece of bread on a branch, and slowly roasted it, this bonfire was his only prerogative as commander, and his 12,000 cavalry had been hiding here for more than six days.

According to the plan formulated by the top level of the Shun army, the decisive battle in Yanggezhuang was only to attract the western aid of more than 30,000 cavalry of the Duoduo Department of the Qing Army's East Road, and starting from Zunhua, the nearest road must be through the mountain road at the foot of the mountain.

"Bo Hou, Bo Hou!" There was a scream outside, Li Guo threw the cake in his hand, and scolded: "The whole army is silent, you are shouting, but are you going to die?" ”

If it weren't for the shouting person who had followed him for many years, Li Guo would definitely not let him go easily, and the general said in a low voice: "Marquis Bo, the scout who was arrested yesterday has been recruited." ”

"Recruit it, recruit it, what are you shouting." Li Guo glared angrily, in the past few days, he has arrested several waves of scouts in a row, but the Qing army is very hard-mouthed, which makes Li Guo a little uncontrollable.

The general whispered, "The scout said that Dordor sent them to reconnoitre, not for safety, but only to find out the whereabouts of our army, and after the results of the reconnoitration, they will go south to the confluence of the three rivers." ”

"What, Mikawa!" Li Guo's eyes widened.

This morning, he received the news provided by Zhang Neng, who was lurking in the Changling area, saying that the cavalry in the Yutian area had passed the brigade two days ago, because only the police post reported, so he did not know the exact number, and yesterday, Zhang Neng encountered a surprise attack by the Qing army, and the two sides were inseparable in the valley.

As for the news learned from today's interrogation and the raid blockade encountered by Zhang Neng, it can only be said that the Qing Army's Eastern Route Army knew the location of its ambush early in the morning, so it did not crash headlong, but bypassed Changling and ran to Sanhe.

"Damn, the East Road is cunning, maybe this is to cross the Lu River and sneak attack Tongzhou, our grain and grass are all hoarded there!" Li Guo smashed his fist on the pine tree next to him and said angrily.

His subordinate general said: "Yihou, the humble position is more worried about the sneak attack on the capital, now it is different from the past, if it disturbs the emperor, it will be a big sin." ”

Li Guo nodded slightly, no matter what, the lurking location was exposed, that is, the plan failed, he thought for a while, and said: "Let Zhang Neng lead the cavalry to the west immediately, after crossing the Lu River, and block the advance of the Dongyu on the west bank, we will go to Tongzhou first, whether it is to aid Yanggezhuang in the north, or to cover the capital, or to protect the grain and grass camp, we can do it." ”

"What about General Li You?" The subordinates asked, the Shun army of 23,000 cavalry, of which the most elite 4,000 cavalry are in the hands of Li You, and his lurking Ma Lanyu has not been exposed.

Li Guo said coldly: "Order him to follow the route of the Eastern Captives' march, find an opportunity to harass, or break the enemy." ”

Three days later, Mikawa.

Duoduo looked north, Qianli Yanshan had been completely left behind, and all in front of him were flat fields, starting from Sanhe, whether he went north to the decisive battlefield of Yanggezhuang, or went to Tongzhou and Beijing, except for a few rivers that were not very difficult to cross, there was no danger, when he thought of this, his heart was both excited and a little worried.

In front of him, the scouts of the vanguard had crossed the river, and the two pontoon bridges had been erected by Bao Yi and the captured strong men, and the heavily armored cavalry slowly crossed the river, everything was very normal.

Not far away, a group of cavalry galloped over, and when they got closer, a middle-aged general dismounted, knelt on the ground and said: "Master, the pontoon bridge on the Baoqiu River has also been erected, is our department crossing the river?" ”

"On the other side of the Baoqiu River, is there anything unusual?" Duoduo hurriedly asked.

"The servants sent more than 400 horsemen to reconnoiter more than 20 miles, and did not find a brigade of thieves and cavalry, only a small number of scouts, no more than one or two hundred horsemen." Shi Tingzhu said in a deep voice.

At present, Duoduo is crossing the Lu River, after crossing this river, go to the battlefield to converge, and there is no need to cross the river, the Lu River is also the most difficult of all rivers to cross, and the Baoqiu River is still west of the Lu River, if you raid Tongzhou or even the capital, you need to cross the Baoqiu River.

Duoduo nodded slowly, Zhuma fell into contemplation, since Zunhua sent troops, he has always had a hidden worry in his heart, that is, the elite cavalry of the Shun army has not been discovered, and there has been a fierce battle with it, the Shun army has always been armored cavalry, the most elite and daring to fight, but this cavalry has not appeared, and the scattered scouts have not been found.

What Duoduo didn't know was that when arranging the distribution of manpower, Yihou Li Guo gave him a trick to play a trick under the lights, and the four thousand elite cavalry led by Li You arrived at Malanyu around Yanshan, which was near Zunhua, and after sending troops from Zunhua, Duoduo sent cavalry to the west and south to scatter reconnaissance, and the reconnaissance cavalry highlighted the main force for hundreds of miles, but he didn't know that Li You's department was following the road of its march, and after coming out of Malanyu, he also bypassed Yutian and followed up all the way.

Therefore, this cavalry has not been found.

"Master, are you still worried about the undiscovered elite horsemen of the rogue?" Shi Tingzhu asked cautiously.

Duoduo nodded slightly, Shi Tingzhu said: "Maybe it is impossible to follow the cavalry in the north of Jizhou, that cavalry is very large, after being frightened two days ago, it marched west overnight, and has already crossed the Lu River and went to Tongzhou, and the scout said that the cavalry has at least 15,000 horsemen."

Among them, there are many well-armed people, and it is rare to have cavalry of this scale if they want to be thieves from Shaanxi and Gansu. ”

Unlike Dashun, who learned about the Qing army through various means, for the Qing army, the strength of the Shun army was still in a state of fog, and the Qing army did not know how many troops the Shun army had, and the horses were equipped with geometry.

"Report to the prince, the main force of the thief cavalry was found on the west bank of the river, with six or seven thousand horsemen. It was crossed from the upper reaches of the river, and it had just come down. A scout came to give a report.

Seeing that he only had two or three thousand cavalry crossing the river, Duoduo immediately said to Shi Tingzhu: "You immediately go downstream, lead the cavalry crossing the river to the north to support, and flank the enemy cavalry." When someone came, he ordered the first horse to cross the river and stand by. ”

West Bank.

"Yihou, the main force of the Dongyu cavalry has crossed the river, at least 20,000 cavalry, and there are a lot of horses. I led the cavalry to meet the enemy for a while, and I was caught off guard by killing the eastern captives, but I was attacked by the cavalry coming downstream, and I had no choice but to retreat. Zhang Neng came to Li Guo's side and said to him.

Li Guo nodded slightly: "Pass the order, and all the armies will line up to guard against the enemy's rush." Li Guo waved his arm, his eyes were blood-red, this was because he had been bumping on the horse for more than two days in a row, consuming too much energy, but the current situation made him excited and indescribable.

Behind him, the horse team stretched for several miles, all of them were the elite of the Dashun cavalry, many of them were one person and two horses, and Li You's armored cavalry lurked on the other side of the river, ready to give the enemy a fatal blow.

In the past two days, he ran back to Tongzhou from Jizhou, and then turned back from Tongzhou, because the Qing army was very different from what he thought, and the so-called raid on Tongzhou and even the capital was completely because the information he got was not comprehensive and timely.

It is impossible for the Qing army to raid any target, because this Qing army can no longer be counted as a cavalry team, and the last time it was contacted, both sides are cavalry that can be put into the field at any time, this time the Qing army is advancing eastward, it is already another state, standing on the high ground on the west bank, you can see that across a river, the camp temporarily surrounded by the Qing army, there are all kinds of vehicles everywhere, those are looted things.

After confirming the Qing army's entry into the Kou, Dashun implemented a fortified clearing of the wilderness in several northern state capitals, driving a large number of people to the cities or the southern state capitals, but for the Qing army, this was not much of a disadvantage, because it meant that wealth was more concentrated in the cities.

On the contrary, in order to prepare for a decisive battle with the Qing army, Dashun concentrated his forces as much as possible, and also in order to deal with Zhu Ming's surrender in the face of the Qing army's surrender and rebellion, except for Bai Guangen, Tang Tong, and Ma Ke, who still had the strength to fight Zhu Ming's army, the rest of the surrendered army has been sent to Shandong to take over the place, or go to Henan to quell the rebellion, so as to facilitate the liberation of the main force of the Shun army in Henan and use it to support the capital in the north.

Therefore, many state capitals broke into a lot of refugees, but did not get the defense of the Shun army, the temporary formation of the militia in the face of the Qing army attack can not play much role, Duoduo constantly sent cavalry to harass, attack, but also disguised refugees into the cities, in Zunhua during this time, even broke seven large and small cities, naturally also obtained a lot of wealth, and in the process of westward expansion, these riches also moved with the army, together with the west.

Li Guo, who figured out the situation, did not have the idea of a decisive battle with the Qing army, he reported the situation to Li Zicheng in the capital and Liu Zongmin and Zhang Nai, and others on the front line, and the opinions reached by all parties were very consistent, attracting the Qing army to the east and the west, and the opportunity to annihilate it and even hit it hard no longer existed.

And Li Guo's current task is to contain Duoduo, the main force of cavalry.

Duoduo kept urging the cavalry of all divisions to cross the river immediately on the bank of the river, and in front of him was the main cavalry force of the Shun army, and the two teams that had been detected were all gathered together, and according to the intelligence, these two Qing armies had not been idle in the past two days, taking advantage of their lack of men and horses, Duoduo thought that he had a chance to break it.

Therefore, he needs more men to come to the West Bank and then deliver a fatal blow to the enemy before it gets dark.

And this is what Li Guo needs, after most of the more than 30,000 cavalry under Duoduo's department crossed the river, Duoduo heard the sound of a thunderous farrier hitting the ground behind him.

As the sun set, Duoduo saw a wave of cavalry surging from the eastern horizon, sweeping towards the empty camp, horses of all colors galloping and noisy, dense and layered, and with a sound of a trumpet, all the cavalry took off their robes, and then the iron armor was revealed.

The remnant sun shone on the sparkling river, shining on the iron armor of the cavalry of the Shun army, and the reflected water light and armor light were connected, which was the most dazzling light in this world.

This cavalry is the elite of the Shun army, wearing iron helmets, iron armor all over the body, up to the knees, spears like forests, armor and horses like dragons, only showing a pair of eyes, which is even more hideous and terrifying.

In the face of the surprise attack of the cavalry of the Shun army, these hundreds of cavalry galloped out and counterattacked, but it was only a few waves that splashed a few waves formed by the tide formed by the three walls, and then the ironclad cavalry rushed into the Qing army camp and hunted separately, the largest of them rushed to the pontoon bridge built by the Qing army on the Lu River, and after arriving, a fire ignited it.

The light cavalry that followed the armored cavalry rushed to kill in all directions, whether it was a cloth or a refugee, but anyone who knelt on the ground was not killed, as long as he escaped, he would be hacked to death on the spot by a saber, and some people wanted to swim across the river and go to join Duoduo, but they were shot dead by the Shun army who shot at the river.

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