A few days later, Boye County, Baoding Prefecture.

In the Ming Dynasty Hongzhi period of the "Baoding County Chronicles" recorded: "Boye County is ninety miles southeast of Fuzhi, twenty-seven miles from east to west and sixty miles from north to south. The national dynasty re-marched, 15 miles to the Lixian boundary in the east, 50 miles to the Dingzhou boundary in the west, and 65 miles from east to west; Thirty miles to Anping in the south, thirty miles to Qingyuan in the north, and sixty miles to the north and south."

Boye County has a long history and outstanding people, and is the hometown of Liu Ji, a famous historian in the Ming Dynasty. The word "Boye" is the name of "Bo Shui Zhiye", Tang Yu Xia Shang is the domain of Jizhou, the Spring and Autumn Period is the land of Jin, the Warring States period is the land of Zhao, and Qin belongs to Shanggu County.

At this time, Boye County can be said to be withered, and the people in the city all have vegetables, although there is no bandit here, and there is no war, but the people are very poor, even if Liu Yan wants to spend money to buy some materials in the city, it is priceless, and he can't buy anything at all, even food.

In the camp of the guards, Liu Yan frowned, the situation at this time was far worse than he expected, this is Baoding Mansion, it is Beizhili, it stands to reason that it should be the richest place in the Ming Dynasty.

But here, it turned out to be so withered, which shows what the current situation has become turbulent!

"My lord, the situation of each battalion has been summarized, will the army continue to march tomorrow?"

Liu Yan once ordered each battalion to count the material situation, and at this time, the baggage soldiers of each battalion carried a lot of money, food and materials, and Liu Yan had to know it in his heart.

So Liu Yan said to Xun Jingyun: "What's the situation? ”

"The grain and grass are quite abundant, which can be eaten by the army for more than a month, and there is more silver, if the supply of military salaries for the imperial court is not timely, it can be dealt with temporarily, which is enough for the army to pay for two months."

"In addition, the armament situation is slightly better, and the average number of fixed ammunition for each bird gun can be divided into seventy-seven rounds, and the shells of all kinds of artillery can be evenly distributed, and each gun can have about thirty rounds. If the heaven-shaking thunder is earth-shattering, there are still thirteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. ”

"There are also a lot of other equipment such as spears, swords and shields, armor, etc., and my subordinates estimate that it is enough for our army to go to Henan."

Liu Yan nodded and said, "Even so, be cautious, I don't know what to go through along the way." And Li Zicheng's department is different from the slave thief, Li Zicheng's command not only has sufficient troops, there are hundreds of thousands of troops, and even it claims to have millions of people, and the battle of Henan does not know how long it will take, so the more supplies, the better. ”

"Along the way, whenever you pass through the city, you must send people into the city to buy, and it is okay if the silver is spent, as long as you can buy grain, grass, medicine and other materials, don't ask the price, just buy it."

"Yes!"

At dusk, Liu Yan inspected the camp of the guard camp accompanied by Miao Shao, and looked around, the battalions were encamped around the guard camp, and more than 76,000 soldiers of several battalions were burying pots and cooking rice, all around were curling smoke, looking from afar, it seemed to be a huge city, and there were fireworks in the world under the sunset.

Suddenly, Liu Yan frowned, and saw a team of guards from the night not collecting horses coming from the north, and a few officials of the military department accompanied them.

"Something's wrong!"

Liu Yan only felt a rapid beating in his heart, the army had just set off, and he was caught up by the people of the military department, which was definitely not a good thing, either something happened on the battlefield in Liaodong, or the situation in Henan had deteriorated again.

"Your Excellency!"

Miao Shao also saw the situation in the distance, and after saying a word, he beckoned his subordinates to go and answer, and soon brought those brocade guards to Liu Yan.

"Cheng Ming, a small member of the military department, has seen General Dingyu!"

The first person took the lead in dismounting and saluting, Liu Yan said: "No need to be polite, catch up so late, is there something wrong with the soldier?" ”

Cheng Ming took out a military order with a solemn expression and handed it to Liu Yan: "General soldier Liu will know it after reading it." ”

Liu Yan took the order, and after reading it, his heart suddenly sank, and the corners of his eyes were slightly red.

At the same time that the military department mobilized the new army of Liu Yan's department to go south to support Lu Xiangsheng, it also recruited Fu Zonglong, the governor of Shaanxi, to lead his troops to help.

Fu Zonglong led more than 30,000 Shaanxi soldiers and horses to Henan, in Xiangcheng and Li Guobu encountered, the two sides launched a fierce battle, Li Guo was defeated, the rout stretched for hundreds of miles, Fu Zonglong immediately led the troops to pursue, in Xiangcheng 70 miles east of the army surrounded by 100,000 thieves, and then more than 30,000 Ming troops were crushed at a touch.

Fu Zonglong led thousands of remnants of the defeated army to retreat to Xiangcheng, and then was surrounded by an army of more than 100,000 led by Li Guo, and the army of thieves besieged day and night, Fu Zonglong's troops only held on for two days, and Xiangcheng was declared to have fallen. Fu Zonglong, the governor of Shaanxi, was killed in battle, thousands of Ming soldiers in the city did not survive, and the people in the city were also coerced by Li Guo's subordinates, and all of them became the new "cannon fodder" of the army of thieves.

And that's just one of the bad news.

When Fu Zonglong retreated to Xiangcheng in defeat, he sent someone to contact Lu Xiangsheng, who was stationed in Kaifeng City, and wanted to ask Lu Xiangsheng for help.

After receiving the request for help, Lu Xiangsheng wanted to attack inside and outside, and first defeated Li Guo's troops, trying to reverse the decline of the Henan battlefield.

But Lu Xiangsheng never imagined that Fu Zonglong's troops only held out for two days, and when Lu Xiangsheng led thousands of soldiers to Taikang County, he was ambushed by the 300,000 army led by Li Zicheng.

Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, and General Lu Huaiying also died next to Lu Xiangsheng, and all the remnants of the Supervisory Battalion were killed, and no one survived!

After Liu Yan finished reading it, he looked up to the sky and sighed, Miao Shao also hurriedly took it and looked at it, and then exclaimed: "My lord, the Central Plains is already the world of thieves!" ”

Cheng Ming said: "General Liu, the latest news now is that Li Zicheng has mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to besiege Kaifeng Mansion, and now only the deputy general Chen Yongfu leads more than 2,000 people to defend the city, and the situation is very critical!" ”

"Chen Yongfu?"

Liu Yan knew this person, when Li Zicheng led his troops to capture Luoyang for the first time in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Chen Yongfu was still the deputy general of Kaifeng, and was ordered to lead the army to rescue Luoyang.

However, Chen Yongfu was defeated and surrendered to Li Zicheng, and after Li Zicheng lost the battle of a stone, he led 10,000 people to defend Taiyuan. After Chen Yongfu fell in Taiyuan, he disappeared.

At this time, Chen Yongfu was still a deputy general, but he was already the highest-ranking Ming general in the entire Henan Mansion.

Liu Yan suppressed the grief and indignation in his heart and asked, "What does that soldier mean?" ”

Cheng Ming said: "This soldier has an order: please ask General Liu to rush to Kaifeng City day and night immediately, and Kaifeng must not be allowed to fall!" ”

Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "Even if our army travels day and night, it will take more than half a month to reach Kaifeng Mansion at the earliest, and after entering the territory of Henan, our army must also slow down, one is to save the physical strength of the soldiers so that they can meet the battle at any time, and the other is to be cautious and careful to prevent being ambushed by the army of thieves." ”

"In addition, this town has to set up a mourning hall for Lu Duchen and the fallen soldiers, which will also take three days, so it will take at least twenty days for our army to arrive at Kaifeng City. And this is the most optimistic estimate, if we encounter thieves and soldiers on the way, our army will attack all the way forward, and the time cannot be guaranteed. ”

Cheng Ming's face was embarrassed when he heard this, and he said: "General Liu has a deep friendship with Lu Duchen, and I can understand my feelings at this time. It's just that the war is urgent, can this matter of setting up a mourning hall to pay tribute be postponed, and lead the troops to set off first......

Before Cheng Ming finished speaking, Liu Yan glared at him, and the murderous aura accumulated on the battlefield for a long time instantly made Cheng Ming stunned on the spot, and he didn't dare to say a word.

"The governor and the generals were martyred in battle, shouldn't they pay tribute!"

"No, no, I...... that's not what I mean."

Miao Shao was worried that Liu Yan would be angry, so he directly grabbed Cheng Ming's collar and dragged him away: "Okay, okay, the order is here, just leave quickly, and wait here for the banquet!" ”

Cheng Ming was dragged all the way by Miao Shao to the horse and pushed to the front, and then Miao Shao waved his hand and said: "After I go back, I will say that our army is rushing to Kaifeng Mansion, let the military department raise money and food supplies as soon as possible, and don't say a word about the rest, understand!" ”

After speaking, Miao Shao threw Cheng Ming two big silver ingots, which were more than thirty taels. Cheng Ming was stunned for a moment, then looked at the silver in his hand and hurriedly nodded, and said, "Don't worry, general, I know how to do it." ”

Liu Yan looked at Cheng Ming and the others who rode away, and his heart was heavy, Lu Xiangsheng still did not escape his fate after all, and still died on the battlefield defending Daming.

At this time, Daming was already full of holes, and there were corrupt people, incompetent people, and party contention people abounding, these people are like countless moths, lying on the giant ship of Daming and constantly gnawing, not caring whether the ship will sink or not.

And Lu Xiangsheng is one of the very few people who want to save this giant ship, but after some hard work, he understands that he is powerless after all, and this realization is very painful and desperate.

So dying on the battlefield, maybe for Lu Xiangsheng, this is the best destination.

Liu Yan felt like his eyes were in the sand at this time, and he rubbed them a few times, although he and Lu Xiangsheng were superiors and subordinates in the past few years, they were close friends.

At the beginning, Liu Yan was completely in admiration for the national hero, so he intersected with Lu Xiangsheng, and he was also glad for his choice.

Now that Lu Xiangsheng and Lu Huaiying, Xu Tonghui, as well as the soldiers of the Supervisory Battalion and the Fubiao Battalion are martyred, Liu Yan has not only grief in his heart, but also his admiration for the soldiers.

"This revenge, I, Liu Yan, will avenge you!"

"If the governor has not completed the ideal, I, Liu Yan, will do it!"

Miao Shao walked over and asked softly, "My lord, are we still going to leave tomorrow?" ”

Liu Yan said: "Starting tomorrow, the army will be stationed in Boye County for three days, and you will lead people to set up a mourning hall in the big tent of the Chinese army to pay tribute to the governors, General Xu, General Lu, as well as the fallen soldiers of the Governor Battalion and the Fubiao Battalion!" ”

Miao Shao persuaded: "My lord, the war is urgent, in case Kaifeng Mansion falls......"

Liu Yan said categorically: "I want these three days, not only to pay tribute to the governors and soldiers, but also to gain time and hoard food and materials!" ”

"Now that Henan is Li Zicheng's world, it has been turned into a white land by the army of thieves, and tens of thousands of horses and horses of our army have arrived, can we end the war within two months? No way! So I had to wait three days. ”

After speaking, Liu Yan turned around and walked to the big tent of the Chinese army, and when he walked to the door of the camp tent, Liu Yan turned back to Miao Shao and said: "Immediately send someone to Beijing and tell Chen Xinjia: If he wants to recover Henan, he will transport the grain and grass needed by our army for March within ten days, and before our army enters Henan, it must be sent to the army." ”

"I will wait for him here for three days, and then I will lead my troops to Kaizhou in Beizhili, and let Chen Xinjia chase our army all the way in the direction of Kaizhou. Tell him that as long as the food is less than a day, I will never enter Henan for half a step! ”

Some people died, but not completely......