Eighteen miles west of Kaifeng City, there is a camp of thieves.

Under the autumn wind, everything withered, and among the camps of the thieves, listless soldiers could be seen everywhere passing by, and from time to time there were truckloads of seriously wounded soldiers or corpses, carried away from the barracks of the old camp, and no one cared where they were transported.

Li Guo rode through the gate of the Chinese army camp, and came to the outside of the Chinese army's tent with a team of horsemen, and there were several doctors among the horsemen, who were caught by thieves and horses from various cities, specifically to diagnose and treat Li Zicheng's injuries.

"Bring it in!"

After Li Guo dismounted, he ordered his subordinates to bring the doctors into the camp tent, and he himself walked in.

At this time, Li Zicheng's face was slightly better, leaning on a carved pedal bed, Li Laiheng was holding a bowl of black medicinal soup, constantly stirring it with a wooden spoon, ready to cool it down and let Li Zicheng drink it.

When several doctors saw Li Zicheng, they were all trembling with fright, and they were scolded several times before they stepped forward tremblingly, Li Laiheng said coldly: "You have done a good job for King Chuang's injuries, you have been rewarded with silver, if you don't do well, be careful of moving people!" ”

Several doctors hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to agree, and then under the gaze of Li Guo and Li Laiheng, they carefully dismantled the white cloth on Li Zicheng's head and carefully examined the wound.

After a while, several people put on new ointments for Li Zicheng and re-tied the brand-new white cloth, and they didn't dare to come out of the atmosphere in the process, until they were all done, discussed again, and prescribed a prescription, and a few people breathed a sigh of relief, and stood nervously waiting for the hair to fall.

Li Zicheng took the medicinal soup handed over by Li Laiheng, drank it, wiped the sweat beads on his forehead, and waved

With a wave of his hand, Li Laiheng understood and ordered someone to take the doctors out.

Then there were a few screams outside the camp, in order to ensure that the news of Li Zicheng's injury was not revealed, those people were already the fourth batch of doctors to be killed, and each time they arrested someone to treat Li Zicheng's injuries and change the dressing, and then killed the person directly.

At this time, after changing to a new medicine, Li Zicheng felt that the pain in his left eye had eased a lot, leaned on a brand-new embroidered quilt, and then said, "Have all the people been sent out?" ”

Li Guo and Li Laiheng sat on the left and right, and when they heard Li Zicheng's question, Li Guo said: "King Chuang, don't worry, the firearms battalion and the middle battalion have sent men and horses, and Laiheng and I have also sent a lot of horsemen and foot soldiers. ”

Li Laiheng said: "All the troops and horses went to the cities around Kaifeng, Lanyang County, Chenliu County, Zhongmu County, Qi County, Xinzheng and other places, there are soldiers and horses to go, those cities have been occupied by General Yuan's right battalion soldiers, and the artillery on the city head is estimated to have been moved down in advance. ”

Li Zicheng snorted, and then said: "Send someone to contact General Yuan Zongdi and ask him to gather the soldiers and horses of the right battalion to converge." ”

Li Guo frowned slightly and said, "King Chuang, do the surrounding cities have to give up?" ”

"Give up!"

Li Zicheng's tone became more and more cold: "King Benchuang wants to concentrate all his troops, as well as artillery everywhere, and fight Liu Yan again!" is still the same sentence, as long as Liu Yanbu is defeated, Henan will be the world of my righteous army. ”

"As long as Liu Yanbu is annihilated, our righteous army can command Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, and to the north can attack North Zhili, and to the south can attack the land of finance and taxation in the south of the Yangtze River.

When the time comes, our rebel army will be able to soar into the sky! ”

Li Guo and Li Laiheng glanced at each other, and both of them were very worried.

Just last night, Li Zicheng and Li Guo discussed for most of the night, looking for a countermeasure to defeat Liu Yanbu. In the end, the two came to the same conclusion as Li Yan and Li Dingguo: if they wanted to defeat Liu Yan's new army, they still had to rely on firearms, supplemented by cavalry and armor soldiers.

It's just that the army of thieves has been wandering all over the northwest and the Central Plains all the year round, and there is no ability to build firearms, and there are no suitable craftsmen and talents in the army of thieves, so it is unrealistic to build them in the army.

So Li Zicheng decided to send soldiers and horses to the various cities around Kaifeng City, transport all the artillery on the city heads, and prepare to concentrate a huge number of artillery groups to fire at Liu Yanbu's artillery, and then defeat Liu Yanbu's new army in one fell swoop by virtue of the absolute superiority in troops.

Although Li Guo and Li Laiheng agreed with Li Zicheng's strategy very much, they thought that if they wanted to defeat Liu Yanbu, there was only one way.

But now the rebel army has just suffered heavy losses, more than 100,000 men and horses have been killed in the battle, and the newly formed firearms battalion has also been disabled, and the morale of the army is very low. At such a time, is it really appropriate to continue to concentrate forces and fight with Liu Yan's troops?

Li Guo and Li Laiheng intended to temporarily withdraw their troops, and only continued to blockade Kaifeng City with only part of the horsemen, dragging Liu Yanbu in the Kaifeng area, and then the main force of the righteous army divided the troops to attack everywhere, and knocked down the entire territory of Henan as soon as possible, ending the situation of the righteous army flowing everywhere, and began to operate the foundation.

Or go south with the main force, cross the Yangtze River directly, rush into the financial and tax land of Jiangnan, cut off the source of wealth of the imperial court, and then use the financial resources and manpower of Jiangnan to rebuild righteousness

The battalions of the army turned around and fought fiercely with Liu Yan's troops.

Last night, Li Guo and Li Laiheng also expressed their opinions euphemistically, but they were vetoed by Li Zicheng.

In Li Zicheng's view, Liu Yanbu is just an elite force that is stronger than Lu Xiangsheng, Cao Wenzhao and other troops, there is nothing special, as long as the righteous army mobilizes more powerful firepower, it can be defeated.

"Whether it's attacking various places or attacking Jiangnan, it's unrealistic! Liu Yan will not sit idly by and watch the development and growth of our righteous army. ”

"If you want to drag Liu Yanbu in Kaifeng, how many soldiers and horses will you have to leave behind? If there are fewer troops, Liu Yanbu can't be delayed, and there are more left, so what's the difference between that and a decisive battle? ”

In the face of Li Zicheng's rebuttal, Li Guo and Li Laiheng couldn't answer each other, after all, in the face of a strong army like Liu Yanbu, no one dared to say that their strategy was necessarily correct, so they could only take one step at a time.

"King Chuang, I received news today that the number of people sent by Liu Yanbu who do not collect at night has begun to increase, and I am a little worried, will the soldiers and horses transporting artillery be intercepted and killed by Liu Yanbu?"

Li Zicheng pondered for a while and said: "Then send more people to escort along the way, and tell Yuan Zongdi not to care about the gains and losses of one city and one pool, immediately lead the troops to assemble and retreat, and escort the artillery convoy along the way, there must be no mistake!" ”

"Yes!"

Early the next morning, thirty-three miles east of Zhongmu County, Xinghuaying.

Xinghuaying was originally a fairly lively town, with a population of more than 1,000 households, but there are hundreds of shops, many business travelers from the south to the north pass through here, going north to the Yellow River ferry, east to Kaifeng Fucheng, west is Zhongmu County, and south is the famous Zhuxian Town. It's a lively place

The land hub is very famous in the Kaifeng area.

But today's Xinghua Camp has long lost the prosperity and liveliness of the past, there is no trace of cooking smoke in the town, the voices of the people in the past are boiling, and now they can no longer be heard, only the occasional wild dogs and rats passing by, and there are the remains of the corpses exposed to the sun in the ruins!

"Just rest here!"

A rogue rode into the Xinghua camp, looked around for the first brigade, and saw that there was not a single living person in the entire Xinghua camp, and he couldn't find a place to rob money and have fun, so he couldn't help but curse resentfully, and then waved his hand to let the subordinates behind search it.

"My lord, I can't even see a ghost, don't worry!"

Soon the men rode back, and the brigade said, "All right, bring in all the wagons and horses, and the artillery and gunners should be watched." ”

"Yes!"

This bandit rode a total of more than 100 people, escorting more than 20 ox carts and carriages, from Zhongmu County, carrying all kinds of Buddha Lang machine guns, some relatively large Buddha Lang machines, and small Hongyi cannons, which were pulled by some ox carts.

In addition, there were hundreds of dead soldiers from the middle battalion accompanying them, responsible for pushing carts and carrying artillery along the way, many of whom were exhausted, but as soon as they sat down, they were whipped with horsewhips by the horsemen next to them.

"A bunch of waste, you have to rest when you do some heavy work, you can't use it on the battlefield, you can't work, it's really a bunch of waste!"

Those dead soldiers dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, and in the face of well-equipped, brutal and fierce horsemen, they could only be beaten and scolded, and if they did not comply, they would be hacked to death with a knife.

"Light a fire and boil water, and it will be out last night

The city is over, and I didn't care about resting after walking for most of the night, I really don't know what the king is in a hurry to urge. ”

The brigade and a group of subordinates dismounted to rest, urging some dead soldiers to boil water and cook, and the brigade temporarily rested in this Xinghua camp.

"Send someone to watch around and be vigilant!"

A general manager next to him was reluctantly named, got up and was about to beckon his subordinates to get on the horse, but suddenly stood stiffly in place, and the palm brigade said angrily when he saw this: "Grandma, you are fucking deaf!" ”

As he spoke, he stood up and stretched out his hand to fight, but suddenly he was stunned on the spot, only to see a horse team appear in the distance, with bright red armor and conspicuous battle flags, it was the night of Liu Yan's new army!

"Enemy attack!"

The commander roared, and more than a hundred thieves suddenly exploded their nests, and rushed to the war horses not far away, and the hundreds of dead soldiers were even more unbearable, and they scattered directly, no matter how the horsemen near the left beat and shouted, everyone fled directly without looking back.

Hundreds of thousands of people on the battlefield couldn't beat people, and now they are all tired like dogs, so fools stay here to die!

Seeing this, the palm brigade was so angry that he scolded, and slashed to death several dead soldiers who ran past him with a knife, but to no avail, hundreds of people scattered in a blink of an eye, and only more than a hundred horsemen were still wandering around in the Xinghua camp.

"Assemble, rush up for me!"

The brigade roared loudly, it doesn't matter if hundreds of dead soldiers ran away, just go back and report that all of them were killed in battle, but if these artillery pieces are captured by the officers and soldiers, then from below themselves, these more than 100 people will not survive!

Soon, more than a hundred horsemen followed the brigade and began to charge, and the horses gathered together and boomed

Long ran forward, but was blocked by various ruins and broken walls in the Xinghua camp, and he couldn't run fast at all.

At the same time, the attacking new army has rushed to the Xinghua camp, and there are more than 200 people who do not collect at night, and the leading general is Xu Mingde, the head of the new army's middle battalion.

"Dismount and fight, seize the advantageous terrain, and prepare for the bird!"

Xu Mingde shouted loudly, led all the soldiers to dismount, and then all the soldiers dispersed, clenched the already loaded bird guns, carried swords and short spears, and quickly rushed into the Xinghua camp, and began to rely on the ruins and broken walls everywhere, ready to encircle and annihilate the rushing thieves.

Flag commander Xiao Dongzi rushed to the left flank with dozens of subordinates, and soon rushed into a courtyard, where the houses had collapsed, leaving only many remnants of walls more than one person high, and the courtyard gate was gone.

"Ready to shoot!"

Xiao Dongzi pointed to the remnant wall in front of him, and ran over with dozens of subordinates, all the birds were erected on the wall, facing the route of those horsemen.

The same is true for the rest of the night soldiers, who soon completed the deployment in front of more than 100 horsemen.

Xu Mingde also held the bird gun at this time, aimed at the horses, estimated the distance, and then shouted: "Fire!" Beat! ”