North Zhili Zhending House, Montenegro.

Black Mountain is an unknown mountain range in Zhending Province, the mountain is relatively gentle, there are many trees and streams in the mountains, and there are many mountain roads under the mountain together with the traffic between Zhending Province and Shanxi.

As a result, the strategic position of Montenegro was also established.

Seventy miles to the north of Montenegro is Longquan Pass, one hundred and twenty miles to the south is Jingcheng Pass, and to the east is Xingtang, Xinle, Quyang and other county towns of Zhending Mansion, which can be said to occupy Montenegro, which is equivalent to occupying the hinterland of Zhending Mansion and then attacking the first hand of Beijing City.

At this time, the banner of Montenegro covered the sun, Li Zicheng led a million men and horses to leave Xinzhou suddenly, occupied Montenegro at a very fast speed, and the army began to divide troops to the south and east with Montenegro as the center.

Li Zicheng led the old battalion as the Chinese army, and set up camp at the foot of the eastern mountain of Heishan, at this time in the big tent of the Chinese army, Li Zicheng sat in the middle, Hong Chengchou, Li Yan, Gu Junen, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and the right general Tian Jianxiu, and the female general Red Lady sat down, and everyone was discussing the current battle situation.

Now Hong Chengchou is deeply trusted by Li Zicheng because of his ability to rectify the army, so this military meeting was presided over by Hong Chengchou. Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance were jealous of this, and they never had a good face for Hong Chengchou.

"Your Majesty, according to the strategy of our army, General Liu Zongmin led the soldiers of the middle battalion to the south, and has now arrived at Xiakou Village, sixty miles south of Montenegro, and has set up defenses in the area of Shibapan, blocking the main force of Liu Yan's troops stationed in the area of Jingcheng Pass."

"General Liu Fangliang led the soldiers of the left battalion to take Pingshan County in the south, and together with the middle battalion, they formed an overall defense line to block the south of Liu Yan's department, for me

The main forces marched east to buy time. ”

At the same time, the general Yuan Zongdi led the soldiers of the right battalion to take Lingshou County, and was attacking Zhending Mansion City from Lingshou County to the south. As long as the soldiers of the right battalion take the city of Zhendingfu, they can work with the left battalion and the middle battalion to form a situation of eastern, northern, and western copying of the main force of Liu Yanbu stationed at Jingcheng Pass, and the hundreds of thousands of troops of the third battalion of our army are enough to exert tremendous strategic pressure on Liu Yanbu. ”

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "This strategy is still deployed by Mr. Hong, and it is really ruthless." If this battle is won, Mr. Hong should be the first to take credit! ”

Hong Chengchou humbly said a few words, and then continued: "At present, with the front battalion of General Li Laiheng, the rear battalion of General Li Guobu, and the firearms battalion of General Li Dingguo's department as the vanguard, the army of the third battalion is storming Xingtang County, and it is estimated that it will be able to conquer it within a few days, opening the passage for our army to go north to Beijing. ”

"At present, the left battalion, the right battalion and the old battalion of the new army are stationed in the center of the Montenegrin area, and it is estimated by the ministers that in five days at most, the battalions of the Chinese army will march eastward, so as not to go out too much in front of Qianying, the rear battalion, and the firearms battalion."

Li Zicheng nodded and said: "This time, our army broke into the territory of Zhending Mansion at great speed, and we didn't even see many scouts from Liu Yanbu, which can be regarded as a good start." In this battle, our army blocked Liu Yanbu with superior forces, blocked it in Jingcheng Pass, and waited for the opportunity to hit it hard, and attacked the capital north with the main force, and won the Ming Kingdom in one fell swoop. ”

Hong Chengchou, Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Tian Jianxiu and others hugged their fists and said: "Your Majesty Shengming, the ministers are willing to die with each other!" ”

Then Li Zicheng set the tone: Lao Ying

and the left and right battalions of the Forces nouvelles set out three days later to join the rear, front, and firearms battalions to the east.

Today's army of thieves not only has a million troops, but also at least 10,000 musketeers have been trained in each battalion, and the army is fully equipped with armor, war horses, etc., and even each battalion is equipped with a considerable number of carriages and ox carts to transport the army's grain, grass and materials.

It can be said that thanks to the efforts of Hong Chengchou, Li Yan, and others, the army of rogues at this time has been reborn, and not only the military discipline and morale of each battalion are strict, but the military equipment and combat strength have also risen to a higher level, and the transformation from rogues to regular troops has basically been completed.

It's just that this huge change has come at the cost of the suffering of the people in Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places.

Li Zicheng reorganized the soldiers and horses of the various battalions of the thieves, ordered a huge amount of money, grain, and materials to be looted from the northwestern provinces, and emptied almost all the treasury and arsenal of the occupied cities, leaving only the northwestern provinces devastated.

Even after Li Zicheng transferred troops and horses from all over the country, famine and turmoil broke out in various cities, but there was no food to help the people, and no one took care of it.

At present, Li Zicheng has very few troops stationed in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi cities, such as Datong, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and other important cities, and there are still one or two thousand miscellaneous troops stationed in them, and some of the remaining counties are even completely undefended.

Just when Li Zicheng thought that he was in the first place, Jingcheng Pass, which was more than 100 miles away to the south, was already empty, and the originally overcrowded Guancheng could not see a single soldier at this time, only left

The banner of the Ming army is still fluttering in the wind on the head of the city, and from a distance, you can still see many figures on the head of the city, but you don't know that they are all dense scarecrows.

In the east, more than 50 miles away from Jingcheng Pass, more than 100,000 soldiers of Liu Yan's department are marching eastward, because the army of thieves has rushed into Zhending Mansion, so at this time the soldiers are equivalent to marching in the enemy's territory, so they are all neatly clothed and fully armed and marching forward.

Liu Yan rode his horse to follow the guard camp, and after a while, Miao Shao rode his horse and said loudly: "Ge Lao! There is no news at night: the army of more than 100,000 troops in the right battalion of the thieves is storming the city of Zhendingfu, and the defenders in the city are insufficient, and the city is in danger! ”

Liu Yan frowned slightly, Li Zicheng gave himself a big surprise at the beginning of this battle, he never expected that the army of thieves who had been reorganized for several months would be able to run such an unexpectedly fast march, and directly charged into Zhending Mansion.

If it weren't for the cooperation of the Military Intelligence Department and the battalions at night, they found out in time that the main force of the thieves had left Xinzhou and was marching rapidly to the east, Liu Yan would have really been caught off guard by Li Zicheng this time!

Liu Yan said: "The city of Zhendingfu is deep and strong, and it will not be a problem for the defenders in the city to hold on for another two or three days. Order the army to enter the city of Luxian tonight to rest, tomorrow at dawn, with the cavalry battalion as the vanguard, the army rushed to the right camp of the thieves at full speed, eat this enemy army first, and give Li Zicheng a big gift! ”

"Order!"

At this time, Liu Yan had roughly inferred Li Zicheng's strategic deployment based on the news that the Military Intelligence Department and the battalions did not receive and send back at night.

The lower entrance to the north of the new army

The banner of the middle camp of the thieves appeared in the village and the eighteenth pan, and the banner of the left camp of the thieves also appeared in Pingshan County, and now the right camp of the thieves is attacking Zhending Mansion again, which is a posture to surround themselves.

So where did the main army of Li Zicheng's rest of the battalions go?

Liu Yan speculated that there were two possibilities, one was a strategic detour, Li Zicheng led hundreds of thousands of main forces to the south, preparing to attack from Yuanshi County and Zanhuang County, forming a huge encirclement with a million troops, and annihilating himself and more than 100,000 soldiers in the area of Jingcheng Pass.

There is another possibility, that is, Li Zicheng has led the main army to go straight to Beijing.

Now this strategic situation is not like Li Zicheng's style, Liu Yan believes that this strategy is most likely Hong Chengchou's "masterpiece", so Liu Yan boldly speculated that Li Zicheng and Hong Chengchou must be a perfect match, the two besieged and attacked themselves with part of their forces, and then raided Beijing City with the main force, wanting to settle the world in one battle!

"Humph!"

At this time, the army was heading towards the county seat of Lu, and if there was any, it would be possible to enter the county seat to rest, Liu Yan rode his horse and galloped, and secretly said in his heart: "Want to divide the troops to attack with the advantage of troops? Then Lao Tzu will fight a sports war with you Li Zicheng, let you see, what is called: a sports war with the goal of annihilating the enemy's living forces! ”

"Report!"

Suddenly, the front night did not collect the horse and galloped back, came to Liu Yan's side by side, and said loudly: "Elder Qiyuge, the cavalry battalion will not receive the news at night: the front battalion, the rear battalion and the firearms battalion of the thieves have captured Xingtang County, and now the army of the rear battalion of the thieves is stationed in Xingtang County, and the front battalion and the firearms battalion are going to Quyang County. ”

Liu Yan was taken aback when he heard the news, the attack of the thieves

The march was really fast, and the army was immediately ordered to stop advancing and rest.

Subsequently, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Wang Yue, Chen Xun, Shen Tuo, Zhang Yi, Qian Zhang, Wang Bo, Tian Zhenbei and others were summoned to the Chinese army by Liu Yan.

"Now that the battle situation has changed, the speed of the army of thieves attacking Beijing is too fast, we must find a way to fight, slow down the progress of the thieves, and let Li Zicheng and us fight a general battle in the area of Zhending Mansion and Baoding Mansion!"

Everyone is gearing up, this kind of million-level war, I'm afraid I can only encounter this once in a lifetime, it's really a blessing for three lives!

Subsequently, Liu Yan ordered the whole army to give up entering Huolu County, turn directly to the north from here, rush to the north of the Tuotuo River, and go straight to Xingtang County through Lingshou County, and first encircle and annihilate the thieves and then the battalion Li Guobu.

"Now Li Zicheng's old battalion and the two battalions of the new army are still in the area of Montenegro, the front battalion and the firearms battalion have gone to Quyang County, and the rest of the business divisions are in various places, which is the best time to encircle and annihilate Li Guobu in the rear battalion!"

Miao Shao frowned slightly, and said: "Elder Ge, there is a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles from us to Xingtang County, and the cavalry battalion can be said to be able to attack quickly, and it will be able to arrive in about two days." However, the rest of the battalions are infantry, and there are even artillery battalions to follow, so I am afraid that it will take four to five days to walk for this one hundred and twenty miles, is it too late? ”

Liu Yan said categorically: "There are no four to five days left for us, now the cavalry battalion is equipped with two war horses per person, don't save horsepower at this time, let me go, people don't stop, one day, at most before noon the next day, the cavalry battalion must rush to Xingtang County."

Raid. ”

"In addition to weapons, food, and medicine, the rest of the battalions will give up all the materials on the spot, and the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver carried by the army will also be abandoned, and the whole army will advance lightly, and all the vacated carriages will be used to transport artillery, and the main force of the army must arrive in Xingtang County within two days, and then launch a general attack!"

Everyone was shocked when they heard Liu Yan's words.

Qian Jian said with a bitter face: "Elder Ge, running one hundred and twenty miles in two days, this is impossible!" ”

Wang Yue also said distressedly: "Yes, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, plus those materials, must have a value of millions of taels, and they have all been thrown away?" ”

Liu Yan said loudly: "Li Zicheng's thieves can rush hundreds of miles to break into Zhending Mansion, are the battalions of my new army and garrison army not as good as the thieves who have just been reorganized!" ”

In a word, everyone stopped talking.

"I think you are used to winning battles, and you have become arrogant soldiers!"

Liu Yan said angrily: "One hundred and twenty miles, the whole army must run within two days, and if you don't arrive, the lord will be killed on the spot!" ”