Thirty-five miles north of Lingshou County, on the south bank of the Zihe River.

Since the beginning of spring this year, there has been basically no heavy rain in Beizhili, after a few months of evaporation, the Zihe River has no waves of the past, the original wide river surface has been extremely shrunk at this time, not to mention the cavalry, even the infantry can directly wade across the river.

At this time, the front, rear, and middle battalions of the new army had waded to the north bank of the Zihe River, and continued to march rapidly towards Xingtang County to the north.

Liu Yan rode his horse through the flowing river, jumped on the river bank, looked back, and saw that the speed of the soldiers of the guard battalion was okay, the left and central soldiers had arrived on the north bank, and the right soldiers were crossing the river.

It's just that the baggage and artillery of the artillery battalion are very heavy, and a large amount of gunpowder can't be damp, so Qian Jian has ordered people to wrap all the gunpowder in several layers with oiled paper in advance, and then put it into a sealed wooden box, and between the oiled paper bag and the wooden box, a large amount of straw is also placed.

In this way, the speed of the artillery battalion crossing the river inevitably slowed down, Liu Yan immediately mobilized heavy troops from the guard battalion to help, and the soldiers struggled to pull the artillery, called a large number of horses to drag, and it took nearly an hour for the artillery battalion to reach the north bank of the Zihe River as a whole.

"Pavilion Elder !"

Liu Yan looked at Qian Yan, who was already wet, and asked, "Is there any loss of gunpowder?" ”

"There are more than a dozen boxes of gunpowder falling into the water, six of which are unusable, and the rest should still be usable when sunburned."

Liu Yan nodded, these losses were not big, so he said:

"The artillery battalion immediately set off to the north, now our progress has fallen behind, we must speed up the speed and snatch the time back!"

"Yes!"

Qian Jian immediately shouted loudly, leading the officers and men of the artillery battalion to take the first step, and the officers and men of the front and rear battalions of the new army also followed the artillery battalion, and the officers and men of the middle battalion of the new army followed.

"Immediately order the cavalry battalion of the new army and the sixth battalion of the garrison to cross the river, and the left and right battalions of the new army will then cross the river!"

Liu Yan began to run his horse and roared angrily: "The whole army is hurrying north, and there is no stop until sunset!" Each battalion rushed to the front to set up a supply point, set up a supply point every five miles, and distributed dry food and water to the soldiers of the army along the way, and all the soldiers ate and drank during the march without stopping! ”

Soon, the army continued to advance rapidly to the north, and at this time the distance of one hundred and twenty miles had already gone for more than half of the journey, and there were only less than thirty miles left, which was Xingtang County.

Miao Shao rode his horse to follow Liu Yan and said loudly: "Ge Lao, it's dusk now, don't you take a rest on the north bank of the Zihe River first, your subordinates are worried that if you march in such a hurry, you will collide with the hundreds of thousands of troops in the back camp of the thieves!" ”

Liu Yan said: "The whole army continues to advance, now rest, it will be discovered by the thieves' scouts at any time, and the previous efforts will be wasted, the whole army will continue to the north, and arrive about ten miles south of Xingtang County at night, and then take advantage of the night to launch an attack!" ”

Miao Shao was taken aback, but he didn't expect Liu Yan, who had always been steady and steady, not only to lead the army to march 120 miles to raid the army of thieves this time, but also to directly launch a night attack, which was too dangerous!

"Pavilion Elder, the soldiers are too tired, if they really want to fight, they will suffer a big loss."

Liu Yan said categorically: "

We are tired, the thieves are advancing rapidly from Montenegro to Xingtang, and they have advanced more than two hundred miles in a few days, and they have also fought two siege battles, and they are even more tired! Coupled with the sudden night attack of our army, this battle will be won! ”

Then Liu Yan ignored Miao Shao's admonition and roared loudly: "Go at full speed and rush to Xingtang at night!" ”

Rewind time, just when Liu Yan led the army to just cross the Tuo River and did not arrive at Lingshou County, Yuan Zongdi had already climbed the city wall of Zhending Mansion City in high spirits, this city was finally defeated by himself, the official army in the city was annihilated, although the right battalion of thieves also paid the price of thousands of people, but the casualties were all dead soldiers, the main armor soldiers and Xiao cavalry soldiers were not damaged, such a price is still very cost-effective.

"Immediately count the treasury in the city, and count as many as there are."

"Yes."

Later, Yuan Zongdi found the deputy mighty general Dang Shousu, and prepared to order him to lead 30,000 dead soldiers to guard the city of Zhendingfu, and together with Liu Tichun, the general of Youguoyi, he led the main army of the right battalion to the west and attacked Luxian to threaten Jingcheng Pass.

At this moment, Yuan Zongdi and Dang Shousu suddenly saw Liu Tichun walking quickly, and then said: "General, the scout from the west has sent news that a large number of materials have been found near Huolu County, as well as a huge amount of silver coins!" ”

"What!"

As everyone knows today, only a large number of silver coins are circulating in Shandong, which is still a form of currency created by Liu Yan, which is said to be very convenient to use, full of North Zhili and South Zhili, and even Jiangnan and other places, have begun to circulate on a small scale.

At this time, Yuan Zongdi heard that a large number of silver coins had been found, and immediately shouted bad and immediately ordered

The whole battalion attacked in the direction of Luxian.

Dang Shousu asked: "General Zhi, is this really Dingfu City not left behind?" ”

Yuan Zongdi said angrily: "Most of those goods were discarded by Liu Yan's order, why? I think it's probably because Liu Yan has already led the army to withdraw from Jingcheng Pass, and he gave up a lot of goods with the army in a hurry! ”

"Liu Yan has run away, what are you still doing in Zhending Mansion? Let's go over and check the situation immediately, and then lead the army to catch up! ”

Yuan Zongdi led his army all the way to the north of Lulu County in less than two hours, where the mountains were full of all kinds of materials left behind, and there were even boxes of silver coins.

Seeing this, the soldiers and horses of the thief's right battalion suddenly began to rob with a bang, and Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun, and Dang Shousu were dumbfounded.

Even if the military discipline of the thieves' battalions is much better now, and all kinds of regulations can be implemented, and the thief atmosphere of the Dashun army is much less, but in the face of massive materials and at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, the soldiers of the right battalion can still manage a lot, and directly leave the military discipline behind, and only care about fighting for the property on the ground.

Yuan Zongdi was furious, roared loudly and sent people to gather troops and horses, ordering no one to fight for property, and those who violated the order were beheaded.

Liu Tichun and Dang Shousu each led dozens of horses to disperse the crowd, and the two led people to cut down the soldiers who did not obey the order, and it took a full hour to gather the soldiers and horses in the right battalion, and at this time more than 200 people were killed by Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun, and Dang Shousu.

"General, what should I do with all this property?"

At this time, Yuan Zongdi's face was pale, and with these belongings, the marching speed of the army would be very slow.

It is impossible to catch up with Liu Yan.

But to learn from Liu Yan to discard these belongings, Yuan Zongdi is not so atmospheric, and he is very entangled at this time.

Under the repeated questioning of Liu Tichun and Dang Shousu, Yuan Zongdi said: "First take people to load these belongings into the car, and at the same time send scouts to the north and south to search for Liu Yanbu's traces, and then make a decision!" ”

"Yes."

After another half an hour, Yuan Zongdi received news that he had found traces of the march of the army in the north, and Liu Yanbu had obviously gone north.

"North?"

Yuan Zongdi said with a smile: "In the area of Xingtang County in the north, there are hundreds of thousands of troops in the rear battalion, the front battalion and the firearms battalion, and His Majesty also led the left and right battalions of the old battalion and the new army to move closer to Xingtang County, and Liu Yan led the army to the north, which is a self-defeating road!" ”

Liu Tichun said with some concern: "But now Your Majesty has not arrived in Xingtang County after all, according to the strategy formulated by Hong Chengchou, most of the front battalion, rear battalion and firearms battalion are about to divide their troops, and one part will be stationed in Xingtang County, waiting to receive His Majesty's department, and the other part will continue to attack Quyang County to the north." If Liu Yan ...... at this time"

Yuan Zongdi and Dang Shousu were stunned, and then Yuan Zongdi said in disbelief: "Impossible! How could Liu Yan have such a strategy, he could have predicted the movements of our army? ”

Liu Tichun pointed to the large amount of property that had been loaded, and said: "Liu Yanneng suddenly withdrew here from Jingcheng Pass, gave up a large amount of property, and the whole army rushed to the north, what else could he do?" I don't think Liu Yan may be able to guess the overall strategy of our army, but it is not difficult to guess that the strength of our army has been spread out, and there are troops in Xingtang County. ”

Yuan Zongdi immediately shouted

"Immediately send someone to report the news to His Majesty, and the whole battalion will immediately pursue it north!" ”

Dang Shousu asked, "What about these belongings?" ”

Yuan Zongdi looked at the huge amount of property at this time, almost crushed his teeth, and then squeezed out two words from between his teeth: "Give up!" ”

Then the soldiers and horses of the thief's right battalion, under Yuan Zongdi's strict order, began to pursue northward, and at the same time, a team of fast horses rushed towards Montenegro.

At the same time, Liu Fangliang, who was stationed in Pingshan County, also received an urgent report from the scouts: Liu Yanbu in the direction of Jingcheng Pass disappeared at night!

Liu Fangliang suddenly had a bad premonition, and hurriedly led the army of the left battalion of thieves to pounce on Jingcheng Pass, and when he was about to arrive at Guancheng, he met Liu Zongmin's troops in the middle camp who rushed to the city.

"Why is General Kwon here!"

At this time, the army of the middle camp and the left battalion continued to march towards Jingcheng Pass in unison, and Liu Fangliang came with a team of horsemen and horses, and asked directly when they met.

Liu Zongmin said with a solemn face: "Liu Yanbu in the direction of Jingcheng Pass has not been seen at night, and the scouts of my middle camp have been posted under the wall of the pass, and they have released arrows to the city to test it, do you know that the Ming army at the head of the city is a scarecrow!" ”

"What!"

Liu Fangliang was taken aback: "Liu Yan led the department to run away!" ”

Liu Zongmin nodded and said, "It just so happens that you are also here, let's merge one place and take down the Jingcheng Pass first, and then report the situation to Your Majesty." ”

Liu Fangliang shouted: "What else is an empty city going to do? Report to Your Majesty immediately, and the army will immediately stop advancing! ”

Liu Zongmin frowned slightly, obviously dissatisfied with Liu Fangliang's attitude, and said: "Then we have to go to Jingcheng Pass, and we must first send scouts to investigate Liu Yanbu."

determine the direction of Liu Yanbu's withdrawal, otherwise how to report to His Majesty? ”

Liu Fangliang said loudly: "Where else can I go?" Liu Yan must have led his troops to the north. ”

"Impossible!"

Liu Zongmin said categorically: "You and I have two battalions of hundreds of thousands of troops in the north, and Liu Yan's more than 100,000 troops will not be able to pass smoothly." ”

"Won Lu County!"

Liu Fangliang said: "We and the soldiers and horses of the right battalion have a gap in Huolu County, and Liu Yan must have gone north from Huolu County!" ”

Liu Zongmin also trembled in his heart, and exclaimed: "Liu Yan is so cunning! ”

Liu Fangliang was very dissatisfied with Liu Zongmin's step-by-step order, and said: "Let's fight Liu Yan several times, what kind of person is he, doesn't General Quan know yet?" The top priority now is to pursue immediately, there is no need to go to Jingcheng Pass anymore! ”

Liu Zongmin thought for a while and asked, "Then which direction are we going?" ”

Liu Fangliang said without thinking: "Lingshou County! Let's go to Lingshou County to intercept Liu Yanbu! ”

Liu Zongmin nodded in agreement, and immediately sent a fast horse to report the news to Li Zicheng, and then said worriedly: "I don't know when Liu Yanbu evacuated Jingcheng Pass, I hope we still have time." ”

Liu Fangliang said: "Don't worry, the north of Lingshou County is Xingtang County, according to the strategy, the rear camp of the little general will be stationed in Xingtang County to wait for His Majesty's army, even if we fail to block Liu Yan, the rear camp soldiers and horses will ......."

Speaking of this, Liu Fangliang and Liu Zongmin were stunned, and then Liu Zongmin shouted: "Will Liu Yan go to Xingtang County, he will intersperse Xingtang County!" ”

Liu Fangliang only felt that his heart was about to pop out at this time,

Facing the surprise attack of Liu Yan's army of more than 100,000 troops alone, with Li Hou's battalion soldiers and horses, there was basically no chance of victory.

"The whole army is heading north, and the army is rushing to Lingshou County!"