Dingzhou City.

Liu Yan walked on the city wall of Dingzhou in armor, and behind him Xu Ming, Miao Shao, Chen Xun, Wang Bo, Zhang Yi, Shen Tuo, Qian Zhang, Tian Zhenbei, and Wang Yue were also fully clothed, and followed Liu Yan to inspect the defense on the city wall.

Now Liu Yan has set the strategy of "holding Dingzhou and fighting a decisive battle with the enemy", and the battalions of the new army and the garrison army took Dingzhou City as the core and completed the overall defense in two days.

According to the strategy formulated by Liu Yan, Dingzhou City was backed by the Hushui River, and the eastern city wall was only less than two miles away from the west bank of the Hushui River, and the army of thieves could not be deployed in the east at all.

Therefore, Liu Yan deployed the guard battalion in Dingzhou City, mainly on the south, west, and north sides for defense, and only deployed the baggage defense and vigilance of the guard battalion in the east.

The strength of the three divisions of the guard battalion defended the city on the south, west and north sides.

Outside the city, Liu Yan deployed the front battalion in the north of the city, the rear battalion in the south of the city, and the middle battalion in the west of the city.

The 6th Battalion of the Garrison Army, as a reserve force, was also placed in the city and was responsible for supporting all parts of the Dingzhou city defense.

As for the artillery battalion of the new army led by Qian Yan, it was deployed in the west of Dingzhou City, and Xingtang County was in the west of Dingzhou, and Liu Yan concluded that the west would be the main direction of attack of the thief army.

However, in order to strengthen the firepower in the north and south of Dingzhou, Liu Yan ordered Qian Yan to divide a part of the captured gunners of the thief firearms battalion, and deployed 50 artillery pieces on the north and south walls of Dingzhou, and transferred some gunners from the new army artillery battalion on both sides.

In these two days, Liu Yan also ordered the governor of Dingzhou to recruit a large number of people.

In fact, more than 10,000 strong men and strong women were requisitioned from the city of Dingzhou, and all of them were pulled outside the city to build field fortifications.

The field fortifications outside the city of Dingzhou are also the same as the original defense line in Hongluo Mountain, from the outside to the inside are the rejection of horses, sharp wooden pile trenches, and low walls, because of the reason of time, Liu Yan expected that Li Zicheng left only three to five days for himself, so the defense line outside the city was only built two, surrounding the south, west and north of Dingzhou City.

Coupled with the firepower on the city wall of Dingzhou, this constitutes a complete three-dimensional cross firepower, Liu Yan is confident that with the 100,000 soldiers of the new army and the garrison army, Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of troops will shed all the blood under the city!

Although it was only two days, Liu Yan gave all the men involved in the construction of the fortifications five catties of rations per day, and the strong women each of them three catties per day, which did not include two days' meals.

In today's world, even Dingzhou City, which is located in Beizhili, has been out of food for several months, and the people in the city have already begun to eat wild vegetables and dig voles, although Liu Yan only gave each person a few catties of food per day, but for these people, it is also very tempting, and they all keep starting fires, for fear that they will not be able to get the promised food.

Two days later, the defensive line outside Dingzhou was completed, and Liu Yan also fulfilled his promise to distribute a large amount of grain.

Liu Yanjunzhong gave up a large amount of property in Huolu County, but all the grain was carried in the army, so the grain and grass in the army could last for several months at this time, and there was no need to worry about food for the time being.

"Elder Ge sees that although the defense line outside the city is not as sharp as the original defense line of Hongluo Mountain in Liaodong, it is enough to resist hundreds of thousands of thieves

The army is on the attack! ”

Chen Xun looked at the two trenches and low wall defense lines winding outside the city, and couldn't help but think of the scene when he was defending Hongluo Mountain, and immediately sighed.

Liu Yan said: "That's true, but this line of defense in Dingzhou is enough. Our army successively knocked out several battalions of thieves and hundreds of thousands of troops, especially the firearms battalion that annihilated the thieves, and captured all the hundreds of artillery. ”

Shen Tuo suddenly said: "Pavilion Elder, what if Li Zicheng knows that he is invincible and directly leads his troops to withdraw?" ”

Liu Yan said: "Don't worry, don't look at Li Zicheng with hundreds of thousands of troops now, it looks majestic, but in fact, Li Zicheng has already entered a desperate situation." ”

Everyone was surprised when they heard this, even Li Zicheng was defeated in a row, but he was far from the word desperate, right?

Liu Yan explained: "Li Zicheng wants to withdraw his troops, where can he withdraw to? Now Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi are all thousands of miles of red land, and the mourning is everywhere, Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of family dependents have withdrawn, and his father does not have to lead the army to cover up and kill, and the famine and natural disasters over there alone are enough to make Li Zicheng completely defeated. ”

"Rob?"

Liu Yan sneered and said: "Li Zicheng doesn't expect to survive by grabbing things like before, now in the northwest provinces, everyone has nothing to do, Li Zicheng can't find a way to live except for eating people!" So now there is only one road left in front of Li Zicheng: that is, obediently lead the army to Dingzhou, as long as he defeats our army, Li Zicheng can revitalize the overall situation! ”

Then Liu Yan looked

With a group of subordinates, he asked loudly: "But the question is, can Li Zicheng defeat our army!" ”

"Can't!"

Everyone roared loudly and angrily, wanting to defeat the new army? Joke! No one in the world has such combat power!

On this day, the soldiers on the right side of the cavalry battalion of the new army who were sent out to escort Li Dingguo and the prisoners of the Ainengqi Department also contacted the night in the periphery, and the general Lu Yuan led his troops to arrive in Dingzhou City, so far Liu Yan led all the troops to the south to gather in Dingzhou City to set up defenses.

A day later, Liu Yan successively received urgent reports from the battalions that they did not collect at night: the army of thieves appeared in the west of Dingzhou City!

At this time, the commanders of each battalion were all in place, and the officers and men of each battalion also entered their respective defense areas to deploy defenses, only Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Tian Zhenbei, Wang Bo, and Zhang Yi were deployed in the city, and several people did not go out of the city to garrison.

Liu Yan immediately took a few people to climb the west wall of Dingzhou City, only to see the smoke and dust billowing on the wilderness in the west, and countless flags appeared between the heaven and earth in the west, covering the sky and the sun, and the military array in the west was also vast, as if boundless.

Miao Shao sneered and said: "Li Zicheng has never won a war with us, but he has never lost the ranks, it's really not easy!" ”

Everyone burst out laughing, not paying attention to the hundreds of thousands of thieves who had been killed.

Liu Yan also smiled, although he also gathered all the soldiers and horses to be ready for battle, but it did not mean that he was afraid of Li Zicheng's troops, but he did what the great men of later generations said: to despise the enemy strategically, to attach importance to the enemy tactically, and that's it!

"Command all departments, prepare for battle!"

Liu Yan pointed to the Xicheng Tower and said, "My father is here to command."

Fight, let the soldiers of each battalion cheer up, let's let Li Zicheng sink into the sand under the city of Dingzhou! ”

"Yes!"

Immediately afterwards, dozens of war drums on the city wall of Dingzhou rumbled, and 100,000 soldiers inside and outside the city roared in unison, and the shouts of "Wansheng" resounded throughout the world.

At this time, a few miles to the west of Dingzhou City, Li Zicheng looked at the city in the distance with a complicated expression, the roars of the soldiers of the new army and the garrison, and the roar of the war drums in the city were faintly audible, which made Li Zicheng feel a little shocked, and he couldn't help but hesitate in his heart.

After Li Zicheng's death, Tian Jianxiu, the general of the old battalion system, Liu Zongmin, the general of the middle battalion, He Jin, the former Guoyi general, Ren Jirong, the consequence Yi general, Wu Ruyi, the left battalion general, Liu Fangliang, the left Guoyi general, Ma Shiyao, the right mighty general, and the left mighty general Li Jin, all looked solemn.

On the side, Wu Sangui, the general of the left battalion of the new army of thieves, Xia Guoxiang, Wang Pu, the generals of the right Guoyi, Wang Pingfan, Li Fuming, and Ma Bao, the generals of the right battalion of the new army of thieves, Chen Yongfu, and Chen De, the general of the left battalion of the new army, were also speechless, and everyone not only looked solemn, but also very entangled and complicated in their hearts.

Among the people, except for Ma Bao, everyone else had fought side by side with Liu Yan. Wu Sangui and others in the left camp all fought with Liu Yan on the battlefield in Liaodong, while Chen Yongfu and his son were in Kaifeng City, but they fought together against the army of thieves.

But now, everyone wants to meet Liu Yan's sword soldiers and never die, which everyone never dreamed of, and they are unwilling to face it no matter what, not because of their friendship with Liu Yan, but because Liu Yanbu is too capable of fighting!

In Lee

By Zicheng's side, Hong Chengchou, Li Yan, Gu Junen, Niu Jinxing, and Song Xiance also didn't say a word, and finally faced Liu Yan's army, but at this time, whether it was Hong Chengchou or Li Yan and the other four, they didn't have much confidence in their hearts, and all they thought about was how to hit Liu Yanbu hard, how to force Liu Yan to take the initiative to lead the army to withdraw, and everyone had room for maneuver.

As for the defeat of Liu Yan's army in World War I, or even the total annihilation of Liu Yan's 100,000-strong army in Dingzhou, such a thing, from Li Zicheng to ordinary thief soldiers, no one ever thought about it, at most, it was just a mouthful of money during the military discussion.

"Liu Yan's morale is booming, today my Dashun army arrived at the city of Dingzhou, and we should not attack the city immediately, we should build a camp first, and wait until the soldiers of each battalion recover their physical strength, and then divide the troops to attack!"

After everyone was silent for a while, Hong Chengchou took the lead in speaking, and immediately won the unanimous approval of everyone, even Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance also agreed.

Li Zicheng nodded and said, "The army is encamped ten miles west of Dingzhou City. ”

This means that the thieves' battalions have to retreat a few miles, which shows Li Zicheng's serious mentality at this time.

Later, Li Zicheng added: "The soldiers of each battalion should be stationed in a hard village, and the distance between the battalions should not be too far, so as not to be attacked by Liu Yan's troops." The scouts of each battalion were immediately sent out to monitor the soldiers and horses of Liu Yan's troops in Dingzhou City, and as soon as there was any movement, they immediately reported to Gu Yu! ”

"Yes!"

As a trumpet sounded, hundreds of thousands of troops from each battalion of thieves began to slowly retreat.

At the head of Dingzhou City, Liu Yan and the others each held clairvoyant mirrors and watched, and saw that Li Zicheng's army did not immediately attack the city, but retreated

, are a little lost.

Liu Yan said with a smile: "It seems that we have hurt Li Zicheng, and now Li Zicheng also knows that he must fight steadily, and he is no longer pushing the crowd to rush." ”

Chen Xun said: "It seems that this battle is a protracted battle!" ”

"That's the best!"

Liu Yan said: "The money and grain from Shandong and the capital can be directly transported into Dingzhou City through the Hushui River, and the army of thieves cannot threaten the east bank of the Hushui River. But Li Zicheng is different, if it drags on, I see where he will conjure up the grain of millions of people and horses! ”