In the past 10 days, Li Zicheng led 3,000 men and horses of his headquarters to play a game of going around in circles with several chasing soldiers on an area of hundreds of miles north of Huaiqing Mansion, and engaged in six or seven battles, dragging all 80,000 or 90,000 officers and soldiers in northern Henan. This is because he is good at using troops, and his subordinates are very elite and brave, and there are also several lines of officers and troops in pursuit who are under the command of different commanders, and the factions in the court are different, and they do not cooperate with each other to fight tacitly.

Just yesterday, Li Zicheng set up an ambush in a canyon and defeated a horse team under Zhang Yingchang, who had left his headquarters too far because he was in a hurry to get closer, and wiped out hundreds of officers and cavalry.

However, even the most elite troops will be tired, and the wounded in the team will continue to increase. Now that Gao Yingxiang's men and horses have crossed the Yellow River and entered the Jin realm, Li Zicheng's responsibility to break the queen has been completed, and it is time to retreat.

As for the retreat strategy, Li Zicheng also had a plan, that is, to use this Qi River. After several days of guerrilla warfare, although several lines of officers and troops have formed a situation of encirclement and pursuit, they have all been left behind, and they can be left behind only by rushing across the Qi River, which can leave them behind for several hours, greatly increasing the chances of escape.

At this time, hearing the words of Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, Li Zicheng said in a deep voice: "Li Guo is right, it is absolutely impossible to abandon the injured brothers! If there is really no other way, we will throw away the grain and grass baggage, Gao Chuang Wang took away a lot of grain and grass, and this time when we enter the Jin realm, as long as we capture Liaozhou, we can also get a lot of supplies." ”

Tian Jianxiu said: "Those more than 20 steel cannons are very heavy, do you also throw them down?"

Li Zicheng said: "No! These Hongyi cannons are sharp weapons for attacking the city, and they will be of great use in the future, so they must be taken away no matter what!"

He knew in his heart that after this incident, the weapons trade with the "Evil Dog Gate" might not be able to continue, and it would not be easy to get these cannons in the future.

While they were talking, many of the rebels and horses on the dock had already boarded the boats, and three or four of them, fully loaded wooden boats, had already left the dock and sailed across the river. None of these wooden boats were too large, each of them could only carry a few dozen people, and more than a dozen boats had to make at least three or four round-trips before they could transport all the rebels across the river.

But at this time, I suddenly heard Liu Zongmin say: "Big brother, look, there seem to be people and horses on the other side coming towards the river!"

Li Zicheng stared at it when he heard this, and saw that there was a cloud of smoke and dust rising in the distance on the other side of the river, which was a sign of people and horses running. His face immediately sank, and he shouted: "Send the order, and all the ships will set sail across the river at once! Li Guo, you also go with the boat, no matter what, you must occupy the dock on the other side!"

Li Guo immediately responded.

On both sides of the river here, except for the wharf, there are mostly rocky walls, so it is not easy for ships to land on the shore. Now that the rebels were still on the east bank, and the first ships had not yet reached the center of the river, it would be a very bad situation if the dock on the opposite side was occupied by the enemy and the rebels were trapped in the river. Li Zicheng understood this well, and did not hesitate to give orders to seize the opposite riverbank.

Tian Jianxiu said: "I don't know who the people and horses are coming from the other side, could it be that the officers and soldiers expected that we were going to cross the river here, so they set up an ambush first?"

Liu Zongmin said: "Impossible! We went around in a big circle in Xiuwu before we passed through the Qi River, and the officers and soldiers certainly couldn't guess it." If there really were such a clever master in the other camp, he would have been able to surround and kill us a few days ago, how could he wait until today!"

Li Zicheng said: "No matter who the people are, there should be a small number of people in the smoke, no more than two or three hundred, as long as our army crosses the river first to occupy the wharf, there is nothing to fear." ”

With this Li Zicheng's experience and vision in many years of warfare, it would not be wrong to estimate the opponent's strength, but the swiftness of the movement of the men and horses on the other side of the river was beyond his expectations. All of them dressed in green clothes and riding fast horses, they galloped to the shore and came to the docks in a matter of moments. At this time, not only the boat that Li Guo was riding had just left the shore, but the three or four wooden boats that crossed the river first had just crossed the center of the river, and they were still thirty or forty zhang away from the opposite bank.

The cavalry on the other side was less than two hundred men, and I saw them dismounting, squatting or standing, and forming a strange formation on the riverbank, but I heard someone shouting loudly: "All the boats on the river are listening, stop me at once, and dare to sail over and kill me!"

The surface of the Qi River is more than 100 zhang, the river is turbulent, and the sound of flowing water is not small, but the shout of the person on the opposite side is a sonic shock, even Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others across the river can also hear it clearly, obviously because the martial arts master has used the internal force to make a sound.

Looking from a distance, he saw two war horses in front of the opposite formation, shouting a wicked man in yellow, and a handsome young man beside him.

Tian Jianxiu exclaimed: "That's Shi Gongzi's people! The cavalry on the other side of the river are all Shi Gongzi's subordinates!"

Liu Zongmin's face was a little pale, and Li Zicheng's expression also became solemn, they all recognized that the two people opposite were Li Hu and Ximen Tong in the "Five Little Dogs", and the team of Tsing Yi knights was the men and horses of the Perak camp.

Although he heard the shouts of the tiger, the ferryboat of the rebel army in the middle of the river did not receive a military order, but did not stop the boat, but accelerated its oars and sailed straight to the opposite bank. Although the men and horses on the opposite side have lined up, they are only one or two hundred people, and there are sixty or seventy rebels on each wooden boat, as long as the three or four boats in front rush to the shore and the rebel soldiers force the landing, the number will be superior, and it should not be a problem to take the dock.

However, after only an instant, this approach has proven to be completely unfeasible.

There was a roar like bursting beans, a puff of white smoke rose from the riverbank, and a wooden boat at the front had been hit by countless buckshots! The mast of the ship was torn off, and many holes were blown open in the planks of the ship, and the river water poured into the cabin, and the whole boat suddenly turned on the surface of the river.

Within a few tens of feet, the muskets of the Perak battalion fired enough lead bullets to penetrate the planks an inch thick, and these ferries on the Qi River were not sturdy, and under the volley of hundreds of muskets, they were quite lucky not to be beaten apart.

I only heard the tiger shouting: "This time only shooting the boat, it is considered a warning, and if you dare to sail forward, it is no wonder that we want to shoot people!"

In the past, although Li Zicheng had seen the disciples of Hua Bushi's Perak Battalion, he had never known their strength.

If it was on flat ground, dealing with hordes of musketeers, Li Zicheng might also be able to disperse the rebel army and charge, pay some price to force the opponent to fight hand-to-hand. But now on this Qi River, the soldiers are crowded on the ferry, and they cannot disperse at all, and the boat is not fast, and it is simply a live target to sail past like this, but I am afraid that before I can get close to the shore, I will be shot and killed.

Moreover, because of the limited number of boats, there were not enough troops to cross the river at one time, and even if they barely rushed to the river bank, it was difficult to seize the wharf in one go, and the terrain on the river bank in front of the opposite wharf had nothing to cover and cover, and the landing was all within the range of the opponent's muskets.

The other party had obviously calculated a long time ago, so they took the lead in occupying the dock, and with the advantage of the terrain in front of them, these two hundred musketeers were enough to block more than 2,000 rebel troops on the east bank.

Li Zicheng's brows furrowed, and he shouted: "Order, tell the wooden boat to stop!"

The flag-bearers waved pennants and gave instructions to the boats on the river, and soon more than a dozen ferries anchored in the middle of the river.

Someone on the boat shouted: "Is it Brother Lihu on the other side, I don't know if Shi Gongzi can be on the shore?"

The other side was silent for a while, and then heard Li Hu shouting: "Boss Shi said, tell Li Zicheng to cross the river in a small boat, the boss has something to say to him!"

When Li Zicheng heard this, he shouted loudly: "Okay! Go and tell Brother Hua, I will cross the river to meet him!"

This Li Chuangjiang's voice is also not small, and the shouts are like a bell, and the people on the east and west banks of the Qi River can also hear it.

Liu Zongmin said: "Hua Bushi has a lot of masters, you have to beware that they will be unfavorable to the eldest brother, let Zong Min accompany the eldest brother to cross the river together!"

Li Zicheng groaned for a while, and said: "No, you already have some festivals with him, and it is useless to go to the river, so I will cross the river by myself!"

Liu Zongmin and Tian Jianxiu still wanted to speak, but Li Zicheng waved his hand and galloped towards the riverbank.

The boat was soon ready, and Li Zicheng boarded the boat alone, with only one soldier on the row, and crossed the river and sailed straight towards the west bank.

The boat moved quickly, and it was almost across the river and docked at the wharf on the west bank. Li Zicheng ordered the soldier to stay on the boat, and with a slight leap, he jumped onto the wooden bridge on the shore. He looked up, but saw that the musket array of the disciples of the Perak Camp was thirty zhang away, and the muzzles of more than a hundred black holes were all facing him.

Li Zicheng's face was completely fearless, he slapped the hilt of the big iron sword at his waist with his palm, and walked forward with a loud shout: "Brother Hua! When my brother's has crossed the river, you can come out to meet you!"

After a while, I saw a white horse turn out from behind the musket array, and the young man in white Shengxue who was riding on the horse was none other than Hua Bushi.

The horse galloped to the edge of the wooden bridge and was strangled, Hua Bushi turned over and dismounted, and walked alone.

This wooden bridge is used for the unloading of moored ships, about 20 zhang long, Li Zicheng and Hua Bushi are walking in the opposite direction, to the center of the wooden bridge, only to face to face zhanzhu. There were only two of them on the bridge, at least ten feet away from the others, and here the river was howling and the water was crashing on the shore, and if they had not shouted loudly, the sound of their voices would not have been heard by others.