On a hill outside Dong'e County, Zhu Yuanzhang stood facing the wind and looked ahead silently.
At this time, the sun has set in the west, and the afterglow is still shining on the earth, but the cool wind has risen, and darkness is quietly swallowing everything.
Zhu Yuanzhang stood quietly for a long time, then turned his head and looked at a dense forest on the right, where more than a hundred Jinyi guards were resting.
"hiss!"
At this time, a horse's cry came from the dense forest, but the sound stopped suddenly.
Then there were a few faint scolding sounds, and soon the calm returned.
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and shook his head, then looked back to the front.
At this time, a rush of footsteps came from behind him.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not look back, because there were six or seven tiger warriors guarding the foot of the hill. Anyone with evil intentions would not be able to go up the hill.
The only person who can go up the hill at this moment is Li Wu, a member of the Hundred Households who died in Huben.
Sure enough, the footsteps stopped about two meters away from him, and then Li Wu's voice was heard: "Your Majesty, Yang Qigang has just sent news that the rebels who were chasing him have been eliminated!"
After Li Wu reported the matter, he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang did not speak. When he was about to leave, he heard Zhu Yuanzhang's voice saying: "Li Wu, go and meet Zhao Li."
Li Wu was startled when he heard this, and hurriedly looked forward, and vaguely saw a figure staggering towards this side.
He immediately rushed down the hillside and faced the figure.
When he walked in, he found that the person who came was indeed Zhao Li from Jin Yiwei.
When Zhao Li saw him, a happy look appeared on his face. Just as he was about to reach out to greet him, he suddenly let out a scream and fell down.
"Enemy attack!"
Li Wu shouted loudly, pulled out the long knife from his waist, and rushed forward quickly.
At the same time, two vigorous figures jumped down from the tree and rushed forward quickly.
Li Wu saw that the Huben soldiers who were on guard were actually chasing him. Knowing that there were not many people coming, he went up to check Zhao Li's situation.
When he saw that Zhao Li was only shot in the right leg by a sharp arrow, he felt happy in his heart, helped him up and said, "Are you okay?"
Zhao Li shook his head and said: "I won't die, but a dozen of my brothers were captured by them!"
"Do you know who the other party is?"
Just when Li Wu was about to ask, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded behind him again.
He looked back and saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was already riding over on his war horse, accompanied by five dead tiger warriors.
When Zhao Li saw Zhu Yuanzhang, he said respectfully and with some helplessness: "The general is incompetent and did not recognize who the other party was. However, their clothing and weapons are various. They may be armed by the local gentry."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "Impossible, this place is already in Liaocheng, and we have changed into the clothes of the southern soldiers. If the gentry is armed, they will not dare to attack us..."
As he spoke, he saw the two tiger warriors from before walking over with six or seven people dressed as hunters.
Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang got off his horse and faced him.
He took a look at the hunters and found that although they were dressed as hunters, their eyes were fierce and they had a murderous look on their bodies. They should be disguised as soldiers.
"Li Wu, greet them well. If they refuse to speak, behead them on the spot!"
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at those people again, said a word to Li Wu, and turned around and walked up the hillside.
At this time, more than a hundred Jin Yiwei also came over on horseback. After seeing Zhu Yuanzhang, they all dismounted and saluted.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the broken armor and looming blood stains on their bodies, he felt sad but also had a hint of joy in his heart.
Because in order to save time and put some pressure on Jinan's Ma Chongxi and buy time for Zhang Huangyan, he did not take a detour to avoid the checkpoints set by the rebels, but rushed all the way.
These soldiers were not afraid and followed him on the rampage.
Although there were not many defenders at those checkpoints, they rushed through more than a dozen checkpoints in one day and killed nearly a thousand defenders.
Of course, this does not include the pursuers they attracted after breaking through.
If all these people were included, there would be more than two thousand.
However, their losses were not small. The three hundred people when they set out were now less than two hundred, and many of them were injured.
But these soldiers had no complaints and became more and more courageous as they fought.
This reminded Zhu Yuanzhang of the three bird ships that blocked Western merchant ships during the previous naval battle, and he couldn't help but smile.
He encouraged everyone and asked them to go back and rest before walking up the hillside again.
After a while, Li Wu came over and reported: "Your Majesty, those people are Li Chengdong's personal soldiers. They said they were ordered to capture us."
"And Li Chengdong also issued a strict order not to allow them to kill anyone, so Zhao Licai escaped."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was silent for a while and said, "How many people are there in total? Is Li Chengdong here?"
Li Wu shook his head and said: "Li Chengdong is not here now, but I heard that Li Chengdong will stay in their army at night."
"Because Li Chengdong set up six or seven strongholds with Liaocheng as the center. Since this place is a fortress, he arranged for 500 people and would rest there every night after patrolling."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "How long will it take for Yang Qi and the others to arrive?"
Li Wu thought for a moment and said, "They can arrive in half an hour at most."
Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and said to Li Wu: "Okay, you take people to capture that stronghold. Yang Qi and I will join you later."
"Be careful not to damage the surrounding environment. We still want to meet Li Chengdong there!"
After Li Wu bowed in agreement, he walked towards the dense forest.
After a while, there was a sound of horse hooves in the dense forest.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Li Wu and others who were walking away, then at the black curtain eroding the sky, and murmured to himself: "How could Gao Jie know that we have come to Shandong so quickly?"
"And he wants to capture our people alive. Does he have any purpose, or does he want to find out some information?"
"Could they be colluding with Lu Jiude, otherwise he wouldn't be possible... Yes, if Zhang Huangyan goes well, he should have captured Linzi long ago. Gao Jie may have gotten the news and guessed our movements."
"However, although Gao Jie is brave, he is also a reckless man. He should not have this ability. It seems that it is the method of the Xing family."
"But according to Jin Yiwei's intelligence, this woman is very vicious. How could she want to capture our people alive and leave hidden dangers for herself?"
"It was Li Chengdong who was worried about being punished after the incident, so he ordered the arrest..."
"If Mrs. Xing wants to block the news about us in Shandong, then she should solve it next..."
"Shi Kefa has been in Liaocheng for many days. Didn't he realize that there is also Xie Sheng, who has been in official circles for decades..."
...
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was deep in thought, he was awakened by the sound of horse hooves behind him.
At this time, a dead soldier from Huben ran over to report that Yang Qi had returned, and news came from Li Wu that he had captured the stronghold in front.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and led everyone towards the front.
At this moment, darkness has enveloped the surrounding areas, with only some faint starlight twinkling.
In order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, they did not dare to use torches, so they had to rely on starlight to move forward.
As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang walked four or five miles, he met Li Wu who was arranging people to clean the battlefield.
After Zhu Yuanzhang asked Yang Qi to lead his troops to ambush around, he walked into the tent accompanied by Li Wu.
About half an hour later, there was a sound of horse hooves outside the military camp, and then Li Chengdong's rude and angry voice sounded: "Ge Erdan, where did you go, you piece of shit? If Chongzhen's men were gone, look at me. I won’t skin you bitch!”
Zhu Yuanzhang looked from the tent and saw that Li Chengdong and his party were only a few dozen people. He felt confident and signaled Li Wu to take action.
After Li Chengdong cursed a few times, he still didn't see Ge Erdan come out, and he was already suspicious.
Just when he was doubting, the camp suddenly burst into flames, and then he found himself surrounded by more than a hundred soldiers with resolute expressions and strong murderous aura.
Li Chengdong first looked at the soldiers with some surprise, and then sneered: "You are so courageous, but you know who your grandfather is, and you must know that Your Majesty Xie will also..."
"Li Chengdong, do you still know us?"
Just when Li Chengdong was talking nonsense, Zhu Yuanzhang slowly walked out of the tent and said coldly.
Li Chengdong was shocked when he saw this. He was stunned for a while and then said tremblingly: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty... Your Majesty!"
As soon as he said this, the soldiers behind him all looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in horror.
Some people died, but not completely...
