Master Gao was very suspicious as to why he came to Xizhou.
Looking for a job?
The news told Liu Chengzong that he had become a migrant worker.
He quickly returned to Shilou, and Gao Yingen, who was besieging the city, learned of this.
He stared blankly for a long time and then said slowly: "Liu Shizi is so arrogant. It's too late for everyone to hide from the Shaanxi officers and soldiers. It's better for him to go back and fight with them."
Gao Yingxiang was noncommittal about this.
Crazy may be a little crazy.
But if Gao Yingxiang was twenty years old, would there be two thousand frontier soldiers willing to sacrifice their lives for him?
Even if a mosquito bites him, he will set up artillery fire, not to mention the army going to deal with his parents.
"It's useless to say that these things are useless. If Liu Shizi wants to go back to Shaanxi, let him go back. We entered Pingyang Mansion through the road he fought. He disabled both guards. The guards here can't stop us."
As he spoke, Gao Yingxiang thought of his work and said, "When you see a bronze statue on the road, remember to carry it away. Liu Shizi asked me to take the craftsman team with me and asked me to do two things for him."
"What's the matter?"
"The craftsmen team entered Pingyang Mansion to cast cannons. If the Pingyang Guards' flag army surrenders, Hu Sanhuai will take them with him."
Gao Yingen scratched his head anxiously: "This Liu Shishi is so arrogant, why doesn't he recruit his own soldiers, and asks you to recruit them for him? The soldiers need food!"
Soldiers need to eat food, and everyone needs to eat food.
The better the soldiers, the more cost-effective it is for the leader to eat food.
The Pingyang Flag Guard Army is the best source of soldiers in Pingyang Mansion.
"This business is not a loss. We are the only ones left in Pingyang Prefecture and Fenzhou Prefecture. Liu Shishi returns to Shaanxi. How much food is there? He has set up a stronghold in Luliang Mountain."
Gao Yingxiang didn't care at all, he just said: "The leader of the lion camp's work sentry learned from me. He is a man who can forge red barbarian cannons. He Xin can shoot blunderbuss. Let us take this opportunity to let us stupid craftsmen learn from him." .”
"Any blow with a knife can miss it."
On the other side of Yan'an Prefecture, Luo Rucai was trying his best to move towards Shanxi.
Last year, after the battle with Li Bei, Luo Rucai received a lot of armor from Liu Chengzong, armed the core members of the team, and then began to recruit troops frantically.
Hungry people were begging for food and bandits were roaming around, and they refused to reject anyone who came.
The team once swelled to nearly 4,000 people during the winter.
Winter is a rare opportunity for many leaders to train their troops.
But this is not the case for Luo Rucai.
Many of his men froze to death or died of illness. Food and grass were limited and unevenly distributed. Every day, his men complained, cursed and even attacked each other.
In the end, Luo Ru was really upset, so he took his aunts and hid in another fort that he had captured, and asked his younger brother Yang Chengzu to lead his team.
Later, there was internal strife in the team, and he fought three battles in a row with himself.
At the beginning of spring there were only four hundred people left.
Luo Rucai was very happy. He looked at the remaining more than 400 fat and strong troops, and praised Yang Chengzu for his skill in leading the troops. He went out to grab a beautiful aunt to warm Yang Chengzu's bed.
For him, since he finds this matter very annoying and leaves it to his friends, no matter how his friends handle the matter, it is his own problem, and he cannot blame his friends.
Seeing the frost and production reduction after the beginning of spring, others said that Liu Chengzong had entered Shanxi, so he wanted to follow him to Shanxi.
But he felt that it would be too shameful to bring only 400 brothers to join the fourth-ranked leader, so he circled around northern Shaanxi again. It took him almost a month to pull the team back to more than 2,000 people.
But this time he discovered a problem.
Why is the transfer of the thieves in northern Shaanxi so strange?
Wave after wave of thieves lined up from Yichuan to Yanchuan, and Yanchuan to Qingjian.
When I asked them what they were doing, they didn't say anything, and someone even handed me a small iron sign.
I asked the literate people in the team, and they said the first two characters meant "avoid death."
Luo Rucai was frightened. He wondered what kind of cult this was. If he kept the sign, he would not die. Isn't this lying to fools?
He tried his best to restrain his subordinates on the spot and not allow the brothers to have contact with these Xin Bailian.
Having just experienced internal strife in winter, Luo Rucai didn't want the newly formed team to fall into another internal strife because of the cult.
The White Lotus Sect is so terrifying. The peasant army like him is much worse than the professional rebel leaders in instigating the people.
Luo Rucai did not dare to go to Yanchuan to find Liu Chengzong, so he had to leave the near and seek the farther south and met the defeated King Hun Tian and the Yan'an general Ai Mu behind them.
In a hurry, the team was rushed to pieces, and Luo Rucai led the remaining defeated soldiers to flee westward. He just wanted to escape back to Yan'an Fucheng.
Unfortunately, Aimu also only wanted to go to Yan'an Fucheng to take office.
When Liu Chengzong left Yanshui Guanxi, it was already the end of March. He said goodbye to Fu Renxi, the commander-in-chief who escorted him out of the country. Wei Qian'er led the troops to leave Tangqi and the army headed west.
Not far away, I heard from my subordinate Tangqi that there were dozens of corpses in the valley ahead, as well as weapons and armor scattered everywhere.
This immediately made Liu Chengzong feel that something was unusual, and he quickly led his team to see it and asked the sentries to take precautions around it.
Weapons and armor scattered on the ground?
Regardless of whether it is Shaanxi or Shanxi these days, this situation will not happen after the war.
Regardless of whether it is a training battle between the peasant army and the landlord regiment, or an internal strife between the peasant army, no matter which side wins, the battlefield will be cleaned, and the battlefield must be cleaned extremely clean.
Not even a piece of armor or a cotton shoe will be left behind.
They can use everything.
After investigation, there is another battlefield along the valley to the south. The battle happened yesterday.
These fallen men were being pursued.
Many people are not dead yet, but they are seriously injured and unable to speak. They are not far from death.
Only two of them could be rescued. They were wearing border army armor and bled a lot, but their wounds were not fatal. In other words, they fell down from exhaustion.
Li Wanqing said: "That one seems to be Yang Chengzu."
Liu Chengzong recalled the name carefully, but without any impression, he asked, "Who is Yang Chengzu?"
"Cao Cao's friend, that guy was too lazy to lead the team, so he threw the team to Yang Chengzu." Li Wanqing said, shaking his head, his eyebrows full of caution: "They will not be separated, general, this should be Cao Cao's team."
The doctor removed Yang Chengzu's armor, and even Liu Chengzong who was standing aside couldn't help shouting, "Hero!" '
This man's upper body was covered with wounds. The blood was wiped off, and his skin was covered in bruises and bruises. There were small wounds everywhere, and he didn't know how many times he had been hit by weapons through the gaps in his armor.
There were only two major wounds that were most important. One was on the head, where the helmet was dented by the bone and the skin of the head was damaged. The other was on the inner side of the left arm, which was not protected by the full-body armor and iron armbands. A wound was made by a knife.
The doctor said that the injury on the arm was older than other parts and had been bandaged. It should have been two days.
Liu Chengzong's doctors didn't know whether he could be rescued. All they could confirm was that Yang Chengzu's chest was still rising and falling, and he was not dead yet.
But soon, Liu Chengzong knew who was chasing Luo Rucai.
Yang Yao, who was guarding the valley, sent someone to report: "General, dozens of cavalry are coming from the official road to the west. The flags are from the army."
Officers and soldiers.
The officers and soldiers who appeared here immediately reminded Liu Chengzong of Yan'an Prefecture's new general Ai Mu.
This means that as few as a thousand or as many as three thousand officers and soldiers are within a hundred miles.
"Surround them, and not a single one of them can escape."
The outpost immediately deployed a frontal ambush. The left and right outposts were like two fists, slowly spreading out from the two wings. At the same time, the left outpost continued to move forward, and the rear outpost took up the left wing position, and then completed the encirclement.
Not knowing the location of the officers and soldiers, Liu Chengzong did not allow them to use artillery, and directly surrounded them with infantry and horse soldiers in the middle.
The officers who were surrounded quickly formed a formation, and then realized that the traitors were outnumbered. They loudly ordered in Qin Opera to try to break out. Four attempts to break out failed, and all the soldiers under their command were captured one by one. In the end, they had no choice but to surrender.
Before the auxiliary soldiers could bring the surrendered soldiers over, Yang Yao had already returned on horseback and reported: "General, they are soldiers from Guanzhong!"
When Yang Yao said this, there was a bit of unspeakable hatred on his face.
He was jealous.
This group of Guanzhong soldiers are all well-fed, equipped with armor and weapons, and they stay near Xi'an Mansion all day long.
Why are they so hungry in Guyuan camp that they can't live without mutiny?
There were a total of forty-four officers and soldiers. During the battle, two of them were hit in the cheek by feather arrows and died. The remaining forty-two laid down their weapons and surrendered.
Liu Chengzong asked people to watch the surrender and called the leading management team for questioning.
He was a man in his thirties, with a big beard like Wang Wenxiu. He looked like a veteran, and there was a scar on his mouth.
His name is Ma Maoguan, and he is the supervisor of Dusi Camp.
At first I was quite unconvinced, and even complained that there were too many people to bully the few.
After being escorted for a few steps, he found out that these people were all veterans, which made him feel guilty.
It's not like he has never fought against the peasant army in northern Shaanxi.
At this time last year, Wang Zuogao attacked Sanyuan, and the imperial court assigned him to follow Chen Dusi to guard Sanyuan.
Although he felt quite useless in that battle, he finally saw the peasant army.
At that time, Wang Zuogao's peasant army advanced to Fen Village, forty miles north of Sanyuan County. Hong Chengchou mobilized tens of thousands of civilians and rural soldiers from all over the country to intercept them from a distance.
I thought it was time for a big war.
But they didn't expect that they followed Chen Dusi to receive military rations from Sanyuan County, and in a blink of an eye, Dusi's battalion ordered to be transferred to Yaozhou.
Avoid fighting.
Everyone in the army said that Chen Dusi accepted a bribe from Wang Zuoguan.
At the same time as they broke out of the camp, the thieves jumped on their horses and rushed straight into the civilian camp. They charged at the village soldiers for eleven lines and killed more than a hundred of them.
Du Siying just watched from a distance, and the army was under strict orders not to fire a single shot.
If they go out to fight, Wang Zuoguan will not be able to escape.
Later, there was a thunderstorm and Wang Zuoguan fled from the siege. What happened next became even more chaotic.
Many officers and soldiers went to rob the minzhuang of their war gains. Many of the minzhuang did not die in the hands of Wang Zuoguan, but were killed by the officers and soldiers. Some officers and soldiers were also killed by loyal rural soldiers.
For Ma Maoguan, as long as he serves as a soldier long enough, any bizarre thing will happen in this world.
Dusiying was ordered to protect the people of Sanyuan, but in the end, during a battle, most of them just stood on the land of Sanyuan County. A few dozen people saw blood, but the people they were supposed to protect were killed.
It was obviously the armed forces of the loyal gentry that turned the tide, but the final credit was credited to Hong Chengchou, who did not appear on the battlefield throughout the whole process.
Maybe this is life.
Ma Maoguan was stripped of his belt, his arms were tied, and he was pushed by two soldiers wearing red cotton armor before he was brought to Liu Chengzong.
He looked up at the young thief general, wondering if he should scold him first, then heard the man laugh and said: "It's really interesting. The soldiers from Guanzhong came to northern Shaanxi to seek death. Is your general Ai Mu?"
When Ma Maoguan heard this, he became angry and spat on the ground next to him.
The bastard wanted to come to northern Shaanxi only because Duanduanguan had good weather.
"It's not easy to be a soldier. Everyone has his own master. I don't want to kill you. Even if you don't say it, some people will say it. There are more than 40 people, and there is no shortage of you."
Liu Chengzong put his hands on the leather belt around his waist and persuaded in a persuasive manner: "My name is Liu Chengzong, and I am sending troops to northern Shaanxi. You shouldn't have heard of it, right?"
Forget it, no one in Shanxi has heard of him. Returning to the land of northern Shaanxi, Liu Chengzong felt that no one would not know about him.
Especially the soldiers of Yan'an Prefecture's general. After all, the last general was in his hands.
Unexpectedly, when Ma Maoguan heard this name, his eyes widened: "You, are you Cai Zhongpan's nephew?"
Liu Chengzong frowned: "Do you know my uncle?"
Shouldn't it be that Cai Zhongpan is Liu Chengzong's uncle? People shouldn't just know that Liu Chengzong is Cai Zhongpan's nephew!
Ma Maoguan shook his head: "I met him in Sanyuan."
Last year, he was still the commander-in-chief of Dusi Camp, but he could not restrain the soldiers.
Although the weather in Guanzhong is good, it's just a matter of having enough to eat. Whether you owe military pay or not, this matter is the same throughout Shaanxi.
When soldiers have nothing to do, they go out to do part-time work for landlords. This is something that cannot be helped and no one can restrain them.
It stands to reason that the commander cannot restrain the soldiers, and it is difficult to be promoted without merit in battle.
But his team leader, because he led his cronies to rob the common people of Sanyuan and killed a rural soldier, was shot to death by a man named Cai Zhongpan with a musket.
At that time, Ma Maoguan was standing nearby with a complicated mentality, so he issued an order for everyone to protect Dusi.
As a result, except for the two henchmen in the management team who rushed forward and were knocked down by Cai Zhongpan, everyone else was obedient and Cai Zhongpan really let Cai Zhongpan run away.
Later, he inquired and found out that Cai Zhongpan's brother-in-law was a Juren of Yan'an Prefecture. After a while, he heard that this Juren was arrested by the government, and his son rebelled from prison and defeated the general of Yan'an Prefecture.
I met a real person today.
The shadow of the famous tree, the group of veterans gathered in the valley, and the three characters Liu Chengzong are a golden sign in northern Shaanxi.
The resistance in Ma Maoguan's heart disappeared completely. He shook his head and sighed: "General Ai is stationed near Wen'an Station in the west. There are 2,700 people, all Guanzhong soldiers."
Ma Maoguan said: "We don't want to come to Yan'an Mansion. The general will let us go home after the war. No one will follow the general to do the right thing."
Liu Chengzong didn't expect that his name would be so useful. He sighed and said, "Let you go and let the court prepare troops and horses again to attack me?"
Wen'anyi and Liu Chengzong calculated that Aimu was only twenty miles away from them.
The soldiers in the Guanzhong camp were well-nourished and well-trained, but they had chased Wang Zuoguai and King Huntian all the way from Hancheng, and had gone through several battles and long-distance raids.
It's almost dark now. If everything goes well, total annihilation is unlikely, but it may not be impossible to defeat them in one battle.
"Where are they stationed in Wen'anyi? Tell me all."
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Note:
For the Battle of Yunyang, the officers and soldiers retreated, refused to send troops, and the battle process, please refer to "Loyalty's Daily Record" and "Loyalty's Gentry Arms and the Local Society of Sanyuan, Shaanxi in the Late Ming Dynasty"