Yang Yao, like Liu Chengzong, was deeply opposed to the mountain path.
Shiziying is used to traveling between mountains and Liangyuan, but is not used to walking on the mountain trails of large mountains such as Ziwu Ridge and Huanglong Mountain.
Those small mountains and plains are barren mountains and bald ridges. These large mountains are barren mountains and ridges. Both sides are inaccessible and undeveloped jungles, with no place to run.
What he was most worried about was not the Ningxia troops led by He Huchen, but Du Wenhuan's Yulin troops.
At that time, there will be Ningxia troops in the west and Yulin troops in the east. They will be blocked in the mountain road of Huanglong Mountain, and they will be killed at both ends.
Facing the fact that Li Laojiao dared to wait for him in formation in Yanzhou, He Huchen felt very surprised. He had never seen anything like this.
How dare more than two thousand people line up to face him?
The result is self-evident. After a brief battle, Li Laojiao and Ma Maoguan were attacked head-on by He Huchen again.
On the other hand, Zhang Tianlin in the north and Yang Yao in the south, although they had fewer troops, fought back and forth with the 300 Ningxia soldiers. It was not until Li Laojie of the Chinese army retreated into the mountains that they left the battlefield.
After the battle was over, He Huchen was not very happy when he saw the thieves running away.
Where's the baggage?
Where is Li Lao Jackal’s food?
No more!
Li Laojiao ran away into the mountains, leaving behind two soldiers and horses, one in the south and one in the north of Hexi Road. Looking at him from a distance, he looked different from thieves. They all had command flags, and they were obviously a team composed of deserters.
He Huchen divided his troops into three groups. One group pursued Li Laojiao, one group stationed at Xishan Pass, and one group drove Zhang Tianlin north.
Among them, the unit that drove away Zhang Tianlin was the most important. They also shouldered a mission, sending a message to Du Wenhuan that the thieves had entered Huanglong Mountain and asking him to go to Yichuan to stop the thieves.
There were fewer pursuers, but Li Laojiao, who was running in front, did not catch up easily.
Without the burden of baggage, Li Laoji began to try to take the initiative.
Every night, we head eastward along the mountain road, find a place to sleep at dawn, and defend on the spot when we wake up. If we see the officers and soldiers, we will attack them. If we can't defeat them, we will continue to run.
The Ningxia soldiers pursued the enemy twice. They were waiting for the troops behind them and did not want to go deep alone. This also gave Li Laojie an opportunity to take advantage of.
In the habit of reversing day and night, Li Laojiao became more and more skilled in marching at night, and the distances he walked became longer and longer.
Zhang Tianlin also guided the fighting style to what he was best at. He led his friends from Ningxia through Yanzhou and Ganquan, covering a distance of 150 miles in a day and a half.
Ningxia's friends stopped playing with him and thought he was a fool.
Going north, isn't there Yan'an Fucheng to the north? Didn't Du Wenhuan's Yulin Army just arrive today?
Zhang Tianlin was scared to death.
In the past, when he marched like this, he would always do a good job as a sentinel, but this time, thinking that he had come from Yan'an Fucheng, he kept running forward.
When he returned to Yan'an Fucheng, he caught up with Du Wenhuan entering the city, so he quickly ran away and ran west.
Fortunately, Du Wenhuan's troops did not expect that the traitors would dare to be so blatant.
They thought Zhang Tianlin was a friendly force. They didn't realize something was wrong until Zhang Tianlin started running.
Zhang Tianlin ran a marathon, and the Ningxia Army and Yulin Army competed with him in a relay race.
On the third day of the Yanzhou battle, Zhang Tianlin ran into Ansai; on the fourth day, she ran into Baoan County. She couldn't walk at night, so she sneaked back to Ansai and got into the Semen Qianhu Station.
He Huchen's 300 men and Du Wenhuan's 600 men. The border troops in the two towns were all looking for him and would kill him if they caught him.
Things were different from Du Wenhuan's imagination. He asked someone to send a letter to the prefect's Yamen, saying that 500 officers and soldiers had entered Yan'an Prefecture, but Liu Chengzong did not show up this time.
The only option was to first read out the imperial edict to capture Zhang Nian, escort him to Yulin, and then send him to the capital via the Great Wall.
On the day Zhang Nian left, the whole city of Yan'an was crying about hunger.
After finishing this matter, Du Wenhuan received the news from He Huchen and hurriedly ordered his troops to rush to Yanchang County.
Yang Yao on the other side was much more relaxed than Zhang Tianlin. He realized on the first day that he could not defeat the Ningxia soldiers stationed at Xishankou.
He Huchen stayed there with a thousand men and occupied the camp he had built. With the five hundred men under Yang Yao, it would be difficult to harass them, let alone fight.
Therefore, Yang Yao did not fight with these people and led his troops in a false circle to the south, returning to the hilltop at the junction of Yanzhou City and Ganquan County in the north to station.
He didn't have much rations for his army. He heard from Li Laoji that he had thrown the rations into the ravine on the Zhiluo side. He sent people to look for them but couldn't find them.
Just when Yang Yao didn't know what to do, the troops sent by He Huchen to the north came back.
The two generals each led about 400 soldiers, one behind the other, half a day's walk apart.
The general manager in front was in good spirits, and Yang Yao didn't dare to provoke him, so he hid in the ravine.
The one at the back was tortured badly by Zhang Tianlin. He was sleepy, tired and hungry. The whole team was listless, but they still passed through a relatively safe area and their spirits were also very relaxed.
When Yang Yao saw their appearance, he was still in a dilemma whether to fight or not.
After all, the mental state of the outpost cavalry was not very good. The officers and soldiers were running around everywhere. They lost contact with the battalion headquarters across a big mountain. Their attack on the officers and soldiers was frustrated again. The morale of the soldiers was really not high.
However, this official army led a few sheep from nowhere.
Seeing the sheep, Yang Yao made a decision in his heart that he must kill this group of officers and soldiers.
On the one hand, the soldiers of the Lion Camp had a lot of meat supplies, but on the other hand, they were very short of meat.
After eating shanks from horses and donkeys all day long, we were a bit tired. Everyone missed the fatty mutton and pork very much.
The temptation of mutton is too great for them.
Especially for Yang Yao, who had robbed official silver some time ago. The general gave them money and asked them to go to the villages to spend their money. Yang Yao led his troops to several villages to look for sheep.
Only four were found, and they were all lambs. The people expected them to lay lambs.
To be honest, the fact that the dignified whistle commander of the Lion Camp, which is rampant in northern Shaanxi, keeps swallowing saliva in front of the sheepfold can make the people of Yanchuan laugh for half a year.
The news of the sheep was conveyed to the outpost cavalry, and everyone's morale was suddenly boosted.
After a while of ambush, the officers and soldiers didn't even have time to wear their armor. Before the formation could change from a long snake, they were intercepted by Yang Yao's cavalry in three directions.
Both front and back were full of galloping horses, shooting a few arrows in close combat, but the middle one was the most extreme. The horse soldiers carried several loaded pearl cannons and rushed straight into the waist of the team.
When he came over, he turned over and dismounted, pressed the cannon on the ground, and fired it to blast out scattered particles in the sky.
Created the first victory since the beginning of the battle.
That night, light came out of the cave at the eastern foot of Ziwu Ridge. The outpost cavalry set up a fire in the cave and ate roasted mutton.
"This smell is simply a gift from God!"
Yang Yao held a bunch of strings in his hand and distributed them to the soldiers: "Quick, quick, give it to the brothers on guard while it's still hot. There will be more when you come back!"
"Damn it, it's a pity that there are no steamed buns. If I had known that I could eat mutton today, I should have steamed some steamed buns a few days ago."
Steamed buns are steamed buns, and Shiziying has noodles, but steamed buns are fluffy, bulky, hard when dried, and inconvenient to carry and eat.
Compared to this, fried noodles are more suitable.
Yang Yao poured a small mouthful of fried noodles into his mouth and took a bite of mutton skewers. He also reminded his subordinates: "Don't just eat meat. The general said, people can't just eat fried noodles. It's not good for your health. Come and eat some food."
As he spoke, he reached out and handed a few cloves of peeled garlic to his subordinates.
The night when Yang Yao squatted in the cave to eat was probably his happiest day since the Guyuan Mutiny one year ago.
After eating and drinking, Yang Yao couldn't help but think about how to fight the rest of this battle.
Although a headquarters was defeated, not many officers and soldiers were directly killed by them. The outposts did not have the ability to annihilate or even recruit surrender. They could only capture most of the soldiers and horses, allowing the defeated officers and soldiers to flee south.
The strength of the official army was strong, and He Huchen's Ningxia troops retreated, but Zhang Tianlin did not come back, indicating that either he was driven too far, or there was something wrong in the north.
This made him very worried about the situation of the war. He wanted to send people into the mountains through the mountain trails to deliver news to Lion Bay, but he was afraid of exposing the situation in Lion Bay.
Before leaving, Liu Chengzong told him that if an accident occurred, he could evacuate from Lion Bay to the east. A little further north, there was a small mountain road that could not pass cars and connected with the east.
But that road should not be taken unless absolutely necessary, otherwise it will expose the people in Lion Bay who are not skilled in fighting.
Therefore, Yang Yao did not inform his subordinates of this news.
Early the next morning, the sentry at the foot of the mountain came up to report that most of the officers and soldiers had entered Huanglong Mountain, and the camp at Xishankou was still there, with more than 600 people left behind.
Guns and cannons were set up on the stockade, making it difficult for them to fight against them.
At this moment, he met Zhang Tianlin's Tang soldiers.
Zhang Tianlin was even more anxious than him. Although she was hiding in Semen Qianhu Station, she asked Ren Quan'er to send people to investigate the situation in the city for two days.
The situation that Ren Quan'er discovered was much more complicated than he imagined.
The chief military officer of Yansui Town went to Yan'an Fucheng to escort the prefect out of the city.
It is strange that the last loyal minister of Yan'an Mansion was captured by the army.
Ren Quan'er sent people to inquire in various places, but he could not find out how many officers and soldiers Du Wenhuan sent south, nor their specific tasks.
The reason seems to be that Du Wenhuan suspected that there were still Zhang Nian's remnants in Fucheng, and was very careful about his own intelligence. He only knew that Du Wenhuan had at least 500 people marching to Fucheng, and more people were stationed in the east.
Now that the troops from the east have set off, the five hundred people are still staying in Yan'an Fucheng.
Zhang Tianlin's subordinates said: "The 500 Yulin troops are probably going to leave too. They asked Saimen and Nanbeiguan for siege twice for food. If they don't leave, General Ren and the two deputy Qianhu, Shi and Chen, plan to kill them." .”
Are all the thousands of households in Yan'an Prefecture so swollen now?
With 500 officers and soldiers left, Yang Yao estimated that Du Wenhuan's strength would not be less than 2,500.
Yang Yao couldn't sit still. At least two thousand officers and soldiers were marching eastward. This news must be known to Liu Chengzong in the east as soon as possible.
He made up his mind to go north, and immediately said to Zhang Tianlin's subordinates: "Go back and tell Chief Zhang to stabilize General Ren, and then find out the information. I will lead my troops north and join forces with him to defeat the five hundred officers and soldiers over there. .”
On the same day, Yang Yao led his troops to set off and sent Tang soldiers to walk through the mountains from the path into Lion Bay, asking Liu Chengzu to find a way to deliver the news to Liu Chengzong as soon as possible.
At the other end of Huanglong Mountain, Li Laojiao, who had been running for days, finally saw the dawn of survival.
Seeing the wooden fortifications built in the mountains from a distance, he was so happy that he felt relieved as if he had found a backer.
It was just before dawn when Li Laojiao came. He didn't expect that Liu Chengzong was going to meet him and built a simple camp in the mountains.
"General Liu, I..."
Li Laojiao shook his head, speechless, for fear that if he said one more words, his nose would become sore and he would burst into tears.
Three thousand brothers, some dead, some running, and some sneaking into the mountains at night, he counted in front of the Lion Camp, and found that there were still 996 people following him.
This was the first time that Liu Chengzong saw Li Laozhen. The man in front of him was quite tall and lean. He had a gangster temperament under the firelight, but now he looked embarrassed, his hair was messy, his clothes were shabby, and he was very haggard.
Although he didn't say it, Liu Chengzong knew what he wanted to say, so he just patted him and said: "Those who stay are all good guys."
This group of people experienced such a difficult escape, hiding day and night, and fighting several times.
Most of those who can't walk, have bad luck, or have weak willpower are no longer in this team.
Liu Chengzong could not estimate the talents of the remaining people, but these people escaped and the situation in the future will be much better.
At least if they have the opportunity to practice, they will have stronger willpower than others.
Li Old Jackal nodded heavily, then looked around and said: "General Liu, retreat to a place where you can move away. I can still fight."
Liu Chengzong did not respond for the time being. He turned around and ordered his subordinates to prepare some meals for Li Laojiao and his gang, and then asked, "He Huchen is still chasing you?"
"He's still chasing me during the day. He probably won't give up until he kills me."
Liu Chengzong said in his heart that he might kill you, but he would not give up.
This is no longer bandit suppression. He Huchen is the chief military officer of Ningxia. When Heshui County was attacked, he went to fight, so he must have received military orders from Guyuan.
Driving Li Laozhen back to Yan'an from Qingyang Mansion and defeating him once would have completed the mission.
But He Huchen did not give up. He was defeated several times along the way and set off from Ningxia to attack thousands of miles.
Even if it was for meritorious service, it would not be to the point where the man is now exhausted.
Guyuan's order may not be to annihilate Li Laojiao.
"You have a good rest first. We have to drive He Huchen back to the west. This village is built for the people behind."
Li Laojiao asked: "Is it repaired for the people behind you?"
Liu Chengzong nodded slowly and said: "My people who stayed behind in Yanchuan said two days ago that Du Wenhuan sent more than 5,000 troops to Yan'an Prefecture. I just sent a message that Du Wenhuan went south to camp in Yanchang County, so... you still have to run, you have to Run west."
Liu Chengzong couldn't take it easy in this situation. His original idea was to drag He Huchen into Yichuan and use his military strength and terrain advantages to defeat him.
It's not like they haven't fought with more than two thousand officers and soldiers.
But after learning about Du Wenhuan's advance from the north, the pressure suddenly increased.
The coordinated advance of these two general military officers was much more powerful than Liu Chengzong imagined.
He said: "One hundred and sixty miles away, Du Wenhuan will be stationed in Yichuan the afternoon of tomorrow at the latest."
Li Old Jackal said anxiously: "Then go out quickly, go to Hukou, go to Shanxi."
"It's too late for you to run east now. You can still walk ten miles before dawn. If you leave Yichuan at midnight tomorrow, Du Wenhuan will catch you sleeping during the day."
Liu Chengzong looked much calmer on his face, shook his head and said: "Unless I don't care about you and enter Shanxi by myself, as long as I wait here for you, there will be no way to go east."
"Even if you are lucky enough to escape and be chased by seven or eight thousand officers and soldiers, it will be a dead end."
"What should we do?"
"There is only one way, hit him from the front and drag him from the back, and push He Huchen out of Huanglong Mountain first."
His voice made Li Old Jackal shudder, and he said: "The mountain road is too narrow, you want to go head-to-head with the army?"
Liu Chengzong did not speak, raised his chin slightly and gritted his teeth.
We met on a narrow road.
