Qinzhou Acropolis.
These days have not been easy for Zuo Liangyu.
He and Deng Qi are good friends, close friends who fight side by side.
Ever since Zuo Liangyu rescued Deng Qi from the Tiqiao Nest in Tangyin in the sixth year of Chongzhen, the two armies have been inseparable and complement each other. When the white flag symbolizing the Zuo Army appears on the battlefield, Deng Qi’s troops will arrive soon after. The Changping Camp and the Sichuan Army Camp have cooperated well. Seamless.
They fought consecutive battles in Hebei and quelled the bandit rebellion in Henan, making great contributions to the court.
It was a very happy time.
The news of Deng Qi's death came so suddenly that Zuo Liangyu didn't believe it at first, and even tied up the Sichuan soldiers who reported the news and beat him up.
He wondered if this way of death was not a fart. Longzhou was a military powerhouse in ancient times, but with the end of the dispute, Longzhou was just a small town in the hinterland. The old city walls that had been unified for hundreds of years were long gone, and the newly built city walls were not even built yet. The spear was so high, Zuo Liangyu thought to himself, that even if he stood on it and let him jump down, he wouldn't be able to fall to death.
But Lu Ding, a student from Henan next to him, interrupted and made Marshal Zuo fall into deep thought.
Lu Ding said: "If the Longzhou city wall were higher, Marshal Deng would probably not run towards the city wall."
When the authenticity of Deng Qi's death was verified, Zuo Liangyu's sadness at losing his friend had been greatly dissipated, and what remained was more of the sadness of being hurt by others.
However, Zuo Liangyu couldn't care less about mourning for Deng Qi at the moment, because Liu Chengzong's Tang soldiers had taken control of the outskirts of Qinzhou. He had a hunch that he would mourn for a while longer and go down to find Deng Qi.
"Have I been deceived?"
Zuo Liangyu frowned as he looked at the map hanging in the garrison and listened to the report from his own Tang soldiers.
The situation is very serious. The western and southern suburbs of Qinzhou were blocked by Marshal Tangqi the day before yesterday. However, his Tang soldiers were still able to move out to the north bank of the Weihe River under the protection of Ji Dingxuanfeng, and the east side led to Baoji. The official channels are also unobstructed.
It was precisely because of this that his people were able to contact Wang Yuncheng and other generals in the Sichuan Barracks and asked them to move the garrison to Qinzhou and join forces with the Zuo Army.
But today, the north bank of the Wei River has been completely occupied by Marshal Tangqi. Even the Yongchuan River and Maiji Mountain in the east have Tang soldiers waving their flags and spears. Zuo Liangyu has lost contact with the Sichuan barracks, and even Qinzhou Guards on both sides of the north bank of the Wei River. Even the Qianhu Office could not be contacted.
Zuo Liangyu realized that something was wrong. He had never seen anyone using Tang Bing like this.
The purpose of the Tang soldiers is to raise alarms during the march, whether temporary or permanent. Usually one army is equipped with twenty-four Tang cavalry. Even if a battalion is divided into three groups, there are only more than 300 people. More Nothing can be done.
Unlike Liu Chengzong, Tangqi all over the mountains and plains directly pulled out blockades one after another outside Qinzhou City and began to encircle them.
Under normal circumstances, when you see the enemy Tang Ma, the large force is probably already twenty miles away. If you don't want to engage in an encounter, you have to stay away from the enemy Tang Bing.
This is also the reason why Zuo Liangyu asked his servants in Qizaliu to choose a vanguard to drive away the Marshal's Army a few days ago. However, after several fights, his servants could not find the main force of the Marshal's Army.
Today, Zuo Liangyu realized that he had been deceived. Liu Chengzong's main force was probably not around a few days ago.
After all, the scale of Liu Chengzong's Tangqi was too weird. Not only Qinzhou was attacked, but Zhang Yingchang, Deng Qi, He Renlong, Yang Yanchang and others in the north were all attacked by Tangqi at almost the same time earlier.
The problem is that the Ming army has clearly calculated the troops that the Marshal's Mansion can mobilize to fight in Shaanxi. After excluding the bandits attached to the south, Liu Chengzong's headquarters has as many as 30,000 elite troops that can fight on the move. According to this strength, Tangqi can It's impossible to make such a big fuss.
Now that the Tang soldiers are causing this battle, they can't have 500 soldiers, and the troops are divided into 250 lines, with 24 Tang soldiers in each group, and five horses in each group, making up a total force of 30,000, right?
Just as Zuo Liangyu was thinking this, he suddenly heard a servant coming to report that a number of cavalry and Liao soldiers in the east direction of Baoji had rushed through the blockade of Marshal Tang soldiers and asked outside the trench to enter the city.
Liao soldiers?
The Liao soldiers were Wang Yuncheng's soldiers.
Nowadays, the Sichuan Barracks is the same as Zuo Liangyu's Changping Camp. It has a small number of troops, but the factions are very mixed. There are not only the Sichuan officers and soldiers who followed Deng Qi out of Sichuan, but also the Shili Baigan soldiers who were recruited after Zhang Fengyi's death, and those who retreated after the Jisi Revolution. The Liao soldiers who arrived at Zunhua, as well as the supplementary Henan soldiers and the Shaanxi and Shanxi bandits who surrendered.
Zuo Liangyu was overjoyed and said: "Verify who they are and let them enter the city quickly!"
Not long after, Zuo Liangyu saw two Liao soldiers in a state of embarrassment at the official office of Qinzhou Guard. The servant beside him reported: "Commander, there are twelve of them, only five of them entered the city, and three of them entered the city." One was wounded by a gun and placed in a small camp in the northwest. He has already gone to see a doctor."
With that said, the servant handed over a three-eyed gun and said, "This is the weapon they used to capture Liu Tie Tangma."
Zuo Liangyu could tell that it was the three-eyed blunderbuss of the Marshal's Army.
In a vast country like the Ming Dynasty, no weapon can have only one shape, and the three-eyed blunderbuss is no exception. There are several versions, usually longer in the north, shorter in the south, longer in the east, shorter in the west, and the official version is longer. , short made by the people.
Like in the south, the functions of this thing are hunting, offering sacrifices, trumpeting cannons, and preventing thieves. The pipe is not short if it is six inches long.
In the northwest, we need to defend against the Mongolian macho men who are shirtless and riding horses all over the place. Length is not the most important thing. The requirement is that it is light in weight and stronger at the same time. It can shoot out eight or nine loose bullets with one shot, and it is guaranteed that there will be lead particles stuck to it. On the human body, it should be short and thick.
In Liaodong, length is very important. If it is short, let alone whether it can hurt someone, it can't even embolden oneself. It is better to shoot with a bow and arrow.
Liu Chengzong was good, his three-eyed gun was longer than those in Liaodong.
Zuo Liangyu only took one look, then asked his servant to put the three-eyed gun aside, and asked the Liao soldiers: "How are your people? Where have they been?"
"Back to the commander, there are Liu thieves and Tang horses everywhere. We dare not walk through Qingshui, so we can only go west along the river from Chencang, Baoji. We are ambushed by Qitang soldiers halfway. General Wang can only return to Baoji and let us break out and attack Report from the commander."
"wrong."
Zuo Liangyu frowned when he heard this, shook his head one after another and said: "No, no, the army of thieves is not here."
The Liao soldiers who broke through reminded him that the road from Qinzhou to Baoji was difficult to navigate on the Weihe River. The soldiers and horses could only move along the river bank path. However, Liu Chengzong had more troops. He must quickly gather troops to break into Guanzhong, so he occupied Qinzhou has no meaning to Liu Chengzong.
The significance of Qinzhou is only to station its own army.
Liu Chengzong wouldn't have sent tens of thousands of people to attack the Qinzhou Acropolis just to kill himself here.
Zuo Liangyu used himself to save others. Now all the Ming army units are harassed by Marshal Jun Tangqi. Every city on the thousands-mile-long front thinks that Marshal Jun is staring at them eagerly. What does this situation mean?
This meant that no one dared to move and wanted to ask for help from friendly forces, but in this case... the Longshan defense line seemed to be empty. Liu Chengzong thought that he could pass it at any time.
"Longzhou, who will defend Longzhou after you leave?"
The Liao soldiers bowed their heads and remained silent. Deng Qi was forced to death. Who else could defend Longzhou? They all withdrew anyway.
After thinking again and again, Liao Bing said: "Zhizhou Hu Erchun."
Zuo Liangyu raised his hand to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything. He just walked back to the table and tapped twice with his fist.
He thought to himself: It's bad, the thieves are about to break through from Longzhou.
But at this moment, there was a sudden commotion in the city. A moment later, the commander of the Qinzhou Guard ran into the official office like a gust of wind: "Commander, a large group of thieves are coming from the west of the city. They can't be seen at a glance, which means the city is thin." !”
Zuo Liangyu no longer thought about Liu Chengzong's whereabouts at that moment, and just asked the Liao soldiers to go down to rest, ordered his personal followers to pack up his armor and weapons, and hurriedly ran to the city.
Before they even got to the city, they could already see smoke and dust billowing from the west of the city.
Soon, Zuo Liangyu saw countless horse-infantry formations marching from the mouth of the Qian River to the west along the Qian River. The roaring drums sounded from far to near, and the hillsides, terraces, and river banks were covered with flags everywhere.
The menacing posture made Zuo Liangyu, who was wearing armor at the top of the city, squint his eyes, and his heart was pounding. He thought: Did he make a wrong judgment?
Is it possible that annihilating his own army is so important to Liu Chengzong? He actually left the defenseless Longzhou without a fight and came over to fight with his own Qinzhou guards?
Unreasonable.
According to Zuo Liangyu's idea, Liu Chengzong should have already entered Longshan by now. The main business is to cross the dangerous zone and enter the Guanzhong Plain in two days. Is it worth using so many troops in a small place like Qinzhou Guard?
Thousands of people looked at this vast force of soldiers and horses, and the military flags stretching to the sky, which made people feel panicked.
But Zuo Liangyu is not afraid. He has seen larger formations than this. The posture of the Donglu Tatars when they attacked his position in Songshan and Xingshan was even more terrifying than this. So what?
In the end, why not just burn the body and get out!
But when the servant handed over the telescope, Zuo Liangyu looked over and discovered something strange.
On the largest flag, he saw five big characters: Henan Chief Military Officer.
Zuo Liangyu wondered what the General Military Officer of Henan was. There was no such official position in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no General Military Officer in Henan.
And why did he feel so familiar? It was as if he had heard of this official somewhere.
In this tense environment where the army was pressing down, the soldiers on the city were busy arranging defenses. Rows of guard flag troops were running up and down the city pushing various defensive equipment. Zuo Liangyu frowned and wrung his hands. Nao Jue suddenly clapped his hands, startling the general beside him.
Zuo Liangyu frowned and scolded with a smile: "Damn it, I remembered it!"
The chief military officer of the Marshal's Mansion in Henan was Zhang Yichuan, the sweeper king who defected to Liu Chengzong.
The general Luo Dai beside him saw Zuo Liangyu suddenly relaxed and asked: "Commander, what's wrong?"
Zuo Liangyu handed over the binoculars and pointed to the western suburbs of the city with a smile: "Who do you think you are coming? When I saw the flag, I realized that it was Zhang Yichuan, our old acquaintance in Henan. He was named the General Soldier of Henan. He looks like a dog. Yes, I thought it was your township party who came in person!"
Luo Dai was from Yan'an Prefecture and was from the same hometown as Liu Shizi. However, he was transferred to Jiliao in his early years and had no interaction with Liu Chengzong. Later, he fought in Denglai with Xu Dingguo, the deputy general of Jiliao, and then was transferred to Henan. Only then did he meet Zuo Liangyu. Hook up.
When he heard that Zhang Yichuan was coming from outside the city, Luo Dai was also extremely surprised. He picked up his binoculars and looked at the military formation to the west, exclaiming in surprise: "I haven't seen Zhang Yichuan in the past few months, but Zhang Yichuan's formation is quite impressive. "
To be honest, as Zhang Yichuan's name spread around the city, it seemed that the military formation outside the city was weakened.
They fought Zhang Yichuan several times in Henan, and each time they beat him to the point of panicking. Now that the Ming army generals in the city heard this name, their panicked minds calmed down, and they observed the enemy's formation with a normal mind. It can be seen that the so-called Henan military commander's formation is false and true.
The military formation is indeed quite scary, but this is nothing more than the visual and auditory effect caused by the large number of people, horses, flags and drums. When people calm down and look carefully, they see that there are many infantry and few horse soldiers, and no mule cavalry is seen - they are indeed not Liu Chengzong's soldiers.
For a time, all the generals enthusiastically asked for battle.
Liu Chengzong has never seen him before, so he can't fight in vain; Zhang Yichuan and the others have seen him a lot, so they can beat him like a sweeper!
Zuo Liangyu checked the flags and estimated the strength of the troops according to their formation. There were many children and old men and women mixed in the military formation. Looking at the soldiers alone, he estimated that they were two small camps of two thousand people. He said to Luo Dai: "Zhang Yichuan has made great progress. We know about the hidden troops. I heard that he recruited 9,000 troops last year, but now there are only 4,000. You lead the infantry out of the city to attack him for a while to boost morale."
Upon hearing this, Luo Dai put on the alms bowl he was holding, clasped his fists to accept the order, and asked, "Should I pursue you or not?"
"Hmm..." Zuo Liangyu shook his head first, and then paused: "Who doesn't know that Chuang Jun defeated Fan Na with three axes, but he can also chase him for two miles. Let's see what skills he learned from following Liu Chengzong."
After saying that, Zuo Liangyu warned again: "But don't rush out of the city. Let your servant Xuanfeng take the Tang soldiers out for a walk first, and then go to the battle if there are no ambushes around."
And on the other side.
Outside the city, in Ershilipu, there is a Qingluo Eryan umbrella canopy on the top of the pagoda halfway up the mountain. On the other side of the river, at the foot of Kawaguchi Mountain, groups of soldiers carry heavy rocket boxes and climb the mountain to build preset launch positions.
Near the canopy, Zhang Yichuan was akimbo, instructing his men to bury steel wheel mines under the canopy. Further west, in the fields, Liu Yiyong, the chief instructor of the Henan 5th Battalion, who was on the battlefield for the first time, was directing the artillery to use the general cannon and the Franco machine gun. Hidden in the wilderness, the entire rear of the army was busy.
After the artillery was deployed, Zhang Yichuan rode over to look for Liu Yiyong. He looked at the Qinzhou Acropolis with a telescope, frowned and murmured to himself: "Why haven't they left the city yet? It's because the Henan military officer is not as attractive as the sweeping king." Really? They shouldn’t think that I am the chief military officer of the imperial court, right? Why don’t we... raise the flag of the Sweeping King again? "
Liu Yiyong also murmured in his heart. After all, although he grew up in the Children's Camp and was taught a lot of military tactics and military training drills by the chief soldiers and generals at Xincheng Academy, this was actually his first time on the battlefield.
However, after hearing Zhang Yichuan's words, he quickly waved his hands and said, "That's not necessary. They know it's you, so they will definitely be on guard against breaking into the sword to defeat him. Even if they don't know it's you, seeing the scattered appearance of this formation, they will probably have to fight soon."
"When they go out to fight, we will blast them for a while, and they will kill them with force. If they don't go out to fight, we won't panic. It's not the main force anyway, so it's enough to contain their energy."
Zhang Yichuan followed the good deeds and felt much relieved when he heard that he didn't have to be beaten. He had a psychological shadow on Zuo Liangyu, so it would be best if he didn't have to be cannon fodder in front of him.
But for him, this was not the most important thing. Zhang Yichuan looked around and saw that there was no one else around him, so he leaned next to Liu Yiyong and asked: "Brother, what message did the commander leave? He has been hiding it for two days. This is all on the battlefield, can you tell me?"
Before sending troops, Liu Chengzong sent a letter to Liu Yiyong, asking Zhang Yichuan to march to Qinzhou, but he also left other words, preventing him from telling Zhang Yichuan at that time, so that the Henan general soldier was restless for the past two days and asked what the words were. , Liu Yiyong didn’t say anything either.
However, this time Liu Yiyong did not refuse him again. Instead, he ran to the umbrella cover and searched for the mark near the flags and drums. He estimated that the time was almost up, then turned to Zhang Yichuan, took out the letter from his arms, and said seriously: "Zhang Shuai , the commander-in-chief has orders.”
"It is reported to Zhang Yichuan, the commander-in-chief of Henan Province, that at this time I have led my troops into Fengxiang Mansion in Guanzhong, ordered your troops to encircle Qinzhou Guards, and sent messengers to the west to call for friends and companions. When I capture Baoji, I will immediately send troops to Guanzhong!" (End of this chapter) )
