However, things were not as simple as he imagined. In other words, he underestimated the power of the bandits. After Li Zicheng was defeated in Taiyuan, he fled eastward to Henan Province and joined forces with Liu Fangliang's East Route Army to sweep across the entire Central Plains. General Liu Rukui was left to guard Zhangde Mansion ( Today Anyang) sent troops northward into Hebei, starting from Cizhou and sweeping through several cities, including Guangping Prefecture (Handan), Xingtai, and Hejian Prefecture. Of course, Shijiazhuang, the later capital of Hebei Province, was also among them. But at this time, Shijiazhuang was still just a small military camp.
To put it simply, the entire Henan and Hebei areas south of Baoding Prefecture are now under Li Zicheng's control, and the area within a hundred miles around Baoding City is completely within reach of his main force.
What's more, he was exposed under Baoding City, and Li Zicheng tried every means to dig him out. First, he followed Liu Fangliang's men to pursue him, and at the same time, he sent orders to search for him.
Gaoyang is right next to the couch, and the patrols are naturally tight. Even if Li Zicheng launched a large-scale search and arrest in Rongcheng Xiongzhou due north, there was no let-up here.
Even though the men of Chang Yu's third battalion secretly crossed the border in the middle of the night, they were still discovered by several groups of thieves one after another!
kill! Kill them all! No information should be leaked.
Overnight, the Third Battalion passed through Renqiu and killed nearly a hundred people on Tanma Seven Road, a bandit army. Finally, just before dawn, they arrived at a village ten miles northeast of Hejian Prefecture.
There is an ancient temple in the village, so it is named Liugu Temple Town. To avoid the military disaster, nine of the ten rooms in the village were empty. However, there were still five or six monks in the small temple. Three battalions of Chang Yu's men were resting next to the temple and ordered not to enter the village to disturb them. He led his family and more than ten people into the temple.
Several monks were very frightened and followed Chang Yu, asking for alms and Amitabha Buddhas one after another, for fear that these officers and soldiers would kill people and set fire to him and destroy his small temple.
"Let's rest here and leave." Chang Yu looked at the monks with a calm expression. Although he was bored, he had no murderous intention. He ordered them to boil hot water to warm up the soldiers outside the temple, and then entered the Buddhist hall.
Ignoring the Bodhisattva in the Buddhist hall, they sat down on the mats and began to discuss the next step. Killing several groups of bandit spies in Renqiu will definitely attract the attention of the intruders, and they will follow the clues and pursue them here.
Chang Yu used stones to draw a simple diagram on the mountain. After thinking about it for a while, he shook his head. Li Zicheng has no time for me now. He has people and things he is looking forward to more.
Everyone was puzzled and asked in detail.
"Yesterday we ambushed the pursuers of the bandits in Xiongzhou. The bandits naturally sent people to search in the direction of Xiongzhou, but it is definitely not just in this direction. If the predictions are correct, the sneak attack by Xushui and Rongcheng has been reported to him. This will definitely attract his attention, and he will definitely order the detective to continue northward. Li Yan's men should also be near Dingxing County at this time. Once all the information is combined, Li Zicheng can almost guess where we are coming from. Concentrate on the north."
Chang Yu explained, and everyone nodded.
"If the intruder knows that the person coming from the north is Li Yan, I'm afraid he won't have time to take care of me." Hu Ling chuckled, and everyone smiled, knowing that Li Zicheng hated Li Yan to the core.
Chang Yu smiled slightly: "Also, since the intruders know that tens of thousands of reinforcements are coming from the north, they will infer that I have returned to the camp north, so there will be no pursuers. Even if they know that a detective horse has been killed in Renqiu, they may not think of us. Even if there is suspicion about him, he has no time to care about it. What he wants is Li Yan in the north."
"So Li Yan helped us block the knife. Even so, how about we go down to Hejian Mansion today?" Tu Yuan suggested, and everyone asked for a fight.
Going deep behind enemy lines, every step must be cautious and cautious. You cannot fight tough battles. If you want to fight, annihilate them all. Kill them and eradicate them to prevent your whereabouts from being exposed.
The total number of soldiers and horses in the three battalions is only 700. They can be said to be invincible in field battles. If they don't have the baggage to attack the city, it is not difficult to attack a two-mile stone city like Rongcheng. But Hejian is a prefectural city and the city has high walls. Why attack?
After some deliberation, Chang Yu still decided to give it a try and let Tu Yuan fight. To be precise, he was cheating. His subordinates were all from the bandit army, and they were well-connected. Those who were deceived would go to the city to rest, and those who couldn't be deceived would immediately flee south.
In order to keep the incense fire alive, the monks in the temple really did their best to serve them. They arranged a wing for Chang Yu and others to rest, and boiled hot water to supply the soldiers outside the temple. Maybe they thought it was too small and they cooked hot porridge. , the officers and soldiers of the third battalion were overjoyed and thanked them one after another, but the monks were at a loss. When did Bing Youzi become so polite?
After having enough food and water and sleeping until almost noon, Tu Yuan left the Black Tiger Camp and went straight to Hejian Mansion. Chang Yu saw him off at the head of the village, and Wuzhong kept humming next to him.
Chang Yu glanced sideways: "What exactly do you want to do?"
"The Black Wolf Battalion can do this job." Ever since he led the troops, Wuzhong's whole temperament has changed drastically and he has become particularly warlike. He even felt uncomfortable without fighting for a day.
Chang Yu glared at him and was about to reprimand him when he suddenly thought of something: "Seeing how idle you are, go and give Tu Yuan a beating" and whispered.
Wuzhong was overjoyed and transferred the Black Wolf Battalion and left.
Chang Yu returned to the temple to buy tea and chat with Chen Wangting and others, waiting for the good news. The Gongziying eunuch army was herding horses and patrolling the village, and the monks were preparing lunch for them...
Hejian was a country in ancient times, and a government in the Ming Dynasty governed more than ten counties. It was occupied by the bandit army Liu Fangliang a few months ago. Three hundred soldiers were left to guard it, but they were actually tortured and plundered. At most, ordinary people were only harassed, while most of the gentry had their families broken up and their families killed. It was terrible to watch.
Zhong Wanfan, the leader of Liu Fangliang, was ordered to garrison Hejian Mansion. He spent every day drinking and drinking, tortured and killed people for pleasure. Although he did not bother the common people on the surface, he actually did all kinds of bad things. He was a lustful man, and many of the wives and daughters of the wealthy gentry were defiled by him and then enjoyed the lewd pleasures of his subordinates. Later, when he was dissatisfied, he secretly plundered the people's happiness. Later, he was worried that the news would spread and affect his reputation, so he killed him.
Gradually, the people saw through that the so-called rebels who "equalize the rich and the humble, equalize land and avoid taxes" were actually bandits. However, the entire Central Plains was plagued by thieves. They dared to be angry but dared not speak out, and they had no way to resist.
When it was almost noon that day, a cavalry of about two hundred people came from the north of Hejian City. The formation was scattered and the clothes were messy. The thieves guarding the gate were not panicked. After all, the territory within hundreds of miles was their territory at this time. Since the other party was a small group of troops, he went forward to inquire which friendly forces were there, but was scolded and ordered to get drinks quickly.
Seeing this, the guards did not dare to talk back, let alone stop him, and allowed him to enter the city. At the same time, he rushed to the government office to inform Zhong Wanfan.
The leading bandit led his troops into the city while cursing. When he saw more than ten guards in the doorway with confused faces, they shouted angrily: "What are you looking at?"
Seeing his tall and sinister appearance, the guard dared not reply and dodge, but he angered the gangster and killed one of them with a knife: "I want to ask you a question."
The rest of the thieves were all frightened, and they all retreated and drew their swords. The brave ones said: "Under our command, Cihou, how can you be so presumptuous?"
The gangster rolled his eyes and said, "Liu Fangliang's child doesn't dare to let go of his child in front of Ruhou, so what the hell are you doing?"
It turned out to be Liu Zongmin's men. The gatekeepers were shocked and fell silent. Liu Fangliang had become famous recently, but Liu Zongmin was a lawless and violent man who even Li Zicheng didn't look down on. No one dared to mess with him.
Seeing that the thieves guarding the gate were afraid and did not dare to speak, the thieves immediately divided a group of men into the city after entering the city. Only then did the thieves guarding the gate realize that something was wrong. Could it be that they were here to steal the territory?
However, Zhong Wanfan, who was having lunch, was informed that a friendly army had entered the city, and he was very arrogant. He was wondering if it was coming from the west or north, whose troops would be coming from the south? Could it be that Cihou sent people to change the defense, which was unlikely.
Just when he was about to go and take a look, another person hurriedly came to report that he was Liu Zongmin's subordinate. Zhong Wanfan was shocked and did not dare to neglect him. Liu Zongmin had a hot temper and his subordinates were also bad people. Unreasonable.
Although he was wondering why Liu Zongmin's subordinates were here, he still hurriedly went out to greet them. As soon as he left the government office, he saw a group of people running from the opposite street, and he couldn't help but frown.
