Crossing the Qingshui River, I looked around and saw a few fires in the distance. It was obvious that they were patrol sentries of the rebels. I turned back and looked at the other side. The fire was getting brighter over there. Chang Yu secretly thought that the corpses of several rebels had been discovered over there. In any case, this place was not suitable. Long stay.
Governor, whether to put out the fire, Jiang Fa proposed, but Wuzhong objected, no.
The thieves are all over the place. Although thieves can act openly and openly, if there is an inquiry, the secret will be revealed. After all, this is the area where the main force of the thieves is located. The spies are all members of the direct lineage and have secret connections with each other. This place belongs to both sides of the war zone. You spies. In order to prevent impersonation, Laiwohuang needs to check and verify from time to time. The risk of impersonation is extremely high.
However, there are also risks in putting out the fire. The people who appear sneakily in the war zone during this time must be the scouts of the officers and soldiers. If they encounter them, they will start fighting without talking nonsense.
Chang Yu was a little unsure about paying attention for a moment. He looked at the rebel camp directly to the west and saw the sky full of flames. The top of Baoding City, more than ten miles to the northwest, was also brightly lit.
Extinguish the fire and go east. It is easy for the enemy to bypass us if we are exposed. Chang Yu looks at the darkness in the northeast, which is close to the Baiyangdian area. There are many puddles and swamps, and overgrown reeds and weeds, making it easy to hide if you encounter the rebels.
More importantly, he knew that although there were rebel spies in the area dozens of miles outside Baoding City, there were also many Ming army scouts hiding in the dark. If one of them was accidentally attacked by one of his own people, it would be really their fault. Can die unjustly.
After making up their mind, they extinguished their torches and ran toward the northeast, trying to stay as far away from Baoding City as possible and close to the swamps, secretly praying that nothing would happen again.
Just when Chang Yu was desperately trying to break into the line of fire, in Li Zicheng's handsome tent in the bandit camp, all the bandit leaders had solemn faces. They were overwhelmed by a series of incidents within a day, and the combination of these things finally made Li Zicheng and his The party members felt that the seriousness of the situation was far beyond their expectation.
They were a little surprised when Li Yan defeated Liu Fangliang in a hard-fought victory yesterday, but they never expected that he would unexpectedly take advantage of the victory early in the morning to pursue Liu Fangliang and Gu Ying, who led their troops to Xushui to kill, and fled back to the camp in defeat.
In shock, when Li Zicheng was about to mobilize his troops to go north to defeat Xushui, an urgent report was sent to him. Mancheng, dozens of miles away to the west, was captured by Zhou Yuji's troops.
Didn't Zhou Yuji escape into the mountains when he was chased by Li Guo to Quyang County? Why did he suddenly appear in Mancheng? The bandit leaders were a little surprised and panicked. Mancheng and Xu Shuinai were only thirty or forty miles apart, so they had to work together to attack and defend each other. underestimate.
Li Zicheng felt that something was wrong at this time. There were officers and soldiers on all sides. The east side was standing still, the west side was fighting guerrillas, the north side was holding on to its position, and the south side was advancing step by step. The little eunuch was going to do something big.
Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, Military Advisor Song Xiance, Gu Junen and other advisers suggested that the original plan should be suspended and the tactics should be changed. In other words, they should not be too passive, otherwise the territory would be slowly eroded and squeezed by the officers and soldiers.
The response was to take the initiative. The young eunuch was stationed in the south. They sent Li Guo, Luo Hu and Gu Kecheng to join forces with Ma Shiyao and Ren Jirong to ensure that everything was safe. The officers and soldiers in the east stayed put and ignored him for the time being, but Zhou Yuji in the west and Zhou Yuji in the north. Li Yan needs to be taken care of. Secondly, we can no longer be so indifferent to Baoding City. We should hit him hard, even if we don't knock him down in one fell swoop, we will still break his muscles and bones.
After formulating a strategic plan, we studied tactics and discussed how to divide the troops into three groups tomorrow: one to attack Mancheng, one to Xushui, and at the same time to attack Baoding City. With the current strength and strength of the bandit army, there would be no pressure to fight a three-front war at the same time, and they could even fight on four fronts. Line five.
Since the Eastern Expedition, except for Li Zicheng who fought a tough battle in Taiyuan, the rebel army has relied on shouting to siege cities and lands. Liu Fangliang's troops even sang and took several houses with random gestures. Therefore, although the rebel army was powerful at this time, It was huge, but it had not been a war for a long time. This time, they met another rising star of the imperial court, a cunning and war-savvy young eunuch. Li Zicheng and a kind of counselor did not dare to be careless, so they gathered their wisdom and planned day and night to formulate a detailed battle plan for tomorrow. , just when I was about to take a rest, another urgent call came from the south.
Ma Shiyao's people finally arrived, and the refugees in Zhending Mansion gathered in tens of thousands of people to cause chaos. At this time, they besieged the city for food.
The thieves were all frightened when they heard the report. They were much more frightened than when they heard that Zhou Yuji had descended on the city. This was because the refugee rebellion was really difficult, and one mishandling could start a prairie fire.
Li Zicheng had no good strategy for a while, so he asked the messenger to return to Zhending Mansion overnight to inform Ma Shiyao, and not to act rashly. He first delayed to stabilize the people's sentiments, and then planned it slowly, and then ordered Li Guo, Gu Kecheng and others to stay put and not to start a war with the officers and soldiers immediately. He helped Ma Shiyao quell the chaos because he knew that the shadow of the young eunuch was indispensable behind the sudden civil unrest.
The soldiers were ordered to leave in a hurry, but Li Zicheng and other bandit leaders were still at a loss. They had thought of the methods they had used to deal with the officers and soldiers, but now they were using their own methods to treat others, and they were reaping the consequences.
Why did a semi-immortal appear out of nowhere? He could just be caught and killed by his monstrous words. Why bother worrying about how he could become a big deal if he was afraid of this or that? Liu Zongmin was as drunk as ever, talking nonsense.
Li Zicheng rolled his eyes at him. If you are the one to kill, then you are really determined. There are more than hundreds of thousands of refugees in the two prefectures of Baoding. Do you have the ability to kill them all? If we can't kill all the rebels and don't need officers and soldiers to suppress us, we'll be finished.
Liu Zongmin looked disdainful. The refugees were all timid and afraid of trouble. They killed hundreds and thousands of others and dispersed. How dare they cause trouble...
If there is no one behind the scenes, the method will work. However, tens of thousands of people gathered in one day, which shows that there is someone behind the scenes to help. If we start killing people, we will play into the hands of that person and spread rumors that the rebels are massacring the people. Saying that they will immediately establish themselves as kings and gather a crowd to resist, in the worst case we will lose the support of the people and all our efforts over the past few years will be wasted... Niu Jinxing took over the words and spoke eloquently, and everyone in the tent nodded.
I am not sure. There is civil unrest in the south. The situation is not trivial. I want to go there in person. Li Zicheng gets up and is about to send his troops to prepare to accompany him, but is stopped by Niu Jinxing. Don't panic, sir. Bohou and Zhenshan camp have already gone south. , together with Gu Kecheng, Ma Shiyao, etc., even with the help of civil unrest, the castrated dog could not make any big waves. At present, Li Yan was being watched eagerly, and Zhou Yuji went down to the city again to peek beside the bed. This is the overall situation.
Li Zicheng was silent and uncertain for a while, and Niu Jinxing suggested that Song Xiance should go south. The Marquis Bo was brave and resourceful, and the military advisor was cautious, steady and experienced enough to cope with the situation. The Lord should stay and take charge of the overall situation.
Everyone else persuaded them, and Li Zicheng finally nodded and stayed. He ordered Song Xiance and Gu Junen to immediately get up and go to Zhending Mansion. He then sent an order to the entire army to prepare for war. Tomorrow, he would send troops to attack the city in three directions to defeat the enemy and clean up the area in the south before the fire started. , if there is any change, it is best to deal with it with all your strength.
After the generals dispersed, Li Zicheng could not sleep for a long time. This feeling had happened to him in Taiyuan. It was the deepest fear in his heart. What was he afraid of?
Why did the situation suddenly become a bit tricky? Li Zicheng regretted that he had underestimated the enemy. If he had broken Baoding City earlier and sent a large army to bulldoze Li Yan's defense line earlier, he would not be in such a hurry now. After all, Yelang thought he could see through the officers and soldiers since he was a freshman. Those tricks, after all, they still underestimated the eunuch and thought that he was fighting at home and had the right time, place and people. However, it was too late to regret this sudden change in the situation.
Just when he was sending a large army south to snipe the officers and soldiers, sending military advisors to stir up chaos among the civilians, and was arrogantly preparing to fight a third-front war, the little eunuch had already secretly crossed the blockade and headed north to Baoding City.
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