Less than a moment later, all the officers and soldiers in the battalion received a message: the governor was selecting personal guards, and all the brave and capable cavalry and archers in the army could sign up. There were only thirty-six places.
The whole camp was in an uproar. Not to mention that as the soul of the entire army, the soldiers were very willing to get close to the young Lord Governor. Moreover, the personal guards were well paid and had a promising future. Anyone who joins the army does not want to have a great future. Right now, it is a sunny road. , Immediately there were thousands of followers, with thousands of people signing up, among whom Teng Xiangwei was the most numerous.
There was nothing to do when the army was resting, so the governor's decision to select the Eighteen Iron Guards from the entire army immediately became a breaking news. Even Wuzhong, who was competing in their skills, Chen Wangting and others also participated in it. As the person in charge, Kuang Ren was even more involved. I was busy formulating various competition projects and invited several great masters to serve as referees.
At this moment, an urgent report came from the scouts from the front: Liu Zeqing once again fought with the rebels in the river more than ten miles south of Gaoyi City. With the help of Li Chengdong, he defeated the enemy again. It was judged that the rebel army had already fought against Gao Jie's men in the south, and he suggested that Chang Yu order an urgent pursuit.
Chang Yu smiled after hearing the news, and ordered the scouts to send an order to Li Yan: Hold on to the other side of the wave, just follow Liu Zeqing and bite the rear of the rebel army. If necessary, you can help him, but if nothing happens, just watch and rest the army. host.
Li Muxian smiled like a flower beside him and whispered: "That Li Chengdong was a good dog. It would be a pity to kill him."
"The dog is a good dog, but he doesn't distinguish between good and bad. He will bite you back one day, and he is also a mad dog, a crazy kind of dog." Chang Yu sneered.
Li Muxian was startled: "The governor... I am a bit confused about the humble position."
Chang Yu smiled slightly: "You only need to know that he is a dog, a dog cooked to death."
Zhang Nai was defeated by Liu Zeqing in the early morning and quickly retreated dozens of miles to set up a defense line on the river bank south of Gaoyi City. Before long, officers and soldiers with a detachment of 3,000 cavalry chased him.
However, the cavalry did not take action. Instead, they faced off several miles apart until Liu Zeqing's army arrived in the evening and started fighting without saying a word.
Zhang Nai was extremely unconvinced in the previous battle, believing that the reason for the defeat was due to too many unstable factors, such as the bluffing and outflanking of the officers and soldiers, as well as the low morale of the rebels.
But at this time, he had rested for half a day and his morale had recovered. With the combined strength of the four troops and the victory, and the addition of cannon fodder to ensure victory, he decided to avenge his humiliation.
In fact, the actual battle situation was exactly as he expected at the beginning.
After the fight started, Liu Zeqing felt a little regretful. He had acted too hastily, and he had underestimated the enemy. In addition, his men and horses were exhausted from chasing him for days. The opponent had a large force and had cannon fodder to help him. He was beaten in the face as soon as he started.
With only half a stick of incense, Liu Zeqing could not reverse the situation no matter how hard he struggled. Seeing that the defeat was certain, he had no choice but to give in. He was about to order a retreat, but at this moment a group of four to five thousand reinforcements arrived. A few miles later there was another large army. The bandits were frightened and hurriedly withdrew.
I thought it was Li Yan who came to help, but I didn't know it was an unknown young general. It was said that he was Li Chengdong who was taking orders under Gao Jie. As for the people behind him, it was Niu Yong and Li Yan.
Apart from Li Yan, Liu Zeqing had never heard of Niu Yong and Li Chengdong at all, but after all, they helped him at a critical moment, so Liu Zeqing went out of his way to express his gratitude in person.
Li Chengdong recently felt that Chang Yu valued him, and he was so proud after helping to win the battle just now that he promised to pursue the bandit army with Liu Zeqing.
It was not clear that he wanted to take credit. Liu Zeqing was not feeling well, but he could not say bad things since he had just helped, so he asked Chang Yu if he had any orders.
Li Chengdong shook his head: "The governor ordered Beizhi and General Niu to be the vanguard, but he did not explain the rest." He then whispered mysteriously: "Previously, my lord, when you were fighting fiercely and it was obvious that the bandit army was exhausted, Beizhi proposed to support, but General Niu said that he was taking a look..." The implication is that you see how generous I am.
Liu Zeqing snorted and smiled coldly: "Then Li Yan didn't say anything at that time?"
"General Li didn't express his position. He still humbled himself and saw that the commander-in-chief didn't support him, so he led his troops to help." Li Chengdong said softly. Liu Zeqing nodded slightly, with a very playful expression, and then smiled and said: "You are just a small guerrilla general. Niu Yong and Li Yan's military rank is as high as yours, how dare you act on your own and disobey orders?"
Li Chengdong laughed when he heard this. This is why he felt that Chang Yu valued him. He was originally a guerrilla under Gao Jie. Although he was a confidant, his rank was not high. After being seconded by Chang Yu, he captured two thousand soldiers in Zhaozhou. Later, he performed well in the war in Zhending Mansion and had many miscellaneous troops in his hands. When he was ordered to replace the Tengxiang Guards in the morning, Chang Yu raised his hand even more generously and gave him the military power of 5,000 troops. Of course, these troops were all Ma Shiyao's old troops. Or captured soldiers.
Therefore, although his military rank is low, his military power is not small, comparable to that of generals like Niu Yong. More importantly, Chang Yu has allowed him to act independently from the beginning to the end without stating who he is taking orders from, so Zhou Yuji He couldn't be controlled, and Huang Degong couldn't control him either. This gave Li Chengdong the illusion that he was under the direct control of Chang Yu and was comparable to the Fourth Battalion of Dongchang.
Speaking of this, Liu Zeqing was also secretly surprised. It seemed that he was the confidant of the little eunuch. Could it be that he was allowed to keep an eye on me? The gentler attitude in his words made Li Chengdong very useful.
"Since there is no military order for supervision, you should go with Li Yan and the others. Otherwise, the governor will accuse me of secretly transferring troops, which I cannot afford." Liu Zeqing was unwilling to go with him.
But this reason was too far-fetched. Even with a pig like Li Chengdong, he thought it was annoying. He thought to himself: "Good intentions are just like donkey liver and lungs." But in fact, where did he have so many good intentions? He was just trying to gain credit.
At this time, Li Yan sent someone to report that the bandits in front of him had fled into Yao County at night, and that a group of men and horses were heading south quickly... Seeing that Liu Zeqing's men and horses were exhausted, Li Yan decided to march quickly to pursue them.
Liu Zeqing believed in the authenticity of Li Yan's intelligence, because even though this guy was always behind him, he was never idle. He traveled far and wide, but he couldn't let Li Yan catch up ahead of him. He was about to catch up with him. If you went over and picked the peaches, wouldn’t all my suffering these days have been in vain?
Help me up, I'm okay!
Liu Zeqing was worried that Li Yan would steal his power, so he flatly rejected Li Yan's kindness. After a short rest, he broke camp and chased after him. But he was worried that he was not strong enough, so he gritted his teeth and agreed to follow Li Chengdong because he saw that this kid was not only ruthless and ambitious, but more importantly, he felt Li Chengdong is Chang Yu's man, so it doesn't matter if he gets some benefits from him.
This caught Li Chengdong's mind, and he happily went with him. The two rode side by side, passionately thinking about how to defeat the thieves' rear army by breaking the bamboo, catch up to Li Zicheng and kill him. Not worried about lack of strength at all, Li Yan and Niu Yong were following him. Liu Zeqing didn't believe that they wouldn't lend a hand to support him at the critical moment. If that was the case, the little eunuch would naturally not bypass them.
