Sanshui City was occupied by rogue bandits, and some riders even appeared outside Pizhou City, frightening everyone in Pizhou City into panic all day long.
The magistrate of Pizhou would not let Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu leave again. In the past two months, Pizhou had been attacked by three or four waves of bandits, making anyone who became the chief official of a state anxious.
There were only a few thousand strong men defending the city, but there were thousands of rogues.
If you are really determined to fight, you will be able to break through Pizhou City in a few days.
The rogue bandits broke the city, but the people in the city would be affected by the war.
But most people may not be in trouble. Some may be killed by the generals in the commotion when they enter the city, but most of them can survive and be coerced into joining the thieves.
But for wealthy households and officials, bandits hated them deeply and almost always wanted to be driven out and killed, with rare exceptions.
Furthermore, even if the bandits were willing to spare his life, how could he bear the responsibility for losing his land? Everyone on the left and right would die.
In fact, Cao Wenzhao was not prepared to abandon Pizhou from the beginning, not just because of Hong Chengchou's military order.
Also because Pizhou has the functions of Pingliang Prefecture and Xi'an Prefecture, naturally it cannot be given up easily.
Once Pizhou was lost, the rogue bandits once again connected the three prefectures. They could either go south directly and threaten Xingping from the north, or they could go north again to poison Pingliang Prefecture.
However, seeing that the magistrate of Pizhou was in panic and pretending to be a magistrate, he asked them to guard Pizhou.
Cao Wenzhao felt that if he didn't extort a large sum of money in food, he would be disrespecting the sincerity of Pizhou Zhizhou.
As a result, Cao Wenzhao simply revealed that his army was short of supplies, lacked military pay, and had low morale.
That night, a large amount of rice, food, fish and meat were delivered to Pizhou City, and even a lot of money was given.
To be precise, it shouldn't be called salary silver, but military comfort silver.
There was not much silver to comfort the army, only a little over two thousand taels in total, so it would not be much if it were distributed on everyone's head.
However, this is just a rhetoric and will not be actually distributed. Both parties knew it well and did not let others know.
The two armies led by Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu were the main forces. Most of the time, they were able to receive sufficient pay and silver, and they rarely lacked it.
The military comfort silver will be used on the servants later. Raising four to five hundred servants is a huge expense and often requires some gray income.
Naturally, there was no skimping on rice, food, fish, and meat. All these items were distributed, and the morale of the troops was much higher due to the increase in supplies.
Zuo Liangyu led the Changping Army to continue to garrison Pizhou. Although Zuo Liangyu only had more than 2,000 men under his command, these men were more than enough to defend the city. After all, the rogue bandits did not have any weapons to attack the city.
Cao Wenzhao led his troops to continue southward and stationed in Qianzhou to block the northward path of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, which was the same as the military order issued by Hong Chengchou.
However, Chen Wang did not follow Cao Wenzhao. Hong Chengchou's military order asked him to go to Chunhua immediately to integrate Chunhua's troops and resist the attack of the rogue bandits.
Now, of course, we cannot go northeast to Sanshui City. It is more than 180 miles from Pizhou all the way south to Qianzhou.
Then from the Guanzhong Plain to the north to Chunhua, it is more than 180 miles along the way, totaling 360 miles.
When a large army marches, even if there are enough supplies and auxiliary troops in the interior to transport weapons and equipment, it can only travel at a speed of seventy or eighty miles in a day.
And if you need to maintain your physical strength to prepare for emergencies and be ready for battle at any time, then the distance traveled in one day needs to be reduced to forty or fifty miles.
Cold weapon combat requires a lot of physical strength, and it is not enough to just have the power to load and fire.
But Chen Wang doesn't need to consider these things. The only thing he needs to consider is how to speed up.
The horse army and fine cavalry of the rogue bandits turn like the wind, and with the help of the old and the weak, the speed of the team will slow down a lot.
The rogue bandits had captured Sanshui for some time. According to Ye Bushou's intelligence report, most of them were still stationed in Sanshui. Their purpose was naturally to wait for letters from the other two groups to agree on the time for the general attack.
Li Zicheng is not a fool. He naturally knows that the main force of the Ming army will be crushed by the troops from Qingyang Mansion alone. Now he is stationed in Sanshui, and at the same time he divides his troops to inspect the surrounding areas, eliminate the wealthy officials in the surrounding areas, and destroy The city defense of Sanshui.
Every time the rogues captured a place, they would take the opportunity to destroy the city defense. Because the officers and soldiers gathered in large numbers, they could not defend the city at all.
Even if they could defend the city, they would not have enough food to support such a large population if they were stationed in one place all the time.
In order to survive and find food, they must keep moving and moving.
Destroying the city defenses that captured the city could weaken the Ming army's power to a greater extent.
Chunhua was not surrounded. According to reports, only a small number of rogue horse troops were operating outside the city, posing a threatening situation. The main force of the army did not step outside the sphere of influence of Sanshui City.
Chen Wang had already made some guesses about Li Zicheng's psychology and arrangements.
Soldiers are very fast. After receiving the military order, Chen Wang did not hesitate and directly chose to take the order and rush to Chunhua.
Cao Wenzhao allocated fifty more cavalry to Chen Wang from among his servants.
However, these fifty cavalry were not given directly to Chen Wang, but were temporarily borrowed, just to serve as guards along the way and to better control Chunhua's troops in the future.
Counting Chen Gong, Hu Zhili, Hu Zhiyi and the nine servants who originally followed Chen Wang after the death of the general, there were more than sixty people in total.
Tang Shiping did not follow. He led the original four-game team and followed Cao Wenzhao southward.
After all, without some acceptable people, it is indeed difficult to control the various armies by relying only on seals.
There are many bandits and bandits along the road. After leaving Qianzhou and entering the Guanzhong Plain, you will probably encounter rogue horse troops wandering around. When entering Chunhua, you will also need to face rogue horsemen.
There are many dangers along the way, so protection is naturally needed.
Chen Wang naturally did not refuse Cao Wenzhao's arrangement. Although his martial arts skills were at the top, he never regarded himself as a strong general.
After all, in this era, the role of martial arts is constantly weakening.
Even the white-armored soldiers wearing three layers of heavy armor could not withstand the close range bombardment of the Crouching Tiger Cannon.
Under the blast of guns and cannons, even the canned knight wearing the most sophisticated plate armor will fall.
Within the range of the Hongyi cannon, all living beings are equal.
Chen Wang led more than sixty cavalrymen along the way. The standard equipment of the servants was one person and two horses, and they moved very quickly.
Holding documents stamped with Hong Chengchou's seal, no official dared to disobey, and they all quickly handed over the supplies.
If the stations along the way had not been burned to the ground by the passing bandits, the supply could have been faster and better.
Traveling lightly and hurriedly all the way south, Chen Wang never encountered any other bandits except for a small rogue horse army when he left Qianzhou.
After all, any thief who dares to rob a cavalry team of more than 60 who are full of murderous spirit, each with two horses and carrying an army flag, is either eating a bear's heart or a leopard's courage, or he has no brain in his head.
