Chongzhen eight years, September 28th.
Gongchang Mansion, northern Qinzhou.
On a high ground beside the official road, a simple camp stood in the continuous drizzle.
The fiery red flags erected outside the camp indicate their identities.
Soldiers wearing helmets and holding spears guarded the camp walls.
In the camp, the military tents are strict and orderly, and the smoke rises and mixes with the water vapor in the air.
Under the awning, Chen Wangzheng was concentrating on examining the map of Gongchang Mansion placed on the wooden table in front of him.
In these eight days, he chased Li Guo from Pingliang Mansion to Gongchang Mansion, and now he has crossed Qin'an and arrived in the north of Qinzhou.
Li Guo did not deviate from his route and followed his plan all the way south. He had now reached the surrounding area of Qinzhou.
The document to hold Hong Chengchou accountable has arrived, but the wording is not too drastic.
Regarding Hong Chengchou's accountability, Chen Wang had actually been prepared for it for a long time.
After all, Li Guo's men were just a remnant of soldiers, and they were able to escape all the way from Qingyang Mansion to Pingliang Mansion, and then to Gongchang Mansion.
As a guerrilla responsible for the pursuit, he must be held responsible.
This crime can be light or heavy. To put it mildly, the campaign was slow and had little effect.
To put it more seriously, it was the failure to suppress the bandits that led to the rogue bandits poisoning the three prefectures and causing havoc in the nine cities.
However, Chen Wang knew very well that no matter how serious the crime was, it would not be so serious that he would throw away the guerrillas he had just obtained.
After all, the guerrilla in him now can be said to have just taken office. Even if he makes a mistake, the superiors will suppress him first.
First, the court will not slap itself in the face.
Secondly, there are not many soldiers in Gongchang Mansion. Nearly 30,000 bandits from the Four Heavenly Kings, Li Yangji and Climbing Heavenly King, are now wreaking havoc in Gongchang Mansion.
Hong Chengchou can't spare any time in Guanzhong now, and he doesn't have the extra troops to send in to suppress it, so he can only rely on him to handle it.
Coming together with Hong Chengchou's accountability, it was Hong Chengchou who asked him to take charge of wiping out the remaining bandits in Gongchang Mansion.
Recruiting surrendered troops as combat strength is an unspoken rule and has not been put on the table.
But this does not mean that Hong Chengchou did not know how many auxiliary soldiers the generals under his command had.
Hong Chengchou naturally knew this information very well.
It is now the eighth year of Chongzhen, not the thirteenth year of Chongzhen. The court's prestige is still there and control is still strict.
Chen Wang did not hide his gains after the Battle of Chunhua.
Anyway, the harvest does not go to the public, this is also an unspoken rule.
Chen Wang sent some of the captured items to Cao Wenzhao's account.
Originally, Chen Wang did not think of giving part of the seizure to Cao Wenzhao. He only came to his senses after Zhao Huailiang reminded him.
As Cao Wenzhao's servant, I can be said to have promoted him single-handedly.
In official terms at this time, Cao Wenzhao was his benefactor.
He doesn't have to be close to anyone, and he doesn't have to give it to anyone he captures, but he must give it to Cao Wenzhao.
If a person is captured and swallowed whole, he will be considered unsympathetic and unjust, and will be isolated by everyone.
Not many people want to get along with a mean and ungrateful person. Shangguan will also feel resentful about this psychologically, so naturally he will not promote such a person.
This also sounded the alarm for Chen Wang.
When you are in an officialdom, you must be careful every step of the way and be extremely cautious.
As long as he does not lose his guerrilla military position, fines and punishments do not matter to Chen Wang now.
Moreover, during this nearly month of pursuit, Chen Wang had not always been hanging at the rear.
Chen Wang had always kept Li Guo's military strength at around six to seven thousand men, no more and no less.
If there are too many, I'm afraid it will be a disaster later.
Without it, Li Guo might not be able to hold on to Hanzhong Mansion.
However, although Li Guo was not wiped out, he gained a lot of military honors.
A total of more than 20,000 villagers were rescued and more than 1,340 people were beheaded. All of these were reported, which can more or less offset part of the negative impact.
Chen Wang raised his head and glanced at the rain curtain outside the shed.
This time period is almost the time of autumn harvest in Shaanxi. This year, Shaanxi did not suffer from a severe drought. Although the rainfall was lower than normal, it was not impossible.
In the past month, there have been three light rains.
Li Guo seemed to understand his intention, and now he was a little confused.
When it rained, they stopped marching and simply ordered to set up camp. The distance they marched every day was not far.
Chen Wang didn't pay attention to these minor problems. As soon as the rain started, he ordered the troops to camp on the spot.
No matter what Li Guo was thinking, as long as he still wanted to live, he could only follow his plan and go all the way to Hanzhong Mansion.
However, at this stage, Chen Wang had no way to prevent Li Guo from joining the Four Heavenly Kings and the Climbing Heavenly King.
Hu Zhili had already led the new army camp to cut off the road from Qinzhou eastward to Fengxiang Mansion, but he had a group of new soldiers under his command, and only the backbone were veterans recruited by Pizhou.
Those new recruits were still hungry soldiers in the bandit army more than a month ago, and they only had a few days of training in total.
Then they marched all the way, training instead of training during the march. Only when they were not nervous did they occasionally train their formations and formations.
The current recruit battalion is actually not very powerful. It has a certain advantage against ordinary bandits. After all, they have complete armor and have undergone almost a month of marching and training.
But it can't fight a tough battle, and the defense is okay. Once it attacks, it will reveal the fact that it is strong on the outside but hard on the inside.
It is inevitable that Li Guo will meet with the Four Heavenly Kings and the Climbing Heavenly King.
Once the three armies join forces, their strength will expand to more than 30,000 men.
After the three armies were combined, the troops and the old and the weak were not counted, but the elite cavalry under their command could probably reach more than three thousand, and the horse army should also number seven or eight thousand.
At this time, it would be extremely difficult to force him to continue walking to Hanzhong Mansion.
I'm afraid there will be a big battle in the end.
The outcome of the war will affect whether the plan ultimately succeeds.
Chen Wang's eyes kept wandering over Hanzhong Mansion and Gongchang Mansion.
He had to go to Hanzhong Mansion, otherwise once the Guanzhong War was over, he would be exhausted and exhausted from all over Shaanxi and Shanxi.
The situation in Guanzhong is gradually becoming clearer, but the situation in other places in Shaanxi is deteriorating rapidly.
Li Zicheng, who had escaped from Chunhua, advanced all the way to Yan'an Mansion, and once again gathered thousands of troops. At the same time, he joined some rogue bandits who were originally roaming in Yan'an, and regained his momentum.
The defenders of Yan'an Prefecture went out to fight in the city, but were all defeated by Li Zicheng.
Yu Chongxiao, the commander-in-chief of Yansui Town, pursued Xiang Tianxing Huideng all the way from Qingyang Prefecture to Anding, Yan'an Prefecture, and ambushed him twenty miles west of Anding City.
Hui Dengxiang, Mantianxing and Huntianxing gathered tens of thousands of people, surrounded the army in three layers, and fired thousands of arrows.
Most of the three thousand Yansui soldiers were defeated, and only a thousand people returned.
Yu Chongxiao died in the battle, and his soldiers fought tooth and nail to retrieve Yu Chongxiao's body.
Yu Chongxiao's body was stained with blood. He was shot once in the abdomen, three times in the waist, once in the mouth, and his head and neck were broken twice.
The commander-in-chief died, the three armies in Yansui Town were shocked, and the military town was in turmoil.
The situation in Yan'an Mansion has completely collapsed and is no longer under control.
