When the night fell on July 25, the third year of the Republic of China, a messenger sent by Li Fuchen, escorted by several cavalry, found Li Zhongzheng's Chinese army, which was marching along Yuanjiang River. Then the messenger saw Li Zhongshan The general's flag hurriedly came closer. The whole group was dripping with sweat. They reined in Li Zhongshan's horse, clasped their fists in salute, and reported loudly: "His Royal Highness the King of the South reported to the General that the vanguard cavalry of the South King's Army overtook the rear guard of Wu Zhou Junjie's Secretariat on the east bank of the Taiping River. , killed a thousand people, captured 800 alive, captured 300 war horses, and captured the pontoon bridge built by Jieshu. Now His Highness the King of the South has led his army across the river! His Highness the South King asked the general to lead the army to join them immediately. Chase down the fleeing enemy!”
Li Zhongshan frowned. Li Fuchen was still a bit old and strong. He was still so fierce after being besieged by Wu Sangui for so long. As soon as Wu Zhou's army broke the siege, he immediately ran all the way to pursue it without fear of being ambushed. Along the way, they have defeated thousands of troops sent by the unlucky Jieshu. However, this time the Taiping River battle seemed to go too smoothly, and even the pontoon bridge was captured! How come that Jie Shu has persisted in Jiangxi for several years, and why is he so useless now? Even if he is useless, isn't there still Wu Sangui? Is the "Jiujiang Wu Sangui" who is being beaten by Li Zicheng real? It doesn’t look like it’s still a scam!
He said hello to the back, and Zhou Chang, Yao Qisheng, and Li Zhongzheng immediately came over.
"The old man fought hard and has already crossed the Taiping River! But it is also possible that Wu Sangui is using a trick to lure the enemy into defeat! So we must proceed with caution. Don't march tonight, set up camp! Let the brothers have a good rest, and then Have a good meal!”
"yes!"
Zhou Chang and Yao Qisheng agreed loudly, then turned around to convey Li Zhongshan's order and draw up a camp plan. But Li Zhongzheng did not agree, and said to Li Zhongshan with a worried look: "Second brother, do you think our father is underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly?"
Li Zhongshan just laughed dryly: "The old man is indeed a bit aggressive, but don't worry too much about him. He is a brave general of the three armies, and the soldiers under his command are particularly capable of fighting. Even if he falls into Wu Sangui's trap, he will not die for a while. . So we don’t follow too closely, lest we get ambushed along the way, we have to advance slowly and cautiously. When the old man is really ambushed, we can attack in a big way and we will be sure of victory."
Li Zhongzheng immediately became anxious after hearing this: "Second brother, that's our father! What if he falls into Wu Sangui's trap and is accidentally beaten to death?"
Why is this brother Zhongzheng so overflowing with filial piety?
Li Zhongshan glanced at him indifferently and said in a deep voice: "Lao Sangui, why did you curse our father? How could our father be killed so easily? Don't worry, even if Wu Sangui surrounds him with several times more troops, he We can withstand it! When the time comes, we will take advantage of their inextricable fight to launch an attack, and it will be difficult not to win!"
Li Zhongshan looked relaxed. Not only was he not worried about Li Fuchen's safety, he was even vaguely expecting that Old Li would ambush him. He said that Old Li had been fighting for half his life, and he was also the best cavalryman in the world today. He was not only good at breaking out of formations, but also He is also proficient in the full set of light cavalry skills such as reconnaissance, harassment, cover, rearing, pursuit, destruction, and ambush.
I think back then, in order to let Li Zhongshan and several other "little workers" Lu Bu learn this whole set of light and heavy cavalry skills, they used a lot of force to beat the children, and they didn't understand happy education at all. Now it would be quite interesting if I was ambushed!
But having said that, among Wu Zhou's troops, apart from Wu Sangui himself, the only ones who could mobilize a large army to attack his ambush were probably Wu Guogui, Ma Bao, and Wu Shicong. Wu Yingqi didn't even have this ability!
If this old man is really ambushed, it means that Wu Sangui has used his capital, and then the seven towns led by Li Zhongshan (he left one town to assist Li Zicheng) can fight against Wu Zhou's main force!
Now the battle with Wu Zhou's navy has been won, but the main battle with Wu Zhou's army has not yet been fought. If we don't give it a good fight, how can we reassure people?
That's Wu Sangui!
Li Zhongshan is thinking about a decisive battle with the main force of Wu and Zhou. Li Fuchen has just entered Taiping City on the west bank of the Taiping River. He now leads three towns plus his own royal soldiers, a total of more than 30,000 people, and is chasing Jieshu More than 40,000 people are fighting, but he also feels that there may be a scam ahead!
This Jieshu was well surrounded, why did he suddenly withdraw his troops overnight? Moreover, if you withdraw the troops, then withdraw the troops, and hang up a lot of sheep and force them to kick the drum with their hind legs. What does it mean? Can't you keep some elite soldiers to serve as your rearguard? Just get a few sheep, who are you looking down on?
What's even more outrageous is that when Li Fuchen was chasing Jieshu, the several waves of palace troops thrown out by Jieshu were all extremely weak and they ran away as soon as they were hit! He even ran away without fighting. He ran away when he saw the enemy!
If Li Fuchen didn't chase him more fiercely, he wouldn't even be able to catch up with Jieshu's palace army, which would be too embarrassing.
However, Li Fuchen did not take it lightly. After he was stationed in Taiping City, he didn't even have time to get a good sleep, so he grabbed a large plate of Jiangxi fried rice noodles, and then followed his confidant, Yu Deshui, who acted as the agent for the Jiangxi government tour. Master, let's go together to see two of Master Yu's men torture a newly captured Eight Banners uncle!
This Eight Banners man is over forty years old. He has a burly figure and is stripped naked to reveal his tendons. You can tell at a glance that he is a ruthless character!
And by coincidence, this ruthless-looking character is an acquaintance of Li Fuchen and Yu Deshui. His surname is Zu and his given name is Yonglie. He belongs to the Zhenghuang Banner Han Army and has the title of First-Class Son. He also has a good reputation. Dad is Zu Kefa, Zu Dashou’s adopted son. Under the tutelage of Zu Kefa, this Zu Yonglie was still a martial artist and had real kung fu.
However, Li Fuchen's people didn't have much trouble catching him. It turned out that this guy led a group of Zhou soldiers who had lost their armor and set up an ambush on the east side of the Taiping River to block Li Fuchen's pursuers. However, from a distance, he saw Li Fuchen's "bright" plate armor (semi-armor) cavalry forming a column in a mighty manner. As he drove over, he was so frightened that he rushed out of the woods where he was ambushed and ran for his life.
Once he takes the lead, what will the soldiers below have to fight? Let's run away together, so they were crushed by Li Fuchen's cavalry! And he himself did not run away, but was stabbed off the horse with a bamboo pole. Then they took off his armor, leaving only a pair of underpants, which were tied up and taken to Taiping City.
After arriving at Taiping City, he was escorted to the inspection department's yamen without even being fed, and slapped without any explanation!
After being beaten to pieces, I saw Li Fuchen and Yu Deshui coming together. When those guys who hit him saw Li Fuchen and Yu Deshui coming, they finally remembered why they hit them? Start asking questions.
"You Tatar, are you going to tell me?"
"I'll kill you if I don't!"
"Speak quickly! If you tell the truth, you can save your life!"
Hearing these people's questioning, Zu Yonglie, who had been beaten so hard that it hurt everywhere, immediately fainted, "I said, I said, stop beating him, if you hit him again he will be beaten to death. Wuwuwu."
"Hey, isn't this Zu Da?" As soon as Li Fuchen sat down, he recognized Zu Yonglie and said with a smile, "Then tell me quickly, what evil is your cousin Wu Sangui holding back? How many elite soldiers has he prepared? Are you ready to attack? Where to ambush?"
Master Yu was still helping: "Just say it, you won't get beaten if you say it!"
"But...but I don't know!"
Li Fuchen's eyes widened and his tone became serious: "Have you not fought enough for Zu?"
"That's enough, that's enough." Zu Yonglie quickly begged for mercy, "I've beaten you enough, don't fight me anymore!"
"After you've beaten enough, tell the truth!" Master Yu enlightened him again, "Master, please don't hide it for your cousin Wu Sangui! You can't hide it either. The lieutenant general and staff general who have been captured by us these days There are quite a few of them! Even if you don’t tell them, they are not Wu Sangui’s relatives! This is your chance to survive! If you want to be Wu Sangui’s best friend, then His Highness Nanwang will be angry, but you won’t let others beat you. Got it!"
Li Fuchen slapped the table again: "Are you going to tell me? If you don't tell me, I'll pull you out and kill you!"
Master Yu looked anxious: "Speak quickly, or I'll kill you if you don't!"
As he spoke, he grinned and made the motion of pulling his head with a small knife.
Zu Yonglie cried anxiously: "King Nan, Master Yu, you have to believe me. I really don't know. I really don't know where the Emperor of Zhou ambushed his troops. It was three months ago when I met him. Now I don't know. Don't know where others are?
Moreover, I am not the best friend of Emperor Zhou! Except for Zu Zeqing and his son, no one in our ancestral family rebelled with Emperor Zhou. Of course I didn't rebel with him. In fact, I came to Jiangxi with Prince Kang.
If you don’t believe it, you can ask the lieutenants and generals! "
Li Fuchen turned his head and glanced at Master Yu.
Master Yu nodded.
Li Fuchen snorted: "Drag this rebel out and kill him."
Beheaded?
I’ve already said it, why do I still want to kill him?
Zu Yonglie was anxious and scared. When he was dragged down, he was still screaming at the top of his voice: "King Nan, please spare your life, King Nan, please spare your life. I have already said it. I don't know what evil Wu Sangui is holding back, and I don't know either." Where are his elite soldiers? I really don't know.
I was guarding outside Nanchang City with King Kang before. Later, when we learned that Jiujiang was besieged, we prepared to run away. When the army from Jiujiang came over, I fled with King Kang, and then King Nan led the troops to pursue us. .”
Master Yu said: "Your Majesty, this Zu Yonglie looks quite honest and doesn't look like he is lying. How about keeping him alive first?"
"Well," Li Fuchen pretended to think for a while, "Then let's detain him first and sentence him to execution and imprisonment first!"
Master Yu said to Zu Yonglie: "Zu Da, you can't die for the time being, why don't you thank me quickly!"
Zu Yonglie took a breath and kowtowed repeatedly: "Thank you, thank you for not killing me."
"Drag him down!" Li Fuchen waved his hand and asked someone to drag Zu Yonglie down.
Seeing Zu Yonglie being pulled down, Master Yu whispered to Li Fuchen: "Your Majesty, this Zu Yonglie doesn't seem to be lying!"
"Then Wu Sangui is quite good at keeping secrets!" Li Fuchen paused, "Where is the second child? Where is he?"
"Chuanqi reported that they camped in Zhangshu Town, which is about a day's journey from us." Master Yu thought for a while and said, "My lord, do you think Wu Sangui was really trapped in Jiujiang by Li Zicheng?"
"Impossible." Li Fuchen shook his head, "This old boy must be holding back his bad intentions. I wonder where he wants to fight us?"
"Your Majesty, should we urge the Second Young Master to come to Taiping Town to join us as soon as possible?"
"No need." Li Fuchen said, "It's useless to urge him. He is the general and the minister, and I am still his subordinate, so I can't give him orders.
But he knows how to fight, so he won't be too far away from me. With him following me, I'm not afraid of Wu Sangui ambushing me, I'm just afraid that Wu Sangui won't come to fight! People named Wu are worrying if they don’t take action! "
Master Yu asked again: "Then shall we continue to follow Jieshu's defeated army?"
"Follow!" Li Fuchen nodded, "But don't follow too closely. Let's slowly pull his butt with a knife and eat his army one by one!"
Guangdong Province, Shaozhou Prefecture, Beijiang.
Wu Guogui's army was divided into three groups at this time, marching along Beijiang by land and water - one on the west bank of Beijiang, one on the east bank of Beijiang, and one in Beijiang by boat.
Wu Guogui himself led 30,000 cavalry and marched cautiously along the east bank of the Beijiang River.
Jia Guozhu and Jia Liuzi, the leader of the old Jia family, were detained by Wu Guogui and were not allowed to go anywhere!
"Liuzi, who is in charge of commanding the army in Guangzhou now?" At this time, Wu Guogui asked Jia Liuzi again who was the general commanding the army in Guangdong?
Wu Guogui had asked the same question a few days ago, but he didn't know whether he had forgotten it or wanted to test Jia Liuzi unexpectedly.
"It's He Tianran and Li Zhongyi." Jia Liuzi said, "He Tianran is quite good at fighting and has a unique talent, but after all, he was born next to the eldest son of your family. Li Zhongyi is Li Zhongshan's adopted brother and Li Fuchen's adopted son. , is considered a member of the Li family, and is quite brave, and is very proficient in firearms and cavalry."
Wu Guogui nodded. Jia Liuzi said the same thing as last time. He Tianran and Li Zhongyi were not lying. He Tianran and Li Zhongyi were not very good at it. Even if they were to fight against each other, Wu Guogui was sure of it.
Of course, the teams of Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen started their troops late, although they set up two martial arts lecture halls to train middle- and lower-level officers in batches. But a coach who can act alone cannot be cultivated. Generals of this level can only be "used"!
As far as Wu Guogui knew, there were only three generals of this caliber in the Li family, namely Li Zhongshan, Li Fuchen and He Tianran - He Tianran was the leader of Wu Shijue's soldiers in his early years and was already battle-hardened. , followed Wu Xiaotuo to Li Zhongshan's side. Later, because he "played" Obai, he got the opportunity to gain experience. He has been leading troops independently and performed well, and he has grown up.
But his level is not at the same level as Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan. It is not difficult to deal with.
As for Li Zhongyi, he might become the commander-in-chief after a few more years of training, but now he is only responsible for monitoring He Tianran.
While he was silently analyzing the generals on Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen's side, suddenly a group of soldiers flew over like a spy at night. They came from the east, and everyone was tired from the journey. They seemed to be sleepless, and they had been wandering around the hills to the east to provide warning for the flanks of the army. Wu Guogui's soldiers stopped them and asked them a few words, then let one of them come over.
Wu Guogui's heart moved and he just reined in his horse and waited. When he saw that the Night Guard team was still far away, he dismounted his horse and walked forward a few steps to salute: "Your Majesty, my subordinate is the sentinel team leading the direction of Wengyuan County. Yesterday, we went to the direction of Jiang Zhenshui. No signs of Ming army activity were found. Wengyuan County is already on alert, and the bridges on the water in Jiang Town are guarded by militia groups."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The terrain on both sides of the Beijiang River in Shaozhou Prefecture was a bit rough. They were all valleys. That is, the two sides of the Beijiang River were a bit flat, and the farther away there were mountains.
It's simply the best place to lay an ambush!
If Jia Guozhu is a little liar and Wu Xiaotuo is a cheater, then the most suitable place for them to set up an ambush is probably in Yingde County where Wu Guogui is located. Because the terrain at the junction of Yingde County, Fogang Ting County and Qingyuan County is very narrow and all are mountainous, the Beijiang River passes through the mountains. As long as He Tianran and Li Zhongyi block both sides of the Beijiang River in this area, and then set up an ambush in the mountains and forests on both sides of the Beijiang River in the north of Yingde County, they can form a perfect pocket formation. In one fell swoop, Wu Guogui's 80,000-strong army (he was in Some troops were left at key points along the way) and they were packed into bags.
The generals under Wu Guogui all showed joyful expressions. Some of them were already eager to take the lead in the battle. As long as they could pass through the mountainous area ahead and reach Qingyuan County, the terrain would be wide open!
Even if the Guangfu people have been mobilized, Wu Guogui and the others are not afraid. As long as they hold Daluo Mountain at the junction of Qingyuan and Yingde, they can attack or defend!
"That's not right!" Wu Guogui's face suddenly darkened, he raised his hand and pointed at Jia Guozhu, and shouted: "Take this person down!"
"yes!"
Although the incident happened suddenly, Wu Guogui's soldiers still rushed forward without hesitation and pulled the unsuspecting Jia Guozhu off his horse. Jia Guozhu was still shouting about injustice, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, what are you doing?"
Wu Guogui sneered: "Liuzi, stop pretending. You are pretending to surrender!"
"I didn't! I truly surrender!" Jia Guozhu looked innocent.
Wu Guogui said with a smile: "Let me make it clear to you. I have already arrived in Yingde, how could He Tianran and Li Zhongyi still be unprepared? Even if the Chinese soldiers need time to mobilize, it would be unreasonable to set up suspicious soldiers in the mountains around Yingde and Wengyuan. Why is it so difficult? Even if you don’t do this, why is Big Beard still not careful enough in doing things!”
"Your Majesty, you are just making a wild guess!" Jia Guozhu was not willing to admit that he had faked his surrender. "You are making baseless guesses. If the official is here to fake a surrender, then why didn't the Ming army set up an ambush in the mountains on both sides of the Beijiang River?"
"Why not set up an ambush in the mountains on both sides of the Beijiang River?" Wu Guogui said coldly, "Because He Tianran knows that I am cautious, and he will not succeed if he wants to set up an ambush here. If I am not wrong, they will ambush Nanxiong and Lianshan , after our army arrives in Yingde, we will go directly to Guangxi to send troops to Hunan!"
(End of chapter)
