On the evening of the 30th, Zhao Mengqi led his army to Yangzi Village, about seventy miles away from Fuzhou City, and set up camp.
This is a trumpet-shaped valley sandwiched between Daping Mountain and Taicheng Mountain. The narrowest point in the north is only a dozen feet wide. If we hold on here, it will cut off the land passage to Fuzhou from the south.
A camp was set up close to the official road near the mountains and rivers. Zhao Mengqi deliberately showed up and patrolled around, and even went to Yangzi Village for a walk.
When the camp was completed and the soldiers began to bury the pots and make rice, he slowly returned to the camp. All of this naturally fell into the eyes of Xizuo who was lurking nearby.
After the meal, Zhao Mengqi summoned his subordinates to discuss matters in the Chinese army's tent, and Chen Wei, who was supposed to be in charge of Fuzhou City, was actually there.
Zhao Mengqi looked at Chen Wei and said, "Bachelor, after I leave, I will leave this place to you. If something cannot be done, there is no harm in retreating to Fuzhou City."
"Don't worry, Your Highness, I will try my best to hold back the traitors, but Your Highness should be more careful."
Chen Wei had a tired look on his face. After all, he was over seventy years old. Even if he was riding a horse, running around for a day would be a bit unbearable.
But among the 3,500 soldiers and horses, only one Ma Siying is a regular army. It would be impossible for anyone else to control it. In desperation, he can only let him, a veteran, take action.
Next, everyone deduced the follow-up actions again and memorized every step.
At this time, somewhere in Taicheng Mountain, several agents gathered the information they had seen and sent it out via pigeon mail.
But they didn't know that at midnight, more than twenty figures left the army camp under the cover of darkness and trotted back to Fuzhou on foot.
These twenty or so people were Zhao Mengqi, Geng Zhi and other personal guards. As for the other Ban Zhi, they did not stay in the camp, but did not leave the military camp outside Fuzhou City at all.
In less than three hours, they arrived at the south bank of the Min River and boarded a small boat that had been waiting for them for a long time. The small boat carried them out to sea.
At Haikou, a Shenzhou, two 5,000-material merchant ships, and four Dinghai navy warships were waiting quietly, carrying one Masi battalion and two Dongwei battalions, as well as more than a hundred Banzhi Imperial Guards.
On the Shenzhou, there was already a firearms battalion led by Shi Cheng and two hundred sailors, and each Dinghai warship had nearly a hundred sailors.
Therefore, there are actually more than 2,500 soldiers here.
After Zhao Mengqi and others transferred from the boat to the Shenzhou, the rising sun just jumped out of the sea.
"Set sail, southward!"
Following Zhao Mengqi's order, the fleet took a zigzag route and sailed against the wind.
At the same time, Baiyanjiao's fleet had just entered Xinghua Bay.
More than half an hour later, the White-eyed Jiao arrived at the mouth of Hagilu River and docked to meet Pushi Wenliu Qingzhu.
As soon as they met, Pu Shisi couldn't wait to ask, "Brother, how is the situation?"
Pigeon messages cannot be received at sea, so he doesn't know anything about what happened during this time.
Pu Shiwen replied, "The news we received last night is that King Yan's march was slower than we expected, and he camped sixty miles away from here."
"Strange, isn't he in a hurry to rescue Quanzhou? Why is he still so slow? Could he be playing tricks?" Pu Shi suddenly became suspicious.
Liu Qingzhu said, "It is possible that the place where they camped is a choke point. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is easy to advance and retreat. This makes us very embarrassed."
Pu Shisi immediately checked the map, pondered for a moment and then said, "Do you think King Yan is not here? Even this army is just a cover, just to delay our attack on Quanzhou? Or is King Yan really here? Did you actually take the sea route?"
After hearing this, Pu Shiwen shook his head, "It is possible to delay us by pretending to support, but it is unlikely to go by sea. Firstly, where does he still have troops? Secondly, the spy said that he saw King Yan there with his own eyes last evening."
"If this official army is a guise, then the troops in it may also be fake, and they may all be fake and brave, but the truly capable officers and soldiers followed the King of Yan by sea. In this way, we are here Waiting will lead to nothing, but if King Yan himself is still there, it would be a little uncertain."
Pushus was still suspicious, tapping the map with his fingers, thinking hard.
Liu Qingzhu added, "But the spies in Fuzhou sent back a pigeon message saying that there was nothing unusual on the Min River and no large ships capable of transporting troops were found."
"Is that so? On the surface, everything is fine, but I still have an uncomfortable feeling in my heart. To say the least, even if King Yan did not take the sea route, we would not be able to make a move if we stopped here.
In my opinion, since we have just arrived and everyone is still on the boat, it is better to go to sea again at this time and go north to Fuzhou.
If King Yan takes the sea route, we have a high probability of intercepting him. If he doesn't go, we will enter the Minjiang River, and then go south from the land, and you will go north. With both sides surrounded, they will not be able to defend it at all. "
Pu Shisi was very scheming and didn't like to wait passively, so he proposed a new plan.
Pu Shiwen clicked on Fuqing County on the map, "If King Yan finds out that he is being attacked from two sides, he can immediately move to Fuqing County, which is ten miles away. With the support of the city wall, it is definitely impossible for more than 10,000 of us to capture it in a short time. Yes, if we wait for a few days to wait for King Yan’s follow-up army to arrive, wouldn’t we have to sit on the wax?”
"Don't be afraid. If he wants to go to Fuqing, let him go. Let's just take advantage of the empty city of Fuzhou to capture it. When the two cities of Fuzhou and Quanzhou are lost, how can King Yan afford this responsibility? Then the people in the court will use their strength , you can also defeat him!"
After hearing Pu Shisi's strategy, a group of people couldn't help but feel a little moved.
At this moment, a clipper ship arrived from Xijiao Bei Island, which received homing pigeons, delivering the latest news.
"The officers and soldiers continue to march south. The flag of King Yan is still there, and there are many forty-three horses in the team."
After taking turns to read the pigeon letters, Liu Qingzhu let out a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that we are nervous for nothing. King Yan is here anyway."
"Perhaps King Yan just wants stability, so he chooses to march only sixty or seventy miles a day. Then he should be planning to camp here on the north bank of Hagilu River. That's fine. We can just wait for work and kill them with one blow when they are tired!" Pu Shiwen was excited! stand up.
Liu Qingzhu looked at Pu Shisi and Baiyan Jiao, "To be on the safe side, it's best for your people to ambush at Litou Mountain a little further north. This can cut off their escape route and completely surround them!"
Pu Shisi still felt that something was wrong, but judging from the available information, he could not find any problem.
So, after hesitating for a while, I decided to listen to everyone and implement the original strategy.
Soon after, nearly six thousand pirates disembarked from the ship and headed for Lithead Mountain six miles away. If they met anyone on the way, they killed everyone and hid their bodies.
Time passed little by little, and at the beginning of the afternoon, the officers and soldiers arrived at Mianting Ridge, which was almost twenty miles away from Hagilu River, but they could not go further and began to set up camp.
After receiving the spy's report, Pu Shiwen and others were confused again, and Pu Shisi also rushed back from Litou Mountain to the Fengtou Mountain ambush point.
Liu Qingzhu was confused, "What are they trying to do?! Did they sense an ambush? But their scouts haven't come here yet?"
"Then what should we do now? Should we wait until tomorrow, or simply attack?" Pu Shiwen couldn't make up his mind either.
Pu Shisi thought about it for a while, "If we wait until tomorrow and they turn around and go back, won't we be even more passive? I think it's better to wait until dark and let's rob the camp!"
Several people deliberated for a while and finally decided to go with Pu Shisi's idea.
Although the advantage of encirclement is lost, having 15,000 people against 3,500 people is a huge advantage.
Then they began to adjust their deployment and gather all their troops on Litou Mountain in order to launch an attack after dark.
At this time, more than 3,000 people were frantically building fortifications on the south slope of Mianting Ridge.
Chen Wei looked at everything in front of him and smiled bitterly.
According to the original plan, they should have turned around and returned to Yangzi Village immediately when they were halfway there. The camp set up there yesterday had not been dismantled. In this way, even if the rebels came after them, they could still occupy a good location to resist.
But everything changed after the Military Intelligence Department personnel handed him a letter left by King Yan.
So he had to order the troops to move forward here before making defensive preparations.
Chen Long next to him saw his father's wry smile and couldn't help complaining, "Why does His Highness King Yan always like to use such dangerous methods to get things done? Although I don't know exactly how many rebels there are, but I guess there will be no less." There are less than 10,000 people, and among the more than 3,000 of us, few of us have been in battle, how can we resist?"
Chen Wei's white eyebrows twitched and he glared at his son fiercely, "Have you forgotten the principle of honor and inferiority!? Can you tell what His Highness will do?...Well, what's the use of complaining now? If it's really nothing. It’s feasible, but would I still be willing to die in vain?”
At this moment, another large group of people came running from the north of the official road.
"You see, His Highness was not aimless, but had planned it long ago. He originally said that the two battalions of the Yao Ling Yi Regiment would be transferred back to defend Fuzhou. In fact, he ordered them to reinforce us from the beginning. With these two battalions of the Eastern Guard, With the addition of more than a thousand miners, our defense will be strong enough. The only thing that can be worried about now is whether King Yan can really deal a crushing blow to the rebels as he said. Ha, His Highness's idea is true It’s so imaginative, from being surrounded, to being counter-encircled, using a few to surround the majority, wow, I really dare to think about it.”
Chen Wei was full of sighs. He had never realized that the Yao Yao Regiment had been following Thirty Miles Behind. Also because where his unit passed, the Military Intelligence Department eliminated all spies who could convey the pigeon message, so the same was true for the rebels. Not aware at all.
After a while, Lu Changqing, Wu Qiong, Yang Xiao and others entered the camp and reported to Chen Wei.
Immediately, Yang Xiao led his fellow miners to dig a trench outside the camp. It didn't need to be very deep, as long as it could act as a hindrance. Then he cut down some trees to make a simple horse defense. Then the rebels would attack. That is even more difficult.
The two battalions of the Yao Ling Yao Regiment did not join in the work, but had to recharge their batteries and prepare for battle.
Some people died, but not completely...
