"The thieves, the thieves are here."
The noise caused by thousands of dragoons could not be hidden from the officers and soldiers who were fleeing for their lives.
As soon as the dragoons appeared, they were immediately discovered by the officers and soldiers.
The imagined tit-for-tat battle did not occur. After the officers and soldiers discovered the dragoons, they broke up and fled in all directions.
When Chen Yongfu, the commander-in-chief of Henan Province, saw the dragoons chasing him again, he abandoned the army and fled toward Zhongmu County with only a few dozen horsemen around him.
The battle ended quickly.
The dragoons encountered little resistance and killed thousands of officers and soldiers.
"Where is the person in the sedan?" The leading dragoon battalion was coming to the captured sedan.
Among the officers and soldiers, there was only one sedan chair like this.
Only important figures in the army are eligible to ride in an official sedan during the march, and this person should not be good at riding a horse.
Several bearers were also captured along with the sedan.
Originally, several bearers also wanted to run away, but they were not as proficient in escaping as the officers and soldiers, so they were immediately captured by the dragoons.
"Our battalion is asking you something, why don't you speak quickly!" A dragoon nearby raised a blazing gun and pointed it at a bearer in front of him.
The young bearer hurriedly knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and said in a tearful voice: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, Your Majesty, please spare your life. The younger one is just a bearer carrying the sedan chair. The official in the sedan chair was killed before the King came." They were carried away on horseback."
"Damn, it's too late." The Dragoon Battalion was full of regret.
This sedan was most likely the sedan that Yang He was riding in. Catching Yang He would be a great achievement. I didn't expect that even if I hurried and slowed down, I would still let someone escape.
At this moment, the battalion staff officer came over on horseback. He glanced at the sedan first, and then asked the battalion Zheng beside him, "Didn't anyone get caught?"
The sedan was empty, and there were no high-ranking Ming officials wearing official robes nearby, so with just one glance, he guessed that Yang He, the governor of Henan, had not been captured.
"It was a step too late. Before we could catch up, Yang He was taken away by someone on horseback." Ying Zheng said with a depressed look.
The battalion staff officer raised his head and glanced ahead, waved to the men next to him, and said, "Bring the map here."
Immediately someone took out a map from his pocket and handed it over.
The battalion staff officer took the map and opened it, looked at it a few times, and said, "Zhongmu County is ahead of us. The enemy should have fled to Zhongmu County. However, our mission of intercepting the army has been completed, and we can go back to resume our duties." .”
"What do you mean by completing the mission? Yang He was not caught. Chen Yongfu and several Ming army generals also fled with their retainers. What was left behind was a bunch of crooked melons and cracked jujubes. They were useless." He said with an ugly expression.
The battalion staff officer next to him asked, "Then what are you going to do?"
"Continue to pursue, even if we can't catch up, we must block the people in Zhongmu County and not give Yang He and others a chance to escape again." The Dragon Cavalry Battalion said through gritted teeth.
After so much effort, only a group of ordinary camp soldiers were captured in the end. In his opinion, it was no different than being tricked by the army, which made him very angry.
"Then continue the pursuit. Zhongmu County is not far away anyway," the battalion staff officer said.
After hearing this, the dragoon battalion showed a smile to him and said: "I knew you would agree, so I will leave this place to you. I will leave you with another brigade, and I will take the rest to Zhongmou." County, it’s settled.”
"You are not discussing with me, you are informing me directly!" The battalion staff officer raised his hand and nodded at him with a smile, and then said, "You can go to Zhongmu County with peace of mind, leave the matters here to me. .”
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
The dragoon battalion said with a smile: "I knew you wouldn't object."
Then he stopped smiling and said to the ordering soldier beside him: "Give me the order, leave a large group to collect the defeated troops, and the rest will follow me to continue the pursuit."
There were more than 300 people in a group, and the remaining 2,000 dragoons were led by him to Zhongmu County.
In the Tang Dynasty, Zhongmu County belonged to Zhengzhou. In the Song Dynasty, Yue Fei defeated the Jin soldiers here.
Moreover, Zhongmou County has mountains and rivers, the west is higher than the east, the north and south are high and the center is low-lying.
Yang He, escorted by several Chen Yongfu's soldiers, immediately fled to Zhongmu County.
News that the rebels were in Xingyang had already reached Zhongmu County. The magistrate of Zhongmu County was afraid that the rebels would come, so he had already ordered people to close the city gate tightly and only open it for an hour every day.
Yang He, who arrived at Zhongmu County, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
When he arrived in Zhongmou County, he knew that he was safe for the time being and did not have to worry about being caught by the rebels.
"Open the city gate quickly, Governor Yang is here and wants to enter the city." One of Chen Yongfu's soldiers came to the city gate and informed the defenders in the city to open the city gate.
At this moment, Yang He also came to the ground from the horseback of the soldiers, and the red court uniform on his body was very conspicuous.
Someone in the city ran to notify the magistrate of Zhongmu County.
As for the city gate, no one dared to open the city gate to let people outside the city into the city before getting word from the county magistrate, even if the person outside the city was Governor Yang He.
After all, the county magistrate is not as good as the current one.
No matter how great the governor is, he will leave sooner or later. The county magistrate is the local emperor of a county.
The magistrate of Zhongmu County heard the news that Yang He had come to Zhongmu County again, and he quickly had people carry the sedan chair to the wall of the west gate.
After Yang He led his army to leave Kaifeng, they passed through Zhongmu County. At that time, the magistrate of Zhongmu County personally sent Yang He off, so the magistrate of Zhongmu County recognized at a glance that the person standing outside the city was Yang He, the governor of Henan.
The city gate was quickly opened under the order of Zhongmu County Magistrate.
The magistrate of Zhongmu County came to the city gate in person to greet him, together with the two directors and officials.
If not for lack of time, he would have wanted to take the squires from Zhongmou County out of the city to welcome Yang He into the city, making the scene even bigger.
After all, for him as a county magistrate, big figures like governors and governors were not something he could usually expect to meet.
"I am the magistrate of Zhongmu County. I have met the supervisor." The magistrate of Zhongmu County bowed deeply to Yang He.
The chief bookkeeper and Dianshi standing behind him also bowed and saluted with him.
Yang He took a step forward, helped Zhongmu County Magistrate up, and said in a warm tone: "No need to be polite, take me back to the county office first."
In Zhongmu County, it is indispensable to rely on the Zhongmu County Magistrate. He specially held the Zhongmu County Magistrate's hand to show his closeness.
"Supervisor, please follow me, the sedan is ready." The magistrate of Zhongmu County led Yang He to the sedan he was riding in, and personally gave his sedan to Yang He to sit on.
The county magistrate's sedan chair and the governor's sedan chair have different regulations.
However, Yang He didn't care about this at this moment and bent down to get into the sedan.
The magistrate of Zhongmu County held the hem of his official robe with one hand and walked beside the sedan in person, walking on two legs to accompany Yang He back to the county government office.
Seeing that the county magistrate did not ride in the sedan, the chief registrar himself gave up riding in the sedan and walked with the county magistrate. Instead, Zhongmu County Dianshi rode on horseback and accompanied several soldiers who had escorted Yang He to Zhongmu County and followed Yang He's sedan. later.
