On the third day of September, another cavalry team of several hundred people came galloping over. They did not stop until they stopped outside the shooting bridge. A stout man rode on the horse and asked with a smile: "Brother, Master Tiger is here now." where?"
The little leader in charge of the patrol stepped forward and replied with a smile: "Hey, it's Master Shan here."
Then, he waved his hand and pointed behind him, and said: "Our general just returned from here, and the Chinese army is stationed in the ruined temple only three hundred meters away."
Master Shan didn't want to talk nonsense to him. He raised his whip and galloped over, leaving only one sentence: "I'll treat the brothers to a drink some other time."
The little leader seemed to have great respect for Mr. Shan. He looked at the disappearing smoke and dust for a long time.
A moment later, these hundreds of horse teams stopped outside the shooting bridge. After the leading thief general turned over and dismounted, a thief soldier immediately ran over, took the reins of the horse, and said with a smile: " What kind of wind is this, blowing Master Shan here?"
Master Shan also greeted him with a smile, and then walked straight to the Chinese army in the ruined temple. People came up to greet him from time to time along the way, as if he was familiar with Li Guo's soldiers.
Accompanied by a small leader of the soldiers, Master Shan walked into the main hall of the ruined temple. Although it was a little dilapidated, it was very neat.
"One Tiger" Li Guo is very similar to his uncle Chuang Wang Li Zicheng. He is not usually very ostentatious, and can even be said to be very simple and simple.
Take the Central Army as an example. Yang Chengzu of Cao Ying built a wealthy man's mansion in Sheqiao as the location of his Central Army. However, in order not to disturb the people of Sheqiao, Li Guo insisted on He stationed his Chinese army in this ruined temple.
Moreover, there was no trace of luxury in the Chinese military tent, with only a few tables and wooden chairs, a desk by the window, and a sketch of the surrounding terrain on the side wall.
Master Shan entered the main hall, walked quickly to the middle, leaned down and bowed: "Tong Shoushan, the deputy in charge of the flag at the left post of the front camp, pays homage to General Li."
…………
It turned out that this mountain master was Tong Shoushan, the former sentry commander under the command of Zhang Cheng, the deputy commander-in-chief. Since the city of Luoyang was broken last year, he led more than 80 elite cavalry under his command to surrender to King Chuang in Luoyang.
At that time, King Li Chuang had more than 100,000 bandits under his command, but almost all of them were newly recruited farmers. They just dropped their hoes and replaced them with swords, guns, swords and halberds, but how could they do it without training? Fight against the official army.
At this time, the elites around Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, were only the more than a thousand people brought from Shangluo Mountain in Shaanxi Province. Even if there were still five or six thousand people in the old camp, most of them were family members and those in charge of property and food. Just a veteran.
It is precisely because of this situation that as soon as Li Zicheng entered Henan, he immediately contacted and appeased many groups of bandits in western Henan. Bandits such as Yi Dougu and others all defected to King Chuang one after another.
Li Zicheng also performed very well. In addition to reorganizing the teams of various bandits, he also allowed each of them to continue to lead, but only required them to abide by the military regulations of the invading army.
At the same time, he also gave more preferential treatment to those officers and soldiers at all levels who surrendered from the army. He did not completely disrupt them, but still asked each officer to lead the original team.
When he distributed money, food and military pay in full, he paid more attention to military rules and regulations. Therefore, whether they were traitors or officers and soldiers, their combat effectiveness was greatly improved after joining Li Zicheng.
These were also the main forces behind his initial attack on Kaifeng. However, Kaifeng's defeat almost interrupted Li Zicheng's rise, but the resilience he had honed over more than ten years came into play again at this moment.
Li Zicheng was not discouraged by this. He had been dormant in Funiu Mountain for more than half a year. In addition to intensifying the training of bandits, he also did three things.
One of them brought over the Cao camp of another thief, Kou Luo Rucai, and merged it into one, which strengthened his own strength and momentum; the second one sent relief to the people around Funiu Mountain and resumed production; the third one went out to communicate with southern Henan. Several powerful local armed forces have reached a certain tacit understanding.
Now, he has strong soldiers and horses, with more than 10,000 elite cavalry and nearly 100,000 infantry thieves under his command. This has restored his confidence, and he is making plans to completely defeat the officers and soldiers of Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue, so that he can besiege Kaifeng again.
Tong Shoushan is now also prospering in the camp. He was initially assigned to the White Horse Silver Spear Liu Fangliang. Therefore, he was not able to participate in the first siege of Kaifeng, and thus he was able to keep the elite cavalry under his command. suffer losses.
After that, he was ordered to lead a team out to collect grain. Tong Shoushan adhered to Zhang Cheng's teachings. Before receiving Zhang Chengxin's instructions, he was a full-fledged bandit.
Not only must he act like a real bandit, conquering cities and territories for the Chuang army, he must also try his best to express himself, win the trust of Chuang king Li Zicheng, and even sneak into his circle.
In this way, it will be of great use in the future and you can better protect yourself!
Tong Shoushan led more than 80 old subordinates under his command, and later assigned him skirmishers and new brave men, to collect grain everywhere in Songxian, Yiyang, Lushan and Nanzhao around Funiu Mountain.
He even went to Yuzhou, where Li Hao was entrenched, and Xiangcheng, where Liu Xuan was entrenched, to collect grain. He even went as far as Nanyang Prefecture for activities. He also personally visited Yanshi, Xingyang and other places many times to gather information.
As Tong Shoushan went out to collect food, he broke through the strongholds of the powerful gentry. In addition to bringing back money and food, he also recruited many young men. His team also grew stronger, and at one time it grew to five or six thousand people. The camp is already a force that cannot be ignored.
Although, according to the rules among rogue bandits, each team is free to develop, and the money and food captured by breaking through the village and fort belong to the public, the young men captured will naturally stay in the team to make up for their own battle losses.
However, Tong Shoushan also knew that he was a newly defected officer, and he was afraid that if he appeared too quickly, his situation would become very embarrassing. Once he became the center of everyone's attention, it would not be conducive to his activities.
Therefore, in order not to attract too much attention, he always selected strong young men and some skilled people to stay in the camp. Of course, he would not let out war horses and mules.
Up to now, Tong Shoushan's troops have less than 2,000 men and horses, including about 400 cavalry, and the rest are infantry. However, there are more than 900 horses and mules in his camp. .
Moreover, although there are not many soldiers in his battalion, they are all capable and fierce. Most of them are deserters from the government and soldiers from various places, as well as elite soldiers raised privately in powerful forts in various places.
Even there are some blacksmiths, carpenters, healers and other useful craftsmen, as well as a few literate scholars, who are all strong and healthy, and the grooms who are responsible for raising horses are all young and strong.
One thing that is quite special is that there are many fewer family members of soldiers in Tong Shoushan's battalion than in other battalions!
According to his own explanation, the camp was mostly made up of deserters from the army. They had fought in various places and had long lost contact with their families. Now they were scattered and only wanted to be happy for a while, so there was no need for their families.
But in order not to arouse the suspicion of the veterans who broke into the camp, he even took the initiative to send the few family members of the soldiers in the camp into the old camp of the breaking army.
Moreover, he had a happy event not long ago, marrying a woman captured from Luyang Pass. The banquet lasted for three days, which was quite a lively event.
For this reason, he even established an old camp in his camp to accommodate the families of the soldiers in the camp on the grounds that he was newly married and could not bear to be separated.
King Chuang was even more gracious to him and sent back his family members who had previously been sent to the old camp. This not only showed his trust in him, but also enabled the soldiers in his camp to see their family members often. It could be said to kill two birds with one stone.
But since then, Tong Shoushan has been more cautious. He has greatly reduced the number of activities in Yanshi, Xingyang and other places. He has also tried his best not to contact Chen Zhong and only concentrate on being a camp leader.
And now Tong Shoushan has been assigned to the young general Zhang Nai's camp and has become Zhang Nai's deputy in the camp. He is the deputy commander of the left post of the front camp, which is what the bandits call the second in command.
…………
When Li Guo saw Tong Shoushan, he also smiled and said: "Why is Tong Zhangqi so cliché? Come and sit down and drink some coarse tea to quench your thirst."
After Tong Shoushan sat down, Li Guocai asked, "Why didn't Zhang Nai come first? Isn't this inconsistent with his temper?"
"Ha ha……"
Tong Shoushan laughed heartily, and his beard trembled with his wild laughter. He smiled and said, "I want to come personally, but I am not a step ahead." Zhang Nai led the way. With three thousand men and horses riding behind, I estimate that we can reach Sheqiao in two days."
Li Guo also smiled and said: "That's fine. It's up to you, Old Tong, to temper Zhang Nai's quick temper."
"Hahaha……"
In the following days, troops from the Chuang and Cao battalions also rushed to the Sheqiao area. They were all stationed in various places around Sheqiao according to the places assigned in advance.
On the one hand, Li Guo sent people to collect grain from the wealthy households in the surrounding areas, and on the other hand, he distributed some of the military grain in his hands to help the hungry people in the surrounding areas, so that the reputation of King Chuang could be spread in southern Henan.
With the continuous dispatch of detailed teams to conduct in-depth investigations inside and outside Xincai City, coupled with the news from the surrounding people, we have a very clear grasp of the current movements of the officers and soldiers.
On the fifth day of September, Li Guo had learned that the army was stationed near Longkou Town, and he was deeply afraid that the army would continue heading north towards Xiangcheng.
He quickly mobilized Liu Tichun, Ma Shiyao and other side generals, leading about 10,000 infantry and a small number of cavalry, and rushed to Yangbu, a ferry crossing of the Honghe River, more than 20 miles northwest of Longkou Town.
In order not to miss the military plane, Li Guo even ordered Liu Tichun and Ma Shiyao to arrive before dusk today and act according to the plan.
That night, Li Guo, together with Yang Chengzu, Zhang Nai, Tong Shoushan and others, led thousands of elite cavalry and more than 10,000 infantry, quietly crossed the Rushui River and rushed north towards Mengjiazhuang.
Under his strict orders, all the mules and horses in the army took off their bells, and no one was allowed to speak loudly, let alone light lanterns or torches.
When the team first set off, there was still a crescent moon to light the way for everyone, but soon after, the crescent moon also fell. The cavalry of the Cao Cao coalition continued to rush on their way under the care of the late autumn stars.
…………
At dawn on the sixth day of September, the smoke from the kitchens around Longkou Town was rising into the sky. The officers and soldiers of each battalion had a good meal, then crossed the Hong River again and marched in two directions along the west bank toward Runing Mansion in the northwest.
Although all the generals in the government and army were timid in their hearts, because of Fu Zonglong's insistence and the fact that he frequently said "imperial edict", no one dared to say anything at this moment.
Even Baodu Yang Wenyue remained silent and did not say a word for fear of being punished!
Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers marched northwest for more than ten miles, when a patrol horse came from ahead and reported: "There are more than ten thousand bandits and they are preparing to cross the Hong River."
A moment later, there was another urgent report: "Half of the bandits have crossed the flood river..."
A moment later, Tanma's third emergency report came back: "The thieves have passed the third stop and have passed the second stop..."
It was only then that Bo Zonglong, the governor of the three sides, was convinced that the intruders were going to cross the Hong River, and then went south to besiege Runing Fucheng in a detour.
However, he mistakenly thought that the intruders did not dare to fight with his and Yang Wenyue's officers and soldiers, so he chose to take a detour to Runing Fucheng in order to avoid the sharp edge of the officers and soldiers.
So he had an urgent discussion with the bailiff Yang Wenyue: "Should we pursue the intruder immediately? While he has just crossed the river and his position is not stable, defeat him in one fell swoop!"
However, Yang Wenyue was very hesitant. He stroked his beard and said, "Let's take another look, Governor Fu!"
Fu Zonglong seemed a little anxious, and he said with confidence: "There is no need to look at it now, just take advantage of him to attack him halfway across, so that he cannot take care of both the head and the tail.
If all the bandits and bandits have crossed the river and formed a formation, it will not be so easy to win with one blow. "
After saying this, Fu Zonglong shouted an order: "The whole army is rushing forward. When the bandits are halfway across the river and their footing is not stable, knock them down with a drum. Don't let the bandits escape!"
All the generals were worried about whether they would fall into the treacherous plot of the traitor general Li Guo, but they only dared to discuss it in private. No one dared to publicly report their concerns to Governor Fu Zonglong.
After all, everyone is afraid that this will lead to the crime of "being timid in the face of battle"!
However, when the officers and soldiers advanced all the way to the Hong River ferry, they discovered that only a small number of the bandits had crossed the other side of the Hong River, while most of the bandits were still stationed on the banks of the Hong River.
Perhaps because they were preparing to cross the river, their formation was scattered, there was no clear boundary between the teams, and they looked very panicked.
Fu Zonglong was also greatly surprised at first, fearing that there were many thieves who had not yet crossed the river, and the outcome of his own battle with them would be unpredictable.
However, he was quite relieved that the bandits who had not yet crossed the river seemed to be frightened by the sudden arrival of the officers and soldiers. They did not dare to fight with the officers and soldiers. As soon as they saw the arrival of the officers and soldiers, they fled westward in panic.
At this time, the bandit soldiers who had crossed the Hong River were hurriedly dismantling the pontoon bridge built on the Hong River on the other side. This was clearly a sign of fear of being pursued by the officers and soldiers across the river.
Seeing this situation, Governor Fu Zonglong could not help but feel more confident in defeating the bandits in one fell swoop!
At the same time, because the pontoon bridge on the Hong River has been demolished and blocked by the bandits on the other side, the bandits on both sides of the river can no longer communicate with each other.
Fu Zonglong looked at all this, and regardless of whether his officers and soldiers were afraid, he immediately issued a strict order: "All officers and soldiers in the army should immediately pursue westward, and no "bandits" should be allowed to escape. As for the few "bandits" on the other side, let's wait for them first. Regardless, I tried my best to kill all the bandits who had not yet crossed the river."
He even encouraged the officers and soldiers of the three armies: "You must take advantage of the panic of the thieves and annihilate them in one fell swoop. This will be a great contribution to the imperial court and eliminate this henchman's trouble for the Central Plains!"
