Xie Liangcai did not serve in Lushan County before, but as a county magistrate in Shaanxi. However, he was unlucky when he was a county magistrate in Shaanxi.
During his three years in office, thieves attacked the county every year. In the first half of last year, an army led by Gao Yingxiang personally came to kill him.
At that time, the thousands of officers and soldiers guarding the city were unable to stop him, and he, a small county magistrate, was naturally helpless. However, he later had great luck and escaped with the retreating officers and soldiers.
Later, he spent a lot of money to avoid the crime of losing the city, and was transferred to Lushan County as the county magistrate.
The reason why he was not guilty and could be transferred to Lushan County was because he was attacked by tens of thousands of bandits. At that time, not to mention that he, a small county magistrate, had nothing to do. Even Hong Chengchou had nothing to do. .
Therefore, the superiors did not blame him too much. Instead, they felt that this man had also experienced great storms, and had been working in Shaanxi for several years and had a lot of dealings with bandits. He also did a lot during the defense of the city, assisting the defenders in collecting food and grass. Mobilize civilians to defend the city together.
In addition, Xie Liangcai spent a lot of money to open up the joints, and someone above him spoke for him, so the court not only did not blame him, but also transferred him to Lushan County to continue to be the county magistrate.
He originally thought that it would be safer to become a county magistrate in Henan, but he did not expect that as soon as he took office, a large number of rebels would march east from Shaanxi and reach Henan.
This made Xie Liangcai very nervous. In the past month, he begged his grandparents to send troops to garrison Lushan County to avoid falling into the city again.
However, instead of sending troops to garrison Lushan County, the two to three hundred soldiers who were originally garrisoned here were transferred away due to the tense fighting in various places in the north.
This made Xie Liangcai even more frightened, fearing that a band of thieves would appear and come to Lushan County.
The soldiers were transferred away, and Xie Liangcai had no choice but to rely on a local army of several hundred people from Lushan County to serve as the main force to defend Lushan County.
Speaking of this county brave, he also has to thank Wang Jida, who has been transferred to Ruzhou Tongzhi.
After all, this county warrior was created by Wang Jida when he was in office. Although their combat effectiveness is not much different from that of the decadent guardsmen, they are still better than civilians.
In the past month, Xie Liangcai was worried while paying attention to the war in the north.
But what he didn't expect was that before the large number of bandits from the north came over, a large number of bandits appeared on Funiu Mountain.
"At least two thousand bandits? And there are fine cavalry and artillery?" Xie Liangcai couldn't believe the news he heard: "It's not that the bandits from Funiu Mountain have gone to Lu's side, why suddenly Are there so many wandering bandits? Could it be that the wandering bandits from the north are detouring through the mountains and heading south?"
When he first took office, he had a brief understanding of the situation in Lushan County. He knew that there had been a group of bandits in Funiu Mountain, and it was said that there were hundreds of people. However, Wang Jida said that he had led troops to defeat this bandit, and a large number of bandits were killed. The thief has already gone deep into the mountains to the west.
None of what Wang Jida reported to his superiors was true. Not only did his superiors not know, but Xie Liangcai also couldn't tell whether it was true or not.
Now Xie Liangcai suddenly learned that at least two thousand bandits had been killed in Funiu Mountain. His first reaction was that these were not the little thieves in Funiu Mountain at all.
How could ordinary thieves have fine cavalry and artillery? These things were usually only available to large-scale thieves.
Looking at Henan, only the big thieves in the north have such elite cavalry and artillery.
So Xie Liangcai's first reaction was that these bandits were the main force of bandits from the north who came south.
I just don’t know why I didn’t go to the flat hinterland of Ruzhou, but went to the west to climb the mountains.
The officer and soldier sentry who came to report was just an ordinary gangster who knew so many twists and turns. He was just ordered to monitor the local bandits in the eastern peripheral area of Funiu Mountain. After seeing a large number of bandits coming out of the mountain, and There were cavalry and artillery in the back, but he didn't even have the courage to get closer and take a closer look. He just glanced at it from a distance and ran back to report.
He had estimated that the rebel army would have at least two thousand troops.
Anyway, those bandits look menacing, and this force is indispensable. Moreover, according to the tradition of bandits, they carried them all the way after crossing the mountains. It is estimated that there will be thousands of bandits by the time they reach Lushan County. People.
Therefore, the number of at least two thousand people seemed to him to be very safe, and he even said it was less.
After the sentinel heard a lot of questions from Xie Liangcai, especially the question of whether these bandits came from the north to the south, they were naturally confused.
Seeing that the sentry didn't know anything more, Xie Liangcai didn't bother to ask. He just asked the sentry to go down, and then urgently summoned the county, the chief bookkeeper and others to discuss countermeasures.
After the officer and sentry was sent out, after waiting outside for a long time but no one paid attention to him, his face turned ugly: "I rode all the way back to report the news, and didn't even give a reward. Damn it, if I do this again in the future Work hard, I’m a bastard.”
After the sentinel left cursing, many people in the county government office were also worried by Xie Liangcai.
Before everyone could arrive, Xie Liangcai asked the county magistrate: "Magistrate Li, a large number of traitors have come out from the east of Funiu Mountain. What should we do?"
Li Li County Magistrate glanced at Xie Liangcai and muttered in his heart: "The bandits are coming to kill you. What are you asking me for? I don't know how to lead troops in war."
"When encountering such a situation, it must be a general who has foreseen the bravery of the county. Ask me what a scholar who has no power to restrain a chicken is doing..."
"Furthermore, looking at this man's flustered expression, he may have been frightened out of his wits. How come this fool has been serving as a county magistrate in Shaanxi for several years without dying? This is unreasonable!"
Although Li Xian Cheng complained in his heart, he did not show it at all. Instead, he showed a fearful expression very cooperatively, and then said: "Xian Zun, the bandits are attacking, should you call Wang Dusi from Xian Yong's side?" ?”
Only then did Xie Liang react and said immediately: "Yes, yes, call Wang Dusi over immediately."
As Xie Liangcai started to worry about people one after another, it wouldn't take long for all the respectable people in Lushan County to know that some thieves were about to arrive.
Not to mention the reaction from Lushan County, Luo Zhixue and his men continued eastward without any panic.
Although after talking about Songshan Village, the places we passed were all in the outskirts of Funiu Mountain. The roads were much easier to walk than the trails in the mountains. However, this place is still a hilly area, and many roads seem to be passable by horse-drawn carriages. , but it is still very troublesome, and the road is not smooth, with many ups and downs.
Until then, a large number of people would have to be used to push and pull artillery and ammunition carts, as well as a large number of carriages transporting grain and baggage.
Sometimes you will encounter small bridges across streams and small valleys. These small bridges are usually wooden bridges of low quality, in order to allow artillery weighing more than 600 kilograms and equally heavy ammunition trucks to pass smoothly. , Baoxiang camp often has to temporarily strengthen the bridge, or simply build a small wooden bridge on the spot.
Therefore, the entire march was actually not very fast. It took them six full days just in the outer hilly areas before they arrived at a relatively flat place.
Luo Zhixue himself breathed a sigh of relief when he looked at the terrain ahead, which was still undulating, but no longer obstructed by mountains.
It is too troublesome to march in the mountains with a large army, and also with a large number of artillery and baggage.
Fortunately, I moved my headquarters to Songshan Village. Marching in the surrounding hilly areas was so troublesome. If I were still stuck in Sanshui Village as before, I probably wouldn't be able to get out in half a month.
"Finally come out and set up camp to rest as planned!" Luo Zhixue himself dismounted and ordered the army to rest on the spot.
Climbing mountains and wading through rivers along the way consumes a lot of physical energy of the soldiers and mules and horses. In addition, this place is still more than ten miles away from Songjiazhuang. It is already afternoon, and it is impossible for him to directly lead the army to fight all the way there. Go to Songjiazhuang.
Naturally, we have to set up camp and rest for a while. If we have any action plans, we will have to come tomorrow.
After arranging for his subordinates to camp, Luo Zhixue called An Yongduo over again: "Is there any news from Blind Wang? Have you found any officers or soldiers?"
Wang Xiazi led the cavalry sentry to set off half a day in advance. According to the plan, his cavalry sentry should be about five miles northeast of the army. As the peripheral forward force of the army, it would detect the enemy's movements in advance and intercept the enemy's small-scale forward. force.
An Yongduo said: "Brother Wang sent someone to report that everything is normal now. No changes were found in Lushan County and the north, and we did not encounter any reconnaissance cavalry from officers and soldiers. However, our reconnaissance cavalry discovered that the Songjiazhuang side has been closed. The village gate should have already heard the news about our coming out of the mountain."
After hearing this, Luo Zhixue lowered his head and looked at the simple map: "It is normal for Songjiazhuang to react, but there is no reaction at all from the officers and soldiers? Not even the reconnaissance cavalry?"
Anyong said: "Brother Wang found no scouts and cavalry there, and our infantry patrolling the perimeter also found no trace of scouts or cavalry."
"Either they don't know about our movements, or they didn't send sentries to detect us."
Anyongduo's guess was not correct. Xie Liangcai and others from Lushan County already knew that there were bandits coming to kill them, and they also sent out sentries.
But, the few sentinels he sent didn't come at all.
These sentries had previously detected the movements of the bandits and hurried back to report them. However, the superiors did not even reward them with a penny and sent them out to investigate again that day.
The sentinels were extremely dissatisfied with this. Naturally, they were just sluggish workers when it came to investigating. After leaving the city, they randomly found a dilapidated wooden house in the wild mountains and forests and spent the whole day there.
The next day I also wandered around blindly, and I also grabbed a group of travelers on the way, which was a lot of gains.
These sentinels didn't go west at all.
There was no reward for this work, and they were asked to risk their lives to find traces of the bandit army. Naturally, they would not do it.
Xie Liangcai didn't know about this, and Luo Zhixue didn't know either, so Luo Zhixue felt a little strange after not seeing any sentinels from the officers and soldiers for several days.
These officers and soldiers are not following the normal routine. Even if you don't have many soldiers in Lushan County who dare not go to war, you still have to send a few sentries to inquire about the situation.
But there are not even sentinels...
However, Luo Zhixue only felt a little strange about this, but he would not change the planned battle plan just because the officers and soldiers' reconnaissance cavalry did not show up.
Anyway, after long-term intelligence collection, Luo Zhixue has been very sure that there are no main force of officers and soldiers in Lushan County, and there are only a few hundred county braves who can survive.
The main force of officers and soldiers in the north did not go south, and the officers and soldiers stationed at Luyang Pass did not go north, so there is no need to worry too much.
The focus now is to win Songjiazhuang!
