Zhou Shixian didn't know that Gu Kecheng and Hao Yaoqi had already met in Qing County. At that time, he had already headed straight for Cangzhou, and the scout on the shore was also shrinking within thirty miles north.

After all, within a hundred miles, horses are faster than boats, and a hundred miles away, and boats are sailing day and night. How can they catch up with horsepower alone?

Unless the Shunjun is one man and three horses, and he is willing to chase after him at all costs, or the river is bent, the boat is blocked, the wind direction changes, and other reasons have caused Zhou Shixian to delay time in vain.

After the two armies met, Hao Yaoqi naturally understood that he had been plotted by Gu Kecheng, but he could only swallow this tone himself. After all, Gu Kecheng had already considered this and did not let him catch any handle.

Besides, what if you catch the handle? There is a reason why Gu Kecheng dares to be so confident.

He was an old brother who had been born and died for more than ten years with Li Zicheng, one of the famous "Eighteen Cavalry". He followed Li Zicheng at the lowest point.

Although Hao Yaoqi is rude and fierce, he also knows some human nature and is naturally afraid to offend the other party if he is rash. Not to mention, one is the general in the Forward Battalion, and the other is just a middle-level general in the Shun Army.

However, when the two learned that Zhou Shixian had successfully seized the canal ship and had already gone along Henan, these filth and filth no longer mattered.

If Emperor Chongzhen was really on the ship and successfully fled south, it would inevitably be a big hidden danger for the Dashun Dynasty. At least the resistance of the remnants of the Ming army in the south would be even stronger, and many major wars would inevitably be inevitable.

And for the two generals who are carrying out the pursuit mission, this will be an irreparable fault.

The new dynasty was the first time to make achievements. If you were left alone for this reason, you would have been in trouble for eight lifetimes!

But in the same way, if they could capture Chongzhen and arrest the emperor of the previous dynasty back to Beijing, it would be a great achievement and a future would be limitless.

Under such a situation, the two of them immediately abandoned their past grudges. Gu Kecheng quickly gathered the two thousand cavalry under his command, and Hao Yaoqi also separated the more than a thousand cavalry under his command, and did not care about rest and immediately pursued them.

At this time, Zhou Shixian had successfully passed Cangzhou. Sure enough, the Shun Army was guarding the city, but the nearby Cao Gang did not submit clearly to Li Zicheng's Dashun Dynasty, but their family business was in Cangzhou, so they were powerless towards the Ming court.

Zhou Shixian naturally considered this and asked the other party to cooperate in a scene. The ships of both sides chased each other on the canal for a long time, but it did not take much time, so Zhou Shixian's fleet continued to move south.

However, when Zhou Shixian continued to move south and entered Dongguang County at noon the next day, he encountered trouble.

Although there were no major Cao Gang here, Gu Kecheng had sent scouts to inform him in advance. After receiving the news, the magistrate of Shunchao, who had taken over Dongguang County, immediately organized civilians to set up obstacles on the canal to intercept Zhou Shixian's fleet.

Fortunately, six of the eight scouts sent by Gu Kecheng were intercepted and killed by Zhang Hong. Although the other two successfully broke through the blockade and entered the city to report the letter, it was too late. Before the Dongguang County Magistrate had time to organize the civilians to complete the installation of obstacles, Xue Laoer had already led the cavalry to fight.

It was only at this time that Zhou Shixian realized that the pursuers of the Shun Army were less than a hundred miles away from him, and the scouts of the Shun Army were not weak at all. After Zhang Hong fought with them, he basically confirmed that these were the elite soldiers of the original border army.

In other words, the ones who came to pursue them should be the veterans of the Shun Army and the elite border troops of the Ming court. If Zhou Shixian collided with them in the wild, he would probably not have any advantage.

But what Zhou Shixian never expected was that while deploying obstacles, the county magistrate of Dongguang County also dug up the canal berth. Although Xue Laoer dispersed the civilians, he was still one step late.

In just one hour, more than ten water outlets had been dug out in the long embankment of the canal, which made it difficult for the canal, which had just arrived and was not very deep to sail the large ships smoothly.

In desperation, Zhou Shixian had to organize soldiers to collect the civilians who had no time to escape back to the city, quickly started construction, and renovated the canal berth.

In this way, Gu Kecheng and Hao Yaoqi, who had just set out from Cangzhou, had already chased Nanpi County about sixty miles north of Dongguang.

The movement speeds of the main cavalry and scouts naturally vary greatly, especially after the ancient war horses broke out for a short period of time, their endurance was not good.

Although Zhou Shixian did not know the actual distance between him and the pursuers, he realized the severity of the situation based on the speed of the scouts.

But at this time, Dongguang had been occupied by the Shun Army, and most of the city had no soldiers to equip his army. Zhou Shixian had no choice but to continue to move south and enter Shandong.

However, the situation was severe and the situation was severe, so Zhou Shixian did not panic and remained awake. It was better not to fight this battle. If you can fight later, it would be more beneficial.

The elite cavalry of the Shun Army that was chasing must have extraordinary combat effectiveness and absolutely no bad equipment. This is definitely not comparable to those defeated soldiers that Pang Lun temporarily gathered. This is the reason why he will not fight without fighting.

But the problem is that the cavalry's endurance is not strong. If the Shun Army comes to pursue them desperately, they will be tired. And if his troops head south on a boat, if they obtain armor and equipment, they will wait for their hard work, and they will not be unable to fight.

Therefore, what Zhou Shixian has to do now is to appease the restless soldiers and horses. As the backbone of the entire convoy, his performance at this time will directly affect the morale of the entire army.

When facing the crisis, Zhou Shixian showed calmness, calmness and orderly command, and once again gave this "Southern Desert Horse" a shot of a heart-warming agent.

"There will never be any mistakes when following the prince-consort!" Gradually, this became the consensus of everyone in the entire convoy.

After calming down the morale, the soldiers were organized to take turns to row boats, speed up the speed of the boat, and to keep a distance from the Shunjun as much as possible. It would be best if they could escape the pursuit. If they could not escape, they turned around and gave Shunjun a big surprise.

These soldiers are well-trained veterans. They have eaten and drunk enough these days, so it is naturally not difficult to row with one stone.

As they rushed forward, at the hour of the lunar hour, Zhou Shixian's fleet finally arrived in Dezhou and entered the city overnight to deploy defense. Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong led their troops into the city one step earlier and controlled the important town on the canal.

Dezhou is a water and land hub in Shandong to enter northern Zhili. In the south, grain, merchants, goods, and officials and students basically have to pass through this city when they enter Beijing.

Therefore, Dezhou City has also been expanding and repairing again and again, from an ordinary acropolis in the early Ming Dynasty to become tall and sturdy, becoming the "Gateway of the God of Sects", and countless warehouses for reserve materials in the city.

But at this time, the Ming court officials in the city had already fled, and even the people were no longer ten. The huge city was occupied by a group of yamen warehouses, controlling the food and weapons in it, and colluded with more than a hundred green-skinned gangsters to control it while taking advantage of the chaos.

Since the Shun Army's expedition, the Ming court officials in Shandong who heard the news either chose to wait and see, or took their families and fled south after packing up the gold, silver and fine materials, and only a few were still sticking to it.

Although Shandong has not yet entered the army of the Shun Army, it has been in chaos. Not only many civil servants have run away, but most of the troops that were supposed to resist the Shun Army have disappeared.

When Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong led their troops into the city, they were obstructed by the group of yamen runners and green gangsters.

At this time, the sky was already a little dark. Seven or eight yamen runners were carrying twenty or thirty green-skinned gangsters, holding swords and guns, wearing armor, and even someone even took a bow and arrow. On the grounds that "the current situation is chaotic, the city is curfew, and there is no certificate of vassals", they did not intend to let this group of unknown cavalry enter the city.

After all, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. If the Ming army is allowed to enter the city, how can they continue to be kings and dominate in the city? Moreover, with the virtue of the Ming army, after entering the city, they may be killed by evil spirits.

However, these people had not undergone regular military training at all. When Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong saw that a yamen runner who came to stop him was only wearing a piece of cotton armor and a helmet, they knew what level of these people were.

With Zhang Hong's bad temper, Zhou Shixian is not here, can he tolerate it?

And the fact was just as they expected. In less than a quarter of an hour, the dozens of yamen runners at the city gate were defeated.

Then, the young men in the city were captured or killed before they could figure out the situation, which was much worse than the patriarchs in Lujia Village.

After all, they can only bully the people.

Such a huge gap in strength, and the people in the city have long been bullied by these people, and the public is resentful. At this time, when they saw the Ming army, who was fully armed and unscrupulous, enter the city, they were still afraid and unable to support it, but they also had no way to obstruct the harassment.

After Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong sent troops to take over several city gates and control the government office, they immediately followed Zhou Shixian's instructions to first place the list of wealthy businessmen in the county office, and convened three rules. Then, with the influence of these people, they presided over the opening of warehouses to help the people and distributed grain.

However, because the yamen runners Qingpi did too much evil these days, and before Zhou Shixian could even enter the city, Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong took action on behalf of Tian and killed all eleven small leaders of the captive yamen runners Qingpi to calm the anger of the public.

And after this combination of punches, the methods are clever and effective.

In less than two hours, by the time Zhou Shixian entered the city, the army of guards had already obtained the full support of the people in the city. Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong had already controlled the entire city under the guidance and cooperation of the locals.

But under the pursuit of Gu Kecheng and Hao Yaoqi at all costs, as the evening approached, they were less than twenty miles away from Dezhou, and the three thousand cavalry under their command were still 2,000.

Two thousand cavalry, six thousand war horses, and more than twenty thousand horse hooves were like dense raindrops hitting the ground, rumbling, and yellow dust rolled in, surging and surging.
Chapter completed!