If the entry of the peasant rebel army into Henan made Henan the hardest hit area by banditry, then Nanyang Prefecture at the junction of the three provinces was the hardest hit area among the hardest hit areas.

The peasant rebel army and the encirclement and suppression Ming army repeatedly passed by and fought fiercely, causing Nanyang Mansion to completely lose control. Although no city has been broken so far, the government has completely lost control of the vast area outside the city.

And the power of example is infinite. Seeing what the peasant rebel army did, the refugees in the countryside of Nanyang Prefecture immediately gathered into a group of bandits and wreaked havoc in Nanyang Prefecture. They also imitated the 36th Battalion of the Shaanxi Peasant Rebel Army.

, the model of the Seventy-Two Battalions, the bandit leaders in Nanyang Prefecture also formed an alliance - a small alliance.

Moreover, the bandits in Nanyang Prefecture are composed of a large number of Nanyang iron mine miners and convicted mine slaves. Compared with the bandits composed of farmers, these bandits are more ferocious and have stronger combat effectiveness.

So after the main force of the Ming army that encircled and suppressed the peasant rebels left Henan, the small coalition's area of ​​activity became larger and larger, and their behavior became more and more arrogant.

At this time, in Nanyang Prefecture, except for the two northeastern counties of Ye County where the Nanyang Legion was located, the only Ming troops in the rest of the area were more than 2,000 soldiers led by Nanyang Counselor Sun Wei.

Most of the military households in Nanyang Guards also fled and became bandits, so they were definitely unable to be relied on. Sun Wei's soldiers were paid empty wages, so in fact they were only in their early 1000s at most.

Relying only on these soldiers, at most, they can only defend Nanyang Fucheng. Faced with urgent requests for help from four counties, Sun Wei, who is self-aware, can only act like an ostrich, burying his head in the sand and turning a deaf ear.

Of course, the Nanyang prefect and Sun Wei also took some actions. They sent letters to the Nanyang Army in Ye County one after another, hoping that they would send troops to resolve the crisis in Nanyang. However, the Nanyang Army led the main force with "Li Guerrilla" to go out for encirclement and suppression, and the remaining troops could only provide protection.

The Nanyang magistrate and Sun Wei's request for help was rejected on the grounds that "Ye County is in danger".

Therefore, the small alliance began to become more courageous. They were like the tiger in Qian Donkey Ji Qi Qiu. They kept approaching the prefectural and county towns of Nanyang Prefecture to provoke, trying to find out the ins and outs of the government donkey.

However, in the face of provocation, all the Ming troops hunkered down in the city and allowed the small coalition to operate outside the city. The government did not respond when they saw it. In addition, the settlements outside the city were richer than the wild after all, so the small coalition really gained a lot.

, so their confidence began to surge. Their fear of the government gradually turned into contempt.

If the situation continues like this, the small coalition may boldly attack the city. It may be difficult to attack the Nanyang Fucheng that is defended by soldiers, but it may be no problem to attack the county towns that are only defended by a few hundred young men.

.

But at this moment, a sudden change disrupted the steps of the small alliance. He Fei led 1,500 cavalry across Nanyang Mansion to meet Li Lu and Zhou Xun's troops.

Facing the large and organized Ming army, the small coalition would definitely not dare to block its edge, and Hefei's cavalry was mainly there to respond. Therefore, except for a few unlucky guys who blocked the road, Hefei's cavalry did not kill them.

A few people from Xiaolianying left across Nanyang Mansion without any entanglement.

But the sudden military action of the Ming army made the small coalition very nervous. They judged whether their actions had attracted the attention of the government. The Ming army had gone out to mobilize reinforcements to encircle and suppress them. Therefore, the small coalition was in Hefei.

A large number of spies were sent in the direction where the cavalry left to inquire about the movements of the Ming army.

As expected, a Ming army of more than 5,000 troops came over soon. The small coalition did not know that this was the troops of He Fei and Li Lu who were united and rushed back to Ye County. They thought that the Ming army was going to encircle and suppress their troops.

It's a bandit.

The nature of the bandits determines that the small coalition will not fight head-on with the Ming army that is encircling and suppressing them. They will adopt guerrilla warfare tactics of advancing as the enemy advances while retreating, and look for areas where the government's power is weak to operate.

What is very strange is that although the leaders of the small alliance are basically Nanyang locals, they have no idea about the relationship between the Nanyang Army and the Runing Army. They all think that this is the Ye County guerrilla Li Lu's army. But that's not the case.

The leaders of the small alliance can not be blamed too much. In fact, not even the officials of the Ming Dynasty court and local government knew the relationship between the two armies.

But after all, Li Lu once created a great victory in Ruzhou. Due to Li Lu's reputation, in the past, small joint ventures would not dare to operate near Ye County.

But the situation was different now. At the critical moment of life and death, it was known through local spies that the "famous general" Li Lu was out to suppress bandits again. Therefore, this time the small alliance boldly fled towards Ye County.

But after all, they were afraid of the Ming army led by "famous general" Li Lu, so the small coalition's escape route avoided Ye County and the Luojia Town camp of the Nanyang Army. They came towards Longyan Village.

It can be seen from this incident that sometimes the most annoying enemy is not the enemy with military experience. Because their military operations always follow military laws to some extent, the actions of these enemy forces are also traceable.

As for the bandits who have little military experience, their actions are completely arbitrary. If they are not careful, they may make some unexpected actions. If they are not prepared, they may be in a state of being beaten to death by random punches.

.

At this time, Wu Shigong's Runing Army was in such a defenseless state. To be honest, the eyes of officials like Wu Shigong in the Runing Army were completely attracted by the peasant rebels who had escaped from the Chariot Gorge, and they did not notice it at all.

The sudden action of the small alliance.

For the current Runing Army, although bandits are rampant around their control area, they do not care about these itchy skin at all. As long as those bandits do not provoke them, the Runing Army will not take the initiative to go there.

Encircle and suppress them. Otherwise, if the Runing Army felt threatened by the small alliance, they might have wiped out the small alliance like a leopard's head.

But it was such disdain that the small alliance caught Runing's army off guard. When he learned that more than 30,000 bandits from the small alliance were approaching Longyan Village, which was only defended by more than 700 people, Wu Shigong was shocked. Ye County

The troops in the county seat and Luojia Town camp could not move, so Wu Shigong immediately sent the remaining regiment of the cavalry corps to gallop for rescue.

But it would take three days for the cavalry to arrive at Longyan Village, so at this time Wu Shigong could only pray that the soldiers in Longyan Village could support him. But Wu Shigong didn't know that at this time, the two deputy commanders of the Nanyang Army, Shu Mo,

Zug, are all trapped in Longyan Village.

On July 21st of the seventh year of Chongzhen, after finally waiting for the weather to clear up and the roads to dry for a few days, Shumo and Chuge brought the Nanyang Legion's unique chariot convoy to Longyan Village to test the tactics of chariots.

We already know that Longyan Village is a small basin surrounded by mountains. This small basin is about ten miles long and three or four miles wide. There is a river passing through the middle. The whole shape is like a cashew nut. And Longan

Zhai and Congling Pass are the two ends of this small basin, guarding the road in and out of this small basin.

Because there is a river passing through this small basin, and because it is close to Longyan Village and protected by the Runing Army, there are tens of thousands of acres of fertile farmland in the small basin, making it one of the few places nearby that has not been affected by natural disasters in recent years.

And because the terrain in the small basin is flat, there are few people coming in and out and it is easy to hide, so Shumo and Zug used this place as a training ground for chariot training.

But just after Zug had run a few laps with twenty chariots, the scouts who had gone out hurriedly came over to report: tens of thousands of bandits were heading towards this small basin, and they were only half a day away from Congling Pass.

journey.

"Chu Fox, you go back to Luojia Town to take charge, I'm here!" After years of building fortification walls, Shumo was very confident in the defense of Longyan Village.

"Fart! I can't afford the shame of running away from the battlefield!" Chu Ge sneered at Shu Mo's suggestion.

"What should we do over there in Luojia Town?"

"With Captains Xue and Zhang presiding over it, there are still more than a thousand gentry servants in Ye County, so there can't be any big trouble there."

"Okay! You can stay if you want. But I tell you, you have to listen to me when guarding the stockade. If you dare to disobey military orders, I will engage in military law against you. I will definitely not be lenient. Looking at your...

The head filled with lard has already made my hands itchy!" Shumo looked at Zug's head and laughed "hehe" a few times, and the sound made the surrounding soldiers feel a little creepy.

"Lard is all on your mind!" Zug cursed loudly, "I know that with your reputation as a 'book turtle', it is absolutely no problem to defend Longyan Village. But do you think that it is enough to defend it?

?They are wandering bandits. As long as they bypass Longyan Village and mess up our iron mine, saltpeter mine and iron workshop, why don't you skin us both alive?"

"Ah!?" Shu Mo was shocked, "Do hundreds of us still want to go out and fight with those bandits?"

"It's not that we want to fight in the field, we definitely need to fight in the field! We just want the bandits to be unable to break through our Longyan Village line. We also need to give those bandits a painful beating so that they will never dare to approach our Runing Army's territory again."

"Are you going crazy when you lose?" Shu Mo found it unbelievable, "Haven't you seen the battle report of the Battle of Ruzhou? Our four infantry regiments faced more than 10,000 Shaanxi bandits, and after a single fight, they

We have lost more than 700 people. And we only have more than 700 people now. Facing tens of thousands of bandits, even if we only lose 200 to 300 people, we may not even be able to save Longyan Village!"

"So you don't understand this." Chu Ge began to lecture Shu Mo, "In the battle of Ruzhou, we fought timidly at the beginning, but later the Shaanxi bandits increased our momentum, so our losses were so great.

.So this time we have to strike first!"

"Why is this a strong method? Several hundred people go out to fight in the field, and at most two hundred firecrackers, how many people can be killed?"
Chapter completed!