Hearing signs of a large number of troops not far away, Li Yuan, who was nervous, immediately became vigilant and immediately ordered all soldiers to be fully equipped and on alert, ready to send troops at any time.
"Where is the south?" Although it was illuminated by candlelight, it was still a bit blurry. Fortunately, he had good eyesight. After looking for a while, he could clearly see the south area.
"Guo County is less than twenty miles away from us. If this group of intruders is the main force, the capital will most likely fall. But if there is only a small group of enemies, it means they are just here to wander around or explore the situation. But
There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He analyzed the situation calmly, without any stirrings in his heart.
"Master General, shall we attack?" the general beside him asked carefully, but he did not want to attack at this moment. The army could only rest for two hours. If the troops were to be sent out suddenly, it would only make the army very tired.
"Send troops, then speed up the march and go straight to the capital! Even if the intruders don't break through, I think it's not far away." After that, Li Yuan stopped delaying and took everyone directly to the big tent to change their clothes and armor.
Then quickly ordered all battalions to mount their horses and prepare for battle.
Although the generals around him complained, they wanted to use the uncle's words to dissuade him, but after thinking about it, they gave up. The commander-in-chief was not someone to be trifled with.
Guan Ning's cavalry were worthy of being the elite of the Ming Dynasty. In less than a moment, each battalion was on horseback and ready to go. Even though they had traveled for most of the day, they did not show any signs of fatigue.
Li Yuan drove his horse to the gate of the camp, gave the order and the army immediately rushed out, heading straight to the direction of the bandits in the south!
The invading army in the south was advancing slowly and leisurely at this moment. Most of the soldiers were sleepy and expressed dissatisfaction with this midnight march. They walked lazily one by one, fearing that if there were enemy troops around them, they would immediately stop attacking.
break.
The leader was an ordinary general. Although he was a general with more than 2,000 people, his appearance and clothes were not what a general should look like.
Even with the addition of a pair of armor, he still had the flavor of the common people. The horse on his hip was obviously much older. It was walking slowly without any energy at all. And the horses in the entire team were no better than him.
Among the two horses under his crotch and the two young men around him, his horse looked relatively good, and the other two horses were almost clinging to life.
"I said, brother, why does King Chuang insist on sending us out? We can't rob this place, and we have to tell them the benefits of joining the rebel army and win over these people. I wonder if we can have a good deal with that Majesty.
Are you ready? If we go to the northwest and he continues to be emperor, wouldn’t it be good for both parties? "
The person who spoke was a young general. He only had a long sword on his body. He had robbed the officer and soldiers. He randomly found clothes belonging to a wealthy gentry and landlord and put it on, at most adding some armor. He was just a tenant farmer in Henan before.
, he couldn't do it anymore, so he just left his job and joined Li Zicheng's army. He finally became the leader, but he still had to work hard.
Originally, according to his idea, he had to go back to his hometown with all his bags, and by the way, he took his mother, wife and children to the northwest to enjoy the wealth, but he never thought that two days later at night, he would appear in
Got here.
"What do you know? This is the strategy of Niu Jinxing, the military advisor of King Chuang. Although peace has been negotiated, if we retreat to the northwest and settle in a corner, what if the emperor is secure and then leads his troops to attack us? Have you forgotten?
Isn’t it time when the imperial court’s thousands of officers and soldiers were chasing 100,000 of us in fear of running away?”
The general said bitterly, even though he had a sense of resentment in his heart, he was not allowed to complain because he had been supported by King Chuang from a peasant who almost died of starvation to a general leading thousands of men.
"Then where are we going now? I heard that Wu Sangui from Shanhaiguan is rushing here. The people he has in his hands are all the elites of the imperial court. But they are all cavalry wearing armor. If they accidentally encounter
them?"
The other young general stopped continuing after he said this. Looking at his eyes, one could see the fear of the Guan Ning cavalry.
It's no wonder that in the past, whenever Guan Ning's cavalry went into battle, the scene would be an almost overwhelming massacre against soldiers like them who didn't have a single piece of armor on them.
It even created a record of a thousand cavalry chasing and killing an army of 100,000. It was so terrifying. What's more, how could Wu Sangui not be afraid of 20,000 cavalry?
"It should be fine. Aren't they sleeping in the middle of the night? I don't believe it. If you have the ability to let them appear in front of me now..."
Before they finished speaking, there were sudden killing sounds, and the shouts of killing that echoed across the sky almost appeared in their ears at that moment. The team was instantly panicked, and they had no idea in which direction the enemy troops were, not to mention that it was dark at this time.
The whole area is just illuminated by torches, and it is impossible to see clearly even from a little distance.
Therefore, when the cry of killing came, the troops with little combat experience did not rush for their lives. The general sitting on the horse raised his sword and shouted, trying to stabilize the situation of the team, but was suddenly hit by an arrow.
It penetrated the neck, and the next second he fell from the horse to the ground.
When the two young generals around him saw that their boss was killed, they immediately lost the idea of resisting. Fortunately, they were riding a horse and took advantage of the panic of the army to flee for their lives regardless of the team of 2,000 people.
After the rebels who were abandoned on the spot shouted for death, and as the rumbling sounds on the ground came closer, they could clearly see the face of the enemy.
One by one, the cavalrymen riding tall horses and wearing heavy armor rushed towards them quickly with swords raised high. They thought they were few in number, but they didn’t expect that they were almost surrounded by cavalrymen with similar appearance. They rushed towards them like gods of murder.
before.
What followed was an overwhelming massacre. As the sword of Guan Ning's cavalry fell, the heads of the insurrectionary soldiers who were extremely frightened were cut off one after another. For a moment, the heads rolled to the ground, blood spattered, and the sound of wailing could be heard almost endlessly.
An hour later, there were finally no more shouts and wailings here. After the battle, after counting the number of people reported by each battalion, only four brothers were lost this time, and a dozen were injured. The rest
Then there is no loss at all.
Moreover, this invading army was almost completely wiped out. Only a few of them escaped. They were almost merciless. After riding their horses to break up their formation, their swords fell. Even the other party's begging for mercy was ignored.
They all pretended not to hear.
After all, they still have to go to the capital to rescue His Majesty. They don't have extra troops or time to guard these prisoners. They can't capture them and then kill them, lest others say that the officers and soldiers are cruel. It's best to just kill them without accepting surrender.
Li Yuan stopped staying, rested for a while, pulled and pushed the corpses together, lit them with fire before leaving, and quickly left the place with his army, heading for the capital.
For them, although today's battle was a complete victory and came unexpectedly, there was no reason to show off because this rebel army was really too unbearable.
In the early morning of the next day, when Li Zicheng was sleeping soundly, Liu Zongmin hurried in. Regardless of the fact that his elder brother was still sleeping, he went directly to shake him awake, and then anxiously said from the side: "Brother, something happened, we sent out last night."
A team of two thousand people was completely wiped out, and only two people escaped."
Li Zicheng was shaken awake from his sleep, and he looked impatient at first, but when he heard the news that the two thousand people were wiped out, he couldn't help but panic, and then he sat up.
He looked at Liu Zongmin, seemingly in disbelief, and asked, "Are you sure?"
"Brother, I'm very sure that I brought those two who escaped."
After that, Liu Zongmin shouted, and the two young generals who escaped last night immediately walked in quickly, and then knelt down facing Li Zicheng, looking very sad inside.
Dissatisfaction and anger enveloped his whole body, but he still asked in a deep voice: "Tell me about the situation you encountered last night."
"Your Majesty, we were walking on the road yesterday when we suddenly heard the deafening shouts of killing all around us. Moreover, the sky was so dark that we couldn't see the situation in the distance at all. Only when the enemy troops walked in did we realize that the enemy troops were coming out.
They were all cavalry, and their armor was almost all over their bodies. The army was completely defeated as soon as they met, and we managed to escape back."
The two young men cried and complained to each other, and even described the scene last night in extremely exaggerated terms.
"Looking at the clothes you're wearing, are you the boss?" Li Zicheng said this suddenly, making the two of them at a loss.
"As a general of the army, he escaped from the battle and ignored the safety of his subordinates. He deserves to be killed! Someone, drag him out and chop him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two soldiers strode in and dragged the two of them out. Li Zicheng seemed to have ignored the two's cries of mercy, his face was livid, and he sat there thinking about something.
"Brother? Do you think that army is coming?" Liu Zongmin also realized this problem and was also worried.
"Let's think of a way. Either we leave, or we fight a bloody battle. The worst case scenario is that this time, we don't have to be chased by a thousand people to run away with a hundred thousand of us."
[Author's digression]: I feel that the writing of this chapter is too poor, so I will post it today. I will take the time to correct the details.