Luo Rucai rolled his eyes and said, "Then what should I do? I can't go to Huguang, and I can't hide in the mountains when I return to Xingguang. Are we going to die trapped here in eastern Sichuan?"
Zhang Xianzhong walked a few steps in the tent and took a breath.
He was a little angry. He didn't expect that Li Zhi would arrange such a strict arrangement and block him in eastern Sichuan. These days, he shuttled back and forth between the states and counties in Sichuan, trying to seize the undefended states and counties, but Li Zhi always sent people to guard him.
Instead, the trip was delayed because of traveling back and forth. Now I want to go to Huguang via eastern Sichuan, but Li Zhi has blocked the key 32 passes.
Zhang Xianzhong felt as if he had entered a dead end. The only exit of the alley was Li Zhi's army.
Zhang Xianzhong took a breath and cursed: "Donkey Hair Ball, are you really going to force me, Zhang Xianzhong, to death?"
Prime Minister Hui Deng stood up and said: "Eight Great Kings, Li Shashen knew that we were going to Huguang, so he could estimate our route in advance and send troops to defend all the prefectures and counties along the way. If we don't go east, we will go west instead.
Let's go, even if Li Zhi can't figure out our direction, he can't stop us."
"Stay in Shu?"
"Yes! Stay in Shu! Don't leave!"
Zhang Xianzhong looked at Prime Minister Hui Deng and said, "Li Sha Shen is chasing us to the west. If we are caught by him as we go west, it will be a big battle and we will not be able to escape."
Prime Minister Hui Deng said: "Eight Great Kings, now that the road to the east has been blocked, if we attack the thirty-two passes, we will be attacked by Li Killing God from both sides. There is no other way but to go west! We don't need to be so afraid of Li Zhi.
It’s better to go west and charge. We have more than 50,000 people, and even if we fight Li Zhi, the outcome is unknown!"
After hearing what Prime Minister Hui Deng said, Zhang Xianzhong paced back and forth in the tent without speaking.
Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son Zhang Dingguo also stood up and said: "Commander, at this time, we can only go west. Even if we have a battle with Li Shashen, it won't matter. If we continue to go east, at the thirty-two pass there is
The mountainous area is attacked from both front and rear by Li Zhi. Once surrounded, it will be a dead end and we may not be able to escape."
Hearing Zhang Dingguo's words, Zhang Xianzhong suppressed the fear in his heart and said: "My son, you are right, there is no way to go to the east. Let's go to the west and see if we can sneak across. If it doesn't work, just
Have a fight with Li Zhi and see how capable this killer Li is!"
The generals in the tent were so weak from running these days that they really didn’t want to escape anymore. They stood up one after another and said loudly:
"The commander is right, let's fight Li Shashen!"
"I don't believe that Li Zhi, with more than 10,000 people, can defeat more than 50,000 of us?"
"Even if the army is defeated, we can still escape to the mountains! Li Zhi can't catch us!"
####
In the central tent of Li Zhi's army, Li Zhi looked at the thief captain who was kneeling on the ground begging for mercy, and shouted: "Fight again!"
Xue Sanku, who was guarding the side, kicked the prisoner in the stomach, causing the captain to fall to the side. Just as the captain wanted to stand up, two of Xue Sanku's guards struck him again.
They rushed up to him and beat him violently until the captain's mouth bled and he kept begging for mercy.
If you continue to fight, you will be beaten to death.
Li Zhi looked at the thief, waved his hand to the guards to stop, and asked the thief with his hands behind his back: "Let me ask you again, did the thief go to Liangshan County or Zhongzhou?"
The captain was beaten with blood all over his mouth. He was afraid that Li Zhi would kill him here, so he kowtowed to Li Zhi desperately and shouted: "Sir! Your Excellency! No, Commander, it is really Liangshan County that offered the thief!"
The traitor is now in Liangshan County!"
Li Zhi saw the thief looking hysterical, so he let him go. Li Zhi sat back on the chair, tapped the handle of the chair with his fingers, and smiled.
After seven Ming army generals defected to Li Zhi, Li Zhi had enough cavalry to defend the states and counties, so he took back the selected vanguard group to serve as scouts. Two thousand cavalry were released by Li Zhi to a vast area to spy on the area within a hundred miles.
enemy situation.
The soldiers of the Selected Front Regiment are all elite, and their combat effectiveness is far better than that of the bandits. They can often catch the bandits' scouts alive during frontline reconnaissance.
In the past few days, Li Zhi has captured three bandit scouts. After repeated torture, these scouts obediently told Li Zhi Zhang Xianzhong's marching route. Li Zhi knew Zhang Xianzhong's whereabouts very well. These scouts all confessed: Zhang Xianzhong
My journey to the east was blocked, so I turned around and headed west, hoping to cross from Liangshan County.
With the excellent investigative capabilities of the Selection Team, Li Zhi found out Zhang Xianzhong's whereabouts clearly, and of course he would not let Zhang Xianzhong escape from the encirclement.
Li Zhi stood up and said: "The whole army marched urgently to stop Zhang Xianzhong in Liangshan County!"
After chasing so hard for so long, they finally caught the fleeing Zhang Xianzhong. All the generals looked happy and shouted:
"Got the order!"
####
On December 27, Li Zhi's army marched covertly and finally encountered Zhang Xianzhong's army fleeing to the west in the northeast of Liangshan County.
The weather was already very cold, and the breath turned into white mist, which dispersed in the air with the footsteps of more than 10,000 people. It snowed lightly the day before. There was still snow in the fields, and there was a vast expanse of white everywhere.
The thin snow on the official road was trampled by the soldiers' leather boots and turned into water mixed with black mud, making the road slightly muddy.
However, the soldiers of the Huben Division all wore leather boots, so the mud did not affect their march.
As soon as Zhang Xianzhong's army saw Li Zhi chasing after him, they turned around and ran eastward. The distance between the two armies was only ten miles, and they were chasing each other on the official road of Liangshan County.
After chasing him to Liyuping, Zhang Xianzhong finally couldn't run anymore.
There is a mountain pass ahead, and only ten people can pass through the pass at a time. It will take a long time for Zhang Xianzhong's 50,000 troops to pass through this pass. If Zhang Xianzhong leads his troops to escape through this pass, they will not be able to look at each other by then, and they will be attacked by Li Zhi
It will definitely be a big defeat next time.
Zhang Xianzhong made up his mind and set up a battle array at Liyuping to face Li Zhi's army.
Zhang Xianzhong completed the arrangement before Li Zhi's army arrived. He placed 30,000 infantry in the middle, 15,000 old thieves on the left, and 8,000 elite Tangma on the right. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's army was running wildly in eastern Sichuan.
After half a month, there was insufficient food and grass. The hungry soldiers had already fled and there were no hungry soldiers in the rebel army.
Li Zhi's army formed a circular formation, with 4,000 men placed on the left, front, and right, and 3,600 men placed on the rear.
This time Li Zhi brought out 200 field artillery pieces, manned by 1,500 soldiers from the Selective Front Regiment. The artillery pieces were arranged in three directions: left, front, and right. Of course, they were also ready at any time to support the rear.
There were also 400 soldiers from the Trap Regiment, who were arranged by Li Zhi to bypass the mountain pass from the mountain roads on both sides and ambush behind the mountain pass.
Three miles away, Xian's army was determined to defeat the enemy, howling and shouting, and pressed forward towards the Huben Division. (To be continued.)
