Lu Ming

Chapter 457 The parties (two)

The news came one after another from the two teams sent by Ma Shilong.

The first is the cavalry.

After 500 cavalry bypassed Zunhua City, they found that no one came out to intercept them. It seemed that the city was indeed empty.After that, the cavalry was blocked by the Houjin cavalry at the mountain pass going east.

Shuo Tuo had fought battles for a long time, so it was impossible for him to allow his tail to hang behind in such a situation, so he left 300 cavalry at the mountain pass to stop him.

Neither side had the will to fight, so they confronted each other like this.Although the Ming army did not go up to charge, they immediately sent a number of sentry cavalry into the foothills on the north and south sides, intending to continue to follow Shuotuo to see what was going on.

After the cavalry came to a stalemate, 5000 infantrymen received a military order to set off from Weisuo City of Shimen Township in the later generations early in the morning, hurried for 40 miles, arrived at Zunhua City at noon, and were then dispersed.
This situation is normal.The fighting power of the miscellaneous troops coming from all over the place was extremely scattered, and the soldiers rushed to Zunhua on a quick march, before they even had time to catch their breath, they were killed and dispersed by the white armored soldiers who came out of the city.

Yet this is enough.

With an army of 20 in hand, Ma Shilong didn't care that those people were killed.What Ma Shilong cares about is real information: Is the main force of the Tartars really gone?Did Zunhua have an ambush?

After being tested by the two cavalry infantry, the definite information came: the number of Tartars who left the city was very small, and after killing the scattered people, they hurried back to the city without even cleaning the battlefield.

This information, together with the reconnaissance news from the direction of the cavalry, Ma Shilong can now be sure: Shuo Tuo really left, with a large army.

Now that this is the case, what are you waiting for?
So Ma Huihui immediately ordered Zu Dashou to lead the [-] elite cavalry to "pursue and kill". They must call the whole army of Shuotuo and leave something behind. They can't just run away like this.

And Lao Ma himself led an army of 300, led by his brave general Cao Wenzhao, and set out from Jimen (now Jixian County), preparing to attack Zunhua City from all directions with the momentum of hungry tigers rushing around. ) can't look at each other from head to tail, and won the first victory in the great cause of restoration!Let out the bad breath that 20 people have been blocked by 2000 people for such a long time!
As the saying goes, one hair can move the whole body.The things that the crossing people have done in the past two days are really big enough, so on April 1630, 4, the situation of the Ming and Qing wars in North China changed drastically, and the previous silent situation was broken in one fell swoop. out of response.

At noon that day, the crossing crowd set off from Yongping City to Santun Camp; at the same time, the Shuotuo Division began to attack Santun Camp; in the direction of Zunhua, a small number of white armors who left the city dispersed the probing troops sent by Ma Shilong.

While the various ministries mobilized to fight, there was another force that responded to the war situation in a timely manner-the Minister of the Ministry of War sitting in Shanhaiguan, the Prime Minister of Military Affairs, bestowing Shang Fang with a sword, sitting in a python robe, and old man Sun Chengzong, a scholar of the Hall of Martial Arts.

In fact, Lao Suntou received the news yesterday: there was smoke in the direction of Qian'an.

The Ming army entrenched in the Shanhaiguan area, these days, its main combat target is the three cities of Yongping headed by Amin.

Shanhaiguan is only 100 miles away from Yongping. Before this, the two sides, just like Ma Shilong confronting Shuotuo, were all scouts and cavalry, giving each other military pressure and maintaining small-scale contacts.

After receiving the letter yesterday, Sun Chengzong immediately stepped up his investigation efforts and sent a large number of sentries to find out the reason why the Tartars raised their smoke.

The current situation of Lao Suntou is actually very embarrassing-the Houjin troops occupied the front line from Yongping to Zunhua, which made it difficult for him to communicate with Ma Shilong. The old man is now equivalent to being trapped in Shanhaiguan.

In real history, it was not until May that Sun Chengzong and Ma Shilong communicated with each other, formulated a general attack plan, and made an appointment to launch at the same time, and finally drove away all the post-Jin troops in one fell swoop.

So after learning about the smoke of war yesterday, Sun Chengzong did not dare to pin his hopes on the Ming army attacking Qian'an City.

After all, he and Ma Shilong haven't discussed it well yet, and Jizhen will never take the risk of launching a large army attack, and even hit Qian'an-this means that Zunhua and Santunying have been taken down. Sun Tou thinks this is impossible.

In fact, in the eyes of Lao Suntou, the most reasonable explanation for the beacon smoke in Qian'an County is that the tartars accidentally released it by mistake.

Unexpectedly, after dark, a sentry came back to report an important news: a battle broke out in Yongping City in the afternoon, and there was a huge cannon sound outside the city. From a distance, it seemed that someone was attacking the city, and there was a flash of gunpowder.

The old grandson is not calm now.

A single wolf smoke can't explain anything, but since there is also a situation in Yongping City, he has to consider the possibility of Ma Shilong's division of troops and detour from the south of Tangshan.

However, the [-]th century was such a rush - even if the old grandson jumped in a hurry, the fast horse journey of two hundred miles back and forth made the transmission of information not only slow, but also had misjudgments and omissions, which caused the old grandson to be delayed. Unable to make a decision.

So he could only send out a few more waves of sentries to investigate Yongping and Qian'an overnight.

At dawn the next day, the first sentry sentry came back desperately, and brought a shocking news to Lao Suntou: last night, the four gates of Yongping City were closed, and there was a lot of noise in the city. From a high place, there were many fires, and it seemed that someone was massacring the city. Burn the city.

The stunned old Sun's first thought was: Could it be that Ma Shilong really brought down Yongping?Judging from this style, I'm afraid Zu Dashou personally led the army?

In the morning, the second wave of spies who risked their lives to get close to Yongping came back, and the news this time was even more shocking: it wasn't burning or massacring the city, but the aborigines in the city were noisy and eating barbecue all night.

In addition, Yongping has been taken down by General Zhen Guo, commanded by Tongzhi Cao XX! (In ancient times, the banner had only a surname but no first name, and the sentry rider only saw a big Cao character)

Sun Chengzong sat back in the official hat chair with a "bang"—the amount of information was too huge, and the old man needed to concentrate his blood to his brain to think, and his legs couldn't hold it up anymore.

Amidst the huge amount of chaos, it took a long time for Old Sun to get the rich southern general out of his head, and then recalled the previous interaction between the two parties.

"You mean what you say? Didn't you get deceived by the natives?"

After thinking for a long time, Sun Chengzong still felt that what the sentry cavalry said was too unreal, and he couldn't believe it.

"My lord, it's absolutely true!" The sentinel replied, "The soldiers in the south were wearing green jackets, and the villain caught up with him through the door and asked a few questions."

After the sentry knight paused, he explained some details: "The head of Yongping city has been replaced with the banner of the commander-in-chief. Outside the city, there are natives digging pits to bury the corpses of Tartars. The villain went to see it, and there were thousands of people there. They are all strong and headless Tartars."

"In this way, Amin's entire army is wiped out? I'm afraid the Tartars in Qian'an won't please them either!"

When Sun Chengzong said this, he clapped his hands: "Come here, send a quick message to Zongzhen Zhu, Zhang Shenzheng and you two come to see me."

Not a moment later, with the seal of the former general of Ningyuan, Zhu Mei, the veteran of Shanhaiguan General Town temporarily, and Zhang Chun, the soldier of Yongping Road, came to see the old grandson in a hurry.

These two men, one civil and one military, are the key figures sent by the imperial court to Shanhaiguan to assist Lao Sun in controlling the local army of nearly [-] troops.

After listening to Sentinel's information again, the two were also dumbfounded: "Is it really true?"

Sentry: "."

At this moment, the sentry from Qian'an City, which had been sent a little farther before, also returned.The arrival of this group of sentinels put an end to the debate between true and false: Qian'an County has been restored, and the city is now self-governing, waiting for the county magistrate to take office!
Forcibly suppressing all doubts about this General Cao, Sun Chengzong and the two civil and military officers had a brief discussion, and finally decided that the veteran Zhu Mei would lead a cavalry unit to set off immediately to Yongping City to find out.

Sun Chengzong and Zhang Chun are preparing troops at Shanhaiguan. Once the news of Yongping comes, more infantry will be sent here.

So the veteran Zhu Mei immediately selected three thousand elite riders, set off from Shanhaiguan, and headed straight for Yongping City.

Zhu Mei, a veteran player who is over fifty years old, is quite famous.During his long military career serving the Ming Emperor, this person had "five-hanging general seals" and participated in the battle against the Houjin many times. He can be regarded as an old soldier like Lian Po and Yan Yan.

This time, it was the last time that the old man was on the battlefield, and he was on a temporary errand—the old man had retired and returned home, but after the gold came into the bandits, the court recruited him again.

Running wildly with three thousand elite riders, it was already afternoon when Zhu Mei arrived at Yongping City.Then the troops came to the only intact Ximen Suspension Bridge, and after a clear communication with the officials guarding the city, Minzhuang, Yongping opened the city.

After that, Zhu Mei learned everything about the crossing people in Yongping.After hearing the news, Sun Chengzong hurried all the way to Yongping regardless of his age.

After confirming that all the legends were true, the extremely shocked old grandson immediately planned to mobilize his soldiers and horses, and follow the footsteps of the crossing crowd to the direction of Santunying.

But at this moment, the sky was already dark, and it was nightfall on April 4nd. After the crossing people left the city at noon, they had already pulled Old Sun's head far behind.So the old grandson had no choice but to suppress his thoughts and set off again tomorrow.

Yongping is 150 miles away from Santunying, so the crossing people didn't hurry up after leaving the city in the afternoon - they couldn't make it to Santunying in half a day, so there was no need to work hard.

In addition, according to the telegram from the Santun camp, it can be said that it is as stable as Mount Tai, so there is no need for emergency rescue by the crossing people.

Apart from sending a report to Zhang Dongdong who is in Tianjin, Qian Tieshan asked him to come to Santunying to prepare to deal with big bosses like Lao Suntou and Ma Rulong, but he didn't do anything else.The troops that set out from Yongping rested that night on the river beach north of Qian'an City where they had been stationed before.

Early the next morning, the whole team set off and returned to the Yanshan Corridor along the old road from Santunying.At noon, the travelers could already hear Erba Dagai's unique gunshots on the mountain road.

At this time, Aixinjueluo Shuotuo and his soldiers and horses have also reached the final juncture.

(End of this chapter)