The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Li Chengye's scouts kept a close watch on the movements within Yan'an City.

When Wang Lian beat the drum to gather his generals, news of the commotion had already reached him.

He realized that the government troops might take action, but he didn't know what they were going to do.

So he took Liu Ye, Han Sanhu, Sun Kewang and a few others and lay down on the loess slope to observe.

Yanchang County is backed by mountains and surrounded by water on three sides. The main city gate is located on the south side, which is the only way out for government troops to go out.

The group found a grassy spot to lie down, from which they could vaguely see the situation inside the city.

At this moment, Li Chengye realized that the Portuguese must have already brought the telescope to China, and he secretly resolved to find a way to obtain it.

That thing was undoubtedly a divine weapon on the battlefield.

They lay there for a while, and the sun gradually rose higher. Looking north, they could vaguely see the winding shoreline of the Yellow River.

Just when Li Chengye thought the government troops would not make any further moves today, the gates of Yan'an opened.

The first to leave the city were the Tang cavalry, each carrying a flag on their back. They formed four teams of five and dispersed in all directions after leaving the city.

One of the teams even reached the vicinity of the grassy nest where Li Chengye and his men were hiding.

The men gripped their knives tightly, ready to strike at any moment.

The cavalryman looked around carefully, but he didn't expect that someone would be lying right next to him, watching the city.

After a short while, the cavalrymen, unaware of anything amiss, left.

Following them appeared a large contingent of cavalrymen carrying various colored flags, marching in five columns, numbering about sixty men. The flags were of various designs, many embroidered with dragon and tiger patterns.

After these vanguard cavalrymen passed, a military general riding a tall horse, looking proud and self-assured, led four or five personal guards out of the city, with the guards behind him carrying two long banners.

The words were written in large characters, but because it was a bit far away, I couldn't see them clearly.

Liu Ye judged that this person should be Wang Lian, and explained:

"Those in front are the vanguard flag bearers, which are often used to clear the way when the generals of the army travel; the one behind is the commander-in-chief, whose flag will show his official title and the objective of the expedition."

Li Chengye nodded, indicating that he had learned something.

After Wang Lian, more than two hundred cavalrymen marched out in formation.

Compared to the vanguard cavalry carrying flags, this cavalry unit was not only fully armored, but the horses of the first few ranks were also covered in horse armor, making them appear extremely formidable.

Following the cavalry, the infantry marched out in formation. Unlike the cavalry, only the outermost rank of infantrymen wore armor, while most of the inner ranks were unarmored and carried only weapons.

Each sentry commander rode a horse and led the infantry of his sentry, with others carrying flags beside him.

After marching for about fifteen minutes, the government troops who had left the city numbered seven or eight hundred.

Then a wagon corps appeared, consisting mostly of grain wagons and artillery wagons.

Li Chengye roughly counted that there were more than ten grain carts. He knew that each cart could carry at most ten shi of grain, so ten carts would carry one hundred shi.

Following the grain wagons were six artillery wagons, similar in design to his Three Generals Cannons, which should also be breech-loading cannons, but larger in size.

According to information previously obtained from captured government troops, they had looted over a thousand bushels of grain from various places outside the city, and were only carrying that much with them on their journey, taking into account the great fire that broke out in the city last night.

Li Chengye then knew that Li Luo's operation to burn the grain was at least largely successful.

Then another five hundred or so infantrymen came out of the city, and no other government troops came out after that.

The city wall was crowded with people watching the officers and soldiers of the battalion leave, and some officers even blew horns to send them off.

Judging from their marching direction, they were heading towards Yan'an Prefecture.

Li Chengye fell into deep thought. He still didn't understand why the government troops were heading towards Yan'an Prefecture, but he was certain that they were on the right track.

He then climbed up from the grassy nest where the others were lying and gave instructions to Sun Kewang beside him.

"Go, have Cao Xianchong's cavalry follow the movements of this government army and determine where they are going."

"Yes, take charge of the plates."

Sun Kewang responded, quickly lowered his body, trotted down the other side of the loess slope, untied a warhorse that was tied to a stone and had a gag in its mouth, and galloped towards the front of the column.

"Gangfu, what's your take on the government troops' movements?"

Liu Ye pondered for a moment.

"If the government troops really are heading to Yan'an Prefecture, it's probably to open up transportation between the two places and to obtain supplies. Yesterday's fire in the city, coupled with the fact that they only had this much grain when they set off today, suggests that the Li brothers really did burn down the city's granaries."

Liu Ye was very observant, and he also noticed the problem of the government troops having too few food carts.

"But even if they manage to establish transportation between Yan'an and Yanchang, what then?" Han Sanhu, standing nearby, still asked, puzzled.

"If they really take Yan'an Prefecture and restore the surrounding county post stations, then we will have nowhere to hide." Li Chengye then understood Wang Lian's intention.

The area in northern Shaanxi is located at the junction of the Loess Plateau and the Guanzhong Plain, characterized by hills and gullies.

In such a vast area, filled with ravines, even if an army of 100,000 were to come and find Li Chengye's less than two thousand men hiding there, it would be difficult to find them.

However, they couldn't hide forever; both men and horses needed food supplies. Especially now that his army had a large number of horses and livestock, they were major consumers of grain.

Although their provisions are much more abundant than those of the government troops, based on the current consumption during the march, they are only enough to last for about half a month.

After all, they were constantly on the move, and there was nowhere for the livestock to graze. They could only gather some fodder when setting up camp, so most of the time they had to feed them grain directly.

This would consume a lot of food.

If there are elite government troops like the Standard Battalion stationed on his flank, and Li Chengye continues to plunder wealthy households and acquire supplies as before, he will easily be targeted by the enemy.

In particular, Li Chengye was impressed by the cavalry of this standard battalion, who were by no means incompetent fools.

So, should we intercept this government army now?

Thinking of this, Li Chengye shook his head.

This government army is too difficult to deal with; with their limited forces, they really can't stop them.

Besides, this is probably what the other party wants most right now.

However, if they are allowed to reach Yan'an and open up transportation routes, the future situation will be extremely unfavorable for them, and under the current circumstances, it would be tantamount to slow suicide.

Li Chengye said, "Let's send someone to follow them first and see if we can find a chance to give them a good beating."

The group then descended the loess slope, mounted their horses, and headed towards Liushi Village.

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Just as Li Chengye was leading his men back to Liushi Village to gather more troops and follow the government army, Wang Lian, riding a tall horse at the head of the group, waved and called Ba Shangfeng to his horse.

"Have all the personnel been dispatched?"

Ba Shangfeng clasped his hands and replied, "General, rest assured. The soldiers sent out this time are all skilled warriors who have been trained in the border army. Among them are many night scouts from Yansui, who are particularly good at reconnaissance and counter-surveillance."

I told them to hide behind us and follow us; if anyone was spying, we could easily spot them.

Wang Lian said, "That's good. As long as these bandits show their true colors, I'll skin them alive today!"

Bashangfeng replied, "Yes, sir!"