Chapter 136 Ruzhou

The battlefield situation is ever-changing, and Ying Yi is not afraid of fighting with swords and spears. However, there are three strangers in the bandit camp, especially the Miao monks who are good at witchcraft and Gu.

It may be normal for a Wu Gu monk to fight alone, but as Zheng Yunzhi said at the beginning, once surrounded, dozens of soldiers can kill him.

But the voodoo monks' voodoo insects are as ferocious as the plague and have strategic significance.

Once released, the poison will spread for hundreds of miles and cause endless harm.

To defeat a trespasser, first kill the stranger. When Ying Yi stationed troops in Xiangcheng County, it was possible that he had not aroused the thoughts of strangers before.

But first Li Yan, then Luo Rucai, the intruders suffered losses one after another, but there was no movement. After that, it was a big deal to sow the seeds, so Ying Ying temporarily suppressed them.

Now that the rear affairs are settled, the Bafang Pagoda and the Diji Yi are completed, Ying Yikong will take action to solve this problem.

To deal with strangers, the army is of little use until they are trapped. Ying Yi had thought about going there in person earlier, but he couldn't do without him because of many things.

Now that Zheng Yunzhi and Sun Xiucai are in charge of the rear, Ying Yi has also achieved the limit of what he can do in terms of farming. The frontline troops also include Zhu Bingkun, Zheng Wu and others, and Ying Yi does not need to personally suppress them for the time being, so he plans to take two days to meet the strangers under the bandits.

Earlier, Zhang Si returned to Crescent Valley to report the news, and Ying Yi took three days to return to the front line. Now it was only one day, and he just happened to go to the north for a walk. Two days was enough.

Ying Yi came out of Fangcheng Mountain and headed due north. In less than half an hour, he entered the boundary of Ruzhou Prefecture.

Kaifeng and Ruzhou are both in the north of Nanyang. Kaifeng is in the northeast and Ruzhou is in the north. Ruzhou is also adjacent to Kaifeng.

According to Xiangcheng's investigation report, Tian Jianxiu's main force and subordinate cannon fodder totaling 100,000 troops are now in Ruzhou.

Luyang Pass is located between Ruzhou and Nanyang.

Luyang Pass is an extremely ancient pass. During the Han Dynasty, there were eight sanitation passes in Luoyang, and Luyang Pass was one of them. The one who temporarily replaced Ying Yi was the Luyang Pass Thousand Households Office.

Bandits ravaged the Central Plains, and the Luyang Pass Thousand Households Station had long been crippled. Zheng Yunzhi gathered his remnants. The first five hundred households in Ye County were established based on the shells of the Luyang Pass Thousand Households Station. Zhu Bingkun is the only official of hundreds of households left in Luyang Pass.

The 800-mile Funiu Mountains stretch across, starting from Xiangcheng County, Kaifeng, separating Ruzhou Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, and Nanyang. The first mountain is called "Shou", which is the head of the Funiu Mountains and the place where the Funiu Mountains rise in the east.

From the first mountain in the south of Xiangcheng County, all the way to the west, there are Huangcheng Mountain (not Fangcheng Mountain), Danxia Mountain, etc., and Luyang Pass is located under the watershed to the east of Danxia Mountain.

Luyang Pass has long been dilapidated, and all the checkpoints are blocked by ruins. But it's not too difficult to get through. Before Zhang Si returned to Crescent Valley, he also reported to Ying Yi: Zhu Bingkun, Zheng Wu, and Zheng Jiu learned that the bandits had divided their forces, and one of Tian Jianxiu's troops had gone west to Ruzhou. They were afraid that Tian Jianxiu would suddenly turn south and secretly Crossing Luyang Pass, entering Nanyang, they took a detour and attacked Xiangcheng from behind, so they wanted to divide their troops and garrison Luyang Pass.

Ying Yi also had such speculation, but rejected Zhu Bingkun and others' strategy of dividing the troops.

There are two possibilities for the bandits under Tian Jianxiu to move westward. One is that there is movement in Sun Chuanting in Guanzhong, so Ying Yi previously ordered Zhang Si to ask Zhang Shi's Ye Bu Shou Department to pay attention to the movement in Guanzhong. The second one is the speculation of Zhu Bingkun and others.

The intruders ordered Yuan Zongdi to lead his troops south to garrison Yuzhou and confront Xiangcheng. They then headed west, pretending to pass through Ruzhou and entering Luoyang Prefecture. However, they turned south and crossed Luyang Pass halfway, and then attacked Xiangcheng from behind. city.

This is more likely.

It was clear that Li Chuang did not take Hou Xun seriously - Hou Xun's commander, Baoding Seven Towns, was on the north bank of the Yellow River, but he had been hesitant to move forward. I am afraid that Li Chuang thought he would divide his forces and temporarily relax the siege of Kaifeng, and Hou Xun would not dare to cross the river and go south.

Of course, this is also due to the large number of intruders.

Even if Tian Jianxiu and Yuan Zongdi were separated, there would still be at least one hundred thousand capable thieves under the command of the intruders. If you include the dependent refugees, there should be three to five million people.

It's not that Ying Yi didn't expect the twists and turns here. The strategy of dividing the troops between Zhu Bingkun and the three men cannot be said to be bad. Luyang Pass is dangerous and guarded by a force of 2,500 people. It is not easy for Tian Jianxiu to cross Luyang Pass.

But Ying Yi did not agree.

Under Ying Yi's command, including Zhou Li's troops stationed in Wuyang and Zhang Shi's Ye Bu Shu troops, there are six divisions with 14,000 men. Xiangcheng County has four troops with 10,000 troops. These 10,000 men and horses are really not many. Compared with the thieves, they are dozens of times worse.

A wise man will not do this even if he has a small army but he still divides his troops. This is one of the reasons.

The most critical thing is that the troops under Ying Yi's command have not reached the elite level that Ying Yi expected.

Although nearly two thousand of them have received military merit feedback, most of them are still ordinary soldiers, and their training time is not long.

Compared with the strength of the intruders, excluding Ying Yi himself, the soldiers and horses under his command were at an absolute disadvantage, at least in terms of numbers.

Concentrating your efforts is the best option at this stage.

To remain unchanged in response to all changes, these ten thousand men and horses were nailed to Xiangcheng, and the intruders were like awns on their backs. If the troops are divided, I'm afraid it will suit the purpose of the intruders.

Luyang Pass is a weakness, but isn't there Ying Yi?

In the scouting report one day ago, Tian Jianxiu had just arrived in Ruzhou. Now one day later, with the movement speed of Tian Jianxiu's troops, it is absolutely impossible to cross Ruzhou and cross Luyang Pass.

At this time, Ying Yi went north.

Ying Yi himself would never take the bandits seriously. Tian Jianxiu's subordinates said that there were 100,000 people, but the old camp only had 3,000. For Ying Yi, it didn't matter at all.

The situation in Ruzhou is even worse than in Nanyang. After all, Ruzhou is closer to Kaifeng, and there is no natural barrier between it and Kaifeng. The thieves can wreak havoc wherever they want, leaving the Central Plains, which was supposed to be a prosperous city, completely devastated.

The Central Plains has always been a heavily populated area, but along the way Ying Yi walked, except for the white bones under the yellow dust, there was no life at all for dozens of miles.

The harm caused by rogue thieves is evident.

At the end of each dynasty, the first to rise up were often the ‘rebels’. From Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, to Taiping Dao Zhang Jiao, and later Huang Chao and his like, this is the case. But these people are all pioneers for the king.

Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are no different from them.

Zhang Jiao's shouting "Heaven is dead, Huang Tian shall stand", and even Li Chuang's "not paying for food" are all extremely false and empty stuff.

What he says is good, but what he actually does is completely different.

Zhang Jiao wanted to establish an ideal country of peace and prosperity, but his Yellow Turban Army did nothing in essence. The same is true for Li Chuang. They are only good at destroying without making any meaningful achievements.

The wind, wind, fire and fire swept away, leaving behind not beauty, but desolation.

Just like the disaster in Xiaowangzhuang that Ying Yi personally experienced, there are countless people in the world. Li Zicheng and his ilk are real thieves. Most of them are gangsters, thieves, and bandits. How can there be any hope for these people?