Chapter 40: Pocket Formation Soldiers Surround Henan

The man's heart is as strong as iron, and he kills and frightens ghosts and gods. The iron cone kills people, and the fierce fire stirs up the demonic atmosphere.

It's a pity that this night's battle failed to achieve full success.

It turns out that the lair of the fifth camp of Nagzuo is not in Huoqiu, but in the Dabie Mountains.

Zhao Yu originally thought that winter was approaching and the weather was harsh, so the bandit would abandon the mountains and forests and choose a city to defend it. It was a good guess, but not entirely correct.

It was Lao Hui's turn to return to Shouzhou to respond, while Huo Qiu had only two thieves, Ge Liyan He Yilong and Zhengshi Wang Lin Cheng. The remaining two, King He Jin of Zuo Jin and King Liu Xiyao of the Reincarnation, are in their lair in the mountain.

In other words, even if Huoqiu is defeated, there will still be two traitors who rebel against the king, and at least 20,000 rogue soldiers and horses are still at large.

By the time the fire was extinguished and Huo Qiu's matter was settled, it was already morning time. This fire almost burned all the soldiers and horses under He Yilong and Lin Chengcheng!

Even Lin Chengcheng died in the fire!

He Yilong saw the opportunity early and walked away from the west gate, but was blocked by the army that had been deployed outside. He was unable to escape and was captured alive. The rest survived and were captured by thieves, but only seven or eight thousand were captured.

Zhao Yu beat He Yilong to death with a cone, and Weiwei couldn't help but sigh.

There is no need to keep this He Yilong and kill the chickens to scare the monkeys. The seven or eight thousand captives had long been frightened. Killing the chickens or not, or scaring the monkeys, was all unnecessary.

Seeing his soldiers leading the bandit, Zhao Yu beat him to death without saying a word.

The ones he sighed were the two thieves, Liu Xiyao and He Jin. The fire burned in the sky last night, and when it was raging, it could be seen dozens of miles away. What's more, in the morning, the scouts scattered around also discovered traces of stray thieves outside.

Presumably the two thieves hiding in the mountains already knew the fighting situation here.

Zhao Yu's troops lost the convenience of raiding.

Moreover, the terrain in the mountains is complex, which is not conducive to large-scale attacks. Once the thieves are scattered, eradication is empty talk.

So he sighed.

Yang He explained the situation of the prisoners and came to Zhao Yu's side. He happened to hear this sigh and couldn't help but said: "Is the general regretting that he could not catch them all?"

Zhao Yu nodded and looked at the mountains in the distance: "In the fifth camp of Gezuo, we only went to three families, and there are two more thieves in the deep mountains and old forests."

"The general's opinion..." Yang He muttered: "The bandits in the mountains must have known about the Huoqiu fire that night, and out of fear, fled away, unable to catch up. But..."

He changed his voice and said with a smile: "My subordinates believe that the thieves, He Jin and Liu Xiyao, must go north if they want to escape!"

Zhao Yu couldn't help laughing, nodded and said: "The traitors are heading east to Bozhou. I don't know if Bozhou has been conquered at this time. Bozhou is three to four hundred miles away to the north. If He Jin and Liu Xiyao are timid, they will go to surrender to the traitors. Please We have to unite our forces."

After a pause, he said: "But I won't let these two thieves go to join the Xian thieves so easily."

His eyes were shining brightly: "He ran away quickly, and I will chase him even faster."

When Yang He heard this, he couldn't help shouting: "General, are you going to send troops to chase?"

But he said: "At this time, the army has been exhausted after fighting all night. Moreover, the terrain in the mountains is complicated, which is not conducive to the army fighting. If we send troops to pursue, I am afraid..."

Zhao Yu laughed: "I went to chase him, but I never said I would send troops to chase him."

Yang He suddenly realized.

Zhao Yu then said: "Moreover, the central army directly under me has rested for the night. Although nine thousand troops and horses are not many, they are enough. However, I do plan to pursue the pursuit alone this time."

As he spoke, Zhao Yu squatted down, stretched out his fingers, and drew a simple map on the frozen hard ground.

"Look, if He Jin and Liu Xiyao go to surrender to the bandits, they must bypass Huoqiu and go north along the Dabie Mountains. These are the only two places they must pass."

Yang He took a look: "Yingshang, Yingzhou?"

Zhao Yu nodded: "Of course. Yingshui flows from northwest to southeast, passing diagonally from the west of Fengyang. If you want to go north to Bozhou, you must cross Yingshui. To cross Yingshui, the only two places where Yingshang and Yingzhou are the best are It’s convenience.”

Then he said: "I intend to go into the mountains alone to trace the traces of the bandits. As for the nine thousand soldiers and horses of the Chinese army, I plan to hand them over to the personal guard Commander Zhang to lead them. I will immediately break camp, march to Yingshang, and wait for the enemy."

Zhao Yu's meaning is very obvious.

The Chinese army's rapid march to Yingshang was just a precautionary measure.

Zhao Yu is confident that he can catch up with the bandits alone. Of course, it would be best if the two thieves reacted slowly and had not yet left their lair in the mountains.

If you leave, you won't be able to escape Zhao Yu's pursuit. Once he catches up, Zhao Yu will take it to heart that there are only 20,000 thieves in the area.

One person and one rider can defeat these two thieves and take their heads.

As for sending troops to Yingshang, it was just an insurance policy in case Zhao Yu failed to pursue it, or pursued it in the wrong direction. In other words, the final destination of Zhao Yu's pursuit must be Yingzhou.

If you catch up to Yingzhou and still see no trace of the bandit, you will immediately go down the Yingshui River and rush up to Yingzhou.

The bandits would go to Yingshang instead of Yingzhou, but they could never escape Zhao Yu's grasp.

"You stay here and keep your tail intact." Zhao Yu told Yang He, "Ask the people from the merchant bank to send people to take over Huoqiu. You must close your tail quickly, and it must not take more than two days. Then immediately send troops to Yingshang , join me."

After a pause, Zhao Yu thought for a while and then said: "In this matter, we must have people from the trading company pass the news to the prince as soon as possible. Let the prince make preparations so that he can set up pockets in Henan and not escape from the invaders who besieged Kaifeng. Thief. I'm worried that the intruder will roar and flee after knowing that my army has destroyed Gezuo and defeated the Xian thief."

Yang He Yingnuo said yes and said, "General, are you going to set off now?"

Zhao Yu nodded: "It is better to be quick than to be hasty, because soldiers need to be quick."

...

There were five bandit leaders in Gezuo's fifth camp. The most powerful one, Ma Shouying, had thirty or forty thousand men under his command. Among them, there are only seven or eight thousand real old thieves, and the rest are ordinary mobs. The remaining four people have about the same power, with some only having more than 10,000 people and some with only 10,000 people.

Ma Shouying died in Shouzhou, and his soldiers and horses were either killed or surrendered, and there was basically no escape. Huo Qiu is also the same. In one fire, more than 10,000 people were burned to death, and there were seven or eight thousand talismans.

After interrogation, only nearly 20,000 thieves were found in that lair in the mountains.

It is said that the five camps of Gezuo have a total of 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and there are also 20,000 to 30,000 old thieves. But things are unpredictable, and overnight, the mighty Gezuo Fifth Battalion became a thing of yesterday.

Three of the five thieves died immediately, and the remaining two, as Zhao Yu expected, broke camp and fled after receiving the news.

The battle report here was quickly conveyed to Kaifeng Fengqiu through the trading firm in the hands of Zhao Gongming.

Prince Zhu Cihao went south to supervise the war and settled in Fengqiu.

Fengqiu and Kaifeng are less than a hundred miles apart. But there is a natural chasm across the Yellow River, one to the north and one to the south, facing each other from a distance. Armies from all over Hebei, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, gradually converged on this line, and Fengqiu was where the governor's camp was located.

After the prince arrived at Fengqiu, he remained stationary. Li Yuqing had already sent a pigeon to inform the prince about Zhao Yu's movements. The prince is waiting for Zhao Yu.

Although the prince is a military commander and supervises soldiers and horses in various places to suppress bandits, it must be calculated that the number of soldiers and horses under his control is at least 100,000 or 200,000. But these local armies are really corrupt to the extreme. How can they get the crown prince's discernment?

If these troops are allowed to cross the river to suppress the bandits and fight the intruders at the gates of Kaifeng City, regardless of victory or defeat, it would be a luxury to hope to catch all the intruders in one fell swoop.

Henan is a vast area. Once the intruders cannot fight, they can escape at any time.

Therefore, during this period of time, the prince was waiting for news from Zhao Yu and making military arrangements.

Sun Chuanting, the minister of the Ministry of War who was supervising the army in Guanzhong and Shanshan to suppress the bandits, sent troops eastward to Hangu to cut off the way for the intruders to retreat into Guanzhong. The second order was to suppress the bandits in Huguang. Ding Qirui, the Minister of War, sent his troops eastward and northward to cut off the southwest retreat of the bandits.

When Zhao Yu sent his troops to the south, he and the prince's troops on the north bank of the Yellow River, Sun Chuanting's troops in Hangu and Luoyang, and Ding Qirui's troops in Xiangfan all attacked in four directions, forming a tight pocket. , surrounded Henan, and even if the intruder had wings, he would have no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth.

This strategic plan is good, but the prince still feels unsafe. He personally supervises the troops and horses on the front line on the north bank of the Yellow River. With him in charge, even if it is in vain, there will be no fault.

He wasn't too worried about Sun Chuanting. The prince had learned a lot about Sun Chuanting's character. He was capable and upright.

The prince at Zhao Yu is not even worried. If Zhao Yu hadn't been ordered to rush straight to Kaifeng in order to catch all the thieves, the thieves would probably be dead.

The prince is worried about Ding Qirui from Huguang.

Ding Qirui basically has no military strategy and cannot convince the public. Zuo Liangyu and others who served under him did not take him seriously at all. Since he became Minister of War and replaced Yang Sichang in suppressing bandits, he has never won a battle.

Moreover, this person has close ties with several old people in the cabinet. The prince and the cabinet are already mortal enemies, so they have to be wary of the cabinet getting in the way.

After some thought, Prince Zhu Cihao planned to ask Sun Chuanting to detach a force and go south to the junction of Ruzhou, Nanyang and Kaifeng to replace Ding Qirui's strategic role.

In this way, downplaying Ding Qirui's role also eliminates the harm that Ding Qirui may bring.

While the prince was making strict arrangements, the trading company's battle report on Fengyang finally reached the prince.

Hearing that Ge Zuo was defeated and Zhao Yu was about to send his troops northward, the prince couldn't help but feel refreshed.

He said to the left and right: "General Zhao Shen is indeed the pillar of the country!"

Wang Yisheng and Li Geng, who were on the left and right, couldn't help but laugh in unison: "General Zhao Shen is so brave and invincible that he will win this battle!"

So the prince quickly wrote a letter, telling Zhao Yu one by one about the deployment of the pocket strategy, so that Zhao Yu would have an idea and facilitate cooperation. The second reward is just a promise that Zhao Yu will never be disappointed.

This promise is what Zhao Yu once proposed to carry on the family line and bring glory to the family.

He also told Zhao Yu to be careful and not to be careless. Under the premise of marching at a rapid speed, no mistakes can be made to avoid wasting all previous efforts.

All these kinds of things.

Soldiers are valuable and quick, and this is something that the prince must entrust.

The intruders have been besieging Kaifeng for more than half a month. Now that the imperial troops are mobilizing, the intruders may not necessarily know everything, but the movement is not small after all. Once the siege by the intruders was unfavorable and Kaifeng could not be captured and they ran away, all the prince's strategic arrangements would be in vain.

It has to be fast.

It was almost before the intruder decided to retreat, so he defeated him and completed his victory in one battle.

However, the prince did not know that when he sent this letter, Zhao Yu's army had already arrived in Bozhou.

...

Bozhou was broken.

no doubt.

Bozhou is the north gate of Fengyang Mansion, but there are only one or two thousand troops stationed here. And they are all the kind of local army that cannot be judged.

Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan years ago, but could not hold back. This year he went out to attack Huguang, but was defeated by Zuo Liangyu. If Zhang Xianzhong hadn't sent someone to bribe Zuo Liangyu, the only way out would have been surrender.

So Zhang Xianzhong led the remaining troops to Kaifeng Mansion in Henan Province to defect to Li Zicheng.

Li Chuang saw that Zhang Xianzhong's power was greatly damaged and wanted to annex him, so he fell out. If someone hadn't interceded, he would have been killed by Li Chuang. Zhang Xianzhong then went east to Bozhou.

Taking the people hostage along the way, originally the force could only lose a few thousand soldiers and horses, but when they arrived in Bozhou, there were tens of thousands more.

When thieves fight, they all use the same routine.

The common people carried by the shillings were used as cannon fodder, and their lives were used to fill the defenders' bullets, arrows and other defensive supplies. Demoralize the defenders.

When the defenders were exhausted, they swarmed up and defeated the city.

Of course, this is a head-on approach.

There are endless ways to treat a bandit as a bandit, such as coordinating the inside and the outside.

All we need to do is send old thieves to serve as common people and enter the city in twos and threes. During the war, he suddenly launched an attack, opened the city gate, and defeated it in one battle.

Here in Bozhou, the Xian rebels met head-on. They besieged the city for ten days and then attacked the city directly. They captured it in just three days.

As for internal and external integration, there is no way to use it.

Bozhou is located at the junction of Kaifeng Prefecture and Fengyang Prefecture. The intruders surrounded Kaifeng with great force.

The thief can only confront him head-on.

Although the garrison of Bozhou was not large, only 2,000 people, and they were also a mob. However, over the years, the evil deeds of the bandits have been gradually seen through by the ignorant people.

Except for those who can't survive at all, in fact, at this point, there are no people who are really willing to join the bandits. What's more, Zhang Xianzhong is different from Li Chuang. Li Chuang still raised some slogans, such as not paying food. And Zhang Xianzhong was known for killing indiscriminately.

They often massacre the city, killing when they are happy and killing when they are unhappy.

In addition, the people who could live in the city could basically survive, so they resisted very resolutely.

Even though Zhang Xianzhong had tens of thousands of troops with him, it still took him nearly half a month to capture Bozhou.

After the Xian thieves captured Bozhou, there is no need to say more about their evil strategies. How can such thieves, especially those of Zhang Xianzhong, find anything good? !

The city was full of people, and countless people died. Those who survived were all coerced into becoming thieves.

Except for the few hundred who surrendered in the end, all the officers and soldiers of the garrison died in the battle. The county magistrate was directly beheaded and his head was hung on the city wall. Only a few of the wealthy households and businessmen in the city were able to escape.

After Zhang Xianzhong captured Bozhou, he peeked at Fengyang. He dug the tomb of Taizu back then, and he planned to do it again this time.

But there is no rush. There are only a few thousand old thieves left under his command, and the rest are just common people who have been brought here with little fighting power. He plans to rest in Bozhou for ten days and a half, do some training, and then go south to Fengyang. Defeat the defenders in one go.

Zhang Xianzhong, or most of the bandits, trained his troops very simply, just catch them and fight them.

Do it with real swords and guns.

Those who survive are the real bandits.

Zhang Xianzhong also repeatedly asked his old thieves to fight against the people who were holding him hostage. Ten versus twenty, thirty or fifty. A thief never spares his life. No matter whether he is an old thief or a new thief, a dead one is useless.

Those who survived aroused their animal nature and gained fighting strength.

As long as he fights against the imperial army a few more times, he will become an old thief.