Chapter 234 Unexpected help

A group of cavalry appeared in the mountains north of Qizhou and wanted to defect. Ma Yong was ordered to go immediately to contact and check. At the same time, Zhang Qing, who was reorganizing the cavalry in Fuchi, was also quickly sent over.

Accompanying us were Shouhouer and Shi Lei.

After experiencing the surprise attack on the rebel native army and the Battle of Daye County, the cavalry used as an assault force suffered huge casualties. The reconnaissance company plus the cavalry battalion and the cavalry company assigned to the second regiment only had more than 300 cavalry left in total.

The sparse cavalry force is becoming a huge worry for Li Ping.

Although Li Ping captured Zhang Xianzhong's more than 1,000 horses and mules of various types in the battle of Daye, of which more than 300 could be used as war horses, the characteristics of cavalry training that were difficult and time-consuming made it difficult for Guang to have

Horses can't satisfy thirst far away from the water at all. At most, they can only add some more mounted infantry.

At this time, the cavalry came to surrender, which naturally aroused Li Ping's great attention, especially since they claimed to be the troops of Xiao Yuan's camp.

Xiao Yuanying was an unusual member of the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, he "traveled between the Liang and Song Dynasties, neither killing anyone nor robbing women. He was also one of the rare thieves."

Moreover, Xiaoyuanying's no-killing policy was not only about not killing common people, but also the officials and gentry were not good at killing and treated each other with courtesy. The military discipline was very strict, and they were even called "Buddha soldiers" by the common people because of their good military discipline. Even the Ming Dynasty ruled

People from all walks of life have to praise them.

After Li Ping came to this world, he heard about Xiao Yuanying's name very quickly, but he still couldn't even think about it.

Xiao Yuanying is so different!

Of course, Xiao Yuanying is very much in line with Li Ping's preferences.

This is completely different from the captured soldiers and horses of Zhang Xianzhong. Although many of the captives are good riders, most of those good riders are old bandits and veteran bandits. No matter how powerful they are, Li Ping does not want to use them.

, let alone use it.

Only those infantrymen who came from ordinary farmers and slaves, Li Ping planned to carefully replenish them after strict screening.

There are too many professional prostitutes among the peasant army prisoners from Macheng!

"Qin Laosan?"

The first time Zhang Qing saw Qin Yi, the scar-faced man who claimed to be the leader of the little Yuan camp, he hesitated and shouted out.

"Zhang Eryang?"

After being stunned, Qin Yi pointed at Zhang Qing behind Ma Yong and shouted back a name that only people from Zhang Qing's hometown knew.

"Brother Skinny Monkey?"

Immediately afterwards, Qin Yi called out Ma Xiaotian's nickname again, and then continued to search behind Ma Yong with his eyes in shock.

"It's Brother Qin." Skinny Hou'er also called out in surprise.

"Do you know each other?" Ma Yong was so surprised that he couldn't help but look back and forth.

"Well, not only do we know each other, we are also good brothers." Zhang Qing hurriedly replied to Ma Yong, and then said to Qin Yi with suppressed excitement that anyone could see: "Stop looking, there is no one you know. Hurry up.

, let me introduce you first..."

The wary and tense atmosphere quickly became relaxed at this moment, and the faces of everyone involved in the contact were filled with joy.

It is the best thing to have an acquaintance between the two parties, and the acquaintance is also the leader of both parties.

Soon, everyone got to know each other briefly in the warm atmosphere, and also briefly understood the story between Qin Yi and Zhang Qing.

It turns out that Scarface Qin Yi is from Henan, the third oldest child in his family. Because his family is relatively well-off, he has learned some martial arts since he was a child. But because he is not the eldest son, it is difficult for him to inherit the family business. Many men in this era are unwilling to be lonely.

The common practice was to go out and make a fortune, and eventually went to Liaodong to join the frontier army to seek a career.

Then he met Zhang Qing, who was in a similar situation to him.

Because they are both from Henan, have similar interests, and have their own abilities, although they are not in the same camp, their relationship is very close.

Qin Laosan and Zhang Eryang have also become the most affectionate names between the two in private.

Later, Zhang Qing was dissatisfied with going up to the peak to massacre people and take credit for it during a certain operation, so he killed his superior and fled, so the two broke off contact.

Zhang Qing's incident greatly touched Qin Yi, who was also unwilling to do evil things against his will and was unwilling to exploit the camp. At that time, the chaos in Liaodong also discouraged many aspiring people, and he was still just a small leader with no ambition.

Qin Yi also chose to leave soon after.

But it is different from Zhang Qing.

When Zhang Qing returned to his hometown in Henan, his eldest brother and father had died. As the only male in the family, Zhang Qing could no longer live alone and grudges. In addition, Henan was already experiencing civil unrest, so Zhang Qing had no choice but to flee with his mother and sister.

, and hid in Kaifeng City to survive.

Qin Yi quickly joined the Xiaoyuan camp, which was at its peak at the time.

The leader of Xiaoyuan Camp is Yuan Shizhong, a native of Huaxian County, Henan Province. He was born as a farmer. He has been hardworking since childhood and has a strong body.

In the 13th year of Chongzhen (1640), Yuan Shizhong had to gather the hungry people to revolt because he could not eat and begged for a long time. That year, even the officials in northern Henan Province called him "a miracle that had not happened in three hundred years."

shortage".

Yuan Shizhong's origin, personality characteristics and specific conditions for the uprising were very different from other peasant army leaders. This may be an important reason why the Xiaoyuan Camp he established was unique.

After Qin Yi joined Xiaoyuan Camp, he quickly liked and took root in him. Due to his bravery, he was gradually promoted and became a leader of more than a hundred elite cavalry. He also gained a certain reputation in Xiaoyuan Camp.

"Since Zhang Eryang and you have joined General Li's command, I can rest assured. I believe in your vision." Qin Yi quickly made his final determination, and his whole state became obviously much more relaxed.

But Shi Lei, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked: "Isn't Xiao Yuanying always active in central and northern Henan? Why did you come so far here?"

Shi Lei's question stunned both Ma Yong and Zhang Qing. They soon realized that they had overlooked the most critical issue, and their faces were immediately filled with question marks.

The smiling thin monkey also became serious and blinked his eyes.

After Xiaoyuan Camp was established, it may have gained more appeal due to its extremely upright approach, and it developed very rapidly. Its number of troops soon reached 300,000. When he and Li Zicheng joined forces in March last year, their military strength was far from the peak.

Li Zicheng's tribe only had 100,000 people.

Although the Xiaoyuan Battalion subsequently undertook the main offensive and subduing missions of the coalition forces and suffered huge losses, and before Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng, he suddenly left the coalition forces and began a bumpy independent battle, and the number of troops continued to decrease.

However, as of this year, the news obtained shows that Xiaoyuan Camp still has tens of thousands of troops, and its strength cannot be underestimated.

In other words, it makes no sense and is abnormal for Qin Yi to bring the cavalry from Xiaoyuan Camp all the way here at this time.

Scar-faced Qin Yi's complexion suddenly became obviously pale, and he said in pain: "Little Yuan Ying is gone!"

"Little Yuanying is gone? What happened?" Ma Yong and others were shocked.

"King Chuang's troops raided us in May. We were defeated in Qixian County (very close to Feng). The big leader was captured and killed, and the troops were all scattered." Qin Yi said sadly.

"Li Zicheng's troops suddenly attacked you? How many people did he use? Which general was he sent? How many people did you have at that time?" The thin monkey in the reconnaissance company instinctively wanted to determine a more accurate situation, but he was not convinced by Li Zicheng's killing of Yuan Shizhong.

There was no reaction, after all, it was nothing new for that guy to kill his comrades.

"One thousand cavalry, 20,000 infantry, the general is a tiger and Li Guo. We had 30,000 horse and foot."

"You are so far away, why did Li Zicheng do this? How did you lose so miserably?" Zhang Qing could hardly believe it. This was absolutely different from the nature of Li Zicheng killing Luo Rucai with his allied forces, and Zhang Qing also noticed Qin

Yi used the title King Chuang when talking about Li Zicheng.

"Hey! It's hard to explain in words. Let's go and see the brothers who followed me all the way! They are all waiting for my news. They are very anxious and tired. We will talk about it later."

After speaking, Qin Yi called on everyone to get on their horses and prepare to set off.

Qin Yi was relatively cautious about this contact. Except for the few people who followed him, the others were hidden deeper in the mountains.

"Then why do you want to come and join us, or come so far away?" Shi Lei obviously did not intend to end the inquiry so easily. He still had too many things he didn't understand, and he was very cautious.

Qin Yi glanced at Shi Lei, who looked unremarkable but seemed to have a strong voice, and then looked at Ma Yong and Zhang Qing who stopped to express doubts after hearing the words, so he had to stop and prepare to mount the horse and explain.

:

"After the big leader was killed, most of the people in the camp chose to join King Chuang's army, but there were also some people like me who were unwilling. After all, we had cooperated before King Chuang opened the seal. What is the nature of his army?

Very clear.

In order to survive, those of us who were unwilling to submit to King Chuang had to go our separate ways. Some of the brothers who were familiar with me and agreed with me followed me south into the Yinghuo Mountains to seek refuge and try to find people with good reputations to join the army.

It was always the wish of the big leader before. But you also know what the official army is like these days, and many of them are even worse than the rebel army.

In the mountains, we also met some people from the original 5th Battalion of Ge Zuo who had fled back to the mountains, which further strengthened our choice. Some people from the 5th Battalion of Gezuo finally joined us.

It was also by chance that we heard the name of General Li from the gentry and common people who had been rescued by General Li while escaping from the war in the Yinghuo Mountain area, and learned that he was very different from Zuo Liangyu. Later, we specially collected

We got more information about this next time, so we decided to give it a try and were led down here by a merchant who had been rescued by General Li.

Although the choice is a bit hasty, there is nothing we can do. We still have the families of some brothers in our team, including women and children. The Yinghuo Mountain Area is too barren. We need food, medicine, and a place to stay."

"Are there any revolutionary people among you?" Ma Yong asked in shock.

"Yeah" Qin Yi nodded, but looked at Shi Lei.

But this time Shi Lei didn't say anything more, but just nodded and looked at Ma Yong.

…

When it was dark, Qin Yi's six or seven hundred cavalry, led by Ma Yong and Zhang Qing, avoided Zuo Liangyu's army near Qizhou City and quickly approached the Yangtze River.

They did not choose to enter Qizhou City where their whereabouts could be easily discovered.

Under the cover of darkness, they quickly boarded the boat and headed straight for Fuchi.

At the same time, a regiment was also withdrawing from Qizhou and mobilizing to Fuchi, so the sudden surge of ships on the river did not attract special attention from Zuo Liangyu's army.

When disembarking from the ship, Qin Yi watched on the pier as a group of troops in excellent spirits and uniformly dressed disembarked from the ship in an orderly manner, quickly gathered into groups and then drove away neatly. His heart was filled with shock.
To be continued...