Wang Mai and the others did not cause trouble for Zhou Xian. As soon as the next day dawn, they led their troops to leave.

But soon after, news came that several villages on the northwest side of Yichang were looted. In total, nearly a thousand people, both young and old, were killed. Near Yichang, the peasant army had already evacuated. Who did this matter at a glance.

In troubled times, soldiers are thieves, and thieves are even more thieves. Many times, the difference between the two is just a shallow line. After passing that line, there is no difference between soldiers and thieves.

After hearing this, Zhou Xian was extremely angry. However, such things happened every day in the corners he could not see. Even if Zhou Xian wanted to take care of it, he was powerless. What he could do was just to try his best to maintain that what he could control was not completely out of control.

A few days later, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong's army came to Yichang and brought a letter from Yang Sichang. He said in his heart that Zhou Xian would temporarily obey Zuo Liangyu's arrangement and find out Zhang Xianzhong's troops in Hubei as soon as possible. It is obvious that when writing this letter, Yang Sichang also received a reply from Zhou Xian.

Zhou Xian did not have much objection to this. He reported to Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong one by one the information he had received in the past few days. He suggested that they immediately send troops to Xiangyang to attack them by taking advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's death and the morale of the peasant army was unstable.

But after hearing that there were nearly 200,000 peasant troops, the two were frightened by this number and said that they would have to wait until the subsequent official troops arrived before they could march into Xiangyang. They chose a relatively stable style of fighting and decided to send troops to Xunyang first and meet with the local governor Yuan Jixian. After stabilizing the situation in Hubei, they would then go to Xiangyang again.

There were only a small number of peasant troops in Xunyang, and they were defeated by the government troops in a short time. After meeting with Yuan Jixian, the latest news was obtained. Sun Kewang had inherited the position of commander and became the new leader of this peasant army. They collected hundreds of ships of all sizes on the south bank of the Han River, crossed the river north, and captured Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River. They used ships as bridges to connect the two sides of the Han River. The treasures in Xiangyang City were transported to the north bank by them.

Zuo Liangyu conducted a tentative attack and found that Zhang Xianzhong's elite troops were left in Xiangyang City, and there were a large number. The official army did not have artillery to attack, and the strong attack would definitely not be worth the loss. On the one hand, Zuo Liangyu sent someone to inform Yang Sichang and asked him to lead the army out of Sichuan quickly; on the other hand, he sent soldiers to the upper and lower counties of the Han River to recruit ships, trying to destroy the bridge of the peasant army at that time and block all the peasant army in Xiangyang City in Jiangnan.

But before the ships were collected, the peasant army in Xiangyang City suddenly left the city to attack the government army. Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong retreated for nearly twenty miles before stabilizing the front. However, when they retreated, the peasant army retreated to Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River in the night. Then they drilled through all the ships and let them sink in the shallow waters on the north bank of the Han River, preventing the large ships of the government from approaching. They set up defense lines on the riverside, leaving a few troops to station in Fancheng to prevent the government army from crossing the river, while most of them attacked Yingshan from heading north.

Zuo Liangyu led his troops into Xiangyang, but at this moment it was already an empty city. Not only money and grain, but most of the young and strong in the city were also captured by the peasant army, leaving only some old, weak, sick and disabled.

The plan was so detailed and strict that these peasant soldiers retreated to Jiangbei under the eyes of 30,000 official troops, and transported away all the military supplies in Xiangyang City and all the young and strong people they could take away. If they were not the enemy, Zhou Xian would not have been able to applaud them.

Later I found out that this was all Li Dingguo's plan. While talking and laughing, he played with the two generals in the army, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, and applauded. His ability made Zhou Xian admire him.

Because the peasant army had searched the ships along the river before, there were not many ships left on the Han River, and most of them were fishing boats. Relying on them, it was basically impossible to quickly transport all 30,000 troops to Jiangbei. However, the situation in Jiangbei was urgent, and Zuo Liangyu finally decided to use the method of smuggling to transport soldiers across the river in batches, and then go to the meeting. Moreover, in order to avoid being discovered by the peasant army and attracting their attacks, the official army chose the place to cross the river far away from Xiangyang. At this progress, if you want to cross the river completely, you have to wait at least ten days later, and it is a conservative estimate.

After staying in Xiangyang for a few days, Zhou Xian learned that Yang Sichang had led Li Guoqi and Zhang Yingyuan to Yichang first. But the bad thing is that his condition worsened again, and this time it was far more serious than before.

Seeing that the crossing of the river was impossible to complete in a short period of time, Zhou Xian asked Zuo Liangyu for leave and returned to Yichang with nearly 300 still alive cavalry.

Zhou Xian took off his pocket, put it in his hand, bowed to Wan Ji and said, "Mr. Wan, how is he like now in the Supervisor?"

Wan Ji shook his head and said, "It's not good. Xiangyang, Luoyang was defeated continuously, and the three kings were killed by the bandits. The Pavilion team was completely in mind this time. Although the news that Zhang Zhe was killed by you made him happy, the drastic changes in the situation still made him breathless."

Zhou Xian nodded with a dim look.

Wan Ji continued, "The news of you leading 500 cavalry to kill Zhang Xianzhong has spread throughout the army. I have temporarily taken out 50,000 taels of silver from the military pay as a reward as a reward, and you can send someone to collect it later."

Zhou Xian bowed and said, "I thank Mr. Wan for those who died in battle and lived."

Wan Ji waved his hand and said, "I have no merit in the resolution of the Pavilion Department. He has always been concerned about you. You can go in and see him first! We will discuss the rest later."

Zhou Xian nodded, handed the pocket in his hand to Yu Zhenlong next to him, and walked into the room.

This was originally the private residence of the magistrate of Yichang County. After he was killed by the peasant army, the house was empty and temporarily regarded as a camp by Yang Sichang.

Zhou Xian looked and found that Yang Sichang was lying on the bed at this moment, with his hair and hair white and withered. Even his eyes that were usually glittering in brilliance became extremely chaotic. The latter heard the sound and turned his head to see that it was Zhou Xian. He waved his hand gently and signaled Zhou Xian to sit next to him.

Zhou Xian sat down, looked at his appearance, and felt a little bitterness in his heart. He shouted, "Sir, you..."

Yang Sichang struggled to hold the bedside and said to Zhou Xian: "Help me get up."
Chapter completed!