On April 25, Xu Ping commanded the Chu army to cross the Shahe River in large numbers. Nearly 10,000 soldiers camped along the north bank for several miles, and the momentum was extremely majestic. Facing the impatient governor of Henan and the civil and military officials of Zhongmu, Xuanwu Army general Yu Dongque

Seemingly confident, he looked at the densely packed camp in the distance, twisted his beard and smiled: "Let them cross the river, just in time to catch all the thieves."

Everyone who heard it spoke loudly.

On the 27th, the Xuanwu Army launched a surprise attack. Deputy Commander-in-Chief Yu Dong took the lead and charged directly into the center of the Intruder Army, and then defeated more than ten battalions of the Intruder Army. When the news of the victory came, the governor of Henan was so excited that his arms shook: "Go straight in!

Today I also know Xu Huang’s bravery.”

Regardless of Lien Chan's fatigue, the brave Xuanwu Army continued its fierce attack after nightfall, clearing out all the invading military camps on the north bank, and for a time the entire sky was illuminated by flames.

The officials of the Henan Governor's Yamen marveled at the bravery of Yu Dong and at the same time admired the vision of their new boss. Many people thought that Gao Mingheng was just lucky: Luoyang fell, King Fu was killed, and most of the elite Bian army was lost to Li Fengxian.

Because the murder of the prince angered the emperor and led to a disastrous outcome, no one in the court was willing to take over this mess, so Gao Mingheng was taken advantage of, and he jumped from a small patrol censor to a high-ranking official like a governor. He only took office every few years before he could do so.

God, you can pick out a talented person like Lieutenant General Yu from the messy Bian army and defeat the intruders until they lose their armor.

"I've heard for a long time that Thief Xu was once a subordinate of the Marquis of Zhendong," someone complimented: "The official once thought: There are no weak soldiers under a strong general, so we should not underestimate this thief. I never expected that he would be so vulnerable when he encountered our Henan officers and soldiers.

.”

Gao Mingheng looked up to the sky and smiled, looking quite contented.

A person who was not very open-minded said: "I heard that the traitor Xu was arrogant and arrogant, and that the defeat of the Shandong King's Division was due to his reckless actions..."

The others heard this guy belittle Xu Ping and hurriedly rushed towards him.

"That's inappropriate to say. Xu is a thief. He is naturally extremely powerful. It's just hard to match the governor's plan."

"The lower official also heard that the Marquis of Zhendong loved Xu Thief's talent so much that although he was aware of his ambition, he still hesitated to make a decision. That's why there was such a disaster. But even if Xu Thief was ten times more brave,

How can they be the rivals of our Henan officers and soldiers?"

These words were very pleasant to Gao Mingheng's ears. Not long ago, when Xu Ping led less than 10,000 people to attack Kaifeng and besiege the southern counties, the Henan governor's office did not dare to send troops to rescue him. At that time, Li Fengxian was dismissed, and the Kaifeng governor's office was in chaos.

Although it was a reason for them to form a group, Gao Mingheng himself was indeed quite wary of Xu Ping, the subordinate of Zhendong Marquis. After hearing that Xu Ping led thousands of people to the north, Gao Mingheng's strategy was to maintain a solid defense and refuse to

The army broke out outside Kaifeng.

Of course, this conservative strategy was criticized a lot, and the Henan scholars whose hometown was affected by the war criticized Gao Mingheng even more. Although Gao Mingheng tried his best to shift the responsibility to Li Fengxian, whether it was in the province or in the court,

His reputation was getting worse day by day. Even when he was lying in bed every night, Gao Mingheng was strategizing how to make a good comeback. This time, he gathered a large number of troops to fight against Xu Ping's troops who broke into the camp. Gao Mingheng tried his best.

, ruthlessly collected a batch of donations and taxes, and did not avoid risks to inspect the officers and soldiers of various ministries in person.

"If only the thief's soldiers and horses could be as capable as Yu Shuai," Gao Mingheng laughed. Now the situation is great. No matter what he says, no one will find him demoralizing, and there is no danger of shaking the morale of the army: "I

I'm afraid I have to defend Kaifeng, haha, it seems that Zhendong Hou's subordinates are just mediocre."

The excited governor of Henan wrote a memorial at night, urgently reporting to the capital: "Relying on the great power of our emperor, the soldiers used their lives to break through the Shahe River and burn their baggage...Xu Ni's party members dispersed and fled south at night. I strictly ordered the generals and commanders to advance.

Suppress every thief left, so that I can worry about the Holy One!"

Seeing that there was something to be gained, the originally half-hearted Zhongmu Army hurriedly sent its troops out of the city to pursue the Xuanwu Army. Along the way, there were either empty camps of the Chuang Army or burned-down villages. Suddenly, the news of victory flew like snowflakes into the governor's camp.

All the generals claimed that Xu Ping was defeated and all the armies gained countless gains. However, Gao Mingheng even exempted himself from the test of rank, and accepted all reports no matter how high they were. He also ordered the generals not to care about the rank and not to bother collecting returns for pursuit.

Breaking into the army is the first priority.

Zhengzhou,

"This kid, Director Yu, is actually going to be promoted to the rank of general!" Li Chengxin, who was also the deputy general, looked angrily after seeing the newspaper: "He gets more food and pay than me, and he used to run faster than me.

what?"

"Sir, this intruder is really vulnerable. In less than two days, the entire camp was taken away by Director Yu, and he actually made him more powerful." Li Chengxin's subordinates were also very sorry.

I heard that he was a battalion officer-level figure trained by Zhendong Marquis. The solemn Ming army was reluctant to leave the garrison. Unexpectedly, Yu Dong, who was as bad as them and could not even defeat grass bandits like Li Zicheng, would actually

He was able to defeat the generals of Zhendong Marquis: "There have long been rumors that Zhendong Marquis improperly hired people. It seems that Xu Ping made a mistake, which led to the defeat of Shandong. It's a shame that we were too careful."

"Li Chuang can actually use this kind of pustule!" Li Chengxin was also filled with resentment, but after thinking about it for a moment, he felt relieved: "It's not surprising that Li Chuang is a grass bandit, I heard he was from Zhendong Marquis.

Have my men become cautious? To say that Zhendong Marquis is really famous, it is difficult to live up to it." Li Chengxin shouted: "Bring out the camp immediately to surround and suppress the thieves!"

In Heyin, the commander-in-chief Zhou Zhengting, who had been procrastinating, was very surprised when he heard the news of the Ming army's success: "Back then, Xu thieves dared to attack Kaifeng with thousands of men. I don't think good people will come.

Not kind, how could this happen?"

"Xu Ping is famous for being proud and underestimating the enemy," an aide said: "Last year's defeat in Shandong was all because Xu Ping underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, tampering with Zhendong Hou's military strategy without even conducting reconnaissance along the way.

Tens of thousands of Ji Kou were lurking on his way without even knowing it. At first he looked down on Ji Tuisi, and now he probably looks down on us Henan officers and soldiers, but he was caught off guard by General Yu." Previously, the staff were unanimously optimistic about Xu Ping's combat effectiveness. What did they say?

Since Li Zicheng is willing to worship Xu Ping as a general, he will definitely allocate elite soldiers and generals to him. He also said that using Zhendong Hou's military training methods, if Xu Ping learns an achievement that is enough for Yu Dong to eat, he will just walk around, but overnight they will

His tone completely changed: "Xu Xu has only been in the camp for a few months. How can the thief compare with the soldiers trained by the Marquis of Zhendong? There are probably many people on the thief side waiting to see this traitor.

It’s a joke; moreover, Xu Thief is not familiar with the place he was born in Henan. How can we Henan folks be willing to work hard for him, a Zhili native? This Xu Thief is not unfair at all."

"Hmph, Brother Yu is really showing off the prestige of my son-in-law of Henan," Zhou Zhengting flipped through the newspaper and asked around: "Before, the governor's office of Henan said that there were 40,000 or 50,000 thieves - which means that his actual strength is less than 10,000. Now,

Brother Yu broke his Shahe alliance in one fell swoop, and Xu Thief's men probably lost five stops in ten miles?"

"What the Marshal said is absolutely true. Xu Thief must be arrogant. Seeing that our Bian Army couldn't even defeat the grass bandit Li Zicheng in the Battle of Luoyang, he thought we were easy to bully. Now Xu Thief must be panicking."

"Well, he must have gathered the remaining troops and planned to fight Brother Yu. Brother Yu and I are in the same boat, how can we allow him to be so rampant?" Zhou Zhengting changed his previous policy of shrinking back and immediately ordered the army to close the county.

…

On May 5, when the Ming army that had just left Zhengzhou advanced to Meishan, they were suddenly ambushed by the Guards Battalion. In less than half an hour, the Ming army was defeated by Xu Ping. Lieutenant General Li Chengxin died in the rebellion, and five thousand

The Ming army dispersed, and less than a hundred of the remaining troops fled back to Zhengzhou. The Chuang army took advantage of the victory and pursued it. The Guards Battalion arrived at the gate of Zhengzhou City in the afternoon of the same day, and Zhengzhou was captured at Shenshi.

On the 6th, the vanguard of the Heyin Army arrived in Mi County. Just as they were busy preparing to attack the city, Li Dingguo, who had been lurking in Dazhou Mountain for many days,

Commanded the Western Battalion to rush out from behind the Ming army. In the blink of an eye, the Ming army's baggage on the official road fell into the hands of the Chuang army. The Ming army scattered around Mi County was rushed to pieces by the Chuang army before they had time to regroup. Commander Zhou Zhengting

and deputy generals, and many other guerrillas were all captured alive by Li Dingguo.

On the morning of the 8th, Zhongmou guerrilla Wade was commanding the troops to march happily towards Xinzheng, when he suddenly received an urgent report from the rear army, saying that an intruder from the north had attacked the rear of the army, and now the front army had lost contact with the baggage troops.

"North? That should be our army." Wade didn't know that Zhengzhou had been lost. Before he could react, a scout from the front reported that intruders were also present on the front and sides.

For a moment, Wade was so shocked that he was sweating profusely. He immediately ordered all his troops to return along the way they came: "My sons, follow me and fight a bloody path!"

Hei Baoyi looked at the Ming army coming from afar and loudly ordered: "The whole army is ready for war."

One part of the second wing of the Guards Battalion was chasing the Ming army's baggage, and the rest lined up southward towards the direction of the Ming army. Five hundred fusiliers were arranged in three rows in front, and the same number of spearmen were behind them.

behind.

"Should we get closer and then fight?" Hei Baoyi said to himself. The Ming army in front of them obviously didn't know the firepower of breaking into the camp, and they didn't stand firm until they were within a hundred meters and started to form their formation. Hei Baoyi looked at the enemy troops.

After half a day, they hadn't formed their formation yet, so they couldn't control their irritation and ordered an attack.

"aim!"

Five hundred soldiers from the Guards Battalion lowered their guns upon hearing the sound.

"Fire."

Three rows of musketeers fired fierce volleys.

"Charge."

After the filling was completed, the musketeers fired another volley in response to the order. After the smoke dissipated, the Ming army on the opposite side was lying tightly on the ground regardless of life or death, and several cavalrymen were rushing eastward crazily with one person behind them...

"Guards Battalion, bayonets on!"

The drums sounded, and the soldiers of the Guards Battalion marched forward neatly with bayonets drawn. The Ming soldiers lying on the ground watched in horror as they walked in step by step.

"surrender!"

As the first one shouted, other Ming soldiers also woke up.

"surrender!"

"surrender!"

The shouts one after another almost overwhelmed the drums of the invading army.

After several Ming armies were defeated, Yu Dong, who had just been promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief, had no choice but to retreat with the helpless Xuanwu army. Instead of returning to Zhongmou, he headed straight east to Tongxu.

…

Zhongmu,

"Change horses, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up," the Ming army who rushed into the post station did not bother to drink water, waved the letters in their hands at the post guards, and shouted in a stack: "Eight hundred miles, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up...

"

"boom!"

The Ming Army responded with a sap from the back of the head. After receiving this blow, the Ming Army threw himself to the ground without saying a word. Two men dressed as postmen jumped up and dragged him to the back of the house.

The man who slapped the sap picked up the letter left by the Ming army, took a look at it, and held it in front of a man who was feeding the horse by the trough.

The man took it, glanced at the seal on the letter, and nodded: "It's indeed a 800-mile express."

As he said this, the man carefully leaned against the side, opened a small opening on the side of the urgent letter and took out the contents. After reading the letter, he raised his head, smiled at the group of people around him and said: "Third General Soldier,

Eleven deputy generals and 42,000 officers and soldiers have all been defeated by Your Excellency. Now they either surrender or flee, and are completely defeated."

"My lord is mighty!"
To be continued...