Thousands of Qing troops originally gathered outside Zhendingfu City to attack Zhendingfu City. They failed to defeat it in two days. Suddenly they heard that Lu Xiangsheng and Xuan's army of 20,000 horses were coming to help, so they hurried away.
However, just when Lu Xiangsheng led his troops to camp by the Hutuo River in the south of Zhendingfu City.
The invading Qing troops, Dorgon and Abatai tribes, have gone deep into various parts of Zhending Prefecture to plunder. There are traces of captive cavalry in Pingshan, Huolu, Jingxing, Haocheng, Luancheng and other counties, even as far away as
In Shulu, Ningjin, Gaoyi, Zanhuang and other counties, people also came to report that there were horsemen plundering in the territory.
The Qing army under Hauge, after defeating the counties of Raoyang and Wuqiang, then moved southward along the counties of Wuyi, Hengshui, and Zaoqiang, and the vanguard was close to the border of Nangong County.
At the same time, the right-wing army of the Qing army, led by the slave chiefs Yue Tuo and Du Du, was also divided into groups.
The main force along the way, led by Du Du, went south along Wen'an, Dacheng, Qingxian and other counties, and went straight to Cangzhou, with the frontline already pointing at Nanpi County.
The other group, led by Yue Tuo, ravaged Hejian Prefecture and successively attacked Xianxian, Jiaohe, Fucheng and other counties. Now they are encircling Jingzhou and approaching Gucheng County. They are likely to attack Linqing, an important water transportation town.
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However, most of the Ming army's various units stopped moving forward and huddled within the fortified city.
Liu Yuliang, the chief minister of the cabinet, who was ordered by the emperor to supervise the reinforcements from all over the world on behalf of the emperor, led tens of thousands of soldiers from the Beijing camp and huddled in Baoding City for ten months without further progress.
Chen Xingjia, the newly-appointed governor of Xuanda, who had the title of right minister of the Ministry of War and was also the censor of Youqiandu, arrived in Dingzhou and received a letter from the Ministry of War, ordering him to supervise the army and horses of the Xuan army. Together with Wang Pu, the chief military officer of Datong Town, he rushed to the aid of Shanxi at starry night.
Make sure that nothing happens to Yunzhen.
The commander-in-chief Gao Qiqian was originally ordered to enter the territory of Hejian Prefecture to monitor the Qing army's right-wing Yue Tuo cavalry, but he only dared to follow the Qing army from a distance. Although he fought with small groups of cavalry several times, he only captured a few victories.
More than ten captives rode on their heads.
After following the Qing army through Shenzhou, Gao Qiqian led the army back to Zhending in the west to join Lu Xiangsheng in order to relieve the danger of Zhending.
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Lu Xiangsheng's troops were already short of food and grass. Fortunately, in the battle at Gaoyang, Hauge was caught off guard and won a great victory. He captured more than a thousand grains and grains. In addition, the grains and grains donated by the labor forces of the gentry in Gaoyang and Dingzhou were maintained until Zhending Prefecture.
Time is running out.
Therefore, after the army set up camp by the Hutuo River, he wrote a letter to Zhang Qiping, the governor of Zhending, hoping that Zhending City could provide some food and grass for the army.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Qiping, the governor of Zhending, also had eyes and ears in the capital. When he saw that the cabinet minister Yang Sichang was favored by Emperor Chongzhen on weekdays, he also fawned over him early.
Now he even learned that Lu Xiangsheng, because he took the lead in the battle, was greatly squeezed out by Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian, so he actually closed the city gates tightly and did not allow anyone in the army to enter the city.
However, the army was already running out of food, and each battalion had to eat only one full meal every day, and then began to collect wild vegetables, grass roots, bark and other materials from the surrounding area, and cook porridge with the grains to supplement the second meal.
Zhang Qiping, the prefect of Zhending, initially promised to donate a day's supply of grain, but when Lu Xiangsheng sent officials to collect it, they waited from noon to dusk, and then from the south gate to the east gate, but no city gate was opened.
Finally, words came from inside: "It's getting late today. I only have a thousand taels of silver, so go buy food by yourself."
Immediately, he lowered the silver from the top of the city and has not been heard from since.
The villagers and villagers in the villages and shops around Zhending were afraid of the Qing army, but even more afraid of the government troops. They fled into Zhending Fucheng early. Even if there was time to escape into Fucheng in the future, they would either flee into surrounding counties or cities.
They all hid in the nearby mountains.
Although Zhang Qiping of Zhending Prefecture gave him a thousand taels, where could he buy grain in a state of chaos?
Lu Xiangsheng and his generals were very angry, but they had nothing to do with Zhang Qiping. They couldn't attack Zhendingfu City and seize grain by force.
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Xuanzhen guerrilla Zhang Cheng rode his horse on the official road north of Hutuo River. Beside him were Chen Zhong and Chen Zheng, and behind them were Zhang Cheng's personal guards and more than 200 knights from the outpost.
Since the army was stationed in Zhending Fucheng, Zhang Cheng has sent out a cavalry sentry every day to monitor the movements of the captives and cavalry in the surrounding areas.
Today, Chen Zheng led a team to go out for inspection and intercepted a person on the official road southwest of Zhending. The person claimed that his surname was Wei and his name was Zhi Ce, a righteous citizen of Huolu County. He claimed that the city of Huolu County had been besieged by the Qing army and had been holding it for many days.
The soldiers in Lucheng were weak and could not hold out for long, so they fought hard to break through and went to Zhending Mansion to ask for help.
Chen Zheng led his team to escort him to the outside of Zhending City and saw him breaking into the city before reporting back to Zhang Cheng.
Zhang Cheng was patrolling the camp. When he heard this report, he immediately remembered something.
This time the Qing army invaded the capital, he only knew three things in detail. One was that Lu Xiangsheng fought against the captive cavalry and died in the battle; the other was that the city of Gaoyang fell, and more than a hundred members of Sun Chengzong's family were killed;
Third, it is related to Wei Zhice.
In the original history, Emperor Chongzhen hated Lu Xiangsheng because of two things. The first was that Sun Chengzong and his family were in trouble, and Lu Xiangsheng was unable to rescue him.
Second, it was the fall of Huolu. Lu Xiangsheng was also close at hand, but he was trapped by the Qing army and was unable to rescue him. In addition, Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian framed him, which made Chongzhen hate him so much that he died in battle.
After Julu, he has not been able to receive compensation for a long time.
Now that I have come to this world, I cannot let the tragedy of harvesting deer happen again.
Zhang Cheng vaguely remembered that Wei Zhice went to Zhending to ask for help but could not get it, so he turned back overnight to capture deer and rushed into the city again. He announced that reinforcements were coming, which boosted morale. Thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city held on for three more days before they were broken by the Qing army.
Calculating that there was still enough time, Zhang Cheng rushed to the official road where Zhending Benhu Lu was waiting for Wei Zhice after dinner.
In order to avoid being separated from Wei Zhice, Zhang Cheng ordered the knights on the outpost to spread out on the official road in units of armor. Even the small road near the official road sent groups of knights to patrol back and forth.
Finally, at the end of the Youshi period, he met Wei Zhice on the official road, who was galloping on his horse and preparing to return to harvest deer. Zhang Cheng didn't waste any words and straightforwardly announced his family status.
Wei Zhice couldn't ask for help and was already frustrated. When he heard that Lu Xiang had been promoted to lead more than 10,000 Xuanda elites, he stationed himself near the camp, just like grabbing a life-saving straw when he was drowning.
His depressed face once again glowed with passion. At that time, he begged Zhang Cheng to take him to see Lu Xiangsheng. Zhang Cheng did not mince words and told him directly that the army could not march at night. Even if Lu Duchen agreed to rescue the deer, he would have to rescue the deer tomorrow.
Only after dawn can the camp be set up.
At that moment, Zhang Cheng ordered Chen Zheng to lead the outpost knights back to camp to rest, and he led Wei Zhice to Lu Xiangsheng's Chinese army tent, while Chen Zhong led a group of guards to follow him.
Wei Zhice followed Zhang Cheng, and the two rode horses. Along the way, Zhang Cheng kept asking about the situation of the deer, including the number of Qing troops, the city's defense situation, the situation of the soldiers and civilians in the city, etc.
He answered truthfully, but secretly paid attention to Zhang Cheng in his heart. He did not expect that the young general next to him was already a guerrilla general. He originally guessed that he was an official of hundreds of households, or at most a general manager.