When Li Ye led his army to the battlefield, the war was already over. Li Xilie's army retreated hastily eastward. The collective surrender of Wang Zhongsheng's remaining troops became the source of Li Xilie's report. Thirty thousand troops quickly rushed eastward and retreated eastward. The Guanlong cavalry pursued them for more than ten miles. They refused to take prisoners and killed them. There were more than 4,000 enemies, and more than 6,000 people were killed on the battlefield. Li Xilie's army was killed with 11,000 people. The rest of the army quickly retreated eastward, and the Guanlong cavalry did not continue to pursue.
Xi Wanli was not in a hurry to pursue him, but instead gathered nearly eight thousand Wang Zhongsheng's remnants.
Eight thousand soldiers took off their armor, put down their weapons, and sat in the wilderness, waiting for the Guanlong army to fall.
At this time, Li Ye, escorted by 20,000 cavalry, arrived at the battlefield that had just ended. The 20,000-strong army was waving flags with great momentum. Xi Wanli quickly went to see him with several generals.
"Your Highness, Li Xilie's army fought with thirty thousand humble cavalry for half an hour, and they retreated without support?"
"Is it a defeat or a retreat?" Li Ye asked. The two are completely different in nature.
"I reported back to Your Highness that we were retreating, so I only pursued them for a dozen miles before stopping the pursuit. We killed a total of 10,000 enemies, and we suffered about 2,000 casualties."
Li Ye nodded and pointed his riding whip at the surrendered soldiers sitting on the grass in the distance, "Who are those?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, they are the remnants of Wang Zhongsheng's troops. They defected and surrendered on the battlefield. As a result, Li Xilie did not dare to fight and retreated hastily. We hunted down more than 4,000 of them. According to His Highness's instructions, we did not take prisoners of war from Li Xilie's army and killed them all. .
"They deserved to die!"
Li Ye cursed and then ordered the marching commander Zhao Yannan: "The surrendered soldiers will each be given a piece of money and two buckets of rice. They will all be sent home and warned that if they dare to rob the people on the way, they will be killed without mercy!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
Zhao Yannan led hundreds of soldiers to deal with it. Thousands of captured carts were delivered, which contained the wealth accumulated by Wang Zhongsheng, including three million yuan and one million taels of silver.
This unexpected wealth made Li Ye very happy. He immediately ordered General Wei Zhou to lead 3,000 soldiers to send them to Shouchun County for temporary release. After the war, they were sent to the imperial court by ship.
Xi Wanli continued to reorganize his army and horses, and continued to track Li Xilie's remnants.
Li Ye was no longer interested in Li Xilie. Li Xilie only had 19,000 men left. How could they withstand the encirclement and suppression by four armies of 110,000 troops?
Li Ye rested for the night and turned around and headed for Hefei early the next morning.
Hefei County is currently guarded by 20,000 people led by Wu Shaocheng, Li Xilie's best friend. The current war situation in Haozhou has not yet reached Hefei County. Wu Shaocheng only received news that the lord Li Xilie killed Wang Zhongsheng and his son and seized a large amount of wealth.
Since Li Ye did not declare war and showed no signs of attacking Huaixi, all the generals of the Huaixi army believed that the imperial court was still unifying the Central Plains and that it was not Huaixi's turn yet.
Including Wu Shaocheng, everyone in Hefei City had no sense of crisis for the time being, and they did not know that 30,000 Jingxiang troops were coming towards them.
Zhang Dian led a thousand scouts disguised as civilians and arrived in Hefei. Zhang Luanzi kept his promise and arranged a thousand scouts into the city in batches in the name of making gunpowder and arranged them in three workshops.
In a room in the workshop, Zhang Dian met Zhang Luanzi. Zhang Dian said slowly: "His Royal Highness Jian Guo has seen the sincerity of the Immortal Chief. His Highness Jian Guo has already stated his position. He can only win Hefei smoothly. He will not
If we look into the past of the immortal leader, he can continue to practice in the Jianghuai area."
Zhang Luanzi was overjoyed and said quickly: "Thank you, His Highness Jianguo, for your tolerance. I wonder what else I can do for the general?"
"Bing Jia!"
Zhang Dian said without hesitation: "We need a thousand sets of armor and weapons."
Zhang Luanzi nodded, "It's not a big problem. The weapons workshop is next door. There is a large warehouse over there, which is full of armors and weapons. We will arrange for you to live next door. There is a small door leading to the warehouse. It is usually occupied by
Lock it, you need to smash the lock directly and enter the warehouse."
"Thank you, Immortal, for the arrangement!"
Zhang Luanzi rearranged his accommodation, and Zhang Dian and his men moved into the westernmost dormitory. Although the dormitory there was relatively remote and old, there was a warehouse of the weapons workshop behind it. There was a wall between the dormitory and the warehouse, which could be climbed over.
, and then you can see the back door of the warehouse, which is a small abandoned iron door, locked by an iron chain.
Time waits for no one, and the army from Lai will soon reach Hefei. Of course, at night, Zhang Dian and his men sneaked into the warehouse and transferred a thousand sets of soldiers and armor to the dormitory.
Two days later, Miao Qi, the shopkeeper of Jishitang Drug Store, sent a batch of medicine to the workshop. This was a signal.
An hour later, Zhang Dian came to the medicine shop. Miao Qi invited Zhang Dian to the backstage and poured him a cup of tea: "This morning, Lai Ai sent someone to inform me."
"How to say?"
"Tomorrow night at three o'clock, he will lead his army and wait outside Huidong City. The general must seize the east gate."
Zhang Dian nodded, and it came faster than he expected. He thought he would arrive at least two days later, but he didn't expect it to start tomorrow night.
After pondering for a moment, Zhang Dian asked again: "How much do you know about this Wu Shaocheng?"
"Why didn't the general ask Zhang Luanzi?"
"I haven't had time to ask him yet, let me ask you first!"
Miao Qi said slowly: "I only give you one piece of advice. Don't think that he will surrender. He is Li Xilie's confidant. When Li Xilie went to Haozhou, he did not let his son guard Hefei, but let Wu Shaocheng be the general. Twenty thousand
The fact that the army was handed over to him shows the trust in him, so Wu Shaocheng must kill him!"
"Will he patrol the city at night?" Zhang Dian asked again.
"It's very possible that this person does his duty and usually patrols the city wall at night, but I don't know when. In short, you have to prepare for the worst."
At noon the next day, the atmosphere in Hefei suddenly became tense. Li Xilie still sent someone to take a detour to spread the news to Hefei that Guanlong's army was attacking him.
Wu Shaocheng was very decisive and immediately declared the city of Hefei to be in a wartime state. The entire city was under martial law and the city gates were closed. At the same time, suspicious people were searched in the city.
He suspected that spies from Guan Longjun had sneaked into the city.
The streets and alleys of Hefei City immediately became deserted. There was not a single pedestrian in sight, and the shops were closed one after another. There were only groups of soldiers running in the city.
The soldiers rushed into the inns, searched every inn, questioned all the guests, searched their luggage, and if they were found to be carrying weapons, they would be arrested immediately.
Wu Shaocheng is about thirty years old, tall, with a sinewy face, very fierce appearance, and a pair of triangular eyes full of cunning.
In the afternoon, he led hundreds of soldiers to the workshop, but was stopped by Zhang Luanzi's soldiers at the gate.
"Why did General Wu bring so many people here?" Zhang Luanzi walked out of the yard.
"I got a report that the military advisor recently recruited many craftsmen from other places. I want to take a look!"
"We have recruited a group of craftsmen from other places, but they are not in the city during the day. They are mining outside the city and will not come back to rest until night."
"Yeah?"
Wu Shaocheng smiled half-heartedly and said, "Anyone can say this kind of thing, it's just empty talk!"
"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do!"
Zhang Luanzi shook his head, "But let me tell you, this is a top-secret firearms workshop. I develop firearms for the prince and others. The prince has ordered that no one is allowed to enter the firearms workshop."
After speaking, Zhang Luanzi took out a gold medal from his arms, with the word "confidential" engraved on it.
Wu Shaocheng didn't buy it at all. He said coldly: "This is a wartime situation. As the chief general of the city defense, I have the right to search any place. If the military advisor does not let me in, I can only force my way in. I will bear all the consequences. I
I will explain it to my lord."
"Okay! You must go in, and I can't stop you, but you can't let in so many people. You can only let in a few people. Besides, it involves firearms secrets, so you are not allowed to ask any more questions."
Wu Shaocheng waved his hand, "Ten brothers come in with me!"
