Chapter 53: The Battle of Jinhua IV

Quzhou Mansion is located in the west of Jinhua, which is the main road connecting Zhejiang with Jiangxi, and can be said to be the gateway to western Zhejiang.

Zhang Xianbi only led 10,000 people from his headquarters, plus a part of the army in Guangdong, about 10,000 people, and the army was about 20,000.

Compare the strength of the Qing army under Jinhua City. There was some worry in his heart.

In a hard-fought battle with the Qing army, Zhang Xianbi may not be able to beat it, but he does not dare to hold back when his duty lies. Especially this war, it is also related to Xu Du.

In Zhang Xuan's army, with the fall of Nanjing, Luo Yulong's entire forbidden army was destroyed. Zhang Xuan's ascension has become a fact, however, with the addition of other generals under Zhang Xuan's command, Xu Du's status has not risen but fallen, and he was the second general after Cao Zongyu at the beginning.

But now, Yuan Shizhong, Gao Shiheng, Wang Long and others have jumped above him one by one.

But even so, Xu Du's influence in the army is still not comparable to Zhang Xianbi, and he is Zhang Xianbi's unoffending boss.

Therefore, Zhang Xianbi did not dare not save it, but in the face of a powerful enemy, he did not dare to fight a decisive battle.

This kind of situation of advancing and retreating from the ground makes Zhang Xianbi feel a sense of being a strongman. But the military order is like this, even if it is difficult for a strong person, Zhang Xianbi must stick to it. But how exactly is it to be done?

Zhang Xianbi summoned the generals and asked them about their strategies.

For a while, the generals did not answer. They all felt in a dilemma, so naturally they didn't dare to say more.

Seeing this, Zhang Xianbi sighed slightly in his heart, and said secretly: "In this way, I can only do things according to Xu Du's methods." ”

This time, Xu Du was the most important promoter. With Zhang Xuan's own wishes, he was unwilling to do such a difficult thing for a strong man. It's not cold-blooded, but understands that things on the battlefield are all very realistic, and emotional things will not be of any use, but only bad things.

If you can't do it, if you can't do it, you can't do it.

Now the trend of strength and weakness is very obvious, and Zhang Xuan's attitude of not seeking to take the initiative is also obvious, he is trying to recruit troops and food from everywhere, unify internal affairs, and prepare for war. The idea of patience was evident before that.

But on the battlefield, there is no talk of people's hearts, but as the leader of one party, he can't not talk about any affection, Jinhua's children followed him to throw their heads and spill blood, fighting from east to west, from north to south. This love of forgetting life and death, Zhang Xuan can't have something in return.

Therefore, this time the battle is full of difficulties for strongmen in terms of strategy.

However, Xu Du was the initiator. I couldn't take this matter the most, and I sent a person from all over the world to see Zhang Xianbi with a letter, including some suggestions for this battle. Of course, he is thousands of miles away, so he naturally can't control it here, just to give Zhang Xianbi an idea.

Zhang Xianbi thought that this suggestion was useless, but now it seems that only Xu Du's method is feasible.

In the camp of the Qing army outside Jinhua City, Li Chengdong looked at the information in front of him and said: "The Xia army is coming to Lanxi, and the water and land are advancing with great momentum? ”

"Exactly."

Li Chengdong tapped lightly on the table, and his mind was a little unclear for a while, what Xia Jun meant.

Although Li Chengdong lost his troops under Jinhua City. However, Li Chengdong gathered a large army, and there were still as many as 70,000 or 80,000, even if Li Chengdong stayed behind some troops outside Jinhua City, he could mobilize at least 40,000 troops. And now the camp besieging Jinhua City has long been completed.

In addition to the fact that the south of Jinhua City is the Dongyang River, Li Chengdong chose to establish a camp on the south bank of the Dongyang River. And sent sailors to block the Dongyang River. So he didn't want to leave many people behind. The strength and weakness of the two sides are obvious, and Zhang Xianbi is only a former Ming general in his impression, not Cao and Xu in Zhang Xuan's hands.

I just think this person is too big.

He didn't think much about it, so he led more than 40,000 people to the west, preparing to fight Zhang Xianbi in Lanxi, preparing to use this victory to wash away his previous defeats.

From Jinhua to Lanxi, it is not far. However, in one day's work, the vanguard of the army arrived outside Lanxi City. Liu Yuanyin took thousands of soldiers, as a vanguard, and after arriving in Lanxi, he immediately fought a battle with the Xia army besieging Lanxi.

This battle surprised Liu Yuanyin.

Xia Jun's camp was like paper paste, and it was broken by him as soon as he broke it. It seems to be a great victory, but Liu Yuanyin can see clearly that these so-called Xia troops are simply local people, there are not many regular troops, and even the number of people is wrong.

Liu Yuanyin naturally knew the severity, and immediately sent someone to pass the news to Li Chengdong.

After Li Chengdong knew, he couldn't sit still in the rear anymore. He put down the large group of men and horses, and rushed over overnight with hundreds of horses, and as soon as he came here, he carefully questioned the prisoners, and after some questioning, Li Chengdong's face turned dark, because although these people did not know anything. But it revealed an extremely important thing, that is, he fell into Zhang Xianbi's trap.

Li Chengdong said angrily: "All the scouts are released for me, I want to know where Zhang Xianbi is?" ”

"Yes." The generals below agreed in unison and went down to make arrangements.

Li Chengdong was still not at ease, so he ordered to go down and said, "Let Du Yonghe be more careful." Maybe it's coming at him. ”

"Yes."

Du Yonghe is Li Chengdong's deputy, and he is very trusted by Li Chengdong and is also very stable, so the matter of guarding outside Jinhua City was handed over to Du Yonghe.

Li Chengdong has not found Zhang Xianbi's traces, the messenger has returned to Jinhua City, Du Yonghe got Li Chengdong's reminder, immediately ordered to go to the battalions to be on guard, especially reminded Tian Qifeng on the south bank of the Dongyang River, let him be careful.

It's just that the news reached Tian Qifeng's ears, and he just smiled lightly and put this matter aside.

Tian Qifeng is a native of Huai'an, and he joined the army when Gao Jie was in Huai'an. Subordinate to Li Chengdong's subordinates. He was born as a scoundrel in the market, and he was the most alarmed by the sophistication of the world, scraping the ground, bribing his boss, ushering in the reception, but returning to make money, and he was a first-class good player.

When he was in Xuzhou, he was very favored by Li Chengdong with his special talents. But in terms of marching and fighting, there is not much talent, and people in the army give them nicknames straw bales.

Li Chengdong is not unaware of Tian Qifeng's lack of ability, but no matter what, Tian Qifeng is a meritorious hero, especially in the matter of surrendering to the Qing army, Tian Qifeng also has the ability to thread the needle.

Li Chengdong naturally wants to be rewarded.

He wanted to keep Tian Qifeng by his side as a staff member, but Tian Qifeng was self-aware, he was not that material, and if he wanted to develop in the army, Li Chengdong would allow it, but because of Tian Qifeng's ability, the tasks that Tian Qifeng had been given were all secondary tasks.

Although Tian Qifeng has no talent in leading troops to fight, he is not a fool, and he can still do some things according to his steps. But there are also a lot of low-level mistakes. was looked down upon by many generals in the army. In their opinion, there is no real record of real swords and guns, because Tian Qifeng, who has risen from crooked ways, is a big straw bag.

Therefore, the relationship between Tian Qifeng and these generals is not very good. Therefore, Tian Qifeng is only respectful to Li Chengdong, but he regards himself as Li Chengdong's confidant below, and never takes it seriously, including Du Yonghe.

However, he is not a fool, although he does not mince words about Du Yonghe's warning on the surface. But in private, I still sent someone to touch the details of the surroundings.

South of the Dongyang River, the further south, the higher the terrain, one or twenty miles to the south, you will enter the mountains. It is the so-called Xianxia Ridge. And there are not many people in this area, either they were moved into the city by Yan Yingyuan, or they were far away from the mountains. The rest were obedient to the people and did not dare to confront the Qing Dynasty.

It's just that in the mountains to the south, there are many people who are on the top of the mountains and are enemies of the Qing army. But he didn't dare to go down the mountain, Tian Qifeng didn't pay attention to it, the Qing army set up a pontoon bridge on the river, even if there was anything, within an hour or two, it could usher in reinforcements.

Therefore, he searched roughly and did not find any problems, so he put his mind at ease, but he did not know that at this time, a large group of people and horses were traveling east along the northern foot of Xianxia Ridge. It can be said that it is day and night, and the goal is the camp where Tian Qifeng is located.

If there is a choice, Zhang Xianbi does not want to do it, but there is no other choice in front of Zhang Xianbi.