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Xiao Tianjian put down his rice bowl, clapped his hands and smiled: "The official army is really a snail speed!" At the end of this day, I only walked for about 20 miles, and I couldn't walk!

Brother Wang, it seems that you need to help with this matter, if we want to sleep well tonight, I'm afraid you will have to go out and help clean up the night of the official army! ”

Wang Chengping immediately dropped his job and stood up to receive the order: "The last general obeys the order, the general can rest assured, isn't it just that he won't accept it for a few nights!" We're going to help the Sentry sweep them up! ”

After saying that, Wang Chengping immediately ordered his men, and after a while, they all flew on their horses and rushed out of the camp in Beiliu Village, and searched in a fan along the official road to the east.

Before dark, within a range of more than ten miles between the two armies, a cavalry squad began to hand over in this area, when the official army started, there was not much to explore the road in front of the night, they originally thought that even if they did not collect the night, at least they had to wait until they reached Yangcheng, so at the beginning they only sent a team of night not to collect in front of the head to open the way.

But in the afternoon, they met a group of scouts of the Xingtian Army, and the two sides fought, as a result, this small group of officers and soldiers was caught off guard at night, and was almost wrapped in dumplings by the scout team of the Xingtian Army.

Niu Tai was taken aback when he heard this, but because he had not detected the enemy brigade after escaping, he still thought at first that it was just a small number of troops sent by the thieves to raid and plunder in this area.

So Niu Tai immediately ordered to send more Ye Bu Hui to investigate the news, and at the same time to get back the losses of the first team who did not collect Ye Bu Hui, and clean up those thieves who dared to attack him Ye Bu Hui.

As a result, several official and military teams left the main force and searched westward along the official road, only to encounter the scout team of the Xingtian Army led by Shi Ran, so the two began to exchange hands in this area.

Since those who can be in the official army and don't accept it at night are all people with some little skills, and the scouts on the side of the Xingtian Army are not given for nothing, as soon as the two sides fight, the fight is very fierce.

A small group of men and horses come and go to catch and fight, and this time the two sides have mutual losses, but on the whole, the Xingtian Army still took advantage of it, and successively killed the three groups of officers and soldiers who did not collect the team at night.

After Niu Tai received the news, he realized that something was not quite right, and it was something that he expected, so he hurriedly ordered his soldiers and horses to stop advancing and camp on the spot to wait for news.

The result was that before nightfall, he never received the news that the night sent out was not collected, so he realized that something might have happened in front, and he couldn't come back if he didn't do well in the night, so he became a little nervous, and hurriedly continued to send people forward to continue the search under the cover of night.

It wasn't until midnight that a few Zhuang Ding from Yangcheng touched the camp of the official army and informed Niu Tai of the news that the Xingtian Army had moved out to meet him.

Niu Tai was first taken aback after hearing this, and then he became furious, he never thought that this gang of thieves was so arrogant, and when he heard that the officers and soldiers were coming, not only did he not run, but he did not retreat into their cottage to hide, but gathered his troops and took the initiative to meet their officers and soldiers, it seemed that he planned to block them outside their territory first.

After all, bandit leaders like Wang Jiayin and Wang Zuogui had a large number of soldiers, so they dared to take the initiative to provoke their officers and soldiers, and at present, this small Xingtian army, with a strength of only one or two thousand people, actually dared to take the initiative to run to pick his tiger whiskers, which was really too indifferent to him!

So he asked the person who came to report the news where the thief army was stationed at the moment, but the person who came said that they didn't dare to come along the official road, and they only came here after a big circle, so it was not clear where the Xingtian army was stationed at the moment.

Niu Tai then understood why he sent out the night not to collect the meat buns and beat the dogs, there was no return, it turned out that the thief army gave him a first strike, and he must have sent more probes to intercept his night first, so that he could not understand the situation of the thief army.

If this is the case, for the next step he led his troops to fight with the thief army, I am afraid it will not be good, the enemy is dark and I am clearly a taboo to march and fight, if you do not find out where the main force of the other side is, this battle will not be easy to fight.

Seeing that the sky was dark, Niu Tai immediately recruited his subordinates, and asked people to send out at night to search forward as much as possible to find out where the thieves are now, and ordered to send a secret post outside the camp to prevent the thieves from attacking the camp at night.

However, unlike the rumors of the official army, Xingtianjun rested very comfortably all night, slept until dawn, buried the pot early and ate the war meal, and then pulled out the camp and set up the village under Xiao Tianjian's order, and walked along the official road towards the location of the official army.

After a night of rumors, the officers and troops got up early in the morning and set up camp and continued to march in the direction of Yangcheng, and the two armies moved opposite each other and quickly began to close the distance between them.

Niu Tai's heart became more and more nervous, because last night, although after a night, he sent several night not to collect the team, to the front to investigate the news of the thief army, but only less than half of the night did not return to the camp, even if the night did not come back, they said that they walked forward less than five miles, and a large number of thieves began to scout activities, they will be found if they are not careful, and they will be intercepted, the other party is quite fierce, they can not penetrate the other party's blockade line at all, and find out where the main force of the thief army is.

Niu Tai didn't sleep long all night, and all kinds of unfavorable news came back to make him begin to realize that the opponent he faced today was probably not as simple as he imagined, and the other party must have already discovered the strength of his soldiers and horses, but he still took the initiative to meet him, so it means that the other party at least has the ability to fight with him head-on, so he has to be cautious, and the provincial one accidentally fell into the way of the thief, which made him a joke.

So he got up early in the morning and raised his tent, and summoned his generals to discuss the matter, because of the abnormal behavior of the opponent's thief army, so that his generals were also a little uneasy, and some simply proposed to set up camp on this, and wait until the strength of the enemy army was clear, and then move forward.

But as soon as the opinions of these generals were put forward, a white-faced fat man sitting next to him sneered, and then said in a sharp voice: "You are embarrassed to say! You must know that now the Holy Lord is paying attention to the suppression of bandits in various places, if you don't even dare to deal with this little group of thieves, then what is the use of the imperial court still raising you? ”

The generals and Niu Tai are all scalp tight, this person who speaks don't look at the pinched tone, but it is a character they dare not provoke, this person is a eunuch, is the supervisor of their expedition with the army this time, and they entered Yang City to suppress bandits, nominally Niu Tai is responsible for the guerrillas, but they still have to look at the face of this Wang eunuch to act, now it seems that this Wang eunuch did not pay attention to this thief army at all, if they are hesitant and dare not go to the battle, as long as he plays a book, they will not say that the head of the army moves, At the very least, he will be reprimanded by the top, and if he doesn't get it right, he may lose his official position and be dismissed.

Niu Tai's heart sank, and he immediately said to the eunuch: "What Lord Wang said is extremely true, but it's just a gangster!" How can we be afraid of them? It's just that at the moment, we don't know the enemy's situation, and if we rush forward, we are afraid that we will be ambushed by them! ”

The eunuch Wang sneered and said, "Niu Guerrilla, didn't the news sent back by Xizuo before coming this time very clearly?" The thief army is only less than 2,000 people, and we have brought more than 4,000 people, and it is impossible for the thieves to come out, so don't they watch their homes? Even if the thief army comes out, their strength is less than half of ours, is it possible that you are afraid that they will not succeed? ”

Niu Tai couldn't hold his face now, if he still decided to stay here and watch the situation, then he would have to let this Wang eunuch look down on him, and turn around to join him, if that is the case, even if he turns around and exterminates this gang of thieves, I am afraid that there is no need to think about the promotion.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and instructed his subordinates: "Don't hesitate, what Lord Wang said is reasonable, the thieves' forces are far less than ours, no matter how they cheat, as long as we are careful, they can't do anything about us!" Now all go down, take care of your men, and immediately pull out the camp, no matter where they are, we just have to move forward bravely, forgive them and can't stop us! The stakes are high in this battle, so don't let your Lord Wang down! ”

The generals have nothing to say when they hear it, and now it seems that even if the enemy situation is unknown, they will arch forward, but after thinking about it, the number of thieves is not large, far less than their troops, although about half of their army is a township warrior organized by Zezhou, but don't you have something to say, more ants bite and kill elephants, not to mention how strong can the thief army be? They are just a rabble, how can they be afraid of them?

So early in the morning, the officers and soldiers began to pack up their things and set up camps, and continued to march in the direction of Yangcheng, but Niu Tai still insisted on sending his three hundred cavalry to the front as the vanguard to open the way, so as to avoid being taken advantage of by the thief army in confusion!

When the Xingtian army marched to an open field five miles east of Beiliu Village, Xiao Tianjian, who was walking in front of the team, raised his hand, and a series of roars of stopping the march immediately sounded in the team behind him, and then the whole team stopped.

Shi Ran came to Xiao Tianjian with a few scout flying horses, jumped off the war horse, and reported to Xiao Tianjian: "General Qiyu, the official army is rushing over here, they sent three hundred cavalry to open the way first, we can't stop them, and the brothers will disperse first!" Please, the general decides! ”

(Today is nine. 18. Please remember that today is our day of national shame! ）