For Zu Kuan can defeat this thief army, Wang Shaoyu is still quite confident in Zu Kuan, since Lu Xiangsheng sat in Henan to suppress bandits, Zu Kuan followed Lu Xiangsheng in Henan but there was no less than fighting with all kinds of thieves, whether it was Gao Yingxiang or Li Zicheng, or even Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao Luo Rucai, a year or two down, these famous thieves were almost planted in his hands, dozens of battles rarely defeated, although the Xingtian Army is quite famous in Shanxi, but compared to Gao Yingxiang and them, the reputation is still a little worse, This time, they got carried away and Zu Kuan's Guanning Iron Cavalry chose to fight in the field, so it seems that this is purely an act of looking for death, with the impact of the Guanning Iron Cavalry under Zu Kuan's command, he feels that the soldiers and horses of Jiannu in this world can defeat them, and the rest of the soldiers and horses are not their opponents.

So this time, the most important thing for him is to rush to Yongning County before Zu Kuan kills the main force of the Xingtian Army, and recover Yongning County, so that he can get some credit.

It's a pity that the soldiers under his command are not powerful, one by one out of Yiyang, they are weak, along the south bank of the Luohe River to Yongning County, a total of only more than 100 miles, but let Wang Shaoyu jump up and down, the soldiers under his command have a whole day, only out of more than 40 miles, and he did not dare to force too tight, for fear of accidentally forcing his subordinates to mutiny, so he could only stare dryly, watching these hands step by step forward, but there was no way, after all, he exploited the soldiers is too powerful, and the soldiers did not hate him, If it weren't for the fact that these soldiers could still have a bite to eat now, it is estimated that these soldiers would have mutinied and surrendered to thieves.

So in desperation, he could only slowly press the team towards the direction of Yongning County, along the way to send troops on the south bank of the Luo River to collect some boats, follow the team upstream, the province to the place, can not cross the river, standing on the south bank dry staring, in this way, it slowed down the speed of the march, could have arrived in a day, at their feet, but it took three days.

Finally, on the afternoon of the third day, Wang Shaoyu's forward barely rushed to the south bank of the Luohe River south of Yongning County.

But when they arrived here, they saw that there were already some rangers of the Xingtian Army on the other side of the river, already cruising on the south bank, staring at them with cold eyes from afar.

When Wang Shaoyu led a large group of men and horses to the ferry chosen by the forward, he couldn't help but curse in his heart after seeing the rangers of the Xingtian Army on the other side.

Originally, his plan was to take the Xingtian Army by surprise, taking advantage of the fact that the remaining Xingtian Army did not know about their arrival, and took them by surprise, and easily recovered Yongning County, so that he could grab the first credit at that time, but when he saw these thief army rangers on the other side, his idea of trickery was directly shattered, indicating that the other party had learned the news that he was going to lead his troops to come, and had made preparations in advance, so he could only take a strong attack this time.

"What are you waiting for? Quickly break the ice and build a bridge, start to dry overnight, cross the river tomorrow, and attack Yongning County! Wang Shaoyu gave orders to his subordinates with a black face.

However, his subordinates had an embarrassed expression on their faces, and said to him: "My lord, the weather is too cold, and the lowly official is sending people to recruit people from nearby to build bridges, if the soldiers are allowed to do it, maybe they will make trouble, anyway, the matter has come to this point, let's wait for some people to come and talk about it!"

Wang Shaoyu was almost angry, and now his soldiers are all lazy and lazy, although the military order is like a mountain, but under his command, sometimes the human rights of his subordinates are a fart when his words are heard, the left ear listens, the right ear comes out, he ordered to erect a pontoon bridge to cross the river, but his subordinates are not willing to suffer from this cold, and they have to wait to catch some people to come over to do this drudgery.

But he also knew that the general was right, and now that it was the cold season, his soldiers would not go down to the river with ice ballast to build a bridge, and if he forced his men to go down and build a pontoon bridge, not to mention that the soldiers mutiny or not, people can run almost the same in one night.

So although he was so angry, he had no choice but to nod his head and agree, and sent his generals to arrest some people within a radius of ten miles to help them work.

A team of officers and soldiers set off immediately, this time it will be bitter to the people on the south bank of the Luohe River, these Luoyang soldiers are fighting wars, they are all rotten to the extreme, but doing this kind of thing that harms the people, but they are all familiar with the road, like this to arrest the people's husband, for them is fat, to say that it sounds better is to recruit the people's husband on a business trip, but in essence, it is equivalent to giving them a chance to rob.

After hundreds of officers and soldiers dispersed, they screamed excitedly, and rushed to the surrounding villages with weapons, except for some large villages, like some small villages, they forcibly opened the door of the village, and entered the village in the name of recruiting husbands to rob and even harm women.

For a time, the village on the south bank of the Luo River immediately fell into chaos, and the cries of the common people resounded in the sky, as long as the slightest person did not obey, then these officers and soldiers would raise their knives without saying a word, and directly kill the people who did not obey, and coerce other people to gather on the bank of the Luo River.

One night passed, I don't know how many people broke their armor for this, and some villages even resisted the recruitment of officers and soldiers, but they were forcibly broken by the officers and soldiers, and they were burned clean.

Liu Yaoben took two companies of troops out of the county seat, braved the severe cold to reach the north bank of the Luo River, stopped on the river bank, and looked at the direction of some burning villages on the north bank in the night sky on the north bank from a distance.

"Ge is a bunch of bastards! Someone's coming! Search along the river bank to both sides, and strictly prevent the officers and soldiers from finding another ferry! Since they want to bargain, then Lao Tzu won't even let them cross this Luohe River today! Liu Yaoben looked at the crowded other bank, and ordered his generals sharply.

"Yes!" More than twenty scouts immediately complied, turned on their horses and searched along the river bank towards the two flanks, while the soldiers of the two companies that accompanied them immediately stopped on the north bank, ready for engagement.

"It's a pity that the general has brought all the artillery to the east this time! If we have one artillery team left, then the boom will be able to blow up these bastards! A company commander stood behind Liu Yaoben, looked at the busy ranks of officers and soldiers on the other side of the river and said to Liu Yaoben.

Liu Yaoben shook his head and said: "You can't blame the general for this, this time the general has to deal with the Guanning army under Zu Kuan, no artillery can't work, we can't all count on the artillery team to work, we have birds in our hands, what are we afraid of them doing?" ”

Wang Shaoyu stood on the south bank after dawn, when he saw the soldiers and horses of the Sentinel Heavenly Army on the north bank, his mood was even worse, and he scolded and urged his subordinates to escort these people who had just been forcibly recruited to go down to the river, and began to break the ice and erect pontoon bridges, no matter what, the number of thieves on the other side was much lower than the soldiers and horses under his command, as long as they could break through the Luo River, then there was still hope for this battle.

And the people who erected the pontoon bridge were not his generals anyway, as long as they were escorted, they might not be able to cross the Luo River, not to mention that he didn't see the thieves pulling the cannons, which made him feel more relieved, so he ordered the people to drive the people down the river to build a bridge, and on the other hand, he ordered the soldiers to set up a few general cannons on the south bank with them, and began to be busy loading ammunition and bombarding the other bank to cover the bridge.

After a short time, a few general cannons were erected on the embankment, and after the officers and soldiers were busy with their work, they finally began to rumble towards the north bank.

After the end of the Ming Dynasty, the officers and soldiers have long been generally equipped with all kinds of artillery, although there are not many Hongyi cannons in Henan at present, but there are still a lot of old-style artillery such as the general cannon of the Furlong machine, the tassel cannon, the Kryu cannon, the tiger squat cannon, the bowl mouth gun, and the small Furlong machine gun.

Although the Luo River is not too wide, the river surface is also more than ten zhang, and it cannot hit the opposite bank with ordinary birds, so it can only bombard the opposite bank with a few medium-caliber and above Furlong general cannons brought by these troops.

As the cannonballs whizzed down on the north bank, a group of people who had been forcibly recruited were immediately beaten with spears by the officers and soldiers and driven down the riverbank, and some people were driven to cut wood, and the timber was continuously transported to the side of the river bank for the people here to build bridges.

Although the people were reluctant to go down into such cold water, they had to obey orders under the coercion of swords and guns, and the entire south bank resounded with a cry of pleading.

The collected fishing boats were towed to the shore, and then the people broke through the ice on the shore and lined up the fishing boats, slowly extending towards the north shore.

When Liu Yao saw that the artillery began to fire on the opposite bank, he ordered his soldiers to temporarily retreat to the bottom of the river embankment to hide the artillery, while he stood on the river embankment, ignoring the shells of the officers and soldiers who kept falling near him, and stared at the actions of the officers and soldiers on the opposite bank.

"Sir! They're really fast, so let's switch the guns and start fighting! You can't just watch them erect the pontoon! A company commander came to Liu Yaoben's side, watched the pontoon bridge in the river gradually extend to the north bank, and proposed to Liu Yaoben.

Liu Yaoben shook his head and said, "Wait a little longer!" The people in the river are all poor people, no matter how many we kill, the officers and soldiers will not feel sorry for them, we have limited ammunition, we can't waste them all here! Let them build bridges! When their officers and soldiers are about to come, it's not too late to open fire! Damn, these bastards, it's more enjoyable to let them go and kill them! ”

Wang Shaoyu was also watching the actions of these Xingtian troops on the other side, and when he saw the leaders of the thief army on the other bank who stopped to observe the situation on his side, he also had to admire the courage of these people.

"Aim for this officer, and kill those thieves!" He waved his whip and pointed to the opposite bank, and shouted to his generals.

The officers and men who operated the cannon hurriedly adjusted the position of the muzzle, aimed at Liu Yaoben's position, fired several cannons in succession, and the whistling shells fell on the periphery of Liu Yaoben's position, raising up a cloud of sand.

The accuracy of the artillery of this era is really a little pitiful, especially this kind of Furlong machine gun, but also because the caliber of the cannon chamber exceeds the shell a lot, the accuracy is much worse, although several cannons are fired in unison, but basically all fly away, only one shell fell not too far away from Liu Yaoben, and the stirred up sand and soil were suddenly scattered on his and the guards and officers behind him.