In this era, anyone who rushes at night is a last resort.

This point is the same for the officers and troops of Hong Chengchou's department or the thief army under Wang Ziyong's command.

Wang Ziyong camped ten miles outside Shilou County, but was hit by more than 40 horsemen of Zhang Heng's department, not only rushed through the camp of the thief army, projected a letter to the city, and got in touch with the officials and soldiers in the city, but also after delivering the letter, turned the horse's head and walked out of the camp again.

This made Wang Ziyong extremely annoyed and scolded, but also very disappointed with the approach outside the city of Dunbing Shilou, and soon listened to the persuasion of the leaders of his subordinates, "Xing Red Wolf", "No Mud", "Sweeping Tiger" and others, and withdrew the siege and went north.

Although the cavalry squad of the official army from the north made them somewhat suspicious of the situation in the north, after all, Wang Zuojiao's department, Gao Yingxiang's department, and Ma Shouying's department were all sure to be in the north, so Wang Zi's doubts were doubts in his heart, and in the end he still insisted on the idea of going north to unite with other thieves.

After Zhang Heng and others rushed out of the thief camp and went north for an hour, Wang Ziyong also led his subordinates to pull out the camp and go north.

At this time, Zhang Zongheng, Pei Shize and others, who were watching from the head of Shilou County, had already obtained and read the letter that Zhang Heng shot into the city, and knew that the official army led by Hong Chengchou had achieved an unprecedented victory in Ningxiang, among the mountains in the north, and surrendered a large number of thieves and minions.

Although they were happy that the thieves outside the city had suddenly withdrawn from the siege and left, they were also worried about the fact that so many thieves had gone north.

Although Hong Chengchou did not explicitly say in his letter how he forced the "King of Liang" Wang Zuojiao to lead the people to surrender, Zhang Zongheng could imagine that Hong Chengchou's troops must have gone through a bloody battle in Ningxiang.

Therefore, seeing a large number of thieves outside the city going north, Zhang Zongheng still sweated for the officers and soldiers on the front line of Liulinbao and Ningxiang, and hesitated whether to lead the army out of the city and follow the thief army north, and perhaps he could also help the officials and troops in the north at that time.

Just when Zhang Zongheng was hesitant and didn't know whether it was a trap for Wang Ziyong's thief army to withdraw from the siege and go north, the military report from Shikou was finally sent to Shilou County by making a detour to Fenxi, Xizhou and other places.

This is a letter written by Li Banghua to Hong Chengchou and Zhang Zongheng.

In it, Li Banghua informed the two of them of the news that Shennanyu was taken by the official army before, and that Shennanyu was the leader of the thieves, Wang Jiayin and Wang Erfufa.

It was only at this time that Zhang Zongheng suddenly realized that the thief army in the direction of Guangwuzhuang suddenly broke out in a big way, and there was such a major change behind it!

Knowing this information, Zhang Zongheng no longer hesitated at the moment, and Pei Shize's brothers were greatly boosted in morale, and they all asked for war to avenge their brothers who died in battle.

What's even more "icing on the cake" is that Jiao Shengchang, the governor who had been guarding the city of Suizhou and did not dare to go out of the city, also took hundreds of squads of troops and servants in Huizhou around noon, as well as recruited 1,000 people to defend the city, and rushed to the stone tower with a bow and a knife to help the battle.

Zhang Zongheng, as the envoy of Shanxi, had already ordered the governors of Xizhou and Puzhou to recruit troops to come north to help in the war.

But for so long before, there was no movement in these two places, and at this time, after hearing that the official army had taken Shennanyu, where the thief army was entrenched, Jiao Shengchang, the governor of Xizhou, finally thought about sharing a little credit.

Few people will do the things that send charcoal in the snow, especially at the risk of defeat and death to give you charcoal in the snow, but the icing on the cake is something that many people will rush to do.

This is also human nature, and people like Zhang Zongheng, who have been up and down in the sea for many years, naturally will not fail to understand the truth.

When he saw Jiao Shengchang, the governor of Xizhou, who came to help the war with men and horses and grain and grass in Shilou County, he couldn't say anything else except for his appreciation and affirmation of Jiao Shengchang's heart to serve the country.

With the grain and grass brought by Jiao Shengchang, Zhang Zongheng commanded the men and horses of Shilou, and after eating a good meal, he led the army out of the city and went north in the early afternoon.

Around the time of Shen that day, the outpost sent out finally came back with the news that the traces of the rear team of the thief army had been found.

There were many men and horses under the command of Wang Ziyong, and at dawn there was a chaotic battle, and the people were already sleepy and lacking horses, coupled with the lack of food and grass, a large number of thieves and minions had not eaten a full meal for a day and a night since they rushed out of Xialong Pass.

I thought that the small Shilou County was at my fingertips, but I fought twice, but I didn't take it, and I didn't get any supplements.

The limited amount of grain and grass can also be used by the cronies and backbone of the leaders, and they also have to prepare food and grass for the next northward march, so it is impossible to let go of eating and drinking.

In this way, after eating a full meal before the breakthrough the previous morning, most of the remaining 15,000 troops only drank a bowl of sorghum rice and wild vegetable porridge that was so thin that it could be used as a mirror that they didn't even eat a bowl of dry rice.

Moreover, a considerable part of these poor and frightened thieves carry their belongings with them in large bags, and some are reluctant to leave behind pots and pans.

It is said to be a "rebel army" or an army, but it looks more like a group of displaced or disaster victims who are dragging their families and moving their families.

In this way, the speed of the march can be imagined, in the morning the siege was withdrawn to the north, and in the afternoon by the time of Shen, a few hours passed, and there were still fifty or sixty miles away from the stone river outside the south gate of Liulinbao.

No matter how worried Wang Ziyong and Luo Rucai were, and how they sent people to urge, the marching speed of the entire thief army was not fast.

The reason why Wang Ziyong was worried and anxious was because he found more and more that it was probably not a good idea to go north to Ningxiang or to go north to Liulinbao and Yongning Prefecture.

Because not only did he not encounter the men and horses of the "King of Liang" in the direction of Ningxiang, but the outpost team he sent to the direction of Ningxiang was also lost in the sea.

However, in the evening, although there was no news from the direction of Ningxiang, the outpost sent to the direction of Liulinbao brought back a "good news".

There were not many defenders of Liulinbao and Qinglongdu, but in the evening, they went upriver from the direction of Wubao on the bank of the Yellow River and carried a large amount of grain and grass into the city.

After learning of this situation, Wang Ziyong immediately used a large amount of grain and grass in Liulinbao to boost the morale of all the troops under his command, temporarily put down the connection with Ningxiang, and asked to attack Liulinbao first.

After the various departments rested for a few hours, in the second half of the night, Wang Ziyong and Luo Rucai once again urged the army to continue to go north with torches.

The march of more than 15,000 people marched in the night before dawn, and the torches they lit were like a sea of stars, which could not hide the hiding place at all, and even if they were several miles away, they could see clearly from the distant hillside.

And what saw them were the musketeers of Li Wenyun's department, who had been used as an elite outpost under Hong Chengchou's command.

The difference between the musketeers under Li Wenyun and the musketeers under Li Bei's department was that Hong Chengchou attached great importance to the only new-style musket team under his command, and deployed more than 300 horses from the cavalry of the Fubiao Chinese Army in Shaanxi Province to transform the musketeer team under Li Wenyun's command into a cavalry infantry musketeer.

This move enabled Li Wenyun's unit to have the same abundant firepower as other infantry musketeers, and also possess the ability to move quickly and quickly that other infantry musketeers did not have.

Hong Chengchou originally wanted to take his men out of the Nanchuan River Valley, and then turn south to save Shilou, but at about midnight the next day, he received news from the outpost Li Wenyun's department, saying that the main force of the thief army had been found more than 30 miles ahead.

Hong Chengchou was a little surprised to receive this news, but he soon realized the motives of this thief army.

"Wang Ziyong's thief army marched north overnight, so their target seems to be Liulin Fort on the north bank of the Shihe River!"

Not to mention that Liulin Fort itself is very important to Hong Chengchou, even if it is simply to prevent this group of thieves from escaping from the encirclement of the imperial army, he must immediately go north to intercept it.

Fighting an unexpected field encounter with a thief army several times his own is certainly not a superior choice for Hong Chengchou.

But at this moment, he had no choice but to do so.

Therefore, after receiving the news sent by Li Wenyun, he ordered Wang Chengen, the chief soldier of Shaanxi, to lead more than 1,000 cavalry first, and then ordered the musket team under Li Bei, as well as all the other Shaanxi Fubiao foot soldiers who had been running all night, to rest on the spot, and arranged for the baggage soldiers accompanying the army to set up stoves and pots, and take out all the dry food they carried, so that the army could have a full meal and prepare for a bloody battle with the thief army at dawn.

Everyone knew that a big war was imminent, so the atmosphere in the army quickly became tense, and there were officers and soldiers everywhere wiping knives and guns, fighting hard and fighting horses, and morale was high.

Morale is high for a reason, of course.

Nearly 20,000 thieves in Ningxiang County surrendered without a fight, and then like a herd of docile sheep, they were driven into the prepared pit and killed alive, which made these officers and soldiers full of contempt for the thieves.

In their eyes, no matter how many thieves there are, they are just flocks of lambs to the slaughter!