Twenty-one-year-old Li Dingguo has become the leading fierce general in the rebel army, and after accepting Zhang Xianzhong's order to prepare for the attack on the official army's grain road, he is always making preparations and paying close attention to everything that happened in Xiangyang Fucheng. From the month of Layue to the first month, the battle of the official army to attack the city of Xiangyang did not make any substantial progress, which made Li Dingguo very happy, but also more worried, after all, the number of rebels stationed in the city of Xiangyang was not large, if the official army attacked with all their might, I am afraid it would be difficult to hold out for a long time, and the 60,000 righteous troops stationed in Yunyang should also rush to the aid at the right time.

At the end of the first month, Li Dingguo finally received an order from Zhang Xianzhong to attack the grain routes of the official army and burn the granaries.

However, Zhang Xianzhong's order was also very clear, the number of sergeants participating in the sneak attack on the grain road and the burning of the granary must be controlled within 5,000 people, with 3,000 people being the most suitable, the number can not be more, the sneak attack must be absolutely secret, if it cannot be successful, it must be evacuated quickly, and the first priority is to preserve strength.

After receiving Zhang Xianzhong's order, Li Dingguo was a little puzzled that the grain routes and granaries of the official army must be closely guarded, and how much of a role a mere 35,000 people could play, in Li Dingguo's view, if the real sneak attack was successful, at least an army of more than 10,000 people needed to be dispatched.

Li Dingguo discussed with Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and others, or Liu Wenxiu, who was older, guessed Zhang Xianzhong's thoughts, the first thing is to preserve his strength, as for the sneak attack on the grain route of the official army, it does not mean that it must be successful, as long as it can disrupt the deployment of the official army and interfere with the battle of the official army to attack Xiangyang Fucheng, even if the goal is achieved, and the number of rebels dispatched is too large, the fight will be extremely tragic, and the losses caused by this will be very large.

After some analysis, Li Dingguo understood what Zhang Xianzhong meant. Under the current situation, the righteous army still has to preserve its strength, and it can't fight to the death with the official army, and the loss can't be too great, and the reason why Zhang Xianzhong has such an idea is because of Li Zicheng, who is entrenched in Nanyang and Runing. Zhang Xianzhong fought to the death with the officials and soldiers, and it was Li Zicheng who got the benefits.

Li Dingguo obeyed the order and decided to personally take 3,000 people to attack the grain route of the official army.

Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi did not object, but just asked Li Dingguo to be careful.

At the end of the first month, Li Dingguo led 3,000 elite rebels to secretly set off from Yunyang and went to Xiangyang Mansion.

The route chosen by Li Dingguo was to detour from Yunyang Mansion to Jingzhou and enter Xiangyang Mansion. In the process of the movement, he grasped the fighter planes and waited for the opportunity to sneak attack the grain routes of the officers and soldiers, and the entire process of marching and fighting was absolutely secret, after all, the number of sergeants he led was not large, and in order to ensure the success of the operation, even Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and others did not know how Li Dingguo was deployed, and did not know Li Dingguo's specific marching route.

Li Dingguo has a certain mass base in both Yunyang and Xiangyang. He helped the needy, and was bold and generous. And sympathize with the people, which makes the people of Xiangyang and Yunyang, including some scholars and scholars, have a certain good impression of him, and he is very different from Zhang Xianzhong in this regard. Li Dingguo's dedication can still be helped at a critical moment.

During the march, no one would report Li Dingguo's whereabouts to the officers and soldiers.

Time is precious, and Li Dingguo set off from Yunyang Mansion City in only five days. At the beginning of February, he secretly entered Xiangyang Mansion and began to look for fighters to attack the grain route and burn the granary.

Chen Xinjia took the initiative to let Sun Chuanting command the battle to attack Xiangyang Fucheng, and adopted a completely non-interference attitude, which is due to the reason for Zheng Xunrui's letter, but also because Chen Xinjia knows his own ability, his ability is mainly in planning, not in specific operational command, let Sun Chuanting command the attack on Xiangyang Fucheng, the effect is better.

In Zheng Xunrui's letter, he reminded him to pay attention to the protection of the grain road, which Chen Xinjia very much agreed, more than 100,000 troops, grain and grass is the lifeline, once the army lacks grain and grass, then it will fall into chaos, without a fight, not to mention attacking Xiangyang Fucheng, I am afraid that its own stability will not be maintained.

After Chen Xinjia commanded the front army again, he sent a large number of scouts to carry out uninterrupted reconnaissance along the grain road from Wuchang Mansion to Xiangyang Mansion, as long as he found any disturbances, he had to report it in the fastest time, and at the same time he sent heavy troops to guard the granary to ensure that nothing went wrong, Sun Chuanting commanded the sergeants in front to attack Xiangyang Mansion City, and he worked with Wang Yongji, the supervising army, not only to prevent Liukou from rushing to Xiangyang Mansion City and supply the grain and grass of the army, but also to protect the safety of grain and grass.

The time when Sun Chuanting planned to attack Xiangyang Mansion was on the fifth day of the second month, and the reason why it was postponed to the fifth day of the second month was due to other very important reasons, which will be known at that time.

During this period, Chen Xinjia paid close attention to the safety of the grain road, which can be described as unpleasant and sleepless.

At the beginning of February, scouts who continued to investigate discovered an anomaly, and found a team around Xiangyang Mansion, the number of people was not very large, and the specific identity was not very clear, this team was elusive, always moving around the grain road.

This information made Chen Xinjia highly nervous, and he faintly felt that Zheng Xunrui's reminder had been fulfilled.

Chen Xinjia's side, with officials such as Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, can also be said to be strategists.

After Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance defected to the imperial court, they did not receive attention, and Zhang Pu did not specifically recommend the two to the imperial court.

The battle lasted for a while, because the official position was not high, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance had no opportunity to speak, and they did not show their ability, they were also very anxious, hoping to have the opportunity to be taken seriously.

As Chen Xinjia began to command the front army to fight, the opportunity for Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance came.

Chen Xinjia was hesitant because he couldn't identify the group that appeared around the grain road for a while, not knowing whether to take stubborn measures or take the initiative to exterminate this mysterious team.

In the military tent, Chen Xinjia discussed with many staff, including Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance.

The advice of the vast majority of the staff is to stick to it, no matter what happens in the outside world, sticking to the grain road and granary is the most important task, as for other changes, as long as the safety of the grain road and granary is not involved, ignore it for the time being.

Including Chen Xinjia himself, they are all inclined to this kind of suggestion, after all, this is the usual practice.

Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance have discussed this matter a long time ago, they have different opinions, this time the two will not be polite, they must say their own opinions and suggestions.

"My lord, Xiaguan and Lord Song think that they still have to kill them and exterminate this gangster."

As Niu Jinxing spoke, the inside of the Chinese military tent suddenly quieted down, and everyone was very strange, how did Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance know that this mysterious team was a rogue, if this team was really a rogue, then it was even more necessary to guard the grain road and granary.

Chen Xinjia looked at Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, and slowly spoke.

"Lord Niu, Lord Song, how can you be sure that these people are rogue bandits, besides, what the scouts found is only a small group of troops, if this officer commands the soldiers to kill out, in case these rogue soldiers are luring our army to kill out, and their main force will invade the grain road and granary next, how should the officer deal with it."

The grain road and the granary must ensure absolute safety, since ancient times, most of the conquests have been the army to protect the grain road and the granary, and there are very few troops who attack and prepare to invade the grain road, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance's suggestions are very abrupt, which is also where Chen Xinjia feels strange.

Niu Jinxing looked at Chen Xinjia and spoke again.

"My lord, Xiaguan and Lord Song have experience in the team of Liukou, and they still have a certain understanding of the combat methods of Liukou, there is a contradiction between Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, the two are almost incompatible, and now the army is conquering Zhang Xianzhong and defending Li Zicheng, which must make Zhang Xianzhong have doubts, he will not fight to the death with the imperial army, he needs to preserve his own strength."

"In this way, it can be explained why the army led by Liu Wenxiu, Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi and others, who are close at hand, has not rushed to the aid of Xiangyang Mansion for a long time, Zhang Xianzhong is unwilling to go all out to fight to the death, he will not allow Liu Wenxiu and others to reinforce."

"The reason why Xiaguan and Lord Song judged that the small force that appeared around the grain road was a rogue was analyzed from this level, Zhang Xianzhong didn't want to lose Xiangyang Mansion City soon, and he needed to hold on, he would definitely take some measures, but he was reluctant to invest a large number of troops and send a small number of rogue to invade the grain road, the purpose was to disrupt the deployment of the army."

"Since Zhang Xianzhong did not ask Liu Wenxiu and others to rush to the aid of Xiangyang Fucheng, he would never send a large number of troops to invade the grain road and granary, and Xia Guan and Lord Song also believed that Zhang Xianzhong's purpose was not to successfully invade the grain road and granary, his purpose was to disrupt the deployment of the army and affect the army's determination to conquer Xiangyang Fucheng."

"Since Zhang Xianzhong wants to influence the determination of our army to conquer Xiangyang Fucheng, he will definitely send a small group of elite troops to invade the grain road, in this case, it is difficult to eliminate the threat by blindly holding on, which may cause a certain amount of panic, Xia Guan and Lord Song suggest taking the initiative to go out and defeat this invading rogue and completely ensure the safety of the grain road and the granary." ……

Niu Jinxing's analysis was very reasonable, and everyone nodded again and again.

After Chen Xinjia thought about it carefully, he agreed with Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance's analysis, and he thought further, since Zhang Xianzhong didn't want to fight to the death with the army, then once Xiangyang Mansion City was in danger of falling, it would definitely evacuate quickly, which would ensure that the army under his command could recover Xiangyang.

It is necessary to cut off the threat of the Liukou to the grain road and the granary, so as to stabilize the morale of the army, so that Sun Chuanting can concentrate on attacking Xiangyang Fucheng, blindly defending too passively, and the number of Liukou is not very large, I am afraid that there is no ability to really block the grain road and burn the granary.

In a short period of time, Chen Xinjia made up his mind.

Of course, Chen Xinjia made up his mind that he had other purposes, and such a purpose was quickly manifested. (To be continued......)