I

At noon, a few miles northwest of Fucheng.

Zhao Han was marching quickly when suddenly a horse appeared in front of him. Seeing them coming, he immediately retreated dozens of steps, but stayed there to observe the situation.

The target was exposed, and someone must have gone to Fucheng to report it.

There are not many horses in Jiangxi, and there are water nets everywhere. Riding a horse is far less convenient than taking a boat.

If a sentry can be sent out to investigate, the government is obviously alert!

"Have a meal!"

Zhao Han left in no hurry and ordered the eight hundred soldiers to gather for dinner.

Fei Ruhe gnawed on the pancake and said worriedly: "We have lost track of our whereabouts, and the gate of the city must be closed."

Huang Yao also said: "I used to take grain to the county government, and was left to build the city. The city is very tall, with Ganjiang River to the east, and moats to the south and north. There is no moat to the northwest, but there is a hillside far away. If you block it, there will be a depression."

Jiang Dashan said: "I also went to the county government with food. If there are no warships, we can only attack the city from the north and south. But outside the city are all streets and private houses. When we pass through the market, the city can be closed as soon as possible. Door."

Stealing a city is not easy, especially a big waterfront city like Ji'an.

Even if there are no soldiers to defend, once the city gate is closed, you will have to climb the wall for a long time, and you will have to get a lot of ladders.

After filling his stomach, Zhao Han patted his butt and stood up, suddenly saying: "Go north!"

The eight hundred soldiers suddenly turned around. They had just eaten and were marching very slowly, as if they were on an armed outing.

The sentries and cavalry were far behind, following all the way until it was getting dark, then they galloped back to the city to report: "Master, the bandits have gone to the north and west, probably heading to Anfu County."

"It's okay if you don't come to Fucheng, it's okay if you don't come to Fucheng!" Xu Fusheng finally breathed a sigh of relief, even though Anfu County was also under the jurisdiction of his prefect.

After calming down a little, Xu Fusheng ordered again: "Hurry up and take a boat to report to the governor. He said there is a group of bandits heading towards Anfu County."

Zhao Han marched too fast. Although his whereabouts were exposed, no one knew his true identity. They only knew that he was a bandit from Xuanhua Township.

In fact, thieves are running around all over the place now.

…

Yongyang Town.

When Jie Xuelong received the reports from various ministries, his face was very ugly. His initial combat intention had been declared a failure.

Except for Zhao Han, he did not pay attention to other rebels, so he divided his troops into north and south to expel them. The purpose of driving those incompetent bandits towards Wuxing Town was to bring together big and small rebels.

At that time, the rebels may appear to have many troops, but in fact their sources are complex and there must be many internal contradictions.

Moreover, if they gather in the direction of Wuxing Town, there are mountains blocking them on three sides, making it easier to catch them all in one go. The worst-case scenario is for the rebels to escape into the mountains.

If it were any other leader of the peasant army, whoever had great prestige would definitely join forces and join forces to fight against the government. The rebellion against bandits in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces has always been done in this way, because they cannot defeat the officers and soldiers alone.

But Zhao Han didn't accept the move. Instead of coming forward to gather the thieves, he actually disappeared.

The bandit leaders in the neighboring villages thought that Zhao Han had led his men away, so they also considered running away.

The peasant army north of Heshui dragged their families and families over the mountains and fled straight to Anfu County. The peasant army south of Heshui bypassed the mountains and headed to the west of Taihe County.

Killing landlords and dividing their fields is an act of banditry.

As soon as the officers and soldiers arrived, the thieves were frightened and turned into two groups of rogue bandits, the north and the south.

Zhao Han also miscalculated. He wanted those thieves to help him block the officers and soldiers for a few days. But others are not stupid. Since they can't defeat the officers and soldiers, they will just use the fleeing tactics and go to the neighboring states and counties to cause trouble.

"What do you think?" Xie Xuelong asked.

Li Zongxue, an aide, said: "Commander Fu, please immediately send an order to Anfu and Taihe counties, ordering the county magistrates to unite the gentry and recruit local warriors to defend the place as soon as possible. Rogue bandits, rogue bandits, cannot be allowed to roam, otherwise the bandits will become bigger and bigger."

Zuo Xiaocheng said: "Zhao's thieves are the most serious problem, but we don't care about those rogues and will take a boat to attack Huangjia Town!"

Li Zongxue also suggested: "First defeat Huangjia Town, and then return the troops to hunt down the stray thieves. By then it will be winter, and there should be local braves in Anfu County and Taihe County. We will send troops to chase and intercept the stray thieves, and the cold will also kill the stray thieves." Freeze to death."

Jie Xuelong thought for a long time and finally said, "According to this strategy, we will send troops to Huangjia Town immediately!"

Everyone else was ordered to do things, but Jie Xuelong sat alone in the commander's tent, feeling deeply worried in his heart.

According to the confessions of the rebel prisoners, "Mr. Zhao" refused to join forces, completely ignored the lives of other rebels, and seemed to have led his troops into the mountains to become bandits.

However, Jie Xuelong always felt something was wrong.

Because Zhao Han's behavior in Huangjia Town didn't look like he wanted to be a bandit at all, he just wanted to change the dynasty!

Thousands of officers and soldiers set off from Yongyang Town by boat and soon landed at Lijiaguai.

Jie Xuelong sent out spies to open the way, and he sat on the warship to wait for news.

Another half day passed, and spies came one after another to report that there was no one near Lijiaguai, and there were many human and animal footprints left on the way into the mountain.

Jie Xuelong's face was gloomy, and he simply sent out several small troops to explore the villages on both sides of the strait.

Everyone is in the mountains...

Jie Xuelong moved to Huangjia Town, but it was also deserted. There was not even a hair in the town.

what to do?

Jie Xuelong did not dare to go into the mountains to pursue him because the training of his soldiers was too low. Once an ambush is encountered in the mountains and there is a slight disturbance, the entire army will collapse.

Li Zongxue, an aide, came up with an idea and said: "It will be winter in more than a month. How can we maintain rebellion for a long time in a bitterly cold place in the mountains? We only need Chen Bing and Huangjiazhen to train their soldiers and wait patiently. Let the rebels freeze to death in the mountains. Starve to death. We won’t go back to the mountains until next spring. By then, the local warriors will be more elite and the rebels will be demoralized. We can defeat them in one fell swoop!”

Jie Xuelong closed his eyes and meditated hard. He always felt that something was wrong.

At this moment, a clipper ship suddenly arrived, but it was the sailor who stayed in Yongyang Town to supervise the grain supply.

"Commander Fu, Meitang Town was captured by bandits, and the bandits crossed the river to the east. Before leaving Meitang Town, bandits killed several landowners, and many tenants took the opportunity to revolt. Now there are bandits everywhere near Meitang Town!"

Jie Xuelong was suddenly startled and shouted: "Go back to Fucheng quickly!"

Meitang Town is right on the edge of Lu River, so the news should have been reported very quickly.

But Jie Xuelong confiscated all the boats, so Zhao Han couldn't grab the boat and had to use door panels to build a raft across the river. Similarly, the gentry who reported the news did not have a boat, so he could only ride on a mule all the way. The news has not been transmitted until now.

That mule was still left by Zhao Han...

Xie Xuelong quickly returned to the army by boat, and received a report of victory from the prefect Xu Fusheng on the way.

Yes, it’s a victory!

There were thousands of bandits who wanted to attack Ji'an Fucheng, but the wise and martial magistrate Xu led the young men in the city to defeat them easily. The bandits had already turned around and fled towards Anfu County.

This news made Jie Xuelong feel a little confused.

Li Zongxue read the letter and thought: "The Zhao thief was so bold that he definitely wanted to make a surprise attack on the city. But he leaked his whereabouts halfway, and Magistrate Xu closed the city gate, so the Zhao thief could only return without success and fled to Anfu County to become a rogue." The thieves north of Heshui also went over the mountains to Anfu County, so Thief Zhao must have gone to join the thieves."

Jie Xuelong agreed with this explanation, because the city of Ji'an Prefecture was really not easy to capture. It could be held by the government officials of Ji'an Prefecture and Luling County alone.

To be on the safe side, Xie Xuelong separated out eight hundred soldiers from the guard and asked them to take a boat back to Ji'an Prefecture to defend the city.

These guard soldiers have low combat effectiveness, not even as good as the local heroes, and they like to rob. If they are thrown back to defend the city, they will not dare to rob in the city.

As for Jie Xuelong, he led the main force into Lushui.

There are tributaries of Lu River, which can go to Yongxin County to the west, which is Li Banghua's circuitous route. Go north to Anfu County, where you can chase the bandits or wait for Zhao Han to come and die.

Jie Xuelong sailed toward Anfu County for one day and received military intelligence information from the clipper again: eighty miles north of Ji'an, bandits looted Baisha Town on the riverside, looting livestock and grain from landlords along the way, and headed towards Anfu County. Escape in the direction. In the villages and towns we passed, many tenant farmers were incited to rebel. Please ask the governor to send troops to suppress it quickly.

There are various indications that Zhao Han went to Anfu County and tried to join the Xuanhua Township bandits who fled there.

Xie Xuelong immediately strengthened his determination not to return to the Ganjiang River, but continued to take the boat up the Lu River, speeding up and going straight to Anfu County.

He was not afraid of Zhao Han stealing the city at all, because he sent 800 guardsmen back to help, and it was more than enough to defend the city with those rubbish.

…

The junction area of ​​Luling County and Anfu County.

Zhao Han's more than 800 soldiers have expanded to more than 1,300 people.

Most of the new recruits were young men with no worries at home, and there were also some poor people who secretly left their families to join the army.

When looting Baisha Town on the edge of the Gan River, Chen Maosheng recruited several actors and Zhang Tieniu recruited more than 20 coolies.

They now also have many donkeys, mules and oxen to carry grain borrowed from landlords. Well...these animals were also borrowed from the landowners.

"What? Going back again?"

Fei Ruhe said depressedly: "We have been here, going around in circles for several days, and I am almost dizzy! Aren't we going to Anfu County? Why are we going back to Fucheng?"

"You are already dizzy, and the officers and soldiers must be even more dizzy," Zhao Han said with a smile, "Nowadays, the villages and towns around Fucheng are full of rebels. We don't have to worry about revealing our whereabouts again when we go back."

Huang Shunde, the chief secretary of the army, muttered: "It is true that we are not afraid of exposing our whereabouts, but there are chaos outside the city, and the city is not heavily defended?"

"Who said that after returning to Ji'an Mansion, we must attack the city?" Zhao Han asked back.

Huang Yao asked: "Then what are we fighting for?"

"Chaoguan!" Zhao Han laughed, "There is a lot of silver in Chaoguan, and there are also a lot of boats. If you rob the silver, you can escape on the boat."

Jiang Dashan scratched his head and said, "But when we set off from Wuxing Town, didn't we agree to sneak attack on Fucheng?"

Zhao Han explained: "In this war, we have to adapt to changes. How can we just do whatever we say? Our whereabouts were exposed and the prefect closed the city gate, so we had to go elsewhere. After disrupting the surrounding villages and towns, The government is very confused. They only know that we are going to Anfu County. I have already asked someone. The shortest way to Anfu County is to take a boat from Lushui. The governor Jie Xuelong must have been lured to Anfu. At this time, If we try to fight back again, how can Ji'an Mansion stand it?"

Fei Ruhe also studied the art of war and understood: "This is called attacking from the east and attacking from the west. It is also called attacking the enemy unprepared. It is false and true, false and true. Next time I lead the troops, I can do it like this."