This leader did not "obey the chief's order", but Zhang Xing didn't care, and the others didn't mean it either... Without him, the weather was too hot, and the army's condition was too bad.

In this way, Zhang Xing camped in Jinxiang that day, and for the next two days, he basically tried every means to help the soldiers resist the scorching heat, control hygiene, take turns bathing in the river, insist on boiling light salt water, and allowed the troops on duty to use leather armor instead.

The cavalry units had more free time to take care of their horses.

Under this situation, the morale of the troops recovered slightly, and there were no outbreaks of disease.

But it doesn't make everyone relax a little, because this is the core control area of ​​​​the gang, and they have support for marching supplies, etc., and no one knows what problems will occur once they enter enemy territory and encounter battles. Especially because the weather is too hot

, the scouting has become extremely laborious, and it is impossible to penetrate deeply. We can only rely on a few condensation masters to conduct focused reconnaissance, which makes the situation of the enemy forces in the front blurred.

However, when the time came on the eighth day of June, as Bai Yousi and Fan Bao's Qingqi battalion arrived, Zhang Xing officially issued the military order to attack.

He personally led ten infantry battalions, one armored cavalry battalion, and two light cavalry battalions, totaling more than 18,000 people, and continued downstream from the He River. His accompanying generals included Bai Yousi, Wu Jingfeng, and Wu Chang

In, Niu Da, Jia Yue, Xu Shiying, Zhou Xingfan, Wang Xiongdan, Ding Shengying, Shang Huaien, Fan Bao, Liu Heifu, Xu Kaitong, Tang Bairen, Ma Wei, Jia Runshi.

At the same time, Shan Tonghai, as a partial division, led four infantry battalions and one armored cavalry battalion, about 6,000 men, starting from Shanfu County in the southwest and marching along the Bian River. His accompanying generals included Liang Jiading, Meng Zhi

Ghost, Chang negative, Huang Junhan.

Of course, this is just the first move. Most of the troops are not full. The follow-up troops will slowly follow up under the arrangements of Li Shu, Fang Yanlang, Bing Yuanzheng and others.

As for helping the rest of the people, they had their own arrangements. Chen Bin and Yan Qing were left behind in Jiyin City to take charge, while Xie Minghe went south to Huankou with Du Pozhen. Cui Suchen and Dou Lide were asked to return to Jiangling, Hebei.

, Wei Xuanding, and Xu Shiren even went to Lu County to organize another partial force in a truly strategic sense.

The exception was Xiong Bonan, who was still at Sikou Pass. His original intention was to be the last in the marching column, but he had to take on the task of gathering the soldiers and auxiliary soldiers who were taking turns to stay at home.

In short, the army was huge, but they still insisted on sending out troops in the hot summer.

After the troops entered enemy territory, it was hard to say where Shan Tonghai was, but Zhang Xing was very cautious. The whole army was divided into camps and marched along the front line in sections. There was no large marching array and they could only march twenty miles a day.

But even so, the red background flag with the word "deposed" still successfully arrived at Fangyu County two days later.

When he heard that the army had arrived, Fang and the two thousand remaining defenders in the city had already evacuated a day earlier. The county magistrate led his officials to open the city and surrender.

"Let me guess, it's Sima Zheng's military order? Do you want you to give up on your own initiative?" Zhang Xing looked at the county magistrate in front of him and asked seriously. "Aren't you going to be held responsible afterwards?"

"Yes." The county magistrate trembled and bowed his head in response. "General Sima has an order. If Zhang Longtou... Chief Zhang arrives in person, the defenders will withdraw early, and the local officials will open the city and surrender. There is no need to consider anything else."

Zhang Xing nodded, without comment, and just asked him to leave him alone, and then he started to stay in the lobby of the county government office.

The generals below looked at each other in confusion. In the end, Zhou Xingfan couldn't bear it anymore - he dreamed of fighting back to Xuzhou, and of course it would be best to fight back to Jiangdu - he stood up and handed over: "Chief! Third brother! Third brother is worried about Fang and the county.

Is Pei County too far ahead?"

"It's more than a hundred miles away." Zhang Xing simply admitted. "With the current heat, we have to walk for five days... What's even worse is that the logistics line has also been stretched for five days, and the water is much shallower because of the heat.

What if Sima Zheng suddenly crosses the river in the middle of Peixian County Jiancheng and cuts us off?"

"But do you want to not march for this reason? We obviously want to attack Xuzhou!" Zhou Xingfan came to persuade seriously.

Wu Jingfeng also turned around: "Chief, don't worry too much... Sanhui Zhigong never said that we feel hot and Sima Zheng doesn't. It's good that Fang and Pei County are separated by more than a hundred miles. We are marching on the road Difficulties are good, but what about Sima Zheng and his Xuzhou Army? If he wants to cross the He River to outflank the retreat, if he sets out from Peixian County, he will definitely not be able to evade our scouts. If he rushes back from the east, Teng County is far away from He River. The water is also seventy or eighty miles away, which is no shorter than our journey."

"That's not what you said." Zhang Xing shook his head. "After all, we are in enemy territory...and I never said not to march."

Everyone was surprised, but Zhang Xing looked at Xu Shiying.

The latter had no choice but to go out and ask: "Chief, what do you mean, we have to wait for news about the leader Shan Daxi Road? If he takes Feng County, we will have many depths behind us, even if Sima Zheng cuts off the He River, it will not matter?" "

Everyone was stunned.

As the saying goes, it was said that Cao Cao had arrived. At this moment, Jia Runshi suddenly entered and delivered a military report that was almost soaked in sweat.

Zhang Sanlang opened it and took a look, and actually said that the internal servants were ordered to leave Dang County and gather the flanks of Shan Tonghai. As a result, as soon as the troops arrived at Fengxian City, Fengxian City surrendered, and the defenders also withdrew a day earlier.

Zhang Xing held the letter with only a few lines of words and read it for a long time without moving. He couldn't understand the details. However, only Bai Yousi could see clearly by squinting behind his back. It was hard to say much.

However, after all, this kind of thing cannot be hidden and there is no need to hide it. Zhang Xing put away the military report, put it aside, and said calmly:

"Fengxian County has been taken, and there is no need to worry about the way back. Niuda and Shang Huai'en are stationed in this city, and the rest of the troops have returned to their base camp, preparing to continue their march to Peixian County tomorrow."

Everyone had different reactions, but most of them, including Wu Jingfeng, Zhou Xingfan and others, were overjoyed.

As soon as these people left, Bai Yousi got straight to the point: "What was Sanlang thinking just now? Are you worried that Sima Zheng is setting a trap for you? Why do I think your reaction is a little strange?"

"Of course not." Zhang Xing sighed. "He can't set a trap for me... One is that the Langya incident was started by us, which is a sudden chain reaction. The other is that I became the chief. In essence, I A personal decision made in a short period of time... Sima Zheng has no reason to predict this in advance and then set up a trap for me to exploit, unless King Xiongtian secretly surrenders him."

"That's impossible……"

"Of course it's impossible." Zhang Xingyi said. "I just realized that the evacuation here was so straightforward. The most likely reason is that he was rushing to get there just like me. He had no preparations and could only deal with it passively. , so he really had no choice but to give up frontline resistance."

"Isn't this a good thing?" Bai Yousi asked seriously. "But why are you still a little worried?"

"Because if this is the case, both sides in this battle should be very conservative, and then it will be a battle to see who can't hold on to the situation first and expose the flaws." Zhang Xing sighed in response. "And I originally thought that Sima Erlong and I The battle between them should be exciting."

Bai Yousi was unconvinced.

In early June, the army easily captured Fangyu County and Feng County, and then advanced to Pei County.

However, due to the long distance between Fangyu County and Peixian County and the hot weather, the troops inevitably moved slowly and conservatively.

On June 13th, in the evening, when the troops marched only more than 20 miles away from Peixian County and were preparing to set up camp, a light armored cavalry unit of about a thousand men suddenly appeared on the other side of the He River.

The flag with the word Sima was flying high, which aroused the vigilance of the entire army.

To be honest, this came faster than Zhang Xing expected.

After a moment, an obvious master of elixir condensation gently crossed the flood water during the dry season, and then loudly announced: "My great general Sima Zheng, please come to the front of the formation for a while with my old friend!"

"There are too many old friends, which one does he want to see?" Zhang Xing, who had already begun to personally help dig the camp, sat on the pit and responded with a slightly impatient response.

The Ningdan officer and general was obviously stunned and immediately turned back to the east bank.

After a moment, he crossed the river again and said, "Please Zhang Longtou to come out for a while! He will come across the river to meet you!"

"Let's meet together in the river!" Zhang Xing shouted back immediately. "I'll just take one person with me."

After saying that, he simply got up, found the yellow gelding, called Wu Jingfeng, and then went straight down the river from a ford. On the opposite side, a horse came out alone and came to the ford under the river, and it turned out to be Sima Zheng.

The three of them stationed their horses in the river where the water level was only up to the horses' thighs. Sima Zheng looked at Zhang Xing and then at Wu Jingfeng, speechless for a moment.

Wu Jingfeng seemed to want to open his mouth to speak, but in the end he just sighed.

Zhang Xing squinted his eyes, put up an arbor with his hands, and looked downstream of the He River. After looking for a long time, he turned back and said, "Sima Erlang, do you know that I just became the chief of the gang ten days ago?"

Sima Zheng smiled and said, "Gong..."

But after only saying one word, his expression suddenly changed.

"You made a mistake when you came up." Zhang Xing looked at the other party and responded sincerely. "You shouldn't have called me Zhang Longtou. Your secret was revealed as soon as you shouted. You just came back and you didn't even go to see the local magistrate of Pei County.

Are you in a hurry to stop us? It's too hot. It's just as difficult for me as you are, but my army will arrive first. You only have a thousand people, and Peixian County can't be saved..."

Sima Zheng remained silent for a moment, while Wu Jingfeng opened his mouth but didn't dare to interrupt.

After a while, the neatly dressed Sima Erlong finally spoke slowly: "Zhang Sanlang, I have never thought that I can beat you in strategy. It's just my duty to do my best in everything... Besides, this time

I came to see you because I really have something important to say."

"Okay, you say." In the sparkling water, Zhang Xing released his body-protecting Qi and let the warm river water flow through his legs, as if he didn't care.

"First of all, it was not me who started this war, but you who pushed the Langya clan too far, which caused dissatisfaction among the people in the county, and even your own helpers stayed behind..."

"Prefect, we have changed our name." Zhang Xing interrupted and corrected.

Sima's expression changed again, and then he continued slowly: "I am Xuzhou Fangzhen. Since he asked for help, I can't just sit idly by and ignore him."

"Then what?" Zhang Xing asked. "What do you want first?"

"If we return to Jiyin, the imperial court will not allow anyone to touch Xuzhou." Sima Zheng said seriously. "If we return now, I personally promise not to pursue any further investigation. Let's stop here. Otherwise, I may not be able to make the decision once Jiangdu's reinforcements arrive.

When the time comes, no one can stop just because they want."

Zhang Xing was silent for a moment.

On the surface, Sima Zheng's words seemed like he was getting an advantage and being good, but in fact it made sense, because for the gang, the biggest taboo at the moment was to fight a bad war and not get rest and development.

It is best for everyone if Xuzhou and the Gang maintain peace on their own.

However, Zhang Xing only remained silent for a moment, and without waiting for Wu Jingfeng to say anything, he took the initiative to report: "I can retreat, but I must return to Linyi and send back Li Wenbai's head."

"Are you kidding?" Sima Zheng said helplessly. "Li Wenbai has already gone to Jiangdu, and Linyi has also been sent officials by the court... As the general manager of the Xuzhou camp, how can I hand over a big city like Linyi to the rebels?"

people?"

"As the leader of the gang, how can I ignore the rebel generals? How can I allow the violent Wei to invade the territory of the rebels?" Zhang Xing replied slowly. "Do you think our gang is trying to rebel against the Wei court? Countless officials and generals have surrendered.

Qing Dynasty? This is the first rebellious gang leader. As for Jiangdu’s reinforcements, if they want to fight, then fight, the gang’s purpose is to wipe out the violent Wei!"

Things came to a standstill, and the three of them stood in the water for a moment. Wu Jingfeng almost thought that the matter was about to end.

"Well, let's not talk about this matter, but there is one more thing. I hope to make a gentleman's agreement with you." Sima Zheng said again. "Both armies should abide by military disciplines, do nothing wrong, and try not to loot, let alone massacre the city.

Regarding the matter of killing and surrender...what conditions do you have, just accept it?"

Chief Zhang immediately shook his head: "There are no conditions for this, I won't agree to it anyway."

Sima Zheng was stunned on the spot, even Wu Jingfeng was stunned.

But soon, Zhang Xing gave his answer:

"The reason couldn't be simpler. Our gang is the leader of the rebel army in the world and saves the people from fire and water. It is different from the violent Wei. So whether you, Sima Zheng, come to say it or not, or whether you start the war yourself and say it later, we will have nothing to do with it."
To be continued...