Xie Ming

The towering peaks of the Taihang Mountains rise majestically, and the perilous Yellow River stretches as far as the eye can see.

The flames of war blaze across the two sides of the strait; this journey is a worthy act to avenge the nation's humiliation.

As mentioned earlier, Ajige was ordered to lead an army of 50,000 men from Taiyuan down to Henan.

Within a month, most of northern Henan had fallen back into the hands of the Qing army.

It was truly a case of utter defeat.

Amidst the chaos and devastation, Gao Hu defected to the enemy and betrayed his country.

Xu Dingguo, originally from the Suizhou area in eastern Henan, also quickly rebelled and recognized the enemy as his father.

In western Henan, powerful figures such as Liu Hongqi and Li Jiyu were also preparing to raise troops and establish their own independent regimes, thus initiating a rebellion.

Soon, the entire province of Henan, from east to west and north to south, was in complete chaos.

With no other options and the situation deteriorating, Xiao Jingchuan, who was stationed in Nanjing at the time, was also extremely anxious and restless.

He then hastily dispatched troops, sending nearly 10,000 soldiers under Li Hongsheng, along with 30,000 newly recruited naval troops under Ma Jinzhong from Hubei, to travel west up the Yangtze River, passing through Runing, to replenish the troops in Henan.

However, by mid-August, there was still no news of victory in the east.

Who could have foreseen this?

If Xiao's military orders were followed, the original plan was to have Generals Li and Ma join forces, act swiftly, and recapture Guide to secure Sun Peizhong's route back west.

Later, he sought an opportunity to go north to Kaifeng.

At worst, if Kaifeng is difficult to capture, at the very least, we should act expediently, take over Chenliu and Tuocheng, and maintain a northward advancing posture.

Firstly, it serves as a buffer for Guide to hold its ground; secondly, it can also maintain a certain degree of aggressiveness, which can restrain and counterbalance Ajige's arrival in the east, preventing the pressure on the Yangtze River front from increasing sharply.

However, despite the sound plan, the actual situation was quite different.

It is said that this general will be stationed in the field, and military orders may not be given.

Well, Ma Jinzhong, when he surrendered to my command, was still very attentive and showed his loyalty.

But once they were released from the camp, it was all over. Soon, their true colors were revealed, and the evil and wicked tendencies of the Hubei rebels made a comeback.

At the beginning of the month, the troops were stationed in Runing, and they were already paying lip service to the general Li Hongsheng, ignoring him completely.

Upon seeing the army advancing towards Luyi, and with numerous excuses, the troops immediately halted their advance.

They fear the enemy and refuse to fight, remaining only to watch and wait.

With such a large and unmanageable situation, Li Hongsheng, with limited resources and manpower, could only watch helplessly.

There was no other way, as it was difficult to mobilize the troops in this unit.

In a moment of desperation, to protect Xiao's plans, Li Hongsheng had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead his own 10,000 troops to besiege Guide.

However, on the other hand, at this time, most of Ajige's main force had gone east, but the matter of Guide was of utmost importance. After several days of handover, Lege also abandoned Kaifeng and personally led 10,000 troops to guard this place.

Li Hongsheng's troops are inadequate; they can barely hold the city in a siege, let alone launch an attack.

As expected, the Li troops launched a forced attack on the city for several days, but gained no advantage and instead suffered casualties and depleted military strength.

Things are hard to accomplish quickly, so I sent a letter to report and then hurriedly rode south.

Fortunately, Ma Jinzhong could not be relied upon. By the end of the month, Sun Peizhong's troops had already received news of Xiao Ling.

He also did not waste time in Xuzhou city engaging in a costly battle with the combined forces of Dodo and Ajige.

Twenty days later, once he realized that Ajige was advancing eastward, he decisively and proactively abandoned Xuzhou, cleverly escaping the encirclement of the enemy forces from the east and west, and secretly fled back to Henan.

The arrogant and foolish cavalry of Ajige headed east, only to find themselves empty-handed.

Pei Zhong led his troops on a whirlwind march, bypassing enemy attacks, and by the end of the month, they had already appeared northeast of Guide.

Soon, the situation in Henan took another turn for the better.

The main force of Guide, which was besieged, was now at this point. Where would they get this information?
Under cover of night, Pei Zhong led 30,000 troops, joining forces with Li Hongsheng's unit, to launch a massive surprise attack on the enemy leader.

A direct confrontation with Legge is like trying to manage both ends of a coin, or the east while neglecting the west.

For the next two days, the intensity of the attack remained undiminished. Both fire and earth attacks made progress.

In an instant, within Guide City, Legge was extremely anxious, knowing that the situation was hopeless.

Therefore, on the morning of the 23rd, before dawn, taking advantage of the moment when the men and horses outside the city were exhausted and the attack was in a lull, Legge led his remaining three thousand soldiers to break out to the north.

They intended to retake Kaifeng, reorganize their remaining troops, and launch a counterattack soon.

In response, Sun Peizhong assessed the situation and decisively led his troops in a relentless pursuit northward.

Meanwhile, starting from the 23rd, the Ming army pressed on relentlessly, adopting a strategy of splitting up and pursuing them rapidly.

Niu Kuisheng led the remaining troops to supplement Pei Zhong's cavalry. In order to quickly redeem himself, he took the lead and charged forward with all his might.

By noon, they had indeed intercepted a portion of the remaining enemy forces of Legge southwest of Chenliu.

Immediately, disregarding life and death, he fought fiercely, entangled the enemy, and made them too brave to turn back and look towards Kaifeng, thus completely severing the remaining troops of Lege's army from any thought of fleeing north.

Soon, the second force under Li Hongsheng arrived, and with a single charge, they directly divided and surrounded the enemy troops.

It is worth mentioning that in this battle, Niu Kuisheng fought exceptionally bravely to avenge his previous defeat.

In the midst of the chaos, his left eye was struck by an enemy arrow, but he still fought on relentlessly.

With his decisiveness, even Li Hongsheng spared no effort, and the remaining troops of Lege were ultimately no match for him.

Upon arrival, Lege panicked and managed to chase after only a dozen or so remaining cavalrymen. They fled in disarray, not daring to look back, and desperately escaped to Kaifeng.

After Pei Zhong reported the victory, the news was sent south.

Xiao Yi felt that Niu Jiangkui was a capable general.

For this meritorious service, Niu Kuisheng was specially promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, thus becoming the foremost figure in the three armies.

That's another story.

Meanwhile, on this side, Generals Niu and Li were fiercely attacking the enemy and achieving great merit.

On the other side, Sun Peizhong was not idle either.

He had 20,000 soldiers, and their tactics were unpredictable.

As the saying goes, "kill two birds with one stone."

Taking advantage of the recent siege of Guide, there was a brief lull in news from eastern Henan.

They changed course and marched directly towards Xu Dingguo in Suizhou.

Soon after, Xu Dingguo was defeated and hoped to escape north, but he suffered several defeats on the way and was trapped in Lanyang County. This caused infighting within the army and demoralization.

On the morning of the 25th, Sun Peizhong's men formed a four-way encirclement.

Within Xu's unit, three or five deputy generals led their troops to surrender voluntarily.

Xu Dingguo cried out in bitterness, and soon after, he gathered his family and burned the courtyard together. When the fire was raging, he drew his sword and committed suicide to atone for his sins.

By the end of August, the southeastern corner of Henan had once again fallen into our hands.

The rebellion of Xu Dingguo was also quelled relatively quickly.

Sun Peizhong was appointed to a critical mission. He abandoned Xuzhou, launched a swift and decisive attack, and quickly regained control of the situation in Henan.

After he took command of the military affairs in Guide, he was in charge of the military affairs.

Under Sun Bingwei's influence, Ma Jinzhong quickly changed his attitude and became a man of strict discipline.

So, you have to admit, some people really do have brains as thick as walnuts.

If you won't go with the soft approach, Fei Qing is waiting for you to smash it and eat it.

Give it a couple of hammer blows, add some color, and it'll look better and be easier to handle.

He's truly a hypocrite, refusing to listen to reason and instead choosing to suffer the consequences. He's utterly ungrateful.

PS: I'm back, I'm back! The surgery went smoothly. At the start of 26, things can finally get back on track.

During this holiday season, due to a series of family matters, updates have been less frequent. I apologize to everyone.

Now everything is finally settled, a new year brings new beginnings, and we can finally roll up our sleeves and get to work! Haha!

Thank you all for your continued support! (End of Chapter)