In Governor Ye Mengxiong's tent, everyone sat around and began to discuss the military situation.

"Eunuch Yang, General Ma, to put it bluntly, I am looking forward to the stars and the moon. I have finally waited for the arrival of your army. If you come a few days later, I am afraid that I, Ye Mengxiong, will be killed." On top of the city captured by the rebels,"

Ma Gui cupped his fists and said: "Master Ye, it's not that Ma Gui is not worried about the war on the front line. It's Bu Chang's ambition that caused such a thing. Because he had to wait for the order, the reinforcements were delayed. Please ask Ye Your Excellency, please take good care of me. Now the army, from Ma Gui down, is all under the command of Lord Ye, to wipe out the rebellion and regain Ningxia, even if they die,"

"good,"

Ye Mengxiong cheered loudly and said: "We are all soldiers, so we won't deal with those vain things. Let's talk about the military situation now."

When business came up, everyone immediately sat upright. Yang Ning remained silent for fear of giving Ye Mengxiong a bad impression of the supervisory army interfering in the military affairs at will. Now he also pricked up his ears and learned more about the situation, which would help to judge and judge the war. Plan.

"Now, Liu Dongshang, the former commander-in-chief of Ningxia, was instigated by his deputy commander-in-chief Kuai Bing, Kuai Chengen and his son, together with his subordinates Xu Chao and others, to kill Ningxia governor Dang Xin, deputy envoy Shi Jifang and others who had always had a rift with him. They rebelled and soon received strong support from the Tuluo tribe. The two sides colluded and attacked several cities in Ningxia. They divided their troops into three groups and advanced to Gansu and Shaanxi. Now they have captured most of Ningxia and the important towns on the nine borders of Shaanxi. , Guyuan...,"

Ma Gui was shocked and said: "Guyuan has also been lost."

Ye Mengxiong looked ashamed and nodded with a heavy expression: "Just yesterday."

This Guyuan is one of the important towns on the nine sides. It has always been the seat of the governor-general of Shaanxi Province. Now it is also occupied by the rebels. It means that Ye Mengxiong has lost his hometown. Isn't it extremely embarrassing?

"I don't know if Liu Dongshang has any quarrel with Dang Xin," Yang Ning interjected to ease the embarrassment.

Ye Mengxiong replied: "This starts with Kuai Bai. This Kuai Bai was originally a Mongolian Tatar. He surrendered to the Ming Dynasty as early as the Jiajing period. This man was surly and rebellious by nature. After his surrender, he became a guerrilla The general rose to the rank of deputy commander-in-chief, but not only did he not care about the favor of the court, he instead insisted on resisting the invasion of other Mongolian barbarians. He raised three thousand private soldiers, called "Cangtou soldiers", and dominated Ningxia. Xinmei wanted to sanction him and recruit private soldiers, but failed to achieve his goal, which made him resentful. This time Dang Xin defaulted on the payment of food and clothing to the Ningxia soldiers, which aroused Liu Dongshang's dissatisfaction. Kuaibai took the opportunity to provoke Liu Dongshang. It’s the opposite,”

After Ye Mengxiong finished speaking, his subordinates continued angrily: "This Kuai Bai is not hateful, but his son Kuai Chengen is the real one who does all kinds of evil. His evil deeds are simply heinous. This person is extremely ugly, but he just... He likes to spoil girls from good families. He has spoiled countless girls from good families in Ningxia. What is even more hateful is that every time this man finishes ruining a girl, he will have someone ride a horse, drag the girl to death, or directly trample her into flesh. Mu, his people are simply worse than animals...,"

After hearing this, Ma Gui, Chang Dayong and others couldn't help but tremble with anger. For this guy to do such a thing, he is indeed worse than a beast.

Seeing the appearance of Ma Gui and others, Yang Ning said calmly: "What's the use of being angry here? I'll just catch this Cheng'en someday and chop him alive."

The words were spoken quietly, but a chill made everyone feel horrified.

Yang Ning frowned and continued: "It's just because Dang Xin owed food and clothing that Liu Dongshang turned against me. I'm afraid it's not that simple. There must be some hidden reason. What kind of person is Dang Xin?" Thinking of Wang Chonggu's attitude toward Wang Chonggu. Liu Dongshang’s evaluation, Yang Ning asked Ye Mengxiong Dao.

"He was greedy for ink, drank soldiers' blood, and ate empty wages. He did everything. The court originally wanted to deal with him, but unexpectedly Liu Dongshang took the lead."

Yang Ning said thoughtfully: "It seems that the hidden secret will only be known after Liu Dongshang is arrested."

Ye Mengxiong smiled bitterly and said: "Now that the rebels are powerful, and they have the support of the Hetao Tuluo tribe, it is not easy to completely suppress the rebellion."

Yang Ning didn't say anything more, but Ma Gui asked: "Master Ye, I don't know what the mission of my soldiers and horses is."

Ye Mengxiong's expression perked up, and he ordered his captain to spread out the map. He pointed at the map and explained: "Now the rebels are divided into three groups. One group is led by Tu Wenxiu, the general of the Kuaiba tribe, and goes south to attack Guangwu and Zhongwei. Now, although Li Xun, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province, has arrived at Yuquan, but Gansu is already in danger; the group is led by Yi Cheng'en, who marches north to capture Pingluo, echoing the Tuluo army. Pingluo general Xiao Ruxun is currently leading his troops to fight to the death. To resist, once Pinglu is captured, northern Ningxia will become one with Tuluo; the route in front of us is led by Liu Dongshang himself, with Kuai worshiping as his adviser. There are 50,000 troops, and they have captured Lingwu with great momentum. Large, and in our northeast direction, Zhulitu personally led the army to support and respond. The purpose of this journey is obviously my entire Shaanxi,"

As soon as Ye Mengxiong finished speaking, all the generals including Yang Ning and Ma Gui looked solemn. The rebels were stronger than they imagined. The rebels could just give back. The key is that there is still a force rabbit who can attack at any time. It was not easy for Ye Mengxiong to persist until today when he emerged from an unknown direction to attack the Ming army.

"How many soldiers and horses does Jilitu have under his command? How many soldiers and horses does Mr. Ye have under Yu Shang?" Ma Gui asked. This was exactly what Yang Ning wanted to ask.

"Zhaolitu has thirty thousand elite armored cavalry under his command. You killed his three thousand elite vanguards on the bank of the Yellow River. Now there should be more than twenty-seven thousand cavalry. As for the soldiers and horses under my command, they have experienced Lingwu. The Seven Forts in Hexi have been defeated and exhausted, and now there are less than 20,000 left."

These words made Yang Ning, Ma Gui and other generals feel cold. After several attempts at suppressing the rebellion, only 20,000 defeated generals were left. Not to mention the nearly 30,000 Tuguiluo elite cavalry, even the rebels had enough. There are hundreds of thousands of people, how can we fight this battle?

Seeing the expressions of Ma Gui and others, Ye Mengxiong's generals lowered their heads in shame, but Ye Mengxiong was honest and did not cover up his "honorable" defeat at all.

Seeing that everyone was a little discouraged, Yang Ning couldn't help but smile and said: "You are all good generals of our Ming Dynasty. Although the enemy army is strong, I believe that we will win in the end. People say that heroes emerge from troubled times, and you all lead troops to fight. , Now is the time when there is a war, achievements have been made, marquises and kings have been made, and the ancestors have been honored for a long time. If not now, when will it be?"

Yang Ning's words cheered up everyone's spirits. The truth is indeed true. As a general, you will naturally gain meritorious services during the war and become a noble. How can you have such an opportunity when there is no war in peacetime?

Next, Ma Gui and Ye Mengxiong formulated the next combat strategy based on the current situation of the rebels. Since the situation on the southern route of the rebels was the tightest, Ye Mengxiong sent his troops south to aid Li Xun, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province, to save Gansu and recapture Guyuan. Ma Gui's troops resisted the main force of Liu Dongshang in front of Kaicheng, and at the same time dealt with the Tuluo tribe.

"General Ma, you may have to face the rebel army in the middle and north at the same time along the way. The pressure is huge. Thank you very much for your hard work," Ye Mengxiong said with a serious expression.

Ma Gui looked solemnly and said: "Master Ye, Ma Gui should go all out to defend our Ming Dynasty."

All the generals under Ma Gui stood up and shouted in unison: "Go all out to defend our Ming Dynasty."

After this military meeting, Ye Mengxiong led his troops to leave Kaicheng the next day and headed south to Gansu and Guyuan, while the Magui troops took over the defense of Kaicheng and waited for the arrival of Liu Dongshang's rebels.

At Yang Ning's suggestion, Ma Gui immediately dispatched the newly established special scout team to conduct military reconnaissance against the rebels in the front and the Tuilao tribe to the north and northwest. Yang Ning has been asking Ma Gui Wait for the generals to inculcate an idea: intelligence is extremely important when two armies are fighting.

After being stationed in Kaicheng for only a few days, Liu Dongshang's 50,000-strong army occupied Ningxia and after a period of consolidation and rest, they finally began to march eastward to attack Shaanxi. Soon they arrived at the gates of Kaicheng and stationed themselves there.

Although Kaicheng is just a desolate town, its terrain is condescending and strategically located. It is backed by mountains to the north and east, making it less susceptible to sneak attacks from the grasslands. Although Kaicheng has low walls, it is the only one that can be defended within hundreds of miles. Therefore, after Ye Mengxiong retreated steadily, he chose this place for the decisive battle with the rebels. If even the Kaicheng was lost, the rebels would march straight into the entire Shaanxi, and then there would be only an isolated city of Yulin in the entire Shaanxi.

Looking at the endless rebel camp outside the city, Ma Gui frowned tightly, and many of his generals also looked solemn. Only Yang Ning looked excited, as the ancient war was finally about to be officially staged.

At another military meeting, Ma Gui took the lead and spoke to his generals: "There are 50,000 rebels outside the city, but we also have more than 40,000 soldiers and horses. It is definitely enough to defend the city. According to my estimation, the rebels must They will not be stupid enough to attack the city immediately. They will wait for the north road to capture Pinglu City and clear the obstacle with Tuluo, and then attack me from both sides together. Therefore, our next battle strategy is to take the initiative and fight with Liu Dongshang fought head-on and tried to defeat his group of people in one go."

After Ma Gui finished speaking, his eyes looked at Yang Ning involuntarily, hoping to seek his opinion.

Yang Ning pretended not to see it and remained silent. After all, Ma Gui was the general in charge of the battle, and he was only supervising the army. He did not want to interfere too much with Ma Gui's decision in such a formal military meeting, which would cause trouble among the generals. Moreover, he knew that his combat experience was not as good as that of Ma Gui. At this moment, he could not think of any way to defeat the enemy.

When Ma Gui saw that Yang Ning remained silent, he asked his generals again and they all had no opinions, so the battle plan was decided.

After the generals dispersed, Ma Gui finally couldn't help but said: "Brother Yang, you have no idea about the war in front of you."

Yang Ning smiled bitterly and said: "Not really, but I think your decision just now is right. We must fight quickly and defeat the rebels all the way. If we don't wait for the rebels to encircle us, our life will be difficult. Furthermore, we still don’t know the movements of Jilitu’s cavalry. They are our biggest threat. If Liu Dongshang is dealt with as soon as possible, we can let go and fight them.”

In Yang Ning's mind, Tuilao Luo's cavalry had long been regarded as the biggest threat.

After Yang Ning asked Ma Gui for some knowledge about army confrontation, he also asked for Juniper.

In fact, in the past few days, Yang Ning went to the Shenji Camp frequently and became familiar with the structure and firing principle of the musket. As he expected, the musket was really out of date. First of all, it was very troublesome to load, and it needed to be divided into several parts. The steps are to pour the gunpowder from the mouth of the barrel. After pouring, you have to use a special rod to tamp the gunpowder, and then load it into the projectile. Then you need to install a match rope on the trigger. When firing, you need to light it. A match rope can be used to pull the trigger and fire.

All in all, the use of this blunderbuss is very cumbersome. Yang Ning was very disappointed with the use and effect of this blunderbuss. He thought more than once about how to slightly improve this blunderbuss based on his vague memory and understanding of modern firearms. For example, the charge is changed from the "front loading" of the gun gun to the "rear loading", the match rope is removed, and the gunpowder is fired only by striking the fire, etc.

It was a good idea, but after all, Yang Ning was not a firearms expert. Although he was very aware of the shortcomings of gunfire and the advanced features of modern firearms, if he was really asked to modify it, he would have no way to start, so he had to give up.

This time, Yang Ning ordered people to find Jun Song, just to discuss with him and Ma Gui how to play the role of the Shenji Battalion in tomorrow's battle. Although the blunderbuss is troublesome to use, and it takes time to reload after firing once, but According to Yang Ning's intention, these three thousand bird gun soldiers can be divided into multiple teams, taking turns to shoot and charge.

Ma Guidao: "In terms of combat effectiveness, although our troops have just been integrated and the cavalry is much smaller than Liu Dongshang's cavalry, the combat effectiveness is more than a little bit stronger than Liu Dongshang's Ningxia troops. These blunderbuss can be used in When the two armies confront each other, bomb it for a while to give the rebels a disarming force, and then charge forward with the whole army."

Yang Ning shook his head and said: "This won't work. The use of these three thousand fire gun soldiers must be unexpected to be effective. My opinion is to use these fire gun soldiers at critical moments to resist Liu Dongshang's charging cavalry. The long range of these fire gun soldiers Shooting is also suitable for this,"

"The general also has this intention. Our cavalry totals only more than 8,000, while Liu Dongshang's cavalry has 20,000. When I use this blunderbuss, it can not only kill and injure the enemy's cavalry from a long distance, but the key is that the roar it makes can have an effect on the horses." If it has a frightening effect, it may have unexpected effects.”

"Okay, let's decide, General Du. When the time comes, you will hide your three thousand troops behind the formation, and then act with ease," Ma Gui said.

In the early morning of the next day, the gates of Kaicheng were opened wide, and the Ming army began to march all the way out of the city, preparing for a decisive battle with Liu Dongshang's rebels.
Chapter completed!