Nine thousand Ming troops lined up in a skirmish line and slowly marched through the deep mountains and valleys leading to Xiningwei.These valleys are located on the plateau, extremely cold, difficult to breathe, and sometimes disturbed by local natives.Thanks to everyone's dry food and warm clothes before leaving, even so, when they arrived at Pingrong Post in the east of Xining, there were only about 8,000 people left in the 9,000-strong team.There are those who fell off the cliff during the march, those who could not adapt to the plateau climate and died of illness, those who died in battle with the natives, and the newly joined soldiers who could not endure hardships along the way and ran away.The team had just arrived five miles in front of Pingrong Station, and the outposts had already discovered the traces of the Shun army.Wang Shuo ordered a team of 100 people to assist the outpost in front, keep an eye on the Shun army in the Pingrong Station, try to find out the number and exact location of the enemy troops in the station, and then arrange cavalry to surround the entire Pingrong Station in a roundabout way.The infantry marched out of the mountain pass to the Pingrong post and wiped out all the Shun troops in the post without letting one run away.The army had traveled hard and was extremely tired, he didn't want to alarm Lu Wenbin, who was besieging the city in front, and planned to rest quietly in the Pingrong Post for a night, recover the physical strength of the soldiers, and start a battle with Lu Wenbin tomorrow.Pingrong Station has long been out of the post station set up by the Ming Dynasty.The post station was abolished in the early years of Chongzhen, and it was Chongzhen's confused, brutal reduction of the post station policy, and no way to deal with the aftermath, which indirectly led to the rebellion of Li Zicheng, who was originally a post pawn.Today's Pingrong Station is a small town with the original post station as the center, with a radius of about two miles, located in an open land in the valley.There are more than 100 Shun troops in the town, who are guarding grain, grass and equipment.Lu Wenbin would never have dreamed that someone could bypass Xin Sizhong in Longzhong and He Jin in Lanzhou and copy his back road, so that he was basically unguarded against the rear.There was no one else in the town except for the Shun army.The people either fled or were killed by the Shun army.The Shun army was frightened by the sudden appearance of a large number of Ming troops, and basically did not make any effective resistance, and most of them were captured.The lonely, quick-witted ones, had just run out of the town and were driven back by the cavalry outside the town.From the mouth of the captive, Wang Shuo knew that Xiningwei was still in the hands of Qi Tingji and Lu Yinchang, but Lu Wenbin used cannons and ladders, and ordered his soldiers to take turns to attack the city day and night, and the city suffered heavy casualties, and it was almost impossible to defend it.In any case, the Xining Acropolis has not been lost, which is good news.He ordered his own soldiers to change to the number of Shun soldiers, and patrol the town with the captured and surrendered soldiers to prevent anyone from coming in front of them and discovering them.Then he ordered the whole army to make food, eat and sleep enough, and fight Lu Wenbin tomorrow.Fortunately, Pingrong Post was used by the Shun army as a rear supply base, and there was plenty of food and grass, so that these soldiers who came here all the way to starvation finally had a full meal and could rest assured that they could sleep well.Wang Shuo sent a few clever soldiers overnight, pretending to be ordinary people, trying to bypass Lu Wenbin's siege army from the mountain trail, and mix to the city gate where there was no Shun army to attack, and get in touch with Lu Yinchang.Those few soldiers circled around Xining City on the mountain, and in the middle of the night, they finally found the Gongchen Gate, the north gate of Xining Wei.This is opposite to Huangshui, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Shun army did not come to attack.They called for the local soldiers defending the city, informed Lu Yinchang, opened the door and let them into the city.After getting the news in the city, the soldiers immediately rushed back to Pingrongyi, and also brought back the envoy of Qi Tingji.The messenger told Wang Shuo that the two consolation envoys led all the toasts and had been holding the city for half a month.In the past few days, the Shun army attacked more urgently, and the city wall was damaged in many places.The two consolation envoys personally went to the city every day to fight, and the blood-stained clothes were enough to keep the city from being lost.At present, the Turkish soldiers are killed and wounded, and they can no longer hold on.When the messenger came, there were less than 5,000 people in the city who could take up arms and resist, and the Shun army was still besieging the city.If they can't wait for Wang Shuo, the two consolation envoys are already planning to abandon the city and flee tonight.Wang Shuo originally planned to let the soldiers rest for one night, recuperate their spirits, and then fight the Shun army in a decisive battle the next day.Now it seems that if he doesn't immediately lead his army forward, Xiningwei may not be able to hold even tonight.If the city can hold out until he arrives, it is already God's favor for him, and he has no time to wait any longer.He told the messenger to go back and send a message, and to ask the two messengers to hold on.He has led 10,000 iron cavalry to Pingrong Station, and now he will urge the army to attack, and then attack inside and outside, and completely annihilate Lu Wenbin under the Xining Acropolis In order to appease Qi Tingji and Lu Yinchang, he had to blow off the cowhide first.What Lu Yinchang and Qi Tingzhi lack at present is hope, and he wants to give them hope.Wang Shuo summoned his generals and told them about the critical situation in Xiningwei, so they could only stop sleeping and immediately march to Xiningwei.Fortunately, everyone had a full meal and slept for two or three hours.Xining is a base for them to recruit troops and horses in the future to fight against the Shun army, and if they want to survive, they must not lose whether they are dead or alive, and they will fight today.Everyone knew that there was no way back, so they didn't say much, so they went back to gather their subordinates, lined up in turn, and silently marched towards Xiningwei
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