September 6th, Yuyuan.
Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong was just about to eat when his personal guard came to report: Li Dingguo is back.
Then footsteps were heard and Li Dingguo walked over from a distance.
Zhu Cijiong ordered someone to serve another bowl of rice.
Li Dingguo quickly walked up to him. Before Li Dingguo could salute, Zhu Cijiong pointed at the rice in the bowl and said, "Sit down and eat."
Li Dingguo was polite, picked up his bowl and started eating.
Zhu Cijiong asked: "Is the preparation of food and fodder going smoothly?"
Li Dingguo put down his chopsticks and said, "It went smoothly. It went better than I expected."
Zhu Cijiong nodded in relief: "That's good. Have you met Liang Min and Fan Ciwu's family?"
Li Dingguo shook his head: "No."
"Didn't find his family?"
“I found them, but I didn’t go to meet them.”
"Why?"
"Ah!" Li Dingguo sighed, "I don't know why. Maybe I felt it was a bit abrupt, so I just asked about their family's recent situation. I heard that they were doing well, so I didn't go to meet them."
Zhu Cijiong put down the bowl and said calmly: "You are right. Caring about them does not mean disturbing them."
Li Dingguo nodded thoughtfully and continued eating.
After dinner.
Li Xianzhong sent someone to deliver the news: he had arrived near Liangshanji, and Zhu Guobi's main force was behind him.
Zhu Cijiong stood up and looked at Li Dingguo: "The main force of the rebels has tens of thousands of people. Can we win?"
Li Dingguo clasped his hands together and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. We will win this battle."
"Okay!" Zhu Cijiong turned around and ordered: "Tell Li Xianzhong to act according to the plan."
Two hours later, Li Xianzhong received the news.
He immediately turned around and launched an attack on Zhu Guobi who was chasing him.
When Zhu Guobi got the news from the scouts, he was shocked and asked quickly, "How many troops do you think the other side has?"
The scout replied: "Less than 3,000 cavalry."
Zhu Guobi still didn't believe it, and asked, "There's no ten thousand after three thousand, right?"
The scout was stunned by the question because he had no idea about the number 30 million.
The scout blinked and repeated, "The enemy indeed has less than 3,000 cavalrymen, and they are marching towards our vanguard in battle formation."
Zhu Guobi began to feel confused.
Zhao Zhilong, who was stationed in Dongchang Prefecture, told him that Li Dingguo had a total of about nine thousand troops.
Now he has found less than 3,000 people. Where did the remaining 6,000 people go?
Should they march straight into Nanjing, or lie in ambush and wait for him to take the bait?
You should know that he has more soldiers under his command than twenty three thousand.
If it were anyone else, they wouldn't even have time to run away, so how could they dare to attack me?
Liu Kongzhao next to him asked, "Brother Zhu, what are you hesitating about?"
After expressing his doubts, Liu Kongzhao suggested: "We must attack anyway, otherwise it will affect our army's morale. In order to avoid an ambush, we can chase along the canal."
"Along the canal?"
"Yes! Li Dingguo has no navy and no ships. Even if he sets an ambush, he can only do it on one side of the road. When we pursue him, we only need to guard against one side and don't have to worry about being ambushed on both sides."
Zhu Guobi nodded: "Brother Liu, what you said makes sense. Let's do it according to your method."
Following Zhu Guobi's order, his 10,000 cavalrymen surrounded Li Xianzhong.
Li Xianzhong fought and retreated, and soon retreated to the Liangshanji area.
There is an elm garden on one side of the road and a canal on the other.
To be cautious, Zhu Guobi sent several small troops to approach Yuyuan to investigate the situation inside.
After a brief investigation, it was discovered that there were a lot of traces of human activities in Yuyuan.
Looking at those obvious and new traces, Zhu Guobi said with certainty: "Li Dingguo must be in there."
Liu Kongzhao replied: "Not necessarily!"
"The traces are right here, why not be sure?"
"The traces only mean that he has been here before, but he may not be here now."
"Is he in there or not?"
“It’s hard to say!”
"You..." Zhu Guobi was so angry that he wanted to curse: "Stop talking nonsense and think of a solution quickly."
Liu Kongzhao pondered for a while and said, "Stop the pursuit and investigate further."
Zhu Guobi had no better idea and could only nod in agreement.
Tens of thousands of troops camped outside Yu Garden and beside the canal, and entered Yu Garden to look for Li Dingguo's trace.
After searching for a whole day, not only did they fail to find any trace of Li Dingguo, they also lost Li Xianzhong.
After listening to the scout's report, Zhu Guobi was overwhelmed.
In order to find Li Dingguo, Zhu Guobi sent out all his scouts.
At the same time, contact the Nanjing Jinyiwei and ask them to provide information.
A day later, the Embroidered Uniform Guard brought news: a Ming army crossed the canal and headed towards Yanzhou Prefecture.
Yanzhou Prefecture is located southeast of Liangshanji and is the rear of Zhu Guobi.
Zhu Guobi was shocked and immediately accelerated his march.
Just when they were halfway through the pursuit, the Embroidered Uniform Guard brought news: a Ming army with an unknown number had crossed the canal again and was heading towards Jining Prefecture.
Jining is an important town on the canal and cannot be lost.
Zhu Guobi had no choice but to change direction and rush to Jining for assistance.
When he chased to Jining, he found that Li Dingguo had already left.
Zhu Guobi grabbed the collar of the Jining garrison commander and asked, "Where did Li Dingguo go?"
"He ran towards Juye."
"Chase!"
Juye is to the west of Jining. When Zhu Guobi led his troops to Juye, the Juye defenders told him that Li Dingguo had indeed appeared outside the city.
However, he did not stop, but went straight north.
"Go north?" Zhu Guobi took out a map, opened it and looked at it carefully.
To the north of Juye is Yuncheng.
There's no point in attacking there.
Further north is Liangshanji.
To the north of Liangshanji is Anping Town.
When Zhu Guobi saw the three words "Anping Town", he suddenly had an ominous feeling.
He asked the people around him, "What day is today?"
"Your Excellency, today is the tenth day of September."
Zhu Guobi cried out: "It's bad!"
In order to pursue Li Dingguo, he put his baggage behind and had it escorted by the navy.
According to the mileage calculation, the navy just arrived near Anping Town.
The water near Anping Town is not wide.
Although Li Dingguo had no navy, he could set fire to ships on the shore.
Those baggage were most likely destroyed by Li Dingguo.
In addition, Anping Town is an important water transport town and cannot be lost.
to this end.
Zhu Guobi adjusted the direction again and rushed towards Anping Town.
While on the road, Zhu Guobi took out a map and drew his marching route.
As the last stroke was drawn, he could see that it was a big circle.
Zhu Guobi threw the map to the ground fiercely: "Damn it, Li Dingguo treated me like a dog and led me around by the nose!"
After cursing, he picked up the map and ordered the march to be accelerated.
He wanted to catch up with Li Dingguo and regain his face by defeating him.
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