"Liu Zeqing has a 100,000 army, but in fact, his real combat soldiers was only 15,000, and the rest were all refugees and disaster victims. Among these 5,000 war soldiers, only 500 soldiers could fight; Liu Liangzuo's 50,000 army had only 10,000 real combat soldiers, and the rest were refugees, and among the 10,000 war soldiers, only 500 soldiers could fight; Gao Jie's 50,000 army was more practical, and two thousand were old camp soldiers brought by him when he broke up with the thieves, and the rest were mobs, but Li Chengdong, the first powerful general under Gao Jie's command, was still a little powerful. There were only 3,000 soldiers who could really fight in these three armies!" Li Guodong said in a military map.

This is the disaster brought by the family servant system in the late Ming Dynasty. The officers were desperately trying to get empty salary, deduct military salary, and use the greedy silver to support the family servants. Whoever has the most servants will have the strongest combat power. Cao Wenzhao was also 500 family servants back then, but he was ambushed and was defeated and died. Wu Sangui had 3,000 family servants, and he could walk sideways when he entered the pass.

Gao Jie's two thousand old battalions who followed him were also servants. He was the strongest among the four towns in Jiangbei, but Li Guodong did not take him seriously.

The Huai Army had no servants, and each soldier had the combat effectiveness of other military servants. The Huai Army led the military pay in a graded manner. The military pay for cavalry and scattered soldiers (rched gun sharpshooters) was the highest, followed by artillery, then the armored soldiers, and then the archers. The military pay for the lowest ones were spearmen and musketeers.

With 40,000 troops surrounding the points and fighting against the 200,000 troops in the three towns of Jiangbei, plus the Minzhuang, Yanding and Wang family's landlord armed forces, Li Guodong faced between 220,000 and 230,000 enemies.

By the Baima Lake, the lake is full of light and the blue waves are rippling. On the shore of the lake, large areas of reeds grow. The reed leaves whirlwind with the breeze, making a beautiful lake and mountain scenery. But at this time, this beautiful scene is being ruthlessly ravaged by bandits.

Several villages by the lake were stationed in Liu Liangzuo's army. The corpses were everywhere in each village, and blood flowed along the ridges of the fields, into the ditches by the fields, and then slowly into the lake.

Every house is full of soldiers in ragged clothes, chasing chickens and fighting dogs, the arrogant laughter of soldiers, the screams of swords piercing into human bodies, the crying and begging of women and children, and all kinds of voices gather together and permeate over the village.

In the original clan ancestral hall of the village, two women who were still three-dimensional were trembling and huddling in the corner of the house. The two women hugged each other tremblingly. Liu Liangzuo sat next to the sacrificial table with a big golden knife, holding a fat roast chicken in his hand, and wine was placed on the table, and two servants kept adding wine to him.

Liu Liangzuo drank a big gulp, and the chicken bones were spitting all over the floor. He pointed at the two women and said to the servants: "I'm tired of playing when I'm done with you, these two women will give you!"

"Thank you, Marshal! Thank you, Marshal!" The two servants thanked him repeatedly.

Liu Liangzuo had enough wine and had enough food. He threw the wine glass and rushed towards the two women.

"Ah!" A woman screamed in horror. She closed her eyes in fear as she looked at her greasy dirty hands reaching towards her.

"Master General!" Just as Liu Liangzuo was about to perform his "martial arts", someone outside rushed to report, "No! Li Ergou is here to call Gaoyou! General Liu Zeqing sent someone to ask for help."

"Bah!" Liu Liangzuo yelled, "Li Ergou dares to provoke us on his own initiative? He wants to keep people to protect us and attack Gaoyou. How many troops does he have on hand?"

The man replied: "Li Zhe led a 50,000 army to besiege Gaoyou."

"Fifty thousand army?" Liu Liangzuo gasped, "Li Zhe's 50,000 are all elite. If we go to save Gaoyou, wouldn't we go to die in vain?"

"Master!" A servant beside him said, "I have a plan to defeat Li Zhe!"

"Speak quickly!" Liu Liangzuo asked overjoyed.

"Isn't Li Ergou's troops insufficient? He attacked Gaoyou with a 50,000 army, wouldn't he be dispatched in full swing? Moreover, Gaoyou's city is strong, and although the Li bandits' soldiers and horses are elite, they cannot be broken in a short time and half a year. We can have a plan to surround Wei and save Zhao, and go directly to Huai'an to capture the foolish lord! Li bandits will definitely give up attacking Gaoyou and return to rescue the enemy. At that time, we will set up an ambush halfway and will definitely defeat Li bandits in one fell swoop!"

"Hahaha!" Liu Liangzuo laughed, "A clever plan! A clever plan! Just follow this plan!"

Liu Liangzuo's general Zhang Huanggai also came. After hearing about the plan to surround Wei and save Zhao, Liu Liangchen said: "Master General, we should bring Gao Jie together to surround Wei and save Zhao. Let Gao Jie lead the army to attack Huai'an. Our army set up an ambush halfway to defeat Li's thieves."

"Okay, get the map!" Liu Liangzuo shouted.

General Xue Wang asked someone to take the map. Liu Liangzuo opened the map and gestured on the map: "If Li thief wants to return to the army to rescue the horse, he must pass by Liangzhuang if he wants to get closer. We lure them with a small group of cavalry and lure them into the grass near the farm. We ambushed near the grass, put firewood and turbulent oil in the grass, and wait for Li thief to pass by, ignite the fire immediately and burn the Li thief!"

"A clever plan!" A group of bandits and soldiers praised them one after another.

Liu Liangzuo turned his head again and said, "Everyone, Ma Degong and Tian Xiong, under Huang Degong's command, have long been dissatisfied with the foolish lord. We can let someone win them over."

"I am willing to go to Chuzhou to convince Ma Degong, Tian Xiong and others." A general nicknamed Qi Wang stood up.

This guy nicknamed Seven Kings is a brave general, tall and powerful. In real history, the Seven Kings were killed by a sixteen-year-old soldier in the Battle of Jiangyin. Later, King Xue and Zhang Huanggai, nicknamed Seven Kings, were also killed. This is the killing of the three kings of the Qing army in the Battle of Jiangyin. These three kings are nicknames of Liu Liangzuo's generals.

"Okay, Seven Kings, be careful." Liu Liangzuo nodded.

"No!" The Seven Kings retreated.

At this time, under Gaoyou City, dozens of miles away, Li Guodong's army was attacking Gaoyou.

The artillery roared, and the Huai Army first attacked Xinghua County outside the city.

Liu Zeqing's 100,000 troops naturally could not retreat to the small city of Gaoyou, so most of his troops were stationed in various places outside the city, including Xinghua, some stationed in Huxi, Baoying County, and some stationed outside the city of Gaoyou.

Xinghua is a small city with a low wall. Liu Zeqing's general Bai Yongfu was stationed in this small city. He knew that Li Guodong's Huai Army cannons were fierce, so people piled up sandbags outside the city to reduce the kinetic energy of the shells.

"Bai Yongfu is a mediocre talent!" Wang Fuchen laughed at the layout outside the city, "The city is not high at first, and sandbags are piled up. As long as we approach the city wall and pile up sandbags on the sandbags, we can attack the top of the city."

"General Wang, be careful of fraud!" Han Dashan said, "The general is using a plan and likes to dig underground. If Bai Ni digs tunnels outside the city with built-in gunpowder, our army will just happen to be trapped by the thief?"

Li Guodong smiled and said, "Dashan, do you think it is in the north? This is the place of the Lianghuai River. How do thieves dig tunnels? I'm afraid they will be water if they dig it down?"

The Huai Army suppressed the artillery of the city-front with its light three-pound cannons, light Folang and mortar cannons. The three-pound cannons and light Folang cannons kept flying up to the city and smashing on the female wall, causing gravels to fly across the wall, and the bricks to shatter. The broken bricks and gravels inside the female wall flew across the city like shrapnel, making the defenders at the city-front untenable.

A 24-pound mortar cannon and 32-pound mortar cannon with a gun facing the sky made a deafening roar, and the flowering cannonballs rose into the air, falling towards the head of Xinghua city like a meteor of fire.
Chapter completed!