Li Dingguo, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, believed that what happened in Nanyang might affect the next actions of the Shun Army, such as causing the remaining Manchu and Mengshi braided soldiers to fight to the end with Dashun.

Lu Si's answer to this is six words - "Kill one person, one less."

Li Dingguo thought about the implication of these six words and felt that it made sense, so he did not give too many advice on the Nanyang massacre of the city.

The Luke Dehun tribe and Nanyang's resolution basically completed the first phase of the Jingxiang Battle formulated by Li Dingguo. The Shun Army next wanted to start the second phase of the battle, namely, invading Jingxiang and completely dismantling the Ajige Group.

On May 18, the Imperial Camp ordered He Zhen's Third Army and Huang Zhao's 14th Army to march towards Xiangyang, and ordered the party to guard the 10th Army. After a brief rest, the Fifth Army of Xu quickly gathered in Zaoyang east of Xiangyang to prevent the main force of Ajige from returning to Xiangyang City in De'an.

At this time, the entire battle situation was that Ajige led more than 40,000 main forces of Manchuria and Mongolia by Xie Jinsheng's troops of the 13th Army of the Shun Army, and Shang Kexi's troops were held in De'an. Therefore, as long as the fifth and 10th Army could defend Zaoyang to the death, forcing Ajige to be unable to return to the army, Xiangyang City was the item in the Shun Army.

Ajige, who lost Xiangyang, could not continue to confront the Shun Army. He had only two choices: one was to go south to Wuchang, and the other was to retreat to Jingzhou. In this way, he could still retain some strength.

However, Wuchang is Zuo Menggeng's territory. If Ajige runs to Zuo Menggeng's territory, the Qin King who is in contact with Dashun is likely to help Dashun solve Ajige. Therefore, Li Dingguo judged that Ajige would not choose to retreat to Wuchang in order to avoid fighting with Zuo Menggeng, and he would most likely flee west to Jingzhou.

Therefore, in order to prevent Ajige from retreating into Jingzhou, the attack on Xiangyang should be fast. Once the attack is successful, you must go south to Jingzhou immediately and block his only retreat in front of Ajige.

Information shows that the Manchurian defenders in Xiangyang City were about 7,000 to 8,000 people, and the guard was the former Manchurian Beilebolo. There were also several thousand Ming troops, most of which were Yuan Shun troops who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with Niu Jinxing and his son.

In addition, Xiangyang City became extremely tall and sturdy in the early years due to the construction of Baiwang, and was a city that was difficult to conquer in the short term. In addition to tens of thousands of defenders, there were former Li Zicheng's military advisor Song Xiance and Prime Minister Niu Jinxing and others in Xiangyang City. These Dashun rebels must have defended their lives at all costs, which invisibly increased the difficulty of the Shun army's siege.

Li Dingguo conservatively estimated that it would take at least more than a month to capture Xiangyang with the strength of the two armies. Even if the second artillery town of Nanyang joins the siege, it would probably take more than half a month.

In order to gain time, Li Dingguo requested the order of the Fourth Army of Zuo Pan'an who was resting in Xi'an to set off from Xi'an and attack Xunyang west of Xiangyang through business. On the one hand, it could cut off the passage of the braided soldiers who might escape to Sichuan, and on the other hand, it could also increase the power to attack Xiangyang.

Lu Si agreed to Li Dingguo's plan to draw the Fourth Army of the Reserve Team to join the Jingxiang battlefield, but at the same time he also ordered another Reserve Team Li Chengdong's Ninth Army to enter Sichuan through Hanzhong to fight. After taking Chongqing, he immediately attacked Chengdu and captured the entire Sichuan. After conquering all of Sichuan, he immediately planned to make plans for Yunnan and Guizhou.

However, the two armies in Jiangbei did not receive any orders to cross the river. Li Dingguo was also confused about this, because if the two armies in Jiangbei crossed the river to fight, the Ming Dynasty would be difficult to take care of both the east and the west, and would definitely lose sight of the other. Just one step is enough to succeed, and the south can be pacified.

But Lu Si pointed to the map and told Li Dingguo that he wanted to circle the entire Nanming area.

That is, we will not move Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang first, but will take down the five provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi of the Ming Dynasty. In this way, we will firmly block the remaining forces of the Ming Dynasty and completely lose the courage and opportunity to confront Dashun.

The so-called opportunity is roughly because Lu Si is afraid of attacking Jiangnan first. If Hongguang surrenders, another Yongli court will appear in the southwest China and Guangdong and Guangxi. This will continue to fight back and forth, which will harm the entire country and the people.

This is an extremely grand strategy, which is possible in terms of the current situation and Dashun’s military strength.

The specific combat plan for General Lu Si to march into the southwest was handed over to Li Dingguo for preparation, and he signaled Li Dingguo to discuss the operation of the Yunnan-Guizhou region with his brother Sun Kewang in Beijing. After all, in his previous life, the remaining troops of the Western Army were unable to escape the relationship between Sun Kewang.

After the deployment is completed, each will be convenient for action.

After the Third Army of He Zhen's army marched south from Baihekou and Taishan Miao Town, the prefectures and counties under Xiangyang, which were deeply poisoned by the Ming army's braided soldiers, were almost unstoppable. Wherever the Shun Army went, they opened the door, and were ready to move wherever they had not arrived. Some officials and gentry even ordered people to prepare wine, meat, money and food, and just waited for the Shun Army to open the door to greet them. The people even looked at the Shun Army as if they saw a savior and accused the Shun Army of various crimes in Jingxiang to the soldiers.

Soon, Song Xiance, the governor of Henan in Boluo, the governor of the Ming army, received the bad news that the Shun army was advancing towards Xiangyang.

The reason for the bad news is that both Boluo and Song Xiance followed the Shun army's boldness in attacking Xiangyang, which led to the fact that Shuncheng County Prince Luke Dehun and Tan Tai from Nanyang City were probably defeated.

Although there were tens of thousands of Manchu and Han Ming troops in Xiangyang City, the city walls were tall and strong, and the food and grass could support them for half a year, but in the face of the Shun Army's troops and the surrender of nearby prefectures and counties, Boluo immediately rushed to Ajige, the king of Zhong in De'an.

Song Xiance also asked the envoy to tell King Zhong: "Xiangyang is the fundamental place, and the prince must return quickly."

In De'an, Ajige had just severely damaged Shang Kexi's troops, annihilated more than 3,000 enemies, and seized several firearms. Shang Kexi, who was defeated, was scared by Ajige and wanted to bring the remaining troops back to Huangzhou.

As a result, all the generals under Shang Kexi advised Shang not to withdraw their troops, saying that Ajige was at the end of his strength. Now the main force of the two armies of Dashun is on the eastern front, and the western front is even more the main force led by His Majesty the Emperor. If he retreats at this time, Dashun will definitely not have the wealth of those of them in the future.

Shang Kexi thought it was the same, so he gritted his teeth and held on. For the sake of his life and future, as well as his family controlled by the Shun Army, he fought with the siege soldiers who had been siege for several days, forcing Ajige to completely wipe out Shang Kexi's troops.

After learning that Shang Kexi was surrounded, Xie Jinsheng's troops of the 13th Army of the Shun Army did not sit idly by and rushed to support Shang Kexi to fight against Ajige's main force in the Shitong River area.

Although this battle failed to break through the defense line of the braided soldiers and suffered great losses, Ajige had to remove a soldier who besieged Shang Kexi, giving Shang troops a chance to breathe.

At the same time, Liu Tichun's Second Army, who was ordered to enter Huangzhou, entered Huangzhou City, and formed a supervision force against the Zuo Menggeng tribe in Wuchang.

When the war in Jingxiang was fierce, Huguang Governor Du Yinxi personally went to Changsha to meet Huguang Governor He Tengjiao, pointing out that once Jingxiang fell, the Shun army would take advantage of the situation to attack Hunan.

Therefore, Du Yinxi suggested that King Wu Sangui of Liao be the main force to go north from Changsha, and he led the Junzi Camp and other garrisons in Hunan to go north from Yuezhou to help King Zhong Ajige resist the Shun Army together.
Chapter completed!