(Some people say that the author is forcibly boosting the morale of the Chu army. In real history, when Zhong Xiang was killed and Yang Yao had not yet established his leadership, the soldiers were cut off from food and relied on river mussels and snails for a living. They could fight to the death even if they were hungry.
Kill the Song army.)
During the Dongting Lake Battle, Zhong Xiang had actually returned to Changsha, but he could not take care of the northern battlefield for the time being.
Because the two cities of Liling and Chaling were both besieged by the Ming army in Jiangxi.
Prime Minister Zhong hastily mobilized 15,000 elite troops, including his imperial guards, to defeat Quan Bangyan's 30,000 Jiangxi new army in Liling.
Quan Bangyan fought with Zhong Xiang for a year, and the two sides fought back and forth. That was not because Quan Bangyan was so good, but because he took advantage of the favorable terrain to defend the city.
Now, in a head-to-head battle outside the city, various shortcomings were immediately exposed, and he was beaten by Zhong Xiang and was unable to parry.
Quan Bangyan retreated to Pingxiang in embarrassment with thousands of remaining soldiers, and no longer had the courage to leave the city for a decisive battle.
Song Huizong was in Pingxiang...
Now under the pseudonym Ji Shao, he was transferred to Pingxiang to be the bookkeeper, and he married Xue Su's widowed mother Zeng.
As for Xue Su, this guy with a background as a bandit was transferred to Jizhou as an officer and is currently accompanying the army to besiege Chaling.
Zeng was worried: "Why is Prime Minister Zhong so powerful that he defeated tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in two days?"
Song Huizong said: "After all, he is the emperor Cao Mang, and he is still good at fighting."
Zeng blindly worshiped her husband: "My husband is known as 'Little Zhuge' in Quzhou, why don't you come up with a clever plan to help the soldiers capture Liling?"
Song Huizong's old face turned red: "Although I have a clever plan, the officers and soldiers are too weak to dare to fight when they encounter the Chu army."
"Oh, I have wronged my husband." Mrs. Zeng felt that her husband was too unqualified.
The couple were chatting when suddenly a government official came to invite him, asking Song Huizong to quickly return to the county government office to handle matters.
However, it was the northern front troops of the Jiangxi New Army whose supplies of grain and grass were captured by Prime Minister Zhong. Traces of the Chu army were found on the border of Pingxiang, and they had to quickly recruit rural soldiers and military supplies to defend the city.
Actually, Prime Minister Zhong didn't pursue him at all. He only sent a miscellaneous army to make more flags to scare Quan Bangyan.
But it was scary enough. Pingxiang was so frightened that they quickly organized the people in the city.
After waiting for several days, I finally got the news that Prime Minister Zhong's army had not come, but they were just consolidating the pass at the junction of Liling and Pingxiang.
At this time, a messenger arrived from Yichun, bringing good news: the Chu army in Chaling was surrounded by internal strife. First, the deputy general killed the main general and wanted to surrender. However, the soldiers loyal to Prime Minister Zhong refused to accept the offer, and mutinied and killed the Chu army's deputy general.
The Jiangxi New Army noticed something unusual in the city and took the opportunity to attack the city and capture Chaling.
The Pingxiang garrison, whose morale was low, immediately became jubilant after hearing the news of the battle.
Song Huizong was unhappy because he knew all the civil and military generals on the side that won the battle.
Xiang Ziyi was in charge of logistics in Jizhou, and Yang Yingcheng was in charge of frontline command. Both of them belonged to the Song Dynasty clan, and their ancestors had given birth to empresses of the Song Dynasty.
When the Song Dynasty was in trouble before, I never saw you working so hard, but now you are actually helping the Puppet Ming win the war.
The more Song Huizong thought about it, the angrier he became!
"Jishao, why is there so much food and grass shortage?" The county magistrate pushed open the door and asked angrily.
Song Huizong put aside all his thoughts, bowed and apologized and smiled: "The county magistrate calmed down and is already urging food, but the people in the countryside really don't have much food left."
The county magistrate said: "Within ten days, at least another five hundred stones will be collected. All the grain from Xinyu County (Xinyu) has been shipped, but we in Pingxiang have never been able to meet the quota. If the Shangguan pursues it, you and I will suffer!" "
Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty forced himself to explain: "Pingxiang is poor and Xinyu is rich. How can we compare with them?"
"I don't care what happens, just hurry up and do it!" the county magistrate said angrily.
Song Huizong forced out a smile and sent the county magistrate away, then slapped the table and cursed: "Shameless dog thief, what's the use of forcing me? The people have no food, and I can't produce food. If you force me to raise food and grass, the people of Pingxiang will rebel. Got it!"
After scolding the county magistrate, Song Huizong was still angry and complained: "Then Quan Bangyan, too, claimed to be an immortal commander. He went out with an army of 30,000, but was defeated by Zhong Xiang in a battle. Grandpa, I was in Pingxiang. After collecting food for two months, I finally managed to get some food, but this idiot gave it all to Prime Minister Zhong."
…
Xiangyin.
Prime Minister Zhong defeated Quan Bangyan in Liling and immediately led his elite troops northward, leaving only a few troops to recruit civilians to consolidate the pass.
He has gathered more than 20,000 troops in Xiangyin and even recruited thousands of new soldiers. He plans to go to the Guiyi River Estuary to join Zhong Yi, and then fight the main force of the Ming Dynasty at Lujiao Village.
Urgent reports of military intelligence from the South came like snowflakes.
Yang Zaixing has led troops to besiege Shaoyang.
Although Li Gong was still suppressing the Dong people in Quanzhou and could not spare any effort to attack Yongzhou, the Chu army in Yongzhou actually had internal strife.
Those speculators had surrendered to Prime Minister Zhong a few years ago and pretended to believe in Manichaeism. Now they found that the situation was not good, so they changed their banner and submitted to the Ming Dynasty, killing the cronies left behind by Prime Minister Zhong and rebelling.
Unable to restrain the rebels of various ethnic groups, Cao Cheng simply led his troops to Yongzhou. The rebellious Chu army in Yongzhou immediately became the leading party. Now, Cao Cheng's army has passed Qiyang and may move north along the Xiangjiang River to threaten Hengyang at any time.
The miners' rebel army in Guiyang Prison also relied on internal agents to set fire and successfully captured Chenzhou City.
In just one month, six states in the south were in mourning!
Now there is news that Chaling County has been captured by the Jiangxi Ming Army. Fortunately, the fortress in Yunyang Mountain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Just block it and hold back the Jiangxi Ming Army.
But there are enemies on all sides, and Zhong Xiang has no troops to control.
He could only divide his forces to focus on defending Hengyang, Liling, Shaoyang, and Yunyangzhai, and abandon all the other territories in the south. Then, he concentrated his elite main force to fight Bai Qi, and after winning the battle, he would turn back to deal with the enemy forces elsewhere.
Two days later, Zhong Xiang and Zhong Yi joined forces at the mouth of the Guiyi River. Counting nearly 90,000 civilians transporting grain, they claimed to have an army of 300,000.
The Xiangjiang River was blocked by the Ming Navy, so Prime Minister Zhong could only transport supplies by land.
The distance is not long either, it is only sixty miles from Xiangyin to the Guiyi River Estuary, and only seventy miles from the Guiyi River Estuary to Lujiao Village.
But without the protection of the navy, the Ming army might attack the grain transport troops by boat at any time.
Zhong Xiang left a total of eight thousand troops and asked Zhong Yi to guard the Guiyi River mouth, which was the main grain transportation hub of the Chu army.
Then, Zhong Xiang led the main force of the Chu army to the north to rescue Lujiao Village and wait for an opportunity for a decisive battle.
What appeared in front of Prime Minister Zhong were two strong fortresses that were horns with each other.
The forts are all in the shape of a "back", with a wide trench on the outside. The soil excavated in the trench is then built into a barrier. Because it rained twice more, the trench was full of mud and water, making it look like a small moat!
Prime Minister Zhong went to observe the situation in person, and his scalp was numb from the sight.
The general of the Ming army was determined to stall for time and was not willing to fight a decisive battle with him. With the help of these two strongholds, the Ming army could fight Zhong Xiang forever.
However, Prime Minister Zhong cannot afford to delay. If the battle is not resolved within two months, Hengyang in the south may be lost.
After spending a few days, Zhong Xiang made some equipment and tried to launch several attacks.
But no matter how brave and fearless the Chu army is, it is difficult to achieve great results. This thing is not much different from siege.
Wang Yuan may not have the best commanding skills in battles, but his basic skills as a general are absolutely solid. He strictly followed the "General Essentials of Martial Arts" and built the fortress so that it would be invulnerable, with facilities such as Tianluo, Wuluo, Xingma, and Caltrops.
Everything.
When Prime Minister Zhong defeated the Jiangxi New Army in Liling, Wang Yuan shipped nearly ten thousand people from Yuezhou, and he has been working on civil engineering projects these days!
Facing such a complete fortress, even a night attack would not be able to break through.
What's more, there are observation towers all around.
On each lookout, soldiers used binoculars to take turns observing the enemy situation outside.
If there is any slight movement on the side of Prime Minister Zhong, the movement will be clearly seen through the telescope, and Wang Yuan can calmly deploy his troops for defense.
The fighting lasted for more than half a month, and Zhong Xiang lost his temper.
However, good news came from Hengyang. Prince Zhong Ziang of Chu State set up an ambush in Shuikou Mountain and defeated the vanguard sent by Cao Cheng.
But bad news came from Shaoyang. General Yang Guang of the Chu army attacked the coalition forces of various ethnic groups at night. After having achieved absolute victory and the rebel camps collapsed one after another, Yang Zaixing led hundreds of his troops to counterattack and kill Yang Guang's son in the chaos.
.Yang Guang was injured and retreated to the city. Shaoyang's morale was low and in danger.
Immediately afterwards, Li Gong finally drove the Dong people back to the mountains and led the Guangxi Ming army into Yongzhou.
Because Li Gong and Cao Cheng had a grudge, Li Gong did not go to Hengyang to join Cao Cheng, but ran to surround Shaoyang with Yang Zaixing.
Shaoyang is probably almost gone.
"Your Majesty, our army's food road was attacked. More than 200 soldiers were killed and injured, and more than 600 stones of food and grass were burned. The thieves obviously did not kill the civilians transporting food..."
Prime Minister Zhong was speechless and could only send additional soldiers to protect the grain transport team afterwards.
The Ming Navy controlled Dongting Lake, and also controlled the lower reaches of the Xiang River and Miluo River. It could choose a place to land at any time and send a small group of elite troops to surprise Zhong Xiang's grain transport troops.
Two days later, Yunyang Village was in emergency.
The Jiangxi New Army in Chaling may break through the Yunyang Mountain barrier at any time.
More and more urgent battle reports came from the rear, making Prime Minister Zhong really unable to sit still.
He secretly separated out his elite troops to retreat at night, and withdrew for several nights, letting these elite troops set up ambushes along the retreat route.
Then Zhong Xiangqin led the main force and hurriedly withdrew his troops, pretending that a large city in the rear had fallen and he was eager to retreat and return to take charge of the overall situation.
As long as Bai Qi, Wang Yuan, and Lin Chong dare to pursue them, Prime Minister Zhong will be able to kill them immediately!
However, the Ming army did move, but instead of chasing Zhong Xiang, they frantically bombarded Lujiao Village.
Prime Minister Zhong had almost retreated to the mouth of the Guiyi River, but he still didn't see the main force of the Ming army pursuing him.
Zhong Xiang was almost desperate. If he continued to waste time here, the south would soon be unable to hold on. If he gave up here, it would be equivalent to giving up the prefectures and counties to the west of Dongting Lake. His hometown of Dingzhou would be captured by the Ming army sooner or later.
"Boom!"
Another wall of Lujiaozhai Castle collapsed, but the Ming army did not take the opportunity to attack.
Zhou Lun called his son over: "You broke out of the siege at night to report to His Majesty. You said that the enemy army was surrounded but did not attack, and even the city wall collapsed without attacking. You wanted to drag the main force of our army here. Please leave the antlers alone."
We can divide the troops into the stronghold to defend Xiangyin. It is important to lead the army to the south to quell the rebellion as soon as possible! I should be able to survive here for ten days and a half."
"Take care, dad!"
Zhou Lun called Ying Xuan over again: "Brother Ying can leave. You can go back and tell the Ming army commander that I can surrender in one month."
Yingxuan asked with a smile: "You want to buy time for Mr. Zhong?"
Zhou Lun said: "After one month, Lujiao Village will definitely surrender. However, the soldiers in Lujiao Village will not help the Ming army fight. The soldiers only want to remove their armor and become common people. If the Ming army does not agree, then we will fight to the end in blood."
