Baisha Town is located more than a hundred miles south of Luoyang. Although the town is small, it is a chokepoint on the official road from Luoyang to Ruzhou.
At this time, Wu Sangui and his army were less than 40 miles away from Baisha Town, Zuo Menggeng's army was less than 30 miles away, and the Ming army from the north and south were only one day away from Sun Kewang in Baisha Town.
The war was about to break out, but what Wu Sangui and Zuo Menggeng never dreamed of was that at this time, instead of actively preparing for war, the Daxi Army gave up all their food, grass and baggage, marched lightly, and took small roads to kill Song County.
The two hundred thousand troops simply fled into the mountains as if fleeing for their lives.
This scene almost shocked Wu Sangui. The army of 200,000 people was not just 10,000 or 20,000 people. If they dared to run into the mountains, they would be destroying themselves.
"Rogue bandits are always rogue bandits. Dogs can't change their habit of eating shit. Even now, they still want to run into the mountains. Could it be that Sun Kewang thought he could take the trail to Nanyang and attack Xiangyang by surprise? Or maybe he wanted to escape back to Hanzhong?"
At this moment, Wu Sangui despised these bandits to the extreme.
"General, the rebel army actually came out of Hanzhong and fled back without fighting. It is unlikely. They probably wanted to take a small road to avoid our army and go to Nanyang, and then cross the Han River and enter Huguang."
"Haha, then I want to see if mice like them can outrun cats."
At this point, how could Wu Sangui not know Sun Kewang's plan?
Obviously he wanted to sell out the Chuang army, attract the Ming army in Nanyang and Xiangyang to the north, and then attack Xiangyang and enter Huguang.
Immediately, Wu Sangui responded. He quickly sent orders to Tangtong and Xiangyang, and the Nanyang defenders to strengthen their vigilance. At the same time, he ordered Zuo Menggeng to lead his army to go north to Luoyang immediately. Liu Zeqing led his army to advance eastward to destroy the Chu army first, while he himself
He led the front army to take the main road south to Nanyang.
As for abandoning the baggage and following Sun Kewang on the mountain road, there was no consideration at all.
From Wu Sangui's point of view, he only had to lead his troops to Nanyang to block the entrances to the mountains, and there was no need to follow the rogues through the mountains.
Unless Sun Kewang led his army to stay in the mountains, he would have to pass through Xunyang in Nanyang to enter Huguang.
Li Guo of Luoyang also received news that Sun Kewang had fled without a fight with his army, abandoned his food and baggage, and crawled into the mountains.
He was stunned for a moment, and then he jumped up and cursed in anger, spurted out a mouthful of blood, and fainted.
There was still a chance, but Sun Kewang's escape without fighting not only put the Chuang army into a desperate situation, but also completely ruined the last chance of victory. The Daxi Army would be destroyed sooner or later if it entered the mountain.
So after being rescued, Li Guo really couldn't figure out what Sun Kewang was thinking to make such a stupid decision. Could it be that Sun Kewang thought he could cross the Han River before the Ming army and successfully attack Xiangyang?
However, the rapid approach of the two Ming armies made Li Guo no longer care about the fate of the Great Western Army.
He was still sure of Liu Zeqing's 50,000-strong army, but with Zuo Menggeng's 50,000-strong army and Gao Jie's troops in the city, there was no hope of victory at all.
Coupled with the fact that the Daxi Army fled without fighting, the morale of the Chuang Army fell to the bottom for a while, especially among the 50,000 Chuang Army, who were unmotivated and had no fighting spirit.
Because of the 100,000 invaders brought this time, only 50,000 were direct descendants of Li Guo, and the other 50,000 belonged to other leaders.
With such morale, the outcome can be imagined.
Five days later, after Liu Zeqing and Zuo Mengeng arrived in Luoyang with their army, Li Guo gathered the army and reluctantly fought, but the result was a sudden collapse.
The other generals of the Chu army surrendered directly. Only Li Guo fled westward with 10,000 to 20,000 remaining soldiers. As a result, he only managed to escape as far as Hongnong and was overtaken by the Ming army. In the end, he had to abandon the army and only took a thousand cavalry with him.
Fleeed back to Tongguan.
After wiping out the Chu army, Zuo Mengeng didn't waste any time and immediately turned around and returned to Nanyang, while Liu Zeqing and Gao Jie led their troops and generals directly to Tongguan.
Obviously, the two wanted to use the power of victory to directly attack Tongguan, rush into the northwest, capture King Chuang alive, and achieve unparalleled achievements.
At the same time, Wu Sangui and his former army also arrived in Nanyang, while Sun Kewang and his army were still wandering around in the mountains.
Although the Daxi Army is good at walking on mountain roads, and Sun Kewang is also familiar with the terrain and trails in this area, a large number of soldiers still get separated every day.
Sun Kewang was also horrified when he saw that the Ming army was marching at such a fast speed. They rushed from Baisha to Nanyang in just five days, marching a full three to four hundred miles.
His original plan was to get out of the mountains ahead of the Ming army, arrive at Nanyang, and then leave some troops to hold off the Ming army while the army crossed the Han River directly.
In the past, according to the marching speed of the Ming army, Sun Kewang's plan was indeed feasible, but now the Ming army is no longer what it was back then.
Not to mention that the Daxi Army had to take a detour through mountain roads, even if both sides took the main road, the marching speed of the front army would be far faster than that of the Daxi Army.
"Brother, what should we do now? That bitch Wu Sangui is already waiting in Nanyang. If we go out again, we will undoubtedly fall into a trap."
At this moment, Sun Kewang led his army to the Funiu Mountain area in the north of Nanyang. After hearing the spies' report, Ai Nengqi's heart dropped. He felt that his eldest brother had really miscalculated this time and had to be killed.
"We definitely can't go to Nanyang anymore. Let's continue to the west, cross the river from Neixiang and Xichuan, and then wait for an opportunity to go to Xiangyang."
Sun Kewang also had a solemn look on his face, and after thinking for a while he said.
"Alas! That's all we can do. I hope Third Brother can succeed in the sneak attack, otherwise our entire army will really be annihilated."
Ai Nengqi sighed. In just six days, the army had lost more than 20,000 men. If they continued to take a detour through the mountain roads, they didn't know how much more men would be lost. The key was that they only carried half a month's worth of rations in total.
Although the Daxi Army entered the mountain, every move they made was also relayed to Wu Sangui by the spies of the Ming Army.
Seeing that the Daxi Army still dared to go west, Wu Sangui also sneered. While ordering the garrison in Neixiang and Xichuan to strengthen their vigilance, he asked Tang Tong to guard and block all the roads and trails entering Hanzhong, completely surrounding the Daxi Army.
In the mountains.
But what Wu Sangui never expected was that the Daxi Army actually had an elite unit and went south a few days in advance.
However, because the Ming army focused all its energy on the main force of the Great Western Army, they did not even notice this small force, allowing Liu Wenxiu to successfully cross the Han River and reach the vicinity of Gucheng without anyone noticing.
Gucheng is located upstream of Xiangyang, less than a hundred miles away. Zhang Xianzhong was surrendered in Gucheng, and later surrendered and rebelled again, so Liu Wenxiu was not very familiar with this area.
The army bypassed Gucheng and split into two. Liu Wenxiu led 7,000 men and horses down the river directly to Xiangyang, while the other 3,000 took the trail south to Nanzhang and attacked Xiangyang from the south.
The army was finally exposed and noticed by the Gucheng defenders, who immediately sent a clipper to Xiangyang as a warning.