Every day, new military newspapers and intelligence poured in from the south, piling up on Li Ze's desk. Things are moving towards the scene that Li Ze least wants to see.

Even if there is a famous general like Shi Zhuang on the front line, it will not be able to change this general trend.

After annihilating the 20,000 troops of the Southern Alliance in one fell swoop around Jigongling and making forced landings in Changsha, Xiangtan and other places, Shi Zhuang did not stop for long, but immediately turned around and waved his troops to attack Ding Sheng's troops who had arrived in Wangcheng.

However, the results of the battle of Jigongling and the rapid descent from Changsha obviously not only dealt a significant blow to Ding Sheng, but also made him extremely frightened, and immediately stopped and began to prepare to retreat.

When Shi Zhuang arrived, Ding Sheng broke his arm to survive, and after leaving 10,000 soldiers to garrison Wangcheng and resist Shi Zhuang, he led the remaining 20,000 soldiers to retreat significantly.

But the destination of his retreat was not Yiyang. Even if Yiyang still has another 30,000 troops led by the veteran Sun Debin.

Ding Sheng went to the west of Hunan Province.

At the same time, Sun Debin, a veteran in Yiyang, also made a beautiful tactical confusion. He simply gave up Yiyang neatly, and before leaving, he also deceived Liang Han and Qian Biao. It wasn't until Sun Debin's army was almost clean that Liang Han reacted.

However, it was too late.

In Qian Biao's report, it was speculated that Sun Debin was very likely to be ready to run away the moment Ding Sheng left Yiyang for Changsha, otherwise, it would be impossible to walk so neatly.

Judging from Sun Debin's marching route, his final destination is undoubtedly Xiangxi.

Maybe Ding Sheng's final decision to run to Xiangxi was also out of Sun Debin's idea.

This is the trouble.

Li Ze rubbed his temples, only to feel a burst of pain in his head.

Xiangxi!

Located in the northwest of Hunan, at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Yizhou, with an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers, it is a typical place of poor mountains and bad waters at this time.

Li Ze always remembered that in his previous life, he watched a TV series called The Story of the Bandits in Oolong Mountain, which was about the bandits in Xiangxi. In that place, the big army was of little use at all. Even if you don't count the logistical supply problems, after the large army pressed into it, and after entering those lofty mountains, it was like a drop of water falling into the ocean, and it would not even gurgle a bubble.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Xiangxi has a vast territory, most of which are mountainous areas, with many tribes and extremely complex ethnic composition. It is in a state of large mixed living and small settlement. Lu Lin glanced at the people in the conference room, and then lowered his head to look at the thick stack of materials in front of him.

Among them, there are ethnic groups that call themselves Bizka, distributed in Longshan, Yongyou, Baojing, Jishou, Guzhang and other places, and there are ethnic groups that call themselves Guoxiong, distributed in Huayuan, Fenghuang, Luxi and other places, which are the two larger ethnic groups in the local area. It accounts for the vast majority of the population of Xiangxi. However, they are basically in relatively remote areas, while the Han people live in places such as riverside forks and market towns with relatively convenient transportation. Although Xiangxi was nominally under the rule of the Hunan Observer Envoy, it was not effectively governed and managed for a long time, and it was a typical state of anarchy. ”

"What kind of Bizka and Goxiong, since they belong to the same race, do they have a common leader? Or is it a chieftain, a patriarch or something? Zhang Hui asked.

Lu Lin shook his head: "There used to be in the past, but now, there is none." Ding Taiyi still put some effort into this aspect, because they are unable to effectively rule this area, so he does not allow these ethnic groups to gather together to form a force that threatens him, so in the past few decades, he has only done one thing for this region, that is, to keep stirring up and dividing the wedge, so that the different tribes of these ethnic groups will fight each other, and for a long time, even if it is the same ethnic group here, as long as they belong to different tribes, the hatred between each other has accumulated very deeply. For Ding Taiyi, he only needs to control the convenient transportation and collect taxes and fees, and he doesn't care about the rest. Within this area, there is more of a chaotic state of autonomy. As long as you have a hundred and ten people in your hand, a knife and a gun, you can dominate one side. Here is always the city head of the changing king's flag, maybe today is still this person as the boss, after one night, this person will be slaughtered, replaced by another person. ”

"There are no laws here, only patriarchal laws, clan rules, blood, and barbarism are considered normal things here." Lu Lin continued.

Li Ze raised his head and looked at the people: "Now, there are going to be big changes here. Ding Sheng and Sun Debin's two armies of nearly 50,000 entered Xiangxi, and when they effectively controlled this place, it would be many times more difficult for us to eliminate them. ”

"Since the people here are unruly, Ding Sheng may not be able to stand here! The locals are afraid that they will be rejected as well! You Yong said.

"Exclusion is a matter of course." Li Zedao: "But in the past, Ding Taiyi was reluctant to make a big move here, because the gain was not proportional to the pay, and it was not worth him to do it." It's different now. Ding Sheng was forced by us to have no way out, and Xiangxi was the only place he could hold onto. So, working hard to run this place was the choice he had to make. ”

Gongsun Changming sighed and said, "Where you want to operate, there are still many means. Ding Sheng's first step must be to control those places with convenient transportation, and then take these places as the central point to start developing outward, those large and small ethnic groups, whether they are suppressed or co-opted, in short, there are ways to deal with them. Moreover, this person entered Xiangxi, and there is nothing to say from the name, after all, Xiangxi is still under the jurisdiction of the Hunan Observation Envoy, and where they are, there is a certain foundation in itself. Among those large and small ethnic groups, there must be people who support the Ding clan. Focusing on winning over these ethnic groups, using money and arming them to make them strong in a short period of time, and then suppressing and threatening other ethnic groups, it is still possible to gather considerable strength in a short period of time. ”

Xu Xiang flipped through the information in front of him, frowned, and said: "More importantly, Ding Sheng is entrenched here, and he can also get strong support from Guizhou and Yizhou, it is obvious that the more stable and powerful Ding Sheng's rule here is, the stronger the power, the more we can hold back, for Yizhou and Guizhou, there is no harm." ”

"What did Shi Zhuang say in the report?" Li Ze glanced at You Yong.

"Your Majesty, Shi Zhuang said in the report that at the moment, it is not feasible for a large army to attack Xiangxi." You Yong said: "First, we know very little about the environment and geography of Xiangxi. Second, the traffic in Xiangxi is poor, the supply is difficult, and the army must be fully prepared if it wants to enter, and at present, our preparations are not enough to support our entry into Xiangxi. If you force yourself in, you will suffer an unprecedented defeat. ”

"What's his countermeasure?" Li Ze waved his hand and said.

Shi Zhuang said that at present, above the military, for Xiangxi, we can only carry out a blockade in the general direction to ensure that the enemy in Xiangxi does not pose a threat to other places in Hunan. While trying to run other places in Hunan, slowly figure it out. You Yong continued.

Li Ze was silent for a moment, and then smiled bitterly: "Everyone, now everyone should understand why I am reluctant to launch a thunderous offensive against Hunan and Jiangxi when I have obvious advantages, right?" Because we are not sure that we will annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop, once we let the enemy flee to a place like Xiangxi, it will be a big trouble. And now, such troubles are still in front of us. ”

Tapping on the table with some annoyance, Li Ze continued: "But many of you still think that this time we have taken most of Hunan and Jiangxi is a rare victory. Victory fart? Now Ding Sheng's 50,000 or 60,000 people have fled into Xiangxi, which has changed the balance of power in Xiangxi in one fell swoop. Like Ding Sheng, there is also Qian Shouyi, who fled to Ji'an, didn't the internal guards say that this person had already sent a force into Jinggang Mountain, which is not far from Ji'an? These people, all with the same idea, want to entangle with us to the end. ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, this battle, it looks like we did win, but in the long run, we lost! We're going to wipe out these two teams, and we're going to pay more! ”

"Originally, our strategy was very sound. First make these two places impoverished from the top of the economy, and then use various means to divide, co-opt, and disintegrate, and when the opponent is weak, then gather a large army and destroy it in one fell swoop. It's good now, our own arrangements are not yet in place, and the war has started first. Why couldn't Shi Zhuang gather the main force of the Ding clan, wasn't it because of the lack of troops? ”

"Now it seems that the form is very good, but we have exposed our strength cleanly, not only breaking the courage of Ding Sheng and Qian Shouyi, but also scaring other places. Is it a good thing that the enemy is afraid? Not necessarily, everybody. The result of their fears is the current situation, they will abandon those fat but difficult to defend places, retreat to those poor mountains and bad waters, and take advantage of the harsh natural conditions to entangle with us. When they are afraid, they will be more united and more united against us. We're making things more difficult for ourselves. ”

Inside, everyone bowed their heads.

Li Ze waved his hand a little weakly: "The people from the Military Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Supervision Committee will stay, and the others will disperse, go down and discuss it carefully, how to govern the newly taken place, right?" These places will not be peaceful. As long as Ding Sheng, Qian Shouyi and the others are not exterminated for a day, these places will not be peaceful for a day. ”