The Ming army began to act simultaneously from multiple directions, but Hao Bonian and all the senior generals knew nothing about it, because limited by the limitations of communication means, it took time to transmit information over long distances, and it was impossible to say that it could be achieved in real time.

It is true that the left-behind interception force composed of the First Infantry Corps and the First Cavalry Battalion discovered the movement of the Ming army in the direction of Yizhang and prepared to start an active interception operation against this Ming army, which had a strength of more than 8,000 people, with the intention of annihilating them.

At the same time, the provisional Fourth Regiment also discovered that the Ming army in Chenzhou and nearby areas had moved, and was preparing to carry out relevant interception operations.

At the same time, the main force of the First Infantry Division sent a small reconnaissance and vigilance force to Guiyang Prefecture, the capital of Hengzhou, also discovered that the Ming army in this direction was dispatched, and a small group of reconnaissance and vigilance sent to the direction of Linwu also discovered that the local Ming army was dispatched.

However, the information that the various units were able to obtain was not integrated in a short period of time.

Now, the fast horses sent by various units are still galloping on the field, and Hao Bonian, the commander of the follow-up First Army, can detect the news of simultaneous movements in all directions of the Ming army from the summarized news.

This situation is the same as half a month ago when the Tang Army launched an attack on the Ming army in the southern area of Huguang from many directions, and in the first three or four days, whether it was Zhang Yue or the Ming generals in all directions, they did not know that the Tang Army had launched a general offensive.

It wasn't until about seven or eight days later that Zhang Yuecai, who was in Changsha, learned from the news reported by various units that the Tang Army had launched a general offensive.

However, limited by the lack of reconnaissance methods in these years, the judgment of the Ming army on the number and quantity of the Tang Army in front of them is different, for example, the Ming army in the area of Zhenyuanfu in northeastern Guizhou reported that they were attacked by at least 20,000 pseudo-Tang thief troops, and they were all real thieves.

At the same time, the Ming army on the side of Yongzhou Mansion also reported that they were attacked by at least tens of thousands of pseudo-Tang thief troops, and these pseudo-Tang thief armies were also all real thieves.

As for the Baoqing Mansion, it is also reported that there are at least 20,000 pseudo-Tang thieves approaching.

On the side of Chenzhou and Hengzhou, it was reported that there were at least 50,000 puppet Tang thieves in front of them, and the enemy in front of them was the Puppet Tang First Infantry Division.

After summarizing the reports of various departments, Zhang Yue found that there were 100,000 pseudo-Tang thief troops who launched onslaught on various fronts, and they were all real thieves.

And this is absolutely impossible!

Although there are many puppet Tang thief armies, it is rumored that there are at least 200,000 puppet Tang thief armies in the first half of the year, but in fact, many people know that the number of real thieves in the puppet Tang thief army has always been relatively small, and in the first half of the year, even if the real thief troops in the various puppet Tang thief armies that have been discovered are added, the total number will not exceed 50,000.

Now that only a few months have passed, although the number of true thieves in the puppet Tang thief army may increase significantly, Zhang Yue does not think that there can be 100,000 true thieves in the puppet Tang thief army that attacked Huguang.

You must know that the puppet Tang thief army is not only in Huguang, they need troops to deploy troops in Liangguang, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places.

Therefore, Zhang Yue judged that the total number of pseudo-Tang thief troops attacking Huguang should be almost 100,000, but among the 100,000 pseudo-Tang thief army, it is absolutely impossible for them to be real thieves, and there are only 60,000 or 70,000 real thieves at most.

In fact, Zhang Yue's judgment is still very different!

First of all, the Tang Army that attacked Huguang, and even all the Tang Army today, actually did not have the so-called fake thieves, that is, those garrison troops, robbery camps and other troops, all of them were regular troops.

Secondly, the number is not as much as Zhang Yue expected, and the total number of the entire Tang Army is not 100,000 at present, not to mention that a lot of troops need to be invested in Liangguang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other directions.

The core and main force of the troops attacking Huguang were only two infantry divisions and two provisional regiments, with a strength of about 30,000 troops, and the secondary force was the Second Infantry Division.

Even if the Second Infantry Division is counted, the total strength is just over 40,000, which is very different from the 60,000 or 70,000 that Zhang Yue guessed.

Of course, this can't be blamed on Zhang Yue's misjudgment, but the information he received is like this, even if it is sixty or seventy thousand, he has already shrunk.

Not to mention Zhang Yue, even the generals of the Ming army on the front line have never been able to accurately know how many pseudo-Tang thieves there are in front of them, at most they can get an approximate number, and this approximate number is often thousands of people have become tens of thousands, and tens of thousands have become tens of thousands.

The distortion of the data, the lack of smooth communication, this is the difficulty faced by the Ming army in the early stage, but also forced Zhang Yue to adopt a more cautious response strategy, in the face of calls for help from all directions, he only sent a small part of the troops to increase, and there are only two places for reinforcements, one is the Baoqing Mansion that was attacked by the puppet Tang Chen thieves, although the Tang thieves have not yet killed Shaoyang in Baoqing Mansion, but the importance of Shaoyang is self-evident, so Zhang Yue sent three thousand governors and seven thousand guards to strengthen the defense.

In addition, 3,000 governors and 7,000 guards were sent to Hengyang, the capital of Hengzhou.

These two places, one east and one west, can be said to be the core strategic towns to resist the puppet Tang thief army, and they are also the core support of the point guard Changsha.

But even in these two places, the reinforcements he sent were not much compared to the strategic reserve force in his hands!

In Changsha, he now controls more than 15,000 superintendents and more than 5,000 border troops, in addition to nearly 30,000 guards deployed around Changsha.

That is to say, he still has 50,000 troops in his hands, once he finds the enemy's main attack direction, or if there is a strategic opportunity, then he will line up this force, and strive to defeat the main force of the puppet Tang thief army in one fell swoop, thwart the conspiracy of the puppet Tang thief army to attack Huguang, and at the same time, severely damage the military strength of the puppet Tang Dynasty, and win a big victory in this war against thieves that has lasted for two years.

And now, Zhang Yue has already seen the opportunity, when he received a draft report from the Ming army in the direction of Hengzhou and Chenzhou that more than 10,000 main forces of the puppet Tang thief army in the direction of Chenzhou dared to go deep into Hengzhou alone, and when he learned that the generals of the various troops on the front line were already preparing to launch a siege campaign, he did not hesitate and decisively sent out the last and most powerful strategic reserve in his hand!

A full 10,000 governors and 5,000 border troops, the elite main force of 20,000 plus 20,000 guards are rushing to Hengzhou Mansion.

In this way, coupled with the more than 10,000 troops originally stationed in Hengzhou City and the 10,000 reinforcements sent in the early stage, in the direction of Hengzhou, the Ming army was able to gather more than 60,000 troops, and among them, there were 13,000 governors and 5,000 border troops, among these troops, even the professional cavalry troops were nearly 1,000.

Of course, now that these troops have just left Changsha, it will take a long time to reach Hengzhou!

Hao Bonian also didn't know that his plan to lure the enemy army had already moved almost the entire Ming army in the Huguang area, and the target was his First Infantry Division.

At present, the various units under the First Army are still carrying out the battle plan step by step, and the Third Infantry Division in Jingzhou is rapidly marching towards Baoqing Mansion, and the strategic goal of this division is naturally Shaoyang.

In addition, the provisional first regiment set out from Guilin, and now it has entered Yongzhou Mansion, and successfully captured Ning Yuanwei in the early operation, and will continue to go north to capture Lingling and Qiyang in Yongzhou Mansion, and then bring the entire Yongzhou Mansion under the rule of the Tang Dynasty to cooperate with the Second Infantry Division, the First Infantry Division, and the Provisional Fourth Regiment in the First Army.

If you look at the map, then it can be easily found that the route of the First Army of the Tang Army is actually composed of three arrows, and the First Infantry Division and the Provisional Fourth Regiment launched an attack from Guangdong in the direction of due north, and the goal was Hengzhou.

The 2nd Infantry Division launched an offensive from Jingzhou in a northeasterly direction, targeting Shaoyang.

Once the two forces are able to successfully achieve their goal, then they can join forces and continue the attack towards Changsha.

As for the provisional formation of the first regiment, the arrows are relatively small, and they do not undertake the main assault combat mission, as long as they are to clear the remnants of the Ming army south of Yongzhou Mansion and Shaoyang and Hengzhou.

At the same time, if the first phase of the First Army's operational plan can be successfully completed, then the Ming army's more than 100,000 troops deployed south of Hengzhou and south of Shaoyang will be defeated, and those that are not defeated will also fall into a situation of strategic encirclement.

The battle plan of the First Army is quite obvious, and all the divisions are firmly moving towards the predetermined plan!

At the same time, the battle plan of the Ming army is also quite obvious, that is, to put Shaoyang aside, let the defenders hold on for a few months, and the main force is to attack Hengzhou, and then gather other Ming troops in the Hengzhou area, and first annihilate this main force of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty from the north of Guangdong.

The strategic ideas of both sides are quite obvious, they both want to encircle a certain part of each other's forces, and each side is already executing, but who can encircle whom is not necessarily, and the specific results depend on the front-line troops.

After all, no matter how good the strategic plan is, it is only a pat on the head of the senior generals to come up with it, but the plan may not be successfully implemented, there are too many factors that affect it, such as the gap in the combat effectiveness of the two troops!

The armies of both sides were in motion, and in the process of this movement, the first to engage was not the First Advance Corps and the Ming Army in the Yizhang direction, but the Ming Army and the Provisional Fourth Regiment in the Chenzhou direction.

Although the Provisional Fourth Regiment had no intention of conquering Chenzhou, and their task was only to be responsible for any Ming army that dared to attack Chenzhou, the Ming Army in the direction of Chenzhou wanted to break through the interception of the Provisional Fourth Regiment and then completely cut off the retreat of the First Infantry Division.

And this also means that the battle between the two sides is inevitable, and it will break out quite fiercely in the first place!