"I think he's most likely to be the same as you," Zhu Yujia scratched his head and pointed to the town of Gula on the map.

"From here, through this valley straight into Luwei, out of Gantang, along the Gantang River all the way to the west, across the Yujiang River to the eastern suburbs of Nanning...... The other road, from Binyang directly over the ancient mountain, although it is closer, but not only must overcome the Kunlun Pass, but also the mountain road is narrow and difficult to walk, which is a test for his baggage team...... According to reconnaissance, this time his main force brought a lot of artillery. ”

"Yes, my tactical vision has improved."

Lin Xiao happily approved, "However, this road also has an advantage, that is, there is no need to cross the river, and it cannot be completely ruled out...... We are not roundworms in Kong Youde's stomach, and we can't know for sure what he thinks, but we can ask Jun into the urn and lure him to follow our preset route. ”

"Yes, Captain," Zhu Yujia said, pointing to a place on the map,

"If we send a cavalry forward to the area of the bridge to block his advances, without annihilating them, we only need to hold out for a day, and when his main force arrives, pretend to be invincible, fight and retreat, and lead them into the valley, will they chase them all the way?"

"Good idea. But," Lin Xiao pondered for a moment and said,

"We can't underestimate Kong Youde, this person is brave and cunning, and he still has a way of fighting. In case he doesn't take the bait, no matter if we continue to go to Binyang and go to Kunlun Pass, then we can only chase his ass in the mountains and beat him, so it will be difficult to completely annihilate him. ”

"Besides...... In case he breaks the tail of a gecko and leaves the defenders desperately to kill Nanning regardless of casualties, then our strategy will fail. ”

"What then?" Zhu Yujia frowned and said blankly.

"This ...... Leave it alone, the mountain people have their own tricks. ”

Lin Xiao smiled and said in a chattering voice, "Even if he is virtuous and treacherous, he can't help it." ”

"But Kong Youde has so many people, even if he takes the bait, it will be difficult to wipe them all out, tomorrow you go to the valley with me to take a good look at the terrain, I have already informed Ding Shuai, and he will also rush to the valley tomorrow...... We must design it well, and we must make this valley his burial place. Lin Xiao said sneeringly.

"Okay...... Seems like the rain has stopped? It's not early, Captain, let's rest for a while. ”

"Don't worry, go, follow me to check the outpost, and rest after the check." Lin Xiao stood up, tied up his armed belt, and said with a straight face.

……

On the official road south of Liuzhou to Penn (that is, the area around present-day Laibin City), Kong Youde's army was also marching in the rain.

It is said to be an official road, but in fact it is still in a hilly area deep in the mountains, and the road conditions are not good, and the annoying winter rain infiltrates, and the stream water rises sharply, which makes it even more difficult to walk.

Kong Youde, who was sitting in the bumpy troika, lifted the curtain behind him, and glanced at the soldiers behind him who were marching hard with a bitter face and a deep foot and a shallow foot in the drizzle, and his face became more and more gloomy......

Kong Youde, who personally led the army this time, was very unhappy for three reasons:

The first reason is that Qu Shiyun and Zhang Tongchang were inexplicably robbed.

Kong Youde sent people to track all the way overnight but did not see anyone, and it was not until he received a report from the remnants of Yongfu two days later that he knew that Qu Shiyun had been robbed and went to Liuzhou and Nanning.

The duck in his hand flew away, Kong Youde was furious, and immediately ordered Zhu Hengxi, the king of Jingjiang of the Ming Dynasty, to be executed to vent his anger.

Secondly, this time the king of Sanshun was ordered to march south, which was originally run by Kong Youde in Fujian, and Shang Kexi was happy to attack Guangxi, but the treacherous Shang Kexi felt that Guangxi was located in a remote area and the situation was complicated and shirked in every way.

Kong Youde had no choice but to take the initiative to ask for help, led an army of 20,000 to Guangxi, and asked to bring his family to guard to show his loyalty, and along the way to recruit surrender and rebellion was also smooth, not only conquered Guilin, an important town in northern Guizhou, as scheduled, but also quickly expanded the army to more than 50,000 people.

On the one hand, the Qing court Dolgon named him the king of Dingnan to show his encouragement, but on the other hand, he made Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao go west out of Wuzhou and go straight to Nanning.

Third, after the capture of Guilin this time, his cronies looked like a strong crossbow, and it took more than a month to defeat the Yunnan army Hu Yiqing and Zhao Yinxuan's troops to take Liuzhou, and the speed of the march was not as fast as the miscellaneous general Ma Jiaolin, who led the lone army.

Kong Youde angrily reprimanded his subordinates several times to no avail, seeing that the credit was about to be snatched away by Shang Kexi, he had to angrily go south to supervise the war, he left more than 8,000 people in Guilin, and Liuzhou just taken only left only 2,000 people, the nearby states and counties were stationed in a total of less than 10,000 people, and the remaining main force of more than 35,000 elite people all went south, he vowed to take Nanning in one fell swoop with a thunderous momentum, and capture Zhu Youlang alive.

After starting from Liuzhou, the army marching in the rain was exhausted by the muddy roads, especially the red-clothed cannons, which weighed thousands of catties, and the marching speed was as slow as a snail along the way, and even several horses were exhausted, and many baggage vehicles were also stuck in the mud and could not move.

Since the Qing Dynasty, Kong Youde was incorporated into the Han military camp of the Red Banner, commonly known as the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, the original strength under his command was only 7,500 people, before the southern expedition, the Qing court supplemented him with some green battalion soldiers, full of 20,000 people, all the way to recruit rebels, after the expansion of the army, the strength soared to more than 50,000 people, of which the main force of the field has more than 38,000 people such as the forward battalion, the cavalry battalion, the infantry battalion, the firearms battalion, the guard battalion, the artillery battalion, and the artillery and iron shield battalion.

Among them, the forward battalion and the cavalry battalion were mainly light cavalry armed with muskets and sabers, and each battalion was mixed with the Manchurian cavalry who supervised the battle, and there were 300 people in a bull and a cow; The infantry battalion is mainly equipped with swords, guns, shields, bows and arrows, while the firearms battalion is fully equipped with bird guns and various types of light artillery; The soldiers of the artillery battalion and the iron shield battalion are equipped with leather, cotton armor and steel shields, and are equipped with hundreds of artillery, of which there are more than 60 red-coated cannons ranging from thousands of catties to 10,000 catties, and the rest are slightly smaller copper cannons and tiger squat cannons.

Because when he first attacked Guilin three years ago, he was frightened by the artillery bombardment of the Guilin defenders under Qu Shiyun, so that he was defeated and retreated to the south of the lake at that time, so Kong Youde must carry huge artillery from now on whenever he attacks the city, and this time he wants to attack Nanning City must be a vicious battle, and no matter how difficult the mountain road is, he must carry the cannon with him.

Seeing that the army finally walked out of the mountains and passed through Phoenix Town, and the area in front of Penn was a plain area, Kong Youde ordered the army to speed up, stay in Penn tonight, and continue to hurry tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, Kong Youde urged the army to continue south from Pennsylvania, which was another difficult road, until in the afternoon the army finally walked out of the mountains to the area of Xiaopingyang.

The front all the way to Binyang and Wuling is a plain area, Kong Youde, who was sitting in the carriage, took a long breath, and was thinking about which road to Nanning was better to walk, and suddenly heard that the Chinese army outside the window of the car came to report: "Lord Qiqi, the forward came to report, saying that General Liu was blocked in Yangqiao Town and was blocked by a Ming army." ”