The Yizhang Eight Thousand Ming Army, which was deeply surrounded by the Tang Army on three sides, was actually doomed from the time they discovered the First Regiment of the Tang Army and related troops.

Although the total strength of the Datang Army, which surrounds them on three sides, is only about 5,000 people, you must know that among these 5,000 people, the core of the First Infantry Corps is a well-deserved trump card unit among all the Tang Army.

They have the first cavalry battalion, the only full-fledged cavalry battalion in the entire Tang Army, with a complete four cavalry teams, a total of more than 400 cavalry, generally equipped with Mongolian horses captured from the Ming army or recruited from the people.

Two field artillery corps and one baggage battalion are all formed units in the First Infantry Division, and these units are basically one of the earliest units established by the Tang Army, whose history can be traced back to the Huangzhushan era.

They are the most well-equipped in the Tang Army, the earliest time to build the army, and thanks to the Tang Army and the Ming Army in the previous battles, the proportion of casualties suffered is relatively small, and in the past many battles, the main body of casualties is still the garrison army, the casualties of the regular army are actually very small, small casualties, which also means that the Tang Army can continue to let the soldiers get time to continue to grow, because as long as there are no casualties, they will continue to train, and absorb the valuable experience of previous operations.

A small number of these soldiers even began to join the army in the second year of Anjian, that is, in the era of Huangzhushan, and most of them joined the army in the first year of Xuanping, that is, the year when the Tang Dynasty walked out of the mountains and captured Xingquan Mansion.

In other words, except for the Third Infantry Regiment, most of the officers and men of the First Infantry Division have been in the army for at least one year, and even a considerable number of officers and men have been in the army for more than two years.

After two years of training and frequent battles, the comprehensive quality of these soldiers has surpassed the whole army!

In the face of such an opponent, the fate of Yizhang's 8,000 Ming Army has long been doomed!

Because the 5,000 people under Sun Shuangxi's command, let alone in the siege campaign, even if it is a frontal confrontation, it is enough to resist three or four times or even more of the Ming army's guards, if it is a defensive operation, even if the Ming army has weapons or even more troops, it is difficult to shake their defensive front.

So there were no surprises in the ensuing battle!

At noon, after the passage back to Yizhang was blocked, Yizhang's 8,000 Ming troops began to turn around and flee to the northeast, trying to kill a bloody road and go to Chenzhou to find a way to survive, and then the first cavalry battalion decisively intercepted the Ming army, although the terrain was not flat enough to allow the soldiers of the first cavalry battalion to launch a cavalry charge, but the soldiers of the first cavalry battalion chose to dismount and fight, and the more than 400 cavalry instantly became 400 musketeers!

After being intercepted by the cavalry of the puppet Tang thief army, and intercepted with muskets, those Ming troops thought that they were intercepted by the main infantry of the puppet Tang thief army, so they didn't have the heart to attack at all, but chose to retreat!

About an hour later, an infantry battalion of the 1st Infantry Corps quickly followed and entered the battlefield from due north!

At the same time, more than 1,000 other Tang troops in the northwest also arrived and entangled the Ming army!

Half an hour later, the last 2,000 or so main forces of the First Advance Corps arrived, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle more than 20 miles away from Yizhang.

However, the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides was not so easy to offset, so after only half an hour of fighting, the Ming army had already suffered heavy casualties, and finally the Ming army in despair began to split, some Ming troops began to disperse and break through, while some Ming troops simply chose to surrender.

If you can't fight, you will surrender, this is already the common choice of many Ming troops in the war between the Ming army and the Tang army in the past two years, because they know that after surrendering to the Tang army, the big deal is to be a coolie, but their lives can be saved.

From this, it can be seen that the policy of preferential treatment of prisoners of war adhered to by the Tang Army in the past two years has had a considerable effect on dividing the Ming army.

If the Tang army had killed prisoners of war on a large scale every time, their will to resist would have been greatly enhanced, knowing that they would not survive if they surrendered.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, this ambush battle, which was still planned, finally came to an end, and even the pursuing cavalry units returned!

With the strong cavalry unit of the 1st Cavalry Battalion, those Ming troops who wanted to escape could not escape at all, and those Ming troops who wanted to flee finally either died under the swords of the cavalry, or succumbed to the hooves of the cavalry and chose to surrender.

In this battle, only a few hundred Ming troops took advantage of the chaos to escape, and the rest of the Ming troops were either killed or wounded or taken prisoner!

And the 5,000 army commanded by Sun Shuangxi only suffered dozens of casualties, of course, in fact, the casualties of the Ming army were not large, because they did not resist much at all, either they chose to flee, or they chose to surrender, or they surrendered after the failure of the escape, and the actual casualties were less than 1,000.

However, what gave Sun Shuangxi a headache was that after cleaning up the battlefield, it was difficult to deal with the newly captured 7,000 prisoners of war who were more than his total strength.

If it was in the era when the garrison army still existed in the past, it would be enough to simply select them and then reorganize them into a garrison army, but the current garrison army no longer exists, and even if these prisoners of war want to join the Tang Army, they have to be selected, and then go through at least a month of recruit training like ordinary recruits.

According to the prescribed procedure, these prisoners of war should first be selected by the officers of the War Department, and then select the outstanding ones to enter the new barracks, those who voluntarily surrendered but did not meet the standards to join the cantonment regiment, and those who were unwilling to surrender were sent to the prisoner of war camps.

However, now Sun Shuangxi is on a mission, and he doesn't have so much time to wait for the people from the War Department to choose slowly, and then escort these prisoners to different places.

He also needs to take the troops to transfer as soon as possible, he has already received information before, saying that there are thousands of Ming troops in the west of Yizhang, and it is very likely that they will appear from Linwu to reinforce Yizhang's troops, and he wants to take the troops to another ambush battle, and kill the thousands of Ming troops who came from Linwu, and then slowly clean up the Ming army in Yizhang City!

So, he didn't have time to deal with these captives slowly, not a day!

In the end, after discussing with the officials of the War Department who came with the army, he decided to take temporary measures first, that is, the Tang Army only left a mere 100 troops, and it was also a baggage force to escort them, and escort them back to the rear until the rear troops took over.

Anyway, these prisoners of war have all been disarmed, and in order to prevent them from rioting, their hands have already been tied together, and they have been trained into a string, let alone rebellion, even if they want to escape, they can't escape.

Moreover, those middle and senior officers in the Ming army have already been sent out alone, and it is very difficult for those ordinary soldiers to do anything if they are not connected in tandem.

As for Sun Shuangxi, he will take the main force to act as soon as possible, rush to the west of Yizhang City, and have another ambush battle, if the ambush war can't be fought, he will fight a frontal interception battle, in short, Sun Shuangxi can't let these Linwu Ming troops enter Yizhang City.

Sun Shuangxi's detachment moved again, leaving only a small group of baggage soldiers in the same place, guarding the Ming army captives of 7,000 people who were tied up in strings and rushed back to the south.

In the rear, they will be picked up by recruits from the 1st Replenishment Brigade and will be responsible for the subsequent handling of prisoners of war.

Sun Shuangxi's detachment, on the other hand, bypassed the small county seat of Yizhang at high speed, and once again appeared to the west of Yizhang County, and fought a rather hurried interception operation about seven miles west of Yizhang County.

In this battle, about 5,000 Ming troops reinforced from Linwu faced the blow of the main force of Sun Shuangxi's detachment of 5,000 people, and they also failed to hold out for long before they quickly collapsed.

After winning this battle, Sun Shuangxi did not hesitate to launch a strong attack on Yizhang City!

Bombardment, planting explosives to blow up the city wall, and then using heavy infantry to launch a strong attack, this is also the old routine of the Tang Army attacking the city, although the routine is very old, but the Ming army in the city is already panicked.

They all knew about the two battles that broke out outside the city, that is to say, they watched the Ming army with a total of more than 13,000 people rout one after another, and now, there are less than 4,000 Ming troops left in the city, and many of them are recruited young people.

The combat effectiveness is low, the morale is close to nothing, such a 4,000 defenders in the face of the onslaught of the wolf-like Sun Shuangxi detachment, Yizhang City only held on for two days is no longer able to support, in the face of the city wall was blasted, the heavy infantry of the pseudo-Tang thief army climbed the danger of the city, the Ming army in the city was desperate, and many Ming troops chose to surrender to save their lives.

On December 28th, Yizhang, the southernmost bridgehead of the Ming Army, was officially declared lost and fell into the hands of the Tang Army.

After capturing Yizhang, Sun Shuangxi's detachment only rested for a day, and then handed over Yizhang and more than 6,000 prisoners to a battalion of recruits from the 1st Supplementary Brigade who escorted the arrival of the 4th Transport Regiment.

Immediately, Sun Shuangxi led the troops to the north!

Hao Bonian had already sent him an order before, asking him to end the battle of Yizhang as soon as possible, and then go north and return to the combat sequence of the headquarters of the First Infantry Division!

Because in Hengzhou, there is a big war of unprecedented scale waiting for them!