As early as when the puppet Tang thief army went north to Guilin, he already realized that once the puppet Tang thief army completely captured Guilin, it would pose a major threat to Jingzhou, and Jingzhou, as a logistics supply base for westward expansion into Xingquan Mansion, could not afford to lose.

So even if the puppet Tang thief army was still in Guilin at that time, he had already sent tens of thousands of troops south to Guilin first, and asked the tens of thousands of Ming troops not to go to the puppet Tang thief army, because he knew that if it was hard, these tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were very likely not to be the opponent of the puppet Tang thief army, so he let the tens of thousands of Ming troops attack the grain route of the puppet Tang thief army and attack the weak point.

He only hopes that the tens of thousands of Ming troops can hold back the puppet Tang thief army, and firmly drag the puppet Tang thief army in Guilin Mansion, and give the main Ming army in Xingquan Mansion enough time to seize Xingquan Mansion and encircle and annihilate the puppet Tang thief army in Xingquan Mansion.

The battle situation in the early stage was indeed the same development as he expected, and after the tens of thousands of Ming troops were dispatched, the puppet Tang thief army in the Guilin area was tired of coping with it, and it was unable to go north at all.

However, now, these pseudo-Tang thieves suddenly appeared in Jingzhou, the reason for this situation is nothing more than two possibilities, one is that the puppet Tang thief army in Guilin area regardless of the back road, directly north, and this possibility is not large, because in this case, their back road may be cut off by their own army, when the time comes, these pseudo-Tang thief army let alone march into Jingzhou to relieve the siege of Xingquan Mansion, I am afraid that they will fall into the heavy encirclement of their own army.

You must know that the Jingzhou area, as an important logistics base for the Huguangming Army, is naturally not empty, on the contrary, it is still a heavy gathering of troops, and there are tens of thousands of troops in the city of Jingzhou.

Judging from the fact that the puppet Tang thief army was hesitant in Guilin before, the commander of this puppet Tang thief army should not be such a stunned young man, and he will go north directly regardless of it.

The second possibility is that the puppet Tang thief army in Guilin has been reinforced, and after receiving reinforcements, the puppet Tang thief army has left some people to maintain the grain route and part of it to go north.

This possibility is also the greatest, the puppet Tang thief army has a lot of troops, it has long been said that the puppet Tang thief army has more than 100,000 troops, even if many puppet Tang thief troops have gone to Guangdong now, but the thief army that stays in Guangxi will still not be less.

Thinking of the increase in troops of the puppet Tang thief army in Guilin, and the possibility of continuing to increase troops in the future, Zhang Yue was deeply helpless.

If you want to exterminate the puppet Tang thief army, I am afraid that it will not be possible to rely on the land of the four provinces alone, not to mention that in the land of these four provinces, in fact, most of Guizhou, all of Guangxi and half of Guangdong have fallen into the hands of the puppet Tang thief army, even if he Zhang Yue has three heads and six arms, he will not be able to recruit troops from these places.

Now the only thing he can rely on is Huguang.

Fortunately, Huguang is a big province, and it is ruthless, and it can also make up a lot of troops, but now it seems that it is okay to maintain the current situation by relying on Huguang's troops, but if you want to enter Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong, I am afraid that it is unlikely, and it is better to ask for help from Nanzhili, Jiangnan, Fujian and other provinces, so that they can send troops as soon as possible.

The encirclement and suppression of the puppet Tang Dynasty is no longer something that can be done by one province or even four provinces, and it is necessary to let the imperial court gather the troops of the whole country, and it is best to transfer the border troops to the south, so that nothing goes wrong.

I just don't know when the imperial court will be able to send the border army south!

Thinking of this, Zhang Yue sighed a little, mobilizing more provinces, and even the border army to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the puppet Tang thief army, this is no longer something he can decide, he can only report to the Beijing Division, let the bigwigs in the Beijing Division make a decision, for now, he should do his own thing.

Since the puppet Tang thief army has come to Jingzhou, it is natural that the puppet Tang thief army will not be allowed to successfully seize Jingzhou, in this case, the more than 50,000 troops that have entered Xingquan Mansion will fall into the counter-encirclement, and under the cut off of grain and grass, not only the 50,000 army, but even the 500,000 army will collapse.

Therefore, Zhang Yue soon ordered the defenders of Jingzhou to stick to the spot, and gave a death order, once Jingzhou was lost, the officials in the city would be beheaded regardless of military force, and if they dared to surrender to the thieves, they would be exterminated.

Because there were many civil and military officials in Guizhou, Guangxi and other provinces who had been thieves before, especially officials whose families were already in these two provinces, there was no psychological pressure at all when they were thieves, which made Zhang Yue also change his decision.

First of all, he transferred all officials from Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong to other provinces, so as to prevent them from surrendering to thieves before the battle. He used workarounds, such as delegating other dispatches to Nanzhili and the Jiangnan region, or, for example, purchasing military rations, requesting reinforcements, and so on.

The team that went to Nanzhili to purchase military rations was full of more than 30 people, all civil and military officials from the three provinces!

The generals who served as the commanders of the front-line troops and the civilian officials in several areas that were frequently on the front line were all from other provinces, not even from Huguang, and at the same time, they were all from big families and a bunch of relatives and friends behind them.

In Zhang Yue's opinion, such a person will have scruples, and when facing the heavy pressure of the pseudo-Tang thief army, he will carry it to the end, and he will not dare to surrender to the thief at will.

Because the thief means that the whole family behind him will be exterminated by the imperial court.

If they can't join the thief, then they can only defend it, because if they can't keep it, they themselves will die.

In Zhang Yue's opinion, the puppet Tang thief army can hold on to Xingquanfu City for several months with only 4,000 remnants, and he has deployed tens of thousands of troops in Jingzhou, so how can he defend it for ten days and half a month!

And with this time, he will be able to continue to send troops back to Jingzhou, and when the time comes, maybe he will be able to counter-encircle and defeat these pseudo-Tang thief troops who dare to enter Jingzhou.

Therefore, Zhang Yue ordered the defenders of Jingzhou to defend to the death, and at the same time, he also sent fast horses to Xingquan Mansion, so that the army stationed in Xingquan Mansion would send at least 10,000 people back to Jingzhou.

As for himself, he continued to sit in the hinterland of Huguang and continued to search for troops to prepare for reinforcements in Jingzhou.

Jingzhou must not afford to be lost!

When Zhang Yue was dispatching troops, Chen Keqiao also led the troops to run wildly, and after taking the city, the main force of the Fourth Army did not stop at all, but continued to move towards Suining.

The army ran wildly all the way, and it didn't take a few days to arrive at the city, but after arriving there, they found that the number of Ming troops here was not large, at most a few hundred.

Seven or eight thousand troops attacked the city, and it took half a day to completely take the city, but when the siege was fighting, Chen Keqiao found that although the Ming army here was small in number and poor in combat effectiveness, there would also be a surrender, but they were all soldiers and low-level officers who surrendered spontaneously, but none of those middle and senior officers and civilian officials surrendered, and a very few fought to the death, many committed suicide, and some escaped.

There is no one who surrenders and is willing to be a prisoner, let alone surrender to Datang, and from then on become a part of Datang anyway!

At this time, he also thought of the previous attack on Chengbu, and it seemed that he did not catch the middle and senior officers and civilian prisoners of the Ming army, which seemed to be a little wrong!

With suspicion, Chen Keqiao interrogated some of the low-level officers and officials of the defenders in the city, only to find out that many middle and high-ranking officials in the city were from other provinces who were temporarily transferred, and clearly ordered that once the officials surrendered to thieves, they would be exterminated.

And the city also had more troops before, but it was suddenly transferred two days ago.

After hearing this, Chen Keqiao said: "This Zhang Yue is smart, using outsiders to lead the troops, and his heart is ruthless!" ”

At this time, the adjutant on the side said: "General, now that the puppet Ming has transferred the troops of the city, I am afraid that this will be transferred to Jingzhou, so that when we go to attack Jingzhou, I am afraid that we will encounter some trouble!" ”

But Chen Keqiao smiled slightly after hearing this, and then said: "Who said that this official is going to fight Jingzhou, this Jingzhou is the rear of the puppet Ming thief army, you don't need to think about it, you must be a heavy army, we are going to attack Jingzhou is to gnaw hard bones, it will take a long time not to say, and I don't know if we can take it!" ”

"Don't fight Jingzhou? Aren't we trying to outflank the back of the puppet thief army? The major next to him didn't understand Chen Keqiao's thoughts, before their Fourth Army rushed all the way to Jingzhou, anyone who saw it would guess that Chen Keqiao was going to fight Jingzhou!

At this time, Chen Keqiao said: "Who said that if you outflank the Ming army, you must attack Jingzhou, Xingquanfu City is such a long way from Jingzhou Prefecture, this official can cut off the connection between the two places at any time, as long as the connection between Xingquan Mansion and the Ming army in Jingzhou is cut off, this official does not believe that the tens of thousands of pseudo-Ming thieves in Xingquan Mansion can still besiege Xingquan Mansion safely!" ”

"As soon as the food and salary are cut off, the 50,000 puppet thieves are probably going to be in a big mess, and they will definitely have to withdraw when the time comes!"

"It's just that if you retreat, the 50,000 thieves of Xingquan Mansion will retreat, and the pressure on our side will not be small!"

Chen Keqiao glanced at his adjutant, and his eyes were the same as looking at an idiot: "Who told you that you must resist them, we won't leave if they retreat?" ”

After speaking, he sighed a little, his captain adjutant said that he had entered the Imperial Academy, and he had been a staff officer in the Operations Department for a period of time, but his brain was a little unbright, and it is estimated that he still doesn't know what the combat mission of the Fourth Army is.

His Fourth Army went north, what was the main task, was to conquer Jingzhou? Hit the hinterland of Huguang? Yes, but these are not the most important combat missions of the Fourth Army at the moment.

The most important task of his Fourth Army now is to cooperate with the Second Army to rescue the Fourth Infantry Regiment, and under this strategic need, what his Fourth Army has to do is to contain more Ming troops and force the Ming Army to withdraw from Xingquanfu.

To some extent, this is a very simple plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao!