In the end, Li Xuan did not choose to let the Second Army attack the Huangzhou defense line at the first time, in that case, the fight would definitely be defeated, but the casualties were huge!

Li Xuan also did not let the Fifth Army reinforce the Second Army, and then attack the Huangzhou defense line head-on, which would make no sense, because there would also be huge casualties.

Now that the Tang Dynasty has many strategic advantages, there is no need for Li Xuan to fight to the death with the 50,000 superintendent left army for a Huangzhou defense line!

He didn't even adopt another battle plan proposed by the Operations Department of the Tang Privy Council, that is, he chose to let the Second Army bypass the Huangzhou Defense Line, and then let the Fifth Army step forward to fill the vacancy in the Huangzhou Defense Line and contain the 50,000 Ming troops in the Huangzhou Defense Line.

He adopted another backup plan proposed by the War Department, that is, to use the Fifth Army of the Strategic Reserve to bypass the Huangzhou defense line, seize the northern area of Huanggang County, and carry out a jump attack, so as to strategically encircle the Ming army in the Huangzhou defense line!

Since the Left Army of the Governor Biao intends to defend Huangzhou to the death, then Li Xuan also intends to take advantage of the situation to encircle and annihilate them!

You must know that the main goal of the second phase of the southwest campaign of the Tang Dynasty is not to capture a certain place or how many places to capture, but to leave behind the more than 100,000 main forces of the superintendent in the Huguang area.

And this is also the reason why the Second Infantry Division of the First Army rushed to Jingzhou!

Because once Jingzhou was successfully captured and the resistance of the Governor Ming army to Jingzhou was blocked, it would be equivalent to imprisoning 100,000 Governor Ming troops in the Hubei region north of the Yangtze River.

But now the Ming army on the front line of Huangzhou has chosen to defend Huangzhou, so Li Xuan sees a second choice!

That is to annihilate the main force of this overseer first!

That's 50,000 Governor Ming Army, almost half of the main force of the Ming Army in Hubei, as long as they are annihilated, they will have a huge strategic advantage for the Tang Dynasty Division!

Because at that time, they will have the advantage of strength for the first time!

It is not a local superiority in troops, but an all-round superiority in troops on the entire Hubei battlefield!

At that time, no matter how Zhang Yue resisted, in the face of absolute strength, any resistance was doomed to be futile!

That's why Li Xuan let the Fifth Army take the risk of landing in Tuanfeng!

Once the plan is successful, they will completely surround the left army of the governor, which is the absolute main force of the governor of more than 50,000 people, if Zhang Yue is willing to give up this army, sit back and watch the left army be surrounded and annihilated, and do not send troops from Hanyang to rescue, then Li Xuan will admit it, and then he will play hard with the remaining main force of the governor, even if it is smashed with cannonballs, and the lives of the soldiers are consumed, he will also take Hubei before the rainy season in the spring and summer of next year, and then march into Sichuan.

The backup plan put forward by the War Department was almost the same as the blitzkrieg attack on Huangzhou by the First Infantry Division of the First Army, which was to take advantage of the strategic superiority of the Yangtze River Fleet and select the rear of the Ming Army to carry out landing operations.

It's just that the 1st Infantry Division at that time failed and was finally forced to retreat, and now, will the 5th Army be able to succeed?

Li Xuan doesn't know!

But then again, even if it doesn't succeed, it's nothing, it's a big deal to retreat and then implement the alternative plan, directly strengthen the Fifth Army to the Second Army, and let the Fifth Army and the Second Army attack the Dubiao Left Army on the front line of Huangzhou head-on, he doesn't believe it, the two armies add up to nearly 90,000 people, and they can't take this Huangzhou in a short time!

In any case, it is necessary to create pressure on the Ming army and open the current stalemate.

In order to ensure that all units of the First Army, especially the Second Infantry Division, can smoothly carry out the Jingzhou Campaign and finally capture it!

And then completely block the possibility of the main force of the superintendent to retreat to Sichuan!

If it weren't for the tight capacity and the distance was too far, Li Xuan planned to send the Fifth Army directly to Jingzhou, but unfortunately it was too far away, and the navy could not guarantee the supply of too many troops, and an infantry division was basically the limit.

But no matter what, Li Xuan wants to leave Zhang Yue's main force behind!

After Li Xuan made a decision, Lieutenant General Chen Keqiao quickly led the soldiers of the Fifth Army to set off!

In fact, although Chen Keqiao's men are still in Jiujiang, in fact, his Fifth Army, as the strategic reserve of the whole army, although some troops are in Jiujiang, but they are only part of the troops, and in fact, many units of the Fifth Army have already penetrated deep into the front line.

The 11th Infantry Division of the Fifth Army is currently deployed in Wuchang County, south of the Huangzhou Prefecture and on the south bank of the Yangtze River (the ancient Wuchang County, renamed Shouchang County after the Republic of China two years later, and Wuchang County renamed from Jiangxia County).

The 12th Infantry Division, the other main force of the Fifth Army, was to be deployed further back in Qizhou.

After Chen Keqiao took most of the troops directly under the Fifth Army to the west by boat, his troops were also activated one after another!

Under the cover of the Navy's Yangtze River Fleet, they will launch a landing directly on the rear of the Huangzhou defense line, in the Tuanfeng area.

This operation, like the previous ones, relied heavily on the strength of the navy!

Whether it is crossing the river to attack or supply and transportation, it is inseparable from the help of the navy.

This time, although the protagonist is the Tang Army, the operation of the Navy cannot be ignored!

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Southwest Campaign, thoroughly control the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, cover the army's various landing operations, and maintain the supply lines of the Yangtze River waterway, the navy has also made a bloody effort.

A few months earlier, inland river warships were transferred from all over the country, and all of them were strengthened to the Yangtze River Fleet!

At present, the main fleet of the Yangtze River Fleet is all concentrated in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the navy reports that it has transferred a total of 38 first-class inland river warships, 87 B-class inland river warships, and 140 C-class inland river warships in this battle.

There are more than 250 river warships in pure combat alone!

In addition, the Navy's Logistics Department has dispatched about 100 inland waterway transport vessels of various types.

And these are still the active warships of the Navy, in fact, it is not the transport ships of the Navy that undertake the transport task, but the transport fleet of the Logistics Department of the Privy Council!

This time, in addition to the more than 100 inland river vessels owned by the Logistics Department, almost all the inland river transport vessels on the Yangtze River were recruited, and the total number of these civilian ships combined exceeded 1,500!

Although it is said that the vast majority of these transport ships are small ships of only a few tons or ten tons, and the number of transport ships of more than fifty tons will not exceed one percent!

But these small boats still make a huge difference!

They traveled to and from the Yangtze River waterway, transporting troops for the Tang Dynasty Division, and transporting all kinds of supplies and supplies!

Without the large number of transport ships of the Logistics Department and the full assistance of the Navy, the Southwest Campaign would not have been able to unfold so smoothly.

It also officially relied on the Yangtze River waterway to launch a campaign of more than 100,000 troops from its own army, thousands of miles away from its own core ruling area and thousands of miles away from the ordnance production base!

Maritime transport and river transport are the two major arteries that maintain the economic operation of Datang and the military operation of Datang, both of which are indispensable!

With such a significant investment in resources, the Tang Dynasty must see the results in the Southwest Campaign, eliminate the Governor, seize Hubei, and march into Sichuan, which is the goal of the early and middle stages of the Southwest Campaign.

And the later goal is to completely include the entire southwest region, including Yunnan and Sichuan!

The Fifth Army set off, and the Second Army also received an urgent decree from Li Xuan, in which Li Xuan agreed to Wang Chaohong's proposal to extend the time, and informed Wang Chaohong of the latest battle plan, hoping that they would cooperate with the Fifth Army, and then completely surround and annihilate the 50,000 puppet Ming thief army on the front line of Huangzhou.

After seeing this holy decree, the commander of the second army, Wang Chaohong, also breathed a sigh of relief, what he was most afraid of was that the Holy Son of Heaven let his troops increase their strength to attack, and carry out a strong attack at all costs, although it is the duty of a soldier to persuade to obey the order, and it is the glory of a soldier to fight to the death for His Majesty, but it is naturally the best thing to be able to destroy the enemy at the smallest cost.

After getting the permission of the relaxed time, Wang Chaohong also made up his mind not to fight hard with these Ming Dynasty, and continued to use stupid, but very effective methods, to crush their resistance step by step.

So the Second Army suddenly became a combination of sappers and artillery!

At all times, artillery was firing, rumbling cannons continued to sound, and a large number of sappers incarnated by ordinary infantry began to dig trenches with iron pickaxes and other tools.

Then use the trenches to approach, throw grenades, arrange 24-pound howitzers to shoot closely, or simply pull 5-pound field guns over and aim directly at the fortress of the Governor's army for shelling.

Although they were blocked for eight days at that time, in fact, they completely conquered the Qishui fortress with only more than 500 casualties, and at the same time annihilated at least 2,000 people.

It can be said that it is very rare to be able to have such a casualty ratio in a frontal battle.

In fact, Wang Chaohong also thought about it, simply let the troops launch a bayonet charge, although the opposite governor relied on the fortress to resist, but in fact, their firepower density was average, if Wang Chaohong made up his mind, he was 100% sure, at most three days, maybe one day, he led the army to kill it completely.

But if you do this, the casualties of the soldiers will increase dramatically, and the number of deaths of a few thousand is estimated to be the least!

After all, the 50,000 soldiers are not stupid, they will not stand still and let you cut it, they will fight back, use various methods to fight back, not to mention anything else, this charge is time, people's shotguns come towards your charging phalanx, and it is normal to kill and wound more than a dozen people.

A solid shell hits, bounces a few more times, and half of the infantry team can be directly reimbursed!

Thanks to the surging development of firearms in the Tang Dynasty, the firearms supervised by others are not bad, there are not many large-caliber artillery, but there is not much shortage of shotguns, five-pound field guns and arquebuses of different calibers.

In order to avoid casualties, the Second Army played civil engineering operations, gradually advancing by constantly digging trenches, throwing grenades, approaching artillery bombardment, etc.!

This style of play of the Second Army also made the Left Army of the Governor on the opposite side very uncomfortable!