The city of Wuchang Mansion is high and cool in autumn. Under today's clear sky, the north wind is swaying, and the water surface of the river is misty.

The British public Zhang Fu, who is in his thirties, is riding on the bank of the Ma River. At this moment, he couldn't help but look up to the wind and look at the vast fleet of ships on the river. The main fleet of the Daming Water Division, which was transferred from the upper reaches of the river, went south from Wuchang Mansion downwind; The bulging sails are full of grace, like a piece of white clouds.

There were drums and military music in the water, mixed with the "whooshing" sound of the wheels and the sound of the water, and the momentum was very majestic.

On the south bank of the river, on the wide plain between the river and the lake, a queue of foot riders is marching south in several parallel ways. From a distance, several armies looked like long dragons on the earth.

Zhang Fu looked back at Wuchang City, and could still see that there were men and horses marching to the east outside the city gate; It was a group of people who were transferred to Jiujiang Mansion and went south to Nanchang Mansion after meeting with the reinforcements from the direction of Jingshi.

"The Holy Emperor has awarded Zhang Dashuai a million male soldiers, and the marshal will dominate the lake and make the rebels disappear in a snap of his fingers!" The ministry will flatter.

Zhang Fu made a voice to indicate that he had heard, but he did not speak, still looking at the situation of the land and water armies. However, he didn't blame his subordinates for sloppy slapping horses, maybe he was so open-minded that he didn't pay attention to the expression on his face.

A million soldiers is an exaggeration, but it's not much!

After Zhang Fu arrived at Wuchang Mansion, the administrative office of Huguang Province, it took him a while to get a general understanding of where and how many soldiers and horses he controlled. Counting the men and horses of the South Road under the command of Wu Gao, the Ming army stationed in Jiaozhi Province, and the main fleet of the Daming Naval Division, the total strength of the land and water under Zhang Fu is about 700,000 people!

In any case, Zhang Fu finally got his wish and got the military power of the general of Pinghan. Now most of the soldiers and horses that the Ming Dynasty can mobilize to Huguang and other places are in his hands. As long as he wins this battle, he will be the number one military minister of the current imperial court, and there is no second one who can compare!

And his opponent is Zhu Gaoxu, the prince of the Ming Dynasty and the younger brother of the saint. Before Zhang Fu took office as the commander of the counterinsurgency, Zhu Gaoxu had swept through the three southwestern provinces and had 300,000 troops.

Very familiar opponents. That was his own person who fought side by side with Zhang Fu in the "Battle of Jingyan" and "Battle of Annan...... It used to be my own person. And how many men and horses the king of Han has, it is also clear at a glance; The number of military households in various parts of the Ming Dynasty is available in the book, and you can know it clearly by calculating and inferring. If the Han king marched eastward, he could mobilize more than 200,000 people at most.

At this time, the Ming army, whether it was the Beijing camp or the main army of the guard, was equipped with considerable combat power, and the south could enter the high mountains and jungles to quell the barbarian rebellion, and the north could defeat the Mongolian ancient cavalry, which was by no means comparable to the erosive army at the end of the previous dynasties. At least not a force that can be countered by temporarily conscripting displaced people and strong people.

Therefore, Zhang Fu concluded that the strength of this battle officer army would be two to three times that of the Han King! Zhang Fu thought in his heart that the Han King was good at fighting, but the difference in strength between the two sides was more than twice as much, and he felt that his chances of victory were very large.

Zhang Fu went to Wuchang Mansion and gradually figured out the specific deployment of the army, and then began to arrange it according to his own ideas.

The officers and troops in Huguang and other places had been intervened several times before this, and after the early mobilization and two deployments of the military department, it was obvious that they could not fully conform to Zhang Fu's ideas. Within a few days, he quickly made a new deployment.

Zhang Fu deployed all the land and water armies into the five-way land army and the two-route naval division, a total of seven armies; Divide the battlefield into four regions.

At this time, he was reorganizing the army of up to 700,000 men, so that the troops could reach the predetermined positions, that is, the four rough territories; and form a seven-way naval army that is convenient for mobilization and command.

The main force of the official army is gathering in the area south of Dongting Lake, where most of the troops of the Pinghan army will be deployed. There is the main force of the water division, which is deployed on the surface of Dongting Lake and the nearby rivers and Xiangjiang rivers; 100,000 troops in Changde Prefecture; He Fujun, the left deputy general who will arrive in Changsha Mansion and Tanzhou Mansion one after another, has 100,000 troops; The 100,000 people of the right deputy general Xue Lu who were gathering in Yuezhou. The total strength of land and water is more than 300,000!

The second site is in Jingzhou, with 50,000 land divisions and all the way to the water division. The third is in Nanchang Mansion, with a total of 100,000 troops of Chen Mao and Tan Zhongjun. The fourth is in Nanning Province and Jiaozhi Province, with more than 100,000 Wu Gaojun and more than 80,000 Jiaozhi troops in Huangzhong.

The deployment of these people is only a preliminary preparation. Before the battle, Zhang Fu could carry out the next step of combat deployment, which was the rough "joint army decisive battle" agreed upon by the Holy Lord and the imperial court!

Zhang Funeng controlled a total of nearly 700,000 troops, but he also knew that some of them were useless. For example, Huang Zhongjun in Jiaozhi Province, Huang Zhong is a person who Zhang Fu personally fished out of the edict prison to cultivate and promote, and there is no problem with the main general; The problem is that among the 50,000 troops that used to be subordinate to the Guizhou Metropolitan Division, only 50,000 were left after the Guizhou army retreated from Kunming City mutinied and dispersed, and their morale was low and their loyalty was poor...... As long as they didn't defect to the enemy, Zhang Fu was thankful that he didn't want them to help at all.

Zhang Fu has ordered the Fujian Liangguang Water Division to move to the west of Qiongzhou Prefecture (Hainan Island) to take charge of the water defense of the Jiaozhi River. and sent someone to pass the order to Huang Zhong, and issued a military order to the Jiaozhi army, and anyone who found that he had defected to the enemy, reported or beheaded a traitor, and was rewarded heavily; He also called Huang Zhong to order the soldiers, and the rebels of the King of Han only wanted to drive the brothers to make a rebellion and send them to death, so that the brothers should not be fooled and give their lives in vain......

At this moment, Zhang Fu heard a rapid sound of horses' hooves coming from the north. He and his generals turned their heads in unison, and saw several horsemen riding their horses and galloping towards this side.

After the first horse approached, he reined in his horse, and the man turned over and dismounted, and shouted: "The little ones were ordered by the Marquis of Jiangyin to come to deliver the report, and first arrived at the Yamen of the Huguang Division, and heard that the big man had just left the city, so he asked someone to lead the way to catch up. ”

"Bring it up." Zhang Fudao.

The visitor stepped forward quickly, got down on one knee, and presented the lacquered letter to his mount with both hands.

Zhang Fu pulled it open and looked at it.

Wu Gao wrote that in mid-June, Guizhou rebels captured Libo County; Recently, the general learned that there is a walled city in Miaojiang west of Tianzhou, and a new rebel granary has been set up; Our meticulous work also found out one after another that the rebels were gathering troops in Kunming and Guizhou. Judging from all indications, the last general thought that the main force of the rebels would march from Yunnan and Guizhou to Guangxi. The last general in Nanning Mansion is weak and difficult to get reinforcements, so he will wait for an opportunity to take refuge in the direction of Guilin Mansion, the capital of Guangxi, or Guangdong, and wait for the deployment of the commander.

The Han King rebels really marched from Guangxi! It was far away from the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, because the mobilization of the official army was very slow in the past, and it was indeed a place where it was easier for the rebels to get out of the mountains.

Wu Gao has always been calm and cautious, and he is not enterprising; He is really like this again, and when he encounters an advantageous enemy army, he will not easily go up and fight hard. However, at this time, Wu Gao's request for life won Zhang Fu's heart.

Fortunately, Wu Gao is in Guangxi, otherwise if Xue Lu, just like in Sichuan, go up to fight first, Zhang Fu will have even more headaches!

At this time, Zhang Fu believed that it was not completely necessary to conduct a decisive battle of the army in Guangxi. The total strength of the officers and troops is very sufficient, and there is no need to fight a major battle with few blows and little chance of victory.

Zhang Fu's initial plan was to gather superior forces and then conduct a more confident decisive battle!

He thought for a while, considering that Wu Gao's report was sent from Nanning Mansion for a long time, and it would take some time to deliver the letters back and forth. Reply to Wu Gao, you have to hurry up!

Zhang Fu immediately jumped off the horse and asked someone to take out the paper and pen in the baggage. The soldier immediately lay on the ground, holding a piece of white paper on his back, Zhang Fu picked up the brush, and when the guard picked up a bow of water from the water bag, he dipped it twice, and then wrote hard.

Zhang Fu agreed with Wu Gao's approach and suggested that Wu Gaojun move as far as possible in the direction of Guilin, Guangxi.

His reply was based on his judgment of the situation and speculation about the rebels' intentions. Zhang Fu guessed that the place where Zhu Gaoxu chose to fight was most likely in northern Guangxi, or west of Huxi; It is relatively unlikely that the rebels will march east to Guangdong and Fujian, or attack and annex the Jiaozhi army to the south.

Therefore, Zhang Fucai gathered his heavy troops to the area south of Dongting Lake first.

However, only 100,000 people were deployed in Nanchang Prefecture, Jiangxi, because the army from the direction of Beijing was closer to Nanchang Prefecture and could be reorganized into an army more quickly. second, he can also leave a hand in the east, just in case Zhu Gaochu marches eastward alone, to make some preparations for the future big war; What's more, the army marched west from Nanchang Mansion, and the Nanchang army could quickly join the ranks of Huguang's heavy troops.

At this time, it was suggested that Wu Gaojun wait for an opportunity to march to Guilin as much as possible, so that Wu Gaojun could participate in the upcoming Armageddon from a closer place......

Now that the Han rebels were about to move south, Zhang Fu decided to abandon the Nanning Province barrier to the north of Jiaozhi Province; Only the naval division advanced westward, and there was a rare chance of reinforcements in the Jiaozhi defensive battle.

Zhang Fu wrote a brief reply, stamped the seal of the general of Pinghan on it, and handed it to the entourage beside him: "Take the big seal of Ben Shuai, and together with the messenger, quickly deliver it to the Marquis of Jiangyin." ”

"The villain obeys!"

Since Zhang Fu was appointed as the general of Pinghan, he has been thinking about how to deal with the rebels day and night, and many strategies are in his heart. Now that he learned that the rebels might move south, he immediately issued another military order!

Writing military orders is still done on the backs of the soldiers.

Zhang Fu ordered that the land and water armies that had gathered in Jingzhou would march west and along the river on the same day to launch an attack on the Sichuan political envoys!

Although the Jingzhou army was the smallest in number, Zhang Fu did not ask them to make a feint, but used the words of "strive to break through Kuizhou and enter Chongqing Mansion". Because Zhang Fu knew about the King of Han, it was impossible for the King of Han to divide the overstretched forces into two sides, and Sichuan must be very empty.

The terrain in Kuizhou and other places is treacherous, and there are some sailors, and it is difficult to drive without a slender man. There are tens of thousands of Jingzhou troops on land and water, and it is difficult to break through the eastern gateway of Sichuan; However, Zhang Fu's intention was to ask the Jingzhou army to give Sichuan a fierce enough offensive so that the Han king could feel the pressure of the enemy on his belly and back.