Compared with the city that the Ming army has to defend all the way, the Tang Army is more willing to fight head-on with the Ming army in the field with inferior forces!

After all, no matter what, a head-to-head battle in the field is what they do best!

However, the optimistic expectations of the high-level leaders on both sides of the battle situation are different, and the strategy of the Ming army is not the same as that of the First Army, their idea is to encircle the main force of the First Infantry Division that rushed north, well, the Ming Army was already afraid of the Tang Army in the previous battle, so although they mobilized many troops, almost the whole army was exhausted, but in fact, their strategic goal was only to encircle and annihilate the main force of the First Infantry Division in Hengzhou.

They didn't think that they would annihilate all the Tang troops in Huguang in the north, it was unrealistic.

In their concept, with an army of 100,000 to surround and annihilate the main force of the puppet Tang thief army of more than 10,000 people, and there are tens of thousands of Changsha reinforcements in the rear, this battle can be won as long as it is not commanded by fools.

However, in the strategic concept of Hao Bonian and other generals of the First Army, it is not just the main force of the First Infantry Division to meet the enemy, but to defeat the enemies in Guiyang and Yizhang in the early stage, and then block the enemy in Chenzhou in Chenzhou City, and then gather most of the strength of the First Army, especially the Second Infantry Division located in Baoqing Mansion to participate in the battle, and finally to meet the Ming army in the direction of Hengzhou and Changsha with more than 20,000 troops, and the battle will be decided!

Although the strategic concepts of the two sides are different, if the strategic concepts of the two sides continue, a super war in the territory of Hengzhou is inevitable.

When Hao Bonian sent a herald to ride a fast horse and rush to the direction of the Second Infantry Division almost day and night, asking the Second Infantry Division to abandon the Ming army in Baoqing Mansion first, bypass Shaoyang, and quickly rush to Hengzhou.

Hao Bonian himself personally led the main force of the First Infantry Division to turn around and head towards the southwest, and his goal was very clear, first to defeat the Shangwan Ming Army in the direction of Guiyang Prefecture.

Now, the Ming troops in the three directions of Chenzhou, Yizhang, and Guiyang Prefecture are attacking separately, and if they can't stop one of them, they will pose a major threat to the supply lines of the First Infantry Division, and Hao Bonian will not allow such a thing to happen.

Hao Bonian turned around and headed southwest, while the provisional Fourth Regiment continued to block outside Chenzhou City, so that the tens of thousands of Ming troops outside Chenzhou City and thousands of Ming troops in nearby areas could not move.

As for the First Rank Corps and related auxiliary troops, after going around in a big circle in the process of pursuing the Yizhang Ming Army, they finally rushed to Yizhang, and then they did not attack the city, after all, there are thousands of Ming troops in Yizhang City, even if the First Rank Corps is strong, but it is not a day or two that can be taken, not to mention, Sun Shuangxi is not willing to pay a large casualty price for a mere Yizhang City.

Therefore, he did not lead his troops directly to the city of Yizhang, but laid an ambush about ten kilometers southeast of Yizhang, waiting for the 8,000 Ming troops attacked by Yizhang to return to Yizhang, and then launched an interception operation.

In order to conceal the traces of the army, Sun Shuangxi did not take the troops directly to Yizhang City, nor did he stay in nearby villages and towns, but stationed in the wilderness.

Although there are no houses to live in, but there are tents to protect from the wind and rain, and the soldiers also have padded jackets and quilts to protect them from the cold, it is not too miserable, this situation is much better than the continuous march and pursuit in the previous days, at least they can now have a good rest and eat a hot and full meal!

The first corps and affiliated troops can hide and rest, but the first cavalry battalion has no way to rest because it needs to keep track of and harass the Ming army of Yizhang's attack.

However, the results of the 1st Cavalry Battalion are also there, in the past three days, they followed the Ming army to attack and harass, and killed at least 100 Ming troops before and after, some of which were Ming army's reconnaissance cavalry, and some of them were small units of the Ming army's rear troops.

It was precisely because the Ming army discovered the existence of the 1st Cavalry Battalion that they would give up attacking the 4th Transport Regiment and return to Yizhang instead.

But now, it is unknown whether they can return to Yizhang, because the soldiers of the First Rank Corps have already arrived outside Yizhang City a day early.

If they want to return to Yizhang, they will inevitably be intercepted by the First Infantry Corps!

At this time, Yizhang attacked the Ming army, and several generals of the Ming army were also anxious, they were not fools, just from the cavalry that had been haunting behind them, they could guess that there must be a main force of the pseudo-Tang thief army behind them.

Yes, they didn't know now that the main force of the infantry of the Pseudo-Tang Thief Army, which was still behind them, had already given up the pursuit and ran directly to Yizhang instead, and arrived outside Yizhang City a day earlier than them.

The current Ming army is a single-minded attempt to escape back to Yizhang, as for the task of intercepting the transport team of the puppet Tang thief army and cutting off the supply line of the main force of the puppet Tang thief army to the north, they have already been left behind at this time.

If you want to cut off the supply line of the Puppet Tang Thief Army, the premise is that there is no main force of the Puppet Tang Thief Army here, and their purpose is just to attack the transport convoy of the Puppet Tang Thief Army.

Fight with the main force of the puppet Tang thief army? Give them a hundred dares!

Because most of the other Ming armies who dared to do this were already defeated, and they didn't want to follow in the footsteps of other friendly forces.

As long as they escape back to Yizhang, then everything can be restored to its original state, at least the lives of their own people can be guaranteed, not to mention, they also know that the Ming army in the direction of Linwu is also rushing towards Yizhang, calculating the time, it should be able to arrive in Yizhang in these two days, and at that time, at least 20,000 troops can be gathered in the direction of Yizhang, in this way, Yizhang does not dare to say that it is impregnable, but if the pseudo-Tang thief army wants to take it down, if it does not send a main army of 20,000 people, it will definitely not be able to take it without killing and wounding thousands of people.

And this is definitely not a cost-effective business for the puppet Tang thief army with a relatively small number of troops, because if the puppet Tang thief army had the determination to pay such a large number of casualties to attack Yizhang, they would have directly attacked Yizhang, and they would not have bypassed Yizhang to attack Hengzhou.

These 8,000 Ming troops fled all the way towards Yizhang!

And one day, they are only thirty miles away from Yizhang, and tomorrow with more efforts, they will be able to return to Yizhang City!

So that night, they finally had a relatively peaceful sleep, but only a little at ease, because they knew that the danger was still to come, so at dawn the next morning, they began to bury the pot and cook, and then not long after the sun rose, they were already officially on the road, and continued to rush towards Yizhang City.

Thirty miles, twenty-five miles, as they gradually approached Yizhang City, they also gradually relaxed, according to the current speed, they will be able to rush back to Yizhang City this afternoon.

And they also sent fast horses to get in touch with Yizhang City, and now there is no trace of the pseudo-Tang thief army inside and outside Yizhang City, which means that Yizhang is currently safe.

But at noon, the generals of the Ming army led by him suddenly received a report from the forward troops, saying that the cavalry who were scouting in front were intercepted by the cavalry of the puppet Tang thief army.

"Pseudo-Tang cavalry? Aren't they behind us? When did you get ahead of us? The generals of the Ming army present were a little confused, they followed a pseudo-Tang cavalry behind their buttocks, and they were ghostly, and they did not take the initiative to attack their own army, but only launched sneak attacks from time to time, specifically intercepting and killing some small units of their own troops behind, although it would not cause much damage to the army, but it also made them extremely uncomfortable.

"Could it be that the cavalry of the puppet Tang Thief Army went around ahead of us and tried to intercept us?"

"It's unlikely, the cavalry of the pseudo-Tang thief army in our rear is only three or four hundred, it's okay for them to sneak attack a small force of our army, but if you want to intercept our army head-on, it is self-defeating!"

In any case, they have 8,000 men, and as long as the enemy cavalry commander is not stupid, he will not choose to face a pit, at most he will choose to attack his own small forces.

Even if it is such an attack, the effect is not too great in fact, because the Ming army maintained enough vigilance, and when marching, they all marched in groups, and they all chose some terrain that was not very gentle and difficult for cavalry to play.

If the terrain here is the kind of plain with a flat river, the 8,000 Ming army would have been eaten by the 400 cavalry of the Tang army in batches.

In plain terrain and hilly and mountainous terrain, the combat effectiveness of cavalry can be described as very different.

"And who are these cavalrymen? Could it be that there is another cavalry unit of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty? ”

"This possibility is not very likely, the puppet Tang is located in Liangguang Guizhou, although there are southwest horses, but they are also the same as us, it is unlikely to get too many horses, the cavalry battalion of the puppet Tang thief army ranges from hundreds, according to rumors, their cavalry battalion is only a few, in our Chenzhou and Hengzhou area, there is only one cavalry battalion, unless they draw a cavalry from other places, otherwise, it is unlikely that we will meet another puppet Tang cavalry battalion!"

"But what if it's a cavalry battalion drawn from elsewhere by the puppet Tang Thief Army?"

"If that's the case, then there is no need to fight this battle, behind the cavalry battalion of the puppet Tang thief army, there will definitely be a main force of the puppet Tang thief army, when have you ever heard of the cavalry battalion of the puppet Tang thief army acting alone?"

"Another main force of the puppet Tang thief army?"

"If that's the case, then it's not good!"

However, just when everyone was speculating, suddenly two cavalry galloped in front of them, and they dismounted directly in front of the generals of the Ming army. ”