As a reinforcement, Fang Xitong's department failed to rescue Xingquan Mansion, not to mention the loss of nearly a thousand people, so that Li Xuan, who was far away in Zhaoqing, learned the news, and immediately Long Yan was furious, Zeng Ziwen even heard that His Majesty did not care about decency at all, and directly scolded Fang Xitong for being a fool!

Zeng Ziwen was embarrassed and worried when he listened!

This is the second worst defeat since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the first tragic is the battle of Lijiacun, and the second tragic is the battle of Fang Xitong to rescue Xingquanfucheng, and it is also a defeat in the field, you must know that since last summer, the Tang Dynasty and the Ming army have not tasted defeat in many large-scale battles, especially in the field, they have won every time, but Fang Xitong has broken this precedent.

If you can't save the defenders in Xingquan Mansion, forget it, you will still lose troops, even if Fang Xitong said that most of the losses are the soldiers of the garrison, and the main force of the Third Infantry Regiment, especially the three infantry battalions as the core, will not suffer much loss.

But even so, Zeng Ziwen was a little worried, worried that the situation in eastern Guizhou would continue to deteriorate to the point of no relief.

Li Xuan was angry, Zeng Ziwen was worried that they were angry and worried, but Fang Xitong himself was also depressed and helpless!

As early as two months ago, the Huguang Ming Army marched into Xingquanfu, but the main force that went south to Guangxi did not send a single soldier back to aid Xingquanfu in Guizhou, but led a heavy army group to continue to besiege Wuzhou, and after capturing Wuzhou, it launched a continuous campaign to seize Zhaoqing, although it is also said that the Fourth Army was also sent north to Guilin, and then entered Huguang, but far water could not quench the thirst.

He Xitong could only give up the siege of Guiyang, and after leaving a garrison regiment, he led the main force of the Third Infantry Regiment and a garrison regiment to return east day and night.

And the mobilization of the army, especially the military mobilization on foot, was already extremely slow, and when he received the order to return to the east, in fact, Xingquan Mansion had been besieged for half a month, and then the military report and order transmission were also delayed for some time, and when he returned, even if he was fast, he couldn't get up quickly.

Finally returned to Liping Mansion, and fought several battles with nearly 10,000 Ming army divisions in Liping Mansion, although he successfully defeated this Ming army, but he himself also paid a lot of price.

There were not many casualties on the battlefield, only two or three hundred, but there were many soldiers who fell behind along the way because of injuries and illnesses and lack of physical strength.

By the time he pacified Liping Mansion and entered Xingquan Mansion in the east, the troops under his command had been reduced from more than 5,000 to 4,000, and the soldiers were physically weak and exhausted, and all kinds of materials, especially ammunition and other combat materials, were already in extreme shortage.

But even so, he can't help but go!

When he planned to enter Xingquan Mansion eastward, in fact, the city had been besieged by the Ming army's heavy army group for nearly two months, and the situation was quite bad, according to the report of a few messengers who broke out of the siege to report the military situation, most of the Fourth Infantry Regiment in the city of Xingquan Mansion and a garrison regiment of the First Infantry Brigade continued to fight for several months, not only to defend Xingquan Mansion, but also to fight with the Ming army in other places such as Zhengtai County, this series of battles certainly brought great losses to the Ming army, However, with the continuous arrival of reinforcements from the Ming army, these troops also had to gradually abandon other places, and finally retreat to Xingquanfu City.

And in this series of operations, the Fourth Infantry Regiment and the garrison regiment suffered great losses, more than half of the heavy weapons were lost, and light weapons, especially muskets, were also lost a lot because of wear and tear, and the regular army of the department was now less than 2,000, and the garrison army and the thief battalion were only 2,000 people, and a total of 4,000 remnants were used to defend the city of Xingquanfu.

However, due to the lack of light and heavy weapons, the combat capability has been greatly weakened, and in contrast, the Ming army in Xingquan Mansion is getting stronger and stronger.

At the beginning, the Ming army only had 30,000 people in Xingquan Mansion in the east, but Zhang Yue, who fought in Huguang, was quite skillful in his means, and he pressed the Huguang Ming Army to continuously step forward to reinforce, and in the past few months, he continued to increase troops in eastern Guizhou, according to intelligence, there were tens of thousands of Ming troops in the northeast of Guizhou, and there were at least 40,000 or 50,000 people in Xingquan Mansion, and the Ming army that originally entered Liping Mansion actually had nearly 10,000 people, but it was already repelled by Fang Xitong, and its remnants retreated to Xingquan Mansion.

And these are still the existing strength of the Ming army, in fact, in this series of operations, the losses of the Ming army are not small, the losses of the Ming army in the northeast are smaller, but it is estimated that thousands of people were killed and wounded, as for the Ming army on the side of Xingquan Mansion, there are already three Ming troops of 10,000 people who have been defeated by the garrison, but because the Ming army occupies too much advantage, these defeated Ming army remnants will soon be collected up, even so, the Ming army killed and wounded in Xingquan Mansion is almost six or seven people.

Coupled with the one or two thousand Ming troops killed and wounded in Liping Mansion, the total number of casualties of the Ming army in these three places has actually exceeded 10,000 people.

However, even so, the Huguang Ming army still had more than 50,000 troops in Xingquan Mansion and more than 10,000 troops in the northeast of Guizhou, with a total of more than 60,000 troops.

The Ming army in Xingquan Mansion was heavily armed, while the defenders of the Tang Dynasty only had more than 4,000 defenders, and they were remnants of soldiers who lacked ammunition and especially heavy weapons.

Now the defenders in Xingquanfu City, even if they want to abandon Xingquanfu City to break through, they can't actually break through, so they can only continue to defend Xingquanfu City.

However, it is also quite troublesome to defend passively in this way, Fang Xitong estimated that if Xingquan Mansion continued to be besieged, the Ming army would not have to come in, and the three or four thousand defenders in the city and the twenty or thirty thousand people would have to starve to death.

Therefore, although he knew that his troops were exhausted after a long journey and continued to fight fiercely with the Ming army, he still couldn't stop his pace and continued to attack eastward, all the way to the city of Xingquanfu, otherwise, the defenders and people in the city would be finished.

However, when Fang Xitong advanced eastward, although it was said that 5,000 soldiers fought bravely to assault, but the personnel were tired, and all kinds of war materials were not replenished and recovered in time after several battles in Liping Mansion, and they could not shake the interception of tens of thousands of Ming troops after several attempts, and even almost fell into the heavy ambush of the Ming army, and finally Fang Xitong made a quick decision and sacrificed more than 400 people in a garrison battalion to cover the retreat of the main force, so he escaped from the ambush circle of more than 20,000 Ming troops.

However, although this series of eastward advances had some results and tactical victories, it was a failure from a strategic point of view, because they did not succeed in rescuing Xingquanfu City.

The attack could not be carried out for a long time, coupled with the lack of personnel, the casualties were not small, and the ammunition was also seriously scarce, so he could only suspend the futile attack and rest on the spot, while waiting for the rear recruits and ammunition to be replenished.

At the same time, he used a 500-mile fast horse to ask for help from the Fourth Army in the direction of Guilin, hoping that the Fourth Army would go north to Huguang as soon as possible, cut off the grain route of the Ming army, and contain the Ming army.

Facilitate the rescue of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Army from Xingquanfu City and the thousands of troops in the city!

This series of battles in eastern Guizhou took place in late February and March, but when Li Xuan knew about the defeat of the Second Army in Guizhou, it was already in April.

At this time, the first imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty had just ended, and the curtain had just come to an end, and those new imperial examinations were stepping into the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty with hope.

The defeat in the battle in Guizhou was tightly guarded, and only a few senior generals of the military and Li Xuan himself knew, and even Liu Bagou, the head of the cabinet, did not know that the Second Army had suffered a defeat on the side of Xingquan Mansion, so that he wanted to ask the Fourth Army to go north as soon as possible to help.

Now in the eyes of outsiders, the Tang Dynasty is in a good situation, and it has frequently gained the prestige of the people politically, and the Ming army that fought militarily cannot raise its head.

At this time, if it is known to the outside world that thousands of troops are deeply surrounded by the Ming army, and the first battle to break the siege still fails, I am afraid that there will be unnecessary waves.

Therefore, Li Xuan personally strictly ordered the senior military generals and relevant people who knew about this matter to obediently shut their mouths and not talk nonsense, if anyone shakes the morale of the people, I will kill someone.

However, although he was angry and worried, Zhaoqing was too far away from Guizhou, and it was impossible for Li Xuan to command remotely from such a distance, so he could only hope that the defenders of Xingquanfu would continue to hold on, the Fourth Army would be able to go north as soon as possible and enter Huguang, and the Second Army would be able to reach the city of Xingquanfu as soon as possible and rescue the besieged soldiers and civilians.

Therefore, he only sent two holy decrees to the generals on the front line, one was to Fang Xitong, the commander of the Second Army, and the content strictly ordered him to defeat the place in front of him as soon as possible and rescue the army of Xingquan Mansion.

The other is for Major General Chen Keqiao, the commander of the Fourth Army and the commander of the Third Infantry Brigade, to let him go north to Huguang as soon as possible, not to be consumed by the remnants of the Ming army in Guilin, and not to be held back by the small troops sent by the Ming army, but to march to Huguang decisively and quickly, so as to reduce the pressure on the Second Army of Xingquanfu.

Fang Xitong naturally had nothing to say after receiving the holy decree, what he could do was to seize the time to rest and recover, so that the troops could continue to attack in the direction of Xingquan Mansion after recovering their combat effectiveness, in order to break through the interception of the Ming army and kill under the city of Xingquan Mansion as soon as possible.

But after Chen Keqiao received Li Xuan's holy decree, he had a headache.

Recently, Chen Keqiao has encountered no less trouble than Fang Xitong.

Since he broke through Guilin's mansion, he originally wanted to kill all the way to Huguang Jingzhou, but he had just broken through Guilin on his front foot, and Zhang Yue, who got the news, was not a fool, he immediately knew the threat of the thief army on Guilin's side, and soon sent tens of thousands of soldiers and horses south to Guilin.

If the Ming army only sent tens of thousands of people to fight with him, in fact, it was nothing, Chen Keqiao had a hundred confidence to kill the more than 10,000 Ming troops and then continue to go north, but the more than 10,000 Ming troops were also smart, divided into several shareholders to hide in Tibet, and found an opportunity to attack the logistics and heavy grain routes of the Fourth Army, but also went to attack the small county town where only a small number of capture and theft battalions were stationed, and made Guilin Mansion a miasma.

And Chen Keqiao did not dare to boldly go north because of the threat of the supply line, so he could only stay in the central and northern areas of Guilin Prefecture to clear out these tens of thousands of scattered Ming troops.

In this way, the plan to let the Fourth Army quickly move north and relieve the pressure on Xingquan Mansion by encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao failed.

Now when Chen Keqiao looked at the undoubted words on the holy decree to let him go north quickly, his thick eyebrows were furrowed, and many officers under his command were also embarrassed, this battle is not easy to fight!