In late June of the sixth year of Yongle (the first year of Hongxi of Jingshi), the Southern Route Army of the Han Dynasty Army was in Yunnan Mansion and the Guizhou Capital Division of the Middle Route Army, and the army was almost completed; Only some men and horses of the Northern Route Army, because they were transferred from Sichuan to the south, have not yet reached the capital of Guizhou.

Zhu Gaoxu decided to march the South Road and the Middle Route Army to Guangxi at the same time in early July.

Bidding farewell to the officials of the Han Dynasty and the reluctant family members, Zhu Gaoxu took a team of people to Guizhou City. The middle route army is about 70,000 cavalry, which will be directly commanded by him.

A group of people rode horses and rushed to Guizhou City along the post road, and it was the evening of the end of June......

Guishan in the north has turned into a black undulating mountain shadow at this time; When the Han army attacked the city, the towering Guizhou city tower was seriously damaged by the return artillery and artillery, and it has not been completely repaired. The mottled shell marks on the rammed city wall were patched with some thin mud and different shades of color, and from a distance it looked like a torn garment with many patches.

Wang Bin had arrived in Guizhou City before Zhu Gaoxu, and at this time, he and Guizhou both commanded Liu Ying and others to greet Zhu Gaoxu outside the city gate.

A group of people stood outside the city gate and saluted with fists, Zhu Gaoxu slapped his horse forward, waved his hand and said, "You don't have to be polite. Get on the horse, let's go into the city. ”

Everyone surrounded Zhu Gaoxu into the city.

After the sun goes down, the streets are a little bleak, and from time to time you can encounter troops in columns. At present, more than 100,000 soldiers have been transferred to the cities of Guizhou, and soldiers and their families account for a large part of the population. Zhu Gaoxu came to Guizhou City again, and the war had subsided, but looking at the scene, it still could not be compared with the prosperity of Jingshi and other cities.

They came to the Metropolitan Command and Embassy Office, which was the largest complex in Guizhou City; Guizhou has not yet established a province, and there is no political envoy and a prosecutorial envoy, and the command of the envoy is the highest power in the entire Guizhou region.

Inside and outside the lobby of the capital, more civil and military came to meet Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu greeted them, and said that it was time for the next duty, and told everyone to disperse. Now he is so preoccupied with the war that he has no heart to say polite words to these people.

Zhu Gaoxu walked through the hall behind the lobby and only called Liu Ying, Wang Bin, Zhao and others to come over. Miaojin, who followed Zhu Gaoxu to Guizhou, wore a hat and came in with a baggage.

"I wrote a letter before, asking Wang Dudu to prepare the trip, and the striker will be drawn in the near future, have you received the letter?" Zhu Gaoxu turned his head to look at Wang Bin.

Wang Bin stared at his bulging eyes and nodded and replied, "I received it." His eyes are round and bulging, his skin is dark and rough, his hair and beard are very hard, and his face has a fierce appearance, which has always been like this, Zhu Gaoxu is used to it.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "On the second day of the seventh month of the day after tomorrow, you will lead the forward to set off. I then followed in batches with my army. ”

Wang Bin hugged his fists and said: "Get the order!" ”

Several people came to the signing room, and some maps of Liu Ying were placed on the wooden case. Liu Ying walked up and pointed to a place on the map and said, "The last general received a military order from Mr. Li before, and prepared some food for the army. This is Libo County, which is under the jurisdiction of Si Qingyuan, the political envoy of Guangxi (near Hechi City), but there is no garrison. The last general sent a military general to occupy this place, and arranged a warehouse in Libo County, and mobilized and prepared 70,000 troops for two months of military rations. ”

"Liu Du supervised it well!" Zhu Gaoxu praised it.

However, such moves will inevitably make the enemy suspect that the Han army will march from Guizhou to Guangxi. There is no way to do this, and it is impossible to carry out a large-scale military operation with 200,000 people at every turn, without showing the slightest sign.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Wang Bin, and then looked back and said, "This time, the total strength of the Middle Route Army is close to 70,000 people, and the first place to go is Qingyuan Mansion. The marching route followed the official road to Guangxi. Wang Bin's front army of more than 10,000 cavalry set off the day after tomorrow, and the remaining more than 50,000 main forces were divided into four routes: the middle army, the left post, the right post, and the rear army. ”

Several generals clasped their fists and said: "The last general obeys the order!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu buried his head in looking at the map in front of him for a while, because all the drawings were hand-drawn and the size was different, so the drawing methods were different.

However, there must be major post roads between provinces, and the thick line on the map is the post road from Guizhou to Guangxi in the south.

Libo County is on a post road, located in the southeast of Guizhou City, from Guizhou City past the length of the post road is about 600 miles; The city of Qingyuan is just south of Libo County. Hundreds of miles south from Qingyuan Mansion is Nanning Mansion, and to the east is Liuzhou Mansion.

There is no terrain on the map, but as long as you look at the winding post road line, you can guess that the road is all mountainous. Of course, there were also scouts who explored the terrain along the way and reported to the generals at all levels through verbal descriptions.

That's why Zhu Gaoxu divided nearly 70,000 people into five units and marched at a certain distance between the front and back. He had marched into Sichuan and Guizhou before, and the roads were also not easy to walk, so he summed up some experience and marched in the mountains, and the speed of the division of troops was faster.

Zhu Gaoxu beckoned Zhu to come near, picked up a brush, dipped it in cinnabar paint, and put the pen on the map, "Since the beginning of July, our middle route army has marched into Qingyuan Mansion along this post road; The Shengyong Ping'an Department of Yunnan Province, as the Southern Route Army, set off from Kunming City and roughly took this road to Tianzhou Tufu (near Baise City) in Guangxi.

The scouts and spies sent to Guangxi will focus on Wu Gaojun in Nanning Mansion. We will wait for the opportunity to besiege and destroy Wu Gao's troops first. You all get the idea, right? ”

"The last general will understand." Everyone answered one after another. This strategy has been communicated to the generals everywhere before this.

At this time, Liu Ying said: "The last general thinks that Wu Gao is very cautious, will he defend Nanning Mansion City?" ”

Zhu Gaoxu immediately shook his head: "The Marquis of Jiangyin is indeed timid, but after all, after fighting all his life, he is definitely not willing to defend the city of Nanning; It was too far away, and it was a lonely city that was difficult to reinforce. Besides, it is not up to him to decide where Wu Gao goes, unless he dares to disobey military orders; In the eyes of the enemy commander Zhang Fu, Nanning Mansion obviously did not have much value for this battle. ”

Wang Bin said with a smile: "Wu Gao couldn't even deal with Liu Dudu before, and when he meets our prince, he will definitely have to go around without eating this battle!" ”

In the previous battles, Wang Bin was ordered to stay in Kunming City, and later escorted the family of the Han Dynasty to Dali Mansion; Now he's finally got his chance to play and play as a striker in the middle, so he's very happy for a while. The war is imminent, and the person in the best mood is probably Wang Bin.

"Wu Gaojun is in Nanning Mansion at this time, so let's march according to the strategy first. There will inevitably be changes on the battlefield, and when the time comes, you can only adapt to them. Zhu Gaoxu said again, "The time for the departure of our Northern Route Army has not been determined. And Wu Gao's force is too far away from the main force of the enemy army in Huguang, no matter what he does, we can deal with it calmly. It's just a matter of time. ”

Zhu Gaoxu said, glanced at the window, and said, "It's not early, let's discuss it tomorrow." ”

Liu Ying hugged his fists and said: "The last general asked someone to prepare some simple wine and food, and this was passed on to them to the dining room to pick up the wind and wash the dust for the prince." ”

Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile: "Liu Dudu has been stationed in Guizhou for several months, so he considers himself a landlord!" In that case, I can't help but appreciate it, and let's go to dinner together. ”

Everyone chimed in.

Zhu Gaoxu stood up, holding a red pen in his hand, and drew a thick vertical line on the map vigorously. From the vicinity of Huguangchen Prefecture, it was slid down to the top of Liuzhou Mansion in Guangxi, and then stopped.

This line was the time when the army crossed the difficult Snow Peak Mountains. The mountain range runs from north to south, blocking the east of Guizhou; Huguang and the northern part of Guangxi are shielded on the east side.

At the beginning, Mr. Li and others formulated the strategy for the Eastern Expedition, and the terrain was probably centered on the Xuefeng Mountain Range. The two armies went to Guangxi and detoured to the south of Xuefeng Mountain; All the way the army walked the "Huguang Road", and the eastward road in Chenxi was at the northern foot of Xuefeng Mountain.

…… The next morning, before the sun had risen, and the eastern peaks had just turned white, Wang Bin's vanguard army had left the city one after another.

Zhu Gaoxu stood on the tower of the southern city and bid farewell to Wang Bin.

The sergeant came up with a wooden plate, and Zhu Gaoxu picked up a bowl and handed it to Wang Bin and said: "With this wine, I wish Wang Dudu a smooth journey." ”

Wang Bin took it with both hands, picked up the wine bowl and said: "The last general will definitely live up to the prince's heavy responsibility!" With that, he raised his head and drank it.

Zhu Gaoxu also poured it into his stomach, and the taste seemed to be different from the later Moutai. He placed the bowl on the wooden plate and said, "The king will go first, and then the king will come with a great army." ”

Wang Bin bowed and said: "There will be a period later." Lord, I take my leave! ”

So he said and went down the tower. After a while, Wang Bin rode out of the city gate, and he turned his head on the back of the horse to look up, and saluted again with a fist. Zhu Gaoxu silently waved his hand to him on the city tower.

The place where Guizhou City is located is relatively flat in comparison, and the official road after leaving the city is also very spacious. I saw six parallel columns of infantry on the road, four rows of cavalry leading horses on foot, all kinds of donkey carts and wheelbarrows; There was still room on both sides of the road, and from time to time people on horseback would run back and forth, shouting and passing on the news.

But Zhu Gaoxu knew that after walking on such a wide road for two days at most, they would enter the mountains, and the army could only march in a formation like a long dragon.

The shadows of the mountains on the horizon, I don't know when, the Han army can walk out of the mountains and mountains in the southwest and enter the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Zhu Gaoxu tried his best to deal with such an internal response as He Fu in the official army, he was still ready for a fierce battle. Wu Gaojun, who was the closest to him, was only a partial division of the official army, and his strength was too small to be less than the number of Zhu Gaoxu's main forces on the two roads, so this battle was undoubtedly very sinister.

But no matter how difficult the road ahead is, Zhu Gaoxu has already made up his mind to go out. Otherwise, if you are trapped in this border land with a thin population and a lack of money and food, you will die sooner or later.

Zhu Gaoxu stood on the city tower for a long time, his vision blocked by the distant mountain. He really doesn't like to stay in the mountains.