Just when Xiao Tianjian took the ridiculous Yuezhou in a daze, Huguang and Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Nanzhili and other places were all ignited with war.

After the year, under the leadership of Xiao Tianjian, the Xingtian army went south on a large scale to invade Huguang, which made the government and the opposition very officials both shocked and afraid, and Chongzhen was even more sleepless at night, first drove Yang Sichang out of Beijing, and went to Huguang to sit in Huguang to block the Xingtian army from entering Huguang, but because of the defeat of Yang Sichang's troops in the first battle of Xiangyang, Yang Sichang knew that he was deeply responsible, and at the same time he was seriously ill, and finally died of hunger strike.

In desperation, he first recruited Chen Xinjia into Beijing, served as the secretary of the military department, and presided over the major military affairs, and then transferred Ding Qirui to Huguang to replace the dead Yang Sichang, and continued to supervise the "attack" of the Xingtian Army.

At this time, Chongzhen also ordered Sun Chuanting to supervise the transfer of the southern and Shandong armies to suppress Henan, and then ordered Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, to send troops into Huguang to suppress, in an attempt to form an encirclement of the Xingtian army around the Xingtian army.

However, although Chongzhen's arrangement seems to be very reasonable and relatively safe, Chongzhen still overestimated the strength of the officials and troops in various places, and also underestimated the strength of the Xingtian Army.

First of all, Yan Chongxi led the soldiers and horses of the Xingtian Army in southern Jin to capture the entire southern Jin region south of Pingyang Prefecture, and then Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng led their troops to rise up in northern Jin, swept through northern Jin and entered the northern Shaanxi area, greatly containing the border troops in Shanxi and Xuanda, making it impossible to participate in the war in the Central Plains.

Although Sun Chuanting can be called a capable minister, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice at the moment, there are basically no generals under his command, not to mention, the number of soldiers and horses is also very limited, even if a group of officers and soldiers are gathered, and a new group of officers and soldiers are recruited, but because there is no opportunity to add training, the combat effectiveness is very weak.

Although Sun Chuanting was ordered to lead his troops south, but only after arriving at Zhangde Mansion, although he had a certain number of troops on the surface, he could only pose a threat to the Xingtian Army of Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion, but under Liu Bao's dispatch, he was unable to recover Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion, Sun Chuanting led his troops to fight with Liu Bao's subordinate Li Yantian in the area of Zhangde Mansion and Weihui Mansion many times during this time, but in the face of the men and horses of the Xingtian Army who were not many troops, but they were very strong, Sun Chuanting sadly found that the officers and soldiers under his command, is not the opponent of the Xingtian Army at all, and now the Xingtian Army he is dealing with is not at all like the other righteous armies he and Hong Chengchou dealt with at the beginning, and it cannot be compared with the men and horses under Li Zicheng, the Xingtian Army is obviously more expensive than fine, and has a unique tactic, and this tactic and the unique military discipline of the Xingtian Army can exert great combat effectiveness, think about the original Diao Zheng by the Zhanghe River, with one as ten, defeated Gao Qiqian in that battle, Gao Qiqian was still a relatively effective Guanning army under his command, are all planted in the hands of the Xingtian Army, and the people and horses he has just pulled up now, how can they be the opponents of the Xingtian Army, so Sun Chuanting after fighting Li Yantian, several battles and defeats, and finally have to admit that with the strength of the official army under his command, it is impossible to recover Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion, for the sake of safety, Sun Chuanting had to gather soldiers and horses, Chen Bing in the Guangping Mansion and Zhangde Mansion area, restored to a defensive posture, do not seek merit but seek no fault, first hold Zhangde Mansion and then talk about it!

As for Shandong, Sun Chuanting mobilized a team of people, led by Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, trying to flank Kaifeng and Guidefu, but Liu Zeqing is a drill camp villain who far exceeds the kung fu at hand.

But at the beginning of the year, the Tartars entered Jinan, this Chen soldier in the Dengzhou area, but did not save each other, and during the Tartars raging in Shandong, he feared the enemy and avoided the war, and finally made the Tartars withdraw from Tianjin safely from Shandong, and did nothing at all, at most, he followed the Tartars' buttocks, escorted the Tartars out of Shandong, and killed a few Tartars who drank too big and fell behind. He took the responsibility of being invaded by the Tartar army in Shandong, and was arrested by the imperial court and beheaded by the imperial court.

Although he was ordered to send troops to Jining Mansion, he was unwilling to send troops to Jining Mansion, but he was unwilling to send troops to cooperate with Sun Chuanting to Kaifeng and Guide Mansion, so that Liu Bao was able to draw strength, first repaired Sun Chuanting, and after Yan Chongxi defeated Jiezhou, he sent Diao Zheng to Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion, and after taking over Li Yantian's defense, he mobilized troops and horses to rush to the area of Kaifeng Mansion, completely blocking Liu Zeqing's road to Kou Henan.

Liu Zeqing tentatively launched two offensives against Kaifeng, but both were blocked by Liu Bao's troops as soon as they came out of Dingtao, so in the end, Sun Chuanting's plan to invade Henan on both roads was also completely bankrupt in early August, and the imperial court officials and the Xingtian Army continued to maintain their respective control areas, basically no one had anything to do with whom.

However, in the past few months, Li Zicheng took advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to focus its main attention on the Xingtian Army, and the Shaanxi army was relatively empty, so he took the opportunity to lead the troops to control the territory of several counties around Hanzhong in the Hanzhong area, and began to follow Xiao Tianjian's practice, using Hanzhong as the base, while recruiting and training, while building weapons, and returning the people to farm, the strength began to gradually recover, and he also began to accept the concept of building the Xingtian Army, and decided to take the route of elite soldiers to reduce the number of people who were engulfed. Leaving the people on the land to cultivate with peace of mind, leaving only some elite men and horses, stepping up their training, and constantly raiding and plundering the surrounding prefectures and counties in Sichuan and Shaanxi for military needs.

In this way, first He Renlong led his troops into Huguang and was annihilated by the Xingtian army, which made the strength of Shaanxi's official army even weaker, and at this time, Fu Zonglong, the newly appointed governor of Shaanxi, was basically incapable, and then drove Li Zicheng out of Hanzhong as before, and could only continue to send troops in the northern and eastern areas of Hanzhong, and Li Zicheng stopped fighting, and was never able to recover Hanzhong back under the control of the imperial court.

It is precisely because Li Zicheng has gained a foothold in Hanzhong and constantly sent troops to attack and disturb the northern Sichuan area, the original imperial court ordered Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, to enter Huguang to assist in the suppression of the Xingtian army, but Shao Jiechun was afraid that Li Zicheng would take advantage of the situation and enter Sichuan, so he could only send a small number of troops into Huguang to help in the war, and most of the Sichuan soldiers were stationed in the northern Sichuan area to prevent Li Zicheng's entry into the army.

To a certain extent, Li Zicheng's revitalization in the Hanzhong area just helped Xiao Tianjian a lot, so that Xiao Tianjian avoided the possibility of being attacked by the enemy on his belly and back, and restrained many troops in Sichuan and Shaanxi for the Xingtian army, so that Xiao Tianjian could use more troops to speed up the attack on Huguang.

As for Ding Qirui, after being ordered to go south, he arrived in Nanzhili at the end of July, but he did not wait for him to transfer troops and arrange to deal with the Xingtian Army, but what was waiting for him was the news that the general army of Huguang, the general Zuo Liangyu, was wiped out in Jingzhou, and Zuo Liangyu himself was defeated and died.

Ding Qirui was so shocked that he jumped high, and the teacups fell to the ground on the spot, to be honest, Ding Qirui went south this time, and only Zuo Liangyu was expected to do so, after all, Zuo Liangyu had many soldiers and horses in his hands, and he was the strongest official and military force in Huguang, although he was arrogant, it was always the people on their side, and with Zuo Liangyu here, there should be room for redemption in the situation in Huguang.

But now the two generals, He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu, one missing and the other killed, and the two more than 100,000 horses, have disappeared under the front of the Xingtian Army in a blink of an eye, making him even less available soldiers at hand, and what he has to do to suppress the Xingtian Army has become a joke, and now what he has to think about is not how to exterminate the Xingtian Army, but how to keep Nanzhili!

The situation in Huguang can be said to be completely erosive, and if you want to keep Huguang, in the eyes of Ding Qirui, it is almost impossible, and although Nan Zhili still has some soldiers and horses, but if these horses are transferred to Huguang to protect Wuchang, once they are defeated by the Xingtian Army again, then Nan Zhili will have no soldiers available, and when the Xingtian Army sends troops to Nanjing, what should he do?

So Ding Qirui hurriedly summoned the officials and generals around Nanzhili to discuss what to do next, and now the generals who are counted in Nanzhili are even Sun Yingyuan and Huang Degong, but these two are unfortunate, they are all defeated generals under the Xingtian Army before, and they are terrified when they mention the Xingtian Army, not to mention that although they have a little soldiers and horses on hand, they know very well that they go to Huguang, and they are still a death, and they will definitely not be able to get benefits.

Therefore, all the officials of Nanzhili strongly advocated first stabilizing the area of Nanzhili, stepping up military training and building weapons, and then waving Huguang to recover the lost territory after the soldiers were strong and strong.

Although Ding Qirui had a holy order and asked him to keep Huguang, He Nai really couldn't take out decent men and horses to Huguang to deal with the Xingtian army, so he could only mobilize a team of Zhejiang's men and horses, and ordered the general army of Zhejiang to wait for Fang to lead, about 7,000 people, along the Yangtze River, and rushed to Wuchang to help Song Yihe defend Wuchang.

At this time, Luo Li had already captured Suizhou at the end of June, and then began to march into Gwangju, with the assistance of Liu Bao's Xingtian army stationed in Runing Mansion, he took Gwangju in July with a drum, annihilated more than 10,000 officials and troops in Guangzhou, completely cleared the last nail of the imperial court government in Henan, and completely brought Henan under the control of the Xingtian Army, and then after receiving Xiao Tianjian's order, he handed over the Gwangju area to the Dongshan Tiger garrison who temporarily obeyed Liu Bao's orders, And he led his troops to the south, first attacking Yingshan, Lishan, Xiaogan and other places, and the defenders and officials in these places had long lost their determination to defend to the death.

When Luo Li led his troops to arrive, the local defenders immediately surrendered, fled, some of the officials could not escape, so they surrendered to the Heavenly Army, and some abandoned the city and fled, running to Wuchang Hanyang to take refuge, so that Luo Li basically did not have much effort, so that the north of De'an Mansion and the surrounding area of Suizhou were basically cleared, and quickly occupied the places in this area.

Only the local Ming general soldier Lai Ren led his troops to fight to the death with Luo Li in Xiaogan, but Lai Ren did not have many troops, and he encountered Luo Li, a war maniac, and was not Luo Li's opponent at all.