Zuo Liangyu and his subordinates were very nervous, relying on Jingzhou City behind them and the dense water network, they concentrated the warships in the Jingzhou area, and also arranged a lot of warships in Changhu Lake in the northeast of Jingzhou City, in order to rely on the advantage on the water to restrain the attack of the Xingtian Army on Jingzhou.

At the same time, he also sent his generals to fortify Gaoyang Town, Shilibao and other places from Chengtianfu and Jingmen County to Jingzhou, trying to contain the speed of the Xingtian Army's advance, in short, tens of thousands of horses and horses were concentrated on the four sides of Jingzhou, and placed the elite cavalry in the west of the city, as a mobile assault force, ready to flank the Xingtian Army.

In addition to the posture of fighting to the death, Zuo Liangyu also secretly left a hand, in the name of building warships to resist the Xingtian Army, urging the local people, on the Yangtze River and Changhu Lake to build various ships for him, docked at the dock in Jingzhou, ready to escape, once Jingzhou is not guaranteed, he can at least take a boat down the Yangtze River and flee to the area of Dongting Lake in Yueyang to continue to entrench.

But Zuo Liangyu's brutality to the local people in Jingzhou has long aroused the hatred of the people, and every day a large number of soldiers escaped from the barracks at night to defect to the Xingtian Army, Zuo Liangyu sent his cronies to constantly hunt down these fugitives and execute them in an extremely cruel way, but still could not prevent such a situation, the morale of the entire soldiers under Zuo Liangyu's command was very low, only the old troops he gathered in his early years, grateful that Zuo Liangyu was good to them, and he was determined to swear to protect Jingzhou with Zuo Liangyu.

The whole battle of Jingzhou began in July, Xiao Tianjian after conquering Chengtianfu and Jingmen County, he wanted to go south to take Jingzhou in one go, but unfortunately the sky is not beautiful, when they laid Jingmen, it rained heavily, this rain was very heavy, the water everywhere was full of ditches and flat, the road became very muddy and difficult to walk, even the Han River also had a big flood, making it difficult for boats and boats on the river, and if they were not careful, the boat overturned and died.

At present, the Xingtian army relies on firearms relatively large, and the heavy artillery and baggage of the army are also quite a lot, and it will obviously pay a considerable price to attack Jingzhou in such weather, so Xiao Tianjian can only look at the sky and sigh, and has to order a stop in the area of Chengtianfu and Jingmen, wait for the weather to improve, the road is dry, and then start to go south, otherwise, so many people and horses crowded on the road will be a disaster.

Even so, this heavy rain also made the subordinates of the Xingtian Army a little miserable, because the rain was so strong that they could not even collect firewood for cooking, so that eating became a problem, and the soldiers could only swallow some rice grain raw for two days to feed their stomachs.

Looking at the heavy rain in the sky like a pour, Xiao Tianjian was also a little annoyed, so many people and horses are crowded in this area, and people eat and chew a lot of food every day, and although they are not too short of food, but they can't withstand such consumption, so every day he braves the rain to patrol between the battalions, while cheering up the soldiers, while inspecting the maintenance of various weapons, especially for the storage of gunpowder used in the army is very important, once the gunpowder is damp, then it will take a long time to not replenish, The weather in the south is really rainy.

This rain was intermittent for seven or eight days, and the roads were always muddy, until the weather began to clear on the tenth day of July, and after another three days, the roads were considered to be dry, and Xiao Tianjian ordered to start marching towards Jingzhou.

After the scouts learned that Zuo Liangyu had arranged a lot of sailors along the river, in order to use their advantages on the water to intercept the southward movement of the Xingtian army, Xiao Tianjian resolutely ordered to abandon the waterway and attack Jingzhou, and the whole army changed to enter Jingzhou by land, and continued to use Situ Liang's cavalry troops as the lead to open the passage to Jingzhou in front.

And Xiao Tianjian led a large group of men and horses behind, dragging many artillery and baggage, and then advanced, Zuo Liangyu sent troops on the road to continuously intercept the Xingtian Army along the way, but in the face of the elite Xingtian soldiers and horses, they were often defeated in a battle, and basically did not delay the pace of the Xingtian Army's march, so that Xiao Tianjian led the troops to arrive in the northwest of Xingzhou City in mid-July.

Zuo Liangyu still has a bit of courage, when the Xingtian Army just arrived in Jishan Town, north of Jingzhou City, he actually ordered his subordinate Wu Minshi to lead his troops to launch a counterattack on the Xingtian Army, wanting to take advantage of the fact that the Xingtian Army had not yet gained a stable foothold, and he himself personally led 20,000 troops, and as soon as Wu Minshi was ready to go out of Jingzhou to prepare for Wu Minshi, he waved his troops to cover up and beat the Xingtian Army back to Xiangyang.

But unfortunately, Wu Minshi failed to complete the sacred task he was given, after arriving in Jishan Town, just a fight, he was blocked by the iron battalion under Liu Yaoben on the spot, a row of guns passed, Wu Minshi was immediately knocked off the war horse, and the soldiers and horses under his command dispersed in a hurry, and Wu Minshi was also arrested by the Xingtian Army, and his head was cut off on the spot and hung on the high pole.

Zuo Liangyu didn't say a word when he heard the news, turned around and returned to Jingzhou City, and ordered the city to defend to the death, and Xiao Tianjian was not polite, taking advantage of the rare few days of good weather, and continued to send troops to Jingzhou City.

When the army passed by the Changhu Lake, the navy under Zuo Liangyu suddenly landed on the shore and wanted to flank the Xingtian Army, but because the organization was not effective enough, the soldiers were not very willing to fight, and after landing on the shore, they did not kill the Xingtian Army, and the soldiers broke up by themselves, leaving only less than 300 Zuo Liangyu's ironcore old troops, and the result was that they were all killed on the shore of Changhu by a reserve battalion of the Xingtian Army.

Moreover, after Xiao Tianjian learned the news, he immediately sent a heavy artillery battalion to the shore of Changhu Lake, and the artillery bombarded Zuo Liangyu's warship on the lake, so that Zuo Liangyu's sailors arranged in Changhu Lake immediately scattered on the lake.

But Xiao Tianjian's march was still not smooth, after all, Jingzhou is a city surrounded by water, full of large and small rivers, Zuo Liangyu took advantage of the terrain here, and constantly sent troops to attack and harass the Xingtian Army, and the Xingtian Army had to deal with it carefully.

In addition, a cavalry under the command of Zuo Liangyu still tried to cut off the grain route of the Xingtian Army, taking advantage of the southward movement of the Xingtian Army, they made a detour to the north and killed the camp of the Xingtian Army in Jingmen County to store grain, but fortunately, when Xiao Tianjian was going south, Li Xin took this into account in advance, and left five hundred soldiers and three hundred soldiers here, and left a reserve battalion to protect this grain storage place, Zuo Liangyu's cavalry launched several assaults, but were repelled by these horses and horses, and after leaving more than 100 corpses, they had to reluctantly turn around and run back to Jingzhou.

On the way, he was intercepted and killed by Situ Liang, annihilating Zuo Liangyu's elite cavalry of at least 1,000 people, making Zuo Liangyu steal chickens and lose rice.

Zuo Liangyu can be said to have used all methods in order to keep Jingzhou City, night attacks, sneak attacks, ambushes, digging roads, and digging trenches, but Xiao Tianjian's side also saw the moves, and fought steadily step by step, with the efforts of Situ Liang's cavalry and Liu Yaoben's various battle battalions, they resolved Zuo Liangyu's tricks one by one, and the two sides also had their own victories and defeats, but Zuo Liangyu still failed to prevent the Xingtian Army from approaching Jingzhou City.

The engineer battalion also played a great role in this southward attack on Jingzhou, and they built bridges and paved roads along the way, opening up roads for the Xingtian Army Brigade, and finally made the Xingtian Army finally arrive at Jingzhou.

The battle of Jingzhou has also kicked off, this time Xiao Tianjian can be said to have clenched his fists, mobilized more than 10,000 elite soldiers, plus the strength of the reserve battalion, making the strength of more than 20,000 people, and nearly 20,000 old troops of Zuo Liangyu who turned against the water and defected to the Xingtian Army and the local people to help in the war, and pulled more than 40,000 people and horses to Jingzhou City.

On July 17, after Xiao Tianjian had arranged the task of attacking Jingzhou, he began to work at the sound of an order, and the seven battalions each led a reserve battalion and auxiliary troops to launch an attack on the outside of Jingzhou.

After the start of the war, the sound of artillery and guns on the entire battlefield was like rolling thunder, roaring on all sides, and rows of Xingtian gunners approached the front of Zuo Liangyu's front outside Jingzhou City under the cover of the sword and card players like a wall, and opened fire on Zuo Liangyu's men and horses, so that the men and horses under Zuo Liangyu's command could not raise their heads, and had to retreat again and again, giving up their defensive positions, and as long as the soldiers captured a defensive line, a large number of people who helped the war immediately rushed up with dirt bags and tools. Tear down the pass wall built by Zuo Liangyu's subordinates, fill in the trenches dug, and pave the road to Jingzhou City, so that the men and horses of the Xingtian Army can continue to advance forward.

A large number of carriages were driven out and put into the battlefield in batches to provide cover for the attacking soldiers and horses, and Zuo Liangyu also desperately sent people to fight back, trying to prevent the Xingtian army from approaching Jingzhou City.

The two sides began on the 17th, and fought fiercely outside the city for three days in a row, and the various units of the Xingtian Army annihilated Zuo Liangyu's nearly 20,000 troops left outside the city, most of which defected on the spot, and began to help the Xingtian Army turn around to deal with Zuo Liangyu's official army, and Zuo Liangyu finally had to order the remnants of the city to withdraw into the city under the sharp offensive of the Xingtian Army, and made the posture of finally defending Jingzhou City, and the various defensive facilities he set up outside the city were completely cleared by the Xingtian Army.

Even the more than 3,000 cavalry he left in the west of the city failed to withdraw into the city in the end, seeing that the Xingtian army was powerful and blocked their way to retreat into the city, the cavalry of the thief army was also quite powerful, staying here, not only could not help, but if they were not careful, they might be killed by the Xingtian army, so these people should flee towards Songzi defeated.

(Thanks to the Dream Watch brothers for the tip!) It's rare to have a good weather on the weekend, so I took my son to fly a kite today! This is also my responsibility! Tomorrow erupts, so please wait! ）