In Jiujiang City, Chen Yue's heart was burning and worried, but he didn't dare to show it in front of outsiders.

Listening to the military intelligence report, inspecting the city defense, and arranging various military affairs, everything was indifferent, and the calm exterior commended a significantly strong confidence, but who knew the anxiety in Chen Yue's heart?

Fighting against Zhang Xianzhong's Great Western Army brought great pressure to Chen Yue, and he was even resisting the southern invasion of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

When the Qing soldiers went south, although the Ming army surrendered one after another, the whole Ming Dynasty was in a panic, but Chen Yue, who was sitting in Yangzhou, was not panicked, because at that time he had 60,000 well-trained Pingnan elite soldiers in his hand, and Yangzhou was a strong city to defend, the armor was sharp and strong, and the grain and grass were sufficient.

But now, after the idle filial piety and the failure of the Northern Expedition, there are few Pingnan elite soldiers left who have worked hard in the past, although Jin Shenghuan rushed to Jiujiang with 50,000 Fengyang troops, but among the 50,000 people, there are only more than 10,000 Pingnan troops left.

After calculating that the Ming army in Jiujiang has now exceeded 100,000, but there are more than 20,000 elite people. In the face of Zhang Xianzhong's hundreds of thousands of troops.

When Zhang Xianzhong went out of Sichuan, he brought out 300,000 troops, of which 100,000 were led by Zhang Dingguo to attack Huguang, and Zhang Xianzhong was followed by 200,000 main forces. After entering Jiangxi, Zhang Xianzhong vigorously expanded his army, which soon expanded to 300,000 people. In order to attack Jiujiang and the decisive battle of the Ming army, Zhang Xianzhong ordered a large number of young people to be recruited from the occupied prefectures and counties, and 200,000 people were recruited as cannon fodder during the siege.

Now Zhang Xianzhong's army has reached 500,000 people, hundreds of miles of company camps, and thousands of ships of all kinds, which have simply paved the surface of Poyang Lake.

Although there were many troops, Zhang Xianzhong did not rush forward, he sent the general Feng Shuangli to lead 50,000 troops to garrison Linjiang Mansion to deal with Yan Yingyuan in Ji'an Mansion, and then the army slowly approached Jiujiang step by step. The land and water were horns with each other, and the Ming army was not given a chance to take advantage of it at all.

Chen Yue sent a fleet several times to try to sneak up on Zhang Xianzhong's army, but was attacked by the Western army with fireships and almost burned a three-masted sailing ship. Poyang Lake is not a wide sea, and in terms of the absolute number of troops and ships, strong ships and sharp guns do not have much advantage.

Zhang Xianzhong's troops were divided into two routes, with his own army of 300,000 from the west of Poyang Lake to Jiujiang, the Chinese army was located in De'an County, and the forward approached Jiujiang 20 miles to Lizhai. On the other hand, Zhang Nengqi, the general of Dingbei, launched an attack from Raozhou Mansion on the east bank of Poyang Lake to Hukou County.

Either of the two armies was above the entire strength of the Ming army in Jiujiang, and there were thousands of ships cruising in Poyang Lake, forcing the Ming army to retreat in the two places of Jiujiang at the mouth of the lake, and did not dare to take the initiative to attack.

Zhang Xianzhong has been in the army for more than ten years, and there is no shortage of fierce generals who can fight in battle, and they all say that Zhang Xianzhong is brutal, in fact, Zhang Xianzhong can develop such a huge force, and there is naturally no shortage of demagogic means. Since he originally planned to conquer Jiangxi as a foundation, in addition to brutally plundering the gentry and landlords, he did not attack the ordinary people, but on the contrary, proposed measures to distribute the land of the gentry and landlords to the poor, which was very supported by many people. This is also an important reason why he was able to easily expand his army from 200,000 to 500,000.

How could Chen Yue dare to despise such an enemy?

The Western Army was different from the Qing soldiers, the brutality of the Qing soldiers often slaughtered cities and looted, coupled with their alien status, they were destined to not get too much support from the Ming people. However, Zhang Xianzhong's Western Army is different, they are all Han people with the same root and origin, Zhang Xianzhong has ascended the throne and become the emperor, naturally there is no shortage of people who have the heart of the dragon and want to be the heroes of the founding of the new dynasty.

Therefore, for Chen Yue, the Western Army was really no less than the great enemy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was not easy to defeat them.

However, in the first few victories, he defeated tens of thousands of Western troops to seize Jiujiang City, and beheaded Zhang Xianzhong's son Zhang Wenxiu, which made the morale of the Jiujiang Ming army high, and the Yangtze River waterway was in hand, and a steady stream of supplies came from the downstream, which made Jiujiang City more materially sufficient. Coupled with the blessing of Chen Yue's aura as the first military general of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army in Jiujiang and Hukou was still very stable, and they were not intimidated by the huge strength of the Western Army. Of course, the information on the actual strength of the Western Army is only known to the upper echelons of the Ming army, and it will not spread to ordinary soldiers.

What made Chen Yue even more anxious was that Zhang Dingguo's Western Army from Huguang. Zhang Dingguo is the king of Li Dingguo Li Jin, who is a famous king in another time and space, and is so frightened that the Manchu court wants to move the capital back to his hometown in the northeast, and the anti-Qing hero of another time and space, he naturally knows about Chen Yue. It's just that in this time and space, Zhang Xianzhong is not dead, and Li Dingguo has not resumed his surname.

Able to use the remnants of the Western Army to support the Yongli Imperial Court to stand in the southwest for more than ten years, and the Qing army has been defeated many times, Chen Yue naturally does not dare to be careless about Li Dingguo. What's more, Li Dingguo now has 100,000 troops in his hands, which is enough to subvert the situation and gain strength!

Liu Neng mastered the Jinyi Guard, combined with the Enemy Intelligence Department, quickly sent a large number of detailed works to various places, and transmitted information with carrier pigeons, and the military situation in various places was known in time.

Zhang Dingguo led the army back from Chenzhou, and Gu Yinxi suddenly sent troops to take Changsha, and these military information were transmitted to Chen Yue's desk in just a few days.

Chen Yue's impression of Plug Yinxi is a little vague, he should be a capable official from memory, but can he contain Zhang Dingguo's 100,000 army? Chen Yue was not very optimistic about him.

If Yinxi can't contain Zhang Dingguo, and the 100,000 Western Army goes down the river to Jiujiang, facing the Western Army's two-way attack, what should be done then? This can't help but Chen Yue is not worried.

On the huge sand table, there are red and green flags, the two red flags representing the Ming army are alone at the mouth of Jiujiang Lake, the south is densely packed with green flags, and in Wuchang in the upper reaches of the Jiujiang River, there is a green flag representing Li Dingguo's department.

Looking at this green flag blankly now, Chen Yue frowned.

Zhang Xianzhong's Chen Yue in the south alone felt that it was difficult to deal with, and if Li Dingguo went all out to capture it, it would be too difficult for Jiujiang to defend it under the attack from both sides. Therefore, there must be an army that can contain Li Dingguo.

The remnants of Huguang led by Du Yinxi were far less than those of Li Dingguo, and Chen Yue was not optimistic about them. So where did the forces to contain Li Dingguo come from?

Chen Yue's eyes swam on the huge sand table, and slowly looked at the opposite side of Wuchang, across the Yangtze River is Hanyang Mansion, and along the Han River to the north is Xiangyang. Zheng Sen was stationed in Xiangyang with 30,000 troops, entangled with Li Guo's Shun army, and at Chengtianfu on the east side of Hanshui, Hao Shaoqi was entrenched there with tens of thousands of defeated soldiers.

Maybe? A thought gradually came to Chen Yue's heart...... ()

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