In the two years since Chongzhen's two years of attacking and defending the capital to fighting along the canal and fighting in the northwest, the main force of the revolutionary army led by Xiao Xuan has completely defeated the main force of the Ming army in the north as the backbone of the north in a short period of time. However, at this time, the Yingtian court and even the vassal kings in various places still owned the south from Sichuan to Huguang and then to the entire south of the Jianghuai River, which was more extensive than the territory stabilized by the Southern Song Dynasty. If we add that because of the influence of the Mengyuan and the climatic factors of the Xiaoice Age, the economic center of gravity and the population center of gravity are more southerly, it is far from being said that the world has been determined.

Not to mention that because of the convenient transportation in the north, the actual influence and cohesion of the clan brought about by long-term centralized rule is not so strong, and there is a big difference with the south, Xiao Xuan estimated a long time ago that from Sichuan to Huguang to the entire south, when facing a real threat and starting to mobilize gradually, there will be a lot of resistance.

Therefore, although the Central Route Army led by Zhou Dayong did not have the elite of the First Army and the Second Army of the Revolutionary Army, which had a larger proportion and more elite proportion of former teaching brigades, in terms of troops, the total size of the Central Route Army gradually increased to nearly 80,000 troops in the five armies. In addition to the Third Army and the Tenth Army that stayed in the capital, the First Army, the Second Army and the Volunteer Division in the northwest, and even the Ninth Army guarding Xuzhou, the five armies of the Fourth to Eighth Armies were all concentrated in the direction of the middle road, which was the fundamental reason why the Central Plains, which did not have much combat effectiveness in the whole of Henan, but still had a lot of troops and fortified cities, was quickly swept away in a short period of time.

Agriculture in the Huguang area is still abundant, and there is no shortage of impoverished areas, so it is much easier to build an army than in other places when restrictions are completely opened. At this time, Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, and Zhu Huakui, the king of Chu, with the support of the new Huguang Jingluo Zhu Xieyuan, took about a year or so to complete the construction of a total of 300,000 new army personnel in the new three major battalions, of which the barely decent army was about 150,000. If it is in the era of traditional cold weapons, it may be difficult to do, even in the late Ming Dynasty in history, it is extremely difficult, but because of the influence of the new army building model brought by Xiao Xuan and the more effective use of firearms, it greatly reduces the dependence on elite soldiers and officers, so it does not seem too tense for a year or so.

At this time, Huguang Zhu Xieyuan certainly understood that if he wanted to confront the powerful Chongzhen army at the beginning, the army, which looked very powerful on paper, had an advantage in strength, and it was extremely dangerous to fight in a place like the Central Plains. Although Zhu Xieyuan believed that Chongzhen, who also did not have enough time, would not be able to bring the main army of more than 100,000 to that level in a year or two, the main force of Zhou Dayong's troops that attacked this time was still not to be underestimated, at least if he thought that it was not a good idea to plan a decisive battle with the opponent in the Central Plains just by relying on the superiority of troops. It is possible to defeat the enemy's advance only when the terrain south of Qinhuai is complicated and unfavorable for cavalry and armor when it is necessary and very certain to effectively control Wuchang, Xiangyang and other important places. The reason is not complicated: The quality of the grass-roots units may not be much different from the teams with similar army building cycles, but a team that has undergone many actual combat trainings has a greater probability of selecting and testing decent officers and command levels, and this is actually a factor that cannot be ignored in terms of combat effectiveness.

Therefore, when the 80,000-strong Central Route Army swept the Central Plains, Zhu Xieyuan did not take the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive. Relying on waterways, cities, and complex terrain to defend operations can still obtain a great bonus advantage, which is still a dogma printed on the common sense of many officers and generals in this era.

However, what Zhu Xieyuan did not expect was that in the face of 300,000 troops in the Huguang area, and the decent ground mobile troops also had more than 30 battalions and 150,000 troops, the arrogant Middle Route Army actually strategically divided its troops and marched towards Hanzhong and southern Shaanxi, and the rest of the way to the south at the same time divided troops to attack Xiangyang and Wuchang, trying to settle the situation in one fell swoop as quickly as possible.

King Lu was a cautious person, and felt that it was impossible for the commander of the enemy army and even the strategists around him to be such a layman, and it was very likely that there was another way to lure the enemy.

"Could it be the Chongzhen Forbidden Brigade, the so-called 'Volunteer Army' is among the teams going south? The strength of the enemy in Henan is far from being as simple as we are now getting the news. ”

Of course, Zhu Xieyuan did not make up his mind hastily, so he still ordered the main force to gather in the area of Xiangyang, and several other important towns along the river were also heavily guarded to see what strange things were hidden in this southbound force that did not seem to be a strong force. For people who have a certain way of using troops, it is already a common practice to hide the elite in a force that does not seem to be very powerful.

In this case, it is undoubtedly the safest choice to support the opponent in defense and defense, and choose whether to concentrate forces for a big victory. Moreover, the newly formed team also needs a less risky defensive operation to test its quality.

After the expansion in the early Ming Dynasty, the circumference of Xiangyang at this time reached fifteen miles, and there were seventy or eighty thousand decent heavy guards, and more importantly, it was different from many other cities. The fact that it is close to the Han River and has a wide and abnormal moat can effectively allow many water forces to support each other, and greatly limit the choice of troops for the attacking side in the siege, which makes Zhu Xieyuan not believe that even if Chongzhen's volunteer troops come in person, they can break through such a strong city with such a moat in a very short time with only a few elites. Once it falls into a war of attrition in Xiangyang and even Wuchang, the main force of the Southeast Ming Army attacking Xuzhou Buke will also be reinforced.

At this time, the Yingtian Imperial Court was in great need of a real victory to boost morale. In particular, the repeated defeats and defeats in the past have made many teams that have just been established a little "talking about the color change of the Northern Army"

Zhou Dayong, who led the elite main force of 20,000 Middle Route Army to Xiangyang City, saw that Xiangyang City had such a wide waterway protection, and he was also a little unsure, and he didn't know if some of the siege methods that had been tried and tested repeatedly before were effective in the face of such a fortified city with advantageous geography and heavy troops. Perhaps, only by investing enough money in the offensive can you increase some of your chances of winning. Thinking of this, Zhou Dayong began to immediately convene a military meeting to discuss the way to take Xiangyang City in a hurry. But in the end, there don't seem to be many options left, and if you want to make a breakthrough in one go, you can only take some tactical risks.

(End of chapter)