The battle to capture the water village was very easy, the Ming army only relied on firearms to completely defeat the 30,000 western thieves, Lu Tai led the troops into the village, killed countless western thieves, there were four or five thousand prisoners alone, the lake of the water village was full of corpses, and the blood stained the entire lake red.

Jin Xin led the main fleet to sit in the water village, watch over the prisoners, and confiscate the ship's weapons and various materials, while Lu Tai took more than 5,000 soldiers to the shore and pursued the defeated army of the Western Thieves. Li Yi and the main force have been ambushed in the place where the western thieves must pass, and what Lu Tai has to do is to fight Li Yi back and forth, leaving all the western thieves behind.

When Lu Tai led his troops to catch up with the fleeing Western Thieves, the leader of the Western Thieves, Funan General Zhang Wenxiu, had been shot and killed, and with the death of Zhang Wenxiu, the final impact of the Western Thieves was easily defeated by Li Yijun's powerful firepower, some soldiers died under the rain of bullets, some soldiers threw away their weapons and surrendered on their knees in fear, and more fled towards the mountains and fields.

The next step was naturally to pursue the rout, watch the prisoners, and then send a letter to Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi at Hukou, asking about the next plan.

Hearing that Zhang Wenxiu's 30,000 thieves were completely annihilated, the Chinese army commander's tent was boiling.

Lu Zhenfei was excited and shocked at the same time, it was the main force of the 30,000 thief army, the main force of the thief army that annihilated He Tengjiao's 200,000 Huguang army, and it was easily annihilated like this. It took more than half a day from the dispatch of troops to victory, which made Lu Zhenfei unbelievable. Even if all 30,000 pigs are killed, it will not be more than that!

Originally, Lu Zhenfei was still worried about the situation, and he didn't think that Chen Yue could defeat hundreds of thousands of thieves, after all, the number of soldiers led by Chen Yue was far less than that of the western thieves. At the beginning, Lu Zhenfei thought that Chen Yue was big and dared to take the initiative to fight with such a few people. Now it seems that it is not Chen Yuetuo, but in his heart! Thinking about Chen Yue's achievements, and then thinking back to his performance during the Northern Expedition, Lu Zhenfei felt ashamed from the bottom of his heart.

If it were, if Chen Yue commanded the Northern Expedition, there would not have been such a defeat, and the Ming Dynasty would not have fallen into such a situation!

Looking at the battle report sent from the front line, Gu Junen also sighed with emotion, the 30,000 army led by Zhang Wenxiu, the fierce general of the Western Army, was easily defeated, and if it was replaced by the Shun army that he was familiar with, I am afraid the end would be no different.

After following Chen Yue in Dongfan for more than half a year, Gu Junen's understanding of Chen Yue's Dongfan Army was far above Lu Zhenfei, and from the beginning he thought that there was no problem in defeating the Great Western Army, because although the number of Dongfan Army was not large, the use of artillery and firearms far exceeded all the armies of this era. What's more, the Eastern Army has strict military discipline and well-trained, and its combat power and will to fight are not comparable to the Western Army, which is accustomed to escaping.

"Two, Zhang Wenxiu's 30,000 troops were all wiped out, where should we go next?" Chen Yue didn't think much about it, but asked.

According to the original plan, it was to wait for Zhang Xianzhong to attack at Hukou, consume Zhang Xianzhong's strength in the siege battle, and then defeat him in one fell swoop. But now that Zhang Wenxiu's entire army has been annihilated, leaving only 20,000 defenders in Jiujiang City, it seems that he can take Jiujiang first and completely block Zhang Xianzhong's retreat. Whether to stick to the original strategy or make changes, Chen Yue was quite undecided.

"Duke Qi Guo, there are still 20,000 thieves in Jiujiang City, and I am afraid it will be difficult to take it in a hurry. Our strength is only 50,000 or 60,000 people, and it is not appropriate to divide the troops into two defenses, in the old man's opinion, it is better to follow the original strategy, and wait for the thief army to attack. After thinking carefully, Lu Zhenfei solemnly suggested to Chen Yue.

Chen Yue nodded, agreeing with Lu Zhenfei's analysis, but looked at Gu Junen, wanting to hear his opinion.

Gu Junen pondered for a long time, and said, "Lord Lu's idea is very safe, but I'm afraid I have to make some changes now." ”

"His subordinates have been in Shunying for many years, although Shunxi is not a family, but he also understands the puppet emperor Zhang Xianzhong of Daxi. Zhang Xianzhong seems to be fierce and fierce, slaughtering the city and slaughtering the people at every turn, but in fact, he is as cunning as a tiger and extremely cowardly in his heart.

When you are weak and vicious like a tiger, and when you are strong, you will run away, which is what Zhang Xianzhong has always done. In the first two years, the Shun army swept through the Central Plains, attacked Shanxi in Shaanxi, and the troops went straight to Beijing. Zhang Xianzhong took advantage of the fact that all the energy of the Ming Dynasty was contained by the Shun army, and he also conquered the city and gradually became bigger, but he did not dare to attack the Zuo Liangyu army stationed in Jiujiang at that time, and went straight to Nanjing to capture the land of Daming, but chose to go to Sichuan, where the troops were weak, and it can be seen that he had no strategic vision and no courage to fight a decisive battle with a strong enemy.

Now that our army has captured Hukou and completely annihilated Zhang Wenxiu's 30,000 troops, it will inevitably make Zhang Xianzhong frightened, and in the eyes of his subordinates, Zhang Xianzhong may not have the courage to fight a decisive battle with our army. If our army could not occupy Jiujiang and completely block the way for the Great Western Army to escape from Jiangxi, perhaps Zhang Xianzhong would choose to go to Huguang from Jiujiang instead of fighting hard with our army.

If this is the case, I am afraid that our army's plan to completely annihilate the main force of the Great Western Army will fail. ”

Listening to Gu Junen's meaning, it was suggested that Chen Yue attack Jiujiang City to completely block the retreat of the Western Thieves, Lu Zhenfei suddenly became anxious: "The total strength of our army is only more than 60,000 people, and then divide the troops into two places in Hukou and Jiujiang, and the troops are weak everywhere, if the Western Thieves attack one place with all their might, how can they resist?" Besides, there are still 20,000 thieves in Jiujiang, how can they be hastily defeated? ”

"So this is also where I hesitate, to be honest, I don't know whether to send troops to attack Jiujiang." Gu Junen sighed.

Lu Zhenfei's opinion is naturally safe, but it is not conducive to leaving the main force of the thief army, if Zhang Xianzhong is really as Gu Junen said that he is cowardly in his heart, and chooses to retreat from Jiujiang to Huguang, it will not be easy to annihilate him. The advantage of the Ming army is artillery and warships, only in this magnificent Poyang Lake can play the greatest combat power, if the thief army escapes to Huguang, the warship can not drive to the shore, hundreds of cannons naturally can not follow the army, and without the support of warships and artillery, relying on these tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of thieves to fight, the victory or defeat is difficult to say.

Chen Yue knew that the Ming army under his command now seemed to be strong, but in fact, the flaws were just as big, and if they couldn't fight on a favorable battlefield, they would not be sure of victory at all. Therefore, it is imperative to attack Jiujiang!

"Where is Jin Shenghuan's army now?" After pondering for a while, Chen Yue asked slowly, so the two of them knew that Chen Yue had made up his mind.

"General Jin's army of 50,000 traveled overland from Fengyang to Anqing, and then crossed the river from Anqing to Jiujiang. Seven hundred miles from Fengyang to Anqing, according to the speed of marching thirty miles a day, it will take at least twenty days, in fact, the marching speed may be even slower. And from Anqing to Jiujiang is nearly 400 miles, and it takes half a month to march normally.

Just today, I received a military intelligence report that Jin Shenghuan's army had just passed Anqing, and it would probably take more than ten days to reach Jiujiang. Gu Junen sighed, he is the chief of staff, and all military information has to pass through his hands, so he naturally knows where Jin Shenghuan is now.

"It's going to take more than ten days! Where is Zhang Xianzhong? Chen Yue asked again.

"Zhang Xianzhong has led the army to retreat from Ji'an Mansion, and it should not have reached Nanchang Mansion yet." Gu Junen replied.

"In this way, it will take at least seven or eight days for Zhang Xianzhong's army to arrive at Jiujiang, and even if Zhang Xianzhong attacks immediately after we take Jiujiang City, it will only take four or five days to wait for Jin Shenghuan's army to come to help. In this way, you can take a risk, take Jiujiang, completely block Zhang Xianzhong's retreat, and leave the main force of the thief army in Jiangxi! ”

Chen Yue thought for a long time and made a decisive decision.