Hukou County was captured by the Ming army within a day, and the news was quickly transmitted back to Jiujiang by the rout. Hukou County originally belonged to Jiujiang Prefecture, and the people who guarded Hukou were also Liu Wenxiu's subordinates. After getting the news, Liu Wenxiu understood the plan of the Ming army to attack the west.

Although Jiujiang City was still in his hands, Liu Wenxiu knew that the mouth of the lake had fallen, and he would not be able to enter the Yangtze River from Poyang Lake through the waterway, and the Ming army could attack and harass all parts of Jiangxi through the Poyang Lake waterway, and the consequences were very serious.

Therefore, we must think of driving the Ming army out of the lake! Liu Wenxiu has 50,000 elite soldiers under his command, all of whom are elites who have fought old battles, and the number of troops is not small. Although Emperor Daxi Zhang Xianzhong had not yet returned with the main force, Liu Wenxiu himself tried to recapture Hukou. Even if the Hukou cannot be recaptured, it is necessary to create conditions for the main force to return to reinforcements.

However, Jiujiang City is to the west of Poyang Lake, more than 20 miles away from the mouth of Poyang Lake, but the county seat of Hukou is east of Poyang Lake, and if you want to recapture the county seat of Hukou, you must cross Poyang Lake.

Of course, before attacking the mouth of the lake, it was necessary to ensure that Jiujiang was not lost, in order to be safe, Liu Wenxiu left 20,000 soldiers to guard Jiujiang, and he took 30,000 people to the west side of Poyang Lake and began to requisition ships from the west of the lake.

Jiangxi transportation travel is based on ships, Poyang Lake is the largest lake in the whole Ming Dynasty, of course there are many ships around, although most of the ships were requisitioned by Zhang Xianzhong to transport the army, but Liu Wenxiu still easily requisitioned two or three hundred lake boats, and set up a water camp on the lake of Qingshan Town, west of the lake.

Qingshan Town is 20 miles away from Jiujiang, to the east is the magnificent Poyang Lake, crossing the Poyang Lake more than 10 miles wide can land in the north to attack Hukou County, and from Qingshan Town to the south not far from the Poyang Lake Lake suddenly opened, from ten miles wide to dozens of miles and hundreds of miles, becoming boundless.

Set up a water camp in Qingshan Town, and enter the water can cross ten miles of water to reach the mouth of the threatened lake on the east bank, and guard can monitor the Ming army to prevent them from entering the hinterland of Jiangxi through Poyang Lake. Qingshan Town is only twenty miles away from Jiujiang, and it can return to Jiujiang in time, and the camping site chosen by Liu Wenxiu can be described as an excellent location.

Through contact and feedback from the Hukou rout, Liu Wenxiu knew that the strength of the Ming army was about sixty or seventy thousand, which was more than his own men, so he did not have much hope of defeating the Ming army alone to recapture Hukou.

The Great Western Army and the Ming Army have been fighting for so many years, and they know each other's roots, and Liu Wenxiu does not think too highly of the Ming Army's combat power. Although the commander of the Ming army is Chen Yue, the Duke of Qi who is known as the God of War, so what? The reason why Chen Yue became famous is because he didn't meet a real opponent, Liu Wenxiu was in his twenties when he was young and vigorous, and he was extremely unconvinced by Chen Yue's great reputation!

A river boat came from the north of the lake, stopped in the middle of the lake to look at the Western army that was camping, Liu Wenxiu sent three hundred troops to attack with six or seven ships, and before the Western army ships approached, the Ming army sentry boat had already turned around quickly, as if flying away.

Maybe the Ming army will attack soon, Liu Wenxiu said secretly, so he ordered his subordinates to strengthen their vigilance and set up camp quickly. However, until the sun set, when the camp was completely set up and all the ships were hiding in the wall, the Ming fleet had not yet come to attack, which made Liu Wenxiu secretly suspicious.

......

Gu Jincheng stood on the bow of the boat and ordered his subordinates to row back to the mouth of the lake quickly and report to the main general Yu Feng.

After Chen Yue Shouxiao left the army, the Pingnan Army was divided into several divisions, led by Jin Shenghuan, Yu Feng, Li Chengdong and other general soldiers. Some of the large group of military children recruited in Yangzhou that day chose to continue to follow Chen Yue, even if it was for temporary idleness, such as Gu Jincheng's good brother Yang Xiaolei, most of whom continued to serve before the generals of their troops.

Gu Jincheng wanted to return to his hometown Sichuan, so he chose to follow Yu Feng, the most brave general soldier in the battle, and now Yu Feng is under the command of the general.

As a staff general, there is naturally no need to personally do such a trivial matter as investigating the enemy's situation. But Gu Jincheng is cautious in his use of troops, and it is difficult to feel at ease if he does not come to the front line in person to know what to expect. When Tan Ma came to report that the Jiujiang West Thief Defender Brigade was out of the city, Gu Jincheng asked Yu Feng for an order to go and investigate in person.

By watching the western thieves set up a water camp, Gu Jincheng had a preliminary judgment of the situation of the western thieves, and when the western thieves' ships came to attack, he ordered to return to the mouth of the lake and report to Yu Feng.

.......

In Hukou County, the battle flag of the Ming army is flying high at the head of the city, but the city is busy, and countless soldiers are busy carrying soil and stones. Gu Jincheng's former good brother Yang Xiaolei is standing outside the city wall, commanding several engineer battalion soldiers to measure on the surface outside the city and then draw a thick line with white ash, and then there will be sappers commanding the Beijing camp soldiers to build the city wall along the white line.

Chen Yue intended to use Hukou County as a battlefield for a decisive battle with the Great Western Army, but the city wall of Hukou County was thin, and he was afraid that he could not afford to be attacked by the thief army several times. In order to strengthen the defense, he borrowed the fortress structure built by the Dutch and ordered his soldiers to build the fortress structure.

When he was in Beigang, the Dongfan Army had the experience of building the city wall, and Yang Xiaolei took his soldiers to participate in the construction of the city in person, and had certain experience.

Although Yang Xiaolei himself was born in a military household, his family was a large landowner of the Suzhou Guard, he was a smart person since he was a child, and he was slightly skilled in the military, and he was appreciated by Gu Junen when he was in Beigang, and recommended to Chen Yue that he became a staff officer of the shogunate staff department by leading the troops, and at this moment he was appointed to build the fortress.

It is said that it is a fortress, but in fact, the structure cannot be as complex as the city of Geranza built by the Dutch, but some additional walls are built outside the city wall at the mouth of the lake, that is, some protruding sections of the wall of the horse-faced structure, which are connected with the original city wall. In this way, the shape of the city wall used to be a canine-shaped structure, and the western thieves would be attacked by three walls when attacking from any place, and there were no dead ends at all.

Such horse-faced walls were built every fifty paces to ensure that the enemy was within range of muskets and crossbows on three sides of the city at any point in the siege. The protruding horse-faced city wall is wide inside and narrow outside, and the outermost end is only one brick wide, so it is impossible to take a ladder at all.

In the design drawings, the built horse-faced city wall is like a sharp ridge protruding outward, which is the so-called fortress.

The entire fortress was completely built of rammed earth, and the outside was covered with bricks and stones, for which Chen Yue ordered the demolition of all brick buildings in Hukou County, and even the Hukou County Government was demolished into ruins. All the dismantled bricks and stones were transported outside the city for the construction of the city walls.

In order to prevent the thief army from attacking and delaying the construction of the city before repairing the city wall, Yu Feng ordered to take all his men to be stationed outside the city town of Hukou County to guard against the possible attack of the thief army.