With the combat power of the new-style Ming army, Fang Yuan asked himself that the Xuanjia Army, which was barely cobbled together from Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and whose combat strength was inferior to one or two ranks, was inferior in terms of number and individual combat ability.

If Suqian's 30,000 Xuanjia army took the initiative to attack Sun Chuanting, it would be defeated, and it could only take a defensive position.

Fortunately, Suqian is backed by the Grand Canal, so he can provide a steady stream of material support from the Grand Canal, and he is not worried that he will be attacked by Sun Chuanting for a while and a half.

When Sun Chuanting could not attack Suqian for a long time, and the morale and morale of the army were low, he sent 10,000 strange soldiers led by Zhang Ying, who stayed in Huai'an Mansion, to go north and copy the base camp behind Sun Chuanting, and won the battle.

The other road sent by Sun Chuanting was led by the general soldiers Bai Guangen and Zheng Jiadong, leading 80,000 elite Ming troops and 8,000 train battalions to attack Xuzhou. Bai Guangen's train battalion was designed to deal with the onslaught of cavalry, and he went to Xuzhou to ride against the most elite Xuanjia iron.

Fang Yuan couldn't think of a way to deal with the train battalion for a while, so he immediately sent someone to Xuzhou to inform Chigutai that Zhao Quanzhong would not clash with the train battalion head-on until he found a way to break the enemy, so as not to lose the elite Xuanjia Iron Cavalry.

Chigutai and Zhao Quanzhong got the military order and camped along the line of Peishui to suppress the advance of Bai Guangen and Zheng Jiadong's subordinates.

Fang Yuan's grand strategy for the decisive battle with Sun Chuanting this time was to defend first and then attack, and then strike first. Sun Chuanting's thousand-mile expedition, when he first arrived, must have a high military spirit and morale. The so-called one blow and then three times exhausted, first with a few military fortresses to wear down the fighting spirit of Sun Chuanting's department, and then look for an opportunity to break the enemy.

According to Fang Yuan's estimate, since Sun Chuanting's ace army, the new-style Ming army, has attacked Huai'an Mansion, it can be seen that Sun Chuanting's strategy for going south this time is to besiege Wei to save Zhao, and force Fang Yuan to withdraw the Xuanjia Army besieging Fengyang by attacking Huai'an Mansion and Yangzhou Mansion.

But the subsequent strategic situation greatly exceeded Fang Yuan's expectations.

He originally expected that after Sun Chuanting's army entered Huai'an Mansion, he would either attack the main force of Suqian's Xuanjia Army first; or go south and cross the Huai River directly and attack the territory of Yangzhou Prefecture; Either start a war on two fronts, both attacking Suqian, and at the same time ordering the small Ming army to go south to copy Yangzhou Mansion.

However, after Sun Chuanting's 70,000 new-style Ming troops entered Huai'an Mansion, they unexpectedly did not go south, nor did they come to attack Suqian, but set up their base camp in Haizhou, which was further north.

Sun Chuanting sent Niu Chenghu to lead 20,000 new-style Ming troops into Shuyang County to confront Fang Yuan's Xuanjia army in Suqian.

When Niu Chenghu arrived in Shuyang County, he did not make any moves to attack Suqian, but began to dig trenches and build fortifications in the hilly area west of Shuyang County, surrounded by mountains and rivers.

Fang Yuan was also taken aback when he saw that Sun Chuanting and Niu Chenghu's troops did not attack, but turned into a defensive posture, and secretly wondered if Huai'an Mansion was a virtual soldier all the way, and the real direction of attack was in Xuzhou?

Fang Yuan immediately ordered the sergeant to go to Xuzhou to inquire about the news, and ten days later, the sergeant reported that Bai Guangen's troops who attacked Xuzhou did not attack, but camped along the north of Peishui and confronted the Xuanjia army south of Peishui.

In the two battlefields of Huai'an and Xuzhou, both sides fell into a state of confrontation.

Sun Chuanting didn't take the initiative to attack, the big deal was that the two sides would be deadlocked, anyway, the military rations of the Xuanjia Army were piled up, fighting for consumption, who was Fang Yuan afraid of?!

However, when Sun Chuanting confronted Fang Yuan, he also sent Gao Jie to lead 10,000 miscellaneous Ming troops to start descending from Haizhou along the coast and began to raid the large salt farms along the coast of Huai'an Prefecture.

Huai'an Province is one of the main salt producing areas in Huai'an, and there are many salt farms along the coast, and there are countless large and small salt merchants, and there are at least hundreds of thousands of rich people who get rich by selling salt.

Wherever Gao Jie's soldiers passed, like locusts swept by, the silver, grain, young laborers, and young women of the prefectures and counties they passed through were swept away, and there was not a single hair left.

The salt merchants and wealthy families along the coast suffered huge losses, and began to flee south to the Huai'an Prefecture south of the Huai River, accusing Sun Chuanting's subordinates of the crimes, and asking the Huai'an Prefecture to send reinforcements to defeat the plundering Ming army.

When the Huai'an Prefecture received this shocking news, Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, went to Jiangnan to recuperate, so he could only find Fang Yuan, who was stationed in Suqian, and asked Fang Yuan to send troops to fight to rescue the salt merchants, wealthy households, and ordinary people who had been plundered along the coast.

Fang Yuan met with the officials of Huai'an Prefecture who came to ask for help, and after asking about the situation of the coastal raids, he sent them all away with kind words and comfort.

If you want to send troops to rescue the coastal prefectures and counties, the Xuanjia Army stationed in Suqian is under the heavy pressure of Sun Chuanting, and it is fortunate that they can hold the city steadily, and it is absolutely impossible to rescue them again. The only way is to send out the strange army hidden in Dahewei, and maybe it can succeed in a battle!

The stakes are very high, Fang Yuan thought about it, but he still couldn't make a decision alone, at least after discussing with Jing Jie, he could decide on the next strategic response.

Fang Yuan immediately set off for the Xuanjia Army camp in Suzhou and met Jing Jie.

Jing Jie had already received a military report that Sun Chuanting's troops were going south, and instead of attacking, they took a defensive posture, "Boss, it seems that we expected the enemy to be wrong before, Sun Chuanting did not go south to relieve the siege of Fengyang, but to respond to the story." ”

Fang Yuan had also seen through Sun Chuanting's strategic intentions, nodded and said, "If what is expected, it should be the imperial court that forced Sun Chuanting to fight, and Sun Chuanting can only disobey the yang and the yin, and Mingli is going south to relieve the siege, in fact, to avoid a decisive battle with our army." Of course, by the way, I came to Huai'an Mansion, Xuzhou, and even Fengyang Mansion to grab silver, military rations, and subsidize military expenses. ”

Jing Jie looked at Xuzhou and Huai'an on the sand table and asked, "Boss, what should we do next?!" Just spending it with Sun Chuanting? ”

Fang Yuan stood side by side with him and looked at the sand table, and said with a solemn expression, "Third brother, in a war of attrition, we will always be invincible." But...... Now Sun Chuanting sent Gao Jie, a bandit army, to rob the rich merchants and wealthy households in Huai'an Mansion, and the officials of Huai'an Mansion asked us for help, did they save it or not? ”

Jing Jie groaned and said, "The boss wants to send this strange army of special warfare troops?!" ”

Fang Yuan nodded and said, "Suqian's Xuanjia Army can't move under Sun Chuanting's strict monitoring, and only by sending a special combat army can it repel Gao Jie's bandits. ”

Jing Jie said, "Boss, the special operations army is our last hole card, but it is wasted on defeating Gao Jie's bandits, strategically speaking, the gains outweigh the losses!" Besides, Huai'an Mansion is not our territory, so if you break it, you will break it! Anyway, King Lu, and the people of Huai'an Mansion hated not us, but Sun Chuanting, the court of the capital. ”

He stared at Fang Yuan and said slowly, "Boss, I suggest, stick to it and don't save it!" ”

Fang Yuan didn't want to save it in his heart, so he nodded and adopted the plan of sticking to it.

He pointed to Huguang and Henan on the sand table and said, "This war is obviously not only between us and Sun Chuanting. If the war drags on, it is very difficult to predict what will happen to Li Zicheng's side. ”

Jing Jie agreed with his statement, "Our troops in Jiangxi, Anqing, and Luzhou have all been transferred to the Fengyang battlefield. If Li Zicheng suddenly attacked, I am afraid that it would collapse immediately. Moreover, according to the businessmen who came to Jiangbei from Henan, Li Guo in Henan was already gathering troops and horses, and his movements were suspicious! ”

This is exactly what Fang Yuan was worried about, before Fang Yuan wanted to take advantage of Li Zicheng's trapping in Sichuan, he wanted to send troops to attack Huguang and Henan. Now Li Zicheng will also take advantage of the confrontation between Fang Yuan and Sun Chuanting to sneak attack Jiangxi, and even Anqing and Luzhou in Jiangbei, copying Fang Yuan's back road.

Fang Yuan's eyes fell on the territory of Huguang and Henan, and it was Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo who was stationed in Henan, and Li Yan, who had a relationship with him, who was stationed in Huguang.

As Jing Jie said, if these two sides suddenly attack, the situation in the entire Jiangxi and even Fengyang will be immediately reversed, or even collapsed.

What should be done to drag these two sides so that they do not dare to enter the army?