"Break through left and right for me and completely disrupt the rear army of the Chu army." Li Shenfu roared angrily as he led his team to attack. At this time, he had more than 30,000 people in his hands, which was the largest number he had commanded since he joined the army. The former Huainan army warrior was so excited that he even roared with a hint of trembling, and the spear in his hand swept off his horse one by one like a dragon going out to sea, and then rushed directly into the crowd of the other party.

In fact, as soon as Li Shenfu appeared on the battlefield, the whole situation of the Chu army was already not good, and the entire Chu army's 100,000 troops near Qinggangpo lined up in a long snake formation, and the tongue was stopped by the third battalion under the command of Xue Yang himself, and the snake body was also disturbed by Li Yang, although Li Yang's recent situation was the worst so far, because of the organized counterattack of the Chu army, and because of the unfavorable position, but after the rear army was attacked by Li Shenfu, the command system of the entire Chu army began to be chaotic, and Li Yang's pressure was suddenly greatly reduced.

However, this situation soon disappeared, after all, Ma Yin was a general who came out of Qin Zongquan, and quickly adjusted the position, shrinking the forward and rear troops in the direction of the central army, and then concentrated the main force to suppress Li Yang's department, and reflexively sent troops to prepare to climb the slope of the northeast of Qinggangpo, preparing to counterattack the Tiance army condescendingly.

Ma Yin's arrangement was quickly seen through by Xue Yang, and he began to command the third battalion to besiege the Chu army on the one hand, and on the other hand, he raised smoke rockets and launched them in the direction where Li Shenfu was, asking the other party to allocate manpower to intercept Ma Yin's mountaineering troops. In this way, the two sides fought again at the foot of the mountain.

This ambush war is now almost a battlefield in all directions, after the contraction of the central Chu army, the combat strength began to gradually recover, and the counterattack encountered by the Tiance army is gradually increasing, even if Li Yang invested a small number of explosives to bombard the opponent's front, but because this trip was originally a surprise attack, Li Yang carried small explosive bags, and the number was seriously insufficient, although the Chu army's front was chaotic for a time, but it was quickly exhausted, and the battle situation entered the stalemate stage again. Li Shenfu of the rear army did not have time to find an opportunity to set up ballistas, as the latest troops to arrive on the battlefield, he exchanged fire with the other side almost as soon as he arrived, and because he was in too haste, he didn't even carry many ballistas and set off in a hurry. After this war, the Tiance Army also prompted a strong demand for artillery battalions, and for this reason, the General Staff thoroughly revised the operational regulations for artillery battalions to accompany the main force to meet the increasingly vigorous firepower demand.

However, without the explosives bag, the Tiance army still held the initiative in the battle, and the Chu army marched for days and days with huge physical exertion, and as time went by, it became more and more not the opponent of the Tiance army, while the third battalion and the fifteenth battalion participating in the siege were the fist troops of the Western Route Army, and the third battalion under the personal leadership of Xue Yang continued to compress the Chu army's position with tenacious morale and strong combat power, and pushed the battle line to gradually advance towards Ma Yin's Chinese army. And Li Yang's side, relying on the continuous support of archers and ballista troops, has also stabilized the situation and began to counterattack gradually.

The Tiance army regained the situation step by step, which also made Ma Yin, who was in command of the Chinese army, anxious, and no longer dared to be careless at this time, and began to draw all the troops of the whole army to attack outward, and turned the spearhead of the attack to the third battalion, trying to open the gap and return to the city. In this way, the pressure of the third battalion increased greatly, and Li Yang's location was a relatively independent area, and the partial army sent by Ma Yin even launched a confrontation with Li Yang for a time, and the two sides poured arrows into each other's positions like money, trying to suppress the opponent's long-range support forces and then break into the opponent's formation, thus completely disrupting the opponent.

Long-range shooting, although the Tiance Army has done a good job of protection, but the casualties are still very large, and the same attack effect is also obvious, almost half to half probability. However, Li Yang ignored it, but the pikemen and sword and shield men took advantage of the gap to pounce on the opponent's archer troops and began to encircle and suppress the opponent's archery troops, and at the same time ordered the ballista troops to support the pikemen's attacks from a distance and suppress the opponent's counterattack. Li Yang's hand didn't notice it at first, but when the pikemen broke into the opponent's archer array, he suddenly felt bad, for a long-range force like an archer, once it was broken into by a melee force, it would inevitably be slaughtered. For a while, the Chu army was in chaos, taking advantage of this rare gap, Li Yang commanded the whole army to press, completely strangled with the other party, and at the same time personally led a group of soldiers and horses towards the command center of this partial army.

Just when the battle of Qinggangpo was in full swing, the mountain battalion and artillery battalion were already in Qinggangpo at this time, and the battle in the distance had already been reported to Chen Yushi, the deputy commander of the mountain battalion.

"Order the troops to assist the artillery battalion to quickly detour to the hillside ahead to set up a position, and then our mountain battalion will storm down from the top of the hillside. Tell the brothers that the mountain camp has practiced the stunt for so long, and this time it must open everyone's eyes. Chen Yushi groaned a little at the map and began to command the mountain battalion to help the artillery battalion carry a large number of ballistae and climb towards the northeast slope of Qinggang Slope. For the mountain battalion, this small hillside is not difficult at all, these Kansai men who have long regarded climbing mountains and wading as commonplace, if it weren't for the artillery battalion, those big guys need to be carried away, it is estimated that they would have arrived long ago. However, Rao was like this, and when they arrived at the top of the hillside, the battlefield below still made the soldiers smell the smell of blood, if Chen Yushi had not asked the big guys and other artillery battalions to set up positions and then attack, these militants would have rushed down impatiently.

"Captain Wu, you choose your own target to attack in the artillery battalion, and I will lead the charge of the team." Chen Yushi saw that the artillery battalion was almost ready, and without further words, he immediately led the team to rush down the hillside. Almost at the same time, the ballistas of the artillery battalion also began to roar, and the explosives bag soared into the air and fell rapidly. This explosion was beyond everyone's expectations, and the soldiers of the Tiance Army who were fighting fiercely below couldn't help but roar in unison when they saw the explosion that suddenly rose into the air, and the tsunami-like shouts began to sound, all the soldiers knew that the reinforcements had arrived, and there was no opponent who could not be defeated with the explosives package, and it turned out that in an instant, with this powerful and powerful weapon, the morale was raised and the morale began to counterattack the Chu army formation. At the same time, the mountain battalion rushed down from the mountain to attack the back of the Chu army, which also completely disrupted Ma Yin's deployment, and the situation began to reverse abruptly.

"Order the war drum team, beat the drums with all your might, and the whole army will attack and behead Ma Yin for me." Xue Yang took the lead in the charge, and the third battalion broke through the opponent's suppression in an instant like a sharp arrow, entering the core of the Chu army, and the raging killing was destined to unify this land of the Xiangjiang River from this moment on.

The artillery battalion on the mountain decisively adjusted the firing distance after the first round of test firing, and aimed the spearhead at the position of the core Chinese army of the Chu army, and the continuous bombardment made Ma Yin no longer able to organize an effective defense, and the entire command system began to collapse first, and the 100,000 army lost its command and fought separately and was broken by the Tiance army. Although the number of the four-way men and horses was less than that of the opponent, they began to suppress the Chu army. Because the 3rd and 15th Battalions were located in the core and were even close to Ma Yin's Chinese army, some of the sand and gravel carried by the explosives bag had even hit the Tiance army.

"Order all the artillery to give me a shot at Ma Yin's command platform, and blow him up for me." The captain of the artillery battalion on the mountain saw the situation down the mountain and was ready to give a ruthless blow. No one expected that his move would directly end the war ahead of schedule, dozens of explosive packs roared and directly shrouded Ma Yin's command platform, and after the continuous explosion, the entire command platform of the Chu army was reduced to ashes, and all the high-ranking members of the Chu army, including Ma Yin, were blown to pieces. Such a ruthless move was not only stunned by Chu Jun himself, but also Xue Yang, who led the charge of the team, also did not expect it. In the past, it would be good for the artillery battalion to cross the opponent's forward position and hit the position of the Chinese army, but everyone did not expect that the artillery battalion at this moment had become the highest altitude unit in the whole battlefield because of the hillside, and the ballista could directly bombard the opponent's command platform.

"Order the troops to kill me, and at the same time start to surrender, and those who resist will not be spared." Xue Yang was the first to react, and the third battalion began to quickly counterattack and kill the generals who led the troops at the grassroots level to suppress the commotion of the Chu army, preparing to capture the prisoners. His action also made Li Yang, who was closest to him, follow closely, and the two quickly merged, one forcing the Chu soldiers to surrender in the front, and the other watching the prisoners in the rear. This method also quickly made Li Shenfu of the rear army and the mountain battalion that had just joined the battlefield react. The sound of "those who descend will not kill" from all directions made the Chu army completely lose his square inch after losing his brain. Some continued to resist and were immediately beheaded on the spot, while some obediently obeyed the command of the Tiance army, threw away their weapons and surrendered on the spot. Some of them began to look for opportunities to escape from the battlefield, but most of them were driven back by the Tiance Army and captured again, and only a very small number of them escaped as fish that slipped through the net.

This ambush battle is basically over now, and the main force of the entire Chu army was defeated in one fell swoop, and by the way, the leader of Ma Yin was also blown up, laying the foundation for the recovery of other states and counties in Chu in the future.

After Xue Yang commanded the brigade to escort the tens of thousands of captured Chu army prisoners back to Tanzhou, Xue Yang asked Li Yang to lead the team to immediately capture Changsha City, and then get in touch with the rear and transfer troops from Tanzhou to the south to attack Hengzhou and Chenzhou. At the same time, people were sent from Changsha to return to Sichuan, and the National Guard was mobilized nearby, and people from all over Sichuan entered Changsha to maintain order. He led the Western Route Army south to Chenzhou and Shaozhou and other places.

The results of the Western Route Army were quickly transmitted to the headquarters along the Yangtze River with the flying horse speedboat. After waiting for Xue Yang's battle report, the Southern Front Headquarters where Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun were in charge immediately wrote a summary of the battle on the Southern Front, announcing that the most powerful princes in the south of the Tang Empire had all been taken.

At this time, Li Xuanqing, Cen Tianshi, and others, who had already returned to Tianjin from Zhongjing, were also witnessing the launch of the shipyard's new-generation warships, and were preparing to convene high-level officials such as the General Staff and the Navy Department to compile naval combat regulations and warship operation guidelines. As a result, Guo Chongtao's Tang Imperial Navy officially matured and became another armed force of the empire on an equal footing with the army.

At this time, Xue Yang didn't know what was happening in the north, and he didn't even care if the command was going to send him additional tasks. Because Liu Shizheng, the southern prince near Chu, had also completed the unification of northern Guizhou and southern Hunan, his power was greatly displayed, and he took the initiative to send troops into Hengzhou to confront Xu Ying outside the city of Hengzhou, and at the same time, Lu Yanchang and others in Chenzhou also joined Lu Guangchou and others in the south to jointly send troops to prepare to flank Xu Ying. The situation on the front line in Hengzhou suddenly reached a critical juncture.

Xue Yang, who got the news, asked Li Shenfu to lead his troops to aid Xu Ying, and on the other hand, asked Li Yang to quickly lead his army south from Changsha to join him and go south from Chenzhou to prepare to make a detour to Liu Shizheng's rear to attack the opponent.

"Marshal, command orders." Just when Xue Yang was reorganizing his troops and horses and preparing to set off, Yang Tiancheng's order came down, ordering the Western Route Army to attack Chenzhou and other places with all its might, and the Central Route Army was responsible for the manpower that needed support in the Hengzhou area. Yang Tiancheng's order can be said to have solved Xue Yang's big problem. After receiving the order, Xue Yang asked Li Shenfu to return to the building quickly, and at the same time ordered Xu Ying to prepare for the middle route army to get closer.

In fact, what he didn't know was that at this time, several big princes in the south were already preparing to join forces to deal with the Tiance Army, not only the Middle Route Army, but even Xue Wanli's Eastern Route Army had also been mobilized. Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun, in order to facilitate the joint operation of several large armies, have moved the headquarters forward to the Xinzhou area, and at the same time sent orders to Chen Yu and Xue Wanli, ordering the two armies to formulate an attack plan within a time limit, knock out this southern alliance, and complete the task of unifying Lingnan before the end of the year.

At the same time, the southern front command began to select men from the troops withdrawn from the rear and the northern front, preparing to strengthen Xue Yang's army, so that he could march into the southwest at the right time, so as to unify Lingnan and sound the clarion call for unifying the southwest at the same time.

After reporting to the General Staff Headquarters and Li Xuanqing, the Southern Front Command began to adjust its deployment while fighting a war. And Xu Tianxiang and Wan Yi discussed with Li Xuanqing as soon as they received the plan from the Southern Front Command.

"It looks like the reunification of the whole South is imminent." Li Xuanqing handed Yang Tiancheng's plan to Cen Tianshi and nodded: "The southeast region is actually very easy to manage, it is basically a prosperous area, and the road terrain is also relatively good, it is not a big problem to complete the task a year ago, but the southwest region is mountainous and the roads are rugged, and Xue Yang's task is too heavy." ”

"What the emperor said is that there are still many small tribes involved in the southwest region, and I am afraid that once rash action is frustrated, it will definitely hit the morale of the front-line soldiers." Cen Tianshi frowned and said: "And once this year's plan is changed, it will inevitably bring about financial adjustments, and there is no extra funds and material supplies on the cabinet side." ”

"In this way, there is no need to transfer troops from the northern front to fight in the south. He Tiancheng said that when necessary, give the Western Route Army full power, let Xue Yang measure his own combat goals, and leave the few feudal towns in Lingnan to Chen Yu and Xue Wanli to solve. The operational objectives of the Southern Front Command at the end of the year should not be too large, and taking Lingnan will be regarded as the completion of the task. Others can be put aside. Li Xuanqing pondered for a while and said, "I think Xue Yang will know how to do it." Let Xuan Yingwei strengthen intelligence management in the southwest region and provide the most accurate information. ”

"What does the emperor mean to let Xue Yang fight where?" Wan Yi smiled bitterly: "Xue Yang, this kid is not a worry-free master, maybe he will take the entire southwest by himself." ”

"Wouldn't that be better, anyway, Mr. Shum's cabinet doesn't have to pay more. It's great that military spending is a little bigger, and it's nothing. Xu Tianxiang smiled nonchalantly: "With Xue Yang's character, Bacheng will decide the combat goal on his own and put the entire southwest into his pocket." ”

"I've heard that the tribes in the southwest are very rich." Cen Tianshi said with a smile: "When the time comes, let Xue Yang pay attention, you need someone to let Yang Yi help." ”

His words made the people around him laugh, and it can be regarded as laying the battle plan of the Southern Front Command this time.