Fang Yuan's military order to prepare for the western expedition reached the whole army, and the entire Taihu base was in full swing to prepare for war, and a boat, a cart of muskets, artillery, gunpowder, strategic materials, and other armaments were assembled from the Changshu Arsenal and the state capitals to the Taihu military base.

The scale of this expedition, Fang Yuan was temporarily set at 100,000 Xuanjia Army, divided into three routes by land and water. One of them, Chigutai and Zhao Quanzhong led 40,000 Xuanjia iron cavalry, from Yangzhou Prefecture through Lujiang and Lu'an in Luzhou Prefecture to the west, and swept through Li Zicheng's three prefectures of Runing, Nanyang and Henan in Henan; One route led by Gan Hui and Jin Shenghuan to lead the 60,000 Xuanjia Army infantry battalion, from Jiangxi to the west to conquer Huguang, sweeping away Li Zicheng's 30,000 troops left in Huguang; All the way, Shi Lang's sailors went upriver from the Yangtze River and attacked Wuchang, Hanyang, Yueyang, Jiangling, Yichang and other important towns along the Yangtze River.

Because Huguang is the largest province in the Ming Dynasty's thirteen provinces, there are 16 prefectures under its jurisdiction, including today's Hubei, Hunan, and a small part of Henan, which is about the same size as the Zhejiang region. To conquer such a vast territory, no matter how strong the 60,000 Xuanjia Army of Ganhui is, it will definitely not be able to achieve the strategic goal in a short period of time.

After Fang Yuan discussed with Jing Jie and Gan Hui, the military plan he devised was to attack Wuchang Mansion near Nanchang Mansion with the whole army first, and defeat the main force of 30,000 troops of Li Yan of Wuchang Mansion in one fell swoop. After capturing Wuchang, Hanyang, and Yuezhou along the Yangtze River, there was no need to disperse troops to attack Changsha, Hengzhou, Chenzhou, Baoqing, Yongzhou, Changde and other prefectures south of the Yangtze River; There is no need to pay attention to Xiangyang, Chengtian, and De'an Mansions, but go straight to Jingzhou Mansion, capture Yichang, and stop at Yiling County.

If you go out of Sichuan to attack Huguang, you must take the line of Zigui and Yiling. The Yiling line is the most important line of defense to block the eastward advance of the Sichuan army, because the west of Yiling to Zigui County is one hundred and thirty miles of the Three Gorges waterway of the Yangtze River, and along the way is two hundred miles of lofty mountains. To the east of Yiling is the Jianghan Plain, which is a flat river, and there is no danger to defend.

When Liu Bei left Sichuan, Lu Xun almost took the initiative to abandon Zigui, retreated the defense line of Eastern Wu for 200 miles, and arranged it on the Yiling line at the junction of the mountains and the Jianghan Plain. The two hundred miles of mountain road between Zigui and Yiling were all ceded to Liu Bei, which lengthened the supply line of the Shu army, shortened the supply line of Eastern Wu, and held on to Yiling without fighting with peace of mind, waiting for the fighters.

And Liu Bei's Shu army stayed in the mountains and mountains of two hundred miles for more than half a year, with low morale and fatigue, and was captured by Lu Xun and broke through in one fell swoop.

This time, Fang Yuan still decided to adopt Lu Xun's strategy of breaking Liu Bei back then, only capturing the Yiling defense line and blocking the invading army in the mountains of Zigui and Yiling.

In this way, if Li Zicheng wants to go out of Sichuan to rescue, he must follow Liu Bei's route out of Sichuan that year, first capture Zigui, and then cross the 200-mile mountain road to attack Yiling.

Liu Bei was still advancing by water, while Li Zicheng's water division was not as good as Fang Yuan, so he could only rely on the army to fight. Liu Bei's army was better than that of Eastern Wu, and he still couldn't break through the defense line of Yiling and Zigui in Eastern Wu, and now Li Zicheng's advantage was in the cavalry, and the infantry could not be stronger than the combat power of the Xuanjia Army infantry battalion. If Li Zicheng wants to forcibly go out of Sichuan to rescue, he will inevitably lose faster and worse than Liu Bei!

Therefore, the key to this battle lies in whether the soldiers can capture Yichang and Yiling quickly. Fang Yuan was not overly worried about this, on weekdays, it was natural that he needed to capture Wuchang Mansion, Hanyang, Yuezhou, and Jingzhou all the way to reach Yichang. It will take at least a few months to delay along the way, and Li Zicheng has already sent troops back to Yichang Mansion.

However, Fang Yuan's strategy was to advance by land and water, relying on the powerful naval division of the Xuanjia Army, directly crossing the provinces along the way, transporting 20,000 Xuanjia troops to Yichang Mansion, directly capturing Yichang, Yiling, and cutting off Li Zicheng's return route out of Sichuan. And Gan Hui's follow-up army of 40,000 slowly swept away the provinces along the way, and rushed to join the 20,000 Xuanjia army in Yichang Mansion.

After dragging down Li Zicheng's reinforcements from Sichuan on the Yiling line, he recovered Huguang and other state capitals that were not along the Yangtze River one by one, gradually encroaching on the huge Huguang Province.

Of course, in order to paralyze Li Zicheng, Fang Yuan's excuse for gathering troops was not to attack Huguang, but to pacify the only Fengyang Mansion in Nanzhili that had not yet been surrendered, as well as to clean up the rogues and bandits of the previous Left Army in Anqing and Luzhou.

Fang Yuan was actively preparing for war on the one hand, and waiting for the court's reply on the other.

More than 20 days have passed, and there is still no movement on the side of the imperial court, and according to Fang Yuan's estimate, the imperial court is stumped by the proposed conditions for the southern tour. It is best for the capital to refuse this condition, and Fang Yuan can also give an explanation to Princess Kunxing and Wang Chengen.

And Zhu Yi, who stayed in Suzhou Mansion for more than 20 days, became a famous prostitute in the Qinglou who was nostalgic for Taoyuan, almost singing every night. In terms of prosperity and wealth, the song and dance of warblers and swallows, Huai'an Mansion can't catch up with Suzhou Mansion. Anyway, Fang Yuan paid for the whole process, Zhu Yihai was happy these days, and even proposed to Fang Yuan that he wanted to take away a woman who was in Taoyuan's favor.

To win over Zhu Yihai is to win over the vassal kings in all parts of the Ming Dynasty. Fang Yuan didn't bother to ask Zhu Yihai what woman he wanted to ask for, it was estimated that he had been served by the famous prostitutes in the peach garden in the peach garden in the past few days, so he wanted to take one or two away. Since he wanted to, Fang Yuan didn't ask too much, so he directly agreed to give it to him.

Ten days before the army was dispatched, Fang Yuan did not wait for the envoy to come to the imperial court, but waited for the envoy of King Chuang, who was still Fang Yuan's old acquaintance, Li Yan, the guard general who stayed in Huguang.

Fang Yuan was overjoyed when he heard this, and attacked Huguang and Henan, and the main enemies were the 50,000 troops of Li Guo in Henan and the 30,000 troops of Li Yan in Huguang. He was worried about whether the strategy of sending sailors to attack Yichang and Yiling would be seen through by the resourceful Li Yan, which would be very tricky.

Now Li Yan, who is the main general left behind in Huguang, has taken the initiative to send it to the door regardless of the severity, which is simply a godsend. As long as Li Yan is directly detained in Nanzhili, Huguang's Chuang army has no main general, and the dragons are leaderless, and under the thunderous offensive of the Xuanjia Army, it will be defeated.

Of course, Li Yan, as the envoy of King Chuang, no matter what the purpose of his trip was, whether he would let him go back to Huguang or not, Fang Yuan still met Li Yan out of courtesy.

And Hu Qi led the arrangement of a hundred brocade guards to ambush in the back hall, as long as Fang Yuan gave an order, he would immediately arrest Li Yan.

Fang Yuan and Li Yan exchanged a little polite greetings and sat down as the guest of honor.

Fang Yuan, who had already laid a net to arrest Li Yan, was determined to be relaxed, and asked with a smile, "Dare to ask Li Gongzi, what is the lesson for this trip to Nanzhili?!" ”

With a little smile on the corner of his mouth, Li Yan asked straight to the point, "Our army has received information, and the regent has gathered troops and horses in Nanzhili, dare to ask the regent, what is the matter?!" ”

Fang Yuan listened to his questioning, and said with a smile, "Li Gongzi, I am gathering troops at home, do I also want to inform King Chuang?" ”

Li Yan Zhengrong said, "Regent, your two armies are allies, and you should always tell us one or two of the reasons why you are gathering troops. ”

Fang Yuan sighed lightly, anyway, it is impossible for Li Yan to return to Huguang safely today, so he must accept him for his own use, so he simply tested his vision and insight again, "Ma Shiying of Fengyang Mansion colluded with the remnants of the left army of Luzhou and Anqing Prefectures to occupy the three counties of the Second Prefecture. Our army is preparing to attack Fengyang Mansion and completely occupy Nanzhili. ”

Li Yan sneered and asked, "Attacking a Fengyang Mansion and Ma Shiying, a brigade of partial divisions can conquer it, and it is necessary to gather armaments and materials in the entire Zhejiang region?" Is the regent joking? ”

Fang Yuan made such a big move in Nanzhili, how could he hide it from Li Yan's eyes? Fang Yuan laughed and asked rhetorically, "Where does Gongzi Li think I want to attack?!" ”

Li Yan got up suddenly, pointed to Fang Yuan's front door and shouted, "The regent wants to be treacherous and take advantage of King Chuang's attack on Sichuan, Huguang and Henan are empty, and annex King Chuang's territory!" ”