Fang Yuan's gaze went back and forth between the two, and he smiled and said, "Quan Zhong, the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry is the main force to exterminate Li Zicheng. There was no need to fight in the previous siege battle, and he stayed in Wuchang Mansion to recuperate and wait for the final decisive battle. ”

"Quan Zhong, you personally led eight thousand iron horsemen, each with two horses, to harass the supply line of Li Zicheng's march along the way. But all the troops that Li Zicheng sent to the military camp to loot were annihilated! ”

Attacking the supply line was a tried and tested trick for Li Zicheng and the Manchu Qing army, which lived by plundering military rations. As long as Li Zicheng's supply line can be cut off, the 180,000 invading army consumes 3,000 stone of food every day, how long can the invading army hold out if this kind of attrition war lasts for a long time?!

Zhao Quanzhong took the order, leaving only Zhang Ying alone, although he didn't speak, but he was still a little unhappy to miss such a major battle.

Fang Yuan said slowly, "Commander Zhang, your five thousand special combat troops are not as mobile as the cavalry of the invading army, and they are temporarily stationed in Wuchang Mansion, and I have other important uses. ”

Zhang Ying couldn't help but say, "Regent, if you are stationed in Wuchang Mansion and you can't go into battle to kill the enemy, how can you make meritorious service?!" ”

Fang Yuan smiled slightly, "Only by going into battle to kill the enemy can you make meritorious service?" Isn't it meritorious service to keep me safe? ”

Zhang Ying heard that he had something to say, his face changed in fright, and he was busy kneeling on the ground, "Regent, I, I definitely didn't mean that." What's the news the Lord Regent is getting?! ”

Fang Yuan took out the Jinyi Guard, as well as the letter handed in by He Jin, and placed it in front of Zhang Ying, "Commander Zhang, take a look." ”

Zhang Ying took these letters and looked at them, and they were all evidence of Gao Ze and Li Benshen's conspiracy. Before, Detective Zhang Ying heard that the two were privately recruiting sergeants, and he was suspicious of the two, so he told the secretary that he wanted to take down the two, but now that the evidence is conclusive, he said, "Regent, it's better to take down the two of them now, and use the military law to correct it." ”

Fang Yuan shook his head and said, "Now is the juncture of a decisive battle with Li Zicheng, if we exterminate the two of them first, it will not only disrupt the previous military deployment and give Li Zicheng an opportunity to take advantage of, but also arouse the doubts of the generals of the intruding army, which is not conducive to the work of our army to rebel." ”

"I used the two of them as a mobile unit, and I was also worried that the two of them would join the enemy. But when the time of the battle was imminent, it was necessary to prevent the two of them from having two hearts, so they were transferred to the 5,000 special operations army led by Zhang to stay behind. ”

Only then did Zhang Ying know the heavy responsibility on his shoulders this time, Gao Ze, Li Benshen, and He Jin had a total of 40,000 troops, and if something happened to this army, it would be very tricky. With the defense force of Wuchang Mansion now less than 5,000 people, I am afraid that it will not be able to withstand this rebellion, so Fang Yuan left a special combat army of 5,000 people as the final trump card.

Fang Yuan informed Zhang Ying of such a confidential matter, and even entrusted his net worth and life to Zhang Ying, which shows his importance and trust in Zhang Ying. Zhang Ying is doubts were gone, and he suddenly accepted the order.

Fang Yuan looked at the sand table in the barracks and said slowly, "Li Zicheng, since you want to throw yourself to death, I'll give you a good time!" ”

In the next month, all the plans were as Fang Yuan and Gan Hui expected, Li Zicheng went farther and farther on the road to death, and finally embarked on the road of no return.

Li Zicheng recalled the 80,000 soldiers and horses of Li Guo in Henan to Jiangling, and the number of soldiers and horses gathered in Jiangling has reached 180,000, including the families and children of the sergeants, a total of 500,000 to 600,000.

Faced with a life-and-death crisis, Li Zicheng had completely torn off the mask of hypocrisy and looted all the grain, silver, and clay pots of the gentry, rich households, and poor peasants in Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and Chengtian. He also forcibly requisitioned 30,000 head of cattle from the people, made 30,000 ox carts, 100,000 people, and packed 300,000 stone of military rations and 7 million taels of silver that had been looted over the years.

A month later, after all the preparations were completed, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin left Jiangling Mansion with these 600,000 or 700,000 people, a vast brigade that stretched for hundreds of miles, and began to advance to Hanyang and Huangzhou according to the previous plan.

After Li Zicheng's army left Jiangling Mansion in Jingzhou, Li Yan's troops stationed in Jingzhou Gong'an County immediately crossed the river and occupied Jiangling City.

Because Gangneung City has long been looted, the people in the city are hungry and poorly clothed, and the sound of crying and shouting resounded in the sky.

Fang Yuan had already prepared, and ordered Shi Lang to bring 200,000 stone of grain from the waterway for the disaster relief in Jiangling Mansion. Because all the clothes in the people's homes were robbed as strategic materials, Fang Yuan sent 180,000 cotton cloths from the south of the Yangtze River to Jiangling Mansion for disaster relief.

Li Yan gave Xu Cheng and Jin Shenghuan the responsibility of disaster relief, and then led the army north to Xiangyang Mansion and occupied Xiangyang Mansion, which was also looted. According to the gourd painting scoop, some of the disaster relief materials from Jiangling Mansion were requisitioned and sent to Xiangyang Mansion for disaster relief. Although it can't solve the plight of all the victims in Erfu, it is one to save one.

The Xuanjia Army's disaster relief in Jingzhou and Xiangyang attracted the praise of the people of Huguang, especially the people of Jingzhou and Xiangyang, who were even more grateful to Dai De and regarded Fang Yuan and Xuanjia Army as living bodhisattvas who rescued the suffering. There were even officials and people in Jingzhou and Xiangyang who imitated the rules of filial piety to Wei Zhongxian and replaced Guan Yu, who worshiped in the Guansheng Temple, with Fang Yuan's ancestral hall in the city.

In stark contrast to the Xuanjia Army's good deeds of rescuing the suffering and rescuing the suffering, it was the evil deeds of the army that lost their conscience, not only robbing the young and strong to be the husbands of the people, raping the ** people, but also looting the food, clothing, and cattle that were difficult for the people to survive in their homes. The infamy of the infamous army spread like a virus, spreading throughout the lake.

A month later, Li Zicheng realized the serious consequences of this evil act.

When the army passed through Hanyang Mansion, the 40,000 soldiers led by Jing Jie had already closed the gate of Hanyang City. Not only Hanyang City, but even all the county towns of Hanyang Province have spontaneously closed the city gates, and no longer let the intruders enter the city. Each county town also organized its own young men to serve as soldiers defending the city and assume the duty of guarding. Even the townships formed a number of militia organizations, built rudimentary fortifications, and confronted the passing intruders.

Liu Zongmin was annoyed and angry when he saw it, and immediately ordered the whole army to go up and down, but where the county town did not open the city, he sent an army to attack, and after the capture, he slaughtered the city. But whenever there are people in the village who do not pay food, village by village is slaughtered.

The Chuang army captured two county towns in a row in Hanyang Prefecture, and also slaughtered two county seats, and the corpses were piled up outside the city, and the stench spread for ten miles.

Liu Zongmin originally wanted to slaughter the city and village to deter the county and township behind, and honestly hand over the grain.

He ignores a fundamental common sense.

The slaughter of the city can sometimes play a deterrent role, but the premise is that the army must give the surrendered county, whether it is the officials or the people, a way to live, a glimmer of life. For example, if the people of Jingzhou and Xiangyang were looted before the invasion of the army, and the evil deeds of adultery and plunder, the officials and people in the counties and townships would not have much to live even if they surrendered.

It's all death anyway, what difference can there be between slaughtering a city and starving to death?!

The direct consequence of Liu Zongmin's massacre of the city and the slaughter of the township was that the county town after that relied on the guards of the city wall to resist more fiercely. As for the townships without the protection of the city walls, the people dragged their families with them, and took all the important materials such as food, clothing, and cattle with them to the mountains and dense forests to flee and take refuge.

Every time the attacking army captured a county seat, the losses were doubled compared with before, and there were even two county towns, and they never fell after more than ten days of fierce attacks.

In every village, most of the people fled, and if they wanted to pursue again, they had to climb over the mountains and mountains, drill holes and go into the water to catch people, and the difficulty of grabbing food also doubled.

What's more, there are thousands of Xuanjia iron cavalry lurking and tailing, constantly attacking the troops who broke into the army to grab food, and after half a month of harassment and guerrilla, at least 5,000 soldiers who went to grab food were slashed and killed.

Li Zicheng sent elite cavalry to pursue, and the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry did not meet it head-on, but took the cavalry of the intrusive army in a circle in Hanyang Mansion. He really couldn't make a pocket, so he retreated to the county town where the Xuanjia Army surrendered to rest, and blocked the cavalry of the invading army outside the city.

After coming and going like this, Liu Zongmin's cavalry was exhausted, but in vain, they could only retreat in a huff. And the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry rested in the county town and replenished the military rations, and then attacked again.

At this point, the operation of the Chuang army in Hanyang Province has reached a complete stalemate.