Three days later, He Jin's troops surrendered to Gao Ze and Li Benshen.

Five days later, the main force of 35,000 troops led by Li Zicheng arrived in Gong'an County. Because Li Yan had already sent a sergeant to give the order to let him go. The 5,000 sergeants in the public security city watched Li Zicheng's unit easily board the ship, retreat, and flee to Jiangling, the seat of Jingzhou Prefecture.

Li Zicheng retreated, He Jin surrendered, and the war in Huguang and south of the Yangtze River came to an end.

This battle to hunt Li Zicheng was a complete victory, not only completely annihilating half of Li Zicheng's main force, but also completely eliminating the intrusive forces in the provinces south of Changsha Prefecture.

Li Yan's department was stationed in Yuezhou Prefecture, a prefecture and county south of the Yangtze River in Jingzhou Prefecture, and was responsible for the defense of the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake. The main purpose was to prevent Li Zicheng's forces from crossing the south of the Yangtze River again, so as to facilitate Fang Yuan to take over and digest the prefectures south of the Yangtze River.

Jin Shenghuan was stationed in Changde Mansion, because Xu Cheng had experience in suppressing bandits in Jiangxi and dealing with ethnic minorities, Fang Yuan sent him another task, that is, to connect with the Yongshun Propaganda Division, Baojing Propaganda Division, Shizhou and other ethnic minority autonomous areas, so that those Tusi of the Propaganda Division surrendered. In order to show the sincerity of these Tusi to surrender, each Tusi had to send 1,000 to 2,000 troops to assist in the conquest of Li Zicheng.

Gao Ze and Li Benshen's troops were stationed in Changsha Prefecture and ordered them to recover Baoqing, Yongzhou, Hengzhou, and Chenzhou. The two thought that Fang Yuan was kept in the dark and handed over all the five mansions to them, so they were naturally overjoyed and led the army to take over the government affairs of the prefectures.

When Fang Yuan sent people from all walks of life to take over the government affairs of Huguang Prefecture, Li Zicheng also fled to Jiangling, stabilized his position a little, and saw that the Xuanjia army did not take advantage of the victory to chase after him, so he began to count the soldiers and horses.

Before going to Wuchang Mansion, Li Zicheng had an army of 70,000, but now only 30,000 have fled back to Jiangling, and only these 30,000 belong to Li Zicheng's personal barracks. Coupled with Tian Jianxiu's 10,000 soldiers and horses in Hanyang City, and Liu Zongmin's 30,000 elite cavalry, there were only 70,000 soldiers and horses left in the Huguang battlefield.

On the Fang Yuan side, after recruiting 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers and horses from He Jin, the strength of the Huguang battlefield has reached 100,000. What's more, the combat power of the Xuanjia Army as a whole is still stronger than that of the Chuang Army, and it also has an absolute advantage over the sailors.

Judging from the numbers on the books, Huguang's battle list is enough for Li Zicheng to see no hope of victory.

Now Fang Yuan has not fought the Yangtze River, but he is just recuperating and digesting the territory south of the Yangtze River. Within a month or two, the soldiers and horses of the Xuanjia Army will inevitably cross the river in a big way, and even if they flee back to Jiangling, there is no safety at all.

Li Zicheng had no choice but to convene a meeting of the generals of the battalions under his command again, including General Liu Zongmin, who confronted Jing Jie's troops under Hanyang City.

All the generals gathered together, and Li Zichang sighed and said, "Everyone, it is my fault that I insisted on taking advantage of Fang Yuan's Northern Expedition to go east at the beginning, and now I have provoked Fang Yuan to commit a big attack. In the first battle of Huguang, our army lost troops and lost the territory south of the Yangtze River. The Xuanjia army is also on the Yangtze River, and it may cross the river at any time to attack, what should it be. ”

Niu Jinxing came out and said, "King Chuang, no matter whether our army is going east or not, Fang Yuan will also come, so don't blame yourself too much." The soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, and now it is better to talk less about repentance and more about the strategy of resisting the enemy. ”

Li Zicheng nodded and said, "Juming, what strategy do you have to defend against the enemy?!" ”

Niu Jinxing said, "King Chuang, the reason why our army has been able to grow to hundreds of thousands of armor is that the traditional method of warfare is mobile warfare, and we never fight for the gains and losses of one city or one place. King Chuang was first bewitched by the imperial court, became the governor of Henan and Huguang, and changed his mobile warfare to run the state capital. This is not what our army is good at, and the Ming court did not have a good intention, deliberately confined our army to one province and one place, and attacked our army with its strengths! ”

"Fang Yuan wished that our army would hold on to one city after another, and then break through one by one and eat the main force of our army. King Chuang, I suggest that all the state capitals of Huguang and Henan be abandoned immediately, and the sergeants of the battalions under the Chuang army should be gathered in one place, and the previous tactics of mobile combat should be restored, and the south should be advanced to Zhili. ”

"Capture Fengyang first, and then take Yangzhou and Huai'an. If we can't cross the river, we will go north to Shandong. As long as the defense line of Nanzhili and Shandong is penetrated, the world is so big, let me gallop, what can Fang Yuan do to me? ! ”

He put forward a suggestion in public to abandon the city and become a rogue again, Song Xiance immediately stood up and retorted, "Chuang Wang, this plan is to mislead the country and the king by mistake, absolutely not!" ”

Niu Jinxing saw that he came out to contradict himself again, and scolded him sharply, "Song Shorty, do you have to go against me, but you have to refute all my plans?" How can you be allowed to have a battle of will in the military and political affairs?! ”

Li Zicheng waved his hand, causing Niu Jinxing to shut down and listen to Song Xiance's words.

Song Xiance continued, "Niu Jinxing's plan is inappropriate. First, our army was originally scattered in various state capitals, and Fang Yuan had to pacify them one by one, which would inevitably be delayed. With all the years of fighting abroad, it is difficult to guarantee that the northern battlefield will not cause any more accidents. Our army has been defeated in successive battles, and the best strategy is to stick to it and wait for the situation to change. If the strategy of Niu Venus is adopted, the troops stationed in various places will be gathered together, which is the heart of the original side, and it can be decided in a battle to gather our army and annihilate it. ”

Niu Jinxing sneered and said, "Song Junshi is saying that our army is inferior to the Xuanjia Army, and no matter what, the defeat is decided, and we must wait for foreign aid?!" ”

Listening to Niu Jinxing's instigation, Li Zicheng's face became more and more gloomy, how could he admit in public that the Chuang Army had no chance of winning in the face of the Xuanjia Army. If these words are spoken, I don't know how many He Jin will surrender to Fang Yuan.

Song Xiance saw that Li Zicheng was noncommittal, obviously believing Niu Jinxing's nonsense, sighed secretly, and continued, "Second, at this time and that time, we must no longer stick to the rules. In the past, our army was able to fight on the move and recruit homeless people everywhere to strengthen the military prestige, but it was because of natural disasters that the governors and general soldiers of the imperial court to suppress bandits supported their own troops and fought separately, which gave us an opportunity to take advantage of. If the overall situation is gradually becoming clear today, and the people are at peace, if we give up the city, how many soldiers and horses will be willing to follow us, it is not known. This is defeat without a fight! ”

Niu Jinxing adhered to his usual sneer, "My opinion is slightly different from that of Song Shorty, I think it is because the prestige of King Chuang is very high, so there will continue to be exiled leaders from all over the world to come to take refuge, like Luo Rucai, Gezuo Fifth Battalion is an example!" As long as the king of Chuang raises the banner again and raises his arms, the army will unite as one, and the leaders of the displaced people from all over the country will also gather. ”

His refutation is very tricky, can Song Xiance still refute that Li Zicheng's prestige is not high, and it is all because of the right time, place and people to have today's achievements?

Li Zicheng didn't see the slightest joy or anger, and said slowly, "Master Song, what you said is also reasonable, what strategy do you have to defend against the enemy?!" ”

Song Xiance said, "I have two strategies, upper and lower, for King Chuang to choose." ”

"The next strategy is to negotiate peace with Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan, and persuade Zhang Xianzhong to send troops to rescue him with the reason that his lips are dead and his teeth are cold, and jointly resist Fang Yuan's aggressive offensive."

Li Zicheng was silent for a while, he and Zhang Xianzhong are two types of people, Zhang Xianzhong can repeatedly surrender and rebel, and he can't do it with his temperament. Now that he wants to go to Zhang Xianzhong to give in, how can he pull his face down?

Li Zicheng asked again, "What about the best policy?!" ”

Song Xiance's face was embarrassed, he hesitated for a moment, but still said, "The best policy is, surrender Fang Yuan." The general trend of the world has been decided, and Fang Yuan's seizure of the world is almost a foregone conclusion. It is better to descend early than to break the king, and you can negotiate a condition of kindness. If we wait until the army runs out of food, there will be no more conditions for negotiation. ”

Niu Jinxing pointed at him and laughed, "Song Shorty, your fox tail is finally exposed!" King Chuang, I said that he had colluded with Li Yan for a long time, and wanted our army to surrender without a fight. ”

Li Zicheng was still silent, but the color of suspicion was self-evident.