When Li Zicheng saw the information gathered by various counties, he was stunned.

Once upon a time, where the army passed, the people did not say that they ate pot pulp, at least many of them came to take refuge, and even secretly led the way into the city. Without the support of the people, just a few Ming troops in the city, how many days would they hold out?!

Today's army has long been notorious, and it is no different from Zuo Liangyu's bandits.

Before, the people's guns were aimed at the government and the Ming army, so Li Zicheng was able to continue to grow. Now that the guns of the people are aimed at the invading army, and then they want to replenish food and troops, it is almost a fool's dream. Even if you can grab some food, it's just a drop in the bucket; Even if they can catch a few strong men to join the army, they are not sure how much fighting spirit these people still have when they arrive on the battlefield, and whether they will turn against each other.

As for Fang Yuan's Xuanjia Army, it has not had any direct military contact with the Chuang Army at all, but has been constantly intercepting and tailgating, narrowing the encirclement. Li Zicheng wrote a war letter and sent it to Hanyang City, asking Jing Zhuocheng to fight a decisive battle, but Jing Jie ignored it and didn't even reply to it. Li Zicheng was forced to be helpless, and wrote another letter of war and sent it to Wuchang Mansion, and agreed with Fang Yuan that he would no longer hide and hide like a turtle, and the main forces of the two sides would have a face-to-face decisive battle in Hanyang Mansion.

He even imitated Zhuge Liang's method of Sima Yi and sent a set of women's dresses, if Fang Yuan did not dare to send troops to fight a decisive battle with the army, he would be a cowardly woman, and he should immediately put on a women's dress.

When Fang Yuan saw it, he knew that it was a story from Li Zicheng's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and he couldn't help laughing, so that the messenger who delivered the letter was arrested, forced him to change into a women's dress, and tied his hands tightly, and the skirt was stuffed with letters of persuasion.

The letter of persuasion was not only addressed to Li Zicheng, but also to the generals and generals of the battalions of the Chuang army, promising that as long as they came to surrender early, they could be like He Jin and Hao Shaoqi, and they would be able to increase their officials and become knights, and they would be glorious and rich.

It was only at this moment that Li Zicheng truly understood that Fang Yuan would not fight him in a decisive battle right now. The Xuanjia army is like a treacherous timberwolf, constantly harassing and bleeding the invading army, waiting for the best time to attack, and giving this invading army a fatal blow.

It was only at this moment that he realized that the war between the two countries could never be controlled by one or two major wars. It is the consumption and competition of the national strength of the two sides, and whoever cannot hold up the national strength first will be defeated.

What Song Xiance said before was really a golden and jade good word, the army that abandoned the states and counties is like a beast that has been cut off from food and water, and it may still be able to bluff with its teeth and claws at the moment, but there will be a day when it will be exhausted.

Moreover, this day will come soon.

The battle situation in Hanyang Mansion could not be opened, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin tried to attack Hanyang City for a few days and opened a breakthrough, but they were smashed by the artillery on the city wall and returned with a heavy defeat.

Moreover, Hanyang Mansion is close to the Yangtze River, and once the war is unfavorable, the Xuanjia army can also retreat by water. If you insist on storming Hanyang City, it is just that the Xuanjia Army will continue to consume the vitality of the army by using the strong city wall.

After discussing with Niu Jinxing, Li Zicheng decided to abandon the military operation in Hanyang Mansion and no longer attack the city and loot grain, but passed by without fighting, and went to the next target, Huangzhou Mansion. As long as you can break through Huangzhou Mansion, you can enter the territory of Nanzhili. The wealth of Naoli in the south may be able to alleviate the current crisis a little.

A month later, the Chuang army entered Huangzhou from Hanyang Province.

Huangzhou Mansion is the last line of defense in Nanzhili, and the army must not be allowed to burn the flames of war to Anqing and Luzhou in Nanzhili.

Fang Yuan and Jing Jie immediately made strategic arrangements, ordering Jin Shenghuan's troops to pursue from Jiangling City to Hanchuan and continue to compress the marching route of the innovating army to the west; After Li Yan's department settled in Xiangyang, he went south to Suizhou in De'an Province; Gan Hui's department, which was stationed in Xinye, went south from Xinye to Xinxian County, Henan.

This strategic attack compressed the marching route of the intrusive army from the entire Huguang battlefield to the three prefectures of Huangzhou, De'an, and Hanyang, and further doubled the encirclement of the beasts.

While Fang Yuan closed the encirclement, he finally threw the elite Xuanjia Iron Cavalry into the battlefield of Huangzhou Mansion.

The 180,000 sergeants on this line of the army were changed back to the original military system when they were rogues, with the standard battalion of the descendants as the middle army, including 30,000 main infantry and 40,000 elite cavalry. The Chinese military camp was led by Liu Zongmin, the only powerful general.

The remaining 100,000 ordinary infantry were divided into four battalions, front and rear, left and right, led by four generals.

The four generals were Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, He Jin, and Tian Jianxiu. Now that He Jin has surrendered, Ren Jizhong has taken over He Jin's position as general.

Along with the 180,000 sergeants, there were 60,000 or 700,000 family dependents, and the whole team stretched for a hundred miles. Because of the old and young family members, as well as women, they dragged their families with them, and the march was very slow, and the daily march speed was less than 20 miles.

Although the strength of the invading army was strong, it could not protect the defense line of a hundred miles. The 30,000 main infantry with the strongest combat power guarded the standard battalion of the Central Army, protected Li Zicheng's standard battalion, General Liu Zongmin, and the 200,000 stone grain accompanying the army.

The remaining four battalions of soldiers and horses, Li Guo's battalion opened the way at the front and attacked the city. The left and right battalions of Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu guarded the flank defense line in the middle section. Behind the palace is Ren Jizhong, a general of the trust system, with only 20,000 soldiers and horses.

The main objects of these soldiers and horses are the families of middle and high-level officers such as King Chuang, General Quan, General Zhi, General Guoyi, General Weiwu, and Du Wei. As for other low-level officers in charge of brigades and sentry generals, as well as the families of ordinary sergeants, they don't care anymore.

Fang Yuan's operational policy was not to decapitate the operation, but to consume Li Zicheng's military strength and hit the morale of the invading army, and the target he chose was of course not the family members of middle and high-ranking officers who were escorted by sergeants, but the families of ordinary soldiers who did not have any defensive protection.

Fang Yuan found Zhao Quanzhong and issued a military order to lead 30,000 Xuanjia iron cavalry to cross the Yangtze River north and attack on all fronts. The goal was to avoid the elite cavalry who broke into the standard battalion, and aimed at the 20,000 weak soldiers of Ren Jizhong's subordinate behind the palace, and the 50,000 rear battalions that were 20 miles behind plundered the river with the army's family and brought them to Wuchang Mansion for resettlement. Moreover, we must also be kind to the families of these invading sergeants, and we must not kill indiscriminately.

Ten days later, Zhao Quanzhong, who attacked for the first time, returned with a great victory. Ren Jizhong, who was behind the rear camp, never expected that the Xuanjia Army would either not fight, or it would be a big fight, and he actually sent the most elite Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to sneak attack, and there were as many as 30,000. When the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry attacked in front of him, he hastily gathered his troops and arranged his troops.

The 30,000 Xuanjia iron horsemen descended the mountain like a tiger, and easily broke through the loose formation of the 20,000 troops in the rear camp and broke into the formation. Zhao Quanzhong divided two teams of Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to clash back and forth in the camp of the breaking army, which was unstoppable and invincible.

Seeing that the defeat had been achieved, Ren Jizhong immediately ordered the soldiers of the rear battalion to use the panicked and scattered families of the army as a cover to avoid the pursuit of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry and reduce casualties.

The families of those abandoned soldiers were frightened and helpless in the sudden chaos of war, and the cries of tens of thousands of people resounded in the sky and were extremely desolate.

Zhao Quanzhong did not entangle with Ren Jizhong's defeated rear camp at all, but sent a cavalry team of 10,000 people to cut off the families of the 60,000 backward troops and drive them together.

Zhao Quanzhong ordered the sergeants to go and send a message to the 60,000 cut and surrounded family members, and those who resisted were killed; Those who obey will not be killed.

In the face of the Xuanjia Iron Horseman's swaying sword, these 60,000 did not dare to resist at all, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy. Zhao Quanzhong ordered 30,000 Xuanjia iron horsemen to escort the 60,000 family members who were captured, and went to the port near the Yangtze River, preparing to migrate this group of family members to the south of the Yangtze River.