The unexpected loss of Guiyang put Liu Wenxiu in a dilemma. ,。

According to the general truth, the Chu army has just conquered Guiyang, it is a time when morale is high, and it is not the best policy to 'confront' it head-on, since the western army has lost a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy under the fortified city, it should temporarily retreat, stabilize the defense, and wait until more reinforcements are transferred from Huguang and other places before launching an attack on Guiyang.

But Liu Wenxiu can't afford to wait.

As soon as Sun Kewang came to Hunan, there were no longer many mobile troops, and the distance to transfer troops from Li Dingguo in Hubei was too far, and the troops would become a tired army after a long journey back to Guiyang, and their combat effectiveness would seriously decline.

Second, too much time is spent in the middle, if the Chu army is allowed to rest in Guiyang for a long time, and when they have enough strength, maybe they will flow to where they will go, Liu Wenxiu's main force is east of Guiyang, but the Yunnan direction west of Guiyang is weak, after the Chu army captured Guiyang, it became very active strategically, and it could send troops to Pu'an Mansion in western Guizhou at any time to enter Yunnan, even if Liu Wenxiu was the king of Shu, he could not afford this responsibility.

After weighing it again, Liu Wenxiu decided to immediately march into Guiyang and launch an attack on the Chu army.

"Although there are tens of thousands of Tan thieves and Zhou thieves, there are very few soldiers, I attacked Guiyang with an army of 150,000, it is the momentum of Mount Tai to suppress the eggs, this battle must be victorious, not to let the thieves get away with one!"

The Battle of Huguang lasted for more than half a year, the Western Army continued to invest troops to the front line, there were more than 70,000 soldiers in Hunan alone, Liu Wenxiu brought half of the troops to Guizhou this time, including more than 20,000 armor, 15,000 people without armor and light armor, and a small number of cavalry, plus heavy troops and auxiliaries carrying armor and weapons, a total of 100,000 troops under his command, and tens of thousands of reinforcements were transferred from Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi, even if Feng Shuangli's troops who stayed in Sizhou Mansion and Zhenyuan Mansion were removed, The 150,000 troops mentioned by Liu Wenxiu are only a few, and there is no moisture.

Generally speaking, the farther the march and the more baggage equipment are carried, the more auxiliary soldiers are needed, in addition, whether there are enough supply points on the way, the different road conditions on the march, and the number of cavalry in the army will affect the number of auxiliaries.

To give an exaggerated example, if a force only marches ten miles, then an auxiliary soldier is not needed, and the soldiers carry armor and weapons and walk over by themselves, and the same army, if it travels thousands of miles from Hengyang to Guiyang, then a large number of auxiliary soldiers are needed to help them transport grain and grass and carry armor and equipment.

Among Liu Wenxiu's 150,000 troops, the proportion of soldiers was nearly one-third, and the total number was about 47,000 people.

In addition to Yuan Zongdi's 10,000 horses, Tan Xiao, Zhou Guodong and Liu Tichun have about 50,000 horses, including 8,000 Ding Zhuang recruited in Duyun, considering that they crossed the 90,000 mountains from Guangxi into Guizhou, this long journey must require a large number of auxiliaries to carry grain and grass, so the proportion of auxiliaries in the Western Expeditionary Army must be very high, in other words, Tan Xiao, Zhou Guodong and Liu Tichun's soldiers should be about 10,000, among which there are many light and unarmored soldiers.

Considering that after the Chu army captured Guiyang, it could arm a group of auxiliary soldiers with armor and equipment in the arsenal, Liu Wenxiu speculated that the Western Expeditionary Army would not have more than 20,000 soldiers at most, and with 47,000 soldiers against 20,000 soldiers, the Western Army had recently been fully rested and recuperated, and it was very certain that it would win this battle.

Liu Wenxiu marched step by step, commanded several large armies to 'force' to Guiyang, all the way through Huangping, Longli, Xin'an to take the east road, all the way through the Longshu Pass to cross the Nanming River and take the south road, the reinforcements from Sichuan took the north road to 'force' close to Yaguan, and the reinforcements from Yunnan and Guangxi took the west road to 'insert' to Tuyun Pass, and Liu Wenxiu's main force converged, in the face of Liu Wenxiu's powerful offensive, the Chu army was forced to give up the Longshu Pass and other peripheral passes, and retreated to the provincial capital Guiyang, posing a posture of defending the city.

"Although Tan thief and Zhou thief are young, Liu Erhu is a general who breaks into the camp, and he will not defend the city and sit still, but will base himself in the north of Ya Pass, and then set up an ambush in Tuyun Pass.

After Liu Wenxiu crossed the Nanming River, he specially reminded the generals that the terrain around Guiyang was dangerous, and the Chu army was likely to use this to go out of the city and fight with the Western Army, the Yaguan Pass north of Guiyang was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Tuyun Pass south of Guiyang had dangerous terrain, with high mountains and dense forests, which were two obvious battlefields, and the Chu army was likely to defend the Yaguan Pass with a small number of troops to block the reinforcements from Sichuan, and then fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Western Army at Tuyun Pass.

……

In Guiyang City, all the generals gathered together, Tan Xiao, Zhou Guodong and Liu Tichun sat in the center, and a staff officer held a notebook in his hand, reading and talking, and reported the military situation to them.

"According to reconnaissance and calculations, Liu Wenxiu's main force is between 70,000 and 80,000, Sichuan reinforcements are about 15,000, Yunnan reinforcements are 30,000, Guangxi reinforcements are 20,000, and the total number of western troops attacking Guiyang is about 150,000, which is the same as Liu Wenxiu claimed to the outside world."

Tan Xiao smiled: "Hehe, how did Liu Wenxiu become so honest? He has an army of 150,000, which can be called 300,000 or 500,000. ”

"Maybe I'm afraid of scaring us away." Liu Tichun also smiled and said: "I think I was in Sichuan and Shaanxi back then, and Yang Sichang's army of more than 100,000 couldn't stop it...... Forget it, the hero doesn't mention the courage of the year. ”

Mobile combat is the housekeeping skill of breaking into the camp, Liu Tichun mentioned the past, his eyebrows and eyes were bright, and he immediately realized that this topic was not very suitable, and quickly stopped talking.

Zhou Guodong frowned and thought: "I just don't know how many soldiers he has and how much armor he wears." ”

The 150,000 army sounds very scary, but what really has combat effectiveness is only the armored soldiers among them, and the young men who carry grain and grass can be ignored in the field.

"The intelligence is insufficient, and it cannot be accurately calculated, so we can only give an approximate range, the soldiers of the Western Army should be between 30,000 and 60,000, of which Liu Wenxiu's soldiers account for about two-thirds." The officer reported the conclusion of the General Staff Office, because the scope was too large, Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong both 'revealed' their dissatisfied looks, and the difference between 30,000 soldiers and 60,000 soldiers was doubled, how could this battle be fought?

"For the sake of safety, it should be high or low, count him 60,000 soldiers." Tan Xiao thought about it for a moment.

"I think it should be low or high, the road in Guizhou is so difficult, it would be good for Liu Wenxiu to send 30,000 soldiers at a time." Zhou Guodong is accustomed to raising the bar with him 'sexually'.

"It's not even high or low, take a middle number, and assume that he has 45,000 soldiers." Liu Tichun himself didn't expect that he would almost hit Liu Wenxiu's accurate strength with a casual remark.

"Forty-five is forty-five thousand, and our army is evenly matched, and this battle has to be fought." Zhou Guodong and Tan Xiao's Western Expeditionary Army, almost all of them were soldiers who could go into battle and kill, except for the 8,000 young men recruited in Duyun, there were no extra auxiliaries, when the Chu army crossed the 90,000 mountains, it deliberately traveled lightly, only brought a few thousand auxiliaries, and there were more than 40,000 soldiers.

"Sixty thousand is the same fight, Liu Wenxiubing is divided into several ways, I just beat him all the way." Tan Xiao pointed to the map and said: "Tuyunguan is a good place, with mountains on one side and water on the other, just to hit him in an ambush." ”

In order to prevent the Chu army from escaping, Liu Wenxiu marched from the east, west, south, north and south directions at the same time, and he himself led the main force to Tuyun Pass in the south of the city.

The staff officer turned the page of the notebook and said while reading: "According to the statistics of the General Staff, our army set up a total of 19 ambushes for Liu Wenxiu's troops in the Battle of Huguang, and only two were successful, and these two battles were not personally commanded by Liu Wenxiu, he is a very cautious general, every time he encounters a place with dangerous terrain, he will let the main force stop advancing, and then send a large number of scouts to reconnoitre, Tuyun Pass is a well-known natural danger, Liu Wenxiu will definitely be more cautious, there is almost no possibility of success in setting up an ambush here." ”

"This old fox is really hard to deal with."

Tan Xiao pondered for a while, and put forward another plan: "In this case, let's fight with him in Tuyun Pass, I will first set up an ambush at the pass, and then he will burn Bowangpo, and then send a group of soldiers and horses to go ashore from the Nanming River by boat to rush his Chinese army. ”

Liu Tichun shook his head and said with a smile: "Liu Wenxiu is a veteran of the Xiying, whether it is an ambush or a fire attack, he must be prepared, as for sending troops to attack by boat, his Chinese army is not so easy to rush, only send two or three thousand people ashore, if you don't do it, you will send him a plate of food." ”

The Nanming River and the Qingshui River belong to different water systems, and after the Western Expeditionary Army occupied Guiyang, they found some civilian boats, but the number was not large, and transporting 3,000 people ashore at a time was the limit.

"According to you, this battle can't be fought? No, no, we must settle the battle at Tuyun Pass, otherwise it will be bad for our army. ”

The terrain of Tuyun Pass is very favorable to the Chu army, here and Liu Wenxiu decisive battle, you can avoid several other Western Army, to achieve each breakthrough, if you easily give up Tuyun Pass, attacked by the Western Army to Guiyang City, several large armies will be divided, set up a company camp to surround the city, the Chu army can only be trapped in the city, passively beaten.

"It's definitely going to be fought, but the key is how to fight." Liu Tichun thought about it and said: "Liu Wenxiu is cautious in using troops, but it is precisely because of caution that he will inevitably act slowly and hesitate, what Commander Tan said just now can be used by him, but these are not enough, I think it can be like this, and then like this, like this, ......like this."

"Oops, Brother Erhu! Your trick is really 'insidious' and vicious, enough for Liu Wenxiu to drink a pot. Tan Xiao patted the back of Liu Tichun's hand, his face full of admiration.