Chapter 204: The Attacking Middle Route Army

Compared with the peak and loop turn on the right road, or the rapid southward movement on the left road, the army of the eastward expedition in the middle road seems to be stable and stable, not in a hurry, not in a hurry, not fast, not slow. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The Eastward Division lived up to expectations, relying on the assistance of the Sanjiang Naval Division to first block the lower reaches of Yichang, then land from the northeast of Yichang to seize the land point, and finally blockade Yichang.

The defenders of Yichang surrendered the city, there were not many defenders here, and they were not descendants of the Hunan army, so they knew that Liu Songshan of Xiangyang and Nanyang would not come to support them, so they did not fight hard, and wisely raised the white flag.

After Li He arrived, Hong Xing led three regiments to the east to attack Dangyang County in Jingmen Zhili Prefecture along the road, and then cut down bamboos in rows, and went down the Tear River into the Tear Zhang River to attack the northern part of Jingzhou.

Li He continued eastward along the Yangtze River, took Yidu, an outpost of Jingzhou, and divided a regiment to attack Songzi County on the south bank of the Yangtze River, controlling the Songzi River, a northern waterway into Hunan.

The Yangtze River Navy Division arrived in Jingzhou and attacked Jingzhou with Hongxing by land and water.

Jingzhou was originally an important place, but this time it is strange that only 2,000 Hunan troops are here, and there are no generals. The reason is that although Liu Songshan has an army of 100,000, not all of them are Hunan troops, there are nine layers of militia groups plus the original green battalion, as well as new soldiers, and they are all transferred to the front line of Nanyang in Xiangyang and just drove the Twist army away.

At the same time, in order to cooperate with the eastward expedition, the New People's Army as a whole was attacking in the east and defending in the west, and after the Northwest Independent Division of Xi'an stabilized Xi'an, it also sent new soldiers to develop eastward, eat Shangluo, and faintly attack Nanyang in the east.

Hanzhong's side of Ankang also advanced to the border of Hubei Province, and there was a possibility of attacking Xiangyang at any time, so Liu Songshan did not dare to move rashly and divide his troops to leave.

Zeng Guoquan, who sat in Changsha, held a heavy army, almost encountered the same troubles as Liu Songshan, and his generals were also insufficient, to put it nicely, it was an army of 200,000, of which the sixth layer was the same as the new soldiers, which were recruits less than a month, and the third layer was the militia group.

Moreover, 80,000 are in Guangxi and Guangdong, 30,000 are in the hands of Chen Shijie in Guiyang, Hunan, and 20,000 Li Yuandu is there, he only has 70,000 in his hands, and there are only a little more than 10,000 veterans who can fight.

The eastward column of the New People's Army also numbered as many as 150,000, and except for Liu Tiancheng's fourth column in Guangxi, the other three 120,000 troops all entered Hunan, which posed a great threat to Hunan.

Among them, Yang Daliu led the third column from the contract county to Baoqing Mansion and killed all the way to Shaoyang.

Jiusong and Zhang Xiumei joined forces to break through Chenzhou, and attacked Xiangxi with the local Dong rebels, and the second column of Jiusong and the Dong rebels went north down the Ruan River to attack Changde.

Zhang Xiumei's 50,000 men went east from Lipu County, attacked Xinhua, and attacked Loudi.

Zeng Guoquan sent his henchman Li Chendian with 20,000 forwards in Xiangxiang County to block the first column advancing eastward to attack Xiangtan, thus threatening Changsha.

Zhang Xiumei received Yang Dongfang's instructions that the eastward column entered Hunan not to seize cities and land, but to eliminate the militia organizations in Hunan land, destroy the foundation of the Hunan and Han dynasties, attack the militia mainly, destroy the eyes and ears of the Hunan army, and cut off Zeng Guoquan's eyes.

Therefore, he did not attack Li Chendian's main force, turned south, and swept Shuangfeng County, and Yang Daliu, who was originally in Baoqing Mansion, also went south to enter Hengzhou Mansion and attacked Li Yuandu in Hengyang.

Li Yuandu had 20,000 horses to defend the city, and Yang Daliu did not attack Hengyang City, but swept the surrounding counties, leaving a mournful militia, and the mighty also went south into Chenzhou Zhili Prefecture.

Li Yuandu wanted to pursue, and sent a letter to Chen Shijie in Guiyang, inviting him to pursue the third column from the southwest.

The letter had just been sent away for a long time, when it received Zhang Xiumei's 50,000 troops and went south to Baoqing Mansion.

"How can the new bandits have so many troops." The army of 40,000 had just left, and now there were 50,000, so frightened that Li Yuandu hurriedly retracted his feet, and retreated back to Hengyang City with an army of 20,000 who had only been trained for three months, had just taken shape and had not seen blood. I want to rely on Jiancheng to train the courage of the recruits, and improve the training.

But Zhang Xiumei didn't give him a chance, and continued to sweep the surrounding towns and villages, sending a team of two or three thousand people to exterminate the small militia groups below. According to the policy, the land was divided and the property of the landlord's family was divided, except for guarding a few traffic arteries, that is, not attacking the city heavily guarded by the Hunan army.

This made the Hunan army, which had always been defending the city on the one hand to consume the rebel army, and on the other hand, mobilizing heavy troops to besiege it, a little uncomfortable.

"Damn! What the hell are these seedling bandits, how are they a little different from the previous bandit army. Zeng Guoquan, who was sitting in Changsha, did not immediately lead his troops to encircle and kill the eastward column, but first collected intelligence, sent his own subordinate generals, and first guarded the main roads leading to Changsha.

The essence of Hunan should not let the New People's Army be harmed, he doesn't care about other places, except for the flat and fertile terrain of Dongting Lake, which can be used as a granary, the rest of Hunan is mountainous and hilly, and it doesn't matter if the New People's Army occupies it first.

He has enough experience in dealing with the rebels, and the easiest way to fight any battle is to fight a defensive counterattack battle with support in the rear, first wait for the enemy's attack to weaken the morale, and the elite siege is gone.

Zeng Tie Bucket is not screaming, in terms of defensive ability, he is difficult to have opponents, and his subordinates have also inherited his ability to resist the enemy.

But he never expected that the eastward column of the New People's Army did not rush to Changsha and did not launch a strong attack on Dacheng, but attacked everywhere and attacked Xiangxi and Xiangnan.

With the backer of Guizhou, he is still playing streaming, instead of advancing layer by layer, and occupying it step by step to win.

"What tricks are the New People's Army playing?" Zeng Guoquan didn't figure it out anyway, but since the eastward column didn't come to fight Changsha, then Xiangnan would be handed over to Li Yuandu and Chen Shijie, because his attention was attracted by Li He.

Jingzhou was suddenly broken, and then the New People's Army was about to attack Yueyang, the north gate of Hunan, the Yangtze River crossing, naturally could not be occupied by the New People's Army, he first sent the general Wu Zongguo to Changde to sit in the town, and at the same time sent the branches of the Songzi River to the east and west rivers to alert the New People's Army to attack Hunan from here.

At this time, he personally arrived in Yueyang, and at the same time transferred Yang Yuebin from Wuchang up, the New People's Army relied on the water division to move east quickly, and the one who could block the Sanjiang Water Division could naturally only be the Yangtze River Water Division, otherwise Yueyang would also have a crisis.

After inquiring about the scale of the Sanjiang Naval Division of the New People's Army, Yang Yuebin found Zeng Guoquan and said: "King Jin, the Sanjiang Naval Division of the New People's Army is fierce, but there are not many warships. ”

"Good! The waterways will be handed over to Fuhou, I think that Bacheng this Li He knows that you have come to Yueyang, and he brought thousands of warships so frightened that he didn't dare to go east. Zeng Guoquan said with great confidence, Yang Yuebin is a general of the Navy with strong command ability, and when he heard that the Sanjiang Naval Division of the New People's Army only has forty or fifty warships, he smiled contemptuously.

It turns out that the Sanjiang Naval Division is nothing more than this, and there are only so many dozens of boats.

However, smiling and smiling, Zeng Guoquan still showed deep worries, the Sanjiang Water Division is not in the east, and Yueyang is worry-free, but Li He still has a land division, will he directly attack Wuhan by land and land.

Or hit Hunan from the north, this is like a sword hanging over his head, in the final analysis, who controls the upper flow of the Yangtze River and has a geographical advantage, but unfortunately I didn't expect the New People's Army to have so many troops from the east of Sichuan to the east.

Zeng Guoquan had to admit that he was greatly fooled by the bluff of the eastward column, and whoever heard that the 150,000 army (known as 400,000 to the outside world at that time) was killed from Guigui would also be regarded as a great enemy.

Just when Zeng Guoquan and Yang Yuebin were discussing how to deal with Li He, a fierce battle broke out in southern Hunan.

Yang Daliu and Chen Shijie fought a few battles in Chenzhou, and began to attract much attention, Chen Shijie heard that the third column commander was attacking Chenzhou, so he marched east from Guiyang and prepared to block it in Chenzhou City.

But he didn't expect that Yang Daliu had a strategic purpose in going south this time, and he went extremely fast, and he arrived almost at the same time as the vanguard.

Yang Daliu's striker had already gone around the city, and did not hit Chenzhou, Chen Shijie caught up and insisted on a decisive battle with it, wanting to annihilate this part in one fell swoop, so he fought a battle outside the city, 10,000 against 20,000, he relied on a row of guns, hundreds of small artillery, a slight battle to gain the upper hand, and the two sides lost thousands of people to each other.

Then Yang Daliu's forward ignored Chen Shijie and continued to attack Yizhang in the south, Chen Shijie thought that this department was defeated and wanted to pursue, so he sent the left battalion Ge Chenglin and the right battalion to garrison Chen Wenfu from Linwu in Guiyang Zhili Prefecture to draw troops eastward, adopt the original Li Yuandu strategy, and attack Yang Daliu's forward on both sides.

However, he also encountered the same trouble as Li Yuandu, Yang Daliu brought 20,000 horses and horses to appear in Yongxing County, north of Chenzhou, and also went south, he was naturally worried that Chenzhou would not dare to chase, and guarded in Chenzhou, he knew that once Chenzhou lost his hometown Guiyang, he would be exposed to the front of the New People's Army.

Compared with annihilating the enemy, he was more concerned about guarding Guiyang, which is divided into three acres, and not letting the New People's Army get involved in Guiyang Zhili Prefecture.

Soon, Yang Daliu's forward general Li Jinxue captured Yizhang.

"The third column has finally arrived in Yizhang, and it is walking very fast, worthy of being a child of the Miao family, and the mountain road is like drinking water!" Yang Dongfang, who was far away in Shanghai, received the news for the first time, and it was not appropriate to have his secret words and coordinate points. The first task of the third column was to reach Shonan first.

At that moment, Yang Dong conveniently transferred 1,000 Mini rifles from the Nanning Armed Security Corps to Yizhang, and transferred 4,000 flintlock rifles from all departments from Sichuan to support Yang Daliu's forward general Li Jinxue. (To be continued.) )