Shi Dewei analyzed from the deployment of military strength, he felt that the Qi family army was all stationed in Jiangbei, if this time it was a northern expedition, then it would not only be to convene the chief general of the first group army, but to send people to invite Qi Hongying, Qi Zhifeng and others to come over to discuss the battle plan. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"This is not a reason, our First Group Army stayed in Jiangnan, which is not only a large rear, but also a reserve to support the front line, and without worries, we can fight wherever we want, without notifying Qi Hongying, it can also be said that it is out of the need for secrecy of military operations, and when our army arrives in Jiangbei, it will not be too late for Qi's army to cooperate with the operation!" Li Hongfei retorted.

The location where the First Group Army is now located is the most central area of the entire Nanming, and it can send troops to support any place at any time, so if Nanming takes the initiative to start a war, the first to move can only be Li Hongfei's First Group Army.

"Well, in fact, I think that the best offensive plan for us now is to march west." Stilwell is not selling off either.

"Tell me why." Li Hongfei neither affirmed nor denied.

"Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, the Qing army is weak, most of the defenders are traitors to our dynasty, although it is known as 200,000 troops, but the combat effectiveness is not very good, if our army and Huang Degong's Fourth Army attack together, it will not take half a year, we will be able to fully recover the south of the Yangtze River, and at the same time we can open up the connection with the Yunnan-Guizhou region, and then we will be united with the Qianguo Gong (Mu Bin) army, and the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is just around the corner!" Stilwell analyzed.

Stilwell's analysis this time is exactly the same as Li Hongfei's thinking.

"Not bad! Thinking quite far, it seems that I can rest assured that I will let you lead the troops this time. Li Hongfei said with relief.

Li Hongfei has three main generals in his hands, Guo Sheng dares to fight, has fierce strength, is a good hand in dealing with the enemy, as the vanguard of the whole army, he is definitely the best candidate, as for the overall situation, there is no such ability at present.

And Zhang Chao, good at using all kinds of small tricks, used properly, often can win with less and more surprises, for this kind of person who likes to be careful and calculated, every link requires that the score is exactly the same, commanding an army of thirty or forty thousand is already the limit, and a large army of more than one hundred or two hundred thousand fights, and people like Zhang Chao can't play at all.

Although Stilwell said that he used to be under the command of Shi Kefa, he basically lost more than he won, but it was not all Stilwell's fault, he himself was familiar with military books, and he can be regarded as one of the few military commanders in Nanming who has a good understanding of the national situation.

And judging from the analysis of the situation this time, Li Hongfei is even more sure of this.

In the battle to recover the south of the Yangtze River, it is impossible for Li Hongfei to personally take command, not to mention that when the time comes, it will definitely be a joint operation with Huang Degong's Fourth Group Army, and Li Hongfei has no energy to intrigue with those old foxes.

After all, Stilwell has been in the officialdom for many years, and his connections are far wider than Li Hongfei's, and if he comes forward to deal with these officialdom veterans, the joint operation of the two armies will be much smoother.

"My lord, what do you mean........" Stilwell seemed to understand.

"That's right, this time my First Group Army will join forces with the Fourth Group Army, as well as the Fujian Navy Division, to jointly march westward, mainly taking advantage of the weak power of the Qing army, to open up the Yunnan-Guizhou link line in one fell swoop, although the scale is large, but I want to come to the war will not be too important, so this official decided to ask the Holy Lord, send you as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army, and be fully responsible for the westward expedition." Li Hongfei explained.

Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and other places, there are about 200,000 Qing troops, plus Wu Sangui's Guanning Iron Cavalry, the total strength is up to 300,000, and the Southern Ming Dynasty sent 200,000 new troops to the west, which can be said to be a knife to kill chickens.

Now the only thing he is worried about is the reinforcements of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so Li Hongfei decided to unite with the Fujian Navy Division to completely block the Yangtze River waterway.

Li Hongfei even expected that there might not be any suspense in this battle on land, and the only thing to worry about was the water war.

Not only the intelligence of the Cao Gang, but even Dongchang and Jinyiwei heard the news as early as a year and a half ago that the Manchu Qing Dynasty had built shipyards in many ports in the north, and nearly 100 large and small warships were launched every month.

Maybe it's because I'm worried about losses, or maybe I want to use it as a killer weapon, the battleships that have been launched fresh in the past two years are basically trained in the north and have never entered the Yangtze River waterway, so Nanming has not been clear about the reality of the other party until now.

However, according to the shipbuilding speed of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, there are now no less than 2,000 large and small warships.

In terms of numbers alone, it has surpassed the sum of the Nanming naval divisions, and if the Manchu Qing Dynasty is determined to support Wuhan, Changsha and other places, then the most likely thing is to send warships to cover the crossing of the river.

When the time comes, if you want to stop the Manchu reinforcements, water war is inevitable............

For this western expedition, Li Hongfei first ordered the entire First Group Army to stand by, and then rushed to Nanjing by boat, personally entered Beijing to face the Sheng, submitted a battle plan, and waited for Zhu Youzhen's instructions.

In ancient times, marching and fighting, just the preparatory work was very complicated, the soldiers and horses were not moved, the grain and grass went first, especially the transfer of hundreds of thousands of troops, and it took more than 10 days to go back and forth just to issue military orders to the garrisons in various places.

Fortunately, in terms of grain and grass, Jiangnan has been relatively smooth in the past two years, and Li Hongfei has vigorously introduced high-yield crops such as artichokes, so that the grain depots in various places have been in a state of full warehouses.

Now that the autumn harvest is approaching, the army is attacking at this time, and it only needs to collect grain on the spot.

At the beginning of September 1647, Emperor Zhu Youzhen of the Ming Dynasty officially ordered the westward expedition.

The army of the Western Expedition was mainly composed of the First Group Army of the new-style National Defense Force, supplemented by the Fourth Group Army, with a total strength of more than 200,000 troops, plus more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians, as well as two naval fleets of Fujian and the Yangtze River, known as the "500,000 land and water army."

As the commander-in-chief of this western expedition, although Li Hongfei did not participate in the march, he was also forced by Zhu Youzhen to "sit in Nanjing" in order to deal with emergencies at any time.

The army of the Western Expedition set out in two routes, one was led by Huang Dequan, and the troops were dispatched through Luyang, along the river to Wuhu, Tongling, and Chizhou, and attack Jiujiang, Wuhan and other places.

This road is all close to the Yangtze River, there are not many cities that really need to be attacked, and there are sailors on the river to support at any time, the rhythm of the battle is relatively gentle, even if you encounter difficult bones, you can also adopt the tactics of division and siege, and trap the enemy army in the lonely city.

In short, the main task of the Fourth Army is to assist the Daming Naval Division, take those river crossing ports, and prevent the rout army from crossing the river and fleeing north.

On the other hand, under the leadership of Stilwell, the army sent troops through Shaoxing, taking the line of Jinhua, Hengzhou, and Shangrao, and attacking the entire territory of Jiangxi and Hunan provinces from east to west.

The task of the First Group Army was mainly to attack the city, supplemented by killing the enemy, that is, to use the fastest speed to take down all the prefectures and counties occupied by the Qing army in the two provinces, and as for the routs and deserters, they were all driven to the north, anyway, the Yangtze River waterway was blocked, and these soldiers had no place to escape.

This kind of dragnet tactic is to bully the Qing army left south of the Yangtze River with weak combat effectiveness, otherwise after the division of troops, as long as one side fails to withstand the impact of the Qing army, then it is possible to lose everything.

Although this is a kind of gamble, it is more of a kind of confidence, the confidence of a strong army.

There are many kinds of insurance tactics, but none of them are as fast as this dragnet tactic.

In mid-September alone, the Qing army occupied Hengzhou, Shangrao, Huangshan, Chizhou, and other places were in a hurry, and the First Army led by Stilwell launched a fierce attack on the three state capitals controlled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty at the same time.

At this time, the main force of Haoge's return to Beijing had just reached Hanzhong, Shaanxi.

On the one hand, he sent 800 li to expedite and rushed to Shaanxi, ordering Haoge to stop returning to Beijing and go east to support Hubei, and on the other hand, he ordered Geng Jingzhong, the Han army stationed in Xuzhou, and the "Zhishun King" who guarded Huainan, each led 100,000 new troops (mainly firearms), and invaded Yangzhou again, trying to provoke a full-scale war and "force" Nanming to send troops back to help.

The battle of the southern invasion before the Manchu Qing Dynasty was to suffer a loss on crossing the river, and when the situation was unclear, Dolgon did not dare to lead the army to cross the river easily, at least, after the Qing army and the navy mastered the waterway of the Yangtze River, it was possible to cross the river and go south.

So Dolgon asked Shunzhi to draw up another order, urgently summoning Azig and Duoduo into Beijing, commanding the Manshui Division, and making meritorious contributions.

Let the two princes, and the two princes who are good at using cavalry, to lead the sailors, it is not that Dolgon's head is funny, but that Dolgon wants to give his two brothers a chance to make meritorious contributions.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been dormant for two years, and the sailor is no longer what it used to be, if he can defeat the world's first Daming sailor, the credit is enough to wash away the sins committed before.

And it turned out that the cavalry did not do much in the area of the Jiangnan water network, and Dolgon did not even plan to send a Manchurian army into the Jiangnan to fight.

Azig and Duoduo went this time, except for their henchmen and generals, they basically did not bring a single soldier, which was equivalent to parachuting into the air.

As for the Manchu soldiers under Hauge, Dolgon hated Hauge to the core, wishing he was dead, if the Qing army could really successfully cross the river, then Hauge's army was afraid that it would be the first and last batch of Manchu soldiers to cross the river.

After two years of development, the total strength of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has reached 1.2 million, leaving behind 200,000 troops to defend various places, and the number of troops that can be put into the battlefield this time is nearly one million.

Of course, this million-strong army also includes Wu Sangui and the 300,000 troops south of the Yangtze River, as well as Haoge's 300,000 tired troops............

As soon as Li Hongfei's plan for the westward expedition was implemented, it was like a hornet's nest, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was now at the peak of its integrity, how could it be easily provoked?

In mid-October, Geng Jingzhong and Shang Kexi led an army of 200,000 to invade Yangzhou again, and the Second Ming Army with Qi's army as the backbone did not show weakness and directly met the two Qing armies in the border area.

Despite the fact that the Second Group Army in Jiangbei had only 100,000 men, the guerrillas sent by Li Hongfei to the backyard of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the past two years had developed a contingent of nearly 40,000 or 50,000 people.

After a month of fierce fighting between the two sides, the Second Army and the guerrilla coalition finally wiped out more than 50,000 Qing troops at the cost of 20,000 casualties (the Qing army began to be equipped with firearms, and its combat effectiveness was improved), and even took the initiative to attack, taking advantage of the situation to take Huai'an, Baoying and other places, and finally the troops pointed directly at Suqian, and it was about to recover the entire territory of Jiangsu.

In desperation, Dolgon had to urgently dispatch 50,000 cavalry again, which interrupted Qi Hongying's offensive and forced him to retreat to the first line of defense in Huai'an.

Originally wanted to invade Yangzhou, but he didn't even enter the border, not only suffered heavy losses, but also lost Huai'an, Baoying, Yancheng and other places, the entire Jiangsu Province, only Suqian, Xuzhou two big cities left, this time Dolgon finally understood the strength of the Qi family's army.

Obviously, Yangzhou can't be fought here, unless another 100,000 cavalry comes, after all, the cavalry of the Qing army, north of the Yangtze River, still has a little advantage.

Take 350,000 troops to deal with 150,000 Qi family troops (guerrillas are also counted in the battle sequence of Qi family army), maybe there will be a chance of victory, but even if the Qi family army is destroyed, what can be done, and the 300,000 army south of the Yangtze River is not wanted?

And how much do you have to lose if you destroy these 100,000 Qi family troops?

Dolgon will still settle this account.

The attack on Yangzhou is just a false shot, since it has not been effective, then it is still honest to rescue Hunan and other places, because the Qing army has been fighting with the Qi army for more than a month, the Manchu Qing has lost the entire territory of Jiangxi, and the speed of the attack of the Southern Ming Dynasty has made the Qing army generals completely unable to react.

How can there be such a powerful army in this world, even if it takes hundreds of thousands of troops to walk around the whole territory of Jiangxi, it will take more than a month!

Could it be that the defenders of the entire territory of Jiangxi are all looking at the wind and surrendering?

Since the outbreak of the war, due to lack of preparation, the Qing army has not only lost the entire territory of Jiangxi, but also lost 80,000 people, counting the 70,000 new troops of Geng Jingzhong and Shang Kexi, in just two months, the Qing army has lost 150,000 troops.

Fortunately, two months was enough for the Qing army to be properly arranged, and Haoge's 300,000 troops also marched urgently all the way, and finally arrived in Jiangling, Hubei on the specified date.

Haoge's army had to stop the westward expedition because of the lack of heavy grain and grass, and now it was urgently requisitioned again, and there was no time to rest, and the road was basically a war-torn place, even in the autumn harvest season, there was not a grain of grain in the rice fields, and it was extremely difficult to collect grain, let alone march thousands of miles.

The morale of the army was low, and many Han troops surrendered, and they even waited for an opportunity to flee during the march.

In order to save morale, Hauge simply ordered looting along the way, not only food, but also all kinds of property, which would be collected by the soldiers.

Those Shun people who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty thought that after the end of the war, they would have a good life, but it was only a few days after it stopped, and they were beaten again, and some ordinary people who still had blood in their bones immediately started with the Qing soldiers.

So the looting turned into burning, killing and looting, where the Qing army passed, ten rooms and nine empty, chickens and dogs were not left, and not a single inch of grass was grown.

The morale of Hauge's army has rebounded, but after this move was introduced to the northern states and counties, it once again aroused the people's anti-Qing upsurge.