On the fifth day of November in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the army led by Chen Xinjia and Sun Chuanting finally began to encircle and attack the city of Xiangyang.

It has been thirteen years since the Liukou rebellion, and a peasant uprising broke out in Shaanxi in the first year of Chongzhen, and most of the leaders of the Liukou were killed by the imperial army, and the remaining Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were already the most outstanding leaders among the Liukou, and the battle of the imperial court to exterminate the Liukou has also undergone fundamental changes.

The Liukou no longer rely on mobile warfare, but occupy the city to confront the imperial army.

Cabinet minister, Yang Sichang, the secretary of the Ministry of War, ambushed on all sides, and the operational deployment of the four corners and six corners almost exhausted the full strength of the Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Beizhili, Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Nanzhili and other places were implicated in it, and participated in the battle to exterminate the Liukou.

In the early years of Chongzhen, most of the ministers of civil and military affairs had a sympathetic attitude towards the Liukou, believing that the Liukou were mainly homeless, and they were forced to rebel because of the problem of famine, so at that time, the court's attitude towards the Liukou was mainly to exterminate and appease the coexistence, and to appease the main thing, but as time went by, the Liukou was untrustworthy, and every time he accepted the appeasement of the court, he did not continue to rebel for a long time. This made the imperial court completely abandon the strategy of appeasement and completely exterminate it.

It was under such circumstances that the army led by Chen Xinjia and Sun Chuanting began the battle to completely exterminate the Liukou.

It should be said that the government and the opposition are very optimistic about the battle to exterminate the Liukou, and after so many years, the imperial army has fought every time. Almost all of them were victorious, but the number of defeats was very few, and everyone thought that the imperial court would definitely be able to achieve a complete victory and completely calm the situation in the north by concentrating on exterminating the Liukou. However, many people ignore that fierce generals like Cao Wenzhao and Lu Xiangsheng were broken in the hands of Liukou.

There are not many people who are not optimistic about this battle to exterminate the Liukou, and Zheng Xunrui is the most prominent representative among them.

Zheng Jiajun has fought many times with the Liukou, because of one reason or another, he has not been able to completely exterminate the Liukou, and Zheng Xunrui has an unusual understanding of the tenacity of the Liukou's vitality. There are many reasons for the resurgence of the Liukou, on the surface, the north has suffered too many famines, the farmers are desperate, there is no food, only rebellion, the root cause is that the imperial court is unable to relieve the affected people. The local government did not care about the life or death of the people, which led to the continuous development and growth of the rogue.

Zheng Xunrui thinks. The emperor and the court have been unable to change the Ming Dynasty's decay and degeneration, the situation of a thousand holes, every internal and external troubles, are a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty this overwhelmed ship, this giant ship has faced the fate of subversion, perhaps the emperor has recognized this problem, but can not find a solution.

The battle to regain the city of Xiangyang. It starts on the sixth day of November.

Chen Xinjia and Sun Chuanting arranged their troops after careful consideration, the 80,000 army was responsible for attacking Xiangyang Fucheng, and the 40,000 army was responsible for defending the periphery of Xiangyang Fucheng, that is, to defend against Liu Wenxiu, Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi and others, and at the same time to ensure the supply of grain and grass. Sun Chuanting was responsible for leading the army to attack Xiangyang Fucheng, and Chen Xinjia was responsible for leading the army to defend the periphery.

Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Liangyu, the two general soldiers, all joined the attacking team.

In Sun Chuanting's plan, the main task of the offensive was to be taken care of by the Shaanxi Guard's army.

The strong combat effectiveness shown by the sergeant of the Shaanxi Guard made Sun Chuanting very emotional, and from the body of the sergeant of the Shaanxi Guard, he often thought of the Zheng family, but unfortunately because of one reason or another, the Zheng family army did not participate in the battle to exterminate the Liukou.

Garrisoned in Xiangyang City, 10,000 of them are sailors, guarding the south, east and north waters of Xiangyang City, Zhang Xianzhong captured Xiangyang City, almost captured all the ships of Xiangyang Navy, after transformation and training, a strong team of sailors under his command was born.

The first thing Sun Chuanting needed to defeat was this 10,000 water division.

Can defeat this 10,000 water division, is not as simple as words, although it is said that there is a water division under the command of Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of Huguang, but unfortunately its combat effectiveness is not mentionable, so many years have passed, the battles encountered by the Ming Dynasty, almost all of them are mainly land battles, the water division has become a chicken rib, it is a pity to abandon the tasteless food, it is so immortal and alive to maintain, how can there be any combat effectiveness.

In winter, the river surface is basically stable, which is conducive to the deployment of both sides in combat.

This indicates that the tragic battle will first unfold between the sailors of both sides.

The river around Xiangyang Mansion is unusually wide, and it is an impossible task to bypass the sailor and directly attack the castle, so although Sun Chuanting is very anxious, he must defeat the Liukou Sailor before he can really start besieging Xiangyang Mansion City.

The land route directly into the south gate of Xiangyang Mansion has long been heavily armed by Zhang Xianzhong, and the water and land routes can support each other, theoretically speaking, it is necessary to defeat the Liukou sailors before it is possible to truly control the land routes, such realistic conditions make Sun Chuanting have no choice.

The battle on the river can only rely on the sailors under the command of Zuo Liangyu.

Sun Chuanting issued the order to fight to Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of Huguang.

Zuo Liangyu is selfish, this has long been revealed, when stationed in Wuchang Mansion, he commanded an army of more than 100,000 troops, although when reinforcing Xiangyang Mansion, suffered some losses, but most of the sergeants still returned to Wuchang Mansion, Zuo Liangyu's strength did not suffer too much loss, this time Chen Xinjia and Sun Chuanting discussed together, decided to transfer the Huguang army to participate in the battle to exterminate the Liukou, Zuo Liangyu was very resentful.

Zuo Liangyu only transferred 30,000 people to join the army, and the remaining 30,000 people are still stationed in Wuchang Mansion, which is his Zuo Liangyu's territory, and no outsiders can interfere.

In Zuo Liangyu's view, the battle to exterminate the Liukou was directly responsible for the imperial court, that is, Sun Chuanting, the governor of the five provinces, was responsible, and did not have much to do with Huguang, so when Sun Chuanting commanded the battle, Zuo Liangyu was Yang Fengyin disobeyed, and Chen Xinjia, the left attendant of the military department, came to Wuchang Mansion, Zuo Liangyu found that the situation was not right, and did not dare to continue to slack off, so he really devoted himself to the battle.

Sun Chuanting asked Zuo Liangyu to lead the army and start a battle first to defeat the Liukou sailor, Zuo Liangyu sensitively noticed that this was an unusual battle, even if it was to defeat the Liukou's sailor, the loss of the sergeants under his command was extremely heavy.

In such a situation, Zuo Liangyu took a wipe and dragged it.

He constantly sent sailors to investigate the opponent's movements, and at the same time reported many problems in the battle to Chen Xinjia, Sun Chuanting and others, and secretly paid attention to establishing a good relationship with Wang Yongji, the superintendent.

The general assault, which was scheduled to begin on the 10th of November, had not been moved until the 15th, and as for the skirmishes between the ships, it was not a battle at all.

That is to say, from the 6th day of the first month of November to the 15th, a full 10 days have passed, and the large-scale battles have not yet begun, and they are all sporadic encounters, as well as reconnaissance and spying on each other between the two anti-dumpers.

Sun Chuanting definitely couldn't tolerate such a situation, he began to urge Zuo Liangyu to immediately launch a general attack on the Liukou sailors, and be sure to completely defeat the Liukou's sailors within five days, that is, before the 20th.

Zuo Liangyu's method of dragging could not be maintained, so he secretly found Wang Yongji, the overseer, and asked for an attack on Xiangyang Mansion City on both land and water sides at the same time, so that part of the forces of the Liukou Sailors could be dispersed, and the pressure on the Sailors under his command would be much less.

All Zuo Liangyu's thoughts were nothing more than to preserve his strength.

Zuo Liangyu's suggestion naturally did not get Sun Chuanting's support.

The battle to attack Xiangyang Fucheng, because of its particularity, was originally divided into two steps, the first step was to defeat the Liukou sailors and occupy all the rivers, and the second step was to launch a direct attack on Xiangyang Fucheng and take the Fucheng. The two-step battle was interlinked, and once the Rogue's sailor was defeated, the land attack began immediately, and the Rogue's had no time to adjust and rest.

If the first step of the offensive is to be carried out on a large scale, it will inevitably affect the implementation of the second step.

On the night of 15 November, Sun Chuanting issued an ultimatum to Zuo Liangyu, that it must be carried out in accordance with the original tactical plan, that it must not be delayed, and that no matter what difficulties it faces, it must launch a large-scale offensive on 16 November.

It is not good for Wang Yongji to continue to support Zuo Liangyu, it should be said that all the methods he can think of have been used, giving Zuo Liangyu a lot of grain and grass, and also helping Zuo Liangyu to state many difficulties, but the war is imminent, Wang Yongji can still divide the good and the bad, and he can't let himself fall into trouble because of his support for Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu couldn't continue to shirk, the military order was like a mountain, if he really angered Sun Chuanting, he was afraid that he would not be able to do it.

In the middle of the night of the 15th, all the officers above the rank of guerrilla general were concentrated in Zuo Liangyu's central military tent.

In order to ensure the smooth operation of the battle, Zuo Liangyu sent 20,000 sergeants in one go, of which 5,000 were responsible for attacking by land, and the remaining 15,000 were to besiege the Liukou's sailors.

Chen Xinjia, who was stationed on the periphery, expressed clear support for Sun Chuanting's deployment, and once again urged to launch an attack as soon as possible, and could not delay time.

Zuo Liangyu has no way to retreat, and he must start fighting. (To be continued......)