The climate in the south is changeable, and it began to enter the rainy season in early March, which is very unfavorable for the march of the army, the roads are muddy, the march is very hard, and the battle will increase the unnecessary casualties, and the continuous rain makes Sun Chuanting realize that it is not the best choice to attack at this time, so he made a decisive decision to rest the army in situ and wait until the end of the rainy season before going on the expedition.

Sun Chuanting made such a decision, it was correct from the tactical point of view, but he ignored the most important thing, that is, after Zhang Xianzhong suffered a fiasco, he urgently needed time to recuperate, and the continuous rain was not good for the army, and it was also troublesome for Zhang Xianzhong.

The advent of the rainy season made Zhang Xianzhong also upset, Liu Wenxiu has been off for nearly a month, and there is no news coming back, Zhang Xianzhong has also made up his mind this time, he must wait until Liu Wenxiu comes back, before making a final decision, of course, he hopes to work with Li Zicheng to deal with the official army, but whether such a union can be formed, whether Li Zicheng has any foresight, whether he will give up his previous suspicions, this Zhang Xianzhong does not dare to guarantee.

It was Zhang Xianzhong's personal soldiers who followed Liu Wenxiu to Henan, they were the most courageous sergeants in the righteous army, even if they met the officers and soldiers of the large army, they could find a way to evacuate, Zhang Xianzhong was not worried that Liu Wenxiu would meet the official army, what he was worried about was that Li Zicheng and Gu Junen had other ideas, deliberately detained Liu Wenxiu and even harmed Liu Wenxiu, under the current situation, even if Li Zicheng did this, Zhang Xianzhong was helpless.

The city of Yunyang was constantly being strengthened, and when the news came that Sun Chuanting set off from Xiangyang Mansion City and went to Yunyang. Zhang Xianzhong mustered up his spirit and began to deploy resistance and defense matters, in terms of troops, the official army had an advantage, and in terms of morale, the official army should also be stronger. This battle was very unfavorable to the rebels, according to the normal choice, Zhang Xianzhong should have left Yunyang before the arrival of the official army and went south into Sichuan, but Zhang Xianzhong made a heart and showed the confidence and determination to defend to the end, so the rebels under his command stabilized and devoted themselves to defense.

After the news of Sun Chuanting's army resting reached Yunyang, Zhang Xianzhong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. God bought him time, what kind of changes will occur in the situation in Henan and Huguang, Zhang Xianzhong is not sure in his heart, what he needs most at present is time.

On the first day of April, Liu Wenxiu, who had been away from Yunyang for nearly 40 days, finally returned.

Seeing Liu Wenxiu, Zhang Xianzhong almost burst into tears.

Zhang Xianzhong patted Liu Wenxiu's shoulder and was speechless for a long time. Liu Wenxiu returned to Yunyang, indicating that things were basically done. This is the situation that Zhang Xianzhong wants to see.

Liu Wenxiu's face was dusty, but more joyful.

Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and others entered the study, and the soldiers waited outside the study, and no one was allowed to approach the study, otherwise there would be no mercy.

An hour later, Zhang Xianzhong and others came out of the study. The banquet has been set up, and Zhang Xianzhong doesn't have much expression on his face, but the anxious look he used to have is no longer visible.

The pro-soldiers who waited outside the study tried to read something from Zhang Xianzhong's face, and they followed Zhang Xianzhong's side for a long time. can find a lot of clues from Zhang Xianzhong's subtle expression, and these pro-soldiers found that although Zhang Xianzhong had no expression on his face, his overall expression was calm, which was a good omen.

Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi, who followed behind Zhang Xianzhong, their faces were also calm, and they couldn't see anything, but from the breath that burst out of them, they could feel relieved and calm.

Liu Wenxiu returned to Yunyang, did not cause much turmoil, in fact, Liu Wenxiu left Yunyang, went to Henan to handle top-secret matters, few people know about this matter, so Liu Wenxiu returned to Yunyang, it is impossible to cause much discussion, but after Liu Wenxiu returned to Yunyang, Zhang Xianzhong's order about desperate resistance began to be conveyed, this time the order is very resolute, Zhang Xianzhong's focus is to protect Yunyang Fucheng, nearly 100,000 troops are distributed inside and outside the Fucheng, putting on a decisive posture.

Sun Chuanting was also very concerned about the movements in Yunyang, he sent a large number of scouts, uninterrupted reconnaissance and intelligence, until the beginning of April, the news brought back by the scouts made Sun Chuanting happy, Zhang Xianzhong really put on a decisive battle posture, and all the troops were divided inside and outside the city of Yunyang Mansion, and even the troops stationed in other counties of Yunyang Mansion were all drawn back.

This is an opportunity that should not be missed, and what Sun Chuanting is worried about is that Zhang Xianzhong will flee south to Sichuan.

The rainy season has come to an end, not yet completely over, Sun Chuanting is not willing to miss the precious opportunity, he ordered the army to stop resting, and advance as fast as possible in the direction of Yunyang Fucheng.

Of course, in the process of marching, Sun Chuanting still paid great attention to it, and it was impossible to give up the principle of taking the camp step by step.

In fact, Xiangyang Mansion City is less than 500 miles away from Yunyang Mansion City, if the cavalry marches quickly, it will arrive in two to three days at most, and the 120,000 army led by Sun Chuanting set off from Xiangyang Mansion City on March 10, because it encountered the rainy season, which is not conducive to combat, the cautious Sun Chuanting ordered the army to rest again, and did not set off again until the third day of the fourth month.

The so-called rapid march of the 120,000 army is about 80 miles a day, so it will take at least four to five days to reach Yunyang Fucheng, plus the deployment before the war, etc., and the real start of the battle should be in mid-April.

The information sent back by the scouts, Sun Chuanting analyzed it very carefully, and he always had doubts in his heart, that is, since Zhang Xianzhong suffered a fiasco, why did he not give up Yunyang and go south to Sichuan, which is very beneficial to Zhang Xianzhong, is it possible that Zhang Xianzhong is unwilling to lose the battle of Xiangyang, and really wants to fight to the death with the army.

Sun Chuanting paid more attention to the traces of Li Zicheng in the direction of Henan, Nanyang Mansion City is only about 600 miles away from Yunyang Mansion City, if Li Zicheng suddenly kills Yunyang, it will not take much time, He Renlong, who is stationed in Xinye, cannot completely resist the attack of Li Zicheng's army of more than 100,000 troops.

Zhang Xianzhong put on a posture of fighting to the death, which made Sun Chuanting wonder if Zhang Xianzhong had reached any agreement with Li Zicheng, or that the two rogues had joined forces in private, Zhang Xianzhong was responsible for dragging the imperial army back, and Li Zicheng suddenly killed Yunyang when the battle was at the most critical juncture.

If such a situation really occurs, it will be troublesome, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are united, and the total strength of the Liukou is close to 300,000, Sun Chuanting is absolutely not sure of winning, and the tide of the war is likely to be reversed at that time.

For this reason, although Sun Chuanting gave the order to march quickly, he paid great attention to the vigilance along the road and cleared any threatening factors along the way, so that even if Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had the intention of joint combat, he could lead the army to withdraw to Xiangyang Fucheng in the shortest possible time.

On the sixth day of the fourth month, the army led by Sun Chuanting was less than 100 miles away from Yunyang Fucheng.

According to the scouts' reconnaissance, Sun Chuanting estimated that Zhang Xianzhong's rogue on the periphery of Yunyang Mansion would have at least 50,000 people, and it should be Liu Wenxiu or Ai Nengqi who commanded the battle.

The topography of Yunyang is complex, there are high mountains, hills, river valley flats, mountain basins, etc., Yunyang County where the city of Yunyang is located, it belongs to the mountain basin, the topography of Yunyang and Xiangyang is completely different, Xiangyang belongs to the plain area, Yunyang as a whole belongs to the mountainous area, and the famous Wudang Mountain is within the jurisdiction of Yunyang Prefecture.

Fighting in such a place, it must be carefully deployed, once the rogues enter the mountains, it is very difficult to exterminate them on a large scale, so it is necessary to block the road for the large-scale movement of the rogues when deploying, but there are also advantages to fighting in such a place, that is, the force of external reinforcements is difficult to arrive quickly, and as long as it enters the territory of Yunyang Mansion, Sun Chuanting can obtain news in a very short time and calmly arrange the evacuation.

It is also for this reason that Sun Chuanting's worries about Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's joint operation are not particularly serious, after all, He Renlong defended Li Zicheng's army in Xinye, and even if Li Zicheng's army entered Yunyang and came to reinforce Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Chuanting would be able to make a decision and deployment to evacuate in a short time.

Zhang Xianzhong deployed an army of nearly 50,000 on the periphery of Yunyang Fucheng, which surprised Sun Chuanting very much, the imperial army has a large number of Hongyi cannons, Fulong machines and other artillery, these artillery can exert great power in the field attack, and it is difficult to resist the Liukou with a sword.

After getting the scout's report, Sun Chuanting suppressed his excitement and asked the scout to find out Zhang Xianzhong's deployment at all costs, the more specific the better, and to draw a detailed map, on the other hand, Sun Chuanting began to concentrate all kinds of artillery owned by the army, and he will let the artillery play a major role in this attack.

The battle between the two armies is imminent.

The eyes of the capital, Nanzhili and other places are all focused on the direction of Yunyang Fucheng, and the imperial army has won a major victory in the battle of Xiangyang in front, if it can achieve a major victory in the battle of Yunyang, then it will be able to quickly approach the combat goal of completely exterminating the Liukou.

As for why Zhang Xianzhong held on to Yunyang and why he didn't go south to Sichuan, no one has to consider these issues for the time being, the war is imminent, and what needs to be considered at present is how to completely defeat Zhang Xianzhong. (To be continued......)