On 29 June, the banner of the Dingxi general Garbi was raised outside the camp north of the city, and the Military Intelligence Department estimated that there were 50,000 or 60,000 Qing troops in front of him.

The officers above the wings of the two armies gathered in the big tent of the king of heaven in the city of Chenzhou, the enemy was present, but everyone was excited, idle for too long, and now they were finally going to fight, and they were full of energy.

"Now attack, defeat this Qing army, Yinzhen only has half of the men left, and he will never dare to fight again!"

Meng Kui shouted with full breath, his tiger army had recovered its vitality, and it was so idle that his bones were itchy, and it was difficult to dissolve it by playing football every day.

"There are trenches on all sides, layers of trenches, unless there is another dead and wounded, it will be difficult to shake this enemy army."

Luo Tangyuan shook his head, this is more than worth the loss.

"Garbi is here, where is Yanxin?"

Li Xi asked knowingly, Yinzhen worshiped the general, and Kangxi gave him a lot of clans and cronies, led by Yanxin and Garbi. Garbi won the general of Dingxi a few years earlier than in history, so he naturally wanted to be the only one. And Yanxin is the grandson of Hauge, the most orthodox iron hat clan, and he has also been awarded the rebellious general, and his movements are even more worthy of attention.

Yinzhen is the prince, he is the commander, he will not be on the front line, most of them still have to sit in Changsha, at most go south to Hengzhou to control the battle situation, Garbi is pressed down from the front, where will Yanxin be?

The sand table on the way from Shaozhou to Chenzhou has long been prepared, and the terrain has been deeply rooted in the minds of the generals here.

Chenzhou has a unique topography, sandwiched by mountains on the east and west sides, open on both sides of the north and south, Yizhang in the south, separated between Shaozhou and Chenzhou, is the throat of the back road. If Yanxin wins Yizhang, he will be able to isolate himself in the narrow bag of Chenzhou.

Yanxin led the troops in a hurry, and the military intelligence department did not have the magic power to report his movements in real time, but it was reported a day ago that Yanxin's army had passed Hengyang, and then it would definitely go south from the direction of Guiyang Prefecture and go straight to Yizhang County. This is not a ploy, but a favorable situation that the Qing army will inevitably grab.

"The Yanxin army is about 50,000, including 30,000 in the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion, which is a strong enemy. Fighting against the Dzungar Mongols in the northwest for many years, he is not afraid of guns. ”

Luo Tangyuan opened the curtain on the long table in the big tent, and a narrow Changsha plate was revealed, which was the topography from Hengzhou, Hunan to Shaozhou, Guangdong, and the Military Intelligence Department paid a lot of blood and sweat for this sand table.

The sand table was compared one by one in their eyes and in their minds, and then the forces of the enemy and us were put up, and everyone frowned slightly, and then looked at Li Shi, and the questions that had been pondering for more than a month were churning again.

Yinzhen erected the banner of the general in Changsha and issued an order to fight against the thief general, claiming that there were 300,000 troops under his command, which was a routine lie. Counting He Tenglin and Yue Chaolong's troops in the north, the total strength of the Qing army in this battle was actually 1340,000 people. Garbi to the north, He Tenglin and Yue Chaolong are under his control, this is 60,000 people, Yan Xinshuai 50,000 attack Yizhang, Yinzhen headquarters still has more than 20,000, it should be the eight banners of Beijing and Sichuan, Jiangxi Province Green Camp.

didn't do any tricks, and there was no division of troops, Yinzhen's arrangement was decent, but it made the best use of the battlefield situation, and the soldiers and horses on the two roads were strong enough, and each road could fight alone with the two armies of Tiger Ben and Longxiang, and the layout was very stable, almost not like the style of a young general. Although there must be a veteran's advice behind him, Yinzhen can act according to his words, and as far as the prince is concerned, he is really open-minded.

So the problem came, the Anglo-Chinese army in Chenzhou was only two armies of more than 10,000 people, Yanxin went straight to Yizhang, if the Anglo-Chinese army wanted to keep Chenzhou and Yizhang at the same time, and also blocked Yanxin in Hunan, then the force was not enough. Although the Anglo-Chinese army has always had a tradition of fighting more with less, it is too risky for a single army to attack ten times the enemy, most of which are still brave Shaanxi-Gansu-green battalions.

To resolve the current crisis, the best choice is to abandon Chenzhou, the whole army to the south, and the Yanxin Department of decisive battle, so that you can win the victory, but the danger also exists, if Garbi reacts quickly and chases after the tail, the whole army will be attacked on the back.

"I'm idle here to play football, and I don't have time to go back to see my wife and children, not just for a rebellious general."

Facing the puzzled gazes of the generals, Li Xian said leisurely.

"Our goal is not only to protect Chenzhou and Yizhang, but also to wipe out these two Qing armies, if Yinzhen has the courage to take his Beijing camp south to rescue, it will be regarded as an additional gain."

All the generals took a breath of cool air, this appetite is too great, and these two armies can do it right now?

But...... The king of heaven is omnipotent, since he said it, then he will definitely be able to do it, I don't know, what unpredictable tricks the king wants to perform?

The generals looked at Li Shi's gaze, as if they were looking at Zhuge Kongming who was shaking a feather fan, Li Shi felt a little embarrassed, coughed, and began to reveal the mystery.

"I don't have any clever plan, as long as we turn our two armies into four armies, won't this battle be won?"

This is obviously nonsense, if there are now 20,000 people in the four armies, it will naturally be a sure victory. But where did the other two armies come from? The Yulin army was far away in Guangxi, and after the Longxiang army returned to the division, the Yulin army had withdrawn from Yangshuo to Xunzhou. In front of him, Yang Lin gathered more than 30,000 green camps in Yungui, Guangxi, and posted them again like flies. The Eagle Yang Army has been stopped in Zhangpu, forcing Zhangzhou, and confronting the 450,000 Fujian and Jiangnan Green Battalions, almost unable to move.

"Isn't it necessary to mobilize all the reservists under your control!?"

Everyone thinks like this, and they already feel this way when they saw the mountains of ordnance in Shaozhou before. The reserve army system of the Anglo-Chinese country is gradually taking shape with the government going to the countryside, and if it is urgently mobilized, let alone 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 should be able to pull it out.

"No money......

Li Shi spread his hands, and the reserve troops had to be mobilized, which was a huge expense, and now the British and Chinese countries have not yet learned to engage in deficit finance, and the shortfall of millions of taels of silver will affect the foundation of his national policy.

"And there's no need, if there is such a plan, it should have been done a long time ago."

Li Xian smiled slightly, and uncovered the final mystery for everyone who was so anxious that they scratched their heads.

"As I said earlier, we have time, we can control the time carefully, and thirty-six hours ago, I already gave the order......"

On June 30, in Guiyang Prefecture, Hunan, the rebellious general Yanxin rode his horse up the hillside, and as far as the eye could see, the dust raised by the advance of the army was fluttering in the south.

"My army has been going south for two days, and the Li thief is still entrenched in Chenzhou, and he is self-defeating!"

At the foot of the hillside, the main force of the army meandered like a long dragon, and the momentum was magnificent, which made people's blood spine. Coupled with the advice of the sentry detective, Yanxin almost couldn't help but look up to the sky and roar.

Whether it was the emperor's advice when he was ordered to be a general, or the arrangement of the general Yinzhen, they repeatedly emphasized the toughness of the thief army and the cunning of Li Shi, but now it seems that Li Shi is either deaf and blind, or too arrogant, and even ignores his army along the way, and ignores Yizhang behind him.

In three days, his army of 50,000 will advance to Yizhang, and at that time, the gate of Guangdong will be closed, and Li Xi's lone army will be sealed in Chenzhou.

Yanxin is not an arrogant person, when Yinzhen gave the order to send troops, he made a lot of effort in the fine sentry sentry, although the army is still in Guiyang Prefecture, but the sentry has been active in the north of Yizhang, and the local thief army in blue has been fought, and the enemy situation is also roughly figured out. The Yizhang thief army is no more than a thousand people, and it is only a blue-clothed miscellaneous soldier, not the kind of red-clothed elite, and the detailed work that infiltrated the Guangdong area before also reported that the boats all over the river were transporting things, and there was no army to come back.

There is no longer a big army for Li Shi, for more than a month, Yinzhen has been in close contact with Yang Lin Shi Shibi on both sides of the east and west, and he has indeed grasped the movements of the thief army in front of him, and the Yulin Army and the Eagle Yang Army are still confronting them, and there is no big move.

When it came time to send troops, Yinzhen was still wondering why Li Shi was still alone in Chenzhou, as if he was waiting for the imperial army to go south, and he seemed to have something to rely on. But Yanxin led the troops to Guiyang Prefecture, Li Shi didn't react, Yanxin was already able to conclude that everyone overestimated Li Shi, at least overestimated his vision, that guy must have been confused under the successive battles, thinking that he could rely on 10,000 people to fight against hundreds of thousands of troops.

"Order, the army is speeding up, be sure to arrive at Yizhang within three days!"

Even if he was determined, Yanxin was still serious, and vetoed the proposal of his subordinates to divide the troops to attack Yizhang urgently, and the main force slowly followed up. Yizhang is not the real target, Li Shi is, if Li Shi returns to Yizhang, he must ensure that there is enough military advantage, the thief army is strong after all, it is better to be cautious.

As soon as Yanxin's army arrived in Guiyang Prefecture, Jia Hao, the commander of the Yulin Army in Xunzhou, Guangxi, had already received an urgent order from Li Shi.

"The enemy has caught themselves, it's time for us to act."

Summoning the generals of the whole army, Jia Hao gave an order.

Then he looked at Xiang Shanxuan, who joined the army: "Old Xiang, Guangxi will be handed over to you." ”

Xiang Shanxuan smiled: "Is this what I am allowed to do by pulling up a civilian army?" ”

Almost at the same time, in Zhangpu, Fujian, Wu Ya patted Fang Youxin's shoulder: "Master Fang, you have to be alone." ”

Fang Youxin was very pragmatic: "Keep one more group of gunners, otherwise those cannons will not work." ”

On Nanao Island, Xiao Sheng summoned Hu Hanshan, Zheng Yong and others, and said in a deep voice: "Target, Jiangning!" ”

Li Shi hurriedly ordered the distribution, as if pressing the afterburner button of a machine. On June 30, in Xunzhou, Guangxi, and Zhangpu, Fujian, horse-drawn carriages gathered, sails were like forests, and the soldiers of the two armies of Yulin Yingyang almost did not bring anything, and got into the carriage and ship empty-handed, and hurried away in the starry night. The guns and cannons left behind were distributed to the local people who joined the army and organized them, and this transfer was only 10,000 people back and forth, and it did not involve material and military supplies at all.

All the way to the combined transport, without stopping, the boat is all the way down, and there are also detailed arrangements on land. Every half of the journey, there are pre-arranged rest places outside the villages and towns, and the managers of the Quartermaster Department, who have been waiting here for a long time, bring food and water to the merchants, the officers and men take a short rest, and the carriages are also repaired and maintained, and then gallop again. Even on land, it is three or four hundred miles, and when you enter the hinterland of Guangdong, there are cement avenues in many places, and the journey is even faster.

On July 3, the advance of the Yanxin army marched to Yizhang, and the Baicheng battalion of the Yulin Army, which was urgently redressed at the Shaozhou wharf, had just been pulled into Yizhang County by carriage.

(To be continued)