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From August to September, and then to October.

The maple leaves are like fire, and the autumn dew turns frosty.

Jiangnan and Jiangbei, everyone is busy with their own things. Some people spend the moon, and some people sweat. The war dragged on for a long time, and in addition to the increasingly tired soldiers on the front, the people and officials in the rear gradually became numb.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River are waiting for the day when Xiangyang City will be breached, and the people in the north of the Yangtze River are waiting for Dolgon to take Datong City.

This time, God seemed to be testing the patience of both sides, and neither Dolgon nor Zhai Zhe could get what they expected so quickly.

The Ming army dug tunnels under Xiangyang City, and at the same time built continuous earthen cities at dangerous places outside Xiangyang City, cutting off the route of Jiangbei to rush to help. But the soldiers are tired, they are not tools, they are living people. A long-term boring and monotonous fight can even break down a person's psyche.

Zhai Zhe was already preparing for not being able to break through Xiangyang City. If you want to hold Huguang without breaking through Xiangyang, the Ming army needs to garrison a large number of troops here, which will contain a large number of Ming troops. What's more, Huguang will be plunged into war for a long time, which will put huge pressure on Jiangnan's finances.

Every qiē needs money, and the current expansion can be carried out so smoothly, which has a lot to do with the smooth progress of the Ming army's war and the rich land it occupies. The deprivation of weapons production from the war bureau has indeed improved the quality of weapons and increased production capacity in the short term, but the cost will naturally increase. If it weren't for Yin's food, what would Zhai Zhe do to buy armor and firearms from several major workshops?

In order to win the hearts and minds of the people in Huguang, the new policy implemented in Jiangnan has not been implemented in Huguang. Du Yinxi made an appointment with a well-known squire in Jingzhou Mansion and Chengtian Mansion to explain the strategy of the imperial court, except for those who had been officials in the Qing court, the rest of them were not pursued.

Under the city of Xiangyang.

Zhai Zhe does not live here permanently, and occasionally travels back and forth between Jingzhou, Wuchang and Xiangyang.

The main purpose of the general in Huguang is to coordinate the relationship between the various departments, and as for the specific deployment of the siege, Zhai Zhe has already handed it over to Zuo Ruo.

Zuo Ruo's prestige was not enough to suppress the Loyal Battalion, let alone let him cooperate with him. But when it comes to a specific battle, his battlefield acumen is even better than Zhai Zhe's.

All the generals are under control, and he seems to be the same as Feng Qin's status in Hangzhou City. The difference is that at the beginning, Feng Qin's subordinates were all children of eastern Zhejiang, and the soldiers and horses he commanded were varied.

Therefore, among the generals who attacked the city, Gong Chen was the hardest working one, because only he personally experienced the predicament in Shanxi. Although he knew that hope was already very slim, he was unwilling to give up the last vestiges of illusion.

Jin Xiaoding asked him to leave Luzhou because he was out of place in the rebel army, and it was excusable for him to kill those people in the first place, but most of the rebel commanders would not understand this, they only knew that their loved ones died at his hands. But Gong Chen didn't think so, since he returned to Huguang, he felt that he had taken on a responsibility, he came to ask for help.

Gong Chen had no team in Huguang, and his overly aggressive suppression gradually aroused the dissatisfaction of the soldiers, and Zuo Ruo had to reduce the number of times he went into battle.

Zhai Zhe understood Gong Chen's thoughts, but his mind was no longer on Shanxi. The Ming army was not ready for the Northern Expedition, just as the Qing army was now unable to invade the south.

Shanxi's qiē is just a lie, from the beginning.

For more than two months, between Jingzhou and Xiangyang, a simple castle was built on the mountain, the name of the fort was Yongding, and the general himself named it.

In mid-October, half of the leaves in the mountains and forests have fallen, and there is a sense of depression between heaven and earth.

Zhai Zhe and Du Yinxi came to the newly built Yongding Fort together.

The castle in front of us is not yet fully finished, but the general outline is complete, and only a few corners need to be refined.

"In the past two months, I have worked hard to block adults" Zhai Zhe's tone was very sincere. In order to build this castle, Plug Yinxi made great contributions. Organizing the people is not easier than fighting, and Du Yinxi has opinions about Zhai Zhe in his heart, but it does not prevent him from doing things seriously. This is the difference between him and He Tengjiao, because he is appreciated by Zhai Zhe.

Du Yinxi's face was thinner than two months ago, and he arched his hand and said: "It's not as hard as the soldiers in Xiangyang" He thinks that doing his best to defend Huguang for the Ming army is doing his duty.

"With this castle, I have been relieved of a lot of pressure under Xiangyang City." Zhai Zhe's tone was not relaxed, with a slight hint of concern.

Du Yinxi comforted Zhai Zhe and said: "There is only one mansion left in Huguang that is still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty, and the general does not need to be impatient."

Hong Chengchou's strategy of shrinking the defensive line did bring a lot of trouble to the Ming army. The strength of the soldiers and horses in Xiangyang City is better than that of the Ming army in Datong City, and Hong Chengchou is cleaning up the hearts of the people in the city. From the moment he decided to build the castle, Zhai Zhe was already preparing for the worst.

Zhai Zhe chuckled and corrected the mistake of blocking Yinxi, "Hehe, it's not a mansion, it's a corner" The north triangle of the Huguang River, the Ming Dynasty accounts for the second, and the Qing court leads the first.

The gate of the castle is guarded by soldiers, who are monitoring the construction of the people.

The two approached the fort gate side by side, and a cold aura came from the surface. The floor is freshly paved bluestone flooring.

Du Yinxi introduced: "There can be 8,000 garrisons in the fort, and according to the orders of the general, 50 batteries have been set up. ”

The two walked and talked, until they reached the top of the fort. Due to time constraints, a small half of the castle's walls were built on the hills, which were very irregular in shape. The fort is divided into a wall to hide a military hole, a grain storage station, a barracks, a gunpowder reserve underground, and more than a dozen wells of about three zhang.

It's not impregnable, but it's completely satisfying to Zhai Zhe. In more than two months, from site selection to design, to the completion of seventy or eighty percent of the work, Zhai Zhe could not have higher requirements.

He carefully inspected for a week and said seriously: "The matter of Huguang still needs to be paid more attention to." This sentence has a lot of meaning, since he let Du Yinxi do things, he will give him the right.

Du Yinxi puffed up his chest and said indifferently: "I am the governor of Huguang, the general can do his best for the Ming Dynasty, if I drag my feet, won't I make the world laugh" He didn't think that he was doing things for Zhai Zhe, but for the court.

The castle had not yet been built, and food and gunpowder had already been brought in. With this castle, even if the Ming army did not capture Xiangyang City, the Qing court light cavalry did not have the courage to invade Jingzhou City.

Of course, if the Qing court mobilized a large army to capture Huguang from Xiangyang, this castle would not play much role, and the thousands of soldiers and horses left behind would become the target of the Qing court.

Zhai Zhe returned to Xiangyang City, and Zuo Ruo led the generals to report the progress of the war.

The towers of the west gate and the south gate of Xiangyang City have been completely destroyed by the artillery fire of the Ming army, and the momentum of the Ming army's siege of the city has slowed down a little in the past few days. The Ming army did not want to repeat Duoduo's defeat under the city of Hangzhou.

In Xiangyang City, Hong Chengchou tried his best to resolutely prevent Luck Dehun from leading the cavalry out of the city to fight, and the food in the city was enough to support a year, and he didn't believe that Dolgon would not be able to capture Datong City within a year.