Seeing that there was no hope of persuading Zheng Chenggong to surrender, Xu Ping went to round with Li Dingguo, intending to carefully investigate to see if he could attack Xiangyang by land.

"Xiangyang uses the Han River as a moat, and the widest place is estimated to be dozens of zhang, and the last time I was able to sneak attack Xiangyang, it was completely by taking the officers and soldiers by surprise." Xu Ping remembered that the Yuan army attacked Xiangyang for six years, and finally won the victory by training the sailors to completely cut off the supply channels of the Song army, this tactic is obviously not suitable for the camp: "We can't spend a few years to surround Xiangyang, and we don't have the strength to build a sailor." ”

"What are you doing in the siege? Wait for the officers and soldiers to break the river again? In the future, when I attack the cities near the water, I must base the barracks high on the mountain. Sun Kewang said with a smile, this time the Sanxi Battalion captured a large number of siege artillery of the Funing Army, and also captured a group of gunners, Sun Kewang asked these people from Li Dingguo to form a new battalion called the siege battalion.

Xu Ping was very supportive of Sun Kewang's operation, this battalion would not be a field force but an outright siege battalion, and he asked Sun Kewang how the battalion was preparing now.

"Thanks to Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang's blessings, the siege camp now has six mortar cannons, which are bigger than the ones used to fight us in the new army in Kaifeng last time, and there is also a huge cannon, the general can never imagine how big it is," Sun Kewang gestured with his hand and showed off to Xu Ping: "This cannon is still the name given by Huang Hou, what is it called?" Twenty-four pounder cannons', each gun carriage has eight wheels under it, a total of eight, Zheng Zhilong worked tirelessly to load ships in Fujian, sent to us thousands of miles away, I tried to fire a few cannons, good guy, I think the mountains can open a hole to come out. ”

Xu Ping laughed when he heard this, and after laughing, he said to Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo: "I have already put Liu Xiang back." After speaking, Xu Ping looked at Li Dingguo: "Brother Li is not strange." ”

"This straw bale will be released, but ......" Liu Xiang has been scolding endlessly after being captured, Li Dingguo once wanted to kill him, but considering that Xu Ping may have a question to ask him, so he left Liu Xiang a life, and after hearing Xu Ping let the stinky mouth Liu Hao go, Li Dingguo was a little puzzled: "The northerners are good at horses, and the southerners are good at boats, maybe he has a good sailor, otherwise why would Huang Hou promote him?" You won't be in trouble for us in the future, will you? ”

"I don't plan to attack Fujian by sea, what's the use of the sailors? This Yangtze River stretches for thousands of miles, even if there are tens of thousands of boats, you can't see it," although there is an agreement with Huangshi, Xu Ping also has to consider the problem after the overthrow of the Ming court for the camp: "Besides, I left Zheng Zhilong, if it is a southern expedition in the future, this guy can be our guide." ”

"Zheng Zhilong is also a straw bale," Li Dingguo immediately overturned what he had just said: "He and Liu Xiang are useless at all." ”

"He also has a good sailor," Xu Ping smiled slightly, as a land general, he can understand Li Dingguo's contempt for the commander of the sailor, in Xu Ping's impression that since ancient times, China's decision to win or lose almost depends on land battles, and the sailor is generally a supporting role: "And Liu Xiang will definitely not give us advice, and it is useless to stay by King Chuang's side, although Zheng Zhilong has no backbone, but it is much more useful to us, if we have spare money in the future, we can let him help me practice the sailor." ”

"The general thinks really long-term," Sun Kewang pulled the topic back: "The top priority is to attack Xiangyang." ”

"We are facing General Zuo, not General Lu, in the hands of Zuo Liangyu, it is useless for Xiangyang to have a strong city and a big river," Li Dingguo said nonchalantly: "The Funing army has been dispersed, and the Zhaoqing army is still far away in Jiangxi, Zuo Liangyu must be desperate to wait for help, and after I block him in the city, the third brother, you can use artillery to destroy him." ”

"Attention, attention," Xu Ping reminded, "Brother Li be careful not to make the same mistake as Fu Ningjun. ”

"Haha, will I make Zheng Zhilong's mistake?" Li Dingguo laughed three times, hugged his fist to Xu Ping and said, "General, wait for good news, I'll go and block Zuo Liangyu in his nest." ”

……

The forward of the guards battalion was about two days away, and Xu Ping did not wait for the arrival of his own leader, so he marched side by side with Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang to Xiangyang.

When the three of them rode on horseback, Sun Kewang suddenly sighed: "Three years ago, when we marched to Kaifeng side by side, there were only more than 10,000 sons under our command, and there were more people in Xiying, but the training was not precise and the equipment was completely empty. At that time, when the new army dispatched a battalion, our liver would tremble three times, and we had to weigh it again and again, and we had to concentrate all the soldiers and horses in our hands before we dared to fight a decisive battle with the first battalion of the new army with the intention of fighting to the death. The more Sun Kewang spoke, the more he sighed: "Although Kaifeng failed to take it in the end, we went from weak to strong, and the battalions grew from scratch, and now we are awe-inspiring when the whole division of the new army comes." ”

"As long as Master Hou doesn't come." Xu Ping followed softly.

Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo glanced at each other, both of them felt that Zhendonghou was most likely a traitorous and evildoer, otherwise how could he be a very human minister, but these two had already figured out Xu Ping's thoughts, and never said bad things about Zhendonghou in front of him.

The vanguard of the invasion army walked relatively slowly because it wanted to protect Sun Kewang's artillery troops, and before the Sanxi battalion arrived in Xiangyang, Li Dingguo sent a horse scout forward as usual to reconnoiter the movements of the officers and soldiers.

To the surprise of the three of them, the horses not only did not find the Ming army scouts in the direction of Xiangyang, but also encountered a group of displaced people.

The spies brought several of these civilians to Xu Ping, and these Hunan people, who had never seen the invading army, wept bitterly in front of the three generals who broke into the camp: "The left thief washed Xiangyang and ran away three days ago. ”

"Zuo Liangyu didn't even guard Xiangyang?" After hearing the news, Xu Ping was taken aback, he never expected that this Xiongcheng in the north of Huguang would be able to get his hands on it without blood.

The three of them are all bold people, since the main force of the officers and soldiers has fled, Xu Ping and Li Dingguo immediately left their troops and went to check with a team of guards, and Sun Kewang also refused to continue to slowly rub with the large army: "Last time I said that I would be the first to enter Kaifeng, last time the general broke his promise, will you leave me behind this time?" ”

The three of them took a team of cavalry, and the spies led the way to the city of Xiangyang, only to see the city gate open, and a large number of people seemed to wander around the outskirts of the city aimlessly. Xu Ping rode his horse to a white-haired old man, who raised his eyes to look at the cavalry that had broken into the camp, his eyes were hollow and devoid, and then he lowered his head again.

Xu Ping asked a few politely, the old man opposite didn't say a word, just sat on the ground and shook his head, and in desperation, Xu Ping had no choice but to pass by the old man and enter Xiangyang City, where the door was open.

Before Xu Ping passed through the city cave, he smelled a scorching smell, and when he came out of the city gate, he was greeted by dilapidated houses and green smoke wafting over the city.

After hearing that the Funing army was defeated and the army was heading towards Xiangyang, Zuo Liangyu immediately plundered Xiangyang, and all the people who resisted were killed. Then he loaded the looted treasures and women on a boat and carried them away through the Han River, and when he walked to the river, Xu Ping saw a headless female corpse still entwined in the aquatic plants on the shore.

"Count Zuo Liangyu's soldiers have to rob several women alone, and when they escape, the boat is so full that it can barely fit, and the soldiers of the Chu army will carefully inspect it, and if it is old and ugly or unpleasant, they will be killed with a knife in their hands," a cavalryman who broke into the camp asked the surviving people in the city, and reported to the three generals: "Or some women are sad because they were robbed, crying towards their homes, and the soldiers of the Chu army are killed because they are unlucky, and the general sees the corpses of these poor people." ”

"They are all weak women, who have been killed on the edge of their own homes, in the eyes of their parents, brothers and husbands." Xu Ping sighed lightly, the corpses of the people who died tragically were everywhere inside and outside Xiangyang City, and the survivors did not even have the desire to find and bury their relatives: "These people have completely collapsed. ”

……

After exploring around Xiangyang, Xu Ping realized the seriousness of the problem, Zuo Liangyu implemented a scorched earth policy, all the food that could not be taken away, and the treasures that could not be robbed were burned, and the people were also killed and withered: "Originally, this place should be densely populated and with sufficient materials, but now the local people themselves have become a problem for their survival, not to mention the army of King Chuang who follows us." ”

"There were still a lot of fishermen on the Yangtze River, even if they could survive by fishing, but Zuo Liangyu used all the fishing boats he found to carry his treasures and women, and the rest were burned by him," Sun Kewang smiled bitterly, not to mention letting the camp eat Huguang now, the people who survived by luck are estimated to have to beg for food from the camp: "Is this Zuo Liangyu from Huguang?" ”

"Of course not, he is from Liao, and he used to be in the Guanning army."

"No wonder." After hearing Xu Ping's answer, Li Dingguo responded: "But his subordinates are all Chu Jun." ”

"What about Chu Jun? Didn't the Sichuan army also do this? Seeing that Xiangyang could not be counted on, Sun Kewang proposed to continue to move forward and attack Wuchang.

"What if Zuo Liangyu leaves without a fight? He claims to have 800,000 Chu troops under his command. Xu Ping felt that continuing the offensive was likely to be mired in a quagmire, and the camp might be trapped in a red field to endure the winter: "Zuo Liangyu can get grain and grass from Jiangxi, Fujian and Nanjing in a steady stream, we can't do it, let's return to Henan, if we want to spend the winter, it is better to Henan." ”

"And then?" Sun Kewang disagreed with Xu Ping's opinion: "Jiangxi is also a granary, I don't believe that so many people in Huguang and Jiangxi Zuo Liangyu killed him, we should continue to go south and seize the Huguang Plain and Jiangxi, so that we will have a better time next year." ”

One of the reasons why Xu Ping was reluctant to continue south was his secret agreement with Huangshi, he always wanted to get enough food and then go north to capture Jingshi, so that he could get a large area of consolidated base without struggling to make a living as he did now. And if you continue to camp south, you will get closer and closer to Fujian and Guangdong, Xu Ping knows that this is the foundation that Huangshi has worked hard for many years, and the other party will never allow him to get involved.

In the absence of the rear situation and Huangshi's frontal attrition, Xu Ping does not have much confidence in this, now the camp is still weak, once the army is destroyed, it will be difficult to rebuild, this is also Xu Ping's only capital that can bargain with Huangshi, he really dare not gamble.

"How to convince Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo? It's a conundrum. Xu Ping knew that these two people would not believe Huangshi's promise, and they didn't know anything about Huangshi's terribleness, at least not as well as Xu Ping: "Now that the camp has not yet had the capital to compete with Hou Ye, we must first obtain the north, so that the strength and weakness will be reversed." ”

……

Liu Xiang ran back to Jiangxi in disgrace and encountered Shi Ce, who had just recovered from a serious illness.

When Zheng Zhilong set off against the order, Shi Ce was seriously ill, and his cronies did not dare to tell him, so as not to aggravate the condition of the marshal, and when Shi Ce was better and finally able to get up to see things, the news of the defeat of the Funing army came. The situation was so serious that the paper couldn't hold the fire, and the guards didn't dare to continue to hide it, so they had to tell the truth, and Shi Ce, who had just been able to get out of bed, immediately went back to bed after hearing about it.

After finally being able to get up from the bed for the second time, Shi Ce also hurried to Jiangxi to collect the endgame, and happened to meet Liu Xiang who was put back.

"Dashuai," although theoretically equal, but over the years, Liu Xiang has been accustomed to holding subordinate salutes every time he sees Shi Ce, and he has long been used to it, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously: "The end will be a capital crime." ”

"How do you ask me to explain to Hou Ye, how to explain to Hou Ye?" After Shi Ce heard that the Funing Army was annihilated, he was so angry that he slashed Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang with a knife, but Liu Xiang was fortunate that Shi Ce was now weak in his hands and feet, and he couldn't pull out his knife for a long time and was hugged by the guards.

Next, it was Shi Ce's turn to feel lucky, Liu Xiang's Zhaoqing soldiers were still intact, with more than 20,000 soldiers plus the water division, Shi Ce felt that he was still sure to keep Jiangxi to complete the task assigned by the Marquis of Zhendong.

"Marshal, the last general has been collecting the remnants of the army these days...... Liu Xiang reported that more than 10,000 of the 40,000 Funing troops were recovered by him, and every day the lost Funing Army soldiers encountered the banner soldiers sent out by Liu Xiang and were led back to the Zhaoqing army camp in Jiangxi.

Jiang Min, a guerrilla in Funing Town, used to be from Jiangxi, he joined the army when Huangshi conquered the southwest, and this time he brought back more than 2,000 people, Jiang Min also hurriedly came over to comfort Shi Ce: "Dashuai, the last general has deployed sentry agents along the way, and Liu Shuai and the last general have been arranged to guard all the dangerous points from Huguang to Jiangxi, and they will definitely be able to keep the thieves out of Jiangxi." ”

"There is also a thief left," Liu Xiang added: "Zuo Liangyu's guy looks more like a thief than a thief." The commander was not there for a while, and the last general had already ordered the whole army that not a single soldier or horse of the left thief should be allowed to enter Jiangxi. ”

"Very good, Brother Liu, you are doing well, Brother Jiang is also very good," Shi Ce asked for a while, and found that the situation was much better than he imagined, and the title of Liu Xiang changed back: "Jiangxi's council, is there anyone here?" ”

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