Sheng Yong, Ping'an, Wang Bin, and Sun Lin jumped off the boat and stood on the shore.

The two turned around and saw that the river behind them was full of boats, and the rebel army was disembarking one after another, and then carrying supplies and baggage.

"Hahaha, welcome two generals." Not far away, there was a loud laugh, and Chen Wen strode over.

"It's still comfortable in Huguang, and it's really fast to take a boat." Ping An immediately cried out.

Since December last year, Sheng Yong and Ping'an gathered 150,000 mobile soldiers and horses in Guizhou, plus 30,000 Tusi young and strong people, boarded the boat from Sizhou Mansion in Guizhou, entered Huguang all the way, entered Dongting Lake through Yuanzhou, Chenzhou, and Baoqing, and then entered Jianli from Dongting Lake, passed through Jingzhou and Yiling, and came to Guizhou.

This is the advantage of occupying the Huguang waterway, nearly 200,000 people plus baggage, can come all the way from Guizhou to Guizhou, across most of the Huguang, nearly a thousand miles, a trip took less than 10 days.

Of course, because Zhu Gaoxu didn't have so many ships, and there were still a large number of ships to be in the Huguang battlefield, these nearly 200,000 people were transported back and forth several times.

Among them, Ping'an's cavalry had expanded to 40,000 after the Battle of Guizhou.

The cavalry and infantry battalions were separated, and Yang Yun led them from Guizhou to Huguang Guizhou.

They had to go around in boats, so if they went far, the cavalry could take a shortcut.

"Has Yang Yun arrived?" Ping An didn't follow the cavalry this time, and took the boat to chat with Sheng Yong all the way, drinking, so unhappy.

"Yang Yunxian has arrived, but the main force has not yet arrived, he follows the main force." Chen Wen to.

That night, Yang Yun led the main force to Guizhou, and the generals met, and Chen Wen had a good banquet for them.

The generals took people to rest near Guizhou, and at the same time sent a large number of sentinels and soldiers and horses to seal the main crossings and prevent the officers and soldiers from investigating their news.

Fortunately, to the east of Guizhou is Jingshan, and the waterways are vertical and horizontal, as long as the main intersection is blocked, the secrecy is still relatively strong.

Unless the official army desperately sends sentry cavalry to infiltrate, it will be possible to find out, but now that Huguang is about to fight a decisive battle, the main energy of the imperial court is in Dongting Lake, and it will definitely not be able to take care of it for the time being.

On the one hand, they waited for the Han king's Hu Guangbu political envoy to transport grain and grass, and on the other hand, they waited for the lake to fight.

A few days later, Sheng Yong received news that Zhu Di had begun to attack Baling, and the official army sent sentinels everywhere on the southeast line of Jingzhou, and west of Changsha, just to prevent a rebel army like Sheng Yong from joining the battlefield from other places.

But Zhu Di was too worried, Sheng Yong did not participate in the battle of Huguang, because there were too many soldiers and horses on both sides of Huguang, and Sheng Yong's nearly 200,000 people had no place to stay when they came in, especially the boats that transported them, if they stopped in Dongting Lake for a day, they could block Dongting Lake, so they couldn't stop, and the army was in the field, and it was likely to be ambushed by Zhu Di, and his soldiers and horses wanted to participate, and Zhu Di found out, Zhu Di would definitely retreat to Wuchang.

The next day, Sheng Yong and Sun Lin led the infantry, and Ping'an and Yang Yun led the cavalry, divided into several roads, and headed north.

According to the strategy formulated by the Han Dynasty, when the official army concentrated troops and horses to fight Zhu Gaoxu in Huguang, Zhu Gaoxu mainly defended and delayed the main force of the official army.

Sheng Yong and Ping'an led 150,000 soldiers and horses, tens of thousands of people, and went north from Guizhou to fight Xunyang in the northwest of Xiangyang.

Zhu Di definitely didn't expect that when he sent troops to fight Fuzhou quietly, his son also came to beat him, and the two fathers and sons were really virtuous.

The official army stationed heavy troops in Xiangyang, but Xunyang did not.

If Xunyang can be defeated, Henan can be hit in the east, threatening the abdomen and back of Wuchang, and in the west, you can enter the Guanzhong to reduce the pressure on Qu Neng to enter the Guanzhong.

In mid-May, the siege battle on Baling's side was still in full swing, and Sheng Yong had already led his troops into Zhushan County.

When the county commander saw the rebel army arriving, he immediately opened the city and surrendered.

Sheng Yong requisitioned a part of the grain and grass on the spot, and made an IOU to the magistrate, saying that in the future, Huguang would be laid, and the king of Han would give money to supplement the grain.

The county order didn't dare to say anything, Sheng Yong said again, you are now under the control of the King of Han, and from next month, you will get double salary.

The officials of the county government rejoiced and praised the king of Han one after another.

One day in late May, a large rebel army appeared under the city of Junzhou.

Junzhou is between Xunyang and Xiangyang, and if Xiangyang wants to support Xunyang, whether it is by water or land, it must pass through Junzhou.

Sheng Yong was also cunning, deliberately let Sun Lin appear with 30,000 soldiers and horses, and then attack Junzhou, ambush the soldiers and horses near Xiangyang, and wait for He Yunzhong to come to the rescue.

Xiangyang's He Yunzhong saw that the rebels were only 30,000 people, and he was immediately ready to move, wanting to fall into the city to attack the rebels, and at the same time contact Xunyang's guard Duan Dewang, so that Xunyang could also send troops, and he could attack from both sides.

But Duan Dewang replied that there are not only so many rebels, there must be a large number of soldiers and horses ambushing around, please think twice.

He Yunzhong thought of Zhu Di's order, mainly to hold Xiangyang, and after hesitating, he really didn't dare to go out of the city.

The defenders of Junzhou were only one or two thousand, and Sun Lin surrounded Junzhou, first with artillery, and then with ants, and broke through Junzhou in three days.

Then several artillery pieces were put on the city of Junzhou, completely cutting off the water passage between Xunyang and Xiangyang.

But what Sheng Yong didn't expect was that this period of Dewang was also a talent, and when he saw that Junzhou couldn't support him, he didn't wait for Sheng Yong to come over and surround him, and ran away a day in advance.

He estimated that Junzhou would not be able to hold it, so Duan Dewang burned the grain and grass in Xunyang City, and retreated into Henan with more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, and stationed in Nanyang Mansion.

Sheng Yong also didn't go east to fight Nanyang and Xiangyang, because he was going to fight Nanyang and Xiangyang, and Zhu Di couldn't do it to retreat from Wuchang or turn his head to fight Sheng Yong.

This is not in line with the Hanwang strategy.

Sheng Yong turned the gun and headed north.

——

Boom, the cannon fire over Baling City came and went, and Zhu Gaoxu hid in the carved castle made of sandbags, watching.

This is near the South City Gate, and the tidal tide of officers and soldiers outside the city is like ants, covering the whole land.

It really makes sense that there are many people and great strength, and the official army has at least 150,000 soldiers and horses in the direction of the south gate, and it only takes one day to fill up a section of the moat of Baling.

Usually the hardest part of filling the moat is when you start.

The moat of Baling City is connected to Dongting Lake, and when the river is blocked, it is easy to move with the current.

But there were so many officers and soldiers, and they moved forward like ants, and after paying a lot of casualties, they finally filled the moat.

Then the ant-attached siege began.

There are not only many people in the official army, but also a lot of artillery, Zhu Di brought a lot of artillery this time, and the two sides carried out the largest artillery battle since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Gaoxu's artillery was fired in turns, and there were more than 100 new artillery pieces in Baling City, plus all kinds of Hongwu cannons and guns taken from the official army, and hundreds of firearms were fired in turn, and only twenty or thirty guns rang out at the same time each time.

But if you look at the different positions where the shells fly, you can still see that there are one or two hundred cannons at the head of the city.

At this time, it was late May, and the official army had been besieging the city for more than ten days, paying a large number of casualties, and still no progress.

Zhu Gaoxu knew that Zhu Di was very patient, and he fought in Jinan City for a few months.

So he is not in a hurry, he accompanies slowly, he is concerned about the progress of the other roads.

In order to prevent being hit by the artillery, Zhu Gaoxu stacked a carved fort with sandbags, and successively stacked more than a dozen small carved forts in various places above Baling City to avoid the artillery.

The guns of the officers and soldiers could not be fired continuously, and they did not learn to take turns to fire, and each time one or two hundred guns were fired in unison.

When the artillery was fired, Zhu Gaoxu and the commanders and generals hid one after another, and waited for the artillery to finish before coming out.

The officers and soldiers were firing artillery, and Zhu Gaoxu was huddled in the carved castle and looked down.

He just got the news that Sheng Yong has captured Xunyang, and how to fight next depends on how Zhu Di reacts.

If Zhu Di was worried about the back road and Henan, he would definitely send troops to support, and if he wanted to break through Baling, he might ignore it.

Zhu Di's mind is difficult to guess.

Zhu Gaoxu's mind slowly flashed some experiences of martyrdom.

Zhu Di generally took a large number of soldiers and horses to find the main force of the official army for a decisive battle in the Jingjing, and rarely attacked the city, unless the city was very important, such as Jinan.

At that time, Jinan could be driven straight to Beijing, but Zhu Di had no choice but to fight Jinan, but he didn't fight, and then withdrew.

Because if he does not defeat Jinan, he will drive straight in, and he will be cut off by Jinan's soldiers and horses, let alone have a way to transport grain in logistics.

After the fiasco in Dongchang, Zhu Di did not dare to go from Jinan and chose to take a detour to Xu Pei.

So under normal circumstances, Zhu Di would not storm a city.

Now because he knew that he was here, Zhu Di attacked desperately.

But siege is not Zhu Di's strong point, he stormed in the Jing Disaster and did not go down for three days, and decisively led his troops away.

Now that I know that I can retreat from Dongting Lake, and still attack me for more than ten days without retreating, what do you want to do?

Surely this is not Zhu Di's style of fighting?

"Surely there is no million-strong army under this city?" Zhu Gaoxu thought of this, and slapped his thigh violently, what is it, he was almost deceived by Zhu Di again?

Is it fake to hit Baling City, I'm afraid it's real to go to Guanzhong or Fujian?

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly realized.

At present, the rebel army and the official army are facing each other in three places, one is Guanzhong, the other is Fujian, and now Huguang.

If Zhu Di is fake here, in order to drag down Zhu Gaoxu's elite in Huguang, then he will inevitably choose between going to Fujian and entering the customs.

Qu can occupy Hanzhong, and it is more difficult to fight Sichuan from Guanzhong than Huguang, so the most likely thing for Zhu Di is to secretly send troops to Fujian.

"Boom" at this time, another cannon sounded, pulling Zhu Gaoxu back to reality from his thoughts.

Feeling that the cannon hadn't been fired for a long time, and the cannon on the opposite side seemed to be getting fewer and fewer, after all, it was not so durable, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and walked out of the carved castle.

"King, it's dangerous outside." The soldiers came from all sides.

Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand: "Don't huddle together, they don't know I'm here." ”

Zhu Gaochu wears ordinary sergeant clothes, and he does not put up a flag, as long as no people gather, who knows that he is Zhu Gaoxu.

Everyone couldn't persuade Zhu Gaoxu and had no choice, so they had to separate and surround him, and many people had shields in their hands, mainly to prevent arrows.

"Don't panic, it's okay to stick to the bottom of the battlement, cannons and arrows can't be hit." Zhu Gaoxu carried a heavy helmet and squatted under the battlement.

It's a little ugly, but it's the safest.

At this time, there was very little artillery sound from the official army, and after several days of continuous fighting, the artillery on Zhu Di's side should have lost a lot.

Zhu Gaoxu hid behind the battlement, mainly to prevent arrows.

"Put-" Bringing my bow, Zhu Gaoxu's hands were a little itchy, but after thinking about it, he still held back.

Shoot arrows to get up, in case of bad luck, it will be funny to be shot by a stray arrow.

He looked at the city, the foot of the city was full of people, and countless Wuhan Iron and Steel vehicles, a large number of officers and soldiers gathered, many of them holding shields in their hands.

There are also wooden planks for officers and soldiers, which are temporarily used to block arrows.

Ladders were erected at the head of the city, and the officers and soldiers climbed up like ants.

(End of chapter)