End of July.

Boom, with the last cannon sound, the officers and troops under Baling City became farther and farther away, farther and farther away, and retreated like a tide again.

Zhu Gaoxu stood at the head of the city, looking into the distance, observing the direction of the retreat of the officers and troops.

Seeing the retreat of the official army, Zhu Gaoxu was about to go down to the city tower, and a sentry rode up from downstairs running up frantically.

"Report, king, Fuzhou victory, Fuzhou victory, capture Liu Rong alive, Zhu Neng can not lead 50,000 soldiers and horses to retreat."

Zhu Gaoxu was overjoyed and took the battle report.

Zhu Neng attacked Fuzhou that day, Fuzhou was a little unbearable, Li Yuan took out a big killing weapon, reversed the disadvantage in an instant, and then sent troops out of the city to chase and kill, Zhu Neng saw that the general situation was not good, and did not dare to retreat, because at this time he ordered to retreat, it may become a big rout, gritted his teeth and sent people to hard top, the two sides are in a field battle, and it is difficult to distinguish between the top and bottom, and the sailors led by Hong Zheng arrived.

Hundreds of ships on the naval division, with thousands of cannons, circled along the Cangshan District in the Minjiang River in later generations, and the camp on the south side of the official army was in chaos, and the official army collapsed in an instant.

The collapse of the southern camp of the official army directly affected the battle with Li Yuan's soldiers and horses in the north, and finally caused a crushing defeat.

Li Yuanqin led the cavalry to chase out more than 100 miles, but the capture was not counted.

After the war, Li Yuan inspected the surrender troops, except for some missing and escaped, a total of about 180,000 infantry and cavalry were surrendered, plus the original soldiers and horses in his hands, it was close to 250,000.

At this time, the biggest advantage of the Ming Civil War was that after the reorganization of the troops, it could be used immediately.

He left 30,000 troops to defend Fuzhou, and personally led 150,000 soldiers and horses north to support Huguang.

Tens of thousands of others, together with Hong Zheng, attacked the Beijing division from the sea.

"Okay, good, Li Yuan fought well, Zhu Di is dead." Zhu Gaoxu already sensed victory beckoning to him.

He returned to the city to see the scene of the defeat and retreat of the official army, and suddenly shouted: "Zhu Di may also know that Zhu Neng has been defeated, and he should retire." ”

Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while and said: "According to my father's character, either withdraw from the army, or want to ask me to go to the city for a decisive battle and fight the last hole card in his hand, maybe he thinks, as long as he wins us, he can turn the tables——"

Zhu Di is a person who likes to block Bo.

Zhu Di's martyrdom is a blockage, and he won the blockade, and Zhu Di will definitely block it again.

Zhu Gaoxu was right, Zhu Di was scolding his mother again, and he was so angry that he almost vomited blood.

Originally, Zhu Di was ready to discuss with Zhu Gaoxu to withdraw from the army, wanting to delay time for the imperial court, but after receiving the news that Zhu Neng was besieging Fuzhou in early July, he began to continue the siege, just three days of fishing, two days of drying nets, for this reason, he also specially convened a meeting of the generals to inform everyone that the official army had surrounded Fuzhou and wanted to cut off the back road of the rebels.

But not long after, news came from the rear that the supply of grain and grass was not available, and there were problems with the operation of the imperial court.

Zhu Di reconsidered the matter of retiring from the army.

It was at this time that he received a report that Zhu Neng was defeated.

"Boom", the table that had not been overturned for a long time was finally overturned again.

Zhu Di angrily tore the report to pieces: "Zhu Neng-—— Zhu Neng-incompetence-call incompetence-——"

Zhu Di has never scolded Zhu Neng like this.

Last year, the imperial court was defeated in Guangxi, and Zhu Neng was forgivable, because the rebel son prepared hundreds of cannons and suddenly came out to attack.

Zhu Di also felt that he couldn't blame Zhu Neng.

But now, he raised 300,000 troops to fight Fuzhou, and was defeated by Li Yuan's tens of thousands.

He really couldn't accept that 300,000 soldiers would be wiped out in a month.

At this time, there are less than 50,000 officers and troops left in Jiangxi, and they still have to defend Jiujiang and Nankang.

If the flank of the decisive battle between Huguang and Guangxi cannot be prevented, when Li Yuan's soldiers and horses enter Jiangxi and attack Zhu Di from the flank, the 600,000 officers and troops will not be able to withstand it, even if Li Yuan does not attack the flank of the official army and goes to support Zhu Gaoxu, it will be a trouble.

But Zhu Di must also be the first emperor of the ages, and after the anger, he quickly calmed down.

"Pass the decree, let the prince prepare, and withdraw to Beiping at any time."

Zhu Di immediately issued an order to the prince.

Up to now, Zhu Di also knows that the Beijing division cannot hold on, and the Fuzhou battlefield where the officers and troops near the Beijing division have been mourned, and the situation is now ten times more difficult than when he was martyred.

Regardless of the number of soldiers and horses and the number of sailors, the rebel son has surpassed the imperial court.

Several generals in the room all changed their faces slightly when they heard this.

Zhu Di said again: "If I guess correctly, my good Gaoxu heard the news of Fujian's victory, and he will soon come out to fight with me." ”

"Okay, let me teach this rebel a good lesson."

Zhu Di believes that the rebel Zhu Gaoxu will definitely come out to fight in the field, and this is the best opportunity to defeat the 600,000 officers and soldiers.

"Order, the whole army retreats, to-" Zhu Di looked left and right, staring at the nearby map.

The two sides will invest close to one million troops in the battle this time, and they must choose a good place.

"Retreat in the direction of Taiping Mountain."

The decisive battle is in Taiping Mountain.

Taiping Mountain and Jiugong Mountain are connected side by side, separating Huguang and Jiangxi, if the official army has their back to Taiping Mountain, the north is Fujiang River, the east is Taiping Mountain, and the south is Jiugong Mountain, if the rebels want to attack, only the west side can attack.

It is impossible for Li Yuan's soldiers and horses in Jiangxi to fight the officers and soldiers from behind, because Jiugong Mountain and Taiping Mountain block them.

Zhu Di felt that he was too smart, and he could think of such a good place.

But this kind of strategy is basically to put himself in a passive defensive position, which is completely different from when he led the northern army to crisscross and attack everywhere in the midst of the Jingjing.

Of course, if the rebel son did not come to attack, he would retreat along the Taiping Mountain to Jiujiang, and then retreat from Jiujiang to the Beijing Division.

In his estimation, the rebel will definitely attack.

Because when his hundreds of thousands of troops return to Beijing, it will be more difficult for the rebel son to attack the city.

After deciding on the task, Zhu Di stared at the map and silently read in his heart: "Gao Xu, Gao Xu, my good son, you must come." ”

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu did as he wished, and began to mobilize troops and horses around him as soon as he got the information.

At the beginning of August, Yang Lei, Yishan Zhoutai, Hengzhou Shengjian, Jingzhou He Ruhu, Changde Zhouhu, and Changsha Qu Tao, who were stationed in Guizhou, will come to Baling one after another.

The small Baling City gathered almost all of Zhu Gaoxu's main guards in Huguang.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's intention, 3,000 people were left in each city to garrison, and the rest of the soldiers and horses, especially the cavalry, were all brought to the front line of Changsha to gather.

There seems to be a tacit understanding between the two sides inside and outside the city, and while Zhu Gaoxu's various departments have moved here, Zhu Di retreated to Tongshan County with his soldiers and horses.

On August 4, when Zhu Di's whole army was still retreating in an orderly manner, Zhu Gaoxu gathered the generals and looked at the map.

"Zhu Di's army of five or six hundred thousand should retreat to the direction of Taiping Mountain and Jiugong Mountain."

"Look, everyone is the Fujiang River in the north, the Fujiang River connects Tongshan County, and the south of Tongshan County is Jiugong Mountain."

"The distance between Tongshan County and Jiugong Mountain is about six miles wide, and Zhu Di may be on this line."

"And there are natural Shandong barriers to the north, south and east, so there is no need to defend."

"He wants to be here, ask me to fight to the death."

"What if we don't fight him? Zhu Di is so confident that he thinks we have to fight him in the field? Zhou Hu shouted.

"If you don't fight, he will retreat to Jiujiang along the way, and then enter Zhili, and then five or six hundred thousand troops will defend each city, and we will attack the cities one by one." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head: "We have a lot of artillery, more than 600 cannons, it is too troublesome to transport so far, and it is more difficult to attack the city than to fight in the field." ”

"As he wishes, a decisive battle will be fought at the foot of Taiping Mountain."

Zhu Gaoxu decided to play with Zhu Di and fought a decisive battle near Tongshan County, Taipingshan.

In this battle, Zhu Gaoxu was able to mobilize about 200,000 troops gathered in the Huguang direction.

Zhu Di originally had more than 500,000 people attacking the city, and after fighting for more than two months, it is estimated that he lost 30,000 or 40,000, because he stopped fighting and did not keep attacking, and he should still have 500,000 in his hands.

In addition, Zhu Neng is still retreating to Jiujiang with 50,000 defeated soldiers in Fuzhou, and will not be put into the battlefield in the short term.

On 5 August, Zhu Gaoxu received news that all Zhu Di's soldiers and horses had retreated to the east of Tongnan County and entered the foothills of Taiping Mountain and Jiugong Mountain.

The officers and troops lined up along the two mountain ranges, bordering the Fujiang River in the north, and the army of more than 500,000 was waiting for them.

The forward is in Liujialing Village.

Later generations here changed its name nearby, called Chuangwang Town, to commemorate Li Zicheng.

On the 6th, Zhu Gaoxu finally gathered 200,000 troops, and the whole army marched to Chongyang County.

Chongyang is just west of Tongshan, just facing the official army array.

There is also a river on this side of Chongyang, which can provide water for Zhu Gaoxu's soldiers and horses.

Zhu Gaoxu's base camp is located in Chongyang County, and the conditions are much better than Zhu Di.

At this time, their base camp was about 80 miles away from the advance of the official army, and the distance between the large camps of the two sides was less than 40 miles.

On the 7th, Zhu Gaoxu personally led people to Gaoshanyuan, which was less than 10 miles away from the forward camp of the Liujialing official army, and the forward camp of the rebel army was also pushed forward to about 10 miles away from the official army camp opposite.

Standing on the high place of the mountain source, Zhu Gaoxu found that the official and military positions were dusty, and countless young and strong men were struggling to build fortifications.

"Zhu Di's style of play has really changed." Zhu Gaoxu looked secretly funny.

In the past, when Zhu Di was in trouble, he fought a war, attacking and attacking again, which was his idea of fighting a war.

Zhu Di likes to take the initiative and strike first.

"This is forcing us to fight as soon as possible." Song Meng said: "Give them time to dig like this, it's not easy to attack." ”

Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile: "This trick is useful for the officers and soldiers, but it is useless for us." ”

The fortifications for this camp field battle are very simple, generally of two kinds.

Either set up wooden fences (including antlers and horses) to block them, or dig horse pits to shadow the people.

Both of these tricks are easy for Zhu Gaoxu to crack.

"Let's go, go around again, and go to Jiugong Mountain." Zhu Gaoxu decided to take them to Jiugong Mountain.

Jiugong Mountain is a famous Taoist mountain, covering an area of about 200,000 acres, the highest point is more than 1,600 meters above sea level, it is one of the highest mountains in the central and southern part of the Ming Dynasty, and it is a tourist attraction and a summer resort in later generations.

Zhu Gaoxu led a group of people and more than 100 personal soldiers to climb all the way from west to east.

Leading the way was a mountain man near Tongshan County, and Song Meng sent someone to find it and gave ten taels of silver.

The old man is fifty or sixty years old, and he still climbs the mountain.

While crawling and muttering, the official army requisitioned their house and gave the treasure money five times, he said that the treasure money has a fart, and it is not worth much now, and he is still a good guy of the Han King, and the people support the Han King.

He also said that the officials and soldiers also took their household rations, including the grain, and let them buy other food by themselves.

Zhu Gaoxu's heart moved, Zhu Di is so short of food now?

Thinking about it, Zhu Di's army of 500,000 or 600,000 is in Huguang, and they all rely on the support from behind, while Zhu Gaoxu has few soldiers and horses, and occupies most of Huguang.

It is possible that Zhu Di will not have enough food.

"King Ming has no way, Song Meng, give Liu Laohan five taels of silver, we can't lose the people." Zhu Gaoxu immediately said indignantly.

"Ah, too much, too much." Liu Laohan was a little embarrassed, but when he got it, he was still happy.

Zhu Gaoxu climbed for a while, but he couldn't see the bottom of the mountain, especially where the officials and soldiers in the north were: "Is this the road?" Is there any other way up the mountain? ”

(End of chapter)