After sending Fan Yingxu away, Ke Yongsheng immediately summoned the generals in the middle of the city and announced the decision to retreat north.

Because Changde had fallen into the hands of Sun Kewang, it was impossible for him to let the Qing army withdraw north from Changde, so Ke Yongsheng and the rest of the Qing army could only withdraw to Yuezhou, and cross the river in Linxiang County, Yuezhou, and withdraw to Hubei.

As for Wuchang......

It's hopeless, let's open the scoop. JPG

Just kidding, but it is indeed very difficult to rescue Wuchang Mansion, the Ming army besieging Wuchang has a full 50,000 elite soldiers, and the soldiers and horses he can follow the northern retreat add up to less than 50,000.

If you take the risk to rescue Wuchang, I am afraid that you will lose your wife and lose your soldiers.

Therefore, whether it was to save his own life or worry about the safety of Hubei, Ke Yongsheng could only give up rushing to the aid of Wuchang Mansion, go all out to defend the north of the Yangtze River, and repel the two Ming armies that were currently raging on the north bank of the Yangtze River, so as to ensure that Hubei was worry-free.

After receiving the order to retreat north, all the generals in Changsha City breathed a sigh of relief and immediately carried out the task of preparing troops and horses for evacuation.

On the other hand, Xu Yong, the general soldier of Changsha who was holding Yiyang County, also received Ke Yongsheng's order to retreat, and the order only required him to evacuate from the east gate at night that day, and nothing else, if it wasn't for the cronies around Ke Yongsheng who came to deliver the letter, and the Huguang Governor's seal on it was also genuine, then he must have thought that this was Sun Kewang's trick.

Even so, he looked at the Qin army camp that stretched for miles outside the city, and his heart was still full of concerns, and in order to dispel his doubts, Ke Yongsheng's cronies who came to deliver the letter vaguely explained to him the terms of cooperation reached with Sun Kewang.

However, this did not dispel Xu Yong's doubts, and his doubts instead turned into whether this was Sun Kewang's trick, the purpose of which was to trick them out of Yiyang County, so that they could be eliminated in the field battle, so as to occupy Yiyang County.

Seeing that Xu Yong was still worried and unwilling to follow the order, the cronies had no choice but to move Ke Yongsheng out, bluntly saying that this was Ke Yongsheng's order and asked Xu Yong to carry it out.

The so-called military orders are like mountains, although Xu Yong was unwilling to carry them out, he had no choice but to comply with them and issued an order to withdraw the troops.

That night, the Qing army evacuated from the east gate of Yiyang County at night, and Xu Yong was worried that the Qin army would come out of the night all the way, but until they left Yiyang County for dozens of miles, the Qin army did not appear from beginning to end.

At this point, Xu Yong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After Xu Yong evacuated Yiyang County, the Qin army took over the county seat the next day, Sun Kewang did not rest much in the county, but directly led the army to Changsha, while sending people to Pingyang Bo Su Dingyuan's army in the name of the imperial court, and asked Su Dingyuan to attack Xiangtan County and then hold his troops and block the road to the south of the Qing army.

When Sun Kewang's order was sent to Su Dingyuan's army, the latter had already taken the county seat of Xiangtan, and the officials in the county actually abandoned their official positions and fled to Changsha after learning the bad news of Shen Yongzhong's defeat and flight.

Therefore, there was not a single soldier in the entire Xiangtan County, and the city gate was wide open, allowing the Ming army to take over the city with swagger.

It is worth mentioning that after the first battle of Jiangshandu, the 20,000 troops of the Qing army participated in the war were almost completely annihilated, except for nearly 1,000 people who died under the guns and swords, most of the rest became prisoners of war of the Ming army.

There were nearly 10,000 captured Qing soldiers alone, most of them were people who did not have time to escape in the face of the rolling river, and after the Ming army pursued them, they had to kneel and beg for mercy in the face of the bright bayonet threat.

With such a large number of prisoners of war, the Ming army was forced to set up camp near Jiangshandu, where they stayed for two days to contain prisoners of war, and it was not until three days later, on March 12, that they were finally able to march into Xiangtan County.

When they came, Xiangtan County had just experienced the sack of the rebellious army, because the officials and defenders of the county had fled, thus making the entire city in a state of empty defense.

And part of the rebel army that was defeated in the battle of Jiangshandu was assembled after fleeing, they forcibly invaded Xiangtan County, and looted in the county before evacuating, and when the Ming army entered the city, the streets of the entire county were in chaos, and the doors and windows of every household were closed, and the exposed ones could be seen from time to time

Corpses and traces of fire.

Su Dingyuan looked at the scene in the city, and immediately understood what was happening, and after the Ming army entered the city, the people in the city saw that the Ming army had not committed any crimes, and the panic in their hearts suddenly dissipated a lot.

Subsequently, some local squires with high moral integrity were boldly promoted by the people to go out of the house, and after showing their intentions to the soldiers who stopped them, they were brought to Su Dingyuan.

After those people saw Su Dingyuan, they respectfully saluted him, and then cried about the people being looted by the rebellious army, hoping that Su Dingyuan could uphold justice for the Xiangtan fathers.

Su Dingyuan agreed, and after sending these crying squires away, he sent scouts to the surroundings to inquire about the traces of the rebel army in their mouths, and then ordered someone to post a notice to restore order in the city as soon as possible.

The next day, the scouts sent by Su Dingyuan found the temporary station of the rebellious army, and he didn't even have the idea of leading the troops in person, so he directly sent a battalion of soldiers and horses from the Qinglong Right Brigade to encircle and suppress, and he continued to sit in the city.

On the same day, the envoy sent by Sun Kewang came to Xiangtan County, and he was brought to Su Dingyuan for the first time after indicating his intention, and then the high-spirited envoy read out the order from the "imperial court" in front of Su Dingyuan.

「…… He ordered Pingyang Bosu Dingyuan to garrison Xiangtan County, cut off the road for the pseudo-Qing Dynasty to go south, and don't take the liberty of going north."

After reading it, the envoy said to Su Dingyuan, "Uncle Pingyang, take the edict."

This was the first time that Su Yan's forces had come into contact with Sun Kewang's forces, so Su Dingyuan had to deal with it cautiously, he sat on the Taishi chair, looked at the messenger, and after thinking for a while, he still made a decision.

In the eyes of the envoy, he stood up and personally took the "edict" in the messenger's hand, and then glanced at the edict a few times, and said in an indifferent tone: "It is not stamped with the big seal of the Ministry of War, this official is an official of the imperial court, and only receives the will of the imperial court, and the rest is not accepted, please take it back."

"You ......"

The envoy must not have expected that Su Dingyuan would refuse to accept it, he looked stunned, and then pointed at Su Dingyuan and asked, "Are you going to resist the order?" You have to think about the consequences, even if you are a relative of the king of Nan'an County, the king of Qin can also bring you to justice!"

Su Dingyuan sneered disdainfully, he had no interest in entanglement with him, and with a wave of his hand, the guards around him stepped forward and dragged the envoy and the so-called edict out, and on the way out, the envoy kept shouting, and one of the guards was annoyed by hearing it, so he directly stuffed the edict into his mouth and forcibly drove him out of the city.

Driving away the envoy so strongly, Su Dingyuan knew that this would lead to further hostility between Su Sun, but he didn't care, it was still that sentence, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, they will fight each other sooner or later, and there is still a lack of this time?