In the ninth year of Chongzhen, the third day of the fourth month.

Outside the city of Xing'an, break into the army camp.

The camp of more than 100,000 people, which cannot be seen at a glance, stretches for dozens of miles.

On the side facing Xing'ancheng, a simple civil construction wall has been erected, and there are several simple trenches outside it.

These measures are designed to prevent possible attacks on the camp.

There was a solemnity in the camp, and the walls of the camp were covered with guards.

Looking through the gate, between the layers of military tents and pieces of guns and spears, a huge blue curtain military tent is particularly eye-catching.

Outside the big tent, there are many soldiers, more than ten flags in front of the tent are lined up, the most central flag is the tallest, the banner is concise and clear, there is only one big "Chuang" word.

This is the big tent of the Chinese army where Gao Yingxiang is located.

At this time, in the big tent of the Chinese army, Gao Yingxiang was wearing a vermilion arrow suit, wearing a net scarf, carrying both sides, standing and hanging in front of the map in the main hall.

Gao Yingxiang has a high nose and deep eyes, and his eyes are deep, and a group of generals and colonels wearing armor are standing on both sides of the tent, waiting for Gao Yingxiang's general order.

In the past month, the three cities of Pingli, Ziyang, and Xunyang, along with some surrounding towns, have been breached.

Hanzhong Province was not affected by the disaster, so it received a lot of food in the three cities and the surrounding areas.

At present, the crisis of the most critical food in the army has also been alleviated.

Gao Yingxiang left Wang Cheng to continue to guard Ziyang to prevent the Ming army from rushing to help from Sichuan Province.

The rest of the people were all withdrawn outside Xing'an City by Gao Yingxiang.

The cavalry units that had plundered Hanyin and reconnoitred Shiquan also returned to the outside of Xing'an City, and they also brought news from the central part of Hanzhong Province.

Hanyin City was not captured, but the towns and villages around Hanyin City all fell.

The invading army burned everything they could see, and took everything they could.

The direction of Stone Springs was also plundered, but most of the towns were preserved.

Gao Yingxiang looked at the map in front of him, and combined with the news received from all sides, the situation was becoming clearer and clearer.

The cavalry of the reconnaissance captured a lot of people in Shiquan, and from those people, he learned that the army of 3,000 people led by Zhou Yumao did not stop at Shiquan, but went further west.

And there is no other place to enter the vicinity of Shiquan from the plank road from the north.

Some of the bold scout cavalry even went deep into Xixiang and Yangxian, and the news they brought back was even more reassuring to Gao Yingxiang.

Through the information collected, Gao Yingxiang confirmed that Hong Chengchou did not increase his troops to Hanzhong Mansion.

Hanzhong Mansion should only be defended by the battalions of Zhou Yumao and Chen Wang, as well as some guards.

Xing'an, Hanzhong Mansion on the map, was marked with a red dot, and Gao Yingxiang's gaze stayed on Xing'an City for a moment, but he quickly looked away again.

His gaze finally stayed at the top of the map, above the Hanzhong Mansion - where the Xi'an Mansion was located.

At the top of the map, in the heart of Xi'an Prefecture, Xi'an, as the provincial capital, stands out more on the map than the rest of the cities.

Xi'an, Xi'an......

Gao Yingxiang's eyes were slightly dark, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

attacked Xi'an three times, but there was no way to break Xi'an.

On the contrary, they suffered setbacks one after another, and there were many losses and losses.

Gao Yingxiang's heart is like a mirror.

He knew very well that they could be rogues for a while.

However, they can't be a rogue for a lifetime.

Liukou is always Liukou, Liukou is always Liukou, and it can't become an atmosphere.

No matter how much they develop now, no matter how they expand, they will all be rogue after all.

In the Battle of Sanyuan, he had hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, but even if there was a gap of dozens of times the number of troops, in the end they were not able to defeat Hong Chengchou, let alone capture Xi'an City.

If they can't capture Xi'an, they can't take Guanzhong, they can only be rogues.

Although the world is big, there is not much place for them.

Daming has two capitals and thirteen provinces, but there are not many that can really be used as foundations.

South Zhili and North Zhili are the core of the Ming court, and the Ming army is the strongest.

Shandong, Henan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, these eight provinces are either too far away or have no danger to defend.

If these places are used as bases, the Ming army is surrounded from all directions, and if it is stubbornly held, it will undoubtedly be a dead end.

The three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan are in danger to defend, and they are also the business of the king.

However, there are many local officials in the three provinces, the terrain is complicated, the situation is unpredictable, and the soldiers of the three provinces are even more powerful, and they are holding on to the main road into their land, blocking all the enemies.

After excluding so many regions, the only ones that can be used as foundations are Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Shanxi has the Taihang Mountains as a barrier in the east, the Yellow River in the west as an obstruction, the Yellow River and Zhongtiao Mountain in the south to rely on, and the Great Wall in the north to defend and serve as a foundation.

However, Shanxi has been experiencing severe drought in recent years, and there are many soldiers in the province, and Taiyuan Town has gathered heavy troops.

Taiyuan, as the military town of the Ming army in the north, has been operating for hundreds of years, which can be described as solid in the true sense, and it is difficult to conquer it.

If Taiyuan is not captured, then the entire Shanxi will be firmly controlled by the Ming court.

The choice left for Gao Yingxiang is actually only one from the beginning to the present - Shaanxi.

In order to capture Shaanxi Province, it is necessary to first conquer Xi'an City and capture Xi'an Mansion.

The rest of Shaanxi has lost a single crop due to the drought, and everything has withered.

In the whole of Shaanxi Province, only the land in the central region can grow a large amount of grain.

Occupy Xi'an City, occupy Guanzhong, and then take the four levels of Guanzhong, and then they can have a relatively stable development environment at that time.

Relying on Xi'an City and the Guanzhong area, there are many things that can be done.

As the largest city in Shaanxi, Xi'an City has strong city defenses.

You don't have to worry too much about external threats to start recruiting craftsmen and crafting weapons and armor.

The impact of weapons and armor on the battlefield is actually extremely huge.

followed Gao Yingxiang into the head of the seventy-second battalion of Hanzhong Mansion, and if Zhang Xianzhong was also included, there were five people in total.

Among the five, Zhang Xianzhong's power was the strongest, with 3,000 elite cavalry under his command, and a total of 24,000 horse troops.

There were 15,000 infantry troops, 54,000 hungry soldiers, and more than 20,000 old and weak women and children.

The total number of troops under Zhang Xianzhong's command is nearly 120,000, which is more than Gao Yingxiang.

The remaining four battalions combined, totaling about 40,000 people.

It's just that the quality of the troops under his command is naturally incomparable with Gao Yingxiang.

The number of elite cavalry is directly reduced by 5,000 people, and although the number of horse troops is about the same, the combat effectiveness of both sides is not of the same magnitude.

There is not much difference between the combat effectiveness of the hungry soldiers, but the gap between the infantry and the horse army is huge.

In fact, the horse army and the infantry team only have a war horse, and the other does not have a war horse, and there is almost no difference in combat power other than that.

Most of the horse armies dismounted and formed formations like infantry when they actually fought.

The infantry team and the horse army under Gao Yingxiang have undergone long-term training, and their ranks are neat and tidy.

In fact, their combat strength was no worse than that of the battalions in some military towns in the interior, and all they lacked was weapons and armor.

But there is a huge gap between armoured and unarmoured armies, which is the biggest reason why they still lose more than they win.

In some film and television dramas in later generations, armor is like a paper lake, which can be cut at will.

But on the real battlefield, even the worst leather armor can save a person's life at a critical time, not to mention the more protective iron armor.

With the same quality, an armoured army can even complete the crushing of an armless army.

On the battlefield of Liaodong, the most commonly used tactics of the Jin soldiers in the field battle was to push the shield cart to the front, or ride the war horse to the front, and fire heavy arrows to tear through the Ming army's military formation, and then dismount and get out of the car, relying on the multi-layer heavy armor on the body to charge on foot after the formation.

The previous opponents of the Ming army had always been the Mongol cavalry with little iron and less armor, and the experience and armament for hundreds of years were all to defend against the Mongols.

When their enemies were replaced by Houjin soldiers, the previously invincible light bow and quick knife could not even inflict any damage on the enemy.

As a result, on the battlefield of Liaodong, the Ming army was defeated again and again, and finally even lost the courage to fight in the field.

The Han Dynasty was a Wuhu, not only because the Han army was well-trained and physically stronger.

The biggest reason is actually that there is a huge gap between the Han army and the Xiongnu army in terms of armament.

Strong crossbows, strong armor, sharp blades, and fast horses, leading the whole world's tactics, this is the Han army's reliance on sweeping Mobei.

Gao Yingxiang is very clear about the role of the nail stomach, but the reality is that he does not have time to recruit craftsmen to make the nail stomach.

Officers and soldiers swarmed from all directions, and he had no way to stop at all, as long as he stopped, he would be bitten by the tail of the pursuing officers and soldiers.

Sticking to one place is killing himself, Gao Yingxiang can only continue to lead the people who follow him around, and many times he doesn't even dare to stop.

The armor they were able to obtain was extremely limited, and it was basically captured after defeating the officers and soldiers.

Although Gao Yingxiang captured a lot of armor, these armors were not enough for him to arm all the troops under his command.

Not counting the hungry and the old and weak, only counting the infantry team, horse army, and elite cavalry, there are now more than 54,000 people under Gao Yingxiang's command, but the armor rate is only about 15 percent.

There are about 5,000 elite horsemen with armor, and about 3,000 people in the rest of the horse army and infantry team hold armor.

And it was this number of armor stomachs that was also because he led the troops in the Xunyang Mountains to defeat the officers and soldiers led by Lu Xiangsheng in one fell swoop by virtue of the favorable terrain and captured a large number of weapons, so that the armor rate rose to about 15 percent. 、

The original army had even less armor and armament.

"Xi'an ......"

Gao Yingxiang clenched his fists, and his eyes gradually brightened.

His gaze was removed from where Xi'an was and returned to the city of Xing'an.

Gao Yingxiang's eyes flickered, and his heart sank involuntarily.

He planned for nearly two years, and everything he did during this period was to work hard to capture Xi'an.

The reason why he left Li Zicheng, Hui Dengxiang and others in Shaanxi, and let Li Yangchun, Lin Shengquan and others stay in Fengxiang Mansion and Gongchang Mansion was to prepare for another attack on Xi'an Mansion.

Li Zicheng and Hui Dengxiang stirred up the storm in Yan'an Mansion and other places in the north, attracting the main force of officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou to go north.

At that time, the defense force in Xi'an Mansion will reach the emptiest time, and at that time, he will break into Xi'an from Hanzhong Mansion through the plank road.

Li Yangchun, Lin Shengquan and others responded from the west.

It's just that Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan were killed by this Chen Wang who came out of nowhere, and the other two battalions he left behind in Fengxiang Mansion were also wiped out by Cao Wenzhao.

And just some time ago, Gao Yingxiang also received news from the north.

In February, the stars were beheaded, and Hui Deng, the star of the sky, surrendered, and was awarded the guerrilla and assigned to He Renlong.

】

Now in the north of Shaanxi, only Li Zicheng is still supporting alone.

The news from the north is difficult to transmit, and these news are still learned from the mouths of the captured officers and soldiers in the Battle of Xunyang, and Li Zicheng's situation does not seem to be very good.

Gao Yingxiang's gaze moved up a little, and stayed in the southern part of Xi'an Mansion - Shangluo.

The only thing to be thankful for is that he asked Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying and others to lead the troops into the mountains of Shangluo.

Ma Shouying did not disappoint him, the officers and soldiers who went to attack were repelled by Ma Shouying, and now Ma Shouying has stabilized the front in Shangluo Mountain.

If he led his troops to attack Xi'an City, then Ma Shou should be able to immediately lead his troops to respond.

Gao Yingxiang's face was solemn, and his eyes were full of worry.

To be honest, he doesn't have much confidence in his heart right now.

In the northern part of Shaanxi Province, only Li Zicheng's army remained, and he did not know if Li Zicheng would be able to bring the main force of Shaanxi officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou to Yan'an Mansion according to the predetermined plan.

If the main force of officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou does not move, then his plan to break through the plank road from Hanzhong Mansion into Xi'an Mansion is likely to be unexpected.

Once the intention of the march is discovered, the officers and men will wait for their work and spread their nets, then they will be lambs to the slaughter.

And even if the officers and soldiers did not find out that they led the troops to Xi'an Mansion, there were tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in Xi'an City, and their chances of capturing Xi'an City were extremely slim.

Gao Yingxiang sighed in his heart and frowned.

There aren't many choices he can really make, and a lot of the time it's just out of his own hands.

And he has no way out now.

In fact, when Henan Province was transferred to Xunyang Mansion in Huguang Province, he had no way out.

Lu Xiangsheng is now constantly transferring troops in Nanyang City, and increasing troops to Xiangyang City.

In the rest of the month, Lu Xiangsheng will be able to block their road north to Henan Province.

The situation is getting worse and worse, and if you run away, you will continue like this.

Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan will become more and more erosive in these places they pass through.

Even if you occupy these places in the future, it will have no value.

The cards in his hand were so bad that he had no other way but to choose the path of taking risks.