On September 19, the autumn rain fell one after another, and with the autumn wind falling between the heaven and earth around Changsha, Hunan, the originally mild weather was swept into the late autumn. At the same time, the two armies, both numbering more than 100,000, were pushed by fate to the east of Changsha, between the Laodao River and the Liuyang River, facing each other.

Among them, a total of two armies and nine towns led by the Ming general Lu Shangshu Li Zhongshan and the Ming Southern Wang Pingxi general Li Fuchen, a total of 120,000 Ming troops, occupied Yong'an City on the south bank of the Laodao River and set up a large camp. Yong'an City, about 60 miles away from Changsha City, has changed its appearance compared with the end of August, two shallow moats have been dug on the periphery, wooden fences have been erected in the shallow moats, and a breastwork wall has been built with sandbags, and the breastwork wall is covered with tents, and the Yong'an Commercial Market, which is surrounded by countless tents, has long been devoid of people, and even the houses have been burned down, and now it has become a temporary military city, and the Chinese army of Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen is stationed in Yong'an City.

The Laodao River meanders from the north of Yong'an City, flows until it flows under the city of Changsha, and then joins the surging north Xiangjiang River. Laodao Henan to Liuyang Hebei, there is a relatively flat land, although there are also ups and downs, but it does not affect the more than 200,000 troops of the two armies in the Ming and Zhou dynasties to fight on this land!

The Liuyang River south of the Laodao River also joins the Xiangjiang River under Changsha City, these two rivers that are not big or small in Hunan originate from the same mountainous area, and flow into the same Xiangjiang River, and the places that flow into the Xiangjiang River are outside Changsha City, and the distance between the two mouths is only four or five miles. So from the map, these two meandering rivers form a trumpet shape that is wide in the east and narrow in the west, and the horn mouth is in Changsha, which is only 60 miles away from Yong'an City.

And now blocking the army of Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen from approaching Changsha is the army of more than 100,000 Wu Zhou stationed around Langli City, thirty miles southwest of Yongan City, next to the Liuyang River!

On the morning of the ninth day of the ninth month of September, Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen immediately stood on a commanding height in the south of Yong'an City, which was really not very high, overlooking the villages and fields to the west. That area was originally a rich land full of rice fields, but before the arrival of the Ming army, Wu Guogui had already issued an order to strengthen the wall and clear the wilderness. The rice that was not yet fully ripe was cut, and the villages west and south of Yong'an City were depopulated and turned into ruins. The bridges on the Laodao River and the wharf on the south bank of the Laodao River were also burned by Wu Guogui's people, and even the boats on the Laodao River were gone.

However, Wu Guogui did not harm the eastern part of Changsha Mansion, and his people only cleaned up the plains south of the Laodao River and north of the Liuyang River.

Obviously, Wu Guogui has turned this flat land between the Laodao River and the Liuyang River into his ideal decisive battlefield!

And Wu Guogui's choice surprised Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen. They had expected that Wu Guogui would retreat to the very strong and difficult to besiege Changsha City (the Ming army had no naval army on the Xiang River), rather than a decisive battle between the Laodao River and the Liuyang River east of Changsha City

"It seems that Wu Sangui is really dying" Li Fuchen sighed, seemingly a little sad, "Otherwise, Wu Laosan would not be in a hurry to fight a decisive battle!" ”

Li Zhongshan said: "Even if Wu Sangui can still support it, my father-in-law will not dare to delay." He won't get many more reinforcements if he drags on, but we'll keep growing. He Tianran's Seventh Army had already captured Chenzhou and would soon be able to launch an attack on Hengyang. King Li Zhong's Eighth Army was crossing the Makubu Mountains, and it would be north of the Laodao River in ten days at most.

At that time, our troops will be able to surpass Wu Guogui! ”

The contest between He Tianran and Wu Shijue has already been distinguished. After all, He Tianran's Seventh Army had a total of seven towns with more than 80,000 people, while Wu Shijue only had 20,000. The huge disadvantage in troops cannot be reversed by Wu Shijue's command level. In mid-to-late August, Wu Shijue could still use Wu Guogui's residual power to bluff and scare He Tianran.

But when He Tianran took out his trump card model Third Town to take the lead and went to find Wu Shijue for a decisive battle, Wu Shijue couldn't hide it. If he didn't even dare to touch He Tiantian's vanguard troops, then who would believe that he had a big army in his hands?

But when he touched it. It's completely leaked. His 20,000 troops were defeated by 12,000 troops, and although the losses were not large, they revealed his true strength.

At this time, He Tianran finally let go of his hands and feet, and led the army to cross the Nanling Mountains and march to Guiyang Prefecture and Chenzhou in Hunan. And Wu Shijue had to block left and right, tired of coping.

From this, Daming's side also knew that Wu Guogui had left the southern front. Therefore, Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan judged that the Wu Zhou army they met in Changsha was commanded by Wu Guogui.

On the other side, the Zhongwang Mansion Army, which already knew that Wu Sangui was not in Jiujiang, had completely trapped Jiujiang City to death.

They dug three trenches outside Jiujiang City, and also took Hukou and Xingzi, Jiujiang became a lonely city, and Wu Yingxiong could not escape.

However, as the nest that Jieshu has been operating for many years, Jiujiang's city defense is very strong, and Li Zicheng personally supervised the army to fight for more than ten days. Now I have to change the strong attack to a long siege.

At the same time, Li Zicheng sent 30,000 elite soldiers to form the Eighth Army, led by Li Laishun, and passed through the Mubu Mountain to help Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen. And with Li Laishun arrived, there were also a large number of Hubei people and a large number of grain and grass.

As soon as Li Laishun arrived, the total strength of the Ming army in the east of Changsha Mansion City would exceed 150,000!

The rumbling sound of hooves interrupted the discussion between Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen, and a group of cavalry under the high ground was rapidly approaching. This is a group of bamboo lancers of Wu Zhou's army, numbering more than two hundred.

There are a lot of Wu Zhou cavalry on the battlefield of Liuyang River-Laodao River, and they are very strong, and they dare to shoot guns and cavalry to assault! Although the Li family's ironclad cavalry was no worse than them, their number was too small after all. Even if the cavalry in each town and Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen's personal soldiers are concentrated, there will only be four or five thousand, which is still much less than the cavalry on Wu Zhou's side.

So now the cavalry wandering on the battlefield of Liuyang River - Laodao River is mainly Wu Zhou's cavalry, and the cavalry of the Li family has to avoid them. It's not that you can't beat it, but you can't afford to lose. There are only 4,000 horsemen in total, and if they are all consumed, then Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen will have to go home.

Seeing that Wu Zhou's cavalry had discovered him, Li Fuchen didn't have the heart to go up to compete at all, but turned his head to Li Zhongshan and said, "Your father-in-law's cavalry is here, we should go back." ”

Li Zhongshan raised his binoculars and looked at the group of cavalry, all the bamboo lancers, the tricks he taught the Wu family back then, and now they are being used by the Wu family to deal with himself, what a retribution!

"Let's go!" Li Zhongshan gritted his back molars, said the word "go", then turned around, went down the high ground, and went to the camp in Yongan City.

Just when Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen were moving towards the camp in Yong'an City with their cavalry, in an abandoned village only three or four miles away from them, a pair of good half-brothers were watching the Li family father and son run away with binoculars.

Seeing that Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen did not respond to the battle, and fled decisively, one of the younger brothers, who looked older, put down the binoculars and said to the younger brother who looked younger beside him: "Second brother, the father and son of Lu Bu have run away, and it seems that their desire to fight is not urgent. ”

This older brother is Li Zhongshan's father-in-law, Lao Taishan, Wu Sangui's adopted son Wu Guogui, and Wu Yingqi, whom he calls his second brother.

Although Wu Guogui called Wu Yingqi the second brother, Wu Yingqi called Wu Guogui the third brother. But Wu Guogui is several years older than Wu Yingqi!

No one has ever said that a younger brother must be younger than an older brother, right? Wu Guogui is an adopted son, and he entered the door later than Wu Yingqi, so he is the younger brother, which is like when the ranking between the brothers and sisters is arranged, and the order of apprenticeship shall prevail. The five-year-old apprenticeship is in front, and your eighty-year-old apprenticeship is behind, so you are also an eighty-year-old junior brother and a five-year-old senior brother!

Wu Yingqi also put away the binoculars and smiled: "It doesn't matter if they don't have an urgent desire to fight. Now they've fallen into our trap! plunged headlong into the horn terrain of Liuyang River and Laodao River. Moreover, our cavalry has an absolute superiority and can surround them at any time. Third, your planning is really clever enough! ”

Wu Guogui is still doing his best to help Wu Sangui deal with the two fathers and sons of the Li family, and the strategy he drew up for the decisive battle of the Laodao River-Liuyang River is also quite clever.

First of all, he did not choose to defend Changsha.

It is true that Changsha is a strong city, but Wu Guogui has to defend it, and Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen will definitely not be stupid to attack. When the time comes, they will send troops to the Laodao River and even the north of the Miluo River, first converge with Li Zicheng to solve the Wuchang Mansion and Yuezhou Mansion, and then drive the Yangtze River Naval Division into Dongting Lake and Xiangjiang River, so how can Changsha be defended?

Moreover, Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen have been operating for at least half a year, what should I do when Wu Sangui dies?

Secondly, Wu Guogui did not choose to entangle with Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen in the mountainous areas on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi. First, fighting in the mountains is not conducive to the performance of cavalry; second, if the Li family and his son are not allowed to go deeper, it is not easy to cover their back road; Third, now the Wu family can't afford to make a quick decision!

Again, the battlefield between the Liuyang River and the Laodao River was also carefully chosen by Wu Guogui.

This area is all plains, and the terrain is not too open or narrow. That's enough for more than 200,000 troops to start a decisive battle!

Wu Guogui took advantage of the home advantage, first took the Liuyang River and camped, left the Laodao River to the Li family father and son, and then preemptively demolished the bridge on the Laodao River and plundered the boats on the Laodao River.

This made it impossible for the Li family's army to use the Laodao River to cover the army for a detour, and once the army was defeated, it could only flee eastward, but could not cross the Laodao River and flee north.

In this way, Wu Guogui's cavalry cluster could easily use the Liuyang River to cover the army for a detour to outflank the Ming army's retreat to the west.

As soon as the retreat is broken, can Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen still be undefeated?

Thinking of this, Wu Guogui smiled and said, "Second brother, since you think that the younger brother's plan is still useful, then let's start acting as soon as possible!" This autumn rain is almost over, and at most it will stop tomorrow.

Early the morning after tomorrow, the second brother, you will lead the main force out of the camp in Langli City to the east to attract the Ming army to come out for a decisive battle. The younger brother led all the way to the cavalry one day in advance, and set off tomorrow, marching from the south bank of the Liuyang River, avoiding the Ming army's probe horses as much as possible, going around to the southeast of Yong'an City and then going north, copying the retreat of the Ming army in one fell swoop! ”

"Good!" Wu Yingqi nodded, "That's it!" I have an army of 100,000 men, and I'll give you the rest!" The cavalry divided 10,000 with you, but is it enough? ”

"Enough, enough." Wu Guogui said again, "Second brother, you must be careful of Li Zhongshan's flintlock pure team, although they are only infantry troops, their ability to fight frontal assault is amazing. If we let them break through from the front, then we will lose. ”

Wu Guogui is talking about those three model towns, because they are all infantry, and their mobility is really not good, so the main tactic is to be tough and frontal! Rely on the powerful infantry firepower provided by flintlock pistols, rifled guns, and mini rounds to penetrate the front of the enemy.

Although this style of play is stupid, once it just forms a breakthrough head-on, it is the final word!

Wu Yingqi frowned, this is a coincidence. He actually likes to be just frontal too! But not with infantry, but with cavalry and artillery to assault the front of the enemy! That is, after the artillery hits the cavalry, the cavalry charges after the artillery charges, and the cavalry occasionally sends the cavalry to make a detour.

And his cavalry style of fighting just head-on is also very easy to use when pacifying Shaanxi and Gansu and sweeping the Western Regions!

Now this is the tip of the needle on the wheat mang?

Wu Guogui saw that his "little second brother" didn't speak, and the other party wouldn't be able to do it in the future, so he wouldn't teach him, in fact, he taught his "little second brother" martial arts and the art of war when he was young

"Second brother," Wu Guogui said to Wu Yingqi, "In order to resist the attack of the Ming army's flintlock pistol pure team, we must thicken the infantry army's large formation, and at least set up three large horizontal teams, of which the first and second large horizontal teams are the main force, and the third large horizontal team is the reserve." This reserve must be left in place so that it can be used to fill gaps and counter-attack when it matters most.

In addition, cavalry could not easily throw into the assault. It's best to wait until the younger brother's roundabout troops are in place, and then throw in the impact, and give him a belly and back to suffer the enemy! ”

Wu Yingqi nodded: "I know that the key to this battle is that the main force must launch a fierce attack at the same time as the roundabout troops, so that the enemy can be crushed in one fell swoop!" ”

"Second brother, you Shengming! Then let's do what we want! ”

"Good!" Wu Yingqi paused, and then said to Wu Guogui, "The third child, most of the old people can't come back. In the future, the Wu family will rely on the two of us to support each other, you have to help me! ”

"Of course," Wu Guogui smiled, "You are my second brother, who else can I help if I don't help you?" ”

On September 20, the autumn rains stopped and the weather became cooler.

It is now the end of September of the lunar calendar, and if you count it according to the Western calendar of the birth year of Brother Tian, it is almost the middle of October. It's okay to stay in the warm period of the earth, but now it is the end of the Xiaoice River period, although it is not as cool as the end of the Ming Dynasty, but the wet and cold Hunan area in the middle and late October of the Western calendar is still very uncomfortable.

What is even more uncomfortable is the kind of slaughter and pressure before the big war.

Li Yat-sen, who had already experienced many years of war, also felt nervous and uneasy on the night of September 20.

That's right, nervousness and uneasiness!

When he found that the camp of the Wu Zhou army, thirty miles away, was brightly lit on this night, and the light from the lantern bonfire was dotted with the wilderness, he knew. The battle is about to begin!

Li Zhongshan also immediately had lanterns and bonfires lit, and also turned his camp into a sea of stars on the ground.

Before the big war, you can't lose the bonfire with more lanterns, otherwise you will lose morale!

After ordering the camp to light the fire, Li Yat-sen convened the last military meeting before the war in the Chinese military camp.

"It seems that Wu Zhoujun is going to fight a decisive battle with us in the next two days!"

At the military meeting, Li Zhongshan expressed his judgment at the beginning, he frowned and said, "Wu Guogui will not fight a battle that he is not sure of, since he is ready to make a move, he will definitely be sure!" ”

"General," Zhou Chang said, "according to the reconnaissance, Wu Guogui may have received reinforcements from Shaanxi and Gansu!" ”

"Wu Yingqi," Li Zhongshan muttered, "He's here?" ”

"I don't know." Zhou Chang shook his head.

Wu Yingqi concealed his whereabouts, so it was difficult for Li Zhongshan to judge whether Wu Zhou's Shaanxi and Gansu elites had come or not?

"Expect the enemy to be lenient," Yao Qisheng said, "General, let's assume that he has brought the elite of Shaanxi and Gansu to Hunan, and the number of enemies is estimated to be 150,000, which is 30,000 more than us." And there is also the advantage of cavalry, artillery! ”

In fact, there is no shortage of cannons on the Ming side, but there are not enough horse-drawn cannons!

So on the battlefield of Liuyang River-Laodao River, Wu Zhoujun's artillery must have more than the Ming army!

Li Fuchen laughed: "Okay, there are many of them, there are many horses, and there are many artillery, so they should take the initiative, tomorrow we will set up a defensive formation, let them attack first!" ”

"No!" Li Zhongshan shook his head, "Although there are many of them, there are many horses, and there are many cannons. But the advantage is in me, we have to attack, and then make a roundabout outflanking to cut off their retreat to Changsha! ”

(End of chapter)