Chapter 119 Follow the River to Yuezhou

After the destruction of Zuo Liangyu's troops, there is basically no large-scale army strength in the area of Huguang. The rest are mostly the defenders in some places. These defenders have been neglected in training all year round, and their combat effectiveness is extremely weak. They are not the opponents of Xing Tianjun at all. Although Wuchang is the provincial capital of Huguang, over the years, Huguang During the period of continuous use of all kinds of volunteers, it consumes a lot, and because of the poor military pay, the officers and soldiers have often fled or defected to all kinds of volunteers. On the contrary, in order to protect themselves, some local armed forces pulled up by local gentry also have some combat effectiveness. After all, they have money and can buy people to work for them, and are also willing to spend Many of them are their people, and they dare to work hard to protect their family.

But the problem is that these local armed forces fight separately, do not listen to the orders of the government, only consider the issue of self- protection, and even directly fight against the harassment of the officers and soldiers. Once the officers and soldiers try to rob them, they will kill them correctly, so these local armed forces will basically not become the main obstacle to the Xingtian Army at the moment.

Xiao Tianjian sat in the big account and analyzed the current situation with his subordinate Li Xin. In addition, Jiang Qin also sorted out the detailed feedback he had recently and informed all the people present.

"How many officers and soldiers are stationed in Yuezhou at the moment? This is very important! What is the number of Jianli, Huarong officers and soldiers along the way, and the number of warships on the river? What is the number of officers and warships in Dongting Lake? Xiao Tianjian frowned and asked Jiang Qin.

Jiang Qin quickly replied, "At present, the officers and soldiers of Yuezhou are probably less than 10,000 people. The main general will be Kong Xigui. At present, this person is sitting in the city mausoleum outside Yuezhou. The number of sailors is less than 1,000, and there are less than 100 all kinds of warships. As for Dongting Lake, there are basically no warships at present, but the lake thieves are not Young, they often go out of Dongting Lake to plunder the Yangtze River. People under Beizhi have contacted several of the lake thieves. They heard that our army was going to pass through Yuezhou, and they were willing to return to the Lord and help attack Yuezhou City!

As for Jianli and Huarong, the officers and soldiers are basically not. Naturally, there is no need to say that the warships. Many rich people along the river are now fleeing downstream Wuchang Mansion by boat. Lord, don't worry!

At present, it is estimated that Jingzhou will be lost, and the news of the destruction of Zuo Liangyu has reached Wuchang. It is estimated that Song Yihe will not come up against the current to help Jingzhou and Chengtianfu again! He thought that Song Yihe would definitely gather troops to fight in Wuchang, Hanyang and the lord!"

After Xiao Tianjian and Li Xin looked at each other, they nodded and said, "It seems that as soon as Zuo Liangyu dies this time, Hu Guang basically has no general!" Song Yihe is a capable person, but you can't despise him too much! Jiang Qin, you should keep an eye on the news sent back from Wuchang, especially the troops gathered by Song Yihe. Please write it down and report it to me in detail!

In addition, according to Jiang Qin said, Kong Xigui in Yuezhou is a stubborn and incompetent person, and it is also a scourge in the area of Yuezhou. This time we will go south to replace him for the people! Once Yuezhou is taken down, it will be much easier to take Changsha in the future!

Now, according to what I can see, we have enough troops at present. With Liu Yaoben leading 10,000 troops, it is enough to take me by boat to Yuezhou! As for the others, I think we can attack separately, march east along the Han River, take Minyang, attack Wuchangfu, and meet in Hanyang and Luo Li's headquarters! Otherwise, if everyone gathers troops together and attacks such a city after another, I don't know when we will be able to take down the whole Huguang! I don't know what you think?"

After listening to Xiao Tianjian's words, Li Xin also nodded repeatedly. Now, although their soldiers and horses have lost after a series of battles, there are more people to supplement. When they came out of Xiangyang, there were only more than 20,000 people. Now after the collection and expansion, the troops have been There are nearly 40,000 people, and the main force has not lost much. First, the materials needed are too large, second, it is a waste of resources, and it is too time-consuming.

So at this time, after Zuo Liangyu, the largest military force in Huguang, has been destroyed, there is no problem with the division of troops. In this way, Huguang can be included in the bag as soon as possible. In just one year, Xing Tianjun can completely solve the problem of grain supply shortage.

After listening to this, the generals also said that there was no problem. Please ask Xiao Tianjian to order.

Xiao Tianjian then immediately ordered that the people and horses under his command be divided into two. Liu Yao led a single one. Starting from Chengtianfu, he led the army to rely on the fleet on the Han water, went down the Han water, attacked Jingling and Mongyang along the way, and finally arrived at Hanyang, and joined with Luo Li's headquarters to capture Hanyang.

At the same time, the order was passed to Luo Li, ordering him to immediately go south from Gwangju, first taking Yingshan, and then directly taking De'an Mansion. After capturing De'an Mansion, he swept away the officers and soldiers around De'an Mansion and Liu Yao's division to attack Hanyang.

The remaining soldiers and horses were led by Xiao Tianjian, who went down the Yangtze River, first attacked Yuezhou, and then attacked Tongcheng, Chongyang, Jiayu and other counties along the way, and went straight to Wuchang. Finally, they met Liu Yaoben and Luo Liji in Hanyang to conspire to Wuchang Prefecture!

After the agreement, the generals did not delay and immediately began to prepare. Liu Yao was very excited. This time, Xiao Tianjian asked him to lead the way alone. In addition to trust in him, it was also a test for him. Moreover, Xiao Tianjian allocated half of the cavalry to him when he divided troops, and at the same time, he also had a heavy artillery. Divide it into two, give him half, let him lead nearly 10,000 people to act on his own, and at the same time allow him to expand his troops along the way. In this way, the guard division is likely to be divided into two in the future. At that time, he will also become orthodox and can be on an equal footing with Luo Li and others.

So Liu Yaoben was both excited and a little nervous. While preparing, he discussed his advance plan in detail with Li Xin and other staff members. Then he said goodbye to Xiao Tianjian and led his troops back to Chengtianfu, leading the fleet down the Han River from there.

After sending Liu Yaoben away, Xiao Tianjian did not delay too long in Jingzhou Prefecture. After the water camp was ready, he immediately ordered troops to board the ship and rushed towards Yuezhou.

When passing through Jianli County along the way, Jianlizhi County did not say anything, so he took the initiative to open the gate and surrender to Xing Tianjun. He did not organize any resistance at all. Xiao Tianjian sent Situ Liang to Huarong County. When Huarong Zhi County learned the news, it immediately abandoned the city and fled. Huarong County basically did not attack itself, and then it was controlled by Xing Tianjun. System.

When Xiao Tianjian left Jingzhou, he picked out a battalion called Gao Dashan from the battle camp to sit in Jingzhou City, leaving him with two battalion companies and two reserve battalions. He sat in Jingzhou City to prevent the remnants of Zuo Liangyu from counterattack against Jingzhou City. At the same time, he was ordered to recruit a small number of people to train and sit. Jingzhou City.

As for the two counties of Jianli and Huarong, Xiao Tianjian left more than 100 soldiers of two brigades in each of the two places, allowing him to recruit and train the troops of the two companies to defend the land of the two counties and eliminate the local resistance forces at the same time.

Of course, while keeping troops and stationing, Xiao Tianjian will naturally not forget about civil affairs. Since Xing Tianjun became an army, military and civilian affairs have been handled separately and supported each other, but they do not interfere with each other. In terms of civil affairs, Xiao Tianjian's southbound strategy, and the army has already prepared hundreds of civil servants and have taken over. Preparation for the new land, so wherever the Xingtian Army occupies a new land, there will immediately be officials responsible for civil affairs in the local area, take over the local civil affairs, and cooperate with the military to control and manage the newly occupied areas. In short, there is only one requirement. One is to keep the territory, the other is to subdue the hearts of the people and resume agricultural production as soon as possible. The hostile forces have been removed from these boundaries, so that these areas can be completely returned to Xiao Tianjian as soon as possible, which can provide material support for the Xing Tianjun.

Kong Xigui, the general soldier stationed in Yuezhou, had actually become a frightening bird when Jingzhou was broken. He first stationed the Chenglingji on the riverside outside Yuezhou City, and Chenglingji has been the wharf of Yuezhou since ancient times. Even in later generations, it was the largest port of the Yangtze River in Hubei, because of the merchants who came and went on the Yangtze River. Most of the boats have to dock here, so it is quite prosperous here, but at this time, Chenglingji looks much colder. After the merchants learned that Jingzhou City was destroyed by the Xingtian Army and Zuo Liangyu's whole army was destroyed, they boarded boats and fled along the river, either running to Wuchang to avoid the disaster of war, or even went straight down to Nanjing and ran away. Going to Nanjing to avoid the disaster made the former prosperous city mausoleum much colder. Even the people in the city ran away, leaving only some officers and soldiers guarding here.

Kong Xigui has been inquiring about Jingzhou from the ships coming down the river. When he learned that most of Zuo Liangyu's water camp defected and defected to the Xing Tianjun, Kong Xigui was suddenly scared to death. He counted the warship in his hand with his fingers, and then looked at the troops in hand and inspected the small Lingji City. Immediately knew that he could not stop Xing Tianjun in the small city of Chenglingji.

So without saying a word, he abandoned Lingji City, leaving only the fleet of the water army that ordered him to block the Xingtian Army at the mouth of Dongting Lake, and he led nearly 10,000 horses and went straight to Yuezhou.

Huang Mingxuan, Zhizhou, Yuezhou, was afraid to death. Hearing that Kong Xigui led his troops to Yuezhou to guard the city, he hurriedly invited Kong Xigui into the city. Yuezhou has been an important town of the Yangtze River since ancient times. In addition to playing the role of a gateway to the downstream Wuchang, it is also a gateway to Changsha in the south. Once Yuezhou is defeated Xing Tianjun can take Wuchang down the river, and going south to Dongting Lake can enter the Xiangjiang River to force Changsha. Therefore, when the Xingtian army did not defeat Jingzhou, Song Yihe ordered Huang Mingxuan and Kong Xigui to defend Yuezhou. Once Zuo Liangyu lost Jingzhou, he also retreated to Yuezhou and relied on the water army to stop Xing Tianjun from following the river and down Wuchang Mansion in the Yangtze River. In case of time, the criminal Tianjun walked through Dongting Lake into the Xiangjiang River and forced Changsha.

But what they didn't expect was that Zuo Liangyu, who had such a strong force, not only did not defend Jingzhou City, but also failed to escape from Jingzhou himself. In Jingzhou, he was defeated and died. His troops were basically annihilated by the Xingtian Army. Only less than one or two thousand people fled to Yuezhou. Now he really chose Huang Ming and Kong Xigui. I was scared to death.