A fire dragon was rolling forward on the official road of Jianghan Plain in this moonlit night.
Jianghan Plain is, of course, flat. The water network here is dense and the lakes are scattered, just like the water country in the south of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River and the Han River, one in the south and one in the north, flow through it in a meandering way. Unlike the wide river surface downstream, the Huguang section of the Yangtze River is not really a natural hazard. It is only a few hundred meters wide. The Dashun and Ming armies, which have a certain number of artillery, can actually use a small number of ships to cross a certain section of the long Yangtze River under the cover of artillery.
As long as any warring party deploys a certain number of artillery on a high ground on the Yangtze River, it can also block the opponent's superior navy.
Therefore, when Zhu Cihong failed to successfully eradicate the two cities of Hanyang and Hankou, his superior navy was actually unable to enter the Jingjiang section of the Yangtze River.
With Zhu Cixiang's navy unable to become a trump card for the time being, Li Zicheng had the advantage of fighting inside.
Li Zicheng's army could take advantage of the flat terrain, convenient official roads, and dense water network of the Jianghan Plain to quickly mobilize the main force and form a local strength advantage in the east and west directions.
Although his opponent Zhu Cixiang had the advantage of total strength on the Huguang battlefield, he was unable to maneuver in the Jianghan Plain and could only maneuver in the Dongting Lake Plain. Therefore, he had to cover a lot of extra miles in the east-west movement, which was very difficult. It is difficult to concentrate superior forces locally.
That's right, the military advantage on the Huguang battlefield now lies with Zhu Cixiang!
Because although He Tengjiao and Chang Yanling are warlords who support their troops and respect themselves, they are undoubtedly on Zhu Cixiang's side!
If the two of them could become warlords, wasn't it because Zhu Cixiang was supporting them behind the scenes?
When Zuo Liangyu was not dead and Zhu Cihong did not beat Hauge to death, the territory of Hunan was difficult for Prince Zhu to directly control.
So he adopted the method of supporting He Tengjiao and Chang Yanling and let them control Hunan.
There are two advantages to doing this. First, it can ensure the stability of Hunan - Hunan is a big granary, half of Hunan is in Hunan!
Second, it can provide support and convenience for Zhu Cixiang's military operations in Huguang when necessary!
Without the presence of He Tengjiao and Chang Yanling, Zhu Cixiang's army would not have been able to carry out large-scale rapid maneuvers in the Huguang and Jiangnan areas. Without Li Zicheng being aware of it, they moved to the vicinity of Jiangling, the capital of Jingzhou!
The new army now moving to Jingzhou Prefecture is not only a regiment of Tang Laosi, but also the main force of the right division of the new army to overcome difficulties led by Wu Guoyong. Tang Laosi is just the vanguard. This division came one step later than the Central Military Division led by Zhu Cixiang and the Left Military Division brought by Li Yan from Huaixi. It did not enter Wuchang, but drove directly from Jiangxi into Hunan, quietly following He Tengjiao to move westward.
In addition to the more than 14,000 men of Wu Guoyong's 1st Division, Chang Yanling also had 16,000 elite troops from Hunan - including He Tengjiao's Fubiao, Chang Yanling's Zhenbiao, and several others in Hunan. Elite soldiers provided by a prefect.
The combat effectiveness of these troops cannot be compared with the regular new army, but they are not too weak. At least they are hardworking and equipped with complete equipment. It is a very good group training.
Near Jiangling, in addition to the 30,000 troops of He Tengjiao, Wu Guoyong, and Chang Yanling, there were also 8,000 troops of Zhang Yong (of which 300 were in Jiangling City), and 15,000 troops of Qiu Lei, Zuo Mengmei, and Du Yinxi. people, as well as the seven thousand people Ma Jiaolin placed in Yuezhou - Ma Jiaolin himself did not hook up with Zuo Mengmei, but took a thousand people to send to Zuo Liangyu, but his army They were surrounded by Wu Guoyong's troops and forcibly incorporated.
In addition, there are 30,000 Jin Shenghuan troops stationed in Yiling, who have also secretly taken refuge with Zhu Cihong. Added together, the total number of Ming troops in Jingzhou Prefecture actually reached more than 90,000!
Although the Ming army numbered as many as 90,000, its weaknesses were also obvious. Even the miscellaneous troops had no unified command. Zhu Cixiang might be able to command, but He Tengjiao, Wu Guoyong, and Chang Yanling did not command so many miscellaneous troops. of prestige.
But Zhu Cixiang hasn't arrived at Jingzhou Mansion yet...because the distance is too far and he can't get there so quickly.
However, Li Zicheng was able to take the lead and led his main force, nearly 30,000 old battalion soldiers, to march from the Hanyang front line to Jiangling City where the fighting was taking place.
The morale of this army is quite high!
The 30,000 veteran soldiers had just been allocated land - now they could share in the fruits of the Dashun Dynasty's victory!
In addition, since the method of equalizing land by population is supported by poor farmers in all parts of the Jianghan Plain, these soldiers of the Great Shuntian Army have the same feeling as they did when they advanced into Beijing two years ago.
Moreover, good news also came from the north during this period. It is said that Yan'an Prefecture and Yulin Town have returned to the hands of the Dashun Dynasty. Some generals from the Dashun Dynasty who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty suddenly launched an uprising and killed the governors and generals of the Qing Dynasty. Bing, he defected to Dashun and became the third minister...
So judging from the map, the market in Dashun Dynasty is bullish, and the emperor Li Zicheng may be the right one!
At this time, Li Zicheng also felt that his luck had returned... Victory was right in front of him. If he worked hard, he should be able to seize it!
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty..."
I don't know when, several scouts on horseback arrived in front of Li Zicheng and shouted loudly: "Jiangling City is on fire, and there is a melee in the city!"
Li Zicheng suddenly woke up from his thoughts, raised his head and looked into the distance, only to see red light flashing in the sky in the distance!
"Hahaha..." Li Zicheng raised his head and laughed, "Jiangling City is still fighting... Order the three armies to move forward at full speed. We will rise and fall with great success, and this battle will begin!"
"Here!"
The soldiers who were passing orders on the left and right responded with a roar.
...
Jiangling, the capital city of Jingzhou, has turned into a sea of fire at this time, not only the sea of fire caused by fighting, but also the sea of fire caused by looting and burning!
Zuo Mengeng's army is no longer crazy, but possessed! Even Zuo Mengeng himself lost control of this group of soldiers who turned into demons.
His Zuo Family Army was originally a way for big warlords to coax small warlords, and the criterion for big warlords and small warlords was not the number of troops under their name - the Zuo Family Army was known as 800,000! The number of people is a mystery at all. I'm afraid Zuo Mengeng himself doesn't know?
However, everyone knows exactly how many servants there are in each family's general army!
Among them, Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Menggeng's father and son had the largest number of servants, with a total of three thousand people, and they were all strong men in western Liaoning, well equipped and well trained.
However, the three thousand people of the Zuo family were easily beaten by the two thousand people brought by He Tengjiao during the day. Several hundred people were killed and several hundred people were reduced. Although the rest ran back, their prestige was shattered - —The dead soldiers of the Zuo family are nothing more than that!
Therefore, none of the general soldiers below bought it.
However, most of these generals and lieutenants were from Liao Town (Ma Jiaolin was not from Liao Town, but from Shaanxi). They never thought about killing Zuo Menggeng and defecting to Zhu Cixiang... Zuo Menggeng would not be easy to kill. Secondly, Zhu Cixiang’s army didn’t come either; thirdly, there was still Jiangling City that could be plundered!
Let’s grab one first and then talk about it!
On the other side, He Tengjiao's military capabilities were a bit insufficient.
At this time, among the six gates of Jiangling City, only the Great North Gate was captured by Zhang Yong and his dead soldiers. The remaining five gates were all controlled by Zuo's army.
If He Tengjiao's military ability is sufficient, he should let Tang Laosi's regiment bypass Jingzhou City, enter the city from the Great North Gate, and engage in street fighting - despite the fact that there are at least 50,000 troops fighting in Jiangling City, in fact most of the officers and soldiers ( The officers and soldiers on both sides have the same moral character) and they are all robbing, and not many are actually fighting with their heart!
If Tang Laosi's two thousand men had gone in and really fought, Jiangling City would have been captured.
But He Tengjiao was too cautious and wanted to defend the situation first, so he asked Tang Laosi to build a bridgehead outside the city and prepare to hold on for help. At the same time, they also sent people to contact Zuo Mengmei and Qiu Lei, asking them to withdraw from Jiangling City if they couldn't.
So in the early morning of the next day, several rolling fire dragons appeared in the northeast direction of Jiangling City. After a hard night's battle, everyone in the "Chu King's Army" had made a fortune and had no interest in fighting anymore, so they defended the city. With Zhu Cizhao and Zuo Mengmei, they withdrew from the North Gate, passed the pontoon in the south of the city, and retreated to the south of the Yangtze River.
