Xu Zhixian and others of the anti-thief army formulated a series of tactics for siege and reinforcement, and even the battle plan was written in dozens of thick pages.
As a result, before they could actually implement the combat plan, Xu Zhixian learned the news from the scouts: the defenders in Yicheng City had escaped!
After learning the news, Xu Zhixian didn't know whether to be happy or angry...
Numb, in order to conquer Yicheng, I have made so many battle plans and thought of so many ways.
As a result, we were finally ready to implement the battle plan.
The defenders actually fled without fighting.
This means that Xu Zhixian's series of efforts were in vain. He felt that the lap he made with all his strength ended up on cotton.
Not only that, he even almost caused internal injuries due to excessive force!
Although Xu Zhixian felt complicated after learning that the Yicheng defenders had escaped, he still clearly realized that this was a great benefit for the Baoxiang Army.
They could seize the advancing bridgehead of Yicheng without spending a single soldier, and then continue to pursue the enemy all the way south along the Han River.
He immediately suggested to Luo Zhixue: "General, we have to speed up. The Yicheng defenders have not long fled south. If we are fast, we can bite their tail, and at the same time, we can react when the enemy's reinforcements go north. Find them and engage them before, and continue to strive to defeat them in the field.”
"Even if they flee south together, then we can follow them all the way south, without giving them time to flee south to Zhongxiang to reorganize their defenses, and capture Zhongxiang directly while their foothold is not stable."
Luo Zhixue said: "Since the enemy is fleeing without fighting, then we don't have to be polite!"
"After the order is passed, the 5th garrison brigade will speed up and move southward to capture Yicheng first. If the enemy's remaining soldiers resist, they will be shot to death."
"After taking control of Yicheng, we will welcome the army and prepare barracks, food and other supplies in advance to save time for the main force."
"The rest of the troops must also speed up their move south, especially the artillery and baggage troops, which must not be held back."
"Also let the First Cavalry Regiment expand the reconnaissance and search area to avoid any possible enemy traps in advance!"
Luo Zhixue still doesn't know why Yicheng's defenders ran away directly. It may be that the enemy troops really fled in fear, but he does not rule out the possibility that the enemy troops were playing tricks to create suspicion.
Luo Zhixue didn't care what the Ming army on the opposite side thought, whether there was really a conspiracy, but he would still maintain the necessary caution.
After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, the Fifth Guards Brigade took the lead and moved south lightly.
Now their army is only seven or eight kilometers away from Yicheng. If nothing unexpected happens, the Fifth Guards Brigade will arrive in Yicheng this afternoon and make corresponding preparations.
After the main force arrives in Yicheng in the afternoon, they can stay overnight to save energy for their continued march south tomorrow.
There were no surprises as the 5th Guards Brigade went south. In the afternoon of the same day, Dong Mingjie, the commander of the 5th Guards Brigade and the commander of the 9th Guards Regiment (formerly the 5th Mixed Brigade), successfully led more than 2,000 men in his unit to the foot of Yicheng. .
At first, the gate of Yicheng was still closed, and a small number of soldiers could still be seen guarding the city. But after a while, the city gate was opened by the main force, and then a group of low-level officials and gentry came out, saying that they had surrendered because of the city. .
Seeing this scene, Dong Mingjie couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
Since the other party has taken the initiative to surrender, it will save him a lot of trouble.
If the remaining soldiers in the opponent's city refuse to surrender, even though the main force of the enemy forces in the city has escaped, as long as hundreds of thousands of people are randomly stationed in the city, then my own fifth garrison brigade will probably have to spend a lot of effort to capture it. .
After all, his fifth garrison brigade is said to be a brigade, but in fact it only has the strength of one regiment.
During the army reorganization in early July, the original fifth mixed brigade was reduced to the ninth garrison regiment, and was incorporated into the fifth garrison brigade together with the newly-formed tenth garrison regiment.
However, although the name of the Fifth Guards Brigade was announced, there was still only one regiment in a short period of time. As for the Tenth Guards Regiment, these soldiers were still in the hands of the opposite Ming army...
When will we go south and win the battle and capture enough prisoners, when will the 10th Garrison Regiment be established.
It is quite difficult to capture Yicheng with only one garrison group.
Fortunately, the few remaining soldiers in the city did not resist and chose to surrender.
Seeing that the other party surrendered wisely, Dong Mingjie did not waste time and directly sent troops into the city to disarm and take custody of the hundreds of remaining government officials and young civilians in the city, and began to confiscate various military supplies in the city.
It's just that the Ming army in Yicheng had more time to retreat and basically took away everything they could, so there was not much gain from entering the city and confiscating official warehouses.
After learning about this situation, Dong Mingjie immediately wrote to Luo Zhixue in the rear, saying that the enemy troops brought a large amount of baggage with them when they retreated, and the ships were not expensive when the enemy troops retreated. Most of the soldiers and baggage left. By land, not by water.
what does that mean?
This means that the enemy retreating by land cannot run fast. If the Baoxiang army in the rear moves faster, it is entirely possible to catch up with the enemy.
After Luo Zhixue, who was in the rear, received Dong Mingjie's report, he thought for a moment and ordered Wang Xiazi to lead the First Cavalry Brigade to go south first and quickly pursue the enemy to see if he could catch up with the retreating enemy or even entangle them.
The rest of the main force continued to move south according to the original plan, and successfully arrived in Yicheng to rest in the evening of that day.
On July 23, the Baoxiang Army successfully captured Yicheng, an important southward bridgehead, without spending a single soldier.
When the Baoxiang Army reached Yicheng, a large number of Ming troops were also camping more than 20 kilometers south of Yicheng.
In the Chinese army camp, a Ming army lieutenant general looked at the letter in his hand with a gloomy face. After a while, he put down the letter.
At this time, someone from the other generals in the tent said, "Sir, what did Tang Qianxian say?"
The middle-aged general said: "He asked us to stop immediately and counterattack Yicheng. He also said that the 20,000 troops he personally led would arrive in three or two days and would definitely annihilate Bao Thief Yun..."
As soon as these words came out, the other generals in the tent suddenly turned dark and ugly.
Immediately, these people started talking at once:
"Counterattack Yicheng? How is this possible? Now we turn around and counterattack Yicheng. Before we reach Yicheng, we will probably face off against the rebel army. By then, we will fight in the wild. Aren't we afraid that we will die quickly enough? "
"Now we should go south quickly to Zhongxiang to set up defenses, and rely on cities like Zhongxiang to resist the thieves' army!"
"The defeat of Lu Xiangsheng is still fresh in my mind. Even the tens of thousands of elite soldiers led by Lu Xiangsheng were defeated miserably in Sanyuan Village. How can we, with just a few of us, plus the group of soft-legged shrimps under Tang Hui, be like wolves and tigers? The army protecting the thieves will fight?"
"Doesn't he know now that the guns and artillery of the Thieves Protection Army are sharp? The little red barbarian cannons in the Thieves Protection Army are not something that human beings can withstand."
"To maintain the situation now, the only way is to retreat to Zhongxiang, and even Zhongxiang is not safe. It is best to retreat all the way to Hanyang or even cross the river to Wuchang, and rely on the Yangtze River natural moat and Wuchang Fort to defend to the death."
"The consequences of fighting the bandits in the wilderness will be disastrous!"
Another person said angrily: "According to me, we just ignore him. To be honest, he is no longer our governor of Huguang. Why should he dictate to us? It is reasonable for us not to listen to him." "
"He was dismissed by the imperial court before him. That is to say, Lu Qianxian died in the battle and did not have time to formally take over. Otherwise, it would still be his turn to be in charge now!"
"He wants to die, and we can't accompany them. And I finally understand. This person just wants us to die in the front, while he hides in the back and watches the show."
"How long has it been since Xiangyang fell? It's been more than two months, but where was Tang Hui during these two months?"
"He has been staying in Wuchang. What does he mean by gathering troops and military supplies? He has been dilly-dallying for more than two months before heading north?"
"In the past two months or so, it has been our brothers who have been working hard to maintain the situation, otherwise Yicheng would have been gone."
"That is, if he could lead Chu Nan's troops north earlier, we would have been able to counterattack Xiangyang long ago. Maybe we could cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng, Zuo Liangyu and the others to fight, and what happened today would still happen there!"
"It's okay now. A few months have passed. There are more and more troops protecting the thieves, and there are more and more guns. It's too late to fight now!"
"You can't go to Yicheng now no matter what, but it's not good to continue going south."
"Tang Hui is dozens of miles ahead of us. If we really get there, there's a chance that Tang Hui will be captured. How about we cross the river and settle down at De'an Mansion tomorrow to see what's going on?"
"Didn't I say that there are bandits that have entered Suizhou? It just so happened that we said we were going to rescue Suizhou and avoid this land of right and wrong."
These Ming army guards and generals said nothing to each other, but none of them mentioned fighting against the rebel army...
At the same time, Tang Hui, dozens of miles away to the south, was also looking sad!
In recent months, he, Tang Hui, has been extremely unlucky, and he is becoming more and more unlucky.
Not long ago, due to the involvement of Chen Qiyu, the former governor-general of the right capital of the five provinces, the imperial court decided to let Lu Xiangsheng replace him as governor of Huguang.
But, before Lu Xiangsheng could officially take office, he was defeated and died in Sanyuan Village.
After Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, Tang Hui, the nominally dismissed governor of Huguang, could only continue to handle military affairs in Huguang and wait for the court to send a new governor of Huguang to take charge. He could only leave after the handover was completed.
This has caused his identity to be very embarrassing in the past two months!
Everyone knew that he was about to leave and would be demoted to Guangxi, so his officials and generals did not take him seriously.
Under such circumstances, it is extremely difficult to organize troops to fight against the thieves.
