Although Tang Hui had already begun mobilizing troops and generals two months ago to counterattack Xiangyang, many people did not listen to him because of his embarrassing identity.
It took him two months of hard work before he managed to gather 10,000 troops in the Yicheng area, and nearly 20,000 troops from Chunan and other places, and personally led them north for reinforcements.
However, what I didn't expect was that before the reinforcements arrived in Yicheng, news came from the front: the security army went south to attack the city, and the tens of thousands of Yicheng defenders were defeated and retreated!
This is only official news, but according to the actual situation investigated by the scouts, the Yicheng defenders had already fled when the rebel army was still dozens of miles away...
Escape without a fight is the truth!
After hearing the news, Tang Hui had the urge to abandon the army and go back to his hometown to take care of his children...
Damn it, in the past, the generals of various ministries just pushed back and forth, but now they are all greedy for life and afraid of death, and fear thieves like tigers!
This is a slap in the face, just go home and take care of the baby!
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On the morning of July 24, more than 20 kilometers south of Yicheng, the Ming army that had previously escaped from Yicheng did not continue southward. Instead, they were building rafts on the spot and collecting nearby ships to prepare to cross the Han River to the east. Go to De'an Mansion.
These Ming troops, who had been stationed in Yicheng for more than two months, were frightened by the previous series of achievements of the anti-thief army in Nanyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion.
They didn't even dare to defend Yicheng before, so naturally they didn't have the guts to stay here and fight against the rebels. They didn't even dare to go south to join Tang Hui.
On the one hand, they were also afraid that Tang Hui would directly attack these generals and accuse them of abandoning the city and fleeing.
On the other hand, he didn't want to join up with Tang Hui and then fight to the death with the security forces.
Therefore, of the thirty-six strategies, walking is the best strategy.
As for what will happen to Tang Hui after they leave, and whether Zhongxiang and even Hanyang can hold on, that's none of their business.
They just want to save their lives.
But it was not easy for them to cross the river and escape. At noon that day, after they finally started to formally cross the river, a band of rebel cavalry came from behind.
After the rebel cavalry arrived, the tens of thousands of Ming troops were immediately thrown into chaos. Except for the more than 3,000 people who crossed the river first, the remaining seven or eight thousand people saw the rebel cavalry coming and fell into chaos one by one. They all rushed towards the river, trying to fight for the raft and the boat to escape.
There were also some smart people who saw that there were not enough ships at all, so they did not go to the river to seize the ships. Instead, they just ran away to the south.
Ever since, Blind Man Wang saw a quite astonishing scene.
His cavalry troops had just arrived here, and before they had even decided whether to attack, the Ming army in front collapsed first...
Looking at the chaotic Ming army in front, Blind Wang suddenly remembered what someone had said about the strategy of half-crossing and attacking when he was attending classes at Suiying Military School.
But, this doesn't seem to be a half-passed attack, because I didn't even attack...
Although Wang Xiazi was also an officer and soldier of the Ming Dynasty, and he also had a deep understanding of many other officers and soldiers, at this moment, he still couldn't figure out why the Ming army on the opposite side behaved like this...
This is an Ming army of tens of thousands. As long as a few partial division troops are arranged in formation, it is enough for his cavalry to give up the idea of launching an attack and can only wander around the periphery to contain them.
In this way, I dare not say anything else, but it is still possible to get most of the troops to cross the river safely.
But the Ming army on the opposite side did not do this, and they immediately became chaotic.
Such a situation is rarely seen even in the weak Ming army in the hinterland of the Central Plains.
With a hint of sigh and even confusion, Wang Xiazi ordered his six hundred elite cavalry to start attacking on the outside. They did not rush directly inside, but wandered around the outside, relying on the high mobility of the cavalry to continuously shoot through the cavalry. Hunt and drive the opponent away.
When faced with scattered enemy forces, they directly rush over and kill them.
As soon as Wang Xiazi's cavalry moved, the Ming army on the opposite side became even more chaotic.
Moreover, seeing that there was no hope of crossing the river and that they could not escape the four legs of the cavalry, many Ming soldiers simply threw away their weapons and surrendered.
At first, only scattered soldiers surrendered, but soon some mid-level and senior generals led their soldiers to surrender en masse.
More than an hour later, more than 5,000 Ming prisoners of war who had given up their weapons and were dejected appeared in front of Blind Wang.
"This..." Blind Wang looked at so many prisoners of war and didn't know what to say.
Happy?
There didn't seem to be much joy, but instead a sense of absurdity.
This battle was fought in a confused and incomprehensible way!
Our own side only had 600 cavalry and light cavalry, and we didn't even fight much. We only killed one or two hundred enemy troops when the front and rear were forced to death. As a result, the enemy surrendered in large areas.
There were tens of thousands of enemy troops. Except for Wang Xiazi and others, three thousand of them successfully crossed the river before they were killed.
Of the remaining seven or eight thousand people, only a few thousand fled south or successfully crossed the river. It is estimated that several hundred people tried to swim across the Han River in a panic and were drowned or washed downstream.
About one or two hundred people were killed by Wang Xiazi's troops, and the remaining five thousand people all surrendered.
Blind Wang himself couldn't believe this achievement.
"Pegasus reports to the general, asking the rear to send infantry up quickly to take over the prisoners of war. We don't have enough manpower to avoid any trouble!"
More than five thousand prisoners of war will be very troublesome if not handled well. Moreover, their cavalry brigade has other strategic tasks. It is impossible to stay here to guard the prisoners of war. Wang Xiazi will continue to lead the cavalry troops south to entangle them. Tang Hui's 20,000 Ming army.
Fortunately, the troops from the rear arrived relatively quickly. In the afternoon of that day, the 2nd Infantry Regiment and the 1st Cavalry Regiment (new mounted infantry), which were the vanguard of the main force, arrived here.
After a simple handover, Wang Xiazi did not stop, but continued to lead the cavalry brigade south.
According to the information from the reconnaissance cavalry, about 20 kilometers to the south is where the main force of the Ming army from the north is. Their cavalry brigade will go south for a while now, and they will probably be able to entangle the opponent by tomorrow morning.
After the escaped enemy troops learned that the Ming army was defeated here, they were frightened and ran back to Zhongxiang.
In fact, this was indeed the case. In the afternoon of that day, Tang Hui learned that 10,000 deserters in Yicheng were half-crossed and attacked by the bandits. Except for thousands of people who evacuated to the east bank of the Han River, all the others were destroyed.
And the news about the rebel army is also scattered and disorderly. Some say that the rebel army going south has at least 50,000 elite soldiers, including 3,000 elite cavalry.
Others say that the bandit army numbering more than 100,000 went south, and that all the gray bandits were lost all over the mountains and plains along the way.
Others said that the bandit army numbered 30,000, but they were all elite and old thieves who were very good at field combat and invincible. They were the main force of the bandit army that defeated Lu Xiangsheng in the first place.
However, no matter what the news is, the number of bandits is not less than 30,000.
No matter how many thieves there are, it's still a lot.
And there are at least a thousand or even thousands of thieves' elite cavalry inside.
If Tang Hui continues to lead his army northward, he may follow in the footsteps of Lu Xiangsheng.
Under such circumstances, how dare Tang Hui continue to lead his army north? A quarter of an hour after learning the news, Tang Hui decisively ordered the entire army to return south.
He planned to return to Zhongxiang City to rely on the city to defend for a while and then see the situation.
The army protecting the thieves is now strong, so we should take shelter temporarily and wait for reinforcements.
Moreover, they ran very fast, abandoning many heavy baggage and running lightly. Moreover, they were not far from Zhongxiang at this time, and they ran all the way in basically a day.
Although Blind Wang and the others also tried to pursue them, they still failed to catch up.
Tang Hui led his troops back to Zhongxiang, and Luo Zhixue was a little disappointed when he heard the news.
The enemy army ran so fast that our own cavalry could not catch up.
However, Wang Xiazi cannot be blamed for this. The main reason why the enemy army was able to successfully retreat to Zhongxiang was because Tang Hui's troops were not far away from Zhongxiang, and the Ming army was more decisive when retreating, directly abandoning food and other baggage and retreating lightly.
And there was no need to set aside time to set up camp the next day, nor to conserve physical energy to deal with encounters, etc. They just ran all the way south, directly back to Zhongxiang City.
The reason why the enemy army is relatively close to Zhong Xiang is because he moves south too quickly...
The reason why our own army moved south faster was because the Yicheng defenders fled without fighting, forcing the Baoxiang Army to speed up its move south.
This back and forth also caused the Baoxiang Army to encounter Tang Hui's headquarters, which moved about 20 to 30 kilometers south.
Just these twenty or thirty kilometers allowed Tang Hui's troops to successfully escape back to Zhongxiang.
War is like this. No matter how well planned it is, all kinds of accidents will always happen once the war breaks out.
Especially when the other person is elusive.
Before going south, none of the generals of the Baoxiang Army would have thought that the Yicheng defenders would flee without a fight.
After all, there are tens of thousands of Ming troops. If they really want to defend the city, the Baoxiang Army will really be unable to do anything to them in a short time.
Forget about escaping, he still has to cross the river. This is something Xu Zhixian has never thought of even after thinking about it ten thousand times...
When Xu Zhixian and others learned that the enemy troops had withdrawn from Yicheng, they thought that the Yicheng defenders were voluntarily abandoning Yicheng in order to join Tang Hui's main force in a decisive battle with the Baoxiang Army in the wild, or to simply retreat to Zhongxiang. The city of Fu was defended according to the city.
At that time, Xu Zhixian and some of his staff strongly suggested that Luo Zhixue order to speed up the march in order to pursue the enemy as soon as possible and avoid the two enemy armies from converging.
Even if the enemy forces are successfully reunited, they must be entangled and strive to defeat the opponent directly in the field.
In short, the purpose is to prevent the enemy troops from escaping back to Zhongxiang City after the rendezvous.
Once the enemy forces are reunited, they will have more than 30,000 troops. As the capital of Chengtian Prefecture, Zhongxiang's city defense facilities and the supplies it has accumulated during the period are much stronger than those of a small county like Yicheng.
At that time, it will be more difficult for the Baoxiang Army to attack Zhongxiang than to attack Yicheng.
However, I never expected that the tens of thousands of Ming troops who had withdrawn from Yicheng would not continue to flee south, but would directly cross the river halfway...
After the defeat of Wanming's army, Tang Hui retreated decisively and led his army all the way back to Zhongxiang.
As a result, a series of combat plans formulated by the staff team headed by Xu Zhixian came to nothing.
And it also brought about an even worse situation: Zhong Xiangcheng turned into a hard nut!
If the subsequent Baoxiang Army wants to capture Zhongxiang, it will be more difficult than the previous attack on Yicheng!
Because now there are 20,000 Ming troops stationed in Zhongxiang!
In this regard, Luo Zhixue also felt a little helpless. This time he went south to fight and it was hard to explain!
You can tell it didn't go well, but they captured Yicheng without much fighting, and even captured more than 5,000 Ming troops.
If you want to say it went well, the expected siege and reinforcements failed, and the strategic idea of directly defeating the 20,000 Ming army reinforcements in the field completely came to nothing.
If I want to beat Zhong Xiang later, I don’t know how much it will cost.
