With thousands of Chu thieves and cavalry watching eagerly, Yang Sixing knew very well that it was impossible for him to successfully retreat from Wuling City with the New Standard Army's left army, which consisted of more than 5,000 infantry and artillery.
Although he could maintain his battle formation and retreat slowly, a short-distance retreat was fine, but it was a fool's dream to retreat all the way to Wuling City across dozens of miles.
Even if the Chu thieves' cavalry did not move and while they were slowly retreating, the main force of the Chu thieves' infantry and artillery would probably catch up.
At that time, there will inevitably be a face-to-face fight.
Since there will be a fight sooner or later, Yang Sixing naturally hopes to choose a more favorable terrain and fight a defensive battle that is more beneficial to his own side.
Behind our army, there is a small hill. Although the terrain is not high, the highest hill protrudes only about a hundred meters from the ground. At the same time, the terrain is relatively gentle and not too steep.
But it is enough to deploy artillery and build fortifications.
What's more, behind this small mountainous area, there is a small river. About three or four miles further northeast of the small river, there is Dongting Lake.
Although this small river is not big, it can also be used as a natural barrier, allowing us to reduce our defense line, while also allowing us to obtain enough domestic water.
It is better to conduct a defensive battle here than to fight the Chu thieves with superior strength in the wilderness.
As long as he can rely on this small mountain to carry out a defensive operation and hold on for ten days or several months, the Ming army from the peripheral areas will naturally arrive one after another and form a new main force of the Ming army in the periphery.
At that time, the Chu thieves in front of them will face the disadvantage of being attacked from both sides. If one of them fails, the officers and soldiers may be able to launch a counter-encirclement operation, severely inflicting heavy losses on the Chu thieves, and completely reversing the crisis in southern Chu.
After Yang Sixing made the decision, the left army of the New Standard Army also quickly took action. They did not disperse their formation, but still maintained a dense formation. At the same time, their marching speed was not fast, and they still retreated alternately.
The artillery and baggage were also retreated under cover of infantry.
Blind Wang didn't take it seriously at first, thinking that these Ming troops were fanciful and wanted to retreat in a battle formation that looked safe through such a door, but couldn't cover much distance in a day.
According to the opponent's method, I'm afraid they won't be able to walk a few kilometers until evening. By that time, our main force will have already caught up.
When a burst of artillery strikes, the opponent will be finished.
Therefore, blind man Wang was not in a hurry, so he led his cavalry to hang far behind.
However, it didn't take long for Blind Wang to realize something was wrong.
These Ming troops did not retreat due west, that is, the direction of the official road they came from, but retreated toward a small hill in the northwest.
Moreover, some Ming troops who arrived at Xiaodui Mountain first had already used hoes and shovels to dig fortifications on Xiaodui Mountain...
"These puppet Ming troops don't want to retreat, but they want to fight and defend here!"
After seeing this, Blind Wang remained calm!
As long as the Ming army on the opposite side didn't run away, he didn't care whether they were dancing on the spot or building fortifications to resist.
His mission has always been clear, which is to hold back the left army of the New Standard Army and prevent them from retreating quickly.
As for the rest, to be honest, Wang Xiazi's 1st Cavalry Brigade can't do anything. He can't rush forward with his cavalry to fight with the New Standard Army's left army now.
If they really charge forward, the First Cavalry Brigade will definitely suffer heavy casualties, and it may not be able to break through the Ming army's defense line.
At this time, Blind Wang still has to wait!
Wait for the infantry and artillery units led by Luo Zhixue to arrive!
So even though he had seen the opponent's tactical intention, Wang Xiazi still didn't make too many moves. He just stayed far away. Later, he sent some cavalry out to carry out sweeps on the periphery to eliminate the reconnaissance cavalry and messengers that the Ming army might send. etc.
In short, the purpose is to completely hold this Ming army here, and at the same time block the news as much as possible.
It's just easy to hold back the Ming army, but it's impossible to completely block the news.
This fighting area is not a little bit, nor is it an endless grassland area. The spies of the Ming Army are hiding, and the reconnaissance cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Brigade may not be able to find them all.
Therefore, it was inevitable that after the messenger troops sent by Yang Sixing lost several men, a few of them still broke through the blockade of the 1st Cavalry Brigade and eventually headed towards Wuling City, Yiyang City, and Changsha further south.
At the same time, in the wilderness about seven or eight miles away from here, a gray army was advancing unhurriedly.
Luo Zhixue, who was in the middle of the team, had received a report from the 1st Cavalry Brigade, and he was in a good mood at this time.
Xu Zhixian beside him also seemed very relaxed: "I didn't expect that this time when we marched westward, the new left army of the new standard army would actually run out. It seems like they want to go to Xiangyin and attack us from behind."
"It's just that the other party probably doesn't know that the main force of our army did not go south, but turned directly to the west. Otherwise, they will definitely not take the initiative to advance eastward, but will directly defend Wuling."
"The First Cavalry Brigade has initially determined the strength of the opponent. The total strength is about 5,500. It has a complete range of arms. Both the organization and equipment are highly similar to our army. There are also about a dozen field artillery pieces. , if it were our army, it would be a full mixed brigade."
"And they only have such a mixed brigade in their hands. It is obviously impossible for them to take the initiative to go head-to-head with the 20,000 main force of our army. To encounter them in Yiyang is probably because there was an error in their intelligence channels and they were not informed in time. It’s because the main force of our army is marching westward.”
Xu Zhixian opened his mouth and basically understood Yang Sixing's thoughts.
If he were to lead such a mixed brigade to fight, he would definitely avoid the main force of the Chu army. It would be best to take advantage of the Chu army's southward march to Changsha to rush out to seize Xiangyin and cut off the Chu army's food route.
In the previous sand table deductions of the Chu army, most of the people who played the leading generals of the Ming army also chose similar tactics: avoiding the edge of the main force of the Chu army, attacking the garrison, and cutting off the logistics supply line of the main force of the Chu army.
In response to this situation, when the Chu army generals were formulating the actual combat plan, they simply gave up their early plan to attack Changsha, and instead focused their next tactical goal after taking Baling, Yuezhou directly on this army. The new standard army came to the left army.
And Yang Sixing probably couldn't have guessed that the second main tactical target of the Chu army going south was not Changsha, but his new standard left army.
The intelligence gap between the two sides and the generals' different ideas ultimately led to the encounter between the main force of the Chu army and the left army of the Ming army's new standard army outside Yiyang City.
——
Although he clearly knew that the left army of the new standard army of the Ming Army was seven or eight miles ahead, Luo Zhixue did not let the troops march quickly. Instead, he continued to let the troops march at a normal pace. At the same time, he sent a large number of reconnaissance cavalry. Explore the surrounding area to avoid a Ming army suddenly appearing to ambush them.
In the Chu army marching westward, in addition to the core main cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, there were also the cavalry regiment of the Fifth Division and the Guards Cavalry Regiment. These two cavalry regiments were not full cavalry regiments, and the two regiments combined were not There are only more than 800 cavalry, and they are all half-baked cavalry and infantry.
However, it can still be used as a peripheral scout or security force.
In addition to continuing to search the surrounding areas, Luo Zhixue also ordered the 19th Infantry Regiment under the Fifth Division to stay at the rear to prevent the thousands of Ming troops in Yiyang City from suddenly running out again.
However, even if the 19th Infantry Regiment is left behind, it is only as a precaution.
Luo Zhixue still did not send troops to attack Yiyang City directly, nor did he think of blocking the approximately three to four thousand Ming troops here in the city.
Again, the Chu army was not worried about the Ming army going out of the city to fight in the field with their own side.
As long as they dare to leave the city, the Chu army can mobilize hundreds of cavalry troops to hold them back in minutes. After the infantry and artillery come on, they can directly take them away in a wave.
Luo Zhixue led the army and marched unhurriedly until about three o'clock that afternoon before meeting up with the 1st Cavalry Brigade.
After arriving at the front line, Luo Zhixue did not rush for the troops to launch a direct attack. Instead, he asked the troops to build trenches, parapets and other defense lines on the spot, which were also interception lines, directly surrounding the more than 5,000 Ming troops in front, and let the staff team observe terrain and formulate follow-up combat plans.
And he himself took a large group of generals to the headquarters on the top of a nearby hill.
This place is about a thousand meters away from the top of the mountain where the Ming army retreated. It is not too far or too close, but it can be used as a frontline headquarters to command the entire army from a high position.
Just when Luo Zhixue led a group of generals to move into the temporary mountaintop headquarters, outside a large tent on the opposite hillside, Yang Sixing, dressed as a civilian, frowned and looked at the large group of gray thieves in front of him.
"The Chu thieves are coming in full force. There are at least 20,000 Chu thieves besieging our left army in front of us. They have many guns and armor. These are definitely the true gray thieves among the Chu thieves."
"According to rumors, Luo Nixi used the surrender of generals to surrender troops, and used the surrender of troops to surrender generals to form a large garrison. The tactics and tactics were the same as those of our imperial camp, but today there is not a single soldier in the garrison! "
"Where have their garrison gone?" When Yang Sixing muttered, he already had a guess in his heart: The garrison among the Chu thieves is probably the Chu thieves who went south in a big way!
He had been informed before that the Chu thieves had moved south in large numbers, and tens of thousands of Chu thieves were approaching Changsha.
It was precisely because of this notification and the fact that Yang Sichang asked him to choose an opportunity to go eastward to intercept and kill the main force of Chu thieves on the food road, that he took the initiative to go eastward.
Now it seems that the Chu thieves have tricked them.
It is true that a large group of Chu thieves went south, but most of the Chu thieves who went south should be the garrison. The real main force of Chu thieves avoided the eyes and ears of the Ming army and marched directly to the front line of Yiyang City after two or three days.
At this moment, an idea that had never appeared before came to Yang Sixing's mind: "These Chu thieves built plank roads openly and secretly to deceive Chencang, and transferred 20,000 main troops to Yiyang. Could it be that their initial goal was to target Wuling?" Spring? Targeting yourself?
After this idea appeared, Yang Sixing immediately had a clearer judgment on the entire battle situation, and many doubts that were unclear before were quickly answered.
The real target of these Chu thieves is not Changsha, but their new standard army Zuojun!
