At this moment, the Yang family chieftain was completely bewildered. The information he initially received clearly stated that the imperial court had dispatched an army of 200,000 men, led by the grandson of the crown prince, Zhu Yunwen.

In addition, there were General Lan Yu and Feng Sheng as leading figures.

It can be said that, apart from the speed of Zhu Yunwen's army, which Yang Tusi did not know, he had almost all the other information about this army.

So when his men investigated and learned that there were only 100,000 troops and that Lan Yu and Feng Sheng were not there, he found it hard to believe.

Because this is unreasonable!

First of all, this doesn't match the information he received.

Secondly, the imperial court couldn't possibly expect to quell the chaos here by simply sending 100,000 men.

So Chief Yang continued to send people to investigate, determined to get to the bottom of this matter.

How could there only be 100,000 troops?

So his scouts immediately went out to gather information, not only confirming the number of Zhu Yunwen's army, but also questioning the people along both sides of the river.

Finally, the report was submitted to Chief Yang again.

This time, Chief Yang's face turned grim, because according to his subordinates' investigation, the territory of Sanjiang County, opposite Yanhe City, where Zhu Yunwen was stationed, indeed only had 100,000 troops.

This is good news, but the bad news is that the remaining 100,000 troops have split into two groups, attacking from the southwest and northwest in a pincer movement.

They encircled the ancestral home of the Yang family in Bozhou on one side, and encircled the ancestral homes of many chieftains in the Qiannan region on the other.

This caused Chief Yang to panic instantly. His plan was to lead all his troops to block the imperial army and prevent the imperial court from occupying their territory.

Therefore, more than 200,000 troops in the southwest region are now concentrated outside this riverside city.

But now they are being told that a portion of the troops have already circled around to their rear.

At this moment, the chieftains' rear was completely empty, without a single soldier, which clearly gave the two armies an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

Just as Chief Yang was extremely nervous and his face turned ugly, Chief Song stepped forward and said:

"Although this news is bad, I see some good points. Currently, the Crown Prince of Sanjiang County only has 100,000 troops under his command. So we have 200,000. Isn't this just the right opportunity for us?"

"Let's just launch a full-scale attack, wipe out the 100,000 troops under that so-called grandson of the emperor, seize Sanjiang County, and advance towards Hu Guang."

Upon hearing this, the chieftain clenched his fist and rebuked:

“Foolish! Have you forgotten what our goal is? Our goal is simply to control the entire southwest region, not to conquer the world.”

Originally, all we needed to do was hold the southwest region and prevent the imperial court from conquering us, and we would have won.

But now, the imperial army has already circled around to our rear, and we are so slow to realize it?

"That's fine, but you also mentioned going to confront that Crown Prince head-on. Do you mean we should abandon the southwest and march into the Huguang region instead?"

Although Chief Yang was sometimes impulsive, he was quite capable militarily and had a certain ability to control and analyze situations.

He knows very well what he wants and he also knows very well what he cannot do.

What he wanted was the independence of the southwest region, to form a kingdom.

What he absolutely dared not do was to conquer other parts of the Ming Dynasty.

He was self-aware enough to believe that the combined army of all the chieftains under his command, numbering only 200,000, could defeat the Ming Dynasty and seize the entire country.

This is nothing short of a pipe dream; it is absolutely impossible to achieve.

Upon hearing what Chief Yang said, the chieftain of the Song family immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.

Given the abilities of these chieftains, it's already quite remarkable that they were able to hold onto the southwest region and establish themselves as kings.

To abandon the southwest region and instead occupy Hubei and Hunan would be a joke.

After all, the Huguang region has 100,000 to 200,000 garrison troops. If the Huguang region were to be attacked, these garrison troops would also attack together. In addition, Zhu Yunwen now has 100,000 troops left. No matter what, these chieftains cannot fight them head-on.

Moreover, establishing yourself as a king in one place and attacking other places are two different things.

Once these chieftains unite to attack other parts of the Ming Dynasty, it becomes a war between nations.

The Ming Dynasty will send more troops, and the problem will become even more serious, far beyond what these chieftains can handle.

Even if they had the military capability, they would still be completely unfamiliar with the terrain and environment of the Huguang region.

The reason these chieftains were able to dominate the southwest region for so many years was entirely due to the fierce and easy-to-control local customs.

Moreover, the area is mountainous with shallow waters and has a complex terrain, which they can utilize.

This made it difficult for the imperial court, located far to the south, to effectively control them.

However, once they reach the Huguang region, it will be much easier for the imperial court to deal with them, which is no different from courting death.

Lady Shexiang sighed and said:

"Chief Yang has now lost the initiative, bringing so many troops to Yanhe City, leaving the entire southwest region completely deserted."

Now our rear is threatened by two waves of troops. What should we do, given that advancing or retreating is both impossible?

Chief Yang clenched his fists. He had never expected this situation, but he had to admit that Lady Shexiang was right.

He is now facing a dilemma.

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