"He Tengjiao came not earlier or later, but just when Yuezhou was about to be conquered. It's obvious that he came to steal the credit."
"Yeah, you dare to come and grab the credit without even giving me a thousand sets of armor?"
"He Tengjiao is such a villain!"
When the generals heard that He Tengjiao was coming, they all expressed their dissatisfaction.
Yuan Jixian stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "Don't worry, as long as I am alive, he will never take away the credit."
"But what if He Tengjiao insists on coming?" General Jin Shenghuan was somewhat helpless.
There is no way to stop people from stealing credit.
Even if the enemy only has one soldier entering the battlefield, he can get a share of the spoils when writing reports to the court.
"Heh..." Yuan Jixian smiled faintly, "Have you forgotten what my position is? How dare He Tengjiao disobey military orders?"
Yuan Jixian was the governor of military affairs in Jiangxi, Huguang, Anqing and Yingtian. He Tengjiao was the governor of Huguang and needed to obey Yuan Jixian's arrangements in the use of troops.
Yuan Jixian was not afraid that He Tengjiao would steal the credit, but that he would do something bad.
The soldiers under He Tengjiao are even more of a mob than a mob.
The farther away from them the better!
"Write back to He Tengjiao and ask him to garrison Baling County (now Yueyang County) to prevent bandits from entering the area south of Dongting Lake."
After solving He Tengjiao's problem, Yuan Jixian began to deploy his troops again.
Feng Shuangli's strategic abandonment of Yuezhou indirectly led to the failure of Yuan Jixian's tactics of besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements.
The escape of Ma Jinzhong and Hui Dengxiang also made Feng Shuangli's tactic of besieging the enemy and attacking the reinforcements ineffective.
The two sides are back to the same starting line again.
"Divide the troops into two groups. Leave 20,000 troops to continue besieging Yuezhou, and the rest of the troops will march north with me to attack Jianli County."
Under the command of Yuan Jixian, the main force of the Ming army advanced both by land and sea, bypassing Yuezhou and heading north to suppress the bandits.
As soon as the army arrived outside Jianli County, the defenders surrendered.
Immediately following.
Shishou County and Jiangling County surrendered.
Three cities were captured in two days, and the morale of the army was greatly shaken.
Just when everyone thought that Yuan Jixian would besiege Jingzhou, he stopped his attack.
Ming army camp outside Jiangling County.
Everyone was filled with joy of victory. Three cities were recaptured without any effort. There was no reason not to be happy.
In the central military tent, Jin Shenghuan and others were standing on both sides.
"The army should rest here and wait for the opportunity," Yuan Jixian ordered.
Jin Shenghuan stepped out of the line and said, "Governor Yuan, our army has captured three cities in a row and is in high spirits. Why don't we take advantage of the situation and attack Jingzhou?"
"Don't worry, wait."
"Waiting for what?"
"Wait for something unexpected to happen!"
Just when Jin Shenghuan was confused, something unexpected happened.
The scout rushed into the tent and knelt on one knee: "Your Excellency the Governor, Wang Yuncheng captured Xianning three days ago, and Zhang Yingyuan captured Xiaogan two days ago. They are on their way here."
"The bandits in Yuezhou City could not wait for reinforcements, and with food and grass running out, they gave up resistance and surrendered."
"In addition to the old, weak, sick and disabled, there are 3,000 strong and young soldiers in the city. They have been reorganized and distributed among the three generals, Xu Guodong, Wu Xueli and Lu Ding."
After hearing the news, Yuan Jixian breathed a sigh of relief.
Less than a month has passed since he sent out his troops!
Now, except Jingzhou, Chengtianfu and Xiangyang, all other places in Huguang region have been taken over by the imperial court.
On the surface, everything seems to be moving in the right direction.
Only Yuan Jixian himself understood that the real difficulties had yet to come.
Before Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, he transferred all his main forces away. Most of the remaining troops were old, weak, sick and disabled, as well as some defenders who were unwilling to leave.
The reason why Yuan Jixian was able to successfully recapture these places was not because he was so powerful, but because Zhang Xianzhong did not defend them at all.
The next Jingzhou was different.
That's a tough nut to crack!
"Report!" Another scout rushed into the tent: "Prime Minister Hui Deng sent a message that Li Yan and Lady Hong led thousands of soldiers to station in Chengtian Prefecture."
Yuan Jixian stood up suddenly and said with a smile: "I'm here, it's good to be here."
The generals present were dumbfounded and couldn't understand why Yuan Jixian was so happy.
They didn't know whether Li Yan would help Feng Shuangli, but they were sure that Li Yan would not help the Ming army.
Yuan Jixian was too lazy to explain to them.
Fighting a war does not necessarily require a life-and-death struggle, as long as the strategic goal can be achieved.
What was his purpose in attacking Jingzhou?
It was not to recover the territory, but to contain Zhang Xianzhong and force him to withdraw his main forces from Sichuan.
Whether it was to contain Zhang Xianzhong or Li Zicheng, the more bandits he contained, the fewer bandits there would be in other places.
With Li Yan's arrival, Li Zicheng has lost a helper, and the pressure on Huang Degong will be much less.
This is his strategic goal!
"Send the order, the army will immediately break camp and march towards Jingzhou."
......
The south gate tower of Jingzhou.
Looking at the Ming army soldiers all over the mountains outside the city and the warships with sails like clouds on the river, Feng Shuangli was not afraid.
On the contrary, he began to get excited.
Just yesterday, he received two pieces of good news in succession.
The first good news came from Chengtian Prefecture. Li Yan wrote a letter personally, clearly stating that the Shun army would help him fight the Ming army.
The second good news comes from Ainengqi.
The Dashi Army's attack on Sichuan was unsuccessful and was blocked in the eastern Sichuan area. In order to prevent the retreat from being cut off, Zhang Xianzhong ordered Ai Nengqi to divide 20,000 troops and sail down the river to support Jingzhou.
Yuan Jixian did not know this news. If he dared to besiege the city, once the army from upstream arrived, Yuan Jixian would surely be defeated by being attacked from both sides.
With Li Yan's participation in the battle, it is very likely that Yuan Jixian's entire army will be wiped out.
The more Feng Shuangli thought about it, the happier he became. He turned around and asked the messenger, "When will General Dingbei (Ai Nengqi) arrive?"
"To reply to the governor, it will take five days at most and three days at least."
Feng Shuangli put down the clairvoyance in his hand and laughed: "Hahaha, then I'm relieved! Yuan Jixian, it's time for you to have a taste of failure."
"Commander-in-chief, I am willing to lead my troops out of the city to fight the Ming army in the field!" Seeing that the Ming army was coming in full force, Xu Yong planned to go out of the city to kill the morale of the Ming army.
Feng Shuangli smiled faintly: "No hurry, show weakness first, and wait until the Ming army relaxes their vigilance before leaving the city!"
The next morning, Feng Shuangli was woken up by his personal guards, "Commander-in-chief, something big has happened!"
"What's wrong?" Feng Shuangli was a little confused.
The Ming army was good at using cannons, so if they attacked the city, they would definitely hear the sound of cannons.
There was no sound of artillery fire outside, which meant that the Ming army did not attack the city.
What else could it be?
The guard pointed to the south of the city and said, "Outside the city, the Ming army is divided into two groups. The infantry and cavalry are camped in the east and south of the city, while the navy is going upstream along the Yangtze River."
Going upstream? Feng Shuangli was shocked!
He hurriedly got up, rushed out of the yard, ran up the city wall and looked to the south.
The number of Ming army warships on the river was decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
One ship after another weighed anchor and hoisted sails, sailing upstream against the current with the help of the wind.
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