Feng Shuangli looked around and found that all the generals were present, so he shouted, "Everyone, come closer to discuss this matter."
The development of things has exceeded his expectations.
All the generals also realized the seriousness of the problem, and walked quickly to Feng Shuangli and bowed to him.
Feng Shuangli got straight to the point: "Everyone, the Ming navy is going upstream and their destination is unknown. What do you think?"
The generals expressed their opinions one after another.
To sum up, there are two possibilities.
1. The Ming navy attacked Zhijiang County upstream of Jingzhou.
2. The Ming navy entered Sichuan to support Qin Liangyu.
After listening to the generals' analysis, Feng Shuangli's face became gloomy.
Whether the Ming army attacked Zhijiang or entered Sichuan to fight, it was bad news for him.
His retreat was to go upstream along the Yangtze River to find Zhang Xianzhong.
Now, the Ming army is trying to block his retreat.
"Governor, there are only two thousand soldiers defending Zhijiang County. If we sit back and do nothing, Zhijiang will be lost sooner or later!" a general reminded.
"Yes, Governor, we must act!"
"Let's fight the Ming army! Either they lose or we win!"
Feng Shuangli certainly knew this, but he wanted to wait a little longer.
Ainengke can reach Jingzhou in five days at most and three days at least.
By then, the total strength of the Dashi Army will reach 50,000!
The total strength of the Ming army is 70,000!
wrong.
The Ming army still had more than 10,000 soldiers stationed in Qianjiang and Mianyang counties.
There were only more than 50,000 Ming troops outside Jingzhou City.
Fifty thousand against fifty thousand, the Dashi Army was not at a disadvantage.
etc...
An idea suddenly came to Feng Shuangli's mind.
He stood up and turned to look at the river.
Most of the Ming army's warships on the river had already gone, leaving only some small supply ships weighing anchor.
Feng Shuangli used his clairvoyance to look at the Ming army camps in the south and east of the city.
The camp was bustling with activity as breakfast was being prepared.
Countless wisps of smoke rise up, and after reaching a certain height, they are dissipated by the wind.
"Everyone!" Feng Shuangli pointed at the Ming army camp and asked, "How many soldiers do you think are there in the Ming army camp?"
"Didn't you say 70,000..."
"That's the total number of troops. There are more than 10,000 soldiers stationed in Qianjiang and Mianyang counties, and the navy took some away. How many Ming troops are left?"
The generals suddenly realized what was going on and took out their clairvoyance glasses to look towards the military camp outside the city.
As they watched, someone noticed something was wrong.
"The number of Ming army tents is wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"According to the Ming army's practice, the tent was 16 feet long and housed ten people. In other words, under normal circumstances, ten soldiers lived in each tent, and they shared a campfire to cook and a pot to eat."
Many people present nodded in agreement.
Many of them have served in the military, so they have some common sense.
"Look carefully there. The amount of smoke from cooking is obviously much greater than the number of tents."
Everyone looked towards the Ming army camp closest to them.
There were about fifty tents in the camp, but the smoke from cooking was so numerous that it was hard to count them.
At first glance, I thought there was a fire.
Feng Shuangli was stunned and looked at everyone: "In other words, the Ming army pretended to be weak to lure us out of the city for a field battle, but they actually have a large number of troops hidden in the camp?"
Everyone else nodded, except the surrendered general Xu Yong, who slowly shook his head.
Feng Shuangli asked: "General Xu, please speak frankly."
Xu Yong coughed lightly: "General Feng, based on my understanding of Yuan Jixian, he will not take the initiative to show weakness. On the contrary, I think the probability of an empty city plan is relatively high!"
"Empty city plan?" Feng Shuangli frowned and looked towards the Ming army camp again.
"Yes!" Xu Yong nodded heavily and asked, "What is Yuan Jixian's purpose in besieging Jingzhou?"
"Recover lost territory?" Feng Shuangli said uncertainly.
"No," Xu Yong shook his head again, "The purpose of Yuan Jixian and the Ming court's use of troops is to destroy our Dashi Army. The Dashi King is fighting in the eastern Sichuan area. The Ming court's original intention was to let Qin Liangyu stop the Dashi Army from advancing, and let Yuan Jixian stay behind to stop the Dashi Army from retreating."
"The main force of the Dashi Army was trapped and killed in the eastern Sichuan area!"
"Now Qin Liangyu has blocked the Dashi Army's advance, but Yuan Jixian has failed to block the Dashi Army's retreat."
"For this reason, he sent his navy upstream to do this!"
Feng Shuangli frowned and thought for a while, feeling a little unbelievable: "No way, the Ming navy is alone and deep in the enemy's territory. Even if they can capture one or two cities, what can they do? The Dashi Army has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and Yuan Jixian only has 70,000 soldiers. Even if he sends all of them, they can't stop them!"
Xu Yong said a place name with a serious expression: "Yiling."
Feng Shuangli didn't care at first, but when he remembered a battle that had taken place here, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
What is the most important thing in marching and fighting?
The right time and the right place.
Sky is the weather and earth is the topography.
Yiling is the eastern entrance to the Xiling Gorge of the Three Gorges, where the river is narrow and the water is turbulent.
The roads on both sides of the river are rugged and difficult to walk on.
After crossing Yiling, the river surface suddenly widened and the water became calmer.
At the same time, the roads on both sides became flat and could be used by vehicles and horses.
Why did Liu Bei fail in the Battle of Yiling during the Three Kingdoms period?
The main reason is the terrain.
The Shu army had two options for attacking Yiling: mountain road or waterway.
The mountain road was rugged and uneven, and the large army could not deploy in a horizontal formation, so they could only advance forward in a column.
The reason why Liu Bei set up camps over a hundred miles was because of the terrain!
Waterways face the same problem. In order to avoid undercurrents, ships must line up and pass one after another.
At this time, the ship is very close to the shore, and if it passes through rashly, it will become a sitting duck for the defenders on the shore.
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