Tongshan was lost. Chongyang fell. Liuyang fell. You County was lost. Anping fell. Xingning fell. The Chu army's counterattack was very fierce. In just a few days, it pushed the front line back 200 miles to the west, all the way to the city of Changsha. The approximate losses of the Western army have been calculated, and the casualties at each location alone are not included. There were too many, but the total was not a lot. Sun Kewang's men alone lost more than 7,000 people. This was the first time the Western Army had suffered such a heavy loss since it entered Huguang. "It turns out that nine black and eight white beacons were an order for a full-scale counterattack. Hehe, Wang Kefan's move was unexpected. The simultaneous attack on a thousand-mile front was really hard to guard against. I lost this battle and I have nothing to say. " Sun Kewang praised Wang Kefan, but his face was full of dissatisfaction: "Our army defeated Yuezhou, Changsha and Hengyang. At that time, I felt a little strange. The Chu army should not have been so inexperienced. It was hard to win this battle. It was a little too easy, and now I realize that it was Wang Kefan¡¯s plan to lure the enemy. Hehe, he was really willing to spend the money to give me all of Hunan, just to eat my thousands of troops. "What kind of bullshit is this? plan. Isn¡¯t it worth it? Definitely not worth it! There are no casualties in the war. More than 7,000 people were exchanged for the big cities of Yuezhou, Changsha, and Hengyang. In all calculations, the Western Army had the advantage. Although the Chu Army was lucky enough to win the battle, they looked at the situation on the battlefield and took the initiative. There is no doubt that the power is still in the hands of the Western Army. If the Chu Army wants to retake Changsha and Hengyang, the casualties of 7,000 people will not be enough. In Sun Kewang's view, Wang Kefan's tactic of luring the enemy was simply a waste of taking off his pants and farting. If he wanted to fight decisively in Hunan, he should have stayed in Changsha and Hengyang. Now, he first lured the enemy deep, and then launched a massive counterattack. People are dazzled, but the actual effect is not good. "Those who are good at fighting have no great achievements, do you understand?" Wang Kefan, by fighting like this, you not only cheated the Western Army, but you were also cheated badly. In the end, it was the Tatars who gained the advantage, do you understand? If you have the ability, fight me openly and openly, and don¡¯t engage in these unflattering conspiracies! Seeing the way he was gnashing his teeth, the generals on the left and right advised him: "Victory and defeat are common matters for military officers. There is no need for the prince to be angry. In the past, we could not figure out the reality of Chu Ni. Now that Wang San (Wang Sheng) has taken action, there is nothing to fear. He There are actually not many troops. As long as our army holds the strong cities of Changsha and Hengyang, exhausts their energy, and then sends a group of troops to outflank the retreat, we can defeat them all in one fell swoop. " "Yes, Chu Ni. Although the momentum is fierce, it is actually just a desperate struggle. Wang Sheng will be captured by me sooner or later. "Sun Kewang sneered: "Wang Kefan's move is still very powerful in luring the enemy deep. If I wait until I enter Jiangxi, my food route will go through the mountains. If he extended his force for thousands of miles and launched a sudden counterattack, he might really be able to defeat our army. Unfortunately, he still couldn't calm down and launched it too early. "Sun Kewang's original plan was to attack Jiangxi, then go eastward along the river, and attack directly. Nanjing completely defeated the Chu army in one fell swoop. A remote place like Guangdong was not worth dividing troops. After Nanjing was captured, a partial division could be casually sent to capture Guangzhou. In the past half year, Sun Kewang had actually felt that the Chu army was retreating steadily and had been deliberately conserving its strength. The final decisive battle would come sooner or later, and it was likely to happen in Jiangxi. Since the Chu army had given up on Changsha and Hengyang had lost its support in Huguang. It was not a wise choice to launch a counterattack rashly, so Sun Kewang also neglected to take precautions. Unexpectedly, the Chu army suddenly launched a counterattack, causing him to suffer a moderate loss. "It doesn't matter, as the generals say, victory or defeat is a common thing for soldiers. Generally speaking, this sentence is just a poisonous chicken soup to comfort the loser, but the Western Army still has a great advantage on the Huguang battlefield. Even a small setback has changed the overall situation, so Sun Kewang really doesn't care about losing the battle and holds back. Jin wants to come back with more ferocious revenge. By eliminating Wang Sheng's main force in Hunan, it will be much easier when he marches to Jiangnan in the future. Wang Kefan's eagerness to launch a counterattack is actually a stupid decision. Even if he succeeds for a while, it will lead to defeat faster. ?¡ ?A mountain is divided into four seasons, and the weather is different ten miles away. The topography and climate in Guizhou and other places are very different. Across the Rongjiang River from Rong County in northern Guangxi, it is not far from Guizhou. This area is a mountainous area inhabited by ethnic minorities. The mountains and rivers are poor, and the folk customs are simple and tough. Han people rarely enter these endless mountains, but Longshan One morning in the winter of the sixth year of Wu's reign, a Han army of more than 50,000 people appeared on the winding mountain road in a mighty manner, like a giant python wrapping around the mountain peak.?The front army went down the mountain and turned around the foot of the mountain, submerging themselves into dense forests. The rear army was still far behind at the foot of the mountain on the other side. Chu army! From the flags, it is easy to determine their identity as the main force of the Chu army. However, upon closer inspection, this Chu army is very different from other Chu armies. First of all, there are very few auxiliary soldiers in this Chu army carrying food, grass and baggage. Most of them are soldiers wearing cotton armor. It stands to reason that such a large army marching long distances in the mountains should have a sizable baggage force accompanying the army. In addition to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of auxiliary troops, the entire mountain road would be filled with mules and horses transporting food equipment, weapons and ammunition. However, the number of vehicles and animals accompanying this Chu army was very small. There are only a few thousand auxiliary troops, which is a standard light march. Secondly, the soldiers of the Chu army all looked like they were on a long journey. They carried huge backpacks behind them, with several pairs of straw sandals tied to the backpacks. They also carried dry food bags, food bags, water bags, etc. on their left and right shoulders. Those who didn¡¯t need to Armored archers and musketeers do not have cotton armor, an "artifact" that can be worn and covered, and they also carry a bedroll. Secondly, this Chu army has many soldiers who use cold weapons. Unlike the Chu army, it is more like other armies of the same era. The number of musketeers is less than one-tenth, which is far lower than the average level of the Chu army. However, If you look carefully at the muskets in their hands, they are all the latest flintlock guns, and the ammunition pouches on each person are also bulging. Finally, this Chu army used a brand new designation. The battle flags of the "Fourth Western Expedition Army" and "Fifth Western Expedition Army" were the most conspicuous, followed by the Western Expedition xx Division and the xx Brigade, both of which had never appeared before. The numbers in the Chu army's establishment constituted two armies with a total of more than 50,000 people. "Ninety thousand mountains, there really are ninety thousand hills, right? How long will it take to climb?" A Chu soldier wiped the sweat from his head, got up in the morning and drove dozens of miles of mountain roads in one go, even though it was winter. , but his head was steaming like a steamed bun basket, and his companions on the left and right looked like him, with their whole bodies drenched in sweat. "Haha, are you afraid of the 90,000-strong mountain? Further south, there is a 100,000-strong mountain and a 60,000-strong mountain." Zhou Guodong treated other generals without pretense, but was very kind to ordinary soldiers. He smiled and explained: "Nine-thousand-thousand-strong mountain." Wanda Mountain is the name of the natives. They call this mountain "Jiuhuai" Mountain, which means Buffalo Head Mountain. The Han people could not understand the native people's words, so they spread rumors and it became Nine Wanda Mountain. Let's work harder and it will soon be We can go out soon. When we get to Guizhou, there are still many mountains.¡± (By analogy, Shiwandashan is also the transliteration of Zhuang language. Shiwandashan is the ¡°mountain suitable for cutting¡±, which is the mountain that tops the sky.) ¡°Guizhou. Are there many mountains? No wonder we are asked to shoot so many straw sandals." The soldier stuck out his tongue and suddenly asked Zhou Guodong: "By the way, how long will we stay in Guizhou this time?" "It's at least necessary. In a year and a half, we will not only go to Guizhou, but also travel around Yunnan, and visit many places in Sichuan and Guangxi. The ancients said that they read thousands of books and traveled thousands of miles, so we can. The Western Expeditionary Army will travel through these places" Advancing thousands of miles into Guizhou is Wang Kefan's real killer move! Launching a counterattack on the frontal battlefield is just a brute force competition with the Western Army. Even though the Chu Army can win with its strong strength, it is difficult to completely defeat the Western Army. If the battle situation is unfavorable, the Western Army can retreat step by step and set up defenses step by step. Turning this war into a protracted war of attrition, Wang Kefan sent the Fourth Army and the Fifth Army of the Western Expedition to advance thousands of miles into Guizhou, aiming directly at Sun Kewang's waist, outflanking his retreat, cutting off his supply lines, and achieving a large-scale , counter-siege across several provinces. Wang Kefan had been planning this battle plan for a long time. For this reason, he specially transferred Jin Shenghuan and other allied forces to Huguang to free up more mobile forces and form the Western Expedition Army. In addition to the main forces of Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong, there were also other members of the Western Expedition Army. There are the Zhenjun soldiers who are best at fighting in the mountains, and the Ningzhou battalion who also came out of the mountains. Because the Western Expeditionary Army had to jump behind enemy lines to fight, logistical supplies could only be provided on the spot, so there could not be too many musketeers who needed to consume ammunition. In order to solve this problem, Wang Kefan selected two soldiers from the Laochang camp who were better at cold weapon combat. Ten thousand people joined the Western Expedition Army. Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun served as deputy commanders of the Fourth and Fifth Army of the Western Expedition respectively. The entire army only retained 3,000 musketeers who used new flintlock guns as a trump card to defeat the enemy. Because we need to carry out large-scale cross-provincial penetrations, and we will mainly focus on mobile warfare after arriving in Guizhou, we must reduce the weight of the soldiers. They do not wear heavy iron armor, and all armored soldiers are equipped with cotton armor. Anyway, it is like spring all year round on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. , it won¡¯t be too hot in summer, and you can just wear cotton armor in summer. In short, this is a new force formed to advance thousands of miles. Most of the troops are veterans who have been on the battlefield, especially good at mountain warfare and mobile warfare. In the past few months, they have beenLurking in the mountains of southeastern Hunan, resting and practicing, carefully preparing, it has been honed into shape, like a newly forged steel knife that is made of hundreds of times, ready to show off its edge at any time. The beacon fire spread thousands of miles to southeastern Hunan. Under the cover of the thousands-mile counterattack in Huguang, and with the cooperation of Liu Fangliang, Dang Shousu and He Zhen, Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong led the troops out of the mountains, entered Guangxi, and headed straight for Guizhou. The steel knife is unsheathed!