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Chapter 144 The Rebellion Expands

It was late at night and the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. A strong wind blew at night, dispelling the heat of the heat. On such a beautiful night, Chen Xi originally thought he could sleep peacefully.

After Hui Niang and Li Jin's careful service, Chen Xi finally fell asleep sweetly, but at midnight he had to wake up because the guards outside the tent shouted in a hurry, saying that there was an emergency official service that he needed to deal with.

In the central army's tent, Chen Xi sat behind the desk, rubbed his dry eyes, and then looked at the many generals on both sides led by Su Jingyang and Wang He.

This time, the war reports from the south were reported to Baoqing Mansion, not because there was a new enemy situation around Baoqing Mansion.

Wang He looked heavy and said, "Sir, the bandits are not only having fun in the western and southern parts of Huguang, but the situation in the south is rapidly deteriorating. Not to mention Guizhou, but in the northern part of Guizhou, the rebels have conquered several county towns in a row, and the official army has retreated step by step, and it has reached the point of being defeated."

"Now, officials and civilians in Guizhou are waiting for the adults to lead their troops south and defeat the bandits in one fell swoop!"

Su Jingyang glanced at Wang He with a little jealousy in his eyes.

Among the generals under Chen Xi, Wang He, who had just won a big victory, was so arrogant, which was in sharp contrast to Su Jingyang's dusty face.

Chen Xi took a few battle reports that had just been sent from northern Guangxi and carefully studied them.

Bad news comes one after another. In the past ten days, Quanzhou, Xing'an, Lingchuan, Yining, Guanyang and other counties were successively lost. Guilin Prefecture was in a hurry. Local troops either retreated south or defended Guilin Prefecture, waiting for the arrival of imperial reinforcements. At this time, the troops under the Governor General of Guangdong and Guangxi had not yet been recruited to the north, and only Chenxi was in Baoqing Prefecture, which was six or seven hundred miles away from Guilin, but most of them were mountain roads that crossed the mountains and steep mountains, which were beyond the reach for a while.

Seeing that Chen Xi was not speaking, Su Jingyang immediately accused him: "What's the hurry? With an adult here, can there be a difference in Guilin Prefecture? There are dozens of thousands of households around Guilin Prefecture and tens of thousands of troops. I don't believe that a mere group of bandits can capture the dignified Guangxi provincial capital!"

The reason is that the defense of the provincial capital is indeed not like that of local prefectures. Guilin Prefecture alone has three full-scale guards, namely Guangxi guards, Guilin Right Guards and Guilin Zhongwei, plus the nearby Liuzhou Guards, Nandan Guards, and more than a dozen independent thousand-household offices around, there are a total of more than 40 thousand-household offices. It should be no big problem to defend Guilin Prefecture.

But the problem is that Guilin Prefecture has never been a big city in the Central Plains. In the Ming Dynasty, Guilin was already a remote area. There are many mountains, rivers, hills and valleys, and ethnic minorities live in the local area. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Guangxi had a population of three million, of which only one million were Han people, and most of them were military households, which shows that the rule was difficult.

Many local garrisons have insufficient weapons and equipment, and the city defense cannot be compared with the provincial capitals in the hinterland of the Central Plains. Even compared with the Fujian provincial capital Fuzhou, there is a big gap.

Chen Xi looked at the map and shook his head and said, "From the Baoqing Prefecture where we are now, we will go south to support Guilin Prefecture, either to Jingzhou, Huaiyuan, Liuzhou, or Quanzhou and Xing'an. Both roads have now been occupied by rebels. The rebels guard all the roads from Huguang to northern Guangxi. If we go from elsewhere, we will inevitably cross those natural dangerous places that are difficult for humans to overcome. It is not a wise move!"

A staff member of the Huguang Commander Office took the initiative to leave: "Sir, why don't our troops continue to move south and get Wugang Prefecture first, quell the Jingzhou Rebellion, eliminate the internal rebellion in Huguang before talking about other things..."

"Just pretend that I don't know that Guangxi is in danger. If the imperial court has the will to coordinate troops to quell the rebellion, I will talk about it then!"

Chen Xi said this as a shirk responsibility.

Even Su Jingyang and Wang He understood that it would take more than ten days for local affairs in Guangxi to reach Baoqing Prefecture in Huguang. Even if there is an emergency of 800 miles to reach the capital, time is probably inevitable. If the capital has instructions to go south, it will take more than ten days. At that time, even if there is any deviation in Guilin Prefecture and Chen Xi will lead his troops to rescue him, it will be too late.

To rescue Guilin Prefecture, we must make a quick decision. Since Chen Xi did not choose to send troops immediately, it means that Chen Xi is not optimistic about this battle. He also believes that quelling the rebellion on the ground of Huguang is the most important task at present.

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Chapter completed!
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