"I reported to the Left Army Marshal Li Dingguo: In early August, I sent the general Gaojiling to lead 10,000 troops to take Xiangyang and Jingmen two cities. I took it before the tenth day of the lunar month. The Qing general Li Chengxian, Yang Xiren and his troops were 5,000 surrendered. Gaojiling was not in absent mind. Later, the Qing army of Wu Sangui surrounded Xiangyang. On the night of the 15th, Yang Xiren and his troops fought inside and outside and attacked Xiangyang. Gaojiling then launched street battles, intending to regain the city gate, but because they were outnumbered, they retreated to the baggage.

In the camp, the guerrilla general Wang Shizhong led 3,000 remaining troops to break through. He detonated the firearm trough with Qianhu Luchang and died in his country. Yang Xiren was killed on the spot, which devastated Wu Sangui. Wang Shizhong retreated to Jingmen and severely damaged the enemy Zhang Guozhu, and planned to earn Li Chengxian. Li Chengxian and Wu Sangui's son-in-law Xia Guoping were killed in chaos. On August 20, the chief leader Luo Luohun arrived in Xiangyang and attacked Jingmen in the south. I was afraid that the small city would be difficult to defend, so I ordered the defenders of Jingmen to withdraw back to Jingzhou.

In this battle, our army suffered more than 4,000 casualties and killed more than 12,000 enemies. Fortunately, except for a small number of arms fell into the enemy, the country was destroyed because of the self-destruction of the arsenal in Gaojiling, and all of them were destroyed and never fell into the enemy.

In the defeat of this battle, I made huge mistakes in selecting generals and employing people, and reconnaissance of the enemy situation. Because Xiangyang and Jingmen gained it again, Jingzhou faced the strong enemy directly, and the plan to attack the east and take the cities along the river was difficult to implement, which delayed Your Majesty's major plan. I would like to ask Your Majesty to be responsible for your crimes.

Based on the current situation, I will temporarily give up the plan to advance eastwardly and fight with the enemy's main force north of Jingzhou. After the destruction of Luoluohun's troops has been eliminated, we will advance eastwardly.

Should this plan be done? I'll ask the Holy Lord."

Li Dingguo's memorial was delivered to Zhu Youlang's desk on August 30th.

Zhu Youlang was shocked after watching it!

This ending was too unexpected to him.

Victory and defeat are common in military affairs. One or two failures will not affect the overall situation. He can even accept that grenades and landmines will become the spoils of the Qing soldiers. What he cannot accept is why the Qing soldiers reacted so quickly? How could Wu Sangui arrive in Xiangyang so quickly in Hanzhong, thousands of miles away? Aren’t he and Luo Luohun going to attack Yungui? Why did he suddenly turn around and go to Jingxiang?

As soon as Xiangyang was lost, Li Dingguo had his worries and could not move eastward along the river as planned. He could only solve this powerful enemy first. In this way, all the strategies he formulated were lost.

War is like playing chess. If the Qing army leaves a piece in Xiangyang, it is equivalent to taking the lead. If the first mover is well grasped, they will often press forward step by step in the chess game, and the opponent will fall into a passive position and can only retreat step by step.

War is the same. As long as one side takes the initiative in the battlefield, it can guide the development trend of war according to its own wishes.

"After losing the first move, the left army was firmly restrained by Luo Luohun and Wu Sangui, which would not help the battle situation in the middle, so the pressure on the middle army would be too great. This matter is quite serious, and it seems that it is necessary to discuss it." Zhu Youlang thought.

"I passed the imperial edict, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, and the consultant of the Advisory Office came to the palace to discuss matters." Zhu Youlang said to Li Hong.

"Abide by the order!" Li Hong agreed and went down to arrange for the order to pass the order.

"Cedar, take a look, what do you think?" Zhu Youlang handed the memorial to Gu Yanwu.

Gu Yanwu looked at it, his brows tightened and did not answer immediately.

"Cedar, why, Is there nothing I want to say?" Zhu Youlang asked.

Gu Yanwu: "Your Majesty, I think it's strange. Although General Li did not explicitly state it in the memorial, he was actually doubting between the lines. Why did the Qing soldiers act so quickly? Yang and Li used a plan to surrender. It should be Wu Sangui who took Jingmen in Gaojiling. Xiangyang had already made plans before Xiangyang. Judging from the time, the Prime Minister of Xia would arrive in Xiangyang and Jingmen before the fifth day of the August 2018. Therefore, I suspect that the Qing soldiers had already obtained the plan of our army to seek Jingxiang, otherwise it would not have been so fast."

Zhu Youlang: "Yes, I have this suspicion. Information shows that Luo Luohun arrived in Hanzhong on July 20th, that is to say, before July 20th, his target of attack was still Yunnan and Guizhou. His change of marching route should have been after July 20th. We held the imperial meeting on June 7th, and it was only more than 40 days apart in the middle, so there was no time to react so quickly. If the Qing soldiers had known about our army's strategic deployment, such results would be reasonably explained."

Gu Yanwu: "Your Majesty, let's assume that the Qing army has obtained the strategic deployment information of our army. Who will it be? Could it be that among the people who participated in the imperial meeting on the seventh day of the sixth month, the Qing court wrote in detail?"

Zhu Youlang: "The information transmission is very slow now. It takes 4,000 miles from Guangzhou to Nanzhili. Even if it is 800 miles faster, it will take five days. The sender of the intelligence needs to avoid various investigations in our territory, and it is impossible to change horses along the way. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to use this method of transmission, and can only be transmitted at normal speed. If the normal speed is used, it will take more than half a month. If the information is sent to Nanzhili, it will also be studied and requested edicts. Even if Jiergalang does not need to ask for edicts, he will directly give Wu Sangui an order, and it will not be delivered without half a month. In this way, after the imperial meeting was held, someone sent the information. In other words, those who attended the meeting must have done a detailed work by the Qing court!"

Gu Yanwu: "Your Majesty, this is just a hypothesis and cannot be concluded. It is also impossible to rule out that there are capable people in the Qing court who can calculate the actions of our dynasty. For example, Hong Chengchou, this person's scheming is very powerful. Therefore, I still have to observe and not doubt it. After all, all the participants on that day were your Majesty's trusted ministers."

Zhu Youlang: "That's natural. If I had no evidence, how could I easily commit crimes? Cedar, let's stop here beforehand, I'll think about it."

"Abide by the order."

...

The dawn meeting is always open, and the next afternoon meeting is the first time since Zhu Youlang became emperor.

Everyone who attended the meeting knew that something big would happen. When they heard that it was the battle report of the fall of Xiangyang and Jingmen, everyone was worried and looked solemn.

Of course, there is one person who is happy, and that is Qian Qianyi.

"My dear friends, the failure of the Left Route Army has completely broken our strategic deployment. Li Dingguo wants to fight Luo Luohun and Wu Sangui in Jingzhou. What do you think?" Zhu Youlang saw that the ministers did not speak, so he had to ask.

"Your Majesty, the left-wing army captured Xiangyang, and Jingmen failed, and it was impossible to implement the original strategy again. The right-wing army has been out of Xianxia Pass since the tenth day of August. The two groups of troops attacked Quzhou. The Quzhou defenders could not defend, and it was difficult to get out for a while. Marshal Li arranged heavy troops north of Quzhou and wanted to surround some and attack some reinforcements. What is very strange is that there was no sign of reinforcements in Hangzhou and Jinhua Qing soldiers. At the same time, Jiergalang personally led the main force and surrounded Jiujiang. Our army was controlled by the left and right sides, while the middle-wing army was under tremendous pressure. I think it is necessary to adjust the strategy and re-form the combat plan."
Chapter completed!