Compared with the progress of the left and right two official armies, only Ding Qirui took the middle road of the Yangtze River to go upstream, but after leaving the Jiujiang River, the progress was not smooth, Yang Kunshan, the commander of the Xingtian Army and the Navy, had personally rushed to Ezhou at this time, and the two warship battalions also strengthened their strength, respectively stationed in Huangzhou and Ezhou on both sides of the Yangtze River, and held the Yangtze River to the death.

Although the water battalion of the Xingtian army is not as many as the official army and the sailors, and the ships of the official and military sailors are not as strong, but the soldiers and generals of these water battalions are very brave, and the two armies fought on the Yangtze River, the officers and soldiers began to suffer defeats, and they lost dozens of warships in half a month, and the soldiers were as many as thousands, and although the Xingtian army also lost a lot of ships, it was far less than that of the official army, so that the official army and the navy were never able to break through the rivers in the area of Ezhou and Huangzhou and reach Wuchang Mansion.

Ding Qirui actually expected this situation, and in late March, he personally dispatched hundreds of warships upstream, trying to level the Xingtian Army on the Yangtze River in one fell swoop, so Yang Kunshan immediately led two warship battalions to meet the battle, and the two sides started a battle on the river in the Qizhou area.

In this battle, the two armies fought for a whole day, and it can be said that both sides used all their strength, ramming ships, firing artillery, and firing rockets...... In the end, after the officers and soldiers paid a heavy price, they still failed to destroy the water camp of the Xingtian Army, and some soldiers began to turn around and flee in boats, which triggered the collapse of the official army and the naval army, and a large number of official and military warships turned around and fled downstream, and as a result, the war and punishment of the heavenly army won a great victory.

Said to be a big victory, in fact, it can only be said to be a tragic victory, this battle, Yang Kunshan took the lead, the boat is high in the command of the commander, so that his boat has become the target of the siege of the official army, in the war, his boat cannon does not know the geometry, the soldiers on the ship are almost everyone wounded, Yang Kunshan was wounded many times a day, but still fought to the death and did not retreat, in the afternoon Yang Kunshan knew that the injury was difficult to support, so he ordered the command to be transferred to the Yangtze River water battalion deputy commander Liu Jiang on his command, and he himself was not long after, the boat was concentrated by a warship of the official army with a cannon, and then hit by a large number of rockets and oil cans, burned into a ball of fire, Yang Kunshan on the ship all the subordinates died in battle, no life survived, and Yang Kunshan also became the highest-ranking general lost after the Xingtian Army became an army.

Fortunately, Yang Kunshan handed over the command before his death, and Liu Jiang raised the handsome flag in his boat in time, and continued to command the fleet to fight to the death with the officers and soldiers, otherwise this battle would probably end in failure.

After the warships of the Xingtian Army caught fire, the sailors on the ship not only did not abandon the ship and jump into the water to escape, but bravely drove the boat to the official and military fleet, hooked the official and military ships with iron hooks, and burned them together.

However, after the defeat of the official army and the naval division, Liu Jiang had no strength to wave his troops to cover up and kill, their two warship battalions fought fiercely in a day, the ships were damaged by more than sixty percent, and the soldiers were killed or injured more than half, the advantage of the Xingtian Army on land, but it could not be brought into play on the river, the reason why they were able to win this battle, it can be said that it was all because the generals of the naval army took their lives in exchange, in addition to Yang Kunshan, the water battalion was killed, and the two water battalions also had a positive and a pair of two battalion generals killed, and the loss was very great, so after the defeat of the official army and the naval division, the Xingtian army has long been unable to fight anymore, Liu Jiang can only order to collect troops and withdraw to Ezhou to repair ships in preparation for another battle.

At this time, Ding Qirui was furious, invited out the sword of Shang Fang, and beheaded several sailor generals who escaped from the battle, and continued to send troops to attack Ezhou, but at this time, the news of Xiao Xingtian's defeat of the official army in Yanggu County came from the north, and he captured the superintendent Sun Chuanting and beheaded Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Liaodong.

Ding Qirui was shocked when he heard this, and cried in the camp of Jiujiang Mansion, he didn't expect that the northern official army would be defeated so quickly, in his opinion, Sun Chuanting can also be regarded as a capable minister, and now that the imperial court has transferred tens of thousands of elite soldiers into the Guannei, how can so many people and horses be enough for Sun Chuanting to deal with the Xingtian thief, I dare not say that Sun Chuanting will definitely be able to defeat the Xingtian thief in the north, at least there is no problem with his strength to drag the Xingtian thief, so that he can buy him a considerable amount of time to recover Wuchang Mansion!

But I didn't think it would take long! Sun Chuanting ended up being defeated and captured, and tens of thousands of troops under his command were wiped out in an instant, and what Xiao Xingtian was going to do next, Ding Qirui couldn't guess.

From Ding Qirui's point of view, now Sun Chuanting and a large number of Liaodong officers and troops have been wiped out by the Xingtian Army, so if the Xingtian Army wants to destroy the Ming Dynasty, the number of officials and troops in the north is no longer enough to withstand the attack of the Xingtian Army.

But will Xiao Xingtian do this? He also has another choice, that is, after solving the threat of the northern official army, continue to attack Nanzhili according to the previous established plan, and after taking Nanzhili, he will go north to attack the Beijing Division, so that the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed more completely.

After Ding Qirui analyzed, in the end, without the support of enough information, he could not determine what Xiao Xingtian would do next, so he sent someone to inform Huang Degong, so that he must conquer Huangzhou as soon as possible, and at the same time ordered the left wing army to attack Ezhou as soon as possible, first open up the Yangtze River, and then send troops to Wuchang Mansion, no matter what, he must first take Wuchang Mansion and then say, once Wuchang Mansion is defeated, at least it can also hit the momentum of the Xingtian thief.

So at the end of March, the official army began to launch a fierce attack on Huangzhou and Daye County, Huang Dequan led nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses of the right wing army, and on March 27, he entered the outside of Huangzhou City, surrounded Huangzhou City in half, and began to launch a fierce attack on Huangzhou City, and the left wing army under the leadership of the general army Fang Guoan rushed to attack Daye County, so far the most dangerous war was launched in Huangzhou and Daye.

Under the dispatch of Luo Rucai, it was Lao Huihui who sat in Huangzhou, and after Lao Huihui was previously ordered, he led a B battalion and two C battalions to enter Huangzhou, with a strength of less than 4,000, but he was besieged by more than 20,000 officers and soldiers such as Huang Degong, after Huang Degong's power department arrived in Huangzhou, Lao Huihui immediately led his troops out of the city to launch a counterattack on Huang Degong, Huang Degong did not expect that the Xingtian Army would dare to go out of the city to fight against the situation of insufficient troops, so he was unguarded, and he was defeated first. After learning that it was the old opponent Lao Hui Ma Shouying who was guarding Huangzhou, he was even more angry, and immediately dispatched troops and horses to start attacking the city.

And Lao Hui temporarily recruited a large number of surrounding people in Huangzhou City to help in the war, dug the entire Huangzhou City outside in advance is a ravine, and arranged a lot of previously captured official artillery inside and outside Huangzhou City, day and night to the siege of the official army bombardment, and repeatedly sent the soldiers under his command to carry out counterattack or night attack, the battle was very tragic, the three battalions in the hands of Lao Hui are equipped with a small number of firearms, but the fighting spirit is very full, more than 3,000 soldiers will take turns to guard and attack, Stunned in Huangzhou City withstood the onslaught of Huang Degong's department for nearly ten days, Huang Degong was never allowed to advance outside Huangzhou City, the casualties on both sides were very large, and on the tenth day, Lao Huihui only had less than 2,000 soldiers left to fight, and the rest were only thousands of people who helped the war to become stronger, so Lao Huihui also armed the young and strong people of Huangzhou City, and defended the city, so that Huang Degong finally attacked the city, but still could not conquer Huangzhou.

At the same time, Ding Qirui sent 5,000 reinforcements, rushed to Huangzhou City by land to help the battle, Huang Degong after receiving reinforcements from the reinforcements, it was a fierce siege, and the old Hui Hui personally went to the city to command the defense, several city walls changed hands several times under the fierce battle, but in the end they were blocked back by the old Hui Hui rate.

On the eighth day of the fourth month, Luo Rucai sent two battalions of men and horses from Wuchang Mansion to Huangzhou by boat, which blocked the onslaught of the official army on Huangzhou, and Huang Degong saw that Huangzhou City was difficult to take, so he had to order the withdrawal of troops back to Macheng to rest, so that the danger of Huangzhou was lifted.

But the battle situation in Daye County is also very dangerous, the person who guards Daye County is He Guofang, a general under Luo Li, and He Guofang is just an ordinary battalion general, and the one under his command is only a B battalion, when Fang Guoan led his troops to attack Daye County, Luo Rucai sent two additional C battalions to He Guofang, which can make He Guofang have the ability to hold Daye County.

You must know that Xiao Tianjian in Daye County attaches great importance to it, iron ore is produced here, Xiao Tianjian ordered to mobilize a large number of craftsmen to build a large craftsman camp in Daye County, build armor here, and provide equipment support for the next attack on Nanzhili, so after the year, Daye craftsman camp has begun to operate, and a large number of craftsmen have initially begun to build armor here. Once so many craftsmen fall into the hands of the officials and soldiers, it will be impossible to make up for it in a short time.

He Guofang did not look at the position is not high, but he knows the importance of Daye County, after learning that Ningzhou was broken by the official army, he immediately began to make preparations to defend against the enemy in Daye County, he ordered the surrounding people to be transferred by him, mobilized a large number of people to dig trenches in Daye County, arranged deer, horses and other things, and wrapped the entire Daye County, just after making sufficient preparations, Fang Guoan led the army to arrive in Daye County.

(Special thanks to feng41501, a drunken two brothers for their tips!) Thank you very much! At the same time, I would also like to extend my highest greetings to all of you book friends on this May Day, and extend the highest respect to those friends who still insist on their jobs! ）