Yuanzhou Xinyu, the scarlet battle flag waved in the wind on the ruined city, the wolf-like Huaidong soldiers made an earth-shattering cry, from the ladder, the city car continued to climb the city, annihilating the stubborn enemy soldiers, more defenders were panicked to flee to the city, howling miserably.

The towers were on fire, and black smoke poured over the sun, covering the city, making it look like night on a sunny day.

The four gates of Xinyu City were besieged to death, and the defenders had no way out except to surrender. Fortunately, most of the defenders were still willing to surrender, listening to the shouts of killing chasing from behind, throwing away their armor, kneeling with their heads in their hands, and the Huaidong army only took away the weapons, so that the surrendered soldiers retreated to the side of the street and waited for the follow-up soldiers and horses to come into the city to accept.

The gates of the city are blocked by the defenders from the inside, and the soldiers and horses who are now entering the city are all climbing into the city, and there are less than 2,000 people, so it is necessary to cut the defeated defenders at this time to prevent them from gathering in one place.

At the time of the breakdown, Zhang Xiongshan fled into the city, apparently without hostility; Zhang Xiongshan still has two or three hundred elite lineages around him, and if he is not careful, there will be unnecessary casualties.

Zhang Jiheng climbed to the top of the city in order to be able to grasp the changes in the situation in the city at any time, and Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao also climbed from the boarding car to the city.

Gu Hao and Zhang Zuowu, the eldest son of Zhang Han, the Tanzhou envoy and the current general judge of the Tanzhou government and the supervisor of the army, entered Xinyu on 6 August and joined the Huaidong Army as a hostage in the name of reporting on their work, so as to show that Tanzhou did not cede land and stand on its own feet and rebelled against Jiangning.

At that time, Lin Jian and Gao Zongting had already left Xia Yuan and rushed to Jiangzhou, ordering Zhang Jiheng to join Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao into the army to accompany him, and wait until Jiangzhou to see him again.

Zhang Jiheng's department also undertook the heavy task of clearing out the remnants of the enemy in Xinyu, and he couldn't go north for a while, and Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao naturally could only stay in Xinyu, but they didn't expect that Zhang Xiongshan, who was quite brave, led four or five thousand remnants of the army to defend the city, but it didn't support it for a day, so the Huaidong army broke the city.

Although the remnants of the Yuanzhou army trapped in Xinyu with Zhang Xiongshan had no fighting spirit for a long time, there were four or five thousand people, and they also knew that Lin tied them to stay in Xinyu to watch the battle with the intention of killing chickens and monkeys, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao were shocked and uneasy.

The soldiers and horses of Yuanzhou were really defeated, the soldiers had no fighting spirit, and the generals had no courage, and the Huaidong Army was so powerful, how could it be undefeated?

Zhang Jiheng was on the side of the city tower, Gu Hao and Zhang Zuowu were a little behind, and said to Zhang Zuowu in a suppressed voice: "Chongguo Gong has no means to take Yuanzhou in late May, but it dragged on for more than two months, so people can't figure it out......"

Even if the road is rugged from Xinyu to Yuan, but the morale of the Huaidong army is so strong, the tactics are skillful, the soldiers are well-armored and the weapons are sufficient, even if 20,000 soldiers are sent westward, they should be able to gnaw Yuanzhou down.

Zhang Zuowu frowned slightly, but it was inconvenient to discuss Huaidong in private at this time, so he suppressed his mind and went to meet Zhang Jiheng.

Although Huaidong adopts Huairou means against the forces of Huaidong and Jiangnan Provinces, it does not mean that if Tanzhou is troubled, Huaidong can continue to use Huairou means to deal with it - Huang Binghao's death is just a warning to some forces that are not yet in the hands of Huaidong, and the one who has the most direct feeling for this warning is the Zhang family in Tanzhou.

"Lord Gu, Lord Zhang......" Zhang Jiheng saw Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao coming over and greeted him.

"Looking at the situation in the city, it will probably be possible to completely end the battle after dark?" Gu Hao asked.

"Two or three hundred dead soldiers retreated with Zhang Xiongshan into a large mansion in Dongcheng, the courtyard wall of the house was high and thick, and the surrounding alleys were narrow, making it difficult to enter for a while......," said brigade commander Feng Yan.

Feng Yan was originally Yu Wangao's old department, and after Tang Fuguan, Yang Zichen and others surrendered to Huaidong, he was promoted to brigade commander after accumulating military merits, and he was also a native of Yangle County, Yuanzhou, Jiangxi.

Hearing that Zhang Xiongshan still refused to surrender to his fate, Zhang Jiheng and Gu Hao secretly sighed: Huang Binghao still has one or two old subordinates who are loyal to him and will never forget each other.

Zhang Jiheng said: "Take the hanging basket and hang some oil cans into the city, since they don't die, then fulfill their ......"

Feng Yan should be, so he went to arrange to annihilate the last stubborn remnants of the defenders, Zhang Jiheng, Zhang Zuowu, and Gu Hao passed through the city wall and walked to the east gate tower to watch the battle.

The mansion is sandwiched in a piece of dwellings, and there are stone alleys connecting the front and back doors, and at this time Feng Yan has been asked to lead the department to block it from both sides. The Huaidong soldiers collected firewood and other fire-starting things all over the city, threw them into the courtyard together with the fire oil cans, and ignited them.

When the remnants of the enemy were forced by the fire and broke through the door, in the depths of the wide alley outside the door, waiting for them were sharp arrows as dense as flying locusts.

Zhang Xiongshan, who claimed to be the first brave general in Jiangzhou, wanted to rush out and fight with a war knife, but he called a huge spear to shoot, and broke a blood hole in the battle armor and chest, howling unwillingly, and collapsed in front of the house door, mixed with the blood of the dead soldiers.

Thinking that Huang Binghao also set fire to the Huaidong Army when Yuan City was broken, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao felt a little sad in their hearts.

Nearly 500 enemies were annihilated, more than 4,000 enemies were captured, and the end of the battle in Yuanzhou was also reined in, everything was not unexpected, and the last remnants of Yuanzhou's soldiers and horses in Xinyu seemed to be such an ending.

The entire Xinyu City was in dilapidation, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao lived in the military camp outside the city with Zhang Jiheng, and Xinyu only ordered Feng Yan to lead his troops to temporarily garrison.

The people's livelihood inside and outside Xinyu City is also in ruins, but fortunately, the war will not last long, otherwise I don't know when Xinyu will be able to regain its vitality.

***************

Unable to clean up the mess of Xinyu, Feng Yan led his troops to stay for a few days, Zhang Jiheng led the main force to leave Xinyu the next day, and went north from the eastern foot of Mengshan Mountain, accompanied by Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao.

On August 12, they arrived in Yuzhang, and after the army arrived in Yuzhang, they did not enter the city, but bypassed Yuzhang City and headed north, heading to Jiangzhou. Traveling 100 miles a day, delaying for a moment, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao were all born as scribes, with mules and horses to ride, walking for a few days, still feeling tired, and feeling more and more that the Huaidong Army was worthy of its strong reputation, relying only on the ability to walk 500 miles in these five days, the Tanzhou Army was thrown out of a few streets.

The post road from Yuzhang to Jiangzhou is located on the west bank of Poyang Lake.

Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao traveled with the army, in addition to the post road crowded with military horses, the lake near the shore of Poyang Lake was also full of sails. These warships, carrying a full ship of soldiers, headed north at the same time as Zhang Zuowu.

Far away, he couldn't see the flag clearly, and Zhang Zuowu didn't know whether it was Ganzhou or Fuzhou that mobilized soldiers and horses to the north.

If you think about it carefully, the Chen Yan Department in Ganzhou and the Zhang Gou Department in Fuzhou are the elite combat power of the Huaidong Army.

If Nanyang falls, the Northern Yan army will unite the Hao and Luo families to go south, and at most nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses will sweep south along the Han River like a flood, how could Lin Tie throw nearly 30,000 troops of Chen Yan and Zhang Gou in the hinterland of Jiangxi?

Although it is not certain that the Huaidong Army will not be able to curb the momentum of the Beiyan West Road Army moving south, at least as far as the current situation is concerned, even if Jinghu, Chizhou, and Huaixi can advance and retreat with Huaidong this time, the disadvantages are very obvious.

On the surface, the total number of soldiers and horses of the Yue Dynasty on the western front was not a few, and the Jinghu, Chizhou, Huaixi, and Huaidong generals transferred to Luzhou and Jiangzhou had a total of 300,000 soldiers and horses, but the troops were scattered on the periphery, and it was difficult to gather in the Jingxiang area to meet with the Northern Yan.

Once the Northern Yan is called to take Nanyang, in addition to leaving a small number of soldiers and horses on the eastern flank (such as Chen Zhihu's department) to contain Dongyuan in Huaixi, the Northern Yan will be able to gather nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses at most to go south.

In the south, the total strength of Huaidong in Jiangzhou, Chizhou Army in Eastern Hubei, Jinghu Army in Jingzhou, and Jiangxia was only 170,000.

The Chizhou army has just suffered a major setback from Zongyang, and its morale has not yet recovered, and the combat strength of 30,000 horses cannot be expected too much; And Hu Wenmu is self-reliant according to Jinghu, although there are 60,000 soldiers and horses, but in the early years, he didn't even dare to fight Suizhou, and the combat effectiveness of the army is not worth looking forward to, and there are no famous generals available under his command.

Therefore, Huaidong really wants to cross the river and go north, and fight with the soldiers and horses of the Northern Yan in the south in Jingxiang, and can only rely on its own combat strength.

Although Huaidong still has more than 30,000 elites in Luzhou, the soldiers and horses deployed by Huaidong in Luzhou are to protect the flanks of Huaixi. Once Huaidong transferred the soldiers and horses from Luzhou to Jiangzhou, it was a better choice for the Northern Yan to capture Nanyang, take advantage of the situation to go out of Tongbai Mountain, sweep Xinyang, and attack Shouzhou.

Huaidong's soldiers and horses that can be assembled in Jiangzhou alone are difficult to compete with the main force of the southward and northern Yan and western fronts, but for Huaidong, the biggest advantage is that there is a natural danger on the Yangtze River to rely on, and it is a big deal to give up the Jingxiang area on the north bank of the Yangtze River and retreat to the south bank.

For Hu Wenmu, even if he had to give up the territory on the north bank, he could still keep the two prefectures of Jiangxia and Ezhou on the south bank.

The most difficult is still the Chizhou army.

The Chizhou army guarded Huangmei and Zongyang, although it was dependent on Jiangzhou across the river, but after all, it had to directly contact the Beiyan army, which became the baffle of Jiangzhou and Luzhou. But if the Chizhou army wants to abandon Huangmei and Zongyang and withdraw, where can they retreat? To the east is Luzhou, and to the south is Jiangzhou, and they have to agree to their withdrawal if Lin Tie agrees to their withdrawal, so that they can have room to withdraw.

The closer Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao got to Jiangzhou City, the more they believed that Huaidong would eventually give up Jingxiang. Although giving up Jingxiang was also quite disadvantageous to Huaidong, they determined that Huaidong did not have the conditions to compete with Beiyan for Jingxiang at this time.

When they arrived in Jiangzhou, Zhang Zuoyou and Gu Hao naturally wanted to meet Lin Bin, but when they entered Jiangzhou on the 15th, Huaidong's important figures in Jiangxi, from Lin Bin, were nowhere to be seen.

At this time, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao knew that Lin Lian, Fu Qinghe, Gao Zongting, Song Fu, Ao Canghai and others had led the Jinghai Battalion Ge Cunxiong and the Changshan Army Yu Wencheng to cross the river to the north bank and march to the south of Qichun City, and formed a flanking attack on Qichun Chen Hansan with the Deng Yu Department of the Chizhou Army.

Only then did Gu Hao and Zhang Zuowu know that their guesses along the way were wrong, and Huaidong was going to fight with the Northern Yan army in Jingxiang.

On the Jiangzhou side, it is temporarily presided over by Yang Zichen, the prefect of Jiangzhou.

Yang Zichen told Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao that if they wanted to go to the north shore, they could send a boat to send them over, and of course they could stay in Jiangzhou City for the time being until the war was over.

Although it was safer to stay in Jiangzhou, Zhang Zuowu and Gu Hao couldn't understand why the Huaidong Army was obviously inferior in strength, so they chose to fight with the army of the Western Front of Yanbei in Jingxiang, so they wanted to go to the front line to watch the battle. They all understood that as long as they followed Lin Lian's side, no matter how bad they were, they could still save their lives and escape back to Jiangzhou.