Zhang Xianzhong did want to attack Xiangyang because he wanted Yang Sichang's life.

He knew that as long as Yang Sichang took down Xiangyang City, seized the food and salary of the officers and soldiers, and killed a few vassal princes and princes, Yang Sichang would not be able to survive even if he was favored.

In order to take Xiangyang, he had been planning for a long time. Not only did he surrender thousands of officers and soldiers, he also got the customs clearance document to transport food and grass.

In other words, he could have his subordinates bring thousands of officers and soldiers into Xiangyang City, and there are only a few thousand officers and soldiers stationed in Xiangyang City at this moment. As long as they seize the city gate and rush in, they will get the Xiangyang City.

At this time, Yang Sichang was still in the dark, but Zhu Qizhe had already grasped the whereabouts of the bandit through the secret spies placed beside Zhang Xianzhong in advance.

Zhang Xianzhong will definitely take Xiangyang, there is no doubt about this. The question is, will Zhang Xianzhong take Xiangyang and will he plot against Nanyang?

This is really possible, because Xiangyang City is less than two hundred miles away from Xinye, and Xiangyang is at the southern end of the Nanyang Basin. From Xiangyang City to the north, it is basically flat. Can Zhang Xianzhong not have the idea of ​​Nanyang?

What if Zhang Xianzhong really wants to attack Nanyang?

To be honest, with the terrain south of Nanyang, even if Yang Sichang transfers all the main forces of more than 100,000 Ming army forces over, he may not be able to prevent Zhang Xianzhong, who is good at running around.

In order to prevent the largest bandits from rushing to Nanyang, Zhu Qizhu had to transfer the Qi family army and the Imperial Guards back.

Now that the two elite troops have arrived, the defense in southern Nanyang can finally begin to be deployed.

He slowly stood up, picked up a white wax pole and pointed to the large map hanging in front of the conference table and introduced in detail: "Everyone, if Zhang Xianzhong takes Xiangyang, Nanyang is equivalent to the fat meat placed beside his mouth. He will most likely lead his army to capture Nanyang. Therefore, we must prepare for the future and guard the south of Nanyang to prevent this bandit from rushing in."

How to keep this?

Qi Jin, Ma Xianglin and other generals frowned when they heard this.

You know, they only have 20,000 troops in total, but there is a large hole four or five hundred miles wide to the south of Nanyang. Even if they gather together, they may not be able to do more than 200,000 troops under Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai. If they are scattered in the area of ​​four or five hundred miles to defend, it will not be easy to be defeated by Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai!

Qi Jin couldn't help but remind: "Prince, we only have 20,000 troops in total. If we concentrate our troops to station Xinye and Dengzhou and use the city defense, we can withstand more than 200,000 troops of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai. Once we are dispersed into the wild, we may be defeated by them."

Zhu Qizhi nodded slightly and said, "Well, you're right. Twenty thousand soldiers are definitely not enough. So, I have prepared 20,000 elites for you. These 20,000 elites were captured when they were fighting against Li Zicheng some time ago. Many of them were the Tunwei who had just surrendered to Li Zicheng. The combat power is quite good. As for loyalty, you can draw a group of troops from your own hands to serve as officers at all levels of the new army, checking them at all levels and strictly controlling them. I believe there should be no big problem."

If 40,000 troops gathered together to fight with more than 200,000 troops of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, there would definitely be no big problem. The problem is that they have to guard the area four or five hundred miles wide. 40,000 troops are still not enough!

Qi Jin still said with a deep brow, "Prince, please forgive me for being incompetent. If we station these 40,000 troops in Xinye, Dengzhou, Tongbai and Tanghe, we may be able to compete with the main forces of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai. If we were stationed in the wild, we would still not have enough manpower. After all, the opening in the south of Nanyang is four or five hundred miles wide. If Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai do not attack Xinye, Dengzhou, Tongbai and Tanghe, just find a way from the middle to pass through. Even if we find it, we will not have time to block it!"

I forgot to say other arrangements.

Zhu Qizi hurriedly pointed to the map and explained: "I will ask Li Wanxiong to lead the Pingdong Army to station in Miyang, Liu Zhonghe to lead the Pingnan Army to station in Tanghe, and Ai Tiezhu to lead the Pingbei Army to station in Tongbai. In this way, there is basically no need to worry too much in the east of Nanyang. After all, the terrain near Tongbai and Tanghe is still relatively complicated. Even if Zhang Xianzhong wants to run over there, he can't run fast. We still have time to mobilize people to block it. You just need to defend the area of ​​more than 200 miles wide from Xinye to Dengzhou. How about it, is there any problem?"

There is still a problem with this!

If someone concentrates his troops to attack Xinye or Dengzhou, he will naturally withstand it. What should he do if someone does not attack Xinye and Dengzhou and directly rushes over the plains in the middle of the city?

Qi Jin frowned and pondered for a while, and then suggested: "Prince, we need to build four simple fortresses on the front line of Xinye and Dengzhou. This fortress does not need to be too big. As long as it can squeeze out the tent of five thousand people, the city wall does not need to be too high. It is only about one meter long. If we can build four such fortresses, we can connect with Xinye and Dengzhou County to form a defense line. No matter where Zhang Xianzhong wants to enter Nanyang, he will be discovered by the scouts sent by these fortresses. Once they find out their traces, we can gather tens of thousands of people and horses in the nearby fortresses to block them first. Tens of thousands of people and horses are equipped with chariots, muskets, cannons, and sky thunder. It should be no problem to block for a few hours. In this way, we will have enough time to mobilize reinforcements to fight with them."

Zhu Qizhi heard this and stared at the map for a while, then nodded and said, "Well, this method is very good. In fact, there are so many avenues from Xiangyang to Nanyang. As long as we build all these four forts on the main road, Zhang Xianzhong will probably attack these forts in eight out of ten. After all, if we don't walk the main road and the field paths, the more than 200,000 troops may not be less than fifty miles a day."

If this is the case, it will naturally be better. Qi Jin was not familiar with the terrain of Nanyang and wanted to go to the plain to block the army of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai. In fact, there are only a few roads from Xiangyang to Nanyang. Other places are basically field trails, which are not suitable for large army access. As long as these roads are blocked, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai will have a headache.

After all, if more than 200,000 troops lined up in a long row, they would be at least ten miles long, and the speed of traveling was very slow. If the enemy cut them into several segments from both wings and defeated them one by one, they would be finished.

After the meeting, Zhu Qidiao took Qi Jin and Ma Xianglin and other generals to find suitable places to build fortresses on the front lines of Xinye and Dengzhou.

After they walked around for a long time, they found that it was not as difficult as they imagined to be guarding the front lines of Xinye and Dengzhou, because there were only five roads leading to Nanyang, and the other roads were intermittent and were not suitable for marching at all. Moreover, there were two of these five roads that had to pass through Xinye and Dengzhou County.

In other words, they only need to build three fortresses, block the other three major roads, and then send more scouts to extend the south to the alert.

Zhang Xianzhong did not expect that before he even took Xiangyang, he had already started to build a fortress to prevent him from entering Nanyang.

He did think about taking Xiangyang and marching into Nanyang, because after occupying the entire Nanyang Basin, he had a foundation, and after he had a foundation, he could compete for the world.
Chapter completed!