Tang Yun and his men won a great victory in the battle at Gaozhou City, annihilating 20,000 enemies. Even Xu Da, who had predicted that they would emerge unscathed thanks to the power of their firearms, was shocked by the scale of the victory. No one had expected that the defense of the city would result in such a large number of enemy casualties. This greatly boosted the morale of the Western Route Army, and also gave them a good idea of the movements of the enemy commander, Niu Er Huafang.

  The news from the eastern route army made Xu Da slightly heavy-hearted. Looking at the battle report in his hand, it was as expected. His side alone faced the obstruction of Northern Yuan's Ping Zhang Naihe Nuo Hua, who had not appeared for many days, making him suspicious and advancing slowly. If not for the Battle of Gaozhou City, he might not have engaged with Naihe Nuo Hua directly until now.

  Tang He and Fu Youde's eastern route army was met with strong resistance as soon as they exited Shanhai Pass. The northern Yuan generals Pingchang Buhua, Taishi Wentai, and Guotai Tiemuer joined forces to counter the eastern route of the Northern Expedition Army, planning to eliminate one of the Northern Expedition armies before concentrating their troops to deal with Xu Da's army.

  It is said that at the time when the vanguard of the eastern route army led by Fu Youde, Marquis of Yingchuan, had just exited Shanhai Pass, and Xu Da's western route army was in a completely opposite situation. On Xu Da's side, there were no disturbances, while Tang He's side was constantly harassed by roaming cavalry.

  No matter how Tang He dispatched his troops, it was of no use. After all, the three Ping Zhang Zhengshi of the Northern Yuan were facing him, and the number of cavalry under their command added up to nearly 80,000. How could the less than 20,000 cavalry here compare with them? Even if the scouts were scattered as vanguards, they couldn't solve the situation where the main force was harassed at any time.

  Helpless, Tang and his men could only order their subordinates to maintain necessary vigilance, trying to figure out where the main force of the local army was. He would rather have a fierce battle with the Northern Yuan people than continue to suffer from these endless harassment. It wasn't yet late at night when the army rested, but someone would come and pretend to raid the camp, making the soldiers nervous and on edge, unable to get a good rest. If this continued, his 100,000-strong army would eventually collapse without a fight...

  "Marquis of Yingchuan, what do you think about the current situation?" A middle-aged Tang He furrowed his brow and sat in the tent. At this time, several generals from the Eastern Route Army were gathered inside the tent. Unable to come up with a plan, Tang He could only seek help from Vanguard General Fu Youde beside him.

  Fu Youde was originally a descendant of a farming family, with a poor but stable family background. However, due to the corruption and mismanagement of the Yuan dynasty in its later years, the people suffered greatly, and Fu's already struggling family naturally had no way out. As a result, Fu joined the peasant uprising army along with his fellow villagers.

  He became a small soldier under Liu Futong, the leader of the Red Turban Army, and later surrendered to Ming Yuzhen in Shu, but was not reused and turned to Wu Chang to join Chen Youliang. Unfortunately, Chen Youliang killed Xu Shouhui, which led to Fu Youde's resentment. When Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Jiangzhou, Fu Youde led his troops to surrender. At that time, Zhu saw Fu Youde as a talented general and immediately assigned him to follow Chang Yuchun to fight.

  Fu Youde thus began his journey to becoming a founding merit subject of the Ming Dynasty. With Fu Youde's steady and mature yet daring personality paired with Chang Yuchun's aggressive and adventurous nature, the two can be said to be a match made in heaven.

  Displayed in the Battle of Poyang Lake, defeated Chen Youliang's vanguard, and then intercepted the enemy army at Jingjiangkou. Later, during the siege of Wuchang City, he led hundreds of men to dare to climb the city wall and fight, and was shot by an arrow but still fought to the death. He was appointed as the commander of the Xiong Wu Guard.

  Afterwards, he followed Zhu Yuanzhang to fight in many places, defeated Zhang Shicheng, captured Suzhou, pacified Shandong, marched south to Bian and Luoyang, and then attacked Shanxi and Shaanxi. He went out of Tongguan Pass into Gansu, conquered Qingyang, and led troops to conquer Sichuan. At the time when the current emperor was greatly rewarding meritorious officials with noble titles, he was listed among the top 28 due to his outstanding military strategy and achievements, and was granted the title of Marquis of Yingchuan, with a stipend of 1,500 dan (a unit of measurement). In the first two northern expeditions of our great Ming dynasty, he repeatedly achieved remarkable feats, capturing over 20 high-ranking officials of the Northern Yuan, as well as tens of thousands of heads of cattle and sheep...

  The position of a loyal minister is nothing more than this. Now, in the fourth northern expedition, he has become the vanguard general of the Eastern Route Army, and at this time, such a difficult situation also makes it difficult for people to make decisions.

  Fu Youde also fell silent when he heard Tang Guogong's question. After all, most of their Northern Expeditionary Army were infantry, and their mobility was not as good as that of the Northern Yuan people who had many cavalrymen. It was impossible to send out their only 20,000 cavalrymen to pursue and fight them, fearing that they would become dumplings in someone else's pot, ready to be eaten with chopsticks.

  For a moment, the account was silent, and all the generals were frowning, although someone had previously suggested that they should travel lightly and quickly to avoid disturbing the enemy and rush straight to Yingchang. However, it is now clear that this is not feasible. The soldiers under their command have been sluggish for several days, and the supply of food and grass deep in enemy territory is also a big problem. They cannot carry enough food for a year on the march.

  Besides, now they are being tightly entangled by others, how can they let the great army easily break free? When our soldiers are exhausted, the Northern Yuan will surely launch a decisive battle on three routes to Ping Zhang.

  In response to this situation, the officers in the camp were at a loss for what to do. They watched as the soldiers' spirits became increasingly tense. If things continued like this, there would be no need for the Northern Yuan to make any decisions about fighting or not. The officers were already struggling to cope with their own anxious emotions, and they couldn't let such a terrible situation occur.

  All the generals firmly stated that they must solve the enemy's harassment before this happens, to be honest, these people are afraid, and they have experienced such things as surprise attacks and bombing raids when they joined the army years ago, and some of them even more than once.

  To be honest, sometimes the loss of soldiers in a battle with the enemy may not be as many as those lost due to a single night's panic, especially in this tense atmosphere. Who knows, maybe some soldier will suddenly shout out loud in his sleep and trigger a disastrous chain reaction, at which point all these officers will become mere decorations. The tense emotions combined with the fear brought by darkness, the soldiers' chaotic running around, trampling, and indiscriminate killing leading to armed conflicts will all result in massive casualties.

  Tang He's helplessness was also in this aspect, but for now, there is no solution to deal with it. In the end, he couldn't delay any longer. After a moment of contemplation, Tang He finally made up his mind.

  "Wang Bi, I'll give you 5,000 men; Cao Xing, I'll also give you 5,000 men. You two will ambush on the left and right sides of the main camp tonight, and when there are external enemies attacking the camp, you two will cut off their rear army."

  "Zhuo Yong, I'll give you 20,000 elite soldiers to ambush on both sides of the central army. If enemy troops arrive tonight, we'll launch a full-scale attack. Other generals will lead their respective units to lie in wait with swords drawn. Tonight, after setting up camp and entering the night, it's our turn to head north to Wuchang!"

  "Yes!" The generals all responded in unison, only Fu Youde looked at Tang He with a gloomy expression, he had already vaguely guessed Tang He's plan, but this approach was no less than breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, fighting a battle with their backs to the water, if there was even a slight mistake, the army would collapse tonight...

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