So Yuan Shikai ordered the Second Association and the Third Association to regain the lost land in Jiangxi. After regaining the land in Jiangxi, the Second Association attacked Chalingzhou in Changjiang Prefecture, Hunan Province, and the Third Association attacked Chenzhou in Hunan Province. He led the first town and the Second Town to Xiushui County, annihilate the northern army of Deyou's army, and then take directly to Changsha. As long as Changsha is captured, the entire Hunan Province will be in just around the corner.

However, Liangbi and Yinchang, who were in charge of Changsha, had already received Yonggui's report and learned that the army in the middle and southern routes had been trapped by Yuan's army, and were besieged by Yuan's army and were killed and defeated. Huai Qingji died in the chaos. Now the remaining troops were led by Yonggui and retreated to Fenyi County.

Both were also shocked and quickly discussed with Tieliang on the front line. After Tieliang learned about it, he basically believed that Yuan's army was in the middle and the south route was a trick to lure the enemy. Otherwise, why would he not be able to capture Xiushui County repeatedly and lose his troops, but the middle route, the south route was unstoppable and won consecutive victories! Now that the Yuan army defeated the middle route, the Deyou army on the south route would inevitably concentrate its forces to capture Changsha in the next step. Once Changsha was lost, the entire Hunan would be unable to protect it. Therefore, the three decided to withdraw troops from Xiushui County to defend Changsha. At the same time, they also asked Pu Wei and Shanqi of Sichuan to send troops to reinforce.

As a result, when Yuan Shikai led the army to Xiushui County, Tie Liangji led the Deyou army back to Changsha to guard. At this time, the second and third associations of the Yuan army also recovered all the lost land in Jiangxi. It turned out that although Yonggui had collected a lot of remaining troops, he had no choice but to lose all the weapons and supplies, and he could not resist the Yuan army at all, so he had to retreat along the way. As a result, he gave up all the places in Jiangxi and retreated to Hunan.

At this time, Duan Qirui suggested to Yuan Shikai that the remnants of the Deyou Army had no combat power now, so they ignored it at all. Change the original plan and only left one target force at most, stationed at the junction of southwestern Jiangxi and Hunan, and restrained the remnants of the Deyou Army. It was enough to concentrate all other forces and attack Changsha with all their strength, because as long as Changsha was taken, the entire Hunan Province would be basically in his pocket.

But Yuan Shikai hesitated because at this time, the remaining Deyou Army in the two routes of the south were still more than 20,000. This number cannot be underestimated. It is still above the total number of the Second and Third Associations, but it has repeatedly retreated without fighting. From Jiangxi to Hunan, is there any article in it? Don’t just give the Deyou Army a plan to lure the enemy into depth. The Deyou Army immediately responded to himself with his own way and to treat the person! In fact, this is because Yuan Shikai really lacked practical experience. He only noticed that the remaining Deyou Army had a certain scale of human-enemy, but ignored the actual combat effectiveness of the remaining army. After Bi Jin entered the firearm era, unlike the cold weapon era, the combat effectiveness of the army did not depend entirely on the number of people.

So in order to be cautious, Yuan Shikai ordered the second association and the third association to attack Hunan Province together. At the same time, he ordered Nanjing to send another assistant to reinforce him. Yuan Shikai's army had only 3 towns and 6 assistants. He had dispatched 2 towns and 3 assistants to fight against Deyou Army. At the same time, there was also a joint defense in Jianchang Prefecture in southeastern Jiangxi. One assistant was also needed to defend Fujian, Jiangsu and Anhui areas. Therefore, now Yuan Shikai can only draw 1 army, one town and one assistant.

Although before the war started, Yuan Shikai asked Xu Shichang to form two more soldiers, these two soldiers were new troops after all, and they could not go to the battlefield immediately. Yuan Shikai did not dare to call all his reserve troops now. Bi Jin is not a critical moment of life and death, and he still has to leave some room, so he only drew one assistant this time. In this way, Yuan Shikai concentrated two towns and the troops of the two soldiers, about 40,000, to attack Changsha.

However, it will take at least 10 days for the reinforcements to arrive from Nanjing to Xiushui County. Yuan Shikai couldn't wait that long, so he led the army to attack Changsha first, fighting and waiting.

But when Yuan Shikai led his army to Changsha, Deyou's army had already set up a defense line in Changsha. It turned out that after Tieliang retreated to Changsha, he expected Yuan Shikai to attack Changsha, so he immediately set out a defense line in Changsha. First, he ordered Yonggui to let him station in Hengyang Prefecture and to provide Yonggui with a batch of weapons and ammunition. Because Yonggui's troops are still in their own hands, they just lack weapons. As long as they defend Hengyang Prefecture, they can ensure the safety of Changsha's flanks, so that Changsha can only guard the east. Then Tieliang and others set up defense lines outside Changsha and recruited a large number of people to participate in the construction of fortifications. Finally, before Yuan's army arrived, they improved Changsha's defense.

Changsha's reaction was so fast that Yuan Shikai was a little surprised. Because the previous stage of the battle made Yuan Shikai look down on Deyou's army, thinking that Tieliang and others were all people who were worth living, and it was not worth worrying. However, they didn't know that Huaiqing and Yonggui were average, Tieliang did have some skills. As a result, he not only missed the opportunity to annihilate Tieliang's troops in Xiushui County, but also gave Tieliang time to arrange the Changsha defense line.

At this time, Duan Qirui suggested to Yuan Shikai that Changsha had prepared for defense now, so it would be better to temporarily garrison troops to fight Changsha, and then draw some troops to cooperate with the second and third parties to first capture Hengyang Prefecture. This would threaten Changsha's flanks and force Changsha's defenders to expand the scope of defense, so that they would naturally reveal flaws.

However, Yuan Shikai believed that Duan Qirui's suggestion took too long and the variables were too large, so he did not adopt it, but instead commanded the army and launched a fierce attack on the Changsha defense line of Deyou's army.

However, at this time, the Deyou Army was prepared and the fortifications were relatively well built. In terms of military strength, Tieliang's Northern Army and the Deyou Army stationed in Changsha had a total of nearly 35,000. The Yuan army had only about 32,000 troops in one of the two towns and one of them. The Yuan army did not have the advantage in terms of military strength. At the same time, Changsha was the rear of the Deyou Army, and all kinds of materials, weapons and ammunition were very complete. At the same time, Tieliang, Liangbi and Yinchang also took turns to the battlefield to supervise the battle and command. Therefore, the Yuan army's attack was not smooth. It attacked for 6 or 7 days in a row, but the results were not great, and more than 4,000 casualties were killed or killed.

On another front, the second and third alliances of Yuan's army had already captured Chalingzhou and Binzhou, and joined forces to attack Hengyang Prefecture. However, Yonggui led his army to retreat to Hengyang Prefecture, and obtained the supplement of weapons and ammunition. At the same time, a large number of wounded soldiers were recovered. Therefore, Yonggui also reorganized the army and organized about 15,000 troops. Although it was not enough to defeat Yuan's army, it was still more than enough to defend Hengyang Prefecture.

As a result, the war entered a stalemate. The Yuan army was unable to break through the Deyou army's defense line, and the Deyou army was unable to repel the Yuan army. Although the reinforcements of the association had already arrived at the front line, after all, there were only 67,000 people in one association, and the assistance to the Yuan army was really limited.

Yuan Shikai was also in a dilemma at this time. With his current strength, if he wanted to break through the Deyou Army's defense line, he could only transfer the last town, but as soon as he came, he would have played all the cards. If he could not make a major breakthrough, or if Deyou Army had other moves, he would be in danger. Duan Qirui once again suggested to Yuan Shikai that with the current strength of Yuan's army, even if he could transfer the last town, it would be difficult to break through the Changsha's defense line. He could only concentrate his troops to take Hengyang Prefecture first and then Changsha.

Yuan Shikai thought about it over and over again, but he didn't make up his mind, so he could only generate electricity for Nanjing, tell Wang Shizhen, who is in charge of Nanjing in detail, and ask him how to act. Yuan Shikai believed in the judgment and opinions of the Beiyang Dragon very much.

Soon Wang Shizhen replied to Yuan Shikai, believing that the time to conquer Changsha is missing, and it is difficult to gain great results if the battle continues. Moreover, at this time, the Yuan army not only severely damaged the Deyou army, but also occupied Chalingzhou, Binzhou and other places in Hunan Province. It can be considered a great victory. Therefore, it is better to stop the troops and stop the battle to avoid Kanglong's regret.

After reading Wang Shizhen's reply, Yuan Shikai was naturally disappointed, but he did not dare to underestimate Wang Shizhen's opinions. Moreover, during this period, Yuan Shikai also reflected on his series of decisions and orders after winning the Battle of Fengcheng. Only then did he find that because he was too determined to be stable, he missed many good opportunities. Otherwise, he would have already taken Changsha. However, just withdrew his troops like this, Yuan Shikai was a little unwilling to accept it because the opportunity this time was really good, and Yuan Shikai also urgently hoped to occupy Hunan Province. After all, Yuan Shikai's territory is too small now, so Yuan Shikai was also hesitant.

At this moment, Yuan Shikai received two news in succession, one was that reinforcements from Deyou's army were coming.

It turned out that after receiving the emergency from Changsha, Pu Wei and Shanqi from Sichuan were also shocked, because just a few days ago, the situation on the battlefield was still very good, and they were only a little short of conquering Nanchang and occupying the entire Jiangxi Province. Why did the situation suddenly reverse and even Hunan Province was difficult to protect? Of course, at this time, other new forces in the Deyou court immediately attacked Tieliang and others like they were injected with chicken blood, and asked Pu Wei to dismiss Tieliang and others immediately to investigate and investigate. What's more, they even asked to behead the three of them to show the world.

However, at this time, Pu Wei and Shanqi were still clear-headed. One was that changing generals at the last minute was a taboo in military strategists; the other was that there was no one available in the Deyou court now. Can you still expect these new forces to command the army to fight against Yuan Shikai? Pu Wei was very clear about what these people were. In addition, Tie Liang, Liang Bi and Yinchang were also unquestionable for the Deyou court. Therefore, the most urgent task now is to send them reinforcements immediately to defend Changsha and to defend Hunan.

So Shanqi immediately mobilized about 20,000 troops and sent them to support Changsha.
Chapter completed!