On August 9, Ou Yan led an army of tens of thousands, carrying only ten days of grain reserves, and marched forward in a hurry, marching nearly 400 miles in six days. Before the barbarian army in central Guizhou could react, he captured Yuanling City (Chenzhou, (governing Yuanling County) was surrounded by people.
There were only four to five thousand defenders in the city. They were caught off guard and were trapped and killed by the Ming army in the city