"When the bandit leader secretly killed Tiger Zhang Yuan and Jin-wing Penglu, he gathered a crowd of 130,000 people, camped for 20 miles, plundered various counties, met in Baocheng, and then marched into Hanzhong. The plan was very big..."
"The rogue bandits came like a wave surrounded by thousands of troops, but when they heard the sound of thousands of muskets being fired, the sound was like thunder, shaking the smoke and dust in the field, like a landslide..."
"The thieves were crushed and rolled back. Guerrilla Chen Wang led his bodyguards and cavalry into the enemy formation, beheading the thieves and killing tiger Zhang Yuan..."
In the Chinese military tent, Hong Chengchou sat behind the long table and looked at the official document that had just been sent not long ago.
This official document comes from Hanzhong Mansion and tells about the battle that took place outside Hanzhong City on the first day of the first lunar month.
Hong Chengchou's eyes kept wandering on the official document in his hand. The official document from Hanzhong Mansion will be sent to the capital after being sorted and summarized.
In fact, he already knew the news about Hanzhong three days ago.
The report submitted by Chen Wang was faster than the official document delivered by the inn.
First, Li Zicheng was defeated, then Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan were beheaded. Within a few months, Zhang Yuan was beheaded and the siege of Hanzhong was lifted.
In fact, when news of the civil unrest in Hanzhong Prefecture came out, Hong Chengchou did not place his hopes on Chen Wang.
There were hundreds of thousands of bandits around Hanzhong City, but Chen Wang only had more than 4,000 soldiers under his command.
All Hong Chengchou wanted was to let Chen Wang stay in Hanzhong and keep the city of Hanzhong intact.
What happened in Hanzhong this time was indeed beyond Hong Chengchou's expectation.
The crisis in Hanzhong Fucheng has now been resolved, King Rui's safety has been guaranteed, and his hanging heart is relieved.
"Chen Wang..."
Hong Chengchou muttered in a low voice, then put down the official document in his hand and picked up another document.
The other document was naturally the military report sent by Chen Wang three days ago.
The official document sent from Hanzhong Mansion added a lot of rhetoric. Although it looks very heroic, many details are ambiguous and are somewhat distorted due to excessive processing.
But the military report submitted by Chen Wang wrote most of the things in extremely detail.
If Hong Chengchou had some doubts about Chen Wang before, his last doubts disappeared when he received this military report.
After decades of ups and downs in officialdom, he has become accustomed to being cautious in everything.
After the last beating, Chen Wang seemed to already know what to do next, and he didn't have any thoughts that he shouldn't have.
Chen Wang is indeed a general who knows how to advance and retreat, and can change his tactics and use weapons according to local conditions.
Although he is a little too young and lacks experience in many areas, he is already extremely outstanding for his age.
Hong Chengchou's eyes lingered on the document. The military report written by Chen Wang was concise, clear and well-organized. It was different from the military reports sent by other generals.
He didn't mention military achievements as much as other generals and commanders.
Generally, military reports sent by generals simply indicate when the battle will take place, how many enemy troops were encountered, how many were captured, and how many casualties were suffered.
The military report written by Chen Wang clearly tells the story from the initial battle, to the subsequent melee, to the final raid and ending.
And the biggest difference from other generals is that Chen Wang quoted a lot of data in the document, and also wrote out the pros and cons of various weapons against the enemy, and even made a post-war summary.
However, the final ending is exactly the same as other generals and schools in this regard - they need money, food and weapons.
"He leads the troops in drills, marches, and fights in formation, just like the Zhejiang soldiers in the past, and they fully understand their form and meaning..."
Hong Chengchou narrowed his eyes slightly and remembered what Cao Wenzhao once said.
Hong Chengchou had naturally read the military books written by Qi Jiguang.
Just from the "Records of Military Training" and "New Book of Ji Xiao", we can know the level of his skills, not to mention the great contributions he made.
The Zhejiang soldiers fought bravely and rarely failed in their campaigns in the south and north.
Although the Zhejiang soldiers were defeated in the Battle of Hunhe, they were defeated because they were outnumbered.
Hong Chengchou once read some handwriting written by Qi Jiguang, including military reports submitted.
Qi Jiguang also wrote data in many places, including the armor-piercing distance of the gun, how and how far the artillery should be released.
Hong Chengchou's eyes squinted slightly, looking at the drawings pressed down by the paperweight on the table.
What is drawn on the drawing is the artillery mount. This drawing was sent to the army by Chen Wang not long ago. A lot of changes were made to the original gun mount. Along with the letter came a cannon that had already been made. shelf.
Hong Chengchou had someone test it. Compared with the original gun mount that carried the artillery, the running frame improved by Chen Wang was indeed easier to transport, more stable during shooting, and easier to aim.
After seeing the advantages of improved gun mounts, Hong Chengchou directly ordered that all gun mount specifications be made according to the drawings sent by Chen Wang, and gradually replaced the artillery mounts of the entire army.
This is not a difficult task, it just requires spending some more silver, but it can increase the combat effectiveness of the army.
Compared with military expenditure, these are just a drop in the bucket, so why not do it.
Hong Chengchou's eyes were deep and he tapped the table with his right index finger unconsciously.
He was thinking about Cao Wenzhao's evaluation of Chen Wang, as well as Chen Wang's behavior.
The more he thought about it, the more Hong Chengchou felt that Chen Wang and Qi Jiguang were more similar.
The battle that made Qi Jiguang famous was the Battle of Taizhou that took place in the 40th year of Jiajing.
In the 40th year of Jiajing's reign, Japanese pirates launched a large-scale attack on Taozhu, Qitou and other places. Qi Jiguang led his troops to guard Taozhu, defeated the Japanese pirates at Longshan, and pursued them all the way to Yanmen Ridge.
After the Japanese pirates escaped, they took advantage of the opportunity to attack Taizhou. Qi Jiguang took the lead and killed the Japanese pirate leader among the troops.
The remaining party members were desperate and all fell into the Gualing River and drowned. After that, they won nine battles and completely annihilated the enemies in Taizhou.
Chen Wang, on the other hand, also fought consecutive battles, organized and trained the army, promoted firearms, and reformed tactics. He even broke into the tens of thousands of troops outside Hanzhong City and killed Zhang Yuan.
When Qi Jiguang was in the army, he invented and improved many things.
Qi Jiguang's work on the formation of troops and formations, the camp sentry system and the mandarin duck formation, as well as the chariot and camp tactics that were improved according to local conditions in the North were all created by Qi Jiguang.
Down to troop training, troop selection methods, and improvement of troop equipment and weapons.
Wolf Xian and Tiger Crouching Cannon were both created by Qi Jiguang.
The original musket weapon had separate ammunition, and there was no fixed amount of powder when loading. Too much powder would easily explode the chamber, while less powder would make the lead bullet less powerful.
Qi Jiguang then ordered the gunpowder to be preloaded into small bamboo barrels. Each gunman was given a kilogram of gunpowder, which was packed with fifty-three small bamboo tubes. Each tube had three coins of gunpowder. The number of lead bullets was the same as the number of bamboo tubes.
Now Chen Wang is doing many similar things like Qi Jiguang back then.
The artillery mounts were improved, and three-eyed muskets were equipped on a large scale according to local conditions to target rogue bandits with few armored stomachs.
Hong Chengchou narrowed his eyes slightly. The tactics Chen Wang is currently promoting in the army can be said to be based on the strengths of hundreds of schools of thought.
The headquarters camp was equipped with heavy armor, heavy bows, shields, chariots and heavy artillery as attacking forces, and used the tactics of establishing slaves.
Although Hong Chengchou had never seen Jiannu, he had read military newspapers and heard others describe Jiannu's tactics.
However, according to what he has learned so far, Chen Wang has not completely copied the tactics of establishing slaves by rote.
Most of the auxiliary soldiers in the slave army were used as cannon fodder for dead soldiers and were also equipped with shield vehicles, but Chen Wang did not treat the auxiliary soldiers as cannon fodder for dead soldiers.
The accompanying auxiliary troops in Chen Wang's army were equipped with a large number of firearms. Basically, they were mainly three-eyed blunderbuss, with only a few bird blunderbuss. The army was also equipped with a large number of Fran machines and tiger crouching guns as supplementary firepower.
Emphasis is placed on the firepower of firearms, with three-eye blunderbuss being used at close range, French guns and tiger crouching cannons being used at medium and close ranges, and barrel cannons being used at long distances.
If the enemy is defending, first use long-distance cannons to attack the enemy's morale and defense, and then use shield vehicles as cover to send heavy armored infantry all the way to the front.
After engaging the enemy, they used heavy bows and arrows to open up the situation. The heavy armored infantry rushed into the formation, and the light infantry and gun soldiers from the rear swarmed up and broke the formation in one fell swoop.
If the enemy is attacking, let the enemy rush forward first, and use the explosive firepower of the three-eyed gun as well as the covering firepower of the Fran cannon and the Crouching Tiger cannon to instantly defeat the charging enemy.
Then, while the enemy's front line was in chaos, they used cannons to bombard the enemy's rear formation, and then used elite cavalry to drive away the defeated troops and attack the enemy's elite cavalry.
Along the way, we have been invincible and won one after another.
It has to be said that the tactics used by Chen Wang now are extremely reasonable.
Hong Chengchou frowned slightly, and when his eyes moved, he suddenly felt that maybe this kind of tactics could be promoted in the army.
However, there are still many details and things that need to be resolved, and it cannot be decided overnight...
Thousands of thoughts were swirling in Hong Chengchou's mind.
"Qi Jiguang...Chen Wang..."
Hong Chengchou closed his eyes.
During the Jiajing period, there were bandits invading the country in the north and Japanese pirates harassing the country in the south.
The country is in turmoil, the world is dark, people are panicked, and it is difficult to settle down.
When the world is in chaos, we miss our loyal ministers; when the country is in danger, we miss our good generals.
The emergence of Qi Jiguang and a group of good generals finally solved the crisis at that time.
The current situation in the country is a hundred times more embarrassing than during the Jiajing period.
It was dark and windy at night, and the wind whipped by outside the tent, making waves of low roars.
Hong Chengchou's thoughts were also carried back to Xi'an Mansion not long ago by the north wind outside the tent.
Chen Wang's figure appeared in front of him again. All the generals and commanders in the tent were carrying a heavy aura of twilight. The vigor of Chen Wang's body conflicted with the aura of twilight in the rest of the people, and seemed out of place.
Although he said he was in a humble position and bowed his head and knelt down, it still felt like he was standing.
Hong Chengchou opened his eyes, and there was a glimmer of light in his originally slightly dim eyes.
Since he became the governor of the three sides and was ordered to put down the rebellion, he has met countless military generals, but none of them are like Chen Wang.
Although Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong were brave and good at fighting, they were just ordinary brave generals.
Although Ai Wannian and Tang Jiuzhou knew the strategy, they were only slightly talented.
Although Cao Wenzhao was a good general with both civil and military skills and the talent of a general, he was ultimately unable to support himself alone and was unable to control his power.
The wind outside the tent was getting louder, and Hong Chengchou's eyes flashed, remembering that Cao Wenzhao reported to him the night conversation with Chen Wang, and he remembered one sentence clearly.
"Train an elite army and rush to Liaodong in the future to expel the slaves, regain the homeland, avenge the country and the enemies of the family, and wipe out the shame of Guangning..."
Zi Buyu's strange power confuses the gods. In fact, Hong Chengchou has always not believed in the doctrine of Shinto, but he doesn't know why he has a feeling.
Perhaps, this Chen Wang, just like Qi Jiguang, came to calm the turmoil in the country.
Perhaps, I should support Chen Wang well. If he can use it well, it will be a big help.
Nowadays, the emperor is paying more and more attention to the military. The price of the fall of Fengyang, the central capital, was the death of a large number of people and the dismissal of countless people from their posts.
The successive defeats in the campaign and the defeat in the Liaodong battlefield made him even more angry.
Hong Chengchou's expression kept changing. He was considering the gains and losses, calculating the pros and cons.
Although Cao Wenzhao's attitude towards him was extremely respectful now, he did not want Cao Wenzhao's subordinates to become too powerful.
Too much power means there is a risk of disaster.
After all, Chen Wang was Cao Wenzhao's personal soldier. Either find a way to create a gap between Cao Wenzhao and Chen Wang, or make them completely different...
Hong Chengchou stood up slowly, turned around and looked at the huge map hanging in the tent.
The current situation of Shaanxi Province is shown in red and black on the Kan map.
Many areas in the central and eastern parts of Hanzhong Prefecture are stained with black, but now it seems that the black areas in the central part of Hanzhong Prefecture can be eradicated first.
In the Battle of Hanzhong, Chen Wang reported that there were only more than 20 casualties, but he killed 1,230 bandits and captured more than 40,000 people, most of whom were old and weak.
Chen Wangzhen beheaded the tiger Zhang Yuan, and more than thirty people in charge of Zhang Yuan's general manager, management team, and military school were captured and killed, which accounted for almost half of his army.
Although there are still many people who escaped, with such casualties and Zhang Yuan's death, Zhang Yuan's subordinates have already had their spines broken, and it is impossible for them to regain their strength.
Zhang Yuan's tribe has actually been disintegrated. Golden Winged Penglu escaped at the time, and the main force did not suffer much loss. There is a high probability that Zhang Yuan's remnants will be absorbed by him.
But this problem is not big. With Lu Shi's current prestige, it is difficult to suppress the remnants of Zhang Yuan's command. It is not easy for him to integrate so many remnants.
Based on the intelligence received previously, Lu Shi did not have the ability to control such a large number of people.
Moreover, during the Battle of Hanzhong, all the grain and grass looted by Zhang Yuan and Lu Shi were intercepted by Chen Wang.
Now even if Lu Shi accepted Zhang Yuan's troops and gathered the remaining remnants, they would soon encounter a food shortage problem.
But Baocheng, Chenggu, and the towns around Hanzhong City had already been looted by them. Where could they go to find food?
Hong Chengchou's eyes stayed in Hanzhong, then moved to Xi'an Prefecture, and then moved to Henan in the east.
Most of Yan'an Prefecture is still dyed black, and the northeast and southeast areas of Xi'an Prefecture are also dyed black. Li Zicheng and other troops are now ready to move and are restless.
Many places in Henan are blooming, and Lu Xiangsheng is campaigning east and west to clean up the rebellion.
The rogue bandits are so powerful that they are difficult to extinguish immediately, and it is absolutely impossible to resolve the rebellion within the time limit.
"Hanzhong Mansion..."
Hong Chengchou frowned slightly, remembering the official letter Lu Xiangsheng had passed to him before.
Lu Xiangsheng's plan seemed to be to drive Gao Yingxiang and others all the way to Hanzhong Mansion.
Maybe it would be a good choice to let Chen Wang stay in Hanzhong like this.
As long as Cao Wenzhao and Chen Wang are not together, there is no unnecessary connection between the two, and there is no need to worry about losing control...
