It was the third day of April in the ninth year of Chongzhen.
Outside Xing'an City, break into the army camp.
The camp of more than 100,000 people could not be seen to the edge at a glance, stretching for dozens of miles.
On the side facing Xing'ancheng, a simple camp wall made of civil engineering has been erected, and there are several simple trenches outside it.
These measures are all to prevent possible camp attacks.
There was solemnity in the Chuangjun camp, and the camp walls were covered with guards.
Looking through the gate, among the layers of military tents and pieces of spears and spears, a huge green curtain military tent is particularly eye-catching.
There are many soldiers outside the big tent, and more than ten flags are lined up in front of the tent. The flag in the center is the tallest. The flag is simple and clear, with only a big word "Chuang".
This is the Chinese army tent where Gao Yingxiang is located.
At this time, in the Chinese army's tent, Gao Yingxiang was wearing a vermilion arrow suit and a net scarf on his head, carrying both sides on his back, standing in front of the map hanging in the main hall.
Gao Yingxiang had a high nose and deep eyes, and his gaze was profound. A group of generals in armor stood on both sides of the tent, waiting for Gao Yingxiang's orders.
In nearly a month, the three cities of Pingli, Ziyang, and Xunyang, as well as some surrounding towns, have been conquered.
Hanzhong Prefecture was not severely affected by the disaster, so it received a lot of food in the three cities and surrounding areas.
The current most critical food crisis in the military has also been alleviated.
Gao Yingxiang left Wang Cheng, the Sky Harrier, to continue guarding Ziyang to prevent the Ming army from rushing in for reinforcements from Sichuan Province.
The rest were all withdrawn outside Xing'an City by Gao Yingxiang.
The cavalry troops who looted Hanyin and scouted Shiquan also returned outside Xing'an City. They also brought news from the central part of Hanzhong Prefecture.
Hanyin City was not captured, but all the towns and villages around Hanyin City were captured.
The intruders burned everything they could see and took away everything they could.
The direction of Shiquan was also looted, but most of the towns were still preserved.
Gao Yingxiang looked at the map in front of him and combined with the information received from all sides, the situation became increasingly clear.
The reconnaissance cavalry captured many people in Shiquan. From those people's mouths, he learned that the 3,000-man army led by Zhou Yumao did not stop at Shiquan, but went farther west.
And there are no outsiders entering the vicinity of Shiquan from the plank road in the north.
Some bold scout cavalry even went deep into Xixiang and Yangxian County, and the news they brought back was reassuring to Gao Yingxiang.
Through the information collected, Gao Yingxiang confirmed that Hong Chengchou had not sent more troops to Hanzhong Prefecture.
There should be only two battalions of Zhou Yumao and Chen Wang in Hanzhong Mansion, as well as some guards.
Xing'an, Hanzhong Prefecture, was marked with a red dot on the map. Gao Yingxiang's eyes paused on Xing'an City for a moment, but he quickly looked away.
His eyes finally stopped at the top of the map, above Hanzhong Mansion - where Xi'an Mansion is located.
At the top of the map, in the center of Xi'an Prefecture, Xi'an City, the provincial capital, is more eye-catching than the other cities on the map.
Xi'an, Xi'an...
Gao Yingxiang's eyes dimmed and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Attacked Xi'an three times, but failed to break Xi'an.
Instead, they suffered setbacks one after another and lost many soldiers and generals.
Gao Yingxiang's heart was like a bright mirror.
He knew very well that they could be temporary bandits.
However, they cannot remain bandits for the rest of their lives.
A rogue bandit will always be a rogue bandit, a rogue bandit will always be a bandit, and will never become a popular figure.
No matter how they develop and expand now, they are still rogues.
In the Sanyuan War, he had hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, but even with a strength gap of dozens of times, they were not able to defeat Hong Chengchou in the end, let alone capture the city of Xi'an.
If they can't capture Xi'an or Guanzhong, they can only be rogue bandits.
Although the world is big, there is not much room for them.
The Ming Dynasty had two capitals and thirteen provinces, but there were not many that could really be used as foundations.
South Zhili and North Zhili are the core of the Ming court, and the Ming army is the strongest.
Shandong, Henan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian: these eight provinces are either too far away or have no danger to defend.
If these places are used as bases and the Ming army encircles them from all directions, it will undoubtedly be a dead end if they stand firm.
The three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan are dangerous and can be defended, which is also the business of the king.
However, there are many local officials in the three areas, the terrain is complex, and the situation is unpredictable. The soldiers in the three provinces are even more powerful. They guard the main roads entering their areas and block all enemies.
After excluding so many regions, the only ones left that can be used as foundations are Shanxi and Shaanxi.
Shanxi has the Taihang Mountains as a barrier to the east, the Yellow River as an obstacle to the west, the Yellow River and Zhongtiao Mountain to the south to rely on, and the Great Wall to the north as a defense and foundation.
However, Shanxi has suffered from severe drought in recent years, and there are many soldiers in the province, especially in Taiyuan Town.
Taiyuan, as a military center of the Ming army in the north, has been in operation for hundreds of years. It can be said to be truly impregnable and difficult to conquer.
If Taiyuan is not captured, then the entire Shanxi will be firmly controlled by the Ming court.
From the beginning to now, there is actually only one choice left for Gao Yingxiang - Shaanxi.
To capture Shaanxi Province, we must first capture Xi'an City and capture Xi'an Prefecture.
In other parts of Shaanxi, no grass can grow and everything has withered due to severe drought.
In the entire Shaanxi Province, only the land in the Guanzhong area can grow a large amount of food.
By occupying the city of Xi'an, occupying Guanzhong, and then taking the four passes in Guanzhong, they will then have a relatively stable development environment.
There are many things that can be done relying on the city of Xi'an and the Guanzhong area.
As the largest city in Shaanxi, Xi'an is heavily fortified.
You don't need to worry too much about external threats, you can start recruiting craftsmen to make weapons and armor.
Weapons, armor, and armaments have a huge impact on the battlefield.
The head of the 72nd Battalion who followed Gao Yingxiang into Hanzhong Mansion, including Zhang Xianzhong, had a total of five people.
Among the five, Zhang Xianzhong was the strongest, with 3,000 elite cavalry and 24,000 horse troops under his command.
There are 15,000 troops, 54,000 hungry soldiers, and more than 20,000 old, weak, women and children.
The total number of troops under Zhang Xianzhong is nearly 120,000, which is even more than Gao Yingxiang.
The remaining four battalions combined totaled about 40,000 people.
It's just that the quality of his troops is naturally incomparable to Gao Yingxiang.
The number of fine cavalry was directly reduced by 5,000 people. Although the number of cavalry troops was similar, the combat effectiveness of the two sides was not of the same magnitude.
The combat effectiveness of the hungry soldiers is not much different from each other, but the gap between the infantry and the cavalry is huge.
In fact, the horse army and the infantry are just one with war horses and the other without war horses. Other than that, there is almost no difference in combat power.
When most of the cavalry troops actually fought, they dismounted and formed formations like infantry.
The troops and cavalry troops under Gao Yingxiang have undergone long-term training, and their ranks are neat and tidy.
In fact, their combat power is no worse than that of the soldiers in some military towns in the interior. All they lack are weapons and armor.
But there is a huge gap between armies with armor and armies without armor, which is the biggest reason why they still lose more than they win.
In some later movies and TV dramas, armor is like a paper lake that can be cut through at will.
But on a real battlefield, even the poorest quality leather armor can save someone's life at a critical moment, not to mention iron armor with more superior protection.
With the same quality, an armored army can even crush an unarmored army.
On the battlefield of Liaodong, the most common tactics used by Jin soldiers in field battles were to push a shield cart to the front, or to ride a horse and gallop to the front, and fire heavy arrows to tear through the Ming army's formation, and then He dismounted and got out of the carriage, relying on his multiple layers of heavy armor to form a formation and launch a charge on foot.
The Ming army's previous opponents had always been the Mongolian cavalry with less iron and less armor. Hundreds of years of experience and hundreds of years of armaments were all designed to resist the Mongols.
When their enemies were replaced by Hou Jin soldiers, the light bows and sharp knives that were invincible before could not even cause any damage to the enemies.
The result was that on the Liaodong battlefield, the Ming army was defeated again and again, and finally even lost the courage to fight in the field.
In the Han Dynasty, one Han served as five barbarians, not only because the Han army was well-trained and physically stronger.
The biggest reason is actually that there is a huge gap in armaments between the Han army and the Xiongnu army.
Powerful crossbows, strong armor, sharp blades, and fast horses were tactics that were ahead of the rest of the world. This was the basis for the Han army to sweep across Mobei.
Gao Yingxiang knew the function of the armor stomach very well, but the reality was that he did not have time to recruit craftsmen to build the armor stomach.
Officers and soldiers were swarming from all directions, and he had no way to stop. As long as he stopped, his tail would be bitten by the pursuing officers and soldiers.
Sticking to one place is asking for death. Gao Yingxiang can only keep leading the people who follow him to run around, and many times he does not even dare to stop.
The methods they can obtain are extremely limited, and they are basically captured after defeating officers and soldiers.
Although Gao Yingxiang captured a lot of armored stomachs, these armored stomachs were not enough for him to arm all his troops.
Not counting the hungry and the old and the weak, but only counting the infantry, cavalry, and elite cavalry, Gao Yingxiang now has a total of more than 54,000 people under his command, but the armor rate is only about 15%.
There are about 5,000 elite cavalry with armor, and the rest of the cavalry and troops have about 3,000 armored stomachs.
And it was because of this number of Jiawei that he led his troops to defeat the officers and soldiers led by Lu Xiangsheng in one fell swoop in the Xunyang Mountains with the advantage of the favorable terrain, and captured a large number of weapons and equipment, which increased the armor coverage rate to about 15%. ,
It turns out that the army holds even less armor and weapons.
"Xi'an..."
Gao Yingxiang clenched his fists and his eyes gradually brightened.
He moved his eyes away from Xi'an and focused on Xing'an City again.
Gao Yingxiang's eyes flickered, and his heart sank involuntarily.
He planned for nearly two years, and everything he did during this period was an effort to capture Xi'an.
The reason why he kept Li Zicheng, Hui Dengxiang and others in Shaanxi, and also let Li Yangchun, Lin Shengquan and others stay in Fengxiang Mansion and Gongchang Mansion, was to prepare for another attack on Xi'an Mansion.
Li Zicheng and Hui Deng stirred up troubles in Yan'an Prefecture and other places in the north, attracting the main force of officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou to go north.
At that time, the defense force in Xi'an Mansion will be at its most empty. At that time, he will break into Xi'an through the plank road from Hanzhong Mansion.
Li Yangchun, Lin Shengquan and others responded from the west.
However, Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan were killed by Chen Wang who appeared out of nowhere, and the other two battalions he left behind in Fengxiang Mansion were also wiped out by Cao Wenzhao.
Just some time ago, Gao Yingxiang also received news from the north.
In February, Mantianxing and Huntianxing were killed, and Tianxing Huideng surrendered. He was awarded the rank of guerrilla and assigned to He Renlong's command.
】
Now in the north of Shaanxi, only Li Zicheng is still supporting it alone.
It was difficult to get news from the north. These news came from the mouths of the captured officers and soldiers in the Battle of Xunyang. Li Zicheng's situation did not seem to be very good.
Gao Yingxiang's eyes moved upward a little and stopped at Shangluo, the southern part of Xi'an Prefecture.
The only good thing is that he asked Lao Huihui Ma Shouying and others to lead troops into the mountainous area of Shangluo.
Ma Shouying did not disappoint him. The officers and soldiers who went to suppress the enemy were repelled by Ma Shouying. Now Ma Shouying has stabilized the front in Shangluo Mountain.
If he leads troops to attack Xi'an City, Ma Shouying can immediately lead troops to respond.
Gao Yingxiang's face was solemn, and his eyes were full of worry.
To be honest, he doesn't have much confidence in his heart now.
Li Zicheng's army is now the only one left in northern Shaanxi Province. He wonders whether Li Zicheng can take the main force of Shaanxi officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou to Yan'an Prefecture as planned.
If the main force of officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou does not move, his plan to break into Xi'an Mansion through the plank road from Hanzhong Mansion is likely to go wrong.
Once the intention of marching is discovered, and the officers and soldiers wait for work and open the net, then they will be lambs to be slaughtered.
And even if the officers and soldiers did not notice that they had led the troops to Xi'an Mansion, there were tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in Xi'an City, and their chances of capturing Xi'an City were extremely slim.
Gao Yingxiang sighed in his heart and frowned.
There aren't many choices he can really make, and he often has to do so out of his own hands.
And he has no escape route now.
In fact, when Henan Province was transferred to Xunyang Mansion in Huguang Province, he had no way out.
Lu Xiangsheng is now constantly dispatching troops and generals in Nanyang City and adding troops to Xiangyang City.
In more than a month, Lu Xiangsheng will be able to block their way north to Henan Province.
The situation is getting worse. If you continue to run away, this situation will continue.
The places they pass through in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan will become increasingly corrupt.
Even if you occupy these places in the future, they will have no value.
The cards in his hand were so bad that he had no other choice but to take the risk.
