In the Yuhu Palace, the urgent military report sent overnight has been placed on Zhu Cixiang's desk. Zhu Cixiang raised his head and looked at Yan Yingyuan, Zhang Yong, Qin Liangyu, and Du Yinxi who had just arrived from the Hudukou Camp. He said calmly: "Li Zicheng may have burned the boat that sent him across the river. This is a desperate situation and he will fight us to the death."
Zhang Zongrong, can your cavalry control the movements of the bandits? "
The military report on Zhu Cihong's desk was brought back by Ye Bushou sent by Zhang Yong. Regardless of the fact that his status in Zuo's army is not high, he was just a deputy general before Zuo Liangyu was granted the title of Marquis of Wuchang, and was later promoted to the rank of chief soldier. He was not a guard general with territory, but just a "little chief soldier." "That's all. However, his army is one of the best among the Zuo family's army. The book establishment of eight thousand is very full, with almost no empty space.
There are a thousand servants among them, all of them are northwest warriors who are skilled in bow and horse, and they also maintain the configuration of one man and two horses. They are light cavalry that makes Zhu Cixiang envious when he looks at them - but don't think that light cavalry is possible. There are no arms. In the decisive battle between the two armies, their role is indeed not big. After all, now is the era when artillery and gunfire dominate the battlefield. How much room can the light cavalry have to play with mounted archery as its main combat method? However, in addition to the decisive battle between the two armies, combat operations such as search, warning, shielding, outflanking the enemy's back roads, and cutting off the enemy's supply lines all require a light cavalry with reliable combat effectiveness.
The lack of light cavalry is precisely the biggest and irreparable weakness of the new army to overcome difficulties - both Dashun and Qing Dynasty have a large number of cavalry, all of which can serve as light cavalry.
On Zhu Cixi's side, there was no way to expand the number of cavalry due to the lack of pasture to raise horses and the lack of channels to purchase war horses in large quantities.
In addition to the quantity that cannot be guaranteed, the quality of the light cavalry of the new army is also problematic - heavy cavalry impact tactics such as wall charges, which are so popular in later generations, are actually not difficult to practice.
After Zhu Cixiang put forward relevant requirements to the two cavalry regiment commanders Wang Yan and Sun Fugui, the two cavalry regiments of the new army in overcoming difficulties have been training hard for several months, and now they are able to mobilize company-level (about a hundred cavalry) troops. Groups of units struck. The "wall style" is not yet possible, but it can still maintain a relatively dense formation when charging.
However, high-intensity training in a short period of time cannot achieve good results in the field survival, maneuvering, combat, concealment and other skills of mounted archery and small groups of cavalry.
In addition, outpost contact battles between light cavalry on both sides are usually also wars of attrition between knights and war horses.
It is difficult for the new army to overcome the difficulties, which does not have advantages in numbers (number of horses and knights) and technology, to bear the consumption of a truly fierce light cavalry outpost battle.
In the last Battle of Bloody Creek, if Hauge had not been frightened by the large-scale dispatch of the New Army's armored cavalry and their revolving fire muskets, but insisted on dispatching a large number of cavalry to fight Zhu Cixiang, then The Battle of Bloody Creek may have been another outcome...
After Li Zicheng burned the wooden boats on the Yangtze River and cut off his retreat, he really went all out. He sent thousands of old battalion cavalry, divided into more than a hundred groups, and took turns to sweep the battlefield south of Gong'an County.
Zhang Yong shook his head and said: "Your Highness, since noon yesterday, the bandits have dispatched a large number of cavalry, with dozens of cavalry as one group, fighting in the area from the northwest of Shishou Mountain to Hutou Mountain. I have only a thousand cavalry. It is true that They couldn't resist, so I had to let them shrink and retreat to the area between Tangjiashan and Gongan County to maintain alert."
"Tangjiashan?" Zhu Cixiang was not familiar with the public security terrain, "Where is it?"
Du Yinxi said: "It is a small mound on the edge of the Hudu River, about thirty or forty feet high, more than thirty miles away from Gong'an County. There is also a Lotus Temple at the foot of Tangjia Mountain, because the Hudu River often floods. Therefore, the temple is built very solidly and is surrounded by waterproof embankments.”
Zhang Yong said: "By guarding Tangjiashan and Lianhua Temple, we can control the Hudu River. The Hudu River leads to the Hudu Pass, and our army at the foot of Jiangling and Huya Mountain can move over along the waterway. So the gains and losses of Tangjiashan and Lianhua Temple , it’s a matter of life and death!”
Of course Zhu Cixiang would not pin his hopes of defeating Li Zicheng on Qiu Lei, Zhang Yong, Jin Shenghuan and others.
After discovering that Li Zicheng might attack the police, Zhu Cixiang immediately ordered Wu Guoyong, who was preparing to attack Huya Mountain, to return to the army.
However, Wu Guoyong's troops had a lot of artillery and baggage, and it was very difficult to transport them by land. Because the casting technology is not very sophisticated these days, even a three-pound bronze cannon is not light. It weighs several hundred kilograms, and when assembled into a gun carriage, it weighs more than a thousand kilograms. And in order to support artillery operations for a long time, each cannon needs to be equipped with an ammunition truck.
In addition, each artillery company must be equipped with a mobile blacksmith shop (also a carpenter shop) to repair damaged artillery and artillery carriages, and sometimes some engineers for road construction.
Therefore, the four artillery batteries of the New Army's right division required a large number of draft horses to maneuver, and the shortage of horses always troubled Zhu Cixiang's New Army.
Therefore, whenever possible, the artillery officers of the New Army tended to use ships to transport their artillery and vehicles by water to save the consumption of horses. Due to the lack of high-quality draft horses, the new army had to use low-quality horses purchased from the southeast to replenish their numbers. This also caused the horses to be consumed quickly - small horses pulling large carts naturally lacked strength and could easily die from exhaustion. And because there is no good supply, you can only lower your requirements when buying horses. Many draft horses are already sick and crooked, and they are more likely to die when they are tired...
During the movement of the right division of the New Army from Jiangxi to Jingzhou Prefecture, many draft horses died of exhaustion and illness! During the fast march from Hukou Ferry to Huya Mountain, he fell ill and exhausted again, so Wu Guoyong could no longer let his artillery move overland.
Otherwise, the last batch of stronger draft horses will be exhausted - those are reserved for use in battles! Without their efforts, the three-pounder gun would not be able to maneuver on the battlefield.
"That's Tangjiashan and Lianhua Temple!" Zhu Cixi patted the map spread out on his desk. "Since we can't figure out where Li Zicheng is, let's line up at Tangjiashan and Lianhua Temple! As long as Li Zicheng Come here, this is where he will die!"
"Your Highness, where are your Chinese troops?" Qiu Lei asked in a low voice.
Of course, Zhu Cixiang would not stay in the Yuhu Palace forever. The palace was not a fortress. If his position was exposed and he was attacked by Li Zicheng, it would be the end.
"Enter Gong'an County!" Zhu Cihong said, "Put my palace's 'Taizu Gao Emperor Reincarnation' flag on the top of Gong'an County's city.
The central army of King Chu (the future King of Pingxi) was placed at the foot of Tangjia Mountain! Zhang Zongrong, I order you to assist the King of Chu to fight against the bandits in Tangjiashan! "
The meaning of this is to let Zhang Yong command the entire army in place of Chu King Zhu Cizhao.
In the next twelve hours, the Ming army gathered in the Gong'an County area began to make arrangements for the decisive battle.
Zhu Cixiang led a regiment of cavalry, a guard battalion and three newly-built infantry regiments to protect himself, and drove into Gong'an County.
Zhang Yong commanded the remaining troops, including 8,000 of his own troops, more than 30,000 troops of Jin Shenghuan, and 12,000 troops of the Prince of Chu's Palace, and successively arrived near Tangjiashan.
They followed the winding Hu Crossing River (this is a tributary of the Yangtze River, running roughly north-south, but it turned east about thirty miles south of Gongan County, and continued southward after flowing for about twenty miles) Defenses on the west and south lines were deployed. Then, relying on Lianhua Temple and Tangjiashan, the eastern front was laid out. A trench five or six miles long was dug on the northern line, from the east bank of the Hudu River to the foot of Tangjia Mountain. This formed a roughly square defensive position, quietly waiting for Li Zicheng's army.
