The officials of the Ming Dynasty in Nanzhao County should be invisible, so the Baoxiang Army would naturally not go all the way to Nanzhao County to stimulate those officials.
The current situation where you don't care about me and I don't care about you is quite good, and it is also in line with Luo Zhixue's early development strategy for the Baoxiang Army.
First try to fight for a period of time as much as possible, obtain food and other materials by controlling the countryside, and then continue to expand to ensure the smooth completion of the army expansion plan of six battalions and two outposts.
Until then, it is time to consider attacking Nanzhao County.
And once the war breaks out, Luo Zhixue will not be limited to attacking Nanzhao County. He will definitely find a way to take advantage of the situation and take down Nanyang Fucheng.
Although Luo Zhixue has no special preference for attacking cities, at the same time, the development of the rural protection army does not actually need to rely on cities.
The population, food and other materials needed by the rural protection army can basically be obtained in the countryside. As for the city, except for a few craftsmen that the rural protection army needs, the others are basically not needed.
Ancient cities are different from modern cities in later generations. Why do modern wars revolve around cities? That's because modern cities are generally industrial bases. If you want to seize and destroy the enemy's industrial bases, you need to go there. Hit the city.
But ancient cities were basically purely consumption cities, with few resources themselves.
At least for the rural protection army, it is enough to control the vast countryside of Nanzhao County. As for whether to capture Nanzhao County itself, it is meaningless.
The reason why Nanzhao County and Nanyang Fucheng will be attacked later is because these two places are important military areas and transportation thoroughfares.
Nanzhao County itself is Yunyang Pass, one of the three passes of Ya Road, which is part of the north-south road. If the Baoxiang Army later wants to control Luyang Pass and completely cut off the northern Ming army's passage south from the Funiu Mountain area, they must first Capture Nanzhao County and then capture Luyang Pass.
Similarly, Nanyang Fucheng is right on the edge of Baihe River. If the subsequent army of protecting the countryside wants to go south along the Baihe River, they must first conquer Nanyang Fucheng so that the Baihe route can be opened.
At the same time, it was also to pull out a big nail. If Nanyang Prefecture was left alone, the rural protection army would not be able to control the vast countryside of Nanyang Prefecture with confidence, let alone move further south to Xiangyang Prefecture.
Because the Baoxiang Army itself maintained restraint, the 3rd Infantry Battalion that was advancing eastward took the initiative to stop and continue to advance eastward when it was still ten miles away from Nanzhao County.
Subsequently, while monitoring the movements of officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County, they sent small-scale troops to continue sweeping the local area to provide force support for the work of the newly established Yahe Township Yamen.
Ever since, the strange scene that once appeared in Lushan County appeared again in Nanzhao County.
When they were in Lushan County, the Baoxiang Army swept through the surrounding villages after taking Songjiazhuang, and pushed the actual control area to less than six miles away from Lushan County.
However, the Ming army in the city did not come out, and the Baoxiang army did not continue to advance. Therefore, the two sides were separated by five or six miles, pretending that the other side did not exist...
The same scene is now happening in Nanzhao County. Officials headed by the county magistrate and more than a thousand Ming troops stationed in Nanzhao County are staying in the city honestly, as if they don't know that there are a large number of bald thieves outside.
The troops of the Baoxiang Army also behaved very well and never approached the Nanzhao County area, stopping only ten miles away.
But this is only on the surface. In fact, the adults in Nanzhao County are also constantly collecting more information about these bandits, and continue to recruit young people to try to strengthen the defense strength of Nanzhao County.
Just when the third infantry battalion of the Baoxiang Army in the north and the officers and soldiers of Nanzhao County were living in peace ten miles apart, Chen Yongfu in Nanyang City also received relevant intelligence.
"At least two thousand bandits? Are there elite cavalry and artillery?" Chen Yongfu couldn't believe what he heard.
"But how is this possible? It is possible that there are two thousand bandits, but there are also hundreds of elite cavalry? And dozens of cannons? Are you trying to deceive me, Chen Yongfu, who doesn't understand military affairs?"
Doesn’t Chen Yongfu know what the traitor is like?
He knows it very well!
Since last year, he has been stationed in Nanyang and started fighting against bandits of all sizes. After last year's hard battle, especially with the support of the surrounding right-wing troops, the large groups of bandits in Nanyang have either gone south or westward to the mountains. gone.
The rest are just some petty thieves.
Starting from the second half of last year, the only thing worth mentioning is that last year, a group of about one or two thousand bandits passed through Nanyang and headed north to Funiu Mountain.
However, among these bandits, except for a very small number of elites under the leadership of the big bandit leaders, it is impossible to have large groups of cavalry, let alone large-scale artillery units.
Could it be said that the bandits who came south from Funiu Mountain this time were the main bandits from the north?
Chen Yongfu knew that there were a large number of main bandits in several prefectures in the north. Even Ruzhou was besieged by tens of thousands of bandits. Under such circumstances, it was possible for thousands of bandits to go south.
However, even so, he did not quite believe that these bandits heading south had hundreds of fine cavalry and dozens of cannons.
Chen Yongfu looked suspicious, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "Send more reconnaissance cavalry to go north, and be sure to find out where the thieves coming south come from."
If the bandits going south were anything to go by, Chen Yongfu wouldn't mind leading his troops north to kill a wave of bandits to make a mark.
However, if there are really thousands of bandits going south, and if they really have a large number of fine cavalry and artillery, then he will have to consider the risks of attacking.
The reason why Chen Yongfu can now know the news about the Baoxiang Army is because the First Infantry Battalion of the Baoxiang Army has crossed the Baihe River and swept down the west bank of the Baihe River.
During this process, the Baoxiang Army did not just march hundreds of miles a day and kill directly at the foot of Nanyang City, but slowly moved south. Naturally, relevant news spread, and eventually reached Nanyang City.
After Chen Yongfu learned the news, he sent out reconnaissance cavalry, and it didn't take long for him to receive a rescue letter from Nanzhao County.
After receiving the rescue letter from Nanzhao County, Chen Yongfu snorted coldly: "I am hiding in the city, but let me lead the troops to fight. I only think about this good thing."
After all, there are more than a thousand officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County. Even if there are only two or three hundred soldiers among them, it is not said that they have no resistance at all.
All the subordinates around them said: "Guardian, since Nanzhao has sent people to help, if we don't take any action at all, we may not be able to explain to our superiors."
"And since there are bandits here in Nanyang, we don't need to go to Lu's."
Hearing this, Chen Yongfu frowned again!
At the beginning of the year, the rebel army marched eastward on a large scale, causing trouble in Henan. After the Rongyang Conference, Gao Yingxiang led Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other main rebel forces eastward, and finally reached Fengyang and dug up Chongzhen's ancestral grave!
After the news reached the capital, Chongzhen was furious, and a lot of officials were unlucky. The governor of Fengyang was not mentioned, and even Xuan Mo was dismissed from his post and imprisoned.
It's just that Chen Biqian, who has taken over as governor of Henan, has not yet taken office, so Xuanmo is still under arrest but still actually serving...
It's quite strange to say that Xuanmo is legally said to have been arrested, but he still gives orders to Zuo Liangyu, Chen Zhibang, and Chen Yongfu to fight.
Chen Yongfu at the front also received an order from Xuan Mo, asking him to move to the Lu family area to guard against the bandits headed by the intruders from escaping westward.
It’s just that he doesn’t want to go!
After all, Xuan Mo has already been "jailed". As long as Chen Biqian takes office, he will be escorted to the capital for interrogation.
Of course, Xuanmo was not the main person responsible for the destruction of Fengyang City. After all, he was not the governor of Fengyang...
Therefore, it is certain that Xuanmo will lose his official position, but there is a high probability that he will not be severely punished. It is still possible to retire due to illness and return to his hometown, and end up with a good death.
So theoretically speaking, Chen Yongfu could either listen to Xuan Mo's current order or not.
Like Zuo Liangyu, people are not like Xuanmo.
And Chen Yongfu didn't want to follow Xuan Mo's order to go to the Lu family. This was not because he disrespected Xuan Mo or thought that Xuan Mo would not listen to orders after his fall, but because the current Lu family was not a good place.
Where is the main force of thieves now? Just in the eastern region of Henan and the southern Zhili region.
And under the continuous encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers, these rebels have begun to make a U-turn and return westward, trying to fight back to Shaanxi.
Therefore, the officers and soldiers also responded tit-for-tat and began to station troops in the west in an attempt to block the rebels' passage back west.
Among them, Lu's is an important channel for guarding the bandit army's return to the west.
Once the Lu family is garrisoned, it is very likely that they will face an attack by a large number of main force of thieves in the future.
Compared with Lu's, Nanyang City is safer.
After all, Nanyang City is also a big city, with tall and thick city walls as protection. Chen Yongfu dare not say too much about relying on the city walls, but there is still no big problem in self-protection.
Although the rebels led by Gao Yingxiang conquered the city all the way, in fact, the current bandits still lacked the ability to attack fortresses. If it were not for sneak attacks and other methods, a heavy price would be paid for storming a fortified city like Nanyang.
What's more important is that once the rebel army fails to attack a certain city for a long time, the rebel army besieging the fortified city may be caught or even surrounded by the main force of the official army.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, the rebels led by Gao Yingxiang would not attack strong cities like Luoyang, Nanyang, and Xiangyang.
But places like Lu's are different. Once the bandits choose to break out of Lu's encirclement and return west, those bandits will have no way to escape and will inevitably launch a fierce attack on Lu's.
At that time, Chen Yongfu felt that he was afraid that he would die on the battlefield!
Therefore, he doesn’t want to go to Lu’s!
After many possibilities came to mind, Chen Yongfu finally said: "Send someone to reply to Nanzhao. We will send troops to rescue and ask them to prepare grain, grass and other military supplies."
"In addition, we need to find out the details of these bandits as soon as possible. The previous newspaper said that these bandits have elite cavalry and artillery. I suspect that these bandits are most likely to be the elites of the intruders. We have to guard against them!"
