Zhaozhuang, about fifty miles away to the north of Nanyang City, has a flat terrain, with some small lakes, streams, and many fertile fields.
Even though the Nanyang Basin has suffered from drought in recent years, the farmland around Zhaozhuang can still be irrigated.
At the same time, Zhaozhuang can still be regarded as an important transportation thoroughfare, located near the official road from Nanyang to Nanzhao County.
Logically speaking, such a Zhuangzi should be a vibrant and densely populated place.
But now in Zhaozhuang, the surrounding farmland has long been overgrown with weeds, and most of the houses in the village have collapsed or been burned.
Last year, a band of thieves came to Zhaozhuang. When the thieves left, the land in Zhaozhuang was deserted, the houses were burned down, and there were no people left.
Since then, Zhaozhuang has become a ruin.
It wasn't until five days ago that a group of thieves, all with bald heads, arrived nearby and made this place popular again.
These bald bandits did not set up camp in the ruins of Zhaozhuang. Instead, they set up camp along a low mountain nearby. They deployed tents at the foot of the mountain, and then went to the surrounding area to cut down trees and dig soil to build the proposed village wall. From horses and other fortifications.
Six artillery pieces were also placed on the top of the hill.
The cannon was pointing at the official road not far away!
These bald thieves wearing gray military uniforms naturally attracted the attention of the passing business travelers. At first, people were quite scared, but then they discovered that these bald thieves were very strange and did not bother the passing business travelers.
These bald thieves don't behave like an army of thieves.
These bald thieves are naturally the army protecting the countryside.
There are the first infantry battalion led by Huang Dingquan, Zhang Chenglin's first artillery sentry, Wang Xiazi's first cavalry sentry and the first baggage sentry.
After they went all the way south, they were in a state of dividing their troops for mopping up at first. After going all the way south and mopping up, they only started to regroup and build a camp at Zhaozhuang when they arrived near Zhaozhuang.
They chose to station their defenses in Zhaozhuang because it was about fifty miles away from Nanyang Mansion, which was exactly what they had planned before. However, it was close to Nanyang City, so as not to stimulate the thoughts of Nanyang City officers and soldiers.
At the same time, Zhaozhuang and even the place where the official road passes, and there are low mountains nearby, there are many streams, and several small lakes, the overall terrain seems flat, but in fact, as long as you choose to garrison in a few important places, you can control the brigade. The enemy went north along the official road from here.
In this flat Nanyang Basin, they could find a place that was barely suitable for stationing and setting up defenses. Wang Xiazi and the others naturally chose to stop here.
After five days of gradual efforts, Wang Xiazi and the others have almost completed the construction of the camp. I can't say how strong it is, but it is still no problem to use it as a field defense fortification.
However, as soon as they set up camp, the messenger sent by Li Qingdian from the north arrived at Zhaozhuang.
And brought the latest orders to the generals.
Luo Zhixue informed them of the news that Chen Yongfu of Nanyang City was about to send troops to the north. He made them be more vigilant and guard against the officers and soldiers of Nanyang City. At the same time, he also ordered Wang Xiazi to lead the cavalry to conduct reconnaissance, attack the enemy's partial divisions and baggage, and delay the enemy's northward march. pace.
At the same time, they were also notified that Luo Zhixue would personally lead the third infantry battalion, as well as personal sentries and a large number of baggage to go south to reinforce them.
After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, the Heavenly King Blind Man gathered his first cavalry sentry and left Zhaozhuang, heading south along the official road and heading straight to Nanyang Fucheng.
Huang Dingquan and others directed the manpower to work overtime to build Zhaozhuang's defenses in case of emergency.
When Wang Xiazi led the cavalry to go south one step ahead, preparing to contain and delay the enemy's main force from moving north, Luo Zhixue also waited in Li Qingdian for the 3rd Infantry Battalion, which was urgently returning west.
There was no expedition ceremony or mobilization speech. After the Third Infantry Battalion arrived at Li Qingdian, Luo Zhixue personally led the Third Infantry Battalion, as well as the personal guard post and the second baggage post to escort a large amount of supplies southward.
An Yongduo, Huang Guangmao, Fei Bingqing and others followed the army southward.
Wang Dazhuang is leading the 4th Infantry Battalion which is still in training; there are currently only four 200-pound artillery chips for the second artillery sentry, and the second baggage sentry and other troops are also still in training and lack long-range troops such as muskets, bows and arrows. Stay at Li Qingdian.
At the same time, Hu Hongzhuo, director of the Ordnance Department, and Yu Xiujie, director of the Logistics Department, also stayed at Li Qingdian to take charge of ordnance, equipment and logistics matters.
Before going south, Luo Zhixue also issued two other orders, which were to formally organize the fifth infantry battalion and the sixth infantry battalion.
Among them, the Fifth Infantry Battalion was directly formed from the recruits who stayed in Songshan Village. The officers of each department were transferred from the Second Infantry Battalion to serve as deputy officers, and they could be transferred to Songjiazhuang to switch defenses with the Second Infantry Battalion.
The Second Infantry Battalion is temporarily returning to Fangsongshan Village. It will depend on the situation in the future whether it will join the fight southward.
The 6th Infantry Battalion was organized in Liqingdian, and its soldiers came from hundreds of recruits who continued to recruit after going south. Their future task is to take over the 4th Infantry Battalion to garrison Liqingdian and guard against the officers and soldiers in the direction of Nanzhao County.
The establishment time of these two infantry battalions has actually been advanced, because at this time, the recruits required by these two infantry battalions have not yet completed recruit training. According to the scheduled plan, these two infantry battalions will not be established until mid-April. of recruits can barely complete recruit training.
There was no trace of the required weapons and equipment, including no muskets and armor. At most, they could only provide spears, knives and a small number of bows and arrows.
However, the plan could not keep up with the rapid changes. As the Ming army in Nanyang City was about to move north, Luo Zhixue had to set up these two infantry battalions in advance.
He never thought about the role that these two infantry battalions could play in the battle against Chen Yongfu in a short period of time.
Luo Zhixue set up infantry battalions in advance, the training of these two new recruits was not completed, there were no firearms and armors, only ordinary cold weapons.
It was purely to free up the Second Infantry Battalion and the Fourth Infantry Battalion to participate in the battle with Chen Yongfu.
At the same time, the establishment is established in advance so that training can continue without going to the battlefield.
It can also be seen from this that Luo Zhixue has actually prepared for the possibility of subsequent war disadvantages.
The Fourth Infantry Battalion, which took half a month to become combat effective at the earliest, was bound to go to the battlefield.
At that time, the Second Infantry Battalion in Songshan Village will also be forced to go south to Li Qingdian to take over the Fourth Infantry Battalion to ensure that Li Qingdian, the strategic rear base, is not lost.
If the war on the southern front is still not going well by then, Master Luo Zhixue will have to use the second infantry battalion as his final trump card.
And when the time comes, the Sixth Infantry Battalion can only be used for defense on Li Qingdian's side.
In the end, it is difficult to say whether the 5th Infantry Battalion and the 6th Infantry Battalion can withstand the officers and soldiers coming from the direction of Lushan County and Nanzhao County.
If the officers and soldiers are brave enough, they can kill any battalion with just a few hundred soldiers.
But Luo Zhixue bets that the officers and soldiers in these two directions are not brave enough...
The officers and soldiers in these two directions are not very strong to begin with. The officers and soldiers in Lushan County have been very well-behaved in recent months and have not even left Lushan County.
There are not many officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County, and they have not come out in the past half month.
Under such circumstances, even if they were replaced by two parallel infantry battalions, the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion, the officers and soldiers on the opposite side would not know.
Once the officers and soldiers from these two directions saw hundreds of 'elite' rebels, they probably wouldn't even have the courage to fight.
After all, although these two infantry battalions are fresh recruits who have not completed their training and have few muskets and armor, they are still quite intimidating from the outside.
Yi Shui's gray military uniform, and in the Baoxiang Army's recruit training, the most numerous companies were the queues, so the queues could barely be seen.
If you pull this out, it will give people an illusion at first glance: the troops are neatly organized and the queues are tight. At first glance, they are an elite division...
If there had not been a fight, few officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty would have discovered that these two infantry battalions were parallel imports...
Of course, this is just Luo Zhixue's own idea. If the officers and soldiers from these two directions really send out troops in large numbers, and the 5th Infantry Battalion and 6th Infantry Battalion are defeated, Luo Zhixue can only temporarily give up his attempt to go south. , take the initiative to lead the main force to retreat northward, turn around first and kill the officers and soldiers in Lushan County or Nanzhao County first.
When Luo Zhixue led his army south and made a series of strategic arrangements, Chen Yongfu in Nanyang City was far less nervous than he was.
In fact, Chen Yongfu didn't even think that the bald thieves from Funiu Mountain were a threat.
This time he planned to lead his army northward, not really to suppress thieves, but to delay time and avoid going to Lu's sinkhole...
For this reason, Chen Yongfu sent a special letter to Xuanmo, the superior, saying that the Luo thief, known as the "General of the Protective Army", led thousands of troops southward from Funiu Mountain. ride, with hundreds of artillery pieces.
In addition to threatening Nanyang, the thief also wanted to capture the three passes of Yalu.
In order to ensure the safety of Nanyang Mansion, to ensure the safety of Yalu Sanguan, the strategic passage connecting Nanyang to Ruzhou and Luoyang, and to prevent the main force of Central Plains thieves from escaping from this direction, Chen Yongfu will lead his army to fight Bandits flow from Funiu Mountain to defend Nanyang City and the three passes of Yalu.
This time when we go north, we will not return until the Luo thieves are defeated!
After talking about it for a long time, the basic meaning is the same: I plan to go north to play house with those little thieves in Funiu Mountain. Whichever of you, Lu family, can go there? Anyway, don’t look for me!
After sending a letter to Xuan Mo, Chen Yongfu also began to mobilize his troops in a serious manner without waiting for Xuan Mo's reply. However, he did not mobilize his troops quickly. It took him five days to gather these troops in Nanyang City. Five thousand troops were preparing to march north at one time.
During these five days, there was actually not much time to actually mobilize troops, because these troops were already in Nanyang City.
The reason why it took another five days was mainly because Chen Yongfu spent five full days talking to the officials and gentry in Nanyang City, using various threats and inducements to ask for food and grass!
