The rebels in Ruzhou have not yet figured out what the rural protection army in the south is.
Previously, Chuang Potian and the others led their army south and were directly dealt with by the Baoxiang Army. Although the news of Chuang Potian's defeat and death was later spread back to Ruzhou, the local rebels failed to understand Chuang Potian's uncle. How did my nephew lose the battle?
There are only a few scattered reports that Chuang Potian and the others were defeated by an army from Lushan County under the banner of Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp and wearing uniform gray military uniforms.
The name "Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp" doesn't sound like a bandit, but rather like an army like the government's militia and county warriors.
In addition, there are sporadic reports that these Baoxiang camps are uniformed in gray military uniforms, and marching and fighting are also the same as officers and soldiers.
Therefore, at the beginning, the rebels in the north regarded the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp as the local County Yongqingzhuang in Lushan County.
After all, in various places in the Ming Dynasty, there were many young and strong people from all kinds of messy counties.
It is not unusual for a relatively capable young county warrior to appear.
But, they also heard that these Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp had fought with the officers and soldiers before. The officers and soldiers even went to Funiu Mountain to encircle and suppress this group of thieves, and they seemed to be less able to deal with the officers and soldiers now.
So they couldn't figure out the origin of this rural protection camp for a while, and whether it was an enemy or a friend.
Of course, the more important thing is that they didn't spend much time collecting information about the rural protection army, and they just made judgments based on some hearsay.
After all, the situation of the rebels in the north of Ruzhou is not very good now. Their previous attempt to attack Ruzhou failed, and they also faced encirclement and suppression by multiple groups of officers and soldiers. At the same time, they were separated from the main force heading eastward led by Gao Yingxiang.
They can't protect themselves, so why bother to deal with the army protecting their hometown in the south?
Today's Central Plains region is a mess, with rebels everywhere, officers and soldiers everywhere, and there is no clear-cut area controlled by the enemy or ourselves.
It is thought that the rebel army fought in a mobile manner. For example, after the main force led by Gao Yingxiang personally advanced eastward, it ran and fought all the way. The front reached Fengyang, but soon went north to return to Germany.
In addition to the main force led by Gao Yingxiang himself, there are also many chaotic rebels who are also engaged in mobile operations.
A group of rebels is still in Ruzhou today, and they might run away to Kaifeng Mansion in two days.
At the same time, other rebels will come to Ruzhou.
It seems that there have always been rebels in the central and northern areas of Ruzhou, but in fact there have been several groups...
Not only the rebels, but also the officers and soldiers were running around.
Luo Zhixue now has no idea which rebel army is in the north and how many troops it has.
Fortunately, these rebels never went south to Lushan County on a large scale. After all, the main force of the rebels did not intend to break through Luyang Pass and go south to Nanyang Prefecture. There was no need to come to Lushan County to cause trouble.
The rebels now only want to return to the west.
Gao Yingxiang has already led his army to Guide, and Luo Rucai has also led his army to Guide. It won't take long for the two main forces of the rebels to converge.
The situation of the next battle is very clear. Gao Yingxiang will definitely lead his army to fight all the way west, hoping to fight back to Shaanxi.
The officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou tried their best to stop them and prevent them from running back to Shaanxi.
The battle between the northern officers and soldiers and the rebels also created a manpower vacuum for the officers and soldiers in Nanyang Prefecture. In addition to Chen Yongfu's troops who were originally stationed here, other main forces of the army will come here in a short time.
This is also one of the reasons why Luo Zhixue recently led his army south.
However, this strategic window period will not last long. Regardless of whether Gao Yingxiang successfully fights back to Shaanxi or is strangled by officers and soldiers in the Central Plains, the officers and soldiers can free up part of their troops to guard the Central Plains.
At that time, he will definitely turn his attention to Nanyang Mansion.
This is also the reason why after Luo Zhixue went south, his strategy execution seemed a bit forward-looking and backward-looking.
Because Luo Zhixue, on the one hand, needs to capture the Nanyang Basin before the officers and soldiers come to their senses, and at the same time, he cannot capture the Nanyang Basin too early, or even attract the officers and soldiers' attention too early.
Luo Zhixue needs to control this for a while.
Similarly, this was also reflected in Luo Zhixue's tactical choices after leading his army south to Zhaozhuang.
After Luo Zhixue led the reinforcements to Zhaozhuang, he did not send out large-scale troops except for the initial inspection of the surrounding terrain. He led the army to garrison Zhaozhuang and confronted Chen Yongfu's troops in Yangjiazhuang to the south ten kilometers away.
Because Luo Zhixue wants to delay time!
Coincidentally, Chen Yongfu from the south also wanted to buy time.
At first, Chen Yongfu thought that the bald thieves in the north were just a group of ordinary thieves, and they could just go north to fight casually. However, now Chen Yongfu knew that the bald thieves in the north were a group of elites, and naturally they could not go north casually.
After all, he didn't really go north to fight off the bandits, he just wanted to avoid the mission to the Lu family.
Therefore, if the bandit army in the north does not take the initiative to go south, he will no longer have the idea of taking the initiative to go north and risk an attack. Who knows what will happen if he goes north.
It would be more appropriate to wait for the main force of officers and soldiers in the north to be freed up, and then go south to cooperate with us in encircling and suppressing this elite bandit army.
As for now, just stay like this, it’s good!
Ever since, in this area of ten or twenty kilometers north of Nanyang City, there was an official and a thief, and the armies of both sides were strangely facing each other ten kilometers away. Let alone a big battle, there were not even small-scale battles.
Both parties have a tacit agreement to stay in the camp and not leave!
There was no fighting ahead, but the actions of the rural protection army did not stop.
According to Luo Zhixue's instructions, the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the rear has been undergoing hard training. At the same time, the newly established Sixth Infantry Battalion in Li Qingdian is also undergoing intense reorganization.
Time passes day by day.
More than ten days passed in a flash, and it was now mid-April.
On April 12, a large number of muskets that Wang Dazhuang had been waiting for half a month finally arrived at Li Qingdian from Songshan Village.
In addition to equipping the 4th Infantry Battalion, a batch of more than 300 muskets also freed up dozens of muskets to equip the 6th Infantry Battalion.
Accompanying the muskets were six 600-pound cannons that Luo Zhixue had been waiting for a long time.
With the formal formation of the Fourth Infantry Battalion, the Second Artillery Post was finally equipped with the 600-pound artillery that had been waiting for more than a month.
Luo Zhixue was relieved a lot from what he had been talking about.
With the fourth infantry battalion and the second artillery sentry, the Baoxiang Army going south will have three infantry battalions, two artillery sentries, two cavalry sentries, and two baggage sentries available.
In addition, the 6th Infantry Battalion was barely able to form an army after half a month of emergency reorganization. Although it only had a few dozen muskets and the soldiers had not yet completed recruit training, it should be possible to pull them out to scare people.
As for garrisoning Li Qingdian, relying on rivers and fixed fortifications to carry out defensive operations is not a big problem.
The Second Infantry Battalion is stationed in Songshan Village in the north, and the Fifth Infantry Battalion is stationed in Songjiazhuang to ensure the security of the north.
Under such circumstances, the Baoxiang Army actually already has the strength to fight and win the opponent Chen Yongfu.
But, Luo Zhixue still didn’t move!
Chen Yongfu in the south was so cooperative and had no plans to go north. Luo Zhixue was naturally willing to cooperate with him to delay the time.
Even in order to prevent Chen Yongfu from being frightened and asking him to lead his troops back to Nanyang City, Luo Zhixue did not directly transfer the 4th Infantry Battalion and the 2nd Artillery Post to Zhaozhuang.
If Chen Yongfu knew that there were thousands of reinforcements from the north to protect his hometown, he might just lead his army back to Nanyang City.
When we turn around to attack Nanyang City like this, we will inevitably have to fight hard.
After entering mid-April, Luo Zhixue's mentality has relaxed a lot, and his mind is already focused on the expansion of the subsequent three infantry battalions.
According to Luo Zhixue's original plan, the first step after going south was to expand to six battalions and two outposts, in order to have the ability to protect itself.
However, if the Ming army wanted to truly capture Nanyang Prefecture, or even subsequently capture Xiangyang, and resist the subsequent encirclement and suppression, it would be too reluctant to rely solely on the Sixth Battalion and two sentries.
With the current six battalions and two sentries, plus Luo Zhixue's personal sentry, the total strength is only more than 4,000.
Luo Zhixue had to continue to expand the army and continue to complete the planned nine battalions and three outposts plan.
The nine-battalion-three-post plan is to establish nine infantry battalions, three artillery posts, three cavalry posts, and three baggage posts.
Now in mid-April, with the six battalions and two outposts plan being completed, Luo Zhixue has also started the nine battalions and three outposts plan.
First of all, the three infantry battalions were reorganized first. Regardless of whether they were formed into an army or not, whether they had muskets and armor or not. In short, they first pulled out the people to practice, and while training, they waited for the muskets and armor to be in place.
Not to mention you don’t have to wait long!
After a month of emergency construction, the factory buildings of Liqingdian Arsenal have been completed, and most of the hydraulic machinery inside have been completed. Previously, Yuan Gaofeng of the Industrial Department had successively transferred craftsmen from Songshan Village to the south to start small-scale trial production. .
It is estimated that in half a month, the production capacity of the Liqingdian Arsenal will be increased to the designed production capacity.
One month's production capacity of guns, artillery and cold weapons can equip two infantry battalions and one artillery post.
By then, the ordnance production in the Baoxiang Army will be dominated by Li Qingdian Arsenal, while the original Songshan Village Arsenal will retain small-scale ordnance production, maintenance and ammunition production capabilities.
The main reason is that the Songshan Village Arsenal is located in a mountain, with inconvenient transportation, and the transportation of raw materials and finished products is very troublesome.
If it were not for the supply of ordnance and ammunition to the Second Infantry Battalion and the Fifth Infantry Battalion in the north, and also to leave a way out, Luo Zhixue would have planned to abolish the entire Songshan Village Arsenal.
With Li Qingdian Arsenal here, Luo Zhixue will naturally not tie himself in the expansion of the army.
On April 16, Luo Zhixue, who was in Zhaozhuang, once again issued an order to expand the army: the establishment of the 7th Infantry Battalion, the 8th Infantry Battalion, the 9th Infantry Battalion, the 3rd Artillery Corps, the 3rd Cavalry, and the 3rd Outpost.
At the same time, he also expanded the personal sentries directly under his command into battalions.
After the above-mentioned army expansion order was issued, the infantry, artillery and baggage were expanded step by step, but the expansion of the cavalry was quite different.
The expansion of the third cavalry post this time is half-baked in the words of Wang Xiazi and other veteran cavalry...
