The reason why the newly established third cavalry post was called a half-baked cavalry by Blind Wang was because although all the newly formed cavalry were able to ride a horse, they were not capable of mounted shooting.
Not to mention cavalry, even a hand-to-hand charge on horseback is very reluctant. It is basically the same as the cavalry under Chen Yongfu that I encountered before. It is better to say that it is a cavalry, let alone an infantry on horseback.
There was nothing Luo Zhixue could do about this. After all, it was not easy to expand the number of cavalry posts that could meet the standards of elite cavalry.
Now in the second cavalry post in the Baoxiang Army, there are actually about ten cavalrymen who are unable to play mounted shooting...
Luo Zhixue now simply cannot find more cavalry who can play mounted shooting to form the third cavalry sentry.
So he could only take a step back and form this half-baked cavalry.
But even if these are just half-baked cavalry, they are still elite.
To say that they were half-assed was just to say that they were unable to play mounted archery on the back of a galloping horse, and it was more difficult to line up to charge and kill.
However, if they were allowed to dismount and fight on foot, it would be appropriate regardless of whether they were fighting in close quarters or shooting arrows with a walking bow.
So don't think that a half-baked cavalry is a scumbag. In fact, it is not easy to build this thing.
It is not easy to find hundreds of elites who can play bow and horse riding at the same time.
The Baoxiang Army now has six battalions, and the total strength of each battalion and outposts is more than 4,000. Many of them are old thieves, officers and soldiers who have been recruited to surrender.
But it is not easy to find hundreds of such elites.
Luo Zhixue almost raided the entire Baoxiang Army before he found these hundred elite infantrymen who could ride horses.
In addition to the extremely limited source of soldiers, war horses are also a big problem.
The war horses in the Baoxiang Army have always been in short supply. Except for the hundreds of war horses brought out during the early mutiny, the rest were gradually captured.
There seemed to be a lot of mules and horses captured, but not many of them could be used as cavalry mounts.
The difference between war horses and ordinary horses is very big.
In addition to higher requirements on the shoulder height, physical fitness and other qualities of the war horse, the war horse also needs to undergo long-term specialized training.
Such specially trained horses cannot charge at the enemy, nor can they maintain formation and fight amid the sound of gunfire.
After all, war horses also have animal instincts and will avoid danger. They are also afraid of the sound of gunfire. Without special training to overcome this instinct of avoiding danger, the war horse will easily be unable to control itself and run around after entering the field.
The Home Guard Army seized and looted everywhere, and so far only more than three to four hundred war horses have been recovered.
In addition to the three cavalry posts, some of the nearly 100 horses are used as mounts by some mid-level and senior officers, and some are used by messengers.
In addition to the above, even Luo Zhixue's personal troops did not have many qualified war horses, and they all used ordinary service horses as mounts.
There is also a reason why officers and orderlies are assigned war horses.
The first is the officers. The purpose of assigning war horses to officers is not to show off to them or to reflect their status.
When purely fighting, officers, especially infantry officers, need to fight on horseback. On the one hand, they guide the commanding troops' needs, and on the other hand, they also want to stand high and see far.
If he were not riding a horse, a battalion commander would look up and see only a mass of human heads on his own side. He would not even know where the enemy was...
The messengers use war horses, naturally because the responsibilities of the messengers are very important, and whether the order is delivered in a timely manner or whether it is omitted may be directly related to the outcome of a battle.
In fact, the war horses used by the messengers are still among the best quality!
Among the hundreds of war horses in the Baoxiang Army, the best ones were assigned to messengers, the second-class horses were assigned to cavalry, and the third-class horses were assigned to officers, mainly infantry officers.
As for the officers in the transport troops and the senior officers in the military headquarters, they can only ride on ordinary mules and horses.
The establishment of the third cavalry post depleted the elite mounted infantry in the rural protection army, and also depleted the war horse reserves.
If you want to continue to expand the cavalry in the future, you will have to wait until a new batch of horses are captured.
However, Luo Zhixue is not worried about this. There will be a battle anyway, and if he wins, he will naturally be able to capture the war horse.
As for losing the battle, why talk about expanding the cavalry? The most important thing is to quickly escape into the mountains and sign up.
——
Mid-April is a very important time point for Luo Zhixue and the Baoxiang Army as a whole.
The successful completion of the Sixth Battalion and Two Sentries plan gave Luo Zhixue greater confidence. Even though the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion did not yet have actual combat effectiveness, Luo Zhixue still dared to say that the Baoxiang Army already had certain capabilities. The power of self-preservation.
At least now, even if Chen Yongfu comes out in full force, Luo Zhixue has the confidence to block him or even annihilate him.
The subsequent Nine Camps plan was prepared for the subsequent control of Nanyang Mansion and even Xiangyang Mansion.
However, when Luo Zhixue was preparing to continue to expand the army in a low-key manner, Chen Yongfu received an order from Hong Chengchou.
It was not an order from Xuan Mo, the unfortunate guy, but a direct order from Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou, who led his army to Ruzhou not long ago, began to take full charge of the work of encircling and suppressing the bandits in the Central Plains.
Hong Chengchou asked the officers and soldiers on the southern side of Zhili to defend to the death, not to defeat the enemy, but to ask the rebels not to continue to harm the north of the Yangtze River, and at the same time to prevent the rebels from crossing the river into Jiangnan and Huguang.
He also ordered the officers and soldiers on the Shanxi side to guard the Yellow River crossings to prevent the rebels from crossing the Yellow River and heading north again into Shanxi or even running to Shandong.
He also asked officers and soldiers from various ministries in Henan to strictly guard the passes bordering Shaanxi and Henan, such as Lushi, Tongguan and other places.
In short, Hong Chengchou's strategy was to establish a surrounding encirclement first, regardless of how the bandit army behaved in the Central Plains.
At the same time, he personally led the main force of his officers and soldiers to pursue the main force of the rebels.
Officers and soldiers on the periphery were stationed at the pass, and the main force of officers and soldiers in the Central Plains continued to attack the rebels.
This is Hong Chengchou's current strategy to encircle and suppress the rebels.
Under this background, Chen Yongfu received an order from Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou asked him to quickly end the war in Nanyang, quickly eliminate the little thieves in the rural protection army, and then quickly lead the army to Lu's garrison.
If you don't arrive within the time limit, you will be punished...
After receiving Hong Chengchou's order, Chen Yongfu looked very unhappy.
He knew that his strategy of delaying time with the Baoxiang Army had been seen through by the adults above.
Hong Chengchou somewhat saved some face for him. He didn't say anything explicitly, but asked him to kill some rural protection troops before going to Lu's.
But!
If it were Chen Yongfu who had been there half a month ago, although he would feel unhappy, he would definitely lead his army northward to kill the Baoxiang Army first and then go to Lu's.
But, that was just Chen Yongfu half a month ago.
Half a month ago, Chen Yongfu didn't know the Baoxiang Army well enough, he just regarded the Baoxiang Army as a small bandit.
But, after a cavalry battle at the beginning, and then continued to collect information for the next half month, Chen Yongfu thought that he had a relatively deep understanding of the Baoxiang Army.
And the more he understood, the more he knew that this little-known hometown-protecting army was not simple.
This is definitely the elite among the thieves.
Now Hong Chengchou asked him to lead his army north to kill the Baoxiang Army, which made Chen Yongfu very embarrassed.
Taking the initiative to lead his troops north to fight against such a tough enemy, Chen Yongfu felt that even if he could win, he would probably suffer a lot of losses.
However, he couldn't just ignore Hong Chengchou's order!
Hong Chengchou is not Xuan Mo. It is a given that Xuan Mo will step down. Chen Biqian, who will succeed Xuan Mo, is already on his way to take office.
Therefore, Chen Yongfu would not listen to Xuan Mo's orders, and he was not afraid of Xuan Mo's revenge on him.
But Hong Chengchou!
Even if Chen Yongfu was given a hundred courages, he would not dare to directly disobey Hong Chengchou's orders.
Let alone him, even Zuo Liangyu, who had always been extremely domineering, had to obey Hong Chengchou's orders honestly.
In the past, Zuo Liangyu often ignored Xuanmo's orders. Even if he reluctantly obeyed the orders to fight, he often did things such as supporting the troops to protect himself and being passive and lazy in the war. His domineering reputation even made Luo Zhixue, an outsider, Have heard of it all.
However, in front of Hong Chengchou, Zuo Liangyu had to keep his domineering tail between his legs. When Hong Chengchou asked him to go there to suppress the thieves, he would go there honestly to suppress the thieves. At most, he would not work hard, but he would never dare to He openly disobeyed Hong Chengchou's orders.
After all, Hong Chengchou was the governor of the five provinces, a senior civil servant who held Shang Fang's sword and a main force of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers.
This is not something that an ordinary governor like Xuan Mo can compare with.
If you make him unhappy for a moment, he will dare to make you unhappy for a lifetime.
If you disobey, he will just kill you with a knife.
Even mutiny doesn't work. If you dare to mutiny on the front foot, he will lead the troops to destroy you on the back foot...
There is also a big difference between civil servants and civilian officials. Zuo Liangyu knows this very well, and Chen Yongfu also knows it.
Therefore, it has become an established fact that Chen Yongfu's troops went north to suppress the Baoxiang Army.
However, even so, Chen Yongfu still did not want to go north to fight with the Baoxiang Army. Not to mention the possibility of losing, even if he won, there was a high probability of heavy losses.
So Chen Yongfu was slow to mobilize troops and prepare food and fodder, and at the same time sent messengers to fly to Ruzhou to inform Hong Chengchou of some situations of the rural protection army.
On the one hand, they want reinforcements, and on the other hand, they also want to prepare in advance for a protracted battle to delay the fight and avoid a deadly fight with the rural protection army.
The reason is not that I don't want to fight, but that the protection against thieves is too strong.
In short, he still doesn't want to go north to fight with the Baoxiang Army!
The news reported by Pegasus was transmitted very quickly, and it didn't take long for Chen Yongfu to receive a reply from Hong Chengchou.
In the letter, Hong Chengchou didn't save him any face this time, and directly scolded him bloody.
You also said that there are only a thousand or two thousand petty thieves. You are exaggerating and describing it as one is worth a hundred elite thieves. Do you think you are a fool?
The elite thief army is now all in the Central Plains. What the hell do you tell me that there is an elite thief army with thousands of people emerging from Nanyang? It is still an absolute elite that cannot even compare to the elite directly under Gao Yingxiang's command.
If this rural protection army is really so strong, how can you, Chen Yongfu, still write a letter to complain to me?
He was killed by the rural protection army long ago...
Quickly clean up the little thieves in the Baoxiang Army, and then go to the Lu family for me. If you continue to complain and disobey, I will personally go south and kill your dog's head...
After Chen Yongfu received Hong Chengchou's reply, he had a gloomy look on his face for a whole day, and he cursed many people in a nameless rage.
However, after getting angry, Chen Yongfu still honestly issued the order to head north!
