On the night when Nanyang City was captured, the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army were all given a meal. They were not only full of rice and grain, but also had very rare meat.
Even though the food supply of the Baoxiang Army is much better than that of the officers and soldiers and the rebel army, the supply of meat in the Baoxiang Army has always been in short supply. After all, meat is still very scarce. In many cases, you can’t sell it even if you have money. How many.
The soldiers of the Baoxiang Army could not eat meat at all on a daily basis. Even if they had meat occasionally, they would only drink a little meatless broth and eat one or two slices of very thin meat.
No matter how much, don't expect it.
But tonight, because the Baoxiang Army won a great victory and seized a large amount of meat, the logistics department specially provided a large amount of meat, so that everyone in the soldiers had meat, and the portions were not small.
This made many soldiers of the Home Guard Army smile and eat happily.
However, while the soldiers of Nanyang City were having a feast, there were dozens of soldiers of the Baoxiang Army dressed as ordinary people on several boats, moored in a calm river bend.
On one of the big boats, several men were sitting on the bow deck, eating and chatting. One of them, dressed like a waiter, said: "It's much faster to go down the river by boat than to walk. If this continues, we'll probably get there early tomorrow." If we sail, we should be able to reach Xiangyang at noon."
"Stationmaster Song, when the time comes, we will be able to get rid of you when it comes to clearing customs and entering the city."
Next to him, Song Qizhong, who was dressed as a middle-aged wealthy businessman, said: "Captain Li, don't worry. We at Xiangyang Station have been preparing for it for a month. We can take you into the city."
"I had already made arrangements when I went north. Many people at the dock know that I went north to purchase goods. This time when I returned, all the paperwork was complete."
"Furthermore, there is a shortage of food in Xiangyang city now, and when we transport the food there, we do not sell it ourselves, but sell it directly to local grain shops. They are very welcoming to outside grain merchants."
Li Dongshao said: "That's good. We have to leave early tomorrow and try to get to Xiangyang City as soon as possible. We must sneak into the city before Xiangyang City knows the news of the fall of Nanyang City."
"We failed to defraud Nanyang City Gate before because we arrived too late, which caused the officers and soldiers in the city to be alert in advance."
"This time, we have to enter Xiangyang City in advance and be prepared. When the general leads his army to attack, we will take the opportunity to seize a city gate to welcome the army into the city."
"Otherwise, with Xiangyang City's strong defenses, we might be in big trouble if we attack by force."
Song Qizhong said with a cautious expression: "I understand that when we seize the city gate, in addition to your men, Battalion Commander Li, more than thirty people from our Intelligence Department will also participate."
"You and I have nearly a hundred people in total. As long as nothing happens, we can seize the city gate and welcome the army into the city."
Song Qizhong knew better than Li Dongshao how strong the defenses of Xiangyang City were. Not to mention other things, just the moat of Xiangyang City was a big trouble.
The moat of Xiangyang City is wider and deeper than the moats of other big cities!
The moat can be up to one or two hundred meters wide, and it directly flows into the Han River. If Xiangyang City is to be attacked by force, just how to cross the moat is a big problem.
After Luo Zhixue formulated the strategy to go south earlier, he had already started making preparations.
In the early days, spies were sent to collect various information under the cover of the caravan of the Commercial and Trade Department. After the official move south, people from the Intelligence Section of the General Staff Department successively went south to Xiangyang City and established a Xiangyang City Intelligence Station.
Song Qizhong is the head of the Xiangyang City Information Station. His apparent identity is that he is a businessman from Nanyang Prefecture, engaged in grain, cloth and other businesses.
Previously, they continued to collect all kinds of intelligence, especially the city defense deployment in Xiangyang City, the number of troops in the city, and other information.
Now, their Xiangyang Intelligence Station will face its final mission: to cooperate with the army that is about to move south to seize Xiangyang City!
Once successful, Song Qizhong's promotion is 100% guaranteed.
When Luo Zhixue summoned him yesterday, he had personally promised that once he cooperated to capture Xiangyang City, he would be the new chief of the intelligence department.
When Song Qizhong was thinking about this, Li Dongshao was also worried.
Li Dongshao was not from the intelligence department, but he was not from the ordinary field troops either. He was one of the deputy battalion commanders of the personal battalion directly under Luo Zhixue.
The reason why he is said to be one of the deputy battalion commanders is because the personal battalion is special and has three deputy battalion commanders.
When Luo Zhixue established the establishment of each brigade, he took advantage of the situation and directly expanded the directly affiliated personal troops into personal military camps.
The organization of this pro-military battalion is larger than that of an ordinary infantry battalion, with a full additional organization of thousands of people.
In addition to the two musket posts, two pike posts, a sword and shield team, and an infantry team in a normal infantry battalion, there is also a cavalry sentry, a baggage sentry, a heavy infantry sentry, and a field artillery team. preparation.
It is said to be a battalion, but in fact it is a small mixed brigade with various infantry, infantry artillery, cavalry, and field artillery. It is a combined force of various arms that can independently be responsible for combat affairs in one direction.
Because the scale is larger and the status of the personal barracks is more special, there are always three deputy battalion commanders in the personal barracks.
Li Dongshao is one of the three deputy battalion commanders. He is mainly responsible for leading the sword and shield team and heavy infantry sentry in traditional combat, and uses traditional tactics.
Before, he and Chen Yongfu went to Nanyang City Gate to defraud the city gate. Unfortunately, they were recognized by the officers and soldiers in the city and were not given a chance to perform.
When the army arrived at Nanyang City today, General Luo Zhixue and senior generals such as the Staff Office unanimously determined that conquering Nanyang City was inevitable and it would not take long.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue and the others at that time considered taking Nanyang City and then taking the strategic location of Xiangyang City.
Considering Xiangyang City's strong defenses, abnormal moat, and the large number of troops in the city, the superiors believed that a frontal attack should be avoided as much as possible. It would be best to use a surprise attack to quickly seize Xiangyang City by taking it by surprise.
In order to better cooperate with the surprise attack, it was also proposed to send men south to sneak into Xiangyang City in advance, so that when the army made a surprise attack on the city, they could directly seize the city gate to welcome the army into the city.
This is how Li Dongshao moved south.
Even when the army was still attacking Nanyang City, they had already bypassed Nanyang City and boarded the merchant ship prepared by the Trade Department to go south.
Until now, they don't even know whether the army in the rear has captured Nanyang City.
However, Li Dongshao has absolute confidence in the army at the rear. The general will be able to lead the army to conquer Nanyang City in one day at most. If nothing else happens, the general will lead the army south quickly tomorrow.
With the rapid marching ability of their rural protection army, coupled with the flat terrain and smooth roads in Nanyang and Xiangyang, the general could lead his army to Xiangyang City in just a few days.
At that time, it will be time for him, Li Dongshao, to lead the soldiers who lurked into the city in advance to help.
Once successful, the position of commander of the personal barracks will be just around the corner!
You must know that although the Jinbao Camp has established a rated establishment of thousands of people, it is actually far from full strength. At the same time, more importantly, the former Jinbao Battalion Commander Tang Ziyuan had already arrived at Li Qingdian a month ago. Too ill to take charge.
In the previous Battle of Zhaozhuang and the Battle of Nanyang City, Tang Ziyuan, the battalion commander of the private camp, was not actually present and stayed at Li Qingdian.
According to the doctor, Tang Ziyuan could only survive for another half month at most. Tang Ziyuan had resigned from the position of commander of the personal camp many times before.
Although Luo Zhixue rejected his resignation every time and asked him to take good care of his health, he even sent someone to 'invite' several doctors to see him.
But anyone with a discerning eye knows that the position of the commander of the personal barracks is already vacant. Even the general Luo Zhixue has actually begun to select the next commander of the personal barracks.
Birth, old age, illness and death, no matter what!
Before departure, Luo Zhixue personally summoned Li Dongshao and told him that the mission going south was very important and was directly related to the capture of Xiangyang City. At the same time, this mission would also be very dangerous.
After Luo Zhixue told him how powerful he was, he patted his shoulder and said sincerely: "I look forward to personally wearing the battalion commander's epaulettes for you next time I see you again."
Whenever he thinks of this sentence, Li Dongshao can't help but feel excited.
This is the commander of the Janissary Battalion. Even if the Janissary Battalion itself is relatively large and can be regarded as a small mixed brigade, it is only said that the Janissary Battalion itself belongs to Luo Zhixue's direct line of troops, and the position of battalion commander is a position with great temptation. .
In this kind of position, someone who is not a true confidant of the general, and someone who is not extremely talented, cannot hold the position at all.
As for the direct lineage, Li Dongshao thinks that is enough. He, Li Dongshao, is not too conspicuous in the entire rural protection army system for the time being, at least not as eye-catching as the brigade commanders and deputy brigade commanders.
But he, Li Dongshao, was a personal soldier of Luo Zhixue. He was one of the second batch of personal soldiers after An Yongduo and other four first batch of personal soldiers.
After Luo Zhixue recruited An Yongduo and four others as his personal soldiers, it didn't take long before he selected more than ten people from the newly recruited soldiers as his personal soldiers.
Unlike An Yongduo and the others who only served as soldiers for a short period of time and were soon sent to serve in the supply camp and the cavalry unit, Li Dongshao always stayed with Luo Zhixue, following the steps and being promoted successively as the soldiers expanded. He is the corps commander, commander, captain, sentry commander, and deputy battalion commander in the personal barracks.
This qualification and trust are enough.
However, he still lacks in ability and military exploits.
In terms of military exploits, in fact, he has not participated in any large-scale battles. He has always been a personal guard around Luo Zhixue and has never had the opportunity to visit the battlefield in person.
In terms of talent, it's hard to distinguish, at least he didn't show any extraordinary talent.
Li Dongshao knew very well that his talent was just like that. There was no comparison with Xu Zhixian, who was a scholar himself and had a flexible mind, making plans one after another.
Li Dongshao only studied for one year when he was young, and he didn't even complete his enlightenment. Even if he studied on his own later, he could only recognize a few hundred common words. Even writing a normal letter was very difficult. The kind that piles up.
There is no culture and no military talent to speak of.
Therefore, Li Dongshao knew very well that if he wanted to continue his promotion and stand out from the three deputy battalion commanders to become the commander of the personal battalion, he could only rely on his extraordinary military exploits.
This was also the reason why he asked for a fight on his own and led more than 70 selected elite soldiers from the personal camp to sneak into Nanyang City.
He needs military exploits!
