Although their officers and soldiers behaved much like thieves on weekdays, they often did things like burning, killing, and looting.
But in most cases, it is still to collect military supplies, and it will not be looted simply for the sake of looting.
After all, if the superiors do not provide money or food, soldiers like them have to eat, especially when they are ordered to fight in other places. They basically have to grab it all the way, otherwise they will starve to death before they can reach their destination.
However, many officers and soldiers, like Sun Hongcai, directly captured the people from nearby villages and drove them into battle in order to fill up the moat and consume the ammunition of the rebel army. Many officers and soldiers were still unable to do this.
Even if they were outlaws, they wouldn't do such a thing so blatantly, or they wouldn't do it.
Because there are a lot of young men brought by thieves, these young men are basically used as cannon fodder, and there is no need to arrest people specifically.
Of course, one uses the young men who are kidnapped as cannon fodder, and the other directly captures the nearby people as cannon fodder. There is no way to say who is good or bad between the two, both are bad and pus.
What Sun Hongcai did today made many of his subordinates feel disgusted with him.
Since ancient times, driving people to attack a city has been an act of unscrupulousness and loss of popular support. Even in today's troubled times, many people do this, but they are still unpopular.
However, Sun Hongcai did not take it seriously. He was able to climb from a small frontier army to the position of today's commander-in-chief. It did not rely on any extraordinary military talent or any shocking military exploits, but on a Cruel word!
When he fought in Jiliao in his early years, he was particularly ruthless in fighting, killing deserters in large numbers at every turn.
This level of ruthlessness is only considered a routine operation. Many generals do this. Even Chen Yongfu, who surrendered to the Baoxiang Army, likes to do this. Moreover, this kind of thing is actually a good thing. Strict military discipline is conducive to increasing the combat effectiveness of the army.
However, Sun Hongcai's ruthlessness was different from that of ordinary generals.
For the sake of merit, he has done a lot of things like killing good people and taking credit for them. Especially since he was transferred to the Central Plains to fight against bandits, he has done more things like killing good people and taking credit for it.
After all, no one can tell the difference between bandits and ordinary people.
Unlike the Eastern captives, those real captives all had their heads shaved. They could easily be identified by simply catching people and killing them with their heads shaved.
But the bandits are different, there is no difference between killing them and ordinary people.
Killing good people and claiming merit is just a normal operation. When a city is about to be attacked, he will often drive the people to attack the city. Even if it doesn't work, he will use a large number of civilians accompanying the army to attack the city.
After capturing a city, they often deliberately indulged their subordinates in looting.
It's just that he covered up this kind of thing very well, and he was usually more careful when doing things, and would not hurt those gentry, because he didn't meet anyone to impeach him, otherwise he would have been chopped off long ago.
This time he came to Xinye in a hurry, and there were not many civilians accompanying the army, so he simply drove the people from nearby villages to attack the city.
Sun Hongcai was so ruthless, which also created a lot of pressure on Li Duo, who was defending the army. This is not to say psychological pressure. When he saw the enemy troops driving the people to attack the city, he couldn't take action. It was purely because the ammunition consumption was relatively large, and Although these civilians suffered heavy casualties, they still filled in the moat one after another.
After a day of repeated battles, the moat around the west gate of Xinye City has been filled in with several passages more than ten meters wide.
This means that the Ming army can directly attack the city head in the future.
Once the enemy forces attack the city on a large scale, can we stop it?
Li Duo doesn’t know!
Now, he can only think of every possible way to defend the city and delay it.
Drag the main army of General Luo Zhixue to arrive!
——
The main force of Luo Zhixue's headquarters, which Li Duo had high hopes for, did not go towards Xinye City as Li Duo had expected. Instead, they headed towards Dengzhou.
On the night of the 16th, in Dulin Town, about 50 kilometers north of Fancheng, the soldiers of the Baoxiang Army who had been marching at high speed for two consecutive days, except for a few troops on duty, had already rested early in the houses or tents set up in the town. .
However, in a courtyard in the town that the local gentry 'voluntarily' contributed to serve as a temporary headquarters for the rural protection army, Luo Zhixue and other generals continued to discuss under the light.
Chief of Staff Huang Guangmao stood in front of a wooden shelf hanging a map:
"According to the reports from Xinye City and the reports from the reconnaissance cavalry we sent to Xinye City, there are currently about 3,000 enemy troops attacking Xinye City, and an unknown number of civilians.
"Today at Xinye City, the enemy has not sent out a large number of troops to attack. They just drove the people to fill in the moat. According to our predictions, it is estimated that the enemy will be able to fill in the moat today and launch a formal attack tomorrow!"
"However, among the three thousand enemy troops, there will not be too many real soldiers. It is estimated that there will be around seven or eight hundred people. Most of the remaining soldiers will be ordinary guard soldiers. Even if they launch an attack on Xinye City, Relying on the strength of the 7th Infantry Battalion and the 9th Infantry Battalion to defend the city won’t be a big problem, of course, there will definitely be some casualties!”
"But that's not the point. The point is that the enemy's five hundred cavalry are also outside Xinye City."
"According to our various inquiries, Lu Xiangsheng doesn't have many cavalry under his command, only seven or eight hundred at most. After five hundred cavalry were sent to Xinye City, Lu Xiangsheng no longer has many cavalry in his headquarters."
"Now Lu Xiangsheng's troops are camped in the Xianqiao Village area, not far to the northwest of us."
"According to our plan, we will march due north tomorrow, and if the enemy's marching route and marching speed do not change much, then we will continue to march north for about ten kilometers tomorrow and will pick up the enemy troops in the Sanyuanzhuang area. enemy."
As he spoke, Huang Guangmao pointed to a small place on the simple hand-drawn map and said: "This is the battlefield chosen by Deputy Minister Xu after careful consideration."
Luo Zhixue looked at the map. Sanyuan Village was a small and inconspicuous place on the map.
However, on this military map, the terrain of Sanyuan Village is somewhat special, mainly due to the collection of several small rivers. The overall terrain is similar to the previous Zhaozhuang. It seems flat, but in fact it is a bit difficult to pass through. trouble.
After all, there are several small rivers flowing north to south here. Although there are bridges to pass through, small bridges and pontoons can even be built on the spot to pass quickly. If they are blocked, they can only hold back the enemy for about an hour.
But this hour is enough.
With this hour, the cavalry unit of the Baoxiang Army can rush forward to further delay the enemy's time, and the subsequent infantry can catch up.
Xu Zhixian chose this place as the preset battlefield, fully considering that this place was the only way for Lu Xiangsheng to advance eastward.
At the same time, this place is not a dangerous pass and can easily be ambushed by the enemy. There is no reason for the enemy to bypass this place.
However, the seemingly flat terrain here has many small rivers flowing from north to south, which can effectively slow down the opponent's marching speed, and ultimately create favorable opportunities for the Baoxiang Army to intercept the opponent and force the opponent to engage in head-on combat.
At this time, Xu Zhixian also stood up and explained the topography of the Sanyuanzhuang area, and also focused on the small rivers flowing from north to south.
And then it also described in detail a series of combat plans formulated by the Operations Department.
When Xu Zhixian took over from Huang Guangmao and began to talk about a series of specific combat plans, Huang Guangmao, who returned to his seat, looked at Xu Zhixian and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "It seems that I have to talk to the general about the army in the next two days! "
"If Xu Zhixian was kicked out of the general staff in despair, why not take the initiative to lead the troops to look good!"
"And if he offered to give up his position, the general would probably think of his own wisdom and give himself the position of brigade commander of the main infantry brigade."
"The 7th Infantry Brigade and the 8th Infantry Brigade are preparing for the training of new recruits. It would not be a bad idea to take this opportunity to get a position as the commander of the main infantry brigade."
"In short, this staff can stay here!"
Speaking of which, Huang Guangmao has been very depressed recently!
In the old staff office and the current staff office, Huang Guangmao seemed to be the minister in charge of the general manager, but in fact all the combat plans were formulated by Xu Zhixian and others. Huang Guangmao seemed to talk a lot in every meeting, but most of the The content is all memorized in advance...
When discussing various combat plans on weekdays, or even when the staff issues various combat orders, Xu Zhixian needs to sign his approval in the name of the Director of the Operations Department.
Without Xu Zhixian's signature and approval, even Huang Guangmao, the official head of the staff, could not directly issue various combat orders.
And this is not that Xu Zhixian has exceeded his authority, but the authority granted to Xu Zhixian by Luo Zhixue. Combat affairs in the staff department are subject to Xu Zhixian. Huang Guangmao, the head of the staff department, has no power to intervene.
This made Huang Guangmao, the head of the staff department, very unhappy.
Even before Huang Guangmao became the Chief of Staff, he already knew that he was only occupying a position for Xu Zhixian. After Xu Zhixian accumulated sufficient qualifications and experience in leading troops, he would have to make room for others in minutes.
But, he originally expected that no matter what, he could be the chief of staff for more than half a year and accumulate enough qualifications.
After all, it takes time for Xu Zhixian to accumulate military exploits and experience in leading troops.
However, what he didn't expect was that Xu Zhixian rose too quickly!
When Xu Zhixian concurrently served as the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, he personally led the troops in the battle force of Xiangyang City, successively captured many buildings in the city, and captured Prince Xiang's Mansion.
Although this series of battles is not very conspicuous, it can be regarded as accumulating experience for Xu Zhixian in leading troops.
More importantly, when Xu Zhixian went south to surprise Xiangyang, he made various suggestions and made great contributions to the capture of Xiangyang.
The success of the surprise attack on Xiangyang was due to Luo Zhixue's own contribution.
Among his subordinates, Li Dongshao, the commander of the personal camp, was undoubtedly the first to achieve success. Without him leading the elites to sneak into Xiangyang City and taking advantage of the chaos to open the city gate to welcome the army into the city, the surprise attack on Xiangyang would be a joke.
Secondly, Xu Zhixian, the deputy chief of staff, also served as the director of the Operations Department. He formulated a series of operational plans for the surprise attack on Xiangyang.
The army was able to move south smoothly, cross the river smoothly without encountering any obstacles, and successfully sneak attack open the city gate and enter the city. This is inseparable from the battle plan formulated by Xu Zhixian.
As for Huang Dingquan, Wang Xiazi and other generals, it seemed that they led the troops to conquer Xiangyang, but in fact they were just following orders, with basically no room for performance. They were just acting normally, and there was only one hard work.
The surprise attack on Xiangyang City was also the battle that brought Xu Zhixian to the top.
