Sanyuanzhuang is just a very ordinary village in Dengzhou. In the early years, when there were not so many wars, Sanyuanzhuang once had a population of more than a thousand, and it was considered a large village in the surrounding area.
However, with the frequent wars and continuous famines, the population of Sanyuanzhuang has fled and died. Now there are only two or three hundred people left. If the situation in the past two years continues like this, Sanyuanzhuang will There is a high probability that Yuanzhuang will be like many villages. The population will become smaller and smaller, the fields will gradually become deserted, the houses will gradually collapse, and eventually it will become an abandoned village like Zhaozhuang.
Even though the terrain of Sanyuan Village is flat and there are many streams passing through it, the farming conditions are pretty good.
But it is also unable to withstand the disasters caused by war.
It was the same today. After a group of about a thousand Ming troops entered the dilapidated village of Sanyuan Village, they immediately expelled all the people in the village. All the houses here had been requisitioned by the officers and soldiers.
In fact, there was no need for these Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers to expel them. The people in Sanyuan Village had already begun to flee on their own.
Because, a group of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers came from the west, and a group of thousands of traitor soldiers came from the southeast.
The meeting point of these two armies happened to be in the area of Sanyuan Village.
This place has become a battlefield!
Even if the villagers in the village are reluctant to leave, they can only flee their homes in a hurry at this time.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who first entered the village were actually quite good. They did not loot on a large scale, nor did they directly force the people in the village to use them as cannon fodder. They just drove them away from the battlefield.
After all, this vanguard of the Ming army belongs to Fu Biao under Lu Xiangsheng. The military discipline is very strict, and there is no shortage of money and food on weekdays. The officers and soldiers with sufficient money and food supplies will generally not do anything unless the generals who lead the troops are too cruel. It's so outrageous.
After seizing the village, the Fubiao Division under Lu Xiangsheng did not continue to advance. Instead, they relied on the houses in the village to build fortifications and set up obstacles such as horses and horses.
Lu Xiangsheng, who was behind, saw that his subordinate Fu Biao had taken the lead in occupying the village in front, and nodded slightly: "With such a nail, the next step will be much easier!"
After Lu Xiangsheng finished speaking, he looked to the southeast. Groups of bandit soldiers wearing gray military uniforms had appeared in the low mountain wilderness in the distance.
Those are the traitors of the rural protection army!
Although the distance between the two sides was still several miles away, the terrain here was flat, and Lu Xiangsheng was standing on a 20- to 30-meter-high mountaintop observing from a high position, so he could clearly see the general movement of the bandits ahead.
This was the first time that Lu Xiangsheng saw the live traitors of the Hometown Protection Army with his own eyes. After looking at them carefully for a while, he said: "
"Sure enough, they are just like the rumors. They all have shaved heads, gray robes, and many guns. But I don't know if their combat capabilities are as good as the rumors."
Just half an hour ago, after Lu Xiangsheng learned through the reconnaissance cavalry that there was a bandit army of about four to five thousand people in the southeast, he immediately ordered the entire army to put on armor and prepare for battle.
While sending more reconnaissance cavalry to find out the detailed movements of the bandits, they also took the lead in dispatching a thousand men from the headquarters of Fubiao to seize Sanyuan Village.
The terrain around Sanyuan Village is flat. Although there are some low hills, these hills are also very gentle and are not considered complex terrain at all.
The only place that can be considered easily defendable and difficult to attack is Sanyuan Village itself. Those places are on slightly higher ground, surrounded by rivers on both sides, and have houses and buildings to support them.
Lu Xiangsheng immediately saw the importance of this place, so without any hesitation, he directly sent troops to seize it.
Whether it is to engage in an encounter here, or to retreat directly when the opportunity arises, Sanyuan Village can provide great convenience to one's side.
A man next to him wearing a green robe of the seventh grade civil servant said: "Qian Xian is indeed a god in his military use. Our king's division seized Sanyuan Village the year after. If we advance, this place can be used as the sharp sword of the army. If we retreat, this place can be used as a stubborn stone."
"This place is the mainstay of the surrounding areas, but now it has been seized by our army. In this battle, our army has nothing to worry about!"
Lu Xiangsheng chuckled, not paying attention to the flattery of Wang Juling, the magistrate of Guanghua County next to him!
Although Sanyuan Village is important, it is not as mysterious as Wang Juling claims.
At this time, Lu Xiangsheng's focus was on continuing to collect various intelligence on the rebel army.
As time passed, the sentinels sent by Lu Xiangsheng also reported back one after another, and brought more accurate news to Lu Xiangsheng.
"The bandit army has about four thousand soldiers and many guns and artillery. Among them are at least ten Xiaohongyi cannons and at least twenty light cannons of various types."
"There are many musketeers among the thief soldiers. More than half of the thief armies are musketeers. There are also many armored soldiers. At least 20 or 30 of the 100 soldiers are wearing armor."
"The thieves have three hundred elite cavalry, and our army's reconnaissance cavalry fought fiercely with them many times, but they did not gain the upper hand. Our reconnaissance cavalry has lost a total of fifteen cavalry."
"The thieves had many mules and horses, and all the thieves were accompanied by a carriage. All their baggage was carried by the carriage. All their leaders, big and small, were on horseback, and they were traveling very fast."
"There are still more than 2,000 auxiliary soldiers in the thief army. None of them are wearing armor. Most of them are equipped with single swords or spears. They either lead horses to transport baggage or carry armor for the thief soldiers. However, these auxiliary soldiers of the thief army are quite strange. They have no Even in the queue, there are no gray robes attached to the thieves, they are all dressed up by ordinary people."
These auxiliary troops mentioned by the Ming army's scouts are actually two transport battalions attached to the army under the Logistics Department. Originally, the transport battalions in the Baoxiang Army were not issued weapons, but this battle was urgent. At the same time, the Baoxiang Army was in Xiangyang City. And there are too many cold weapons seized in Fancheng to be used up.
So we simply temporarily distributed short spears and swords to the civilian men in these transportation camps. We didn't expect them to be able to fight. We just expected them to have some ability to protect themselves. If necessary, they could hide behind the carriages transporting supplies to protect themselves. .
But when the scouts of the Ming Army saw them holding weapons, they were included as auxiliary soldiers in the army protecting the countryside.
Listening to the successive reports from the reconnaissance cavalry, and the fact that Lu Xiangsheng could now see some of the Baoxiang Army appearing in the wilderness in the distance, Lu Xiangsheng now had a more intuitive and clear impression of the Baoxiang Army.
Lots of armor, lots of guns, lots of mules and horses!
But just these few points are enough to make this rural army thieves completely different from ordinary thieves.
In fact, anyone who has actually seen the Baoxiang Army can clearly feel that the Baoxiang Army is different from the ordinary thief army.
Especially when I saw the 1st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Mixed Brigade, and 3rd Infantry Brigade, which were three armies using brand-new equipment and tactics, no one would associate them with the so-called bandits.
They all wore gray uniforms, and most of the soldiers wore armor. They used many more guns and cannons than the officers and soldiers, and they also fought with a bunch of long-barreled Hongyi artillery pieces.
Anyone who dares to say that such an army is an ordinary thieves is either blind or out of mind.
Even if you see the Fourth Mixed Brigade in the Baoxiang Army, a traditional army that was organized from Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers, it has nothing to do with ordinary bandits.
Even the military uniforms of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, which is currently fighting in Yuzhou, are Ming Army uniforms brought by the surrendered soldiers. All weapons and equipment are all Ming Army standard weapons and equipment, even the tactics are the same.
On the surface, the Fourth Mixed Brigade is no different from the Ming Army. The only difference may be that the soldiers of the Fourth Mixed Brigade do not have to worry about food and drink, which brings better physical fitness and morale. As for the Ming Army soldiers, But there is no such good food treatment.
Therefore, to a certain extent, the traditional army created by the Hometown Protection Army such as the Fourth Mixed Brigade is actually an improved version of the food for Ming officers and soldiers.
However, whether it is a new main force like the 1st Infantry Brigade or a traditional army like the 4th Mixed Brigade, they have nothing to do with the bandits.
And this is Lu Xiangsheng’s biggest feeling at present:
These rural-protecting army traitors don’t look like traitors!
Even comparing the queues, equipment and even the morale of the enemy and our troops, Lu Xiangsheng felt that the officers and soldiers under his command were more like thieves...
This is not Lu Xiangsheng's unique feeling. Huang Guangmao and Chen Yongfu all had similar feelings when they led their troops to fight against the Baoxiang Army.
Faced with such an unconventional army to protect his hometown, Lu Xiangsheng was not careless at all. Instead, he continued to investigate the news very cautiously, and at the same time, he constantly deployed troops and generals to deploy formations.
As for retreat?
Lu Xiangsheng considered this option at first, but he quickly gave up the idea!
If you retreat directly, you may collapse directly.
This was not because Lu Xiangsheng was unfounded, but because the elite cavalry and large numbers of mules and horses of the opposing army's defense army gave him a clear understanding: he couldn't run away!
There are three hundred fine cavalry in the bandit army, and these three hundred fine cavalry don't seem to be many, but as long as people just run ahead and stop you, you don't care and continue marching?
Or should we put up a battle formation to defend against cavalry attacks?
Well, once you have set up a battle formation, don't expect to be able to move too fast. If the speed slows down, the main infantry and artillery force of the Baoxiang Army with a large number of mules and horses will be able to catch up.
Don't talk about retreating when the time comes, it will be good if you don't collapse on the spot.
You said we should kill the three hundred elite cavalry in the rebel army first. If we can kill them there, we don't have to wait until now.
When he discovered the rebel army before, Lu Xiangsheng had already asked more than 300 cavalry under his command to take the initiative. As a result, the cavalry he sent out only met Wang Xiazi's cavalry face to face, and then they didn't even have the courage to fight. They were separated by the old man. Yuan took the initiative to turn and retreat.
Run faster than a rabbit!
Lu Xiangsheng was very angry at first. He felt that these bastards were timid and did not take Lu Xiangsheng's orders seriously. They were thinking about killing a few people to sacrifice the flag.
The two armies haven't officially fought yet. In the confrontation between the forward cavalry, the own cavalry didn't even dare to fight and just ran away. This has a great impact on morale.
But the cavalry generals who led the team explained the reason with a frightened look.
Although Lu Xiangsheng was still unhappy, he did not continue to get angry, nor did he let his three hundred cavalry continue to attack. Instead, he began to mobilize his troops and generals to prepare for a complete fight around Sanyuanzhuang and the Baoxiang Army.
