From a geographical perspective, except for a few passes with extremely steep terrain, such as Tongguan, Luyang Pass, Shanhaiguan and other places.
In fact, other cities can basically be bypassed. After all, a small city is only a few miles long and wide, and a large city is only dozens of miles long. You can go around it by taking two more steps...
Well, the world is so big, you can bypass most cities in just a few minutes by walking a few steps.
But why would the attacking side prefer to take time and effort to attack by force? On the one hand, some cities are strategic thoroughfares. You can go around them, but supplies such as food, grass, and baggage that have a high demand for roads cannot go around them.
Secondly, you can get around even the supplies, but the defenders in the city change from blocking in front of you to behind you!
They can kill you at any time to cut off your food supply, and they can even cooperate with other friendly forces to flank you from front to back.
Sometimes after the attacking party bypasses a certain city, it is no different than walking into the encirclement on its own initiative.
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Anyongduo's letter asking for help first arrived in Nanyang, then quickly went south along the Baihe River to Xinye, and was finally delivered to Luo Zhixue today.
At the same time, this also means that when Luo Zhixue received this letter from An Yongduo asking for help, he knew that the Fourth Mixed Brigade in Yuzhou City had most likely been besieged by the Ming army. It was violently attacked by the Ming army.
After learning the news, Luo Zhixue had to cancel his original plan to lead the 1st Infantry Brigade and other main forces back south to Xiangyang, preparing for the follow-up war south to the Jianghan Plain.
If he insists on going south, Yuzhou City may be breached and the Fourth Mixed Brigade will be destroyed.
At that time, the entire Nanyang Basin will be exposed to the threat of tens of thousands of Ming troops, Nanyang City will be in danger, and the strategy of the Baoxiang Army will be greatly restricted.
On the same day, Luo Zhixue summoned the generals in Xinye City. After only a two-quarter-hour meeting, Luo Zhixue personally made the decision and personally led the 1st Infantry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Brigade, 1st Artillery Brigade, Guards Camp, The main forces such as the First Baggage Battalion quickly moved northward to Yuzhou.
At the same time, he ordered the 3rd Infantry Brigade and other troops who originally reinforced Yuzhou to pay attention to safety and avoid rushing in. If there is no chance to arrive safely and enter Yuzhou City, then not to get too close to Yuzhou City, but to join up with the main force of Luo Zhixue's headquarters first. Then go east to Yuzhou City.
Otherwise, the reinforcements of only 1,500 people would have been swallowed up by tens of thousands of Ming troops if they foolishly ran to Yuzhou City.
He also gave new orders to Nanyang City, asking the Second Baggage Battalion and the Second Infantry Brigade to be ready to reinforce the Yuzhou front line at any time.
The reason is to prepare, rather than directly letting the Second Baggage Battalion and the Second Infantry Brigade reinforce Yuzhou.
On the one hand, the Second Troop Battalion was short-lived. It was a recruit unit and its combat effectiveness was unreliable. It still needed time to continue training.
The main force of the Second Infantry Brigade still needs to be stationed at Luyang Pass. Ruzhou, north of Luyang Pass, is now the base camp where Hong Chengchou is stationed, and there are still a large number of Ming troops there.
Once Hong Chengchou discovers that Luyang Pass is empty of troops, he will most likely allocate part of his troops to quickly attack Luyang Pass.
By then, Yuzhou had not been rescued, and the Luyang Pass, which was finally captured, might be lost again.
The Second Infantry Brigade and the Second Baggage Battalion were prepared for reinforcements. Luo Zhixue was just taking precautions. If he couldn't defeat Yuzhou, he would have to mobilize the Second Infantry Brigade and the Second Baggage Battalion even if he risked losing Luyang Pass. The infantry brigade marches westward to Yuzhou and cooperates with our main force to kill Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong.
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Faced with the fact that Yuzhou was most likely to be besieged and could be breached at any time, Luo Zhixue acted very quickly and issued a series of orders that day.
The 1st Infantry Brigade and other units stopped all training that day and began to prepare for the official departure the next day. After nightfall, all soldiers also rested early to prepare for the high-intensity march tomorrow morning.
If it had not been already in the afternoon when the news was received and it was not suitable to march north directly, then Luo Zhixue would have asked the troops to march north immediately that day.
In the early morning of May 27th, the people in Xinye City discovered that a large number of traitors from the rural protection army were leaving the city and heading north.
However, there were bandit soldiers leaving the city, and there were also bandit soldiers entering the city at the same time. Those who came were officially the 1st Battalion of the 6th Mixed Brigade who had been reinforced from Fancheng.
The 1st Infantry Brigade and other main forces left the city and headed north, while the 1st Battalion of the 6th Mixed Battalion entered the city to garrison, and they happened to arrive on the same day...
In fact, yesterday, the battalion of the Sixth Mixed Brigade was still more than 20 kilometers away. After receiving Luo Zhixue's order, it had to speed up its march at high speed. Today, it continued northward before dawn, and finally made it in time this morning. Arrived at Xinye City.
It would not be necessary for the First Infantry Brigade and other troops to leave Xinye City, turning Xinye City into a city without soldiers.
This place has an important strategic position and is an important material transfer station on the Baihe waterway. If there is no military garrison in case of any turmoil, the losses will be huge.
The small city of Xinye was full of thieves wearing gray robes, and some were wearing uniforms of Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers, but also had shaved heads.
The Baoxiang Army recruits new soldiers from the surrendered soldiers to form a traditional army. The selected soldiers must also have a shaved head, otherwise the long flowing hair will affect the combat and is unhygienic. Once injured, it is very easy to get infected and die!
If you want to continue serving as a soldier during the surrender and have enough to eat every day, you must follow the rules of the Home Guard Army.
If you don't want to join the Hometown Protection Army, don't force them. There are many people who want to join the Hometown Protection Army to serve as soldiers and have a good meal. You are not the only one left.
Luo Zhixue's original intention of shaving his head was just to facilitate combat and treat the wounded.
But as time went by, in the outside world and even within the Baoxiang Army, it gradually evolved into something similar to the name certificate.
If you want to join our Hometown Protection Army, you should shave your head first, so that I can believe that you are really willing to join our Hometown Protection Army. From now on, we will all be in the same group...
Even the officers and soldiers now know that anyone who sees a bald head is a security thief...
In other words, this has implicated many serious monks or fake monks, and many monks in the surrounding areas controlled by the Ming army were arrested by officers and soldiers as thieves, spies, and spies.
In fact, the intelligence spies under the Baoxiang Army Staff Department and other soldiers performing covert missions generally do not shave their heads. Even the few spies who initially shave their heads often wear wigs...
For example, when Li Dongshao led the seventy soldiers from the personal barracks to sneak into Xiangyang City, they all wore wigs.
The matter of shaving one's head gradually became politicized, which was beyond Luo Zhixue's original expectations and something he did not want to see.
For this reason, when he was in Xiangyang, he gave special instructions: the policy of shaving hair was limited to officers and men in the army. This was purely a policy to facilitate combat and treatment, and should not be expanded without reason, otherwise he would be severely punished!
Luo Zhixue never forced his subordinates to shave their heads, let alone his common people. It was not necessary.
Moreover, his rural protection army system is not a temple, so there is no need to have a lot of monks...
If possible in the future, he may implement the short hair policy for future generations, but he will not force it. Ordinary people's hairstyle is whatever you like...Luo Zhixue is too lazy to care about you.
After this special instruction, this has finally reversed the politicization of shaving heads. Otherwise, it is estimated that many civil servants will have bald heads, and they will even force people to shave their heads, which will not cause a problem. A lot of trouble.
He doesn't want the country he builds in the future to become a country of monks. That's too nonsense.
However, the officers and men in the army still strictly implement the barehead policy. Those who are unwilling to shave their heads and join the army will not be embarrassed. Instead, they will be incorporated into the settlement camps with other unqualified surrendered soldiers for militarization. He managed the settlement, built bridges and paved roads on weekdays, and promised that he would be free to leave after three years of settlement.
As for direct release, Luo Zhixue can guarantee that if he releases these surrendered soldiers today, tomorrow there will be a lot of bandits under his rule...or they will simply gather together and become rogue bandits!
Why the Ming army repeatedly failed to encircle and suppress the rebels was largely because the Ming army was incapable and did not have the inclination to deal with a large number of rebel prisoners of war or surrendered troops.
Many people in the rebel army actually had the experience of being recruited, even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, but they basically surrendered and rebelled not long after.
In addition to the ambitions of Li Zicheng and other high-level rebels, for ordinary rebel soldiers, it is because even if the imperial edict is issued, the government does not care about them, and even refuses to arrange settlements. As a result, they still do not have enough to eat, and they will not be defeated. Just the opposite...
The purpose of the Baoxiang Army's settlement camp was not to obtain food, but to better manage these prisoners of war and prevent them from harming the place.
As for the very few die-hard resisters, earlier the Baoxiang Army would keep them in prisoner-of-war camps and then do heavy physical labor. However, later on, the size of the prisoner-of-war camps became smaller and smaller, because now the Baoxiang Army Die-hard resisters are often killed on the spot...
These days, even prisoners of war working as coolies need to eat.
And food is very precious. Even if we don't use prisoners of war and just recruit young people from the refugees to work, there are still a lot of people who are willing to work, and they are more motivated and work more efficiently.
In response to this situation, Luo Zhixue said: The food of our rural protection army does not feed the enemy!
As a result, the prisoner-of-war camp used as a coolie has ceased to exist in name only...
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The people in Xinye City have long been accustomed to the coming and going of bald bandits in Xinye City. In the past month, there have never been fewer gray bandits coming and going in Xinye City.
So much so that some of the wealthy gentry in the city, who were interested in the imperial court, could not help but secretly lament: They had been looking forward to Master Wang day and night, but Master Wang never came.
As for the thoughts of the gentry and common people in the city, Wang Dazhuang, who had just taken office as the commander of the Sixth Mixed Brigade, was too lazy to care.
