Zuo Liangyu was very interested in He Renlong's proposal!
He knew that the Protecting Thieves Army was different from ordinary bandits, but he also did not think that the Protecting Thieves Army had the ability to fight head-on with his own army in the wild.
Not to mention, the rebel army is at an absolute disadvantage.
The rebel army's garrison in the city could only hold down two thousand people, which was probably less than two thousand.
The source of the bandit soldiers was said to be tens of thousands, but several thousand of them were civilians. According to the reconnaissance report, it was estimated that there were only about five to six thousand bandit soldiers.
The two units combined killed eight thousand people.
When he and He Renlong's coalition forces first arrived at Yuzhou City, they had more than 30,000 troops. Not counting the young men and women, there were more than 16,000 formal officers and soldiers.
The previous offensive operations seemed to have suffered a lot of losses, but in fact the total losses of the soldiers were only a thousand people. At the same time, they also selected elites from the young civilians accompanying the army to join the army these days. Once upon a time, the total number of troops was actually not that small.
The comparison of the enemy's and our own forces is one to two!
Our own side has an absolute military advantage!
Under such circumstances, Zuo Liangyu did not think that the army protecting the thieves could still defeat itself in a frontal battle.
After all, if these 16,000 officers and soldiers were to face Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits, it would not be Zuo Liangyu's fault to fight 300,000 to 50,000 bandits for fun, even if they encounter 100,000 bandits. Soldiers are not without the strength to fight, and they can protect themselves no matter how desperate they are.
Rogue thieves are difficult to fight, not because officers and soldiers cannot defeat them, but because they cannot be caught.
At the same time, there were too many mules and horses, and their mobility was too strong. They often concentrated large numbers of troops to ambush partial divisions of officers and soldiers.
If the bandits had stupidly put up a posture and fought with the officers and soldiers, they would have been wiped out by the officers and soldiers long ago!
Although he has great self-confidence, he is still afraid of capsizing in the gutter, so he plans to send more detectives to find out the information, and look back at the situation before making a decision.
After all, every one of the soldiers under his command belongs to someone on his left, and has nothing to do with the imperial court.
Even if he wins by defeating the thieves, he will lose more than he loses if there are too many casualties.
Why can't we defeat Yuzhou City? It's not that we really can't defeat it, but that Zuo Liangyu can't bear to pay the huge price of casualties.
He risked his life and lost thousands of his men just to capture Yuzhou City. How could he be considered a loss...
Because Hong Chengchou would not take Yuzhou City because he lost thousands of people, nor would he send him a large amount of money and food to help Zuo Liangyu regain his strength, let alone expect Hong Chengchou to directly replenish his troops.
Don't ask, even Hong Chengchou didn't have so much money and food.
As for military strength, every soldier in the army has a senior general above him.
Hong Chengchou could directly order the senior generals to lead his headquarters to fight, but he could never directly mobilize the private soldiers of each senior general and then give them to another senior general as a supplement.
Soldiers are the generals!
This is not an empty talk!
Also before, in order to reinforce Zuo Liangyu, Hong Chengchou could dispatch He Renlong's troops to reinforce Zuo Liangyu, and then form a coalition to go south.
However, he must not directly transfer the troops under He Renlong and show them to Zuo Liangyu.
If he really wanted to do this, he would have to kill He Renlong first.
Therefore, Zuo Liangyu was very cautious. After learning that the bandit army was coming west, he immediately gave up the attack. At the same time, he sent more reconnaissance cavalry to continue the investigation, trying to get more detailed information about the bandit army.
Later, he will decide whether to encircle the point for reinforcements based on the detailed information collected by the scouts.
However, what Zuo Liangyu didn't expect was that before he could decide whether to engage in a large-scale field battle with the Baoxiang Army.
The Baoxiang Army on the opposite side had already made the decision.
At noon that day, the reconnaissance cavalry under Zuo Liangyu reported that except for the thousands of civilians who entered Yuzhou City from the west city gate, the other six to seven thousand rebel troops did not go towards Yuzhou City at all, but After bypassing Yuzhou City, they were quickly heading towards their base camp three miles away from the east gate of Yuzhou City.
Half an hour later, the reconnaissance cavalry reported that there were about 1,500 bandit soldiers in Yuzhou City who suddenly left the city and joined the bandit soldiers who had circled the city for reinforcements.
In the afternoon of that day, the reinforcements led by Luo Zhixue personally and the defenders in Yuzhou City, a total of about 8,000 people, had reached the front of the Ming army camp!
After learning the news, Zuo Liangyu had a very bad premonition. These security guards actually bypassed Yuzhou City in order to quickly advance straight to their own camp.
Even the remaining garrison troops in Yuzhou City took the initiative to leave the city.
This is not normal!
He couldn't understand why the Baoxiang Army chose this way.
According to his estimate, after the Baoxiang Army came over, he would either directly surround the point and fight for reinforcements, or he would not fight and then let the opponent enter Yuzhou City.
In the end, everyone stared at each other inside and outside Yuzhou City, and the situation became deadlocked.
However, he never expected that these bandits did not go towards Yuzhou City, but directly bypassed Yuzhou City and went straight to his camp.
Looking at that posture, it was obvious that they were planning to fight to the death with their own side outside Yuzhou City.
But what are these thieves for?
How could they have the confidence to directly defeat an army twice their size?
Not to mention, our side still has a camp to rely on at this time.
————
When Zuo Liangyu had a bad premonition, Luo Zhixue had already led the army to the front of the Ming army camp, and climbed a nearby short mountain to observe the opponent's Ming army camp from a high position.
The Ming army's camp was very large, with many densely packed tents, surrounded by wooden walls and numerous horses and other defense fortifications.
From a traditional perspective, this is a very standard and solid camp.
If traditional cold weapons wanted to attack such a camp, although it would be less difficult than attacking the city directly, it would still require a huge price to pay.
But Luo Zhixue looked at the Ming army camp opposite and smiled!
Traditional cold weapons cannot deal with this kind of traditional camp, and even traditional light short-barreled artillery has limited effect.
However, his army protecting the countryside has field artillery!
This time he came with three artillery posts, a total of eighteen 600-pound cannons.
For front-loaded field artillery such as the 600-pound long gun, there is no good way to deal with tall and thick city walls, but dealing with such wooden walls and horses is a piece of cake.
The wooden walls, horses and other defensive fortifications of the Ming army on the opposite side can block the ordinary cold weapon troops, but they can never stop their own 600-jin long cannon.
This kind of thing has happened before. When Lu Xiangsheng retreated to Sanyuan Village, he also had these wooden walls for practical use, and he even had a large number of houses and buildings that could be used as fortifications.
However, under the fierce bombardment of the Baoxiang Army, it had no effect at all.
After observing the opponent's camp, Luo Zhixue turned to An Yongduo and said: "You have been fighting with them for so long, so you should have a clear idea of the opponent's strength. Are you sure there are no Hongyi artillery on the opponent's side?"
Anyongduo said in a firm tone: "There are absolutely no Hongyi artillery, otherwise they would have pulled them out to attack Yuzhou City!"
"Not only do they not have Hongyi artillery, but they don't even have larger general cannons. The largest ones are only two to three hundred kilograms of general cannons and Fo Lang machine guns!"
Listening to An Yongduo's reply in such a positive tone, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly and did not ask any more questions.
The troops of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong on the opposite side did not have long-barreled artillery such as the Hongyi Artillery, and this was not beyond Luo Zhixue's expectation. The reason why they asked An Yongduo was just for final confirmation.
Based on a lot of information collected by Luo Zhixue in the past year, coupled with the experience of many actual battles with the Ming army.
He discovered that the Ming army in the hinterland of the Central Plains was more inclined to use traditional cold weapons, and there were not even many old traditional guns. As for the Hongyi artillery, to be honest, he had not seen a single one until now...
In fact, there are some Hongyi artillery in the Ming army, and there are quite a lot of them, but most of them are deployed in border towns or important coastal areas, or in very large cities like the capital.
Among them, there are the most Hongyi artillery in the strong cities of Jiliao.
But in the hinterland of the Central Plains, there are not many Hongyi cannons.
After all, although there are bandits in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the bandits these days seriously lack the ability to attack fortresses, and their field combat capabilities are not very good. The Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers chased the bandits all the way, and there was no need for Hongyi cannons to guard them.
However, the threat of Eastern capture in Jiliao area was too great, and the Ming army could not defeat it in the field, so it could only defend the city. Therefore, Hongyi cannons were highly valued. Most of the Hongyi cannons in the Ming Dynasty were basically deployed in various places in Jiliao. The city was used to resist the Japanese captors.
This is still talking about the Hongyi cannon used to defend the city.
As for the Hongyi cannon used in field battles, don't even count on it.
Due to the heavy shortcomings of the Hongyi cannon, coupled with the extreme backwardness of the Ming army in gun mount technology, the Ming army rarely used the Hongyi cannon in field battles. Occasionally, it was a lot of trouble to use it, and it was impossible to achieve rapid speed. Maneuver.
Even if the Dongdu side has an improved gun mount, it also has more stored power to drag the Hongyi cannon. It is also very difficult to use in actual combat. It is often difficult to pull down a certain Ming army garrisoned under the city, and then Conduct siege operations.
Strictly speaking, the Hongyi cannon with Dongdu's improved gun mount was not considered a field artillery, but a heavy siege artillery.
One of the core elements of field artillery is that it must be able to march and fight with the infantry. If it cannot even follow the infantry, it is nothing like a field artillery.
The Hongyi Cannon is too heavy!
Although the 600-pound long cannon produced by the Baoxiang Army was derived from the Hongyi cannon, its diameter was smaller.
The diameter of ordinary Hongyi cannons is generally more than twenty times, and can even reach more than twenty-two times.
However, the Baoxiang Army's 600-pound long cannon only had a diameter of 18 times.
Because the diameter is smaller, the thickness requirements for the barrel are lower, so the barrel of the 600-pound long gun is also thinner.
Even in order to reduce the weight of the artillery, the standard charge ratio of the Baoxiang Army's 600-pound artillery when fired was smaller than that of the Hongyi cannon.
Because the Baoxiang Army does not require the maximum range of this artillery, nor does it require how powerful it can be after one thousand meters.
The Baoxiang Army only needs this kind of artillery to maintain a certain degree of lethality at a distance of five to six hundred meters.
It's further away, and it's useless no matter how powerful it is if you can't hit it!
After many varieties, the 600-jin long cannon of the Baoxiang Army was born. Although the appearance of the barrel is similar to that of the traditional Hongyi cannon, and it also bears a strong imprint of the Hongyi artillery, it is actually two completely different types. Different types of artillery.
When it was finally confirmed that the Ming army on the opposite side did not have long-range cannons, Luo Zhixue was truly relieved.
Because in this way, our own side will have an absolute artillery advantage!
In addition, we still have 300 elite cavalry on our side. Even if we can't defeat Zuo Liangyu's 500 elite cavalry, it is still not a big problem to contain them.
As for infantry battles, the 1st Infantry Brigade has never let him down, and there is also the 3rd Infantry Brigade, Guards Battalion, and 1st Baggage Battalion to help!
This battle is very stable!
