June 4, the eighth year of Chongzhen, was the day after the Baoxiang Army defeated the coalition forces of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong.
Luo Zhixue once again held a military and political meeting in Yuzhou City, at which many issues on the Yuzhou defense line were finalized.
It was initially decided to use Yuzhou City as the core, and at the same time build small fortresses in some dangerous locations in the surrounding areas to completely block the Fangcheng Ancient Road and some of the mountain roads in the surrounding areas.
Even if there will be a follow-up attack on Ye County and Wuyang, and strive to capture these two places as the front barrier of the Fangcheng Ancient Road, the front line will be completely moved to the Central Plains area.
However, the plan will not be implemented by the main force led by Luo Zhixue personally, but by the subsequent troops stationed at the Yuzhou defense line.
Luo Zhixue had already decided yesterday that once he defeated the invading troops of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, he would immediately build the Yuzhou defense line, and then he would lead his army south to the Jianghan Plain.
Even though Ye County and Wuyang seem to be empty of troops now, and even the entire hinterland of the Central Plains is relatively empty of troops, Luo Zhixue still has no idea of sending troops to occupy the Central Plains now. At most, he will let the subsequent troops stationed here fight. .
As for the main force of the Home Guard Army, they will not continue to penetrate into the Central Plains.
This is not in line with the strategic development plan of the Baoxiang Army now and even in the following years.
The current strategic plan of the Baoxiang Army has always been very clear: control Chubei!
Luo Zhixue needs to rely on the food and population resources of the Nanyang Basin and Jianghan Plain to lay the foundation for the hegemony of the rural protection army.
Compared with this grand strategy, sending troops to the Central Plains to capture several state capitals is not worth mentioning at all.
What's more, there is no benefit in sending troops to the Central Plains too early now.
Once the Central Plains troops are dispatched, they will continue to fight the Ming army in the undefendable Central Plains area, where the Fourth Battle was, and losing or losing will not be good for the Baoxiang Army...
Needless to say, if you lose the fight, everything will be over!
If they win, what will the Baoxiang Army get?
A Central Plains region where food production has been significantly reduced due to natural and man-made disasters, and at the same time, the population has fled on a large scale.
After the Baoxiang Army captured the Central Plains region, not only would it be difficult for them to develop themselves through the Central Plains region, they would probably be stuck in a quagmire. In order to maintain their rule in the region and restore local people's livelihood, they would spend a lot of manpower and material resources.
And once the Hometown Protection Army marches into the Central Plains, they will really have to fight to the death with the Ming Army.
Hong Chengchou would probably give up the pursuit of Gao Yingxiang and others, turn around and lead his army out to kill them. At the same time, the Ming army would definitely mobilize more troops from all directions, and even transfer troops from the border troops to go south.
No matter whether they win or lose, this will continue to consume a lot of manpower and material resources for the rural protection army.
And the Baoxiang Army that chose to enter the Central Plains now cannot have excess troops, so it can be divided and go south to Jianghan to control the reserves at the same time.
This means that we cannot rely on the Chubei region to collect enough money and food in the future.
Relying only on the money and grain confiscated from the feudal prince's palace, the landowners and nobles, and the output of the Nanyang Basin, which has suffered from years of drought, cannot sustain it for long.
In addition to these strategic disadvantages, another very important point is that once troops are sent to the Central Plains, the military advantages of the Baoxiang Army will be reduced, and the disadvantages will be quickly amplified.
What are the advantages of the Baoxiang Army?
New infantry, powerful field artillery.
What are the disadvantages?
cavalry!
Because fighting in plain areas will weaken the advantages of infantry and artillery, while the advantages of cavalry will be further amplified.
So far, the Baoxiang Army has only a few hundred cavalry, even if they include half-baked cavalry, and no more than 500 fine cavalry. This still includes the more than 200 fine cavalry who have just surrendered.
And how many cavalry did the Ming army have? There are not many Ming army cavalry in the hinterland of the Central Plains, but there are many frontier cavalry.
The frontier cavalry in Yulin and Datong were all directly involved in encircling and suppressing various rebel armies. Li Tongren, Sun Chengli, Wang Xiazi and others were the cavalry of the Yulin frontier army...
There was also a Jiliao area in the Ming Dynasty. The border troops here were the essence of the Ming army. The famous Guanning cavalry in later generations came from this area.
No matter how good their record was in the battle with Dongduo, they should not be underestimated. At least they had more cavalry...
After the Baoxiang Army with only a few hundred cavalry entered the Central Plains, they were afraid of being blinded by thousands of Ming Army cavalry.
As for whether the cavalry combat effectiveness of the Baoxiang Army will be higher than that of the Ming Army's frontier troops... can they defeat more with less?
It's hard!
Because the elite cavalry of the Baoxiang Army were originally from the Yulin frontier army cavalry, all tactics, tactics and even training methods were the same as those of the elite cavalry of the Ming army's frontier army.
The cavalry of the Baoxiang Army may be able to gain better morale, physical fitness, and equipment advantages through good treatment and better condition.
But this is at best the difference between the Fourth Mixed Brigade and Zuo Liangyu's unit. The Fourth Mixed Brigade is slightly stronger than Zuo Liangyu's unit, but its strength is limited.
Relying on new matchlock guns and new tactics, the First Infantry Brigade dared to carry several times the Ming army to launch a frontal attack in frontal battles.
The 4th Mixed Brigade obviously did not have this ability. It only cooperated with the 1st Infantry Brigade from the flanks, but was counterattacked by He Renlong's troops with nearly 200 casualties. The battle losses of various units were directly promoted in the battle of Yuzhou Eastern Suburbs. First place!
They also circled the flanks and cooperated with the 1st Infantry Brigade to fight. The soldiers' battalion on the other side only suffered a loss of more than 20 people.
The cavalry in the Baoxiang Army are actually the same as the traditional mixed brigades in the Baoxiang Army, and they still use the same old things.
Against the elite cavalry of the Ming Army's frontier army, the master's strength is limited. Once the number of them increases, they will most likely attack the enemy!
Not to mention if it's against the Dongji Jingqi...
Without the advantage of cavalry, the Baoxiang Army would fall into a huge strategic passivity just relying on the advantages of new infantry and artillery.
In a war these days, infantry, cavalry, and artillery are indispensable.
Especially in field battles with flat terrain, which is the large-scale battle that the Baoxiang Army likes most now, cavalry is crucial.
The cavalry is not strong, and it is useless to give more artillery to the defense army. They will be surrounded and attacked by the enemy cavalry in minutes. Even if they can't hit you from the front, they can't send cavalry to cut off your food route...
What's even more disgusting is that even if the Baoxiang Army fought to death in the Central Plains and finally killed the Ming Army, they could successfully enter the capital...
what's next?
Li Chuang is not the second one!
You can tell with your toes that as soon as Luo Zhixue led his army into the capital, he would send troops to invade southern Zhili after the Dongqiu army.
Even if Luo Zhixue goes north a little slower, maybe Dongli will go south first.
After all, at that time, the Ming Dynasty was about to be destroyed, and a large number of troops were annihilated or restrained by the Home Guard Army. Even if Dongjiu had the mentality of rushing in to grab a wave, he would come over and do it.
Huang Taiji is not stupid, on the contrary, he is shrewd.
Moreover, Dongji as a whole is on the rise, and the morale of the army is not comparable to that of the decayed Ming army.
Facing the fact that Mongolia had been conquered, the Baoxiang Army had tens of thousands of cavalry under its command. They also knew how to motorize the Hongyi artillery and directly brought it onto the battlefield for field battles. They also had a large number of heavily armored captives.
To be honest, with the current background of the Baoxiang Army, it is still very reluctant to fight. Even Luo Zhixue has no absolute confidence that he can win.
Once they lose, it will be completely over. More than 100,000 bandits will immediately sweep south. There is no place in the North China Plain and the hinterland of the Central Plains to stop them. At that time, Luo Zhixue will have no choice but to escape all the way back to Nanyang.
However, because they chose to go north instead of south, there is a high probability that the vast Yangtze River Basin will still be in the hands of the Ming army at that time. The Ming Dynasty in the south will become the Nanming Dynasty in minutes and become the new enemy of the Baoxiang Army.
The most disgusting thing is that according to the mentality of many vassals, civil servants and generals of the Ming Dynasty, if you think about it with your toes, you will know that they will contact Dongji to encircle and suppress the anti-traitors and protect their hometown army...
Historically, this is what Nanming did. Faced with Dongli's entry into the Pass, Nanming's first reaction was to find Dongli and fight against all the bandits together...
Later, Li Zicheng was finished, Zhang Xianzhong seemed to be in trouble, and Dongli showed signs of stealing the world, so he turned his gun and pointed it at Dongli, but by that time it was already too late.
When the time comes, Luo Zhixue, who first suffered a huge defeat in the north and lost his generals, and then faced a pincer attack from the north and south after escaping back to Chubei, will most likely commit suicide on the edge of the Han River...
Although the above is only the worst-case scenario predicted by Luo Zhixue, no matter how you look at it, it is not a good choice to directly enter the Central Plains now.
Especially when there is a large piece of fat in the south like the Jianghan Plain in front of the Home Guard Army.
The strength of the Ming Army in the Central Plains is temporarily empty, but the strength of the Ming Army in the Jianghan Plain and even the entire Yangtze River Basin is even more empty...
More importantly, there is money, food and people in the Yangtze River Basin!
As long as he captures the Yangtze River Basin and controls the south of the Yangtze River, Luo Zhixue will be able to do what he is best at: large-scale violent attacks and rule the world!
As for playing various tactics, to be honest, Luo Zhixue is really not good at it.
It is also not what many generals under Luo Zhixue are good at.
Luo Zhixue himself knew that the group of mid-level and high-level generals under his command were basically make do with what they could use. Not to mention having the qualifications to become famous generals, there were only a few generals who were generally qualified.
For example, the commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the main force, Huang Dingquan, was just a farmer who fled into the mountains a year ago. He didn't even know a few words, and he had never read a single military book...
The command of the battle is also quite satisfactory, nothing outstanding about it.
The reason why the 1st Mixed Infantry Brigade was able to win consecutive battles was purely due to hard power!
There are a lot of people like Huang Dingquan in the rural protection army.
But Luo Zhixue doesn't care. Anyway, the Baoxiang Army is like this, and he can't change it in a short time. After all, the sky will not rain down a lot of modern officers with complete military education for him!
What Luo Zhixue has to do now is to avoid exposing his own disadvantages as much as possible and strive to maximize his advantages.
Luo Zhixue, who made the final decision, did not stay in Yuzhou City for long. Only three days later, Yuzhou's defense line was initially stabilized, and the 11th and 12th Mixed Brigades were initially reorganized.
Without waiting for the two newly formed mixed brigades to undergo training, they directly led the first infantry brigade and other main forces southward.
Before going south, Luo Zhixue established the North Route Army Headquarters, which was responsible for garrisoning Luyang Pass, Yuzhou City and other places with Nanyang City as the core, controlling the Nanyang Basin, and guarding the North Gate.
The Northern Route Army temporarily has jurisdiction over the 2nd Infantry Brigade, the 4th Mixed Brigade, the 11th Mixed Brigade, the 12th Mixed Brigade, the 2nd Transport Battalion, the 3rd Artillery Post, the 8th Cavalry Post, and the 13th Cavalry Post. A total of ten thousand troops.
As for the Northern Route Army, which has so many troops and such an important mission, the choice of its commander is also very interesting.
It's not anyone else, but Huang Dingquan, who according to Luo Zhixue's evaluation, has mediocre military commanding ability and can barely even serve as a brigade commander!
Why choose him?
Of course it's not because of how capable he is!
Huang Dingquan is Luo Zhixue's hardcore direct descendant, who is more hardcore than Ernst & Young!
Huang Dingquan is a direct descendant of Luo Zhixue who was gradually promoted from farmers to high positions, and his background as a farmer is far cleaner and purer than other generals who came from thieves or rebels!
And Huang Dingquan has always been like this, he will do whatever Luo Zhixue asks him to do, without asking, guessing or shirking!
Just like an old scalper, he works hard without complaining and is honest and willing to work!
Luo Zhixue asked Huang Dingquan to defend the north of Nanyang, and Huang Dingquan would defend the north of Nanyang.
If it were another general, Luo Zhixue would either have to worry about him rebelling, or worry about him rushing in, or worry about him running away in battle...
Tens of thousands of troops on the north route were handed over to others to command. Luo Zhixue was afraid that it would be impossible for him to sleep peacefully after he went south.
But using Huang Dingquan is much easier!
As for ability, that doesn’t really matter!
Anyway, when it comes to formulating specific tactics, Luo Zhixue assigned him a group of staff members with outstanding abilities, so there was no need for Huang Dingquan to do these things.
When a superior person reuses a certain person, in fact, most of the time it has nothing to do with the person's talent and ability.
