Chapter 183 Luo Zhixue arrives in Nanyang

Style: Historical Author: rainy dayWords: 3293Update Time: 24/02/20 12:21:39
After finalizing the military plan for the northern route, Luo Zhixue did not stay in Yuzhou City for long, but quickly went south with the main forces such as the 1st Infantry Brigade, 3rd Infantry Brigade, cavalry and artillery.

However, this time, we did not take a direct route southward, passing through Tang County and then to Xinye City. Instead, we took a detour to Nanyang City, and then planned to follow the Baihe River down to Xiangyang.

At the same time, the speed of going south was just the normal marching speed, and there was no high-speed attack like before for many days.

After all, there are no urgent matters in the south now. Although many Ming troops have gradually gathered around Xiangyang, there is still no large-scale Ming army marching towards Xiangyang until now.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue did not need to keep the army marching at a high intensity. Instead, he chose to march normally. He even planned to rest for a few days after arriving in Nanyang City. On the one hand, he would replenish ordnance and other military supplies on the spot, and on the other hand, he would also let the second army march. The first infantry brigade and other main forces took a rest to catch their breath.

In the past nearly two months, the main forces such as the 1st Infantry Brigade have been fighting in the north and south, first going south, and then rushing north, and fought several major battles along the way.

Although the food and treatment of the Baoxiang Army were good, and the physical fitness of the soldiers was relatively better than that of the Ming Army, it still made the soldiers very tired.

However, the Baoxiang Army, which is short of troops and even more short of main force, is facing multi-front operations at the same time, and it is impossible to allow the core main force such as the 1st Infantry Brigade to stop and rest purely.

Therefore, we can only give the soldiers of the First Infantry Brigade a few days of rest by taking the opportunity to replenish ordnance and other military supplies when passing through Nanyang City.

When Luo Zhixue led the main forces to Nanyang City, Huang Dingquan, the new commander of the North Route Army who temporarily stayed in Yuzhou City, also followed Luo Zhixue's orders.

While reorganizing the 11th Mixed Brigade and the 12th Mixed Brigade, the Yuzhou Defense Line was built.

Huang Dingquan doesn't need to worry about how to build the defense line alone. Luo Zhixue also left him a staff team of more than ten people. Even Zuo Yingzhe, the newly appointed director of the Operations Department, temporarily stayed on the northern front to serve as the director of the Operations Department. He directly serves as the chief of staff of the Northern Route Army.

With Zuo Yingzhe here, there is no need to worry about various defense line construction or even combat plans.

After the Battle of Xiangyang, Luo Zhixue was able to promote Zuo Yingzhe as the new director of the Operations Department, naturally because his abilities were pretty good.

Zuo Yingzhe also quickly entered the role. Based on the situation reported by the scout, he quickly proposed a combat plan to Huang Dingquan.

Taking advantage of Zuo Liangyu's defeat and retreat to Ye County, he tried to deploy part of his troops to capture Wuyang and then threaten Ye County.

This will expand the strategic depth of the Yuzhou defense line and block small and medium-sized enemy forces directly from the Yexian and Wuyang front lines. Even if they encounter a large-scale Ming army, they can provide early warning and resist step by step to delay time. , waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from Luyang Pass, Nanyang City and other places.

After hearing Zuo Yingzhe's battle plan, Huang Dingquan thought about it and finally agreed.

The reason why Huang Dingquan agreed was that taking these two places would expand the depth, but more importantly, Zuo Yingzhe's battle plan did not include the idea of ​​using too many main forces.

It is only planned to deploy one battalion of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, one sentry for cavalry, one sentry for artillery, and two newly reorganized battalions. The total force expected to be dispatched is three battalions and three sentries, about 2,000 people, which is considered the size of a mixed brigade.

It's just that 1,200 of them had just surrendered, and the newly reorganized troops had surrendered within two days.

To put it bluntly, even if all these troops are lost on the front line, they will not cause serious damage to the Northern Route Army. What's more, even if they cannot conquer the above two places, the main force can be withdrawn, that is, the third cavalry post and the third cavalry post. Artillery sentry.

The mobility of these two troops is very strong. Even if the third artillery post is an artillery unit, it has dozens of mules and horses. When the roads are good, its short-distance mobility is not much slower than that of the infantry.

Not to mention that in order to run faster when the time comes, Zuo Yingzhe will temporarily transfer more mules and horses from other troops, especially the baggage troops, to try to turn this artillery post into a mounted artillery post.

These two main forces can run away as soon as they see something is wrong ahead.

When the safety of the main force was guaranteed, Huang Dingquan thought of giving it a try, and there was no big loss.

Achievements can be achieved, but cannot be defeated...

But even if he gave it a try, Huang Dingquan still repeatedly told Zuo Yingzhe that when formulating a combat plan, everything should be based on safety. No matter what, the retreat of the troops must be ensured. Even if the situation fails, the third cavalry sentry and the third artillery sentry must be ensured. of absolute safety.

Anyway, Huang Dingquan kept Luo Zhixue's instructions in mind, and the safety of the northern defense line was the top priority!

However, according to Zuo Yingzhe, even if only more than two thousand troops are dispatched, the possibility of capturing these two places is very high.

Now there are only two to three hundred guardsmen on the Wuyang side, most of whom are old, weak, sick and disabled.

There were actually some officers and soldiers here before, but not long ago, the Ming army sent troops to rescue Yuzhou, and most of the guard soldiers who were able to fight were transferred away, and these guard soldiers were dealt with by Anyongduo. .

Wuyang City now is in an absolute state of depletion of troops. To put it bluntly, just a dozen bandits who dare to fight and kill can force their way into the city...

What's more, now that Zuo Liangyu was defeated and fled to Ye County, Wuyang's weakness was immediately exposed.

Maybe all the Wuyang defenders would be trembling after hearing the news of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong's defeat.

Not to mention Wuyang, even people in Ye County are in panic.

Because of Zuo Liangyu's new defeat in Ye County, although Zuo Liangyu retreated to Ye County with more than 4,000 troops, Zuo Liangyu had not yet reached Ye County. Ye County had already learned about Zuo Liangyu's tragic defeat on the front line. news...

But it scared the officials and gentry in Ye County...

That is to say, they felt a little relieved after knowing that Zuo Liangyu had escaped with more than 4,000 people and was retreating towards their Ye County.

After all, there are more than 4,000 people. It shouldn’t be a problem to defend their Ye County by then, right?

But now the officials and gentry in Ye County have no idea that Zuo Liangyu ran away with more than 4,000 people.

But these more than 4,000 people lost almost all their artillery, no matter whether it was a few hundred kilograms of general artillery or a few dozen kilograms of attack artillery, they were all lost.

Not only the artillery, but also the armor and weapons of many soldiers were completely lost.

After all, in order to withdraw from the battlefield and survive ahead of their comrades, many of them threw away everything they could.

As for those who didn't throw them away...they either died on the battlefield or were taken prisoner!

The people who were able to escape were basically the ones who ran very fast. The reason why they were able to run fast was not because they were physically fit, but because they had thrown away everything they could throw away earlier.

After withdrawing, Zuo Liangyu's command of more than 4,000 people did not even bring any food, let alone weapons...

When Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong went south, under the arrangement of Hong Chengchou, they both obtained a batch of money and grain. They continued to search for grain, grass, gold and silver along the way south.

But now, these enough grains to feed tens of thousands of people for at least a month, as well as a lot of gold and silver collected along the way, are all still in the camp under Yuzhou City.

Because they were defeated so quickly and escaped even faster, Zuo Liangyu and the others couldn't even set fire to them, let alone take them away. All this large amount of food was given to the Home Guard Army.

As a result, when Zuo Liangyu retreated all the way to Ye County, he grabbed food all the way back, otherwise he would have starved to death on the way.

And after arriving in Ye County, it is estimated that Zuo Liangyu's troops will not be much better. There are not a large number of weapons waiting for Zuo Liangyu in Ye County...

There must be food in Ye County, and there should be a lot of it, but these days the food is basically in the hands of the gentry. Unless Zuo Liangyu pays a high price or directly raises the flag to rebel, he can't expect to get much food from these gentry.

Therefore, even if Zuo Liangyu led his troops to retreat to Ye County, he would still face a lack of weapons and food.

Under such circumstances, Zuo Yingzhe believed that it was still possible to scare Zuo Liangyu into occupying Ye County.

That's right, Zuo Yingzhe's plan was to scare Zuo Liangyu away, not to mobilize the army to attack Ye County directly and fight Zuo Liangyu to death.

There is no way. The current North Route Army seems to have strong forces, but in fact the real main force is only the Second Infantry Brigade, and the main force of this brigade is still stationed at Luyang Pass. Even if it wants to mobilize some troops, it will not be necessary. When I was young.

On the Yuzhou side, although the 4th Mixed Brigade has added troops, its strength is only the same, and the newly reorganized 11th Mixed Brigade and 12th Mixed Brigade are even more superficial.

Therefore, the Northern Route Army seems to have a lot of troops, but in fact it doesn't have much that can fight.

What's more, the main strategic task of the North Route Army, it can even be said that the only strategic task is to guard the northern defense line and prevent the Ming army in the Central Plains from entering the Nanyang Basin.

Under such circumstances, it would be impossible to just ignore and attack Ye County.

But it is not a problem to send two thousand soldiers who are scattered here and there to scare him. Anyway, Zuo Liangyu doesn't have any elite cavalry. Even if his side fails to scare him and retreats to Yuzhou City, the other side will not be able to catch up.

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When Huang Dingquan and Zuo Yingzhe were planning to attack Wuyang and Ye County, Luo Zhixue also led his army to officially return to Nanyang City.

It was different from the last time when we went to Nanyang City, we didn't even enter the city, and no one greeted us.

This time Luo Zhixue entered Nanyang City, not only the civil and military officials of the Baoxiang Army in the city came out to greet him, but also many gentry in the city also went to greet him.

Looking at the hundreds of officials and local gentry who came out of the city to greet him, Luo Zhixue finally felt a sense of accomplishment.

Not to mention the future, at least there are gentlemen coming to greet him now, which is a good thing.

It is estimated that Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong will not be able to enjoy this kind of treatment for the time being.

Well, Luo Zhixue directly ignored the embarrassing scene of the gentry who came to greet them, each one of them trembling in fright under the thrusts and spears.

It's June, it's cold, and the gentry who go out to meet the gentry don't wear much, so it's normal to shiver from the cold!