Chongzhen's attitude towards reviving Yang Sichang was very firm. Even though many courtiers raised objections, they could not make Chongzhen change his mind.
When Chongzhen did things, he never looked at the faces of his ministers, let alone what they thought!
Otherwise, he would not kill ministers like pigs and dogs.
The governor of a province, even the minister, and ministers would kill whenever they were told, and exile them when they were told, without any scruples.
I won’t talk about the past few years, only in the past two years, former Yunyang Governor Jiang Yunyi was exiled, Xuanfu Governor Jiao Yuanqing was exiled, Xuanda Governor Zhang Zongheng was exiled, Henan Governor Xuanmo was dismissed, and five provinces Governor Chen Qiyu was exiled. Exiled, Huguang Governor Tang Hui was demoted... Oh, no, Chongzhen had already ordered the arrest of this person.
The above are just a few examples, there are many more unlucky ones besides them.
Regardless of whether what Chongzhen did was right or not, from another perspective it can be said that Chongzhen controlled the real power of the court and had no scruples.
Such a Chongzhen would not care about any ethical issues at all if he wanted to seize love and revive Yang Sichang, let alone the subsequent political impact.
In this way, after Lu Xiangsheng's death, the choice of the new prime minister for military affairs in the five provinces, which had been debated for several months in the court, was finalized.
That is Yang Sichang!
I just don’t know what Yang Sichang will think after receiving the imperial edict.
Naturally, the Baoxiang Army did not know about the high-level disputes in the capital of the Ming Dynasty and the personnel changes involving Huguang and even several surrounding provinces.
After all, the capital was too far away from Huguang, so it would take at least half a month for the news to reach Luo Zhixue through some intelligence channels. It would probably have to be delayed for a few more days.
But no matter how the Ming court changes, it will not change the established strategy of Luo Zhixue to protect the hometown army!
Take control of Chubei!
Since the First Division captured Hanyang in mid-August, the military operations of various departments of the Baoxiang Army have not stopped.
On August 23, the First Division of the 3rd Defense Division captured Jiangling. On the 26th, the First Division of the 5th Defense Brigade of the 3rd Defense Division captured Yiling Prefecture. Then they continued to advance westward, capturing Guizhou and Badong along the way. Another platoon of light troops rushed in and seized Wushan before the Ming army and chieftain soldiers in Sichuan could react.
At the same time, Huang Guangmao, who was in charge of Yunyang, also ordered the troops of the 4th Garrison Brigade of the 2nd Garrison Division to go south from the Zhushan area and capture Daning and Dachang, Kuizhou Prefecture, Sichuan.
As a result, the forces of the 4th Garrison Brigade of the 2nd Garrison Division and the 5th Garrison Brigade of the 3rd Garrison Division successfully converged in the area east of Fengjie.
After the news reached Luo Zhixue, Luo Zhixue immediately ordered the above two brigades to merge on the spot and form the fourth garrison division.
The vacancies in the Second Garrison Division and the Third Garrison Division will be filled by newly recruited soldiers and captured surrendered soldiers.
The commander of the Fourth Garrison Division is Ma Dapao, the former commander of the Fourth Garrison Brigade, who was promoted to brigadier general.
In the future, the garrison division will temporarily be responsible for the defense of Kuizhou Prefecture and even the entire eastern Sichuan region.
The battle on the front line in Sichuan is progressing well. I can't say whether it can directly penetrate into the hinterland of Sichuan in the future. However, as long as it has occupied key areas such as Wushan, even if the Fourth Defense Division cannot continue to advance westward, it can still retreat to the Wushan area and control the Sichuan area. The Ming army and chieftain soldiers all blocked Sichuan.
On the northwest front, that is, along the line between Hanzhong Prefecture and Xi'an Prefecture, the strategic defensive posture was still maintained. The Ming Army did not launch an attack, and the Baoxiang Army did not launch an attack either.
However, from time to time, bandits would come from Hanzhong Prefecture, Xi'an Prefecture and other places. Some came to join the Hometown Protection Army, shouting, and some simply came to rob money and food.
However, they were all directly dealt with by the Second Garrison Division stationed in Yunyang Mansion, and most of them were reorganized into surrender troops.
This is also the reason why the Second Garrison Division is constantly receiving new recruits. In addition to newly recruited troops, in fact, more of them are recruited from bandits, refugees, and surrendered soldiers.
On the northern line of Nanyang Prefecture, Huang Dingquan is still faithfully carrying out Luo Zhixue's strategic defense tasks. In recent times, he has continued to strengthen the Luyangguan defense line and the Yuzhou defense line.
In order to block the Fangcheng Ancient Road where Yuzhou City is located, Huang Dingquan directly ordered people to surround Yuzhou, build more than ten small fortresses in the flat passages of more than ten miles around, and divide the troops to garrison them.
During this period, they also tried to send troops to attack Wuyang and Ye County, and finally succeeded in capturing Wuyang, but they failed to capture the Yexian side.
There were not many Ming troops in Wuyang, so the North Route Army casually sent more than 2,000 people there and captured it. However, there was Zuo Liangyu's troops in Ye County, and Ming troops were reinforced one after another from other places in Henan. Among them There are also a large number of cavalry.
The troops of the Northern Route Army were forced to retreat voluntarily.
Because there were more Ming army cavalry in the north, and the cavalry belonging to the Northern Route Army was not very strong, Huang Dingquan simply gave up the idea of taking the initiative and focused on building the northern defense line, preparing for a tight defense.
In early August, the Ming army also tried to counterattack the Yuzhou front line. Naturally, they did not foolishly go to Yuzhou, but wanted to attack Wuyang first.
As a result, Zuo Liangyu led an army of more than 15,000 men to attack Wuyang, which was garrisoned with only 3,000 troops. After half a month of hard work, more than 1,000 people were killed and injured, but they still could not win.
They were also faced with the imminent arrival of reinforcements sent by the Baoxiang Army from Yuzhou, so they had to retreat.
It is worth mentioning that after this battle, Zuo Liangyu, as the commander of the army, instead of being downcast, was smiling.
Because after this battle, he successfully annexed thousands of troops to his own command.
Although the Ming army suffered more than a thousand casualties during the attack on Wuyang, Zuo Liangyu's direct troops expanded from eight thousand to more than thirteen thousand.
Other generals of the Ming army fought with the Baoxiang army, and the battle became more and more miserable. He was better, except for the initial defeat in Yuzhou where thousands of people were lost.
In the subsequent battles, although he was defeated every time, the number of troops under his command increased...
And this is why other Ming army generals who faced off against the Baoxiang Army generally ended badly, but he got better and better as he got better.
Even the court and Hong Chengchou often caught his mother and issued orders and letters to reprimand Zuo Liangyu at every turn.
But Zuo Liangyu still had nothing to do. Even when the number of troops directly under his command reached more than 13,000, including a large number of combat soldiers, the imperial court was thinking about how to reward him to increase the number of soldiers. Okay, stabilize him...
It's just that Zuo Liangyu is already the commander-in-chief. According to the Ming Dynasty's military promotion conventions these days, Zuo Liangyu has actually been promoted to the top. He can't be promoted to governor, governor, etc., which are exclusive to civilian officials.
If the court wants to reward Zuo Liangyu in the future, it can only give him some false titles, such as giving him the title of a certain general, and then he can also give him the title of Prince Shaobao.
But for a certain general, Zuo Liangyu was not qualified, and as for the prince Shaobao, he was even worse.
Therefore, the court's current treatment of Zuo Liangyu is also a headache.
They wanted to use Zuo Liangyu's troops to garrison Ye County to prevent the bandits from entering the Central Plains, but they were also afraid that Zuo Liangyu would mutiny and engage in mutiny.
This reward is not easy to seal.
In the end, the only solution was to give Zuo Liangyu's wife a higher imperial title and by the way, give Zuo Liangyu's sons better hereditary positions.
Not to mention how the court treats Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu has no intention of counterattacking Nanyang recently. Before, he had extravagant hopes, thinking that he could counterattack Nanyang. If he could win, it would be a great achievement and he would be granted the title of Marquis. It's also possible.
Although Yuzhou was defeated before, in Zuo Liangyu's opinion, the original defeat was due to the sharp guns of the rebel army and the failure of his own cavalry on the other hand.
But now, guns and cannons cannot make up for it, but his men have successively annexed thousands of cavalry from friendly forces, and in addition to his own cavalry, there is also a Guan Ning cavalry to assist in the battle.
With two to three thousand cavalry assisting him in the battle, Zuo Liangyu would at least have the confidence to fight in the field.
After being able to ensure the strength of field operations, it will naturally become feasible to counterattack Nanyang.
However, after the Battle of Wuyang, Zuo Liangyu completely gave up the idea of counterattacking Nanyang Mansion.
Although I am no longer afraid of field battles, this siege is too difficult.
Those protecting the thieves didn't know what they were thinking, but they deployed so many artillery pieces on the top of the city. Moreover, the armor coverage rate of the thieves was too high, and they had a lot of heavy armor.
When attacking Wuyang, the infantry under his command actually rushed to the top of the city twice. However, as soon as they reached the top of the city, they were counterattacked by the rebels' heavy armor, and they could not stand at all.
After losing dozens of heavily armored elites who rushed to the city, Zuo Liangyu completely gave up the idea of storming Wuyang and retreated directly.
If Wuyang can't be taken down, then there is no hope for Yuzhou.
That poor place is now run by the security forces just like Tietong, with Yuzhou as the center and small forts on the left, right and front, each with light artillery deployed.
Not to mention, the bandits in this area must have a large number of small red barbarian cannons.
Zuo Liangyu had a headache when he thought of the rebel army's little red barbarian cannon.
That thing might be said to be very powerful, but in fact it's just like that. It's just a two-pound cannon. It's just that powerful.
But the most important thing is that this thing is light!
In ordinary marches, even a horse can be pulled along. On the battlefield, any two soldiers can be pushed directly. The maneuverability is more powerful than those dozens of kilograms of assault artillery in the Ming army...
The Hongyi artillery in the Ming army weighed several thousand or even several kilograms at a time. Moreover, due to the problem of the artillery mount, it seriously lacked maneuverability and could basically only be deployed fixedly for defensive operations.
But the small red barbarian cannons of the rebel army can run everywhere and directly accompany the infantry in combat.
And this is fatal.
During the last battle in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou, Zuo Liangyu reflected on himself after the war and thought about why he was defeated in the first place and why his cavalry troops were killed and wounded as soon as they were dispatched and were forced away by the enemy cavalry. In the end, the entire battle situation was irreversible and forced him to retreat directly. .
It was because those security guards brought these lightweight red Yi cannons to the wild battlefield and fired them directly against Zuo Liangyu's face!
In order to reverse this disadvantage, Zuo Liangyu has written to Hong Chengchou and even the court officials many times, requesting the court to allocate hundreds of lightweight small red Yi cannons to fight against the rebels' small red Yi cannons.
It is said that the reason why the thieves can win consecutive battles is because of the sharp guns and cannons of the thieves. To suppress the thieves, the most important thing is the guns.
The officers and soldiers have strong guns and cannons, and the bandits can be eliminated soon.
The officers and soldiers were weak with guns and artillery, and they were overturned quickly.
