As a frontline general, Zuo Liangyu wrote to the court, and actually got the attention of the court officials, but yes, they paid attention to it, but they didn't ask for artillery.
As a result, Hong Chengchou spent a lot of effort to get two red Yi cannons for Zuo Liangyu, but they were both big ones weighing more than 2,000 kilograms and could only be placed on the head of Ye County City as defensive artillery.
As for the trumpet, there are no red cannons!
Anyway, there is no such thing in the Ming army. The Ming Dynasty has been imitating the Red Yi cannon for some years. Although many smaller red Yi cannons have been imitated, they are also hundreds of kilograms or even thousands of kilograms heavier. In order to pursue The power is generally of a longer diameter. In addition, the Ming army does not have or understand the new two-wheeled gun mounts, and still uses the small four-wheeled ship-based artillery mounts.
Basically don't expect to be able to drag these artillery guns around.
As for the counterfeit, they have never seen it before. Who knows what it looks like, so naturally it is impossible to give it to Zuo Liangyu.
So far, the Ming army has not been able to capture even a two-and-a-half kilogram field gun from the Baoxiang Army. Let alone capture it, few people have been able to observe it closely and come back alive.
Therefore, many generals of the Ming Army knew that the Baoxiang Army had a small, lightweight red barbarian cannon, but they were not sure what it was like.
Therefore, it will take some time for the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court to imitate the small and lightweight cannon of the Baoxiang Army.
On the other hand, Zuo Liangyu's Liangyu saw that he had no choice. In order to protect himself and expand his own strength, he was already thinking about finding craftsmen to cast this kind of small Hongyi artillery.
It's just that there are no samples to refer to, and I can't even figure out the specific structure. It's not that difficult to imitate just by looking at the drawing from a distance.
Zuo Liangyu not only planned to imitate the small red Yi cannon used in the Baothief Army, but also planned to imitate the big bird cannon used in the Baothief Army.
He likes the big bird gun used by the bandit army very much.
It is also a musket carried by an individual soldier, but it is much more powerful than the blunderbuss used by officers and soldiers today. If it is hit with one shot, it will punch a hole in any heavy armor.
Moreover, the big bird blunderbuss of the bandit army also has a lance with a sleeve buckle. This thing is much more practical than the plug-in blunderbuss that is also used in bird blunderbuss.
After realizing the superiority of this kind of big bird gun, Zuo Liangyu has ordered his craftsmen to start imitating this kind of big bird gun.
Unlike the difficulty of imitating the lightweight red barbarian cannon used in the Baothief Army, it is much easier to imitate this large bird gun.
After all, Zuo Liangyu also has a foreign gun like the big bird blunderbuss in the Baothief Army, so he can just let the craftsmen imitate it.
There are no technical problems.
After all, the 18mm matchlock guns in the Baoxiang Army are actually no different from the Ming Army's blunderbuss in terms of technical characteristics. The core barrels are forged using the rolling method.
However, in many processes, the Baoxiang Army's arsenal would use machinery for processing, while the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty still used pure manual processing.
However, this only affects production efficiency and the uniformity of standards, and does not prevent the Ming army from imitating this kind of matchlock gun on a large scale.
Zuo Liangyu is thinking about imitating the guns and cannons of the Baoxiang Army. As for other Ming troops, they have no idea, or they have the idea but don't have the strength.
Zuo Liangyu is different from ordinary Ming army generals. He is not only a general, but also an arrogant and domineering general who supports his troops to protect himself. He will directly rob when he is short of food, and he will rob when he is out of money.
The imperial court could not raise the money and food to imitate new ordnance on a large scale, but Zuo Liangyu collected money and food on his own to imitate the ordnance of the Baoxiang Army.
In order to collect money, Zuo Liangyu directly set up cards in Ruzhou and Runing Prefecture to collect money. From time to time, he would send troops directly to the countryside to collect grain, and occasionally he would threaten the gentry in various cities to ask for money and grain.
The memorials to impeach him kept flying into the Forbidden City like snowflakes, but he still did nothing.
Who allowed me to have an army of more than 10,000 people?
Whether the imperial court can contain the rebel army in the north of Chu and prevent the rebel army from entering the Central Plains in large numbers, now it can only count on Zuo Liangyu to block the first line of the ancient road in Fangcheng.
Even if Zuo Liangyu's behavior now disgusts the court officials, they still have to pinch their noses and bear it, and even think about giving Zuo Liangyu a reward.
Zuo Liangyu now annexed Ye County and various places in the rear, and formed a confrontation with the Yuzhou front-line Baoxiang Army. This also gradually calmed down the war on the northern front.
One did not intend to counterattack Nanyang, and the other did not intend to march into the Central Plains, so Huang Dingquan and Zuo Liangyu chose to confront each other with a tacit understanding.
There is no fighting on the northern front, the western front is progressing smoothly, and now only the southeastern front, that is, the battle on the front line of De'an Prefecture and Huangzhou Prefecture is left.
Among them, the fighting in Huangzhou Prefecture was not that big. After the First Division of the Baoxiang Army captured Hanyang, it dispatched the Second Infantry Regiment plus Ruojun soldiers and cavalry to form a mixed reinforced regiment to attack Huangzhou Prefecture.
Because there were not many Ming troops in Huangzhou Prefecture, the reinforced regiment successfully captured Huangpo, Macheng and other places. In late August, they successively captured Huangzhou Prefecture to govern Huanggang, Qizhou and other places.
During this period, King Jing crossed the Yangtze River and fled south to Jiujiang. After the Baoxiang Army looted all the palace of King Jing, they continued to advance to the Huangmei and Susong areas.
Because the soldiers were exhausted from successive battles, the land supply line was too long, and they were intercepted by a large number of Ming troops from Southern Zhili in the Susong area, the Second Infantry Regiment stopped its eastward offensive and began to build a defense line on the spot. .
The front line of De'an Prefecture is more cautious. This does not mean that the Ming army in De'an Prefecture is relatively strong. In fact, even the six or seven thousand Ming troops currently stationed in the security land city of De'an Prefecture are not looked down upon by the Baoxiang Army. In the eyes.
But considering that these Ming troops are good at escaping without fighting, if one of our own troops advances and another one flees directly to Yiyang Sanguan, the follow-up will be more troublesome.
Anlu City, this is already a dish in the bowl of the Baoxiang Army. Now the overall strategy of the Baoxiang Army's eastward march to De'an Prefecture is not to conquer Anlu City, but to seize the three passes of Yiyang and prepare for the subsequent crossing of the Dabie Mountains. Prepare to enter Runing Mansion and even the Huaihe River area.
For this reason, Luo Zhixue asked the staff to formulate a more cautious battle plan. He would first shoot a small force to attract the main force of the enemy, but secretly send a force to bypass and seize the three passes of Yiyang.
To this end, the Baoxiang Army mobilized the 1st Division, 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Brigade and other troops, and also ordered the 3rd Infantry Division in the Xiangyang Prefecture area to send a regiment to Suizhou to seize Pingjingguan and other places.
Prepare for a north-south pincer attack to directly take out all the Ming troops in De'an Mansion and prevent the Ming troops from escaping to the Three Passes of Yiyang.
Under such circumstances, on August 27, a regiment of the 2nd Infantry Brigade successfully attacked Yingshan County, De'an Prefecture. Immediately afterwards, another regiment of the 2nd Infantry Brigade seized Wuyang Pass and Jiuli Pass of the Three Passes of Yiyang. Waiting places.
With the above-mentioned three regiments seizing Yingshan County and the three passes of Yiyang, it means that the 7,000 Ming troops who were still in Anlu City were strategically surrounded...
When the retreat route in the rear was seized by the security forces, Anlu City fell into panic.
There was another fierce debate among many civil and military officials in the city. During the debate, the three thousand Ming troops who had run all the way from Yicheng to Anlu City once again greased their feet and tried to break out of the encirclement before the security forces completely blocked it. Then find an opportunity to browse the Dabie Mountains and escape to the Central Plains.
As soon as these three thousand Ming troops fled, the morale of the remaining four thousand Ming troops plummeted instantly.
Small-scale Ming troops began to flee one after another, and officials began to disappear one by one.
When the Baoxiang Army finally turned around and reached Anlu City, there were only more than 2,000 defenders left in Anlu City.
The two thousand people are also very interesting. The reason why they stayed in Anlu City and did not run away was purely to wait for the rural protection army to come and then dedicate the city...
Not only did they dedicate the city, the more than two thousand Ming army also arrested many officials in the city as surrender certificates.
Anlu City, surrender without a fight!
Many soldiers of the Baoxiang Army were already used to this result.
In the past six months, the Baoxiang Army has experienced many situations where the Ming garrison surrendered without a fight. The Anlu City garrison surrendered without a fight was not the first time and it will not be the last time.
After taking Anlu City, the security forces in this direction were not idle. Except for the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division, which was ordered to lead the temporarily reorganized 5th Guards Division to garrison Yingshan, Anlu and Yiyang Pass. Wait outside.
The core forces of the Second Infantry Brigade and the First Cavalry Brigade of the First Division pursued the escaping three thousand Ming troops.
Facts have proved that although these people ran early, they still could not run fast enough, and they were overtaken by the 1st Cavalry Brigade within a few days.
When these three thousand Ming troops saw that they were overtaken, they surrendered without even a token resistance...
In view of the "brilliant" record of the Ming army, the Baoxiang Army did not directly reorganize the department. Instead, it first sent officers from the Military and Political Department to conduct a thorough investigation, and finally concluded that these three thousand Ming troops were not worthy of reorganization.
It’s not that they have poor physical fitness or poor combat skills. In fact, these soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who have been able to run all the way up to now are not bad in physical fitness and have poor combat skills. Most of them are veterans. .
However, these people fled without fighting many times in a row, and finally surrendered without even resisting. For a long time, these soldiers have become timid and have the habit of fleeing when they see the enemy.
No matter how strong or weak the enemy is, as soon as they hear that the enemy is coming, their first thought is to run away.
Although after reorganization, they can be turned around through ideological education, strengthening discipline, etc., the Baoxiang Army has never lacked soldiers from the garrison.
There are a lot of surrendered soldiers and prisoners of war outside waiting for them to be reorganized. Without the surrendered soldiers, there are still a large number of young and strong refugees to choose from, not less than three thousand crooked melons and cracked dates.
Therefore, this Ming army became the first Ming army in the history of the reorganization and surrender of the Baoxiang Army that did not accept reorganization and was all changed into construction battalions, settlement camps or transportation battalions.
It has to be said that this Ming army has created history!
With the end of the war in De'an Prefecture, the Baoxiang Army also fully controlled the entire northern Chu region, and even extended a foot into eastern Sichuan.
At the same time, the external war also temporarily subsided due to various reasons. The Baoxiang Army began to deploy some troops stationed in various places to clear out the remaining Ming troops and even bandits in northern Chu, in order to strengthen their control over the grassroots.
On September 3, Luo Zhixue led a large number of officials to Hanyang in order to command the armies going south and prepare for the subsequent crossing of the river to attack Wuchang and to capture the entire Huguang.
However, as the war gradually subsided, there was no calm within the Baoxiang Army. Generals stationed in other places successively found various excuses to apply to go to Hanyang.
And some people are too lazy to leave after arriving in Hanyang.
Why?
Because many people within the Baoxiang Army are looking forward to it!
What do they expect?
Become an emperor and build a country!
