The Ming army wanted to counterattack Northern Chu, and even went to the hinterland of Xiangyang City to destroy the arsenal of the Chu Empire.
It can be said to be full of difficulties.
Going east from Guanzhong Prefecture, the road is difficult to pass, and the eastern area of Guanzhong Prefecture, that is, Xunyang, is garrisoned by the Second Garrison Division of the Chu Army.
Although this second garrison division is just a garrison division, its combat effectiveness is quite impressive. It is equipped with more than ten field guns of two and a half kilograms, as well as thirty or forty general cannons weighing more than two hundred kilograms and Franco machine guns.
Even when facing the 40,000 to 50,000 Ming troops under Hong Chengchou, they were able to fight back and forth. In the autumn and winter last year, they even launched a counterattack and annihilated 4,000 to 5,000 Ming troops.
In this direction, the Ming army seems to have many people, but its overall quality is not very good. Therefore, it seems to be on the offensive but in fact it cannot penetrate at all.
It is impossible to capture Xunyang and enter Yunyang Mansion, let alone fight all the way to Xiangyang.
Not to mention that in this direction, the main force of the Chu army, the temporary first mixed battalion, is still in Yunyang City.
In addition, a very important point is that the military forces in Shaanxi are under the control of Governor Hong Chengchou and have nothing to do with Chen Biqian.
Chen Biqian wanted to counterattack Xiangyang, but that didn't mean Hong Chengchou thought the same.
Hong Chengchou has written to the court many times. His attitude is very clear, which is to first stabilize the front lines of Guanzhong Prefecture and Xi'an Prefecture to resist the attack of the rebel army. At the same time, he will use his hands to continue to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang and other bandits, and strive to win the battle in half a year. In the middle of the ninth year of Chongzhen, the Shaanxi bandits headed by Gao Yingxiang were completely wiped out.
As the saying goes, before fighting against the outside world, you must first make peace with the inside.
First, we should deal with the bandits in Shaanxi, then integrate the forces of the three sides to leave Tongguan, and then counterattack southward against Nanyang Mansion.
In other words, Hong Chengchou did not agree with Chen Biqian's plan to launch a large-scale counterattack on Nanyang in the spring and summer, but wanted to postpone the time of this major counterattack by three months or even more than half a year.
Therefore, basically don't expect the Ming army to launch a counterattack from Guanzhong Mansion.
To the east of Sichuan, although the famous general Qin Liangyu personally led a group of Qin family generals to guard Wushan and Fengjie, many attacks by the security thieves were in vain.
But similarly, limited by the special terrain of Wushan and Badong, they basically can't hope to counterattack Badong. If they can't win Badong, they can't talk about advancing eastward along the Yangtze River.
As for going through the mountains and walking along the line between Dachang and Zhushan, it is unreliable. Those places are full of mountains. It is easy for a large number of people to pass by, but don’t expect to be able to carry much baggage. If these light soldiers are killed, they will be beaten by the thieves. .
In addition, the main force in the east of Sichuan is the chieftain white-armed soldiers. The guard soldiers are only a few who cooperate with each other in fighting. You want the chieftain white-armed soldiers to protect their hometown and defend the front line of Wushan and Fengjie. It is not a big problem, but you want them to leave Sichuan. If we fight, there will be many problems that need to be solved.
Looking at the front lines of Guanzhong Prefecture and Kuizhou Prefecture in eastern Sichuan, we will find that although the Chu army does not have many main troops in these two directions, it is too difficult for the local Ming army to counterattack, which is much more difficult than launching from other directions. Counterattacks are more difficult.
On the front line of Runing Prefecture, don't count on Xinyang Prefecture in the south. If this direction was so easy to break through, then the Yiyang Three Passes here would not be famous all over the world. After the Ming army lost the Yiyang Three Passes in a hurry, Basically, it means that unless there is a huge change in the strength of both the enemy and ourselves, otherwise there is no hope of launching a counterattack from this direction.
Slightly to the north is the line between Indeedhan and Biyang. This place is also blocked by hills and mountains, but overall the terrain is quite walkable.
But, the security army also has heavy troops stationed in this direction. There are at least six to seven thousand troops stationed on the Biyang line. At the same time, it is not too far from Yuzhou in the north, Tanghe and Nanyang in the northwest. At the same time, the terrain is flat and the transportation is Good. Once the Ming army launches a large-scale attack from this direction, the Biyang rebel army only needs to hold on for three to five days. Later, the Ming army will have to face tens of thousands or even more than 20,000 defenders.
Turning around will most likely turn into a wild battle.
To be honest, based on what he had heard in the past, even if he had never been on the battlefield, Chen Biqian knew that the army under his command would suffer heavy losses in a field battle with the thieves.
Further south, the front line of Jiangbei and Jiangxi was facing the pressure of the main force of thieves. It was very difficult to even defend the city, and they were clamoring for reinforcements every day.
It is impossible to counterattack.
It was precisely because of the huge strategic pressure faced in this direction, especially the huge pressure faced by Jiangbei and northern Jiangxi, that Chen Biqian came up with the idea of launching a large-scale counterattack in Chubei in the spring and summer.
In his opinion, if a certain amount of pressure is not exerted on the security thieves, then Jiangbei and Ganbei will not be able to defend themselves.
By the way, there is the Chunan line further south. Well, the Chunan line is under the control of Yang Sichang and has nothing to do with Chen Biqian. Moreover, Yang Sichang is now unable to protect himself. The situation on the Changsha line of Chunanyue is even worse than that of Jiangbei and Jiangxi. In a crisis, there is no force to fight back.
Looking around, Chen Biqian could only place the main direction of his counterattack on the northern front under his control.
The northern line is divided into Luyang Pass and Yuzhou. Don't count on Luyang Pass. That poor place is no easier to fight than the three passes of Yiyang.
If they really want to fight against Luyang Pass, even if the rebel army does not reinforce Luyang Pass, their Ming army will still have tens of thousands of casualties if they want to take it.
But it is impossible for the security guards not to reinforce Luyang Pass.
Therefore, it is impossible to break through Luyang Pass.
You have to ask Chen Biqian how he came to this conclusion.
This is all thanks to Wu Sangui's actions.
He previously ordered Wu Sangui to go to Lushan County to prepare for the counterattack at Luyang Pass, but Wu Sangui agreed well at first, but after approaching Lushan County, he suddenly changed his mind and ran away.
Although Chen Biqian was very angry at Wu Sangui's behavior, Chen Biqian was not stupid.
He can blame Wu Sangui, but he will not ignore Wu Sangui's vision and ability.
This Wu Sangui is the son of Wu Xiang. Although he is young, he has been fighting on the front line in Liaodong for many years. He also led the army to Shandong to suppress the rebellion a few years ago. Let’s not talk about his character, but his ability to lead troops in battle is comparable to a vote. The general is much stronger.
Since Wu Sangui took the initiative to avoid Luyang Pass, Chen Biqian could basically come to the conclusion that there was no hope of being able to capture the poor place at Luyang Pass.
Finally, Chen Biqian set his sights on Yuzhou!
Yuzhou guards the Fangcheng Ancient Road. If this line can be opened, then the army can attack in large numbers along the Fangcheng Ancient Road.
At the same time, Yuzhou is not a dangerous pass. The Fangcheng Ancient Road where Yuzhou is located is a passage more than ten kilometers wide. In order to guard this direction, the security guards built a three-dimensional road with Yuzhou as the core. A defensive line of more than a dozen forts.
In other words, after the war started, the Ming army did not have to attack Yuzhou directly. They could attack other small fortresses stationed by the Chu army outside Yuzhou City.
If the Chu army retreats to Yuzhou and defends it, the Ming army can still leave part of its troops to besiege the city, and part of its troops can directly go around and penetrate deep into the hinterland of Nanyang Prefecture.
At that time, you can either lay siege to the city for reinforcements or directly attack the city in the hinterland.
The area east of Yuzhou has flat terrain and convenient transportation.
This will help the Ming army gather a large army and launch a large army to attack the city. They can even wait slowly for a batch of Hongyi artillery to arrive and deploy.
That's right, it's the Hongyi Cannon!
After Chen Biqian took office as governor, he already wrote to Chongzhen asking for the Hongyi cannon.
Chen Biqian and Yang Sichang insist on engaging in thieves, guns and cannons. In other words, they don't have the courage and courage to collect so much money and food to do it.
His method was to find ways to complain to the court and even hint at threatening the rebel army to move eastward from the Central Plains, Jiangbei, etc...
In the end, the court gave him money, food and guns.
Among them were a total of sixteen Hongyi cannons, which were regarded as military weapons by the Ming army.
Of these sixteen Hongyi cannons, ten were originally scheduled to be sent by the imperial court to Xuanda and Jiliao lines last year to guard the border, and six were directly transferred from Henan, Shandong and other places.
Sixteen Hongyi cannons weighed more than a thousand kilograms, and weighed more than three thousand kilograms. They were quite powerful.
Seriously speaking, the power of these sixteen Hongyi cannons is no worse than the five-pound and nine-pound field cannons in the Home Guard Army. In terms of pure power, these Hongyi cannons are even stronger.
Because these Hongyi cannons are essentially naval guns, with longer barrels and a diameter that can reach twenty-two or three times.
The Baoxiang Army's field artillery has a smaller diameter in order to control weight. The nine-pound field gun has a diameter of only eighteen times.
The diameter is slightly different, and the power is naturally weaker.
However, this is only theoretical data. This Hongyi cannon seems to have a large diameter, so you have to see if the Ming army's gunner dares to fully charge... Can this artillery withstand a full charge?
Furthermore, it depends on whether the Ming army's gunners can accurately hit the target.
Finally, a very important point is maneuverability.
The maneuverability of artillery is very important, and the maneuverability of the Ming army's Hongyi cannons is not to mention. From the beginning, the Ming court never considered using them in field battles, and they were basically deployed fixedly on the city walls. Used to defend the city.
On the other hand, after the Dongluo side obtained the Hongyi Cannon, they directly improved the gun mount and used the Hongyi Cannon in the field. However, due to the heavy weight of the Hongyi Cannon and the problems with the gun mount, its maneuverability was extremely limited.
Of course, performance, maneuverability, etc. are all minor issues in Chen Biqian's opinion. He doesn't understand and doesn't care.
Anyway, he only knew that he would have sixteen Hongyi cannons at his disposal.
With this kind of powerful weapon, Chen Biqian became more confident in conquering Yuzhou City.
However, transportation of Hongyi cannons is difficult, and it will take at least one and a half months for these Hongyi cannons to arrive. Before that, Chen Biqian plans to make other preparations.
For this reason, he wrote to Wu Sangui, asking him to come to Yuzhou as soon as possible, and hinted that as long as Wu Sangui came over, his previous disobedience and robbery could be forgotten.
In addition to mobilizing Wu Sangui, Chen Biqian also mobilized two other border troops, totaling 8,000 people, to Yuzhou.
In this way, there were three frontier armies, totaling 11,000 people, of which 3,000 were cavalry!
In addition to the 11,000 frontier troops, Chen Biqian also planned to mobilize 30,000 troops from Zuo Liangyu's headquarters in Ye County, 5,000 troops from Ruzhou garrison, and about 5,000 troops from Runing Mansion's front line. In the rear, Luoyang, Kaifeng and other places mobilized about 10,000 troops.
In addition, there are 5,000 standard soldiers under Chen Biqian.
If everything goes well in this battle, Chen Biqian can gather an army of at least 65,000 people, not counting the young men and women.
It includes 16 Hongyi cannons, 3,000 frontier cavalry and 2,000 ordinary cavalry, a total of 5,000 cavalry, more than 50 general cannons, Folang machines and other types of artillery weighing more than 200 kilograms, and various artillery pieces weighing less than 200 kilograms. There are more than 500 small cannons such as assault cannons, tiger crouching cannons, and bowl-mouth cannons, more than 3,000 various kinds of bird blunderbuss, and more than 8,000 various kinds of fire gate guns such as three-eyed blunderbuss.
Chen Biqian has made up his mind: Even if it means fighting to the death, he will knock down Yuzhou and then open the door to the hinterland of northern Chu!
