More than forty miles southeast of Wuling City in the Changde Prefecture, a Ming army that looked very similar to the ordinary Ming army was advancing.
Although this Ming army all wore the uniforms of the Ming army, they did not carry all kinds of messy weapons like the ordinary Ming army.
The individual weapons of these Ming soldiers were simple and unified. About a thousand or so of them were equipped with muskets, and the muskets were not the common blunderbuss in the Ming army, but the large blunderbuss among the Chu thieves.
There are also a thousand or more people who are equipped with spears. These spears are also uniform one-foot-and-a-half spears, and this is the standard spear most commonly used by the Chu army's spearmen.
As for the traditional sword, shield, and archers, there are only a handful of them. In every queue of several hundred people, there are only a few dozen of these traditional sword, shield, and archers.
And these Ming troops advanced in a queue of about 600 people, with spearmen and musketeers accounting for the majority, and only a few traditional infantry. If they were wearing gray military uniforms, then they would be the Chu army. A standard infantry battalion.
Just by looking at these infantry battalions, we can determine the identities of these Ming troops. They are the new standard army Zuo Army that Yang Sichang had high hopes for and secretly summoned rural warriors to train in his hometown of Wuling.
In addition to having six infantry battalions, this new standard army left army also imitated the Chu army and organized a field artillery battalion with eighteen two-and-a-half-pound field artillery, and a field artillery battalion similar in size to the infantry battalion. The baggage battalion is a cavalry battalion of about 300 cavalry, in addition to an engineer battalion and other auxiliary troops.
This organization, this personnel configuration and weapon configuration are completely replicas of a mixed brigade in the main force of the Chu Empire Army.
In order to build this new standard left army, Yang Sichang carefully raised a lot of money and food, recruited many craftsmen to build guns, and spent nearly half a year on continuous recruitment and training, and finally the army was initially formed last month.
The commander of the army was Yang Sichang's cousin Yang Sixing.
Yang Sixing, who was forty-three years old, was a civil servant in ten thousand years. He became an official in his early years, although his background was relatively low because he was only a civil servant.
However, he was supported by Yang Sichang and his son, and he had been serving in Shaanxi for a long time and faced ruthless thieves. Local officials suffered many casualties, and many officials were unwilling to work in Shaanxi.
Therefore, he did quite well, and successfully passed the seventh-level threshold, which is difficult for most officials with a Juren background, and then served as the commander of a certain city in Shaanxi that had just been invaded by bandits and killed the county. The county magistrate of the order.
Well, the main reason is that this place is a lower-class county, and thieves are rampant around it. It is too dangerous, and no official who has the choice is willing to come here to serve as county magistrate.
And this became Yang Sixing's opportunity.
With the support of his cousin Yang Sichang and his uncle Yang He, he crossed the threshold of the seventh rank in one fell swoop and became the county magistrate.
During his tenure as the county magistrate, Yang Sixing recruited village warriors to guard the county seat. He led his troops to fight against bandits many times and killed many bandits, earning him a reputation as a man who knew soldiers and was good at suppressing bandits.
Subsequently, he gradually rose up and became the magistrate of a scattered state in Shaanxi Province, and his rank was also upgraded to the fifth rank.
It's just that he was born in Juren, and even with the great help of Yang Sichang and his son, he was basically able to reach the level of magistrate from the fifth rank in the regular promotion, which was basically the limit.
If you want to make a breakthrough, such as obtaining the position of Tongzhi of the fifth rank, or going one step further to become a fourth-rank official, it is basically impossible.
The unspoken rules of the Ming court do not allow too many such things to happen. In the decades of Wanli, there were less than two hands of fourth-rank officials who were born in Juren. Although there are more in the Chongzhen court today, they are only in single digits.
This shows how limited an official with a Juren background is. No matter how capable or talented you are, the upper limit is basically limited. If you want to further break through the fourth-level limit, you must make great contributions and talent. It is only possible to be arrogant among the heroes, and the court is in urgent need of talents.
Otherwise, don’t count on it.
With the death of Yang Sichang's father and the death of Yang Sichang, Yang Sixing, who had no backing to support him, also lost his ambition to continue to mess around in his official career. In addition, Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi was covering the sky with one hand, and Hong Chengchou would not give Yang Sichang face, so Yang Sixing did it. Neither is satisfactory.
Finally, he resigned and returned home.
However, not long after returning to his hometown, Yang Sichang was resurrected.
The first thing Yang Sichang did when he came back was to organize and train a new standard army. It happened that his cousin Yang Sichang returned, and this man had a reputation as a knowledgeable soldier. He had also led soldiers on the battlefield and fought against bandits.
So I simply asked my cousin to take charge of the formation and training of the New Biao Army, and also recommended him a fifth-grade Huguang Inspector, Si Qianshi, who was responsible for the preparation of troops and the formation of the Zuo Army of the New Biao Army. Regarding training matters, he inspected the military affairs of Changde Prefecture and Jingzhou Prefecture.
This rekindled Yang Sixing's ambition to continue to have an impact in his official career.
Therefore, since last year, he has been recruiting local warriors in his hometown and recruiting various talents from the guards to organize and train the new standard army Zuojun.
With Yang Sichang's strong support and his own efforts, after about half a year of hard work, the New Standard Army Zuo Army was finally officially declared an army last month.
The entire left army of the New Standard Army has six battalions of infantry, one battalion of artillery, one battalion of baggage, one battalion of cavalry, and one sentry of engineers. The total strength of the entire army is more than 5,000.
All soldiers are equipped with spears or bandit-killing guns. The artillery team is equipped with twelve half-pound bandit-killing cannons and three five-pound bandit-killing cannons.
Among them, the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery has six artillery pieces as a sentinel.
In other words, with six artillery pieces as one sentry and three as one battalion, this was the artillery establishment of the Chu army last year. Later, due to production capacity constraints, scarcity of mules and horses, and huge expenditures on the artillery unit, the Chu army reduced its artillery force. The new organization of the sentry was adopted, with four artillery pieces forming one artillery sentry and three artillery sentries forming one artillery battalion.
However, this is only the rated establishment. In fact, in some main forces, or under special circumstances, there are still artillery posts with six artillery units.
At that time, when Yang Sichang and others imitated the Chu army's organization, they imitated the Chu army's organization in the summer and autumn of last year. Therefore, the artillery organization also learned from the six-gun artillery sentry.
But although in theory, the number of fully equipped artillery pieces in one artillery post of the New Standard Army is more than that of the Chu Army, this is just a theory.
The artillery organization of the Chu army's field troops is based on regiments. The artillery regiment of a main division has three field artillery battalions and one mortar artillery battalion.
In addition, in the artillery units of the Fifth Division and the First Division, the field guns of the artillery regiments have been gradually upgraded to five-pound field guns and nine-pound field guns. As for the two-and-a-half-pound field guns, they have been gradually decentralized to infantry units. The corps is directly under the artillery.
The artillery battalion in the New Standard Army's left army seems to have fifteen artillery pieces, but most of them are two-and-a-half-pound field artillery posts, and there are only three five-pound field guns.
If we really want to fight with the field artillery battalion in the artillery unit of the Fifth Division, I'm afraid we will be beaten.
In the divisional artillery unit of the Fifth Division, a field artillery battalion has eight five-pound field guns and four nine-pound field guns.
These twelve artillery pieces are all medium and large caliber artillery pieces. Both in terms of effective range and power, they are far more than the two and a half kilogram field cannon.
However, Yang Sixing is not too worried about this, or it is useless to worry. Anyway, it is impossible for him to obtain more five-pound field cannons in a short period of time, let alone nine-pound field cannons.
Although the two-and-a-half-pound field cannon is less powerful, it is still a long-barreled field cannon. It can fight hundreds of battles without any problem. If used properly, it can also play a huge role.
Besides, Yang Sixing, who led the army to march east this time, did not intend to directly attack Changsha and then fight to the death with the main force of Chu thieves on the front line in Changsha.
His mission was simple, that is, to cut off the Chu bandits' rear food route and force the Chu bandits heading south to retreat in order to protect Changsha.
Under such circumstances, he could completely avoid the main force of the Chu thieves and defeat the small main force of the Chu thieves in the rear, or simply the second-rate garrison.
But Yang Sixing didn't expect that just dozens of miles in front of him, the main force of the Chu army that he wanted to avoid was coming straight towards him.
Yang Sixing thought that the main force of the Chu army had gone south to Changsha, but he never expected that the Chu army turned a blind eye to the strategically important Changsha in the south, and instead the main force marched westward and headed straight for Wuling.
Even less would they have thought that the main purpose of the Chu army's westward march was not to capture cities and territory, but simply to come for his new standard army, the left army.
Before setting off for Xiangyin, Luo Zhixue personally gave instructions to a group of generals: "During the battle, you don't have to worry too much about the gains and losses of one city or one pool. You should focus on attacking the enemy's effective forces, especially the main force." !”
"As long as we can kill the New Standard Army's Left Army first and destroy the only main force of the Ming Army in Chunan, Changsha, Hengyang and even the entire Chunan will be at your fingertips!"
This instruction to Luo Zhixue also made a group of Chu army generals more relaxed in commanding, and more flexible and even bold in their tactics.
The main force of the Chu army marched eastward, not even planning to spend any time in Yiyang City. They did not even stop or pass near Yiyang City, and went directly around the north of Yiyang City.
Anyway, the thousands of Ming troops in Yiyang City probably didn't have the guts to come out. Even if they came out and tried to cooperate with the Wuling defenders, they would be playing into the Chu army's hands.
Compared with attacking the city, the Chu army is more powerful in field combat capabilities.
The Chu army's line tactics, infantry battalion organization and equipment, and even a large number of field artillery were all designed for field battles, especially large-scale field battles.
As for the siege ability, it was because the Ming army had been huddled in various cities, and the Chu army had to equip mortars to strengthen the siege ability.
From the beginning to the present, large-scale outdoor battles have been the best way of fighting for the Chu army.
The Ming army in Yiyang City did not run out boldly, but watched from a distance as a large number of Chu troops passed around the city and then went straight to Wuling.
Seeing a large number of Chu thieves heading towards Wuling, several officials at the top of Yiyang City lowered their heads and thought for a while, then one of them said: "Looking at the whereabouts of the Chu thieves, I am afraid they are going to Wuling. In this way, wouldn't it be Will we collide with Yang Bingxian's left army?"
"No, there are at least 20,000 Chu thieves. Yang Bingxian only has more than 5,000 under his command. The news must be reported to Yang Bingxian immediately!"
However, although the Chu army did not take the initiative to attack Yiyang City, they still left some cavalry outside the city to monitor. Once there was a message from the Ming army on horseback in the city, they rushed to intercept it.
The news about Yiyang City could not spread at all.
In fact, it was too late to spread the word, because at this time, the new standard army Zuo Army led by Yang Sixing was actually only more than ten miles away from Yiyang City.
When Yiyang City sent out messengers, the reconnaissance cavalry from both sides had actually come into contact.
