stubborn thief

Liu Chengzong's first order for the Battle of Ganzhou was to send troops to the north.

Tuntian Zhonglv Shuai Mo and Jing led more than [-] Mongolian soldiers from the Heshuote and Chahar Battalions to the north and set up camp at Yanchiyi, which was only [-] miles away from Zhenyi Qianhu. At Shilidun, all the strongholds of the Ming army in the northwest of Heishui were removed.

Then the cavalrymen of the Heshuo Special Battalion dismounted, took out the tools they carried, and began to demolish the side wall.

This scene was witnessed by the Zhenyi Banner Army who ventured across the black water to search for information. The news was quickly sent to the Zhenyi Qianhu Office, and then drifted southeast along the black water, entering the defensive position carefully constructed by Li Hongsi.

Why are they tearing down the side wall?
A terrible thought lingered in Li Hongsi's mind: Could it be that the marshal's army planned to enter the desolate Gobi once again and run a long distance to bypass him?

Liu Chengzong is good at running for thousands of miles, this is not a secret to anyone.

After all, running attack is a public skill of rogues in the late Ming Dynasty. Those who are capable are called running attack, and those who are incapable are called fleeing. Anyway, people without a pair of iron legs can't live for seven years in Chongzhen.

But Li Hongsi felt that this was wrong, they were all foreigners, why did he not know the way, but Liu Chengzong dared to run around in the Gobi desert with his head covered?
Li Hongsi didn't know the way, but his subordinates and the friendly generals around him knew the way. The Zhenyi guerrilla Tang Mingshi knew the way. He sneered at the report of the Zhenyi Banner Army: "Even if they have good feet, they will die in the desert." Walking [-] miles a day, detouring [-] miles to the north of Ganzhou, Suzhou was gone in half a month."

Tang Mingshi shook his head resolutely and said: "Don't worry, deputy commander, the traitors will never detour through the desert, but be careful that they build dams on the upper reaches of the Black Water."

Li Hongsi nodded suspiciously, not agreeing with Tang Mingshi's thoughts in his heart.

It's not that he has any opinions on Tang Mingshi. In fact, he is very aware of this General Tang's extraordinary talent in loyalty and bravery. It's just that he was born as a hereditary military officer at the grassroots level of Liangzhou Wei, and his meritorious service is the same as Li Hongsi's. Shaanxi got it.

Since his tenure in Zhenyi Guerrilla, Tang Mingshi, like many generals in Gansu, has rich combat experience in Ningxia, Yansui and other places, but he has never fought in Gansu.

He raised his hand and ordered to his servant: "Bring General Lin Shen here."

Ganzhou Road Counselor Lin Chengdong was the most experienced person around Li Hongsi. On the one hand, he was a military officer from the Xi'an Prefecture.

Different regions have different environments, and some geographical advantages cannot be known to the generals until the end of the battle. Therefore, Li Hongsi paid more attention to Lin Chengdong's military suggestions.

In recent days, Lin Chengdong has lived and boarded in the frontline camp surrounded by canals and trenches, busy testing the army's firearms and equipment, and the situation is not very good.

The rockets are old and ineffective, the heavy artillery vehicles are aging, the light artillery is shoddy, the gunpowder is unevenly allocated, and the shells are of different sizes... The armaments are almost abolished.

Eighteen officers of the three battalions were beheaded by Lin Chengdong, and their headless corpses were pushed outside the battalion, with their heads hanging on the shaft gate dripping with blood.

The Soldier Officer is a team-level soldier officer, just like the one in charge of flags, drums and horns. Each team has one, who is in charge of ordnance.

Lin Chengdong knew that the lack of armaments was the fault of the entire Ming army. In such a general environment, although those officers had duties, they were helpless.

However, the military discipline of this army conscripted from the three places was lax, and the soldiers and officers generally had the feeling of arrogance and mighty generals. It was really impossible to kill the commanders, so Lin Chengdong regarded the commanders as a way to clean up the military discipline.

What is called an arrogant soldier? They are seeking quick victory. People are eager to go to the front line to charge and kill the enemy, but the source of their desire is not victory, but that this group of people has never fought a war and cannot bear the hardship of waiting for a war.

Instead of digging trenches day in and day out and doing all the exhausting, repetitive preparations to win, you want to simply rush up and fight.

Lin Chengdong knew this situation, and if they rushed forward to fight, it would be to deliver food, and if they encountered a slight setback, they would usher in a big rout... What's more, the army they assembled had different attributes at the general-school level.

Li Hongsi is the guard of Suzhou Road, Zhenyi guerrilla Tang Mingshi is the guerrilla of Suzhou Road, the two are in the same defense area but have never met before; Lin Chengdong is the general of Ganzhou Road, and his coach Yang Jiamo is coordinating in Zhangye All kinds of armaments and materials are prepared to prepare troops for the front line.

Even with this kind of configuration, even if they are all elite troops, if they have ten strengths, they will only be able to play [-]% of their strength, not to mention that the vast majority of soldiers have no experience in combat.

When he received the news that Li Hongsi was looking for him, Lin Chengdong was receiving a batch of artillery from Ganzhou Zhuwei. He replaced the two unusable cannons with three newly cast generals and 22 small cannons. Big Frang machine and twelve pearl guns.

After completing the replacement of the old and new artillery, he sent his cronies to follow the civilian team from Ganzhou back to Ganzhou. Then Lin Chengdong got on his horse and went to the Chinese military camp to find Li Hongsi and others.

When he arrived at the Zhongjun camp and listened to the Zhenyi Banner Army's explanation of the situation, Lin Chengdong didn't even think about it, so he cupped his fists to Li Hongsi and Tang Mingshi and said, "Commander, General Tang, forgive me for speaking bluntly. The three Tangqi have been fighting the enemy Tangqi in the desert for several days, the commander and the general must know the specific situation of the battle."

Lin Chengdong clapped his hands together, opened them to them, and said, "Our army's pond horses are weak, while the enemy's pond horses are fat; my pond soldiers eat half a piece of wheat flour cakes for two meals a day, and the enemy's pond soldiers have fried noodles and half a piece of cake on their backs. There is jerky, and when you are tired, you eat sugar and drink tea, and even the three-eyed gun, my gun is one foot long, and the enemy's gun is one foot three."

Speaking of this, Lin Chengdong is too angry. Official horses are not as good as thief horses, official armor is not as good as thief armor, official food is not as good as thief food, and even officers and soldiers are not as good as thief soldiers. It is a steady loss when fighting. His pond soldiers shot the enemy With an arrow, the enemy cavalry is alive and kicking, and even dares to laugh; when the enemy cavalry gallops over and shoots an arrow, his soldiers in the pond will fall off the horse.

On average, they have to pay three times the number of casualties to kill an enemy Tangqi. As for the capture alive, it is completely out of proportion.

As for this enemy cavalry, he was tortured for nothing. He couldn't bear the torture at first. He said that he was also an officer in the past, and he surrendered after being given a meal. He asked what he said.

In the end, I don't know which tendon was wrong. Originally, the water soaked cake was eaten well, but I also got a few words of information, and suddenly I threw the bowl and wiped my neck while no one was paying attention.

This happened two days ago. Lin Chengdong couldn't understand it at first, until yesterday he saw a meritorious Tang soldier burning a simple small iron stove outside the tent that he had never seen before. An iron kettle is heating tea.

The small stove is quite simple, with three iron rods that are thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and a hollow round iron plate with three eyes. When it is put up, it gets stuck. Lin Chengdong is curious about it, thinking that this thing is very useful on the battlefield. , Dig a hole and put it on the shelf, so he has an extra word of mouth.

When I asked where it came from, the enemy Tangqi Shichang came there, but they were seized and not reported.

There are dozens of small straw paper bags in the cowhide hip pouch, containing tea leaves divided into small portions, brown sugar or white sugar, and salt. enjoy.

Then seeing twelve small thin iron cups stacked together, I almost had a cerebral hemorrhage.

The fucking marshal's mansion standard equipment?

He has even imagined in his mind that after a day's confrontation, the enemy soldiers in the pond, each with their own gains, rode happily to the back of the small sand dunes far from the front line after taking turns to retreat, sit around the fire and drink tea with a small pot, and drink tea. The picture of lisai chow mein and jerky was gone.

The comparison of supplies and materials is so poor that both sides are considered frontier soldiers. It is already obvious which is stronger and which is weaker.

He didn't know that the marshal Futang soldier who was captured was a postman in Yan'an. He had moved to the northwest with Liu Chengzong for six years and had not made any achievements. This time he was captured and tortured first.

However, when they were eating, they were served dry biscuits that were so hard that they could kill people, and the side dish was water, cold water.

Looking back on these years, Dashuai Liu never fed him this stuff when he was most embarrassed. He had mixed feelings in his heart for a while, and he really couldn't figure out why he couldn't give people a hot drink, so he killed himself if he couldn't think about it.

As far as Lin Chengdong is concerned, he only recognizes one dead truth. Without the advantage of Tang Bing, there is no real intelligence, so he regards all the news reported from the outside as fake news, saying: "Everything I have detected is all The stupid thief wanted me to wait and see."

"In my humble opinion, it is better not to believe anything, but to block the high platform and do a good job of our defense, rather than listening to and believing in the rumors."

Lin Chengdong spread his hands and said, "He comes whenever he comes, and leaves whenever he leaves. As long as we don't move, they won't be able to win a grand battle with fewer guns. It's great to let him go around Ganzhou. As long as he leaves, the brigade soldiers will follow, and so on." Our Tang soldiers have the upper hand, so it’s not too late to talk about going to war.”

He said a lot, and Li Hongsi only remembered one word: "Young Master Pao?"

Marshal Li said in his heart that you are lying to me, he knows nothing about Liu Chengzong, except for this gun, Li Hongsi is an expert.

Then the thieves from northern Shaanxi pulled out a small three-hundred-jin western cannon at every turn. What's that cannon called?It's called Lion Cannon, made by Liu Chengzong!You said that there are few guns in the northwest green forest who were born in artillery?

Li Hongsi can now let the Jiading team pull out ten lion cannons and crush Lin Chengdong's face. Two years ago, he seized one in Shaanxi. After using it himself, he felt good, and copied twenty more. Ten doors were blown up, and there are still ten doors left.

Of course, this thing is not called a lion cannon in his hands. He named it a majestic name, Little General Sanbaijin Pingzei.

The earliest lion cannon in his hand was made by a fellow villager after Shen Yikui occupied the security camp. At present, in Shaanxi, the most imitated version of the early lion cannon.

This kind of cannon was first made by Gao Yingxiang and Shi Cheng in Shanxi. Later, Liu Chengzong was dissatisfied with the delivery. He asked for [-] catties, and asked Gao Yingxiang to use [-] catties as well.

Gao Yingxiang was able to listen to people's persuasion, so he also used the [-]-jin regulation, and the [-]-jin cannons were given away later. Many leaders who were not so close thought that big is good and heavy is ruthless, so Shaanxi's There are basically two regulations for the red cannons made by the villagers, three hundred catties of bronze cannons and four hundred catties of iron cannons.

Six or seven hundred catties attached to the cannon carriage.

Strange to say, Liu Chengzong mainly considered transport capacity in the design. Two hundred catties of gun carts weighed four hundred catties. Using mules and horses counted as heavy labor, one mule could pull a good road, and two mules could pull a bad road.

But when it comes to the weight of six or seven hundred catties, two mules are enough, but this problem doesn't matter to other rogues.

Because others are not like him, who dare to lead troops to run all over the ground during the day, and other rogue bandits are all day and night, so they use cows for their cannons, and one head will do.

Cows are particularly afraid of heat, and they don't walk during the hottest day. Most of the rogues are also afraid of broad daylight. It's just right to use cattle to pull cannons, but they walk more slowly.

Shen Yikui is a special case. He is not afraid of the daytime, but he is also not afraid of the officers and soldiers. He is not in a hurry when marching, and it is not a problem to use oxen to pull cannons.

As a result, the [-]-jin lion cannon is particularly good for the rogues. This problem was not until the lion cannon was seized by the army, and the experienced generals felt that the design of the cannon was a bit brain-dead, and the positioning was very embarrassing.

Its size, in theory, undertakes the work of small guns such as Yongzhu, Huzuo, Jiuweiyuan, and Jiumielu. It is responsible for a distance of [-] to [-] steps, and it is used to hit people without or with armor. The lethality brought by weight gain and caliber is completely overflowing, meaningless.

Large guns like the General, Franji, Xin Weiyuan, and Xin Mielu are stronger than it in terms of power.

But bombarding fortifications and carrying out city defense are the work of attacking and defending the guns, and it can't do it either.

However, despite the discovery of such problems, in the eyes of Li Hongsi, Little General Pingzei is still a very good artillery because of its excellent workmanship, solid materials and reasonable design.

As for the disadvantages, they don't exist for him.

Because his way of using this gun is different from Liu Chengzong's. The normal way of shooting is to fire three catties of ammunition, which is placed flat for 190 steps. It is very durable and can be quickly loaded seven or eight times for bursts.

Li Hongsi double-loaded, first loaded solid bullets and then loose lead. The horsemen turned around and the infantry were in front.

A dozen or so cannons across the width of the front act as cover in several batches to assist the infantry to advance. When they are close to each other, they are only fired once. The two lines of muskets formed are fired in bursts, and basically one round will break the formation and fight.

Cannon fire?It doesn't exist, and the official army in the war against thieves doesn't have a supply team, so it can't carry so many shells.

This kind of experience made Li Hongsi very proud to say to Lin Chengdong and others: "Although the rebels have few artillery pieces, their artillery pieces are very good."

And Lin Chengdong said: "Commander, the information I got is that the enemy army always has a thousand-jin cannon, and the hundred always has a two-hundred-jin small cannon. , one cannon can't suppress two."

The two of them have their own sources of information, and they speculate based on the information they have. Only Zhenyi guerrilla Tang Mingshi has no source of information, and he can't intervene at all, so he can only stand aside and listen.

However, Tang Mingshi had a good grasp of the ordnance situation in the Marshal's Mansion. He finally found a place where his side had the upper hand. The rebel army had only one cannon per [-] corps, while the official army had two cannons per [-] corps. The cannon is less powerful, but it can overwhelm enemy artillery when placed close.

He remembered.

At this moment, a soldier from the pond ran over in a hurry and reported to Li Hongsi: "Marshal, the soldiers on the front line have raised the flag, and the enemy army with more than a thousand riders is nearly fifty miles away. The camp has not been repaired, and they are digging toilets. Pit, lots of toilet pits!"

The three generals knew as soon as they heard it that the information seemed to mean that the enemy was preparing for a surprise attack.

Large-scale excavation of toilet pits, like eating in advance, is a necessary preparation for a surprise attack. Soldiers solve their personal problems first, and there is no delay in the next battle.

Lin Chengdong said: "It's fake, it's fake, don't worry about him."

Li Hongsi was not so sure. He frowned and said, "Even if it's a fake, we have to guard against it. What if they go around from the foot of the mountain in the south to the back of our army and cut off the grain road? The north can be left alone, but the south can't." .”

Tang Mingshi thought for a while, and then said: "Commander, then I will stop them, fight them in the place where the ditches are full, and put their artillery closer before attacking."

Lin Chengdong felt something was wrong when he heard it, but he and Tang Mingshi had no affiliation, nor were they in the same defense area. However, Li Hongsi was still worried about the south, so he could only persuade him: "General Tang, all we see are them. What you want us to see, you... If you must go, bring more soldiers and horses, the enemy may not have more than a thousand horses."

Li Hongsi also warned: "General Lin is right, you have to bring more soldiers and horses, if the enemy is outnumbered, you should withdraw quickly and think of other ways."

Tang Mingshi clasped his fists heavily: "Don't worry, general, I know my humble job well!"