I want to be emperor

Chapter 103 Chen Yongfu's Hesitation
The officials of the Ming court in Nanzhao County should not be able to see them, and the Township Protection Army would not foolishly go around Nanzhao County to provoke those officials.

Now that you don't care about me, I don't care about your state. It's pretty good, and it's also in line with Luo Zhixue's early development strategy for the rural protection army.

Fight for a period of time as much as possible, continue to expand after obtaining food and other materials by controlling the countryside, and ensure the smooth completion of the military expansion plan of the six battalions and two outposts.

At that time, it was time to consider attacking Nanzhao County.

And once the fight started, Luo Zhixue would not be limited to fighting Nanzhao County, he must find a way to take down Nanyang Fucheng as well.

Although Luo Zhixue has no special preference for attacking cities, at the same time, the development of the Rural Protection Army does not really need to rely on cities.

The population, food and other materials needed by the Rural Protection Army can basically be obtained in the countryside. As for the city, except for a few craftsmen who are needed by the Rural Protection Army, the others are basically not needed.

Ancient cities are different from modern cities in later generations. Why do modern wars revolve around cities? That’s because modern cities are generally industrial bases. If you want to capture and destroy the enemy’s industrial bases, you need to go to Hit the city.

But the ancient cities were basically pure consumption cities, with no resources of their own.

At least for the rural protection army, it is enough to control the vast countryside of Nanzhao County. As for whether to capture Nanzhao County itself, it is meaningless.

The reason why Nanzhao County and Nanyang Fucheng will be attacked in the future is because these two places are important military locations and important transportation routes.

Nanzhao County itself is Yunyang Pass, one of the three passes of Ya Road, which is part of the north-south road. If the follow-up rural protection army wants to control Luyang Pass and completely cut off the passage of the northern Ming army going south from the Funiu Mountain area, it needs to first Take Nanzhao County, and then capture Luyang Pass.

Similarly, Nanyang Fucheng is on the edge of the Baihe River. If the follow-up rural protection army wants to go all the way south along the Baihe River, they must first conquer Nanyang Fucheng, so as to open up the Baihe route.

At the same time, it was also to pull out a big nail. If Nanyang Prefecture was left alone, the rural protection army would not be able to safely control the vast countryside of Nanyang Prefecture, let alone go further south to Xiangyang Prefecture.

Due to the self-restraint of the Rural Protection Army, the [-]rd Infantry Battalion advancing eastward stopped ten miles away from Nanzhao County and continued to advance eastward.

In the follow-up, while monitoring the movement of the officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County, they sent small-scale troops to continue to sweep the area, providing force guarantee for the people in the newly established Yahe Township Yamen to start their work.

Ever since, the strange scenes that once appeared in Lushan County appeared again in Nanzhao County.

When they were in Lushan County, the Township Protection Army also swept through the surrounding villages after taking Songjiazhuang, and pushed the actual control area to a place less than six miles away from Lushan County.

But the Ming army in the city couldn't come out, and the rural protection army didn't continue to move forward, so the two sides were separated by five or six miles, and they both pretended that the other side didn't exist...

The same scene happened in Nanzhao County now. Officials headed by the county magistrate in Nanzhao County and more than a thousand Ming troops stationed there stayed in the city honestly, as if they didn't know that there were a large number of bald bandits outside.

And the troops of the Township Protection Army were also very disciplined and never approached the area of ​​Nanzhao County, stopping only ten miles away.

But this is only on the surface. In fact, the adults in Nanzhao County are also constantly collecting more information about these bandits, and continue to recruit young and strong to try to strengthen the defensive strength of Nanzhao County.

When the third infantry battalion of the rural protection army in the north and the officers and soldiers of Nanzhao County were peacefully separated by ten miles, Chen Yongfu in Nanyang City also received relevant information.

"At least two thousand thieves? Are there fine cavalry and artillery?" Chen Yongfu couldn't believe what he heard.
"But how is this possible? It's possible that there are two thousand of these rogues, but there are still hundreds of elite cavalry? Dozens of cannons? Is this deceiving me, Chen Yongfu, who doesn't understand military affairs?"

Doesn't Chen Yongfu know what kind of temper he has for thieves?
He is very clear!
Since last year, he has been in Nanyang and started fighting big and small thieves, and after last year's hard work, especially with the support of the surrounding right army, the large number of thieves in Nanyang have either gone south or west to the mountains. gone.

The rest are just some petty thieves.

It started in the second half of last year, and the only thing worth mentioning is that last year, there was a wave of thieves with about 2000 people going north to Funiu Mountain through Nanyang.

However, among these thieves, except for a very small number of elites under the command of the big thieves, it is impossible to have a large cavalry force, let alone a large-scale artillery force.

Could it be that the thieves going south from Funiu Mountain this time are the main force of the rogues in the north?

Chen Yongfu knew that there were a large number of rogues in the northern prefectures, and even Ruzhou was besieged by tens of thousands of rogues. Under such circumstances, it was possible that thousands of rogues would go south.

However, even so, he didn't really believe that these rogues going south had hundreds of elite cavalry and dozens of cannons.

Chen Yongfu showed doubts on his face, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Send more scouts to the north, and we must find out where the thieves who are going south are coming from."

If the rogues going south had their appearance, Chen Yongfu wouldn't mind leading his troops north to kill a wave of rogues to make a contribution.

However, if there are really thousands of rogues going south, and there are really a large number of elite cavalry and artillery, then he has to consider the risk of attacking.

The reason why Chen Yongfu can also know the news of the Township Protection Army now is because the first battalion of the Township Protection Army has crossed the Baihe River and swept all the way down the west bank of the Baihe River.

During this process, the Rural Protection Army did not travel hundreds of miles a day, and directly killed Nanyang City, but slowly moved south, and naturally related news spread, and finally spread to Nanyang City.

After Chen Yongfu heard the news, he sent out scouts, and it didn't take long for him to receive a rescue letter from Nanzhao County.

After receiving the rescue letter from Nanzhao County, Chen Yongfu directly snorted coldly: "I am huddled in the city, but let me lead the soldiers to fight. I think about such a good thing."

At any rate, there are more than 1000 officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County. Even if there are only two or three hundred soldiers among them, it does not mean that they have no resistance at all.

All the subordinates around said: "Guardian, since Nanzhao has sent someone to help, if we don't move at all, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the superior."

"And since there are thieves here in Nanyang, then we don't have to go to Lu's."

Hearing this, Chen Yongfu frowned again!
At the beginning of the year, the rebel army marched eastward on a large scale, not to mention the wind and rain in Henan, and after the Rongyang Conference, Gao Yingxiang led Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other main force of the rebel army eastward, and finally killed Fengyang and dug Chongzhen's ancestral grave!

After the news spread to the capital, Chongzhen was furious, so a lot of officials were unlucky, not to mention the governor of Fengyang, even Xuanmo was dismissed and sent to prison.

It's just that Chen Biqian, who took over as governor of Henan Province, hasn't taken office yet, so Xuanmo is still in the state of being arrested but still actually serving...

It's quite strange to say that now Xuanmo says legally that he has been arrested, but he still gives orders to Zuo Liangyu, Chen Zhibang, and Chen Yongfu to fight.

Chen Yongfu also received Xuanmo's order to move to Lu's area to guard against the bandit army headed by the intruders.

It's just that he doesn't want to go!
After all, Xuanmo has already been 'put into prison' at this moment, and as soon as Chen Biqian arrives, he will be escorted to the capital for interrogation.

Of course, Xuan Mo is not the main person in charge of the destruction of Fengyang City, after all he is not the governor of Fengyang...

Therefore, it is certain that Xuanmo will lose his official position, but there is a high probability that he will not be severely punished. It is still possible to return to his hometown by returning to his hometown due to illness, and it is still possible to end up with a good death.

So in theory, Chen Yongfu could either listen to Xuan Mo's current order or not.

Like Zuo Liangyu, he is no longer Xuanmo.

And Chen Yongfu didn't want to listen to Xuanmo's order to go to Lu's, not because he didn't respect Xuanmo, or thought that Xuanmo would not listen to orders after his downfall, but because the current Lu's is not a good place.

Where is the main force of the thieves now?It is in the eastern part of Henan and the southern Zhili area.

And under the continuous encirclement and suppression by the officers and soldiers, these rebels have begun to turn around and return to the west, and attempt to return to Shaanxi.

Therefore, the officers and soldiers also confronted each other, and began to garrison troops in the west to try to block the passage of the rebels returning west.

Among them, the Lu family belongs to an important passage guarding the return of the bandit army to the west.

Once the Lu family is stationed, it is very likely that they will face a large number of attacks from the main force of the bandit army.

Compared with Lu's, Nanyang City is still safer.

Anyway, Nanyang City is also a big city, with a tall and thick city wall as protection. If Chen Yongfu relies on the city wall, he dare not say that there are too many people, but self-protection is still not a big problem.

Don't look at the rebel army headed by Gao Yingxiang all the way to attack the city, but in fact the current thieves still lack the ability to attack fortified cities. If it is not for sneak attacks and other means of stealth, storming a fortified city like Nanyang will require a heavy price.

More importantly, once the rebels attack a certain city for a long time, the rebels who besieged the strong city may be caught or even surrounded by the main force of the official army.

So under normal circumstances, the rebels led by Gao Yingxiang would not attack fortified cities like Luoyang, Nanyang, and Xiangyang.

But places like Lu's are different. Once the thieves choose to break through and return west in Lu's, those thieves will be unavoidable and will definitely launch a fierce attack on Lu's.

At that time, Chen Yongfu felt that he was going to die in battle!
So, he doesn't want to go to Lu's!

After many possibilities appeared in his mind, Chen Yongfu finally said: "Send someone to write back to Nanzhao. They will send troops to rescue and ask them to prepare food and grass and other military supplies."

"In addition, we must find out the details of these rogues as soon as possible. The newspaper said that these rogues have elite cavalry and artillery. I suspect that these rogues are very likely to be the elite of the intruders. We have to guard against them!"

(End of this chapter)