I want to be emperor

chapter 110

Zhaozhuang, about [-] miles north of Nanyang City, is surrounded by flat terrain, and there are also some small lakes, streams, and many fertile fields.

Even though the Nanyang Basin has experienced drought in recent years, the farmland around Zhaozhuang can still be irrigated.

At the same time, Zhaozhuang can barely be regarded as an important traffic road, just near the official road from Nanyang to Nanzhao County.

Logically speaking, such a Zhuangzi should be a vibrant and densely populated place.

But in Zhaozhuang now, the surrounding farmland has already been covered with weeds, and most of the houses in the village have collapsed or been burned.

Last year, a group of thieves came to Zhaozhuang. When the thieves left, the land in Zhaozhuang was abandoned, the houses were burned down, and the people were gone.

Since then, Zhaozhuang has been in ruins.

It wasn't until five days ago that a group of bandit soldiers with bald heads arrived nearby that this place became popular again.

These bald bandit soldiers did not set up camp in the ruins of Zhaozhuang, but camped along a low mountain on the side. They deployed tents at the foot of the mountain, and went to the surrounding area to cut down trees and dig soil to build the proposed wall. From horses and other fortifications.

Six cannons were also placed on the top of the hill.

The cannon was pointing at the official road not far away!

These bald bandit soldiers in gray military uniforms naturally attracted the attention of the passing merchants. At first, people were quite scared, but later they realized that these bald bandit soldiers were very strange, and they did not embarrass the passing merchants.

These bald bandits don't look like a bandit army.

These bald bandit soldiers are naturally the rural protection army.

There are the first infantry battalion led by Huang Dingquan, the first artillery post by Zhang Chenglin, the first cavalry post by Wang Xiazi, and the first heavy post.

After they went all the way south, they were in a state of splitting up and mopping up at the beginning, but after going all the way south and sweeping all the way to the vicinity of Zhaozhuang, they started to gather again and build a camp here for defense.

They chose to set up their defenses at Zhaozhuang because it was about fifty miles away from Nanyang Mansion, which happened to be established before them, but it was close to Nanyang City, so as not to stimulate the thoughts of Nanyang City officers and soldiers.

At the same time, Zhaozhuang here and even the place where the official road passes, and there are low mountains nearby, and there are many streams and several small lakes at the same time. The enemy went north along the official road from here.

In this flat Nanyang Basin, they could find a place that was barely suitable for stationing and deploying defenses. Naturally, Wang Xiazi and the others chose to stop here.

After five days of gradual efforts, Wang Xiazi and the others have almost built the camp. I dare not say how strong it is, but it is not a problem to use it as a field fortification.

But as soon as they set up the camp, the messengers sent by Li Qingdian in the north arrived at Zhaozhuang.

And brought the latest order to the generals.

Luo Zhixue informed them that Chen Yongfu in Nanyang City was about to send troops to the north, and asked them to be more vigilant and guard against the officers and soldiers of Nanyang City. At the same time, he also ordered Wang Xiazi to lead the cavalry to go out for reconnaissance and attack the enemy's partial divisions and supplies, so as to delay the enemy's northward march. pace.

At the same time, they were notified that Luo Zhixue would personally lead the [-]rd Infantry Battalion, the Sentinels, and a large number of supplies to the south to reinforce them.

After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, Tianwang Xiazi gathered the first cavalry sentry under his command and left Zhaozhuang, all the way south along the official road, heading straight for Nanyang Fucheng.

But Huang Dingquan and others directed the manpower to work overtime to build Zhaozhuang's fortifications in case of emergency.

When Wang Xiazi led the cavalry to go south one step ahead of time, preparing to contain and delay the main force of the enemy from going north, Luo Zhixue also waited in Li Qingdian for the third infantry battalion to return west urgently.

There was no expedition ceremony, and no mobilization speech. After the [-]rd Infantry Battalion arrived at Li Qingdian, Luo Zhixue personally led the [-]rd Infantry Battalion, as well as the pro-sentry post and the [-]nd supply post to escort a large amount of supplies to the south.

An Yongduo, Huang Guangmao, Fei Bingqing and others went south with the army.

Wang Dazhuang is leading the Fourth Infantry Battalion which is still in training; for the time being, there are only four [-]-jin artillery chips for the Second Artillery Post, which is also still in training and lacks long-range troops such as muskets, bows and arrows. Stay at Li Qing's store.

At the same time, Hu Hongzhuo, director of the ordnance department, and Yu Xiujie, director of the logistics department, also stayed at Liqingdian to take charge of ordnance equipment and logistics.

Before going south, Luo Zhixue also issued two other orders, that is, to formally form the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion.

Among them, the Fifth Infantry Battalion was organized directly from the recruits who stayed in Songshan Village, and the officers of each department were transferred from the Second Infantry Battalion to serve as deputy officers, and they could be transferred to Songjiazhuang to change defense with the Second Infantry Battalion.

The Second Infantry Battalion will return to Fangsongshan Village for the time being. In the future, it will depend on whether it will join the sequence of going south.

The Sixth Infantry Battalion was organized in Liqingdian. The soldiers were recruited from hundreds of recruits after going south. Their future mission was to take over from the Fourth Infantry Battalion to garrison Liqingdian and guard against officers and soldiers in the direction of Nanzhao County.

The establishment time of these two infantry battalions has actually been advanced, because at this time the recruits needed by these two infantry battalions have not yet completed recruit training. According to the scheduled plan, these two infantry battalions recruits can barely complete recruit training.

And the required weapons and equipment are also gone, there are no muskets and armor, at most, only spears, knives and a small amount of bows and arrows can be allocated first.

But the plan couldn't keep up with the rapid changes. As the Ming army in Nanyang City was about to go north, Luo Zhixue had to make the establishment of these two infantry battalions in advance.

He also didn't think that these two infantry battalions could play a role in the battle against Chen Yongfu in a short time.

Luo Zhixue set up an infantry battalion in advance that neither of these two recruit trainings had completed, without firearms and armor, but with ordinary cold weapons.

It was purely to free up the Second Infantry Battalion and the Fourth Infantry Battalion to participate in the battle with Chen Yongfu.

At the same time, the establishment is set up in advance, because you can continue training without going to the battlefield.

It can also be seen from this that in fact Luo Zhixue has already prepared for the possible subsequent unfavorable war, once the war is unfavorable.

The Fourth Infantry Battalion, an infantry battalion that took half a month at the earliest to form combat effectiveness, must be on the battlefield.

At that time, the [-]nd Infantry Battalion from Songshan Village will also be forced to go south to Li Qingdian to take over the [-]th Infantry Battalion to ensure that the strategic rear base of Li Qingdian is not lost.

If the battle on the southern front is still not good by then, Luo Zhixue will have to use the last card of the second infantry battalion.

And at that time, the defense of Li Qingdian's side can only use the Sixth Infantry Battalion.

In the end, it is hard to say whether the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion can resist the officers and soldiers in the direction of Lushan County and Nanzhao County.

If the officers and soldiers are brave enough, they can kill any battalion by killing hundreds of soldiers.

But Luo Zhixue bet that the officers and soldiers in these two directions are not brave enough...

The officers and soldiers in these two directions are not very strong. The officers and soldiers in Lushan County have behaved very well in recent months, and they have never left Lushan County.

And there are not many officers and soldiers in Nanzhao County, and they have not come out in the past half month.

Under such circumstances, even if it was replaced by the parallel infantry battalions of the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion, the officers and soldiers on the opposite side did not know.

When the officers and soldiers in these two directions saw hundreds of "elites" of the bandit army, they probably didn't even have the courage to fight.

After all, although these two infantry battalions are all recruits who have not completed their training, and they don't have muskets and armor, they are still quite bluffing from the outside.

Yishui's gray military uniforms, and the recruit training of the Rural Protection Army, the queues are the most crowded, so the queues can barely be seen.

If this is pulled out, it will give people an illusion at first glance: the army is neat, the queue is tight, and it looks like an elite division...

If there is no fight, few officers and generals of the Ming army will find out that these two infantry battalions are parallel imports...

Of course, this is just Luo Zhixue's own idea. If the officers and soldiers in these two directions are really sending out troops in large numbers, and the Fifth Infantry Battalion and the Sixth Infantry Battalion are lost, Luo Zhixue can only temporarily give up his attempt to go south. , Take the initiative to lead the main force to the north to retreat, first turn around and kill the officers and soldiers in Lushan County or Nanzhao County.

When Luo Zhixue led his troops south and made a series of strategic arrangements, Chen Yongfu in Nanyang City was far less nervous than him.

In fact, Chen Yongfu didn't even think those bald bandits from Funiu Mountain were a threat.

He planned to lead the army north this time, not really for the purpose of suppressing the thieves, but for the purpose of delaying time and avoiding going to the sinkhole of the Lu family...

For this reason, Chen Yongfu specially sent a letter to Xuan Mo above him, saying that there was a Luo thief with the title of "General of the Rural Protection Army" who led thousands of soldiers from Funiu Mountain to the south. To ride, there are hundreds of artillery pieces.

In addition to threatening Nanyang, the thief also intends to capture the three passes of Crow Road.

In order to ensure the safety of Nanyang Mansion, in order to ensure the safety of the strategic passage connecting Nanyang, Ruzhou and Luoyang, and to prevent the main force of the Central Plains thieves from escaping from this direction, Chen Yongfu will lead his army to fight The bandits from Funiu Mountain defended Nanyang City and the three passes on Yalu Road.

This time going north, I promise not to pay back if I don't break the bandits!

After talking about a lot, the basic meaning is just one: I plan to go north to play house with those little thieves in Funiu Mountain. Lu Shi, you can go whoever you like, anyway, don't look for me!

After sending the letter to Xuan Mo, without waiting for Xuan Mo's reply, Chen Yongfu also began to transfer troops in a serious manner, but he did not move quickly, and it took him five days to gather all these troops in Nanyang City. Five thousand troops preparing to go north at a time.

During these five days, there was actually not much time for real deployment of troops, because these troops were originally in Nanyang City.

The reason why it took five days was mainly because Chen Yongfu spent a full five days playing tricks with the officials and gentry in Nanyang City, asking for food and grass with all kinds of threats and lures!

(End of this chapter)