I want to be emperor

Chapter 114 The tacit understanding between officials and thieves

The rebel army in Ruzhou still hasn't figured out what the rural protection army in the south is.

Before Chuang Potian and the others led their army to the south, they were directly cleaned up by the rural protection army. Although the news of Chuang Potian's defeat and death was later spread back to Ruzhou, the local rebels failed to understand Uncle Chuang Potian. How did my nephew lose the battle?

There are only a few sporadic reports that Chuang Potian and the others were defeated by an army from Lushan County that was wearing the banner of the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp and wearing uniform gray uniforms.

Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp, the name doesn't sound like a bandit, but it looks like an army like the militia and county warriors from the government.

Coupled with sporadic news that the Baoxiang Battalion still uniforms gray uniforms, marching and fighting are also the same as officers and soldiers.

Therefore, at the beginning, the rebels in the north directly regarded the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp as the local county brave young and strong in Lushan County.

After all, in various places in the Ming Dynasty, there were also a lot of messy and young county braves.

It is not uncommon for a young and strong county brave to come out to play.

But, they also heard that the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion had fought with the officers and soldiers before, and the officers and soldiers even went to the Funiu Mountain to encircle and suppress this group of bandits, and it seems that they are not dealing well with the officers and soldiers now.

So for a while, they couldn't figure out what the origin of this rural protection battalion was, whether it was an enemy or a friend.

Of course, the more important thing is that they didn't spend much time collecting information about the Township Protection Army, they just judged based on some hearsay news.

After all, the situation of the rebel army in the north of Ruzhou is not very good now. The previous attempt to attack Ruzhou failed, and they are still facing the encirclement and suppression of many officers and soldiers. At the same time, they have separated from the main eastward force led by Gao Yingxiang.

They can't protect themselves, so what mood do they have to deal with the rural protection army in the south?

Today's Central Plains area is a mess, there are rebels everywhere, officers and soldiers everywhere, and there is no clear area controlled by the enemy or us.

I thought that the rebel army was a mobile battle. For example, after the main force led by Gao Yingxiang went eastward, it ran all the way and fought all the way. The front ran to Fengyang, but soon went north to Guide.

In addition to the main force led by Gao Yingxiang himself, there are also many chaotic rebels who also belong to mobile operations.

A rebel army is still in Ruzhou today, maybe they will run to Kaifeng mansion in two days.

At the same time, other rebels will come to Ruzhou.

It seems that there have always been rebels in the north-central area of ​​Ruzhou, but in fact there have been several groups...

Not only the rebels are like this, even the officers and soldiers are running around.

The current Luo Zhixue doesn't even know which rebel army is in the north and how many troops it has.

Fortunately, these rebels never went south to Lushan County on a large scale. After all, the main force of the rebels didn't plan to break through Luyang Pass and go south to Nanyang Mansion, so there was no need to come to Lushan County to cause trouble.

The current rebels are only thinking about returning to the west.

Gao Yingxiang has already led the army to Guide, and Luo Rucai has also led the army to Guide. It will not take long for the main forces of the two rebel armies to converge.

The next battle situation is very clear, Gao Yingxiang must lead the army all the way to the west, and wants to fight back to Shaanxi.

The officers and soldiers headed by Hong Chengchou tried their best to stop them and prevent them from running back to Shaanxi.

The battle between the officers and soldiers in the north and the rebels also left a vacuum in the strength of the officers and soldiers in Nanyang Prefecture. Except for Chen Yongfu's troops who were stationed here, other main forces of the officers and soldiers will come here in a short time.

This is also one of the reasons why Luo Zhixue recently led his troops south.

However, this strategic gap period will not be too long. Regardless of whether Gao Yingxiang succeeds in returning to Shaanxi or is strangled by officers and soldiers in the Central Plains, the officers and soldiers will be able to free up part of their troops to guard the Central Plains.

At that time, they will definitely turn their attention to Nanyang Mansion.

This is also the reason why Luo Zhixue's strategy execution seems a bit forward-looking and backward after he went south.

Because on the one hand, Luo Zhixue needed to take down the Nanyang Basin before the officers and soldiers came to their senses, and at the same time, he couldn't take down the Nanyang Basin too early, and he couldn't even arouse the attention of the officers and soldiers too early.

Here Luo Zhixue needs to control the time well.

Similarly, this was also embodied in Luo Zhixue's tactical choice after he led his army south to Zhaozhuang.

After Luo Zhixue led the reinforcements to Zhaozhuang, he did not send out large-scale troops except to inspect the surrounding terrain at the beginning. He led a large army to garrison Zhaozhuang and confronted Chen Yongfu's troops in Yangjiazhuang to the south ten kilometers away.

Because Luo Zhixue wanted to stall for time!

Coincidentally, Chen Yongfu from the south also wanted to procrastinate.

At the beginning, Chen Yongfu thought that the bald bandits in the north were just a group of ordinary rogues, and it was fine to go north to fight casually, but now that Chen Yongfu knew that the bald bandits in the north were a group of elites, it was naturally impossible to go north casually.

After all, he didn't really go north to fight the thieves, it was purely to avoid the task of going to Lu's.

Therefore, if the bandit army in the north does not take the initiative to go south, he will not have the idea of ​​taking the initiative to go north and take the risk of attacking. The ghost knows what will happen after going north.

It is better to wait for the main force of officers and soldiers in the north to free up their hands, and go south to cooperate with themselves to encircle and suppress this elite bandit army.

As for now, just stay like this, it's good!
Ever since, in this area of ​​ten or twenty kilometers north of Nanyang City, one official and one thief, the armies of the two sides confronted each other strangely ten kilometers away, let alone a big battle, not even a small-scale battle.

The two sides agreed to stay in the camp!
There was no fighting ahead, but the actions of the Township Protection Army did not stop.

According to Luo Zhixue's instructions, the Fourth Infantry Battalion in the rear has been undergoing hard training, and at the same time, the newly established Sixth Infantry Battalion in Liqingdian is also undergoing intense reorganization.

Time passed day by day.

More than ten days have passed in a flash, and it has entered mid-April at this time.

On April [-]th, Wang Dazhuang had waited half a month for a large number of muskets to finally arrive at Liqingdian from Songshan Village.

In addition to equipping the Fourth Infantry Battalion with a batch of more than 300 muskets, dozens of them were spared to equip the Sixth Infantry Battalion.

Arriving with the muskets were six [-]-jin cannons that Luo Zhixue had hung up on for a long time.

With the formal formation of the Fourth Infantry Battalion, the Second Artillery Post was finally equipped with the [-]-jin artillery that had been waiting for more than a month.

Luo Zhixue's heart that had been mentioned all the time also relaxed a lot.

With the fourth infantry battalion and the second artillery post, the rural protection army going south has three infantry battalions, two artillery posts, two cavalry posts, and two supply posts available.

In addition, after half a month of emergency reorganization, the Sixth Infantry Battalion can barely form an army. Although there are only dozens of muskets and the soldiers have not yet completed recruit training, it should be possible to pull them out to scare people.

As for the garrison at Liqingdian, it is not a big problem to rely on rivers and fixed fortifications to fight a dozen defensive operations.

In the north, the Second Infantry Battalion is located in Songshan Village, and the Fifth Infantry Battalion is stationed in Songjiazhuang to ensure the safety of the north.

Under such circumstances, in fact, the rural protection army already has the strength to fight against Chen Yongfu on the opposite side and win the battle.

But, Luo Zhixue still didn't move!
Chen Yongfu in the south cooperated so much, and he didn't even have any plans to go north. He, Luo Zhixue, was naturally willing to cooperate with him to continue delaying the time.

Even in order not to frighten Chen Yongfu and let him lead his troops back to Nanyang City, Luo Zhixue didn't transfer the Fourth Infantry Battalion and the Second Artillery Post directly to Zhaozhuang.

If Chen Yongfu knew that thousands of rural protection troops had been reinforced in the north, he might have brought the army back to Nanyang City.

In this way, it is inevitable to fight hard when attacking Nanyang City.

After entering mid-April, Luo Zhixue's mentality has relaxed a lot, and his mind has been put on the expansion of the next three infantry battalions.

According to Luo Zhixue's initial plan, the first step after going south is to expand to the Sixth Battalion and Two Outposts, this is to have the ability to protect itself.

However, if the Ming army wanted to truly take Nanyang Mansion, or even Xiangyang, and resist encirclement and suppression in the follow-up, it was still too reluctant to rely on the Sixth Battalion and Two Outposts.

With the current six battalions and two outposts, plus Luo Zhixue's personal outpost, its total strength is only over 4000 people.

Luo Zhixue had to continue to expand the army and continue to complete the planned nine-battalion and three-outpost plan.

The Nine Battalions and Three Posts plan, namely the establishment of nine infantry battalions, three artillery posts, three cavalry posts, and three supply posts.

Now in the middle of April, with the completion of the Sixth Battalion and Two Outposts plan, Luo Zhixue also started the Nineth Battalion and Three Outposts plan.

First of all, the three infantry battalions are reorganized first, regardless of whether they are an army or not, whether they have muskets and armor, in short, they are pulled out to practice first, and they are training while waiting for muskets and armor.

What's more, you don't have to wait long!
After one month of emergency construction, the factory building of Liqingdian Armory has been completed, and most of the hydraulic machinery inside has also been completed. Yuan Gaofeng from the Industrial Department has already dispatched craftsmen from Songshan Village to the south to start small-scale trial production. .

It is estimated that in half a month, the production capacity of the Liqingdian Arsenal will be able to increase to the designed production capacity.

One month's production capacity of guns and cold weapons is equipped with two infantry battalions and one artillery post.

At that time, the ordnance production in the Baoxiang Army will be dominated by the Liqingdian arsenal, while the original Songshan village arsenal will retain small-scale ordnance production, maintenance, and ammunition production capabilities.

The main reason is that the arsenal in Songshan Village is located in the mountains, the transportation is inconvenient, and the transportation of raw materials and finished products is very troublesome.

If it wasn't for the consideration of the supply of ordnance and ammunition to the [-]nd and [-]th Infantry Battalions in the north, and also to leave a way out, Luo Zhixue would have planned to abolish the entire arsenal in Songshan Village.

With Li Qingdian's arsenal in place, Luo Zhixue would naturally not limit himself to military expansion.

On April [-], Luo Zhixue in Zhaozhuang once again issued an order to expand the army: the establishment of the seventh infantry battalion, the eighth infantry battalion, the ninth infantry battalion, the third artillery, the third cavalry, and the third heavy post.

At the same time, correspondingly, he also expanded the pro-sentry directly under his command into a battalion.

After the above-mentioned order to expand the army was issued, the infantry, artillery, and supplies were all expanded step by step, but the expansion of the cavalry appeared to be quite different.

The expansion of the third cavalry post this time is half-baked in the words of old cavalrymen like Wang Xiazi...

(End of this chapter)