I want to be emperor

Chapter 122
The three hundred cavalry under Chen Yongfu were defeated, and the defeat was complete!

The cavalry of the two sides seemed to come and go and chased each other during the battle, but in fact, the Ming army cavalry failed to seize the opportunity to engage in large-scale close combat with Wang Xiazi's cavalry from the beginning to the end.

Most of the time, the cavalry of the Ming army were under the attack of bows and arrows from the cavalry of the rural protection army. Only a few cavalry of the Ming army rushed up to fight with the cavalry of the rural protection army at the opportunity.

But when these few Ming army cavalry rushed up to fight with the Xiangbao army cavalry at close quarters, they found that they were also unable to fight.

These bandit cavalry not only fired in salvo, but also fought in close quarters with sabers.

The core of the two hundred cavalry led by Wang Xiazi was the fine cavalry of the Yulin Frontier Army, supplemented by some cavalry of defected officers and soldiers and cavalry of veteran rebels from the rebel army.

The Township Protection Army successively recruited elites from more than 1 surrendered officers and soldiers, exiles, refugees, and folks, and only then did they gather two hundred elite cavalry.

These backbone old thieves and elite officers and soldiers have good personal combat skills, and after more than half a year of training by Wang Xiazi and his professional frontier elite cavalry, driven by them, although their personal skills and tactics are not as good as those of Wang Xiazi and his old frontier elite cavalry. , but not too bad.

With sufficient food guarantee and intensive professional training, the combat effectiveness they can form is definitely not comparable to that of the [-] and a half cavalry under Chen Yongfu's command.

You can't beat riding and shooting, and you can't beat melee.

With these Ming army cavalry, they completely lost the courage to fight, and began to flee in a swarm of horses.

And the escape was not smooth, because blind Wang and the others continued to pursue them.

Some people left the battlefield and fled desperately, and some people simply surrendered when they saw that they could not escape.

The Ming cavalry was undoubtedly defeated, completely defeated, and the Ming cavalry that could finally retreat to the rear was less than a hundred cavalry.

Looking at the recovered cavalry, Chen Yongfu's face was very ugly.

Chen Yongfu's mind is now blank, even though he expected that his cavalry would not be the opponent's opponent, he never thought that he would be defeated so simply and completely.

He also thought that if his own cavalry could fight bravely, a cavalry who was brave enough to block the opponent would come.

But he overestimated the combat effectiveness of his own cavalry, and underestimated the cunning of the opponent's cavalry.

These bandit cavalry were obviously bullying the half-baked cavalry under him, who had no long-range firepower and were flying kites from beginning to end.

The security thief is too deceptive!

If these rebels encountered the fine cavalry of the frontier army in Yulin Xuanda and other places, or the cavalry of Guanning cavalry in Jiliao, they would definitely not dare to be so arrogant, and they might even turn around and run away.

Not to mention the elite riders of the frontier army, even if they met Zuo Liangyu and Chen Zhibang's elite riders who were also good at riding and shooting, they would definitely not dare to play like this.

However, he, Chen Yongfu, did not have such fine cavalry under his command.

The cavalry was defeated, some were beheaded, some fled, and some surrendered. Only about a hundred cavalry fled back to his headquarters.

These cavalry were completely abolished.

These cavalrymen all looked terrified now. If they hadn't relied on the archers and guns in the soldiers of the headquarters to cover them, they probably would have run away.

The cavalry can't count on it, what should we do next?
To be honest, Chen Yongfu didn't have a good solution, he could only put his hope on the soldiers in the headquarters.

The soldiers in my own headquarters have rich experience in killing thieves and personal abilities. They have always been able to evenly win the battles with the thieves' infantry, even if they can't win a big victory.

As long as you can hold the camp, you will be able to stand by and wait for help in the future.

He, Hong Chengchou, couldn't really watch Chen Yongfu being besieged, defeated and killed.

Even if Hong Chengchou doesn't care about Chen Yongfu's life or death, he still has to consider the gains and losses of Nanyang City and even the three passes of Yalu.

Chen Yongfu still has a little confidence in whether he can hold the camp.

His own cavalry is only half-baked, but the infantry and artillery of the battalion under his command are all elite.

In the area of ​​the Central Plains, his [-] soldiers from the headquarters can be considered capable of fighting, at least against high-ranking thieves, it is a routine operation to win with less and more.

Not to mention fighting thieves in the Central Plains, even if they are drawn to Xuanda, Jiliao and Dongyao to fight in battle, they can last for a while.

Well, it's not easy to last for a while.

Didn’t you see that when the so-called elite frontier troops in Ji, Liao, Xuanda and other places fought against Dongyao, they needed to avoid fighting against Dongyao in the wild as much as possible, and generally relied on cities and fortresses for defensive operations.

This is the case for the Jiliao frontier army, let alone the Ming army in the Central Plains, which has a lower combat effectiveness, went to the frontier to fight against Dongyao.

However, a captive is a captive, and a thief is a thief.

Whether in the eyes of Chen Yongfu or in the eyes of the court princes, the two have always been different things, and it is very clear that their combat effectiveness is not at the same level.

Don't brag or criticize, the combat effectiveness of the Eastern captives before entering the customs is quite sturdy.

During this period, the Dongyao in this period, especially how the Dongyao fought in the Battle of Songjin, I won’t go into too much detail, but a simple description is: the cavalry raided the formation, the artillery rushed after the infantry, and the infantry rushed after the artillery bombardment, and so on. , After the formation of the Ming army collapsed, the cavalry rushed to cover up and expand the results of the battle.

Their tactics are very simple, and most of the time their battles are even very rigid. However, it is such a simple set of things that the Ji Liao Ming Army, which can be suppressed in the field, can't breathe, and can only rely on the city pass for defensive operations.

But still the same sentence, Dongyao is Dongyao, and a thief is a thief.

Although the Ming army suffered a lot from the Shangdong captives on the front line of Jiliao, but in the Central Plains, they rarely suffered from the various bandits, and most of the time they chased the rebels.

Chen Yongfu didn't believe that the bandit army of the township protection army on the opposite side could beat him in infantry, and that he could wear heavy armor like the Dong captives when his own side formed a camp to protect themselves, and rushed forward to fight without fear of death.

It's just that, if they want to rely on the camp to protect themselves, they have to return to the camp.

Will Luo Zhi learn to give him this chance?
Nonsense, Luo Zhixue is not stupid, he will definitely not give him a chance to retreat back to the camp.

The reason why he let Wang Dazhuang lead the Fourth Infantry Battalion, the Second Artillery Post and other southward troops did not directly enter Zhaozhuang, but detoured to the west side, was to prevent Chen Yongfu from leading the main force to retreat to the camp, and strive to win in the field. Completely annihilate Chen Yongfu's troops.

As for not eliminating Chen Yongfu's troops and avoiding the Ming army's attention, it is now impossible to achieve.

The Ming army is not stupid. I have already exposed more than 4000 troops on my side, with guns, cannons, and cavalry, and they are also entrenched in the eastern part of Mount Funiu, controlling a large number of rural areas in Nanyang Prefecture.

No matter how stupid the senior officials in the Ming army are, they can still see that the Xiangbao Army is a huge threat!

Even Luo Zhixue estimated that Hong Chengchou and other senior civil officials and generals of the Ming Dynasty had already known about the Township Protection Army, and were planning to destroy the threat of themselves in this way.

Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why Chen Yongfu suddenly went north with all his strength after being quiet for more than half a month.

Luo Zhixue believes that the only possibility is that the Ming Dynasty has fully realized the huge threat of the rural protection army and paid attention to this threat, so Chen Yongfu came to encircle and suppress him.

Even more reinforcements from the Ming army may already be on the way.

It has to be said that Luo Zhixue completely misjudged the Ming army's strategic intentions!
And this cannot be blamed on Luo Zhixue. When Luo Zhixue guessed the strategic intention of the Ming army, he used conventional strategic thinking to guess the strategic intention of the Ming army, and he could not take into account the many private thoughts and intentions of the generals of the Ming army.

After today's battle, Luo Zhixue still doesn't know the relationship between Hong Chengchou and Chen Yongfu, let alone Chen Yongfu's true thoughts and Hong Chengchou's true thoughts.

If he knew that Chen Yongfu's real intention was to delay time and give Hong Chengchou an explanation, he would have cooperated with Chen Yongfu in acting...

Unfortunately, he doesn't know!
So Luo Zhixue used conventional strategic thinking to consider issues. He felt that when the threat of the Township Protection Army had been exposed, what he had to do was to buy as much time as possible.

It is necessary to take advantage of the time when Gao Yingxiang and other main forces of the rebel army are still holding back the main forces of the officers and soldiers in the Central Plains, first to capture Nanyang City, capture Luyang Pass and other strategic locations, and then plan for Xiangyang to control the entire Nanyang Basin.

Immediately, with the help of the population, money and food resources in the Nanyang Basin, the army continued to expand urgently, laying the foundation for the subsequent counterattack of the main force of the Ming army.

As long as Luo Zhixue is given one and a half months, that is, by June, he will be able to completely complete the Nine Battalion and Three Outposts plan.

At that time, the production capacity of the Liqingdian Armory will also reach the peak state of design. As long as there are sufficient raw materials such as iron, saltpeter, and sulfur, the Township Protection Army can produce enough infantry equipment for two infantry battalions every month. Plus six [-]-jin artillery pieces.

As long as the money and food can keep up, the Township Protection Army will even be able to expand its army at the scale of a thousand infantrymen of various types and an artillery post every month after June.

As long as it lasts for a few months, Luo Zhixue will have the confidence to pull out an army of tens of thousands of people.

Gaining time is the direct goal of many strategies and tactics of the Rural Protection Army in the near future. This is true for not attacking Chen Yongfu's troops in the early stage, and it is the same for attacking Chen Yongfu's troops now.

Under such a background, Luo Zhixue naturally would not let Chen Yongfu lead the main force to escape!
On the battlefield, as time passed quickly, Wang Xiazi's cavalry had regrouped. Instead of chasing and chasing the fleeing guard soldiers, they went directly to the thousand-man Ming army led by Chen De.

Don't come close, just stay on the side.

This action made the thousands of soldiers of the Ming army led by Chen De feel extremely uncomfortable. They had no way to disregard the formation under the eyes of the cavalry and march quickly with their feet on their feet. They could only continue to maintain the formation and retreat slowly.

At the same time, Luo Zhixue had also ordered the infantry and artillery in Zhaozhuang including the First Artillery Post, the First Infantry Battalion, and the Second Infantry Battalion to attack quickly.

The target was directed at Chen De's troops who were slowly retreating.

On the west side, the southward reinforcements headed by the Fourth Infantry Battalion led by Wang Dazhuang also arrived on the battlefield and quickly approached the main force of Chen Yongfu's headquarters. It is expected that fighting will break out in this direction soon.

At this moment, the situation on the battlefield was very clear.

Luo Zhixue wanted to completely retain the Ming army under Chen Yongfu, laying the foundation for the subsequent successful attack on strategic locations such as Nanyang City, Nanzhao County, and Luyang Pass.

(End of this chapter)