I want to be emperor

Chapter 133 Xiangyang Ambition
On the night when Nanyang City was conquered, the officers and soldiers of the Township Protection Army all had a packed meal. Not only were they full of rice and grain, but they also ate very rare meat.

Even though the food supply of the Rural Protection Army is much better than that of the officers, soldiers and rebels, the meat supply in the Rural Protection Army has always been in short supply. After all, meat is still very scarce, and you can’t sell it when you have money. How many.

The soldiers of the Township Protection Army couldn't eat meat at all in their daily life. Even if they ate meat occasionally, at most they drank a little meaty broth, and when they were exhausted, they were given one or two slices of meat that were cut very thinly.

No matter how much, don't count on it.

But tonight, because of the great victory of the Township Protection Army and the seizure of a large amount of meat, the logistics department specially pulled out a large amount of meat, so that everyone in the soldiers could eat meat, and the portion was not small.

This made many soldiers of the Rural Protection Army smile all over their faces and eat happily.

However, while the soldiers of Nanyang City were having a full meal, there were dozens of soldiers of the Rural Protection Army dressed as ordinary people who were moored in a calm river bend on several boats.

On one of the big ships, several men sat on the bow deck and chatted while eating. One of them, who was dressed as a waiter, said: "It is much faster to go down the river by boat than to walk. If this continues, we may go early tomorrow." If we sail, we should be able to reach Xiangyang at noon."

"Station Master Song, we will have to get rid of you when the time comes to clear customs and enter the city."

Song Qizhong, dressed as a middle-aged wealthy businessman next to him, said: "Li Battalion Commander, don't worry, our people at Xiangyang Station have been preparing for it since a month, and the custody can bring you into the city."

"When I went north, I had already made arrangements. Many people at the pier knew that I was going north to buy goods. When I went back this time, all the documents were complete."

"And now there is a shortage of grain in Xiangyang City, and we don't sell the grain by ourselves, but directly sell it to the local grain merchants. They still welcome foreign grain merchants."

Li Dongshao said: "That's good. Tomorrow we still have to set off early to try to feel Xiangyang City as soon as possible. We must sneak into the city before Xiangyang City knows the news of Nanyang City's fall."

"Before we failed to defraud Nanyang City Gate, it was because we went late that the officers and soldiers in the city were alerted in advance."

"This time, we have to enter Xiangyang City in advance and make preparations. When the general leads the army to attack, we will take the opportunity to seize a city gate to welcome the army into the city."

"Otherwise, with the solid defenses of Xiangyang City, a strong attack may cause serious trouble."

Song Qizhong said with a serious face: "I understand that when the city gate is seized, in addition to your staff, Battalion Commander Li, more than 30 people from my intelligence department will also participate in it."

"You and I have nearly a hundred people in total. As long as there are no accidents, we can seize the city gate and welcome the army into the city."

Song Qizhong knew better than Li Dongshao how strong the defenses of Xiangyang City were. Apart from other things, just the moat of Xiangyang City was a big trouble.

The moat of Xiangyang City is wider and deeper than that of other big cities!
Its moat can be up to 200 meters wide, and it directly introduces the water of the Han River. If Xiangyang City is to be stormed, just how to cross the moat is a big problem.

After Luo Zhixue formulated the strategy of going south earlier, he has already started to prepare.

In the early days, spies were dispatched under the cover of a caravan from the Commerce and Trade Office to collect various information. After the formal southward movement, people from the Intelligence Section of the General Staff Office went south to Xiangyang City one after another, and established the Xiangyang City Intelligence Station.

Song Qizhong is the head of the Xiangyang City Intelligence Station, and his identity is clearly a businessman from Nanyang Prefecture, who is engaged in grain, cloth and other businesses.

Before that, they continued to collect all kinds of information, especially the city defense deployment in Xiangyang City, the strength of the troops in the city and other information.

But now, their Xiangyang intelligence station will usher in the final mission: to cooperate with the army that is about to go south to capture Xiangyang City!
Once successful, Song Qizhong's promotion is 100%.

When Luo Zhixue summoned him yesterday, he had personally promised that once he cooperates in capturing Xiangyang City, he will be the new head of the intelligence department.

When Song Qizhong was thinking about these things, Li Dongshao was also preoccupied.

Li Dongshao is not from the intelligence department, but he is not from the ordinary field troops either, but one of the deputy battalion commanders in the personal battalion directly under Luo Zhixue.

The reason why it is said to be one of the deputy battalion commanders is because the pro-barracks is quite special, with three deputy battalion commanders.

When Luo Zhixue established the brigades before, he took advantage of the trend to directly expand the personal soldiers directly under him into the personal military battalions.

The establishment of this pro-military battalion is larger than that of ordinary infantry battalions, with an additional establishment of thousands of people.

In addition to the two musket posts, two spear posts, one sword and shield team, and one infantry artillery team in a normal infantry battalion, there is also a cavalry post, a baggage post, a heavy infantry post, and a field artillery team. preparation.

It is said to be a battalion, but in fact it is a small mixed brigade organization, with various infantry and infantry artillery, cavalry, and field artillery. It is a composite force of various arms that can independently be responsible for combat affairs in one direction.

Because of the larger scale and the special status of the pro-barracks, there are always three deputy battalion commanders in the pro-barracks.

Li Dongshao is one of the three deputy battalion commanders. He is mainly responsible for leading the sword and shield team and the heavy infantry post in traditional combat, playing traditional tactics.

Before, he and Chen Yongfu went to Nanyang city gate to cheat the city gate, but unfortunately, he was recognized by the officers and soldiers in the city, and he was not given a chance to play.

When the army arrived at Nanyang City today, General Luo Zhixue, the General Staff Office and other senior generals agreed that conquering Nanyang City was inevitable, and it wouldn't take long.

Therefore, at that time, Luo Zhixue and the others considered capturing Xiangyang City, a strategically important place, after taking down Nanyang City.

And considering Xiangyang City's solid defenses, abnormal moat, and a lot of troops in the city, the higher-ups thought that it was necessary to avoid a frontal attack as much as possible.

In order to better cooperate with the surprise attack, it was proposed to send people to the south to sneak into the city of Xiangyang in advance, so that when the army surprises the city, they can directly seize the city gate to welcome the army into the city.

Only in this way did Li Dongshao's move to the south.

Even when the army was still attacking Nanyang City, they had already bypassed Nanyang City and boarded the merchant ship prepared by the Commercial Office and headed south.

Up to now, they don't even know whether the army behind has captured Nanyang City.

However, Li Dongshao had absolute confidence in the army at the rear. At most one day, the general would be able to lead the army to conquer Nanyang City. If there were no accidents, the general would lead the army all the way south quickly tomorrow.

With the fast marching ability of their rural protection army, coupled with the flat terrain and smooth roads in Nanyang and Xiangyang, it took a few days for the general to lead his army to the city of Xiangyang.

At that time, it is time for him, Li Dongshao, to lead the soldiers who lurked into the city in advance to contribute.

Once successful, the position of personal battalion commander is just around the corner!
You must know that although the personal army battalion has established a rated staff of thousands of people, it is far from full. At the same time, what is more important is that when Tang Ziyuan, the former commander of the personal army battalion, arrived at Li Qingdian a month ago, he had already Too ill to be able to act.

In the previous battles of Zhaozhuang and Nanyang City, Tang Ziyuan, the battalion commander of the personal battalion, was not actually at the scene, but stayed at Li Qingdian the whole time.

According to the doctor, Tang Ziyuan could survive for another half a month at most, and Tang Ziyuan had resigned from his position as battalion commander many times before.

Although Luo Zhixue rejected his resignation every time, and asked him to recuperate well, and even sent someone to 'hire' several doctors to see him.

But anyone with a discerning eye knows that the position of the personal battalion commander can be said to be vacant, and even the general Luo Zhixue has already begun to choose the next personal battalion commander.

Birth, old age, sickness and death, nothing!

Before setting off, Luo Zhixue personally summoned Li Dongshao and told him that the task of going south was very important, directly related to capturing Xiangyang City, and at the same time, this task would be very dangerous.

After Luo Zhixue explained to him how powerful he was, he patted him on the shoulder and said earnestly: "I look forward to seeing you next time, and personally wearing the battalion commander's epaulettes for you."

Whenever he thinks of those words, Li Dongshao can't help being excited.

This is the battalion commander of the personal army battalion, even if the personal military battalion itself is relatively large, it can be regarded as a small mixed brigade, but the personal military battalion itself belongs to Luo Zhixue's direct lineal troops, and the position of battalion commander is a position with great temptation .

This kind of position, if it is not the true confidant of the great general, it is not stable at all if it is not a talented person.

As for the direct lineage, Li Dongshao thinks it is enough. For the time being, Li Dongshao is not too conspicuous in the entire rural protection army system, at least not as eye-catching as those brigade commanders and deputy brigade commanders.

But he, Li Dongshao, came from Luo Zhixue's personal soldiers, and he was one of the second batch of personal soldiers after An Yongduo and other first batch of four personal soldiers.

After Luo Zhixue recruited An Yongduo and other four people as his own soldiers, it didn't take long for him to select more than ten people from the newly recruited recruits as his own soldiers.

Unlike An Yongduo and the others who had only been soldiers for a short time and were soon dispatched to serve in the supply battalion and the cavalry unit, Li Dongshao had always stayed by Luo Zhixue's side, step by step, and was promoted successively with the expansion of the personal army He is the corporal chief, special chief, captain, whistle chief, and deputy battalion chief in the pro-barracks.

This qualification and trust are enough.

However, he is still lacking in ability and military exploits.

In terms of military exploits, in fact, he has not participated in any large-scale battles. He has always been Luo Zhixue's personal guard, and he has never had the opportunity to go to the battlefield in person.

In terms of talent, it's not easy to distinguish, at least he didn't show any extraordinary talent.

Li Dongshao is very clear that his talent is just like that, and Xu Zhixian, who is a scholar and has a flexible mind, is completely incomparable in making plans one after another.

Li Dongshao only studied for a year when he was young, and he didn't even complete the enlightenment. Even if he continued to study on his own, he could only recognize hundreds of commonly used characters when he was exhausted. Even writing a normal letter was very reluctant. The pile kind.

There is no culture, and military talent is out of the question.

So Li Dongshao knew very well that if he wanted to continue his promotion and stand out from the three deputy battalion commanders to become the battalion commander of the personal battalion, he could only rely on his outstanding military exploits.

This is also the reason why he asked for a battle on his own and led more than 70 selected elites from the personal battalion to sneak into Xiangyang City.

He needs battle exploits!
(End of this chapter)