I want to be emperor

Chapter 149 Lu Xiangsheng goes south

On May [-]th of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Yunyang City.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at a group of civil servants and generals with a dark face: "It's been a few days, haven't you found out the details of this township protection army?"

"Who can tell me where the Township Protection Army and Luo Zhixue came from?"

"What is the relationship between this Luo Zhixue and Gao Bandit, Li Bandit, Zhang Bandit and others? Is it Gao Yingxiang's bandit army's men?"

"Also, who can tell clearly how many troops are there in this rural protection army? Some people told me that Luo Zhixue had fifty thousand soldiers under his command, others said that Luo Zhixue had more than ten thousand soldiers under his command, and some said that Luo Zhixue had only one army under his command. A mere 5000 people."

"The people who ran over from Nanyang Mansion said that there are thousands of elite cavalry in the Township Protection Army, who come and go like the wind, and they are all elites who are good at riding and shooting!"

"Some people even say that there are hundreds of heavy artillery pieces in the thieves, each of which can hit a distance of more than ten miles, and even the city wall of Xiangyang City can be smashed with a cannonball. Some people also said that the thieves only had a few small cannons, and they attacked Xiangyang City by sneak attack."

"Tell me? Are those real and are those fake?"

But the group of people below did not speak!
No one dared to speak when Lu Xiangsheng got angry with a black face!
After offending Lu Xiangsheng, maybe this tough man would dare to kill him on the spot.

He is not only a governor and civil servant, but also a strong man who dares to lead troops into the battle himself. Such a person is not easy to provoke.

And most importantly, Lu Xiangsheng didn't know the details of the Township Protection Army, and neither did they.

A few days ago, they learned that a large-scale bandit army had emerged from Nanyang Mansion, and took down Nanyang City with lightning speed, and then went all the way south, easily He took Xiangyang City and Fancheng.

When they learned that Xiangyang City had fallen two days ago, all the civil servants and generals in Yunyang City were shocked.

They never thought that Xiangyang City would fall, and they couldn't even figure it out, nor could they understand why Xiangyang City would fall.

That's Xiangyang City!
It can even be called the strongest city in the world!
The moat alone is tens of feet wide. The wide moats on all sides surround Xiangyang City, and the city walls are tall and thick.

Let alone thousands of bandits, even tens of thousands of bandits would have to pay a heavy price if they wanted to take Xiangyang City, and there was absolutely no way to win it in just a few days, at least they would have to besiege the city and attack ten Half a month or even several months.

At the end of the Song Dynasty, Xiangyang City resisted the Yuan army for six years!

What happened in Xiangyang City made them unbelievable at all. Many people even thought that the fall of Xiangyang City was fake news. Now that the rebels just surrounded Xiangyang City, the defenders in Xiangyang City must still be holding on.

They still don't even know how Xiangyang City was lost, let alone figure out the deployment of troops and more detailed information of the Xiangyang Army in just a few days.

The only thing they know now is that these rural protection troops ran down from the mountainous area in the north of Nanyang Prefecture, and then attacked the city all the way to Xiangyang City.

Its military strength is estimated to be between 1 and 5. As for the specific number, where these troops are deployed, they do not yet know.

Even this estimated troop strength was their own guess based on a series of actions of the Rural Protection Army, and it was not accurate information at all.

Under such circumstances, they could not tell Lu Xiangsheng anything.

And Lu Xiangsheng was even angrier when he saw the group of silent subordinates under him.

"Trash, they're all a bunch of trash. It's been a few days, and I don't even know how many troops the opponent has. How do we fight from here? How do we recover Xiangyang City?"

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't help but get mad!
The situation in the Yunyang and Huguang area was quite good. The rogues who had plagued the northern Chu area before had been defeated or driven away by his troops. Under his leadership, the governor of Yunyang had gradually restored people's livelihood.

But suddenly a group of thieves ran over and took Nanyang City and Xiangyang City directly, which directly led to the collapse of the situation in Northern Chu.

To put it bluntly, it was his dereliction of duty!

Although the officers and soldiers garrisoned in Nanyang Mansion were from Henan, and the officers and soldiers garrisoned in Xiangyang City were from Huguang, neither of them belonged directly to him.

However, these two prefectures still belong to his defense zone, at least in name.

As the governor of Yunyang, he is in charge of not only Yunyang Prefecture, but also Hanzhong Prefecture in Shaanxi, Xi'an Prefecture in Henan, Nanyang Prefecture in Henan, Kuizhou Prefecture in Sichuan, Xiangyang Prefecture in Huguang, Jingzhou Prefecture, and Chengtian Prefecture (Anlu). Other states.

The above-mentioned huge area nominally belongs to the defense zone of his governor of Yunyang.

Of course, when actually garrisoning, Lu Xiangsheng can't manage so many places, and he doesn't have so many troops to garrison.

No matter what, he, Lu Xiangsheng, was responsible for the fall of Nanyang City and Xiangyang City.

He was staying in Yunyang well, but misfortune fell from the sky, and a huge hat was put on his head. If he failed, he might follow in the footsteps of Xuanmo and other governors.

In addition to worrying about the responsibility for losing the land, he was even more worried that after these bandits took Xiangyang City, they cut off the Han River waterway, making Yunyang City and the Jianghan Plain area lose the convenient connection.

What's more important is that if these thieves of the rural protection army go all the way south along the Hanshui River, they will be able to kill Hanyang in minutes and drink horses to the Yangtze River.

When it really came to that point, Chu Bei would be completely finished.

Therefore, after learning that bandits had captured Xiangyang City, his first reaction was to lead troops south to counterattack Xiangyang City and take back Xiangyang City.

But a few days have passed, and now they haven't even figured out the specific strength of the bandit army. If the enemy's situation is unknown and they rush to send troops, the risk is too great.

Lu Xiangsheng went crazy and reprimanded his subordinates. After returning, these subordinates collected all the information they could collect. After summarizing, Lu Xiangsheng finally figured out the general situation of the rural protection army.

The rural protection army in other places is unknown, but the rural protection army in Xiangyang City is estimated to be around 5000 people.

This point has been confirmed from the mouths of some gentry and common people who fled.

And Lu Xiangsheng finally confirmed that the fall of Xiangyang City was not due to the strength of those rural protection troops, who directly stormed Xiangyang City and took it.

It was Xiangyang City, which was attacked by surprise, and seized the city gate before the officers and soldiers in the city could react.

5000 people, sneak attack!

When these two key words were connected, Lu Xiangsheng finally had a basic understanding of the strength of the Xiangyang Army in his heart.

There are about 5000 people, some cavalry, and some artillery. The overall combat effectiveness is not bad, but it is definitely not to the point where only 5000 people can storm Xiangyang City.

After figuring this out, Lu Xiangsheng did not hesitate too much, but gathered more than 1 people who had prepared earlier and set off to the south.

He wanted to attack Xiangyang City while the bandit army was unheard of in Xiangyang City.

However, he didn't have to say that he would take Xiangyang City quickly. His idea was to fight if he could, and if he couldn't fight, he didn't force it.

Of course, the top priority is to regain Xiangyang City, but if he cannot recover Xiangyang quickly, then he must first control the momentum of the Xiangyang Army's troops in Xiangyang City, and finally gather and wipe them out.

No matter what, these thieves can't continue to be allowed to move freely, otherwise, after ten days and a half a month, maybe these thieves will go to Zhongxiang City, Chengtian Mansion, and even Hanyang Mansion if they go further go.

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't just watch these things happen, he wanted to stop the momentum of the bandit army going south.

Lu Xiangsheng officially led his troops to go south on May [-]th, the eighth year of Chongzhen!

And when he led his troops to the south, the spies sent by the Intelligence Section of the Baoxiang Army to Yunyang City in advance had already learned the information about Lu Xiangsheng's troops going south.

In fact, this is not much information. Lu Xiangsheng brought tens of thousands of people to the south, and there is no way to hide it.

After the spies of the rural protection army got the news, they immediately passed the news to Xiangyang City.

Although the distance between the two places is more than 100 kilometers, the spies passed the news very quickly by riding horses and boats. It took only two days to spread the news to Xiangyang City.

After Song Qizhong of the intelligence department received the news, he immediately reported it to Huang Guangmao.

Huang Guangmao took Song Qizhong into the General's Mansion to ask Luo Zhixue urgently.

After a while, Luo Zhixue saw the urgent information that was sent back by the spy from the intelligence department.

"This time is also the time for Lu Xiangsheng to send troops. If he doesn't come, I will wonder if our army's secrecy work is too good, and the news is completely blocked."

After Luo Zhixue finished reading the intelligence letter, his expression was still relaxed, and he was even in the mood to joke with Huang Guangmao and Song Qizhong.

But Huang Guangmao was very nervous: "General, this Lu Xiang is not a good person. He brought at least [-] troops from Yunyang, and he will definitely bring officers and soldiers from Junzhou, Gucheng and other places when he goes south. At that time, there will be at least fifteen thousand soldiers."

"Furthermore, Lu Xiangsheng has always commanded well and charged bravely. Even with a group of miscellaneous soldiers, he can fight tough battles. This is a formidable enemy!"

Luo Zhixue said: "Why panic, there are only ten thousand soldiers, among them there are at most two or three thousand soldiers, not as good as one of our infantry brigade, enough for our artillery brigade to bombard for several rounds!"

Luo Zhixue's words, although suspected of being exaggerated, were intended to relieve the tension of his subordinates, but they also represented Luo Zhixue's self-confidence.

If he hadn't resisted Lu Xiangsheng's self-confidence, he wouldn't have gone south to Xiangyang City at all!
Because he came to Xiangyang City, he would definitely meet Lu Xiangsheng.

Luo Zhixue has always attached great importance to Lu Xiangsheng, but what he values ​​is Lu Xiangsheng, but this does not mean that Luo Zhixue also thinks highly of Lu Xiangsheng's Ming army.

Even if Lu Xiangsheng is extremely talented in military affairs, it still cannot change the fact that the more than 1 Ming troops under him are just ordinary Ming troops.

And this is his chance to learn from Luo Zhi!

(End of this chapter)