I want to be emperor

Chapter 154
Although their officers and soldiers usually act like thieves, they do a lot of things like burning, killing and looting.

But in most cases, it is still to gather military supplies, and it will not be plundered purely for the purpose of plundering.

After all, when the superiors do not provide money and food, soldiers like them have to eat, right? Especially when they are ordered to fight in other places, they basically have to fight all the way, or they will starve to death before they reach their destination.

However, like Sun Hongcai, he directly captured the people of the nearby villages, and then drove them into battle to fill up the moat and consume the ammunition of the bandit army by the way.

Even if they are thieves, they will not do such a thing so blatantly, or they don't need to do it.

Because there are a lot of young and strong people who have been kidnapped by the thieves, these young and strong are basically used as cannon fodder, and there is no need to specifically arrest people.

Of course, one is using the young and strong as cannon fodder, and the other is directly grabbing the nearby people as cannon fodder. Neither of them can be said to be good or bad, they are both bad pus.

What Sun Hongcai did today made many of his subordinates feel disgusted with him.

Since ancient times, driving people out to attack a city is an act that loses all conscience and popular support. Even in today's troubled times, many people do this, but it is still unpopular.

However, Sun Hongcai didn't take it seriously. He was able to climb from a small frontier army to the position of today's commander-in-chief. Ruthless words!
When he fought in Jiliao in his early years, he fought very ruthlessly, beheading deserters in large numbers at every turn.

This level of ruthlessness is only a routine operation. Many generals do this, even Chen Yongfu, who surrendered to the Rural Protection Army, likes to do it. Moreover, this kind of thing is actually a good thing. Strict military discipline is conducive to increasing the combat effectiveness of the army.

However, Sun Hongcai's ruthlessness is different from that of ordinary generals.

For credit, he has done a lot of things like killing good people and pretending to be meritorious, especially since he was transferred to the Central Plains to fight against the bandits, he has done more things like killing good people and pretending to be meritorious.

After all, no one can tell the difference between a thief and an ordinary person.

Unlike the Dong captives, those real captives all had their heads shaved, and they were easily identified by directly arresting the people, killing them and shaving their heads.

But the thief is different, killing them is no different from ordinary people.

Such things as killing the good and taking the meritorious service are just normal operations. When it comes to attacking the city, he will often drive the people to attack the city, and no matter how bad it is, he will use a large number of civilians accompanying the army to attack the city.

After capturing a city, they often deliberately indulge their subordinates to plunder.

It's just that he covered up this kind of thing very well, and he is more careful when doing things, not to hurt those gentry, because he has never met anyone to impeach him, otherwise he would have been hacked.

This time he came to Xinye in a hurry, and there were not many civilians accompanying the army, so he simply drove the people from the nearby villages to attack the city.

Sun Hongcai was so ruthless because he put a lot of pressure on Li Duo, who was defending the army. This was not about psychological pressure. He refused to attack the city when he saw the enemy driving the people away. It was simply because the ammunition was consumed and the Although these peasants suffered heavy casualties, they still filled up the moat one after another.

After a day of repeated battles, the moat around the west gate of Xinye City has been filled with several passages more than ten meters wide.

This means that the follow-up Ming army can directly attack the city.

Once the enemy's large-scale battle on the city, can our own side stop it?

Li Duo didn't know!
Now he can only try his best to defend the city to delay time.

The main force dragged to General Luo Zhixue arrived!
-

The main force of Luo Zhixue Headquarters, which Li Duo placed high hopes on, did not head towards Xinye City as Li Duo expected, but instead headed towards Dengzhou.

On the night of the [-]th, in Dulin Town, about [-] kilometers north of Fancheng, the soldiers of the Township Protection Army who had marched at high speed for two consecutive days, except for a few troops on duty, had already rested in houses or tents built in the town. .

However, in a courtyard where a local gentry in the town 'voluntarily' contributed to serve as a temporary headquarters for the Rural Protection Army, Luo Zhixue and other generals continued to discuss under the lights.

Chief of Staff Huang Guangmao stood in front of the wooden shelf with the map on it:
"According to the reports from Xinye City and the scouts we sent to Xinye City, there are currently about 3000 enemy troops attacking Xinye City, and an unknown number of civilians

"Today at Xinye City, the enemy army did not send out a large number of troops to attack, but just drove the people to fill up the moat. According to our prediction, the enemy army is estimated to be able to fill up the moat today, and launch a formal attack tomorrow!"

"However, among the 800 enemy troops, there will not be too many real soldiers. It is estimated that there will be about [-] people. Most of the rest are ordinary guard soldiers. Even if they launch an attack on Xinye City, relying on The strength of the [-]th Infantry Battalion and the [-]th Infantry Battalion will not be a big problem in defending the city, of course, there will definitely be certain casualties!"

"But that's not the point. The point is that the enemy's [-] cavalry are also outside Xinye City."

"According to our various investigations, Lu Xiangsheng has not many cavalry, at most there are only 800 cavalry. After [-] cavalry were sent to Xinye City, there are not many cavalry in Lu Xiangsheng's headquarters."

"Now Lu Xiangsheng's troops are camping in the area of ​​Xianqiao Village, which is not far to the northwest of us."

"According to our plan, tomorrow we will march towards the north, and if the enemy's marching route and marching speed do not change much, then we will continue to go northward for about ten kilometers tomorrow, and then we will meet in the Sanyuanzhuang area." enemy."

As he spoke, Huang Guangmao pointed to a small place on the simple hand-drawn map and said, "This is the battlefield chosen by Vice Minister Xu after careful consideration."

Luo Zhixue looked at the map, Sanyuanzhuang, it was a small place that was very inconspicuous on the map.

However, on this military map, the terrain of Sanyuanzhuang is still somewhat special, mainly because there are several small rivers converging. The overall terrain is similar to that of Zhaozhuang before. trouble.

After all, there are several small rivers flowing north-south here. Although there are bridges to pass through, even small bridges and pontoon bridges can be built on the spot to pass quickly.

But this one hour is enough.

For one hour, the cavalry units of the Township Protection Army can directly rush up to further delay the enemy's time, and the follow-up infantry can catch up.

Xu Zhixian chose this place as the preset battlefield, fully considering that this place is the only way for Lu Xiangsheng to go east.

At the same time, this place is not a dangerous pass, easy to be ambushed by the enemy, and the opponent has no reason to bypass it.

However, the seemingly flat terrain here has many small rivers flowing from north to south, which can effectively slow down the opponent's marching speed, and finally create favorable opportunities for the rural protection army to intercept the opponent and force the opponent to engage in a frontal battle.

At this time, Xu Zhixian also stood up and explained the topography of Sanyuan Village, and also focused on the small rivers flowing from north to south.

And the follow-up also described in detail a series of combat plans formulated by the Operations Division.

When Xu Zhixian replaced Huang Guangmao and began to describe a series of specific battle plans, Huang Guangmao, who returned to his seat, looked at Xu Zhixian and couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "It seems that I will talk to the general about the army in the next two days! "

"If Xu Zhixian was kicked out of the general staff in disgrace in the end, why not take the initiative to mention to lead the army to save face!"

"Besides, if I offered to give up my position, the general should also consider my own reason and give myself the position of brigade commander of the main infantry brigade later."

"The Seventh Infantry Brigade and the Eighth Infantry Brigade are preparing for recruit training. It's not bad for me to take this opportunity to get a position as the commander of the main infantry brigade."

"In short, this staff department can stay!"

Speaking of which, Huang Guangmao has been very depressed recently!
In the old staff office, now in the staff department, Huang Guangmao seemed to be the minister in charge of the general manager, but in fact all the battle plans were drawn up by Xu Zhixian and others. Huang Guangmao seemed to say a lot in every meeting, but most of them The content is memorized in advance...

When discussing various combat plans on weekdays, and even when the staff issued various combat orders, Xu Zhixian needed to sign and approve in the name of the director of the combat department.

Without Xu Zhixian's signature and approval, even Huang Guangmao, the official chief of staff, could not directly issue various combat orders.

And this is not Xu Zhixian's overreach, but Luo Zhixue's license to Xu Zhixian. The combat affairs in the staff department are subject to Xu Zhixian, and Huang Guangmao, the head of the staff department, has no right to intervene.

This made Huang Guangmao, the head of the staff department, very unhappy.

Even before Huang Guangmao became the head of the staff department, he already knew that he was only holding a position for Xu Zhixian. After Xu Zhixian accumulated enough qualifications and experience in leading troops, he had to make room for him every minute.

But, he originally expected that no matter what, he could be the chief of staff for more than half a year, accumulating enough qualifications.

After all, it takes time for Xu Zhixian to accumulate military exploits and experience in leading troops.

However, what he didn't expect was that Xu Zhixian's rise was too fast!

When Xu Zhixian was concurrently the commander of the third infantry battalion, he personally led the troops in Xiangyang City, and successively captured many buildings in the city, and captured the Xiangwang Mansion.

Although this series of battles is actually not very conspicuous, it can be regarded as accumulating experience in leading troops for Xu Zhixian.

More importantly, when Xu Zhixian made a surprise attack on Xiangyang in the south, he made great contributions to the capture of Xiangyang by making various plans.

The reason why the surprise attack on Xiangyang was successful was due to Luo Zhixue himself.

Among his subordinates, Li Dongshao, the battalion commander of the pro-battalion, should have made the first contribution. Without him leading the elite to sneak into Xiangyang City and open the city gate to welcome the army into the city, the surprise attack on Xiangyang would be a joke.

Secondly, Xu Zhixian, the deputy head of the staff department, also served as the director of the combat department, and he formulated a series of combat plans for the surprise attack on Xiangyang.

The army's ability to go south smoothly all the way, to sneak across the river without encountering any obstacles, and to attack and open the city gate to enter the city smoothly, this is inseparable from the battle plan drawn up by Xu Zhixian.

As for Huang Dingquan, Wang Xiazi and his generals seemed to lead troops to conquer Xiangyang, but in fact they were just obeying orders, and there was basically no room for display. They were just acting normally, and there was only one hard work.

The surprise attack on Xiangyang City was also a battle that brought Xu Zhixian to the top.

(End of this chapter)