I want to be emperor

Chapter 156 Three Yuanzhuang Battle ([-])
Sanyuanzhuang, this is just a very ordinary village in Dengzhou. In the early years when there were not so many military disturbances, Sanyuanzhuang once had a population of more than a thousand, and it could be regarded as a large village in the surrounding area.

But with the frequent wars and famines, the population of Sanyuan Village fled and died, and now there are only two or 300 people left. If the situation continues in the past two years, Sanyuan There is a high probability that Zhuang will be like many villages, the population will decrease, the fields will gradually fall into disrepair, the houses will gradually collapse, and eventually it will become an abandoned village like Zhaozhuang.

Even though the terrain of Sanyuanzhuang is flat and there are many streams passing by, the farming conditions are not bad.

But it also cannot withstand the disaster brought about by the war.

It is the same today. After a Ming army of about a thousand people entered the dilapidated village of Sanyuanzhuang, they immediately expelled all the people in the village. All the houses here have been requisitioned by the officers and soldiers.

In fact, without these Ming army officers and soldiers to expel them, the people in Sanyuanzhuang had already started to flee on their own.

Because, an army of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers came from the west, and a bandit army of thousands of people came from the southeast.

And the meeting point of these two armies happened to be in the Sanyuanzhuang area.

This place has become a battlefield!

No matter how reluctant the villagers in the village are, they can only flee their homes in a hurry at this time.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming army who first entered the village were actually quite good. They did not plunder on a large scale, nor did they directly confiscate the people in the village for cannon fodder. They just drove them away from the battlefield.

After all, the forward of this Ming army belongs to Fubiao under Lu Xiangsheng's command. The military discipline is very strict, and there is no shortage of money and food on weekdays. However, if the officers and soldiers with sufficient money and food supply are not too cruel, they will generally not do anything. It's so outrageous.

After seizing the village, the Fubiao [-] under Lu Xiangsheng's command did not continue to advance, but relied on the houses in the village to build fortifications and set up obstacles such as distance horses.

Lu Xiangsheng at the back saw that Fubiao under his command had taken the first step to occupy the village in front, and nodded slightly: "With such a nail in place, the next step will be much easier!"

After Lu Xiangsheng finished speaking, he looked to the southeast again, and teams of bandit soldiers in gray uniforms had appeared in the short mountains and wilderness in the distance.

That is the bandit soldier of the Rural Protection Army!
Although the distance between the two sides is still several miles away, the terrain here is flat, and Lu Xiangsheng is standing on the top of a 30-meter-high mountain to observe from a condescending position, so he can clearly see the general movement of the bandit army ahead.

This is the first time that Lu Xiangsheng has seen a live bandit soldier of the Township Protection Army with his own eyes. After watching carefully for a while, he said: "

"Sure enough, as the rumors say, all of them have shaved heads and gray robes, and many guns. I just don't know if the combat power is as good as the rumors."

Just half an hour ago, after Lu Xiangsheng learned through scouting cavalry that there was a bandit army of about 5000 people in the southeast, he immediately ordered the whole army to put on armor and prepare for battle.

While dispatching more scouts to investigate the detailed movements of the bandit army, they also took the lead in dispatching 1000 people from the headquarters to seize Sanyuanzhuang.

The terrain around Sanyuanzhuang is flat, although there are some low hills, but these hills are also very gentle, not considered any complicated terrain at all.

The only place that can be regarded as easy to defend and difficult to attack is Sanyuanzhuang itself. Those places are slightly higher, surrounded by small rivers on both sides, and there are houses and buildings as support.

Lu Xiangsheng immediately saw the importance of this place, so without any hesitation, he sent troops to seize it.

Whether it is to fight an encounter here in the follow-up, or to retreat directly when the situation is not good, Sanyuanzhuang can provide great convenience for one's own side.

A man next to him, dressed in a green robe of the seventh grade of civil servants, said: "Qian Xian really uses his soldiers like a god. My master Wang seized Sanyuanzhuang in the next year. If we enter, this place can be used as a sharp knife for the army. If we retreat, this place can be used as a stubborn rock."

"This place is the mainstay of the surrounding area, but now it has been seized by our army. In this battle, our army will have no worries!"

Lu Xiangsheng chuckled, not paying attention to the praise of Wang Juling, the magistrate of Guanghua County beside him!
Sanyuanzhuang is certainly important, but it is not as mysterious as Wang Juling's bragging.

At this time, Lu Xiangsheng's attention was focused on continuously collecting all kinds of information about the bandit army.

As time passed, the sentinels sent by Lu Xiangsheng also reported back one after another, and brought more accurate news to Lu Xiangsheng.

"The bandit army has about four thousand soldiers and many guns, including at least ten small Hongyi cannons and at least twenty light cannons of various types."

"Among the bandit soldiers, there are many musketeers, more than half of them are musketeers in many bandits, and there are also a lot of armored soldiers. At least 30 to [-] out of a hundred are wearing armor."

"The rebel soldiers have three hundred fine cavalry. Our army has had scout cavalry to fight fiercely with them many times, but none of them has the upper hand. Our army's scout cavalry has lost fifteen cavalry in total."

"There are many mules and horses in the bandit army, and a hundred bandits travel with one carriage. All their baggage is carried by the carriage. All their leaders, big and small, ride horses, and they move very fast."

"There are still more than [-] auxiliary soldiers in the bandit army, none of them wear armor, and most of them are equipped with single swords or spears, or lead horses to transport luggage, or carry armor for the bandit soldiers. It's just that these bandit army auxiliary soldiers are quite strange. Even the ranks are not equipped with the gray robes of the bandit army, they are all dressed up by ordinary people."

The auxiliary soldiers mentioned by the Ming army's reconnaissance and cavalry are actually two transport battalions belonging to the logistics department. Originally, the transport battalions in the rural protection army were not equipped with weapons, but this battle is urgent. At the same time, the rural protection army is in Xiangyang City And there are so many cold weapons seized in Fancheng that they can't be used up.

So I simply distributed short spears and single knives to the civilian men of these transport battalions temporarily, and didn't expect them to be able to fight, but only hoped that they would have some self-protection power, and they could hide behind the carriages transporting supplies to protect themselves if necessary .
It's just that the scouts of the Ming army saw them holding weapons, so they were included in the auxiliary soldiers of the rural protection army.

And listening to the successive reports from the scouts, and Lu Xiangsheng can now see some of the rural protection army appearing in the wilderness in the distance, now Lu Xiangsheng also has a more intuitive and clear impression of the rural protection army.

More armor, more guns, more mules and horses!
And just these few points are enough to make the bandits of the Township Protection Army completely different from ordinary bandits.

In fact, anyone who has really seen the Rural Protection Army can clearly feel that the Rural Protection Army is different from the ordinary bandit army.

Especially seeing the first infantry brigade, the second mixed brigade, and the third infantry brigade, the three armies with brand-new equipment and tactics, none of them would associate them with the so-called thieves.

All in gray uniforms, most of the officers and men wore armor, they used many more guns than officers and soldiers, and they also carried a bunch of long-barreled red barbarian artillery to fight.

Anyone who dares to say that such an army is an ordinary bandit is either blind or brain-destroyed.

Even seeing the Fourth Mixed Brigade in the Township Protection Army, a traditional army organized and reorganized from the officers and soldiers of the Ming Army, it has nothing to do with ordinary thieves.

The Fourth Mixed Brigade, which is currently fighting in Yuzhou, even the military uniforms are the Ming army uniforms brought by the surrendered soldiers, and all weapons and equipment are all Ming army standard weapons and equipment, even the tactics.

This Fourth Mixed Brigade, on the surface, is actually no different from the Ming Army. The only difference may be that the soldiers of the Fourth Mixed Brigade don’t have to worry about eating and drinking, which brings better physical fitness and morale. But there is no such good food treatment.

Therefore, to a certain extent, the traditional army created by the rural protection army like the Fourth Mixed Brigade is actually an improved version of the food for Ming officers and soldiers.

However, whether it is the new main force like the [-]st Infantry Brigade or the traditional army like the [-]th Mixed Brigade, they have nothing to do with bandits.

And this is also Lu Xiangsheng's biggest feeling at present:
These thieves of the Township Protection Army don't look like thieves!
Even comparing the ranks, equipment, and even the morale of the enemy and the enemy, Lu Xiangsheng felt that the officers and soldiers under his command were more like bandit soldiers...

This is not Lu Xiangsheng's unique feeling. Whether it was Huang Guangmao or Chen Yongfu, they all had similar feelings when they led the army to fight against the Township Protection Army.

Facing such an unconventional army of thieves, Lu Xiangsheng was not careless, but continued to search for news very cautiously, and at the same time constantly deployed troops and deployed formations.

As for retreat?

Lu Xiangsheng considered this option at first, but he quickly dismissed the idea!
If you retreat directly, you may collapse directly.

It's not that Lu Xiangsheng is worrying unfoundedly, but that the elite cavalry and a large number of mules and horses of the rural protection army on the opposite side have brought him a clear understanding: he can't run away!
There are [-] fine riders among the bandit army, and these [-] fine riders don't seem to be many, but as long as they run in front of you and stop you, you don't care and continue marching?
Or is it a battle formation to defend against the cavalry attack?
Well, don't expect to be able to walk too fast once you have formed a battle formation. If the speed slows down, the main infantry artillery of the rural protection army with a large number of mules and horses will be able to catch up.

Don't talk about retreating at that time, it's good not to collapse on the spot.

You said to kill the [-] fine cavalry in the bandit army first, if you can get rid of that place, you have to wait until now.

When he discovered the bandit army before, Lu Xiangsheng already had more than 300 cavalry under his command take the initiative to attack. As a result, the cavalry he sent out only had a face-to-face encounter with Wang Xiazi's cavalry, and then he didn't even have the courage to fight. He took the initiative to turn and retreat.

Run faster than a rabbit!
At first Lu Xiangsheng was still very angry, feeling that these bastards were timid and afraid of fighting, and didn't take Lu Xiangsheng's order seriously, thinking whether they were going to kill a few people to sacrifice the flag.

The two armies have not yet formally engaged in battle. In the confrontation between the forward cavalry, the cavalry of their own did not even dare to fight and ran away, which greatly affected morale.

But the several cavalry generals who led the team explained the reason with a look of fear.

Although Lu Xiangsheng was still very upset, he didn't continue to get angry, let alone let the [-] cavalry under his command continue to attack, but began to dispatch troops and generals, preparing to have a complete fight around Sanyuan Village and the Township Protection Army.

(End of this chapter)