I want to be emperor

Chapter 168 Rescue Yuzhou
From a geographical point of view, except for a very few passes with extremely steep terrain, such as Tongguan, Luyang Pass, Shanhaiguan and other places.

In fact, other cities can basically be bypassed. After all, a small city is only a few miles long and wide, and a large one is only a few tens of miles. It can be bypassed by taking two more steps...

What, the world is so big, and most of the cities can be bypassed in a few minutes by walking more.

But why would the attacking side prefer to take time and effort to attack? On the one hand, some cities are strategically important roads, and you can bypass them, but you can't bypass them for food, grass, supplies and other materials that require high roads.

Secondly, you can go around even if you have supplies, but the defenders in the city have changed from blocking you in front of you to being behind you!
It can kill you at any time to cut off your food path, and even cooperate with other friendly forces to attack you back and forth.

Sometimes after the attacking party bypasses a certain city, it is no different from walking into the encirclement on its own initiative.

-

Er Yongduo's letter for help first arrived in Nanyang, then quickly arrived in Xinye along the Baihe River, and was finally delivered to Luo Zhixue today.

At the same time, this also means that when Luo Zhixue received this letter from An Yongduo for help, he knew that there was a high probability that the Fourth Mixed Brigade in Yuzhou City had been besieged by the Ming army. It was attacked by the Ming army.

After hearing the news, even if Luo Zhixue didn't want to, he had to cancel his original plan to lead the [-]st Infantry Brigade and other main forces back to Xiangyang to prepare for the follow-up battle to the Jianghan Plain.

If he insists on going south, maybe Yuzhou City will be breached, and the Fourth Mixed Brigade will be finished.

At that time, the entire Nanyang Basin will be exposed to the threat of tens of thousands of Ming troops, Nanyang City will be in jeopardy, and the strategy of the Rural Protection Army will be greatly restricted.

On the same day, Luo Zhixue summoned all the generals in Xinye City. After a meeting for only a quarter of an hour, Luo Zhixue personally made a decision and led the [-]st Infantry Brigade, [-]st Cavalry Brigade, [-]st Artillery Brigade, Personal Barracks, The main force such as the First Supply Battalion quickly went north to Yuzhou.

At the same time, I ordered the former [-]rd Infantry Brigade and other troops who originally reinforced Yuzhou to pay attention to safety and avoid rash advances. If there is no chance to arrive safely and enter Yuzhou City, then do not get too close to Yuzhou City, but first join the main force of Luo Zhixue headquarters Then go east to Yuzhou City.

Otherwise, a mere 500 reinforcements foolishly ran to Yuzhou City, and they would have been swallowed by tens of thousands of Ming troops.

And he gave Nanyang City a new order to make the second supply battalion and the second infantry brigade ready to reinforce the front line of Yuzhou at any time.

The reason is to prepare, rather than directly let the second supply battalion and the second infantry brigade reinforce Yuzhou.

On the one hand, the Second Supply Battalion has been formed for a short period of time, and it is a recruit unit with unreliable combat effectiveness, and it will take time to continue training.

The main force of the Second Infantry Brigade also needs to be stationed at Luyang Pass. Ruzhou to the north of Luyang Pass is now the base camp where Hong Chengchou sits, and there are still a large number of Ming troops there.

Once Hong Chengchou finds that Luyang Pass is empty of troops, there is a high probability that he will directly mobilize some troops to quickly attack Luyang Pass.

At that time, Yuzhou did not come to the rescue, and the Luyang Pass that was finally taken may have to be lost again.

Let the Second Infantry Brigade and the Second Supply Battalion prepare for reinforcements, Luo Zhixue was just in case. If he couldn't fight in Yuzhou, then even if it was at the risk of losing Luyang Pass, he had to dispatch the second infantry brigade. The infantry brigade marched westward to Yuzhou, and cooperated with the main force to kill Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong.

----

Facing the fact that Yuzhou was very likely to be besieged and would be breached at any moment, Luo Zhixue acted very quickly and issued a series of orders that day.

The [-]st Infantry Brigade and other troops stopped all training that day and began to prepare for the official departure the next day. After nightfall, all soldiers also rested early to prepare for the high-intensity march tomorrow morning.

If it hadn't been for the afternoon when he received the news, and it was not suitable to march northward directly, then Luo Zhixue would have ordered the troops to march northward immediately on the same day.

In the early morning hours of May 27th, the people in Xinye City discovered that a large number of bandits from the Township Protection Army were leaving the city and heading north.

However, some bandit soldiers left the city, and some bandit soldiers entered the city at the same time. They came from the First Battalion of the Sixth Mixed Brigade as reinforcements from Fancheng.

The main force of the [-]st Infantry Brigade left the city and headed north, and the [-]st Battalion of the [-]th Mixed Battalion entered the city to garrison, and it happened to be on the same day...

In fact, yesterday, the battalion of the Sixth Mixed Brigade was still more than 20 kilometers away. After receiving the order from Luo Zhixue, it had to speed up the march. It continued to go north before dawn today, and finally arrived this morning. Xinye City.

It would not be possible for the First Infantry Brigade and other troops to leave Xinye City and turn Xinye City into a city without soldiers.

The strategic position of this place is relatively important, and it is an important material transfer station on the Baihe waterway. If there is no troops stationed in case there is any disturbance, then the loss will be huge.

In the small city of Xinye, there are bandit soldiers in gray robes everywhere, and there are also some bandit soldiers with shaved heads who wear the uniforms of Ming army officers and soldiers.

The Township Protection Army recruits recruits from the surrendered troops to form a traditional army. The selected surrendered soldiers also have to shave their big bald heads. Otherwise, it is unhygienic to have long flowing hair that will affect the combat. Once injured, it is very easy to be infected and die!
If you want to continue to serve as a soldier and eat enough food every day, you have to follow the rules of the Township Protection Army.

If you don’t want to, the Rural Protection Army will not force you. There are too many people who want to serve as soldiers in the Rural Protection Army and have enough food. You are not the only one.

This move of shaving his head, Luo Zhixue's original intention was only for the convenience of fighting and treating the wounded.

But over time, it has gradually evolved into something similar to a vote of honor in the outside world and even within the Rural Protection Army.

If you want to join my Home Guard Army, you should shave your head first, so that I can believe that you are really willing to join my Home Guard Army. From now on, everyone will be a group...

Even the officers and soldiers now know that the one who sees the bald head is the security thief...

In other words, this has involved many serious monks or fake monks who pretend to be deceitful. Monks in many places in the surrounding Ming army-controlled areas have been arrested by officers and soldiers as security agents, spies, and spies.

In fact, intelligence spies under the General Staff of the Rural Protection Army and other soldiers who perform covert missions generally do not shave their heads, and even a few spies who shaved their heads at the beginning often wear wigs...

For example, when Li Dongshao led the [-] soldiers from the personal battalion to sneak into Xiangyang City, they all wore wigs.

And the shaving of the head gradually became politicized, which was beyond Luo Zhixue's original expectation, and he didn't want to see it.

For this reason, when he was in Xiangyang, he gave a special instruction: the strategy of shaving hair is only limited to the soldiers in the army.

Luo Zhixue never forced his subordinates to serve as civil servants, let alone let the common people shave a big bald head, it's not necessary.

Moreover, his system of protecting the countryside is not a temple, so there is no need to have a lot of monks, isn't it...

If it is possible in the future, he may implement the short hair policy of future generations, but he will not force it. Ordinary people's hairstyles, whatever you like... Luo Zhixue doesn't bother to care about you.

After this special instruction, this has finally reversed the politicized imagination of shaving heads. Otherwise, it is estimated that many civil servants are all bald, and even force the people to shave their heads. A lot of trouble.

He doesn't want the country he will build in the future to become a country of monks, that's too nonsense.

However, the soldiers in the army still strictly implement the policy of bald heads, and the surrendered soldiers who are unwilling to shave their heads and join the army will not be embarrassed, but will be incorporated into the reclamation camp with other unqualified surrendered soldiers for militarization To manage the reclamation, he also builds bridges and paves roads on weekdays, and promises that he will be free to leave after three years of reclamation.

As for the immediate release, Luo Zhixue can guarantee that if he lets go of these surrendered soldiers today, tomorrow there will be a lot of bandits under his rule...or they will simply gather together and become bandits!

Why did the Ming army fail to encircle and suppress the rebels repeatedly? To a large extent, the Ming army was incapable and did not have the mind to deal with a large number of rebel prisoners or surrendered soldiers.

In fact, many people in the rebel army had the experience of being recruited, even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were like this, but they basically surrendered and turned back after a short time.

In addition to the ambitions of Li Zicheng and other high-ranking rebel soldiers, for ordinary rebel soldiers, it is because even if Zhao'an is declared, the government will not care about them, and they will not even arrange for reclamation. Just the opposite...

The purpose of the Rural Protection Army's establishment of the reclamation camp was not to obtain food, but to better manage these prisoners of war and prevent them from harming the local area.

As for the very few die-hard rebels, the Rural Protection Army would keep them in prisoner-of-war camps earlier, and then go to do heavy physical work, but later the size of the prisoner-of-war camps became smaller and smaller, because now the Rural Protection Army Often die-hard rebels are killed on the spot...

These days, even prisoners of war who are coolies need to eat.

And food is very precious. Even if you don't need prisoners of war, but just recruit young and strong people from the refugees to work, there are still a lot of people who are willing to do it, and they are more motivated and work more efficiently.

In response to this situation, Luo Zhixue said: We do not feed the enemy with food for the rural protection army!
Ever since, the prisoner-of-war camp used as a coolie has existed in name only...

----

The bald bandits in Xinye City come and go, and the people in Xinye City have long been used to it. In the past month, there have never been fewer gray thieves in Xinye City.

As a result, some of the big gentry in the city who had a heart for the imperial court couldn't help sighing secretly: "I look forward to Master Wang day and night, but Master Wang never comes."

As for the thoughts of the gentry and common people in the city, Wang Dazhuang, who had just taken office as the commander of the Sixth Mixed Brigade, was too lazy to scruple.

(End of this chapter)