I want to be emperor

Chapter 173 The Dilemma of Zuo Liangyu
When Luo Zhixue led the various ministries to Shanghe Town, he did not immediately go to Yuzhou City, but rested in Yuzhou City for a day.

It was not until the morning of June 6000 that he set off again, leading more than 3000 troops and more than [-] soldiers and civilians to Yuzhou.

The reason why they stayed in Shanghe Town for one day was that after the [-]st Infantry Brigade and other northbound troops had gone through continuous high-intensity marches, both the soldiers and the mules and horses were very tired and urgently needed to rest to recover their physical fitness.

If you continue to move forward without recovering, the mules and horses will be exhausted, which will have a relatively large impact on the display of combat effectiveness.

At least it is difficult to give full play to the physical advantage of the rural protection army, and without the physical advantage, it means losing the advantage of mobility. It's more deadly.

The rural protection army rarely fights in the field and waits for the enemy to come slowly.

Instead, before the two sides officially start fighting, repeated formation changes are often carried out, thus forcing the enemy to follow suit.

In the end, until the opponent's physical fitness or organizational ability can't keep up, resulting in loopholes in the formation, or when there are loopholes in the formation, they directly launch an attack and fight to the death.

So that the rural protection army can get better fighters.

The pre-war tactics of the Xiangbao Army, which used small-scale maneuvers and frequently changed formations, were to put it bluntly, to compete with the opponent for physical fitness!

After all, during the change of formation and the process of testing after the formation was officially set up, the soldiers had to line up and also put on armor.

Just imagine, wearing armor weighing tens of kilograms, carrying spears several meters long to maneuver in formation, walking or even trotting frequently, this requires a lot of physical fitness for the soldiers.

In the past few field battles, the rural protection army has been tried and tested. Every time, they can rely on the better physical fitness of their own soldiers to obtain favorable combat opportunities, and even force the enemy to take the initiative to attack in a disadvantaged situation.

In the previous battle with Lu Xiangsheng at Sanyuan Village, the Township Protection Army used this tactic very successfully.

Through the frequent maneuvers of the cavalry, the rural protection army forced a loophole in the enemy's right wing. Before the infantry of the two sides fought, the cavalry of the rural protection army had already defeated one phalanx of the enemy and contained two phalanxes of the enemy.

This further led to the fact that Lu Xiangsheng's right-wing army, with at least 500 people, was unable to directly participate in the battle between the infantry when the infantry of the two sides engaged in a formal battle, which eventually affected his right wing. It crashed.

At the same time, the artillery units of the Rural Protection Army were able to fight quickly and accurately. It was also because the artillery units of the Rural Protection Army occupied favorable terrain after frequent maneuvers and were able to directly cover several main infantry phalanxes that bombarded the enemy's central army. , and then forced the enemy's central army to advance quickly at a long distance in advance, and finally fought with the infantry of the rural protection army at an absolute disadvantage.

When the armies of the two sides are in contact and fighting, it is very important for the soldiers of one's own side to preserve sufficient physical fitness.

For this reason, Luo Zhixue would rather let thousands of soldiers rest for more than a day at the risk of being discovered by the Ming army in advance and exposing the position of his main force.

Of course, the reason why Luo Zhixue was able to delay his eastward march for a day was also because Yuzhou City was currently worry-free.

Although the fourth mixed brigade in Yuzhou City fought very hard, they still firmly guarded Yuzhou City.

At least Ernst & Young gave Luo Zhixue the battle report that he was very confident in continuing to defend Yuzhou City, saying that he could hold on for at least three more days.

The reason why they can only last for another three days is not that the Fourth Mixed Brigade cannot fight anymore, but that the ammunition will be completely exhausted after three days.

Without the support of ammunition, it will be more difficult for the fourth mixed brigade to defend Yuzhou City with only flesh and blood.

However, it is enough for Yuzhou City to hold on for another three days, so Luo Zhixue took a day off before leading his troops to continue eastward!
Just when Luo Zhixue led an army of more than 6000 men to the east, outside Yuzhou City, the Ming army launched an attack on Yuzhou City again.

But this attack was the same as yesterday's attack. Thousands of Ming troops stepped forward one after another. However, as soon as they approached, the bandit protection army on the head of Yuzhou City started firing one after another.

In particular, those relatively large general cannons and Frang cannons were directly aimed at the few medium-sized siege machines that the Ming army finally built.

After a while, many siege equipment were destroyed.

However, those small shield vehicles escaped the bombardment of the large artillery of the bandit army, but after approaching a distance of a hundred meters, they were still bombarded by the dense small and medium artillery of the bandit army. Shooting to muskets and bows.

Before reaching the top of the city, two or 300 people were killed or injured. Although the subsequent onslaught continued, dozens of people finally rushed to the top of the city, only to be attacked by a group of armored soldiers from the bandit protection army. Counterattack, and at the same time, a large number of enemy archers counterattacked to intercept the follow-up reinforcements of the Ming army.

In the end, the dozens of Ming troops who rushed to the top of the city simply surrendered after most of them were killed or injured.

Seeing that his attack failed again and most of the siege equipment was lost, the angry Zuo Liangyu's face turned black.

This battle is more difficult than he imagined.

The level of guns and artillery of these bandit protection troops is no less than that of our own army, and even better. At least Zuo Liangyu did not bring several hundred catties of general guns and large Francophones. There are only a few general guns of three or four hundred catties.

Most of the army under his command are small cannons of several tens of kilograms, such as attacking army cannons, tiger squatting cannons and the like.

Lightweight is light, but the power is too small!
Especially in this kind of siege operation, the opponent is protected by the city wall, and one's own small artillery can play a very limited role in the siege.

It is naturally quite difficult to fight like this.

Seeing the front failed to climb the top of the wall again, and the remnant soldiers had to retreat... Zuo Liangyu became more and more unhappy, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed he became.

He Renlong next to him also had a bad expression on his face: "Brother Zuo, if we go on like this, if we really want to win Yuzhou City, I'm afraid we'll have to work hard. At least we have to fill in 4000 or [-] people!"

He Renlong said, then turned his head to look at Zuo Liangyu and said, "Brother Zuo, you have a lot of people under your command, so you can withstand such a toss, but I have only a few thousand people under my command, and I can't stand such a toss!"

When He Renlong said it, his heart was bleeding. Since he came to Yuzhou City, he and Zuo Liangyu attacked Yuzhou City together. Every attack was a joint operation. Although He Renlong sent few troops, he also drawn.

In so many days of siege, although there were not many casualties each time, but the addition of several attacks before and after, his troops had lost at least 500 people.

And the total force he brought over was only 5000 people.

Calculated in this way, the battle damage is close to one-tenth.

Fortunately, this was a war of attrition that lasted for many days and spread out. In order to make up for the losses, He Renlong had also been forcibly recruiting young and strong men from the soldiers and civilians, so that his soldiers could barely bear it.

If it was a tenth of the loss in a big war, the army under his command would dare to collapse for him to see.

But even so, it can't continue to be consumed like this. One day, people are killed and wounded, and hundreds of people will be killed or injured tomorrow. Then the combined army of the two of them has more than [-] officers and soldiers, and they can't help being consumed like this.

As for directly sending civilian husbands as cannon fodder, they have actually tried it.

A few days ago, they began to send soldiers and civilians to serve as cannon fodder, but when these civilians heard that the security guards in front fired, they turned their heads and ran away, even if they were forced to charge by the supervisory team, at least two or three thousand civilians were killed or injured. , except for the consumption of some ammunition and arrows of the bandit army, no effect was seen.

Even later, the effect of consuming the ammunition of the bandit army was gone.

Because the security guards on the top of the city saw that it was civilians who didn't even have weapons rushing up, and they didn't even want to fire their guns. Instead, they would put the civilians under the city wall, or even let them go up to the top of the city, and directly used all kinds of cold weapons Just kill it.

Under such circumstances, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong had no choice but to give up the strategy of using civilian husbands as cannon fodder to consume the ammunition of the bandit army.

The civilian husband is useless, and the officers and soldiers can only go into battle in person.

However, even if they go up, most of the soldiers consumed are ordinary guard soldiers, not soldiers, let alone their family servants and personal soldiers.

But they also feel heartbroken if there are too many casualties.

What's more, sending ordinary guards up to consume them requires a small number of soldiers and even personal soldiers to lead them. If this happens, even the soldiers and even personal soldiers will be killed or injured.

He Renlong's troops were not many in the first place, and he was very heartbroken if he died too much, and he was unwilling to continue such a strong attack for a long time.

Zuo Liangyu at the side heard this, and he also nodded slightly: "It's true that you can't fight like this, but if you don't fight, the supervisor can't explain it!"

Regardless of whether it was Zuo Liangyu or He Renlong, they hadn't wanted to storm Yuzhou City for a long time.

But if you don't fight, you can't!
The day before yesterday, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong received a letter from Hong Chengchou again. Hong Chengchou once again ordered Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong to quickly lead their troops to capture Yuzhou. Protect the countryside bandits.

Under Hong Chengchou's strong pressure, neither Zuo Liangyu nor He Renlong could do anything, even if the fight was not smooth and the casualties were heavy, they could only grit their teeth and persevere.

What's interesting is that until now, neither Hong Chengchou nor Zuo Liangyu at the front line knew that Lu Xiangsheng had been defeated and died.

After all, the Township Protection Army has completely sealed off the Nanyang Basin area, especially the connection with the northern area. Although it is impossible to completely block the news, the news of Lu Xiangsheng's defeat will not reach Zuo Liangyu in a short time.

The current Zuo Liangyu still wants to win Yuzhou as soon as possible, and cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng after entering the Nanyang Basin.

But how to fight this Yuzhou City?
After the Ming army failed in its first attempt to attack many days ago, it did not launch an attack for several days in a row, but instead made all kinds of siege equipment.

The offensive was not launched again until May [-]th, and it has been fighting for three consecutive days.

However, the more than 20 various types of artillery deployed by the Rural Protection Army on the city of Yuzhou once again posed a huge threat to them.

It not only caused a lot of casualties to the siege Ming army, but also destroyed a large number of siege equipment of the Ming army.

This made it more difficult for the Ming army to conquer Yuzhou City.

This is also the reason Ernst & Young confidently reported to Luo Zhixue that he could persist for at least three days.

(End of this chapter)