The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 885 Caozhou Offensive and Defensive Battle

This place is only more than a hundred miles away from Caozhou. In order to maintain their physical strength and horsepower, it took three hours to march. The soldiers can reach the battlefield in the afternoon, and it is not a problem to fight for an hour or two before dark.

There is no need to worry about the Manchurian cavalry coming for reinforcements. Luyi is five hundred miles away from the official road of Caozhou, and it will be the next day after it is reported that the rogues who besieged Caozhou were suddenly attacked.

The Qing army is not stupid, so it is worth taking the risk of being ambushed by the "Red Banner Army" to really stand out for the rogues?

According to Sun Chuanting's analysis, the Qing army learned that nearly [-] "Red Banner Army" elites had come to participate in the Central Plains War. Their choice should be to use their mobility to avoid the battle and let the rogues fight with our army to consume.

Whether or not the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry will participate in the battle depends on the development of the situation. The harder our army fights, the more miserable the bandits will be defeated, and the faster the Qing army will escape. If the fight is stalemate, the Qing army will take advantage of the opportunity.

There is no doubt about employing people, and Sun Chuanting is still a master of strategy and tactics that has been verified by history.

Huang Han agreed with Sun Chuanting's quick-fix tactics and appointed him to deploy troops. Sun Chuanting ordered the whole army to cross the Yellow River at a constant speed, and the whole army raided when it was [-] miles away from Caozhou.

Surrounded by 8 troops led by Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, Liu Guoneng, and nearly [-] refugees, Caozhou, which was attacked on the seventh day, was still holding on, and it was able to defend with ease.

As early as when the rogues arrived in Luoyang, Gu Rushan, Lei Mingchun, Wang Xuan and others made a plan, intending to use Caozhou as a bait to attract a large number of rogues to attack.

In order not to be self-defeating and cause the bait to be eaten, they decided to strengthen Caozhou's defense after discussion.

Wang Yu led the Mixed Thousand Chiefs to enter Caozhou with Fran machine guns and two Thousand Household Guards to assist in the defense, bringing the number of soldiers in the city to more than [-] and the guards to nearly [-].

In addition to the more than 2000 village braves in training, and the more than 1 civilians organized by Zhu Dadian to carry military supplies and the wounded, more than [-] people participated in the defense of the city.

Originally thought that little Caozhou would be easy to get, but it turned out to be so difficult, Zhang Xianzhong was so angry that he was furious. At this time, he regretted that it was too late to ask to be the vanguard of the army.

The Eighth King is a person who cares about face, if he retreats with his troops in a desperate manner, wouldn't it make Jin Minghu laugh his ass off?
Unexpectedly, six days and five nights passed, and the rogues did not even get a chance to rush to the top of the city. Luo Rucai, Liu Guoneng and other big bosses who urged their subordinates to attack the city were a little discouraged.

"Fight, at all cost!" Zhang Xianzhong gritted his teeth fiercely, and he bewitched again to cheer up his subordinates:

"Brothers, the rich men with a radius of hundreds of miles and the ladies of the officials are all hiding in the city of Caozhou. There are a lot of wine, meat, money, big girls and young wives when they break through the city. I will reward you all."

This is not a lie, Zhu Dadian has never planned to abandon the city and flee. In autumn, he organized the army and civilians to reinforce the city and ordered the evacuation of the population and food in the surrounding villages and towns.

As soon as the rogues launched their attack, the banner guards got the news and informed the inland garrison that the "Red Banner Army" was widely publicized in Caozhou, and everyone who didn't want to be a thief brought their belongings, property, and food into the city to escape the war.

The weather is freezing, the dripping water turns into ice, and the villagers in the mountains have nothing to do. As long as there is food, people, and livestock, and they can continue to cultivate in spring, the losses caused by the rogue crossing the border are within a controllable range.

When the "Red Banner Army" publicized, it clearly told the folks and folks that the "Hanjiang County King" would not tolerate the rogues until the spring, and was already organizing troops to deal with the rogues.

Many officials, gentry, landlords, and ordinary people who trusted the "Red Banner Army" hid in Caozhou City with their families. Temples, ancestral halls, and even the state government offices were full of people.

Because the "Red Banner Army" has management experience, as long as people who enter the city to escape the war, they must be guaranteed by their neighbors, and then they must register for household registration and distribute grain books.

Relying on the population registered in the household registration book and food book, it is possible to purchase food rations that can maintain [-]% of the food.

Refugees with financial difficulties will get temporary jobs from Minzhuang. The "Red Banner Army" not only manages food, but also gets six hundred Wen and five buckets of miscellaneous grains every month. With these grains and money, they can barely maintain a family of three or four for a day. Two meals.

Although this year's autumn harvest has been reduced by about [-]%, it is winter now, and it is not too late to run out of food.

Few of the refugees who escaped the war and hid in the city were impoverished, and most of them carried food and money. As long as the "Red Flag Grain Bank" released grain at the price limit of two silver coins per stone of polished rice according to the ration, the city would not suffer from starvation. Into chaos.

Today, there are 18 soldiers and civilians in the city of Caozhou, 14 of whom are migrants. There are 10,000+ stones of food, and there are many cattle, horses and donkeys.

In order to save space and food, almost all pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks were killed in the past few days to reward the soldiers and civilians who participated in the defense of the city.

This time, Zhang Xianzhong played the wrong game, and he was right. If the bandits really took Caozhou, they would have everything from food, fine wine, flower girls, gold and silver treasures.

The eyes of the rogues turned green, and they howled like wolves: "Brothers, go up there with your real skills and fight for your life! The Eighth King has an order, and all the beautiful girls in the city are ours! Kill..."

In order not to scare the rogues away prematurely, no bright red flags were flying over the city of Caozhou, and half of the Mini gunners in the army deliberately did not shoot any targets a hundred paces away.

The commander-in-chief of the second battalion, Wang Xuan, was the highest-ranking general in Caozhou City, and he naturally commanded the overall situation. Zhu Dadian had carefully studied the establishment of the "Red Banner Army", and knew that the commander-in-chief of the first battalion should at least be equivalent to the general of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the "Red Banner Army" system does not have a saying that the military is noble and the military is inferior. Not only are the ranks equal, but the treatment is tilted towards military officers.

Zhu Dadian respected Wang Xuan not because he needed the "Red Banner Army" to save his life, but also because he had been in contact with Wang Xuan for half a month and found that this young general was not easy.

Wang Yu is the son of Wang Yuqi, a master craftsman, academician of the Academy of Sciences, and shipbuilding expert, and a personal guard disciple who has been trained by Huang Han for four years.

He has traveled across the oceans and traveled to Japan, Little Lu Song, and Guangnan. He not only knows a little about astronomy and geography, but can also talk about Tang poetry and Song poetry, and his military quality is impeccable.

Zhu Dadian is a native of Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. He was born in the top two rankings and is an authentic academic master. After communicating with Wang Xuan many times, he often feels enlightened.

He began to yearn for the other side of the ocean, looking forward to traveling across the ocean with the Longwu navy fleet to visit the American continent in his lifetime.

Zhu Dadian is not a clean official, but that doesn't mean he is a bad person. More than [-]% of the civil and military generals in the Ming Dynasty were corrupt. It is really rare that they can be as clean and honest as Hai Rui.

The Ming Dynasty was full of internal strife, and the party and dissidents were intensified. Zhu Dadian, who was ambitious, capable, and wanted to do some practical things for the country, was getting smaller and smaller as an official.

Listening to Wang Xuan's introduction of Sun Chuanting, Chen Qiyu, Wen Tiren, Yang Yipeng and other former high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty in the "Red Banner Army" system, he was more determined to defect to the "Hanjiang County King" and start over.

(End of this chapter)