Daming kill

Chapter 191
When there is enough information, there are conditions for analysis.

A general's decision-making is nothing more than situation, character and habits.

At the small-scale enemy situation analysis meeting, Li Ping, Zhou Wen, and Du Sanjiang agreed that it was unlikely that Zhang Xianzhong would attack in a short time.

the reason is simple.

The focus of Zhang Xianzhong's operations was looting, to continuously obtain wealth, food, and population, rather than to annihilate the military power of the Ming army. This can be seen from his trajectory and the fact that he has been trying his best to evade the Ming army's powerful troops.

He accidentally left the cover of Yinghuo Mountain and launched an attack on Qizhou City, which is fortified by the Yangtze River and guarded by famous ministers. It should be that Zuo Liangyu's army suddenly withdrew from Huguang, which caused the emptiness of the surrounding officers and troops to him. enough courage.

Of course, having an internal response must be an important factor, and this internal response should have been in contact with Zhang Xianzhong in advance.

Otherwise, once the attack is weak and frustrated under the strong city, it is very likely that the second buried hill will be defeated.

What attracted Zhang Xianzhong may be the wealth of Qizhou.

There may also be some factors of venting anger against the imperial power.

Qizhou is very rich, and King Jing's Mansion is also very rich, Zhang Xianzhong probably knows it very well.

Zhu Ciyan, the King of Jing who died just one month ago, was a very well-known person who loved and knew how to enjoy himself. During his lifetime, he often wore a cap to taverns and teahouses, and had a famous saying: "This world, Tuleer."

According to Princess Jing who fled here to Li Ping, two peasant armies, He Yilong and Zuojin Wang, had surrendered to the government army a few years ago, and King Jing Zhu Ciyan held a large banquet in the palace out of curiosity about them. Entertain and arrange for actresses to act.

Due to the extraordinary splendor of King Jing's Mansion and the extraordinary demeanor of the singers, Ge Zuo Erhe was dazzled and salivated.

Some people were very worried at that time and said to King Jing Zhu Ciyan that this would "encourage the enemy", that is, make the peasant army have unreasonable thoughts, but King Jing Zhu Ciyan didn't take it seriously at all.

And last year, Gezuo Erhe had lived with Zhang Xianzhong for a period of time, and Zhang Xianzhong must have heard about the situation in Qizhou from them.

Princess Jing felt that people's worries at the time were fulfilled.It is very likely that the extravagance of entertaining the peasant army Erhe at that time left the disaster for today's disaster in Qizhou.

In this way, Qizhou's extreme wealth and internal support are profitable and risk-controllable for Zhang Xianzhong, but crossing the Yangtze River is not necessarily the case.

Although Zhang Xianzhong had tens of thousands of people and occupied Qizhou.

However, due to the wealth of Qizhou and the good governance of local officials in recent years, there are very few ordinary people who are willing to follow the thieves, that is to say, it is very unstable.

And Zhang Xianzhong just experienced the defeat of Qianshan just over a month ago. Most of his elite soldiers and horses were lost. At present, most of the troops are newly attached ordinary people, and their combat effectiveness is very weak. It doesn't have the strength yet.

The battles of Huangmei and Guangji also all relied on surprise attacks and internal response, and none of the battles were won through hard attack.

If he wants to play a strong attack, Zhang Xianzhong not only needs to stabilize his back, but also needs to spend some time training his troops.

In this way, it is unlikely that Zhang Xianzhong would risk crossing the Yangtze River to attack a small town like Fuchi without ready-made wealth and conditions for a surprise attack. It would be even more unreasonable to take the initiative to provoke Li Ping's army under Zuo Liangyu.

What's more, Zuo Liangyu's hundreds of thousands of troops withdrew from Huguang did not go too far. It is said that they are currently lingering not too far from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Although Duan Qiang, Hu Zhongshan and others expressed doubts about this inference at the analysis meeting, the two conclusions that Li Ping most recognized were consistent with his own wisdom reassured him a lot.

However, just to be on the safe side, Li Ping ordered to speed up military expansion and prepare for war, and at the same time began to think about launching a fire attack on the ships in Qihe.

But this fire attack plan was soon abandoned.

After reconnaissance, some boats were hidden in several lakes in the upper reaches of the Qi River when Zuo Liangyu's army went eastward, and they were controlled by Zhang Xianzhong's troops.But because these ships are so scattered, they cannot be burned at once.

And that venture would be pointless without being able to burn all or most of it at once.

As for the simultaneous ignition of multiple places, don't even think about it, it is too complicated and unrealistic.

Military planning is like this, never 100% suitable, constant changes and adjustments are what they are.

But it also became a sword of Damocles hanging over Li Ping's head.

Because according to the interrogation of the prisoners, Zhang Xianzhong captured more than 300 double-masted giant boats after capturing Chaohu Lake last fall, and conducted a large-scale naval training based on this (this is also the first navy of the entire Peasant Army).

Although his huge boat was lost after the Battle of Qianshan, and most of the boatmen were also lost, but Zhang Xianzhong's troops still left many people who knew about boats.

This threat is great.

Don't say whether they come to beat you or not, at least they have the ability to cross the river to beat you.

Although the reconnaissance showed that Zhang Xianzhong did not use the ships he had to organize large-scale water training, but this guy always liked to make unexpected sneak attacks, so this was even more dangerous.

The atmosphere was tense, and Li Ping's plan for military expansion and preparations for war was also not going well.

The fall of Qizhou made the people and miners in Fuchi Town who had just left the mountains and returned to their hometown panic again. Many people began to flee again, and this time they fled far away and did not intend to return.

Li Ping felt that there was a high probability that Zhang Xianzhong would not attack, but it was only a probability after all, and the common people would not think so.

When Li Ping was depressed, Yang Ming, who had been away for seven or eight days, finally came back, and he brought back Zuo Liangyu to agree with Li Ping's military order to garrison Fuchikou.

Zuo Liangyu's army stopped at Jiujiang, only about 100 miles away from Fuchi.

But Zuo Liangyu himself claimed to be ill after arriving in Jiujiang, and it was the kind of illness that required a long rest.

At the very beginning, Yang Ming didn't see Zuo Liangyu, nor even Zuo Menggeng.

But when the news of Qizhou's fall came, Zuo Liangyu suddenly summoned Yang Ming who had been waiting, and readily agreed to Li Ping's request.

Li Ping couldn't laugh or cry at Zuo Liangyu's attitude.

He knew that this time he couldn't leave even if he wanted to. He had really become the westernmost tentacles and guards of Zuo Liangyu's army, and he had to stay in Fuchi no matter what.

However, he had to send someone to Zuo Liangyu again.

King Jing's concubine Gui, second concubine Liu, and his son Hezhi decided to leave. They were also very worried about the safety of Fuchi, and of course this small place couldn't accommodate them.

And Li Ping could only send them to Jiujiang, to Zuo Liangyu.

In fact, in the original history, Jing Wangyuan's concubine Gui, his second concubine Liu, and his son Hezhi also fled directly to Jiujiang.

Then send someone to Zuo Liangyu, Li Ping didn't intend to let Yang Ming go.

Last time, Yang Ming didn't bring back any news except Zuo Liangyu's military order, and Li Ping was somewhat dissatisfied.

But Yang Ming can't be entirely blamed for this.

Li Ping strictly ordered Yang Ming not to contact Zhao Jin and Shi Ming after arriving at Zuo Liangyu's place, and not to seek their protection. He didn't want them to get into trouble.

Li Ping's prediction was not wrong.

Everyone kept Yang Ming at arm's length, and even Fang Guoan's people made Yang Ming a lot of trouble, so that Yang Ming just stayed on the boat and didn't dare to go anywhere when he was waiting in Jiujiang.

This time, Li Ping decided to let Zhou Wen go, and he needed Zhou Wen to stay around Jiujiang for a while.

He needs more outside news.

It has been almost two months since Li Zicheng conquered Xiangyang. It is not normal for the top court to have no response and just let Huguang deal with it by itself.

It seems that the overall collapse of the situation in Huguang has nothing to do with the imperial court, which is too abnormal.

Li Ping hopes that Zhou Wen, who has the courage and wisdom, will bring him the answer.

After sending Zhou Wen away, Li Ping began to focus more on military training and big training, but he soon realized that the serious shortage of manpower made everything stretched.

Due to the need for a large amount of manpower for vigilance, most of the troops must also be kept in a state of combat readiness instead of training. Training new recruits and mining hard furnaces can only be done in a small way.

While he was having a headache, a visitor came suddenly.

Tongzhi from Xingguo Prefecture brought several well-known local gentry to Li Ping to come here to serve as soldiers.

They came by boat along Fushui, bringing a large boat full of chickens, ducks and food.

Li Ping didn't realize that the local government would come to labor for a long time at first.And Tong Zhi is an official, he is also confused.

Fortunately, Zhou Wen is gone, but Yang Ming is still there.

When I learned that this Tongzhi belonged to the assistant officer of Zhizhou, which is equivalent to a deputy, he became a famous sixth-rank official (the difference between Zhili Prefecture and Sanzhou is still relatively large. Although Xingguo Prefecture has 2 counties, it belongs to Wuchang Prefecture ), Li Ping regained his spirits.

At this time, he came to work in the army, and his rank was not low, and there were officials and gentry. This was definitely not just to work in the army, let alone come to him for mines.

His chance has come.

Since it was the first time to formally deal with local officials of the Ming Dynasty, and he was afraid that the notoriety of Zuo Liangyu's army would frighten them, Li Ping specially asked Yang Ming to go out to meet him in Confucian uniforms, and told the guards to do as much as possible. He was very polite, while he took Mayong in armor and waited in front of the hall in a house where he was going to meet.

He didn't dare to go too far, he couldn't let the civil servant look down on him, or he couldn't let the other party lose the respect he should have for him.

If it weren't for Zhan Luan, he would probably not be noticed as a guerrilla.

But after meeting, Li Ping found that he didn't need to think too much.

This fellow clerk and the squires who came with him knew him to a certain extent, they were cautious and polite, and they were not very afraid, especially when they saw Li Ping, they highly praised the elite drills of Li Ping's troops they saw along the way. And military discipline is in order.

It turned out that among the squires they came with, there was an acquaintance of Li Ping's team, a squire who escaped from Chengtian Mansion and sought refuge with Li Ping's camp in Hanshui.

This is a retired official who used to be the magistrate of Shangxian county. He bid farewell to Li Ping with a small group of fellow villagers near Qizhou.

At that time, more people actually went to Qizhou, which was considered to be safer, but they all suffered bad luck.

Fate sometimes makes fun of people like this, which is embarrassing.

The officials of Xingguo Prefecture and the local gentry first learned about Li Ping and his troops from those who did not go to Qizhou but decided to return home or went to Xingguo to seek refuge with relatives and friends. The people who had dealt with the troops and fled again further corroborated what they said.

And what they saw after arriving here once again confirmed the information they got.

After all, it is easy to distinguish between chaotic soldiers and non-chaotic soldiers, elites and mobs.

With an acquaintance threading the thread, the two parties will have less temptation to each other, and it will be easier to talk.

The magistrate of Xingguozhou should have inquired about Li Ping's character in advance. After a few polite words, he quickly turned to the topic without going around the bush.

Of course it could be urgent.

Li Ping's guess was right, the people from Xingguo Prefecture didn't come to work in the army, but to ask for something.

They hope that Li Ping can protect the country for the rejuvenation of the country.

(End of this chapter)