Daming kill

Chapter 224 Ambition Renewed
On May [-], Huangzhou Fucheng.

Zhang Xianzhong, who had just received a mysterious person, was full of joy, and he swept away the haze that had been lingering on his face for several days.

Seeing this, military advisor Xu Yixian took the opportunity and said: "Jingxuan, don't hesitate any longer, this is God's order for us to conquer Wuchang, so that you can become an emperor."

Zhang Xianzhong nodded seriously.

Jingxuan is Zhang Xianzhong's nickname, Bingzhong is Zhang Xianzhong's character, and the title is more respectful.

It turned out that Zhang Xianzhong lacked confidence in attacking Wuchang these days, and he never fully made up his mind.

But the mysterious person he just met made him more confident.

This mysterious figure is called Zhang Qizai, and he is the commander of the Chu Army in Wuchang City, which was established and formed only on April [-]th, and the new Chu Army is an important force in the current Wuchang defenders.

Zhang Qizai secretly crossed the river to meet Zhang Xianzhong.

The guy was caught and beaten up by the king of Chu because of a small mistake, which made him very resentful in his heart, who was already disappointed with the government and the king of Chu.

Therefore, Zhang Qizai decided to vote for Zhang Xianzhong.

Since he is the leader of the newly recruited soldiers of the Chu Mansion, Zhang Qizai, who can be regarded as knowledgeable, of course knows that it is best to hand in a certificate of approval if he joins the enemy.

So this time, Zhang Qizai brought all the facts about Wuchang's city defense, and promised to be an internal response for Zhang Xianzhong's attack on Wuchang, and even guaranteed to open the security and Wenchang gates guarded by Chu soldiers when Zhang Xianzhong attacked the city.

There are nine gates in Wuchang City, of which Baoanmen is the middlemost of the three south gates, and Wenchangmen is the southernmost of the three west gates (all facing the river).

Zhang Xianzhong was naturally overjoyed and met him in person.

Even after Zhang Qizai left, Zhang Xianzhong was still overjoyed.

During this period of time, Zhang Xianzhong was severely tortured, and he was depressed all the time.

Zhang Xianzhong's consistent strategy is to fight if he can beat it, and run away if he can't beat it. Retaliation is based on the premise of being able to fight.

He has ambitions, but he has never seen a clear hope until he got Macheng.

But Li Ping gave him another sap in Qizhou at this time, followed by Zhao Jin in Huangmei County.

After getting Macheng, Zhang Xianzhong's strength soared to some extent, but he also knew that he had to test it first to see if it was feasible.

Qizhou is a big and strong city. Since Li Ping can quickly capture it, he can naturally hold on, and it is no longer possible to seize the city by tricks.

More importantly, he didn't know whether this series of actions represented Zuo Liangyu's intention to re-enter Huguang.

But after Zhang Xianzhong's main force returned to Huangzhou Fucheng and captured Luotian County, which is close to Yinghuo Mountain, a scholar named Li Shirong in Luotian County suggested that he take advantage of the situation and go south to capture the empty Wuchang. Strongly agree.

He has already heard that Li Zicheng established a political power in Xiangyang, and Zhang Xianzhong should and can follow up after he got Macheng.

They should not be worse than Li Zicheng.

And Wuchang is currently the best and the only city that they can get and is worthy of establishing political power.

However, the loss of Qizhou and Huangmei County made Zhang Xianzhong hesitate. He was not very confident about going south, and he was very worried that Zuo Liangyu would come to intervene after he went south.

At that time, once the city was attacked, it would be difficult to retreat northward and hide in the familiar Yinghuo Mountains.

But the strong temptation to achieve the imperial career and the psychology of not wanting to fall behind Li Zicheng made him very unwilling.

Military adviser Xu Yixian was also unwilling, and urged Zhang Xianzhong.

Xu Yixian was originally a scholar in Gucheng, and he joined Zhang Xianzhong when Zhang Xianzhong was recruited and stationed in Shihua Town, Gucheng (1638 miles west of the county) in [-]. The two often studied the art of war together at that time.

Xu Yixian has great political ambitions, and he wants to assist Zhang Xianzhong to win the world, so he compares himself to Zhuge Liang.

But in the past, he was not the person who could influence Zhang Xianzhong the most.

In fact, Zhang Xianzhong has always had two most important and trusted military advisers by his side, almost equivalent to Zhang Xianzhong's right-hand men.

One is Xu Yixian, and the other is Pan Duao.

Pan Duao was a scholar in Yingcheng. Because he was oppressed by a big gentry and sentenced unfairly, he killed the county magistrate and rebelled. In 1636, he led his army to join Zhang Xianzhong, who treated him as a military advisor.

Since Pan Du'ao took refuge in Zhang Xianzhong earlier, he still brought troops to vote, so he was more highly valued by Zhang Xianzhong.When Zhang Xianzhong practiced the navy in Chaohu Lake last fall, Pan Duao was entrusted with the important task of being the chief of the navy.

Pan Duao and Xu Yixian were once captured together by Minister of War Yang Sichang and imprisoned in Xiangyang. One of the most important tasks of Zhang Xianzhong's long-distance raid on Xiangyang at the end of 1641 was to rescue these two people.

The status of these two people in Zhang Xianzhong's mind can be imagined.

It's a pity that Pan Du'ao's life was not very good. He became the chief of the navy and was quickly killed by the officers and soldiers in Huangnigang.

After Pan Duao's death, Xu Yixian became the only think tank around Zhang Xianzhong who was truly trusted and could exert influence on Zhang Xianzhong.

At the same time, it was finally his turn to let go of his hands and feet.

In fact, Xu Yixian had a strong shadow on Zhang Xianzhong's journey all the way south, including taking Macheng, and even Zhang Xianzhong's behavior in Macheng, which was very different from the past, was basically Xu Yixian's idea.

Xu Yixian tried his best to persuade Zhang Xianzhong to go south to attack Wuchang. Zhang Xianzhong would naturally consider carefully. Although he was very suspicious of the actions of Zuo Liangyu's generals Li Ping and Zhao Jin, he decided to give it a go because of his desire to establish an imperial career and not to be outdone by Li Zicheng.

For this reason, Zhang Xianzhong chose the same choice as in the original history and formally decided to attack Wuchang. On May [-], he first sent troops to the south to capture Wuchang County (now Echeng), and ordered the troops to follow Xu Yixian's suggestion. No harm should be done to officials, gentlemen and the people to maximize popular support and disintegrate resistance.

Now that he has the heart of an emperor, everything has to change.

As for Li Ping, who had been found to have a small number of troops, Zhang Xianzhong decided to let it go temporarily, but wasting too much troops, and focused on military containment and intimidation.At the same time, with Huangzhou Fucheng as the core, a line of defense was established in Jiangbei to reject Zuo Liangyu's military forces in the east.

Zhang Xianzhong's new camp at the dangerous point of Yuanfeng Mountain in the west of Qizhou is the product of this strategy. The real purpose is to effectively defend and control the surrounding area.

As a result, the so-called [-]-man camp on the bank of the Qi River has long been used for fraud, and most of the troops have been secretly transferred to the new camp on Yuanfeng Mountain.

This is why Zhang Xianzhong has never had more direct military actions and abnormal deployment of troops against Qizhou.

However, Li Ping's excellent defense preparation and powerful counterattack in Qizhou and the successful counterattack in Daye County still made Zhang Xianzhong entangled again.

He felt that Li Ping was too threatening to him.

And Zhao's attack on Zhansu Song County made him even more disturbed, and then he got the news that Guangji County was under siege, and Zhang Xianzhong was even more depressed. He didn't know if this meant that Zuo Liangyu was planning to re-enter in an all-round way. Huguang.

He also heard that the Qing soldiers were completely withdrawing from the pass.

Zhang Xianzhong must again be cautious about the risk of attacking Wuchang.

But Zhang Qizai's vote made Zhang Xianzhong see the feasibility of continuing the original plan.

Establishing an imperial career and not being willing to lag behind Li Zicheng are hurdles that he can't get over.

"Military division, the plan to attack Wuchang can remain unchanged. But before the attack, we must launch a thunderous attack on Zuo Liangyu's army, and we must hurt them and scare them. We must let them be honest during this period of time. Otherwise, it would be too unreliable for us to fight Wuchang."

"What Jingxuan said is, I think so too." Xu Yixian nodded seriously.

As a person who compares himself to Zhuge Liang, it is impossible for Xu Yixian not to consider the influence of Zuo Liangyu's ministries that are becoming more and more active on them, and it is even more impossible to turn a blind eye to the confrontation between the two sides during this period.

"What good plan do you have?" Zhang Xianzhong asked worriedly.

I want to return to thinking, but I still have no idea how to hit him.

After Xu Yixian slapped a feather fan similar to Zhuge Liang twice, he said with a scheming expression: "Qizhou is the closest to our army, and Li Ping has repeatedly defeated our army. It stands to reason that we should attack Li Ping first to deter the entire left. But Qizhou city is strong and well-defended, and Li Ping's army is quite good at fighting, so it may be difficult for us to inflict serious damage in a short time. But Guangji County has not yet fallen, which is a good opportunity for us."

"Guangji?" Zhang Xianzhong's eyes lit up.

"Yes, Guangji. There are mountainous areas to the north of Qizhou and Guangji County. We can send an elite army from the mountains to secretly go around to Guangji and then make a surprise attack on the officers and soldiers besieging there. Although the officers and soldiers attacking Guangji Many but not good, will be defeated.

In this way, the officers and soldiers can be severely defeated, and Li Ping's son can be beaten to keep him from moving.Moreover, if Guangji is not lost, the Jiangbei army will not be able to look west for a while. "

"A good plan! A good plan! The military division is really extraordinary," Zhang Xianzhong blurted out his praise.

Zhang Xianzhong already knew clearly that it was not Li Ping's soldiers who attacked Guangji County.This is enough to judge from the fact that the attackers are still flying the usual flag of the Ming Dynasty's official army instead of the unique flag of Li Ping's army.

Furthermore, the chaotic formation of the attackers was completely different from that of Li Ping's troops that Zhang Xianzhong had been in contact with and spying on these days.

"It's just that who to lead the army needs to be carefully considered. This person must be good at attacking, and we must also succeed in one blow." Xu Yixian was hesitant, he hadn't fully considered it yet.

Zhang Xianzhong rolled his eyes a few times, and said, "Let Li Rujing lead the troops, that kid is pretty good at sneak attacks, and he can fight tough battles."

Xu Yixian was surprised and said: "Little General Li is not bad, but he is currently in Wuchang County. Is it inappropriate to transfer him and his troops back? This is not only a problem of easy accidents when crossing the river back and forth, it is also equivalent to directly changing the offensive. Wuchang's striker, your other adopted sons are not weak, I don't think it's necessary."

But Zhang Xianzhong suddenly became a little angry and said: "Li Rujing, this kid, lost his vigor after he captured Wuchang County, and he didn't know which tendon was wrong, and began to focus on making his subordinates become good people. He even beheaded his own elite for the sake of a little squire, it's just nonsense."

Xu Yixian was taken aback for a moment, and then retorted weakly: "Li Ping's troops are very elite, and General Li also attacked Daye County and lost a lot of elites. It is understandable to be cautious. As for officials, gentlemen, and people, we will not harm them at all." That was our strategy, not his own."

Long-term adversity and coexistence made Xu Yixian respect but not afraid of Zhang Xianzhong, and he was also one of the few people who dared to raise objections in person.

Sure enough, Zhang Xianzhong was not angry with Xu Yixian's rebuttal, but just dissatisfied with the matter:
"It's nothing to fail in the sneak attack on Daye! Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, and the enemy cannot be all incompetent generals. But because of this, it makes people angry. What's the point of him crossing the river?

And since he knew that he had lost a lot of elites, why should he be so harsh on his own people.But it was just robbing a little squire, and he didn't kill anyone, so it's fine to beat the army stick to make a show, so why be too serious.

The subordinates are used to cleaning up those dog officials and dog squires, how could they stop completely for a while, there must be a process of adaptation for everyone.Now this kid made a big fuss and made many soldiers on Jiang's side feel dissatisfied when they heard about it. Isn't this disturbing the morale of the army? "

Xu Yixian stared at Zhang Xianzhong and smacked his lips a few times, not knowing what to say for a while.Several years of getting along let him know Zhang Xianzhong, knowing that Zhang Xianzhong did not fully accept his proposition in his heart.

In the end, he had no choice but to ask, "Who do you plan to replace in Wuchang County?"

Zhang Xianzhong lowered his head and pondered for a while, then raised his head and said decisively: "Change to Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang is the boss. He is more calm, decisive, and courageous. The most important thing is that he has a ruthless spirit of not admitting defeat, which is most suitable for the present The situation in Wuchang County.

As for letting Li Rujing go to raid the army that besieged Guangji, it would be regarded as giving him a chance to revive. This kid is still good, and he is the best at attacking.If there are no other important responsibilities, it is indeed inappropriate to rashly exchange him from Wuchang County.And there is no need to bring back all his soldiers, as long as he himself and the elite around him come back, there are plenty of soldiers here. "

"Since you have made up your mind, we must do it as soon as possible. Guangji County does not know how many more days it will last." Xu Yixian no longer hesitated, he knew that now is not the time to argue.

"What the military adviser said is reasonable, then we'll make a decision." Zhang Xianzhong nodded and said.

(End of this chapter)