The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 372 Planning
South Zhili, Suzhou.

Dense firelight spread outside Suzhou City, almost filling the entire surrounding area.

The lights fill the field, almost connecting the sky and the earth, as bright as the sea of ​​stars in the sky.

At this time, there were more than 300,000 civilian troops gathered in Suzhou.

The military tents and fortresses are connected with each other, and they are vast and vast as far as the eye can see.

An army of 300,000 people, with a company camp nearly a hundred miles away, was illuminated by beacon fire in Zhili.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Gao Yingxiang led 72 battalions of rogue bandits. When they surrounded Xi'an, they only had 300,000 soldiers.

But now the Ten Thousand People Army under Li Yan's command has already exceeded this number.

In addition to the soldiers and horses under Suzhou City, there are still many soldiers and horses left in Xuzhou and Guide Mansion.

Now the total number of the Ten Thousand People's Army has already exceeded 400,000, and is heading towards the 500,000 mark.

Twenty miles north of Suzhou City is Fuli Bridge.

The river flows eastward and the waves are loud.

Fuli Bridge, also known as Yong Bridge, served as a meeting place for boats and carriages in the Tang Dynasty, and was the throat of luck.

In the second year of Jianzhong's reign, Li Zhengji, the envoy of Ziqing Festival, stationed troops here to block the Yangtze-Huaihe water transport to the north.

Now in the Ming Dynasty, although its role is no longer as important as in the Tang Dynasty, it is still an extremely important channel.

And now, the Ten Thousand People's Army has also set up a camp here, cutting off this waterway.

Li Yan's banner was erected in the east of Suzhou City, so the Ming army's sentinels always thought that Li Yan was in the east camp of Suzhou City at this time.

But in fact, Li Yan was not in the east of Suzhou City, but in the camp north of Fuli Bridge.

Fuliqiao Ten Thousand People's Army Camp, inside the Chinese Army's tent.

All the generals and commanders of the Ten Thousand People's Army were sitting in the tent.

Except for a few important generals who were leading troops outside, all the other important generals in the Wanmin Army gathered inside the tent.

A huge map in the tent was hung in front of everyone, behind the first seat in the tent.

And Li Yan is sitting on the first seat in front of the map.

The map ranges from Shandong to southern Zhili, and also covers the three provinces of Huguang, Henan, and Jiangxi.

Li Yan was sitting on the seat, holding a letter in his hand, and his eyes remained on the letter in his hand.

All the attention of the generals of the Ten Thousand People's Army was focused on Li Yan.

It was quiet in the tent, and all the generals of the Ten Thousand People's Army were sitting upright, not squinting.

After a long time, Li Yan slowly put down the letter in his hand and raised his head.

"Everyone."

Li Yan's voice sounded in the military tent, and everyone's minds fluctuated with Li Yan's tone, and all their eyes followed Li Yan's figure.

"The rebels in Shandong and Hebei responded to our army's uprising and swept across many places. The officers and soldiers have now been forced to divide their forces."

Li Yan forcibly suppressed his excitement and controlled his tone.

"Yuan Shizhong has led troops to attack Kaizhou in Daming Prefecture in Hebei Province, and Wang Jun has attacked Feixian County in Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province."

After Li Yan finished speaking, all the generals in the Central Army tent looked moved and excited.

They have been waiting, waiting for news from the North.

And now, the result they have been waiting for has finally come true.

As early as when he broke through Luoyang City and killed King Fu, Li Yan already knew what kind of situation he would be in.

The encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers from all walks of life had already been anticipated by Li Yan.

The imperial court could not tolerate the loss of the Qin vassal, nor would the imperial court tolerate its majesty being trampled upon by them, nor would the imperial court allow such a large-scale rebel army to remain in the Central Plains.

Therefore, after breaking through Luoyang Mansion, Li Yan had already sent a large number of envoys to disperse to various disaster-stricken areas.

Their main task is to contact the rebels from all directions and bring the scattered forces together to avoid fighting independently and being defeated by the officers and soldiers.

As long as you say it, everyone can actually understand the principle of dying lips and cold teeth.

The severe drought in Henan has spread throughout the province. In many places, the grass has dried up, and the Luo River is no more than a foot deep. All the grass, trees, animal skins, insects and flies have been eaten up. Many people have died of hunger, and many people have died of hunger.

The water level of the Yellow River has dropped several times, and many sections of the river have even stopped flowing.

The Baoding soldiers led by Yang Wenyue easily crossed the Yellow River under such circumstances.

The natural disaster has come to this, but the imperial court not only does not send officials to provide relief, but also still levies taxes in many places, making it difficult for too many people to survive.

Under such circumstances, the fire of civil unrest cannot be extinguished no matter what.

No matter how good the officers and soldiers of the imperial court were in fighting, no matter how brave they were, they could not completely suppress the flames of the uprising.

This year's disaster-stricken areas are not just Henan. Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang, and other places have all suffered from drought locusts.

Shandong has been experiencing severe drought for consecutive years, and in some places people have been eating each other.

Hebei was also severely affected. Locusts blocked out the sun in Daming Prefecture, and many villages and towns suffered no harvest.

Yuan Shizhong and Wang Jun were the leaders of the largest rebel forces in these two places.

Shanxi, Zhejiang and other places were also seriously affected by the disaster, but because they were too far away, there was not much news from people going to these two places, and the rebel armies in the two places were not able to form a large scale.

But the two rebel armies in Shandong and Hebei alone are enough.

"Yuan Shizhong started an uprising in Daming Mansion, captured Kaizhou, and gathered more than 50,000 people."

"The closest military town to Daming Mansion is Baoding. The soldiers from Baoding followed Yang Wenyue south, and the soldiers from the nine towns in the north were restrained by the slaves."

"The battalions in Changping Town are also responsible for protecting the imperial mausoleum and guarding the capital. Even if we divide our troops to quell the rebellion, we won't be able to divide many people."

"The imperial court has no troops to control Yuan Shizhong. Under such circumstances, Yang Wenyue, as the governor of Baoding, must send troops to rescue him."

Unlike Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others, Li Yan had a much better starting point than them. He had a clear understanding of the imperial court's distribution of military towns and operational logic.

This is also the reason why he informed Yuan Shizhong and Wang Jun to launch an attack at this time.

There was a civil uprising in Daming Prefecture in Hebei Province, and Yang Wenyue had to save him for the sake of the official title on his head.

If the city of Yanzhou in Shandong is destroyed, the soldiers and horses of Shandong must go to save it, and they cannot sit idly by.

"Wang Jun occupies nine hills between Fei County and Yizhou. He is known as the King of Nine Mountains. He also has almost 40,000 troops under his command. He can also contain a large number of soldiers and troops."

In July, Liu Zeqing and Yang Yufan, the commander-in-chief of the puppet dynasty, joined forces to suppress the army, but failed to achieve success.

In August, Liu Zeqing lost troops and generals due to improper command, and was demoted to the right governor to guard Shandong's coastal defense.

Although Yang Yufan was not defeated, he was unable to carry out the suppression and was demoted to the third level. He was ordered to take charge of the suppression of bandits.

"Our opportunity has arrived!"

Li Yan held up the letter in his hand, turned his back to the map, looked at the generals in the tent, and said impassionedly.

The faces of all the generals of the Ten Thousand People's Army in the tent turned red and they clenched their fists.

……

In the east of Xuzhou City, there is the Ming Army camp, above the front camp observation tower. Yang Wenyue looked at the tens of thousands of people in the south of the city through the telescope set up above.

After Chen Wang improved the telescope that could see the true image, he gave it as a gift to Cao Wenzhao and Sun Chuanting.

Sun Chuanting then presented the improved telescope to Chongzhen, explaining its efficacy and use.

Chongzhen also mentioned this matter when he was on the platform of the capital, and Chen Wang presented the production method after returning to the camp.

The Ministry of Industry began to systematically produce telescopes of different sizes and distribute them to various towns.

In fact, the Ming court was neither closed-minded nor conservative.

When Ming Ting discovered an excellent instrument, the first thing he thought of was to figure out the principle, then imitate it, and then improve it on the basis of it.

As an important camp to protect the capital, Baoding was naturally issued with a lot of telescopes. The one Yang Wenyue had in his hand was a telescope exclusively used by governor-level officials. It was usually set up on an observation tower for commanding the overall situation.

In the camera lens, the Ten Thousand People's Army is breaking out of camp and heading south.

The cavalry of the Wanmin Army roamed in the wilderness south of Xuzhou City, guarding against possible pursuers and protecting the two wings of the main force going south.

"The army of thieves has retreated..."

Yang Wenyue raised his head and straightened up.

Although Yang Wenyue did not feel relieved when he saw that the Wanmin Army had lifted the siege of Xuzhou City.

The retreat of the Wanmin Army was traceable from the beginning. Three days ago, the Wanmin Army did not launch another attack on Xuzhou City, but began to shrink its front.

This is not unexpected.

The unexpected thing happened in Daming Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion.

Daming Mansion's Kaizhou was breached, forcing him to send some of his troops to aid Daming Mansion.

The major incident in Yanzhou Mansion also caused most of Shandong's troops to be mobilized.

Now Yang Wenyue only has 15,000 troops and horses from his own army left, and about 6,000 troops from Shandong, totaling less than 20,000 people.

Even if Xuzhou withdraws from the siege now and Huang Degong's Yongwei Battalion and soldiers from various places join in, it will only be an increase of four to five thousand.

This kind of force is still relatively weak compared to the Ten Thousand People's Army.

Thinking of this, Yang Wenyue couldn't help but feel a headache.

"The soldiers and horses from Henan are still returning to Germany?"

Yang Wenyue turned his head and asked Hu Dawei who was standing aside.

"Reporting to the governor, the news came three days ago that soldiers and horses from Henan are still attacking Shangqiu. Thousands of thieves have set up heavy defenses around Shangqiu, so they are having a hard time fighting."

After hearing Yang Wenyue's question, Hu Dawei immediately answered.

Hu Dawei was originally the commander-in-chief of Shanxi. After the Battle of King Qin, Chongzhen took a fancy to Hu Dawei's bravery and transferred him to Baoding, close to the capital, as the commander-in-chief.

So this time Yang Wenyue, as the governor of Baoding, led the army south, and Hu Dawei also went south with the army.

Yang Wenyue's brows were frowned, almost forming the character Sichuan.

"Henan..."

Yang Wenyue wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn't. All his words turned into a sigh.

"Ugh……"

The changes in the southern country have been too rapid these days. I originally thought that going south was just to assist and suppress the tens of thousands of civilian troops. The real main force was the Hanzhong Army led by Chen Wang.

But I never expected that Zhang Xianzhong made a surprise attack on Xiangyang, and after Chen Wang was ordered to go south, he was now trapped under Xiangyang City.

The city of Xiangyang was fortified and the city was fortified. They offered troops and recruited refugees to defend the city, but for a while there was a stalemate.

Henan's soldiers and horses suffered most of their casualties in the Battle of Zhengzhou earlier. Although a new army was trained later, it would not take several months for the new army to become combat effective.

And the most important thing is that civil unrest occurred frequently in various parts of Henan, which also involved a large number of troops.

The Henan side was too busy to take care of itself, and there was no way to rush to support the battlefield in South Zhili.

Yang Wenyue looked at the retreating Ten Thousand People's Army. After thinking for a long time, he asked Hu Dawei who was standing aside again.

"The Ten Thousand People's Army is heading south now. In your opinion, what do they want to do?"

Unlike the arbitrary Hong Chengchou and the determined Sun Chuanting, Yang Wenyue was often indecisive because he did not understand military affairs.

Many times I would ask Hu Dawei or other generals for their opinions.

At this time, keeping silent is actually the best way to protect yourself.

Otherwise, once something unexpected happens, you will definitely be punished for your words.

But after Hu Dawei pondered for a moment, he still expressed his speculation.

"According to my humble opinion, Suzhou is Xuzhou and Fengyang, one in the north and the other in the south, just like a long snake. Xuzhou City is the head of the snake, Fengyang City is the tail of the snake, and Suzhou City is the middle part of the snake. ”

"Our army is in Xuzhou, at the head of the snake, and the Prime Minister is leading the troops in the south, at the tail of the snake in Fengyang,"

Suzhou is in Zhong, and Li Yan now leads Heng Ge in Suzhou, which is equivalent to blocking the communication between Xuzhou and Fengyang.

They now have to take a long detour to communicate with the camp town in Fengyang.

"In July, the bandit leader Li Yan led his troops to surround Suzhou City and wanted to capture Suzhou."

"Li Yan's purpose should be to cut off the connection between our army and Fengyang's army."

Hu Dawei frowned and said worriedly.

"When tens of thousands of thieves surrounded Suzhou, the fifth battalion of Ge Zuo withdrew from Lu'an Prefecture and turned to attack Shouzhou from the Huoshan Mountain area."

"So I thought that the army of ten thousand thieves might want to besiege Fengyang..."

Hu Dawei didn't finish what he said, but Yang Wenyue had already heard the implication of Hu Dawei's words.

Shouzhou is in the southwest of Fengyang, and now Li Yan and Chen Bingsuzhou is in the north of Fengyang.

The sudden shift of Gezuo's Fifth Battalion to attack Shouzhou and Li Yan's attack on Suzhou were too coincidental. I'm afraid the two have already made contact.

Otherwise, the Gezuo Fifth Battalion would have no reason to abandon Lu'an Prefecture, which was about to be conquered.

The goal of the Gezuo Fifth Battalion and Li Yan is now Fengyang.

Their purpose is probably to eat up the troops gathered in Fengyang...

"Fengyang..."

Yang Wenyue clenched the railing in front of him, feeling a huge weight on his shoulders.

Now as the Prime Minister, Hou Xun is in Fengyang. Fengyang County has already gathered a lot of soldiers and horses, but if it encounters a north-south attack from the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo and the Wanmin Army, the outcome may be uncertain.

However, he currently has insufficient troops under his command. If the Wan Min Army turns to attack at this time, there may be a risk of defeat.

Although Yang Wenyue didn't know anything about soldiers, he had seen rogue bandits before.

In the previous battle at Fangcunji, the Wan Min Army was far superior to ordinary rogue bandits in terms of tactics and organization. Combined with its record along the way, we can know the combat power of the Wan Min Army.

The Shaanxi civil uprising has been developing for more than ten years, but it has never been heard of capturing important towns, beheading vassal kings, and wiping out tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in one battle.

But the Wanmin Army did it all...

Slow down a bit, try your best to stay stable