Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 152 There are still capable people in the court
If it was an ordinary rebel army that came with only a thousand men, even if Luzhou no longer had regular troops, the big families in the city would be able to muster three to two thousand young and strong men to defend the city.

However, faced with the arrival of Chen Gu, the big families in Luzhou City did not have the courage to resist.

It was really that Chen Gu's previous battle record was too dazzling. Le Bao was the governor of Sichuan. He led an army of 9,000 to attack Chen Gu, but ended up with his death and his army defeated. Before that, Chen Gu had also annihilated 500 Jianrui Battalions.

Who would dare to confront such a fierce man?
Moreover, what Chen Jue wanted was not much, just a little over a thousand taels of silver for food and a few thousand taels of silver for large livestock.

But what Chen Gu didn't expect was that he had promised good things on the first day and even provided three days' worth of food and fodder. It only took one day to gather the livestock. As a result, the gates of Luzhou were closed on the second day. He actually went back on his word.

Moreover, the top of Luzhou City was filled with soldiers guarding the city and young and strong civilians.

Chen Gu did not dare to start a siege easily. After all, this was not his strategic goal. If he wanted to attack Luzhou, he would first attack the landlords' estates outside the city, form local peasant armed forces, and then fight a siege. Only in this way could he reduce the losses of Chen Gu's own troops.

After all, Chen Gu's army only had a thousand men. Although they were elite, they could not afford to lose them. Siege warfare would cause the greatest loss to soldiers. A stone or a ladle of gold juice could take a soldier's life, not to mention swords, spears, bows and arrows.

But it is impossible to just leave Luzhou like this. Since Luzhou dares to go back on its word, it means that things have changed. Something must have happened that Chen Gu doesn't know about, which gave Luzhou the courage to resist.

Unfortunately, Chen Gu's intelligence system was not well developed, and there were no carrier pigeons to deliver messages as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, Chen Gu didn't have to wait long. In the afternoon, Lao Nian figured out what had happened.

"Sichuan Governor Yang Kui and Sichuan Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Liu Qing are bringing 1,000 naval forces, 1,000 Eight Banners soldiers, and 1,000 Green Camp soldiers, a total of 3,000 people, to Luzhou by boat."

The governor was a local official in charge of one or several provinces in the Qing Dynasty. Except for the governor-general of grain transport and the governor-general of rivers, the other nine governors-general were the absolute local leaders and top-level officials.

The governor was the chief of a province, the governor-general was in charge of the finance and personnel of a province, and the provincial governor was in charge of the judicial system and public security of a province.

In the early days, Sichuan was governed by the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi. When people from Huguang moved into Sichuan, Sichuan was governed by the Governor-General of Huguang.

However, after the Jinchuan Campaign, Sichuan set up a separate governor, who was also the governor of Sichuan. In the 24th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, the governor of Sichuan was abolished. After that, the governor of Sichuan disappeared forever.

Therefore, now the Sichuan Governor and the Censor are the highest officials in the entire Sichuan. The Governor is in charge of finance and personnel, while the Censor is in charge of justice and public security. If the two work well together, they can get both money and people.

Three thousand soldiers may not seem like a large number, but the one thousand Eight Banners soldiers and the one thousand navy are all extremely combat-capable. Moreover, the navy ships are equipped with cannons and muskets. The musket equipment rate of the Eight Banners soldiers exceeds 60%. The rest are artillery, and the rest are logistics.

It can be said that the Eight Banners Army and the Navy can basically be regarded as a hot weapons army, rather than the Green Camp whose main force is cold weapons. Even if there are muskets, they are old things eliminated by the Eight Banners descendants.

After all, there are differences between Manchus and Han people.

The reason why Luzhou was set up as a separate prefecture was because of its very important geographical location. Not only was there the Chishui River downstream leading to Guizhou, there was also the Naxi River blocking the way upstream, and there was also the Tuojiang River to the south of the Yangtze River.

Although the number of 1,000 naval forces was small, they had a complete fleet of dozens of ships and were fully capable of blocking the Chishui, Naxi, Yangtze, and Tuojiang rivers, putting Chen Gu in a dilemma. Although it did not kill Chen Gu, it was absolutely impossible for Chen Gu to continue to Chengdu without defeating the imperial navy.

"There are still capable people in the imperial court!" Chen Gu sighed, but he didn't take it too seriously. "Continue to pay attention to the movements of the imperial army, and order the Green Camp Army to speed up and make sure they come to Luzhou to join forces tomorrow.

Tell them to avoid the navy's artillery. Our army will leave the river bank and camp three miles away. Collect information about Yang Kui and Liu Qing, and notify the generals to come to the central army tent for a meeting!"

The so-called central army tent is just a small shed covered with oilcloth, covering an area of ​​about 20 square meters. Even this requires a special horse-drawn carriage to pull it. Traveling light means that not too many supplies can be carried.

In the entire army, only Chen Gu had a separate central military tent, while the others had a room with ten people each.

After Bai Wencheng, Bian Shichun, Lao Piao, Yunhua, Kang Minghui, Daoba and more than twenty others arrived, the central army tent could no longer accommodate them, so Chen Gu simply asked everyone to hold the meeting outside.

A clay pot of tea is placed in the middle, and those who need it can use a gourd to fill it.

"The gates of Luzhou are closed because troops have been dispatched from Chengdu. Sichuan Provincial Governor Yang Kui and Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Liu Qing are leading a thousand navy troops, a thousand Eight Banners soldiers, and a thousand Green Camp soldiers on the navy's warships. According to the time calculation, they will reach Luzhou at the latest by noon tomorrow.

If we want to transport men, horses and supplies across the Naxi River, it will take a day even if there are enough boats. It will take even longer to cross the Yangtze River. It is impossible to retreat back to the Yangtze River.

Everyone, tell me, where should we go next? " Chen Gu finished talking about the current situation and asked at last.

Chen Gu's men are actually a makeshift team. People like Lao Piao and Kang Minghui can hardly read, let alone marching, deployment, strategic objectives and so on.

Only people like Bai Wencheng and Bian Shichun have something in their heads.

Therefore, when everyone was called to a meeting, the people who came up with ideas must be from the ten major clans in Jiangjin, and people like Fobao were just here to learn.

Bai Wencheng thought for a moment and said, "The enemy's 3,000 troops are not enough to pose a threat to our army. However, there are a lot of 1,000 navy warships. Our army has no ships, so we are trapped by them."

"Then let's attack Luzhou first!" Bian Shichun suggested.

Yang Huiyuan frowned and thought for a while, then said, "Luzhou City is not easy to attack. Naxi is the seat of the state capital, and there are no less than 50,000 people in the city. We can easily recruit thousands of young and strong men to defend the city. Although our army is elite, we are not numerous. We will be at a disadvantage in a siege war. We can only try it after the Green Camp Army arrives."

"Based on the current situation, we will definitely attack Luzhou, but why do we need to attack the city?" Kang Minghui said with a smile: "The landlords' manors outside the city will be much easier to attack, and the benefits should be very good."

Chen Gu looked towards the direction of Naxi City and couldn't help but sneer.

(End of this chapter)