Ping An Biography

Zhang Fu once remembered that in the memorial submitted by the local officials of Jiujiang Prefecture, it was described in this way, leaning against Mount Lu and carrying water by the Jinjiang River.Looking at it now, the magistrate's statement is probably correct.To the south is Lushan mountain, to the north is the big river, surrounded by rivers and lakes, the terrain is a bit complicated... But since Zhang Fu went ashore, he didn't even see a single enemy soldier on the periphery, and the people hid. There are no soldiers deployed around, so no matter what the situation in the mountains and rivers is, it will be useless.The rebels huddled near the city, and only a small piece of land near the city was worth paying attention to.

The location of Jiujiang City seems to be like a "ya" slanted to the left, with Gantang Lake in the southwest, Baishui Lake in the east, and the Yangtze River in the north; Abnormal contraction and concentration, the power does not radiate to Lushan Mountain, so Lushan Mountain has almost no tactical value.Generally speaking, the land area in the southeast of the city is vast, which is conducive to the maneuvering of the army; however, Zhang Fu chose to march the central army that arrived first through the narrower passage on the north side of Baishui Lake.

Because the Central Route Army advanced by land and water, most of the luggage was transported by boat.Marching from the corridor between Baishui Lake and the Yangtze River, although there is room for maneuver, Lizai can obtain supplies directly from the Yangtze River. After all, the waters of the rivers and lakes are all under the control of the government and the army.

The army from the middle of the official army has arrived at the west bank of Poyang Lake one after another, and the forward has built a camp on the east side of Baishui Lake.In addition to the lake on the east and the river on the north, the camp is surrounded by mountains and bamboo forests on the east and south sides. The camps can be built with local materials, and there is no shortage of water sources and firewood. These are also many conveniences for inland warfare.

Zhang Fu is listening to the spy report of Ye Bu Sui in the camp of the Chinese Army. These elites called Ye Bu Sui are scouts from Xuan Da's army. , After being transferred to the mainland to fight, he is still very capable. In a few days, he has got a general idea of ​​the situation inside and outside Jiujiang City.

"The rebels are building fortifications on three sides outside the city, and they are building fortifications near the Panshi Gate (east gate), Panpu Gate (west), and Wenming Gate (south). The three fortifications have the same structure: the one with the highest terrain is selected. An earthen wall was built on the hillside as a fort, and a deep ditch was dug under the wall, just like a post city; on the periphery of the earthen fortress, the defense line was shortened by means of lakes and city walls, and two or three trenches were dug in a circle, and a waist wall was built behind. It can be seen that the fortifications are about one or two miles deep; it seems that without taking these forts first, it is difficult for the army to touch the city walls."

After hearing this, a general laughed and said: "This is the brute force of building another city outside the city and adding iron hoops. They have surrounded the city so tight that they can't get out after beating them to death. Are they planning to give birth to babies inside?"

All the generals immediately roared with laughter.From everyone's point of view, a besieged isolated city has lost all the surrounding land, so what's the use of tight defenses?

As soon as it was said that the traitor wanted the turtle to give birth to a son, suddenly a young general entered the account and reported: "Commander, a large group of rebel troops came out from the Panshi Gate, and they are coming eastward in great strength, I am afraid they want to attack us! "

"Did you read it right?" Zhang Fu had an unbelievable expression.

The young general looked innocent: "There are at least tens of thousands of troops, and a large number of heavy artillery vehicles. They came on the road swaggeringly under the sky, and the general should...he should not be mistaken."

It is inconceivable for the rebels to go out of the city to fight. At least they should go to the west. If this is the case, it can be understood as wanting to abandon the city and escape; but come out to the east, what do they want to do?It seems that the only possibility is to attack the official army... No wonder the general who reported the letter said so directly.Because the army currently approaching Jiujiang City is the army in the middle, and the forward has already stationed beside Baishui Lake. There is only such a military target, and the rebels are also coming here.

"Order Chen Lin to prepare to meet the enemy outside the camp." Zhang Fu ordered.Then he called his attendants to prepare their horses, and a group of generals of the Chinese army went to watch the battle.

After more than an hour, Zhang Fu came to the front line on horseback. To the east of Baishui Lake, there was a flat land with flat mountains, and villages and cultivated land could be seen in it.In the distance, there are dense infantry in motion, the sound of gongs and drums is endless, they spread out methodically and horizontally, the formation is nothing unusual, it is one square formation after another, just like the shape of crop fields on the ground.A group of cavalry came from behind, their armor shining brightly and conspicuously.After the rebel army spread out, they slowly moved forward, and a large group of people could be seen from a distance.

A few years ago, Zhang Fu had heard about the Huguang rebel army, and since he took command this time, the army he led has also fought against the rebel army twice, but it is indeed the first time he has seen thousands of "real bandits" with his own eyes... ...There is already a verbal appellation in the army, called real bandits and surrendered bandits.The so-called surrender refers to the remnants of the army who went to Huguang after the defeat of the King of Han. This kind of rebel army has no combat effectiveness. "Well, the real bandits are very difficult to deal with, not to mention that they suffered enough from the defeat of the officers and soldiers in Huguang many times before, but in the battle of Hukou County not long ago, hundreds of people left a deep impression on the officers and soldiers .

The real gangster is not afraid of death, and its characteristic is that it does not disperse in groups. When they get together, they will never scatter and run away. All of them move rigidly and neither collapse nor surrender. They have to be killed|killed to solve the problem. They are called officers and soldiers Very headache.

It is easy to distinguish between a real bandit and a subdued bandit, but the armor they wear is quite different.Most of the rebels rushing forward were real bandits.The officers and soldiers on the officer's side have already realized that today's day will be very sad.

Zhang Fu's expression also became serious, he had a premonition that this battle would be difficult to fight.But it doesn't matter, the striker Chen Lin has more than 1 people in his team, and he still has [-] troops, which will not have a decisive impact on the overall situation.

The formation on the rebel side was very neat and well-dressed, and the colors were as uniform as the guard of honor.Zhang Fu saw them with his own eyes, but he couldn't think of them as "bandits". Intuitively, he believed that the rebels led by Emperor Jianwen in Huguang were the real nobles of the ancestors; They can be regarded as the elite of the Ming Dynasty, but they look like gangsters in appearance. Most of the soldiers wear dirty and worn-out clothes and armor, and they are not consistent, because many people's clothes are sewn by themselves, and the armor is also from different sources. The shapes are different... How can the appearance of the army fighting at the border be compared with the men and horses in the capital looking at the city gate?

At this moment, Zhang Fu was alarmed by the sound of rumbling artillery, thick smoke billowed in the distance, and the rebels fired artillery two miles away.From time to time, there was a small-scale commotion in the crowd of officers and soldiers, and the screams seemed to be shouting that they had been hit by artillery.But Chen Lin's army didn't move, they still stood two miles away and watched, and they didn't fire their cannons to fight back... It was useless to fire cannons, and the heaviest artillery of the officers and soldiers couldn't hit that far.

Chen Lin had fought with Zhang Fu in Jiaozhi before, and he was a veteran general, so he was indeed trustworthy.The officers and soldiers suffered from the rebels many times in the past few years. Zhang Fu and the generals have studied the tactics of the rebels in detail. They even imitated the matchlock guns used by the rebels. Now they know each other better.The heavy artillery of the rebels has a long range, but they are not powerful at long distances; the real threat is flat shooting at close range, and the shells are terrifying when they fly across the ground.Therefore, Chen Lin simply ignored the shelling of the rebels, unless the rebels had inexhaustible supplies of ammunition and weapons, and just kept shelling until they defeated the official army.

Obviously, the rebels would not do that. They were already alone in Jiujiang City, and they would only use less stuff if they used it. They would definitely not waste ammunition at will.Sure enough, after a round of shelling in the distance, there was no movement, and the artillery stopped.Then a large number of phalanxes began to move forward again, and the heavy artillery was also dismantled and loaded.

At this moment, the five infantry units of the official army were dispatched at the same time, advancing head-on.Not long after, the horsemen behind poured out from between the infantry camps, jogged for a while and rushed up.Immediately, the horseshoe roared, sounding far and near.The rebel horsemen were still watching from behind.

"Bang bang bang..." A large area of ​​white smoke rose from the mottled flat ground, horses neighed, people's voices rang out, and the situation of people turning their backs on their backs could be clearly observed in the distance.This time the muskets of the rebels seemed to be very fast, crackling three times in succession before the soldiers retreated.Ru Lin's spears were dumped in an orderly manner. Those spears were more than a foot long. The front row squatted and the back row protruded from the gap. The dense crowd seemed to have suddenly turned into hedgehogs.The cavalry soldiers of the officers and soldiers did not dare to rush up, and fired with three-eyed guns one after another, but they could not shake the formation of the rebels, and from time to time, the soldiers with long spears on the opposite side would squat down, and the musketeers who appeared behind them would shoot in unison. The range and lethality of the firearms (flintlocks) of the army and infantry far exceeds that of the three-eyed blunderbuss.

The cavalry of the officers and soldiers retreated one after another. At this time, several dark infantry were approaching.Drum music was played on the battlefield, and there were also the sound of flutes and pianos, and some generals on horseback shouted back and forth in the rebel camp.Countless infantry marched forward in a broad horizontal direction.The battlefield soon became horrific, with firearms exploding and arrows flying across the air, people falling down like crops, and corpses strewn across the field.

At this moment, a loud rumbling sound shook the ground, and the rebel artillery roared after setting up. The terrifying iron ball flew over the people's heads, and landed in the crowd of officers and soldiers, jumping and flying wildly, causing heavy casualties The five groups of officers and soldiers who were shaken immediately spread backward like a frightened colony of ants.

I saw the flag waving on the opposite side, and amidst the dull sound of horseshoes, groups of horsemen poured out from the flanks, but soon encountered the cavalry brigade that the officers and soldiers came up to block, and the battlefield exploded. The sword soldiers jumping brightly in the sun, like the sparkling waves on the lake.

Xuan Dabing's cavalry was better at fighting than the southern soldiers, but the infantry in the center collapsed, and soon the flanks were attacked by infantry chasing up by the rebels, and the officers and troops retreated across the board.

The battlefield was in a mess, Zhang Fu looked at the rebel phalanx pushed flat in batches, and knew that this round of battle would not last.Before he ordered the retreat, he looked at the countless luggage that had just been brought up by the river, and the unfinished archery tower behind him, and felt as if he was holding his breath.