Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 176 Insufficient Manpower
The common people in China have always been that as long as someone takes the lead, someone will follow.

As the first group of ordinary people reported to the government for help, more and more villagers who were robbed came to the county government.

Of course, there are still a large part of them who don't trust Ji Shijun, even though Ji Shijun is fighting under the banner of the government.

Especially those landlords, officials and gentry, most of these people have some knowledge. They know that it is impossible to wipe out the rogues with the ability of the government.

The so-called asking for help is better than asking for oneself. These rich people began to recruit people themselves, preparing to fight against the bandits.

Li Jinghun didn't care about this. If these people were not organized together, Li Jing would not have enough troops at hand, and the tossing from village to village could not be cleaned up in a short while. These rich people put several villages together More people organized together to fight against the rogues, which made it easier for Li Jing to attack.

To deal with these mobs who want to rely on the courtyard wall for defense, Chen Dahu and others have no trouble fighting.

Because the difference in weapons is too great.

Shoot at a distance of more than 200 meters. After knocking down a few, no one dares to take the lead. If there is a sniper in the room, then come more directly and raise the fire.If you don't want to be burned to death, then obediently come out and surrender.

The so-called shooting with guns at a distance, shooting with arrows at close range, slashing with a knife at close range, and threatening with fire at those who hide.

After eliminating several resistance organizations, those wealthy people finally realized that these rogues were powerful, insidious and cunning, and they were invincible, so they began to seek help from the Jishi Army in the name of the government. The result of the help was that the rogues here were expelled. , Seeing such a result, more and more wealthy people began to take refuge in the Jishi Army.

Of course, there are also those who choose to surrender to the rogues, but the fate of surrendering to the rogues is very miserable. Basically, all their wealth is looted.

In this way, there is no choice but to cooperate with Ji Shijun, otherwise the family will go bankrupt.

After more than a month of purges, the five counties centered on Jiangxian County were finally all in the hands of Li Jing, and the decrees issued by the Jishi Army in the name of the government were finally implemented here.

Just when Li Jing was about to make a big move, a bad news came.

Zijin Liangwang's own use and those mobs of the 36th Battalion were driven out from Taiyuan and other places by the army headed by Cao Wenzhao, and began to flee south, and some of them had already approached Li Jing's territory.

The rebellious army could not beat the official army. Li Jing already knew the result, but he didn't expect it to be so soon.

You know, the 36th Battalion headed by Zijin Liang Wang Ziyong has a total of nearly 20 people. Even if Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng are not with Wang Ziyong and others, there are still 6 to [-] people, which is less than two It was defeated by the government army within a month. This combat effectiveness is too bad.

How many officers and soldiers are there?In Shanxi, there were less than 4 government and army troops involved in the encirclement and suppression of rogue bandits.Moreover, not all of the 4 troops have combat effectiveness, and there are not many troops as capable as Cao Wenzhao.

According to intelligence, Li Jing knew that apart from Cao Wenzhao's troops, the more capable government troops in Shanxi were the frontier troops transferred from Xuanfu and Datong.

Moreover, it is said that Xu Dingchen, the newly appointed governor of Shanxi, likes to arrange troops in battle, and his favorite thing to do is to transfer the generals below.In Li Jing's mind, according to Xu Dingchen's instructions, there is no need to drive away the rogues in Shanxi every ten or eight years.

Who knew that the rogue would not be able to handle it in less than two months?

Li Jing sent someone to inquire carefully, and only then did he know that Cao Wenzhao did it again.

Cao Wenzhao has never been idle since he entered Pingyang Mansion from Yicheng. Whoever is caught beats whomever, what sweeps the floor, what crosses the sky, what the king of the world
When he sees one, he hits one, and one kills the other.

They fought all the way from Pingyang Mansion to Taiyuan, and drove these people out from Taiyuan.

The current situation is that the soldiers and horses of the 36th Battalion fled all the way to Pingyang Mansion and all the way to Lu'an Mansion.

Of course, the rogues were not idle during their escape. From time to time, they would attack a county town and take down the state capital.

Li Jing shook his head secretly when he got the news, and thought: "This Cao Wenzhao beat you too hard. Just as I stabilized the situation here, you drove the bandits back again. Didn't you mean to make trouble for me?" !"

But at this time, Li Jing had no other choice, he had to stop the bandits, otherwise the situation that had just been cleared up would be ruined once again.

At the same time, Li Jing not only had to consider Zhongtiao Mountain, but also Lingchuan.

If the rogues went south from Lu'an Mansion, they would first enter Zezhou, and then pass through Huguan and enter Lin County through Taihang Mountain.

Li Jing could not ignore either of these two routes.

Needless to say the direction of Zezhou, the southeast of Zezhou is Lingchuan, which used to be the nest of nine dragons. Once they are allowed to enter Lingchuan, the good situation that Lingchuan has just formed will inevitably be destroyed.

In addition, Lingchuan is now Hongshanling's barrier, and it is also a channel for Hongshanling to transport supplies to Zhongtiao Mountain, so it must not be lost.

However, there are only 500 people stationed in Lingchuan now. If you want to prevent the bandits from entering Lingchuan, you must block several main roads leading from Lu'an to Lingchuan. People with prestige should go to town.

Li Jing weighed the manpower in his hands. Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng had enough prestige, but it might not be possible for them to be in the middle and dispatch them. It would be no problem to let them each lead a battalion of troops to guard a route. There is also no coordination ability.

Only Yuan Keli and Gao Qi have this ability, but it is a pity that Yuan Keli is old, and he was ill a month ago. At this time, his body has just recovered. How could Li Jing let him go to guard Lingchuan? It seems that he can only send Gao Qi passed.

It's just that after Gao Qi left, the pressure of the five counties here fell on Li Jing.

Looking at the map of Pingyang Mansion, Li Jing felt his head was huge.

From Pingyang Mansion to Jiangzhou Yimapingchuan, rogues can come in from anywhere, but there are so many rogue troops that Li Jing can't stop them even if he wants to.

Li Jing sighed and said in his heart: "In the final analysis, there is no one in my hands. If I have someone like Cao Wenzhao under my command, then I don't have to worry about it."

Suddenly Li Jing's eyes lit up, Li Jing knew very well how Cao Wenzhao commanded the battle, that is to attack, attack, and attack again!Under Cao Wenzhao's attack, the rogues were defeated one after another, so when they heard Cao Wenzhao came, the rogues immediately ran away.

If he could defeat the rogues in a row like Cao Wenzhao, how would the rogues dare to run wild in their own territory?How far do you have to run?

It seems that I am a bit of a dead end. I have been thinking about how to defend, but I forgot that the best defense is offense. As long as the attack goes well, there is no need to defend at all.

Thinking about this verse, Li Jing suddenly became enlightened.

Immediately, another thought popped up in Li Jing's mind, if the rogues were driven to Jiezhou, maybe he could take this opportunity to bring the entire Zhongtiaoshan area under his control.

From Pingyang Prefecture to Jiangzhou and then to Jiezhou (Yuncheng Basin), the terrain is flat, the water system is developed, and the area is vast. There is also a salt lake in Anyi County (Yuncheng). It can be said that the area from the south of Pingyang Prefecture to the north of Zhongtiao Mountain is absolutely It is a treasure land of geomantic omen, definitely a good place for development.

However, in order to occupy such a large area, Cao Wenzhao must cooperate, and Cao Wenzhao's cavalry troops cannot be allowed to enter this area.

Because the terrain here is flat, it is suitable for Cao Wenzhao's cavalry to fight.

If Cao Wenzhao led his cavalry to chase after him, the bandits would definitely flee to the mountains around Pingyang Mansion, and Li Jing would face big trouble, because the bandits would sneak into his territory from the mountains at any time.

After deliberating for a while, Li Jing ordered Gao Qi to take Chen Dahu, Liu Erleng, and Zhou Daqing's One Thousand Households Office, a total of three battalions rushed to help Lingchuan.

After receiving the order, Gao Qi knew that the situation in Lingchuan was very urgent, so he immediately sent an order to Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng, ordering them to gather troops and rush to help Lingchuan, while he led the troops from a thousand-household office belonging to Zhou Daqing to go first. To Lingchuan.

Gao Qi knew that Li Jing asked him to take Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng's Second Battalion away, so he didn't want people to find out that the rogues who haunted the previous few counties were disguised as Ji Shijun.However, if the men and horses of these two battalions were taken away, Zhang Chu's vanguard battalion had to be kept by Li Jing, otherwise the combat effectiveness here would be greatly reduced.

Therefore, before leaving, Gao Qi specially told Zhang Chu that once he found that the combat effectiveness of other troops was not good enough, he would break up the vanguard battalion and integrate them into other troops.

Seeing Gao Qi’s solemn expression, Zhang Chu knew that Ji Shijun must be facing a huge problem, and this was not the time to care about personal gains and losses, so he nodded emphatically.

While Gao Qi dispatched troops to march towards Lingchuan, Li Jing arranged for the messenger from last time to deliver the letter to Cao Wenzhao, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to investigate the movements of the rogues. At the same time, he transferred various units of the Jishi Army to Quwo and Yicheng The two counties put on a posture of preparing to fight the rogues in Pingyang Mansion.

Before that, Zhang Ao sent people to send more than 2000 rifles and more than [-] artillery pieces, as well as more than [-] shells and more than [-] bullets.

Li Jing was very satisfied with Zhao Shuangxi's work efficiency. Before the reservoir froze, many guns and ammunition were produced in less than a month.

Of course, the number of bullets is relatively small, and each soldier equipped with a rifle can only replenish less than [-] rounds of bullets.

Li Jing was also helpless about this. After all, charging the bullets and installing the bullets and shells all depended on manpower.And to do this work, you have to stay away from the fire source, and it is very cold to make so many bullets.

In the final analysis, it is caused by the shortage of manpower in Hongshanling. Since men are basically building roads, young women can only be used to do this work.

(End of this chapter)