Chapter five hundred and thirty fifth blocked the peasant army
After receiving this important information, Chen Yongfu immediately analyzed the dynamics of the peasant army and estimated that their next target would be Yiyang County.
In fact, this is easy to judge. Since the peasant army wants to attack the city by digging holes in the city wall, it cannot find cities with strong city walls. In other words, large cities like Luoyang City cannot use this method.
To attack the city, the peasant army can only find some small counties with newly built city walls. And the only place near the peasant army that meets this condition is Yiyang County.
After making his judgment, Chen Yongfu was ready to go to the rescue. Of course, he was not so dizzy that he would use his three thousand troops to confront hundreds of thousands of peasant troops. So Chen Yongfu first went to Luoyang City to join forces with Wang Shaoyu, the commander-in-chief of Luoyang.
, and then set off together to rescue.
But Wang Shaoyu flatly rejected Chen Yongfu's offer to join forces. In the late Ming Dynasty, civil and military officials were basically greedy for money, but Wang Shaoyu's greed for money was absolutely famous among those officials. Because no matter how much food and salary was given to his troops by the court,
Wang Shaoyu had to deduct a large part of it, and most of the remaining food and salary were used to support Wang Shaoyu's personal soldiers.
In the original history, this habit of Wang Shaoyu was retained until the end. Because Wang Shaoyu always pocketed 80% of his military salary, he was nicknamed "Wang Bacheng". Later, his soldiers removed the last word
, then Wang Shaoyu’s nickname became the more resounding “Wang Ba”.
With such a military attache, the soldiers must be disloyal. So when Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, he only sent some people outside the city to persuade them to surrender. Wang Shaoyu's soldiers surrendered to the city, causing the fall of Luoyang City.
Therefore, in Wang Shaoyu's army, it is good if the average soldier can have enough food, and there is no need to think about military pay and pension. Therefore, there are 7,000 soldiers on Wang Shaoyu's roster. But in fact, it is only just over 5,000, and
The only people who could get military pay and fight were the five or six hundred soldiers around Wang Shaoyu.
Such troops can defend the city, but as soon as they leave the city, will the soldiers without military pay sacrifice their lives? Maybe they will all flee before encountering the peasant army. Of course Wang Shaoyu also knew this, so he used "guarding"
Luoyang is urgent!" He refused the request to send troops.
"Dad! What should we do?" Chen De asked.
Chen Yongfu shook his head and said, "I have to go there once!"
Years of caution made Chen Yongfu relatively taciturn. He looked at Chen De, his most proud son, and added: "Go back to Kaifeng first and ask the governor for reinforcements." Chen Yongfu did not want his son to be involved in danger.
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"Dad! Let the others go. My son can save himself." Chen De replied with a smile. After saying that, Chen De waved his arms a few times in a show-off manner, showing his strength to his father.
Chen Yongfu was amused by his son's childish behavior. Chen De was indeed young, he was only eighteen years old. However, Chen De did practice martial arts well. Especially in archery, he was one of the best in Chen Yongfu's army.
"Then let's go together!" There was no hesitation. Chen Yongfu made up his mind. Since he has brought his son out for training, he should no longer look forward and backward. Just rely on his own troops to rescue Yiyang County?
That is definitely impossible. But it is still somewhat certain to find the right opportunity to bite the peasant army and give the governor an explanation.
But it can be seen from this that Chen Yongfu is indeed very honest! He never thought of passively avoiding the war.
On October 22, the eighth year of Chongzhen, Chen Yongfu's troops took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain of Henan and first detoured to the northwest. Then to the southeast, they marched a total of more than 200 miles in three days. The gentry who had formed a stronghold to protect themselves led the way.
Next, they approached the peasant army besieging Yiyang County from the mountain trails.
In the early morning of the 25th, Chen Yongfu left all the infantry to support the outside, and he led more than 1,500 cavalry to raid the peasant army. This raid was completely unexpected by the peasant army, and they watched helplessly as Chen Yongfu's troops
Rush into your own back camp.
The rear camp of the peasant army generally stores baggage, and most of the personnel in the rear camp are the elderly, weak, women and children and other family members of the peasant army, so these personnel without any combat effectiveness cannot withstand the surprise attack of Chen Yongfu's cavalry.
After killing for a while, Chen Yongfu's troops burned a large number of peasant army baggage as quickly as possible, and then left like a gust of wind just as they came.
Until the end of the raid, many Peasant Army soldiers did not react. Only a small number of Peasant Army soldiers followed and pursued, but they suffered heavy losses from the ambush of Chen Yongfu's infantry.
In this raid, Chen Yongfu's troops actually did not do much damage to the peasant army. However, they burned most of the peasant army's food and grass. Especially this raid gave the peasant army a great panic, and many people who had just been kidnapped into the peasant army were
The people fled one after another, which greatly reduced the number of cannon fodder of the peasant army, which also stopped the peasant army's siege of Yiyang County.
The peasant army that was attacked also became nervous. When they entered Henan this time, Gao Yingxiang and other leaders had a smooth sailing. However, after being attacked by Chen Yongfu's troops, they remembered that Yiyang County was only fifty miles away from Luoyang. So those leaders
They all concluded that the raiding Ming army set out from Luoyang City.
So the peasant army first stopped attacking Yiyang County, and then immediately divided its troops and horses to guard the direction of Luoyang, and sent large numbers of reconnaissance cavalry everywhere to prevent the Ming army from raiding again. This reconnaissance also had an immediate effect.
At that time, Governor Lu Xiangsheng ordered Zuo Liangyu to resist the peasant army such as Gao Yingxiang. Although Zuo Liangyu had been avoiding fighting and retreating because of the strong peasant army, he did not dare to escape for three thousand miles and kept hovering in the peasant army's path.
around.
So Gao Yingxiang captured two county towns, and Zuo Liangyu knew about it; Gao Yingxiang used new methods to attack the city, and Zuo Liangyu also knew about it. When the peasant army was raided by Chen Yongfu's troops and chaos broke out, Zuo Liangyu immediately discovered the opportunity.
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Although Zuo Liangyu had a bad reputation in the original history, it is undeniable that he was able to become the number one general among the Ming army in just a dozen years. Zuo Liangyu's command level and combat courage are all
There will be no shortage.
Therefore, as soon as the Peasant Army had a flaw, Zuo Liangyu immediately led his troops to advance, hoping to take advantage of the situation. However, the Peasant Army's reconnaissance cavalry discovered Zuo Liangyu's actions, so Gao Yingxiang immediately gave up Yiyang County and gathered his troops to prepare for the battle.
The battles of Zuo Liangyu's tribe.
When Zuo Liangyu drove to more than 20 miles southeast of Yiyang County, he discovered that Gao Yingxiang had already prepared. At this time, Zuo Liangyu could not lead his troops to retreat, so a sneak attack turned into a frontal attack.
Battle.
On the 27th, Zuo Liangyu's 12,000 men and Gao Yingxiang's more than 40,000 peasant troops had a day of fierce fighting. Because Zuo Liangyu led all soldiers, Gao Yingxiang could not gather all the troops in a hurry.
His more than 40,000 people were also a mob, so Zuo Liangyu had the advantage in the battle. However, Zuo Liangyu was worried that other peasant troops would come to help, so he was a little timid in fighting, so the final result was that Gao Yingxiang suffered a small loss.
That night, Gao Yingxiang welcomed the reinforcements of more than 10,000 peasant troops and restored his strength. He was ready to fight Zuo Liangyu's tribe again the next day. But at this time, Gao Yingxiang received Zhang Xianzhong's disastrous defeat in Song County.
news.
Gao Yingxiang didn't know that the three Ming armies that besieged Zhang Xianzhong were going to beat them up, so he thought that those Ming armies would attack from his flanks, putting him in a passive situation.
So on the next day, Gao Yingxiang gathered his troops and returned to the west, while Zuo Liangyu did not dare to pursue him. He stopped to rest and reorganize his troops in Yiyang County, waiting for the victorious Lu Xiangsheng and other troops to join up with the peasant army.
Fight.
Gao Yingxiang's departure could have harmed Ma Shouying, who was guarding Luoyang. Ma Shouying only received the notification from Gao Yingxiang and had no time to leave with his troops in time. You know, if Zuo Liangyu were to advance towards Ma Shouying, plus Chen Yongfu and the people in Luoyang City,
Wang Shaoyu, then we can surround and destroy Ma Shouying's peasant army, or at least cripple this peasant army.
However, these three Ming armies had no contact with each other, and they did not know the situation of the peasant army, so they did not dare to take the initiative to fight, so Ma Shouying was left with a chance.
When Ma Shouying saw that the situation was not good, he first made a feint towards Luoyang City to scare Wang Shaoyu from leaving the city. Then he moved south towards Kaifeng, so Chen Yongfu could only mobilize his troops to return reinforcements.
Seeing that the gap had been opened, Ma Shouying immediately turned back and rushed out of the Ming army's encirclement from between Luoyang and Yiyang counties. In early November, he reunited with Gao Yingxiang and other peasant troops at the Henan border.
In this battle, Gao Yingxiang suffered the greatest losses due to two attacks by Chen Yongfu and Zuo Liangyu. The other peasant army battalions also suffered some losses. Only Ma Shouying's peasant army gathered a large number of straggler peasant soldiers when they broke through.
On the contrary, the strength has grown.
At this point in the battle, the Runing army had not yet used a single soldier, and the Ming army had actually blocked the peasant army. What was even more gratifying was that Zhang Xianzhong's troops were beaten to a pulp, while the peasants in other battalions
The army also dispersed a considerable number of refugees.
Zhou Xun, who was in Ye County, was watching the battle nervously and was ready to attack at any time. However, because troops like Li Lu and Tuan Lian Zhen had to stay behind in Ye County, Zhou Xun would not send too many troops. As for Chen Zhongzhi, Jiang
Cheng's troops also arrived near Ye County, and Zhou Xun had to worry about protecting their safety.
After getting all the good news, Wu Shigong, who stayed behind in Runing, felt relaxed. He finally got a chance to watch a big show on the sidelines! Wu Shigong was ready to enjoy the fun.
But heaven does not always follow people's wishes. It was completely beyond Wu Shigong's expectation, and suddenly a Ming army appeared willing to participate in the battle. (To be continued...)