On May 8, Li Xing led the 3,000 cavalry of the Selected Front Regiment to attack Xiangyang.
The goal of this expedition is very simple, which is to capture Xiangyang City and capture the prefect of Xiangyang, You Minggui. You Minggui single-handedly blocked Li Zhi's source of Xiangyang alkaline noodles and stopped half of Li Zhi's workshops. He is now at the top of Fanjiazhuang's blacklist.
.Li Zhi would certainly kill such a person.
In fact, they sent dozens of people to Xiangyang and hid in houses on both sides of the road. They could also kill You Minggui when he passed by. After all, Li Zhi's soldiers had mini rifles that could kill people accurately from a long distance. Assassination was better than that of this era.
Everyone has an advantage. But Li Zhi didn't want the soldiers to assassinate You Minggui and then flee in panic and hide around.
Li Zhi wanted to take down the precious head in Xiangyang City in an upright and dignified manner, shocking the world.
The Frontier Regiment used to have 2,000 cavalry. After defeating Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, a large number of horses were captured. The cavalry of the Frontier Regiment was expanded to 3,000. The infantry of the Frontier Regiment were veterans and they often rode pack horses in the past.
, the riding skills have long been practiced, and now it is not too bad to mount a war horse and fight on horseback.
These three thousand cavalrymen each have two horses, one war horse and one pack horse. They can easily travel a hundred miles in a day.
In order to allow the baggage and artillery to keep up with the marching speed of the vanguard regiment, Li Zhi equipped the baggage with a thousand four-wheeled carriages, each drawn by four pack horses. The baggage vehicles contained enough food for the cavalry and war horses of the vanguard regiment.
Two months of grain, grass and beans. Li Zhi also equipped Li Xing with twenty six-pound cannons, each of which was pulled by six pack horses. The baggage carriages and artillery carriages were pulled by a large number of horses, and they could maintain a hundred miles a day.
speed in .
After setting off from Fanjiazhuang, three thousand soldiers and horses headed south towards Xiangyang City.
Speaking of which, although Li Xing is named the leader of the Selection Regiment, he doesn't have many opportunities to actually lead troops to fight. Every time Li Zhi led his army, he always let Li Xing sit in Fanjiazhuang. Li Xing has built many cities over the years.
He has good defense skills, but is slightly inexperienced in commanding large armies to fight.
Fortunately, there is Xue Sanku, the deputy commander who has long commanded the cavalry of the Selection Regiment. As Li Xing's deputy general, Xue Sanku is assisting this time. I believe he can help Li Xing command this elite cavalry.
This time when Li Xing sent troops, there was no letter or official document from the Ministry of War. The only thing he had was the "Precious Statement on Appeal to You" stamped with the seal of Uncle Li Zhixing. No one in Tianjin would recognize Li Zhi's statement.
Prefectures and counties probably won't let Li Xing's troops replenish their supplies of food and grass.
However, Li Zhi's 3,000 cavalrymen had brought enough food and supplies, and they could make fire and make food as long as they found clean water sources during the march. If that didn't work, they used city walls that were so strong that no small county town could stop these 3,000 elite cavalrymen.
Three thousand cavalrymen riding 3,000 horses leading 3,000 horses, plus more than 4,000 pack horses for baggage carts and artillery carts, galloped on the North China Plain, attacking all the way to the south. Most of the army horses were red.
Looking from a distance, it looks like pieces of red clouds floating on the official road, which is breathtaking.
Those tens of thousands of horse hooves hit the ground, causing the surrounding ground to tremble slightly. The sound of rolling hooves was like rumbling thunder, spreading for miles.
The people of the Ming Dynasty were most afraid of the official army. They ran away when they saw the dust raised by the cavalry of the Selected Front Regiment from a distance.
In a normal battle between the army and the bandits, if they lose the battle, the defeated soldiers will act like bandits and rob the farmers of their food and money. If they win, the officers and soldiers may think that they have not enough heads to capture and behead them, so they may arrive at any time.
The nearby villages killed people and reported their heads as traitors. This is the so-called killing of good people and taking credit for merit.
No matter what, you will be unlucky if you mess with the army. As the saying goes, bandits are like combs and soldiers are like grates. Once they are targeted by the army, the family will be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Seeing Li Xing's cavalry army pressing over,
The peasants on both sides of the official road ran away, and no one dared to take a closer look at this troop of troops.
When Li Xing sent troops to Fanjiazhuang, he was greeted by the people of Fanjiazhuang. The people of Fanjiazhuang all knew that the soldiers were strictly disciplined, and they regarded the soldiers as a force to guard social order and were very affectionate towards them. But when they arrived in the interior of the Central Plains,
, but the people avoided Li Xing's three thousand cavalry like the god of plague.
Li Xing walked from Tianjin to Huguang, but he did not encounter an army that dared to come out to provoke. Now that the reputation of Fanjiazhuang's strong army has spread all over the world, there are really not many soldiers who dare to attack the front of Hu Ben Division. Even Guan Ning's border
The army here also needs to think about it. You must know that they are facing the Fanjiazhuang Tiger Division who once defeated the Tatars with a small number of enemies and a large number of enemies.
Although the civil servants were called by Zhang Pu of Suzhou and jumped into action, possibly wanting to send troops to intercept Li Xing's army. But by the 14th year of Chongzhen, the military generals of the Ming Dynasty had already turned into warlords. None of the military generals actually led the troops.
He dared to joke with his servants about his hard-trained soldiers and horses, and went head-to-head with Master Huben, the most powerful army in the world.
As Li Xing traveled south, he didn't know if the governors and general soldiers of the places he passed got into fights.
On May 27th, the vanguard selection group reached the gates of Xiangyang City.
Before that, when Li Xing was still more than a hundred miles away from Xiangyang City, he had already sent 600 soldiers and horses to surround the other six gates of Xiangyang City. He strictly prohibited everyone from entering or leaving the city gates to prevent the governor of Xiangyang, You Minggui, from abandoning the city and escaping.
.
At this time, the garrison in Xiangyang City had closed the city gate and displayed the garrison on the city wall. The wall of Xiangyang City was high and there was a wide moat around the wall. However, there was no large group of soldiers and horses in Xiangyang City, only one garrison in Xiangyang City.
He is a member of the army and has more than 600 soldiers in the camp under his command.
Li Xing looked at the top of Xiangyang City with a telescope and saw that the soldiers on the top of the city were a little panicked and seemed to have no courage to fight. Li Xing asked Xue Sanku: "Deputy Commander Xue, do you think we can capture Xiangyang?"
City, how long will it take?”
At this time, Li Xing decided to focus on the north gate of Xiangyang City, hoping to defeat it in one fell swoop.
Xue Sanku pondered and said: "Commander, I think we are well-armored and are not afraid of bows and arrows. We can attack from the city gate. It only takes a few hours to capture Xiangyang City."
Li Xing nodded and shouted loudly: "Array the artillery array and blow open the north gate of Xiangyang City!"
The Chinese army waved its flag and passed the order to the artillery department. Twenty field guns were unloaded from the artillery carriage, pushed to a mile from the gate of Xiangyang City, and pointed the black muzzle at the north gate of Xiangyang City.
Li Xing stood on the west side of the artillery and raised his right hand.
The artillerymen lit the artillery fuses, and twenty artillery pieces suddenly spurted out tongues of flame and struck the rear severely.
The earth was shaken and trembled by the continuous artillery fire. Twenty heavy artillery shells were fired hard at the north gate of Xiangyang City, hitting the iron-clad wooden door, causing the iron sheet to shatter and sawdust to fly.
