Chapter seven hundred and thirty seventh harassment
On the fifth day of May, the Huben Army's West Route Army invaded Ningling County, Henan Province.
Ningling County is a county in eastern Henan, adjacent to Shandong Province. The West Route Army sent by Li Zhi must pass through this place if it wants to attack Li Zicheng's hinterland of Henan.
The eastern border of Henan is the flat North China Plain, with thousands of miles of fertile fields. At this time, all the winter wheat has been harvested. In the fields on both sides of the official road, only harvested wheat straw stubble can be seen, and the surrounding fields are bare. But after all, it is a harvest of grain.
, although the villages on both sides of the official road are not crowded, you can see the smoke of cooking from time to time, and they do not look as desolate as in the past.
After Li Zicheng bloodbathed the gentry in Henan and equalized land and exempted them from taxes, production in Henan gradually recovered. People who survived the successive years of famine began to live a normal life.
Han Jinxin's informant reported that Li Zichen himself was still in Shaanxi at this time and was commanding an army of 100,000 to besiege the city of Xi'an. The city of Xi'an has high walls and thick walls, and there are many royal palaces in the city. It was originally a fortified city. But unfortunately, 60,000 Shaanxi soldiers were killed.
The army has been completely defeated in Henan, and there are only a few thousand garrison troops and thousands of rural soldiers left in the city of Xi'an. Morale is low, and the fall is only a matter of time.
Li Zicheng apparently got the news that Li Zhi was going to attack him, and deployed heavy troops in eastern Henan. As soon as Li Xing and Li Laosi led 30,000 people into Ningling County, they were immediately surrounded by the invading army.
At this time, smoke and dust billowed from the outside of the West Route Army. The war horses of the Breaking Army galloped back and forth around the 30,000 Tigers and Guards Army, raising dust like a sandstorm in the continuous wheat fields.
The Chuang army had a large number of cavalry.
In the Ming Dynasty, the horse government for private horse breeding was implemented. It was established in the sixth year of Hongwu. Every 11 households in the south of the Yangtze River raised one horse, and each household in the north of the Yangtze River raised one horse. The government provided good horses, and all horse owners were exempted from physical service. Later, the horse government was established
The change was to raise horses by ding. In the 12th year of Yongle, it was implemented from Northern Zhili to the north and south of the Yangtze River. At first, one horse was raised for every 15 ding, and two horses were raised for every 16 ding. Later, the number of dings was changed frequently, and all horses died.
Those who did not breed enough must pay compensation. Later, the policy changed again. In the second year of Hongzhi, Beizhili began to promote grain-free horse breeding. One male horse was adopted for every 50 acres of land, and one female horse was adopted for every 100 acres of land.
But no matter what kind of horse administration it is, it can be seen that the number of horses raised in the Ming Dynasty was very large. During the Hongzhi period, the famous minister Yang Yiqing supervised the horse administration of Shaanxi for four years, and 19,070 horses were produced. Shaanxi Province sold them in four years
There are nearly 20,000 military horses, and the stock of private horses is obviously ten times the transaction volume, which shows that the stock of private horses in Shaanxi Province is huge.
When the Ming Dynasty recruited civilian horses, they also paid attention to their ability and only required the people to hand over a certain number of military horses in proportion. However, the intruders did not care about so many. Wherever the intruders went, they immediately robbed all the local horses.
The intruders have robbed countless army horses in Henan over the years. Now that they have occupied all of Shaanxi, they have robbed many more. As a result, the more senior infantrymen in the intruders can get horses and become cavalry, or even become a knight with two horses.
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These cavalry may not be professional cavalry, they may just be infantry who have practiced riding for several months, but they still have considerable impact. Because only a small part of the cavalry's impact comes from the knight's martial arts, and most of it comes from the momentum of the horse itself.
.A military horse weighing hundreds of kilograms runs at high speed, like a tank in this era.
For the riflemen of the Huben Army, the high-speed charging cavalry is the most difficult thing to deal with. When the cavalry rushes over from a few hundred meters away, the riflemen only have a limited number of shooting opportunities. Once those few limited shots cannot defeat the cavalry,
, will enter brutal hand-to-hand combat.
At this time, on the land of Ningling County, the cavalry army of the Breaking Army seemed to be showing off its power around the Huben Army, circling around the Huben Army, but did not come up to fight.
The soldiers of the Huben Army were a little nervous when surrounded by these cavalry. They formed a circle formation and loaded bullets and gunpowder into the barrels of their guns. The artillery carriages of hundreds of heavy artillery were also unloaded, and the muzzles were placed facing the outside.
In the formation, they began to shoot at the cavalry in the distance sporadically.
However, the invading army was too far away, and the artillery fire could not hit any target even if it fired solid bullets, so it could only be regarded as a strong momentum.
However, the cavalrymen of the invading army were always surrounding the outside. Sometimes when they were tired from running, these thieves would gather together to rest, always staying four or five miles away from the tigers and soldiers, watching eagerly.
Li Xing used a telescope to observe the invading cavalry and snorted coldly: "The thieves are poorly equipped and vulnerable."
The Chuang Army is not as good as the Qing Army. They do not have a large number of blacksmiths to make armor for them. Even the soldiers who defected from the official army only have one set of cotton armor at most. Compared with the Qing Army and the Jiangbei Army, the Chuang Army's armaments are insignificant.
It was very shabby. The cavalry of the invading army had nothing but a horse and a saber.
Li Laosi pondered and said: "But there are too many cavalry troops invading the army. I think there are at least hundreds of thousands of cavalry troops with such momentum. We cannot underestimate them."
Li Laosi recalled that he faced Huang Taiji's cavalry charge in Jinzhou. More than 10,000 soldiers of the Tiger and Ben Army fought hard, but in the end they were rushed into the formation by 50,000 Tatar cavalry, causing heavy casualties. Today, the soldiers of the West Route Army are the original ones.
Twice as many, but the number of cavalry in the invasion force was probably three times that of the original Tatar cavalry.
Of course, today's Western Route Army weapons are more sophisticated, and 60% of riflemen are equipped with scopes and can shoot enemies at a distance of 400 meters. But in any case, Li Laosi felt that 30,000 people fighting against hundreds of thousands of cavalry,
There is no guarantee of victory.
What's more, the Chuang army still has hundreds of thousands of infantry available.
"Looking at the flags of the invading army, it is the invading generals Liu Zongmin and Hao Yaoqi who are commanding them." Li Laosi thought for a while and said, "Zheng Kaicheng is right, without 40,000 infantry, we may have no advantage against the invading army.
We have 30,000 people attacking Henan, and this battle is expected to be very difficult."
Li Xing looked at Li Laosi, puffed out a breath of air from his nostrils, and said: "Li Laosi, I don't think the Chu army has the intention to fight us to the death."
Li Laosi raised his head and looked at the cavalry of the Chuang army outside, and nodded. It was obvious that the Chuang army was using the mobility of the cavalry to harass the Huben army, making it impossible for the Huben division to advance.
Li Laosi thought for a while and said: "The intruder does not seek a decisive battle, it seems he is waiting for something."
Li Xing asked: "Li Laosi, what are Chuangjun waiting for?"
Li Laosi said: "The intruders are cunning. I am afraid that the intruders also know that we and the Jiangbei Army are mortal enemies. They are waiting for the Jiangbei Army to attack our south road. When our south road is in a tight situation, we may even have to mobilize soldiers and horses to help defend the south road.
, only then will the Chuang army actually come forward to fight us decisively."
After hearing Li Laosi's analysis, Li Xing looked at Liu Zongmin's flag in the distance and snorted coldly.
Li Laosi looked at the baggage train in the formation and said: "Brother, the intruders are harassing us so much that we can't move forward any further. If we move forward, the grain road will no longer be able to be defended."
Li Xing pondered for a while and sighed.
"Let's set up camp and send a messenger to the elder brother. Tell him the situation here and see what countermeasures he has."
