Li Xuan's purpose for going out of the mountains this time was very clear. One was to collect grain and population in the countryside, and the other was to contain the Ming army.
Therefore, after arriving at the edge of the mountain, the entire Tang Dynasty King's Division only focused on these two goals.
After occupying the checkpoint on the edge of the mountain abandoned by the Ming army, Li Xuan left more than ten people to guard the checkpoint. The next day, he officially left the mountain with a large group of troops and marched towards the countryside outside.
The reason for leaving manpower at this checkpoint is to leave a contact point for the army outside.
Because the army is fighting outside, it still needs more support from Huangzhu Mountain at the rear, especially muskets and ammunition. These cannot be supplied outside and can only be sent from Huangzhu Mountain.
With this liaison station, the personnel transporting ammunition from the rear can accurately find the army wandering outside. After all, the army led by Li Xuan is unlikely to stay in a certain place for a long time. This will allow the Ming army to gather and annihilate.
If there is no chance, they will be wandering for a long time, plundering the countryside and creating pressure on the Ming army.
However, the supplies that Li Xuan and the others could obtain from Huangzhu Mountain were limited to muskets, ammunition and a small number of cold weapons.
As for the more important food, Li Xuan never expected to get supplies from Huangzhu Mountain. Huangzhu Mountain itself was short of food, so he was counting on Li Xuan's men and horses to grab enough food to send back. There was no excess at all.
The food was sent out for the army to eat.
Therefore, the hundreds of men and horses led by Li Xuan could only feed on the enemy!
In the morning, after they came out of the mountains in great force, they paid no attention to Longhua Town, which was more than ten miles away. Instead, they raided several surrounding villages in Longhua Town.
It is a pity that these villages are relatively small, with only a few dozen households. Although it is already the summer harvest and there will be some food, the total amount of food is very small. But what are the Huangzhushan bandits?
Under the banner of 'Master of the Tang Dynasty', he claimed to be the master of justice, so he was unable to carry out a clean killing.
They only took away part of their food, then took a few craftsmen and a dozen young men to act as husbandmen and left.
According to the plan they made at the beginning, their number one target in the early stage was not Longhua Town or those small villages, but Fengjiazhuang!
The reason why Fengjiazhuang was chosen as the first target of the attack was not because Fengjiazhuang sent people to find out the location of Huangzhushan at the end of last year in revenge, nor was it because of the several conflicts between Fengjiazhuang and the Huangzhushan bandits.
There was absolutely no personal emotion involved in choosing to attack. The reason for attacking Fengjiazhuang was simple: Fengjiazhuang was the largest farm outside Longhua Town and also produced the most grain.
Now the summer harvest is not over yet. The summer grains just harvested in Fengjiazhuang are still in the warehouse and have not had time to be transported away or confiscated by the army.
This time they attack Fengjiazhuang and are very likely to harvest a large amount of food, which can not only meet the needs of the army, but also send a large part of it back to Huangzhushan, so that the food crisis in Huangzhushan can be alleviated.
The night before arriving at Fengjiazhuang, Li Xuan summoned the main generals for a military meeting as usual.
"We will be able to arrive at Fengjiazhuang tomorrow. What's going on with the Ming army?" During the military meeting, Li Xuan did not remain silent like he did during previous court meetings. Instead, he took the lead in the military meeting himself.
Fang Dongquan, who was always in charge of sentinel affairs, said: "Our reconnaissance cavalry has moved out of the vicinity of Longhua Town. Now the Ming army in the town thinks that we will attack Longhua Town, so they are on tight defense and there is no movement out for the time being!
"
"However, our reconnaissance cavalry also discovered that the Ming army sent many reconnaissance cavalry to look for us, and Fengjiazhuang is only half a day away from Longhua Town. After we arrive at Longhua Town tomorrow, I am afraid that the Ming army in Longhua Town will soon
Got the news!"
After Fang Dongquan said this, he paused and continued: "At that time, the Ming army will probably leave Longhua Town to reinforce Fengjiazhuang!"
However, at this time Wang Shanxu said: "It is unlikely that the Ming army will take the initiative to go out of the city to attack us. After all, they don't have many people in Longhua Town. If they go out of the city, they will not be able to defend Longhua Town!"
"They don't know that we don't plan to attack Longhua Town. If we leave the city, they will definitely worry about the safety of Longhua Town!" Huang Xueren also said at this time: "And Fengjiazhuang is not a strategic location. We only attacked Fengjiazhuang because of it.
There is plenty of food over there, so the Ming army doesn’t have to engage in a decisive battle with us just for Fengjiazhuang!"
"And the Ming troops in Zhengtai County haven't been dispatched yet, so how could those Ming troops in Longhua Town come alone!"
Huang Xueren's words also attracted the approval of several people. After all, the Ming army knew that the total number of Datang Wangshi who came out this time was as high as more than 500 people, because although the new army of the Tang Dynasty had been hiding in the past few days, the news was still inevitably leaked.
If they wanted to kill more than 500 of them, no matter how conceited the Ming army was, they would not be able to send only 500 or 600 people. At least, they would have to send thousands of people to have greater confidence.
As everyone discussed, Li Xuan himself kept thinking about the gains and losses. First of all, Fengjiazhuang must be attacked, thinking that Fengjiazhuang contained the food they urgently needed.
Secondly, he also needs to try his best to avoid large-scale battles with the Ming army.
In this battle, his purpose was not to kill many Ming troops, but to avoid causing shock to the Ming troops. Even if there was a chance, they would not be able to kill the Ming troops on a large scale and could only deal with them.
But today, many so-called battle plans have no longer worked, and Li Xuan can only take it step by step. This time the battle will last for a long time.
After the military meeting that night, Li Xuan called Zeng Ziwen in: "Mr. Zeng, in your opinion, how likely is it that the Ming army will attack?"
Although Zeng Ziwen said that he had helped Li Xuan train the army, and Li Xuan took him with him when he went to war this time, he still refused to hold any official position in the Tang Dynasty or participate in any formal meetings. Li Xuan wanted to
If you want to ask him, you can only ask in private.
Zeng Ziwen said: "The person guarding Longhua Town is the Tong'an Qianhu Office who I served before. The new Qianhu is my former deputy Diao Leixun. Although this person is somewhat brave, he is timid and timid. During the battle at Luohu Valley,
, he was the one who took the people to escape first, and according to what I say, he would never act rashly if he was not very sure."
When talking about Diao Leixun, a trace of resentment flashed in Zeng Ziwen's eyes!
If it weren't for Diao Leixun, how could Zeng Ziwen be in such an embarrassing situation now? Not only was he forced to join the bandits, but even if he could escape successfully, he would not dare to go home.
Because Zeng Ziwen is already 'dead', returning home will not only harm himself, but may even harm the whole family!