Chapter 234: Train 100,000 troops and make 10,000 guns
This time the Ming army suffered a disastrous defeat. His old rival Su Jiakang had already been defeated. It was unlikely that he would be able to gather enough strength to suppress his own Tang Dynasty. In this case, Su Jiakang would most likely
Ask for help from above.
Even if he didn't ask for help, it would be difficult to hide this disastrous defeat from the senior officials above. There was no need to go to the capital. As long as the governor in the provincial capital got the news, he could easily send tens of thousands of troops.
attack.
The governors of the Ming Dynasty were the real frontier officials and had actual military power. With one order, they could gather all the Ming troops in the province to attack the Tang Dynasty.
Perhaps seeing the worry on Li Xuan's face, Zeng Ziwen walked over and said, "Your Majesty, are you worried about the subsequent impact of this battle?"
As expected of a former Ming Dynasty official, his political consciousness was very high. One look at Li Xuan's face and he could guess what Li Xuan was worried about.
Li Xuan did not hide anything. He nodded slightly and said: "The Ming army was defeated in this battle. I'm afraid it won't be long before a large number of Ming troops come to Zhengtai County!"
Zeng Ziwen raised his voice slightly at this time and said: "Su Jiakang's entire army was defeated in this battle. In addition, we also captured Zhengtai County before. I am afraid that Su Jiakang will not be able to suppress it this time. This incident is likely to attract a large number of people."
military!"
As he spoke, his face became more and more serious: "However, this matter is also a rare opportunity for us in the Tang Dynasty. The Ming army has been defeated, and its main force of more than a thousand has been lost here. It is also difficult to gather the defeated troops who escaped.
Now there is no soldier in the huge Zhengtai County who can stop our army. It is the perfect opportunity to seize Longhua and Zhengtai. As long as we control these two cities, we can capture the hundreds of miles of Zhengtai and hundreds of thousands of people.
, laying the foundation of our Tang Dynasty in one fell swoop.”
As he was speaking, he suddenly knelt down and said, "I'm asking you to send troops to capture the cities of Zhengtai and Longhua!"
Suddenly hearing what Zeng Ziwen said, Li Xuan looked at him with a hint of hesitation. What happened to Zeng Ziwen today? Why did he suddenly make such a radical suggestion?
This doesn't look like him!
Based on the contact between Li Xuan and Zeng Ziwen for more than half a year, Li Xuan thought that he knew something about this person. He had military theories and techniques, otherwise Li Xuan would not have bothered to recruit him, but this person's
His character is a bit strange!
On the one hand, he will uprightly insist on certain principles, but this persistence has a bottom line. Once this bottom line is exceeded, he will give up this bottom line without hesitation.
Well, to put it bluntly, they are greedy for life and afraid of death!
Many of the military suggestions he made before were also based on his personality. Many of the suggestions were relatively stable and could even be said to be conservative.
But today, how could this person say that he would attack Zhengtai County?
Is it difficult to attack Zhengtai County? It is definitely not difficult at this time. Su Jiakang's army has been defeated beyond hope. If they turn around and attack Zhengtai County now, they will be able to easily capture Zhengtai County in all likelihood.
But what happened after taking Zhengtai County? How to face the swarming Ming army?
If a thousand Ming troops came, he asked himself whether he could hold it. If two thousand troops came, he could barely hold it. But what about three thousand, five thousand? Or even 12,000?
You'll see hell if you can hold it!
As for after you occupy Zhengtai County, you expect the Ming army not to attack you, and let you slowly recruit and train troops, build weapons, farm and accumulate food, and slowly develop, this is like hiding your ears and stealing the bell.
If you are stupid, Ming Jun is not stupid either!
To encircle and suppress bandit gangs like the Tang Dynasty, there was no need to report to the court and then go back and forth for several months before getting ready. If you really wanted to fight, you could send out troops in ten days and a half.
It shows that the mobilization of the army to counter the rebellion is slow and it will take several months to be fully prepared. Please ask King Ning and King Anhua who rebelled decades ago. They will definitely spit on your face.
A few days after King Anhua raised his army, he was counterattacked by an army organized by local officials. It only lasted eighteen days and was over.
Just a few days after King Ning raised his army, local officials from the Ming court began to organize troops to launch a counterattack. Wang Shouren organized an 80,000-strong army in just over half a month, captured Nanchang in less than a month, and defeated him not long after.
He defeated King Ning's tens of thousands of troops. From the time King Ning raised his army to the time of his defeat and death, it only took a mere forty-three days!
How could He De of the Tang Dynasty, after capturing Zhengtai County and causing shock to the Ming court, still allow the Ming court to delay for several months before sending troops to quell the rebellion?
Li Xuan could guarantee that once he completely occupied Zhengtai County, within three to five days at most, Song Zhiwen of Xingquan Prefecture would personally lead at least several thousand troops to Zhengtai County.
If you attack and plunder Zhengtai County, you will at best get through a hornet's nest. If you run fast, you will get stung a few times. The pain will be sure, but no one will die.
But if you completely occupy Zhengtai County, it will be like not only poking a hornet's nest, but also stupidly standing on the edge of the hornet's nest without escaping. The swarming wasps can sting you alive.
Therefore, Li Xuan did not understand why Zeng Ziwen suddenly suggested that he attack and occupy Zhengtai County. Didn't he know the crisis after occupying Zhengtai County?
That is a dead end!
Li Xuan looked at Zeng Ziwen with doubtful eyes. He did not object immediately, but asked: "Zeng Aiqing, does he know that once our army captures Zhengtai County, thousands of Ming troops will arrive in the city within three to five days?"
Zeng Ziwen nodded!
"Since Aiqing knows, why do you still say you want to occupy Zhengtai?" Li Xuan couldn't understand this person's thoughts. He was so stupid. He knew he would die but why did he go?
Zeng Ziwen said: "After our army occupied Zhengtai, it would be a dead end to wait for the Ming army to attack, but if our army takes the initiative to attack, it can turn death into life.
After capturing Zhengtai, our army immediately took advantage of the surrounding young men and marched eastward to meet the enemy at the Lanjiang Ferry. As long as we stopped the Xingquan Prefecture enemy at the Lanjiang Ferry, we could keep the hundreds of miles of Zhengtai safe for several months!"
Lanjiang Ferry?
Suddenly hearing this term, Li Xuan briefly recalled that he found the memory of the Lanjiang River from his original memory. This is a river across Xingquan Prefecture, flowing from south to north in the mountains. This Lanjiang River
It's not a big river, but this section in Xingquan Mansion has a very fast flow due to the terrain, so it can barely be considered a natural chasm.
However, Li Xuan continued to ask: "Even if we rely on the Lanjiang River to block Xingquan's enemies outside Zhengtai, the Lanjiang River can only defend the east. What if the Ming army attacks from other directions?"
Zeng Ziwen said: "Our Zhengtai County is located in the southwest of Xingquan Prefecture, and our Xingquan Prefecture is located in the southeast of Guizhou, bordering Huguang to the east and Guangxi to the south. There are mountains to the south of our Zhengtai County, even if the soldiers and horses of Liuzhou Prefecture in Guangxi Province in the south get the news and want to
They want to come over, but it is absolutely impossible to cross the mountains so quickly, not to mention the soldiers and horses from the neighboring provinces who want to enter the province, the troubles will be no less than if the court directly mobilizes the border troops.
To the west and north of Zhengtai is Liping Prefecture, which has no garrison station. In the past, we relied on our Xingquan Prefecture guard station to suppress bandits. Furthermore, the mountainous roads hundreds of miles away on both sides are also difficult to navigate!"
What Zeng Ziwen was talking about was the geographical environment around Zhengtai Mansion, and Li Xuan had some knowledge of these situations before, but he didn't have the details that Zeng Ziwen knew.
However, these geographical advantages cannot guarantee the absolute safety of Zhengtai County, the safety of the Tang Dynasty, and even less the safety of Li Xuan's life.
Because the Ming army will definitely come, and they will come quickly and in large numbers!
The Lanjiang River and the surrounding mountains cannot stop these Ming troops. It can stop them for one month but not for two months. It can stop them for two months and not for half a year. Sooner or later, they will be dead.
So Li Xuan shook his head slightly: "Zhengtai is a place of death and cannot be broken!"
At this time Zeng Ziwen said again: "Your Majesty, as long as our army blocks the Ming army coming from Xingquan Prefecture at the Lanjiang Ferry, it will buy our army at least a month. In this time, we can train more than 5,000 troops.
Make thousands of muskets, and ten months later we will fight the Ming reinforcements on the Lanjiang River. As long as we can destroy the enemy on the Lanjiang River, then all the surrounding prefectures and counties can fall into the hands of the Tang Dynasty.
Controlling the land of Shufu, one can train 100,000 soldiers and make 10,000 guns in three months. With this, the army can march eastward to Huguang or southward to Guangxi, laying the foundation for the great cause of the Tang Dynasty in one fell swoop!"
Zeng Ziwen became more and more excited as he talked, as if he had seen commanding a hundred thousand troops to attack a city!
Li Xuan was speechless when he saw this man: Are you too optimistic or am I too pessimistic?
After seizing a county, you can train 5,000 troops in just one month? Let’s not talk about whether you can recruit 5,000 qualified soldiers. Even if you recruit people, where will Li Xuan find so many weapons, armor, and muskets to equip them?
Even if they have weapons, they can only complete some basic formation training in just one month, and it is impossible to train 5,000 elite soldiers.
Musketeers are the easiest to train. Any farmer can fight on the battlefield after three months of training, but this also takes three months!
Will the Ming army give him three months to train?
Are you kidding? It's absolutely impossible, unless the generals in charge of the Ming army are all fools!
Not to mention that 100,000 troops will be trained in one month. That's 100,000 troops. Even if Li Xuan rains down from the sky 100,000 fully equipped elite soldiers, he will not be able to find so many qualified officers to command these troops.
An army!
The core of an army is not soldiers, but officers. Without many qualified officers, the combat effectiveness of one hundred thousand elite soldiers will not be much better than one hundred thousand pigs!
It may even be defeated faster than 100,000 pigs. After all, it is not that easy to catch or kill 100,000 pigs, but it is much easier to make 100,000 people surrender!
Based on these worries, Li Xuan would never seek death by occupying Zhengtai County at this time.
But what Zeng Ziwen said is correct. After Su Jiakang's defeat today, there really is no large-scale Ming army in the hundreds of miles of Zhengtai County that can stop his Tang Dynasty king's army.
It's okay to take advantage of this moment to gain some benefits. It's better to plunder people and food. This is much better than occupying Zhengtai County.
More than 8,000 people were killed in Zhengtai County, and Zhengtai County had just been robbed by them. Now there is no benefit at all from capturing Zhengtai County.
But there are 70,000 to 80,000 people in the vast countryside of Zhengtai County. With so many people in the countryside, it shouldn’t be a problem to recruit thousands of young people from them and grab enough food to feed thousands of people for half a year! 21089