In the official system of the mid-Ming Dynasty, the general governor-general was only the right and deputy censor of the capital, with a rank of three, and the governor was usually only the censor of the right and deputy capital, with a rank of no more than the fourth rank.
It can be seen from his official rank that if he goes to the southern provinces, he will be able to suppress the group of governors and governors below, because the officials of those governors are only the third rank, and the governors' own rank
The official rank is only about the fourth rank.
The rank of the chief envoys of each province is higher, starting from the second rank. They seem to be more powerful than the governors and governors, but things in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty cannot be treated this way. Ranks are sometimes useless, and the important thing is dispatch.
Otherwise, look at those cabinet bosses. The rank of Grand Bachelor is only fifth grade. Do you dare to say that these cabinet bosses can't control the group of first- and second-grade officials below them?
Not to mention that the value of foreign officials is incomparable to that of officials in the capital. The governor of Youqiandu, who is only a fourth-rank official, can beat a second-rank chief envoy, let alone a second-rank official like him.
Supervisor.
In the Ming Dynasty, the governor was almost the largest local feudal minister. Even in the capital, Zhang Yue's status at this time was only slightly lower than that of ministers in various ministries.
He wanted to go to Tianlao to see people, and the people below would naturally not be so short-sighted to stop him, so he soon met a group of Guizhou criminal officials who were escorted to the capital.
Most of them were local officials who had escaped, such as county magistrates, magistrates, and tongzhi. Zhang Yue asked them one by one, mainly because he personally heard what they said about the puppet Tang rebel army. He listened to them no matter how big or small they were.
However, what these officials knew about the Puppet Tang thief army was only hearsay. They talked about sharp firearms and the like. However, these are things that everyone knows. If Zhang Yue asked them about the detailed organization of the Puppet Tang thief army,
They just don't know anything about tactics and the like.
With a slightly disappointed look, Zhang Yue met Song Zhiwen!
However, Song Zhiwen brought him a little surprise, because Zhang Yue discovered that Song Zhiwen knew much more about the puppet Tang rebels than anyone else.
When talking about the puppet army of the Tang Dynasty, Song Zhiwen was very clear and logical. What he said was not only limited to the sharp weapons of the puppet army of the Tang Dynasty. Song Zhiwen also said other things.
Just listen to Song Zhiwen say: "Everyone knows that the firearms of the puppet Tang thief army are sharp. Some time ago, Song also felt that the firearms of the puppet Tang thief army were sharp, and relied on sharp firearms to defeat our officers and soldiers repeatedly. But after arriving in the capital, he
After careful consideration of the tactics of the Pseudo-Tang thief army in the past, I discovered that although the Pseudo-Tang thief army’s firearms are sharp, their hand-to-hand combat capabilities are even stronger!”
Hearing Song Zhiwen say this, Zhang Yue suddenly became interested, and even showed a look of surprise. The puppet Tang rebel army's hand-to-hand combat ability is very strong? Even stronger than their firearms?
This was the first time he heard this statement. He had never seen this statement in various memorials before.
He immediately asked: "The hand-to-hand combat ability of the puppet Tang bandits is stronger than their firearms?"
Song Zhiwen nodded slightly and said: "When Song led his army and fought with the rebels several times on both sides of the Lanjiang River, the firearms of the puppet Tang rebel army at that time were already not weak. However, whether it was their heavy artillery or that kind of musket, in fact,
As long as our army is fully prepared, we can still rush over. After all, as long as our officers and soldiers rush fast enough, their muskets will not be able to fire a few rounds, but..."
Having said this, Song Zhiwen paused for a moment, then stood up and said with his hands behind his back: "But every time my officers and soldiers broke through their guns and interceptions and reached their formation, they were defeated!"
"These bandits will often launch a volley of musketry when our troops are more than ten steps away from them, and then throw explosive bombs. Then, their musketeers and spearmen will launch a charge. At this time, our officers and soldiers
It’s often the inability to bear it that leads to collapse!”
"In addition, not every battle, the Puppet Tang thief army has muskets and explosive shells to support the battle. According to Song's knowledge, the Puppet Tang thief army does not have many firearms, and most of the Puppet Tang thief army is equipped with long-range weapons.
Spear and sword and shield!”
"Many times, both sides are actually fighting hand to hand!"
"I didn't understand it at the time, but now Song has figured it out. The phalanx of these pseudo-Tang thieves is weird. Their phalanx is completely set up for hand-to-hand combat, not to bring out the power of firearms.
Yes, if you don’t believe it, look at it, Inspector Zhang!”
After all, Song Zhiwen took out a stack of paper from the bedside. There were many patterns drawn on the paper. If you look carefully, you will find that these are all tactical formations!
At this time, Song Zhiwen pointed to the square formation on the paper and said: "This is the most commonly used square formation by the puppet Tang rebels. Whether it is offensive or defensive, most of them use this formation!"
Although the drawing is a bit sloppy, if there are people from the Tang Army here, they will recognize it at a glance. Isn't this their battalion-level line formation?
"Most of the phalanxes of the thief army consist of five hundred people. The thief army calls itself a battalion. In this battalion, half are musketeers and half are spearmen. Among them, the spearmen are in the center and the musketeers are arranged on the two wings!
When the bandits formed their troops, they usually organized them into three or more such battalions and assembled into an army. These battalions cooperated with each other to cover the entire front.
If our soldiers don't rush forward, these rebels will bombard us with heavy artillery, and we can only be beaten passively. If we rush forward, when we rush to about a hundred paces, the rebel army's bowl-mouth cannons will bombard us, and the rebel army's bowl-shaped cannons will be bombarded.
The lethality of the cannon is quite high. If our army stops at this time, it will continue to be bombarded by the puppet Tang rebels, and the casualties will be extremely heavy. Therefore, whether it is Song at that time or the generals who later fought with the puppet Tang rebels
Most of them will let the troops continue to charge forward.
After entering about eighty steps, the muskets of the Puppet Tang thief army will open fire, usually hundreds of them are fired at the same time. Well, now I heard that the Puppet Tang thief army has more muskets.
More.
At this distance, the archers of our officers and soldiers are still unable to cause any damage to the rebel army, so we must continue to move forward.
When we enter about fifty or sixty steps, our archers can fire arrows, but the rebel archers can also fire arrows.
And I don’t know if Mr. Zhang knows that there are many armored men in the Puppet Tang thief army. It is often difficult for our army’s archers to cause too many casualties to the armored men of the thief army at such a long distance, but the thief army
The muskets are very powerful. At such a distance, even a soldier wearing double thick armor will not be able to survive if he is hit by the thief's muskets.
If you continue to advance, the rebels will throw explosive bombs and fire a final salvo!
By this time, most of our army's ranks were scattered or even in disarray.
At this time, the bandits will take the initiative to charge. Their muskets are equipped with knives on the front. Although they are shorter, they are still comparable to spears. The sword and shield soldiers of my officers and soldiers will suffer too much from fighting them!
Moreover, there are many armored men in the rebel army. Once they charge, dozens or even hundreds of armored men often rush into our formation, and it is a massacre at that time!"
Song Zhiwen said while pointing to the drawings, while Zhang Yue on the side became more and more frightened the more he listened!
In the past few days, it was the first time that he knew how the puppet Tang rebel army defeated so many officers and soldiers.
In the battle reports of the people below, they only talk about fighting to the death, and about the Puppet Tang thief's army having sharp weapons, etc. However, how the Puppet Tang thief's army defeated the officers and soldiers is basically unclear.
Zhang Yue took Song Zhiwen's drawing at this time and read it several times, frowning!
Although Zhang Yue was a civil servant, he was a civil servant who knew the military. When he served in the south, he served as governor of Yunyang, governor of Jiangxi, and governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. During his tenure, he exterminated many rebels and bandits.
If he didn't know how to fight, Emperor Zhengde would not have personally ordered him to oversee the four provinces.
So just looking at the drawings and listening to Song Zhiwen's words, he could imagine how the officers and soldiers were defeated at the hands of the puppet Tang rebels.
If you don't charge forward, you will be passively beaten, but if you take the initiative to attack, you will be asking for death, because the charging distance must start at least two hundred steps or even further, and you can stop along the way, and you will continue to be attacked along the way.
The artillery bombardment by the puppet Tang rebels exerted a huge drain on the morale and physical strength of the soldiers.
By the time they had almost reached the front of the puppet Tang rebel army, they had suffered a lot of casualties, their morale had basically hit rock bottom, and their formations were all in disarray.
At this time, how can we remain undefeated if we are attacked by the puppet Tang bandit army's explosive shells, volleys and hand-to-hand charges?
It’s no wonder that every time the officers and soldiers were defeated, the entire army collapsed and suffered a huge defeat. In such a fight with the puppet Tang rebel army, once defeated, wouldn’t it mean that the entire army was defeated!
After a while, Zhang Yue raised his head again and asked: "The firearms and hand-to-hand combat of the bandit army are far beyond those of ordinary thieves. I wonder if Mr. Song has any way to restrain this bandit army?"
After hearing this, Song Zhiwen pondered for a while and then said: "If you want to defeat the bandit army, the best way is to have stronger firearms and stronger hand-to-hand combat capabilities than them!"
At this time, Zhang Yue said: "I'm afraid this may be a bit difficult. News came from Guangxi that the puppet Tang rebel army's thousand-jin heavy artillery has reached more than a hundred, and there are hundreds of bowl-mouthed cannons that are hundreds of kilograms in size. This artillery is temporarily
I'm afraid it can't be compared, we don't have this musket here, and as for hand-to-hand combat, you also know the hand-to-hand combat capabilities of those guardsmen!"
Song Zhiwen said: "Our officers and soldiers have to fight against the puppet Tang rebels in the field. Unless we have more than ten times the strength of the troops, it will be difficult to sustain. If the field battle cannot be continued, we will naturally have to defend the city.
I heard that the puppet Tang thief army has marched south to Liuzhou. If nothing unexpected happens, the next step will be to march eastward along the Xijiang River to Wuzhou and even Guangdong. As long as our royal division holds firm in Wuzhou along the Xijiang River, it will be enough to restrain the puppet Tang thief army.
To advance eastward, as long as we block the eastward advance of the puppet Tang thief army, we will have time to raise a large army, train troops and build artillery, so that we can defeat the puppet Tang thief army in one fell swoop in the future!"
"Secure the city?" Zhang Yue showed a trace of hesitation after hearing this!