After Zhang Yue went south, he did not go directly along the sea and land to the Guangdong and Guangxi areas where the fiercest resistance to the Tang rebels was at present, but went directly to Huguang.
This is not to say that Zhang Yue did not know that heavy troops of the puppet Tang rebel army had entered Guangxi, Wuzhou was facing great pressure, and even Guangdong might not be able to defend it.
It is precisely because of knowing this that Zhang Yue did not choose to go to Guangdong and Guangxi, but came to Huguang!
Why?
Because even if Zhang Yue goes to the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, he will not be able to bring much help to the Ming army in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. There are only so many Ming soldiers in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. Even if Zhang Yue goes to the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, he cannot conjure tens of thousands of people out of thin air.
come!
What's more, in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Guangxi's military power is much stronger, while Guangdong's is relatively weaker. Now, except for Wuzhou, Guangxi has almost fallen, and Guangdong behind it is also unsafe.
To gather too many troops, otherwise, Wang Yue would have directly transferred a large number of troops from Guangdong without Zhang Yue.
But what is the reality? Wang Yue spent a lot of effort to mobilize tens of thousands of troops from Guangdong.
And this situation will not be changed just because Zhang Yue went to Guangdong.
If we want to resist the eastward advance of the puppet Tang rebel army, it is impossible to rely on the strength of Guangdong and Guangxi on their own, and we must need help from other provinces.
And what province is this?
Of course it’s Huguang!
As long as Zhang Yue goes to Huguang, he can mobilize the Ming army in Huguang, and then march part of it to Guizhou to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao. On the other hand, he can also directly send troops south to Guangxi and Guangdong to reinforce Wang Yue.
That's why Zhang Yue did not go to Guangdong and Guangxi, where the situation was most dangerous, but went to Huguang, which had not yet been invaded by the puppet Tang rebel army.
After Zhang Yue went to Huguang, he quickly integrated the Ming army in Huguang Province and quickly sent 30,000 people to march into Guizhou, aiming directly at Xingquan Mansion, the Longxing place of the puppet Tang rebel army.
Naturally, Li Xuan, who was far away in Wuzhou, didn't know this news.
Today's communication methods are so backward, how could he possibly know what is happening hundreds of kilometers away? Now he is only thinking about how to conquer Wuzhou City!
After building a camp outside Wuzhou City and surrounding Wuzhou City, a group of mid- to high-level generals and combat advisers from the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty were thinking about how to conquer Wuzhou City every day.
All kinds of messy plans were put forward, and then rejected, such as night attacks, fake surrenders, and pretending to be fake Ming thieves entering the city. Listening to the various plans proposed by these generals, Li Xuan was also the first to
Once I discovered that the people under me actually have such a high sense of humor!
Night attack? Fake surrender? Pretend to be the Ming army? Fortunately, you can figure it out. Do you think the Ming army is a fool or do you think I am a fool?
This kind of battle involving tens of thousands of people, which is enough to affect the situation in two provinces, is it possible to play such a trick? The Ming army is not stupid, how could it be unprepared.
All kinds of messy plans were put forward, but most of them were rejected by Li Xuan personally. What the hell is this? It's better to just attack by force!
But in the end, Zeng Ziwen came up with a plan that made him do something different!
Zeng Ziwen said: "Since Wuzhou cannot be captured in the short term, and the rainy season is approaching, the longer it takes, the more disadvantageous it will be for us. We might as well leave some of our troops to continue besieging the enemy, and send some of our partial divisions to continue marching eastward to Zhaoqing!"
When he said this, he pointed to Zhaoqing on the large map on the wall and said: "According to the information we have recently collected, most of the troops in Guangdong have been transferred to Wuzhou. I am afraid that there are only
There are thousands of people left to defend, and here in Zhaoqing, there are only 3,000 people garrisoned at most. Our army only needs to send 10,000 people, no, only 5,000 people are enough to go south to Zhaoqing, and then all the way along the Xijiang River to the east.
Advance and conquer Guangzhou, Foshan and other places!"
Zeng Ziwen's words immediately opened a door for Li Xuan, who was worried about how to conquer Wuzhou. Although the door was only half-open, and he didn't know whether there would be danger behind the door, it did open a door for him.
Another feasible strategic plan was proposed.
Wuzhou is a hard nut to crack. If you want to crack it down, it will either take a lot of time to slowly besiege it, or it will be a strong attack regardless of casualties, and either of these two methods is unacceptable to Li Xuan.
of.
However, if you want to bypass Wuzhou and continue to advance eastward, although you can continue to implement the eastward strategy, there are still great risks. Not to mention the interruption of the Xijiang river transportation due to the existence of Wuzhou, which is only five or six in Wuzhou.
Wan Mingjun was like a steel thorn stuck in the throat of the Tang Dynasty. If he didn't do this well, he would be stuck to death.
No, as soon as Zeng Ziwen finished speaking, Hao Bainian said: "If they bypass Wuzhou and continue to advance eastward, if the Wuzhou Ming Army goes out of the city to attack our army's logistics line, I'm afraid it will be difficult to guarantee the supplies needed by the frontline army, and
As our army continues to advance eastward, it is necessary to leave troops to continue to besiege Wuzhou. This is equivalent to dividing the troops. If the troops are divided, the troops besieging Wuzhou will be relatively weak. It is difficult to guarantee that the enemy troops in the city will not take the initiative to attack. Will they be able to do so by then?
Can you withstand it?"
Hao Bainian's words also caused everyone to nod their heads!
Dividing troops has always been a taboo for military strategists, but the Tang Dynasty King always avoided doing this!
Although the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty has now been divided into three armies, fighting in Guizhou, western Guizhou, and eastern Guizhou, in fact, the main force of the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty has always been in the First Army, in the eastern part of Guizhou!
The Second Army in Guizhou and the Third Army in western Guizhou are actually not the main forces of the Tang Dynasty King's Division.
This can be seen from the fact that the two artillery battalions, two cavalry battalions and even the two baggage regiments of the Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty are all on the front line of Wuzhou. The main force of the Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty has actually always stayed together.
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But if you want to bypass Wuzhou, it is definitely not possible to bypass Wuzhou directly with the army. In this case, the supply line will be cut off by the defenders in Wuzhou City and even the chrysanthemums will be broken.
Therefore, we still need to leave some troops in Wuzhou, and the main force must continue to besiege and monitor the Ming army in the city to prevent them from making any changes.
This part of the force cannot be reduced to 20,000, and even this number is somewhat insufficient.
After all, the Tang Dynasty King's Division wants to besiege Wuzhou, not just attack the city. If it is to besiege the city, at least the east and west sides should be blocked. This is to encircle more with less, and the troops are a bit insufficient. If we continue to mobilize troops to move eastward,
The siege of Wuzhou is even more difficult.
But if enough troops are not mobilized, then continuing to advance eastward into Guangdong will become a joke. Zhaoqing, Guangzhou and the entire Guangdong are such a large place. Even if they have few defensive forces now, it is not possible for two or three thousand people to defend such a large place.
If you can take it, just to attack Zhaoqing, you will need at least four to five thousand troops. Then you have to attack Guangzhou, or even control the entire Guangdong, which will require tens of thousands of troops at least!
This time, the imperial strategy meeting was spent in quarrels again because of Zeng Ziwen's strategy of dividing the troops and advancing eastward, which made Li Xuan feel helpless and exhausted!
As the Tang Dynasty grew larger and larger, with more and more troops, he felt the difficulty of rebellion more and more!
Not to mention anything else, just being in Wuzhou now makes it difficult for you to advance or retreat!
After everyone left, Li Xuan stayed alone in the Chinese army tent, meditating hard in front of the map, and carefully considered the next step.
When you look up, you can still see Wuzhou City in the distance!
After thinking for a long time, he sighed and said to himself: These guns are still missing. If I have hundreds of heavy cannons, what does this mere Wuzhou City mean? It will be destroyed in minutes!"
Damn, we must build cannons, build more, and build bigger cannons!
There are also too few muskets, only a few thousand, which are not enough to fill the gap between teeth. If there are tens of thousands of muskets, I am afraid that the tens of thousands of Ming troops will be able to crush them if they attack by force.
Also, this matchlock gun is not easy to use. If there were flintlock guns, they would have swept across Guangdong and Guangxi long ago!
The next day, Li Xuan spent another meaningless quarrel among a group of middle and high-level generals. Some wanted to attack Wuzhou immediately, some wanted to besiege Wuzhou, and some wanted to divide their forces and march eastward.
I couldn't convince anyone. In the end, everyone who had been arguing all day went back to their homes, ready to recharge and continue arguing tomorrow!
But that night, Li Xuan received an urgent military report from the military messenger!
"More than 30,000 rebels invaded Xingquan Prefecture from Huguang. The forward 3,000 have already reached Xingquan Prefecture. The 3rd Infantry Regiment and some troops of the 2nd Guard Brigade stationed in Xingquan Prefecture have been resisting with all their strength!"
The military messenger in front of me almost collapsed from exhaustion after riding a horse for a day. After delivering the military report, he was helped out.
And Li Xuan looked at this military report. Although he had expected that the Ming army in Huguang would advance westward, and he had also prepared for it, there was a second infantry brigade under the second army in Guizhou.
The first garrison brigade and the second garrison brigade are three units. In addition, a temporary third regiment has been established in central and western Guizhou, with a total strength of no less than 20,000.
But when the Ming army really advanced westward, Li Xuan was still a little worried, especially when he heard that the Ming army arrived with 30,000 people, he became even more worried.
Although the three units in Guizhou's Second Army are not weak, they are not units like the First Infantry Brigade. In addition, many units of the Second Army are still besieging Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou.
In the eastern part of Guizhou, there is only one Third Infantry Regiment, the Second Guard Brigade, the newly established Fourth Artillery Battalion with few artillery pieces, the Fourth Cavalry Battalion with only dozens of cavalry, and the Fourth Cavalry Battalion, which is still a group of new recruits.
Four baggage regiments.
And these troops are not only stationed in Xingquan Prefecture, but also have to guard several state capitals in northeastern Guizhou!
Now that the Ming army is marching westward, it will be very difficult for the Second Army to fight!
The current situation of the Tang Dynasty is not optimistic!
The main First Army led by himself was blocked in Wuzhou City and could not enter. The Second Army in Guizhou had not even captured Guiyang. Tens of thousands of Ming troops in Huguang had just reached Xingquan Prefecture.