Chapter 617 Who is surrounded by who is not necessarily
The Ming army began to move simultaneously from multiple directions, but Hao Bainian and all the senior generals knew nothing about it, because due to limitations of communication methods, messages over long distances took time to be transmitted.
, it is impossible to achieve real-time communication.
It is true that the remaining interception force composed of the 1st Infantry Regiment and the 1st Cavalry Battalion discovered the Ming army's movements in the direction of Yizhang, and prepared to start active interception operations against the Ming army with a strength of more than 8,000 people.
Annihilate them.
At the same time, the temporary fourth regiment also discovered some changes in the Ming army in Chenzhou and nearby areas, and prepared to conduct related interception operations.
At the same time, the main force of the 1st Infantry Division sent a small reconnaissance and alert force to Guiyang Prefecture, Hengzhou Prefecture, and discovered that the Ming army was dispatched in that direction. The small reconnaissance and alert force sent to Linwu direction also discovered that the local Ming army was dispatched.
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However, the information available to the various units was not integrated in a short time.
Nowadays, the fast horses sent by various units are still galloping across the wilderness. Only then, Hao Bainian, commander of the First Army, was able to detect from the collected information that the Ming army was moving in all directions at the same time.
This situation is the same as the Tang Army's attack from multiple directions on the Ming Army in southern Huguang half a month ago. In the first three or four days, neither Zhang Yue nor the Ming Army generals from all directions were able to attack.
I knew that the Tang Army had already launched a general offensive.
It was not until almost seven or eight days later that Zhang Yue, who was in Changsha, learned from reports from various troops that the Tang Army had launched a general offensive.
However, due to the lack of investigation methods these days, the various Ming armies had different judgments on the numbers and numbers of the Tang Army in front of them. For example, the Ming army in the Zhenyuanfu area in northeastern Guizhou reported that they suffered at least the least
Twenty thousand troops of pseudo-Tang thieves attacked, and they were all real thieves.
At the same time, the Ming army in Yongzhou Prefecture also reported that they were attacked by at least tens of thousands of pseudo-Tang thieves. These pseudo-Tang thieves were also all real thieves.
As for Baoqing Mansion, they also reported that at least 20,000 puppet Tang rebels were approaching.
Chenzhou and Hengzhou Prefectures even reported that the number of puppet Tang rebels in front of them was at least 50,000, and the enemy in front of them was the First Infantry Division of the puppet Tang Dynasty.
After summarizing the reports from various ministries, Zhang Yue suddenly discovered that the pseudo-Tang bandit army that launched fierce attacks on all fronts actually numbered one hundred thousand, and they were all real thieves.
And this is absolutely impossible!
Although the Pseudo-Tang Thieves Army was large in number, and there were rumors in the first half of the year that the Pseudo-Tang Thieves Army numbered at least 200,000, in fact many people knew that the number of real thieves in the Pseudo-Tang Thieves Army had always been relatively small. In the first half of the year,
Even if we add up the real thief troops in the various pseudo-Tang thief armies that have been discovered, the total will not exceed 50,000.
Now that only a few months have passed, although the number of real thieves in the Puppet Tang Thief Army may increase significantly, Zhang Yue does not believe that the number of real thieves in the Puppet Tang Thief Army attacking Huguang can be as many as 100,000.
You must know that the puppet Tang bandit army is not just in Huguang. They need troops to deploy in Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places.
Therefore, Zhang Yue judged that the total number of pseudo-Tang thief troops attacking Huguang should be almost 100,000. However, it is absolutely impossible for these 100,000 pseudo-Tang thief troops to be all real thieves. There are only 60,000 to 70,000 real thieves among them.
That's all.
In fact, Zhang Yue's judgment is still very wrong!
First of all, the Tang army that attacked Huguang, and even all the Tang armies today, actually do not have so-called fake thieves, that is, those troops that are garrison troops, capture camps, etc. They are all regular troops.
Secondly, the number is not as large as Zhang Yue expected. At present, the total number of the Tang Army is less than 100,000, not to mention that a lot of troops need to be deployed in Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other directions.
The core force of the troops attacking Huguang was only two infantry divisions and two temporary regiments, with a strength of about 30,000 people, and the secondary force was the Second Infantry Division.
Even including the Second Infantry Division, the total strength was just over 40,000, which was far from Zhang Yue's guess of 60,000 to 70,000.
Of course, this cannot be blamed on Zhang Yue's misjudgment, but this is the information he received. Even the figure of sixty or seventy thousand has been shrunk.
Not to mention Zhang Yue, even the Ming army generals on the front line have never been able to accurately know how many puppet Tang rebels there are in front of them. At most, they can only get a rough number, and this rough number is often thousands.
People turned into tens of thousands, and tens of thousands turned into tens of thousands.
Distortion of data and poor communication were the difficulties faced by the Ming army in the early stage. They also forced Zhang Yue to adopt a more cautious response strategy. Faced with requests for help from all directions, he only sent a small number of troops to increase the number.
Moreover, there are only two places for reinforcements. One is Baoqing Mansion, which was attacked by the puppet Chen thief. Although the Tang thief has not yet killed Shaoyang in Baoqing Mansion, the importance of Shaoyang is self-evident.
Therefore, Zhang Yue sent 3,000 governors and 7,000 guardsmen, a total of 10,000 people to the area to strengthen the defense.
In addition, three thousand governors and seven thousand guardsmen were sent to Hengyang in Hengzhou Prefecture.
These two places, one in the east and one in the west, can be said to be the core strategic strongholds against the puppet Tang rebels and the core support for the defense of Changsha. The fall of either of them would be difficult for the Ming army to accept.
But even in these two places, the reinforcements he sent were not many compared to the strategic reserve force in his hands!
Now in Changsha, he still controls more than 15,000 supervisors and more than 5,000 frontier troops. In addition, there are nearly 30,000 garrison troops deployed around Changsha.
In other words, he still has 50,000 troops in his hands. Once he discovers the enemy's main attack direction, or a strategic opportunity arises, he will line up this force to defeat the main force of the puppet Tang rebel army in one fell swoop.
, while thwarting the plot of the puppet Tang bandits to attack Huguang, it also severely damaged the puppet Tang's military power, and achieved a great victory in the war against bandits that had lasted for two years.
Now, Zhang Yue has seen an opportunity. When he received a report from the Ming army in the direction of Hengzhou and Chenzhou, saying that the main force of more than 10,000 puppet Tang rebels in the direction of Chenzhou dared to go deep into Hengzhou alone, and learned that the front line
When the generals of the various armies were already preparing to launch a siege campaign, they did not hesitate and decisively dispatched the last and most powerful strategic reserve force in their hands!
A total of 10,000 governors, 5,000 border troops, 20,000 elite main force, and 20,000 guard troops are rushing to Hengzhou Mansion.
In this way, combined with the more than 10,000 troops originally stationed in Hengzhou City and the 10,000 reinforcements sent earlier, the Ming army was able to gather more than 60,000 troops in the direction of Hengzhou, and there were 13,000 supervisors among them.
There are five thousand frontier troops. Among these troops, there are nearly a thousand professional cavalry troops.
Of course, these troops have just left Changsha and it will take a long time before they arrive in Hengzhou!
Hao Bainian also didn't know that his plan to lure the enemy troops had already mobilized almost the entire Ming army in the Huguang area, and the target was his own First Infantry Division.
Now, the various units under the First Army are still executing the combat plan step by step. The 3rd Infantry Division in Jingzhou is rapidly marching towards Baoqing Mansion. The strategic target of this unit is naturally Shaoyang.
In addition, the temporary first regiment set out from Guilin. Now it has entered Yongzhou Prefecture and successfully captured Ningyuan Guards in the early battle. It will continue to go north to seize Lingling and Qiyang of Yongzhou Prefecture, and then capture the entire Yongzhou Prefecture.
The government was brought under the control of the Tang Dynasty to cooperate with the operations of the Second Infantry Division, the First Infantry Division, and the temporary Fourth Regiment of the First Army.
If you look at the map, you can easily find that the march route of the First Army of the Tang Dynasty actually consists of three arrows. The First Infantry Division and the temporary Fourth Regiment are heading due north from Guangdong.
Launch an attack, the target is Hengzhou.
The Second Infantry Division launched an attack from Jingzhou toward the northeast, targeting Shaoyang.
Once these two forces can successfully achieve their goals, they can join forces and continue to attack Changsha.
As for the temporary first regiment, it is relatively small and does not undertake the main assault mission. It only needs to clear out the remaining Ming troops south of Yongzhou Prefecture, Shaoyang and Hengzhou.
At the same time, if the first phase of the First Army's combat plan can be successfully completed, then the Ming army's army of more than 100,000 deployed south of Hengzhou and south of Shaoyang will be defeated, and those who have not been defeated will also be trapped.
The situation of strategic encirclement.
The combat plan of the First Army is quite obvious, and all units are firmly working towards the planned plan!
At the same time, the Ming army's battle plan was also quite obvious, which was to put Shaoyang aside and let the defenders hold on for several months. The main force would go straight to Hengzhou and then gather other Ming armies in the Hengzhou area.
Let’s first annihilate the main force of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty coming from the north of Guangdong.
The strategic concepts of both sides are quite obvious. They both want to encircle a certain part of the other side's forces, and each other is already executing it, but it is not certain who can encircle whom. The specific result depends on the fighting results of the frontline troops.
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After all, no matter how good the strategic plan is, it is just something that senior generals come up with, but it may not necessarily be successfully implemented. There are too many factors that influence it, such as the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides!
The armies of both sides were on the move, and in the process of this movement, the first ones to fight were not the First Infantry Regiment and the Ming Army in the direction of Yizhang, but the Ming Army and the Temporary Fourth Regiment in the direction of Chenzhou.
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Although the temporary fourth regiment has no intention of conquering Chenzhou, their task is only to take care of any Ming army that dares to attack Chenzhou, but the Ming army in the direction of Chenzhou wants to break through the interception of the temporary fourth regiment, and then completely intercept the first
The infantry division's retreat.
And this also means that the battle between the two sides is inevitable, and it will break out very fiercely in the first place!