In December of the third year of Xuanping, when the year was coming to an end, when various departments in the Tang Dynasty were busy with the strategic development plan for the next one or two years and the financial budget issues for the fourth year of Xuanping, Li Xuan was also busy.
Come down.
At the end of the year, there are always too many things for him to deal with. Although the ministers on duty in the imperial study room help him deal with many important matters, there are also Hanlin Academy to help him deal with many trivial matters.
However, as a cautious emperor who was always on guard against being ostracized by his ministers, Li Xuan still firmly controlled the decision-making power on major affairs. All memorials on important affairs required his personal approval, and various decisions were even more important.
Only he can do it, and no one else has the power to do it.
Without Li Xuan's personal review, many things would not be possible at all.
So at the end of the new year, Li Xuan is also very busy!
While various departments in Zhaoqing, including Li Xuan, were busy with various affairs, Li Chunjing braved the slightest chill on the northern front and continued to lead his troops to Yuezhou. He was riding on a horse wearing a thick dark blue general.
He wears an official military uniform and a black cloak.
At this time, an intelligence staff officer of the Second Army was reporting the military situation to Li Chunjing: "Sir, Zhang Yue's troops are still stuck in Wuchang City, but the reconnaissance cavalry discovered a weapon outside Yuezhou City a few days ago.
Send enemy troops to reinforce Yuezhou!"
"Oh, they have reinforced Yuezhou? And the enemy troops in Wuchang City have not come out. Could it be that they are guardsmen transferred from other places?" Li Chunjing asked slightly confused.
Immediately, the intelligence staff said: "Your Majesty, it is indeed true. After detailed investigation, our reconnaissance cavalry found that this enemy army is a guard soldier drawn from several Huguang Prefecture counties north of the Yangtze River. There are about 10,000 people.
scale."
At this time, Wang Shanxu on the side said: "It seems that Zhang Yue has really made up his mind to stay in Wuchang City. Otherwise, he would not have sent only 10,000 guardsmen to reinforce Yuezhou!
After all, Zhang Yue himself knew that the guardsmen would not be defeated, otherwise he would not have eliminated the guardsmen on his own. Now he is sending guardsmen to reinforce Yuezhou. This clearly means that he wants to abandon Yuezhou directly!
"
Li Chunjing did not answer, but continued to ask: "Are there any changes in the Ming army in other directions? Is there any information about the First Army in Changsha and Hengyang?"
The intelligence staff officer said: "The First Army has received information, reporting to Hengyang that the enemy forces in the direction of Changsha have still not left the city. However, the enemy forces in the direction of Changsha seem to have received a large amount of supplies recently, and are accelerating the construction of various fortifications.
, and Nanchang has not received any relevant news yet!”
Wang Shanxu looked puzzled: "The enemy troops in Changsha and Hengyang have not moved, and the enemy troops in Wuchang have not moved. This shouldn't be the case. With Zhang Yue's knowledge, it is impossible for him not to know the importance of Yuezhou. Why?
Maybe we just sit back and watch Yuezhou be captured by our army!"
At this time, Wang Shanxu seemed to have remembered something, and immediately said anxiously: "Sir, there is no movement in this mountain in Huguang. I am afraid it will be detrimental to Nanchang!"
At this time, Li Chunjing also nodded and said: "If nothing else happens, Zhang Yue's goal this time will probably be Nanchang!"
"Now there is only one Sixth Infantry Division in Nanchang. Isn't it too dangerous? Once the enemy forces in Jiujiang and Nankang direction and the Ming army in Fuzhou direction cooperate to besiege Nanchang, I am afraid that one Sixth Infantry Division alone cannot defend it.
How long have you been staying?”
Li Chunjing said: "If the enemies in these two places attack together, being besieged will be inevitable for a while, but I believe that the Sixth Infantry Division in Nanchang can hold on!"
Then Li Chunjing looked to the west and said: "Since the enemy army will not reinforce Yuezhou, I will not be polite. We will take Yuezhou first and then go to Changsha!"
"What should we do over there in Nanchang? Should we send troops back to assist Nanchang? If we go back now, it should be too late!" At this time, Major General An Zichen, chief of staff of the Second Army on the side, said: "After all, there are two directions in Jiujiang and Fuzhou.
The total number of enemy troops, even excluding the young and strong ones at the guard posts, is probably 50,000 to 60,000. If Nanchang is besieged for a long time and our army is unable to move eastward for rescue in time, I am afraid that the Sixth Infantry Division will
It’s dangerous!”
Li Chunjing shook his head directly, and then said in a firm tone: "The troops are ordered to speed up their advance. In three days, I will see Yuezhou City!"
Facing Li Chunjing's order, Wang Shanxu and An Zichen both sighed slightly. Li Chunjing decided to ignore Nanchang in the rear and insisted on attacking Yuezhou. They had no choice, and these two major generals were unable to change Li Chunjing's decision.
Needless to say about others.
After the main force of the Second Army began to accelerate, Cai Erhu also had a frown on his face in Nanchang City!
Unlike Li Chunjing and others who were far away from here and could not know the situation here, Cai Erhu had already learned from the scouts scattered around the periphery early this morning that the enemy troops in the direction of Jiujiang and Nankang were moving south!
Not only that, the defenders in the direction of Fengcheng also reported from the Pegasus Express at almost the same time, saying that enemy troops in the direction of Fuzhou were dispatched, but they did not even go to Fengcheng, but directly bypassed Fengcheng and went north to Nanchang.
What their goal is is already very clear, that is to besiege Nanchang!
Faced with a siege that was several times larger than the enemy's main force, it was natural that Cai Erhu's face would not look good!
"Sir, please don't worry. Our army has continuously strengthened the city defense of Nanchang. We have deployed hundreds of large and small artillery pieces and prepared more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition. If the enemy dares to attack the city, they will never come back!"
"Yes, it's not just ammunition. Our army has abundant food reserves in the city. The food in the city is enough to feed the 50,000 soldiers and civilians in the city for half a year!"
"And we can also temporarily recruit young people in the city to help defend the city!"
"That's right, now that the enemy troops are coming in two groups, we can even take the initiative and defeat one of them first!"
The people below seemed to be more confident than Cai Erhu. After hearing that the enemy was attacking, they were not afraid at all and even showed an expression of eagerness to give it a try.
But Cai Erhu is a little worried!
The 6th Infantry Division has been staying in Guangdong since it was reorganized into a division. It has only recently gone north to Jiangxi. It has not fought any large-scale battles. Even though the soldiers under its command have been trained for a long time, they have also carried out numerous bandit suppressions and the Qing Dynasty Suppression Ming Dynasty.
However, they have never fought a real and cruel battle. Therefore, many of the more than 10,000 soldiers of the 6th Infantry Division are actually facing such a large-scale battle for the first time and have considerable combat experience.
lack!
This is what Cai Erhu is worried about. The soldiers lack large-scale combat experience, which is not a small disadvantage in the upcoming battle!
If this happens, even soldiers who have gone through complete training may find it difficult to adapt to the cruelty of actual combat.
After all, large-scale actual combat and training, even bandit suppression, and escorting baggage are completely different tasks!
The biggest difference is: people will die in actual combat, many, many people!
However, what pleased Cai Erhu was that the unique rotation and promotion system of the Tang Dynasty King Division made the officers of the Sixth Infantry Division mostly people with rich combat experience.
The Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty, regardless of the army or the navy, implemented a rotation system to a certain extent. The so-called rotation system allowed officers to assume different positions as they grew up. An officer would be a student of the most martial arts school.
, and then to become an officer with a high-level position such as regiment leader, you basically need to climb up all the way.
And without actual combat merit, it is almost impossible to be promoted to a position above the battalion commander. Therefore, many of the current officers of the 6th Infantry Division above the battalion level are actually officers promoted from other units.
For example, Colonel Dai Liliang, the current commander of the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division, was the commander who led the 3rd Battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment to recapture Haojing at the beginning of the year.
Dai Liliang's journey into the army is generally a standard example for many senior officers in the Tang Army. He was originally a boy, and then applied for a martial arts school. After completing his studies, he first served as deputy captain in the grassroots army, and then was promoted to captain, and then
He was transferred to the Sixth Infantry Division headquarters as a staff officer and promoted to captain.
Immediately, he successfully passed the entrance examination of the Royal Academy. During the study period, he also served as a trainee staff officer in the Operations Department of the Privy Council, studying behind a group of combat staff officers.
After a few short months of study, he was sent to the Sixth Infantry Division as the battalion commander of the third battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment. While serving as the battalion commander of the third battalion, he happened to encounter the Battle of Haojing. After recapturing Haojing,
After making great contributions, he was soon transferred to the First Mixed Regiment and served as deputy commander of the lieutenant colonel.
Because the regiment-level units of the Tang Army are relatively large, an ordinary infantry regiment has five infantry battalions, and a mixed regiment adds other auxiliary units such as artillery, cavalry, and baggage on this basis, so whether it is infantry
Whether the commander of a corps or a mixed regiment is actually the commander of a large number of troops, it is actually difficult to personally command many troops. Therefore, the deputy commander of the Tang Army can usually lead the troops personally.
While serving as the deputy commander of the First Mixed Regiment, he also led his troops to fight several lieutenant colonel-sized battles with Yu Dayou's bandit army, and participated in the battle to attack Zhangzhou. His merits were not big, but they were not small either.
.
On the eve of the Sixth Infantry Division's march north, he was transferred to the old unit of the Sixth Infantry Division and served as the commander of the Sixteenth Infantry Regiment, and was naturally promoted to Army Colonel.
Dai Liliang's journey to join the army was the same as that of many officers at the battalion, regiment and other levels of the Tang Army. It took several years and he held various positions. He also entered the Imperial Academy and became a disciple of the Emperor.
.
This was also the path of joining the army for the students of the early Imperial Academy, but this was only limited to before the restructuring of the Imperial Academy. After the restructuring of the Imperial Academy, the path of joining the army for the students of the Imperial Academy will be different from that of any previous officers.