Chapter 783: This official knows that Li Thief is cunning
To be honest, An Zichen didn't understand Li Chunjing's order to let the Fifth Infantry Division cross the river? This joke is not funny. If you just send a mixed group to cross the river, make a lot of preparations in advance and take advantage of the darkness.
I can barely sneak across.
But for the Fifth Infantry Division to temporarily cross the river, the difficulty level has risen several levels. It is impossible to temporarily recruit many ships that can cross the river.
Moreover, the Ming Navy is not a vegetarian. On the river, there are always a small number of Ming Navy ships following and monitoring. Once it is discovered that the Fifth Infantry Division has an attempt to cross the river, it is estimated that the nearby Ming Navy ships will
The division will immediately gather to intercept.
Not to mention whether there will be a crisis after crossing the river, even if you want to cross the river, it is not easy. If you don't do it right, the Fifth Infantry Division will suffer a catastrophe!
At this time, Li Chunjing looked back at An Zichen, and then he didn't know whether he was talking to himself or to An Zichen. He only heard him murmur: "This army always has to move, so that the Ming army can also move."
, we can only fight them when they move!"
After listening to Li Chunjing's words, An Zichen also fell into deep thought.
He somewhat understood what Li Chunjing said. Now the Ming army was huddled in Anqing and Jinling, but these two cities were the ones they had to conquer.
Over in Anqing, the Ming army built a large-scale coastal fort group, and in conjunction with its naval vessels, it directly blocked the Yangtze River. As a result, the Tang Navy was unable to provide supplies to the army troops through the Yangtze River waterway.
Once the river supplies are lost, the Tang Army will be greatly troubled when it goes out to fight. Even if it mobilizes a large number of civilians, it can only support operations at a distance of about two to three hundred kilometers from the logistics transfer station. Once it exceeds
Beyond this distance, the supply efficiency will drop significantly, ultimately greatly affecting the combat effectiveness of the troops.
At present, the Tang Army's supply transfer station closest to the front line is Pengzehukou, which is more than 400 kilometers away from Jinling. Without the support of river transportation, such a long distance would not be possible with the current logistical supply capabilities of the Tang Dynasty.
It is impossible to maintain troops fighting at such a long distance.
Not to mention, maintaining such a long supply line requires at least a huge number of troops. Otherwise, if the Ming army randomly sends a cavalry unit over, it can cut off the supply line.
In this way, it will also weaken the combat strength of the Second Army used on the front line.
Therefore, from a logistics perspective, Anqing must be captured, and the Ming Navy must be contained or simply annihilated.
In this way, Li Chunjing could safely lead the army to attack Jinling.
Unfortunately, the Tang Navy's Yangtze River Fleet is not as powerful as the Ming Army's Yangtze River Navy and cannot break through the blockade of the Ming Army's Navy to reach Jinling.
As for Anqing, it is not that easy to win. Not to mention that they built a solid defense line in Anqing itself and deployed heavy troops. More importantly, the presence of the Ming Navy made it impossible for the Tang Army to attack.
Send too many troops across the river to attack Anqing.
The numerous restrictions made the Second Army still timid even though they launched a massive attack.
But An Zichen still didn't understand what Li Chunjing wanted to do and what his ultimate goal was.
But since he couldn't figure it out, he didn't bother to think about it. Commanding and fighting was not what he was good at anyway, so he had better do his job well.
An Zichen, the Chief of Staff of the Second Army, couldn't understand Li Chunjing's thoughts, and Wang Yiqi, who was opposite him, was naturally even more confused about Li Chunjing's thoughts.
When the reconnaissance cavalry at the front reported that after taking Guichi, the bandit army of more than 15,000 people did not continue to advance eastward, but instead began to collect ships and build rafts, Wang Yiqi frowned.
"Are they trying to cross the river?"
"But how are they going to cross the river? Our Jiangnan Navy has already firmly blocked the Yangtze River. If they make the slightest move, our Navy will be able to kill them. By then, let alone crossing the river, whether they can save themselves is a matter of course.
question!"
Wang Yiqi looked confused, but he was certain that there must be some conspiracy behind this. What if they really had a way to cross the river?
Therefore, Wang Yiqi was quite cautious and asked the Jiangnan Navy to closely monitor the Guichi area. As long as the puppet Tang rebels dared to cross the river, they would immediately and resolutely intercept them and send the puppet Tang rebels into the Yangtze River to feed the bastards.
At the same time, the defenders in Anqing also stepped up their patrols along the Yangtze River. Not only did they send out a large number of reconnaissance cavalry to patrol, but they also set off from Anqing and kept pace with the puppet Tang thief army on the other side across the Yangtze River.
The more than a thousand Ming Army cavalry that marched east simply stationed themselves on the other side of Guichi and refused to leave.
When the Ming army increased their vigilance and defended themselves to the death, Li Chunjing himself did not show much reaction, but continued to lead his troops to attack cities and territories in Huizhou Mansion and Ningguo Mansion.
On October 8, after two days of siege, the Second Army captured Fucheng, Huizhou
On the 12th, they captured Jingde, Ningguo Prefecture, and then divided the army into two groups to attack Ningguo and Jing County respectively.
A few days later, the Second Army, which conquered the above two places, joined forces again and attacked Xuancheng, Ningguo Prefecture.
Although Wang Yiqi had already made the strategic decision to shrink his troops and concentrate on defending Jinling, it did not mean that he would sit back and watch the vast hinterland of Jiangnan fall into the hands of thieves.
But even if he was unwilling to do so, he had no choice but to do so, because at this time, he received another report that the puppet Tang rebel army in Guichi suddenly gave up the attempt to cross the river, and then once again moved towards Jinling.
Coming from the city, their troops have already reached Tongling and will reach Taiping Mansion in a short time.
At this time, he did not dare to divide his troops!
The current strategic plan of the puppet Tang rebel army is nothing more than to advance in parallel from the south to the north, but they will definitely come to Jinling in the end, and I will be waiting for them in Jinling City.
Then we will have a strategic decisive battle with them outside Jinling City!
After delaying the rebels, the defenders on the Anqing side can take the initiative to attack and cross the river to directly cut off their supply lines. By then, these tens of thousands of rebels will be trapped and die under Jinling City.
So while Li Chunjing was allowed to attack cities and territories in the south of the Yangtze River, Wang Yiqi didn't know what to do with his 100,000-strong army, so he just stayed in Jinling City, as if he hadn't seen many places fall.
Li Chunjing seemed not to notice this situation and continued to attack the city. After the main force of the Second Army captured Xuancheng of Ningguo Prefecture, An Zichen found Li Chunjing.
"Sir, the army has been attacking for twenty days. Now the soldiers are exhausted, the ammunition consumption is also a bit high, and the supplies behind are somewhat unable to keep up. Why don't you take a rest in Xuancheng first?"
It was rare that this time Li Chunjing did not reject his suggestion, but nodded and said: "After fighting for twenty days, it's time to take a rest!"
An Zichen was relieved to hear that Li Chunjing lived like this!
The army rushed forward for almost three hundred kilometers in one breath, and this distance had almost reached the limit of the Second Army's supply line.
If we continue to attack eastward, we need to establish a supply transfer station in Xuancheng and spend a certain amount of time hoarding supplies so that we can continue to launch a large-scale offensive.
In order to ensure the logistics supplies of the Second Army, An Zichen was also worried!
A large number of civilians and small boats were mobilized, mainly for land transportation, and at the same time, they also used the water networks in the Jiangnan area to transport supplies. However, the manpower and material resources consumed by such supplies were too troublesome, and the supply volume was not large, far from being able to be used in numbers.
It is so convenient for large ships of ten tons or even hundreds of tons to transport supplies.
The main force of the Second Army stopped its offensive, but the Fifth Infantry Division did not stop. They continued to attack Taiping Mansion, but when they were about to arrive at Dangtu, they suddenly turned south.
This change surprised and delighted the Ming army on the Dangtu side. These rebels stopped coming to Dangtu. This is a great thing!
However, when this change reached Wang Yiqi's ears, it made Wang Yiqi think deeply.
The rebel army in Xuancheng stopped moving, and the rebel army that entered Taiping Mansion did not continue to move eastward, but instead went south. Judging from their southward direction, they should be going to Xuancheng.
Are they joining forces?
But what do they want to do after joining forces?
At this time, Wang Yiqi suddenly remembered something, and then immediately asked his subordinates on the side: "What's the situation in Zhejiang? Where did Wang's bandits attack?"
When Wang Yiqi suddenly asked about the situation in Zhejiang, his subordinates had not yet reacted. They had just been discussing the war in Southern Zhili, especially the follow-up defense deployment in Jinling.
They have even talked about whether to let the 20,000 troops from Anqing take the opportunity to cross the river and attack Chizhou Prefecture, completely cutting off the supply line of the puppet Tang rebel army.
Now, why is the problem suddenly coming to Zhejiang?
Someone immediately replied: "The situation in Zhejiang has not changed much. Judging from the previous reports, the Wang Thief Division from Fujian is currently attacking Wenzhou and Chuzhou. The last time General Yu reported
The letter comes, and southern Zhejiang is still as stable as Mount Tai!"
This person didn't say anything but said something. As soon as he said this, Wang Yiqi stood up immediately, and then his face instantly darkened: "No!"
When Wang Yiqi said this, the people below were not all idiots. Soon someone guessed why Wang Yiqi said this. Immediately, many people's faces became very ugly, and many people even showed signs of fear.
.
A guard commander even screamed: "They are not coming to Jinling at all, they are going to Hangzhou!"
Another deputy general said: "I know that Thief Li is extremely cunning and there is no way he would follow the rules and come to Jinling. He did the same thing when he attacked Yuezhou last year.
In the end, he bypassed Wuchang and went directly to Yuezhou. This time his previous actions must have confused us, in order to conquer Hangzhou!"
At this time, someone said: "If this happens, wouldn't General Yu be in danger?"