In Anping Town, Emperor Zhengde quietly looked at a group of civil servants and generals below. Just now, the spies below reported that the puppet Tang rebel army had arrived less than thirty miles away from Anping Town, and was still moving forward. At this speed,
I'm afraid that the puppet Tang rebel army will be able to arrive outside Anping Town tomorrow.
In other words, starting tomorrow, the war may break out completely at any time!
As the war approached, a group of ministers were discussing various strategies to retreat from the enemy, but from their discussions, Emperor Zhengde felt their fear.
Although no one dared to directly say that the rebel army was invincible and that they would retreat and move in, there were many words of fear of war in their words, such as thinking twice and being cautious.
Of course, there were serious discussions on strategies, but they basically focused on how to get the Tatars to attack south.
As for the head-on battle, that has basically been determined for a long time. The three camps are connected to each other. Once they engage in battle, the 100,000-strong army will be like a magnet to firmly attract the main force of the rebel army in front of them.
But to be honest, no Ming minister, including Emperor Zhengde, thought that a hundred thousand infantrymen could stop the frontal attack of the puppet Tang rebels.
The disastrous defeat in Yangzhou is still vivid in my mind. There were also 100,000 troops in Yangzhou at the beginning, and the 100,000 troops in Yangzhou were even more elite, and there were complete city defenses to rely on. But even so, it was not overthrown by the puppet Tang Dynasty.
The bandit army broke through cleanly.
So their hopes are all placed on the cavalry!
The Ming army did not have many cavalry, only ten thousand cavalry. Although there were not many cavalry, they were all professional cavalry from the northern border towns and Beijing camps. They were skilled in bows and horses and their combat effectiveness was not weak.
If there is a suitable opportunity, these 10,000 cavalry can turn the tide of the war!
But Emperor Zhengde didn't think that the puppet Tang rebel army would be so stupid and wouldn't leave a backup force to deal with his 10,000 cavalry!
So the most important thing is to let Anda Khan send troops!
In the past two days, Emperor Zhengde has sent people several times to persuade Anda Khan to send the main force to go south. Why go south?
Heading to Jining!
Jining is the rear area of the Puppet Tang Dynasty. According to what the scouts know, the Puppet Tang thief army has hoarded a large amount of food, grass and ammunition there. Once the place is captured, not only can the supply base of the Puppet Tang thief army be destroyed, but also
Cut off the rebel army's supply lines.
But the intelligence is also realistic. The bandit army has left a heavy defense in Jining. I don’t know what kind of troops they are, but the total strength will not be less than 10,000 people. Therefore, if the Ming army’s cavalry rushes south to attack, it will probably be difficult to defeat them.
Too possible.
But it's different if it's the Tatars. If they have more than 50,000 cavalry, they have great hope of conquering Jining.
However, Emperor Zhengde hoped that Anda Khan would send troops to attack Jining, but Anda Khan was not stupid!
"What he had in mind was quite beautiful. He asked me to go to Jining and attack Jining. It would be easy to go, but it would be difficult to come back. Jining is guarded by tens of thousands of Tang troops. Although our cavalry is invincible in the field and can come and go freely, it still needs to be conquered.
Even if it can be done in a city guarded by tens of thousands of Tang soldiers, there will definitely be heavy casualties!"
Anda Khan had already received Emperor Zhengde's request, but he ignored it. What a joke. He asked him to lead the main force to attack Jining. Why didn't you, Emperor Zhengde, send your own cavalry?
Jining, can’t fight!
But that doesn’t mean you can’t fight elsewhere!
Before Anda Khan went south, he didn't know that the Tang army in the south was so terrifying!
When he went south, he thought that the Tang Army and the Ming Army might be able to defeat both sides, but after hearing about many battles such as Yangzhou, he lost confidence in the Ming Army. If he didn't contribute, he just wanted to sweep them away afterwards.
If Bo is defeated, I am afraid that the Ming army will be completely destroyed, and the losses of the Tang army will not be too great, and this is not in the interests of the Tatars.
What Anda Khan wants is for both the Ming and Tang armies to suffer losses, but for the Tang army to kill the Ming army cleanly!
Therefore, Anda Khan believes that although Jining cannot be fought, it is still necessary to send troops to help the Ming army relieve the pressure, and appropriately contain part of the Tang army's forces, so that the Ming army and the Tang army can be evenly matched when they fight, and in the end, both sides will suffer!
That’s why he sent ten thousand horses southward!
And he also informed the generals who led the army southward. This time, when going south, don't be stupid enough to attack Jining, and don't be stupid enough to confront the main force of the Tang army. You should conduct raids appropriately. If you encounter small and medium-sized rebels, just fight them off and leave.
, it would be best to be able to lead tens of thousands of Tang troops in circles.
In this case, a part of the Tang army was contained and the pressure on the Ming army was relieved, without having to pay any price!
When the Tang Army and the Ming Army were both defeated, it was time for the main force of his cavalry to attack!
Li Xuan didn't know that Anda Khan had this kind of thoughts, but Emperor Zhengde himself could somewhat guess it, but again, he didn't care!
When he invited the Tatars to go south, he had guessed that there might be various bad consequences, but he had no other choice. If the Tatars didn't go south, he would definitely be doomed. And with
With the Tatars sharing the pressure, he still had a little chance.
At this time, surrounding Anping Town, the three parties have their own plans!
Emperor Zhengde wanted to use 100,000 infantry to contain the main force of the Tang army, and then use his own 10,000 cavalry and the 50,000 Tatar cavalry to attack the rear of the Tang army, eventually causing the complete collapse of the Tang army. It was best to use the Tatar cavalry in the process.
He also died completely.
And Anda Khan hoped that both the Tang Army and the Ming Army would suffer defeat, and then he would lead the main force of the cavalry to sweep the entire battlefield, directly killing Emperor Zhengde and Li Xuan, and finally occupy the prosperous land of the Central Plains, repeating the old events of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty going south.
, he, An Da Khan, must imitate Kublai Khan back then and proclaim himself emperor, living the addiction of the emperor of the Central Plains dynasty.
As for Li Xuan, he was not as complicated as Emperor Zhengde and Ada Khan thought. What he thought was simpler and purer, that is, through a large-scale decisive battle, directly defeat the last 100,000 main forces of the Ming army.
, conveniently inflicted heavy losses and even annihilated the 50,000 Tatar cavalry.
For this, he was mentally prepared to pay a heavy price.
As long as this battle is won, even if the price is higher, it will be worth it. After this battle, no one in the entire world, except Zhang Yue's troops, can stop the progress of the Tang Dynasty King.
Even if Zhang Yue waits for the Tang Dynasty to free up its hands and gather the main forces to attack, he will not be able to stop the attack of the Tang Dynasty King!
As long as this battle is won, the unification of China will be just around the corner!
The three parties in Anping Town each have their own plans, but no matter what their plans are, the large-scale decisive battle is gradually approaching.
On the fifth day of May, the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, the army led by Li Xuan personally arrived outside Anping Town. However, they did not launch an attack immediately, but began to build a camp.
A decisive battle involving 200,000 people from both sides is not something that can be fought just by fighting.
The Tang army did not take the initiative to attack, and the Ming army did not take the initiative to fight!
However, although the main forces of both sides did not move, the battles between the partial divisions were quite frequent, especially the reconnaissance troops. In order to detect more detailed intelligence, the reconnaissance cavalry and forward troops were frequently active on the battlefield and then started fighting. This
This kind of small-scale battle may only involve dozens or hundreds of people, but the fighting is quite frequent.
As for this small-scale reconnaissance operation, both sides sent elite troops, and they were basically melee and chase battles. The line tactics that the Tang Army was proud of could not play a big role, while the Ming Army
The elites they sent were not bad, so the two sides were able to fight evenly in this small-scale battle.
However, on the east side of the canal, tens of thousands of Ming army cavalry were heading south!
On the west side of the canal, tens of thousands of Tatar cavalry are also heading south. The two cavalry are almost going hand in hand, separated by only a canal. This is also part of a coordinated operation plan reached by Emperor Zhengde and Ada Khan.
First, send cavalry south to attack the Tang army’s supply lines.
Although the cavalry has relatively good maneuverability, the mobility of these two groups of more than 20,000 cavalry cannot be expected to escape the detection of the Tang Army's reconnaissance cavalry. Therefore, the Datang Army's reconnaissance cavalry has always maintained a
Surveillance of these two groups of enemy cavalry.
After learning that the enemy's cavalry was gradually heading south, Li Xuan remained unmoved and continued to prepare the troops step by step!
In the rear, the Fifth Infantry Division is ready!
In order to ensure that the Fifth Infantry Division can maneuver quickly, the Navy has organized a large number of transport ships. Even if the enemy's cavalry directly attacks dozens of kilometers south, the Navy can transport the Fifth Infantry Division in time to fight.
Anyway, the bottom line of the Tang Army is to guard the canal, ensure the safety of the supply line of the army that has arrived in Anping Town, and prevent the enemy from occupying a certain stronghold. As for them wandering on both sides of the canal, the Datang Army is too lazy to take a look.
The Army of the Tang Dynasty directly dispatched the most elite Fifth Infantry Division to rely on the canal for mobile defense. The cavalry of the Ming Army and the Tatar cavalry were naturally impossible. They could expect that the Tang Army would return for reinforcements, but they could not
I would have thought that the Tang Army would also send out its most elite Fifth Infantry Division.
Moreover, the Army of the Tang Dynasty changed a lot, and the troops all looked exactly the same. If you don't know the details, it is not easy to judge which army is elite.
Two days after Li Xuan led his army to arrive outside Anping City, the cavalry of the Ming Army and the Tatars continued to move south. The cavalry of the Ming Army also attacked a small town along the canal. Of course, the attack had no effect because the local area was basically empty.
There were no supplies or Tang army garrison, so they later tried to use this town to directly guard the canal.
However, several inland river warships from a squadron of the Canal Fleet arrived quickly and started bombarding. Not long after, other nearby warships also arrived, and finally more than ten gunboats gathered together for a fierce bombardment.
Seeing the bad opportunity, the Ming cavalry immediately withdrew from the town and stayed away from the shelling range, without causing any actual losses.
But the Tatars, who have never fought against the Tang Army, are very confident. They don't want to cut off the canal. Cutting off the canal would lead to a disastrous defeat for the Tang Army, and this is not in the interests of the Tatars!
They wanted to attract the puppet Tang rebels and hold them back. Of course, if they could easily annihilate thousands or tens of thousands of Tang troops in the process, then they wouldn't mind!