Chapter 964: I would rather surrender rather than enter Sichuan
The Ming Army Superintendent Biao used the seemingly simple Qishui Fortress and paid the price of about 2,000 men to hold back the 3rd Infantry Division for eight days, so that the 3rd Infantry Division failed to compete with the 7th Infantry Division and other units.
They gathered at the foot of Huangzhou City in time and launched an attack.
Using these eight days, the Ming Army Supervisor Biao has successfully returned to defense and built a new line of defense around Huangzhou!
Now that their Second Army wants to attack Huangzhou, it can only carry out a head-on attack.
Wang Chaohong hates fighting tough battles, because it means the battle will become longer, the battle will be more brutal, the casualties will be greater, and the ammunition will be consumed more!
Although Du Yu, the Tang Army's current army, has become more and more experienced in attacking tough battles and his ability to attack tough battles is getting stronger and stronger, fundamentally speaking, the Tang Army is not good at fighting tough battles, and they also reject it.
As for bypassing Huangzhou and then going straight to Hanyang, you are dead as the commander of the 50,000 to 60,000 Ming army in the Huangzhou defense line. As soon as you leave, others will dare to cut off your retreat and even go all the way east.
Kill them, take back Qizhou, Huangmei, and Susong, and then go straight to Anqing.
By then your second army can go to Hanyang, but they will also go directly to Jinling!
Therefore, even if Huangzhou is difficult to defeat, we still have to fight hard.
In fact, from the day it was established, the Army of the Tang Dynasty actually developed a series of training tactics and equipment specifically for frontal decisive battles in the wild.
They were equipped with muskets, adopted line infantry tactics, formed grenadiers, and focused on visual artillery. It can be seen from these that in fact most of them were specially prepared for frontal decisive battles in the field.
Such preparations have indeed achieved great results. At least so far, they have not failed in a frontal outdoor decisive battle!
However, the more powerful the Tang Army was in field combat, the more the Ming Army avoided decisive battles with them in the field!
The failure of many large-scale outdoor decisive battles has told every Ming army general that even if they defend the city and are defeated to the last drop of blood, they will never be able to engage in a head-on outdoor decisive battle with the Tang Army.
Because the former still has some hope of resisting the Tang Army's offensive, and no matter how bad it is, they can sustain it for a while longer. However, in the latter, they have no hope of winning at all, and they often lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in a day and a half.
's army.
The Jiangnan Campaign and the Northern Expedition are the most typical examples!
The original Wang Yiqi and the later Emperor Zhengde all tried to concentrate their superior forces to determine the outcome in one battle. Emperor Zhengde also had nearly 10,000 Ming army cavalry at his disposal, and at the same time, he also had 50,000 Tatar cavalry as foreign aid.
But as a result, Wang Yiqi's superior force suffered a frontal attack and collapsed very quickly.
Emperor Zhengde personally led the army, but it was not much better. The Tatar cavalry, which had high hopes at that time, suffered heavy losses when attacking the Tang army's phalanx. In the end, Emperor Zhengde was defeated and died. Anda Khan and the remaining Tatar cavalry were in embarrassment.
Escape back to the grassland!
The Jiangnan Campaign and the Northern Expedition almost completely declared the Tang Army's invincibility in frontal decisive battles in the wild!
Zhang Yue is not stupid, so he will not let his supervisor repeat the footsteps of Wang Yiqi's Jiangnan New Army and Emperor Zhengde's personal army!
In fact, even without these two obvious battle examples, Zhang Yue had actually long ago given up his plan to have a decisive battle with the Tang Army in the open field. At that time, in Jiangxi and Hunan, the war between Du Biao and the Datang Army was actually
It has always been defensive operations and offensive operations.
Although in the end Jiangxi and Hunan were conquered by the Tang Army one after another, and finally the two huge provinces fell into the hands of the Tang Dynasty, through this series of defensive operations, Zhang Yue actually also
It lasted for quite a long time and bought more time for itself through constant resistance.
When the Tang Army captured Jiangnan, Jiangbei, and large areas such as Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi, Hubei and Sichuan were still firmly controlled by Zhang Yue. What does this mean? What does this mean?
In fact, Dubiao's defensive strategy of constant resistance has achieved a certain degree of success.
In the past two days, the generals in charge of supervision have actually been thinking about how to fight against the Tang Dynasty King's Division, or to be more precise, how to defend the Tang Dynasty Army's attack.
They were equipped with a large number of guns and artillery, but they had never considered using these guns and artillery to engage in a decisive battle in the open field with the Tang Army, because they knew that this was unlikely.
What they were considering was how to build a line of defense to contain the Tang Army's attack!
In recent years, they have made many attempts!
The early Hengyang defense system and Changsha defense system were actually quite successful. Although these two cities fell in the end, this does not deny the success of Du Biao's defense system in these two cities.
Because in the end, Hengyang was not actually captured by the Tang Army, but because the Tang Army captured Yuezhou and strategically surrounded Changsha and Hengyang, and the Hengyang defenders were forced to give up on their own initiative.
Although Changsha was finally captured by force, at that time the Tang Army already had absolute advantages in strength and firepower.
You must know that the Tang Army at that time actually concentrated the First Army and the Second Army, with a force of 70,000 to 80,000 people to storm Changsha, which was defended by only 10,000 to 20,000 people.
The fall of Changsha was a helpless act!
But this does not mean that the original Changsha defense system was unsuccessful!
If Supervisor Biao had more troops at that time, for example, if there were 30,000 to 40,000 main garrison troops, it is still unknown whether the Tang Army could have conquered Changsha.
After retreating to the north of the Yangtze River, Dubiao continued to develop their strategic defense capabilities, with Hanyang as the center, and built the Hubei region north of the Yangtze River like an iron barrel.
This forced the First Army of the Tang Dynasty Army to confront them on the south bank of the Yangtze River for a long time, and it was impossible to defeat them.
A senior general supervising Biao asserted that even if a hundred thousand puppet Tang rebels attacked, Hanyang would be able to defend it!
When he said this, the Tang army in the entire Huguang area only had 20,000 to 30,000 people. One hundred thousand people could only be expected.
But now, the Tang Army has really invested 100,000 troops to attack Hubei!
The total strength of the First Army, the Second Army, the Fifth Army as well as the strategic reserve, as well as some surrounding troops, has even exceeded 100,000!
In this case, can they still hold on?
Many senior generals in the governor's office are very confident in this, but many people also maintain a pessimistic attitude. For example, Zhang Yue's very trusted subordinate Song Zhiwen, the new and first governor of eastern Sichuan, once advised Zhang Yue like this,
Abandon Hanyang, Huangzhoufu and other places that are difficult to defend, concentrate troops to defend Jingzhou, especially the Badong area, and close the door to Sichuan.
In this way, they will have enough time and energy to develop Sichuan, accumulate strength, and finally break out of Sichuan, seize the Central Plains, and revive the Ming Dynasty!
However, Song Zhiwen's suggestion was rejected by Zhang Yue without hesitation.
Didn't Zhang Yue know that Hubei was difficult to defend? Didn't he know that it would be easier to defend if he retreated his troops to Badong or even to Sichuan?
He knows, but can he do it?
he can not!
Just like the Tang Dynasty relied on the emerging industrial and commercial class and farmers to gain its own base and conquer the world.
Zhang Yue's supervisor only had his own base, which was the gentry landlords, especially those in the Huguang area.
These gentry and landlords contributed money and efforts to help Zhang Yue maintain such a large army of constant supervision. If Zhang Yue wants to abandon Hubei, guess what will happen?
A large number of generals who supervise the standards will refuse Zhang Yue's order without hesitation, and then still lead the army to defend Hubei!
Because Hubei is their home, and Sichuan is none of their business!
As for Zhang Yue, there was no way he could have complete control over the army like Li Xuan in the Tang Dynasty.
Zhang Yue's control of the governor was relatively traditional. He relied on the loyalty of senior military generals to ensure control of the army.
The senior generals who supervise the bidding rely on the loyalty of the mid-level generals to control the troops.
Mid-level generals, on the other hand, rely on the loyalty of lower-level generals to control the army.
Low-level generals rely on the loyalty of soldiers to control the army!
Layer after layer of loyal relations allowed Zhang Yue to control the original supervisory standard that had integrated Huguang Army Training, Sichuan Army Training, and now totaled more than 150,000 people.
And it is this hierarchical relationship of allegiance that constitutes the combat effectiveness of Dubiao!
Because, to a certain extent, the soldiers who supervise the bidding are not fighting for Zhang Yue, let alone King Jing who is far away in Chengdu, Sichuan. They are fighting for themselves.
If you want the direct descendants of the local gentry and landlords in Hubei to bring their own tenants and an army composed of local farmers' sons to follow you Zhang Yue to Sichuan, don't dream about it.
They would rather surrender than go to Sichuan!
Therefore, Zhang Yuehao never planned to abandon Hubei with the main force of the governor and then retreat to Sichuan. At least, he would not take the army led by the local gentry generals in Hubei to Sichuan, because even if he wanted to, they would not go.
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However, this does not mean that he did not do anything behind the scenes
Hubei was difficult to defend, and he knew it very well, so when he deployed Hubei, he also made other arrangements. Song Zhiwen's entry into Sichuan was the most obvious example. When Song Zhiwen entered Sichuan, he brought not only him, but also
There were many Dubiao soldiers, and Dubiao also began to win over the local gentry and landlords in Sichuan to form Dubiao in Sichuan.
In other words, it should be to form a local Sichuan supervision army!
In this regard, Song Zhiwen has done a very good job. In the past year or so, with Zhang Yue's expectations, he has successfully organized and trained an army of at least 50,000 people in Sichuan. At the same time, he has also established a large number of workshops in Chongqing.
A large number of craftsmen who were originally in Hanyang area were moved to Chongqing Prefecture. Among them, the person responsible for garrisoning in Badong was Du Biao, who was born in Sichuan area.