Guo Junzhen's temperament has always been a bit too proud, but he has some respect for Li Laiheng. He was so happy when he returned from the victory and received such a grand welcome. He dismounted from his horse, knelt on one knee in front of Li Laiheng, clenched his fist and replied
: "Fortunately, we have fulfilled our mission and brought peace to the Dabie Mountains for the Commander-in-Chief. Now all the villages are in uniform and peaceful. It is the time when the Commander-in-Chief is making other plans."
"The successful conclusion of the war in the Dabie Mountains is all due to the contribution of Junzhen. My brother, Lao Bai and Leshan have already agreed to pacify the villages in the Dabie Mountains. Once the rebel troops are freed up, they will use their troops to capture Zaoyang.
Down, gain depth to cover Suizhou's flank."
When Li Laiheng saw Guo Junzhen kneeling on the ground, he quickly followed suit and helped Guo Junzhen up with both hands.
Many of the officials and gentry armed forces who formed a separatist regime in the Dabie Mountains were fugitives from Suizhou. They were Li Laiheng's biggest thorn in the side. Guo Junzhen was able to deal with this group of people so quickly and smoothly without leaving any trace behind.
What kind of hidden dangers are there, he is really clever.
Li Laiheng then informed Guo Junzhen of the specific plan for conquering Zaoyang that everyone had agreed upon.
Zaoyang County is geographically integrated with Suizhou, but administratively it belongs to Xiangyang Prefecture. There are still thousands of defenders in Xiangyang, and it is a natural fortress that has been difficult to attack since ancient times. The army intends to capture Zaoyang.
Yang, we must try our best to avoid direct conflicts with the Xiangyang defenders, otherwise the war will continue and it will greatly affect the prospects and energy of the development of the Chu army.
Li Laiheng's original intention was to wait for Guo Junzhen to return to Jingsuizhou, assemble all the elite troops of the Huguang Army, and seize Zaoyang with a lightning offensive before the Xiangyang defenders noticed it, and then move along the river.
Defend, strengthen defense, and form an integrated defense system.
Gao Yigong and Fang Yiren held different opinions on this set of tactics. They believed that although Zaoyang was protected by water, the invasion army had not yet established a naval division. Even if defenses were deployed along the river, if the army relied on the inland river navy to move down the river,
, Zaoyang is difficult to defend.
According to their opinions, the prerequisite for seizing Zaoyang is that the Chuang Army must first build a considerable inland river navy. Considering that Li Laiheng will mainly fight in the northern part of Huguang where the river system is crisscrossed and densely covered with lakes for a period of time,
The Chuang army was bound to establish a powerful inland river navy in order to ensure waterway transportation in various states and counties within the control area.
Guo Junzhen had always had his eyes set on the top, and he considered Li Laiheng's rigid river defense strategy and Gao Yigong's and Fang Yiren's time-consuming and laborious naval strategy to be very inappropriate.
Needless to say, Li Laiheng's plan was just following the same pace, with no bright spots at all. Even though Guo Junzhen always respected his immediate boss, he couldn't help but laugh at it and said that this was "childish tactics."
Although Gao Yigong and Fang Yiren's plan has some relatively long-term vision.
However, the navy does not need a land division. It needs a large number of ships and experienced sailors. Even if we now collect civilian ships and recruit indigenous sailors, it will take a long time to transform the civilian ship fleet into an armed navy that can compete with the official army.
The manpower and material resources that had to be invested during this period exceeded the resource limits of the Chuang Army.
"Since the capture of Zaoyang is imminent, how can we be allowed to slowly build up a navy? If we have to rush and reorganize civilian ships to fight with the official army, the invading army is originally from the north and does not know the nature of water, let alone compete with the official army.
.”
The establishment of the navy was actually on Li Laiheng's list of plans, but he also knew that almost all Yuan Cong who broke into the army were Shaanxi people who did not know how to swim. Although after entering the great development of Henan, he absorbed many people from Henan, Huguang, and Jiangxi.
Newcomers, but those who are familiar with hydrology and water properties are still rare, and most of them are in lower positions.
In later history, after Li Zicheng personally led the main force of the invasion army to defeat Zuo Liangyu's regiment in Xiangyang, they immediately swept through northern Huguang, captured Hanyang Prefecture, and captured four or five thousand ships.
Zuo Liangyu's regiment, which had fled Wuchang, was already a frightened bird with no combat effectiveness, while the Chuang army had a powerful field army and four to five thousand civilian ships. Even in such a favorable situation, Li Zicheng still looked at the Yangtze River and sighed.
The invading army, which was mainly composed of northerners, faced the turbulent river. When they crossed the river to attack Wuchang, many ships were sunk by the wind and waves because they were not familiar with the water. As a result, they had to give up the strategy of capturing Wuchang and conquer all three Chu, and instead went north to fight for Shaanxi.
, and finally embarked on the road to destruction in Shanhaiguan.
Li Laiheng knew the Navy's eagerness for the development of the Chuang Army in Huguang, so even though he was ridiculed by Guo Junzhen as "a child's use of troops" and felt very unhappy, he still suppressed his emotions and calmly analyzed: "What they said in Leshan is also very reasonable.
The water network in the Jianghan area is densely covered. If there is no organized and powerful inland navy to ride on the rivers, then the various states and counties controlled by the intruders will be easily divided by the rivers, and each will become isolated, and it will be easy for the army to defeat them one by one.
.”
Guo Junzhen shrugged his shoulders. He was not impressed by the strategy that Li Laiheng, Gao Yigong, and Fang Yiren came up with after many discussions. He sarcastically said: "Of course it is necessary to organize and train the navy, but now we have to break into
I have no soldiers, no ships, and no wealth, so what’s the use of trying to do it? I’m really abandoning my strengths and competing with others for my shortcomings!”
His words made the faces of all the generals present look ugly. Everyone knew that Guo Junzhen had an arrogant temperament and was not very good at dealing with interpersonal relationships. Therefore, as an old brother from northern Shaanxi, Guo Junzhen was sent to the Little Tiger Team.
the point.
But his performance during this period under Li Laiheng really made Gao Yigong and others look at him with admiration. Not only did he have many ingenious strategies for using troops, but he also seemed to be no longer as discerning as he used to be in dealing with relationships and dealing with others.
Higher than the top, simple and crude.
But now it seems that it is just the continuous victories and continuous great victories of the former standard-setting army that temporarily concealed Guo Junzhen's true nature.
Gao Yigong, Bai Wang and others were all familiar with Guo Junzhen's past personality, so they just looked at each other and smiled bitterly, feeling embarrassed about this prickly person.
Fang Yiren, who only had a brief understanding of Guo Junzhen, looked extremely ugly. He was a Crystal Monkey-like figure who was at ease in the Ming Dynasty officialdom. But he was still angry with Guo Junzhen after just a few words.
, it was all suppressed by years of self-cultivation through studying the books of saints and sages.
As for Li Laiheng... No matter how modest he appears on the surface, his nature is the most conceited in the world. As a person who has penetrated history, even if his specific talents are actually not as good as Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong is first-rate.
Being a hero does not stop Li Laiheng from elevating himself to the level of Zulong and Dragon Slayer in his own mind.
Guo Junzhen is so outspoken that Li Laiheng must be slandering him. But to put it bluntly, Guo Junzhen is now definitely regarded as a close confidant in Li Laiheng's small group. Because of this relationship, Li Laiheng can still suppress his inner feelings.
of resentment.
"If the Chuang Army really follows these strategies and uses its troops, then I won't be thinking about it for long. Brothers who are here now, all of our heads can be hung on the top of Xiangyang City. See you again!"
Guo Junzhen couldn't read the air at all, and was unaware of the gradually embarrassing atmosphere. He said with a look of disgust: "Zaoyang is indeed one of the important places covering Suizhou, but since its status is so important, from Jieshuai
Next, why are the guys so restrained in their writing? They all think that if they fight against the Xiangyang officers and soldiers, they can take Zaoyang. Since they don’t have the courage to fight with the Xiangyang officers and soldiers, then I think Zaoyang is
It doesn’t matter if you don’t take it!”
"Hahaha! General Guo's words are wrong." Fang Yiren's self-restraint told him that he really didn't need to speak at this time, but he finally couldn't bear it anymore and suppressed his anger and said, "There are thousands of troops in Xiangyang, although they are not as strong as Commander Jiexi.
, but Xiangfan is difficult to defend and difficult to attack. They have a way of retreat and reinforcements if they fight. If we have to attack Xiangyang in order to capture Zaoyang, then the Huguang army will definitely be in chaos. How can the invading army be so stable now?
The development of the environment is not due to the inability of the government and army to attack, but the fact that the governors and ministers of Huguang all have more important tasks than taking back Suizhou."
"If we had a big fight in Xiangyang, we would really end up meeting each other with our heads hanging above the city gate."