Zhou Yanru's design was very good, but he did not expect that before Hou Xun went south, things would change: Wuchang was quickly captured by Zhang Xianzhong!
The King of Chu was drowned by the eight kings, and He Fengsheng threw himself into the river. Governor Ding Qirui and his Chu troops successfully broke out of the encirclement, but it didn't take long for him to rush out of Wuchang City. As soon as he ran to Xianning, he ran into Lao Huihui.
Ma Shouying's troops.
Ma Shouying's troops were organized into five brigades and five squads. The fifth squad included a very elite cavalry unit, named Xiaozuo Squadron.
Most of the cavalrymen in the Xiaozuo team are equipped with several handguns at once. Their riding and shooting skills are far superior to ordinary people. Even while galloping, they can pierce the enemy with a hundred steps, which is a miraculous skill.
Ding Qirui led thousands of Chu army remnants to the south to Xianning. Unfortunately, he ran into Ma Shouying, who had been placed south of Wuchang Prefecture by Zhang Xianzhong since Jiayu crossed the river.
The leader of the small Zuo team was called Gu Taibai. He was a sensitive and courageous man. After discovering the traces of the Chu soldiers, he quickly led the Xiao Zuo team to take the initiative to attack without waiting for Ma Shouying to report back. Ding Qirui was in a state of turmoil, and the morale of the Chu army was also at an extremely low ebb.
During the process, he was shot at by the small Zuo team and almost collapsed at the first touch.
Poor Inspector Ding didn't know the new strategy of "suppressing the general" established by the imperial court. He was shot dead by Gu Taibai among the rebels. Among the thousands of Chu soldiers, there were not many casualties, and most of them were those who arrived later.
Ma Shouying should be included.
However, this triggered another unexpected incident. After Zhang Xianzhong conquered Wuchang, he already called himself the "King of the West", and his tone was even better than that of Li Zicheng, who was known as the "Civil and Military Marshal of Fengtian Advocating Righteousness". He also changed Wuchang Mansion to Tianshou Mansion.
Jiangxia County is Shangjiang County, which is obviously my destiny.
This time, after Zhang Xianzhong moved into the Prince of Chu's Mansion, he set up two big flags in front of the door, which read: "Heaven and man return, recruiting talents!"; two flags were also set up at the nine city gates of Wuchang, which read: "The world is under heaven."
Quiet and powerful in all directions."
Needless to say, Zhang Xianzhong was very proud. He believed in "the destiny is mine" and regarded Ma Shouying's unauthorized recruitment of the Chu army as a violation of his "fate". Naturally, he was very dissatisfied. Xiying and Gehui both
The cooperation between the two camps cast an ominous shadow just when the two sides started to cooperate.
For Li Laiheng, who was resting in Hanchuan County, he expected that Wuchang was captured by the Western Battalion. After all, the rebel army had returned to the two battalions and "squeezed" them to the south of the Yangtze River. He Yilong and Ma Shouying were there.
With the reinforcements of tens of thousands of troops, Zhang Xianzhong no longer had any reason not to be able to capture Wuchang.
Although Guo Junzhen has some opinions on this, he believes that although the Gehui army increased from 10,000 to more than 20,000 troops after capturing Chengtian, the gap between the strength and ordnance of the two battalions of the Gehui army and the Huguang army is still very large.
, not to mention that after Li Guo arrived with 30,000 reinforcements, the strength of the two sides became worlds apart.
With such a huge advantage, why put He Yilong and Ma Shouying in the south of the Yangtze River? Wouldn't it be better to eliminate them directly?
Li Laiheng could only smile bitterly at this. Guo Junzhen has become more and more martial-minded recently. Although his military skills are superb and his tactical sense is far superior to his own, his political vision is far behind.
Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang, which was inevitable. Even if he did not send Ge Hui back to Jiangnan to reinforce the Western Camp, Zhang Xianzhong could still capture Wuchang in a short time.
The Xiying camp currently has only over 20,000 soldiers and horses. After the two revolutionary battalions expanded in Chengtian Mansion, they also had more than 20,000 soldiers and horses. The strength of both sides was equal. After joining forces, they commanded many troops. According to Li Laiheng's estimation, Zhang Xianzhong's strength
Not only will it not increase, but it will be constrained by the revolution and return, and it will not be able to compete with the Chu army in Huguang.
This time Ma Shouying integrated the Chu army after the Battle of Xianning, which seemed to indicate that the conflict between Xiying and Gehui was also inevitable.
"Ma Bao has captured Hanyang City? He rushed so fast!"
Ma Bao led 3,000 cavalry and captured the entire territory of Hanyang Mansion in a very short period of time. What surprised Li Laiheng the most was that Ma Bao rushed in front of the Western Camp and occupied the four major areas in the world without a single blow.
Hankou Town, one of the famous towns.
The so-called four famous towns in the world refer to Zhuxian Town, Hankou Town, Jingdezhen, and Foshan Town. Although these four commercial towns have a very low administrative level and are not even county towns, their economy and population size are very large.
A huge industrial and commercial town.
The prosperity of Hankou Town is second to none in Huguang: on the water, there are many sails and rafts; on the shore, there are rows of stilted buildings with their own characteristics; on the shore, there are grain shops, row upon row, with the shouts of various vendors and the voices of craftsmen.
The sound of gongs and drums comes one after another...
The chimneys on the street are emitting black smoke, turning the sky into darkness. There are frequent transactions during the day, and the noise is endless. You can see vendors, dock workers, sailors, boatmen and others who have not finished their meal everywhere.
It's hard to find a wealthy businessman.
Ma Bao swept across the entire territory of Hanyang Prefecture with lightning speed. The wealthy merchants in Hankou Town originally organized an armed merchant group of thousands of people at their own expense to try to resist the invasion of the invaders.
If the two sides start a fierce battle here, Hankou Town, which is the most prosperous among the three Chus, will inevitably be devastated.
But Ma Bao relied on his past experience as a military general and found an old acquaintance in the armed merchant group. That man was also a general in the Henan military. After Kaifeng was occupied by the invaders, he followed Zuo Liangyu all the way south.
He escaped and was eventually hired as an officer by wealthy businessmen in Hankou Town.
There are insiders to attack, and Hankou Town has long been the focus of Kendeji's business, and many shops in the town are under Xiao Weisong's control.
Without Ma Bao's attack, the merchant group's armed forces abandoned their armor and turned against each other. The intruders effortlessly and peacefully occupied this prosperous trading town on the edge of the Yangtze River.
Although Zhang Xianzhong was also eyeing Hankou Town, known as "the most prosperous city in Chu and the thoroughfare of nine provinces", he sent General Zhang Dingguo, who had once attacked Xiangyang with 300 cavalry and forced Yang Sichang to death, and asked him to lead 3,000 land and sea troops to attack Hankou in an attempt to
Seizing food from the tiger's mouth, this important commercial center was snatched from the hands of the invading army.
Zhang Dingguo used his troops quickly, quietly crossing the Yangtze River at night, and suddenly sent troops to attack Hankou before dawn. At that time, Ma Bao had already demobilized the armed merchant group, and the troops stationed in Hankou only had 900 cavalry and 800 gunmen.
Only half of Xiying.
It can be said that Ma Bao's defense of Hankou was quite lax at this time. He did not regard the Western Camp on the other side of the Yangtze River as an enemy to alert him. As a result, when he was attacked by Zhang Dingguo, he was panicked and almost collapsed.
Although Zhang Dingguo sent troops quickly, he was well prepared. He used civilian ships to transport many artillery pieces to the north bank of the Yangtze River at night. When the Western Camp discovered that the defense of the Hankou army was not tight, but very lax, Zhang Dingguo immediately decided to mobilize artillery for a strong attack.
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At that time, Ma Bao was very generous. In order to stabilize the people of Hankou Town, he did not place the cavalry in the town. Instead, he built several additional camps outside the town for the cavalry troops to live.
Now these camps outside the town immediately became a living target in Zhang Dingguo's eyes. The Western Camp concentrated its firepower, specializing in attacking the cavalry outside the town. They fired muskets and cannons in a fierce attack. For a time, all the tents that broke into the army were cracked by cannons, and the soldiers were wounded.
The woodcutters are almost cut off, and the danger is imminent.
In panic, Ma Bao could only lead his soldiers to defend the camp. Fortunately, his bodyguard Jiao Da, although his education level was very low, was very flexible. Jiao Da rode back to Hankou town alone. Since he was illiterate, he could only
To write down the surname of the owner Ma Bao, he wrote the word "horse" in big letters on the paper, added a number of circles, and remarked it to draw a very clear picture of the situation of the invading army and the Western army outside the town.
The 800 fire gun soldiers stationed in Hankou Town are commanded by Brigade Commander Li Fengwu. He was born in Yang Wenyue, a powerful Baoding soldier. After surrendering to the Chuang Army, he first taught in the Suiying School and was transferred to the Suiying School during the Battle of Suizhou.
Fighting on the front line, due to his outstanding military exploits, he was transferred to the commander of the cannon brigade.
Li Fengwu was amazed by the situation map written by Jiao Da. After he saw the situation map, his two department chiefs, Luo Bin and Li Weiqun, came up with suggestions for rescue.