Chapter 13 Why don't you thieves play cards according to the routine
After all, the speed of army mobilization is much slower than that of horse messengers.
Therefore, after hearing the news that Lin Chengcheng had joined the invaders, as long as Chen Shuren could immediately judge that the thief was only here to contain his own forces, not the main direction of attack, and then immediately make response arrangements, it would definitely be in time.
The day I got the news was April 13th. Considering that the absolute speed of the boat against the current was not as fast as that of horseback riding, Chen Shuren chose to take dozens of personal escorts and ride along the river. At night, when the people were tired and the horses were exhausted, they took the boat to relay. Sleeping on board.
After traveling day and night like this, by the evening of the next day, we had already rushed back to Huanggang County, which is more than 200 miles away.
Chen Shuren gave Zuo Zixiong urgent instructions and gave him one night to organize his troops and get ready. He set off the next day and sailed against the current to Xiaogan County in Suizhou. Some other generals were also accompanying him.
At the same time, Shen Lian's garrison battalion of 2,000 people was mobilized to Huangmei County to train with Zheng Chenggong.
After Zuo Zixiong learned that He Jin might invade Xiaogan County, he was a little anxious along the way and wanted to urge the troops to march several times.
The distance from Huanggang to Xiaogan is nearly 200 miles. If a normal land march takes four days, a forced march or waterway will take more than two days.
In ancient times, when marching, infantrymen carrying baggage would be considered qualified if they walked fifty miles a day (if you are a yellow-robed person who does not work hard, you can only walk forty miles. If it is any less, your acting skills will be too fake. From Chenqiaoyi to Kaifeng, it is forty miles) , if you march without any baggage, you can get close to a hundred miles.
At this time, Shen Shuren was relatively calm, telling Zuo Zixiong not to worry too much, he would definitely be able to do it in time:
"He Jin won't come too soon. He will definitely have to wait a few more days after Lin Chengcheng joins the invaders before taking any action here in Suizhou. This will give us time to divide our troops and go east.
Otherwise, before I divided my troops, he would bump into my main force as soon as he arrived, and a direct conflict broke out between the two sides. Wouldn't it be that Lin Chengcheng took a good opportunity to take advantage of the emptiness behind me?
Among the various camps of bandits, they were very picky about who picked the peaches and who fought hard, even more so than the official army - the official army was defeated, and apart from the servants, the rest of the losses were the imperial troops anyway. You can sell your land without feeling bad. Every soldier of the bandit belongs to you."
Chen Shuren's analysis was so incisive that Zuo Zixiong was immediately reassured. Yan Yingyuan and others who were accompanying him were also impressed and lamented that Master Daotai had a really accurate grasp of the mentality of the bandits. Everyone's morale and confidence, It has also risen slightly to a higher level.
Chen Shuren was secretly proud: the lavishness with capital between the military generals and the thief kings was basically equivalent to the difference between state-owned enterprise executives and private enterprise bosses in later generations.
…
On the evening of April 16, the Ming army arrived in Xiaogan County successfully after walking for three full days. The morale and physical strength of the troops were also maintained very well.
When they arrived at the county seat, Zhang Mingzhen, who had been stationed here before, received the news in advance and naturally led his troops out of the city to greet them, all the way to the mouth of the Sheshui River - Xiaogan is located along the banks of the Sheshui River. After leaving the county seat, he walked down the river for twenty miles. , you can reach the estuary where the She River merges into the Han River.
In the Dabie Mountains, many county towns are distributed like this. A relatively fertile river valley farming area is formed by small rivers flowing out of the Dabie Mountains.
It is impossible for enemies to come to the upper reaches of Sheishui River, because the river stops flowing upstream for more than a hundred miles, and further north there are high mountains. Even if you climb over the mountains, you will not be able to bring any weapons, equipment and supplies, let alone attack the city. , as long as the city gate is closed and guarded for a period of time, the enemy will starve to death on his own.
Therefore, the main threat to Xiaogan still comes from the banks of the Han River.
The enemy wants to march from Suizhou County, Anlu County and other places that are still occupied by the enemy, along the river flowing through these two counties. After arriving at the mouth of the river where the river merges into the Han River, they will then march along the Han River to Sheng. At the mouth of the Shui River, he went upstream along the She River to attack Xiaogan.
Zhang Mingzhen is also well aware of this situation, so he only leaves a few hundred elite troops to guard Xiaogan County, and organizes civilians to strengthen patrols in the near future, ready to assist in defending the city at any time. The main soldiers can be mobilized and go forward to the mouth of the Jishui River to fight with the soldiers. Sir, prepare to join forces.
"Is there any news about He Jin's bandit army?" After Shen Shuren met him, he simply washed his face and hurriedly asked about the military situation.
This is the first time Zhang Mingzhen has had a performance opportunity. He seems to be well prepared. He immediately reported in detail:
"Lord Daotai divined his fortune. Sure enough, we detected a bandit ship on the Han River at the mouth of the river during the day today. The boats were very small. They should have come from the river. When they got here, they landed ashore. Are they still there? Camp at the mouth of the water river.
It seems that they are preparing to fight steadily and march by land for the last leg. The general thought that it must have been your brutal killing of Liu Xiyao last year that made them realize the power of your naval warships, so they did not dare to march by water to save effort."
Chen Shuren nodded: "Yes, he is indeed a capable general who has dealt with pirates for many years. His planning is very meticulous. Have you found out how many enemy troops there are?"
This question is a bit difficult to answer, and Zhang Mingzhen was unable to conduct an in-depth investigation. He could only reply based on rough information obtained from a distance:
"Reporting to Daotai, the scouts at that time took a rough look at the scale of the bandit army's new camp. They divided it into five or six camps. I am afraid that the total of thirty or forty thousand people can be stationed, but I don't know if this is a bluff.
According to the previous understanding of the enemy's situation, the total number of Gezuo's fifth battalion is about more than 100,000, of which He Jin's troops are only 30,000, and many are old and weak. The number of elite soldiers does not exceed seven or eight thousand. Now such a sudden establishment The large camp is really puzzling.
Therefore, before your Excellency came, the general used this to explain to the soldiers, telling them that this was the enemy's bluff, in order to stabilize the morale of the army. At present, the morale is still high, and no one doubts it."
"There is actually a camp that can accommodate thirty or forty thousand people?" Shen Shuren was quite surprised when he heard this latest information.
Bluffing is very common, but bluffing so falsely seems so unusual.
He pondered for a moment and sighed: "The art of war is as real as it is false, and as true as false. It shouldn't be as simple as a bluff, there must be something hidden. Just be careful tonight, and send troops to explore the reality tomorrow."
…
In addition to leaving 2,000 people in the eastern part of Huangzhou to guard against the cultivation of lins, the Shenshu people also left several hundred people in other strategic locations to guard the city or to monitor the dangerous passes over the Dabie Mountains. In total, there were about a thousand people.
Therefore, the Xiaogan Camp can only gather 5,000 troops at best.
If we want to increase the number of people, we will have to recruit more strong men, or further reorganize the old and weak bandits who were assigned to work in the fields after the prisoners came back. These cannot be solved overnight.
Huangzhou Prefecture has a total population of more than 200,000, and it is already quite tight to support 8,000 regular soldiers.
After all, according to this ratio, less than thirty people can support one soldier. The 100 million people of the Ming Dynasty cannot support more than three million troops. At its peak, the Ming Dynasty could barely support two million military men, and that’s not all. regular army.
In the early morning of this day, Chen Shuren planned to send his own cavalry unit, led by Zuo Zixiong, to the upstream direction of the mouth of the Shuihe River to investigate carefully.
The Chenshu people don't have many cavalry. There are no horses in the south, and the court has never given the Chenshu people war horses before. Therefore, before the attack on Liu Xiyao last year, there were only two to three hundred people on horseback, and some of them were officers.
After killing Liu Xiyao, he finally collected hundreds of uninjured horses, allowing Chen Shuren to not only ride all the officers above him, but also to assemble a cavalry force of 500 people.
Unexpectedly, the enemy army also thought of it with him. Not long after Chen Shuren's 500 cavalry went out on patrol, the bandit army also came out of camp and marched southward steadily, marching toward each other.
The two places were only forty or fifty miles apart, so they would meet each other very quickly if they walked in the same direction. Fortunately, the Ming army generals under Shen Shuren had telescopes and could see them from a height nearly twenty miles apart.
The number of the densely packed enemy troops cannot be faked, as they may not really number in the tens of thousands. After seeing this truth, everyone's expression changed.
"Go back to the camp first! Hold tight!" Shen Shuren is not stupid either. A good man doesn't suffer immediate losses. He immediately escaped after the investigation was confirmed. Zuo Zixiong protected him personally and never left his side while riding his horse.
After a while, the bandit army also discovered the provocative Ming army who came out of camp, and immediately sent out cavalry troops to pursue them. Fortunately, the Ming army began to turn their horses around more than ten miles in advance, and they could not catch up when they returned to camp.
The vanguard of the rogue cavalry did not know whether to live or die. Seeing the Ming army's discomfiture, they wanted to take advantage of the situation to cover up the attack and followed them into the camp.
Fortunately, Zhang Mingzhen, who had stayed behind, had been guarding the camp with strict military discipline. When he saw the smoke rising in front, he ordered all the fire soldiers to mount the earthen walls and wooden fences, and the archers and crossbowmen were also ready to prepare.
The Shen Jiajun's firearms discipline training in the past few months has shown its value at this moment. The officer will not take the gun first until the officer is allowed to do so. After all the friendly troops are safe in the camp, the enemy cavalry rushes forward and only fires according to the order.
After several rounds of volleys, the bandits and cavalry briefly stopped, leaving dozens of corpses behind and immediately retreated - although there were tens of thousands of bandits, there were only a few thousand cavalry, and it was impossible to rely on cavalry to attack the camp, so there was no need to sacrifice their lives in vain.
After the two sides faced off tensely for half an hour, the main force of the bandits' rear army arrived one after another, with flags fluttering. They were all big flags with the word "congratulations", which made it difficult for people to understand.
After Chen Shuren watched for a while, he noticed a detail. He quickly pulled Zuo Zixiong and Zhang Mingzhen over and asked, "Look, the colors of these congratulatory flags seem to be different. Some are pure white, and some are pure white." There are some light khaki colors with a bit of burlap, and these happen to be two colors, could it be..."
Zhang Mingzhen was a little confused after hearing this.
However, Zuo Zixiong had been in Huangzhou for more than a year and had a better understanding of the enemy's situation. He immediately understood what Shen Shuren meant:
"What Master Daotai means is that there may be more than just Zuojin King He Jin's troops here? There may also be Ge Liyan He Yilong's troops stationed in Xinyang Prefecture, Henan? Are the two He's coming together to invade?"
After these words were spoken, the faces of the generals changed slightly. If this was true, the disparity between the enemy and ourselves would be a bit big.
As expected, the enemy on the opposite side did not leave Shen Shuren much time to reflect. After a while, among the thousands of troops on the opposite side, two corridors opened up like waves, and two powerful generals wearing great cloaks stood out from the crowd. When they came out and were more than one mile away from the Ming army's main camp, they asked the scolding soldiers to come out and spread the word.
"Ge Liyan, King Zuo Jin has gathered 100,000 troops here! The dog officer surrenders quickly, but he can't be circumvented! Soldiers on the opposite side, don't work for the dog officer of Chongzhen Hunjun!"
After Chen Shuren heard this, he finally paid attention to it and was a little unwilling to do so: Why don't you play according to the routine? Shouldn't you give me some more time to fight monsters and level up, and then you guys will come up and deliver them in batches one by one? Why did they suddenly join forces to attack together! There is also Lin Chengchang who is holding back the rear! It’s like three families are attacking at the same time!
What on earth are the Ming armies doing in other directions doing? Why are we allowed to carry so many enemies in one place in Huangzhou?