Chapter 205 It's never wrong to cut off the wings first
After getting acquainted with the generals in Kuizhou Prefecture, Zhu Shuren didn't have much time to sort it out. After all, the military situation was in turmoil and he needed to get back to Chongqing as soon as possible.
Therefore, he can only have a rough stereotype of each person's character in his heart, and then observe the performance of each department through actual combat to see who has the courage to do his job, who wants to preserve his strength and is unable to work hard, and who is not able to work hard.
I am willing to fight tough battles to further distinguish between the loyal and traitorous generals.
The day after arriving in Fengjie County, he held a small-scale military meeting in private. He only met with Qin Liangyu, Ma Xianglin and Fang Guoan to learn about the latest battle situation on the frontier, the distribution of enemy and enemy forces in the occupied areas, and the troops of various departments.
strength.
These reports did not require the participation of lower-level generals, so Zhu Shuren asked others to rest and recuperate first and prepare for the war as soon as possible.
From Qin Liangyu and others, Zhu Shuren learned that the total number of front-line soldiers in Kuizhou Prefecture is about 24,000.
Qin Liangyu and Ma Xianglin's direct line of white-armed soldiers originally had a full strength of about 20,000, but they also fought several battles with Zhang Xianzhong's troops. There must have been casualties and various losses. Wounded soldiers who were temporarily unable to go to the battlefield also had to be temporarily deducted, so in reality
There are 17,000 people left who can be called upon at any time.
Of the remaining 6,000 to 7,000 people, brothers Wang Guangchang and Wang Guangxing accounted for about half. Each of them had a battalion and about 2,000 soldiers each. They had been outlaws for several years and then became thieves again after being ordered to peace by the imperial court.
Four years as an officer and soldier.
The remaining half are the soldiers and horses of Tan Wen, Tan Hong, and Tan Yi. They are even weaker, and they can only fight with more than a thousand soldiers.
But they also have an advantage, that is, they are a local big family and have a certain appeal in the local area. If they are really loyal to the court and willing to sacrifice their lives, they can recruit their strong men from Wanxian and Dazhou counties to temporarily join the army.
As long as the imperial court pays and equips the troops, it is possible to recruit thousands more.
However, Qin Liangyu also added some information: Wanxian County, one of the Tan family's spheres of influence, is located along the Yangtze River, on the transportation artery between Zhiba County in Chongqing Prefecture and Fengjie County in Kuizhou Prefecture. Therefore, before Zhu Shuren arrived, Zhang Xianzhong stayed behind
When the troops in Chongqing tried to counterattack Fengjie, they occupied Wanxian County along the way, which is now an enemy-occupied area.
I heard that after Zhang Xianzhong defeated the Chongqing Prefecture, he only burned, killed, and looted in Ba County, which was governed by the Prefecture, but for other surrounding counties, he mainly recruited and raped people.
After all, Ba County is the richest. After taking all the wealth there, it is time to win over people's hearts and expand the army in other places. If we just burn and kill, the source of troops will be gone.
Therefore, it is currently heard that quite a few of the Tan family members who stayed in Wan County were taken away by Zhang Xianzhong's tribe and became bandits.
After the fall of Wanxian, the three groups of the Tan family crossed Tanjialing to the north of Wanxian and then retreated to Dazhou, retaining their strength——
In fact, from the place name Tanjialing, we can also see how powerful the Tan family is in Wanxian and Dazhou areas. Even the mountains there are named after their family names.
If you look at the topography of Chongqing on later Baidu maps, you will know that between the Yangtze River and the Qujiang River Basin in Chongqing, there are mountain ridges that separate the two parallel rivers.
It was not until Hechuan District in later generations, near the ancient Hezhou Diaoyu City, that there was a gap for the Jialing River, Fujiang River and Qujiang River to break through the mountains and go south. The three rivers merged into the new Jialing River, and finally ran south for nearly a hundred miles, in Chongqing.
The Chaotianmen area of Ba County in the core urban area merges into the Yangtze River.
Therefore, Tanjialing is the watershed between Wanxian and Dazhou, and between the Yangtze River and Qujiang River, which stretches all the way to Hezhou Diaoyu City.
Of course, the mountains there are also very dangerous. Otherwise, if it could be easily climbed and the grain road could be maintained, then there would be no need for the Mongol Khan Mengge to fight against Hezhou Diaoyu City for more than thirty years.
He was shot to death by the Song Army at the foot of Diaoyu City.
The mountainous areas around Chongqing are really not something outsiders can climb casually. It is simply a hellish nightmare.
It's just that the Tan family are local aborigines and have lived on both sides of Tanjialing for generations. They can climb mountains and ridges as if they were walking on flat ground. This is considered to be a special ability in this regard. When Zhang Xianzhong came, they could run away over the mountains.
Of course, Zhang Xianzhong's pursuers did not have the ability to easily cross Tanjialing, so they could not pursue them. They just felt that they had given up on Wanxian County and key nodes on the Yangtze River waterway. They no longer had a threat, and they were too lazy to spend a lot of money to kill them.
Kill them all.
Zhu Shuren followed Qin Liangyu's interpretation of the distribution of the various units of the army and the occupied areas, and also roughly understood the current situation between the enemy and ourselves.
…
"So, there are now more than 24,000 local officers and soldiers, 20,000 of them, namely the Baigan soldiers and the troops of General Fang, are all in front of Fengjie, and some are distributed in the surrounding Yunyang and Kaixian counties.
About 4,000 local armed forces are distributed in Dazhou, north of Tanjialing. Zhang Xianzhong's troops have never come to divide the troops along the Qujiang River below Dazhou. Qu County and Guang'an County downstream of Dazhou are still nominally controlled by imperial officials.
Lack of troops?
After Zhang Xianzhong's troops captured Chongqing Prefecture, they only divided their forces and marched northward against the Jialing River to defend Diaoyu City in Hezhou to ensure that the imperial troops north of Tanjialing could not break through the Jialing River defense line through the gap in Diaoyu City and move south?
The remaining main forces of Zhang Xianzhong's troops are all concentrated in Ba County, the core of Chongqing Prefecture, and Wan County, downstream of Ba County? Do you know how many troops Zhang Xianzhong left behind?"
After Zhu Shuren sorted out the distribution of his own troops, he finally confirmed it and asked about the size of the enemy.
Qin Liangyu is old, he speaks a little breathlessly, and his answers are a little slow: "As Mr. Guo Xing said, the troops left by Zhang Xianzhong are mainly stationed in these three places. It is said that there are still hundreds of thousands of people, but in fact
Of course it's impossible.
I estimate that the number of troops he brought out from the Central Guizhou Road will definitely not exceed 20,000 in Chongqing. Most of the rest should be traveling upstream along the Yangtze River and Minjiang River to plunder Chengdu and other places.
But it is really possible that he managed to attract hundreds of thousands of new people by randomly distributing money and food to Latin after massacring the city. Zhang Xianzhong was very good at coercing civilians, but these people's combat power should not be scary, and they may not even be equipped with all the weapons.
"
After hearing this, Zhu Shuren nodded thoughtfully: "In this way, I know how to fight. Chongqing still needs to strive for a quick victory. Only by breaking the gap in Chongqing can we completely open up the Yangtze River, Jialing River, and Fujiang River radiating into the hinterland of Sichuan.
the way,
We must seize time with Zhang Xianzhong and encircle the territory as soon as possible to limit the scope of his harm. Even if Zhang Xianzhong makes a desperate move, we will not be able to save Chengdu in time. At least we should not let Zhang Xianzhong corrupt too many other places. Who is the general who Zhang Xianzhong stayed in Chongqing? Do you have any information?"
Qin Liangyu: "I heard that Bai Wenxuan was the main one and stayed behind in Ba County. None of his adopted sons were left behind. It seems that he didn't pay much attention to the retreat and just wanted to encircle the territory and expand the army as soon as possible.
However, Bai Wenxuan had been very close to Li Dingguo. I heard that Zhang Xianzhong recently distrusted Li Dingguo the most among his disciples, and he was not worried about leaving only Li Dingguo's people. Therefore, he also selected two high-ranking officials from Sun Kewang's old department.
The lower general Di Sanpin was assisted by Zhang Mingzhi, and Bai Wenxuan ordered them to guard Hezhou and Wanxian respectively."
Zhu Shuren thought about it and found that among these people, except Bai Wenxuan, the others were rubbish that he had never heard of in history books, and they probably didn't have much ability.
In this way, it would be more certain to quickly cut off the wings of the bandits outside Ba County first.
Zhu Shuren held the jade fracture fan and patted it gently in the palm of his hand. While slowly pacing back and forth, he occasionally glanced at the map and lowered his head to meditate.
It didn't take long for him to come up with the most basic strategy: no matter what, first attack Wanxian and Hezhou by force, and in the process, observe the fighting spirit of the local Sichuan troops and their sincerity in contributing to the imperial court.
Even if you have to use psychological tactics, such as false surrender or alienation, you have to wait until the final attack on Ba County, and then go with the flow, and take advantage of the situation, and see who does not perform well, push out the bitter meat.
After all, these strategies cannot be successful twice in a short period of time, so there is no need to use them in a big way. They should be used from the beginning. It is not too late to use them when dealing with Bai Wenxuan himself.
Otherwise, it would be too wasteful to kill Di Sanpin and Zhang Mingzhi after a long time of doing it without any damage.
"That being the case, I have made up my mind. General Qin will obey the order." Zhu Shuren's face instantly changed from cheerful to solemn.
Qin Liangyu also changed his previous easy-going attitude and promised seriously: "The general will be here."
Zhu Shuren: "I order you to use the local troops of Kuizhou as the front and attack Wanxian and Hezhou first. Among them, Wanxian must be attacked by force to completely open up the Yangtze River waterway. Let Wang Guangchang and Wang Guangxing be the front. You can lead the white pole.
Soldiers serve as backup, and I will reinforce your red barbarian cannon to break down walls and doors.
As for Hezhou, you can go down the river from Dazhou, clear the way, encircle without fighting, go around the city, intercept the Hezhou rebels' breakout, and then cross Panjialing and go south to the Jialing River waterway in Ba County. Just use Tan.
Wen and other three troops will be the front, and your son can lead a group of white-poled soldiers as the back-up."
Qin Liangyu thought for a while, and first expressed his acceptance of the order, and then asked for instructions: "If we bypass Hezhou without attacking it, and just clear the way, how can we protect the food route for the troops going south from Dazhou? Hezhou has been an important place for military strategists in eastern Sichuan since ancient times.
, Meng Ge, the Great Khan of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, did not dare to bypass this place, lest the defenders in Hezhou City cut off his food route."
Zhu Shuren raised his hand and said: "It's only a hundred miles from Hezhou to Ba County. Let the troops passing by the city carry ten days of dry food with them. There will definitely be enough food on the way. As long as we clear other areas along the Jialing River, after arriving in Ba County, our army will
Naturally, we can go up the Yangtze River from Wanxian County to transport grain and grass to them.
Therefore, the two armies of Hezhou and Wanxian actually get their food from Wanxian. Our army has the advantage of the navy, and Bai Wenxuan in Baxian City can also strangle the Yangtze River and Jialing River waterways."
Qin Liangyu felt that this strategy was relatively sound, so he did not question it any more, but just reminded him: "Master Guo, you are a foreigner, and you may not understand the geography of eastern Sichuan. In the middle of winter, the amount of water in the Jialing River is not large.
Even in the Chaotianmen area of Ba County, which finally merges into the Yangtze River, the inflowing water is only tens of feet wide during the dry season, and the depth can sometimes be waded across. If our army only has large ships with deep drafts, it may not be able to sail into the Jialing River in the twelfth lunar month.
."
Zhu Shuren: "You don't need to worry about this, Old General Qin. The old general only needs to set out conditions. If you want a big ship, you can have a big ship. If you want a small ship, you can have a small ship. I have both. I have enough control. I have been a maritime merchant in the Shen family for generations, and my father also
Contracting water transportation for the imperial court, not much else, only ships."
…
Zhu Shuren's general order was quickly passed down from level to level, and the generals at the grassroots level did not dare to disobey the order, but it was inevitable for those local people in the Sichuan Army to complain.
Both the Wang brothers and the Tan brothers originally thought that when the main force of the imperial army entered Sichuan, they would definitely hitch a ride with them and enjoy the shade under the big trees.
Zhu Shuren has 20,000 Zhang Huangyan's troops and 50,000 direct troops. He has thousands of small fish and shrimps, and he can just follow the flag and shout to the gangsters.
Who would have thought that when the main force of the imperial court came, they would still have to be the vanguard, fight for their lives and suffer first. Then the main force of the imperial court would not have come in vain! Isn’t this bullying the honest people? The local army can be used to their advantage!
"The imperial army has a total of sixty or seventy thousand people. Including the troops from Qin General Town, the total is more than eighty thousand! How can we use these few thousand people as the vanguard of the siege!"
Almost the same words were spoken. For the Wang brothers, it was their elder brother Wang Guangchang who complained and questioned. For the Tan brothers, it was their younger brothers Tan Hong and Tan Yi who complained to Tan Wen. They all wanted to figure out why they were relatively ineffective in their work.
But it can be done in a hard-working way.
In contrast, Wang Guangxing and Tan Wen are more far-sighted than their brothers, so their attitudes are similar:
"Although the main force of the imperial army has arrived, our Dongchuan armies are responsible for the loss of land. Guo Xingye probably wants to give us a chance to make up for our mistakes, so it is appropriate to use our strength. What's more, Wanxian County in Hezhou is easier to attack than Baxian County
, we attack the front line to cut off the outer wings of the rebel army, and when we finally attack Ba County, they may be embarrassed to let us attack first."
When the lazy faction heard this, it seemed to make sense. In exchange for using less force in the final attack on the main city of Chongqing, they would now use more force in the attack on the outlying counties and report more casualties.
He only said that when they reached the gates of Ba County, the troops had lost their combat effectiveness, and Mr. Guo was probably embarrassed to keep an eye on the two of them.
Regardless of their intentions, these local troops finally set out to attack. Zhu Shuren was not short of hungry soldiers. He rewarded the troops before the attack with wine and meat for a day, and also prepared dry food for them, which was better than
The military rations you usually eat are better.
Finally, Zhu Shuren also asked Zhang Huangyan to supervise the troops attacking Dazhou on the North Road, and brought some musketeers as fire support to help the Tan brothers' troops.
Zhu Shuren himself led the main force, followed Fang Guoan and the Wang brothers, and assisted them in the battle with Hongyi cannon.
…
After one day of preparation and two days of marching, on the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month, the officers and soldiers marching upstream along the main channel of the Yangtze River from the south arrived at Wanxian County first.
Zhang Xianzhong's army guard Zhang Mingzhi took two to three thousand veterans brought by Zhang Xianzhong from other provinces and fled to Sichuan, as well as more than 10,000 strong men caught locally, to garrison in Wanxian City.
Zhang Mingzhi's troops are not very complete in terms of weapons and equipment. Only veterans who have traveled to several provinces can ensure that all members have regular weapons.
However, the strong men could not even get together with swords and guns. Only about half of them had regular weapons, and the rest had to rely on farm tools to fight. The armor rate was even more horribly low.
However, it is still okay for these people to go up to the city wall and throw logs and rocks when they are defending the city. Anyway, hitting people with heavy objects does not require technical skills or sophisticated weapons.
[A book-chasing app recommended to me by an old book friend I have known for ten years, Yeguo Reading! It is so easy to use. I rely on this app to read and listen to books while driving and before going to bed. You can download it here.]
Seeing tens of thousands of officers and soldiers approaching by land and water outside the city, Zhang Mingzhi felt quite timid and regretted why General Bai was selected by Bai Wen to guard this place.
In fact, Wan County is not a place suitable for heavy defense. It is better to shrink the entire army and defend Ba County. However, after Zhang Xianzhong quickly attacked Chongqing and succeeded, he wanted to take advantage of the situation to occupy Kuizhou Prefecture and completely blockade the Qutang Gorge to prevent the army from entering the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
Reinforcements were brought into Sichuan by waterway, and then they attacked all the way to Wanxian County.
Now that Baidi City in Fengjie could not be captured, they only captured Wan County, and they were reluctant to throw it away. Instead, they were in a dilemma and it became a trap to distract their own forces.
However, the matter had already reached this point, and Zhang Mingzhi had no choice but to find a way to hold on, because it might not be too late to escape. He could only send a fast boat and horse back to Ba County to report to Bai Wenxuan before he was besieged, and let General Bai find a way.
, either come to reinforce him, or assist him in retreating to Ba County to join forces.
——
PS: There is no guarantee of an update at noon these days... Just an update in the afternoon, about four to five thousand words. It's almost noon when I stay up late to watch football and wake up.
Another thing that caused my writing to be slow was that I found that I was too realistic when writing about battle losses. The main reason was that before Chapter 60 or 70, that is, when Zhang Xianzhong was attacked in Huguang, I killed the generals under Zhang Xianzhong who had been traitors in history.
There were so many that the commanders of the five armies killed three of them.
Now I find that when I write about Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the rhythm is a bit broken, and the NPCs are not enough.
I now fully understand that when writing books, villains cannot die easily. After finally creating some villains, they must use their strength to squeeze out the remaining value before killing them. What kind of "don't kill them and save them for the New Year" is
Such a mentality.
I think I know a little bit about the history of the late Ming Dynasty, and I know a lot of NPCs. However, after I was killed and consumed so much, it was not enough, so I had to spend a lot of time exploring more information about relatively unknown small NPCs.
(I should also pay attention to which of Li Zhang’s subordinates became traitors and who did not become traitors in history. Those who became traitors can be used as resources to be killed. Those who did not become traitors persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty. I have to try my best to ensure that they survive. This is
writing more slowly)
Finally, let me be a little lazy here, open up some tricks, and use the collective wisdom of the almighty readers, maybe I can make these two paragraphs go by faster——
You must have read many more novels about the late Ming Dynasty than I have. Does anyone know who among Li and Zhang’s men were traitors? The generals and counselors NPC in my book who are still alive can be rumored later in this paragraph.
I'll make a death list so that I can plan carefully in the plot later on and figure out which plot sections to kill in batches.
Anyway, it is basically guaranteed to be written that when Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong died, their lackeys who had been traitors were also killed together.