Qiming 1158

Chapter 1043 The Ming army is dispatched

Zhao Yucheng nodded, agreeing with Xu Tong's suggestion, and immediately held a military meeting of the former enemy to announce his decision.

After that, he began to settle the livelihood of the old, weak, sick and disabled.

The Song army could not be a human being, but the peasant army could not.

The peasant army is an army built on the basis of the people, and justice is an attribute that cannot be stripped.

Anyway, the overall situation has basically stabilized. Zhao Yucheng collected the ships that accompanied the army, arranged and uploaded the old and weak in batches, and sent them to the rear along the Han River, to Ezhou, and even back to the liberated area of ​​Jiangnan West Road, and handed them over to Lu. Chengren settled down properly.

For this reason, Zhao Yucheng used his first division of [-] peasant troops to deal with the matter, and had to stay in the middle to help.

So going north to Xiangyang and Fancheng for reconnaissance and preliminary preparations for the war can only be left to Xu Tong and his second division to complete.

Xu Tong then led the second division to continue northward, and on the way to the north, he continued to encounter people who were killed by the Song army and had no way to survive. Make arrangements for Zhao Yucheng.

Seeing more people like this, Xu Tong felt that Wang Yan's intentions were sinister. This situation was not only a waste of manpower for the peasant army, but more importantly, a large portion of the food originally prepared for the army's long-term battle had to be taken out. used to resettle refugees.

The peasant army is the army of the peasants and the army of the people of Lebanon. In the face of such a situation, they cannot shirk their responsibility. Otherwise, the fundamental attributes of the army will be shaken, which is also unacceptable to everyone.

So in the face of this situation, Xu Tong was quite helpless, and he hated Wang Yan more and more, and hated these bastards who lacked great virtue for not doing human affairs and doing some underworld things.

Finally, the second division, led by Xu Tong, arrived at the new city. After some investigation, it was found that the Song army had achieved a relatively thorough fortification and clearing the fields, and the defense had been well prepared.

Not only has the comprehensive militarization been realized in the second city of Xiangfan, but also many military villages with strong defensive power have been established around the second city of Xiangfan.

These military villages are often large in scale and seem to be quite solid, guarding the passages everywhere.

Or protect the waterway, or live on the hills and highlands, using thick wooden boards or even stones as defenses, with high towers and watchtowers inside, and a large number of defenders.

The surrounding area of ​​Xiangfan Second City is full of military fortresses, defenses and death everywhere.

Xu Tong also swallowed his saliva in the face of such a situation, and immediately realized that let alone his current strength of less than 2, even if all four divisions of the Peasant Army were recruited, facing this level of defense would be fierce. More good luck less.

At present, the peasant army is still better at defense and field battles, and lacks some experience in attacking fortifications.

Not to mention the absolute defense created by a general like Wang Yan who is good at defense.

This level of defense means that there are no shortcuts at all. It is necessary to remove the military fortresses outside the city little by little, and attack and destroy all the military facilities around Xiangfan Second City before approaching the defense body of Xiangfan Second City.

The defense body of Xiangfan Second City is almost the difference between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and an old hen compared to the peripheral military strongholds.

Because of the great military value of Xiangyang and Fancheng after Nandu, the Southern Song Dynasty continued to build the city walls of Xiangfan since Yue Fei guarded Xiangfan.

Therefore, when Xu Tong saw the scale of urban defense in Xiangyang and Fancheng, he wisely chose Xincheng as the garrison point, and made a decision not to launch an offensive operation before the Henan Corps went south, and instead fully assist the local refugees to The rear of the peasant army transferred this matter.

This thing is equally important.

Of course, as a military general, Xu Tong still wants to establish meritorious deeds very much. He really wants to try how difficult it is to capture the second city of Xiangfan. The presence.

But he thought about it for a long time and thought about breaking his head, but he couldn't think of a way to quickly break through the second city of Xiangfan.

If you want to attack Ercheng, you must break through the military strongholds around Ercheng. If you want to break through the military strongholds, you must attack one by one, take them down one by one, and use the flesh and blood of soldiers to attack and grind.

These military villages are set on the water's edge or on the hills. The distance between some two military villages is relatively close, and even the orientation can play a role of mutual support.

Attacking a military village may face the long-range firepower of three military villages at the same time, which is simply purgatory-level difficulty for the attacker.

During this period of time, I don’t know how many soldiers’ lives will be lost, and in the end, I will face the more terrifying Xiangfan Second City.

I am afraid that this battle will take two or three years to end, if it continues like this.

After thinking about it, there was no way, Xu Tong felt an inexplicable sense of frustration, and he finally realized how many lives it would take to break through a strong and perfect defense system.

After all, the Southern Song Dynasty is still powerful, but the fact that he has encountered too many cheaters before makes him gradually think that the Southern Song Dynasty is easy to deal with. In fact, it is not.

Standing on a small hill, overlooking the powerful and perfect Xiangfan defense system, Xu Tong sighed and clenched his fists, his heart full of unwillingness.

At the same time, Wang Yan was looking south at the head of Xiangyang City.

"If the thieves want to attack Xiangfan, they must first break through the outer military villages. If they want to break through the outer military villages, they must first clean up the old, weak, sick and disabled outside, and they have to face even more difficult food transfers. These are all Their problems, but our army can take it easy."

Wang Yan is very satisfied with this perfect Xiangfan defense system, and feels that he can support it for at least three years through this defense system anyway, and what can happen in three years?

He felt that he had given the Southern Song court enough strategic space to allow the Southern Song court to send troops from other places to support Xiangfan. In this case, if the court still could not complete the task he expected, there was really no need to fight this battle.

But before that, he had to perform his duty.

"From the current point of view, the thief army stayed in the new city and did not continue to advance. It was obviously held back by the refugees. Not only that, they may also be deterred by the perfect defense of our army, and they dare not act recklessly. That's it!"

The relatives around Wang Yan will compliment him for a while.

Wang Yan heard the words and shook his head and sighed.

"They may also be waiting, waiting for a good time to fight me."

He turned his gaze to the north: "There are even stronger enemies waiting for us to deal with. The Henan Ming army has not yet moved south. Once they... eh?"

Wang Yan suddenly frowned.

To the north of Xiangyang, as far as he could see, there was a black smoke rising into the sky.

"Is that wolf smoke?"

Wang Yan stretched out his hand and pointed to the north.

The pro-general looked in the direction of Wang Yan's finger, and upon seeing it, he was shocked.

Isn't that the wolf smoke that represents the Ming army going south?

Ming Army...

Really out?
Yes, the Ming army was dispatched.

On March 29th in the fifth year of Hongwu, the Henan Corps of the Ming Army officially went south to join the battle.

The commander of the corps, Zhang Yuejing, issued a formal order to advance the army, and ordered the trapped army assembled in Rangcheng to quickly move south.

Zhang Yuejing himself will also go south with the trapped army.

At the same time, he ordered the main force of the enemy-breaking army assembled in Biyang to go south to Zaoyang. General Chen Qiaoshan, the general of the army, led the main force to attack Zaoyang, and then entered Xiangyang Mansion along the rolling river, attacked the cabinet gate, and then arrived at the land of Xiangfan. Reunite with the trapped army.

(End of this chapter)