I want to be emperor

Chapter 113 The Ming Gentleman Knows the Rough
The application of four-wheeled carriages has improved the transportation capacity of the rural protection army on good roads. However, there are still relatively few four-wheeled carriages. This time there are only more than 20 carriages going south, and there are still a large number of two-wheeled carriages left.

Follow-up Luo Zhixue intends to continue to improve the four-wheeled carriage and further improve the applicability of the four-wheeled carriage.

But now, the material transportation of the Rural Protection Army still focuses on two-wheeled carriages and unicycles, especially the unicycles, which seem simple, but they have to be said to be a great weapon for material transportation.

The road requirements are not high, and small dirt roads in the countryside can be walked, and the amount of materials transported by bicycle does not seem to be large, but there is no need for mules and horses, and one person can push a wheelbarrow to transport materials.

As far as the rural protection army is concerned, they lack mules and horses, but they do not lack human resources.

There is no need to pay wages, as long as you take care of the food, you can recruit a large number of young and strong civilians to transport supplies.

In the future, Luo Zhixue plans to continue to improve the unicycle, so that the unicycle can transport more materials and save labor.

Luo Zhixue, who brought a lot of carriages and wheelbarrows to the south, was still relatively fast. On the first day, because of the need to cross the river, the driving factor was a little slower, but the speed was faster in the next two days.

At noon on the third day, Luo Zhixue finally led the reinforcements to Zhaozhuang.

After arriving in Zhaozhuang, Luo Zhixue did not rest, and directly held a small-scale military meeting, listening to reports from Huang Dingquan and others.

As the most senior military officer who stayed here, Huang Dingquan reported to Luo Zhixue the situation in the past few days.

"Brother Wang also sent people back today. The current situation is the same as before. Ever since Brother Wang led the first cavalry sentry to attack their forward cavalry, the enemy troops have been staying in Yangjiazhuang."

Luo Zhixue said: "It seems that Chen Yongfu is more cautious!"

Yesterday, Luo Zhixue, who was still on the road, had already learned the news. Wang Xiazi led the cavalry and Chen Yongfu's vanguard cavalry to fight, killing and wounding more than [-] enemy cavalry on the spot, and captured eight intact cavalry.

This time the cavalry battle can be said to have greatly deterred the officers and soldiers. Not only did the enemy cavalry retreat in embarrassment on the spot, but even the main force led by Chen Yongfu stopped going north after a day.

Originally, Luo Zhixue was worried that Chen Yongfu would go north again soon after staying for a day, and even sent more cavalry to encircle Wang Xiazi's troops.

But now it seems that the cavalry of the officers and soldiers on the opposite side is weaker than I thought, and they haven't launched a counterattack in the past three days.

Huang Dingquan continued: "According to the battle reports from the front, the officers and soldiers are now building a camp in Yangjiazhuang, and they plan to stay here for a long time. In addition, Nanyang City continues to transport food and grass to Yangjiazhuang."

"At the same time, our scouts have not found that they carry heavy artillery. So far, they have only found that they have about [-] light and short cannons. According to visual inspection, most of them are less than one hundred and fifty catties. There are also two to three hundred catties, but there are only three. .”

"On the contrary, there are many cannons found on the top of Nanyang City, but they are all old cannons. They look big, but they are all old general cannons. This kind of cannon can't fire solid bullets."

Huang Dingquan continued to introduce the situation, while Luo Zhixue listened and looked at the simple map on the desktop.

Although the map is very simple and completely different from the perfect military maps of later generations, it still simply shows the basic geographical indications such as nearby villages, places, lakes, and rivers.

If you look carefully at the map, you will find that Yangjiazhuang, where Chen Yongfu's [-] troops are currently stationed, is about seven or eight kilometers north of Nanyang City, and about ten kilometers away from Zhaozhuang.

The cavalry led by Wang Xiazi is now staying in the north of Yangjiazhuang, about three kilometers away, monitoring the movements of Chen Yongfu's troops at any time.

The distance between the two sides is actually very close. If it is a purely combat force marching lightly, it will take less than a day, two hours to complete the journey.

If this was placed during World War I and World War II, it would have basically been within the range of artillery strikes.

This is also the reason why the two sides have not acted rashly at present. One is stationed at Yangjiazhuang and the other is stationed at Zhaozhuang. Instead of moving, they continue to build the fortifications of the camp.

If the preparation is not good, the opponent will kill him in minutes.

After hearing the basic situation, Luo Zhixue took a simple lunch, and after dinner, he took An Yongduo, Huang Guangmao, Huang Dingquan and other major generals to inspect the surrounding terrain under the escort of dozens of horsemen .

This neighborhood doesn't just refer to the area around Zhaozhuang that is a thousand meters away, but the area that is several kilometers away.

While inspecting, the accompanying personnel were also asked to map and record the nearby terrain.

The reason why Luo Zhixue paid so much attention to the nearby terrain was because if there were no accidents, the follow-up battle between his side and Chen Yongfu's troops would take place in this area.

Whether it is the opponent going north or one's own side taking the initiative to go south, the battlefield will always take place in this area.

In this way, we must also pay great attention to the terrain. We need to know where there are low mountains, where there are small rivers, where there are small lakes, where there are formed country roads, and the conditions on the left and right sides of the official road passing through this area, etc.

In these cases, Huang Dingquan and the others were also doing it before, and they had surveying and mapping records.

However, there are no professional surveying and mapping talents in the Xiangbao Army. The officers are all thinking about drawing maps by themselves, and the maps they draw can only be seen roughly, and many of them even have mistakes.

That's why Luo Zhixue wanted to come and take a look in person.

When I went to inspect the terrain nearby, I didn't meet the Ming army or anything, but I met some terrified locals.

The area where the Ming army officers and soldiers and the rural protection army are currently facing each other is not small, with a distance of ten kilometers from each other, and this area was originally a traditional grain-producing area, and the population is relatively dense.

Even though it was affected by drought and was destroyed by many refugees and officers and soldiers, the local population has dropped significantly, but there are still many people in this area.

But Luo Zhixue was relieved that the local villagers, even the landlords, were panicked by their arrival.

Although those landlords closed their gates and dared not come out, they did not say that they would run away in a swarm, and when they saw Luo Zhixue and the others approaching their village with dozens of bald bandit soldiers on horseback, they would often send people over on their own initiative. ,say what:
Your Majesty, if you are short of food, you can just squeak. We Nanyang gentry are all decent people who know the general situation, and we will send someone to deliver the food when we turn back. Don't bother to come over in person!

This made Luo Zhixue quite gratified!
Whoever said that the last gentry could be killed, Luo Zhixue had dealt with the gentry a lot, but he thought they were pretty good.

Look at these gentry who are eager to contribute money and food. Their consciousness is not so strong.

Although he didn't come out this time to collect food, but these landlords and gentry were so enthusiastic, he reluctantly accepted it, and he didn't need them to send people to collect the money and food by themselves. Someone will come over to escort the supplies.

Huang Guangmao at the side watched Luo Zhixue chatting and laughing with a gentry, and he said that the squires here are all knowledgeable nonsense, always felt that this scene was a bit weird.

If it wasn't for you, Luo Zhixue, who brought dozens of people here, and if it wasn't for the more than a thousand soldiers stationed in Zhaozhuang nearby, you can see if these landlords and gentry know the general situation.

Naturally, Huang Guangmao couldn't understand why Luo Zhixue was in such a good mood now!

From Luo Zhixue's point of view, even if the opponent is under the threat of force from his own side, he is willing to pay money and food automatically, but this is also a big improvement.

At least the other party didn't run away, and didn't resist, didn't they...

These landlords have also heard about the situation in the area controlled by the rural protection army in the north. They know that these bald bandits are different from ordinary bandits. Collect food, and collect food according to the rules.

For landlords, as long as they pay the extra field tax honestly, those bald bandit soldiers don't care about you at all.

In other words, safety is guaranteed, and even property safety is guaranteed.

Under such circumstances, these landlords would not flee on a large scale when the rural protection army arrived. At most, they would let some direct descendants live temporarily in Nanyang City just in case, but there would still be people staying behind in the rural houses.

If it was replaced by other thieves, these landlords would have all run away, not only people, but also all things such as gold, silver, soft food and food, and ran to the nearby city to avoid goods.

To a certain extent, his own rural protection army can be regarded as having a certain "people's support".

Luo Zhixue's requirements are not too high now, as long as the people don't have too much hostility towards the Township Protection Army, and as long as the taxes can be collected smoothly, he doesn't care so much about the rest for the time being.

After all, he doesn't even have a larger territory now, so he can't talk about local governance, winning people's hearts and other strategies.

Although he has prepared many policies in his mind, they are not needed now, at least until he controls the entire Nanyang Mansion, or even the entire Nanyang Basin.

Now it is enough to collect taxes and conscript troops.

That's when Luo Zhixue arrived at Zhaozhuang and inspected the surrounding terrain to prepare for the subsequent battle.

In Yangjiazhuang in the south, Chen Yongfu was frowning!

In the past few days, he had sent a large number of scouts to the north to inquire about the news of the bald bandits, and as the news came back to him one after another, he felt that something was wrong.

According to the reports from the scouts, this self-proclaimed Rural Protectorate Army is an incomparably weird bandit soldier with shaved heads and is currently stationed in Zhaozhuang, which is already a gangster.

It has been ascertained that there are at least [-] fine cavalry in the thieves' army, and there are also cannons in their Zhaozhuang camp.

As for the specific type of gun and the number of guns, it is not possible for the sentinel to know it by looking at it from a distance.

However, it is certain that the security guards have artillery, and there are quite a few of them, at least ten to start.

Fine cavalry plus artillery, plus these bandit soldiers all shaved their heads and wore uniform gray military uniforms. The army formation was tight.

And they also have a large number of musketeers, and there are also many armored soldiers.

Combining these things together, no matter how stupid Chen Yongfu was, he would not treat this army of thieves as ordinary thieves.

Even Chen Yongfu has already concluded that this bandit protection army that suddenly appeared is definitely the elite of the bandit army, otherwise it would be impossible to have such a posture!

I just don't know what is the relationship between this elite thief army and the big thief Gao Yingxiang?
Not to mention that Chen Yongfu didn't know, even the rebels in the north couldn't figure out what the origin of the Nanyang Mansion's rural protection army was, and they couldn't even tell whether it was an enemy or a friend.

(End of this chapter)