I want to be emperor

Chapter 134 Attack on Xiangyang City

Song Qizhong and Li Dongshao, two people who were willing to take risks in order to get promoted, brought many ships of goods, and more than 70 soldiers of the Township Protection Army disguised as clerks and boatmen. Arrived at the wharf outside Xiangyang City along the river.

Song Qizhong showed his ability at this time, making full use of the contacts he had previously managed in Xiangyang City, and using money to open the way...

So the officers and soldiers stationed on the pier ignored these ships, let them enter the berth and unload the goods, and then transported the goods to the warehouse they rented in the city in a horse-drawn carriage. There were no officers and soldiers to check, let alone come stop.

Let Li Dongshao and the others enter the city smoothly, and brought their weapons in by the way.

Most of the goods they transported back to the city were actually serious goods, including food and cloth, but there were also a batch of weapons such as knives, armor, spears and even muskets hidden among them.

After the people came in, Li Dongshao and his group of more than 70 people stayed in the warehouse and did not go out. After all, they were not ordinary people, but all of them were soldiers in the pro-barracks. There seems to be a big difference between guys and laborers.

If these people go out, they will inevitably be spotted by some experienced people.

On the contrary, Song Qizhong directed the spies from the intelligence department to go out intensively to collect all kinds of information. At the same time, he also tried to secretly buy some small bosses among the guards and soldiers.

-

Just when Song Qizhong, Li Dongshao and the others were lurking in Xiangyang City, Luo Zhixue had already led the army to the south.

At noon on April 25th, after the Rural Protection Army officially captured Nanyang City, after an afternoon of purges, it basically smashed the remaining organized resistance in the city. Fully controlled the situation in the city.

The follow-up rural protection army will definitely continue to carry out the purge operation in the city, and at the same time cooperate with the food requisition office to search the houses of the recalcitrants in the city.

But Luo Zhixue didn't need to spend much thought on these things, let alone the main force of the Township Protection Army.

In fact, early the next morning, after a night of rest, the First Infantry Brigade, Personal Battalion, Supply Battalion, and cavalry and artillery units, which had recovered their physical fitness, embarked on the southward journey under the leadership of Luo Zhixue himself.

The follow-up garrison in Nanyang City, the suppression task will be temporarily handed over to the Fourth Mixed Brigade.

In fact, the Fourth Mixed Brigade will not stay in Nanyang City for too long. Before Luo Zhixue went south, he had already issued new orders to Ernst Young and Fei Bingqing of the Fourth Mixed Brigade.

The Fourth Mixed Brigade will reorganize and garrison Nanyang City at the same time. After the initial reorganization is completed, it will need to send troops to Yuzhou within three days at the latest to seize Yuzhou and control the Fangcheng Ancient Road.

The subsequent defense of Nanyang City will be fully handed over to the Third Infantry Brigade.

According to Luo Zhixue's series of orders, the Township Protection Army will be divided into four parts!

The Second Mixed Brigade is responsible for the battle in the direction of Nanzhao County and Luyang Pass, with the core tasks of capturing Nanzhao County, Luyang Pass, and blocking the ancient Yalu Road.

The [-]th Mixed Brigade is in charge of the frontline battle in Yuzhou. The core task is to capture Yuzhou and block the ancient roads of Fangcheng. At the same time, if the opportunity permits, it can also continue to attack east and occupy Wuyang.

The [-]rd Infantry Brigade, a pure recruit unit that has not yet completed training, will garrison Nanyang City, and control a large area behind with Nanyang City as the core.

As for the core main force of the [-]st Infantry Brigade, almost all the field artillery and elite cavalry, together with Luo Zhixue's personal battalion, supply battalion and other troops, they will go south to Xiangyang City, with the core task of capturing Xiangyang City. Take the responsibility to block the counterattack of the Ming army in Huguang, Yunyang and other areas on the southern and western fronts.

There are only a few thousand troops in total, but they are divided into four directions to fight, Luo Zhixue is also very helpless about this.

With insufficient troops, he has no good solution. Even if the Rural Protection Army has been working hard to expand, and even recruits a large number of recruits every day, it will take time to train these recruits into an army.

Even the third infantry brigade, which has been prepared for a long time, has not yet formed an army, let alone the other newly recruited recruits, each of whom has not even been trained for a few days.

The Rural Protection Army needs time to expand and train its troops.

However, the reality forced them to continue to launch attacks in the face of a shortage of troops. Whether it was to block the Yalu Ancient Road or the Fangcheng Ancient Road, or to control Xiangyang City, these were all very important strategic tasks that were a matter of life and death.

If the two ancient roads in the north are not blocked, Hong Chengchou in the north can lead tens of thousands of main troops south in minutes.

If Xiangyang City in the south is not conquered in time, when the main force of the Ming army in Yunyang and Huguang area reacts, it is estimated that thousands or even tens of thousands of Ming troops will reinforce Xiangyang City.

With the solid city defense of Xiangyang City itself, coupled with a large number of troops garrisoned, it will become a hard bone if it is properly done. will be huge.

And this is not what Luo Zhixue wants.

Therefore, after Luo Zhixue considered for a long time, he finally decided to surprise Xiangyang City.

Being able to take Xiangyang City in a surprise attack before the officers and soldiers react, will be able to completely rely on Xiangyang City to stabilize the southern defense line and block Lu Xiangsheng's army.

And provide enough time for one's own recruitment, training of recruits, and manufacturing of ordnance.

As long as it lasts for two or three months, the size of the Township Protection Army can be doubled again. Then the situation will be different. It will be a matter of minutes to turn defense into offense, and you can even look south at the Jianghan Plain.

If the surprise attack fails, nothing will be lost, at most it will be a waste of time.

And even if the surprise attack fails, as long as Luo Zhixue and his army of more than 3000 people stay in the northern area of ​​Xiangyang City, whether it is the Ming army in Yunyang area or the Ming army in Huguang area, they will not be able to go directly north to Nanyang mansion .

In this way, Luo Zhixue can also buy time for the expansion of the rear.

Going south to Xiangyang City, in the final analysis, is to buy time.

With such a purpose in mind, Luo Zhixue led the southward army to move south quickly.

In order to catch up with time, they went south very fast, and they walked more than 30 kilometers on the first day alone.

This is not the speed of infantry marching lightly, but the speed of marching with artillery and luggage.

In order to go south quickly, Luo Zhixue used almost all the mules, horses and carriages he could find.

In order to keep the artillery and ammunition in the artillery unit marching continuously, the horses pulling the cannons in the artillery unit are pulled together by multiple horses, and they also take rotation.

At the same time, a large number of young and strong peasants were recruited to help transport supplies and even push horse-drawn carts.

Once the wheels of the carriage fell into the pit, several or even a dozen young men ran over to push the cart.

Otherwise, on this kind of ordinary dirt road, even if these roads are relatively flat, it is impossible to obtain a marching speed of more than 30 kilometers a day.

Such a high-intensity march naturally consumes a lot of energy!
In order to ensure the physical fitness of the soldiers, Luo Zhixue specially ordered the logistics department to ensure high-standard food supply no matter what in the past few days.

For the meals of the soldiers, rice and noodles are openly supplied, there is no limit, and they can be filled directly. At the same time, there are meat and poultry eggs.

Only when the soldiers eat and drink enough can they maintain a high-intensity march!

Not only did the soldiers maintain a high-standard food supply, but even the more than 1000 mules and horses in the army also maintained a high-standard food supply.

Not to mention that the horses of the cavalry eat high-quality concentrated feed mainly composed of beans and wheat bran, and at the same time, salt is added. The high-intensity march made these mules and horses unable to hold on.

However, even so, in fact, many mules and horses were exhausted on the first day of the march.

After a night's rest, the next day it was just dawn and they continued to march again!

On this day, they also passed through Xinye County.

But Luo Zhixue did not send the main force to attack Xinye County.

That's a waste of time!

They must reach the city of Xiangyang with the fastest speed and in the shortest time!
Otherwise, even if the Xiangyang Army blocked the news of Nanyang City, it would not be possible to block the news for too long. In a few days, Xiangyang City would definitely know that Nanyang City had fallen.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue did not let the main force go to Xinye County, but directly led the main force around Xinye County, and only sent the [-]th Infantry Battalion to attack Xinye County.

Anyway, there weren't many Ming troops in Xinye County, and there were only a few hundred guard soldiers if they were exhausted.

Xinye County also belongs to Nanyang Prefecture. There were still a small number of soldiers stationed here before, but they were transferred to Nanyang City by Chen Yongfu long ago. Now there are only three or four hundred guards here.

With the strength of the [-]th Infantry Battalion, there will be no problem in taking this city.

Even if there were problems, it didn't matter, Luo Zhixue didn't insist that the Fourth Infantry Battalion take this place.

On the contrary, Luo Zhixue gave the [-]th Infantry Battalion a great deal of flexibility, and told them that if they were unable to take down the city immediately, they should decisively withdraw their troops and continue going south, leaving only a small amount of troops to monitor the Ming army in Xinye City. .

Everything is still focused on attacking Xiangyang City!
But the performance of the Fourth Infantry Battalion exceeded Luo Zhixue's expectations.

In other words, the response of the officials in Xinye County was slower than Luo Zhixue expected, and the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers in the city was weaker than Luo Zhixue expected...

Maybe it was because the Rural Protection Army came too fast, or the defenders of Xinye City simply sent sentries and the like to garrison outside. In short, when the [-]th Infantry Battalion reached the vicinity of Xinye County, the city gates were still open. Yes, a few gatekeepers are basking in the sun boredly...

This meant that the officers and soldiers in the city hadn't even heard the news that the rural protection army had killed them.

The soldiers of the [-]th Infantry Battalion saw it, and felt sorry for themselves if they didn't fight a wave.

So, a dozen people with good riding skills got on their horses and rushed over. These people are not cavalrymen, they just know how to ride horses.

When they rode their horses and rushed over, the guards guarding the city gate were frightened and stupid. In the next moment, they turned around and ran away!

It doesn't matter if you run away, you don't even close the city gate...

As a result, the soldiers of the Fourth Infantry Battalion seized the gate of Xinye City without bloodshed!
By the time the main force of the Fourth Infantry Battalion also rushed up and entered the city, the siege battle was over before it even started!

Xinye City has officially declared its fall to the hands of thieves!
(End of this chapter)