I want to be emperor

Chapter 219 The Stronger Zuo Liangyu
Chongzhen's attitude was very resolute about seizing love and reviving Yang Sichang. Even though many courtiers raised objections, they couldn't make Chongzhen change his mind.

When Chongzhen did things, he never looked at the faces of his courtiers, let alone what they thought!
Otherwise, he would not kill ministers like pigs and dogs.

The governor of a province, even the minister and minister, killed as soon as they said, and exiled as soon as they said, without any scruples.

I won’t talk about the previous years, but only in the last two years, former Yunyang governor Jiang Yunyi was exiled, Xuanfu governor Jiao Yuanqing was exiled, Xuanda governor Zhang Zongheng was exiled, Henan governor Xuanmo was dismissed, and governor of the five provinces Chen Qiyu was exiled. Exile, Huguang Governor Tang Hui was demoted... Oh, no, Chongzhen has ordered the arrest of this person.

The above are just a few examples, there are many more unlucky ones besides them.

Regardless of whether Chongzhen did the right thing, but from another perspective, it can also be said that Chongzhen controls the real power of the court and has no scruples.

Such a Chongzhen would not care about any ethical issues, let alone the subsequent political influence, if he wanted to win back Yang Sichang.

In this way, after Lu Xiangsheng's death, the court had been arguing for months about the candidates for the new Prime Minister of Military Affairs of the Five Provinces.

That is Yang Sichang!

It's just that I don't know how Yang Sichang will feel after receiving the imperial edict.

Naturally, the Township Protection Army was unaware of the high-level disputes on the Ming court's capital side and the personnel changes involving Huguang and even the surrounding provinces.

After all, the capital is too far away from Huguang, so it will take at least half a month for this news to reach Luo Zhixue's ears through some intelligence channels, and it may take a few more days to delay it.

But no matter how the Ming court changes, it will not change Luo Zhixue's established strategy for protecting the countryside!
Take control of Chubei!

Since the First Division captured Hanyang in mid-August, the military operations of the various units of the Township Protection Army have not stopped.

On August 23, part of the Third Defense Division conquered Jiangling, and on August 26, part of the Fifth Defense Brigade of the Third Defense Division conquered Yiling Prefecture, and then continued westward, capturing Guizhou and Badong along the way, and deployed light soldiers He rushed forward and seized Wushan before the Ming army and chieftain soldiers in Sichuan could react.

At the same time, Huang Guangmao, who was based in Yunyang, also ordered the Fourth Defense Brigade of the Second Defense Division to move south from the Zhushan area and captured Daning and Dachang, the prefectures of Kuizhou, Sichuan.

As a result, the forces of the [-]th garrison brigade of the [-]nd garrison division and the [-]th garrison brigade of the [-]rd garrison division successfully converged in the area east of Fengjie.

After the news reached Luo Zhixue, Luo Zhixue immediately ordered the above two brigades to merge on the spot and form the fourth garrison division.

The vacancies of the Second Garrison Division and the Third Garrison Division will be supplemented by newly recruited soldiers and captured troops.

The commander of the [-]th garrison division was served by Ma Dapao, the former commander of the [-]th garrison brigade, and was promoted to brigadier general.

In the future, the garrison division will be temporarily responsible for the defense of Kuizhou Prefecture and even the entire eastern Sichuan region.

The battle on the front line in Sichuan is progressing well, and I dare not say whether it will be able to directly enter the hinterland of Sichuan in the future, but as long as Wushan and other important places have been occupied, the Fourth Defense Division will be able to retreat to the Wushan area even if it cannot continue to advance westward. All the Ming army and chieftain soldiers were blocked in Sichuan.

On the northwest front, that is, on the front line of Hanzhong Mansion and Xi'an Mansion, a strategic defensive posture was still maintained. The Ming Army did not launch an attack, nor did the Township Protection Army.

However, from time to time, thieves would come from Hanzhong Mansion, Xi'an Mansion and other places. Some of them shouted to join the Township Protection Army, and some came purely to rob money and food.

But they were all directly cleaned up by the second garrison division stationed in Yunyang Mansion, and most of them were reorganized as surrender troops.

This is also the reason why the second garrison division is constantly getting new recruits. In addition to the newly recruited troops, in fact, most of them are recruited from exiled thieves, refugees, and officers and soldiers.

On the northern line of Nanyang Prefecture, Huang Dingquan still honestly carried out Luo Zhixue's strategic defense mission, and recently continued to strengthen the Luyang Pass defense line and Yuzhou defense line.

In order to block the Fangcheng ancient road where Yuzhou City is located, Huang Dingquan directly surrounded Yuzhou, built more than a dozen small fortresses in the flat passages of more than ten miles around, and divided his troops to garrison them.

During the period, they also tried to send troops to attack Wuyang and Ye County, and finally succeeded in taking Wuyang, but Ye County failed to take down.

There were not many Ming troops in Wuyang, and the North Route Army casually sent more than 2000 people there to take it down. However, there was Zuo Liangyu's troops in Ye County, and the Ming army came in successively from other places in Henan. There are large numbers of cavalry.

The troops of the North Route Army were forced to retreat voluntarily.

Because there were more cavalry of the Ming Army in the north, and the cavalry of the Northern Route Army was not very strong, Huang Dingquan simply lost the idea of ​​taking the initiative to attack, so he focused on building the northern line of defense, preparing for a strict defense.

At the beginning of August, the Ming army also tried to counterattack the front line of Yuzhou. Naturally, they didn't go to Yuzhou foolishly, but wanted to attack Wuyang first.

As a result, Zuo Liangyu led an army of more than 5000 people to attack Wuyang, which was garrisoned by less than 1000 troops. After half a month, more than [-] people were killed and injured, but they failed to take it down.

Facing the impending arrival of reinforcements from Yuzhou from the Rural Protection Army, they had to retreat.

It is worth mentioning that after this battle, Zuo Liangyu, as the commander of the army, not only did not hang his head down, but smiled all over his face.

Because after this battle, he successfully annexed thousands of troops under his own command.

Although more than 1000 people were killed or injured by the Ming army during the attack on Wuyang, Zuo Liangyu's direct troops expanded from 8000 to more than 3000.

Other generals of the Ming army fought against the rural protection army, and the fighting became worse and worse. He was lucky, except that he suffered a defeat in Yuzhou at the beginning and lost thousands of people.

In the next few battles, although he was defeated every time, the troops under his hands were fighting more and more...

And this is why other generals of the Ming army who fought against the Xiangbao Army generally ended badly, but he got better and better the more he messed up.

Even if it was the imperial court, Hong Chengchou often caught his mother, and issued decrees and letters reprimanding Zuo Liangyu every now and then.

But Zuo Liangyu still had nothing to do, and even when his direct troops reached more than 3000, including a large number of soldiers, the court was thinking about how to reward him to better hold him steady...

It's just that Zuo Liangyu is already the commander-in-chief. According to the promotion practice of military generals in the Ming Dynasty these years, Zuo Liangyu has actually reached the end of his promotion, and there is no way to go up to be a governor, governor, etc., which are exclusive to civilian officials.

If the subsequent imperial court wanted to reward Zuo Liangyu, they could only give some false titles, for example, the title of a certain general, and then a title like Prince Shaobao.

But for a certain general, Zuo Liangyu is not qualified enough, and as for the crown prince Shaobao, he is even worse.

Therefore, the imperial court's handling of Zuo Liangyu is also a headache.

That is to say, he wanted to use Zuo Liangyu's troops to garrison Ye County to prevent the thieves from entering the Central Plains, but he was also afraid that Zuo Liangyu would mutiny and play mutiny.

This reward is not easy to seal either.

In the end, it can only be done by giving Zuo Liangyu's wife a higher imperial order, and by the way, giving Zuo Liangyu's sons better hereditary positions.

Not to mention how the imperial court treats Zuo Liangyu, anyway, Zuo Liangyu has no intention of continuing to counterattack Nanyang recently. Before that, he still had extravagant hopes and felt that he could counterattack Nanyang. It is also possible.

Although Yuzhou was defeated before, in Zuo Liangyu's view, the original defeat was due to the sharp guns of the bandit army on the one hand, and the failure of the cavalry on the other hand.

But now, there is no way to make up for the guns and guns, but his subordinates have successively annexed thousands of cavalry from the friendly army, and besides his own cavalry, there is also a Guanning cavalry to assist in the battle.

With two or three thousand cavalry to assist in the battle, at least Zuo Liangyu would have the confidence to fight in the field.

And after the strength of the field can be ensured, it will naturally become feasible to counterattack Nanyang.

However, after the Wuyang battle, Zuo Liangyu completely gave up the idea of ​​counterattacking Nanyang Mansion.

Although I am not afraid of field battles, this siege is too difficult.

Those thieves didn't know what to think, but they deployed so many artillery on the top of the city, and the armor rate of the thieves was too high, and they had a lot of heavy armor.

When attacking Wuyang, twice the infantry under his command had already rushed to the top of the city, but just as they rushed to the top of the city, they were counterattacked by the heavy armor of the rebel army, and they couldn't stand firm at all.

After losing dozens of heavy-armored elites rushing to the top of the city, Zuo Liangyu completely gave up the idea of ​​attacking Wuyang and retreated directly.

If Wuyang can't even take it down, Yuzhou can't even count on it.

That dilapidated place, now run by the security bandit army, is the same as Tietong, with Yuzhou in the center, and there are small forts on the left and right, and each fort is equipped with light artillery.

Not to mention, the bandit army in this area must have a lot of little red cannons.

Zuo Liangyu had a headache when he thought of the little red barracks of the bandit army.

That thing should be said to be powerful, but in fact it is just like that.

But the key is that this thing is light!
Ordinary marching or even a horse can be pulled away, and two soldiers who come to the battlefield can push it away directly. The mobility is stronger than those tens of kilograms of attacking artillery in the Ming army...

The Hongyi cannons in the Ming army weighed a thousand or even several thousand catties at every turn, and because of the problem of the gun mount, they seriously lacked maneuverability, and basically could only be fixedly deployed for defensive operations.

But the small red cannons of the bandit army can run around and directly accompany the infantry in combat.

And this is fatal.

In the last battle in the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou, Zuo Liangyu introspected after the battle, thinking about why he was defeated in the first place, why his cavalry troops were killed and injured as soon as they were dispatched, and then they were forced away by the enemy cavalry. In the end, the entire battle situation was irreversible and he was forced to retreat directly. .

It was because those security guards dragged these light little red cannons to the field battlefield, and fired directly against Zuo Liangyu's face!
In order to reverse this disadvantage, Zuo Liangyu has written to Hong Chengchou and even the court princes many times, requesting the court to allocate a hundred portable small red cannons to fight against the small red cannons of the bandit army.

It is said that the reason why the thieves can win consecutive battles lies in the sharpness of the thieves' guns. To suppress the thieves, the most important thing is the guns.

The officers and soldiers have strong guns, and the extermination of thieves is just around the corner.

The officers and soldiers have weak guns, and they are overthrown overnight.

(End of this chapter)