I want to be emperor

Chapter 444 Youzhou is terrified
Although Zu Dashou's troops were already like terrified birds, and food and grass were extremely scarce and he did not hesitate to send troops to loot the city, Zhu Xingfa had no intention of continuing to pursue with the main force.

The strategic goal of the Chu army going north this time is to quickly capture Youzhou City and advance all the way to Shanhaiguan.

So now for the Chu army, the most important thing is to quickly initiate and end the Tianjin battle. After the first battle is settled, they can go directly to Youzhou City, and even in Tianjin, they can directly divide their troops and fight to Shanhaiguan.

Well, it is even more important to quickly advance to Shanhaiguan. Youzhou City can be taken sooner or later anyway, and the impact of a few days sooner or later is not big.

Ever since, Zhu Xingfa left behind a cavalry brigade and the No.30 Eighth Reinforced Regiment under the Tenth Division, together with the cavalry regiment under the Tenth Division, they continued to march towards Rongcheng, chasing Zu Dashou all the way, and continued towards Zu Dashou All the cavalry put pressure on them and keep them from turning around!

About 800 cavalry and about 4000 infantry and artillery supplies are enough to deter Zu Dashou, the frightened bird.

Another infantry regiment was left to garrison the front lines of Baoding and Bazhou.

There is also a regiment fighting towards Xincheng and Gu'an, capturing and controlling this area, protecting the canal south of Tianjin from the flanks, and at the same time threatening Youzhou City, further restraining the Ming court's forces.

After all, Gu'an is only about [-] kilometers away from Youzhou City in a straight line. If the logistics and supply issues are not considered, the Chu army can kill Youzhou City in only two days.

Faced with such a threat, Youzhou City naturally had to increase the defense of Youzhou City itself, instead of filling all the troops and artillery in Tianjin City.

In this way, the pressure on the Chu army in Tianjin can be effectively reduced.

As for the two cavalry brigades, it was Zhu Xingfa who personally led the main force of the Northern Expedition Army Headquarters to quickly return to help, and was ready to participate in the Battle of Tianjin with the main forces.

There is still a big battle waiting for these cavalry.

The number of cavalry in the Chu army is limited. Except for the cavalry regiments belonging to each division, the main cavalry is only three brigades. They were all transferred to the front line of Baoding before, purely because of the threat of the cavalry under Zu Dashou.

Now that Zu Dashou is heading west all the way, he doesn't even have enough food and grass, so he has no ability to continue to threaten the Chu army's own logistics line, so there is no need to keep so many cavalry here.

When the two cavalry brigades rushed back all the way, General Li Chengtong along the canal also led his army to successfully capture Jinghai and was marching steadily towards Tianjin.

At this time, Hong Chengchou, who was in Tianjin, also learned that Zu Dashou was defeated and fled in embarrassment with only thousands of cavalry.

After hearing the news, Hong Chengchou didn't scold anyone, let alone accused Zu Dashou of not fighting to the end, but chose to lead his army to escape.

He just sighed deeply, facing the summer shadows outside the window alone!
The situation is difficult!

-

Just because Hong Chengchou didn't get mad, doesn't mean Chongzhen didn't get mad!

It was four days later that Chongzhen got the news that Zu Dashou's troops were defeated and lost soldiers and generals!
Don't blame Chongzhen for getting the news late, it's simply that no one informed him...

For example, Zu Dashou himself, he was busy fleeing for his life, busy looting food and grass everywhere to maintain the rations of the [-] cavalry and nearly [-] horses under his command.

Four thousand cavalry are actually nothing, they can't eat much, but the food and grass needed by nearly ten thousand war horses is a very huge number, which is almost equal to the rations of forty to fifty thousand people.

This means that Zu Dashou has to run around while collecting enough food and grass for 5 to [-] people.

Under such a life-and-death crisis, how could Zu Dashou have the mood and time to deal with Fang Chongzhen and the others? He didn't even send someone to report.

When Chongzhen learned the news, it was reported by local officials, so there was a delay in time.

After hearing the news, Chongzhen was furious... According to the usual practice, he scolded a bunch of courtiers again.

Just after scolding here, Chongzhen learned that the Chu thieves had captured Gu'an, and they were only fifty kilometers away from Youzhou City.

It was already a matter of time before the Chu bandits reached Youzhou City.

And this situation caused great panic among the monarchs and ministers in Youzhou City!
For a moment, Youzhou was shaken, the officials were terrified, and Chongzhen was furious...

A group of ministers began to propose that Hong Chengchou divide his troops and send them back to the capital. Other ministers believed that Hong Chengchou had garrisoned 20 troops in Tianjin and spent countless money and food every day. However, he had been stationed in Tianjin for more than half a month. He suspected that Hong Chengchou supported his troops to protect himself.

Some people even think that Hong Chengchou has secretly talked about surrendering with the Chu thief, even if he hasn't surrendered yet, he must have been talking.

In short, with Zu Dashou fleeing without a fight, and with the fall of Gu'an, a group of civil and military officials and dignitaries in Youzhou City have panicked, there are all kinds of rumors, and there are people with various ideas.

Faced with such a predicament, Chongzhen insisted on believing in Hong Chengchou at first.

But as a group of courtiers kept talking about various dangers, saying that Hong Chengchou had surrendered to the enemy, no matter how bad it was, he would support his troops to protect himself, and sit and watch the capital fall, Chongzhen's thoughts were also a little shaken.

On July [-], Chongzhen sent people to Tianjin and asked Hong Chengchou to send part of his troops back to aid the capital.

Faced with what the messenger said that there are 20 soldiers in Tianjin, 15 can be left to continue to defend Tianjin City, and [-] troops will be sent back to the capital Qin Wang, Hong Chengchou can't wait to beat him to death with the sole of his shoe...

Today's Tianjin front line has a 20 army with farts!
The 20-strong army is just a so-called... used to boost morale and confuse the enemy. How can anyone take the 20-strong army seriously.

In the city of Tianjin, there were originally 12 people at full count, of which [-] to [-] were still young and strong civilians who built fortifications and transported luggage.

The total strength of the various ministries is just over 8.

Before that, Hong Chengchou sent 1 people from Zu Dashou's headquarters to detour south. Among the [-] people who attacked, there were [-] thieves and [-] cavalry all the way to the west, and now they all ran to the north of Fangshan.

Looking at the escape route of Zu Dashou's cavalry, there is a high probability that they want to bypass the capital and go straight to Shanhaiguan.

In this way, the remaining troops on the front line in Tianjin are actually only about 7 people.

The imperial envoy wanted to transfer 5 people back to the capital to help the capital. If the transfer was gone, Tianjin would not have to guard it.

Furthermore, Hong Chengchou knew very well that even though the Chu thieves had already reached Gu'an, after leaving the front line of the canal, the Chu thieves who killed the area around Gu'an had limited ability to attack fortifications, and at the same time had limited troops, only 4000 to [-].

With these 4000 people, there is still a lack of a large number of artillery, especially the 4000 people with heavy artillery. It is impossible to break through Youzhou City, which has a large city wall and a large number of Beijing camps.

Why did Hong Chengchou choose to garrison Tianjin? On the one hand, Chongzhen and others did not dare to let a large number of frontier troops enter the city.

On the outskirts, the reason why they didn't choose to garrison Baoding and other places was because they saw that the Chu thieves were fighting, especially the offensive operations were extremely dependent on logistics. If they left the canal, the Chu thieves' attacking ability would plummet.

Therefore, there is no need to worry that the Chu thieves will bypass Bazhou on a large scale and directly attack Youzhou City in the Gu'an area.

If Chu thief dared to do this, he would dare to go out and attack Chu thief's side and rear position.

Now, the capital asked Hong Chengchou to send troops back to aid, and he didn't draw all the troops to help, but just asked him to divide the troops to return.

To be honest, Hong Chengchou was unwilling.

This is already at a disadvantage, and there is not much confidence in defending Tianjin.

This is still dividing the troops... This is not looking for death!

Therefore, Hong Chengchou found various reasons to politely reject the division of troops, and proposed that the troops should be used in a concentrated manner. Either continue to garrison Tianjin, or return to the capital with all the troops, and then defend the capital!
And in this way, many people are not happy.

What do you mean, Hong Chengchou, if you want to bring all the troops back, have you already joined the Chu bandits, and you want to take the opportunity to lead troops into the capital?

Are you, Hong Chengchou, trying to plot something wrong?

Then a vote of ministers in the imperial court started to make noise again, and it was not suitable for Hong Chengchou to lead his troops back to the capital directly.

And let Hong Chengchou continue to lead his troops to do nothing in Tianjin City, let alone the threat of the capital, whether to vote for thieves or not, the daily consumption of food and grass alone is an extremely huge number.

Even though Hong Chengchou himself sent troops to collect the grain and grass from the people, it did not prevent a group of ministers from thinking that it was money and grain from the imperial court.

So much money and food was eaten by 10,000+ lowly warriors and young adults, what a waste...

It's better to launch a decisive battle early. After the fight, there may be a large amount of money and food left over. Wouldn't it be great if everyone would get a share?

Ever since, after the persuasion of the courtiers, Chongzhen issued an order to Hong Chengchou, asking him to eliminate the bandits in front of him as soon as possible to save money and food, and to mobilize troops to return to the capital.

In short, this is what it means: Hurry up and fight, and the fight is over...

After Hong Chengchou received the new imperial decree, what else could he say... He could only sigh deeply again, then turned and went out, and then went to a side hall, and said to a middle-aged man in casual clothes in the side hall: "Your envoy Awaited!"

At least some of the ministers of the Ming court guessed correctly that Hong Chengchou really had contact with the envoys of the Chu army, and conducted secret negotiations on surrendering in a serious manner!
At this time, there are many people in the Ming court who have contacted the Chu thieves to discuss surrender. He Hong Chengchou is not the first, nor will he be the last.

It's just that after a little contact, Hong Chengchou still couldn't make up his mind.

It's not that Hong Chengchou is worried that he will be scolded as a traitor after he surrenders.

The main reason is that the condition given by the thief Chu on the opposite side was not good, and he only gave it to a servant who has no real power, and he is still a right...

Then Hong Chengchou inquired a little bit. In the past, even if many officials who voted in the past could keep their real jobs, they basically could not keep much of their family property.

On the one hand, the conditions offered by the opposite side were not good, on the other hand, Hong Chengchou felt that he still had more than 7 troops on hand, so he could fight a dozen or so.

Even if you can't win in the end, relying on the [-] troops, you can still fight for a better surrender condition for yourself.

Surrender, he actually doesn't mind!
But he is very concerned about the treatment issue.

Li Chengtong in the south received a clear return from the envoy, and Hong Chengchou once again refused to surrender, and hinted that he was at least worthy of a minister of the Ministry of War.

Regarding this, Li Chengtong chuckled: "He thinks he is some kind of thing, he even opened a dyeing workshop to give him some color, and returned the Minister of the Ministry of War, fuck off, I don't have such a yamen as the Ministry of War in Dachu!"

"Send the order, and the shelling will start tomorrow. I want to see why he wants a minister of the Ministry of War!"

(End of this chapter)