I want to be emperor

Chapter 483 Zuo Liangyu Wants to Run Again

The fifth year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, the first year of Ximing Longxing, March 23.

In Taiyuan, Shanxi, Zuo Liangyu looked at the disassembled military report on the table and remained silent.

The military emergency report on the right hand side arrived in Taiyuan this morning. This is the battle report from the front line of Jiezhou.

According to the battle report, the mountain passes on the periphery of Xiezhou and Xiwen have been intensively attacked by Chu thieves. Zuo Liangyu's troops have already captured four of the eight fortresses built by the Chu thieves along the passable points of the mountains. Thousands of defenders suffered heavy casualties.

But the offensive of the Chu thieves is still very fierce, and the front line of Xiezhou is in danger.

Just this battle report is not enough to make Zuo Liangyu lock herself in the study alone in silence. With the powerful combat power of the Chu army, even if they did not carry a large number of heavy artillery, they launched a fierce attack on the front line of Jiezhou. Light artillery and their large number of armored elite soldiers can also cause great damage to the Jiezhou defense line.

What's more, Sun Chuanting's troops were stationed on the front line of Xiezhou before, and their sudden withdrawal brought great trouble to Zuo Liangyu. Not long after Zuo Liangyu's troops took over the defense in an emergency, they were attacked by Chu thieves.

In fact, he was already mentally prepared for the failure of the Jiezhou front line. Five thousand reinforcements were already on the way, and they would be able to reinforce the Jiezhou defense line in a few days.

What really caught Zuo Liangyu's attention, and even panicked, was the military report on the left hand side.

Tongguan was captured by Chu thieves five days ago. According to reports from the personnel sent by Zuo Liangyu to observe the battle situation on the north bank of the Yellow River.

On the [-]th, the defenders were already in a state of being unable to resist. The defenders broke through day and night, but by the dawn of the next day, only a few thousand people had broken through, and most of the Tongguan defenders eventually surrendered.

Tongguan is lost!

"That is a famous pass in the world, and there are tens of thousands of Sun Chuanting's elite guards, and dozens of long-barreled cannons guarding it, so it can't even last for a few days!"

Zuo Liangyu stood up, walked to the window and looked outside, but he didn't have the heart to appreciate the blooming flowers in the courtyard outside the window, but continued to frown.

"Although the Chu thief's combat power is strong, it is not so strong."

Zuo Liangyu couldn't figure out why Sun Chuanting was defeated so quickly. According to his estimation, although Sun Chuanting was old-fashioned and pedantic, he was devoted to the court and not the court, and he did not hesitate to send troops to attack him for the sake of the Longxing regime, but he still had abilities. .

In just two or three years, we can wipe out all the thieves in Shaanxi-Gansu, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who have plagued the Shaanxi-Gansu region for many years, cannot take care of themselves, and can only hide in the mountains to survive. Sun Chuanting was incompetent, and Zuo Liangyu could slap him a lot.

However, such a person, with the most elite main force of the new Qin army under his command, has an army of tens of thousands, and relies on Tongguan, a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but he failed to be the Chu thief.

This is not reasonable!

Chu thief, it's not like he hasn't seen or fought before. In his influence, Chu thief is strong, but not so strong!

There must be something wrong here.

Perhaps it was the rebellion of a general of the Ming Army in Tongguan City, which caused the collapse of the defense line, but it was more likely that those damn Chu thieves had adopted some new weapons and tactics.

Otherwise, based on his knowledge of Chu thief, even if Chu thief could take down Tongguan, it would not be so easy.

If the Chu thief could easily attack Tongguan, Zuo Liangyu would have died in battle long ago.

When he was stationed in Henan before, he fought intermittently with the Chu thief for several years, especially in the confrontation battles in the following years, the small-scale battles between the two sides were actually very frequent.

During this process, Zuo Liangyu also had a deeper understanding of Chu thieves.

The Chu thieves are very strong, especially the guns are extremely sharp, and the armor rate of the soldiers is even more appalling, and the treatment is generous, the soldiers have plenty of physical fitness and high morale.

However, even so, the Chu thief is not without flaws, and he is invincible under all circumstances.

For example, cavalry in Chu Bandit is not a strong point.

In addition, although the guns in the Chu bandits are sharp, if the defenders want to fight defensively, and they also have a certain number of long-barreled artillery to assist in the battle, and build a large number of fortifications to defend against shelling, then the guns of the Chu bandits can also be offset. a part of.

If the Chu thieves wanted to attack by force, they had to mobilize their so-called commandos, that is, those heavy infantry in heavy armor.

This has been the case in many actual battles and friendly battles in the past.

Some strong fortresses with perfect fortifications and long-barreled artillery to assist in the battle were finally lost because they were often unable to withstand the opponent's commando during the hand-to-hand combat stage of the infantry on both sides.

So Zuo Liangyu also believed that although the Chu thieves' guns were sharp, their heavy armored troops were more capable of deciding the outcome of the battlefield among the Chu thieves.

The hundreds of cannons in the Chu bandits did not frighten Zuo Liangyu, but the tens of thousands of heavy armored infantry in the Chu bandits made Zuo Liangyu sleepless.

In order to be able to defend Shanxi, he has been trying to find ways, such as learning from the friendly army to build a large number of artillery fortifications, building a large number of two and a half catties, even five catties, and nine catties of field artillery, and even learning from the Chu thief to make some mortars to fire explosive bombs. The gadget can be used not only in battles, but also in defensive battles, but the cost performance is very low, it is better to use field artillery directly.

However, when facing the attack of the Chu thieves, he often digs trenches to advance, and likes to deploy mortars in trenches or even anti-slope positions, so Zuo Liangyu believes that even if he is the defender, he must have mortars as a counterattack force.

At the same time, he tried to increase the armor rate of his troops as much as possible, because the money and food were rich and the number of craftsmen was limited, so it was impossible for him to make his troops achieve a high armor rate. His method was to imitate the bandits of Chu and set up several forward battalions directly. , this vanguard battalion is the same as the heavy armored assault team in Chu Bandits, with heavy armored infantry as the core, supplemented by elite musketeers, and equipped with two and a half catties of field artillery.

The purpose is to counter the heavy-armored commandos in Chu Bandit.

As long as they can resist the opponent's heavy-armored commando when the Chu thief charges, then the battle will be fought.

Zuo Liangyu thought that he had made sufficient preparations, especially after last year's carelessness that resulted in the loss of Guguan, he calmed down and carried out considerable reforms to the army under his command.

He still had some hope for defending Shanxi. Even if he couldn't hold it in the end, he didn't think that his army would be defeated quickly. At that time, it would be a big deal to retreat to Guanzhong to join Sun Chuanting.

But what Zuo Liangyu didn't expect was that Sun Chuanting's troops would be defeated so quickly. In just a few days, Tongguan was already lost.

The loss of Tongguan almost meant that the entire Guanzhong was exposed to the guns of Chu thieves, and Sun Chuanting lost a large number of main forces, and Chang'an and even the entire hinterland of Guanzhong would not be able to defend 100%.

Well, the Chu thief took Tongguan on No. 18, and now it is the 23rd. Maybe at this time, the Chu thief has already approached the city of Chang'an.

Tongguan is only more than 100 kilometers away from Chang'an. With the Chu thief's almost abnormal marching ability, five days is enough for their forward troops to reach Chang'an.

This pass is about to or has already fallen into the hands of the Chu thieves, so one of his major escape routes will be completely cut off, not to mention that Puzhou will face the direct attack of the Chu thieves in the future.

At the same time, the defense line between Xiezhou and Xiwen will also be under greater offensive pressure from the Chu army.

Under such heavy pressure, the counties in the southeast of Pingyang Prefecture will not be long before they fall. At that time, the Chu thieves will be able to go northward along the Fen River and the plains along the coast. Not only Pingyang Prefecture will be destroyed, but Taiyuan in the north will also be destroyed.

Coupled with the huge strength of the Chu bandits in the east of Taiyuan and the Chu bandits in Datong in the north, Taiyuan will face siege from three sides at that time. Rao Zuo Liangyu still has three heads and six arms, and it is unlikely that his troops can be doubled. what.

How to do?
Zuo Liangyu looked up at the flowers outside the courtyard, and finally sighed!
This Shanxi is going to be unstoppable!

My own ambition to separate one side based on Shanxi, and even establish a greater hegemony in the end, will also be destroyed.

Chu thief is stronger than I expected!

Facing such a bad and complicated situation, Zuo Liangyu naturally wouldn't sit still!

He wants to jump out of Shanxi, a place that is about to be surrounded by strategy.

On the same day, he ordered the civil and military officials under his command to search the entire territory of Shanxi. Regardless of whether it was food, cloth, iron, or gold and silver, all kinds of things that could be taken away were always searched and prepared to be transferred to Yan'an Mansion in Shaanxi to the west.

There are also more important craftsmen of various kinds, especially those who make guns.

These craftsmen were brought all the way from Henan, and some of them were searched in Shanxi. It was because thousands of craftsmen under his command made guns and armor for him day and night that he was able to produce so many guns and armor.

The whole of Shanxi is about to become a battlefield, and Zuo Liangyu is not confident that he can completely keep the Chu thieves out of his house, so he needs a more stable rear.

Although the Loess Plateau in the west is not the best choice, it is the only choice left.

However, it takes time to organize the strategic transfer of personnel and materials, so Zuo Liangyu can't let the frontline army retreat directly, and has to continue to resist, especially in the direction of Taiyuan and Datong. The Chu thieves on the opposite side have not launched a large-scale attack yet. , You can't run away before the enemy comes in, right?

But the time left for Zuo Liangyu is running out!
After a whole spring of preparations in the direction of Taiyuan and Datong, especially after the intensive material transportation preparations after the cold winter, they already have the ability to launch large-scale battles.

When the news that the army under the Shaanxi-Gansu Campaign Command had captured Tongguan reached the Zhending Mansion in Hebei, the Military Intelligence Department reported that the Ming Army on the opposite side seemed to be organizing personnel transfers. General Li Dongshao, the commander of the Shanxi Campaign Command, decisively ordered the army A fierce attack was launched towards Taiyuan!
On March 27, the Chu army's soldiers had already reached Pingding Prefecture, Taiyuan Prefecture.

A few days later, the deputy commander of the Northeast Campaign, who was slow to get the news, was in charge of Xuanda's defense and General Dong Mingjie, who also served as the commander of the Second Army, immediately ordered the Eighth Division under his command to launch a fierce attack from Datong to the south, directly approaching Yanmen Pass.

They also dispatched the [-]th Division reorganized by the Ming Datong Frontier Army to launch an attack in the direction of Ningwu Pass!
Pingding Prefecture in the east, Yanmen Pass in Daizhou in the north, and Ningwu Pass in Shanxi Town, these three strategically important places were attacked by the Chu army at the same time. For a while, Zuo Liangyu's painstakingly built defense lines in the north and east of Taiyuan were in dire straits!
(End of this chapter)