Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 189 The advantage is mine
The 60,000-strong army marched along the official road, with the vanguard and rear guard stretching for more than ten miles. Yang Shien rode his horse in the center of the army.

The commander of the Southern Army was Song Yihe, the governor of Huguang. He was one of the few civilian officials in the Chongzhen Dynasty who was knowledgeable about military affairs. He knew that he could not give orders blindly, so he entrusted all military affairs to veteran generals and stayed in Nanyang to coordinate food and wages.

Yang Shien, who was favored by the commander-in-chief, took over the supreme command.

He sent out Tangma to search for the enemy, but was unable to get any useful information from the people.

All that can be gathered is nursery rhymes such as "Open the city gates to welcome beggars, and when beggars come, the land and grain will be distributed equally." No matter how much coercion or inducement is used, only some worthless fragmented information can be obtained, which is of no benefit to the overall situation.

Yang Shien knew that the bandits were generous and heroic. Every time they captured a wealthy family, they would summon the common people and refugees to carry food. They were never stingy in distributing food and coarse salt, and often burned indentures and promissory notes to win over the hearts of the people.

He knew very well that the bandits were good at misleading people, but he did not expect that although Nanyang Prefecture was still under the control of the government, it was deeply infiltrated by the bandits. The people only believed in "begging for survival" and did not trust the government.

They were delighted to see the beggars, but were afraid and disgusted when they saw the government soldiers.

Who are the officers and soldiers, and who are the rebels?
Looking at the lead-colored cumulus clouds approaching in the distance, Yang Shien's heart was covered with a gray veil of worry.

Suddenly, several galloping war horses appeared in the distance.

The riders were extremely anxious. As soon as they saw the large army, they raised their flags to indicate that they were government troops. They then searched along the long line of government troops and soon saw General Yang wearing beautiful mountain-patterned armor.

Several riders dismounted, and one of them approached General Yang's horse. After looking around, he whispered, "General Yang, please allow me a moment to speak."

Seeing the soldier's serious expression, General Yang had a bad feeling, so he dismounted and followed several riders to retreat to the side.

"General Yang, disaster has struck! The Western Route Army has been ambushed by bandits and has been completely annihilated..."

"what!"

Although the Western Route Army was small in number, it should have gathered a lot of armed forces from the landlords. How could they be easily defeated by the bandits?!

General Yang suspected he had misheard, "Where did you get the news?"

"The defeated soldiers of the Western Route Army are everywhere. We found a few of them outside Yuzhou. They said that the main force of the bandits pretended to cross the river, but in fact they were ambushing in the forest, waiting for the government troops to relax and then suddenly attack. Governor Gao was unable to resist and has already fallen into the hands of the enemy..."

"what!"

Yang Shien felt as if struck by lightning, and the sweat in his body, wrapped in heat, felt like thorns on his back.

He suggested deploying four armies to encircle and suppress the enemy, but less than ten days after the four armies set out, one of them was defeated and annihilated?
If the enemy soldiers reaped the "benefits" of their defeat and turned around to attack Luoyang, how long could they defend Luoyang with only a few defeated soldiers who escaped?

The prince was captured and faced a serious crime. Yang Shien felt his legs go weak just thinking about it.

"Speed ​​up the march immediately! Spend the night in Yuzhou!"

Yang Shien raised his whip and whipped the warhorse hard to urge it to speed up, and the servants and soldiers around him rode their horses to follow.

……

The vanguard of the Southern Army quickly entered Yuzhou. The arrogant military officers led their servants to demand money and food everywhere, and started beating and scolding people if they disagreed with them.

Some people even rushed into houses with knives to rob, and some were so bold as to break into inner rooms and rape women in broad daylight.

In the chaotic conflict, several clerks were beheaded in the street, and their bodies lay at the street intersection. No one dared to question them. Even if superiors asked about the reasons, the evil officers and soldiers would only accuse the clerks of stealing money and grain from the treasury during the chaos.

The soldiers took the opportunity to extort money, and the military officers found it difficult to enforce military discipline.

After all, the generals never provided the soldiers with enough food and clothing when they were drawing empty salaries and sucking the blood of the soldiers. Now that the soldiers have the opportunity to make a fortune, they don't have the confidence to cut off their brothers' financial resources.

Moreover, General Shangguan usually regarded looting and stealing money as a "year-end bonus incentive" and allowed his soldiers to loot as long as they obeyed orders during the war.

Without their superiors' obstruction, the government troops felt emboldened and continued patrolling, their bloodstained swords in hand. Whenever they spotted a wealthy family, they would call a few of their men to join them in their quest for fortune, and perhaps even taste a few of the daughters of wealthy families they had never tasted before...

Yang Shien entered the city after the vanguard troops. Looking at the chaotic scene of looting by soldiers, he felt a strong sense of dizziness rushing down his spine and straight to the back of his head, "Damn it..."

Before he could finish his words, he heard a shrill scream and several women in tattered clothes and with long hair running out of the house. The fabric of their bellybands could be faintly seen under their torn clothes.

The women knelt in front of the general wearing mountain armor, shouting for help, and behind them were several arrogant soldiers with ruddy faces and evil smiles.

When those government soldiers saw General Yang coming in person, their reckless expressions immediately disappeared, and they felt their heads buzzing, as if ten thousand flies were dancing in their brains.

Before they could react, their legs had already gone limp and they fell to their knees.

They were like self-taught movie stars who had won awards for ten years. They squeezed out hot tears in just a few words, denouncing themselves as inhuman and begging for the general's forgiveness.

However, the so-called self-blame was nothing but excuses. They said that the women of this wealthy family were all sluts, who opened the door in broad daylight and seduced them with their words.

If the bad woman hadn't taken the initiative to seduce them, they wouldn't have made such a mistake.

"Oh? You said these women seduced you?" General Yang snorted coldly, his left hand already grasping the scabbard. "Should I believe you or them?"

"Considering our many years of hard work, please forgive us this time!"

"We won't dare to do it again!" "There are more than just a few soldiers causing trouble in the city. Does General Yang want to kill them all? How many people will be willing to fight for you then?"

"die!"

Yang Shien was filled with murderous intent. While still thinking about killing the bandits and quelling the rebellion, he had already drawn his sword with his right hand and chopped off the head of the rebellious man with one blow. The splattered blood stained his face.

Seeing that the general was really angry, the other two soldiers did not have time to kowtow and beg for mercy. They turned around and ran away with the desire to survive. However, before they could run ten steps, they were stabbed in the stomach by the general's servants.

This group of soldiers is really outrageous. They burn, kill and loot, and are even worse than bandits. How can the government troops who are more corrupt than bandits win the support of the people?

Yang Shien immediately ordered his guerrilla officers to patrol the city and arrest evildoers. Anyone who robs and harms the people, rapes and plunders will be executed!
Tens of thousands of government troops entered the state capital and set up camp one after another. Due to the lack of vacant houses, Yang Shien once again enforced strict military discipline. The government troops who had no houses to live in had to rely on the checkpoints outside the city and temporarily set up a camp.

In the evening, General Yang sent people to collect intelligence about the bandits, but the people in the city kept silent, and the gentry and wealthy families cried poor and begged for mercy, fearing that the government troops would demand money, food, and men.

The farmers and merchants along the way also regarded the government troops as enemies and tried to avoid them as much as possible.

When the farmers in the surrounding area heard that the government troops had arrived, they fled to the mountains with their families overnight to take shelter.

The hostility and resistance of the people, as well as the indifference they saw on the faces of the government troops, deeply hurt Yang Shien's heart.

Without the support of the people, these government troops fighting at home would find it difficult to move forward and obtain supplies, just like fighting deep behind enemy lines.

Roads and bridges beyond the visible range of the naked eye seemed to be covered by a vague fog of war.

The bad reputation of the government army today is the result of being like bandits, but this is an old problem of the imperial court that cannot be shaken by him alone.

Before nightfall, the dispatched Tang Ma brought good news that the bandits did not go north to invade Luoyang.

The bad news was that the bandits led tens of thousands of troops south to attack him, and were only forty miles away from Yuzhou!
The bandits were not satisfied with destroying the Western Army, they also wanted to destroy the main force of the Southern Army.

What the bandits wanted was not a city or a pond, but to destroy the government army's vitality and then establish their own control over Henan Province.

Yang Shien couldn't help but marvel at the beggar's huge appetite!

According to the information verified by the defeated soldiers and the Tangma, the main force of the bandit army was about 50,000, and more than half of them were armed peasants.

The reason why the bandit army defeated the Western Route Army was that the Western Route Army underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, secretly sending troops to the countryside to plunder, which allowed the bandit army's surprise troops to seize the opportunity and kill them with one strike.

This is not because the bandits are so brave to fight, but simply because the government troops are negligent in taking precautions.

But Yang Shien is not Gao Mingheng, who is always careless and will not rush into an ambush.

The Southern Army under his command is the real main force to suppress bandits, and including the local militia, there are as many as 60,000 of them!

When the government troops were encircling and suppressing the peasant army in the northwest, it was always just a few thousand people chasing tens of thousands of bandits everywhere.

It is impossible for loose peasants without weapons, equipment, organization and courage to defeat well-equipped regular troops.

Even if the enemy army has thousands of elite soldiers who are fearless of death, he also has 20,000 to 30,000 auxiliary troops under his command.

Twenty to thirty thousand auxiliary troops crushed thousands of fierce bandits. Tens of thousands of local warriors faced tens of thousands of bandit minions.

The enemy army was exhausted after just fighting a battle, while the government army was in high spirits and full of energy.

You can tell at a glance who has the advantage!
Yang Shien ordered all the soldiers to have a good rest tonight and ordered thousands of soldiers to guard the outskirts of the city to prevent the enemy from launching a surprise attack at night.

He also personally led people to inspect the city defenses. After checking them out, he stopped at a certain section of the wall and looked towards the northeast. The invisible location dozens of miles away should be where the main force of the bandits had set up camp.

The next morning, countless iron pots were set up in the state capital to cook, and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers got up in a noisy manner to eat.

As many trivial matters were resolved, tens of thousands of troops poured out of the state capital and formed a long line of four or five people wide at the city gate, mixed with carts, artillery carts, and trolleys... and drove sparsely towards the northeast valley.

……

"Sula" stood on the slope at the foot of the mountain, holding a monocular telescope in her hand.

The Qihuo Army's command tent was located one mile from the foot of a hill, where the dense branches of the forest swayed in the cool, warm spring breeze.

The 46,000-man Qihuo Army formed a battle formation at the bottom of the mountain valley, like a wedge-shaped arrow pointing southwest: 3,000 players, 7,000 attendants, 3,000 cavalry, and 33,000 militia.

The center army and the right wing are infantry attendants and militia, and the left wing is two thousand veteran players.

The remaining players spread out throughout the squad, controlling retainers and militia.

Several intermittent trenches were dug in front of the battle line to block the enemy, and wooden fences were fixed to prevent horses. The complete multi-layer defense system was like a ring-shaped horseshoe nailed on a horse's hoof.

"Sula" scanned around through the telescope and finally found traces of the Ming army at the end where the sky and the earth met.

The government troops from the south are coming.

(End of this chapter)