Why did Zhu Kang only bring 3,000 soldiers?
Because this is neither a war to destroy the country nor a war of conquest, three thousand soldiers are more than enough.
Du Yingwu dispatched about 40,000 troops.
Eight thousand of them are the Annan Forbidden Army, which is the absolute main force.
The other 20,000 were ten soldiers, similar to the Xiang army of the Song Dynasty.
There are also more than 10,000 rural soldiers recruited temporarily, a ragtag group of people.
There were only so many troops left that Du Yingwu could mobilize. He suffered heavy losses in the battles in the past few years, especially the violent beating by Yang Zaixing, which caused Annan's military strength to decrease sharply.
Thang Long and northern prefectures and counties were plundered, and the finances were on the verge of collapse. The Annan court had no money to restore the army.
After Du Yingwu's coup, local rebellions broke out all over the place, which also severely consumed military personnel.
The border troops in the south did not dare to move, otherwise they would occupy the city and kill them in minutes.
Du Yingwu sent 5,000 troops to surprise the cities in the rear of the Ming army, and was temporarily unable to return to participate in the decisive battle.
He also wanted to leave troops to garrison the two cities on the front line, but he could only really use more than 30,000 troops.
On Zhu Kang's side, there were 3,000 Ming troops, 5,000 local soldiers, and dozens of Annan navy warships.
The navies of both sides fought first.
Take refuge in Zhu Kang's Annan Navy and fight against Du Yingwu's Annan Navy!
Although they were both Annan naval forces, the former was stationed on the Taiping River and could fight offshore. He even crossed the sea to attack Qinzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty.
The latter is a proper river navy, stationed in Thang Long Palace and the surrounding water systems.
The battle lasted for about an hour, and Zhu Kang's side achieved a small victory.
Han Jing observed carefully with a telescope and concluded: "The navy on both sides did not fight desperately. They should be unwilling to kill each other."
Annan official Chen Kai said: "The leader of the water army in Shenglong Prefecture is Li Changlu, Marquis of Baoning. He neither opposes Du Ze's regency, but does not fully support it. It is estimated that this person is waiting to see who wins.
I will help anyone if I can't help him, I just want to preserve my own strength."
Zhu Kang smiled and said: "It seems that the enemy troops are not united."
…
"Why don't the navy fight to the death?" Du Yingwu asked.
Li Changlu argued: "The pirate army has a large navy and it is difficult to win. The soldiers have tried their best."
Du Yingwu said with a cold face: "The navy army reorganized and cooperated with the horse infantry army to fight!"
It was impossible for Du Yingwu, who had carried out the coup less than a year ago, to completely control the army.
Especially the naval army is not in the same system as the infantry, and the general in charge of the army is still a marquis.
He didn't even dare to punish Li Changlu severely, and had to promise more benefits to win him over.
Zhu Kang's camp was located at the intersection of Taiping River and Longjiang River. The side facing the river was protected by the navy. No matter how many troops Du Yingwu had, he could not besiege on all sides and could only attack the west and south.
Du Yingwu has already transferred the troops stationed in Tiandefu City.
At this time, the main force of the 32,000 Annan army slowly advanced from the west, and 10,000 people were divided to circle to the south for a pincer attack.
Zhu Kang placed 3,000 elite soldiers in front and 5,000 rabble-rousers on the sides.
The battlefield is a large paddy field.
There are two crops a year in the Red River Plain. The first crop is sown at the turn of winter and spring, and the second crop is sown in summer.
At this moment, the rice has been harvested, but the new rice has not been planted yet.
The paddy fields have not completely dried up yet. They seem dry on the surface, but when you step on them, you will find mud that is ankle deep. The Red River Plain is harvested after the rainy season, and a lot of the water in the fields has not been drained. Naturally, the fields will become dry after two months of drying.
In this ghostly state.
Some farmland even has water!
Soldiers from both sides took off their shoes, rolled up their trouser legs, and moved forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.
In addition to being easy to slip, it does not affect the movement very much. Soldiers who are familiar with this kind of farmland can even run in the mud.
Of course, that's a state without armor.
Zhu Kang's three thousand elites were all wearing armor at the moment, and they were medium-sized armors weighing about thirty kilograms. They were slightly affected when they moved.
"The enemy's army in the south is full of mobs, and they can't even raise their flags in order." After Du Yingwu observed carefully, he said to the messenger, "I ordered Liu Yu to attack fiercely in the south and defeat the enemy's flanking troops!"
Du Yingwu was indeed a qualified commander. Not long after Zhu Kang laid out his troops, he caught his weak point and took action immediately.
The battlefield on the side is too far away, and the flag order may be transmitted incorrectly, and a messenger will fly away along the field ridge.
The messenger was still running, and Zhu Kang's elite troops were already speeding forward.
There were even more than a hundred artillerymen, carrying cannons, shells and gunpowder, advancing on several field ridges.
Du Yingwu gave corresponding commands: "Li Yirong led his troops to fight, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou led his troops to respond. Marquis Baoning, your navy will also kill them. The enemy camp is empty. Once the navy wins, they can directly attack the enemy."
The camp burned down the food and fodder. Even if the enemy camp cannot be burned down, as long as we persist here and wait for the mob on the enemy's flank to be defeated, we can take advantage of the situation and dispatch the entire army to attack from both sides!"
"As you command!"
Annan's army mobilized quickly, and it was definitely a strong force in a small country.
Du Yingwu later even established a military academy to firmly control the army by training officers, and significantly improved the combat effectiveness of the Annan army.
The elite Ming army advanced more than ten meters when Han Jing suddenly said: "Your Highness, advancing in muddy formation is too energy-consuming. It is better to let all the soldiers rush along the field ridge to kill."
"How can we fight if we form many long snakes?" Zhu Kang said in surprise.
Han Jing said: "You can fight. What we practice is the Yuanyang Formation!"
Zhu Kang felt that it was extremely outrageous, but considering that Han Jing had perfect scores in all subjects in the military academy and had participated in the Northern War many times, he actually agreed: "General Han has full power to make the decision."
Han Jing ordered the advance to be stopped, and called in mid-level officers to explain the combat methods in detail.
The middle-level officers returned to their teams and called the captains of the Yuanyang Team.
Soon, in Du Yingwu's shocked eyes, all three thousand Ming troops stepped onto the field ridge and turned into several long snakes and rushed over.
Of course we can march like this, but now the two armies are at war!
Du Yingwu was overjoyed: "Send the order and let Li Yirong, Long Kan, and Ding Congzhou line up to press forward. Li Hui and Ruan Xing will lead their troops to respond."
When the front armies of both sides were only a hundred steps apart, Han Jing gave the order to blow the bugle.
The soldiers of the Ming army who were running at the front jumped from the field ridge into the farmland and quickly formed an array. The following Ming army was still galloping along the field ridge, including the artillerymen carrying small cannons.
At this moment, it has entered the shooting range of the walking bow.
But except for generals with amazing arm strength, ordinary archers cannot shoot arrows from such a distance.
In the Tang Dynasty, archers were required to shoot in sixty steps, while in the Ming Dynasty, archers were required to hit the target in fifty steps. A distance of about seventy or eighty meters was required before the salvo could begin.
"Boom boom boom!"
The Ming army's artillery began to fire, and it was the siege artillery left on the shore (removed from the navy ship).
These artillery pieces were aimed at Du Yingwu's Chinese army, but many shells fell on the supporting troops between the front army and the Chinese army.
The Annan general named Li Hui was leading his troops to press forward. He was just supporting the troops and did not need to lead the charge, but suddenly he saw many dark shadows falling down.
"ah!"
One of the soldiers screamed. Li Hui turned around and found that the soldier's arm had been broken.
There were not many casualties, just twenty shells.
The shells were hard to bounce when they hit the mud, and some of them didn't even hit anyone. The Annan soldiers only died or injured eight people.
The Ming Dynasty elites who jumped into Tianzhong only arranged small groups of mandarin ducks, and the groups were not neatly arranged. To outsiders, this was not even a military formation, it looked disorganized and the formation was chaotic.
"Bang bang bang!"
But they've already fired.
The distance was far away, and there were not many fire rifle soldiers, and only a dozen or so enemy troops were hit.
The Annan front army that pressed forward numbered more than 6,000, and the casualties of more than ten people were negligible, and they did not even affect the overall morale.
To be continued...