Song Qizhong and Li Dongshao, two men who were willing to take risks in order to get promoted, took many ships of goods and more than 70 soldiers of the Home Guard Army disguised as crewmen and boatmen, and hurriedly continued sailing before dawn.

It was a smooth journey and arrived at the dock outside Xiangyang City.

Song Qizhong showed his ability at this time, making use of his previous connections in Xiangyang City, and using money to open roads...

As a result, the officers and soldiers stationed on the dock simply ignored these ships, allowing them to enter the berth smoothly and unload the cargo, and then used horse-drawn carriages to transport the goods to the warehouse they rented in the city. No officers or soldiers came to check at all along the way, and no one came.

Block.

Let Li Dongshao and the others enter the city smoothly and bring their weapons in with them.

Most of the goods they transported back to the city were actually serious goods, including grain and cloth, but there were also a number of knives, armor, spears and even muskets hidden among them.

After the people came in, Li Dongshao and his group of more than 70 people stayed in the warehouse and did not go out. After all, they were not ordinary people. They were all soldiers in the barracks. They and they had received military training for a long time.

Ordinary guys, it seems that the difference in labor force is quite big.

If these people go out, they will inevitably be spotted by some experienced people.

Instead, Song Qizhong directed the spies in the intelligence department to go out intensively to collect all kinds of information. At the same time, he also tried to secretly bribe some of the small leaders among the officers and soldiers guarding the city.

——

Just when Song Qizhong, Li Dongshao and others were lurking in Xiangyang City, Luo Zhixue had already led the army to officially go south.

At noon on April 25th, after the Hometown Protection Army officially captured Nanyang City, after an afternoon of clearing, they had basically crushed the remaining organized resistance in the city. I cannot say that they had completely cleared out the stubborn resisters in the city, but they could not say that they had completely eliminated them.

It can be regarded as fully controlling the situation in the city.

In the follow-up, the rural protection army will definitely continue to carry out purge operations in the city, and at the same time cooperate with the grain collection office to raid the homes of the stubborn resisters in the city.

However, these things do not require Luo Zhixue to spend more time, let alone the main force of the Baoxiang Army.

In fact, early the next morning, after a night's rest, the 1st Infantry Brigade, personal battalion, supply battalion, cavalry and artillery units, which had regained sufficient physical strength, embarked on the road south under the personal leadership of Luo Zhixue.<

/p>

Subsequent garrisoning and suppression tasks in Nanyang City will be temporarily handed over to the Fourth Mixed Brigade.

In fact, the Fourth Mixed Brigade will not stay in Nanyang City for too long. Before Luo Zhixue went south, he had already given new orders to An Yongduo and Fei Bingqing of the Fourth Mixed Brigade.

The Fourth Mixed Brigade will subsequently reorganize while garrisoning Nanyang City. After the initial reorganization is completed, it will need to send troops to Yuzhou within three days at the latest to seize Yuzhou and control the Fangcheng Ancient Road.

The subsequent defense of Nanyang City will be fully handed over to the 3rd Infantry Brigade.

According to this series of orders from Luo Zhixue, the Baoxiang Army will be divided into four parts!

The Second Mixed Brigade is responsible for the war in the direction of Nanzhao County and Luyang Pass, with the core mission of capturing Nanzhao County, Luyang Pass and blocking the Yalu Ancient Road.

The Fourth Mixed Brigade is responsible for the frontline war in Yuzhou, with the core mission of capturing Yuzhou and blocking the Fangcheng Ancient Road. At the same time, if there is an opportunity and the time permits, it can also continue to attack Zhanwuyang eastward.

The 3rd Infantry Brigade, a purely new unit that has not yet completed training, will garrison Nanyang City and control a large area in the rear with Nanyang City as the core. After it is officially formed into an army later, it will also be responsible for the task of capturing Zhenping County and other surrounding cities.

As for the core main force of the First Infantry Brigade, almost all field artillery, elite cavalry, plus the personal battalion, supply battalion and other troops directly under Luo Zhixue, they will go south to Xiangyang City with the core task of capturing Xiangyang City. Follow-up will also require

Take the responsibility to stop the Ming army's counterattack in the southern and western front areas in Huguang, Yunyang and other areas.

There are only a few thousand troops in total, but they have to be divided into four directions to fight. Luo Zhixue is also helpless about this.

He has no good solution for the shortage of troops. Even if the Baoxiang Army has been working hard to expand and even recruits a large number of new soldiers every day, it will take time to train these new soldiers into an army.

Even the Third Infantry Brigade, which has been prepared for a long time, has not yet formed an army, not to mention the other newly recruited recruits. Each of them has not even undergone recruit training for a few days.

The Baoxiang Army needs time to expand and train its troops.

However, the real situation forces us to continuously launch attacks despite the shortage of troops. Whether it is blocking the Yalu Ancient Road, the Fangcheng Ancient Road, or controlling Xiangyang City, these are very important strategic tasks that are related to life and death.

If the two ancient roads in the north were not blocked, Hong Chengchou in the north could lead tens of thousands of main troops southward in minutes.

If Xiangyang City in the south is not captured in time and the main force of the Ming army in Yunyang and Huguang areas reacts, it is estimated that thousands or even tens of thousands of Ming troops will reinforce Xiangyang City.

With the solid city defense of Xiangyang City itself, coupled with the large number of troops stationed there, it will become a strong point. If the Home Guard Army launches a strong attack at this time, it may lead to a protracted siege with high casualties.

It will be huge.

And this is not what Luo Zhixue wants.

Therefore, after Luo Zhixue considered it for a long time, he finally decided to attack Xiangyang City by surprise.

If we can successfully capture Xiangyang City in a surprise attack before the officers and soldiers react, we can completely rely on Xiangyang City to stabilize the southern defense line and block Lu Xiangsheng's army.

And provide enough time for your own side to recruit, train new soldiers, and manufacture ordnance.

As long as it takes two or three months, the size of the Home Guard Army can be doubled, and the situation will be different by then. It takes only a matter of minutes to turn defense into attack, and you can even look south to the Jianghan Plain.<

/p>

If the surprise attack fails, nothing will be lost. At most, the trip will be in vain.

And even if the surprise attack fails, as long as Luo Zhixue and his army of more than 3,000 people stay in the northern area of ​​Xiangyang City, whether it is the Ming army in the Yunyang area or the Ming army in the Huguang area, they will not be able to go directly north to Nanyang

Mansion.

In this way, Luo Zhixue can also buy time for the army expansion in the rear.

Going south to Xiangyang City is ultimately about gaining time.

With this purpose, Luo Zhixue led the southward army to quickly go south.

In order to rush for time, they traveled south very quickly. On the first day alone, they walked more than 30 kilometers.

This is not the speed of an infantry marching lightly, but the speed of a march carrying artillery and baggage.

In order to go south quickly, Luo Zhixue used almost all the mules, horses and carriages he could find.

In order to keep the artillery and ammunition in the artillery unit marching continuously, the horses in the artillery unit pull the cannons with multiple horses, and they are also rotated.

At the same time, a large number of young and strong civilians were recruited to help transport baggage and even push carriages.

Once the wheels of a carriage sink into a pit, several or even a dozen young men will immediately run over to push the cart.

Otherwise, on such ordinary dirt roads, even if these roads are relatively flat, it is impossible to achieve a marching speed of more than 30 kilometers a day.

Such a high-intensity march naturally consumes a lot of money!

In order to ensure the physical fitness of the soldiers, Luo Zhixue specially ordered the logistics department to ensure a high standard of food supply no matter what in the past few days.

For the food of the soldiers, rice and noodles were openly supplied, with no limit, and they were directly fed, as well as meat, poultry and eggs.

Only when the soldiers are well fed and drunk can they maintain a high-intensity march!

Not only did the soldiers maintain a high standard of food supply, but the more than a thousand mules and horses in the army also maintained a high standard of food supply.

Not to mention that the cavalry horses eat high-quality concentrated feed mainly composed of beans and wheat bran, with added salt. Even ordinary mules and horses eat high-quality concentrated feed, which can last for several days in a row.

The high-intensity march made these mules and horses unable to hold up.

However, even so, many mules and horses actually died from exhaustion on the first day of march.

After a night's rest, they continued marching at dawn the next day!

On this day, they also passed through Xinye County.

But Luo Zhixue did not send the main force to attack Xinye County.

That's a waste of time!

They must fight to the foot of Xiangyang City as quickly as possible and in the shortest time!

Otherwise, even if the Baoxiang Army blocked the news from Nanyang City, it would not be possible to block the news for too long. Within a few days, Xiangyang City would definitely know that Nanyang City had fallen.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue did not send the main force to Xinye County, but directly led the main force to bypass Xinye County, and only sent the fourth infantry battalion to attack Xinye County.

Anyway, there are not many Ming troops in Xinye County, and there are only a few hundred guardsmen who can hold them back.

Xinye County also belongs to Nanyang Prefecture. There used to be a small number of soldiers stationed here, but they were transferred to Nanyang City by Chen Yongfu a long time ago. Now there are only three to four hundred guardsmen here.

With the combat power of the Fourth Infantry Battalion, there will be no problem in capturing this city.

Even if there were problems, it didn't matter. Luo Zhixue did not insist that the 4th Infantry Battalion must win this place.

On the contrary, Luo Zhixue gave the Fourth Infantry Battalion great flexibility in their missions, and ordered them to decisively withdraw their troops and continue southward if they were unable to capture the city immediately, leaving only a small number of troops to monitor the Ming army in Xinye City.

.

Everything is still focused on attacking Xiangyang City!

But the performance of the 4th Infantry Battalion exceeded Luo Zhixue's expectations.

In other words, the response of officials in Xinye County was slower than Luo Zhixue expected, and the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers in the city was weaker than Luo Zhixue expected...

Maybe the Baoxiang Army came too quickly, or maybe the defenders of Xinye City simply sent sentries and other people to garrison the outside. In short, when the Fourth Infantry Battalion arrived near Xinye County, the city gates were still open.

Yes, a few gatekeepers are sunbathing in all kinds of boredom...

This means that the officers and soldiers in the city have not yet heard the news of the killing by the Baoxiang Army.

When the soldiers of the Fourth Infantry Battalion saw it, they would be sorry if they didn't fight.

As a result, a dozen people with good riding skills got on their horses and rushed over. These people were not cavalry, they just knew how to ride a horse.

When they rushed over on horseback, the several government officials guarding the city gate were frightened. The next moment they saw these people using their hands and feet and turned around and ran away!

Forget about running away, even the city gate is not closed...

As a result, the 4th Infantry Battalion seized the gate of Xinye City without any bloodshed!

By the time the main force of the Fourth Infantry Battalion rushed into the city, the siege was over before it even started!
Chapter completed!