Chapter 278 The troops are divided into two groups
After the fall of Luzhou, the Ming army could not cross the river to attack the city, and Zhu Xieyuan would not even have the so-called idea of recovering the lost territory.
He only has 5,000 soldiers in hand, let alone attack the fortress. As long as the rebels are not stupid and send an army to defend the riverside, he will not even be able to cross the river.
In order to prevent the rebels from trying to cross the river deeper and get closer to Chengdu, Zhu Xieyuan sent out all the sentries and spies in the army and paid close attention to the rebels' actions along the river.
Zhu Xieyuan breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that this was the main force of the rebels and was led by Yongning chieftain She Chongming and his son.
Because of the emperor's secret decree, he had already guessed that She Chongming was the one who had just received the report of the rebel army.
Everything was as His Majesty had expected. She Chongming, who had harbored alien intentions for a long time, actually started an army to cause chaos.
What shocked him even more was that His Majesty actually knew that the She Chongming Society had rebelled several months ago, and there was no difference in time or place at all.
And the layout preparations were made early, quite like inviting you into the urn.
Now he has nearly 40,000 troops dispatched in Chengdu alone. In Chongqing, there are also Qin Liangyu's brave and skilled Shizhu Baigan soldiers. They have begun to form an encirclement. As long as he can contain She Chongming's main force here, otherwise
In three to five days, you will be ready to close the net.
He is now the governor of Sichuan, and he has the power to dispatch all the troops, horses, and grain in Sichuan and Shu.
With preparations in advance, tens of thousands of troops attacked at the same time, and he thought it would not be difficult to quell these rebellious chieftains.
But She Chongming, who had just captured Luzhou, was not at all happy about his victory in the first battle.
Because before he could celebrate happily, the detective brought him very bad news.
On the other side of the Yangtze River, an army with clear flags, neat military appearance, and cloth-covered armor was gathering on the other side and was ready to cross the river at any time to counterattack Luzhou.
He secretly rejoiced. If he hadn't given the death order and launched a fierce attack to capture Luzhou early in the morning. If a few hours later, this Ming army appeared out of nowhere and entered Luzhou to support him, he would have thought
The plan to occupy Luzhou had already failed.
What is distressing is that now he is in a dilemma. If he leads a large army to attack Chongqing Prefecture now, Luzhou will be empty. What if the Ming army regains Luzhou as soon as he leaves, wouldn't he be attacked from both sides and be attacked from both sides?
The reason why he was so eager to capture Luzhou was that in addition to going down the river to capture Chongqing, he also wanted to build this place into his own logistics support base.
There are many mountainous basins in central Sichuan, and the roads are rugged. Most of the places are connected by mountain roads and small roads. It is very difficult to transport grain, grass and other war preparation materials.
But if you can travel by water, it will not only save time and effort, but also transport materials and grain to the front line very quickly to ensure military supplies.
Moreover, Luzhou is also the most convenient, nearest and most reliable transfer station from Yongning to Chongqing. If he cannot hold Luzhou, his main force of 30,000 people is simply wishful thinking to capture the important town of Chongqing.
In terms of logistical support alone, he didn't know how many troops he would allocate for maintenance.
Now he was eager to know where the Ming army on the other side came from, how many people there were, and whether there were any elsewhere. He was wearing a cloth-faced armor, and they had only seen it in the armament book.
Don't understand at all.
As far as they know, this seems to be equipped only for the northern frontier army. Could it be that this army is the Northern Army? How did the Northern Army appear in the southwest? Who is the commander?
For this reason, he had to summon the main generals under his command, a total of more than ten people, and held a military meeting in Luzhou to deal with the new situation.
These generals and subordinates of She Chongming were basically rough guys who only knew how to shout and kill. The only one with some brains and talent was Zhang Tong, who was appointed by him as the commander of the partial division. Therefore, after deliberation for a long time, these people didn't even think about it.
Come up with a way to get the best of both worlds.
"Father, since our army has captured Luzhou, why are we still afraid of this and that?"
"So what if the Ming army on the other side is an elite frontier army? I just went to the river to check it out in person. They only have seven or eight thousand people at most, and they lack ships. We only need to deploy troops along the river to defeat them.
They blocked it."
"We have an army of 30,000, why should we be afraid of thousands of people in the Ming Military Region? If my father is really worried, why not divide the army into two groups, and my son will stay in Luzhou, while my father goes to capture Chongqing?"
"The news that we have launched troops to capture Luzhou has not spread yet. The Chongqing side must not know what happened. We must seize the time and quickly capture Chongqing before the Luzhou military report is sent back to Chongqing. By then we will have a stronghold in central Sichuan
We have a foothold."
She Chongming thought about it again and again, and realized that the current plan could only be like this.
This time he did not hesitate and made a decisive decision. His son She Yin led five thousand troops to stay in Luzhou to defend the Ming army on the other side.
He led 20,000 infantry troops and sailed down the river in ships, preparing to capture Chongqing.
The remaining five thousand cavalry were handed over to his trusted generals Zhou Ding and Luo Qianxiang, who led his only cavalry regiment and marched lightly along the river bank.
In order to cover up the situation as much as possible, She Chongming secretly set off with his army at midnight the next day and walked along the Yangtze River for nearly ten miles before finally boarding the ship.
Zhu Xieyuan, who was on the other side, did not know that the main force of the rebels had already gone to Chongqing. At this time, he was closely contacting all parties to ensure that the encirclement could be carried out smoothly as planned.
Just when he was about to fall asleep, a soldier entered the tent without asking for permission, raised his hands and clasped his fist towards Zhu Xieyuan behind the hanging cloth:
"Futai, Your Majesty has sent an angel to bring you His Majesty's military orders and handwriting. They have now arrived outside the big tent!"
Zhu Xieyuan quickly stood up and walked out of the tent. When he saw a sergeant wearing fine iron armor, he immediately knelt down and bowed his head. He performed the courtesy and then invited the envoy into the military tent.
"Futai, His Majesty's army has arrived in Dazhou the day before yesterday and will enter Chongqing in the next few days, but it will not be exposed to the war prematurely. I am here to convey His Majesty's military orders to Futai and take a long-term approach to fishing for big fish!
"
Playing the long game to catch the big fish?
Zhu Xieyuan was confused. What does your majesty mean?
Let the rebels live in front of you and cause harm to the people, burning, killing, looting, but not pacifying them?
Where do the big fish come from in this bitterly cold place in the southwest?
Zhu Xieyuan looked at the guard in front of him and said politely:
"I don't quite understand what Your Majesty means, but I hope the angel will tell you in detail!"
"She Chongming is just a small chieftain in Yongning. It is impossible to destroy him with just one hand. What your Majesty means is not to defeat the rebels of She Chongming prematurely, because there are still some people who have not made their attitude clear.
.”
"Let him make trouble for a few days. When some people can't help but participate, we can close the net together and catch them all!"