Chapter 288 Confrontation between Spring and Autumn Period
She Chongming, who was dreaming about the Spring and Autumn Period in Chongqing, saw Zhou Ding, covered in dirt and blood, returning with a group of defeated soldiers and reported to him that he had been attacked by a large Ming army. This shocked him.
Why is the army so mysterious?
However, this was the time when his ambitions were inflated, and he was already thinking about how to capture Chengdu. At this time, a Ming army that was not weak or strong came to attack, which was in line with his wishes.
He knew all the capable armies in Sichuan, and there were only a few of them, either the chieftain's white pole soldiers from Shizhu, or the battalions from Chengdu.
From the battle between Zhou Ding and them, we knew that this was definitely not the army of Qin Liangyu's wife.
Combining the time together, there is only one possibility. This is the city defense force sent by Chengdu to support Chongqing.
Thinking of this, a sneer appeared on his face. As long as this Ming army is eaten, wouldn't Chengdu be a lamb to be slaughtered? Just wait for him to lead the troops to take over.
The army had rested for a few days, and it was time to march towards Chengdu. After questioning Zhou Ding carefully, he learned that the attacking Ming army actually carried artillery, which made him hesitate a little.
Artillery has never been seen in the southwest. It is really incredible that it appears here this time.
At this time, he thought of the two Ming armies he encountered, which were equipped with standard frontier army. The answer to his guess became more and more obvious, there really was a frontier army here.
But the number of people must not be large, otherwise they would have launched a full-scale attack, instead of hiding like now and only launching sneak attacks when he is unprepared.
She Chongming couldn't help but asked worriedly:
"How powerful are their artillery? Are they many?"
Zhou Ding knelt on the ground and replied tremblingly:
"It doesn't seem like there were many, and it wasn't very powerful. It's just that we were unprepared at the time, so we were in disarray and that's why we were defeated."
"And they only had artillery. The rest were all infantry, not even cavalry. The battlefield situation was too chaotic at that time. I only directed the sergeants to defend and attack, and my observation was not very clear."
"But their number is not large, less than 20,000. They just dare to charge into battle and fight to the death."
After hearing this, She Chongming fell into deep thought, weighing the pros and cons. At the same time, he racked his brains to recall the actual combat strength of the Ming Dynasty's border troops from his own knowledge base.
Seeing She Chong and Ming Dingqing deep in thought, Zhou Ding knew that his crime of defeat would probably be fine, and now as long as he added fuel to the fire, he would definitely have a chance to make meritorious deeds.
"The king also knows that among the more than 7,000 people under my jurisdiction, except for the 1,600 Yi soldiers assigned by the king, the rest are either descended from the original guard station or temporarily expanded mud-legged soldiers. How can they fight, let alone be brave?
No longer afraid of death."
"If the king still trusts me, I will allocate 20,000 elite troops to me. Within three days, I will definitely defeat this Ming army and clear the way for the king to take Chengdu directly!"
She Chongming did not completely believe Zhou Ding's nonsense. It was true that the thousands of troops under his command did not have high combat effectiveness, but he was skeptical that he could avenge his shame.
She Chongming couldn't make up his mind, so he had no choice but to beat the drum and gather the generals from his Daliang court to discuss matters together.
After She Chongming explained the situation, his men unanimously agreed that they should quickly assemble the army out of the city to fight, defeat the Ming army in one fell swoop, and then march towards Chengdu with the power of victory in this battle.
Especially what She Chongming's son-in-law Fan Long said had a great impact on She Chongming. He only said:
"I, Daliang, have hundreds of thousands of troops here. No matter how capable the Ming army is, no matter how brave and good at fighting, they are only ten thousand men. Ten to one, Daliang can kill them all with his bare hands, so why should we be afraid of him?"
"It's better if we don't go looking for these ignorant dog officers and soldiers. Now they actually dare to take the initiative to provoke them. I'm afraid they don't know the military might of the Liang Kingdom."
These words directly made She Chongming make up his mind. He ordered all the soldiers and generals in the city, a total of more than 60,000 people, in an attempt to eat up this Ming army, and then directly attack Chengdu. In this way, Sichuan and Shu could basically be defeated.
The main force of the rebel army left the city in a mighty manner. Naturally, it could not hide the Ming army's persistence at night. Qin Bangping quickly occupied a dangerous place with high mountains on the left and right, backed by a river, and narrow roads. He built high walls and set up artillery.
Maintain a defensive posture and wait for the extravagant army to arrive.
When She Chongming arrived at the defense line built by the Ming army, he looked carefully and saw the artillery mounted high on the wall of the Ming army's stronghold.
The Ming army on the opposite side was wearing fine armor and was looking forward to it in neat order, as if expecting him to attack.
He ordered Luo Qianxiang to lead two thousand troops to launch a tentative attack in an attempt to find loopholes in the Ming army's defense. Unfortunately, except for the death of hundreds of people, nothing was achieved.
With no other choice, She Chongming had no choice but to learn from the Ming army and ordered a stronghold to be set up. He summoned his generals again to discuss opportunities to defeat the enemy.
Three full days passed, and no war broke out between the two sides, just like the two armies had hung a no-war card during the Spring and Autumn Period.
There were tens of thousands of people on both sides, watching each other at the entrance to this narrow mountain forest.
On the fourth day, Zhang Tong proposed a strategy to She Chongming, which was to use fire to attack the Ming army on the opposite side.
Although the hot summer season has passed, the remaining warmth is still there, and in the mountains and forests where firewood is burning, just a few sparks are enough to ignite a raging fire.
When the time comes, they will lead their elite troops to attack and kill, and they will surely be able to defeat the enemy.
She Chongming repeatedly shouted "hao", feeling deeply that this plan would succeed, and immediately appointed Zhang Tong as the commander-in-chief of this battle to command all battalions of the entire army.
Unfortunately, things didn't work out as he wished. During the confrontation between him and Qin Bangping's troops, he received another report of defeat.
A fortress in the northwest of Chongqing was captured by a Ming army. More than a thousand people guarding it were wiped out. This report of defeat came from the logistics force transporting military supplies.
Now his more than 60,000 troops and horses are facing the danger of being attacked from both sides. The most important thing is that he does not know the details of this Ming army, not even how many people there are.
And this was only two days ago. In two days, this Ming army may have rushed behind them and threatened the Chongqing base camp.
Good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles. The content of this failure report was widely circulated in the extravagant military camp.
Many generals at the grassroots level panicked when they learned that the rear was not protected and were worried all day long.
The soldiers at the bottom also began to have wild thoughts, and eventually the spread turned into rumors, saying that they had been surrounded by the Ming army and were facing a dead end. There were even rumors that Chongqing had been recaptured by the Ming army.
The morale of the rebels was greatly reduced and the morale of the army was extremely unstable. She Chongming was caught in a dilemma. He was also worried that Chongqing, which was weakly defended, would no longer be available to him.