After Xie Ke and Peng Rui entered the city, they were immediately shocked by what they saw. Because in their impression, when the people saw the government and the army, they were like a wolf seeing a cat, and they couldn't even hide. But In Gwangju City, this was not the case at all. When the patrolling soldiers were walking on the street, the people had no intention of hiding and just got out of the way. On the side of the street, the two of them saw a soldier helping them. Walking with an old man, and in front of another stall, the stall owner was also talking and laughing with two soldiers. The two of them had never seen soldiers and civilians get along so harmoniously. From their perspective, everything seemed It's so incredible.
When we arrived at Zhouya, Shang Yi's temporary headquarters was located here. As soon as he saw the two people coming in, Shang Yi immediately got up from his seat, greeted them, and said: General Xie, General Peng, you are finally here."
Seeing that Shang Yi was so polite to them, the two of them couldn't help but feel a little flattered. Peng Rui said: "Although we are on the road, we have heard that General Shang defeated the bandits and recaptured Guangzhou. He really made a great contribution, and his reputation is indeed well-deserved."
Xie Ke also said: "Actually, we also wanted to rush to Guangzhou as soon as possible to help the general, but because of the hot weather, the soldiers could not bear the heat. Therefore, although we hurried on, we were still a step late. Unexpectedly, General Shang was able to Having defeated the bandits in a big way, I am worthy of the title of brave champion among the three armies endorsed by the Emperor."
Shang Yi laughed and said: "The two generals are too polite. The victory the day before yesterday was just a fluke. Now it is not too late for the two generals to come. It just so happens that there will be a big battle in Guangzhou soon."
Both of them were startled and said in unison: "What?"
Shang Yi said with a smile: "I just received the news that Tian Jianxiu, the general of the bandits, together with the bandit leaders Liu Fangliang, Ma Shiyao, Liu Rukui and others, led an army of more than 30,000 people to fight for Guangzhou. Now the bandit army has arrived Xinyang Mansion will arrive in Guangzhou in the near future. The two of them have arrived now and can help me fight to the death with the bandits."
After listening to Shang Yi's words, the expressions of the two of them couldn't help but change. Although they both regretted not coming earlier to share their military exploits, when they heard that there was really going to be a war with the Chuang army, they both became scared because of this. In the past few years, the officers and soldiers have almost been frightened by the intruders, and Tian Jianxiu is one of Li Zicheng's most capable generals, not as easy to deal with as Han Huamei. What's more, the total number of his three troops is only 10,000. There are about six to seven thousand troops, but the Chuang army has more than 25,000. It is not known whether Shang Yi set up an ambush. It is estimated that the actual number of the Chuang army will be more or less, so they are allowed to fight with the Chuang army together with Shang Yi. Naturally, they don’t dare to fight decisively.
It's just that they both threw out big words just now and couldn't stop talking at the moment, so they were scared and anxious, their faces turned pale, but they didn't know what to say.
However, Shang Yi seemed not to have seen it, and only said to himself: "Now that the bandit army is powerful, our army must work together and fight to the death with the bandit army, so that we can have a chance of victory."
Upon hearing this, Xie Ke hurriedly said: "General Shang, the bandit army is now strong. According to the general's opinion, our army cannot confront us head-on. We should prioritize defending the city, and then go to Luzhou for rescue. Please send Governor Wu as soon as possible." Reinforcements." I thought to myself that it would be much safer to stay in the city than to go out to fight the rebels.
Shang Yi shook his head and said: "It is unwise to defend the isolated city. What's more, the governor may not be able to send reinforcements immediately. Therefore, I think we should go out of the city to meet the rebels. I have a plan, so A decisive battle with the rebels at Luochuankou. I will lead the army to confront the rebels head-on. You two can divide the troops into two groups and lie on both sides. When our army and the rebels fight fiercely until the troops are exhausted, then lead the troops to fight out. , we can defeat the rebel army in one fell swoop with a three-pronged attack. What do you two think?"
Xie Ke and Peng Rui looked at each other and immediately said in unison: "We are willing to obey General Shang Yi's orders." But they were secretly happy in their hearts. This was better than staying in the city. Staying outside the city to see the situation. If things don't go well, you can run away immediately, causing Shang Yi to attack from both inside and outside, and go to hell.
Shang Yi nodded and said, "Okay, I'll give you two five days of food and grass, and go out of the city immediately to ambush you."
When the two of them happily followed Zhou Shaohuan to receive food and grass, after they got down, brothers Cheng Jin and Cheng Gang came over from one side and said: "Sir, you are really good at scaring these two guys with just a few words." I don’t dare to go into the city anymore.”
Shang Yi smiled faintly and said: "With these two people, do we dare to trust them to guard the city? You two prepare, your third regiment will leave the city tomorrow to face the bandit army. This is a tough battle. The second regiment did well in the last battle, this time it’s up to the third regiment.”
After hearing this, brothers Cheng Jin and Cheng Gang immediately stood at attention, gave a military salute to Shang Yi, and said: "Please rest assured, sir, we will definitely complete the mission."
In fact, Shang Yi does not intend to defend the city at all. He is a person who is deeply familiar with modern tactics. He must firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield. Therefore, even when the enemy is outnumbered, he must take the lead. Take the initiative and use offense instead of defense. Therefore, the strategy developed is for the third regiment to build a defensive position in the city and face the invaders from the front, while the second regiment stays in the city, waiting for an opportunity to attack the invaders from the flanks. The two regiments cooperate with each other to fight Of course, the formulation of this tactic was also based on the strong firepower of the Merchant Army. The troops of Peng Rui and Xie Ke were not considered at all.
But in this way, basically only the logistics troops and a few artillery troops were left to defend Guangzhou City. Under this situation, Shang Yi did not dare to put Peng Rui and Xie Ke's troops into the city until all his own troops left. Now, these gangs of Qiu Ba are still in the city causing chaos. Now that the merchant army is in Gwangju City, it has initially won the trust of the residents with its experience. Moreover, all the food and grass supplies of the army have been left in the city, so they cannot withstand the ruffians. They were making a fuss, so Shang Yi made a small plan to pretend that Peng Rui and Xie Ke stayed outside the city willingly.
However, the military situation Shang Yi told Peng Rui and Xie Ke was not false. Tian Jianxiu indeed led a large army to recapture Guangzhou.
It turned out that Wu Zong divided his troops into three groups in Luzhou and entered Huangzhou. Li Zicheng had already learned the news. He sent General Tian Jianxiu to lead two battalions on the left and right, with a total of 30,000 troops, to resist the Ming army's attack. It includes 25,000 elite battalions and 10,000 servicemen.
Tian Jianxiu was an old subordinate of Li Zicheng, nicknamed Suotian Harrier. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1637), Li Zicheng was defeated by Hong Chengchou and almost completely wiped out his army. He hid in the mountains at the junction of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Huguang provinces for nearly a year. At the worst time, there were only eighteen people left around him, and Tian Jianxiu was one of them. Because he also won Li Zicheng's trust, he and Liu Zongmin became Li Zicheng's right-hand men.
The other generals of the Chuang army who accompanied the army were: Liu Fangliang, the commander-in-chief general of the Zuo Ying Army, Ma Shiyao, the general left Guoyi, and Liu Rukui, the right mighty general. Liu Xiyao, the commander-in-chief general of the right camp army, Bai Jiuhe, the general commander of the Zuo Guoyi army, and Bai Jiuhe, the general commander of the right camp army.
It was led by General Liu Tichun. Most of them were old subordinates who had fought with Li Zicheng for many years and had fought against the imperial army for a long time. There were also 25,000 battalions of elite soldiers, so Li Zicheng believed that it was more than enough to withstand the Ming army's attack.
However, when dispatching troops, Li Zicheng and the main advisers and generals of the Chuang Army judged that the main force of the Ming Army was Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong's troops attacking Huangzhou, while Shang Yi's troops attacking Guangzhou were just a partial division. With Han Huamei at their side,
It was enough to resist. So Tian Jianxiu led his army directly into Huangzhou to fight against Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong.
After Nazhi Tian Jianxiu led his army to Huangzhou, he found that the Ming army had not attacked at all. It turned out that although Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong received the order to send troops, they all stayed stationary and did not dare to attack Huangzhou easily. And they just
A few days later, news came from the other side that Gwangju had been lost and Han Huamei was killed in action.
After Tian Jianxiu got the news, he couldn't help but be shocked. Could it be that he had been deceived by the Ming army? Is the main force of the Ming army in Guangzhou? And Guangzhou fell, Tian Jianxiu couldn't just sit idly by and do nothing, because once Guangzhou was lost,
Yang Wuwei's troops were greatly damaged, his general was killed, and he had no one to command. If the Ming army took advantage of the victory to attack Xinyang at this time, then Guide Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion would be under threat from the Ming army's front.
Now, he asked Xiangyang for help and asked Li Zicheng to send reinforcements to rescue Xinyang Prefecture. It would take at least seven or eight days to come and go. Naturally, it was too late. Yin Tian Jianxiu immediately made a decision and sent people to Xiangyang to ask Li Zicheng.
In an emergency, he ordered Liu Fangliang and Ma Shiyao to lead 5,000 Zuoying troops and 5,000 miscellaneous soldiers to garrison Huangzhou to prevent the Ming army from attacking, while he and the remaining 20,000 troops immediately rushed to defend Xinyang Mansion.
After two days of rapid march, Tian Jianxiu's men finally arrived at Xinyang Mansion, only to find that the Ming army had not come to attack Xinyang Mansion. Tian Jianxiu breathed a sigh of relief, and finally arrived at the right time.
At this time, most of the defeated troops in Guangzhou retreated to Xinyang Prefecture. Tian Jianxiu asked several of the middle and lower-ranking officers to ask about the course of the battle in Guangzhou and the strength of the Ming army.
However, the results they heard from them made it hard for Tian Jianxiu to believe that the Ming army that defeated Han Huamei and captured Guangzhou only had seven or eight thousand troops. Tian Jianxiu asked several groups of people and got the result:
How is this possible? How could the Ming army have such a strong combat effectiveness? And if the Shu army really had such a strong combat effectiveness, why didn't they attack Xinyang Mansion? But now Han Huamei is dead, and Tian Jianxiu cannot be found.
Ask other trustworthy people, so you can only gather generals to discuss.
However, the generals of King Chuang were now full of confidence and looked down upon the Shu army. They did not believe what these defeated troops said. They all asked for a battle and demanded to recapture Guangzhou immediately. In fact, Tian Jianxiu also had the same idea.
Therefore, it was finally decided to gather troops immediately and attack Guangzhou to see how much damage this Ming army could do.