After learning that Li Zicheng personally led an army to attack Guangzhou, Wu Di in Luzhou could not sit still.
Because he had received the news that Liu Zeqing led the army to attack the Chuang army, and was defeated and returned. Even Peng Rui was killed on the battlefield. Wu Di's somewhat heated mind finally calmed down. At least he understood.
Two reasons: First, although I have more than 100,000 troops in my hands now, only Shang Yi's merchant army can still fight. The other troops are actually just soy sauce, just to make up the number.
It's just a fight against the head; secondly, Li Zicheng's bandit army is not a mob, and still has considerable combat effectiveness. It's just a matter of deciding who to attack. Although it is useless to fight against Shang Yi, it is still very powerful against other Ming army troops.
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As a result, after going around in a circle, Wu Di found that he was back to the original point: this time when he went south to supervise the army, if he wanted to explain to the court, he could only rely on Shang Yi's men. Moreover, Wu Di now also knew Chu.
Shang Yi refused to take Xinyang, not because of cowardice, but because he had his own views on the progress of the war plan and used troops according to his own ideas. Now it seems that Shang Yi can only do it.
But Wu Sheng was a little worried, because now Li Zicheng had gathered more than 80,000 troops to attack Guangzhou, while Shang Yi only had more than 10,000 troops, and the disparity between the numbers of the two sides was too great. As for Liu Zeqing, Xie Ke, and Gao Junyuan
The three troops are unreliable. If Shang Yi fights alone, is outnumbered, and is defeated by Li Zicheng's army, it will be terrible, and he will have no capital at all.
However, during this period of time, Wu Zongdao was not idle. He integrated several local troops in Luzhou and added more than 20,000 troops. Together with Feng Yuanqing and Cui Wenrong who stayed in Luzhou, he almost managed to
Thirty thousand troops were gathered together.
On several other fronts, Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong, who were attacking Huangzhou, joined forces under Huangzhou City. Although Huangzhou City was guarded by Li Zicheng's general Liu Fangliang, it was difficult to capture it for a while, but Huangzhou was suppressed.
The invading army prevented them from taking any action. Zuo Liangyu, who was stationed in Jiujiang, finally took action after five consecutive orders from Wu Gang. He sent troops to Xingguo Prefecture, and also formed a situation of forcing Zhang Xianzhong in Wuchang.
Overall, it can basically be maintained. Of course, this is also because Shang Yi restrained most of Li Zicheng's troops in Guangzhou.
In addition, news came from the capital that Sun Chuanting had also made preparations. He would leave the customs in August and go south to station in the Central Plains. This would form a north-south pincer attack with Wu Zong on Li Zicheng. Of course, the premise is that Shang Yi must be in front of Sun Chuanting.
Before the troops move south, they must be able to withstand Li Zicheng's attack.
Therefore, Wu Di finally decided to go to Guangzhou in person to discuss the next step with Shang Yi, whether to continue to defend Guangzhou or to give in temporarily and retreat back to Luzhou to wait for Sun Chuanting's men to go south.
Then he would send troops. In short, Wu Di understood that he could not just give orders to Shang Yi like last time. He had to negotiate with Shang Yi first, at least to get Shang Yi's consent.
So Wu Di led 20,000 troops to Guangzhou. But when Wu Di arrived in Guangzhou, Li Zicheng withdrew his troops and returned to Xinyang.
It turns out that after Li Zicheng launched a tentative attack on Guangzhou last time, he immediately withdrew the army and stationed himself in Xinyang Prefecture. He never sent an army to attack the city again. Liu Zeqing, Xie Ke, and Gao Junyuan were able to attack the city.
After knowing that Li Zicheng's army had retreated, they all led their men and horses to fight back, preparing to pursue them for a while and make some achievements. However, Shang Yi dissuaded them, saying that this time Li Zicheng took the initiative to withdraw his troops to prevent fraud, so they should not pursue them.
The three of them now said to Shang Yi that they were worshiped as gods. If he said they would not pursue him, they did not pursue him and returned to camp outside Guangzhou City.
However, although the Chuang army never came to attack Guangzhou again, they still sent small groups of troops to attack Guangzhou from time to time. The two sides also fought several times. Overall, the Ming army still won more than it lost. Li Zicheng's plan was also reported
Rumors of abandoning the land of Huguang and sending troops northward to take in the land of Guanzhong.
After Wu Di entered the city and listened to Shang Yi's report on the recent war, he couldn't help but feel relieved. It seemed that there should be no problem in persisting until Sun Chuanting left the country and went south. At the same time, he praised Shang Yi.
Shang Yi's refusal to attack Xinyang was not mentioned at all, as if it did not happen. After some discussion, the two believed that it was indeed possible for Li Zicheng to send troops to the north. Therefore, they also decided to send troops to attack Xinyang on a trial basis.
Let’s take a look at Chuang Jun’s reaction.
In the next three days, the Ming army attacked in three directions, and the progress was unexpectedly smooth. They successively occupied Luoshan County, Guangshan County, Xixian County and other places. The Chuang army did not come to fight for it. At the same time, Zhou Shaohuan also
He led his troops to attack Xinyang, but surprisingly, Xinyang was an empty city at this time, and the invading army retreated to Suizhou.
Zhou Shaohuan led his army to Xinyang and immediately announced victory to Shang Yi. He then stationed in Xinyang. Two days later, he received an order from Shang Yi: continue to send troops westward, enter De'an Prefecture, and attack Suizhou.
After Zhou Shaohuan received the order, he sent troops from Xinyang and headed west. He encountered no obstruction from the intruders along the way and entered De'an Prefecture in Huguang Province very smoothly. De'an Prefecture was also known as the northern part of Hubei Province in later generations.
Suizhou and the Anlu area are connected to Nanyang in the north, Xinyang in the east, Hanyang and Wuchang in the south, and Xiangfan in the north. They are right at the junction of the Yellow River Basin in the north and the Yangtze River Basin in the south. It can be said that it connects to Wanluo in the west and Wuyue in the south.
When Jingyu is at the forefront, choke Xianghan's throat.
However, after Zhou Shaohuan led his army into De'an Prefecture, he did not continue to march toward Suizhou. Instead, he found an abandoned Zhuangzi garrison in Wanhe Town, north of Suizhou. He dug trenches, built earthen walls, and built fortifications. Sure enough, one day
Later, the scouts came to report that large armies of the intruders were found in the three directions southwest of Wanhe Town, with no less than 10,000 troops on each route.
After Zhou Shaohuan received the report, he was not panicked at all. In fact, it was all within Shang Yi's plan.
In fact, from the beginning, Shang Yi didn't believe that Li Zicheng would withdraw his troops and go north like this. It was probably a ploy to lure the enemy. Shang Yi's speculation was not unreasonable. Although he didn't know that this was Li Yan's analysis, Shang Jun
Li Zicheng formulated the tactics based on the two weaknesses of having too few troops and not being good at taking the initiative to attack. But Shang Yi learned from history that Li Zicheng was very good at using the tactics of penetrating the enemy deeply and then joining forces to encircle him. Ming
The last few generals, Zuo Liangyu, Sun Chuanting, Fu Zonglong and others all suffered heavy losses due to his move.
In another time and space, in August of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), Li Zicheng led his troops to the north. He also relied on this move to completely defeat Sun Chuanting, and then fully occupied the Guanzhong area, in order to finally invade Beijing and destroy the Ming Dynasty.
The foundation was laid.
Judging from the current situation, although the Chuang army suffered several losses at the hands of Shang Yi, its vitality was not damaged and its strength was still strong. Li Zicheng led an army of 70,000 to 80,000 people to attack Guangzhou, and he would never let it go without success.
After the retreat of Li Zicheng's army, the two sides conducted several small-scale battles. Judging from the several small-scale battles between the two sides, the Chuang army retreated several times, all of which seemed to be a false defeat. At the same time, the scouts sent by Shang Yi also
It was found out that the so-called news that "Li Zicheng is preparing to send troops to the north" actually came from a group of itinerant vendors, salesmen, and traveling men around Guangzhou. It is not reliable. These people are actually probably soldiers.
Detailed work sent out.
Based on these reasons, Shang Yi judged that Li Zicheng was planning to use the strategy of luring the enemy deeper. However, this time Shang Yi did not intend to ignore it, and was also planning to use a trick: first send out an elite force, pretend to fall into the trap, and lead the army. Rush into the area occupied by the intruders. Then find a suitable place, build fortifications, and wait for reinforcements. Use the strong firepower of the merchant army to attract the intruders to surround them. Then Shang Yi personally leads other troops, and other The various Ming armies attacked separately, attacking from both inside and outside, and the center blossomed, dealing a heavy blow to Li Zicheng.
Of course, Shang Yi advocated that other Ming armies also attack separately. He did not expect them to be able to exert much force, but also found something for them to do. Although the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was not very good, it was still It can attract the attention of some of the invaders and share some of the pressure, but in the end, the main force after the battle will still have to rely on your own merchant army.
After Wu Di heard this plan, his first feeling was that it was too bold and too risky. Once it failed, all the previous achievements would be in vain. However, if he thought about it carefully, it was not completely impossible to succeed. , because since Shang Yi dared to propose it, he must be quite sure, and at the same time, he now also has full confidence in the combat effectiveness of the merchant army.
Although Wu Di certainly didn't know that Shang Yi's purpose was to force Li Zicheng to go north as soon as possible. He would seize Xiangyang, then go down the river, take Wuchang, and establish his own base north of Huguang. But if this battle would If it is really successful, it is possible to reverse the situation in Hubei in one fell swoop. By then Sun Chuanting will send troops from Guanzhong to the south, and the two armies will attack together, and it is indeed possible to inflict heavy losses on Li Zicheng. Only Zhang Xianzhong will be left, which will be easy to deal with. So like this First of all, my trip to the south to supervise the governor this time was not only a complete meritorious service, but also a miraculous achievement. I could explain something to the court and the emperor. And maybe I could serve as the chief minister of the cabinet when I returned to the court. , in charge of government affairs.
Faced with such a huge temptation of interests, Wu Di finally agreed to Shang Yi's plan after repeated consideration. Moreover, Wu Di also knew that as long as Shang Yi wanted to carry out this plan, even if he did not agree, he could do it alone. Go it alone.
After Wu Di agreed, Shang Yi immediately dispatched troops and generals to prepare for the implementation of this plan. The person behind this plan was the forward army who deliberately pretended to be fooled. Shang Yi selected Zhou Shaohuan's second regiment. In addition, they were assigned a reconnaissance company.