In fact, for Shang Yi, his goal is not to completely eliminate Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong, but to occupy his own territory in Huguang. No matter who he fights or not, it depends on whether he meets this major premise. Shang Yi
The purpose of spending so much money to attack Li Zicheng was, on the one hand, to establish the reputation of the merchant army, and on the other hand, to seize Xiangyang. Therefore, if Li Zicheng really led his troops northward, Shang Yi would not pursue it. At least he would not pursue it with all his strength.
Judging from the current situation, although Li Zicheng now intends to go north, the main force is still entrenched in Xiangyang and has not moved. Moreover, Li Zicheng's strength is still there, and Xiangyang cannot be taken lightly. Therefore, it is also a good choice to attack Wuchang Prefecture at this time.
Although Xiangyang is a strategic location, it is surrounded by enemies and is easy to attack but difficult to defend. Without Wuchang as the backing of Xiangyang, it is not a good place to establish a base. If we can first take Wuchang as the base, then take Xiangyang to the north and occupy Xiangyang to the south.
In this way, Changsha not only securely occupies the land of the two lakes, but also sweeps Sichuan to the west, goes south to Guangdong and Guangxi, goes out to Jiangxi and Fujian in the east, and can even go straight to Nanjing and seize the south of the Yangtze River. It is a very ideal strategic arrangement. Therefore, Shang Yi
There was no objection to abandoning the attack on Li Zicheng and attacking Wuchang instead.
But then again, now that Wu Zong wants something from him, he naturally has to negotiate terms and gain more benefits for himself, at least to solve the most difficult problem of food and grass first. Therefore, Shang Yi said: "Supervisor,
As officials of the imperial court, we should serve the country with loyalty. The imperial court has orders and we should abide by them. Whether we attack Li Zicheng or attack Zhang Xianzhong, we are all doing our best for the imperial court, and we should do our best as generals."
Wu Di nodded, feeling a little relieved and said: "Yi Heng, if you can think like this, it's the best thing to do. I know you are a person who understands the general situation. That's why the emperor values you so much.
.”
"But..." Shang Yi ignored Wu Di's suggestion and immediately changed the subject. Wu Di couldn't help but feel nervous again, wondering what conditions Shang Yi would put forward.
Shang Yi continued: "It's just that our army has come with reinforcements, and together with the auxiliary services, there are more than 18,000 troops. We are running out of food and grass. If we want to attack Wuchang Prefecture, please ask the governor to mobilize supplies as soon as possible."
.”
Wu Di immediately said: "That's easy to say. I will return to Luzhou tomorrow to prepare grain and grass. Within ten days, I will send 10,000 stones of grain and grass, as well as 20,000 taels of silver to reward the three armies." Some time ago, Shi Kefa was Wu Di.
Only half of the money and grain he prepared has been used, and there are still more than 30,000 shi left. Moreover, the second batch of 50,000 shi of grain and 80,000 taels of silver prepared by Shi Kefa will soon be delivered to Luzhou. Wu Di is very rich on hand, and he has to call on people.
To work, of course, you have to be fed first, so Wu Di agreed happily.
Shang Yi said: "Also, to attack Zhang Xianzhong and recover Wuchang Prefecture, the battlefield will be filled with countless changes. I hope that the governor will give me the power to do it easily. The marching and formation and planning of strategies should be decided before the battle.
.”
Wu Di couldn't help but be startled. Shang Yi told him not to interfere with anything. Shang Yi had the final say on how the battle was fought. In other words, he had to have independent command authority, so Wu Di was very unhappy. But
Wu Di then thought again. Now he couldn't command Shang Yi. He would just do whatever he wanted. Instead of handing over his autonomy to Shang Yi without any pain, Shang Yi was pretty good at fighting anyway.
It is enough to work hard and be able to do this.
So Wu Di nodded again and said: "Okay, I can promise you this. All future wars will be decided by you, and I will never interfere. However, you still have to report your plans to me in advance."
OK."
Shang Yi said again: "Okay, I will send troops immediately to attack Wuchang Prefecture, but after Wuchang is captured, I will ask the governor to allocate Wuchang and Hanyang to the final general, and temporarily use them as a place to garrison troops and horses, and to gather money, food and materials."
Wu Di couldn't help but feel a little surprised. What did Shang Yi mean? Although Hanyang and Wuchang were mentioned in the Mingyi as places to station troops and gather supplies, in fact it was equivalent to taking over these two cities.
.If you look at it at a larger scale, it is equivalent to separatist rule. Although the Ming Dynasty is now in chaos, with domineering generals and disobedient orders, no one dares to monopolize a state capital. Is it true that Shang Yi has no power?
A minister's heart? But it doesn't look like it. Therefore, if Shang Yi really wanted to occupy a place, he should be in places like Shandong, Qingzhou and Dengzhou. Not only is the name justifiable, but it is also the place where he started. There is no need to travel thousands of miles away.
He ran to Huguang. So he said: "Aren't your troops stationed in De'an Mansion now? I see that a lot of money, food and materials have been transported, why do you need Wuchang Mansion?"
Shang Yi obviously saw Wu Di's doubts and said: "Supervisor, Zhang Xianzhong is not an ordinary bandit. He is huge in power, second only to Li Zicheng, and he is cunning and deceitful. Therefore, wanting to destroy Zhang Xianzhong is not a temporary matter."
.Once we capture Wuchang, Zhang Xianzhong will not defend the city to the death, but will flee towards Hunan and Jiangxi. Even if we continue to pursue the suppression in the future, we must have a place to gather money, food and materials. I am now
Although there is a garrison in De'an Mansion, De'an Mansion is located to the north of the Yangtze River. It is very inconvenient to transport supplies across the Yangtze River, so we decided to use Wuchang as the garrison place, also to capture and kill Zhang Xianzhong."
Wu Di thought for a while and realized that what Shang Yi said was actually not unreasonable. Moreover, once he really wanted to regain Wuchang Mansion, if he could not leave, he would not be able to do anything about him. So he thought about it again and again, and finally said:
"Okay, I promise you. As long as we can regain Wuchang Mansion, we will allocate Wuchang to you to temporarily station troops."
Shang Yi was happy in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face. He just said: "Thank you, Governor."
Wu Di said again: "Then when do you plan to send troops to attack Wuchang Mansion?"
Shang Yi said: "Don't worry, Governor, I will definitely send troops to attack Wuchang Mansion within three days."
Wu Di felt relieved after hearing this, and the two discussed the detailed plan for sending troops and how other troops would cooperate. Then Wu Di left and returned to Luzhou.
After Wu Di left, Shang Yi immediately made arrangements to send troops. Although Shang Yi captured Anlu, the seat of De'an Prefecture, and Suizhou, the important town, he did not occupy the entire territory of De'an Prefecture.
Xiaogan, Yingcheng, Yunmeng and other counties in the south were all under the control of Zhang Xianzhong's Western Army. Therefore, Shang Yi first ordered Chengjin, Chenggang, and Zhao Yingjie to lead three regiments as vanguards to attack Yunmeng.
Xiaogan and Yingcheng counties completely occupied the entire territory of De'an Prefecture.
Among the three counties, Yunmeng County is the closest to De'an Prefecture, only more than 20 miles away. Therefore, after Cheng Jin led the army to set off, his first target was Yunmeng. After Cheng Jin led the army to set off, he only walked for more than an hour.
, arrived at Yunmeng County. Han Yukui, the Western Army garrison in Yunmeng County, had already made preparations and led his army to fight.
Now Li Zicheng has begun to realize the importance of occupying territory, so he does not give up easily after taking the town. Although Zhang Xianzhong took one step ahead of Li Zicheng and claimed to be the King of the West, he still had a thorough gangster mentality and was ready to run away at any time. Therefore, the main force of the old camp
The men and horses stayed with themselves, and they paid little attention to Yunmeng and other border areas. If it weren't for guarding against Li Zicheng, Yunmeng, and Xiaogan, the three counties of Yingcheng would not have sent people to garrison at all. But that's it, there were only a total of
Less than 4,000 men and horses were left to garrison, and they were all handymen. Their main purpose was for warning, not real defense. The guard general in charge of the three counties was called Han Yukui, who was not ranked high among the Western Army.
One category.
However, although Han Yukui was not a big figure in the Western Army, he was considered a local emperor in the three counties of Yunmeng, Xiaogan, and Yingcheng. After Shang Yi captured De'an Mansion, he also realized that the situation was not good, because De'an
Anfu is so close to these three counties that one can travel almost a circle in a day. Therefore, Han Yukui did not dare to be careless and gathered all his troops in Yunmeng County to prepare for the Ming army's attack.
When Cheng Jin led three regiments of troops to the foot of Yunmeng County, Han Yukui saw that the number of Ming troops was not large, only more than 3,000, so he didn't care much. He led all the troops in Yunmeng County, a total of
About 3,700 people came out of the city to meet the Ming army.
Because the Merchant Army had just arrived in Yunmeng County and had not had time to set up positions, Cheng Jin immediately ordered the soldiers of the Third Regiment to set up a formation to fight the enemy as soon as he saw the Western Army coming out of the county. Due to their usual training, the Merchant Army
They quickly set up a three-stage firing formation, and these Western troops also fought their way to the Merchant Army.
Cheng Jin looked at the army on the opposite side and saw that the array was not in order, the flags were in a mess, and the whole team was in chaos. He couldn't help but frowned and said: "Is this called an army? Why is it like a ragtag group of people?"
Cheng Gang said on the side: "Who cares about him? Brother, let's rush up and kill him for a while."
Zhao Yingjie also said: "I think this man and horse are completely unorganized, and they are far worse than Li Zicheng's men. There is no need to wait for them to charge over, just charge forward directly. One charge can defeat them.
"
Although in the battle with Li Zicheng, the merchant army basically chose to fight in the wild, they basically arranged their positions in advance and then waited for the intruder army to rush up. After the intruder army's attack was thwarted and the men and horses suffered heavy losses, the merchant army
Only then can a counterattack be given. This set of defensive counterattack tactics can give full play to the merchant army's advantages in long-range strikes and firepower. It is of course the most reasonable tactical choice when the enemy is outnumbered.
However, Shang Yi also knows that one set of tactics cannot conquer the world. The merchant army cannot always wait for others to attack. Firmly grasping the initiative is Shang Yi's style. Taking the initiative to attack is also what the merchant army must master.
. Therefore, in normal training, the Merchant Army has often conducted proactive offensive tactics, but in the past battlefields, they have never had the opportunity to use them. Because the Merchant Army has encountered opponents that are multiples of its own.
.
However, this time the number of people on both sides was about the same, so Cheng Gang, Zhao Yingjie and others were also eager to give it a try.