stubborn thief

Chapter 363 Short Board
Liu Chengzong's original idea was to put Yang Qi back and leave He Huchen behind.

He let He Huchen off once, and he could let Yang Qi off once too. After all, He Huchen had already lost twice, and he might not be able to continue to be the commander-in-chief if he went back, but Yang Qi was not a big problem.

In the most ideal situation, Yang Qi will be able to recruit and train a new Guyuan army when he goes back for a year or so. When the official army comes to encircle and suppress again, he will just hand over this new army to him.

It's just that Liu Chengzong never expected that Yang Qi was from Lanzhou.

Speaking of it, even though the army is defeated, there are ways to surrender. Sometimes surrender can be used by the opponent; sometimes surrender is just not to be an enemy of the opponent.

On the way from the army formation to the Tushan Mountain, Yang Qi saw Liu Chengzong's army, Mongolian cavalry in groups of three or four, Western Fan soldiers with a very different temperament from the others, and the arrogant Han army infantry cannons.

When he climbed the mound and saw Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu beside Liu Chengzong, Yang Qi immediately decided to surrender.

Opportunities are very important to how far a person can go in this world, and what is more important is whether he has the ability to seize opportunities.

In the Ming Dynasty, if you want to get an official position, you can ask Laozi to work hard, regardless of martial arts, you can earn an official position for the baby, usually the second-rank and the sixth-rank.

But it is easy to get an official position, but difficult to be promoted, especially in the military position. Few people can be promoted without relying on military exploits.

Yang Qi is an exception.

He is a Lanzhou guard, and he was not born as a general. Naturally, he was able to achieve what he is today, but in his long career in the army, he was promoted to the first level because of luck, and it was the most difficult threshold for a military officer to pass. to Lieutenant General.

That was 20 years ago, the young and promising Qianhu Yang Qi of Lanzhou was selected into the standard camp of Li Qiyuan, the governor of Shaanxi, as the head of Qianhu.

Li Qiyuan is a Jinshi in Nanhe County, Shunde Prefecture. He was born as the head of the household department. He served as the deputy envoy and chief envoy of Guannan in Shaanxi. He attached great importance to young officers like Yang Qi.

Zhongjun is the name of the chief officer of the standard battalion, and his duty is to be the officer of the guard. The Chinese army who is the governor of the standard battalion has the rank of general, and the Chinese army who is the governor of the standard battalion has the rank of deputy general.

He had just served as the governor of the central army of the Biao Battalion. Emperor Wanli passed away, and Emperor Taichang Jin Shanxi governor Li Qiyuan became the governor of the three sides.

In the second year of Apocalypse, Governor Li Qiyuan wrote a letter asking for the title of deputy commander-in-chief for him, and it was a matter of course.

Unfortunately, in the second year, Master Li went to Nanjing to be the secretary of the household department, and in the third year to be the secretary of the household department in Beijing. Master Shangshu did not have a standard battalion, so he became the general officer of Yansui.

Yang Qi asked himself that there were no mistakes in managing the army, but he would always take strange responsibilities for major events.

He went to Shanhaiguan to be the general soldier. Gao Jinglue usually looked down on him. When the battle in Ningyuan happened, Jinglue ordered all the troops in the town to be withdrawn and closed. .

Yang Qi didn't do anything. After finishing the battle on the front line, he returned to Guyuan to become the general soldier.

When Emperor Chongzhen aided Liao, Yang Qi still did nothing. He was worried that the reinforcements would not be paid. Master Liang Tingdong from the Ministry of War said: The people have their own food, why should they all rely on the Ministry of Households?
Then follow what Mr. Liang said, the frontier soldiers live in the common people's homes and cause trouble at Andingmen.

Yang Qi took the blame again and returned to Guyuan.

It has become Yang Qi's instinct to avoid the scapegoat.

This time five teams lost four teams, and the one who was undefeated was Wang Xingshan, who was sick. He could throw the blame on Xiaohua. Yang Qi thought that this was the second time He Huchen lost, and he would definitely not go back.

If he goes back, on the left is Wang Xingshan, the deputy commander of Gansu with a group of sick children, and on the right is You Shilu, the deputy commander of Yansui with inflamed eggs.

Isn't it obvious who will be blamed for the defeat?

Based on this analysis, Yang Qi felt that going back would not be a good end. Lanzhou was close at hand, and he would definitely have to play a second game.

You can't win a field battle, and you can't win a city defense. Even if Lanzhou City is defended, when Liu Chengzong retreats, there will be a bigger black pot on his head... The losses in the countryside, the elders of Lanzhou must be remembered by him on the head?
It's better to just let it go, and don't worry about those bullshit things.

It's just that this stopped He Huchen, who was unprepared. It's normal to kowtow after defeat. After all, he didn't intend to rather die than surrender, but this Yang Qi didn't say hello to anyone first. Now that you kowtow, Doesn't it look like I'm still standing?
He Huchen looked at Yang Qi, then looked at the two giants of the marshal's mansion standing on the left and right before the commander's case, and finally exchanged glances with Liu Chengzong after the commander's case, and also bowed down: "He Huchen, the defeated general, greets the commander."

Liu Chengzong saw it clearly that the two were one after the other, and he got up and went to help him, saying: "Since the two old generals are willing to surrender me, they have been their own masters in the past and let the past be the past. When they are appointed after the war, please return me." Do your best."

He was not afraid that the two of them would assassinate him or something. To be honest, let alone empty-handed, even if they had weapons, they might not be his opponents despite the age difference.

Right now he is discussing further plans with Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu, he doesn't care about the two of them, he just asks the guards to take them down, the remaining hundreds of defeated soldiers also disarm and return to the camp according to the way they came.

If these two people are willing to lead troops, he has already prepared official positions for them in his heart, lieutenant general.

The deputy general of the imperial court refers to the deputy general, but in Liu Chengzong's case, the deputy general refers to the deputy of the battalion general.

The battalion lieutenants are not high, after all, they surrendered after being defeated. In Liu Chengzong's understanding, the imperial court is calling the general officer as a general, and each leads three to 5000 troops to go back and forth to guerrilla. What he does is not the general officer at all. thing.

On the other hand, at the end of this war, many people in Liu Chengzong's direct lineal forces need to be promoted. The army must form at least seven battalions. It is one thing to unite with the enemy, but it is more important to figure out who is your basic base.

It was impossible for him to propose a battalion general to Huang Shengxiao and let him serve as a general under the general He Huchen's command.

It is not too low to let the defeated general officer be the deputy general of the battalion.

I saw two commanders-in-chief who surrendered. After eating in the camp, the officers who surrendered the troops requisitioned the landlord’s compound on the Beishan platform and buried the dead soldiers of both sides. The whole valley fell into silence during the day.

They were all people who hadn't slept all night, and they were all exhausted.

Only a few officers were still excited about the victory. Liu Chengzong was not entirely excited. He first sent someone to tell his brother who was still in the mountain fort on the North Road, and wrote a letter to Wang Xingshan by the way, hoping Can persuade the Gansu army to surrender.

Even if you can't persuade them to surrender, you can persuade them to quit.

His army can't move today, so he can only wait until tomorrow to send reinforcements to the north to outflank.

In addition, the biggest driving force that drives him to stay awake is loss... Now the surrendered troops in Hehuang East and West are eating tens of thousands of catties of military rations every day, which are all processed military rations. More than 200 stones per day.

With such a huge cost, he has to make these move, work for him, and contribute to him.

The less a man has, the more stingy he is.

At the beginning of this battle, Liu Chengzong was actually not rational. He just had no other way to realize that this was a good opportunity to intervene in Hehuang. From then on, all he thought about was how to win.

But it wasn't until this morning that he realized that he had won the battle, and all sanity returned to his head.

He started to calculate costs and calculate surplus food, and naturally became very stingy.

Not only did he think that the daily cost of raising soldiers was extremely high, but even the 60 people in Nanshan who were organized by Zhong Bao into more than 3 hundred households made Liu Chengzong feel that he was losing money.

The quiet Hehuang Valley made Liu Shizi's mind clearer.

It also told him to consider the gains and losses of this campaign while making the next deployment plan.

Liu Chengzong wrote down his impressions of the officers and soldiers on the table of the commander-in-chief. The six characteristics are insufficient determination of the general, insufficient authority of the officers, weak will of the soldiers, shortage of supplies, poor equipment, and insufficient preparation for war.

When the battle was over, through captives like Beetail Needle, Liu Chengzong gradually reviewed the course of the battle, and it became clearer why the Allied Forces of the Five Towns lost ground.

The so-called generals of the five towns, not to mention cooperating in the battle, the three generals in the middle alone can't even coordinate their command. At best, they are three generals marching in the Hehuang Valley at the same time.

At the level of front-line generals, several generals have done a good job, but they are far from being called commander-in-chief.

Once a tactic is formulated, some want to do it, some don't want to do it, and some don't dare to do it. When they complete their mission, they look forward and backward.

No preparation, no intelligence, just bloody courage, just like dealing with ordinary thieves, just ask where the enemy is, not even how many enemies there are, and just pounce on him, and then lose his mind and lose his footing after a little frustration .

If such a general wants to succeed, he needs huge national power to support his operation.

The real irony is that Liu Chengzong is also on this level, only in the border of Kansai, Liu Chengzong's Marshal's Mansion is stronger than Daming's national power.

In terms of war preparations, the Marshal's Mansion, with few lands and poor people, has been preparing for the next war since it was stationed in Xining.

In terms of money, food and supplies, everything owned by the Marshal's Mansion can be used for war.

In military training, Liu Chengzong's soldiers never went hungry for a day.

Liu Chengzong has even fought the battle against the generals of the five towns like this. With his own guess, the answer lies in the official positions of Wang Chengen, He Huchen and others.

Just above their official positions, the left governor, the right governor, and the governor Tongzhi.

The Governor’s Mansion of the Five Armies is not only the five major war zones, but also the management and command organization for the local army. In the past, people like Wang Chengen and He Huchen should have been working in the Governor’s Mansion. They usually managed the local army and were elected by the court as commander-in-chief in case of war. Have the right to lead the army and lead the army to fight.

Their focus is on improving military affairs and managing the guards. When the war is fought, the army is mobilized from the entire Dudu Mansion, and they can fight when they come.

Now that the Dudu’s Mansion is gone, these people don’t serve in the Ministry of War. They all rely on a governor or governor. He needs the procedural issues of the Ministry of War to take charge of the place, but if the war is not mixed, it is just a personal seal.

The commanders-in-chief of all walks of life rely on the troops they lead to become commander-in-chief officers. They no longer need to consider the ability of the entire military guards of the governor's mansion like the former governor, they only need to lead a battalion that is very capable of fighting.

The general soldiers of several groups are quite capable of fighting, and when they get together, no one will obey anyone, and no one will listen to anyone. What is the use of you being the governor of the left? What order me?

The Yansui Town Army was broken through, but the Guyuan Army and Ningxia Army did not return to aid. After all, You Shilu is not the governor. If the governor is about to be killed later, they will lead the troops back to complete the anti-siege.

The complete military system of command, training, selection, farming, and campaigning has become the current kind of general chaos. Who is the most capable general is very important, but the ability of the commander to command the large army to fight is not important anymore.

Today's chief military officers are all specialized talents trained in this model. The ideal state is not Guan Yuyuefei, but Cao Wenzhao.

The reason why Liu Chengzong wanted to analyze it was not to flog the corpses of the Ming army after the battle, but the Marshal's Mansion, which was born out of the Ming army system, also had this problem, and he reached this level-the highest official position in the Marshal's Mansion is currently Deputy Chief soldier.

In a short period of time, it is no problem for him to go out in person, but in the long run, this framework is not stable.

Among other things, if he doesn't go out and just let Wang Wenxiu and Yang Yao send troops, he will be invincible if he doesn't encounter setbacks.

But at the moment his opponent is Daming, this problem cannot be solved in a hasty slap on the head. On the contrary, it is more important to clean up Wang Xingshan's army, take down the chieftain of Yongdeng Liancheng, and march to Lanzhou.

He doesn't intend to seize Lanzhou City. Seizing Lanzhou City will further intensify the conflict. The imperial court frantically dispatched troops to launch a second siege. To be honest... Liu Chengzong weighed the limit of the war that both sides can bear, and he was very afraid of another such battle in a short time .

If there is another such battle, the Marshal's Mansion will be a dead end.

If you lose, you will die, and if you win, you will collapse... If you don’t surrender your troops, the court can continue to organize the third battle. The Ming Dynasty may have no food, but the armor manufacturing ability is very strong, and the reserves in the towns in the northwest are also sufficient. By the time the spring plowing time had passed, he was finished.

The surrender is also unbearable, unless they march towards Guanzhong, but if they rush into Guanzhong, it will be impossible to loot, and the food will not be transported back. The front line is too long and he can't eat such a large land. Hehuang and Lanzhou will have to be lost. The result was civil unrest.

Therefore, the purpose of going east is to loot the money, grain and livestock of all wealthy households in Lanzhou, Hezhou, Lintao and other places, but there is no need to plunder the population.

He is not Houjin, and Hehuang is not the Northeast. There is no great plain for him to farm. At present, 70 million people in Hehuang are enough to farm. Further plundering of the population will inevitably lead to famine in Hehuang.

To complete this step, he must first transfer the carrier. The cowhide and sheepskin rafts they rushed to make in Kangning Mansion can be used. Coupled with the rafts captured by the officers and soldiers, it is enough for large troops to cross the Yellow River quickly.

At the same time, the carrier can also transport the retrieved food, grass and money in the rear.

The second is to formulate a complete and precise plan for looting, relying on the surrender of troops to divide the local districts, draw up a list for the big gentry, and assign tactical tasks to the team.

Besieging Lanzhou with the main force, the looting team quickly explored, rushed forward, and retreated quickly on the [-]-mile-long land, using the shortest time, the fastest speed, and the most precise intention to evacuate all the wealth.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)