I want to be emperor

Chapter 203 Tang Hui's Difficulty
Xu Zhixian and others of the thieves' army formulated a series of tactics for besieging the city and fighting for reinforcements, and even wrote dozens of thick pages in the battle plan.

In the end, before they could actually implement the battle plan, Xu Zhixian got the news from the scouts: the defenders in Yicheng ran away!
After hearing the news, Xu Zhixian didn't know whether to be happy or angry...

Paralyzed, in order to conquer Yicheng, how many battle plans have been drawn up and how many ways have been thought of.

As a result, it was finally ready to implement the battle plan.

The defenders fled without fighting.

This means that Xu Zhixian's series of efforts were all in vain. He felt that the lap he played with all his strength ended up falling on the cotton.

Not only that, it even almost caused internal injuries due to excessive force!
Although Xu Zhixian was in a complicated mood after learning that the defenders of Yicheng had escaped, he still clearly realized that this time is a great benefit for the rural protection army.

They can take Yicheng, the bridgehead for advancement, without a single soldier, and then continue to chase the enemy all the way south along the Han River.

Immediately, he suggested to Luo Zhixue: "General, we need to speed up. The defenders of Yicheng fled south soon. If we are fast, we can catch their tails, and at the same time, we will be able to react when the enemy army goes north for reinforcements." Before finding them and engaging them, continue to fight to defeat them in the field."

"Even if they fled south together, then we can follow them all the way south, don't give them time to flee south until Zhongxiang re-assembles its defenses, and take Zhongxiang directly while they are not getting a firm foothold."

Luo Zhixue said: "Since the enemy army fled without fighting, then we don't have to be polite!"

"Pass down the order, the fifth garrison brigade will speed up and go southward, and capture Yicheng first. If the enemy's remnants resist stubbornly, they will be killed."

"After controlling Yicheng, welcome the army, prepare barracks, food and other things in advance, and save time for the main force."
"The rest of the ministries must also speed up their southward movement, especially the artillery and supply units must not hold back."

"Also let the First Cavalry Regiment expand the scope of reconnaissance and search, and avoid any possible enemy traps in advance!"

For the time being, Luo Zhixue doesn't know why the defenders in Yicheng just ran away. It is possible that the enemy army really fled cowardly, but it does not rule out the possibility that the enemy army is playing tricks, so they set up suspicious formations.

Luo Zhixue doesn't care what the Ming army on the opposite side thinks, whether there is really a conspiracy, but he will still maintain the necessary caution.

After Luo Zhixue's order was issued, the Fifth Defense Brigade headed south with light packs.

Now their army is only seven or eight kilometers away from Yicheng. If there is no accident, the fifth garrison brigade will arrive in Yicheng this afternoon and make corresponding preparations.

After the main force arrives in Yicheng in the afternoon, they will be able to directly message and stay overnight to accumulate physical energy for tomorrow's continued southward journey.

The fifth garrison brigade went south without any accidents. In the afternoon of the same day, Dong Mingjie, the commander of the fifth garrison brigade and the head of the ninth garrison regiment (formerly the fifth mixed brigade), successfully led more than [-] people from his troops to Yicheng. .

At the beginning, the gate of Yicheng was still closed, and a small number of soldiers could be seen guarding the city, but after a while, the gate was opened by the main force, and then a group of low-level officials and gentry came out, saying that the city had surrendered .

Seeing this scene, Dong Mingjie couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.

Since the other party had surrendered consciously and voluntarily, it would have saved him a lot of trouble.

If the remnant soldiers in the opponent's city resisted and refused to surrender, even though the main force of the enemy army in the city had already fled, as long as a few hundred thousand people were stationed at random, it would take a lot of effort for the fifth garrison brigade to take it down. .

After all, his fifth garrison brigade was said to be a brigade, but in fact it only had the strength of a regiment.

During the reorganization of the whole army in early July, the original Fifth Mixed Brigade was reorganized into the Ninth Garrison Regiment, and together with the proposed new Tenth Garrison Regiment, it was incorporated into the Fifth Garrison Brigade.

However, although the name of the fifth garrison brigade was announced, it still only has the strength of one regiment in a short period of time. As for the tenth garrison regiment, this soldier is still in the hands of the Ming army on the opposite side...

When will we go south to win the battle and capture enough prisoners, when will the tenth garrison regiment be established.

It is quite difficult to take Yicheng by relying on a mere garrison regiment.

Fortunately, the few remaining soldiers in the city did not resist, but chose to surrender.

Seeing that the opponent surrendered knowingly, Dong Mingjie didn't waste any time, and directly dispatched troops into the city to disarm and detain the hundreds of remaining government servants and young and strong civilian husbands in the city, and began to confiscate all kinds of military supplies in the city.

It's just that the Ming army in Yicheng had more time to retreat, and basically took away everything that could be taken away, so there was not much to gain from entering the city and confiscating official warehouses.

But after learning of this situation, Dong Mingjie immediately wrote to Luo Zhixue in the rear, saying that the enemy army had brought a lot of luggage with them when they retreated, and the ships were not expensive when the enemy army retreated, so most of the soldiers and luggage still left land, not water.

what does this mean?
It means that the enemy retreating by land cannot run fast, and if the rural protection army in the rear moves faster, it is entirely possible to catch up with the enemy.

Luo Zhixue in the rear received Dong Mingjie's report, after a little thought, he ordered Xiazi Wang to lead the first cavalry brigade to go south first, and quickly pursue the enemy to see if he could catch up with the retreating enemy or even entangle them.

The rest of the main force continued to go south according to the original plan, and arrived in Yicheng to rest smoothly in the evening of the same day.

On July 23, the Township Protection Army successfully captured Yicheng, an important southward bridgehead, without a single soldier.

And when the rural protection army reached Yicheng, a large number of Ming troops were camping more than 20 kilometers south of Yicheng.

In the tent of the Chinese army, a lieutenant general of the Ming army looked at the letter in his hand with a gloomy face, and only saw him put down the letter after a while.

At this time, some of the other generals in the tent said: "My lord, what did Tang Qianxian say?"

The middle-aged general said: "He told us to stop and counterattack Yicheng immediately, and said that the [-] troops he personally led would arrive within three to two days, and they would definitely wipe out Bao Bandit Yun..."

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the other generals in the tent turned dark and ugly.

Immediately, these people began to talk in a hurry:

"Counterattack Yicheng? How is this possible? Now we turn around and counterattack Yicheng. We haven't reached Yicheng yet, and we will probably face off against the bandit army. At that time, after a field battle, are we afraid that we won't die soon enough? "

"At this time, we should go directly south to Zhongxiang to deploy defenses, and rely on cities like Zhongxiang to resist the security forces!"

"Lu Xiangsheng's defeat is still vivid in my mind. Even the tens of thousands of elite soldiers led by Lu Xiangsheng were defeated in Sanyuan Village. Just us, plus the group of soft-footed shrimps under Tang Hui's hands? How can we be like wolves and tigers? The thieves fight?"

"Don't he know that the guns of the Baozhe Army are sharp? The little red cannons in the Baozhe Army cannot be resisted by manpower."

"If you want to maintain the situation now, you can only retreat to Zhongxiang. Even Zhongxiang is not safe. It is best to retreat all the way to Hanyang and even cross the river to Wuchang. Relying on the Yangtze River and Wuchang's strong city to defend stubbornly."

"This is a battle with the bandit protection army in the wilderness, the consequences are unimaginable!"

Another person said angrily: "According to me, we just ignore him. To be honest, he is not our governor of Huguang now. Why should we point fingers at us? It is reasonable for us not to listen to him. "

"He was dismissed by the court before him, that is, Lu Qianxian died in battle before he could formally take over. Otherwise, it would be his turn to be in charge now!"

"He wants to die, we can't accompany them, and I can understand that this person just wants us to die in front, while he himself hides behind and watches the show."

"How long has it been since Xiangyang fell? It's been more than two months, but where has he been, Tang Hui, during these two months?"

"He has been staying in Wuchang, what he said is to call up troops and raise military supplies, and he has been dawdling for more than two months before going north?"

"In the past two months or so, the brothers have been struggling to maintain the situation, otherwise Yicheng would have been gone."

"That is, if he could have brought Chu Nan's troops northward earlier, we would have been able to counterattack Xiangyang. Maybe we can cooperate with Lu Xiangsheng, Zuo Liangyu and the others. There is still today's business!"

"It's fine now. A few months have passed. There are more and more thieves in the army, and there are more and more guns. It's too late to fight now!"

"I can't go to Yicheng anyway, but it's not good to go south."

"Tang Hui is dozens of miles ahead of us. If we really go there, Tang Hui will be arrested. How about we cross the river tomorrow and go to De'an Mansion to settle down and see the situation?"

"Didn't you say that there were also bandits who killed Suizhou? Just in time, we said that we were going to rescue Suizhou. In short, we should avoid this land of right and wrong."

The generals of the guards of the Ming army said nothing to each other, but none of them said a word about fighting against the bandit army...

At the same time, Tang Hui, who was tens of miles away to the south, was also frowning!
In the past few months, Tang Hui has been extremely unlucky, and the unlucky trend is getting worse and worse.

Some time ago, being implicated by Chen Qiyu, the censor of the right capital of the former governor of the five provinces, the imperial court planned to let Lu Xiangsheng succeed him as the governor of Huguang.

But, before Lu Xiangsheng had time to officially take office, he was defeated and died in Sanyuan Village.

After Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, Tang Hui, the governor of Huguang who had been deposed in name, could only continue to act as Huguang's military affairs, waiting for the imperial court to send a new governor of Huguang to take charge, and he could leave only after the handover was completed.

This has also caused his identity to be very embarrassing in the past two months!

Everyone knew that he was about to leave, and he would be demoted to Guangxi, so the officials and generals under him didn't take him seriously.

Under such circumstances, it is extremely difficult to organize troops to fight against the bandit protection army.

(End of this chapter)