I want to be emperor

Chapter 289

While Luo Zhixue was still in the camp in the eastern suburbs of Linxiang City, leading a group of civil servants to discuss how to raise military expenses, the military operations of various ministries of the Chu Army were still going on.

After part of the main force entered Linxiang City and smashed the main resistance in the city, the main force of each department quickly retreated from the city, leaving only the troops of the Sixth Defense Division.

A brigade of the Sixth Garrison Division entered the city to continue the purge operation, while the other brigade was responsible for order outside the city, while accepting and supervising tens of thousands of prisoners of war.

According to the estimates of the staff department, the purge operation in Linxiang City is expected to last for about three days. During these three days, the Sixth Garrison Division will conduct a sweeping search and purge of Linxiang City, divide into areas, and visit door to door Search to eliminate all kinds of remnants and recalcitrant forces.

At the same time, the reorganization of prisoners of war will also be carried out simultaneously. The Ministry of Military and Political Affairs has sent relevant officials into the temporary prisoner-of-war camps to conduct preliminary screening of tens of thousands of prisoners of war.

It is still the old rule that the prisoners who voluntarily join the Chu army and have passed the physical condition are selected first, and the rest are either kept in prisoner-of-war camps, or selected and merged into unarmed military camps such as reclamation camps, construction camps, and transportation camps. within the management system.

After the preliminary selection, the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs will subdivide and select the initially selected personnel, and the qualified soldiers after the second round of selection will be incorporated into the garrison.

The follow-up purge operations in Linxiang City and the reorganization of prisoners of war have nothing to do with the main forces.

Now the main forces have begun to move westward one after another, continuing their next combat mission.

The fastest movers were the [-]st Cavalry Brigade and the three divisional cavalry regiments, plus a brigade of the Guards.

Some of their previous troops had already advanced more than ten kilometers westward when they continued to pursue the defeated Ming army in Linxiang.

Wait until the next day, and continue to move forward after the rest of the westward ministries are completed.

The fifth division of the main force connected with the eighth garrison division, connected with the first mortar regiment, turned westward, and went straight to Yuezhou Prefecture to rule Baling City.

The [-]st Cavalry Brigade, the [-]st Brigade of the Guards Division, and some of their troops went south to attack Tumen Town. connect.

And Luo Zhixue led the Second Brigade of the Guards Division and the Second Mortar Regiment to advance slowly in the rear. Their task was to serve as a strategic reserve team and also to escort a large amount of logistical supplies.

The Sixth Garrison Division temporarily stayed in Linxiang, guarding the rear area, suppressing and reorganizing tens of thousands of prisoners of war at the same time.

Luo Zhixue has already issued an order that the sixth garrison division will be divided into two, and based on the No.11 garrison brigade of the sixth garrison division, it will be expanded into a new sixth garrison division.The No.12 garrison brigade of the sixth garrison division is the core and expanded into the new ninth garrison division.

At present, the number of qualified prisoners of war in Linxiang is estimated to be only about 4000, which is not enough. If the two garrison divisions are to continue to be fully staffed, they must be supplemented by selecting personnel from prisoners of war captured on other battlefields such as Yuezhou.

According to Luo Zhixue's order, the various departments of the Chu army moved quickly.

In the afternoon of that day, the Vanguard's First Cavalry Brigade reached Tumen Town. This place is not a formal city, but just a larger market town, with no decent fortifications at all.

On the contrary, there are quite a few Ming troops stationed there, about a thousand people.

This place is an important node along the Weishui River, which is why the Ming army deployed troops here, and it was also the reason why the first cavalry brigade and other Chu army troops aimed at this place in the first place.

When the Ming army in Tumen Town saw the large Chu army approaching and launched several artillery bombardments, the Ming soldiers whose morale had been shaken and whose morale was almost zero broke up on the spot.

Yesterday, the news of Linxiang's defeat actually reached Tumen Town. These Ming troops didn't rush to disperse yesterday, but persisted for a day, and waited until the Chu army really killed them. It's already a great deal of face for Yang Sichang to coax him away.

Who made them all ordinary guard soldiers, among whom there were only dozens of soldiers.

And the most important thing is that they haven't received the money and food from their superiors for several months. The food they eat every day is all they robbed by themselves.

The superiors didn't care about their life or death, so naturally they wouldn't work for Yang Sichang and the others.

After more than a thousand defenders of Tumen Town dispersed, the First Cavalry Brigade had created their own history.

For the first time they captured a city.

Even if it's just a slightly larger market town, it's not even a county seat.

But this is also very rare for a pure cavalry unit.

Since the establishment of the First Cavalry Brigade, most of its combat missions have been to act as a forward reconnaissance, chase down enemy routs, and confront enemy cavalry.

This is the first time to conquer a place directly.

It's not that I don't have the ability, but that I don't need it.

After all, they are cavalry, and siege is not their strong point.

At the same time, the cavalry is very important to the Chu army. Even if Luo Zhixue's brain is twitched, it is impossible to use the precious cavalry as cannon fodder to attack the city.

The [-]st Cavalry Brigade didn't even think about playing a strong attack, just thought that they were all here, and there was still some distance between the friendly forces, and at the same time, they brought six two-and-a-half catty field guns.

It should be no problem to try to hit a few rounds of artillery.

But unexpectedly, just after firing a few rounds of artillery, the defenders on the opposite side ran away by themselves.

Under such circumstances, it would appear that the [-]st Cavalry Brigade was hypocritical if they did not enter Tumen Town.

In the end, it happened that the First Cavalry Brigade took down Tumen Town.

This made Wang Xiazi, the director of the cavalry and concurrently the commander of the first cavalry brigade, very happy.

This is the independent combat capability of the cavalry that he has been pursuing so hard. If he hadn't brought a few artillery pieces, it would have been so easy to scare the defenders away.

-

When the first cavalry was traveling smoothly, the other two cavalry units, namely the cavalry regiment of the fifth division and the eighth garrison cavalry battalion also successfully reached the outskirts of Baling City.

It's just that this cavalry unit didn't dare to attack Baling City directly, but wandered around the periphery, cutting off the connection between Baling City and the periphery.

According to the information of the Chu army, there are thousands of Ming troops stationed in Baling City. These people are nothing to the main force of the Chu army, but they are relatively reluctant to a half-baked cavalry with only a few hundred cavalry. up.

After symbolically firing a few rounds with a few two-and-a-half-pound field guns carried by the army, seeing that the Ming army in the city did not respond, they simply retreated to the periphery to garrison.

As for directly attacking Baling, that is impossible.

Even if these more than 800 are half-baked cavalry, they are still very precious to the Chu army, and they will be easily lost in the siege battle.

As for the cannon fodder troops used for siege, there are a lot of garrison troops in the Chu army available, if it is not possible to directly use the infantry in the main force.

Siege with cavalry unless your brains burn out.

Eight hundred cavalry arrived at the outskirts of Baling City first, and more troops from the Fifth Division and the Eighth Defense Division were on their way.

At the same time, Baling City entered an atmosphere of extreme panic.

This morning, the news that Linxiang City was broken had already been heard in Baling City.

After the news came out, many gentry had already fled with their families during the day today, not only ordinary gentry families, but also the family members of many officials and even the officials themselves were in the ranks of fleeing.

First came the dignitaries and gentry, and in the afternoon, many ordinary citizens also got the news and started to flee.

The soldiers also began to waver, and desertion appeared.

It's not that they are afraid of things, but that the Chu thief's strength is really frightening.

If it were Gao Yingxiang and other thieves who came here, the gentry, dignitaries and even ordinary citizens would definitely not run out of the city. On the contrary, they would pour into the city, especially the big city, in an attempt to escape the flames of war.

When the thief comes, it is very dangerous to be outside, and it is easy to lose his life.

It is much safer to hide in the city, because those thieves generally lack the ability to attack the city.

But when they met the Chu thief, their reactions were completely different.

First of all, many people know the rules of Chu thieves. People know that Chu thieves also have the emperor and the regular army of the imperial court. Directly looting the countryside and engulfing the young and strong.

On the contrary, the Chu army often eliminates all kinds of deserters and bandits to maintain local law and order.

Therefore, when the Chu army came over, it was actually quite safe to stay in the rural areas. Well, the premise is that you don’t resist and you have to pay taxes...

On the contrary, it is more dangerous to stay in the city.

First of all, the Chu army has a special way of attacking the city. Regardless of whether it is Hanyang or Wuchang, or the front-line fortified city of Linxiang, the Chu army will be defeated as soon as they say it is defeated.

When the city can't stop the Chu thief, there is no point in hiding in the city.

At the same time, when hiding in the city, it is easy to be recruited by the government in the city. The gentry and wealthy households will be asked to apportion money and food, and ordinary citizens, young and strong, will be arrested and guarded at the top of the city.

During the siege, the Chu army would not have any scruples. The artillery was constantly firing, and it would not be said that they deliberately avoided ordinary residential areas in the city.

Because the area of ​​most of the cities these days is actually quite small, there are often large areas of residential buildings behind the city walls.

Well, even most cities already have many houses in front of the city walls.

Although most of the cities were planned with open spaces outside the city walls, in the long years, because the space in the city was not large enough, the buildings often extended outwards. Over time, a large number of buildings will appear outside the city walls. Further development, may A city will appear.

When the Chu army attacked Wuchang before, many battles in the early stage actually broke out in the area outside the city wall. There were also large buildings in these places. For the convenience of the attack, the Chu army demolished and burned a large number of buildings outside the city. Woolen cloth.

This is especially true in the Battle of the Bulge outside Linxiang City.

Under such circumstances, war inevitably affects ordinary people.

When the Chu army was about to kill, people with a little brain basically ran away in advance.

Regardless of whether the Ming army wins or the Chu army wins, it is right to run and hide first.

Against this background of panic, the infantry unit of the Fifth Division arrived the next day and launched an attack on Baling City.

At this time, the original 4000 defenders in the city were less than 1000, and the other [-] people had disappeared.

After the [-] defenders resisted symbolically for an hour, a large number of Ming soldiers fled, and the remaining thousand Ming soldiers surrendered under the leadership of a lieutenant general!
(End of this chapter)