I want to be emperor

Chapter 292 Encounter
The second year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, April [-]th.

About ten miles northwest of Yiyang City, a large number of Chu soldiers marched in numerous queues.

However, compared with the previous ones, their marching speed was much slower. At the same time, the formation was more compact. The distance between the internal and external troops was also relatively close. At the same time, there were a large number of scouts roaming around.

This is because not long ago, Luo Zhixue received a report from the vanguard scout cavalry, saying that they had spotted traces of Ming army scout cavalry about ten miles ahead.

A small-scale fierce battle broke out between the scouts and cavalry on both sides.

There are Ming army reconnaissance cavalry ahead, and there are quite a few reconnaissance cavalry. This situation made Luo Zhixue and others immediately set their sights on Wuling.

To be precise, it is the new standard army left army stationed in Wulingli!
Because according to some information that the Chu army had learned before, in the surrounding areas of Yiyang City, only Yiyang City has about three to 4000 defenders.

But there are not many Ming troops in other places, even the Yuan River to the north of Yiyang City, there are not many Ming troops. That place has been abandoned by the Ming army itself. It turns out that nearly a thousand Ming troops stationed here have already withdrawn to Yiyang City.

Under such circumstances, there is only one possibility for the Ming army to appear in the northwest of Yiyang City, and that is the Ming army from Wuling City.

When he realized that there was a large Ming army ahead, Luo Zhixue directly ordered the troops to shrink their formation and prepare for battle.

At the same time, the First Cavalry Brigade was ordered to go forward to search and investigate the enemy's movements. At the same time, he also asked Xiazi Wang to entangle the enemy if he found the enemy without large-scale cavalry, so as to wait for the main force of his own infantry to come up.

When encountering the enemy, sending cavalry to entangle the enemy and create favorable opportunities for the slower-moving infantry and artillery is a routine that the Chu army has played many times.

But so far, most of the time the effect is good, especially in the process of going south.

Because in the former Chubei region and the current Chunan region, the local Ming army did not have large-scale elite cavalry at all.

The elite cavalry with a scale of thousands of people led by Wang Xiazi can be said to be rampant in Huguang, and it is difficult to meet a cavalry opponent with equal strength.

After Wang Xiazi led the army forward, what Luo Zhixue can do now is to continue to lead the army forward, and at the same time keep the army vigilant, and at the same time wait for the feedback from the First Cavalry Brigade.

While Luo Zhixue was waiting for news at the rear, Wang Xiazi had already led the [-]st Cavalry Brigade forward quickly, and soon encountered several waves of Ming army reconnaissance cavalry.

Seeing another wave of scouts from the Ming army approaching and leaving quickly, blind Wang had a hunch that they just caught a big fish.

He can even call out the name of this big fish: Xinbiaojun Zuojun.

In the surrounding area, the only Ming army capable of dispatching multiple waves of reconnaissance cavalry with a total of dozens of cavalry was the new standard left army in Wuling City.

"I didn't expect that they would go east ahead of time!" Blind Wang looked at the field in front of him, his smile gradually revealed: "If they hid in Wuling City, it would be more troublesome for us to fight later, but since they are now Take the initiative to go east, then don’t blame me, Old Wang, for not giving them face!”

"Pass down the order, let the brothers work harder, we will continue to move forward, and we must entangle them!"

"Also, after the meeting, it is necessary to ride a horse and charge, so that the brothers should pay attention to the physical fitness of the horse!"

As an old cavalryman, Wang Xiazi is naturally very aware of the importance of preserving the horse's physical fitness before the battle.

Their first cavalry brigade is not a pair of three horses, but only one pair of horses.

In their cavalry brigade, in addition to a war horse, each cavalry also has a relatively inferior auxiliary horse.

In normal times, the spare horse carried the cavalry's weapons and equipment, and the rider led the horse on foot.

Only when it's time for battle, the cavalry will charge and fight directly on their horses.

As for marching on horseback, don't count on even riding two horses.

The cavalry of the First Cavalry Brigade did not know how to ride a horse at all during their daily marches. Only the luxurious cavalry who rode three horses alone could allow the cavalry to march on a horse from time to time when marching.

Physical fitness is very important for a cavalry.

Even though Xiazi Wang has always paid great attention to the physical fitness of the horse, but at this critical moment, he still took the trouble to emphasize once again the importance of maintaining the physical fitness of the horse.

The First Cavalry Brigade continued to advance, and after about two quarters of an hour, Wang Xiazi finally saw the Ming army in front of him.

When he saw these Ming troops for the first time, Blind Wang didn't feel anything.

But after looking at it carefully, especially when he saw that there were more than a dozen field cannons in the queue of the Ming army, he was immediately stunned.

"This is the new standard army? There are a lot of artillery!"

The field of vision is relatively open, and Wang Xiazi climbed a small hill to observe from a high position. At this moment, he saw more than a dozen artillery pieces of the Ming army.

And these more than a dozen artillery pieces have already been deployed with their backs against a hillside, and the muzzles are facing their first cavalry brigade.

"Damn it, it's a good thing I didn't directly order to rush out, otherwise I'm afraid I'll suffer heavy losses if I get hit by their artillery for a while!"

"No wonder it is called the New Standard Army. This is completely based on our main force!"

Wang Xiazi looked at the battle formation in front of him, posing as a new standard army of the Ming army to guard against the cavalry attack, and couldn't help sighing: "There are still capable people in the puppet Ming army!"

"Let the brothers pay attention, don't get close, keep a thousand meters away!"

Blind Wang no longer has the idea of ​​rushing over with the cavalry to get a vote. They have laid out the formation and set up the artillery. He will not take the precious cavalry under his command to die.

Anyway, his task is not to attack and kill how many enemy troops, but to find and hold the enemy to complete the task.

And now the new standard troops of the Ming army on the opposite side are directly putting up a defensive posture, which is also in line with his wishes.

As long as these Ming troops don't run away, his first cavalry brigade won't move either.

But if the Ming army wants to run away, when they put away the artillery and change the formation from a defensive formation to a marching formation, Wang Xiazi will not hesitate to order his cavalry to charge up.

-

Blind Wang led thousands of cavalry, hanging a thousand meters away from the Ming army.

This made Yang Sixing quite disappointed!
"The Chu bandit cavalry were so cautious that they didn't rush over. Otherwise, we must show them the power of my new standard army's bandit-killing cannon."

Yang Sixing thought about it many times, how to fight the Chu thief after encountering it.

In his expectation, if he encounters Chu bandit cavalry in the wild, as long as his artillery can be deployed and the infantry can form an array, the bandit cavalry will die as many as they come.

However, this is the first time I met Chu thief cavalry, the opposite Chu thief cavalry did not charge up...

Yang Sixing thought beautifully, but blind man Wang is not a fool. Although he himself has never been bombarded by field artillery, he has seen Ming army cavalry being bombarded by his own artillery many times.

In the Battle of the Eastern Suburbs of Yuzhou, Zuo Liangyu's more than [-] elite cavalry, who were no worse than the first cavalry brigade, just stupidly listed a dense charge formation and tried to rush over to destroy the artillery positions, but they were killed a few hundred meters away. The artillery of the Chu army was hit hard.

Other times it's more.

These examples let Wang Xiazi fully understand that if he charged directly against the field artillery in a dense formation, it would be his own death.

Even if they could win, it would be a miserable victory.

Wang Xiazi stood still, and Yang Sixing on the opposite side couldn't help but wonder what the Chu bandit cavalry on the opposite side was going to do if he didn't charge forward or retreat.

And when this question came to Yang Sixing's mind, a dangerous idea immediately came to mind: Do these Chu bandit cavalrymen want to arrive as the main force of the infantry in the rear?
"Thousands of Chu thief cavalry, so many Chu thief cavalry, it is definitely impossible to dispatch alone. There must be more Chu thief main force behind them, ranging from tens of thousands to tens of thousands."

"So, I met the main force of the Chu thief?"

"Didn't the main force of the Chu thieves head towards Changsha? Why did they turn around and run westward to Yiyang City?"

Many thoughts appeared in Yang Sixing's mind in an instant, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he was.

He, this is definitely the main force of the Chu thief!
No, I can't wait like this, once the main force of the Chu thieves catch up, then my more than 5000 people are very likely to face the siege of tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of Chu thieves.

At that time, even if their new standard left army is a new army with good equipment, good treatment, high morale, and new guns, I am afraid that they will be hard-pressed.

Yang Sixing quickly made a judgment, and then ordered the troops to retreat to the northwest, that is, in the direction of Wuling.

He wanted to retreat to Wuling City, relying on the walls of Wuling City to resist.

With the combat effectiveness and equipment level of more than 5000 new standard troops under his command, plus there are two to three thousand ordinary guards in Wuling City who can assist in defending the city.

Even in the face of an attack from the main force of [-] to [-] Chu thieves, he is confident that he can defend Wuling City.

However, when he just ordered the retreat, the troops hadn't even had time to formally retreat, but they had to stop retreating when they gathered their formation and the artillery unit recovered the deployed artillery.

Because the Chu thief cavalry on the opposite side also moved!

Seeing this scene, Yang Sixing didn't know what the purpose of these cavalry was.

These cavalry were not there for scouting or acting as vanguards at all. These cavalry probably came directly towards themselves and wanted to entangle themselves.

Once your own army starts to retreat, I am afraid that the cavalry on the opposite side will directly charge.

The [-] new standard troops who did not list the formation of the defensive cavalry and did not display the artillery, faced the charge of thousands of cavalry, and their performance would definitely not be better than that of the [-] ordinary guards.

Faced with this situation, Yang Sixing pondered for a long time, and after observing the surrounding terrain, he finally threw himself at a small hill about a few hundred meters behind the army.

"Pass down the order to retreat alternately to cover the short hills at the side and rear for defense. Don't move too fast. All departments must cooperate well, and don't give the thief a chance."

"Send Fei Qiqi to Yiyang City and Wuling City as quickly as possible, and ask the defenders of the two cities to quickly reinforce our troops."

"Send reliable people to Changsha to report to Governor Yang, saying that our soldiers have decided to lead the left army to defend the position in the eastern suburbs of Yiyang, so as to attract the main force of the bandit army to gather in Yiyang. I hope the governor and all the adults will quickly gather reinforcements and go north to Yiyang. Cooperate with our department inside and outside, and attack from north to south."

"Once it is done, at least ten thousand main forces of the Chu thieves will be wiped out, and the crisis in southern Chu will be saved!"

……

After issuing a series of orders, Yang Sixing looked at the cavalrymen of the Chu thieves who were staring at the front, and looked at the field to the southeast. After taking a deep breath, he said with a gloomy face: "I want to see how much you Chu thieves can defeat my left army." !"

(End of this chapter)