I want to be emperor

Chapter 293 The real goal

With thousands of Chu bandit cavalry staring at them, Yang Sixing knew very well that it was impossible for him to lead the new standard left army with more than 5000 infantry and artillery to retreat smoothly all the way to Wuling City.

Of course, I can maintain a battle formation and retreat slowly, but a short-distance retreat is okay, but if I want to retreat all the way to Wuling City across tens of miles, it is a dream.

Even if the Chu thief's cavalry didn't move, the main force of the Chu thief's infantry and artillery probably caught up with him during his slow retreat.

At that time, it will be necessary to fight face to face.

Since there will be a fight sooner or later, Yang Sixing naturally hopes to choose a more favorable terrain and fight a defensive battle that is more beneficial to his side.

And behind the side of our own army, there is a small hill. Although the terrain is not high, the highest hill protrudes only about [-] meters from the ground. At the same time, the terrain is relatively flat, not steep.

But it is enough to deploy artillery and build fortifications.

What's more, behind this small mountainous area, there is still a small river. About three or four miles northeast of the small river, there is Dongting Lake.

Although this small river is not too big, it can also be used as a natural barrier, allowing one's own side to reduce the line of defense, and at the same time allow one's own side to obtain enough domestic water.

It is better to fight a defensive battle here than to fight against the superior Chu bandits in the wilderness.

As long as I can rely on this small short mountain to fight a defensive battle, and stick to it for ten days and months, then the Ming army in the peripheral areas will naturally arrive one after another, and gather in the periphery to become a new main force of the Ming army.

At that time, the Chu thieves in front of them will face the disadvantage of being attacked from the front and back. If one fails, the officers and soldiers may be able to fight an anti-encirclement operation, severely inflicting damage on the Chu thieves, so as to completely reverse the crisis in southern Chu.

After Yang Sixing made a decision, the left army of the new standard army also quickly moved into action. I saw that they did not spread out, but still maintained a dense formation. At the same time, their marching speed was not fast, and they retreated alternately.

The artillery and supplies were also retreated under the cover of infantry.

Blind Wang didn't take it seriously at first, thinking that these Ming troops were whimsical, and they wanted to retreat in a battle formation that seemed safe by this kind of door, but couldn't walk much in a day.

According to the opponent's method, I am afraid that they will not be able to walk a few kilometers until the evening. By then, the main force of our own side will have caught up.

At that time, a burst of shelling will pass, and the opponent will be finished.

Therefore, Blind Wang was not in a hurry, so he led the cavalry to hang far behind.

However, it didn't take long before Blind Wang realized something was wrong.

These Ming troops did not retreat towards the due west, that is, the direction of the official road they came from, but retreated towards a small short mountain in the northwest.

Moreover, some Ming soldiers who arrived at the small mountain first have already used hoes and shovels to dig fortifications on the small mountain...

"These pseudo-Ming troops don't want to retreat, but want to defend here stubbornly!"

After Blind Wang saw this, he remained calm!
As long as the Ming army on the opposite side doesn't run away, he doesn't care whether they dance in place or build fortifications to prepare for resistance.

His task has always been clear, that is to hold back the left army of the new standard army and prevent them from retreating quickly.

As for the others, to be honest, Wang Xiazi's First Cavalry Brigade can't do anything, he can't just rush up with the cavalry to fight the new standard left army.

If they rushed over, 100% of the First Cavalry Brigade would suffer heavy casualties, and they might not be able to break through the defense line of the Ming army.

At this time, Blind Wang still has to wait!
Wait for the infantry and artillery units led by Luo Zhixue to arrive!

So even though he had seen the opponent's tactical intentions, blind Wang still didn't do much. He just hung in the distance. Later, he sent out part of the cavalry to sweep out the surrounding area to eliminate the scouts and messengers that the Ming army might send out. wait.

In short, it is necessary to completely drag this Ming army here, and at the same time block the news as much as possible.

It's just that it's easy to hold back the Ming army, but it's impossible to completely block the news.

This battle area is not 01:30, and it is not an endless grassland area. The spies of the Ming army are hiding, and the scouts of the [-]st Cavalry Brigade may not be able to find them all.

Therefore, it was inevitable that after the messengers sent by Yang Sixing lost a number of men, there were still a few people who escaped the blockade of the First Cavalry Brigade, and finally headed towards Wuling City, Yiyang City, or Changsha further south.

At the same time, in the wilderness about seven or eight miles away from here, a gray army continued to advance unhurriedly.

Luo Zhixue, who was in the middle of the team, had already received a report from the First Cavalry Brigade, and he was in a good mood at this moment.

Xu Zhixian beside him also looked very relaxed: "I didn't expect that this time when we marched westward, the left army of the new standard army would run out on their own initiative. It seems that they want to go to Xiangyin to attack us behind."

"It's just that the other party doesn't know that the main force of our army didn't go south, but turned to the west directly. Otherwise, they would definitely not take the initiative to go east, but would directly defend Wuling."

"The First Cavalry Brigade has preliminarily ascertained the opponent's strength. The total strength is about 500 people. All types of arms are complete. Both the organization and equipment are highly similar to our army. There are also about ten field artillery pieces. If it were replaced by our army, it would be a full-staffed mixed brigade."

"And they only have such a mixed brigade in their hands. Obviously, it is impossible to take the initiative to come out and confront the [-] main force of our army head-on. To meet them in Yiyang, it should be that their intelligence channels have made a mistake and they have not been informed in time. The reason why the main force of our army is advancing westward."

When Xu Zhixian opened his mouth, he basically understood Yang Sixing's thoughts.

If he were to lead such a mixed brigade to fight, he would definitely avoid the main force of the Chu army. It would be best to take advantage of the time when the Chu army went south to Changsha, and directly fight out to seize Xiangyin and cut off the Chu army's supply road.

In the previous sand table deduction of the Chu army, most of the people who played the leading role of the Ming army also chose similar tactics: to avoid the main force of the Chu army, attack the garrison, and cut off the logistics supply line of the main force of the Chu army.

In response to this situation, when the generals of the Chu army formulated the actual combat plan, they simply gave up the plan to attack Changsha in the early stage, but directly placed the next tactical goal after taking down Yuezhou Baling on this army. The new standard army came from the left army.

And Yang Sixing probably couldn't have guessed that the second main tactical goal of the Chu army going south was not Changsha, but his new standard army, the left army.

The information gap between the two sides and the different ideas of the generals eventually led to the encounter between the main force of the Chu army and the Zuo army, the new standard army of the Ming army, outside Yiyang City.

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Although he clearly knew that the left army of the Ming army's new standard army was seven or eight miles ahead, Luo Zhixue did not let the troops march quickly, but continued to keep the troops marching at a normal pace, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts. Inquire around the situation to avoid an ambush by a Ming army that suddenly appeared.

In the westward advance of the Chu Army, in addition to the core cavalry of the 800st Cavalry Brigade, there are also the Cavalry Regiment of the Fifth Division and the Guards Cavalry Regiment. There are only more than [-] cavalry, and they are all half-baked cavalry and infantry.

However, it is still possible to use it as a peripheral reconnaissance cavalry and security forces.

In addition to continuing to search the surrounding area, Luo Zhixue also ordered the No.19 Infantry Regiment under the Fifth Division to stay at the back, in case the thousands of Ming troops in Yiyang City were caught off guard and ran out suddenly.

However, even if the No. 19 Infantry Regiment was left behind, it was only as a precaution.

Luo Zhixue still did not send troops to directly attack Yiyang City, nor did he have the idea of ​​blocking the three or four thousand Ming troops here.

Again, the Chu army was not worried at all about the Ming army going out of the city to fight against their own side.

As long as they dared to go out of the city, the Chu army could mobilize hundreds of cavalry troops to hold them back in minutes, and take them away in a wave after the infantry and artillery pressed up.

Luo Zhixue led the army to march unhurriedly all the way, and did not join the [-]st Cavalry Brigade until around three o'clock that afternoon.

After arriving at the front line, Luo Zhixue was not in a hurry to let the troops launch an attack directly, but let the troops build trenches, parapets and other lines of defense on the spot, which were also interception lines, directly encircling the more than 5000 Ming troops in front, and asked the staff team to observe the terrain , to formulate a follow-up combat plan.

And he himself took a large group of generals to the command post on the top of a nearby hill.

This place is about a kilometer away from the hilltop where the Ming army retreated. The distance is neither too far nor too close, but it can be used as a frontline headquarters, commanding the entire army to fight from a high position.

Just when Luo Zhixue led a group of generals to move into the temporary headquarters on the top of the mountain, outside a big tent on the opposite mountain, Yang Sixing, who was dressed as a civil servant, frowned and looked at the large group of gray thieves in front of him.

"Chu thieves are here in full force. There are at least [-] Chu thieves besieging my left army in front of us. They also have a lot of guns and a lot of armor. They are definitely the real gray thieves among the Chu thieves."

"According to the rumors, Luo Nixi used surrendered generals to surrender troops, and formed a large garrison army with surrendered troops. The tactics and tactics are the same as our camp post, but today we don't see a garrison army with one soldier at a time! "

"Where did their garrison go?" When Yang Sixing muttered, he already had a guess in his heart: the garrison army among the Chu thieves is probably the Chu thieves who went south in a big way!
He had been notified before that the Chu thieves had gone south in a large scale, and tens of thousands of Chu thieves were coming to Changsha.

It was precisely because of this notification, and the fact that Yang Sichang asked him to choose the opportunity to go eastward to intercept and kill the main grain road of the Chu thieves, that's why he took the initiative to go eastward.

Now it seems that the Chu thief is putting them together.

It is true that there is a large group of Chu thieves going south, but most of the Chu thieves going south should be the garrison, and the real main force of the Chu thieves is to avoid the eyes and ears of the Ming army, and march directly to the front line of Yiyang City after two or three days.

At this moment, Yang Sixing had a thought that had never appeared before: "These Chu thieves Xingming repaired the plank road and secretly plotted to move [-] main forces to the front line of Yiyang. Could it be that their goal from the beginning was to aim at Wuling?" Spring? Aimed at himself?

After this idea appeared, Yang Sixing immediately had a clearer judgment on the entire battle situation, and quickly found answers to many doubts that were unclear before.

The real target of these Chu thieves is not Changsha, but their new standard army Zuojun!

(End of this chapter)