I want to be emperor

Chapter 476
If Tongguan cannot be defended, then Chang'an City and even the entire Guanzhong will be at stake.

Once Guanzhong is lost, even if Sun Chuanting can take Emperor Longxing to flee south to Sichuan, the good situation of the administration of Longxing that he managed to pull up will collapse in an instant.

Therefore, even if the Hanzhong Mansion was in danger, he did not intend to transfer too many troops from the front line of Tongguan. He even ordered thousands of troops on the front line of Jiezhou to be transferred back to the front line of Tongguan.

Anyway, that was Zuo Liangyu's territory, let him defend it by himself, not to mention that the Yellow River had already thawed, even if the Chu thieves captured the Jiezhou line, it would be difficult to cross the rolling Yellow River and enter the hinterland of Guanzhong.

When Zuo Liangyu learned that Sun Chuanting had transferred away the troops on the front line of Jiezhou, he yelled angrily: "I agreed to guard Datong and Taiyuan, and leave Linfen to him. The troops are withdrawn!"

"None of these people who read sage books are shameful!"

The general below asked: "Then what should we do now? Should we send someone to negotiate with them and let them stay on the front line of Jiezhou?"

"Send me a fart, Sun Chuanting obviously wants to give up our self-protection, otherwise it's impossible to withdraw troops without saying a word. It's useless to send someone to say it now."

"A while ago Hanzhong Jinzhou was captured by the Chu thieves. He, Sun Chuanting, must have dispatched troops to protect Hanzhong Mansion, and the Chu thieves stationed heavily in Tongguan, and they have made great moves in recent months. It is estimated that they will attack Tongguan. It won't be too late, probably because of this, that fellow Sun Chuanting will disregard our covenant and withdraw from Jiezhou."

"Now, it is estimated that they are unable to protect themselves, and they will still listen to us."

"We still have to guard our own territory!"

When Zuo Liangyu said this, he was already thinking about where to send troops to fill the vacancy in Jiezhou's front line.

Even if it is too far away and the pressure on the same line is great, it is impossible for him to really give up on Jiezhou and let the Chu thief come from this direction.

The two sides of the Fen River behind Jiezhou are vast plains. This kind of plain is not only convenient for military operations, but more importantly, this place is an important grain-producing area in the mountainous area.

In Shanxi under the control of Zuo Liangyu, the main grain-producing areas are the Fenhe Plain and the Taiyuan Plain. Other places are not as good, especially Datong in the north is directly located in the war zone, and it is difficult to cultivate grain.

Therefore, when necessary, he would rather give up Datong than give up the plains along the Fen River.

Finally, it is very important to ensure that the banks of the Fen River are not lost. Then if he loses in Datong or even Taiyuan, he can retreat to Pingyang Mansion along the Fen River.

When necessary, it can even directly cross the Yellow River and retreat to the Guanzhong area of ​​​​Shaanxi.

If the Chu thieves have all come to Guanzhong by then, there is no other way but to retreat to the Loess Plateau, but at that time, I am afraid that life will be very difficult.

-

After the No.17 Division of the Great Chu Empire conquered Jinzhou City in Hanzhong Prefecture and annihilated nearly [-] soldiers of the Western Ming Army, this battle also caused a violent chain reaction, forcing Sun Chuanting and Zuo Liangyu to fight against each other. Troops were mobilized to ease the difficulty of attack on some frontal fronts.

And this is also the reason why the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire did not launch an attack first in Tongguan, nor in Shanxi, but in Hanzhong Mansion first, in order to be able to contain more of the enemy's troops and prepare for the subsequent storming of Tongguan and Taiyuan. Etc. lower the difficulty.

At the same time, there is another purpose, which is to capture Hanzhong Prefecture first and cut off the communication channels between the Guanzhong area of ​​​​Shaanxi and the Sichuan area before launching the entire Western Front offensive.

The Guanzhong area is the best land channel between the Guanzhong area of ​​Shaanxi and the Sichuan Basin, and it can also be said to be a springboard.

As long as the Chu army can capture this place, the Ximing Longxing regime can be divided into two, and Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi can be separated.

Therefore, after taking Jinzhou City, the No.17 Division did not stay in Jinzhou City. An infantry regiment and cavalry that participated in the battle rushed to Hanyin.

And Huang Guangmao himself, also on the 17th, simply finished handling the military affairs in Jinzhou City, arranged for the handling of prisoners of war and the handover of defense, and continued to lead the main force of the No.[-] Division to continue westward along the Han River and head straight for Ziyang away from the county.

The above two places were used as the rear of the Ming army before, and there were not many troops stationed there. If there were no major changes, it would be impossible to stop the attack of the Chu army.

And the fact is true, just three days later, Hanyin fell into the control of the Chu army, and more than a thousand local guards and young and strong troops in the city, only made a symbolic resistance, and quickly returned to the local area. Under the leadership of the county magistrate, he surrendered.

There were no accidents in Ziyang County. Huang Guangmao personally led an army of tens of thousands along the Hanshui River, and there were many inland river warships of the navy to cooperate in the battle. It was not difficult to take down a small county with only a few hundred troops garrisoned. .

When Huang Guangmao personally led the No.17 Division to attack all the way west, the 110th Fifth Division in the rear also took over the defense of Jinzhou City one after another, and sent troops to Hanyang and Ziyang County to take over the local defense.

The task of this second-class division is not light. They need to follow the tradition of the Great Chu Empire to carry out operations to wipe out the local remnants, recalcitrant gentry, and other illegal armed forces.

Considering that the strength of the 110th Fifth Division is only more than 7000 people, the strength is insufficient, and it also lacks the ability to quickly maneuver. In addition, a group of new Qin troops were also accepted during the Battle of Jinzhou.

Therefore, the officials of the military and political department in the direction of Shaanxi set up the 120th First Division in Jinzhou in accordance with the instructions before the war. established by soldiers.

As for the lack of a regiment of the 110th Fifth Division, it will be supplemented in the follow-up.

With these two second-class divisions carrying out operations to suppress and suppress the area and defend the logistics line, the No. 17 Division, the main force, can safely rush all the way west.

The goal is directed at the Hanzhong Prefecture Plain, and its first goal is the east gate of the Hanzhong Plain: Yang County.

Obviously, the Ximing army on the opposite side also knew the importance of the Hanzhong Plain. After learning that the Jinzhou City in the east had fallen, the local troops of Hanzhong Prefecture gathered one after another and concentrated on the front line of Yangxian County, trying to take Chu The army blocked it.

The reason why it is here is not only because Yang County is the easternmost part of the Hanzhong Plain, but also because the Han River flows here...

As we all know, the main force of the Chu army relies heavily on artillery and luggage, and it is fine in plain areas. It can also use horse-drawn carriages and numerous official roads to pull artillery and luggage carriages around, but once it reaches areas with complex terrain , especially in mountainous areas, military operations are basically launched along rivers.

The Chu army would rather go all the way along the river and attack the cities one by one, rather than go over the mountains to climb the mountains...

The main reason is that the artillery is too heavy!

Even if it is a lightweight designed Chu army field gun, the weight of a nine-pound field gun in a row, that is, the weight in the marching state is nearly two tons... Even if the ammunition boxes are transported separately, it is just one artillery plus a leading vehicle Also more than a ton.

On weekdays, marching on the formed road requires more than a dozen horses to walk, and when encountering some uphill roads, soldiers have to help push it.

Even if it is a lighter five-pound field gun, the weight of its ranks has reached a little over a ton, not counting the ammunition box, so it would be eight or nine hundred kilograms.

Pulling a one-ton or even two-ton artillery to climb a mountain, and when this kind of mountain has not yet been paved with roads, it is purely a brain burnt out.

This is also the reason why the No. 17 Division and many troops fighting in the mountains are not equipped with many nine-pound field artillery, even if there are relatively few five-pound field artillery, and more of them are two-and-a-half-pound field artillery.

At present, the No. 17 Division's divisional artillery regiment has sixteen five-pound field guns, but only four nine-pound field guns.

There are quite a lot of two-and-a-half-pound field guns, a total of 500. The weight of the entire battery of this two-and-a-half-pound field gun is only more than 350 kg, and for the sake of mobility, the Chu army often puts the leading vehicle and the gun carriage together. Separated and pulled away, the weight of the march can be reduced to about [-] kg. In such a plain terrain, one horse can be pulled. If it is a mountainous terrain, then two horses can also pull the gun barrel and gun mount. .

However, even these relatively light two-and-a-half-pound field artillery can weigh hundreds of kilograms at every turn, and it is very difficult to cross mountains and ridges, especially where there is no road.

This also caused the Chu army to like to walk along the river when they marched and fought.

As long as there is a river, even if it is upstream, you can build a flat-bottomed boat to transport artillery and a large amount of ammunition, even if you use a rope to pull it along the shore, it is much easier than crossing mountains and ridges.

For these, the Ming army, who had fought against the Chu army for many years, was naturally clear, so when they heard that the Chu army was coming, their first reaction was to build a new line of defense in Yangxian County, east of the Hanzhong Plain, where the Han River passed.

In order to keep the Chu army out of the Hanzhong Plain, the local civil and military officials in the Hanzhong Prefecture mobilized almost all the troops they could mobilize.

To put it bluntly, they gathered more than 1 people.

But among the more than 1 people, only more than 5000 are truly soldiers...

Among them, there are about 3000 New Qin soldiers and more than [-] guard soldiers. As for the remaining few thousand people, they are all young and strong farmers recruited urgently.

And can such a force stop the fierce attacking Chu army?
Don't talk about others, the local Ming army doesn't even believe it...

Ever since, while they kept sending people to the north to urge Sun Chuanting's reinforcements to go south quickly, they kept sending people to the south to urge the reinforcements from Sichuan to go north quickly.

Although the envoys sent by the local officials were euphemistic, they all had the same meaning: Don't blame me for not reminding you, if you don't hurry up, my master will surrender!

(End of this chapter)