The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 68 Plan
Since ancient times, siege warfare has been extremely difficult, and the defenders have a great advantage, often winning more with less.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" says:
"Therefore, the first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the soldiers, and the second is to attack the city."

"The method of attacking the city is a last resort. Repair the sculls, equip the equipment, and finish it in three months."

"It's only three months away from the mound. If you can't bear the anger, the ants will attach to it, kill one third of the soldiers, and the city will not be pulled out. This attack will be a disaster."

It is difficult to siege a city with sufficient siege equipment, let alone a simple ladder.

It is undoubtedly a dream to rely on such a simple ladder to rely on those hungry soldiers who cannot eat enough.

Even if Li Zicheng invested in elite horse troops and fine cavalry, it would be difficult to capture Chunhua.

It is also impossible to bypass Chunhua, because Chunhua stands on the road to the Guanzhong Plain.

If they made a detour, Chunhua City only needed to dispatch cavalry to attack halfway through the march, and more than a hundred thousand people could collapse.

As long as they hold out for seven days, armaments and reinforcements will arrive from Xi'an Mansion, and the siege of Chunhua will naturally be resolved.

Although there are tens of thousands of rogue bandits, it sounds like they are powerful and have an advantage.

But the lack of soldiers lies in the fineness. Li Zicheng's fine cavalry and cavalry troops are not many. Although he has the equipment of the Liao soldiers, some gaps cannot be narrowed by relying on equipment.

Chunhua City has a favorable location, there are more than [-] Liao cavalry, plus more than [-] infantry who rushed to follow up, plus the guards and young men defending the city, it is really outrageous that they can't hold it for seven days.

When He Renlong was besieged in Longzhou City, it was Li Zicheng who led the army.

Li Zicheng continued to attack for two months, but in the end he still failed to break through the city.

The reinforcements promised by Hong Chengchou will definitely come.

Now Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong gathered at the junction of Fengxiang Mansion and Xi'an Mansion. The total strength of the two armies has reached about 25.

This is already an extremely terrifying scale. After entering the Guanzhong Plain, the Ming army had no danger to rely on except for the city.

There are many rogue cavalry, once entering the Guanzhong Plain, it is like a bird flying into the blue sky and a fish entering the sea.

Even counting Cao Wenzhao, there are only more than [-] people at full count.

Ten thousand to 25, one to 25, is already a very disparate number.

Li Zicheng and Hui Dengxiang originally had 7 to [-] people, but now they have broken through Sanshui and engulfed more people, and the North Road Rogue has exceeded the [-] mark.

Send a division of two to 3000 people. If Chunhua can be defended, then there is no reason to put the rogues on the North Road into the Guanzhong Plain.

The reinforcements Hong Chengchou promised were actually the remnants of the battalion under Tian Yinglong's command. After the integration, there were about a thousand people left, and the rest were transferred to other battalions.

This integrated remnant battalion is now under the command of deputy general Liu Chenggong, rushing all the way north.

Cao Wenzhao led his army to Xingping and Hong Chengchou in the south to reconcile. Xingping was the main battlefield that really decided the victory of Guanzhong.

It's easy to keep Chunhua, but what Chen Wang thinks is far more than just keeping Chunhua.

Now he needs a big victory, in exchange for military exploits, to establish his current status.

It is difficult to get promoted, but it is not difficult to get promoted.

Battalion posts can be promoted as long as they have enough military merits, and the governor has this power to control the battalion officers and generals.

It's a bit difficult to be a general, lieutenant general, etc., but it's easy to push a general and guerrilla up.

Official ranks are different, they must first be reported to the Ministry of War, etc., and then rewarded for meritorious deeds.

But Chen Wang didn't care about the grade.

It is true to have soldiers in your hands.

In troubled times, winds and clouds rise everywhere, and there are soldiers who are the grass head king.

What official titles, what conferring a wife and son, are all false.

Daming is already full of holes and wounds, and the roots are already rotten.

All the things and glory obtained will perish with the collapse of the Ming Court.

"The History of Southern Ming Dynasty" can even be read by people who are directly angry, it is simply an absurd history.

To guard Chunhua, Hong Chengchou gave him a mediocre evaluation at most, acquiescing to his status as a battalion general, and there may only be more than [-] soldiers when the time comes.

But this is far from enough, he needs more soldiers and more power.

As a battalion soldier, they have very little autonomy, unlike the guards who have a fixed station, can farm for development, and even have craftsmen who make ordnance.

Once the battalion soldiers receive the military order, they must obey the dispatch and set out on the road

Many battalion generals of the Ming army were constantly mobilized inside and outside the pass, exhausted.

Even if he is as arrogant as Zuo Liangyu, at the beginning, at most, he only delays for a little time, and dare not really refuse to obey orders.

As a battalion soldier, it is almost impossible to search for a place to develop now.

Moreover, during the reign of Chongzhen, there were very few places where you could farm with peace of mind.

In the early years of Chongzhen, the drought was only limited to Shaanxi, the number of people affected was not large, the food income was severely reduced, and people and animals were famined, which set off the prelude to the civil uprising.

But as time went by, the drought continued to spread and expand from north to south.

From Shaanxi to Shanxi, then to Beizhili, then to Henan, and then to Huguang and other places.

By the 13th year of Ming Chongzhen, the precipitation had even been less than half of previous years.

The price per stone of rice even rose to five taels.

Large tracts of farmland were devastated, the seedlings withered, and the crops failed.

The Fen River, Zhang River and other rivers in Shanxi have all dried up, the nine rivers in Hebei have dried up, and the Baiyang Lake has dried up, making the civil uprising more violent.

Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other places were not only hit by drought, but also suffered from locust plagues and more serious plagues.

An official in Henan said: "The severe drought spread across the whole province, the grasses were all withered, the water in Luo was not enough to fill a foot, the vegetation, animal skins, insects and flies were eaten up, many people died of hunger, and the land was devastated."

The famine in Shaanxi was even worse. The records said: "In the rice market, the wood skin and stone noodles were exhausted. The father and son couples ate each other, and nine out of ten died."

Nanzhili, Jiangnan, Shandong and other places are too far away, and they can't go there at all.

There are only two places where we can go in the future that are not seriously affected by the disaster.

One is Sichuan, and the other is Huguang.

There are not many paths Chen Wang can take, and there are only a few people in front of him, and many of them are dead ends.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was not easy to be a loyal minister. Those who were loyal to the court, and listened to the tune and the propaganda, the examples of Ai Wannian, Cao Wenzhao, Lu Xiangsheng and others are right in front of us.

They all say that they did evil in the previous life, and they are attached to the body in this life.

Then most of those who served as soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty were full of evil in their previous lives.

In fact, there is only one path left for Chen Wang to walk—to follow the path that Zuo Liangyu walked in history.

The shadow of Zuo Liangyu flashed in Chen Wang's mind.

But Zuo Liangyu was the best group of generals in the late Ming Dynasty.

He was not beheaded by the Qing army because he was exhausted, he was not killed in battle because of the governor's mental retardation, and he was not beheaded by civil servants casually.

Of course, one cannot completely imitate Zuo Liangyu, then this is also a dead end.

In the late period, Zuo Liangyu was actually carried forward by the generals under his command. At that time, he had no way to control such a huge army.

It is already August, and the imperial edict of the Ming court has been issued.

Lu Xiangsheng was appointed as the prime minister of the five provinces, and he was in charge of the military affairs of the five provinces of Nanzhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang.

Hong Chengchou was in charge of encircling and suppressing the rogues in Shanxi and Shaanxi in the northwest, and Lu Xiangsheng was in charge of encircling and suppressing the rogues in the southeast.

The main body of the soldiers led by Chen Wang is still the Liao soldiers, and the formation is also the formation of the Liao Town. At that time, there is a high probability that he will follow Lu Xiangsheng to Henan...

(End of this chapter)