national surname chiming

Chapter 103
After all, the speed of army mobilization is much slower than that of the fast horse messenger.

So after hearing the news of Lin Chengcheng's entry into the bandits, as long as Shen Shuren can immediately judge that the bandit is only here to contain his own forces and not the main direction of attack, and then immediately make countermeasures, it will definitely be in time.

The day I got the news was April [-]th.Considering that the absolute speed of the retrograde boat was not as good as riding a horse, Shen Shuren chose to take dozens of personal guards and ride along the river on horseback.At night, when people are tired and horses are exhausted, they will take a boat relay and sleep on the boat.

After traveling day and night like this, I rushed back to Huanggang County, more than 200 miles away, in the evening of the second day.

Shen Shuren urgently gave Zuo Zixiong some orders, and gave him one night to organize his troops and make preparations. He set off the next day, sailed against the current, and rushed to Xiaogan County in Suizhou.Some other generals are also on the list.

And Shen Lian's garrison battalion of 2000 people was also transferred to Huangmei County at the same time, and he and Zheng Chenggong worked together to grow up.

After Zuo Zixiong learned that He Jin might enter Xiaogan County, he was also a little anxious along the way, and wanted to urge the troops to march several times.

It is also nearly [-] miles from Huanggang to Xiaogan. If it takes four days to march by land normally, it will take more than two days to march by force or by water.

In ancient times, when marching with infantry and luggage, it was considered qualified to walk fifty miles a day (if it is a yellow robe and a body that does not work hard, it can only walk forty miles. If it is less, the acting skills will be too fake. It is forty miles from Chen Qiaoyi to Kaifeng) If you march without luggage, you can walk nearly a hundred miles.

At this time, it was Shen Shuren who was calmer, so that Zuo Zixiong didn't have to worry too much, there must be time:

"He Jin won't come too soon, he will definitely wait a few days after Lin Chengcheng's invasion, and then he will make a move in Suizhou, so as to give us time to divide our troops to the east.

Otherwise, I haven't divided my troops yet, and he will collide with my main force as soon as he arrives, and the two sides will directly clash. Wouldn't it be a good opportunity for Lin Chengcheng to take advantage of the emptiness behind me?

Among the bandit battalions, they were very picky about who picked the peaches and who fought tough battles, even more so than the officers and soldiers—if the officers and soldiers were defeated, except for the servants, the rest of the losses were at least the imperial troops. It doesn't hurt to sell your father's land.Every soldier of the thief is his own. "

Shen Shuren's analysis of these words was extremely incisive, which immediately reassured Zuo Zixiong, and the accompanying Yan Yingyuan and others were also full of admiration, feeling that Master Daotai's attitude towards thieves is really accurate.Everyone's morale and confidence have also risen to a higher level.

Shen Shuren was secretly proud: the generals of the army and the king of thieves, the degree to which these two treat capital is basically equivalent to the difference between the executives of state-owned enterprises and the bosses of private enterprises in later generations.

……

On the evening of April [-], the Ming army, which had traveled for three full days, arrived in Xiaogan County smoothly, and the morale and physical strength of the troops were also maintained quite well.

When they arrived at the county seat, Zhang Mingzhen, who had already been stationed here before, got the news in advance, and naturally led his army out of the city to greet him until he arrived at the mouth of the Sheshui River—Xiaogan is located along the bank of the Sheshui River. After leaving the county seat, he walked down the river for twenty miles , you can reach the estuary where the Shi River flows into the Han River.

In the Dabie Mountains, many counties are distributed in this way. The small rivers flowing out of the Dabie Mountains prop up a relatively fertile valley farming area to form the county.

It is impossible for the enemy to come from the upper reaches of the river, because the river will stop flowing if you go upstream for more than a hundred miles, and there will be lofty mountains to the north.Even if you climb over the mountain, you won't be able to bring any weapons, equipment and supplies, and it is even more impossible to attack the city. As long as the city gate is closed and guarded for a period of time, the enemy will starve to death by itself.

Therefore, the main threat to Xiaogan still comes from the banks of the Han River.

The enemy will march from Suizhou County, Anlu County and other places that are still occupied by the enemy, march along the water flowing through these two counties, reach the river mouth where the water flows into the Han River, and then march along the Han River to the mouth of the Shishui River , Go upstream along the Shi River to attack Xiaogan.

Zhang Mingzhen is also well aware of this situation, so he only left a few hundred elite soldiers to guard Xiaogan County, and then organized civilian husbands to strengthen patrols in the near future, ready to assist in defending the city at any time.And the main soldiers can be transferred out, and go out to the mouth of the Shishui River to join forces with the soldiers.

"Is there any news about He Jin's bandit army?" After Shen Shuren joined him, he simply washed his face and hurriedly asked about the military situation.

This is Zhang Mingzhen's first opportunity to perform. It seems that he is quite well prepared. He immediately reported in detail:

"My lord Daotai has a fortune teller. Sure enough, today during the day, we detected a thief boat appearing on the Hanshui River at the mouth of the river. The boats are very small. They must have come from the upper reaches of the water. When they arrived here, they landed here and camped at the mouth of the river. .

It seems that they are preparing to fight steadily and march overland for the last leg.The final general thought that it must be because your lord killed Liu Xiyao last year, which made them realize that your lord's naval warships are powerful, so they didn't dare to march by water to save effort. "

Shen Shuren nodded: "That's right, as expected of a general who has dealt with pirates for many years, his dispatch is very meticulous. Did you find out how many enemy troops there are?"

This question is a bit embarrassing, and Zhang Mingzhen can't investigate in depth, so he can only reply based on the rough information he got from afar:
"Reporting to Daotai, the scouts took a rough look at the scale of the new camps set up by the bandit army. They divided them into five or six camps. In total, they might be able to station 4 or [-] people, but the general didn't know if this was a bluff.

According to the previous understanding of the enemy's situation, the total number of Gezuo Fifth Battalion is about [-], of which He Jin's troops are no more than [-], and most of them are old and weak. The number of elite soldiers does not exceed seven to eight thousand.Now that such a large camp has been established all of a sudden, it is really puzzling.

Therefore, before your lord came, the last general used this to share with the soldiers, telling them that this was the enemy's bluff in order to stabilize the morale of the army. Currently, the morale is still high, and no one doubts it. "

"There is actually a camp that can accommodate 4 to [-] people?" Shen Shuren was quite surprised when he heard the latest information.

Bluffing is common, but bluffing so fake seems so unusual.

He pondered for a moment, then sighed: "The art of war is false, but it is false. It should not be as simple as bluffing, there must be something hidden. Forget it, be careful tonight, and send troops tomorrow to find out the truth."

……

In addition to leaving 2000 people in the eastern part of Huangzhou to guard Lin Chengren, Shen Shuren also left hundreds of people in each of the key points to either guard the city or monitor the dangerous passes over the Dabie Mountains. There are about a thousand people in total.

Therefore, the Xiaogan Battalion could at best gather [-] troops.

If you want to increase the number of people, you have to recruit more strong men, or further adapt the old and weak thieves who were assigned to farm after the captives returned.These cannot be resolved overnight.

Huangzhou Prefecture has a total population of 10,000+, and it is already very tight to support [-] regular army soldiers.

After all, according to this ratio, less than 300 people can support a soldier, and the 200 million people in the Ming Dynasty cannot support more than [-] million troops.At the peak of the Ming Dynasty, it could barely support [-] million men from military households, and not all of them were regular soldiers.

In the early morning of this day, Shen Shuren planned to send out his own cavalry unit, led by Zuo Zixiong, to investigate carefully in the direction of Shuihekou upstream.

Shen Shuren didn't have many cavalry, and the south didn't produce horses, and the court had never given Shen Shuren war horses before, so before beating Liu Xiyao last year, there were only 300 horsemen, some of whom were officers.

After killing Liu Xiyao, he managed to recruit hundreds of uninjured horses, so that Shen Shuren could not only ride all the officers above the general level on horses, but also gather 500 cavalry troops.

Unexpectedly, the enemy also wanted to be with him.Not long after Shen Shuren's [-] cavalry went out on patrol, the bandit army also came out of the camp and marched steadily southward, marching toward each other.

The two places are only separated by forty or fifty miles, and they will meet each other soon if they walk towards each other.Fortunately, the generals of the Ming army under Shen Shuren all had binoculars, and they could see it from a distance of nearly twenty miles.

The overwhelming number of enemy troops cannot be faked, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of them.After seeing the truth, everyone's expressions changed a little.

"Go back to the camp first! Stick to it!" Shen Shuren is not stupid, a hero does not suffer from immediate disadvantages, he immediately flashes away after the investigation is confirmed, Zuo Zixiong protects him personally, and rides his horse around him all the time.

After a while, the bandit army also discovered the provocative Ming army, and immediately dispatched a cavalry unit to pursue them. Fortunately, the Ming army began to turn their horses around more than a dozen miles in advance, and they could not catch up when they returned to the camp.

The vanguard of the bandit cavalry didn't know how to live or die. Seeing that the Ming army was in disarray, they wanted to take advantage of the situation to hide and kill them, and followed them into the camp.

Fortunately, Zhang Mingzhen, who was staying behind, had been guarding the barracks all the time, with strict military discipline. When he saw the smoke and dust rising in front of him, he ordered all the firecrackers to go up to the wooden fence on the earth wall, and the crossbowmen were also ready for battle.

Shen Jiajun's firearm discipline training in the past few months has shown its value at this moment. The officer will never take the gun without being asked to take it first. After all the friendly troops have entered the camp safely, the enemy cavalry rushed to the front before firing according to the order.

After a few rounds of platooning, the bandit cavalry barely stopped, leaving behind dozens of corpses and retreated immediately—although there were tens of thousands of bandits, the cavalry only accounted for a few thousand, and it was impossible to rely on cavalry to attack the camp, so there was no need to sacrifice in vain.

After the tense confrontation between the two sides for half an hour, the main forces of the rear thieves arrived one after another, and the banners were all displayed with the word "he", which made it difficult for people to understand.

After Shen Shuren watched for a while, he noticed a detail.He hurriedly pulled Zuo Zixiong and Zhang Mingzhen over, and asked: "Look, the colors of these congratulatory flags seem to be different. Some are pure white, and some are light khaki with a little burlap. Moreover, this is just right. They are two colors, could it be..."

After Zhang Mingzhen heard this, he was still a little unclear.

Zuo Zixiong, however, has been in Huangzhou for a full year and has a better understanding of the enemy's situation, so he immediately understood what Shen Shuren meant:
"Master Daotai means that there may be more than Zuojin King He Jin's troops here? There are also Ge ​​Liyan He Yilong's troops stationed in Xinyang Mansion, Henan Province? Erhe joined forces to attack?"

When these words came out, the faces of all the generals changed slightly. If this is the case, the disparity between the enemy and ourselves will be a bit big.

The enemy on the opposite side did not give Shen Shuren much time to reflect.After a while, among the thousands of troops on the opposite side, two corridors were opened like waves, and two powerful generals in cloaks came out more and more, and they were more than one mile away from the Ming army camp. The scolding players came out to spread the word.

"Ge Liyan and King Zuojin combined a hundred thousand troops to this point! The dog officer surrendered quickly, and he would not be killed! Soldiers on the opposite side, don't give your life to the dog officer of Chongzhen's foolish emperor!"

Hearing the words, Shen Shuren finally paid more attention to it, and was also a little unwilling: Why don't you play cards according to the routine?Shouldn't you give me some more time to fight monsters and level up, and then you will send them up in batches one by one?Why did they join forces all of a sudden!There is also Lin Chengcheng who is restrained from the rear!It's like all three are on the same page!
What are the Ming troops in other directions doing?How can we let our Huangzhou prefecture carry so many enemies?
(End of this chapter)