I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 250 A battle to set the world
The first year of Yongzheng.

May.

The armies going south gradually gathered in Xuzhou City.

Although it was only May, Yongzheng could no longer wait.

It should be said that it is not that he cannot wait, but that the situation in the south cannot wait.The previous imperial edict urging Longkodo to send troops has been issued, so Huguang must have already sent troops.

If the north continues to stand still, I am afraid that Longkoduo's troops will be unable to support themselves.

Yongzheng just wanted to use Longkodo as a stepping stone to weaken his strength, but he didn't really want him to be defeated and leave.

However, this food is not completely in place yet.The army currently assembled in Xuzhou is just the vanguard force. The main force is the 3 Northwest Eight Banners and Green Camp, plus more than [-] Shengjing Sauron soldiers.

Counting the thousands of Cao troops gathered and trained by Zhang Wenhuan of Xuzhou, there were already [-] troops gathered in Xuzhou, and they were all true masters of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty system.

Zhang Wenhuan has also received an imperial edict from Emperor Yongzheng, ordering him to go south to take command of the expedition, with Jueluo Manbao only as his deputy.And he hasn't arrived in Xuzhou yet, and he is still in charge of grain supervision in Zhili.

I have to say that Yongzheng was indeed courageous.Since the imperial edict was issued to make Zhang Wenhuan the commander-in-chief, it was natural that he should be given sufficient military command authority.

Yongzheng was even more blunt in his imperial edict: "Zhang Qing, just let go and do what you want. I will never say a word, and you don't need to worry about the logistics and food."

In history, although Yongzheng's military ability was not high, he at least knew people well and made good use of them (self-knowledge).

During the Qinghai rebellion, Yongzheng delegated full power to Nian Gengyao. All the memorials to impeach Nian Gengyao were left unpublished, and he even wrote more letters to comfort him.

Although Zhang Wenhuan is not well-known, you only need to remember that this man was the only person in the early Qing Dynasty who came from a pure military general and became the governor of a place by virtue of his military exploits. He stayed there for ten years.

Yue Zhongqi and Nian Gengyao were both Jinshi scholars. They also served as civil servants for several years before switching to military positions concurrently.For example, the current Minister of War (Manchu), Zha Bina, also died as a military general in the local war with Junggar.

……

Xuzhou Daying.

Zhang Wenhuan was convening the generals to discuss matters, and he also arranged for the generals of each department to be familiar with each other, so as to avoid the situation of not recognizing friendly forces before the battle, or having ineffective command.

These northwest green camps were relatively polite to Zhang Wenhuan. After all, they were all from the same hometown, and the Eight Banners of Manchuria also gave him face and did not deliberately contradict Zhang Wenhuan.

Only the Sauron soldiers were very troublesome, including this meeting, and the generals of the Sauron soldiers completely ignored the commander Zhang Wenhuan.

Cao Di, the commander-in-chief of the Northwest Green Battalion, was the first to speak: "Commander, I think our army can take the water route this time, go south through the canal, and attack Huai'an first."

"The last general heard that the general who commanded the troops of the Puppet Ming Dynasty in Huai'an was just Yu Kecheng, the commander of the Seventh Army. This person was unknown in the Puppet Ming Army. He only came to prominence in the battle of Huaiyang last year, and he had nothing to do with it. People’s achievements.”

"Our [-]-strong army marches south, and we will surely capture Huai'an easily."

As soon as Cao Di finished speaking, all the generals present nodded in agreement.

To this day, the Qing court no longer knows anything about the military system in the Ming Dynasty.First of all, regarding the military system, the Qing court already knew that the highest military unit of the Ming army was called the army, and the general who commanded the troops was called the army commander, which seemed to agree with the general.

Moreover, the later the army number is, the later it was built, which means the lower the combat effectiveness.

How many troops are there in the Puppet Ming side? Currently, the Qing court has no exact information.

However, from historical wars, we can also estimate that there should be no more than ten armies, which is 30 soldiers.

Therefore, Cao Di's words are indeed no problem in theory. With the elite level of the Northwest Army, it is naturally easy to defeat the weak brigade of the rebels.

"..."

Zhang Wenhuan, however, looked at the map and was silent for a moment, then suddenly shook his head and said, "No, we are not going to attack Huai'an, we are going to attack here."

As he spoke, he reached out and pointed at a point on the map.

Fengyang!

All the generals present were in a daze, and Cao Di even wanted to ask questions.

Zhang Wenhuan continued: "Huai'an Prefecture looks easy to fight, but in fact it is a trap to lure us into it. To conquer this place, although we can quickly advance troops by water, we can also quickly transport food through canals."

"But don't forget, the navy of the Puppet Ming Dynasty is still on the Huai River. Huai'an is such an important place, how could the Puppet Ming Dynasty not deploy heavy troops here?"

"At that time, I'm afraid that as soon as I cross the river with my front legs, the Pseudo Mingshui Masters with my back legs will completely block our retreat. That would be like beating a dog with a door closed, and I won't be able to leave even if I want to!"

"It doesn't matter if we are defeated, but if the emperor's plan is ruined, then we will be blamed even if we die!" After Zhang Wenhuan's words came out, all the generals suddenly understood, as if the clouds were clearing and the sun appeared.

Indeed, Huai'an is such an important place, how could the Puppet Ming be able to place a weak brigade here alone, and the Puppet Ming navy is still on the Huai River.

Whenever they dared to cross the river, they were afraid that the hypocritical navy would cut off their food route and retreat.

Once the escape route is cut off, it will really become a dumpling, wrapped in it and beaten.

'As expected of a veteran who can be a governor, he does have some abilities. '

Cao Di asked: "But, Marshal, why did you change the route to Fengyang?"

To attack Huainan, from a strategic point of view, we should first capture Shouzhou, then go all the way south to capture Luzhou and connect the entire front.

Just like the battle between Zhang Babai and Sun Shiwan in the Three Kingdoms.

Zhang Wenhuan gently stroked his beard and said coldly: "Because what we are fighting is false evidence!"

"False evidence?"

The generals were stunned for a moment, and then reacted instantly.

Fengyang Mansion was the former Central Capital of the Ming Dynasty and the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang. It is also the location of the Zhu family's imperial mausoleum (not Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum, but the Zhu family's imperial mausoleum).

Since these counterfeit Ming rebels are called descendants of the former Ming Dynasty, Fengyang must not lose anything no matter what.

Otherwise, this person's heart will be scattered.

Zhang Wenhuan planned to make a ruthless attack and directly attack Fengyang, thereby forcing the main force of the Ming army in Huainan to fight a decisive battle with him.

He knew that the Huainan Ming Army was the most elite first army of the Ming Army, and the general in charge was also the first general of the pseudo-Ming Dynasty, Yang Gong.

In the past few months since Zhang Wenhuan returned to lead the army to suppress bandits, he did not concentrate on fighting, but also got to know the place.

The more I looked, the more shocked.

The north of the Qing Dynasty is already rotten!

Even if the emperor is exhausted, if ordinary tactics are used, the Qing Dynasty will definitely not be able to support it first.Moreover, the successive defeats had already made the Qing Dynasty uneasy and a war must be launched.

Zhang Wenhuan said leisurely: "The first battle is the decisive battle, and the outcome will be decided in one battle."

After hearing this, Cao Di and other generals did not ask any more questions, and then followed Zhang Wenhuan's arrangement and discussed the specific details around the map.

As the saying goes, before soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first.

Since waterways are not available, a large number of civilians need to be recruited to transport grain, grass and baggage.

At the same time, there is also a specific time for entering the army and a battle plan, including who will be the vanguard.

Cao Di was the first to ask for orders: "Commander, I am willing to be the vanguard of the army and cross the river to capture this city for the commander!"

"Commander, the last general is also willing to be the vanguard of the army!"

"Commander, let's ask General Mo to go! General Mo is a local and is more familiar with us than others."

"..."

A group of generals were chattering and making a fuss, and even Zhang Wenhuan's "direct line" Cao army members came out to join in the fun.

Although forwards carry higher risks, they also have greater chances of making meritorious deeds.

Qing soldiers in other places may be afraid of the Ming army's reputation, but these northwest frontier troops and Sauron soldiers are not.

For them, no matter how powerful these rebels are, can they be as powerful as the Junggar army?
They can even conquer Junggar and shrink into Xinjiang, but they are still afraid of rebellion in this area.

In the end, after discussing this battle for two hours, Cao Di got what he wanted and grabbed the vanguard.

The group of people didn't even have lunch, so they finally reached an agreement on the matter, and then wrote a note to report to the emperor.

Cao Di and other generals retreated and deployed their troops.

(End of this chapter)