Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 295
(PS: Alas, there are so many trivial matters, and I have to go out again soon, so today's word count is a little less, please forgive me.)
Young Master Zhang believed that it was impossible for the army of rebels to walk out of the Qinling Mountains within nine days, and he was fully sure of this, but in fact, Young Master Zhang still greatly overestimated the mobility and decisiveness of the army of rebels. During the nine days that the slaughtering slave army passed through the Meridian Valley, the bandit army still hadn't made a decision. Should they go north and west into the hinterland of Shaanxi-Gansu, or should they go through the Qinling Mountains and enter the Sichuan Basin or Hanzhong Basin?The reason for this situation is the serious strategic differences between Gao Yingxiang and Luo Rucai.

For Young Master Zhang, the most frightening situation is that the army of rebels will desperately enter the hinterland of Shaanxi and Gansu, because although Young Master Zhang has set up a huge encirclement to attack the rebels from east, west and north, the battle line is too long and it is impossible to cover everything. If the rebels go north and west with all their strength, then the possibility of successfully breaking through is very high. Not to mention, the famine-severe states and governments in the hinterland of Shaanxi can also provide sufficient supplies and mass base for the rebel army, which is extremely unfavorable to Mr. Zhang The anti-insurgency plan of Fu after the suppression; but the rebels are different. Sichuan and Hanzhong are relatively rich, and the famine must not be considered serious. After the Anshe Rebellion, the experienced Sichuan army is enough to form a combat advantage over the rebel army!

Historically, the reason why Zhang Xianzhong was able to enter Sichuan 16 years later was based on the premise that the Chongzhen government imposed violent taxes on the poor, the government and the army lost their popular support, and the Sichuan army was exhausted in more than ten years of war against bandits. thing.However, under the influence of young master Zhang, a big moth flapping its wings wildly, Wei Zhongxian, who has lived for nearly two years, still focuses on the taxation of the Ming Dynasty government, gentry and wealthy businessmen, and the burden on the poor is relatively light. The officers and soldiers have a certain foundation of popular support. At the same time, the main force of the Sichuan officers and soldiers who put down the Anshe Rebellion is still quite well preserved, enough to compete head-on with the main force of the rebels. Weaker, under the influence of one another, of course Young Master Zhang dared to introduce the rebels into the Qinling Mountains, and then concentrate the main force of the official army in Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan to wipe them out!

Young master Zhang understands this truth, but the leaders of the rebels don’t understand it very well. Gao Yingxiang and Luo Rucai understand it better, but they don’t understand it very deeply. Fan Wencheng, who is a slave to watch the fire from the other side, understands it very well, so Fan Wencheng firmly opposes the southward movement of the rebel army, and successfully persuaded Luo Ru to adopt his own strategy-but in this way, the southward and northward factions in the rebellious army also There should be no conflicts, and then you will not be resolute when you go north and south, and you will waste precious time and lose the last chance to break through...

"King Chuang, King Chuang, something is wrong—!" At noon on the tenth day of March, when the slave slaughter army led by Young Master Zhang was about to walk out of the Meridian Valley, the first death knell for the complete destruction of the main force of the rebels finally sounded. Ma Guangyu, the right-hand man Gao Yingxiang sent to scout the enemy's situation, flew back to Dasan Pass, rushed to Gao Yingxiang who was discussing the military situation with Luo Rucai and other bandit leaders in Guanzhong, and cried out in tears: "King Chuang, we sent to the west to scout roads and contact The brothers of the other brothers came back. For some reason, an army of dog officers suddenly appeared on the official road south of Fangshanyuan in Tianshui, all of them were cavalry, and their fighting power was terrifying. They killed only two brothers and escaped alive!"

"How is it possible? There are so many officers, soldiers and cavalry from Gongchang?" Gao Yingxiang was taken aback, jumped up and shouted: "Is it the dog officer's army? How many people are there?"

"I don't know. The brothers who escaped were illiterate, didn't know the banners of the officers and soldiers, and didn't have time to scout the number of officers and soldiers." Ma Guangyu replied with a mournful face, wiping away his sweat.Gao Yingxiang yelled at the soldiers for their incompetence, while Luo Rucai and Fan Wencheng jumped up and rushed to the map sand table marked with countless two-color flags to check the situation. After inserting a small red flag representing officers and soldiers on the map location reported by Ma Guangyu, Luo Rucai and Fan Wencheng Cheng's face immediately paled into the color of a dead man - on the sand table, the red flags of the officers and soldiers had surrounded the yellow flags of the rebels on all sides. Another mysterious army strangled the throat of the main force of the rebels going west, and the space left for the rebel army to flee was very pitifully small.

"Chuangwang, don't hesitate!" Fan Wencheng howled like a pig: "Zhang Haogu, the little mad dog, wants to surround and annihilate us from all sides. Before he has time to close the net, he hastened to break through the Anrong Pass in the northwest and charge Out of the encirclement of the little mad dog, the barbarian army is weak in this position, and it is our last chance to break through."

"There is also a chance to break through to the south." The old bandit king reminded himself, and then he was puzzled: "It's strange, since the dog officer intends to surround us on all sides, why did he take the initiative to give up Dashan Pass? If he doesn't give up Dashan Pass We don't have the slightest chance to go south to Sichuan and Hanzhong if we clear the customs, how could he use such a foolish trick?"

"My lord, how many times have I said this? The little mad dog gave up Dasan Pass just to lure us into Sichuan, so that he could set up an ambush in the Qinling Mountains to destroy us!" Fan Wencheng shouted with red eyes: "You can think about it I thought, if it wasn’t for the little mad dog who gave up the Dasan Pass on his own initiative, we wouldn’t have the slightest hope of entering Sichuan, would we still stay in Baoji for so long, wasting precious time to break through?”

"Oh no, it's really a treacherous plan for the puppy officer to give up Dashan Pass!" Putting the facts before him, Gao Yingxiang's heart finally sank - after entering Dashan Pass a few days ago, Gao Yingxiang thought that he had the advantage of the natural and dangerous place, and he could attack and retreat But if they were in an invincible position, if they entered Hanzhong or Sichuan, they sent a small army to launch several tentative attacks on Feng County, where Qin Liangyu's army was stationed. The white-armed soldiers who attacked were beaten up and fled back to Dasanguan in embarrassment. Only then did Gao Yingxiang realize that it was not so easy to enter Sichuan. , We were indeed deceived by the painting cakes drawn by Young Master Zhang himself, and missed the last opportunity to break through. If we want to break this encirclement, the price we will pay will be unimaginably huge.

"King Chuang, we don't have much time, so we can't hesitate any longer." Luo Rucai also warned: "It is reasonable to rush into the hinterland of Shaanxi while the puppy officer has not yet contracted the encirclement. In the hinterland of Shaanxi, we are familiar with the terrain. There are enough soldiers added to fight against the puppy officer guerrilla, dragging down the main force of the puppy officer, this is the last chance, we must not miss it again."

"Cao Tianwang, what crazy talk are you talking about?" Many thieves with open eyes for money shouted: "What are you doing in the belly of Shaanxi? Everyone there is poor enough to wear a pair of trousers. Go to Sichuan or Hanzhong. There’s a lot of food, money, and beautiful women there, so you can grab whatever you want!”

"You idiots, the little dog officer deliberately gave up Dasanguan. It is clear that he wants to introduce us to the Qinling Mountains. You want to send yourself to death, so don't drag us!" Luo Rucai was so angry that he roared: "Go to Sichuan to grab Money, food, and women are easy to say! The natural dangers of Yangping Pass, Jiameng Pass and Jianmen Pass are more difficult to fight than the other. As long as the dog officials in Sichuan guard these natural dangers to death, they can starve us Die in the Qinling Mountains!"

All the thieves were speechless, but the old thieves, Wang Ziyong, murmured: "Based on our current situation, it is a bit difficult to enter Sichuan, but it should be no problem to enter Hanzhong. There are not many troops in Hanzhong. Although the white soldiers are powerful, But the number of people is too small, we have 10,000+ people to attack with all our strength, and we can pile them up to death, and even if we can't take down Fengxian County controlled by white soldiers, we can still use the complex characteristics of the Qinling Mountains to bypass Fengxian County Go directly to Hanzhong! As long as Hanzhong is captured, we can not only replenish a large amount of food and grass on the spot, but also go south to Chongqing or east to Hubei to avoid the pursuit of the puppy officer."

"Dawang Wang, it's too easy for you to say it, and you underestimate Zhang Haogu's little mad dog." Fan Wencheng warned: "That little mad dog has always done things without leaking, since he dared to order the white soldiers to give up the big scattered Guan, we must have a backhand to prevent us from rushing into Hanzhong. If we dare to enter Hanzhong, there is only one dead end! To the north, only to the north, can we have the hope of making a comeback!"

"Stop arguing!" The biggest thief, Gao Yingxiang, finally opened his mouth after pondering for a long time, and said: "Go north, break through Anrong Pass! But you can't give up easily at Dashan Pass, Luo Rucai, aren't you determined to break through to the north? Your army is in the vanguard, attacking Wulipo, Siyang and Anrong Pass to open the way. The rest of the army will break through to the north after defeating Anrong Pass. My army is in the rear. If the attack on Anrong Pass fails, we will also And go south this way.”

"King Chuang, let's go together." Fan Wencheng kindly suggested: "If you don't give up on Dasanguan, there will definitely be people who will go south with the idea of ​​breaking through the siege, which is not conducive to our concerted efforts to break through! Only if everyone gathers together Break out of the encirclement to the north together, so that we can form a military advantage over the barbarian army, and at the same time, no one will be hesitant, so we can make a determined breakout with one heart."

Gao Yingxiang was a little tempted, but Gao Yingxiang was reluctant to give up the wealth of Sichuan and Hanzhong, and he was worried that he would have to leave a way out if he had no hope of breaking through. Gao Yingxiang still shook his head, gritted his teeth and said, "It doesn't take much Say it!" Luo Rucai and Fan Wencheng had no choice but to agree, and hurried down to prepare, and most of the thieves who coveted the wealth of Hanzhong in Sichuan had no choice but to agree reluctantly.

The discipline of the rogue army is extremely poor, and the camps where the troops are stationed are also very loose. The 10,000+ army is stationed from Dasan Pass to the outskirts of Baoji, which was abandoned due to the war. It took half a full day, but fortunately, it is now the tenth day of March, the full moon is about to be full, and the weather in Shaanxi, which has been dry for many years, is extremely clear and the visibility is extremely high, which provides a prerequisite for the rogue army to march overnight .Luo Rucai and Fan Wencheng, who knew well that breaking through to the north was the right way, did not dare to hesitate, and immediately led the army to set off overnight to open the way for the army to break through.

There is no medicine for regret in the world, and it is impossible for the missed breakout fighters to come back. After the siege of Baoji was completed, Hong Chengchou's army, who had been waiting impatiently in Fengxiang Prefecture, had long been closely monitoring every move of the rebel army, and found that Luo Rucai's army had crossed the Wei River After going north, Hong Chengchou, who was furious because he was deprived of the command of the whole army by Young Master Zhang, immediately led his troops out of the city to intercept and kill them. The tiger plunged headlong into the enemy group, rushed and slashed, saw people killing people, saw Buddhas butchering Buddhas, and even their weapons relied on robbing supplies. Luo Rucai's army resisted desperately, but Hong Chengchou's army charged too fiercely, leaving behind five or six hundred The corpses began to collapse, and the soldiers fled south. Although Luo Rucai and Fan Wencheng organized a supervising team to suppress them desperately and drove the soldiers forward to fight, there were too many defeated soldiers. , horses galloping, trampling each other, countless dead, and other thieves behind heard that the vanguard was defeated and had a way to retreat, so they fled south one by one, and no thieves along the way dared to go north for reinforcements , As a result, Luo Rucai's army was chased and killed by Hong Chengchou's army all the way to the south of the Weishui River, and the plan to attack Anrongguan to break through was completely aborted.

The rebel army was still behind in fear. On the second day after the failure of going north to break through, it was also the eleventh day of March in the ninth year of the Great Ming Dynasty. The scouts of the rebel army sent Gao Yingxiang and Luo Rucai to wait for the leader The news of the ghosts and souls——to the east of Mei County, the forward army of the main force of the Shaanxi-Gansu Ming Army has been discovered, and the scouts of the rebels have risked their lives to investigate and found that the main force of the Shaanxi-Gansu Central Army is still flying the handsome flag of Master Zhang. , Young Master Zhang personally led the main force from Shaanxi and Gansu to kill this time.What made Gao Yingxiang and other thieves very angry was that this time the main forwards in Shaanxi and Gansu were actually Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and the army was all their direct descendants!

Breaking through to the north failed, and the main forces of Shaanxi and Gansu were approaching step by step. The leaders of the rebels entrenched in the Baoji area were all panicked. Except for Yingxiang and Luo Rucai, almost every thief was clamoring to go south and enter Sichuan. Luo Rucai listened to Fan Wencheng's analysis and believed that it was still the only correct choice to break through to the northwest with all his strength—the main problem was food. Since the cavalry detoured back to Tianshui to build an encirclement circle in a short period of time, any general with a little experience would be able to guess that the Ming army cavalry in the west would inevitably have major problems in food and grass supplies. possible!Although Gao Yingxiang, who is quite military-minded, agrees with the analysis of Fan Wencheng and Luo Rucai, but most of the thieves insist on going south.

"King Chuang, my lords, if you insist on going south to die, I will not force you, but before you make a decision, please listen to me and say something else!" In a hurry, he jumped out and shouted with red eyes: "Four years ago, Zhang Haogu, a little mad dog, led the army for the first time. He used 13 troops to fight against our Dajin's 23 troops. We Dajin Khan and everyone Baylor tried every means and tried every means, not only failed to break through the Jinzhou City which he personally guarded, but he seized the opportunity to break through Shengjing, causing the biggest defeat since the founding of Dajin! Two years ago, Zhang Haogu The mad dog led an army of [-] to the northern expedition to the grasslands, and fought [-] battles, all invincible, killing hundreds of thousands of enemies! Last year, this little mad dog fought three big battles in more than two months, and killed tens of thousands of enemies in each battle Hundreds of thousands, even the Mongolian Khan was captured alive by him! This little mad dog has never lost a single battle or made a single mistake since his debut. Why do you think he will make such a big mistake this time? Wrong, give up such a big space in Sichuan and Hanzhong? He is the governor of the five provinces of the barbarian court, and he is in charge of Shaanxi and Sichuan at the same time. He is not afraid that you will enter Hanzhong and Sichuan and discredit his barbarian god of war? So I Dare to say, he must have set up a net in the south for you to drill! If you don't want to die in vain, you can only go north, west, and break out to the northwest, the only weak point in the encirclement of the little mad dog, otherwise wait for the main force of the barbarian army When you arrive in Baoji, you will all die! Do you understand this truth? Do you understand?!"

Fan Wencheng's hysterical yelling finally had some effect. The few thieves who shouted the most vigorously to break out to the south just now were stunned. With tears in his eyes, he shouted: "Also, I, Fan Wencheng, is the number one Hanchen in Dajin, so why would I not enjoy the glory, wealth, and beautiful wives and concubines in Liaodong, but instead come to Shaanxi to accompany you to eat and drink?" Sha, wandering, what am I planning?! Didn’t I expect you to achieve great things in Shaanxi and join hands with us Dajin to overthrow the barbarian court? As for the understanding of the barbarian army and Zhang Xiaomaidou, which one of you knows better than me? Why do you You don’t listen to my harsh advice, but you want to fall into the trap of Zhang Haogu’s little mad dog and die by yourself—?!”

"King Chuang, Mr. Fan is doing it for our own good..." Luo Rucai wanted to echo a few words, but Gao Yingxiang interrupted him with a wave of his hand, and said in a deep voice: "Needless to say, I have decided to break out to the northwest with all my strength and enter the The hinterland of Shaanxi. You can also decide. If you are willing to go with us, you are ready to fight with us to fight the siege. If you don’t want to break out with us to the northwest, I will not force you. If you want to go with the army, go there. Bar."

(End of this chapter)