At the beginning, Hong Chengchou mobilized 10,000 officers and soldiers from Zuo Liangyu's unit to go south. Even if they could not directly recapture Nanyang City, they could still create huge pressure on the so-called rural-protecting army thieves.

As long as part of the enemy's forces are contained, we can wait for Lu Xiangsheng to lead his army to Yunyang and Huguang's troops to move northward.

When the time comes, under attack from the north and the south, the rebels protecting the hometown will undoubtedly be defeated.

At the same time, if only 10,000 people are sent south, it will not have too much impact on the war in Shaanxi and the Central Plains. After all, from now on, Gao Yingxiang and the others have been defeated and surrounded by officers and soldiers many times, and now they are running around like bereaved dogs.

Therefore, sending some troops south will not affect the war situation in the Central Plains too much.

However, at that time, Hong Chengchou did not expect that the troops protecting his hometown would march a long distance to attack Xiangyang, and he did not expect that Xiangyang City would be captured so easily by the rebels.

In mid-May, when Hong Chengchou learned that Xiangyang had fallen in early May, and that Gao Yingxiang and other bandits were no longer as powerful as before, he immediately sent more than 5,000 men from He Renlong's troops southward.

In the end, more than 15,000 officers and soldiers gathered in the Lushan County area. Of course, the officers and soldiers were not just officers and soldiers, but also a large number of civilians. The total number was about 30,000.

This is also the reason why the reconnaissance cavalry of the Second Mixed Brigade discovered tens of thousands of Ming troops in the Lushan County area.

When Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong and others gathered troops in Lushan County and prepared to go south, they found that the Baoxiang Army thieves had already seized Luyang Pass.

Luyang Pass is a real pass. If you want to conquer it, you can only attack it by force. At the same time, the thieves are stationed at Luyang Pass with heavy troops and artillery.

I am afraid that a strong attack will require huge casualties, but it will definitely be won!

As a last resort, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong led the troops to turn east, pass through Ye County, then enter Fangcheng Ancient Road, and finally reach the foot of Yuzhou City.

But unexpectedly, Yuzhou City was also captured by the Baoxiang Army, and after inquiring, it was found that the Baoxiang Army had just captured Yuzhou City a few hours before they arrived.

This made Zuo Liangyu quite depressed, but he didn't pay too much attention at that time, because based on the information obtained by the previous reconnaissance cavalry, plus the reports from the surrounding people, especially the gentry who escaped from Yuzhou City in the early stage, the attack

The number of troops protecting the bandits in Yuzhou City is only over 2,000.

Moreover, when they attacked Yuzhou City, they fought hard and paid a heavy price to capture Yuzhou City.

The summary is that the security thieves who captured Yuzhou City are not strong.

The combined number of his and He Renlong's troops alone reached 15,000 officers and soldiers, including 3,000 combat soldiers, and 500 elite cavalry.

It is not a big problem to capture Yuzhou City, which is guarded by two thousand remaining soldiers.

However, when the fight started today, I discovered that these security thieves were really not easy to fight.

After some exploratory attacks, he found that the security forces stationed on the city had nearly twenty artillery pieces of various types. Although there were no Hongyi cannons that could shoot several miles away, there were various types of traditional short-robed and even Buddhist cannons.

It was enough to cause heavy damage to the Ming army attacking the city.

More importantly, the Ming army led by Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong didn't have any artillery!

Not to mention the long-barreled heavy artillery such as the Hongyi cannon, even the general cannons, there are not many medium and large Franco machine artillery, and there are only a few light short-barreled artillery, that is, those short-barreled artillery that weighs tens of kilograms or hundreds of kilograms.

.

In their attempted attack today, they found that they were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of long-range firepower!

And without the cover of long-range firepower, it will naturally be more difficult to fight with infantry alone.

After a tentative attack, hundreds of people were lost without even touching the edge of the city.

This had to make Zuo Liangyu re-examine the subsequent attack on Yuzhou City.

We have to fight for a long time. With our absolute strength advantage, as long as we are willing to pay a certain amount of casualties and charge forward in one go, we can win Yuzhou City.

The problem is, Zuo Liangyu is reluctant to pay too many casualties!

Similarly, He Renlong, who fought with him, was not a fool. He also saw that the enemy security forces on the opposite side were difficult to fight, and he was also unwilling to let his soldiers suffer too many casualties.

Under such circumstances, today's attack could no longer continue. In the afternoon, Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong had a brief discussion and decided to retreat first.

This Yuzhou City still needs to be fought, but it needs to be considered in the long term, and more siege equipment needs to be built. For example, shield vehicles that can withstand various types of light artillery are seriously insufficient, and a batch of additional siege vehicles must be temporarily built.

.

——

Anyongduo on the top of the city watched the Ming army in front of them retreat one after another, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when they returned directly to their camp one thousand meters away.

At this time, Fei Bingqing, the deputy commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade next to him, also said with a frightened expression: "It seems that today we are not willing to spend a lot of ammunition to make a prestige directly. At least it can give them something."

If you are afraid, you will not attack directly."

"Judging from the fact that they have retreated after a brief battle several times today, Zuo Liangyu is as sparing as the rumors say. With our army's fierce gunfire, it is unlikely that he will attack fiercely. No.

If something unexpected happens, they will spend a few more days building more siege equipment before launching a new round of offensive."

Anyongduo also nodded and said: "What we want is this effect. As long as they pause their offensive, whether they are timid or build siege equipment, we can gain at least three days."

"As long as we delay for a few more days, part of the troops of the 3rd Mixed Brigade will be able to approach the Yuzhou City area. By then, Zuo Liangyu will definitely be far behind. As long as we delay for another six or seven days, the main force led by the general himself will also be there.

Arrival."

"With our army's reinforcements approaching, it is unlikely that Zuo Liangyu will be determined to launch a desperate attack in just a few days!"

"He is not a fool. It is impossible that he does not know that once he is unable to attack Yuzhou in a short time, then when our army arrives with reinforcements when he attacks Yuzhou, he will be defeated and die!"

"Zuo Liangyu is a man who cherishes soldiers and even lives. It is impossible for him to make such a risky decision!"

Now Anyongduo already knows that the third mixed brigade from Nanyang City has moved eastward.

Although it is not known that Luo Zhixue has personally led more than 4,000 troops all the way north from Xinye City, but based on his understanding of his general, once he learns that Yuzhou is in danger, he will definitely lead the main force of the rural protection army northward.

The location of Yuzhou City determines that the Baoxiang Army cannot give up this place.

If the Baoxiang Army wants to control the entire Nanyang Basin in the future, and if it wants to rely on the Nanyang Basin and even Northern Chu to develop and grow, it must keep out both the Ming army and the bandits.

Luyang Pass and Yuzhou City, these two cities are strategic points that block the Ming army from moving from north to south. No matter what, the Baoxiang Army must guard these two places.

An Yongduo, who had served as the Chief of Staff, knew this very well, and he knew even more clearly that his own general also knew this.

Because the entire strategic plan of going south to seize the Nanyang Basin, and even the entire northern Chu, was finalized by his own general, no one knows the importance of Luyang Pass and Yuzhou City better than Luo Zhixue.

After thinking about it, An Yongduo said: "Send a military order tonight to carry an encrypted message out of the city and cross the blockade. Report the situation of our brigade to the third mixed brigade and the rear general, and request reinforcements as soon as possible!"

Deputy brigade commander Fei Bingqing said: "I'll make arrangements right away!"

Although the Ming Dynasty army besieged Yuzhou City after arriving at Yuzhou City, Zuo Liangyu did not completely besiege the city in order to reduce the difficulty of siege and shake the morale of the defenders in the city. Instead, he adopted the traditional siege of three, one, and one.

The west gate was opened to allow the defenders to escape.

Of course, in fact, some of Zuo Liangyu's cavalry have secretly bypassed Yuzhou before and are currently stationed a few miles west of Yuzhou. Even if Anyongduo breaks out from the west city gate now, there is a high probability that he will be attacked by these

The cavalry was entangled, and in the end the whole army was inevitably annihilated.

At the same time, these Ming army cavalry also continued to block the access to and from Yuzhou City on the periphery.

However, this kind of blockade cannot be truly airtight.

Naturally, it would be impossible for the soldiers to pass through in a swaggering manner in broad daylight. However, in the evening or dawn when the sky is darker, or even in the dark, the troops sent by the Baoxiang Army could still sneak through the Ming army's blockade.

To bring news to the rural protection troops outside the city and inside the city.

When darkness fell that night, the troops of the Fourth Mixed Brigade set off carrying the encrypted letter.

In order to prevent the messenger from failing to cross the blockade and being captured by the Ming army's patrol force, the secret message was found and the true and false status of the Baoxiang Army was learned.

The letters carried in the military orders sent by the Fourth Mixed Brigade are all encrypted letters.

Without the corresponding codebook, you wouldn’t know what the messy numbers above mean.

It’s not a particularly complicated password system, it just uses a digital password plus a word list system.

What is written on the letter is a series of numbers. These are the passwords. The clear codes themselves are meaningless.

After receiving the secret message, it will first be translated into clear code by the cipher table controlled by the communications staff of each brigade.

But after being translated into clear code, it is actually still a bunch of numbers that have no meaning... nothing can be seen!

Because Luo Zhixue had taken double insurance, a secret letter had to be translated twice to get the final content.

After the secret code is converted into clear code, the clear code needs to be compared with the word list (usually a book) controlled by each brigade commander or deputy brigade commander to translate it into the final text.

After the text is translated, this is a secret letter that can be understood.

In this way, there is no fear of losing the letter, especially if it is captured by the Ming army and the military information of the Baoxiang Army is learned.

And Anyongduo personally watched the two messengers quietly descending the city wall in a hanging basket in the night, and then set off in different wind directions and disappeared into the night.

I don’t know if these two messengers can successfully cross the blockade, but as long as one messenger can cross the blockade, then the situation of Yuzhou City, the Fourth Mixed Brigade itself, and more importantly: the Fourth Mixed Brigade can be

Report on some of the Ming army intelligence that has been discovered so far.

Only when the general knows the detailed and true situation of the enemy and ourselves in Yuzhou can he make more favorable arrangements and better defeat the Ming army outside the city.

In this way, the siege of Yuzhou City can be solved, and he and the two thousand soldiers of the Fourth Mixed Brigade can survive!

But, is the general really on his way north? How many troops have he brought?

If you come, how many days will it take to reach Yuzhou City?

——The following is free——

Thanks to the leader of the book friend "Qi·Changqingchangjing" in the group for the reward. I didn't expect that my niche book can also be rewarded by the leader.

This book's performance is not good, the average order on the shelves is only 280, but I have been gritting my teeth and persevering, and now the average order is nearly 760, and I will try to hit the 1,000 average order in the future.

This is not easy, and all the motivation that keeps me going comes from your support.

Therefore, because of you, this book exists!

Finally, I would like to thank the leader of ‘Qi·Changqingchangjing’ again for the reward!
Chapter completed!