Chapter 191 The people who rejuvenate the country

When there is enough information, there are conditions for analysis.

A general's decision-making is nothing more than situation, character and habits.

In a small-scale enemy situation analysis meeting, Li Ping, Zhou Wen and Du Sanjiang agreed that it was unlikely that Zhang Xianzhong would attack in a short time.

The reason is simple.

The focus of Zhang Xianzhong's operations was on looting and continuous acquisition of wealth, food and population, rather than on annihilating the military power of the Ming army. This is evident from his movement trajectory and his efforts to avoid the Ming army's troops with jungle capabilities.

His unexpected and rash decision to leave the cover of the Yinghuo Mountains and launch an attack on Qizhou City, which was well-fortified and guarded by famous ministers on the edge of the Yangtze River, should have been caused by the sudden withdrawal of Zuo Liangyu's army from Huguang and the lack of military strength in the surrounding areas.

Enough courage.

Of course, having an internal agent is definitely an important factor, and this internal agent should have contacted Zhang Xianzhong in advance.

Otherwise, once the attack fails and is defeated by the fortified city, it is very likely that the second Qianshan will be defeated.

What attracted Zhang Xianzhong may have been the wealth of Qizhou.

There may also be some reasons for venting anger against the imperial power.

Qizhou is very wealthy, and Prince Jing's palace is also very wealthy. Zhang Xianzhong may know this very well.

Zhu Ciyan, King of Jing who died just one month ago, was a very famous person who loved to enjoy and enjoyed himself. During his lifetime, he often wore a small hat and went to taverns and teahouses to relax. He had a famous saying: "Such a world, Tu Leer."

According to Princess Jing who fled to Li Ping, two peasant armies, Ge Liyan He Yilong and Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, had surrendered to the government a few years ago. Jing Wang Zhu Ciyan held a banquet in the palace out of curiosity about them.

Provide entertainment and arrange for actresses to perform.

Because of the extraordinary splendor of Prince Jing's palace and the outstanding grace of the singing girls, both Ge Zuo and He were dazzled and salivated.

Someone was very worried at that time and expressed to Jing King Zhu Ciyan that this would "enlighten the enemy's mind", that is, it would make the peasant army have evil thoughts, but Jing King Zhu Ciyan did not take it seriously at all.

Last year, Gezuo Erhe and Zhang Xianzhong fought and lived together for a period of time. Zhang Xianzhong must have heard about the situation in Qizhou from them.

Princess Jing felt that people's worries at that time had come true. It was probably the extravagance of entertaining the peasant army Erhe at that time that left the cause of today's disaster in Qizhou.

In this way, Qizhou's extreme wealth and internal connections are profitable and the risks are controllable for Zhang Xianzhong, but crossing the Yangtze River is not necessarily the case.

Although Zhang Xianzhong had tens of thousands of troops and occupied Qizhou.

However, because Qizhou is wealthy and has been well governed by local officials in recent years, there are very few ordinary people who are willing to join thieves, which means it is very unstable.

And Zhang Xianzhong just experienced the Qianshan defeat more than a month ago, and most of his elite soldiers and horses were lost. Most of his current troops are ordinary civilians newly attached, and their combat effectiveness is very weak. It may be okay to fight with the wind, but in reality, it will be tough.

It doesn't have the strength yet.

The battles at Huangmei and Guangji also relied on surprise attacks and internal responses, and none of the battles were won through hard attacks.

If he wants to play a strong attack, Zhang Xianzhong not only needs to secure his back line, but also needs to spend some time training his troops.

In this way, it was unlikely that Zhang Xianzhong would risk crossing the Yangtze River to attack a small town like Fuchi that had no ready wealth and no conditions for a raid. It would be even more unreasonable to take the initiative to provoke Li Ping's army, which was affiliated with Zuo Liangyu.

What's more, Zuo Liangyu's hundreds of thousands of troops who withdrew from Huguang did not go too far. It is said that they are currently lingering not too far down the Yangtze River.

Although Duan Qiang, Hu Zhongshan and others expressed doubts about this inference at the analysis meeting, the conclusion that Li Ping's two most recognized intellectuals were consistent with his own gave him a lot of peace of mind.

However, to be on the safe side, Li Ping ordered to speed up military expansion and preparations for war, and at the same time began to think about a fire attack on the ships in Qihe.

But this fire attack plan was quickly abandoned.

After reconnaissance, it was found that there were indeed some ships hidden in several lakes in the upper reaches of the Qi River when Zuo Liangyu's army moved eastward, and they were controlled by Zhang Xianzhong's troops. However, because these ships were so scattered, they could not be burned at once.

And if you can't burn all or most of it at once, the risk will be meaningless.

As for igniting fires in multiple places at the same time, don't even think about it. It's too complicated and unrealistic.

Military plans are like this. They are never 100% suitable. Constant changes and adjustments are what they are.

But this also became a sword of Damocles hanging over Li Ping's head.

Because according to the interrogation of the prisoners, it was learned that Zhang Xianzhong had captured more than 300 double-armed giant boats after capturing Chaohu last autumn, and used them to conduct a large-scale training of the navy (this was also the first navy of the entire Peasant Army).

Although all his giant boats were lost after the Battle of Qianshan, and most of his boatmen were lost, Zhang Xianzhong still had many people who knew how to sail boats left in his army.

This threat is huge.

Regardless of whether they come to beat you or not, at least they have the ability to cross the river and beat you.

Although reconnaissance shows that Zhang Xianzhong has not yet organized large-scale water training using the ships he has mastered, this guy always likes to carry out unexpected sneak attacks, so this is even more dangerous.

The atmosphere was tense, and Li Ping's plan for military expansion and war preparations was also not going well.

The capture of Qizhou caused the people and miners of Fuchi Town who had just returned home from the mountains to become frightened again. Many people began to flee again, and this time they fled far away and had no intention of coming back.

Li Ping felt that there was a high probability that Zhang Xianzhong would not attack, but after all, it was only a probability, and the people would not think so.

Just when Li Ping was depressed, Yang Ming, who had been away for seven or eight days, finally came back. Without any surprise, he brought back Zuo Liangyu's military order agreeing to Li Ping's garrison at Fuchikou.

Zuo Liangyu's army stopped in Jiujiang, only about a hundred miles away from Fuchi.

But Zuo Liangyu himself claimed to be ill after arriving in Jiujiang, and it was the kind of illness that required long-term rest.

In the beginning, Yang Ming was not able to see Zuo Liangyu, nor even Zuo Mengeng.

But after news of the fall of Qizhou came, Zuo Liangyu suddenly summoned Yang Ming, who had been waiting, and then readily agreed to Li Ping's request.

Li Ping also couldn't laugh or cry about Zuo Liangyu's attitude.

He knew that he couldn't leave this time even if he wanted to. He had really become the westernmost tentacle and guard of Zuo Liangyu's army, and he had to stay in Fuchi no matter what.

However, he still had to send someone to Zuo Liangyu again.

King Jing's Yuan concubine Gui, his second concubine Liu, and his son He Zhi were determined to leave. They were also very worried about the safety of Fuchi. Of course, Fuchi, a small place, could not accommodate them.

And Li Ping could only send them to Jiujiang, to Zuo Liangyu.

In fact, in the original history, King Jing's concubine Gui, his second concubine Liu, and his son He Zhi fled directly to Jiujiang.

If he sends someone to Zuo Liangyu again, Li Ping is not going to let Yang Ming go.

Last time, Yang Ming didn't bring back any news except Zuo Liangyu's military orders, which made Li Ping somewhat dissatisfied.

But this can’t be entirely blamed on Yang Ming.

Li Ping strictly ordered Yang Ming not to have contact with Zhao Jin and Shi Ming after arriving at Zuo Liangyu's place, nor to seek their protection. He did not want them to get into trouble.

Li Ping's prediction was not wrong either.

Everyone gave Yang Ming a wide berth, and even Fang Guoan's people gave Yang Ming a lot of trouble, so that when Yang Ming was waiting in Jiujiang, he just stayed on the boat and did not dare to go anywhere.

This time, Li Ping decided to let Zhou Wen go, and needed Zhou Wen to stay around Jiujiang for a while.

He needs more outside information.

It has been almost two months since Li Zicheng captured Xiangyang. It is really abnormal that the highest level of the court has no reaction and just allows Huguang to deal with it on its own.

It seems that the total collapse of the situation in Huguang has nothing to do with the imperial court. This is too abnormal.

Li Ping hoped that Zhou Wen, who was brave and wise, would give him the answer.

After sending Zhou Wen away, Li Ping began to focus more on military training and bronze and iron training, but he soon realized that the serious lack of manpower made everything stretched.

Since a large amount of manpower is required for vigilance, the troops must mostly remain in a state of combat readiness instead of training. Training new recruits, mining hard furnaces, etc. can only be done in a small way.

Just when he was suffering from a headache, a visitor suddenly came.

Tongzhi from Xingguo Prefecture and several famous local squires made a special trip to Li Ping to work for the army.

They came by boat along the Fushui River, bringing with them a boat full of chickens, ducks and grain.

Li Ping didn't realize that the local government actually came to work for a long time. He was also confused as to how high-ranking an official Tong Zhi was.

Fortunately, Zhou Wen is gone, but Yang Ming is still here.

When it was learned that the same magistrate belonged to the assistant officer of Zhizhou, which is equivalent to the deputy position, and was resounding from the sixth rank official (the difference between Zhili Prefecture and Sanzhou is still relatively large. Although Xingguo Prefecture has 2 counties, it is subordinate to Wuchang Prefecture.

), Li Ping suddenly became energetic.

At this time, Lao Jun came, and he was of a high level, and he was an official and a squire. He was definitely not just coming to Lao Jun, let alone asking for mines.

His chance has come.

Since this was the first time he had formal dealings with local officials of the Ming Dynasty, and he was afraid that the reputation of Zuo Liangyu's army would frighten them, Li Ping specially asked Yang Ming to go out to meet him in Confucian clothes, and told the troops who went to protect him to do their best to protect them.

He was very polite, and he took Ma Yong, wearing armor, to wait in front of the hall of a house where he was going to meet.

He didn't dare to go too far, and he couldn't let the civil servant look down on him, or let him lose the respect he deserved.

If it weren't for the war, he would probably be ignored by others as a guerrilla.

But after meeting him, Li Ping found that he didn't need to think too much.

This colleague and several squires who came with him had a certain understanding of him. They were careful and polite, but not very afraid. Especially when they saw Li Ping, they greatly praised the elite drills of Li Ping's troops that they saw along the way.

and military discipline is in order.

It turned out that among the squires who came with them, there was an acquaintance of Li Ping's team, a squire who had escaped from Chengtian Mansion and sought refuge in Li Ping's camp at the Han River.

This was a retired official who had served as a county magistrate in Shangxian County. He said goodbye to Li Ping with a small group of fellow villagers near Qizhou.

At that time, more people actually went to Qizhou, which was considered safer, but they were all in bad luck.
To be continued...