Coming one after another

Just when Li Ping was preparing to face Zhang Xianzhong in Qizhou, the reconnaissance troops sent out across the Fucheng River in Huangzhou brought him even more shocking news on the afternoon of May 5th.

In the early morning of that day, Zhang Xianzhong's troops secretly crossed the river from Tuanfengzhou, more than 30 miles upstream of Huangzhou Fucheng, with a levied fishing boat, and soon captured Wuchang County, which is across the river from Huangzhou Fucheng.

(Today's E City, not Wuchang City).

Zhang Xianzhong's crossing the river and the fall of Wuchang County completely changed the situation.

Li Ping finally roughly understood why the enemy reconnaissance cavalry that appeared around Qizhou did not include veterans of Zhang Xianzhong's troops, and why Zhang Xianzhong's infantry near Qizhou only numbered more than 10,000 and did not cross the Qi River further to the north of Qizhou City.

Zhang Xianzhong played chess well.

This guy actually used a series of maneuvers to first contain Li Ping, who was most likely to hinder him from crossing the river or could effectively attack his vanguard of crossing the river, and then secretly attacked Chencang.

Next, whether Zhang Xianzhong attacks Wuchang City or coordinates the attack on Li Ping along both sides of the Yangtze River, it all depends on his mood.

But this was very not fun for Li Ping.

Li Ping's troops were completely stretched for two-line defense, especially since there was no Fu Chi to rely on fortified city.

Fortunately, Wuchang County is separated from Daye County, which is more than 80 miles away, by three large stretches of mountains. Between Daye County, which is inland, and the Yangtze River, which is more than 50 miles away, there are also vast source lakes (

Today's Daye Lake).

On the evening of May 5, Li Ping, after preliminary assessment of the situation, immediately began to make emergency deployment adjustments.

Li Ping realized that if he wanted to hold Fuchi and Yongxing County (the prefecture of Xingguo) after Zhang Xianzhong's power surged, he must hold Daye County.

This time, that time.

The current Daye County can no longer be abandoned.

As long as Daye County is not lost, it will be like a nail that prevents Zhang Xianzhong from easily bypassing it and attacking Xingguo Prefecture and Fuchi with all his strength.

To this end, Li Ping ordered Zhou Wenhe's two infantry battalions and the second company of the cavalry battalion originally assigned to Qizhou to immediately and urgently stationed in Daye County, and planned to use the thirty-one clay-mold iron-core bronze body guns that had just been deployed to Qizhou.

Twenty of them were also deployed together.

The main purpose of equipping Daye County with cavalry is to equip them with the ability to attack quickly and better serve as a nail.

At the same time, the main force of the naval battalion, equipped with 62 brand-new iron-mold guns (ten of which were assigned to the newly established army artillery company), was also ordered to enter Yuan Lake to assist in the defense.

In this way, a dozens of miles long defense line based on the city and the water was formed north of Xingguo Prefecture and Fuchi.

Qizhou, which has a strong city defense, will only retain two infantry battalions this time, and will no longer be equipped with cavalry. It will be fully defended.

These days, Xu Wenqi has organized all the tens of thousands of young men and women left in the city, as well as more than 10,000 male and female prisoners who have been screened out and can be used with confidence, to cooperate with Ma Yong in defending the city.

From a defensive perspective alone, Qizhou's defense problem shouldn't be a big one.

Li Ping planned to lead a reconnaissance company, the first and third cavalry battalions, and an infantry battalion to sit in Fuchi and carry out camera movements.

In this way, the entire army was divided into three relatively independent large parts by Li Ping.

However, after the order was issued, Li Ping discovered that he had overlooked a serious problem while implementing a series of intense and chaotic adjustments.

That is, their original command structure no longer meets the current war needs. Daye and Qizhou should have a more independent and complete command system, and should also have more autonomy.

He must adjust to this immediately.

So soon, after a night of simple thinking, Li Ping issued a new order.

He decided to further upgrade and organize the troops into one brigade and three regiments based on war needs.

The troops stationed in Qizhou plan to be reorganized into a regiment, with regiment leader Ma Yong, chief of staff Han Jiu, and director of the teaching department Yang Ming.

The troops stationed in Daye plan to be reorganized into the second regiment, with regiment commander Zhou Wen, chief of staff Ma Lan, and director of the teaching department Shi Lei.

The infantry stationed in the Fuchi area was reorganized into three regiments. The regiment leader Xu Changen, the chief of staff Lu Liang, and the division chief He Bo were instructed.

He Bo defected to Li Ping in Xiangyang and was initially in the support camp.

He was born as a servant. Although he was not a scholar, he was quite knowledgeable. After he was transferred to the teaching department of the army, he remained unknown. He only recently entered Li Ping's field of vision.

All the original regiment offices were directly promoted to brigade offices, and each section chief was promoted to each section chief. However, the chief of staff of the staff office was temporarily vacant, and the deputy chief of staff was taken over by Zhou Peng, the former commander of the first battalion.

The cavalry battalion, naval battalion and reconnaissance company that lost one company will continue to be directly under the brigade headquarters, and the commander of the cavalry battalion will be taken over by Zhang Qing.

According to this plan, Li Ping also gave the three regiments the power to further expand their forces based on their respective conditions, striving to establish a force system of at least one regiment and three battalions as soon as possible.

Since the adjustment order was only issued on the morning of May 6, Zhou Wen, who was in Qizhou, had received the order last night and quickly led the first battalion and the second cavalry company stationed in Qizhou to take a boat to Daye County.

However, they did not carry artillery.

The artillery will need to be delayed due to problems such as disassembly and assembly.

Therefore, Zhou Wen naturally did not receive any new orders about organizational adjustments when he set out, so the commander of the first battalion, Zhou Peng, was still following him.

At dawn on May 6, an impatient Zhou Wen arrived in Daye County.

He also understands the significance of Daye County.

It is estimated that Daye County is located on a peninsula deep inside the Yuan Lake and is therefore surrounded by water on three sides. Daye County was shrouded in mist in the early morning, making it hazy.

In addition, there are no city walls on three sides of the entire county surrounded by water, giving it a special charm.

This left a deep and wonderful impression on Zhou Wen, who came to Daye County for the first time.

Not long before he arrived, officials dispatched by Xingguo Prefecture to announce an emergency had just entered Daye County.

Due to the announcement from the superior government and the news about the fall of Wuchang County from Li Ping's reconnaissance force yesterday, the arrival of Zhou Wen's fleet made everyone in Daye County very happy.

It was therefore smooth for Zhou Wen to dock at the dock in the south of the city.

However, after entering the city, Zhou Wen learned that Xu Changen's second battalion, who planned to come overland, had not yet arrived.

When Zhou Wen and the officials of Daye County were greeting each other and preparing to take over the defense, a huge noise suddenly came from the north gate, the only city wall in the northwest, and then they heard the sound of fighting and someone shouting "The thieves have entered the city."

!”

The magistrate of Daye County looked puzzled, and it was hard to tell whether his expression was worried or impatient.

The shocked Zhou Wen immediately spotted Ni Duan, and almost instinctively asked, "What's going on at the North Gate?"

The magistrate of Daye said in confusion: "Twenty or thirty remnants of soldiers and civilians arrived at the city just now. They said they had escaped from Wuchang County. The leader was Hou Bukuai from Wuchang County Government. All our police officers recognize him.

, and there are a few policemen among them that we here also recognize.

Since I wanted to pick up Zhou Xiandi, I didn't go to see them in person. However, out of caution, I asked the county magistrate to personally approve them before letting them in.

Shouldn't there be a problem?

Even if there are problems with those people, what kind of trouble can they stir up? Could there be some misunderstanding that caused the two sides to fight, and then someone made some sensational remarks? This county magistrate! What should I say?"

But at this time, Zhou Wen already looked horrified.

After looking at each other for a few times with Zhou Peng and Yuanye, he made a decisive decision and directly ordered the 2nd Cavalry Company and 1st Battalion to rush to the north gate and enter the battle.

Time is life.

As long as the counterattack is timely at the beginning of the city's destruction, there is still a chance.

Without saying a word, Yuan Ye, commander of the second cavalry company with rich combat experience, immediately took the lead and led the cavalrymen who had just disembarked from the boat and were still shaking, roaring and rushing over.

At this time, a large number of people screaming and fleeing from the north gate appeared in their sights. The slow officials in Daye County finally reacted and looked panicked.

At this time, there were corpses all around the north gate of Daye County.

More than 200 ragged officers, soldiers and civilian-looking people who had just rushed in were crowding around an extraordinary-looking young man.

A horse was quickly led over.

The young man held the bloody knife in one hand, grabbed the saddle with the other hand and easily jumped onto the horse's back with a little effort.

After mounting his horse, he turned back and looked up. On the city gate, a swordsman held up the head of the Prime Minister of Daye and raised it to him.

The young man shouted expressionlessly: "Guard the city gate for me!"

Then the young man lowered his head and said to a man dressed as a Bu Kuai who was standing beside his horse, nodding and bowing: "Well done, you should be credited with taking the lead in this battle. Now lead the way quickly, we will go straight to the county government office to kill the magistrate."

, be quick. As long as the magistrate dies again, this city will never be able to return again."

The man in Bu Kuai's costume hurriedly replied: "A little credit is not worth mentioning, it all depends on the general's wisdom, martial arts and magical skills. I will lead the way from the front, I will..."

Before the flattery was finished, the man dressed as Bu Kuai suddenly noticed that the young man on the horse suddenly looked up with a horrified look on his face, and the people above the city gate also began to scream in terror.

The man in Bu Kuai's costume couldn't help but turn his head in surprise and look at the inner city avenue leading directly to the city gate.

Soon, amid the increasingly clear sound of horse hooves, a large group of cavalry rushed out of the mist.

"Array, array, quickly array..." The young man shouted fiercely with his eyes wide open.

The two hundred or so people around him who had just rushed in immediately stood up on their hands and knees in a tight formation. Those holding spears all consciously stood at the front and tilted their spears upwards.

There were only about twenty riders who immediately lined up with the young people at the back of the formation, and filled the strings of the few bows and arrows they had.

This is a group of veterans with rich combat experience.

But the group of cavalry who rushed out of the mist and arrived in an instant fired the first wave of arrows. Then the arrows did not hit the spearmen in the formation, but accurately shot towards the end of the formation.

Knights of the Square.

With a popping sound, the young man commanding the rear of the formation under the city gate was shocked to find that seven or eight of the elite light cavalry around him who were disguised as runaway officers and soldiers without armor fell off their horses in an instant.
To be continued...