: A big deal

In mid-September of the 16th year of Chongzhen, on the official road leading to Mianchang City (now Mianchang Town, Xiantao City), a thousand troops with neither vanguard nor guards were marching alone and slowly.

In this army, Li Ping was listed.

He rode leisurely on the horse and listened to the supervisor Ji Zhangkuang talking about the mountains, rivers, geography and customs of Mianyang Prefecture.

It seems that he and his army are going deeper alone.

Although Zhang Kuang was from Songjiang (now Shanghai), he started to serve as the prefect of Mianyang in the ninth year of Chongzhen. He was more familiar with Mianyang than most Mianyang locals and was a very good guide and commentator.

Mianzhou is still far away.

From Hanchuan County to Miancheng, not counting as the Han River, there are about 200 miles by land alone. If you don’t have a rush or a fast march, you won’t be able to arrive in a day or two, and the two of you have time to chat.

Occasionally, Li Ping would also repeat his military plan as if he couldn't help but feel embarrassed or was a little embarrassed, and he would rarely make people realize that he was also a young man.

At this time, Zhang Kuang (born in 1611), who was more than ten years older than Li Ping, would listen carefully like a student, without seeing any contempt at all, and would frequently echo.

Li Ping always licked his face and accepted it happily, and couldn't tell whether it was young or ignorant of the world, or something else.

"Zhang Jianji, we have been away for more than a day and have never seen the shadow of the thief army. It seems that the thief army in Mianyang is also a rat. If we want to kill the thief, we will have to attack the city." Li Ping said disappointed after exploring left and right for a long time, as if he wished he was intercepted or ambushed by the peasant army.

He is still acting.

Zhang Kuang continued to compliment and sigh and said: "The Mianyang thief army is weak and is completely incomparable to the thieves in Hanchuan. Although our army has few soldiers, we can tell at a glance that it is the Tiger Ben army. We are afraid that even if we go to Miancheng, we will not encounter the thief army, and we may not even have to attack the city, and the thief army will abandon the city and flee."

"The supervision and discipline are ridiculous again! What we are discussing now is the enemy situation, so there is no need to praise, no need to praise." Li Ping laughed.

"I'm not praising, nor is it a mistake. I'm just seeking truth from facts. The general's plan may not be useful." Zhang Kuang said seriously, his eyes widening as if he emphasized that what he said was true.

Zhang Kuang participated in the harassment of Mianyang Prefecture organized by Li Ping, and had a certain understanding of the situation of Mianyang peasant army, and also knew that Mianyang peasant army had few firearms.

The thousand-man troops of Li Ping, a light army attacking Mianyang, all came from its most elite and most focused regiment. Whether it is marching, equipment or troops, it is shocking enough.

The entire army does not even need to be seen close, just from a distance to see the elites among a group of elites who are both well-trained and well-behaved in battle formations.

Li Ping was naturally relaxed in this army.

He surrounded Hanchuan County and it was impossible for the peasant army in Mianyang to have the strength to eat his troops. Unless Bai Wang, who is stationed in Chengtianfu City, comes to reinforce him, but it is impossible in time.

"Hey! If the bandits in Miancheng are still inactive, we have to attack the city. But we lack troops, so we may have to transfer some of the troops surrounding Hanchuan. It's really a mistake!" Li Ping sighed.

"The general does not need to worry too much. If he can conquer Mianyang, it is a great achievement. The thieves will also feel the sharpness of our army. Moreover, it is difficult for Hanchuan to descend. We can jump from Mianyang to attack Zhongxiang directly, and then take Xiangyang." Zhang Kuang comforted.

But Li Ping's eyelids stumbled inadvertently, and then held it in a while before he said weakly: "It is difficult to get Hanchuan, so it is even more difficult for Zhong Xiang. Supervisor, you are too arrogant to me."

Li Ping was really shocked, and he found that he had underestimated Zhang Kuang.

The light army attack on Mianyang is part of Li Ping's entire plan.

You cannot directly attack Mianyang, or you cannot just attack Mianyang.

With the nails on the Han River and Hanchuan County, it is necessary to take advantage of the Han River and only hit Miancheng, which is seventy or eighty miles away from the Han River, is a typical behavior of taking advantage and taking advantage of the situation, and the restraint and impact on Li Zicheng is very limited.

Moreover, both Li Zicheng and Yuan Jixian can easily see this.

This will lose the meaning of fighting Mianyang.

Therefore, before this, Li Ping, who had just recovered from a serious illness, personally led a large army from Hanyang to cross the Han River from Hanyang to Hanchuan County on the third day after Wang Si left Wuchang, and then rolled in along the river to Hanchuan County, posing a stance to move westward.

Of course, Xie Yinglong's troops stationed in Hanchuan were also very cooperative and contracted across the board without any blocking.

So, the army led by Li Ping quickly arrived safely and smoothly at the Hanchuan County city, and after setting up camp, they set up cannons as planned and tried to bomb the city first.

Because there were no heavy artillery and no height advantage under the city, the peasant army in Hanchuan County was also known for its firearms and had heavy artillery. The result of the city was unexpectedly shocked by the condescending peasant army.

Fortunately, the artillery quality of the peasant army was uneven, the gunner training was average, and the accuracy was relatively poor. Li Ping's artillery was very casualties, but the losses were a little greater by the inferior artillery he deliberately placed forward.

There are many military tactics, and ten of them surrounded them.

Because Li Ping wanted to keep left-behind troops in Hanyang, there were less than 10,000 troops brought to Hanchuan.

Although Xie Yinglong had less than 2,000 troops in his hands, most of these soldiers followed him for a long time. Moreover, Xie Yinglong also had more than 1,000 young and strong people who were urgently mobilized and recruited to recruit people who were very supportive of the peasant army.

No matter how elite Li Ping's troops are, it is difficult to capture this city in this case and there may be huge casualties.

And there is no hope of breaking the city in a short time.

So Li Ping dug trenches from east to west along the periphery of Hanchuan County, and locked the river with cannons opposite the river in Hanchuan County, and planned to surround Hanchuan County and slowly attacked them after they died.

Then, he was "unwilling to be frustrated" and divided more than a thousand troops to cross the Han River to attack Mianyang. It was also natural and understandable.

The plan seems a bit complicated, but there is no way, it is all forced by this era and society.

And that's not over yet.

According to Li Ping's plan, everyone knows that the more than a thousand troops assigned to this division would be impossible to capture Miancheng.

His explanation is also very simple.

It was just using a small number of troops to go deep into the country to lure the enemy in Mianyang to encircle and annihilate it with confidence. Then this army with few but extremely elite troops would severely damage the main force of Mianyang's peasant army in the wild and achieve the goal of fighting the thieves.

In other words, what he showed to the Ming army was that he did not intend to attack Miancheng, but just to kill the thieves and to restrain Zhong Xiang's peasant army General Guoyi, Bai Wang, so he was busy dealing with it and could not fully support Xie Yinglong.

But in fact, Li Ping believed that the weak Mianyang peasant army had a very small possibility of going out of the city to attack him, and the most likely thing Mianyang peasant army was to stick to the city.

Then he could continue to naturally transfer half of the troops besieged Hanchuan County to capture Miancheng, which lacked firearms and was incompetent.

As for Hanchuan County, just continue to surround him, all his goals and wishes can be realized.

Although the entire plan seems a bit big, it can be explained in all aspects. Li Ping believes that it is still worth and necessary. He still has to consider a lot of political factors.

However, it was a complete accident that he himself appeared in this lonely army.

Historically, Zuo Liangyu Jiayu suffered major losses mainly due to Ma Shixiu's navy. The total loss of only a few thousand troops and more than 200 ships had severely damaged the confidence of Wuchang's civil and military officials.

A few days ago, although more than half of Zuo Liangyu's 100,000 troops heading south and being defeated, they ran back. Many of the losses were actually just soldiers who were not much stronger than ordinary civilians.

But considering Zuo Liangyu's crushing defeat in Guangji, his losses and blows were still quite amazing.

This made the civil servants who were dissatisfied with Zuo Liangyu feel embarrassed to continue to accuse Zuo Liangyu and urged him to send troops again. Even many civil servants who were once the most determined to fight began to become cautious.

Including Yuan Jixian.

The failure of battles, especially the failure of large-scale battles, is beyond imagination to the impact of people's confidence.

Therefore, when he suddenly heard that Li Ping was advancing westward, Yuan Jixian was naturally surprised and could not be surprised anymore.

Although it is not clear that the situation in the north has undergone major changes and still does not know Sun Chuanting's plan, Yuan Jixian also realized that the war in the north may be more critical.

He soon ran to Li Ping's military camp under Hanchuan County to supervise the war.

As a military official of the governor of Jiangxi, Huguang and Yingtian, Yuan Jixian was also very pitiful. He did not have a large army like Sun Chuanting, and then he could tell the truth. Even Sun Chuanting went out of the pass and went south to issue military orders and notices to Zuo Liangyu, but he did not notify Yuan Jixian at all.

This cannot be entirely blamed on Sun Chuanting. The key is that Sun Chuanting is not sure whether Yuan Jixian has arrived in Jiujiang, Jiangxi to take office, and even more so whether Yuan Jixian will take the risk to Huguang to supervise the war, and is not sure whether there are still living civil servants in Huguang who can keep their word.

Sun Chuantingguang thought it was simple and easy to save time.

Then, Zuo Liangyu has not talked about Sun Chuanting's military orders to Yuan Jixian so far.

It is estimated that in Huguang, only Li Ping, the general who usually gives Yuan Jixian a lot of face, is also accustomed to making decisions.

Although Yuan Jixian had no doubt about Li Ping's caution in attacking Hanchuan County, Li Ping was still very uncomfortable. A person with a high position and power wandered around you all day long, and it would be uncomfortable for anyone to change, let alone Li Ping's heart is still a ghost.

Moreover, if Yuan Jixian was really angry and asked Li Ping to attack Hanchuan County or issue any other military orders, Li Ping would not listen, nor would he not listen.

So Li Ping simply and could only run with the troops attacking Mianyang.

As long as he is not here, his troops will have enough reason to ignore Yuan Jixian.

But unexpectedly, this moved Yuan Jixian even more. He thought that Li Ping wanted to lead the enemy with his own body, so he firmly sent Zhang Kuang, who was also not afraid of death and wanted to accompany him.

Li Ping does not bother Zhang Kuang, but he does not like Zhang Kuang either.

Nothing else, it was just because he was also a smart person, which forced him to continue acting. And even if he was very tired, he still didn't know if it would work.

Sometimes I can even be suddenly startled.

Just like just now!

Zhang Kuang was once the first in the village and was famous for his literary talent. He is also recognized as being alert and alert, so it is not easy to fool him.

Li Ping knew that although Zhang Kuang was respectful to him, he had no idea what Zhang Kuang was thinking in his heart.

This made Li Ping very irritable deep down, but he had no choice but to hold on to continue acting.

It can only be said that fortunately, he sent troops to Mianyang and advanced westward. Zhang Kuang, who was a loser, should be happy, and he should be embarrassed to catch his braids.

When dealing with Zhang Kuang, Li Ping couldn't help but think of Zhou Wen, and then began to secretly sigh that he could not have both fish and bear's paw!

Being talented is being talented, but you have to think about how to coax and prevent it every day. Sometimes you are really tired!

It's better for Duan Qiang.

Although his head is the least intelligent and there is no ink in his belly, he is the one who feels most at ease, and he hits wherever he points.

And Han Jiu, the leader of the group who is now with him, is also very good, with a well-developed limbs and a simple mind. When he handed over to him, Li Ping was not worried about being taken away by a group of people.

But the problem is that if he wants to continue to grow, he cannot do without smart people and cultural people, and it is better to have more people as much as possible.

This is really a headache.

And are Duan Qiang and Han Jiu really that simple?
To be continued...