Chapter 42: The Gathering of Storms

In fact, the people who are worried about the front line are not only Zhu Qizhen, but also Li Sicheng.

For facing this situation, Li Sicheng also has a feeling of being out of control.

Indeed, although Li Sicheng's skills are quite powerful, in just a few months, he has controlled both inside and outside Thang Long City, completing the inheritance of power.

For an eighteen-year-old boy, that's pretty good.

But even so, his control over the whole of Annan may not be very high.

Even if Zhu Qizhen has been on the throne for many years, his control over the Guangxi front line is not too high, this is not because Zhu Qizhen is incompetent, but because the distance is too far.

For Li Sicheng, although the distance is closer, his ability to control the front line is not much higher than that of Zhu Qizhen.

If he knew that because Qinzhou Qitong would cause a big war between the two sides, Li Sicheng would rather let Daming take it first.

As analyzed by Yang Hong and Zhu Qizhen, Li Sicheng knew very well that it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to leave a large number of troops in Guangxi, probably for a while.

After the Ming army retreated, Li Sicheng just had to find a way to encroach on it.

After all, for the Tusi on the border of Guangxi, although they are unwilling to submit to Annan, if the Ming army comes over again, it will not be a good thing for them.

Generally speaking, Guangxi Tusi will not refuse Annan's request. Unless the bottom line is touched.

Therefore, Annan had time, and when the Ming Dynasty had no time to take care of it, he pushed the border line north little by little, as if Annan was stirring up trouble on the border during the Battle of Luchuan.

Almost all the major events in the Ming Dynasty will make small moves on the border.

It's just that the news coming now lets Li Sicheng know that he is going to fight with Daming no matter what. However, as before, while fighting and talking, he didn't say a word, and ordered to send envoys again to ask Daming for guilt.

It's just that I don't go here in Guangxi, but go ashore from Guangdong by boat.

Li Sicheng ordered again to prepare for the royal expedition.

The last forbidden army in Thang Long City was gathered to recruit the soldiers of the Four Towns.

Later Li Dynasty, after the founding of the country, divided into four provinces, but the four towns are the soldiers of the four roads, Jingbei, Shanxi, Shannan, Haiyang four soldiers and horses are the so-called foreign soldiers, and the strength of Thang Long City is the Beijing army, or the guard.

Before, the two roads that confronted Guangxi and Yunnan were Jingbei and Shanxi. There are still some local town soldiers in the Beijing camp, as well as quite a lot of newly recruited soldiers and horses.

Reaching the number of 200,000, it has reached the point where one out of three is drawn.

This is still Annan is on the rise, and politics is still relatively clear, so it can have this kind of situation.

This is the gap between the national strength of the Ming Dynasty and Annan.

The armies of Guangxi and Yunnan, Zhu Qizhen did not have any pressure at all, but for Annan, he was already a half-national army, and they were all mobilized. At this moment, Li Sicheng didn't know the internal impact of the Daxing military and the burden on the people, but he couldn't take care of it much.

In comparison, if this battle is won, Li Sicheng can still think about the future.

If this battle is defeated, not only him, but also the Annan magnates behind Li Sicheng will have no future.

Although Annan despised the Ming army in his mouth, in fact, they also knew that the Ming army was powerful, otherwise the Battle of Annan would have been fought for more than 20 years, and the Ming Dynasty would be defeated rather than defeated.

Most of the Annan generals are extremely contemptuous, but when it comes to real fighting, they are very cautious, as if Li Sicheng is the same.

Li Sicheng gave an order, almost emptied the domestic troops in Annam, and even the soldiers and horses that confronted the city were also drawn, and 100,000 troops were raised, and under the leadership of Li Sicheng, they came to the border.

Now Li Sicheng has almost wiped away the economic army within Annan.

This is already a national soldier.

Of course, if there is a big conscription, don't say 300,000, then 300,000, Li Sicheng can do it, but at that time, it will be up and down in Annan, and all men will be soldiers.

That's a real soldier of the country.

After all, the people of Annan are only a few million.

That is, the limit of Annam's national strength.

Li Sicheng decided to drive the expedition in person, so he was unwilling to hand over most of his belongings to others. It's almost too upside down. In particular, he has just ascended the throne and has no prestige in the country. I don't dare to let go of military power.

So, Li Sicheng brought 100,000 elites to Pingxiang City.

In just one checkpoint, the army stretched for dozens of miles. Even the army could not be deployed here, but could only be deployed layer by layer.

It can be said that the momentum is huge.

Dozens of miles to the north is the Ming army, the Dian army and the Guangxi army of Mao Sheng's headquarters, as well as the local reconvened Tusi wolf soldiers.

In the small county of Pingxiang, in the face of such a large army, Li Cheng, a fifty or sixty-year-old old Tusi, also followed the army to Annan when he was young.

But I've never seen such a big scene.

Li Cheng summoned all the people of the Li family to the city, almost together with the old and young, women and children, there were only two or three thousand people, as for the so-called city, it was an extremely simple rammed earth building, placed on the nine sides, and it could not even count the specifications of a thousand households.

In other words, Pingxiang has not been captured yet.

It's not that Pingxiang City is difficult to defend, but that Annan's army was stopped by Li Sicheng.

Li Sicheng arrived in the army at this moment, and without saying a word, he rewarded the whole army, encouraged the soldiers, and before the battle, he could not be vented. For a time, the cheers of the Annan army were earth-shattering.

The generals naturally turned to Li Sicheng for war.

Li Sicheng shook his head and said: "Beikou is a big country, and it can't be defeated, so if Beikou comes to the rescue, this battle will be fought, and if Beikou is frightened, this battle will not have to be fought." ”

"And don't fight here, the enemy is strong and I am weak, so we should lure the enemy deep."

In Li Sicheng's heart, he probably wanted to drag it out. But at this time, it is impossible to speak.

And in Li Sicheng's heart, he knew that time was on their side, because the rainy season was coming, and once the rainy season came, the continuous rain was not conducive to combat at all.

The Ming army did not even adapt to the climate here.

There is still more than a month to go before the rainy season begins.

After surviving more than a month, this year's war is expected to end, and when the time comes, we will find a way to end this meaningless war through diplomatic means.

Li Sicheng knows this reason, and Mao Sheng also understands it.

Mao Sheng was also in the Taiping Mansion City at the moment, fidgeting. On the one hand, he gathered the Tusi people from all over the world, and all the other people from all walks of life in the Taiping Mansion.

On the other hand, he was waiting.

Yes, waiting for orders from Beijing.

This is also a kind of consciousness, although Zhu Qizhen said to Guangxi that he had delegated power, at this time Mao Sheng could independently decide to counterattack Annan, but as an old fritter who has been in the officialdom for many years.

He naturally knows that with making decisions comes responsibility.

Therefore, after he reported the matter of the Huang family in Qinzhou, he was waiting for the decision of the imperial court.

Of course, he didn't do nothing, at least he ordered Dong Xing to enter Qinzhou Qitong, that is, the original territory of the Huang family.

But when they arrived, they found that the building was empty, and the Annan people had taken everyone away.

This area was not a good place in the first place, but now it has become a no-man's land.

Plundering the people on the other side to replenish their own household registration is also a normal action of the war between the two countries.

In this way, Dong Xing led the army of Guangdong, stationed in Qinzhou, and was responsible for the defense or attack of this area.

However, this area is near the sea, and Annan has no intention of fighting here, after all, Annan's sailors are much worse than those of the Ming army.

There is a war here, and there are many uncertainties.

The local area of Annan broke into Pingxiang City, that is, the place where the two sides fought was determined. That is the direction of Pingxiang?

Why? Because of Pingxiang's geographical environment. Not far from the south of Pingxiang City, there is a natural danger place, which built a checkpoint in the Hongwu period, which is the famous Zhennan Pass in later generations.

Speaking of which, this is where the border between Annam and Daming is located.

It's just that Zhennan Pass is naturally dangerous, but no matter how good the checkpoint is, it also needs elite soldiers to guard it, if it is placed here with thousands of elites, even if there are hundreds of thousands of Annan troops, they can't advance an inch.

At the moment when the army was preparing to attack Annam, it was once taken over by Jingying, but soon, after the decision to withdraw the troops, it was transferred to the local Tusi, that is, the Tusi Li family.