Chapter 362 Jiangxi's Troubles

Because of this, Lin Xiao originally set several battle stages for the left and right battlefields.

Needless to say, the combat effectiveness of the main battalion naturally killed all the opponents in this era in seconds, but Lin Xiao still let both troops adopt the tactics of pushing all the way, without deliberately outflanking the enemy in front of them, and reducing the complexity of tactics, just to minimize the logistical pressure.

Because, before this, Liu Xulei's people had already sealed several major passes in western Fujian and northern Fujian.

Especially in the Xianxialing area on the border of Zhejiang and Fujian, Liu Xulei arranged two main battalions outside several mountain passes, completely cutting off the connection between the Qing army in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

As a result, the Qing army in Fujian, which was extremely short of large sea vessels, had no way to escape.

Despite this, several of Xia Bomin's independent battalions followed behind the main battalion, and in addition to logistical support, they also had to sweep away the remnants of the enemy, and sometimes had to set aside troops to occupy some larger cities, which was quite a heavy task.

Therefore, it is necessary to make a few stops along the way, establish several material transit points, and the main force should take the opportunity to rest a little.

But now, after Wang Xing's thousands of elite cavalry joined, the material supply of the two armies could effortlessly keep up with the pace of the main army.

I have to say that Wang Xing has a very flexible mind, and he is indeed a brave and resourceful general.

In addition to guarding the prisoners, he also ordered the rapid mobilization of the people in various places and organized dozens of migrant workers, and even the thousands of his subordinates who stayed in Guangdong also received orders to send troops in turn to participate in the transportation of food and materials.

In this way, there will be enough manpower to carry out segmented transportation and continuously transport the war materials and resources hoarded in Chaozhou to the front line.

As a result, with Wang Xing's full cooperation, Xia Bomin's main battalion, which is also a cavalry, can be described as having enough soldiers and food, and without any worries, he can only attack all the way.

Therefore, in just a week, his Left Route Army has recovered the entire territory of Tingzhou and is advancing to the front line of Jianning and Taining in Shaowu Mansion.

The Right Route Army had also recovered Zhangzhou and successfully invaded the northwest of Quanzhou Prefecture.

On the day of his report to Lin Xiao, one of his forward companies had already conquered the Tiger and Leopard Pass, in front of which was the county seat of Dehua, and further east, it was all the coastal plains, and Xinghua Mansion, the smallest in Fujian Province, was within reach.

It's just that in this way, it has become urgent to contact Zheng Chenggong's department, which is entrenched in the south of Quanzhou and has also heard the news.

……

In addition, the second thing that prompted Lin Xiao to leave in a hurry was that Liu Xulei and Feng Suqin, who were far away in Jiangxi, were in trouble.

Unexpectedly, the maker of this trouble was Zhang Tongchang, an important minister of the imperial court and a descendant of Qu Shiyun.

At the beginning, under the instruction of the imperial court, Zhang Tongchang handed over the garrison tasks around Nanning and all parts of northern Guizhou to Hu Yiqing and Zhao Yinxuan of the Yunnan Army, and personally led the newly trained 30,000 Ming troops north out of Quanzhou and swore to the Northern Expedition.

Zhang Tongchang's move won Lin Xiao's support on the surface, in fact, this was also the first thing Lin Xiao proposed.

In Lin Xiao's view, it is true that the captive army has strong combat strength, but after all, the temporary strength is thin, and after the tens of thousands of Ming troops are trained, it is always a good thing to put them in the rear to clearly waste food, and let them participate in the Northern Expedition.

However, under the negligence of a hundred secrets, Lin Xiao ignored an extremely important point.

That is, unlike Li Yuanyin and Qu Shiyun, Zhang Tongchang is an out-and-out "loyal minister", in his opinion, the monarch wants the minister to die, and the minister has to die, as a minister, loyalty is to serve the country, and loyalty is the righteousness.

Therefore, the arrangement of the small court to push the boat down the river shows that there are masters around Emperor Yongli.

The small imperial court clearly had its own small abacus, that is, to take advantage of the strong east wind of the captive army to instigate Zhang Tongchang to come to the rich Jiangnan region to seize some territory and take the opportunity to expand its strength.

After all, in Guangxi, which is poor and bad, after recruiting tens of thousands of horses at once, it is no longer possible to support more troops.

Of course, Lin Xiao is not a fool, because the shrewd Zhu Yujia clung to Hunan under Lin Xiao's instructions, Zhang Tongchang had no choice but to turn around and enter Jiangxi.

However, no one expected that after ushering in 30,000 elite Ming troops, the development of the situation in Jiangxi quickly deviated from the normal track.

According to the agreement between the two sides, Zhang Tongchang's Ming army was temporarily stationed in Ji'an, Nan'an, Ganzhou and other southern Jiangxi prefectures, and after raising enough grain and grass, they would start the eastward expedition, first recovering Raozhou, Guangxin, Jianchang and other places in the eastern part of Hudong, and then with the cooperation of Liu Xulei's main battalion, they would seek an opportunity to march to Huizhou and Chizhou in the south of Zhili.

According to Lin Xiao's plan, it would be almost enough to give half of Nanzhili to this officer army, and let them develop in Anhui and defend a section of the river at the same time.

However, perhaps it was the imperial court that had already explained, or perhaps it was due to the chronic illness of the generals of the Ming army, after Zhang Tongchang was stationed in southern Jiangnan, once the grain and grass were slightly settled, he immediately started the idea of increasing the number of troops.

Speaking from the heart, maybe Zhang Tongchang's idea is right, as the only army that the imperial court can control independently, when conditions permit, the first thought is always to expand the strength.

Otherwise, when they reach the vast Central Plains, in front of the iron cavalry of the Manchurian Tartars, what can the 30,000 troops do?

You must know that up to now, fools can see that the new-style firearm in the hands of the Marquis of Qinchuan is impossible to give to the official army, and without the advantage of firepower, the only thing the imperial court can do is to expand its troops.

Regardless of the purpose, the result was that in less than a month, Zhang Tongchang recruited more than 20,000 new soldiers, and the total number of troops soared to more than 50,000.

However, Zhang Tongchang's move inevitably caused a chain reaction.

That is, after Jiao Lian, the Duke of Xuanguo stationed in northern Jiangxi, heard the news, he also hurriedly expanded his army.

In fact, in the battle of Nanchang, Jiao Lian's troops suffered heavy losses, and at present, his total number of troops has dropped to more than 16,000 people, deducting the wounded soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers, there are only about 10,000 people who can really go into battle and kill, of which more than 3,000 people are lent to Feng Suqin.

Therefore, Jiao Lian, who was still recuperating from his injuries in Nanchang, heard that Zhang Tongchang had 50,000 people, so he couldn't wait to order the recruitment and expansion of the army.

This order suited the appetite of the two young generals under him, yes, the two little guys didn't say a word, rolled up their sleeves and did it.

In less than a month, the two of them recruited more than 30,000 people in various prefectures in northern Jiangxi, among them, Bai Ying, the young general who guarded Yichun, the capital of Yuanzhou, recruited as many as 20,000 people in Yuanzhou Mansion and neighboring Linjiang and Ruizhou.

In this way, with the original more than 10,000 elites, Jiao Lian's department also soared to 50,000 people, and the logistical pressure more than doubled at once.

In this way, the problem is serious.

In just one month, the total number of the two Ming armies was not less than 100,000, although Jiangxi is a large agricultural province, but after all, it has just experienced the baptism of war, and the population base is six or seven, where can it support so many soldiers.

In the face of the vicious competition behavior of Jiao and Zhang, Liu Xulei saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart.

At present, whether he can expand or not is secondary, the key is that even if he does not fight, Jiangxi's grain and grass will be quickly consumed.

Thanks: "Memories under the Street Lamp" and "Sprite Moon Sea" for the reward! Thank you, dear friends!

(End of chapter)