Cao Xiong set up camp ten miles northwest of Xiangcheng on the Shilipu of the Beiru River.

"Report, Chen Guan, the right lieutenant of the intelligence department, asks to see you."

Cao Xiong, who was looking at the map, listened to it and threw down his pen, "They are very sensitive, we just arrived here on the front foot, and they came on the back foot." As he spoke, he personally went out of the tent to greet him.

"Zuo Du Lieutenant Chen Guan see the camp seat." Chen Guan is a very young person, dressed in a silk robe and a square scarf on his head, like a talented man.

Before the Chu army officially entered Henan, the two towns of Denglai Town and Huguang Town had already sent a large number of intelligence personnel into Henan.

The intelligence personnel sent by the Chu army are not just as simple as searching for intelligence, in fact, there are many intelligence personnel in the Chu army, not limited to one town and one division. They not only infiltrated the area controlled by the thieves to collect intelligence, draw maps, and inquire about the reality of the enemy's garrison. He also plotted against the enemy's soldiers in the enemy-occupied areas, contacted the squires and merchants in the areas controlled by the army, and even developed eyelines around these thieves, and even assassinated some important people.

Not only that, as early as last year, the intelligence personnel of the Chu army began to enter the area controlled by the Henan Chuang army in various capacities. Many of them entered the thief area under the guise of merchants, and while doing business with the intruding army, they sold them some important materials such as grain and medicine in exchange for gold and silver they had looted, and at the same time lowered their vigilance, they secretly set up many warehouses of materials along some important passages such as the Joux River.

In Changqiao Town, north of Xiangcheng, there is a large secret warehouse, which is enough for tens of thousands of people to use half a month's worth of grain, grass and coal, as well as a lot of gunpowder and cannonballs.

"Brother Chen has worked hard, you have done a good job, and you can actually be in the control area of the bandits. It is not easy to establish such a warehouse. Cao Xiong exclaimed.

Chen Guan smiled, "The camp has won the prize." Actually, it's nothing, it sounds like an exaggeration, but the thieves are just a group of black and black gangsters, and now they have the name of the Great General's Mansion. Actually, nothing has changed. Especially in the Ruzhou area, it is not the main force of the thieves, those imitation civil and military officials stationed there, it is very easy to deal with, and they will immediately call you brothers and sisters with a little bribe. What's more, we were doing business with him, selling them grain, grass, and medicines, and exchanging silver dollars for all kinds of filth that they had plundered. These people treated us as guests of honor, and they were very polite. ”

Chen Guan's disguised identity on the thief's side is the young owner of the Longde firm, a native of Jiangbei, who is famous for his talents. Because of his dealings with the thief army in Ruzhou and Xiangcheng, he was very popular among the thief army. Usually, as long as the name of Chen Dashao, the name of the Longde firm, is announced, his convoy is immediately unimpeded.

"How are the gentry here? I heard that many officials and gentry in Luoyang are now thieves. Cao Xiong asked.

"Not really, the thieves are mainly those military attaches and some military households of the former guard station, and there are some undisciplined scholars. Most of the others. That's just because now the place is occupied by thieves, and it has to be perfunctory for a while. I am familiar with many gentlemen in Xiangcheng. These people are looking forward to the officers and soldiers day and night to drive out the bandits and restore the prosperity. ”

Although Li Zicheng said that he established the General's Mansion in Luoyang and carried out a set of methods to win the hearts of the people by revitalizing the poor and providing disaster relief, they themselves did not produce anything, tens of thousands of troops, plus many family members, etc. It's all about looting. And they only occupy the land of a few state capitals, and if they only rely on the government's stock of money and food, they will not be able to feed so many people.

Therefore, no matter how good the propaganda of the invading army is, they still have to rely on looting to solve the problem of logistics and food. It's just that there are suggestions from Li Yanniu and Jin Xing. Li Zicheng also understood that those ordinary people had no money or food to rob at all. It is better not to rob these poor people at all, but only to stare at those officials and gentry to rob, firstly, the gentry will have money, and secondly, they can buy the poor people.

Because Xiangcheng is far away from Luoyang and is a place that it only occupied this year, it is better than those places in Yiyang, and it is not killed and robbed when it sees the gentry, mainly because the army captured a lot of places last year, and looted a lot of materials. Therefore, now they have begun to be less cruel, and only kill and rob those who have a very bad reputation, and those gentry who have a good reputation in the local area only persuade them to pay money and grain, and do not directly kill chickens and eggs.

However, the so-called persuasion is not something that you want to give, and you don't want to give it.

The puppet officials sent by the General's Mansion in the local areas are mainly held by the original bandits, all of whom are thieves and generals who lead troops, and even many of them are old thieves who can't read big characters. At the suggestion of Niu Jinxing and others, Li Zicheng ordered them to be restrained and let them be gentle.

But that's just a gentleman who is willing to cooperate, if you dare to shirk and don't care about helping, then the result is to raid your home directly.

"Xiangcheng, Jiaxian, Yexian, Baofeng, all counties and villages, I have developed reliable related households, almost all the townships, towns and towns have our people." Chen Guan said with some pride.

Intelligence work is difficult to say, and sometimes it is easy to say. Especially when the enemy is a thief like Li Zicheng, the officials and gentry and ordinary people everywhere are almost naturally hostile to these bandits. Even many ordinary poor people are really unable to live, and no one wants to be thieves.

In the hearts of the people, thieves are thieves, and they are not righteous soldiers.

"There are about 3,000 thieves in Xiangcheng, not Li Chuang's cronies, but a thief army from Xuzhou. The leader was originally a guard house in Xuzhou, but because he was dissatisfied with the abolition of the guard and the dismissal of the military post, and the tuntian fields he had originally occupied were seized by local officials when they were cleared, he turned back in anger, and took a lot of families and military households, and coerced a lot of displaced people, making a big fuss. Later, he couldn't stand in Xuzhou, so he went to Xiangcheng and took refuge in Li Chuang. Li Chuang made him a five-rank mighty general and let him garrison Xiangcheng. ”

Chen Guan is also very familiar with this pseudo-general Wang Jie, and he knows his details very well.

"Although there are 3,000 thieves, they are actually some rabble, and there are less than 1,000 who can really be called soldiers, and 500 of them are treated very well. It was with these family members that the thieves made him a mighty general. ”

Cao Xiong was not interested in this so-called imitation of the mighty general Wang Jie, in his eyes, this person was not an opponent. He had only a few hundred men under his command. Just a battalion commander, but still very visionary.

Moreover, his task is also very clear, which is to lead the light cavalry to intercept the connection between Xiangcheng and Ruzhou, and block the news here, so as not to let the thieves on the Luoyang side know too quickly the news that the Chu army has marched into Luoyang.

"When the wind and clouds rise, the mountains and rivers move. The Huangzhou army is strong, and the strong men of Zhongxing are loyal. Jin Ge Iron Horse, a hundred battles on the battlefield, and a pioneer inside and outside. Sweep vertically and horizontally, revive the Han family, be invincible, and make great contributions. ”

"The flag is shining, the golden drum is sounding, and the dragon and tiger are majestic. Loyalty, leanness, and discipline. Mobile offensive, brave and composed, surprise attack initiative and resourcefulness. ”

In the passionate melody of military music, a majestic army is marching energetically under the leadership of the marching drums. This is an army of infantry, cavalry, artillerymen, and baggage, and under the guidance of one banner after another, whether on horseback, on foot, or in a chariot, the ranks of soldiers are extremely neat.

They wore red and blue uniforms. The military song was sung all the way, and the morale was high.

Cao Xiong and Chen Guan ushered in the horse.

Report. Xiangcheng has been surrounded, and no one has left to ventilate. ”

"Good." Zhang Shan praised Cao Xiong loudly. "Send people to the city to persuade them to surrender, let the artillery choose a good position, if the thief army refuses to surrender, then we will use artillery to open the city, take Xiangcheng and then cook."

Arriving in Xiangcheng was an uncoordinated force in Zhangshanhuguang Town. In fact. Only two men and horses came, one infantry and one cavalry, and the rest of the troops marched behind with the artillerymen.

The foot markers that came with the riding mark were also on horseback, mainly mounted infantry. There are also some who are spearheads.

The spearhead is also a unique branch of infantry in the Chu army.

According to the current system of the Chu army, the infantry is also divided into many types, the most important infantry is the line infantry, which is the largest number of infantry arms, they are equipped with flintlock firearms, according to different battlefield situations, forming horizontal formations or columns or hollow phalanxes, shooting the enemy with dense platoons, firing powerful firepower.

The line infantry was mostly recruits, and in addition, the strongest infantry in the Chu army was organized as grenadiers. Each of these grenadiers carried a grenade bag with six to eight grenades, and threw grenades at enemy lines with their strong bodies during combat.

At the same time, these grenadiers were also armed with shields and cold weapons such as waist knives and spears. In battle, they are often sent to the front to hold their ground. More often than not, they are used as reserves and guards.

In addition to line infantry and grenadiers, there are four types of light infantry and heavy infantry, as well as spearhead and mounted infantry.

Light infantry is similar to light cavalry, they are mainly experienced veterans of the infantry, their task in battle is to take the lead when charging, cover when retreating, and shoot not in formation, but skirmishers, they are generally more skilled in archery, and sometimes have to take on the task of flanking the enemy's flanks.

The mounted infantry is equipped with horses and has strong mobile strength, which is responsible for mobile interception, pursuit and other tasks.

Heavy infantry, on the other hand, is equipped with heavy armor and even large shields, and they are not many in number, but they are also the same as heavy cavalry, which can play an important role in critical times.

The last type of infantry is the spearhead.

The spearhead is actually similar to the night no-take, and it is also equivalent to the hunters in European countries at this time. Most of these people come from Orion, and they have excellent personal martial arts, and they are often very versatile, and they are proficient in everything from horseback shooting, firing guns, and even setting traps.

These elite soldiers are often responsible for reconnaissance missions, and also have special operations missions, such as infiltrating enemy camps, riding horses in enemy cities, assassinating enemy generals, poisoning, intercepting enemy heralds, scouts, messengers, and so on.

At this time, Zhang Shan rushed to Xiangcheng first with two target foot cavalry, mainly mounted infantry and sharp infantry, and the cavalry was light cavalry.

The artillery was still behind, but the Chu army still had artillery.

The first two cavalry signs arrived, and they brought with them cavalry guns.

Cavalry artillery is also the exclusive equipment of the Chu army, this kind of cannon is smaller than the ordinary infantry cannon, more lightweight, but compared with the ordinary mountain grenade light artillery, it is more powerful. The use of multiple horses to transport cavalry guns greatly increased mobility.

These cavalry guns have firepower equivalent to the four-pounder cannon of a field artillery battalion, and they have no weak attack capabilities. Especially in field battles and sieges.

In particular, its lightness and high mobility greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the cavalry units after being equipped with this kind of artillery. Just like now, the thousands of pounds of artillery in the heavy artillery battalion are moving slowly, and even the field artillery in the field artillery battalion is very heavy and inconvenient to transport. However, the cavalry troops quickly maneuvered with mounted artillery, and with the lighter weight and assembleable mountain howitzers, the mobility of the Chu army was greatly increased.

The men sent to persuade them to surrender soon returned and reported that the bandit army in Xiangcheng refused to surrender.

"Then set up all the cannons, him, and have lunch when it's done!" Zhang Shan waved his hand vigorously and said without hesitation.

"Do you want to wait for the troops behind to come before attacking?" A staff officer made a proposal.

"We have no less than 5,000 men and horses here, as well as artillery, do you think we have to wait for a large army to come? There's no need for that, give me the order, siege the city! Take the city and go into the city for lunch. ”

(Did it snow on you today?) (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you yebaoyin, Shan Qingying, the brothers who slept on my top bunk, Qingqi for their support, thank you brothers!