Valley Emperor

With the current national strength of the Tang Dynasty, it is far from being able to raise an army of more than 10,000 people.

The combined population of Xingquan Prefecture and Liping Prefecture is no more than 400,000 to 500,000 people, and these two prefectures are both barren. Basic agriculture is also very scarce.

Food is barely self-sufficient, and in the event of a slight natural disaster, a famine will basically occur.

And the Great Tang raises thousands of soldiers, this food is only secondary, after all, the search is more ruthless, and it is barely enough to eat.

However, the various strategic materials needed by the new army of the Tang Dynasty to maintain the war are not so easy to solve. Whether it is iron, copper, saltpeter, sulfur, or even the cloth for making military uniforms and quilts, they cannot be satisfied by themselves, and can only rely on Outsourcing.

Even if the entire Xingquan Mansion and Liping Mansion were looted, it would still be impossible to maintain the war needs of the new army of the Tang Dynasty!

At present, the Tang Dynasty's military support mainly relies on war to support war, and many captures obtained through war, including prisoners, cold weapons, bowl guns, gunpowder, horses, and grain, etc., are used to maintain continuous expansion. and combat.

Most of the cold weapons used by the new army of the Tang Dynasty were actually seized from the Ming army. There are not many cold weapons made by themselves. They are mainly concentrated on the command knives used by officers with better quality and the waist knives used by sword shield soldiers. Such as iron armor, bows and arrows, shields, etc., are actually captured from the Ming army.

And now, the new army of the Tang Dynasty even used a large number of artillery guns captured from the Ming army!

There are two types of artillery units in today's Datang New Army. One is the battalion artillery unit directly affiliated to the infantry regiment, and the other is the artillery battalion directly under the Privy Council. The heavy artillery used by the artillery battalion cannot be captured, and can only be used. .

However, the battalion artillery team that the infantry regiment belongs to can use the Wankou guns captured from the Ming army, because the artillery in the battalion artillery team is also equipped with 150 jin of shotguns according to the standard. The output of artillery workshops is limited, which cannot meet the artillery needs of the rapidly expanding Datang New Army. The battalion artillery teams in many infantry regiments cannot obtain enough 150 kilograms of battalion artillery. They can only use those captured from the Ming army. Bowl cannon.

Although the caliber and power of the Wankou guns captured from the Ming army will be smaller, but some Wankou guns of about 100 catties can still be barely used!

Anyway, better than nothing!

On the contrary, those handguns of the Ming army, um, that is, the firearms held by individual soldiers, basically could not meet the combat needs of the new army of the Tang Dynasty, and they were basically returned to the furnace and recast as waste.

Such a Datang Dynasty is destined to maintain the war only through continuous external expansion and expansion. However, once the Ming army is dragged down to fight a war of attrition, no matter how powerful the new Tang Dynasty is, it will not be able to support much. A long fight.

After all, the Ming army has an entire Ming Dynasty behind it. If they are trapped, they can even use their lives to level the Tang Dynasty!

Not to mention that after being dragged into a war of attrition, the Tang Dynasty could not obtain a large amount of war materials and population through expansion, and it would become poorer and poorer.

So when Hao Bainian said he was worried that the Ming army would stick to Liping Mansion and even avoid a decisive battle with his own side, Li Xuan was a little worried.

A war of attrition is inadvisable!

In this case, the war on Liping Palace City must be more cautious. If possible, it is best to keep the main force of the Ming army out of Liping Palace City, and fight for a strategic decisive battle in the wild, preferably with The same battle as the Battle of the Bronze Drum Acropolis.

Just when Li Xuan and Hao Bainian were worried that the Ming army might fight a war of attrition with them, in fact, someone from the Ming army on the West Road had such an idea.

A few days after the end of the Battle of Tonggu Weicheng, Zhu Zhihai from the Ming army on the west road finally knew that the Ming army on the north road suffered a disastrous defeat under Tonggu Weicheng. The army of more than 20,000 people was completely defeated in less than a day It collapsed, leaving only more than 3,000 people fleeing to the north.

After learning this news, Zhu Zhihai's first reaction was not anger, but contemplation, and then again anxious everyone began to discuss the military situation.

Discuss how the pseudo-Tang thief army was able to defeat the more than 20,000 people of the Ming army on the North Road after defeating more than 10,000 people under Song Zhiwen.

This has twice defeated a total of more than 30,000 officers and troops. If anyone dared to say that it was luck and coincidence, Zhu Zhihai immediately dared to order his head to be chopped off.

Since the pseudo-Tang thieves have been able to defeat the official army many times in succession, and it is still several tens of thousands of official troops, you tell me it is coincidence and luck?

Then I slashed you with a knife, and I can only blame you for being too unlucky?

These pseudo-Tang thieves are so arrogant, they must have something to rely on, and this relying on them has allowed them to win consecutive battles, fight against the official army, and even take the initiative to attack the confidence of the official army.

If you want to exterminate these pseudo-Tang thieves successfully, you must know what these pseudo-Tang thieves rely on? Then you can know the corresponding restraint method.

As long as a corresponding restraint method can be found, the suppression of the pseudo-Tang bandit army is a matter of grasping, and it is still easy, just like the many rebellions that the imperial court suppresses every year.

When everyone discussed, most of them agreed that the main reason why the pseudo-Tang bandit army was able to win consecutive battles was that the firearms of the pseudo-Tang bandit army were too sharp.

Artillery, handguns, explosives, etc. are all big killers on the battlefield, and the pseudo-Tang thieves who have these big killers will be so arrogant.

In addition, they also unanimously believed that whether it was the former Xingquan Mansion or the Ming Army of the North Road, whether it was Su Jiakang or Song Zhiwen, or the follow-up Guizhou Fen Shoudao and Zuo Canzhenglong, they all made a mistake: underestimate the enemy!

At the beginning, Su Jiakang underestimated the enemy. To be honest, it was excusable, because at that time the pseudo-Tang bandit army had just emerged, and the outside world did not know enough about this pseudo-Tang bandit army. It was normal for them to be ordinary bandits on the spot. .

However, Su Jiakang only underestimated the enemy at first, and later he insisted on defending Zhengtai County.

However, the follow-up Song Zhiwen and Long Cangzheng underestimate the enemy, then it is unforgivable. In the face of a pseudo-Tang thief army that has swept across Zhengtai County, Song Zhiwen was defeated in the first Lanjiang battle, and the second Lanjiang battle unexpectedly Still underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, it eventually resulted in heavy losses, and directly led to the subsequent Lanjiang natural moat as a fake, and the pseudo-Tang thief army passed through the Lanjiang natural moat, thus sweeping Xingquan and Lipingfu counties.

Mr. Long was no exception. Facing a puppet army of Tang thieves who had already defeated tens of thousands of officers and troops, he even went south without waiting for the arrival of the main allies on the west road, and fought against the puppet Tang thieves under the Bronze Drum Fortress. The decisive battle, the result was good, more than 20,000 people were beaten by more than 10,000 pseudo-Tang thieves, and those who were defeated could not be defeated again.

And everyone present naturally thought that they couldn't be as stupid as Song Zhiwen and Lord Long, and would do stupid things like underestimating the enemy.

But there is a saying, drunk people always say that they are not drunk; neurotic patients always say that they are not sick, how could it be that I am sick, it is you who are sick, the whole world Everyone is sick except me!

Therefore, everyone present despised Song Zhiwen and the others, but they did not know that they continued to march eastward to suppress the puppet Tang thieves even though they knew that the Ming army on the North Road had suffered a fiasco. This was actually a kind of underestimating the enemy. Behavior.

If they are cautious enough, they will stop, and then continue to accumulate troops, gather an army of 70,000 to 80,000 or even more than 100,000 before continuing eastward, that is foolproof.

Now that they have brought more than 30,000 people to the east, do they think they are better than the more than 20,000 people of the Ming Army on the North Road?

But I can't blame them. I don't know the height of the mountain when I live in the mountains, and I don't know Lin Da when I live in the forest. This is a normal thing. Those who can clear the clouds and fog in the deep mountains and old forests and see the truth clearly will always be in the minority. .

Obviously, these people are only a group of the majority, not a minority.

So they thought they were very cautious, but they still headed towards Liping Mansion~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and even planned to go to Xingquan Mansion.

Of course, they also made a lot of preparations. After they knew from many sources that the firearms of the pseudo-Tang thief army were sharp, they also spent a lot of thought and prepared a lot of corresponding measures.

For example, prepare a large and thick shield that can block bullets. For example, the armor on some heavy armored soldiers is temporarily hung with a piece of iron, especially the protective goggles on the front chest.

These measures are basically the same as what Song Zhiwen did at the beginning. After all, this is the first reaction of ordinary troops when they encounter troops with sharp firearms.

If there is a corresponding weapon, it is natural to use the corresponding weapon. If not, then some defensive means must be made.

Such as shields, shield cars and the like.

Strictly speaking, these things actually have some uses. At least at long distances, they can also block bullets, but at medium and short distances within fifty or sixty meters, they are actually useless.

If you use a thickened iron shield, can you still have a steel armor several millimeters thick with high defense capability?

The bullets fired by the 14mm muskets of the new army of the Tang Dynasty can penetrate the steel armor a few millimeters later, not to mention these thin iron sheets.

Unless you are really shameless and take a very thick and thick big iron into the battlefield!

But if you really take it, then you don't fight, then the dead weight can tire you to death before you go to the battlefield and get bullets.

The Ming army on the west road, who thought that they had taken adequate precautions and considered themselves extremely cautious, arrived not far from Lipingfu city without a hitch. At this time, it had actually been two days since the Ming army captured Lipingfu city!

These two days were not only enough time for the main force of the Ming army to arrive not far from Lipingfu City, but also for the Third Infantry Regiment of the vanguard of the Datang New Army to arrive at Lipingfu City!