Over seventy days have passed in a blink of an eye, with no break, and it's really tiring. I'll take a short break these two days, updating once a day. Just two days, so please forgive me.
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In the early morning of April 18, the second year of the Tianqi reign, Xu Hongru led his army to attack Yuncheng. Yuncheng County Magistrate Yu Ziyi was frightened and fled in panic.
After Xu Hongru captured Yuncheng, he marched toward Zou County. Local farmers, "many of them carrying their wives and children, pulling oxen and carts, and carrying bags of food, rushed to meet him, vying for the position, thinking they were heading for the Western Paradise."
On April 20, Wenxiang Sect core members Zhou Nian'an and Meng Xianhan launched a rebellion in Zou County, and the acting magistrate Zheng Yijie fled with his family.
Then, Xu Hongru led his troops to Teng County, and the county magistrate Yao Zhiyin fled at the sight of him. The rebel army had grown to hundreds of thousands of people, and its prestige was greatly boosted.
Afterwards, Xu Hongru took Zou County as the center, and while trying to hold on to the city, he sent troops to attack Yanzhou and Qufu, and to attack Juye in the west. He also made expeditions to Pei County, Rizhao, and Tancheng.
From Xu Hongru's arrangements, it's clear that he doesn't understand military affairs. He thinks he's impressive after bewitching and coercing hundreds of thousands of civilians, and he even launches attacks everywhere.
On April 25, the newly appointed Shandong General Yang Zhaoji joined forces with Xu Dingguo's reinforcements from Henan and defeated the peasant army sent by Xu Hongru to attack Pei County.
On April 27, 3,000 Dengzhen soldiers led by guerrilla general Zhang Bang defeated the peasant army led by Zhou Nian'an and Meng Xianhan and pressed towards Yuncheng from the north.
On April 30, the troops led by Shandong Dusi Yang Guosheng and Liao Dong rescued the crisis in Juye and approached Zouxian.
Xu Hongru suffered a series of defeats and hurriedly retreated to Zou County, Teng County and Yanzhou areas.
The Ming army pursued the victory and divided into two groups. One group was led by Shandong Governor Zhao Yan, Commander Yang Guodong, Deputy General Liao Dong, and Guerrilla Zhang Bang to launch a feint attack on Zou County.
Another route was led by Yang Zhaoji, the general commander of Shandong, who led his sons Yuyin and Yufan, as well as deputy general Zhou Shixi and commander He Chenglong, and captured Erxiadian and Jiwangcheng in one fell swoop.
On May 11th, after more than ten battles, the government troops were winning victory after victory. Xu Hongru, who was left with only the isolated city of Zouxian, still wanted to resist stubbornly. He even threatened the government troops that if they attacked the city, he would massacre the people inside.
On May 17, under the political offensive of Yang Zhaoji and seeing that the situation was hopeless, the pseudo-governor Hou Wang and general Wei Qi tied up Xu Hongru, opened the city gates and surrendered to the Ming army.
At this point, Xu Hongru's flag-raising rebellion was put down in more than a month.
Even though we arrested him and made arrangements in advance, this guy still troubled us for more than a month.
When Zhu Youxiao received the final urgent report, he was neither surprised nor happy. He just put it aside and continued to watch the new army's drills in the training ground.
Ever since he learned that Xu Hongru was trapped in Zou County, Zhu Youxiao knew that victory was inevitable and it was only a matter of time. There was nothing glorious about beating a group of untrained civilians.
But it was such a fool who had no self-awareness, did not know how to fight flexibly and flexibly, and had to defend every city when the army was pressing in from all directions.
He was able to incite tens of thousands of ordinary people to rebel. I really admire him for being so blinded by religious fanaticism.
There were bursts of gunfire and white smoke rising on the training ground. Formations of 300 and 500 people took turns to take the field. Liaozhen, Dongjiang, Jinzhen and Dengzhen completed the drill, and the last ones were the Warrior Battalion and the Four Guards Battalion.
Because of their overwhelming numbers, the Warriors and Four Guards first formed small square formations, and finally a large square formation, totaling 3,000 men. Spears stood up like a forest, and muskets roared like thunder, the power was truly astonishing.
Although there is still room for improvement and becoming more proficient, Zhu Youxiao is still satisfied after more than two months.
"Well practiced." Zhu Youxiao tilted his head slightly and praised Eunuch Cao who was standing beside him.
Cao Huachun secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but the expression on his face became more respectful. "The emperor has ordered this, and I dare not slack off."
Zhu Youxiao smiled, grabbed the telescope, and watched the battle drill more carefully.
"There are just more of them, but they are not as well trained as us." Kong Youde tilted his head and whispered to Zhang Pan.
Zhang Pan read it carefully and smiled faintly when he heard Kong Youde's evaluation, without commenting.
"As long as the soldiers have courage, they can fight the Jiannu in the wild." On the other side in Liaozhen, He Kegang touched his chin and made his own judgment.
Cao Wenzhao smiled and said, "If we talk about courage, our Liaozhen has fought the most battles with the Jiannu, so we are the first."
Zu Dashou nodded slightly, looking as if he agreed deeply.
The generals from Dengzhen and Jinzhen, as well as the officers transferred from various military towns to learn martial arts, were also whispering, commenting, analyzing, and judging.
Zhu Youxiao felt relieved. The new army had only been trained for a short time, and it was already quite good that they could reach the current level.
During this training period, many generals raised many questions and suggestions for improvement based on their own experience and insights from training.
For example, matchlock guns are more suitable for defensive operations. In field battles, the influence of weather, such as wind and rain, must be taken into consideration.
If you are defending a city, you can take measures such as building a tent to protect yourself from the rain. If you are in the wild, you can only put on your bayonet and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
For example, the spear and musket phalanx has poor maneuverability. If it fights against the Jiannu, it will be difficult to pursue and expand the victory even if it wins; but if it loses, it will definitely suffer heavy casualties under the pursuit of the Jiannu cavalry.
In other words, the Spanish Phalanx and the Gustav Phalanx still cannot overcome the embarrassment of infantry against cavalry.
It all comes down to one point: the initiative in combat.
If you set up your battle formation, will they just run into you foolishly? Maybe they will do that the first time or the second time, but who wouldn't learn from the mistakes?
The Jiannu are cavalry, circling your phalanx and refusing to engage you. What can you do? Your phalanx can't catch up, let alone cross the mountains and ridges to the city of Shenyang and directly attack the Jiannu's lair.
Zhu Youxiao had a clear understanding of this and did not think it would be so easy to wipe out the Jiannu.
When he began to train the new army, he also considered selecting and examining generals, and deliberately gave them a relatively rough manual of drill, in order to see which of these generals were capable of using their brains to fight, and which were only suitable to be fierce generals charging into battle.
When he saw someone propose the idea of a trench breastwork, even though it was just a prototype and far from Zhu Youxiao's standards, he felt excited and gratified.
This is the correct way to defend, defending the city without fighting inside. The moat and fortress below the city block the enemy, the musketeers rely on the breastwork fortifications to shoot the enemy, and the cannons bombard the city from above. What a spectacular scene!
Therefore, for such a long time, we have been training both soldiers and generals.
The Officers' Drill Manual was also improved and renamed the Infantry Drill Manual, and began to be published as an official textbook of martial arts.
Good news also continued to come from the Ordnance and Gunpowder Bureau, which was responsible for supplying weapons and equipment to the new army.
With the concentration of skilled craftsmen, the implementation of new rules and regulations, and increasingly scientific management, the benefits are becoming more and more obvious. As for the money, it really is not short of money.
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