Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 291: Moving to Yokoyama
After making the decision to attack Dangtu directly, Yuelutemur closed his eyes and pondered for a while. He was the commander-in-chief in the south sent by Emperor Shundi of Yuan Dynasty to suppress the Red Turbans, so he had to consider the bigger picture and could not just focus on the city of Dangtu. If possible, he even wanted to recapture Luzhou occupied by Lu Jin.

So he thought for a moment and asked again, "This Lu thief, in addition to the troops he has in Dangtu and Caishi, and the more than 20,000 captured and surrendered soldiers, how many troops does he have left in Luzhou on the other side of the river? Do you know?"

"This..." Chen Zhaoxian thought for a while before saying.

"I have discussed this with my father before. According to the information we have gathered in the past year, the bandits under the Lu bandits are divided into battalions of 800 to 900 people. Above the battalions, there is a regiment training post, and the chief officer is called the regiment commander. Each regiment has five battalions of 1,000 people, about 4,000 to 5,000 people.

"The bandit Lu has about 20 regiments under his command, including the naval, land, infantry and cavalry, which is about 100,000 people. This time, there are about five regiments and two brigades used to cross the river. Among them, there are four infantry regiments, most of which wear red armor, one cavalry regiment, most of which wear white armor, and two imperial guard brigades, all of which wear yellow armor.

“But we have only found out the number of this Imperial Guard Brigade, and we still haven’t figured out its specific organization. However, it should be much larger than an ordinary regiment. There may be seven or eight thousand-household battalions under one brigade. Moreover, this Imperial Guard Brigade is the personal army of the Lu thief, and the entire army mainly uses firearms.

"In addition, there is also a military system above the militia. Three regiments form a division, and the rebel official is called the superintendent. Each division has 14,000 to 15,000 people. Two divisions together form an army, and the rebel official is called the general manager. The strength of each army is around 27,000 to 30,000.

"The bandit from Lu should have brought only one army with him when he crossed the river this time, plus his two personal guard brigades. There must be at least two more armies left in Luzhou.

"It is said that the 35th Army is stationed in Anqing, and its commander is Liao Yongan, a wanted criminal from Chaohu Navy. There is also a 36th Army stationed in the area from Haozhou to Lai'an, and its commander is Zhu Liangzu from Lu'an.

"This man was previously the Marshal of the Volunteer Army of Lu'an. He also led troops with Zuo Junbi to suppress Miss Jinhua. Miss Jinhua herself was also beheaded by Zhu Liangzu himself. This man had the courage to take the enemy's head in the midst of thousands of troops. Unexpectedly, after being captured alive by the Lu thief, he actually betrayed the court and became a general under the rebels."

Yuelutemur was surprised when he heard this. He had never studied the generals under Lu Jin before. As soon as he was sent here by Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty, Xu Song had already attacked Hangzhou and he had no time to take care of Lu Jin at all. It was not until he heard Chen Zhaoxian's introduction at this time that he knew that one of Lu Jin's generals was the former marshal of the Yuan court's volunteers.

So he thought about it and said, "Is it possible to recruit this Zhu Liangzu and persuade him to rebel against the Lu bandits?"

Chen Zhaoxian shook his head. "It's unlikely. I heard that the Lu thief is very careful. All the families of generals, whether they are surrendered generals or from Chaohu, are held hostage by his imperial guards. If Zhu Liangzu dares to rebel, he will have to give up his family.

“Besides, that thief Lu is so cautious, how could he not be on guard against the general’s rebellion? He must have planted a lot of people around him. Even if he really wanted to rebel, even though he is the general manager of the army and has tens of thousands of soldiers under his command, it is hard to say whether he can take away a regiment of soldiers.

"There was also Dong Tuanxiao, the governor of Jining Road. Before he went south to support Hangzhou, he was leading his troops to attack Lai'an County where Zhu Liangzu's 36th Army was stationed. As a result, he was defeated by the bandits from Lai'an in one battle, losing more than troops and all his food and grass. He retreated to Liuhe in disgrace, and before he could fight again, he was called to support Hangzhou.

"Zhu Liangzu is determined to go against the imperial court. How can we recruit him? Besides, the Lu thief has treated him well. He is a surrendered general, and his position is no lower than that of the old thief from Chaohu. How can he rebel so easily?"

After listening to Chen Zhaoxian's introduction, Yue Lu completely gave up the idea of ​​recruiting Zhu Liangzu, and then he hesitated for a moment before suddenly shouting.

"Come here, ask the barbarian Hague where his navy is. If there is no fighting at Hukou, ask them to take the navy down the river immediately. Also, ask Aslan to take Yang Guantong with him to join the navy in the counterattack against Anqing."

Chen Zhaoxian was stunned when he heard this, and asked hurriedly, "What about Yang Guantong, the Miao general from Xiangxi?"

"Exactly, what's wrong?" Yue Lu asked doubtfully, "What's wrong?"

Chen Zhaoxian certainly didn't dare to oppose Yue Lu's order, but he still questioned, "I know about Yang Guantong, but didn't Yu Que, the marshal of Huaidong, tell Your Majesty that it's best not to use these Miao troops? These people are all mountain barbarians, uneducated, and often plunder when fighting. If we let them make military achievements again, and they refuse to go back, I'm afraid it will cause trouble again."

Yue Lu sighed when he heard this. He certainly knew what Emperor Shun of Yuan and Yu Que meant, but he still spoke.

"We are in such a predicament now, why should we care so much? The Xu bandits have just been repelled, and the Lu bandits have led their troops across the river. It is obvious that they are connected. If we continue to let them entangle back and forth like this, the court will only be exhausted. When Jiangnan falls, this half of the country will be lost.

"Rather than losing Jiangnan, it is better to drive the tiger to devour the wolf. Isn't the Miao army good at fighting? The Lu bandits' soldiers don't seem to be bad either. Let them fight. It would be best if both sides are defeated. We can take the opportunity to recover the lost territory.

"Besides, it doesn't really matter whether Yang Guantong can recapture Anqing. Now we are confronting the Lu bandits here. His tens of thousands of armored soldiers are huddled together and camped with their backs against the city. His five thousand armored cavalry are more elite than our cavalry. The tens of thousands of soldiers you brought who don't even have armor are not enough for these five thousand armored cavalry to kill. What should we do now?
"The best way is to send someone to attack his rear and attract him to withdraw his troops for reinforcements. As long as Yang Guantong can distract his attention, even if the Lu bandit is unwilling to send troops to support him, he will certainly be eager to fight us. If we can defeat him, we can think of ways to stabilize the rear. In this way, as long as he is eager to fight, he will definitely reveal his flaws, and that will be our chance."

"So that's it!" Chen Zhaoxian suddenly realized.

At the same time, on the east wall of Dangtu City, Lu Jin also led a group of generals to patrol on the top of the city. Looking at the sturdy camps outside the city and the army training inside and outside the city, several newly promoted commanders could not help but show joy on their faces.

Hua Yunlong was also happy and said, "It is said that Jiangnan is rich. We didn't know how rich Jiangnan is before, but now we have learned a lot. There are really many people and food. We have only crossed the river for a few days, and we have expanded to five regiments. When we were in Huaixi before, it was not easy to gather five regiments of soldiers.

"And the food. Nahachu is such a good man. Hahahaha. He actually prepared 500,000 dan of military rations for us. I don't think our army of tens of thousands can finish it in a year."

Wu Fu said immediately, "That's because the Marshal chose a good day to cross the river. It happened to be the time when the autumn grain had just been harvested and the warehouses were full of fresh grain. If he had come a month earlier, there really wouldn't be so much grain."

"Hehe, that's right. When have we followed the Marshal to fight, we have never suffered any loss." Hua Yunlong also laughed.

After several days of sorting and adjustment, the various departments finally summarized the amount of military rations they had seized. Only then did they learn that Nahachu had stockpiled a large amount of grain in Caishiji and Dangtu City. It was not known whether it was intended to be transported north from the port to Dadu, or simply kept here as military rations. But now that it had been seized by the Shengwu Army, it naturally belonged to the Shengwu Army. The generals were of course very happy to receive this news. They had never seen such a rich haul.

Only Lu Jin showed no joy on his face. It had been several days since he crossed the river. He had humiliated Chen Yexian in a very cruel way, hoping that Chen Zhaoxian would bring a large army to fight a decisive battle with him. If he could defeat him in a field battle, it would save him the trouble of subsequent sieges. But he waited and waited, but this man did not come.

Just as Lu Jin was staring at the camp outside the city in a daze, Bao Yu and Ye Sheng came hurriedly from a distance.

"My lord, there is news."

"Oh? Tell me." Lu Jin came back to his senses immediately after hearing this. Bao Yu immediately leaned in and whispered, "I sent someone to contact Jiangning Station, and they said that Chen Zhaoxian is still gathering troops to gather in Lishui County. The current strength of Lishui is roughly around 80,000, but there is also a group of troops from Shangyuan and Jurong to go there. By then, the total strength of the Yuan army in Lishui may be around 100,000."

Upon hearing this, all the generals around fell silent. More than a hundred miles to the east was the Yuan army of 100,000 soldiers. This was the first time they faced an enemy force of such a scale, and they were always a little nervous.

Lu Jin did not panic and asked, "Are there any more news? Do you know the enemy's equipment? How many armors, crossbows, and cavalry do they have?"

"Well, we've done statistics on the armor situation before. The intelligence station estimated that there were only more than 10,000 armored soldiers in Lishui at most. Some of them were taken away by Dong Tuanxiao when Xu Song attacked Hangzhou.

"There are about 2,000 cavalrymen left behind in Jiqing Road. They are usually stationed in various places and have probably never trained together. This time they were probably temporarily summoned together by Chen Zhaoxian.

"I really don't know how many bows and crossbows there are."

Lu Jin nodded and said nothing more. At this time, Ye Sheng also stood up and reported, "My lord, my scouts found traces of cavalry in the east today, but did not see any enemy cavalry, only a large number of horse hoof prints. The scouts inquired with the people along the way and learned that there were about a thousand cavalrymen who came from the east today and went straight to Lishui County. Some people also said that they saw a Tartar official in that cavalry."

Lu Jin frowned upon hearing this, and then said, "They should be the cavalry that Dong Tuanxiao borrowed from Nahachu. They have already fought their way to Jiangxi, which is a place with mountains and water. The navy is the most important, and the cavalry is useless. They must have received Chen Zhaoxian's request for help and returned from the south."

Ye Sheng nodded, "That's what I think too."

Lu Jin suddenly turned around and looked at Yang Jing and the others. "What do you think? If we set up camp outside the city, will Chen Zhaoxian dare to lead his troops to fight us?"

Everyone looked at each other in surprise when they heard this.

Without waiting for their reply, Lu Jin waved his hand and said, "Let's go back to the government office and study the sand table."

The group returned to the back hall of the government office, looked at the sand table of the Jiangnan region in the main hall, and asked the question again, "Do you think Chen Zhaoxian dares to fight me at the foot of Dangtu City?"

Zhang Desheng immediately said, "If he wants to avenge his father, he will definitely come, right?"

Yu Tonghai thought for a moment and said, "Chen Zhaoxian is not stupid. After so many days, the Marshal still released a few prisoners. He must know that we have warships and gunboats. Dangtu is close to the Guxi River, which leads directly to Shijiu Lake. Our navy gunboats can directly enter Shijiu Lake from the Yangtze River.

“If we use Dangtu City as the battlefield, the tower ships parked on the Guxi River can fire artillery support to the battlefield. This is a huge advantage for us. Although we know that the Imperial Guards also have artillery, the enemy should not know this. They must think that artillery can only be installed on ships.

"In addition, Dangtu is surrounded by dense water networks. His military strength is three times that of ours. It is not certain that a hundred thousand troops can be deployed in a place full of rivers and lakes. If they really reach the city, they may be bombarded by the navy. I don't think they will necessarily come."

Everyone couldn't help but nodded when they heard this, thinking that Yu Tonghai's analysis made sense. Lu Jin also pondered for a moment and raised another question.

"He won't come, but we can't just keep dragging it out and wasting time. Since he doesn't dare to come, let's take the initiative to go over there. Where do you think we should go so that he will dare to fight us? If you were asked to choose a battlefield that is beneficial to us and also beneficial to the Yuan army, which one would you choose?"

"This..." Everyone looked at the sand table and thought about it. Some stood opposite Lu Jin and put themselves in the shoes of the Yuan army to see where the decisive battle would be.

Yang Jing said without thinking, "First of all, we can't go too far from Dangtu. We are crossing the river alone, and we only have Dangtu City as a foothold. We can't go too far alone. First, it is too dangerous for our army. Second, such an abnormal behavior may make Chen Zhaoxian suspicious.

"From Chen Zhaoxian's perspective, we can't be too far away from Lishui. He has 100,000 troops, and the daily food consumption for the people and horses is a huge expense. He must rely on the city as a grain station. If we transport grain directly from Lishui to Dangtu City, it's a distance of hundreds of miles. We still have the advantage of cavalry. Isn't he afraid that our grain supply will be cut off?
"So, to sum up, the battlefield that can satisfy both the enemy and us must be between Dangtu and Lishui, and not close to Shijiu Lake and Guxi River. Brother Tonghai just said that we have the advantage of gunboats, and they will definitely not get too close to rivers and lakes."

Everyone nodded in agreement again after hearing this, and Zhang Desheng added.

“If both sides intend to fight a decisive battle in the wild, it is best not to camp in the open wilderness, because there is no strategic location to defend on the open ground, and it is easy to be surrounded by the enemy on all sides. It is best to have a dangerous place to rely on, such as mountains, forests, and rivers. There is a terrain to rely on, so that we only need to defend one side when we set up camp, instead of four sides.

"Also, Chief Steward Yang mentioned the rations for the 100,000-man army just now. In fact, it's more than rations. If we go out to meet the enemy, we will have more than 30,000 troops. With so many people, even if we can transport food from behind, we will still need a lot of firewood and clean water. If we can camp with our backs against the mountains and forests, we will have endless firewood and water, and we don't have to worry about the army running out of food.

"We are like this here. The enemy has three times as many troops as us. They must also look for a place like this."

Feng Guoyong looked at the sand table and concluded, "It's far away from rivers and lakes, so our navy doesn't have the opportunity to use its artillery advantage. It can't be close to the city, and we have to camp with our backs to the mountains and facing the water. The site must be able to accommodate hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides to fight and facilitate the enemy's deployment of troops. This is the only place that meets the above conditions."

He stretched out his hand and pointed to Hengshan, not far to the northeast of Dangtu County. Hengshan was the boundary mountain between Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province in later generations. It was sandwiched between Ma'anshan City and Nanjing City. It was located on the north side of Bowang District of Ma'anshan City in later generations. The origin of Bowang was related to Hengshan, because you climbed to Bowang.

There is also a mountain to the west of Lishui County where Chen Zhaoxian was located, called Wuxiang Mountain. Although its altitude and area cannot be compared with Hengshan, it is completely sufficient to meet the firewood and water needs of an army of 100,000. Moreover, they can camp with their backs to the mountain, build solid fortifications, and store food and grass. With the mountain as a barrier, it is not easy for the Shengwu Army to cut off their food supply.

This strategy is also effective for the Shengwu Army. If Lu Jin sets up camp with his back to Hengshan, he can transport grain directly from Dangtu or Caishiji to Hengshan. In addition, he has the advantage of cavalry, so he is not afraid of the enemy intercepting the grain route.

Feng Guoyong stretched out his hand and measured it on the sand table, and immediately praised it.

"This place is perfect. The distance between Hengshan Mountain in Dangtu and Wuxiang Mountain in Lishui is about 30 miles. There is open land in the middle, enough for an army of more than 100,000 to deploy.

"There is a low mountain range in the middle. The mountain sandwiched between Hengshan and Wuxiangshan is called Xiaomaoshan. To the south of Xiaomaoshan is a series of discontinuous hills. Both sides can hide troops around these hills. If the artillery positions of the Imperial Guards are placed on the top of the hills, they can overlook and shoot at the plains below. This is simply a series of naturally formed bastions, perfect for a battlefield!"

(End of this chapter)