June 4, the eighth year of Chongzhen, was the day after the Baoxiang Army defeated Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong’s coalition forces.

Luo Zhixue once again held a military and political meeting in Yuzhou City, at which many issues on the Yuzhou defense line were finalized.

It was initially decided to use Yuzhou City as the core, and at the same time build small fortresses at some dangerous locations in the surrounding areas to completely block the Fangcheng Ancient Road and some of the trails in the mountain roads in the surrounding areas.

Even if there will be an attack on Ye County and Wuyang in the future, and strive to capture these two places as the front barrier of the Fangcheng Ancient Road, the battle line will be completely moved to the Central Plains area.

However, the plan will not be implemented by the main force led by Luo Zhixue personally, but by the subsequent troops stationed on the Yuzhou defense line.

Luo Zhixue had already decided yesterday that once he defeated the invading troops of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, he would immediately build the Yuzhou defense line, and then he would lead his army south to the Jianghan Plain.

Even though Ye County and Wuyang seem to be empty of troops now, and even the entire hinterland of the Central Plains is relatively empty of troops now, Luo Zhixue still has no idea of ​​sending troops to occupy the Central Plains now. At most, he will let the subsequent troops stationed here fight.

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As for the main force of the Home Guard Army, they will not continue to penetrate into the Central Plains.

This is not in line with Baoxiang Army’s current and future strategic development plans.

The current strategic plan of the Baoxiang Army has always been very clear: control northern Chu!

Luo Zhixue needs to rely on the food and population resources of the Nanyang Basin and Jianghan Plain to lay the foundation for the Baoxiang Army's hegemony.

Compared with this grand strategy, sending troops to the Central Plains to capture several state capitals is not worth mentioning at all.

What's more, there is no benefit in sending troops to the Central Plains too early.

Once the Central Plains troops are dispatched, they will continue to fight the Ming army in the undefendable Central Plains area, where the Four Battles took place, and losing or losing will not be good for the Baoxiang Army...

Needless to say, if you lose, everything will be over!

What can the Baoxiang Army get if they win?

A Central Plains region where natural and man-made disasters have resulted in a significant reduction in food production and a large-scale population exodus.

After the Baoxiang Army captured the Central Plains region, not only would it be difficult for them to develop themselves through the Central Plains region, they would probably be stuck in a quagmire. In order to maintain their rule in the region and restore local people's livelihood, they would spend a lot of manpower and material resources.

And once the Baoxiang Army marches into the Central Plains, they will really have to fight to the death with the Ming Army

It is estimated that Hong Chengchou would simply give up chasing Gao Yingxiang and others, turn around and lead his army out to kill them. At the same time, the Ming army would definitely mobilize more troops from all directions, and even transfer troops from the border troops to go south.

Regardless of winning or losing, this will continue to consume a lot of manpower and material resources for the Hometown Protection Army.

And the Baoxiang Army that chose to enter the Central Plains now cannot have excess troops, so it can be divided and go south to Jianghan to control the reserves.

This means that we cannot rely on the Chubei region to collect enough money and food in the future.

Relying only on the money and grain confiscated from the vassal prince's palace, the landowners and the output of the Nanyang Basin, which has suffered from years of drought, it cannot sustain it for long.

In addition to these strategic disadvantages, another very important point is that once troops are sent to the Central Plains, the military advantages of the Baoxiang Army will be reduced, and the disadvantages will be quickly amplified.

What are the advantages of the Baoxiang Army?

New infantry, powerful field artillery.

What are the disadvantages?

Cavalry!

Because fighting in plain areas will weaken the advantages of infantry and artillery, while the advantages of cavalry will be further amplified.

So far, the Baoxiang Army has only a few hundred cavalry, even if they include half-baked cavalry, and no more than 500 fine cavalry. This still includes the more than 200 fine cavalry who have just surrendered.

How many cavalry were there in the Ming army? There were not many cavalry in the hinterland of the Central Plains, but there were many cavalry in the frontier army.

The frontier cavalry in Yulin and Datong were all directly involved in encircling and suppressing various rebel armies. Li Tongren, Sun Chengli, Wang Xiazi and the others were the cavalry of the Yulin frontier army...

There was also a Jiliao area in the Ming Dynasty. The border troops here were the essence of the Ming army. The famous Guanning cavalry in later generations came from this area.

No matter how good their record was in the battle with Dongduo, they should not be underestimated. At least they had more cavalry...

After the Baoxiang Army with only a few hundred cavalry entered the Central Plains, they were afraid of being blinded by thousands of Ming Army cavalry.

As for whether the cavalry combat effectiveness of the Baoxiang Army will be higher than that of the Ming Army's frontier troops...can they defeat more with less?

This is hard!

Because the elite cavalry of the Baoxiang Army were originally from the Yulin frontier army cavalry, all tactics and even training methods were those of the elite cavalry of the Ming army's frontier army.

The cavalry of the Baoxiang Army may be able to gain better morale, physical fitness, and equipment advantages through good treatment and better condition.

But this is at best the difference between the Fourth Mixed Brigade and Zuo Liangyu’s unit. The Fourth Mixed Brigade is somewhat stronger than Zuo Liangyu’s unit, but its strength is limited.

Relying on new matchlock guns and new tactics, the First Infantry Brigade dared to carry several times the Ming army to launch a frontal attack in frontal battles.

The 4th Mixed Brigade obviously did not have this ability. It only cooperated with the 1st Infantry Brigade from the flanks, but was counterattacked by He Renlong's troops with nearly 200 casualties. The battle losses of various units were directly promoted in the battle of the eastern suburbs of Yuzhou.

First place!

They also circled the flanks and cooperated with the 1st Infantry Brigade to fight. The loss of the guard battalion on the other side was only about 20 people.

The cavalry in the Baoxiang Army are actually the same as the traditional mixed brigades in the Baoxiang Army, and they still use the same old things.

Against the elite cavalry of the Ming Army's frontier army, the master's strength is limited. Once the number of them increases, there is a high probability that they will attack the enemy!

Not to mention if it’s against the Dongji Jingqi...

Without the advantage of cavalry, the Baoxiang Army would fall into a huge strategic passivity just relying on the advantages of new infantry and artillery.

In a war these days, infantry, cavalry, and artillery are indispensable.

Especially in field battles with flat terrain, which is the large-scale battle that the Baoxiang Army likes most now, cavalry is crucial.

The cavalry is not strong enough, and it is useless to give more artillery to the defending army. They will be surrounded and attacked by the enemy's cavalry in minutes. Even if they can't hit you from the front, they can't send cavalry to cut off your food route...

What’s even more disgusting is that even if the Baoxiang Army fought and killed in the Central Plains, they finally killed the Ming Army and successfully entered the capital...

What next?

Isn’t Li Chuang second?

You can tell with your toes that as soon as Luo Zhixue led his army into the capital, he would send troops to attack Beizhili when he captured the East.

Even if Luo Zhixue's speed to go north is slightly slower, maybe Dongli will go south first.

After all, at that time, the Ming Dynasty was about to be destroyed, and a large number of troops were annihilated or restrained by the Home Guard Army. Even if Dongjiu had the mentality of rushing in to grab a wave, he would come over and do it.
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Huang Taiji is not stupid, on the contrary, he is shrewd.

Moreover, the Eastern Ban is now on the rise as a whole, and the morale of the army is not comparable to that of the decayed Ming army.

Facing the fact that Mongolia had already been conquered, the Baoxiang Army had tens of thousands of cavalry under its command. They also knew how to motorize the Hongyi artillery and brought it directly onto the battlefield for field battles. They also had a large number of heavily armored captives.

To be honest, considering the current background of the Baoxiang Army, it is still very reluctant to fight. Even Luo Zhixue does not have absolute confidence that he can win.

Once the battle is lost, it will be completely over. More than 100,000 bandits will immediately sweep south. There is no place in the North China Plain and the hinterland of the Central Plains to stop them. At that time, Luo Zhixue will have no choice but to escape all the way back to Nanyang.

However, because they chose to go north instead of south, there is a high probability that the vast Yangtze River Basin will still be in the hands of the Ming army at that time. The Ming Dynasty in the south will become the Nanming Dynasty in minutes and become the new enemy of the Baoxiang Army.

The most disgusting thing is that according to the mentality of many Ming Dynasty vassals, civil servants and generals, you can know with your toes that they will contact Dongji to encircle and suppress the anti-traitors and protect the hometown army...

Historically, this is what Nanming did. When faced with Dong Ni entering the Pass, Nan Ming's first reaction was to find Dong Ni and fight against all kinds of bandits together...

Later, Li Zicheng was finished, Zhang Xianzhong seemed to be in trouble, and Dongli showed signs of stealing the world, so he turned his gun and pointed it at Dongli, but by that time it was already too late.

When the time comes, Luo Zhixue, who first suffered a huge defeat in the north and lost his generals, and then faced an attack from the north and the south after escaping back to Northern Chu, will most likely commit suicide on the edge of the Han River...

Although the above is only the worst-case scenario predicted by Luo Zhixue, no matter how you look at it, it is not a good choice to directly enter the Central Plains now.

Especially when there is a large piece of fat in the south like the Jianghan Plain in front of the Home Guard Army.

It can be said that the strength of the Ming Army in the Central Plains is temporarily empty, but the strength of the Ming Army in the Jianghan Plain and even the entire Yangtze River Basin is even more empty...

More importantly, there is money, food and people in the Yangtze River Basin!

As long as he captures the Yangtze River Basin and controls the south of the Yangtze River, Luo Zhixue will be able to use what he is best at: large-scale violent troops and presume to rule the world!

As for playing various tactics, to be honest, Luo Zhixue is really not good at it.

It is also not what many generals under Luo Zhixue are good at.

Luo Zhixue himself knew that the group of mid-level and high-level generals under his command were basically make do, and there were not even a few qualified generals among them, let alone the qualifications for famous generals.

For example, the commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the main force, Huang Dingquan, was just a farmer who fled into the mountains a year ago. He didn't even know a few words, and he had never read any military books...

The command of the battle is also quite satisfactory, and there is nothing outstanding about it.

The reason why the 1st Mixed Infantry Brigade was able to win consecutive battles was purely due to hard power!

There are a lot of people like Huang Dingquan in the rural protection army.

But Luo Zhixue doesn't care. Anyway, the Baoxiang Army is like this. He can't change it in a short time even if he wants to. After all, the sky will not rain down a lot of modern officers with complete military education for him!<

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What Luo Zhixue has to do now is to avoid exposing his own disadvantages as much as possible and strive to maximize his advantages.

Luo Zhixue, who made the final decision, did not stay in Yuzhou City for long. Only three days later, Yuzhou's defense line was initially stabilized, and the 11th and 12th mixed brigades were initially reorganized.<

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Without waiting for the two newly formed mixed brigades to undergo follow-up training, Luo Zhixue directly led the 1st Infantry Brigade and other main forces southward.
To be continued...