Page 285
Page 285
He saved Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.
Especially when Li Zicheng was rescued, Luo Rucai fell seriously ill. As soon as he heard that Li Zicheng was in trouble, he immediately sent troops to rescue Li Zicheng.
This guy doesn't trust the government, and his philosophy is "thieves don't fight thieves", and he wants to overthrow the Ming court.When there were conflicts among the rebels, he was in charge of mediating. Once Zhang Xianzhong was almost killed by Li Zicheng, and it was Luo Ru who sent Zhang Xianzhong [-] cavalry to help Zhang Xianzhong escape from a dangerous situation.
Yang Sichang's evaluation of Luo Rucai is: "Qukui is the most cunning, and the cunning is the most cunning. In the past 20 years, he has been trained to be the most refined and fierce, and he will not die or surrender!"
Luo Rucai's old battalion is indeed brave. In terms of combat effectiveness alone, it may surpass the soldiers of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.
However, this guy has poor military discipline and likes to enjoy himself.
Luo Rucai had dozens of wives and concubines, and also raised several theater troupes, and his generals followed suit.
After escaping from Zhang Xianzhong's territory, Luo Rucai's wives and concubines were scattered. In just one year, he had dozens of wives again.
The cavalry of this guy has been restored to 2000, and there are thousands of old infantry battalions. The combat effectiveness is likely to be close to that of the Qing elite.
Huang Shun and Fei Yinggong led 7500 soldiers and 12000 civilian husbands, and marched towards Luzhou Prefecture in a mighty manner.The reason why there are so many civilians is because there are no rivers along the way, and the expanded army has a lot of baggage.
Luo Rucai personally led [-] cavalry to attack, but he couldn't find a chance to strike.
In desperation, he ordered to withdraw from the siege and chose to confront the Datong army.
The Datong army went straight to the outside of Luzhou City. Zhuzhi Feng Daxi, the prefect of Luzhou, said, "Jiangxi soldiers are coming, open the city quickly to welcome them!"
Seeing that the Datong soldiers were welcomed into the city by the officers and soldiers, Luo Rucai was so angry that he almost spat out old blood.
He was also a traitor, he besieged Luzhou for three months, the whole city's soldiers and civilians rose up to resist, but Zhao Han's soldiers were able to enter the city in a big way.
"go!"
Luo Rucai's entire army withdrew back to Lu'an, but on the way, this fellow led the cavalry and suddenly plunged obliquely in the direction of Shucheng County.
He did not fight positional warfare with Datong soldiers, but harassed Shucheng, which had already divided the land, and harassed the logistics and food roads of the Datong army by the way.
Two thousand cavalry came at a gallop, and the peasant association and peasant soldiers had no time to react.
"kill!"
The bandit cavalry broke into the village, killed everyone they saw, and left with only a small amount of food.
Many of the people in Shucheng moved from the south, and they only finished dividing the land for half a month.It's just that the peasant association has been formed, and the peasants and soldiers have just put up a show, and they haven't even had time to practice.
"Dang Dang Dang Dang!"
"Woo! Whoa! Whoa!"
Bells were ringing and whistles were blowing again in the village, and the peasants, soldiers and peasant associations quickly assembled.
Luo Rucai killed dozens of villagers, and when he saw the rest of the villagers assembled into an army, he immediately ordered to turn around and leave.
Arriving at the next village, there was another attack and killing. After the villagers gathered, Luo Ru escaped again with the cavalry.
Two thousand cavalry marched through villages and towns, raiding and killing hundreds of peasants in three days.
He had no other intention than to disturb the rear of the Datong Army so that Huang Shun and Fei Yinggong, who had just occupied Luzhou, could not concentrate on attacking Lu'an.
Zhao Han's shortcoming of not having cavalry was finally exposed, and he couldn't even chase after him. He had to mobilize several times the number of troops to chase and intercept him.
Huang Shun and Fei Yinggong had nothing to do about it. In ten days, more than 2000 farmers were killed or injured.
Luo Rucai's cavalry rushed into the village and chopped it down, and they didn't deliberately massacre the village. Anyway, they ran away after killing people, and they couldn't even touch the shadow of ghosts.
In desperation, Huang Shun simply ignored it and led his troops to attack Luo Rucai's territory.
"Son of a bitch!"
"It's not to grab food, it's just to kill people. If I catch Luo Rucai, I will cut him into pieces!"
When Zhao Han got the news in Nanjing, he was furious and sent the cavalry from Jeju Island ahead of time.The Mawari horses continued to breed, and the Jeju pony was temporarily used to fight, only to kill Luo Ru so that he would not be allowed to kill everywhere.
It only takes a few days to go back and forth from Shanghai to Jeju Island.
Hu Dinggui, Wang Yaochen, and Chen Tangong came with cavalry, while Lu Xiangguan stayed in Jeju Island to manage the civil affairs.
In a fit of rage, Zhao Han called Lu Xiangsheng, and ordered Lu Xiangsheng to lead the cavalry to pursue the enemy.
Chapter 345 [Dragon Cavalry Battle]
No matter how much the cavalry harassed and harassed, they could only be disgusting, and it was the upright battle that decided the outcome.
When Huang Shun and Fei Yinggong led troops to surround Lu'an, Luo Rucai could only lead the cavalry to move back and forth between Shucheng and Lu'an, trying to cut off the Datong army's food transportation channel.
These cavalry could no longer run around. Although they were still wreaking havoc in villages and towns, their range of movement was restricted.
Luo Rucai only looked at the formation and equipment of the Datong Army, and knew that he would definitely not be able to fight.So he wanted to cut off the food roads, deplete the morale of the Datong Army, and wait for the opportunity to launch a fatal blow when the Datong Army was short of food.
"My lord, we found a food transport team ahead!"
"Go, the deal is coming!"
These old thieves are really capable. For nearly a month, they ate, drank and sacked all on the road.Go to bed at night, just put on a blanket, and it doesn't matter if you let the mosquitoes bite you.
Woke up during the day and rode wildly. When the horse was about to get tired, he quickly moved to a relatively safe area.
After resting, he ran out again, never staying too long.And only grabbing food for a day or two, can resist not grabbing goods, and try to keep your mobility as much as possible.
"The thieves are coming, line up!"
Three thousand civilian husbands and one thousand farmers and soldiers transported grain and grass with carts.
After Jiangxi was able to produce its own telescope, this equipment has been popularized to middle-level officers.In order to guard against cavalry, it is even specially equipped for food transport teams.
When Luo Rucai rushed forward with the cavalry, the trolleys had quickly formed into a formation.
There are grain trucks on the outside, farmers and soldiers on the inside, and civilian husbands on the inside.
Zhao Han upgraded his equipment every time, and those that were eliminated were distributed to farmers and soldiers.These farmers and soldiers were all wearing leather armor, and the peasants raised their shields one after another to avoid being shot by the cavalry's arrows.
"His mother!"
Luo Ru reined in his horse and stopped far away, feeling a little headache looking at the car formation.
The 4000-strong grain transport team, facing the surprise attack of [-] cavalry, would have collapsed if it were replaced by an official army.
But not only did the peasants and soldiers not collapse, the peasants did not run away, but they also took the initiative to gather the carts into a circle.
With a big wave of Luo Rucai's hand, the cavalry divided into two teams and charged towards the two sides of the food transport team.According to his experience, if he rushed within twenty or thirty steps, the enemy soldiers would definitely run away in fright.
"Don't look outside, bury your head and raise your shield to hide!" The officer of the food transportation team shouted.
In fact, the peasants were also afraid. There were shields on the grain trucks, and they all put the shields on them at the moment, squatting in the middle of the trucks and shivering.
As for those farmers and soldiers, not only were they wearing leather armor, but they were all wearing small round hats.This kind of round hat can not only block the sun, but also defend against arrows, which is cheap and useful equipment.
"Shhhhhhh!"
Luo Rucai saw that charging and threatening didn't work, so he ordered the cavalry to start shooting arrows.
The peasants and soldiers used the grain trucks as fortifications, squatted halfway behind the trucks with small round hats, and stretched out their long guns, waiting for the cavalry to come and die.
The cavalry fired arrows for two consecutive rounds. Although they caused damage, the effect was not great.
"Ah! My feet, my feet!"
"I've been hit by an arrow, I'm going to die!"
Several civilian husbands shouted in horror, but arrows penetrated through the gap between the shields.
The officers of the food transportation team shouted: "Don't move, don't shout! Whoever dares to move will take back the family's property. This is what was agreed before departure!"
After shouting several times in a row, the chaos in the car formation quickly stabilized.
Luo Rucai didn't order to release arrows anymore, and each cavalry only brought two quiver.Now that Lu'an is surrounded, they can't resupply nearby, and the arrows they use are one less.
"Rush again!"
Luo Rucai led the cavalry and charged again threateningly, but the chariot formation of the grain transportation team remained motionless.
Faced with such a situation, Luo Rucai finally went blind, and simply let the cavalry dismount to rest, and fed some salt water to restore the horse's strength.
After a while, Luo Ru led his troops into the distant woods.
The sun is shining directly in this place, even if people don't suffer from heat stroke, the horses will suffer from heat stroke.
By the way, wait for the grain transportation team to start again, and charge in the middle during the march.
Waiting left and right, the food transportation team actually stayed in place, and took out dry food and water to eat and drink on the spot.
All food convoys are ordered, and their first priority is to ensure safety.
The two sides are so exhausted.
It is very worthwhile for the Datong Army to be able to use a grain transportation team to hold back Luo Rucai's cavalry from raging in the area.
……
Lu Xiangsheng's war horse was not from Jeju, but Zhao Han collected it from wealthy households.
As long as the shoulder height exceeds 1 meters, the folks can sell it to the government.The government will not only give money, but also record credit. If you donate a few more qualified war horses, the government will directly share an extra mu of land!
This is a temporary policy and is only used when Zhao Han is short of horses.
Thousands of horses have been collected in this way, and they have been carefully bred since last year.Mainly in troughs, they are pulled out for a walk every day, and thrown to the training ground to let them get used to the sound of guns and guns.
Another [-] horses were transported from Jeju Island, and [-] war horses were gathered in Tongcheng, excluding those who died in the sea.
Two thousand cavalry and three thousand horses rushed towards Shucheng.
The chief will be Hu Dinggui, and the deputy will be Lu Xiangsheng. Zhao Han asked Hu Dinggui to listen to Lu Xiangsheng's opinions.
After arriving in Shucheng, the whole army rested temporarily, let the horses rest for a day, and at the same time determined the direction of the enemy cavalry through intelligence.
"Luo Rucai's old thieves are powerful, and many of them are the Ming frontier army," Lu Xiangsheng said to Hu Dinggui. "The frontier army at that time was much stronger than the current frontier army. They were able to cross the Great Wall and take the initiative to attack Mongolia."
In fact, this is nothing to brag about. The Mongolian soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty also pulled their hips. Huang Taiji has already surrendered many Mongolian tribes.
Hu Dinggui said: "Our horses are short, so I don't know if they can catch up."
Lu Xiangsheng smiled and said: "Our army's horses are short, but the enemy's horses are tall? Luo Ru has only rebelled for more than ten years, and has no supplies of grassland horses. He can only collect war horses in the Ming Dynasty. Maybe some good horses can be obtained, but most of the war horses Almost like us.
Hu Dinggui also laughed: "There are many amazing horses in Jeju Island, all with a shoulder height of more than four feet five. I heard that there are hundreds more to be transported. It only takes three years to ride a good horse to kill thieves."
Lu Xiangsheng was a little surprised: "It's true that the shoulder height is more than four feet five?"
"There are four feet eight." Hu Dinggui said.
Lu Xiangsheng was a little excited when he heard this, and he said confidently: "In three to five years, you can lead cavalry across Mobei, and maybe you can achieve the feat of sealing wolves and living in Xuxu!"
A year ago, Lu Xiangsheng would not have such an idea.
But he saw Zhao Han's policy and the strength of the Datong army, and he was very sure that he could dominate the world, and even attack the grassland north like Hongwu and Yongle Dynasty did.
Two days later, news came that the enemy cavalry fled after robbing food in a certain village.
The whole army of Datong cavalry attacked and arrived at the location in half a day.
"Where did the thief go?" Hu Dinggui asked.
Both the mayor and the village chief stepped forward to speak, and the mayor said angrily, "The bandits have gone to the northwest. General, you want to avenge the people. Those bandits killed more than 20 villagers!"
"Don't worry, this bastard won't live long!" Hu Dinggui gritted his teeth.
Datong cavalry chased along the horseshoe prints, and the cavalry of the local brigade must leave traces along the way.
And the people along the way will also provide information to the Datong Army.
After chasing for a while, he stopped to rest to ensure the physical strength of the horse at any time.
Two days later, the distance between the two sides was only a few miles.
"My lord, the enemy cavalry is coming!"
"withdraw!"
Luo Rucai is currently following the food delivery team.
He slowed down the speed of the three batches of food transportation teams before and after, and finally they simply got together.
The grain transportation team didn't dare to move, and Luo Rucai couldn't eat, so he stuck by a small river and stared.
Luo Rucai's cavalry withdrew, Hu Dinggui and Lu Xiangsheng immediately caught up, and the two sides kept a distance of two miles.
After rushing to a hillside in the remaining range of the Dabie Mountains, Luo Rucai ordered the whole army to rest and wait for work to charge the Datong cavalry.
He has already observed clearly that the number of cavalry on both sides is similar, and the quality of the horses is also similar.
SFS