I

Wang Zhiliang, the governor of southern Hunan, can definitely be regarded as "knowing military affairs".

When he received the appointment, he said this to Chongzhen: "Zhao thieves are also sitting bandits. They confuse the hearts of the people by dividing their fields. The longer they go, the more powerful they become. And the soldiers from Huguang all went north to conquer Liuliu." Thief, there are no soldiers available in southern Hunan. Now that the gentry has been organized and trained to be brave, it will take a year to form a warworthy army. By then, the Zhao thieves have already annexed the government and merged with the county. Only by organizing and training firearms battalions can an army be formed in a short time. , please give me blunderbuss, artillery, and gunpowder!"

Chongzhen was very generous this time and immediately ordered to allocate firearms to Wang Zhiliang.

Then, Wang Zhiliang was made to lose his temper.

The cannons are all old objects, and I don’t know which generation of ancestors they belong to. The patina of the artillery can be put into a museum.

Three thousand fire guns were given, including three-eyed guns from the early Ming Dynasty. There are also relatively new types of gunshots, but if one out of ten can be used, it is regarded as a sign of good deeds by the ancestors.

As for gunpowder, it's not powder or granular, but fucking lumps!

Does this mean that the gun soldiers are required to break up the lumps of gunpowder first, and then use them to load and launch?

Before Wang Zhiliang left Beijing, he went to see Chongzhen again and explained to the emperor all the status of the arms he had received.

Chongzhen was also very angry and immediately asked people to investigate strictly.

We are still checking now, but there is no need to check because the gunpowder factory was blown up.

It was really not a "fire dragon burning the warehouse" trick, but improper storage of gunpowder, which caused a big explosion.

Historically known as the "Anmin Factory Disaster": Within more than ten miles of the capital, it was felt that the axis of the earth was shaking... The city walls were destroyed by the earthquake, and there were no buildings within a radius of ten miles, and all the trees were crumbling. Residents and pedestrians rested on each other, and the dead were all charred... It was found that more than ten thousand residents were killed and injured, including factory eunuch Wang Fu and bureau officer Zhang Zhixiu. The arsenal was almost empty, and five thousand gold coins were given as relief.

The city walls collapsed, no intact houses could be found within a radius of more than ten miles, and the nearby weapons and equipment warehouses were all destroyed.

Poor Chongzhen, who was short of money to begin with, had to spend five thousand taels of silver to care for the dead and injured.

Wang Zhiliang went to his post empty-handed and called officials from the Third Division of Huguang to arrange for the gentry to organize and train regimental bravery.

The Huguang Third Division was equally helpless. For several years in a row, they had been paying taxes to the court while raising food and fodder for the governor. Huguang is one of the main battle areas for encircling and suppressing the rogue bandits. As a result, there was no time to extinguish the rebel bandits in southern Hunan. How can there be financial, material and manpower to deal with Zhao Han now?

The officials of the Third Division simply pretended to be dead.

Wang Zhiliang had no choice but to go out in person, and finally persuaded the gentry in Yuezhou and Changde to cobble together more than 6,000 regiments of brave warriors.

At this moment, news came that Zhao Thief had sent troops to Huguang.

Wang Zhiliang immediately led his troops and rushed to Changsha.

Changsha must be defended, otherwise the entire Dongting Lake Plain will be exposed to the enemy Zhao!

"Mr. Yu Qing, you are finally here!" Wang Qisheng, the prefect of Changsha, was so moved that he almost knelt down on the spot.

Wang Qisheng is also considered a capable minister, but his skill points are all focused on construction. His political achievements all along the way to promotion were building dams, cities, and canals. Fighting bandits was really not his forte.

After Wang Zhiliang inspected the city defense, he was particularly satisfied with the newly built barbican city and praised it: "This can protect Changsha from being lost." He then asked, "I brought more than 6,000 regiments to bravely come here. How many troops are there in Changsha?"

"More than eight thousand regiments of brave men." Wang Qisheng replied.

Yang Guanji, the magistrate of the county, suddenly asked: "I have read military books in my late life. Should I divide my troops and garrison them in the mountains outside the city to form a rivalry with the defenders in the city?"

Wang Zhiliang replied: "If you have elite soldiers, you should do this. But your and my soldiers have a short time to organize and train. How can we divide our troops and leave the city? When using weak troops against strong ones, we cannot fight in the wild, and we cannot divide our troops at will. We must use all our troops." To defend the city. Since there is no shortage of troops in Changsha, I will mobilize three thousand regiments to go back and guard Xiangyin to prevent the Zhao thieves from bypassing Changsha and advancing northward!"

Under Wang Zhiliang's arrangement, the Changsha garrison of 11,000 people and the Xiangyin garrison of more than 3,000 people used two cities to block Zhao Han from marching into the Dongting Lake Plain.

The Dongting Lake Plain is the core essence of Huguang. If it falls, most of Huguang will be lost.

The four Tao brothers, with more than 4,000 troops, were also arranged to garrison in the city.

"Why did the governor come so quickly?" said his third brother Tao Yunfeng, "Now there are over 10,000 troops defending the city. Can more than 4,000 of us really dedicate the city at this critical moment?"

The second brother Tao Jinzhi was also worried: "That governor Wang seems to be really good at fighting. As soon as the governor came, the city defense was well-arranged, which is much better than the rest of us."

The four brothers are all scholars. Recently, they have been reading military books like crazy. Talking about military affairs on paper can bluff people, but they don't even know the most basic military knowledge.

The eldest brother Tao Aizhi said: "Don't panic. As long as we are the internal response, Changsha will definitely fall in one battle. The more than 4,000 soldiers recruited by our Tao family are all a mob. But look at the other regiments in the city, they are different from the Tao family's What's the difference between a ragtag group of people? Once chaos occurs, the entire army will be defeated!"

A few days later.

"Report! Tens of thousands of thieves are coming along the Liuyang River and are already thirty miles away!"

"Explore again!"

Wang Zhiliang walked up to the tower and looked at the houses outside the city. He felt confused at this moment.

He studied under Feng Congwu, the "Master of Guanxi", and majored in "Guanxue". The founder of Guanxue was Zhang Zai, which means "to establish a heart for the world, to establish a destiny for the people, to inherit the unique knowledge for the saints, and to create peace for all generations." "That one.

When he came to Feng Congwu, he took Guan Xue as the basis, integrated Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Yangming Xue Xue, and created a brand new Guan Xue in the late Ming Dynasty.

This was true for all schools of thought in the late Ming Dynasty, showing a trend of academic integration.

For example, Zhang Bingwen studied Neo-Confucianism, which combines the study of mind and focuses on practical learning. Unfortunately, its backbone was interrupted by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Although it developed and expanded into the "Tongcheng School", it lost its core concepts, leaving only empty shells such as textual research and prose.

The predecessor of the Tongcheng School advocated practical learning, and Feng Congwu's Guan Xue also advocated practical learning.

As long as it is a school of thought seeking change in the late Ming Dynasty, they all advocate practical learning, apply what they have learned, and avoid the false and practice the truth!

Although Wang Zhiliang was from Shaanxi, he also belonged to the Donglin Party, and his mentor Feng Congwu was the northwest leader of the Donglin Party.

Learning, doing, doubting, thinking, and perseverance are the five-character mantra of the new school of Guanxue.

Wang Zhiliang now only has "doubts". He doesn't know how to "act" or how to "think". Before coming to southern Hunan, Wang Zhiliang studied Zhao Han carefully, and then his three views were destroyed.

Wang Zhiliang discovered that Jiangxi Zhao Thief was practicing the "Four Sentences of Hengqu", just like a wild Guan Xue disciple.

The great unity of the world means establishing the heart for heaven and earth.

Equalizing the fields and dividing the land means establishing a destiny for the people.

Restoring the missing chapters of "Mencius" and promoting academic freedom in Bailuzhou Academy are to continue the unique learning from the saints.

After rectifying the officialdom and stabilizing Jiangxi, it seems that he has the ambition to help the world and create peace for all generations.

This is not a rebel. If this person takes over the world, he will become a Holy Lord!

Wang Zhiliang didn't want to fight with such a person, and even had the urge to surrender.

However, there is no choice between eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor.

Wang Zhiliang sighed and went to inspect the city defense again.

Although there are 11,000 garrison troops in the city, they are all brave recruits, and the people leading the troops are also country squires. These squires didn't know how to fight. Even how to defend the city had to be taught by Wang Zhiliang.

So damn tired!

Fortunately, the eunuch overseeing the army was afraid of death and stayed in Yuezhou Mansion and did not come over. Otherwise, Wang Zhiliang would have to concentrate on dealing with the eunuchs.

In the afternoon, Li Zheng led an army to come, a few miles away from Changsha City, and set up camp with mountains and rivers behind him.

Wang Zhiliang and Li Zheng both sent spies to check the situation.

Moreover, spies from both sides were in small boats, looking at each other from the air in the narrow Liuyang River.

"kill!"

The spies of the Datong Army rushed towards the officers and soldiers in more than ten small boats.

The officers and soldiers immediately retreated, unable to catch up. After chasing one mile outside the city, Datong Army spies came ashore to observe, one of them even had a telescope.

Immediately, they looked around and asked local people about the situation.

"Report!"

"Changsha City is heavily defended. A few days ago, high-ranking officials arrived with reinforcements. Some said thousands of people came, and some said tens of thousands of people came."

Li Zheng was a little annoyed at this time. He should not have waited for Huang Yao's military order. If after capturing Liuyang County, they immediately led troops to attack Changsha City, they might be able to capture it with the Tao family acting as internal agents.

Sometimes, Zhao Han would hire someone to teach the officers the art of war. Li Zheng finally realized what "soldiers are more valuable and faster".

What else can be done?

With Li Zheng's troops to attack Changsha, even if everything goes well, it will take at least three to five months!

Calling Xiao Zongxian, Chen Fugui, Hu Dinggui and other officers, Li Zheng explained the situation and asked, "Let's discuss together, how to fight next?"

Wan Sitong, who has the same name as the historian of the Qing Dynasty, suggested: "How about directly bypassing Changsha and attacking Xiangyin in front?"

Li Zheng shook his head and said: "Changsha City is stuck in the river, and military supplies cannot be transported across it. Transporting supplies by land will easily be attacked. Moreover, if we fail to attack Xiangyin for a long time, our army may be cut off from the supply route, and then the entire army will be If you are hungry, you will be attacked from both sides."

"What I mean is," Wan Sitong explained, "send an elite force to travel day and night to surprise Xiangyin. As long as Xiangyin is occupied, Changsha will become an isolated city."

Xiao Zongxian said: "You can send some spies to Xiangyin to inquire about the situation. If there are many soldiers in Xiangyin, leave it alone; if there are few soldiers in Xiangyin, send elite troops to surprise them."

Hu Dinggui said: "No matter how many they have, let's divide the fields in the villages and towns around Changsha first!"

Li Zheng smiled and said: "The fields in Liuyang have not been divided yet. How can we get so many people to come to Changsha to preside over the field distribution?"

"Then divide the troops and go south," Hu Dinggui said, "and divide the troops in a swaggering manner, detaching a team to help Huang Bingyuan attack Xiangtan. After Xiangtan is captured, Huang Bingyuan can lead the main force northward and attack Changsha with us. At the same time, , the defenders of Changsha City, seeing us dividing our troops, will probably take the initiative to leave the city, and then beat their mothers outside the city!"

"This is a good idea." Xiao Zongxian expressed his support.

Li Zheng glanced at everyone, nodded and said: "Since there is no objection, let's divide our troops and pass under the city to see if the officers and soldiers in the city are fooled. It's best to be fooled. If you are not fooled, we will really divide our troops and go south!"

Wang Zhiliang sat at the top of the city, watching the Datong army divide its troops and move south. He only issued an order: "Don't worry about him, just guard Changsha City."

You can throw it away in Xiangtan, but not in Changsha.