Please ask me to be the emperor

Zhang Shenyan, Lu Weiqi, Liu Cheng and others already felt that the situation in Nanyang was very serious, but the actual situation was even more serious than they imagined.

Neither Liu Xiyao nor Ren Jirong, the "king of the world", tried their best to defend the two cities of Dengzhou and Tangxian.

It turns out that although Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, is not very capable, he is quite talented.

During his tenure as governor of Fujian, he not only recruited and surrendered the giant pirate Zheng Zhilong and suppressed the pirates, but was also deeply influenced by Western military equipment and tactics.

The team he established is quite similar to Zhang Shun's, both of them chose a very typical "integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine" plan.

However, because the Ming army in the north had more powerful combat capabilities and more varied mobility, Zhang Shun organized an army based on his knowledge from his previous life and worked hard to find a balance between mobility and firepower.

Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, organized an army that prioritized infantry and firepower based on the terrain and climate characteristics of the south.

Originally, the biggest problem with Xiong Wencan's army was that its mobility was not very good, but it was also evaded by You Shiwei and Zhang Waijia's five thousand closed-door cavalry and the navy marching along the Baihe River.

Although the soldiers led by Xiao Qinhu were the famous "Mao Gourds", they were still mountain-specific troops with bows, arrows and swords and spears as their main weapons.

Whether this team is equipped with armor or firearms, they are far below the average level of the rebels, let alone compared with Xiong Wencan's new army, which uses a large number of "Western methods."

In Xiong Wencanbiao's camp, in addition to various types of muskets, they also carried eighty-eight red cannons, large and small, with firepower far exceeding that of the average Ming army.

There are also more than twenty two-thousand-pound Hongyi cannons with fierce firepower, specially used to attack the city.

Originally, the nodes of the defensive system designed by Zhang Shun were based on the four cities of Xinye, Dengzhou, Tangxian and Nanyang.

Among them, Xinye, Dengzhou and Tangxian are like horns. Attacking one will save the other, and attacking the other will save this. There is also a fierce general Xiao Qinhu stationed in Nanyang, which should be absolutely foolproof.

Who would have thought that after Xiong Wencan made a surprise attack on Xinye, he would go out to Nanyang and try to capture Nanyang City in one go.

After being blocked by Xiao Qinhu, he returned to Xinye and attacked Tang County where Ren Guangrong was stationed with all his strength.

Zhang Yichuan, the "King of Sweepers" who retreated to the wild, and Liu Xiyao, the "King of the World" in Dengzhou, quickly led their troops to rescue them. However, they were blocked by officers and soldiers and the navy and could not easily cross the river.

It turns out that most of the rebels fought in the four northern provinces and one capital, and were quite familiar with plains and mountain warfare, but they knew little about the military applications of river water.

Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, had served as the governor of Fujian for many years. He also recruited Zhilong, conquered the pirates Li Kuiqi, Liu Xiang and others, and completely equalized the pirates on the southeast coast, so he was very familiar with the use of the navy.

"The water is connected by boats and rafts, so as to eliminate dry roads!" Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, couldn't help but smile proudly, "Therefore, it is natural for boats to be south and horses to be north."

"The traitor only used land to carry out his crimes. He didn't realize the strength of my boat. How could he win?"

It turns out that there happened to be a river outside Nanyang City called Feishui, which was also called Baihe in later generations.

This water flows through Nanyang City, Xinye, and finally merges with the Han River in Xiangyang.

Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, took advantage of the river. He first harassed Xinye many times, and then when Zhang Yichuan, the "sweeper king", became paralyzed, he suddenly transported troops to Xinye City with naval forces and captured the city in one fell swoop.

In addition to the main trunk of the Feishui River, the Feishui River also has two tributaries that are very convenient for boating. One is called Turbulent Water and the other is called Xianshui.

Among them, the turbulent water is to the west of Feishui, flowing through Neixiang and Dengzhou successively, and finally merges into Feishui at the junction of Henan, Huguang and Guangzhou.

The Xianshui River was later called the Tang River, flowing from south to north through the east of the Feishui River.

The river joins the tributary Bishui in the north of Tang County, then passes through the northwest of Tang County, and finally joins the Jishui River in Huguang.

And Xinye City was caught between the turbulent water and the flood water. After Zhang Yichuan, the "Sweeping King", withdrew from Xinye City, he planned to retreat to Nanyang.

Unexpectedly, he learned that the governor of Huguang had led a large army to surround Tang County. He thought: Since I followed King Shun, I have not made any achievements, and I have lost my new field. I can't explain it.

In this case, why should I find Liu Xiyao, the "King of the World", and go to rescue Ren Jirong together? It can be regarded as making up for my mistakes.

The "World Fighting King" Liu Xiyao and the "Sweeping King" Zhang Yichuan also came from the rebel system, and were quite thin-faced.

Liu Xiyao also knew that Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, came with bad intentions. He attacked Xinye first, and then Tutang County. The next step would definitely be his turn in Dengzhou.

Instead of doing this, why not strike first instead of waiting to be attacked by officers and soldiers?

Thinking of this, Liu Xiyao only left 500 soldiers to guard the city, and the other troops joined forces with the "Sweeping King" Zhang Yichuan, and were about to go to Tang County to support Ren Jirong.

Just heading east from Xinye to Tangxian requires crossing two rivers, the Feishui River and the Xianshui River.

The "Sweeping King" Zhang Yichuan and the "World-Winning King" Liu Xiyao didn't take it seriously. They just sent cavalry along the river to find boats and bridges to cross the river.

It was only after searching for several days that many bridges and ships were burned down that the two of them felt something was wrong.

After finally finding a shallow place, before I could wade into the water, I suddenly saw a dozen large boats appearing on the river.

These ships were equipped with artillery, and when the rebels arrived, a burst of cannons and cannons came out.

Zhang Yichuan and Liu Xiyao were startled, and quickly ordered their soldiers to line up, and set up artillery to fight back.

However, the quality and quantity of the artillery equipment of the two battalions under their command are not very good, and the level of the artillery is not high. They can impress with silence, how can they beat them?

Except for some of Liu Xiyao's old soldiers who were in line with the camp and accidentally hit two ships, the other artillery was in vain.

Immediately, the main force of officers, soldiers and navy arrived, fighting but not fighting, fighting and not fighting. They just blocked the river and prevented the rebels from crossing the river.

No matter how furious Zhang Yichuan and Liu Xiyao were, there was nothing they could do.

At this time, Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, ordered his soldiers to blast the Tangxian city wall with red cannons. The plates on the city head and bricks on the parapet were flying, making it difficult for the rebels to gain a foothold.

After the defense facilities were almost destroyed, the officers and soldiers set up engineering equipment and launched a fierce attack.

Ren Guangrong couldn't help but yelled in anger: "Straight bitch, in the past, the rebels used artillery to suppress the officers and soldiers, but I didn't expect that one day the rebels would be suppressed by the artillery of the officers and soldiers!"

The two sides fought hard for three days at the top of the city. In the end, due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, Ren Jirong had to retreat to Biyang, west of Tang County.

Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang, solved the problem and dispatched the navy to make a surprise attack on Dengzhou by water.

The five hundred soldiers left behind by Liu Xiyao, the "king of the world", were frightened when they saw the officers and soldiers descending from the sky. They either fled or surrendered, and then lost the city of Dengzhou.

At this point, Liu Xiyao, the "king of the world", Zhang Yichuan, and Ren Guangrong, the "sweeping king", were defeated in a row and had no foothold, so they had to retreat to Nanyang.