One morning in the first year of Longwu, in the early February.

An army that was vigilant in the world was advancing from the southeast of Luoyang to the ancient capital of Luoyang several times. They held the banner of the nine-headed birds and lined up in an orderly manner from southeast to northwest.

Luoyang lives in the Central Plains and is located in the center of all directions.

Since ancient times, the rise and fall of the world must depend on the Central Plains. If we advance the world, we cannot avoid the Central Plains. The Central Plains is a must-fight for the land. To stabilize the world, the Central Plains is also the top priority and can control the central core.

If the world is unified, the situation will be concentrated in the Central Plains.

The world is divided, and the situation is scattered in all directions. From governance to chaos, the situation is scattered from the Central Plains; from chaos to governance, the situation is concentrated from the four directions.

Liu Jun started his career in Huguang, rose to Liaodong, and was in power in Youyan. When he basically controlled the situation in the court, he finally officially entered the Central Plains.

Central Plains is a must-fight place to compete for the world.

Liu Jun would never let this Central Plains land fall into the hands of the thieves, nor would he let the center of the world be occupied by bandits.

The establishment of the Central Plains Military Region also marked Liu Jun's formal involvement in the affairs of the Central Plains. Henan and Shandong provinces merged into the Central Plains Military Region. Although Yang Wenyue became the governor of the Central Plains, General Cai Yuan of Denglai could be appointed as the admiral of the Central Plains, General Zhang Shan of Huguang was appointed as the admiral of Chuanhu, and the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains bandit suppression. The two armies officially marched into Henan, which means that Liu Jun had mobilized his forces to seize control of the Central Plains.

Zuo Liangyu's current awareness withdrew from Henan, clearing the way for the Chu army to control the Central Plains. Now, the only opponent in front of them is the thief Li Zicheng.

The Central Plains are located in the four directions, connecting with the four directions, making it a hub for the world. From the Central Plains to the surrounding areas and from the surrounding areas to the Central Plains, it is very convenient.

In any chaotic competition, the Central Plains is a must-fight place.

Only the Central Plains is a place where one can truly compete for the world and win the world. Only by controlling the Central Plains can one take advantage of the superior geographical conditions of the Central Plains and obtain a situation of quickly controlling all directions.

Only when the Central Plains are stable can the four directions be stable.

However, although the Central Plains are important, they are extremely stable in times of troubled times. Because the Central Plains is a place of four battles, without the dangers of mountains and rivers. Enemies are all on all sides.

In some ways, it was very meaningful that Liu Jun did not choose to separatist in Hubei. Li Zicheng did not manage Shaanxi, but instead came to Henan and even wanted to establish a regime base around Luoyang. In Liu Jun's view, this was the biggest strategic mistake.

Although the Central Plains is good, they do not have a certain strength. They rashly enter the Central Plains to compete. It can only be said that although Li Zicheng has won the role of some literati and strategists, these people are just too ordinary after all.

Throughout history, when the world is in chaos, although the Central Plains is always a battlefield where heroes compete. Then, although the Central Plains are in the Central Plains, the heroes who can really join this battlefield are mostly in the four corners rather than the Central Plains.

First, based on the dangerous and solid land of the four corners of mountains and rivers, establish a base, and because of the world, the location is good, people are harmonious, and then they are able to manage and accumulate strength, and then they are qualified to enter the Central Plains to compete.

If you cannot even consolidate the first stage, you are not qualified to enter the Central Plains to compete.

Zhongyuan is known as the place of four battles. In terms of its geographical situation, it is difficult to divide it into four relatively independent areas. The Sanchuan Valley in the northwest, the Nanyang Basin in the southwest, and the upper reaches of the Huaihe River in the southeast, and the Hanoi region in the northeast.

These four regions have different geographical conditions and face four different directions, which is crucial to Luoyang.

Li Zicheng now occupies the Sanchuan Valley area to the west, but there is no control on the other three sides. In this regard, Li Zicheng has already lost three quarters.

Nanyang has always been an important place directly controlled by the Chu army. Now that Zuo Liangyu has withdrawn from Henan, Zhang Shan and Cai Yuan are marching from the upper reaches of the Huai River in the southeast towards the Sanchuan Valley.

The Sanchuan Valley Lowland is in the northwest of Henan Province, between Zhongtiao Mountain, Wushan, Xionger Mountain, Funiu Mountain and Songshan Mountain. It is formed by the three main rivers, the Yellow River, Yi River and Luo River.

Luoyang is in the middle.

The Sanchuan Valley blocks the mountains on three sides, but the north side is slightly open, but the Yellow River stretches across, which makes up for it.

With these river valleys surrounding Luoyang, there are four mountains and rivers, and there are many passes standing according to the dangers. Tongguan rejects the west and the dangers of the Wuhan; Hulao blocks the east and blocks the passage between the northern foot of Songshan and the Yellow River; Longmen blocks the south and blocks the Yihe River valley passage between Songshan and Xionger Mountain; Mengjin blocks the north and blocks the Yellow River Ferry; Guangcheng Pass controls the passage from the direction of Ruhe, and Zhuyuan Pass controls the passage from the direction of Yinghe.

At this time, the Chu army was following the Rushui pointing straight to Luoyang.

The army has a total of 30,000 people, composed of a division in Huguang Town led by Zhang Shan and a division in Denglai Town led by Cai Yuan. The two divisions have six reorganized associations.

Including cavalry, infantry, artillery, engineers, baggage troops, etc., this is a standard Chu army, a new army. Whether it is organization or firepower configuration, or their training, it is brand new. Although the Chu army has expanded rapidly in the past two years, this Huguang Town was also reorganized last year with the former Changsha Town, and the Hubei Township Corps training security forces. Denglai Town was also reorganized with the Liaodong army of the two associations and the Black Flag Army of the Four Associations.

However, under the standardized training of the Chu army system, coupled with the unified equipment configuration and firepower of the Chu army, they are still very different from the traditional army.

Most of their officers came from the old troops of the Chu army, and many senior officers also received further training in the martial arts lecture hall. In addition, although there are many new recruits in the army, they have many experienced instructors and non-commissioned officers. In addition, the artillery of each department basically comes from professional officer training, and a large number of equipment muskets and artillery, which makes this a unit that does not require much time to train personal martial arts.

They can control the fire of muskets in the shortest time.

For the Chu army, which is mainly composed of musket soldiers and line-based rifle volleys, as long as the equipment is timely and the training ammunition is in place, it does not take too long to quickly convert the recruits into qualified nine-headed birds.

On this February morning, when it was still a little cold, the people of Xiangcheng, located at the foot of Shangshou Mountain by the Beiru River, suddenly discovered the emergence of a large number of cavalrymen.

Xiangcheng.

It belongs to Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan, and is located at the southwest end of Kaifeng Prefecture. To the west is Jia County of Henan Prefecture, and to the south is Nanyang Prefecture in Hubei. This Xiangcheng, which is located on the Beiru River and on the Shoushan Mountain, can be said to be at the intersection of the various prefectures.

At the same time, this is also the southeasternest city controlled by the Chuangjun.

The light cavalry from Denglai Town appeared outside Xiangcheng, with the number of one battalion.

In the Chu army system, the army is mainly divided into two categories: army and navy. Among them, the army includes infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, army navy and marines, and the navy also has sailors, artillery, engineers, baggage and marines.

The cavalry never became the main force of the Chu army, but the Chu army never ignored the role of the cavalry. When the number of the Chu army was slightly smaller in the early days, the Chu army even had horses for infantry. Although the scale of the Chu army has been expanding now, it was impossible to provide horses for all infantry, but the Chu army also had many cavalry.

Although the Chu army had not many cavalry, it was clearly classified and several cavalry units were established according to different combat tasks. The Chu army's cavalry mainly included light cavalry, heavy cavalry and musket cavalry.

The four types of cavalry have their own emphasis and the division of labor is clear.

The largest number of them are the musket cavalry, which is actually a dual-purpose military force for infantry and cavalry. They all have horses and receive dual training from cavalry and infantry. In addition to being equipped with sabers, each person is equipped with a long gun and two hand guns. They are equipped with a spear. They can not only be used as cavalry, engage in pursuit and other tasks, but also take on rapid maneuvers, ride horses to a designated battlefield before dismounting, and line the array to serve as line infantry.

They are stronger than the other type of infantry, and the horse infantry in the infantry are only musket infantry with mobile power and cannot fight on horseback.

In addition to horse infantry and musket cavalry, the one closest to traditional cavalry among cavalry is the heavy cavalry.

These cavalry are also the main force of the cavalry. Everyone is equipped with a piece of squid armor and a shiny iron breastplate weighing twenty kilograms, an iron helmet and thickened heavy boots. Their horses are all made of the tallest war horses and are covered with armor.

The number of heavy cavalry is not large. They are a killer weapon among the divisions, and they are responsible for charging and breaking the formation at critical moments. However, the load-bearing of these heavy cavalry is too high and only has a short burst of ability to kill. Once they leave the war horse, they will be difficult to move forward. In the Chu army, the number of heavy cavalry is very small, but it cannot be ignored.

In addition, the Chu army's cavalry also had light cavalry. The light cavalry was an important group of troops responsible for reconnaissance, vessays, sending letters, contacts, and sending orders on the battlefield.

The light cavalry used the most experienced and excellent cavalry, and they took on the heaviest tasks on the battlefield.

At this time, the cavalry that suddenly appeared outside Xiangcheng was a light cavalry battalion from Denglai Town.

The military uniforms of the light cavalry are mainly blue and red. However, their decorations are slightly different. There is a trident on their helmets and a small red flag on each fork. They are wearing breeches and long boots, and the shoulders are hung with blue piste.

The heavy cavalrymen were wearing a small iron spear on top, with red tassels on top, and black red on their bodies. The musket cavalrymen were wearing red cloaks, a short thorn on their heads, and a small red flag on top.

The horse-riding infantry, on the helmet, was covered with a blue flag.

The battalion commander with two tigers inlaid on his arm armor glanced at the city gate that was being closed quickly and smiled, "Around Xiangcheng, before the brothers behind him arrive, a bird cannot fly away from Xiangcheng to inform him!" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!