1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 669 The Wind Rises (continued)

On October 1651, 10, more than 15 people from Huang Yingjie, the general of the Qing army from Huizhou, arrived at the city of Nanning, and joined forces with the troops of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao who had arrived earlier, bringing the total strength of the Qing army to more than [-] at the city of Nanning.

The Qing army began to attack Zhaoqing in early September. In less than two months, it quickly reached Guangxi, including Wuzhou, Cangwu, Tengxian, Cenxi, Rongxian, Huaiji, Beiliu, Bobai, Xingye, and Luchuan. , Yulin, Xunzhou, Hengzhou and more than [-] cities.Now that the army is gathering at the city of Nanning, they naturally want to finish their work in one battle, conquer Nanning, and then take advantage of the situation to attack Yunnan and Guizhou, and take out the old nest of the Great Western Army.In this way, the Western Army that is attacking Hubei will become a grassroots without roots, or it may collapse without a fight.

Long before the Qing army entered the customs, Kong, Shang, and Geng were incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Army. Among them, Kong Youde’s department was incorporated into the Han Army’s Zhenghong Banner, Shang Kexi’s department was incorporated into the Han Army’s Xianglan Banner, and Geng Zhongming’s department was incorporated into the Han Army’s Xianglan Banner. Zhenghuang flag.

When the three kings were ordered to attack Guangxi and Guangdong separately last year, their forces were still very weak. Kong Youde originally had only 100 Liao soldiers (Eight Banners of the Liaodong Han Army), and sent in more than 2 new recruits, making up 500 people; Shang Kexi originally had 1 Liao soldiers, and recruited more than 300 new recruits, making up 1 people; Geng Zhongming originally had [-] Liao soldiers, and added [-] new recruits, making up [-] people. .

After fighting for nearly two years now, Kong Youde was expelled from northern Guangxi all the way back to Hubei by Li Dingguo. He lost consecutive battles and only had [-] troops left.However, Shang and Geng fought more and more troops. Not only did their troops expand to more than [-], but they also captured more than half of Guangdong and Guangxi.What made them particularly happy was that as long as Nanning was broken and Guangxi was seized, they would not be far away from the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou where they changed their feudal status.

Fighting all the way from Guangdong, except for some troubles encountered in Zhaoqing, no matter whether it was the Daxi Army or the Ming Army, they all fled in anticipation, and almost never experienced a big battle. This allowed the Qing Army to find the rhythm they were familiar with when they first entered the customs.Sure enough, all the main forces of the Great Western Army had assembled on the Huguang battlefield, so that Guangxi was empty, and for no reason my Qing soldiers and horses invaded the hinterland of Guangxi so smoothly.

Just when all the generals of the Qing army believed that Nanning City would be easily captured like the previous big cities such as Wuzhou, Xunzhou, and Yulin, and then they could follow the pace of the Great Western Army and continue westward into Yunnan.However, a large army was attached to attack the city for several days, but it was still unable to break through the city. The defenders in the city were extremely tenacious, and they also had several artillery pieces, which caused the Qing army to suffer heavy casualties under the city.

In the next few days, the Qing army changed the siege mode of besieging the city, and instead concentrated all its troops to launch a siege on Nanning City from all sides, trying to use the superior force to break through a little bit, and then lead the army into the city.But after several days, it is still difficult to break through the city.

In fact, the smooth attack all the way to Nanning made the Qing army misjudge the situation and greatly underestimated the strength of the Nanning defenders.Although since the invasion of Guangxi, the momentum has been like a broken bamboo, and the Western Army from all over the country fled and left the city empty.However, there were not many Western troops annihilated by the Qing army, but they were basically preserved and gradually retreated to Nanning.Today, in the entire city of Nanning, there are more than 1 elite troops under Li Dingguo's army. In addition to the troops who fled to the city one after another, the total strength is more than [-], which is not weaker than the attacking Qing army in terms of overall strength.

In the afternoon of October 10, the Qing army had just completed a full-scale siege operation, and the troops had not yet returned to the camp.Several gates of Nanning City were suddenly opened, and the Western Army, led by more than ten war elephants, dispatched more than 20 soldiers to cover up the retreating Qing army.

It was a battle, the Qing army was defeated, and more than [-] soldiers were lost. Huang Yingjie, the general soldier of Huizhou, couldn't avoid it in the battle, and was trampled to death by a war elephant. Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao led the defeated army all the way back to Hengzhou (now Guangxi) Hengzhou).

On October 10, Li Dingguo supervised an army of more than 22 troops, surrounded Hengzhou, opened the city gate with artillery, and then broke the Qing army.

Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao led only more than [-] defeated soldiers, fled to Xunzhou (now Guigang City, Guangxi) in embarrassment.However, before he could catch his breath, Li Dingguo's troops attacked again. The Qing army did not dare to resist, so they abandoned the city and fled towards Wuzhou.

On October 10, the Qing army successively abandoned Tengxian, Cenxi, Rongxian, Huaiji, Beiliu, Bobai, Xingye, Luchuan, and Yulin, and fled all the way to the city of Wuzhou.

However, to the despair of the Qing army, Wuzhou was actually breached by the Daxi army from Liuzhou a few days ago, completely blocking their way to escape to Guangdong.

In desperation, the Qing army discarded a large amount of supplies that were not easy to carry, crossed the mountain trails, and headed for Zhaoqing.
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On October 10, when Li Dingguo defeated the Qing army in Nanning City, Qi State assembled more than 20 officers and soldiers of the Marine Corps, more than [-] soldiers from the countryside, more than [-] battalions of the Self-Rescue Army, and three squadrons of the Loyalty Army. More than [-] people, together with Gu Sanmazi's Department, had a total strength of more than [-] troops, and used more than ten heavy artillery to bombard the city of Guangzhou, smashing down the city wall in the northwest corner that had been severely damaged before.As a result, Zheng Jun was defeated, more than [-] people knelt down and begged to surrender, and the city of Guangzhou was restored immediately.

Immediately under Guangzhou, the Qi army immediately divided up more than [-] troops, took more than [-] small boats, went up the Xijiang River to Shuo, and drove directly to Zhaoqing.

Zhaoqing was still in the hands of the Ming army a few months ago, and was stationed by Nanyang Bo Li Yuanyin (the adopted son of Li Chengdong).Originally, after the fall of Guangzhou last year, Zhaoqing was already in dire straits. There were less than 4000 defenders in the city.

However, Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and others were very dissatisfied because the Qing government changed Guangdong to Zheng Zhilong, which made them very dissatisfied, so they gathered near Guangzhou on the pretext of insufficient food and pay and the need for rest and reorganization of the troops, and did not attack Zhaoqing for a long time.

At the end of August, the Qing court issued a troop dispatch document, urgently ordering Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and other main forces of the Qing army to quickly invade Guangxi and strike the back of the Daxi army, so as to relieve the pressure on the increasingly difficult Huguang battlefield.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Qing army's deliberate release of water, Li Yuanyin ordered the soldiers and civilians in the city to strengthen the defense of the city. All houses within four feet from the city are used to add battlements.

More than a month ago, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao mobilized more than [-] troops to storm Zhaoqing. It took more than ten days and more than [-] officers and soldiers were lost before they conquered this fortified city. Li Yuanyin led more than a thousand soldiers to Luoding Prefecture (now Yunfu City, Guangdong Province ), continue to resist.

After the main force of the Qing army went all the way to the west, more than [-] soldiers from Ma Guangming, the general of Shaozhou, wiped out the remnants of Li Yuanyin.After the Zheng army left the Qing army, [-] officers and soldiers immediately entered the dilapidated city of Zhaoqing.

On October 10, the Qi army suddenly attacked Zhaoqing. In the afternoon of the same day, they quickly captured Shuicheng and cut off the route of Zheng Jun's southward escape.

The next day, the Qi army ordered the civilian husbands to drag the artillery to the city, preparing to storm Zhaoqing City, and at the same time let two Zheng Jun prisoners from Guangzhou enter the city to persuade the defenders to surrender.

At noon, two prisoners of the Zheng army who persuaded them to surrender came out of the city and told them that since the generals defending the city and the families of some officers and soldiers were in Fujian, they dared not surrender without a fight, otherwise they might harm their families.

Shi Guanghan, the commander of the [-]th Marine Battalion who led the team, was immediately happy when he heard this. "Don't dare to surrender without a fight", that is to say, you have to fight twice first, and then you should be defeated and then "forced to surrender"?
With more than ten years of potential allies, the Zheng and Qi families had extensive exchanges of personnel. When the immigrant fleet traveled to and from Ming Dynasty, it would often stop at Quanzhou, Zhongzuo (now Xiamen) and other places under the jurisdiction of the Zheng family for supply and rest.Many generals of the Zheng army and officers of the Qi State Navy also drank wine, ate banquets, and even visited kilns together, and they were more or less friendly.

In January of this year, Zheng Zhilong suddenly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and dispatched a large number of ships to raid the Qi State Fleet in Guangzhou, which instantly turned the relationship between the two into hostility.In May, Qi gathered its main fleet and began to attack and weaken Zheng's navy.However, during the battle, the officers and soldiers of the Qi State Navy did not kill Zheng Jun. As long as the officers and soldiers on Zheng's ships voluntarily surrendered, they would generally receive preferential treatment from the Qi Army.

Previously, when Zheng and Qi were in friendly cooperation, Qi State was salivating over the tens of thousands of sailors under the Zheng army, poaching some corners from time to time, and secretly recruiting some Zheng's sailors.Now, in the battle against the Zheng army, apart from trying to weaken Zheng Zhilong's sea power, the Qi State Navy also has another important goal, which is to fully recruit Zheng's sailors to supplement and expand the Qi State's naval force.

As for the officers and soldiers of Zheng Jun's land division, Qi Guo didn't pay attention to them.In the first battle of Guangzhou, thousands of people immediately lost their desire to fight after the fierce artillery fire of the Qi army collapsed the city wall, and they knelt down and begged for surrender.

Then this small city of Zhaoqing may not be able to stop the Qi army's attack.

However, what is unexpected is that Zheng Jun in Zhaoqing City had no intention of surrendering at all, but resisted extremely tenaciously.They used the artillery left by the Ming army to start a confrontation with the Qi army outside the city.Although the artillery fire was not very violent, it also made the Qi army's plan to directly blast open the city gate and quickly break through the city impossible to realize.

The siege battle lasted for a day, but the Qi army did not achieve any greater results except for blasting a few small cracks in the city wall. On the contrary, more than ten artillery casualties were caused.This made the Qi army not only surprised, but also extremely annoyed.

If Shang Kexi and other main forces of the Qing army were defeated by Li Dingguo in Guangxi, they might be fleeing towards Zhaoqing at this time.If the city cannot be captured, then the Qing army can smoothly retreat from Zhaoqing to the northeast, go to Sihui, Qingyuan, Shaozhou, and finally retreat to Jiangxi.

"Unload a few more heavy cannons from the ship tomorrow." Shi Guanghan said angrily: "Tomorrow, I vow to blow down the city walls of Zhaoqing and let Zheng Jun know how powerful our Qi army is! Grandma, Nanjing, Guangzhou and other big cities are all Let us take it down, under this small city of Zhaoqing, will we still let us suffer?"

"Battalion Commander, the Zheng Army's defense in the city is quite methodical, and the generals who lead the troops have some skills.... Let's be more cautious." A tactical staff officer reminded.

"I know." Shi Guanghan looked at Zhaoqing City in the distance, and said thoughtfully: "The general of the defenders in the city is called Shi Lang, and he is one of the fastest-moving generals of the Zheng army in recent years. When attacking the Dutch stronghold in Taiwan, he performed very well, allowing Zheng Jun to capture Chixian City in the first place, gain a solid foothold, and make the first contribution to the final capture of Taiwan. This man is good at fighting with odds , and likes to take risks. You said, at night, will he sneak out of the city and launch a night attack on us?"

"Battalion Commander, I'll arrange it right away!" The tactical staff officer immediately understood when he heard the words.

On the night of October 10, Shi Lang, the commander-in-chief of the defenders of Zhaoqing City, sent 26 elite soldiers to attack the Qi army camp outside the city at night.However, the Qi army laid an ambush carefully, and almost the whole army was wiped out.Immediately, the whole city of Zhaoqing was put on alert to prevent the Qi army from attacking the city.

However, after defeating the attacking Zheng army, the Qi army did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack, but continued to guard the camp in a leisurely manner and recharge their batteries.

On October 10, the Qi army concentrated ten artillery pieces and intensively bombarded the east city of Zhaoqing. By 27 o'clock in the evening, a section of the city wall in the east city, which had been severely damaged by the Qing army before, collapsed.Shi Guanghan, the commander of the Qi army, then ordered the loyal army to launch an assault and attack the city.

When night fell, the Qi army basically wiped out Zheng's counterattack.However, to our disappointment, Shi Lang, the chief general of the Zheng army, escaped from Zhaoqing in the dark and disappeared without a trace.

On October 10, Ma Guangming, the commander-in-chief of the Shaozhou Army of the Qing Army, heard that Zhaoqing City had been broken, and immediately ignored the Ming Army of Li Yuanyin's Department in Luoding Prefecture, and fled to Gaozhou (now Maoming City, Guangdong).

On November 11, more than 1 Qing troops under the command of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao appeared in the city of Zhaoqing one after another.

When they saw the red and yellow dragon flags fluttering on the top of Zhaoqing City and the soldiers in black, the Qing army showed despair.

Not to mention that the Qi army stationed in the city is the most feared by the Qing army, even an ordinary Ming army of more than 1000 is enough to make the Qing army helpless when they fled here in embarrassment.There is no supply of supplies, let alone siege equipment, and the veterans of the division are tired and the armaments are insufficient. How can they cross Zhaoqing City.

Could it be that he went deep into the mountains and old forests and fled to Jiangxi?If so, how many people will survive in the end.

When the Qi army marched out of the city, Shang Kexi let out a long sigh, untied the sword from his waist, threw it on the ground, and ordered the whole army to kneel down and beg for surrender.

Geng Jimao struggled for a long time, unwillingly dropped the long knife in his hand, and knelt down behind Shang Kexi.

On November 11, Yuan Zongdi and Li Laiheng, former generals of the Dashun Army, led more than 2 soldiers and horses from Wuzhou in pursuit all the way, arrived in Zhaoqing City, and successfully joined forces with the Qi army.

So far, most of the main force of the Qing army attacking Guangdong and Guangxi has been wiped out, while the more than [-] troops of Hao Shangjiu who attacked near Qinzhou, Guangxi have completely become a lone army, and it will be a matter of time before they are destroyed.

Next, the Qi army will dispatch a naval fleet to cooperate with Li Dingguo's army to sweep the northern and eastern regions of Guangdong, wipe out the remnants of the Qing army and Zheng army, and completely bring this rich province under the direct control of the Daxi army.

Whether it is the population or the accumulated wealth, Guangdong is several times that of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places. The Great Western Army occupying this place will greatly enhance and promote their future war potential.

More importantly, this battle also wiped out the Eight Banners Shang and Geng of the Qing Army and the Han Army in one fell swoop. If the Kong Youde Department was added to the Kong Youde Department that was beaten by Li Dingguo before the first half of the year, the three most capable kings of the Qing Army were all planted in Guangdong and Guangxi. place.The entire situation in the south has also changed, making the territory under the Ming Dynasty have a wider strategic depth.

(End of this chapter)