Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 355 Encirclement and reinforcements
Ganzhou borders the Ou, Fujian and Baiyue areas, and is blocked by valleys and mountains. It is the key to the mountains and seas, and the important hub of rivers and lakes.

This city is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It was built at the confluence of Zhangshui and Gongshui. The confluence of the two rivers formed the Ganjiang River. Therefore, Zhangshui, Gongshui and Ganjiang River became the moat of Ganzhou, making Ganzhou surrounded by water on three sides. The only remaining side is facing the mountains.

In order to prevent the river from impacting the city wall, the Song people cast the foundation stone of the city wall with molten iron, and then rebuilt the city wall with bricks and stones. The city wall of Ganzhou was rebuilt many times in later generations, and it was expanded during the Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde, Jiajing, Wanli and Chongzhen periods of the Ming Dynasty.

It was obviously impossible to capture such a strong city easily. Danchu did not expect to capture Ganzhou in one fell swoop, but adopted the strategy of "cutting off the branches and removing the main trunk", first dividing his troops to capture the counties around Ganzhou.

On the 28th, Cen Danchu followed Huben Town to Nankang County, which was only 40 miles away from Ganzhou Prefecture. Going down the Zhangshui River, passing Zhangkou Town and Huangjin Town, you can reach the west gate of Ganzhou.

Fu Dingquan came to meet him and brought with him an urgent secret letter.

Fu Dingquan, courtesy name Weiyuan, pseudonym Yu'an, also known as Fu'an, was from Linchuan, Jiangxi Province. He was a Jinshi in the 13th year of Chongzhen. He once met Emperor Yongli with Jie Chongxi, the Minister of War of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the Governor-General of Jiangxi Province, and was appointed by Emperor Yongli as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and the Imperial Academy Scholar.

Fu Dingquan and Jie had a good relationship and returned to Jiangxi to fight against the Qing Dynasty. Fu Dingquan was often sent by Jie Chongxi to contact the various volunteer armies in Jiangxi.

Since the Red Army entered Jiangxi, many Ming Dynasty veterans and gentry have come to pay homage to the Red Army, and some have even helped the Red Army raise food and supplies ships.

Danchu was busy with military affairs and often asked others to meet him on his behalf. Fu Dingquan had a different status and should meet him in person.

"Lord, there is a letter from the governor, it is of utmost importance." Fu Dingquan, like Jie Chongxi, was a successful candidate in the imperial examinations. His tone was polite, but there was a hint of alienation.

"Do you know what this is about?" Danchu asked as the secretary took the letter.

"The Tartars appointed Chen Tai as the general and led the elite troops of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Camp to reinforce Jiangxi. The vanguard has already advanced to Ningguo Prefecture in Nanzhili."

Danchu was shocked and took the letter to read it carefully. Jie Chongxi said that the Taihu Volunteer Army intercepted a Tang newspaper and learned that the Qing court appointed Chen Tai as the general of Anyuan Pingkou and led the eight banners of the Beijing camp to assist Jiangxi.

Chen Tai, a member of the Niuhuru clan, was a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. He was the grandson of Eyidu, the first-class Hongyi Duke, and the son of Cherge.

"My Lord, Chen Tai has a distinguished family background. He is slightly younger than Zhumala, but his military achievements are greater than his. In the first year of the Yongli reign, Chen Tai was appointed General Jingnan and led his army into Fujian. He successively defeated Generals Zheng Cai, Ruan Jin and others, and conquered the entire Fujian province."

Intelligence Bureau Chief Feng Jiali quickly took out the booklet he carried with him and luckily found Chen Tai's resume. He read:

"In the third year of the Yongli reign, Chen Tai was granted the title of Bayala Banner, and successively served as the Minister of Rites, the Minister of Punishments, the Minister of Personnel, the Grand Secretary of the National History Academy, and the Chief Examiner of the Imperial Examination. He was granted the title of the second-class Ashanihafan."

Jiangxi already had General Zhumala, the Pingnan General, and the Qing court appointed Chen Tai as the general and sent him to reinforce Jiangxi, which shows the importance the Jiangxi battlefield attached to it.

Danchu pondered and said, "This fellow started out as a martial artist, and he was able to serve as the chief examiner for the imperial examination. This shows that he is a man of both civil and military talents, and is even better than Zhumala."

Ma Bao was promoted by Dan Chuchao to be the commander of Huben Town. He was greatly favored and wanted to repay his kindness. He said, "The Tartars appointed Wu Sangui as the General of Pingxi and Tunqi Jienikan as the General of Dingyuan. They were under the command of Hong Chengchou and were deployed in the battlefields of Sichuan and Huguang. In Fujian, the Qing army had just conquered Zhoushan and was confronting Zhu Chenggong. The Tartars are based in the north, so they must leave a large army in the north. Although Chen Tai is a general, he will not be able to bring many troops with him this time."

This was true, but Danchu was quite worried. He had always planned carefully before deploying troops, and he was quite confident of victory.

There are too many uncertainties in this expedition to Jiangxi: Ganzhou is easy to defend but difficult to attack, the transportation of food and grass is difficult, the Dashi Army is about to face internal strife, and Tunqi may lead troops into Ganzhou... Now with the arrival of Chen Tai, it is really a bit too much to handle.

"Zhumala is already fifty years old, and is good at maintaining the status quo, but not at making progress. He is only the General of Pingnan, and his authority is limited. The general is different, and his authority is extremely heavy. Chen Tai was appointed as the general, and led the Eight Banners of the Beijing Camp into Jiangxi, making it easier to control the Jingnan vassal army, the Green Camp soldiers, and the Manchu, Mongolian and Han armies of each banner..." As Danchu was talking, he suddenly realized a very serious problem:

After the Manchus entered the Shanhai Pass for many years, they actively cooperated with the gentry and landlords to ease land conflicts and gradually stabilize their rule. The Qing army occupied more land and had a larger population, so they could mobilize more resources. Once the war turned into a protracted war, both sides would compete in resource consumption. The Red Army only controlled Lingnan, and they could never compete with the Manchus in terms of consumption.

Similarly, Chen Tai led his army southward. Along the way were all areas under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and he could order officials along the way to supply food and fodder, so the march was very fast.

"Young Sima, do you know how many troops Chen Tai leads?" Dan Chu asked, changing his previous conservative attitude.

"I really don't know." Fu Dingquan said, "This information comes from the Nanzhili Tangbao. The pseudo-Ministry of War secretly informed Nanzhili and asked them to make proper arrangements to entertain the soldiers going south. Judging from the wording, the number is at least 20,000."

After Jin Shenghuan, Li Chengdong, and Jiang Ge's three large-scale rebellions to restore the Ming Dynasty, the Qing government began to consciously implement the strategy of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches:
A powerful Eight Banners army was retained in the capital area, namely the Beijing Camp Eight Banners, with half of the total number of Eight Banners, to carry out mobile combat missions; the Manchu, Han and Mongolian Eight Banners were stationed in important cities such as Baoding, Xi'an, Kaifeng, Nanjing, etc., namely the Garrison Eight Banners, to monitor the Green Camp nearby.

Whenever there was an emergency in the local area of ​​the Qing Dynasty, the garrisoned Eight Banners would first send troops to put out the fire. If the fire could not be solved, the Eight Banners of the Beijing Camp would be dispatched to reinforce. Of course, the number of the Eight Banners of the Beijing Camp was still very small, so a large number of Green Camp soldiers had to be dispatched to fight.

Twenty thousand Qing troops should have eighteen banners. Eighteen banners should have five thousand bannermen. According to the rules set by Nurhaci, each of the Eight Banners should have seven thousand five hundred bannermen. Now that the soldiers of the Eight Banners kept dying in battle, Shunzhi drew soldiers from the Eight Banners to organize his own army. It would be good if each banner could have five thousand bannermen.

In the battle of Luoding last year, there were only a thousand bannermen in Bashan, and together with the bannermen Aha, they were able to defeat the Red Army cavalry in hand-to-hand combat. Chen Tai came with five thousand bannermen, how could this be possible?

Although there were many soldiers on the front line, they had to be divided into counties outside Ganzhou and defend the ferry crossings and roads, so the number of soldiers that could be deployed to the front line was reduced. Now, the Red Army had to besiege Ganzhou and fight against the Eight Banners reinforcements, and its manpower was quite stretched.

It was urgent to send more troops. Fortunately, the Red Army had already made arrangements. The First and Third Regiments each sent a group of troops to northern Guangdong to support the front-line troops at any time.

Dan Chu was strong when he met a strong man, and said: "No matter whether the news is true or not, we must immediately increase our troops. Send an order to mobilize 15,000 troops from the first division of the first town. After receiving the order, immediately leave Meiguan and come under the command of Huben Town. The deadline is to arrive at the city of Ganzhou before the sixth day of February. Mobilize 15,000 troops from the seventh division of the third town. After receiving the order, go to Xinfeng and enter Ganzhou. They will be under the command of the second town and arrive at the city of Ganzhou before the eighth day of February.

"Before the second day of February, Huben Town and Second Town must arrive at Ganzhou and set up camp. Second Town will carry out the siege mission, and Huben Town will carry out the mission of attacking the reinforcements."

A single move could affect the entire body. The Red Army surrounded the point and attacked the reinforcements. In order to deal with the Eight Banners reinforcements, it had to dispatch additional troops.

Fu Dingquan was very pleased and said, "The Western Army is in Huguang, the Red Army is in Jiangxi, and the Zheng Army is in Fujian. The three armies are counterattacking at the same time. This is an unprecedented event since the Chongzhen period. The Tartar army is old and tired, and they are bound to be defeated."

"Haha," Dan Chu laughed dumbly. He didn't dare to be so optimistic. Instead, he felt deeply that his troops were insufficient.

The First Regiment was the Red Army's first uprising army, and it consisted of the First, Third, and Fifth Brigade. The First Brigade was sent to Jiangxi to provide reinforcements. The Third Brigade had been transferred to Guangxi to assist the Guangxi Garrison Brigade in preventing the Dashi Army and the Qing Army from invading Guangxi. The Fifth Brigade stayed in Guangdong.

The Third Town was established just over half a year ago, and has just completed its reorganization, so it has not been tested yet. The Seventh Brigade is led by Du Yonghe, who has many former subordinates of Dong Xun under his command, and the troops are relatively intact, so they are transferred to Jiangxi for reinforcement. The remaining two brigades are newly formed, and are mainly responsible for transporting food and grass to the front line.

The Lingnan towns are all guarded by soldiers who are stationed in various places in Guangdong and Guangdong to ensure stability in the rear.

By sending more troops to Jiangxi, Danchu can guarantee to deploy 100,000 troops under the city of Ganzhou. With 50,000 troops to besiege the city and 50,000 to attack the reinforcements, it should not be a big problem to face the 40,000 troops of the Qing army.

(End of this chapter)