The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 362: The Battle of Bloody North River

Mo Zibu has a clear understanding of his command ability.

He also knew that among his army of more than 60,000 men, only the less than 30,000 guards and garrison troops could be used in a bloody battle.

So when he decided to force the Qing army to fight a bloody battle around Tokyo City, Mo Zibu did not hold all the main forces in his own hands, but divided them into three armies: left, center and right.

Chen Lian led 10,000 troops to assist on the left wing.

Chen Guangyao led 20,000 troops as the right wing, and the Yuan Dynasty's guards were hiding with him. Although he looked small in number, he was actually the main force attacking the Qing army.

Mo Zibu led 35,000 men as the main force of the central army. The three armies were about two or three miles apart and slowly advanced towards the city of Tokyo.

In this way, Mo Zibu actually only needs to command 35,000 people, and the difficulty is reduced a lot.

Agui's choice was similar to Mo Zibu's. Although he had been in the army for decades, the Qing army had always taken the small and elite route, and he had no experience in large-scale combat, so he was even more exaggerated than Mo Zibu.

There were 15,000 Qing troops stationed at Fukang'an on the north bank of the Fuliang River.

There are still nearly 10,000 people with the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Tu Side. He is leading this detachment south through Hekou and Malipo, directly attacking Wu Wenchu who is guarding Xuanhua.

The main force of the Qing army under Agui was actually less than 50,000, and together with Nguyen Van Hue's vassal army, there were less than 70,000 people. In addition, there were tens of thousands of civilian laborers.

With so many people, the Qing army could not station them all in Tokyo City. They were stationed in several satellite towns, or even in their own camps.

So Agui also divided his troops. He only had about 20,000 men under his command, and the rest were controlled by Hailancha and Fucha Jiakuilin assisted by Zhu Shedou.

On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, when Agui discovered that the Xingtang navy appeared in the Fuliang River, he knew that his navy must have been defeated.

The situation was going in the direction that Agui and Hailancha had predicted for the worst.

However, at this time, the Qing Dynasty still had the possibility of retreating, that is, abandoning Nguyen Van Hue and using more than 5,000 cavalry to cover most of the elite troops to go northwest to attack Xuanhua.

As long as they could reunite with the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, Tu Side, they could retreat back to Yunnan. Although there would be some losses, the main force could be preserved.

Because Mo Zibu's troops were short of mules and horses, and most of them were infantry, it would be difficult for the Qing army to catch them if they wanted to escape. They also had to guard against ambushes by the Qing army and did not dare to get too close.

However, no one dared to propose this decision, which is actually the most correct one.

Agui did tell Hailancha that he was willing to take the blame, but at least that was in order to preserve the main force after he was defeated.

Now he didn't even fight, but just ran back and gave Beihe to Mo Wu. Who dares to take this responsibility!

So, after a brief military discussion, the Qing army decided to fight. As long as they defeated the Xingtang army, the game would undoubtedly be saved.

On the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Qing army, under the cover of cavalry, took the initiative to rush to the Fuliang River, preparing to set up cannons to guard the four floating bridges that had been built.

But this time, they suffered another big loss. At this time, the Qing Dynasty's navy was basically controlled by the descendants of Shi Lang and Huang Wu, who had fought against Guo Xingcheng and Zhu Jin, father and son.

This led to the fact that the high-ranking Qing generals knew almost nothing about naval battles and warships. What they thought of as naval warships were still the small inland sampans under the command of the Yangtze River Navy Admiral and the Grain Transport Governor.

So when the Qing army was carelessly preparing to build a battery on the shore to bombard the warships in the Fuliang River, they were suddenly stunned by the Lucky and several Chinese hard sailing ships of more than 300 tons.

The Fortune has thirty-two guns after all. Although the main gun is only eight pounds, it can still fire in unison despite its fast speed!
How can you just treat it as if it doesn't exist and go ahead with it?

As a result, the Qing Dynasty's artillery position was bombarded by the navy before it was set up. At this time, Wu Wenyong and Chen Guangdong also arrived with 2,000 people, pulling four-pound field guns to bombard from both sides.

The Qing army dispatched more than a thousand Ili cavalry to drive them away, but they were unable to break through the Xing Tang army.

Chen Guangdong stared in amazement at the cavalrymen galloping towards him. These guys were quite powerful, but they started charging from a distance of four or five hundred meters, and then when they reached about three hundred meters, they immediately circled and retreated.

After this happened two or three times, Chen Guangdong finally realized that these guys were trying to scare him. They hoped to scare the Xing Tang army into disarray, and then they could charge forward without any accelerating cavalry behind them.

"No way! Aren't they said that the Eight Banners cavalry are invincible in the world in terms of horse riding and archery? Is that all?" A captain asked the question that expressed the thoughts of all the officers and soldiers of the Xingtang Army.

Actually, we can't blame these Mongolian brothers stationed in Yili. Their enemy, the Dzungar tribe, was not very strong by the Qianlong period. They used muskets too much and lost their riding and archery skills.

So during the Qianlong period, their fight against the Dzungar tribe was actually just a fight between weaklings.

Most of the time, when these Mongolian guys fought each other, they actually relied on their war horses to maneuver. After reaching the battle site, they dismounted and fired muskets at each other. They were all pure dragoons.

When the Dzungar Khanate was destroyed, the three Kazakh Yuz were sandwiched between the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia, and they had to kowtow to both sides. Without external threats, the Ili cavalry decayed even faster.

Ten years ago, the Hui people in Wushi area rebelled. The fathers and brothers of these brothers followed Agui to encircle and suppress the rebellion, but they were unable to break into the small town held by the Hui people for five whole months. In the end, they took the city by starving themselves.

Our fathers and brothers were all like this, and now they are even worse.

When the cavalry captain saw that he could not scare the opposing infantry, he, not knowing how powerful he was, chose to follow the same method he used to fight the Hui people and bully the Dayuzi herdsmen. He dismounted his horse and marched forward in formation with his muskets and several submachine guns.

"You idiot!" Chen Guangdong was furious. "You're insulting us! Do you think I'm a nobody?"

Deputy Chief Captain Chen felt extremely insulted. Burning with rage, he led hundreds of line infantrymen in formation and charged forward, beating war drums.

Originally the soldiers were a little afraid of the legendary Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers, but they didn't expect them to behave so poorly when they met them, and all their fear disappeared.

The two sides had 1,100 men against 600 men. The Xingtang Army fired a volley from 90 meters away, and then scattered the fire in batches. The Ili cavalry's firing rate and concentrated firepower could not keep up at all, and they suffered heavy casualties. Later, they were completely defeated in the hand-to-hand assault by Chen Guangdong and others.

You Mongolians, why are you playing with muskets instead of riding and shooting? Really.

After the Ili cavalry retreated, the Qing artillery on the hill could no longer withstand the bombardment from both sides.

They didn't even have time to seal the cannon's vents and quickly began to retreat. If Chen Guangdong hadn't had any cavalry, they might have been wiped out.

Unable to erect the riverside artillery batteries, the Qing army had no choice but to retreat. The Xingtang army advanced step by step and began to eliminate the Qing army garrisoned towns and military camps around Tokyo City.

At this time, Mo Zibu's advantage of fighting at home came into play. The Qing army's civilian laborers were basically brought from the country. They were few in number and unfamiliar with the place, so they could not play much of a role.

However, Mo Zibu had more than 100,000 civilians, most of whom were local people who were forced to fortify their cities and clear the countryside.

Under the leadership of the humble village chiefs, village elders and county magistrates promoted by Mo Zibu, these people enthusiastically led the way and provided transportation for the army.

Thousands of women even went to the battlefield, where they cooked delicious meals for the soldiers, washed clothes, and took care of the wounded.

Everyone is united. The soldiers hope to achieve class advancement by making achievements, and the people hope that the Qing Dynasty will be driven out so that they can return to their homes and continue to live a good life.

In this situation, the several 24- and 36-pound cannons that Mo Zibu dismantled from the warships could be moved quickly on the battlefield.

In addition, the beacon and flag information transmission system composed of local people can also be used to monitor the maneuvers of the Qing cavalry.

By the 20th of the twelfth month, the Qing Dynasty's range of activities in this area, which was originally 30 kilometers in radius and was built on fortified walls and cleared wilds, had been reduced to only 5 kilometers.

Agui did not expect that the Xing Tang Army would arrive so quickly. The Qing army had only one choice, which was to fight a decisive battle with the Xing Tang Army immediately.

On the twenty-fourth day of the winter month, Mo Zibu looked at the Yellow Dragon Flag of the Qing Dynasty rising above the city walls of Tokyo from afar and poured a bowl of wine on the ground.

In front of him, the offerings consisting of pigs, cows and sheep had been placed.

"One hundred and five years ago, in Guangzhou, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, two Tartars, killed over 700,000 of my ancestors and compatriots. This was the Gengyin Disaster.

They killed people and forced the remaining people to kneel down and give thanks, and built Thanksgiving Lane in Guangzhou city.

Today, it is time for us to avenge our ancestors who died. After drinking this bowl of wine, let us break the triggers of the muskets and cut holes in the steel knives, except for the forced laborers.

I don't want any prisoners, kill them all!" Mo Zibu's words were relayed through dozens of messengers and spread all over the battlefield.

"Kill them all! Kill them all!" Tens of thousands of soldiers shouted in unison, drank up the liquor in their bowls, and immediately went to the battlefield.

"Fight with all your might, there's nothing more to say. If we're defeated here, we'll have nowhere to run to. We, the bannermen, have to defend our country by ourselves." Agui said briefly with a dark face.

The whistling shells rained down on the two armies on the battlefield. The Qing army had about seventy artillery pieces weighing more than 200 kilograms, so the firepower was still sufficient.

The Xing Tang Army was not far behind, with about sixty field guns ranging from three pounds to eight pounds.

Moreover, the artillery of both sides are equipped with gun carriages and can be moved very flexibly.

The only difference is that the Xing Tang Army has sufficiently excellent artillery, while the Qing Dynasty does not.

The battle between hundreds of thousands of troops spread across the southeast of Tokyo City, with dozens of phalanxes advancing one after another under the command of flags and drums.

The marching phalanxes were constantly collapsed by concentrated artillery fire, but after retreating, they would quickly reorganize themselves.

At the beginning, the battlefield was not completely obscured by black smoke, and the commanders were still able to mobilize their troops accurately.

But as the battle went on, smoke, gunfire, and shouts of fighting completely obscured the battlefield, and many phalanxes of thousands of people could only rely on their own instincts to fight.

At this stage of the battle, what is being tested is the command ability and battlefield sense of the middle-level officers.

The most brutal battle took place in the central army, where the Xingtang Army's Yulin Guards, the Jiading Town's Wuding Regiment mainly composed of people from western Guangdong, and the 800 Hungarian cavalry who had just arrived and were already called Xiongnu cavalry were all here.

On the Qing side, the Jianrui Battalion and the Xibai Fire Gun Soldiers, the Eight Banners stationed outside the Great Wall, plus 800 Solon soldiers and a large number of elite Green Camps were also here.

The Manchus followed the old rules and set up a nine-in-ten chain formation.

The so-called nine-in-ten chain formation is a very strange infantry, cavalry and artillery coordinated formation.

It is said to be strange because its artillery is placed in the front, and there are too many muskets, so archers are needed to cooperate in combat to ensure the damage and continuity of the firepower output.

What is even more troublesome is that even with musketeers and archers, the output is still insufficient, so heavy smoothbore guns such as dove cannons must be added.

In this way, the formation becomes very complicated, and requires one link after another to ensure firepower.

So after the Qing Dynasty invented this thing, they soon couldn't use it anymore.

In order to reduce the difficulty of command, the generals who followed would make some deletions and modifications, which made the nine-in-ten chain formation become a strange thing that was effective against opponents who were weaker than you, but would likely suffer a loss against opponents of equal strength.

Chen Guangzu roared loudly and ordered the line infantry in dense formation to move forward. The artillery in the opposite Qing Dynasty's nine-in-ten chain formation began to fire fiercely.

Soldiers were hit and fell one after another, and the blood and mud splashed all over Chen Guangzu's head and body, but he did not hesitate at all and continued to command the soldiers forward.

Mo Zibu immediately gave orders, asking Li Quan's hunters to move forward quickly, and then fired at the Qing gunners from about two hundred meters away.

When the nine-in-ten chain formation was formed, there were no rifled guns that could fire from more than two hundred meters away. Therefore, the Qing army's artillery was caught off guard and was knocked to the ground in large numbers. The firepower immediately weakened.

At this time, the Guards artillery commanded by Jean Pierre began to exert force, beating the Qing infantry to the ground.

Agui could only order the archers in the formation to drive forward and drive away the hunters.

Most of these archers were from the Sauron people and the Eight Banners stationed in Beijing. They had superb archery skills, their arrows were powerful and their shooting speed was fast. They actually suppressed Li Quan's hunters for a short time.

However, this type of archer has a huge disadvantage, which is that they will become exhausted if they shoot too much in a short period of time.

Therefore, after Li Quan's hunting soldiers sacrificed more than 20 people and withstood several waves of arrows, they immediately counterattacked and inflicted heavy casualties on the elite archers of the Qing Dynasty.

Agui took advantage of this opportunity and ordered the brave general Shengbao to lead the Eight Banners light cavalry to attack the Xing Tang army's artillery on the high ground.

Mo Zibu resisted the urge to use his own cavalry, and instead ordered Li Quan's hunters to retreat to assist the artillery in defense. The two sides engaged in repeated fighting on the high ground.

At this time, the two armies were less than 100 meters apart. The Qing artillery was basically scrapped, but the mountain-splitting cannons that could be loaded with shotgun shells and the small mountain-splitting cannons could still fire.

Among them, the mountain-splitting cannon can be loaded with twenty shotgun shells at a time. Although it is troublesome to load, each shot can knock down a large group of people.

Of course, because the Qing Dynasty's shotgun shells were too small, there were more injuries than fatalities. There were even soldiers of the Yulin Guards who were hit by more than ten shotgun shells but were still able to fight.

On the Xing Tang Army side, the three-pound cannon and the tiger squat cannon, which could also fire shotgun shells, also fired continuously with large lifting poles, and the Qing army fell in large numbers.

At seventy meters, the infantry of both sides finally clashed. The Xing Tang army's three-volley fire was much faster than the Qing army's muskets and archers. The exchange ratio between the two sides was at least one to three.

The Qing army could not bear the casualties, so Agui could only order the 900 cavalrymen of the vanguard battalion who were hiding to attack.

These 900 cavalrymen in the vanguard battalion were almost the only cavalrymen in the entire Qing Dynasty who could ride and shoot, and could charge in armor.

Their war horses were not raised by Han people on the Mongolian grasslands or on the North China Plain, but were raised by themselves in Saihanba and Mulan Paddock. They were definitely not the kind of rubbish war horses that could not run once a person in armor was carried on their backs.

Mo Zibudu picked up a brown bess flintlock rifle, and his personal guards Pei Changwu and Lin Ayu were close to him. Together they filled the left wing that was under the attack of the Qing cavalry.

At the same time, eight hundred Xiongnu cavalrymen set out, targeting the right wing of the Qing army.

The purpose is to change homes and see who can't hold on.

At this point, all command was lost. More than 100,000 Qing and Xing Tang troops were killed in a plain only three or four miles in radius, with blood flowing like a river.

Mo Zibu treated himself as an ordinary soldier and even picked up his flintlock and fired twice.

The soldiers around him tightly surrounded him, and the red flag with a golden sun and moon fluttering high was like a reef in the waves. No matter how you attack, even if blood flows like a river, I will remain unmoved.

On the other side, Agui could not hold on any longer. Eight hundred Hun cavalrymen, led by cuirassiers half equipped with hand cannons and spears, directly broke into the Qing Dynasty's nine-in-ten chain formation.

The first to suffer misfortune were the two thousand Xibai fire-gun soldiers. They were not adapted to Annan's tropical climate at all, and their combat effectiveness was originally weak, so they were defeated in a short time.

As soon as the Western Bai soldiers were defeated, the Xiongnu cavalry immediately used them as cover and rushed straight to where Agui was. Agui ordered his personal guard Goshaha to fight hard, but he still failed to stop them.

In just three quarters of an hour, Agui's son, the Lieutenant General of Leiqiong Town, and the Blue Feather Guard Abida arrived.

Duke Feng'en of the Guardian State, General of Jingzhou, and member of the Yellow Belt Imperial Clan, Aisin-Gioro Xingzhao.

Mahabala, the second son of the first Alashan Prince Lobsang Dorji, and other Manchu nobles died in the battle.

Unable to bear the casualties, Agui had to recall the cavalry that was attacking Mozibu, and only then was he able to barely drive away the Xiongnu cavalry commanded by Rakoczi Gezo.

However, the Qing army's formation had been completely destroyed and it was almost in a passive state of being beaten.

Soon, the Fucha Kuilin's troops on the right wing were defeated by Chen Guangyao's troops of the Xingtang Army, and the brave general Xu Shiheng and others were killed in the battle.

Although Hailancha on the left wing suppressed Chen Lian and inflicted heavy casualties on the Xingtang Army, it was already too late to reverse the decline.

The battle lasted until around five in the evening. After nearly four hours of fighting, the Qing army could no longer hold on and barely retreated into Tokyo City under the cover of seven 3,000-jin cannons on the city wall.

But this is just a last-ditch effort, they can't hold on for much longer!

　Ah, I can’t take it anymore. I have updated more than 110,000 words in 14 days. I am feeling discouraged.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)