Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 488 The Real Purpose

Inviting Zheng Hongkui into his barracks, Yang Chao thought about the whole picture of Daming.

The first suspicion is that Hong Chengchou is repeating the old trick again, tearing himself from both sides as before, and then attacking him from the center.

But the current situation is completely different from last time. Last time Hong Chengchou was able to surprise himself from Jiangxi, but now the whole of Jiangxi is in Yang Chao's hands. It is impossible for Hong Chengchou to hit Nanjing in a short time. After the state captured Liling, it could directly attack Xiangtan and Changsha along the Xiangjiang River system, cutting off Huguang in the middle.

That is to say, Yang Chao had the advantage to attack Huguang, but Hong Chengchou had no chance to attack Jiangnan.

Although this possibility is unlikely, Hong Chengchou, as long as he has the opportunity, will definitely seize it. Feint attack and main attack can be switched at any time. The combination of Qi and Zheng is very good. He would never miss this opportunity, so Yang Chao didn't dare to be careless.

Second, Yang Chao suspected that Hong Chengchou attacked Guangdong because he was sure that he could recruit Jin Shenghuan, but he attacked Yang Chao from both Zhejiang and Huguang.

Therefore, although Jin Shenghuan has not played against the flag at present, he still has to guard against it.

Third, Yang Chao suddenly pointed to the north: "Here, this time Hong Chengchou is just a supporting role, and the main character is Dorgon!"

Zheng Hongkui watched Yang Chao's hand pointing back and forth on the whole map of the Ming Dynasty, left and right, east and west, counting provinces in the blink of an eye, quite a bit like pointing, but he still couldn't help being surprised that Yang Chao would put Focusing your eyes on the north far away from the battlefield, you will think that the goal of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is Shandong and Henan!
The war has been fought like this, and it has long been no longer a battle for one city, one pool, or even one province and one government. The Manchu Qing has already begun to play a national grand strategy. Hong Chengchou is just starting this time, and the real main direction of attack is in the north.

"It seems that Dorgon believes that the 38 banner soldiers in his hand have been trained and can compete with Ben Du."

Yang Chao sighed to Zheng Hongkui.

Yang Chaojun, 50, 35 are in Jiangbei, 15 are in Shandong and Guide, Zheng Yongwang is in Fengyang, Chuzhou and other places, Sun Changfu is staying in Huaiyang to support, there are only 15 people in Jiangnan, except for [-] in Nanjing. The others are in the hands of Xie Fei, Duo Nan, Lu Mo and Hu Quan.

Zheng Hongkui swallowed his saliva, 30 Eight Banners, he couldn't help but feel guilty, the whole world can compete with the Eight Banners, that is, Yang Chao's army, this is already a recognized fact, except for a very few civil servants who are very romantic Besides, basically no one would provoke Yang Chao militarily.

Zheng Hongkui is considered to be a person who knows how to fight. People who have been killed with real knives and guns naturally understand what is going on in the army. It is reason rather than fact.

But the literati don't care about these, they just believe in Cao GUI's debates and so on, as if they can win the battle with a few words, they probably don't care about the fact that Mr. Cao GUI also died in the battle.

"So the governor probably can't send many troops there. Marquis Zheng, we have to rely on the Zheng family's army for this battle."

Yang Chao sighed.

Zheng Hongkui, however, was overjoyed: "Uncle has an order, the Zheng family dare not disobey, and they all obey uncle's orders."

Yang Chao was very satisfied with Zheng Hongkui's attitude. Allies? He should look like an ally. He was as kind as before, but the stabbing in the back was very hurtful.

Yang Chao nodded and said: "For this battle, the governor can only send 3 cavalry artillery from Xie Fei's department to Guangdong. The rest of the army will stay in Zhejiang and Jiangxi to guard against Hong Chengchou and Jin Shenghuan. Even the northern army cannot go south. The elite soldiers of the Eight Banners fought a battle. Therefore, Zheng Jiawu must do his best to recover Guangdong together with Xie Fei's troops!"

Zheng Hongkui said: "I will write a letter immediately to let Sen'er send troops to Guangdong!"

Yang Chao nodded.

north.

It was already October weather, the autumn was tall and the grass was yellow. Wang Pu burned all the way, and successfully fought from Guide to the Kaifeng mansion.

In order to deal with Wu Sangui's cavalry, he did not waste his brains. He is a person with high military talent. In the past, he was able to break through the orthodox mandarin duck formation practiced by Lao Jin. In order to guard against Wu Sangui, he racked his brains After training the circular array, it is really effective against the enemy's sneak attack.

There is a saying in the art of war in the Song Dynasty: All infantry and chariot fighters must use carbine guns as a square formation, including infantry, if they encounter the common way.The horse army and infantry are divided into garrisons and battle teams.When the team defends, the team goes to battle; when the team defends, the team goes to battle.If the enemy attacks me on one side, we will send out troops from two outposts to cover them from the side...

It is obvious that the phalanx of repelling carbine guns is used as a phalanx, and the formation is formed on the ground. This is how the Western infantry phalanx fights the cavalry. The Chinese study the warfare method much deeper than the West. I admire the Western phalanx, but I don’t want the ancient Chinese formation to be changeable. Different tactics will be used in different terrains. It is far more flexible than the West. Western military research has always been very shallow, so only one set of phalanx is used. many years.

Things like military formations are flexible and naturally rigid, and the more flexible Roman phalanx defeated the Macedonian phalanx.

Wang Pu absorbed this kind of experience. He specially made extended spears. He formed a team of 300 people and divided them into three teams to cover each other.But he is not limited to defense. After rejecting carbine guns to form a forest of guns, he will deal with the enemy's first round of charge. If the enemy chooses to harass by cavalry and shooting, then there will be infantry archers and bird gunners in the formation to suppress and resist the enemy's first attack. After the wave raid, behind him was his most proficient pikeman thrust, and the cavalry who lost their speed had no resistance before this thrust.

With 3000 people and nine phalanxes, Wang Pu escorted the army rations. He encountered several surprise attacks and was easily repelled by him. He could arrive within a few days, so he easily reached the Kaifeng mansion.

Gaodi, the guard of the Kaifeng Mansion, was trembling. He was the general of Shanhaiguan, and he surrendered to the Manchus together with Wu Sangui. In fact, he and Wu Sangui were the ones who let the Manqings into the customs, but he is not as famous as Wu Sangui. One person recited it, and in addition, he had always been loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and the history written by the Qing Dynasty was not easy to scold him, so he escaped the reputation of a big traitor.

In fact, Wu Sangui was fighting Li Zicheng in Shanhaiguan at that time, and Gao Di's troops were almost the same as Wu Sangui's. The border troops stationed in places like Shanhaiguan were limited even if they were inferior to the Guangning army. Therefore, he and Wu Sangui stopped Li Zicheng, and then Li Zicheng was defeated by the sudden appearance of one hundred thousand and eight banner soldiers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

After Gao Di surrendered, he was not as prominent as Wu Sangui, nor was he too suspicious. He still served as the general soldier of Shanhaiguan, and then he was transferred to Henan to serve as the general soldier of Kaifeng and Guide. Dorgon only fined him half a year's salary, but did not remove him from his post.

Later, Wu Sangui was sent from Liaodong to help him, and the two old partners got together again. Gao Di was responsible for guarding the city, and Wu Sangui was responsible for keeping him out of the city.

Just when Wang Pu was about to take Kaifeng in one go, he suddenly received a military order from Jiangnan.

"What, let me immediately shrink my troops and defend Guide?"

Wang Pu was a little hard to accept this military order. He had already fought outside the city of Kaifeng, and the cannons had already started to be erected. He might be able to break through the city tonight. It was really unreasonable to ask him to retreat now.

But Yang Chao also explained to Wang Pu that he guessed that the Qing army might concentrate its forces to attack Guide and Shandong, and asked him to be careful and guard the city.

"Are you kidding me? I've already reached the Kaifeng mansion. How can the Qing army go to fight Guide?"

Speaking of this, Wang Pu himself was stunned for a moment, and the cold sweat came down in an instant.

It's too easy, it's too easy to hit the edge of Kaifeng city.

"Oops, tune the tiger away from the mountain!"

It suddenly occurred to him that Guide's mansion was empty of troops, and Wu Sangui's cavalry were always just harassment, and he knew he had been fooled.

Shandong Dongchang Mansion.

Zhao Kang also received the order.

But he and his lieutenant Li Yuanyin agreed that the cavalry should use offense instead of defense.

"Attack the Daming Mansion, cut off the road where the Qing army threatens our flanks, and at the same time form a body with Guide Company to attack and defend each other."

These two have cooperated since Wuhu, and they have become more and more in harmony with each other. They are both bold and reckless.

Li Wuliu of Jinan Prefecture.

"I'm afraid he won't come to fight. The tartars attack me, one is Dezhou, and the other is Linqing. I want to see how they beat me."

After Li Wuliu received the order, he was very arrogant. The cavalrymen of the Eight Banners were very powerful, so he taught Zhao Kang a lesson, but his infantrymen, Li Wuliu, were not afraid of these tough Mongolian cavalrymen from the bitter cold of Mobei. Especially in the case of defending the city, Li Wuliu thought that those people were giving away their heads.

"Sure enough, it's in the north!"

Three days later, Yang Chao received the battle report, and the Qing army really launched an offensive in the north.

First, Wang Pu was tricked and was attacked by Wu Sangui in a surprise attack on Guide Mansion. The number of troops guarding Guide Mansion was less than [-], and the situation was precarious.

But fortunately, Zhao Kang led cavalry to attack Daming Mansion. After receiving the news, he asked Li Yuanyin, the deputy general, to lead troops to surround Daming Mansion, and immediately sent [-] cavalry south to rescue.In addition, Wang Pu woke up in time and frantically sent troops back to help, and finally rushed to Guide Mansion before the Qing army broke the city, and repelled Wu Sangui.

However, Wu Sangui probably lacked troops, and the sneak attack force was only 2, so he retreated early when he saw the situation was not good.

The real battle took place between Shandong and North Zhili.

Li Wuliu's army was mainly defensive, while the Eight Banners mobilized more than 15 troops to attack the two cities of Linqing and Dezhou. However, they deployed enough cannons and almost all the tough infantry who could use bird guns to fight. However, the Eight Banners soldiers were still unable to capture the two cities.

The war lasted 20 days, and the Eight Banners suffered heavy losses. The loss of people was not large, estimated to be less than 1000, but the large-scale artillery battle caused the Qing army to lose more than 1000 artillery pieces. It takes a long time to cast a cannon, so these more than 2 red cannons may make Dorgon feel more distressed than [-] dead.

Not long after the artillery battle ended, Yang Chao got information from Diao Erdou that Dorgon even asked them to hire a group of cannon-casting craftsmen from Jiangnan, especially from Macau, and Dorgon was willing to pay a lot of money in return.

"Dorgon is at the end of his rope!"

Yang Chao sighed secretly in his heart, an army of powerful cold weapons that relied on personal brute force and restrained by cruel military discipline, was forced by himself to start paying attention to cannons, and if not done, the future wars would turn into large-scale artillery battles , and then there will be a cold weapon confrontation.

As soon as he thought that the Manchus would start an arms race with him, Yang Chao felt full of sympathy for them. They had already lost this war. In Yang Chao's view, the Eight Banners Group had already withdrawn from the ranks of contending for the world.

The Northern Offensive of the Eight Banners was foiled by the three most capable generals under Yang Chao, but the price was also very high. The army could not attack the city, burned, killed and looted in this area, slaughtered the people frantically, and drove the people to attack the city and other bad behaviors, so that there was almost no human habitation in the thirty miles around the canal.

The situation in the south is not too optimistic. Hong Chengchou obviously achieved better results than his master. Taking advantage of Yang Chao's inability to divide his troops to the south, Hong Chengchou almost captured the entire Guangdong. Except for Guangzhou, which held for half a month, almost Surrendered without a fight, and handed over the city to Hong Chengchou.

Whether it is a civil servant or a general, no one has integrity. Ji Yisheng, the county magistrate of Conghua County, is actively responsible for helping the Qing army to forge artillery. It was the red cannon he cast that bombarded the city of Guangzhou. After the Qing army entered the city, even with the restraint of Hong Chengchou , Still carried out a brutal massacre here.

As a literati, Hong Chengchou obviously can't do this kind of thing, but he can restrain the green battalion soldiers, but he can't restrain the Eight Banners soldiers, especially when the Eight Banners soldiers are still commanded by a prince like King Sanshun, they don't listen at all. His, the final result is that the most powerful city in Guangdong has become "the people are slaughtered, and ten save two or three."

"Decree to our army that any army under King Sanshun's jurisdiction will be annihilated if they do not accept surrender!"

After Yang Chao received the news, he let out a long sigh. He couldn't do anything about it. Although Xie Fei had already arrived in Guangdong, he didn't have enough troops to save Guangzhou, and Hong Chengchou's deployment was obviously much better than Xie Fei's. With the cooperation of the generals, although they landed in Chaozhou, they were always held back by Hong Chengchou. They sent troops to rescue three times, but they were either ambushed or sneak attacked, and they returned without success three times.

Like last time, the little imperial court escaped from Zhaoqing to Wuzhou by water on the Xijiang River.

It is said that Ding Kuichu, the first assistant, loaded more than 100 ships because of his wealth, and fell behind. In the end, he was overtaken by the cavalry of the Qing army. The batch of treasures is rumored to be worth several million taels of silver.

After Hong Chengchou captured Guangzhou, he immediately let Kong Youde pursue Zhu Cihuan, leaving Shang Kexi and Geng Zhongming to continue to attack Guangdong, and Kong Youde chased all the way into Guangxi.

(End of this chapter)