Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 504

New book for collection: "The Rise of Great Powers 1900"

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For Li Dingguo's rapid rise, Song Kun and other generals saw it, and they couldn't help being a little envious, but at the same time they also had some admiration.

After recovering Guangxi, Yang Chao asked Song Kun to send a group of officers to Li Dingguo's army as observers to learn how Li Dingguo used troops.

The battle reports came back from here, making Song Kun's blood boil sometimes, and sometimes jealous.

Song Kun thought he couldn't do Li Dingguo's large-scale maneuvering, not to mention he couldn't do it, even the most mobile cavalry of Zhao Kang's army in Yang Chao's army couldn't do it.

Li Dingguo's army has a main force of 4 people, but his family members accompanied the army when he fought, and he became an old battalion.

The main force fights in the front, and the old battalion produces in the rear. The weapons and armor damaged in the front will be sent back to the old battalion several miles away for repair at any time, which fully guarantees the combat effectiveness of the soldiers on the move.

With the old battalion at the rear, the soldiers in front were extremely determined to fight, because retreating would mean suffering for the old battalion's family members.

And don't think that the old camp is just old, weak, sick and disabled. On the contrary, here are craftsmen, doctors and women, and even the women among them are also strong women. Raise your weapon as a suspect.

Song Kun knew that in Hengyang City, the defenders were actually 20 main forces plus [-] old battalion women and children, but they blocked the siege of the Qing army, which was [-] troops.

Li Dingguo led an army of [-], and there were [-] strong women. Women were often suspected soldiers, and Li Dingguo's main force was to attack, often beating the Qing army by surprise.

After capturing Xiangtan, Li Dingguo let [-] women and children go south along the Xiangshui River with great fanfare, and he personally led the main force to detour from Baoqing Mansion to return to help Hengzhou Mansion, and cooperated with the defenders of Hengzhou Mansion to attack the city. Foreign Qing army.

Another key point is that Li Dingguo himself fights and likes to charge forward. The soldiers fight without retreating and are extremely heroic. Outside Hengzhou City, it was Li Dingguo who first confirmed Shang Kexi's main tent, which was not found by the Qing army. Next, he attacked the Qing army at night, burned the company battalion, and was lucky enough to behead Shang Kexi directly, which caused the Qing army's 20 troops to collapse directly. He chased and killed him all the way to Xiangtan.

In the second Hengyang catastrophe, Li Dingguo killed [-] people and captured [-] people, especially the killing was gratifying.

This kind of military exploits has already made his reputation faintly comparable to that of Yang Chao, but it also made Dorgon and Hong Chengchou even more troublesome.

Dorgon was really angry this time, and he directly reprimanded Hong Chengchou, and Hong Chengchou also admitted his miscalculation and wrote a letter to plead guilty, but the Qing court did not agree to his resignation, but let him continue to manage Hunan.

However, faced with the loss of more than 20 troops, Hong Chengchou decided that Hunan could no longer hold on. He asked the Qing court to abandon Changsha, retreat to Yuezhou, and try his best to keep Hubei.

Dorgon was forced to agree to this method. After Hong Chengchou withdrew from Wuchang, Luck Dehun would sit here and let Hong Chengchou return to Beijing to discuss the unacceptable offensive of the Ming army in the south of the Yangtze River.

"Maintaining the status quo?"

Dorgon walked up and down the hall in annoyance. His Highness sat an old man, who was still calm and calm, but it was hard to hide a deep exhaustion.

Hong Chengchou's appearance made it difficult for Dorgon to criticize him too much. He asked himself, if he changed any of the Eight Banners generals, he might not be able to do better than Hong Chengchou, and he might even be defeated early. Hong Chengchou mainly used green camp soldiers, Dorgon is already very satisfied with being able to hold a stalemate with Jiangnan like this.

But he couldn't help being annoyed, and lost another 3000 banner soldiers, among which [-] elite white banners made him bleed.

Although he has completely surrendered the forces of the Eight Banners, deep down in his heart, he still regards the two White Banners as his confidants, and the other banners are always difficult to reassure him.

After the destruction of Haoge and Jierhalang, the banner owners of the two yellow and white banners were replaced by his confidants, but he still trusted the two white banners more, so this time he dispatched 3 elites from the two white banners to cooperate with the Mongolian Eight Banners and the two white banners. A total of [-] people from the Han Eight Banners attacked Li Dingguo, but they were defeated in one battle.

However, Hong Chengchou had always underestimated the Daxi Army before, and always focused on Yang Chao.

Although Dorgon would do the same, after all, a force suddenly appeared, and it was impossible for him to divert his attention and relax his defense against Yang Chaojun in the south of the Yangtze River.

"That's right, stay the same for all changes!"

Hong Chengchou said decisively.

Dorgon snorted: "Change, how can you change?"

It has indeed changed in the past few years, but it has become worse and worse each time.

Hong Chengchou was still silent, seeing Hong Chengchou like this, Dorgon knew that he already had a complete strategy in mind.

"My lord, let's have a good talk with this king."

Dorgon had no choice but to ask for advice patiently.

Hong Chengchou said neither humble nor overbearing: "Follow the order. Does the lord think that Yang Chao can accommodate the Western Thieves (Daxi Army)?"

Dorgon shook his head. He thought Yang Chao was a hero like him, and such a character couldn't tolerate others.

Hong Chengchou asked again: "Can the Western Thieves accommodate Yang Chao?"

Dorgon shook his head again.

Hong Chengchou said lightly: "Zhu Yuanzhang met Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang!"

Dorgon woke up suddenly. He was familiar with history books. He naturally knew that when the Han people revolted at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang fought fiercely with the Yuan army. Strategy, slowly accumulating strength, first wiped out Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang, and finally wiped out the Yuan Dynasty with a single blow.

Isn't the current form the same as the end of the Yuan Dynasty? Although Hong Chengchou's comparison of the Qing court to the lingering Yuan Dynasty is quite unpleasant, Dorgon is not too fussy. On the contrary, he agrees with Hong Chengchou's analysis.

"My lord, you don't want to just sit and watch the Jiangnan Ming army's infighting!"

Dorgon said with emotion that when the peasant armies were fighting each other at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan court sat idly by and watched the tigers fight from the mountain. Unfortunately, after Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his opponents one by one, it was his turn to destroy the Yuan Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou said: "Zongxi thieves, suppress Yang thieves!"

Dorgon nodded. The current situation in the south of the Yangtze River is that Yang Chao is the dominant force, while the Daxi Army is rising strongly. If these two forces do not collide, it is almost impossible. There has never been such a two-power in the history of the Han people. Neighboring and peaceful situation.

But Yang Chao is deeply entrenched, and the Great Western Army has just risen. What the Qing army has to do is to suppress Yang Chao and prevent Yang Chao from annexing the Great Western Army. If the Great Western Army attacks Yang Chao, they will cooperate with the Great Western Army. Weakened each other with Yang Chao, and when they were almost fighting among themselves, the Qing army had accumulated enough strength, and then they rushed down and wiped out Jiangnan.

The truth is this, but the one who can play this skill well must be a master among the masters, otherwise the battlefield changes rapidly, and no one dares to say that the Yuan Dynasty also had such a plan back then, but it still got out of control in the end.

"Master Lao must sit in Wuchang!"

Dorgon said very sincerely that apart from Hong Chengchou, it was really difficult for him to find another master strategist.

Hong Chengchou nodded and said: "I am ordered, I dare not resign!"

Dorgon nodded.

Nanjing.

Yang Chao knew that Li Dingguo's defeat was gratifying, and after beheading another king, he couldn't help feeling deeply.

Li Dingguo's battle this time is really amazing. Yang Chao thinks he can't do it. He used two rounds of maneuvers, even the Qing army is not easy to do it. But Li Dingguo did it. They are all cavalry, only [-] cavalry, the rest are infantry, and even women.

Yang Chao wrote Li Dingguo's military tactics into a case, and distributed it to various armies, so that the generals could learn from it and compare it with the previous battles of the Yang family army.

As the battle situation in Huguang changes, the situation in Jiangnan is also getting better day by day.

After the Qing army lost Hunan, it could no longer pose a threat to Jiangnan. Now the only borders with the Qing army are Henan and Shandong, so that Yang Chao can concentrate his forces on these two places.

So Yang Chao immediately dispatched many men to go north to deploy in Fengyang Mansion to threaten Henan and Hubei from another line. At the same time, he dispatched Xie Fei's troops to go north to Xuzhou to support Zhao Kang, Li Wuliu and Wang Pu's troops. So far, the number of troops used in the north has reached 70 Thousands of troops.

Only 30 people remained in Jiangnan, except for Song Kun in Guangdong and Lu Mo in Jiangxi, the [-] army led by Yang Chao in Nanjing, and the [-] recruits under Jin Shenghuan in Fujian.

Then Yang Chao wrote another letter to Sun Kewang, asking him if he dared to attack Hubei. If Sun Kewang was willing to attack Hubei, Yang Chao would send his army north to Beijing.But Sun Kewang seems to have no intention of going north for the time being.

After Li Dingguo's second Hengyang catastrophe, Hong Chengchou led his troops to flee north and abandoned Changsha Mansion. The Qing army gave up all the areas south of the Yangtze River.

But Sun Kewang's deployment at this time was very disappointing. He sent Feng Shuangli to occupy Changsha immediately, sent Ma Jinzhong to occupy Changde Mansion, and personally led troops to take down all Yuezhou prefectures and counties except Yuezhou City. The posture of Wuchang Mansion.

This made Yang Chao sigh.

"Since you are so afraid of Li Dingguo, why don't you send Li Dingguo north?"

In Yang Chao's view, Sun Kewang could have allowed Li Dingguo to make the Northern Expedition. With Li Dingguo's temperament, he would never give up such an opportunity, while Sun Kewang sent civil officials to Hunan and Guangxi to operate, but he chose to occupy Changde and Yue with a mentality of occupying territory. The state's income is tantamount to blocking Li Dingguo's road to the north.

Yang Chao couldn't help but despise Sun Kewang's demeanor.

However, if Sun Kewang wants to start an internal fight with Li Dingguo, Yang Chao will absolutely not accept it. It is a pity that the good situation that came so easily is ruined like this.

Therefore, Yang Chao was very friendly to Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang sent them to buy cannons and bird guns, and Yang Chao sold them at cost price.

Of course, Li Dingguo sent people to buy armor and war horses, and Yang Chao also supplied them at cost price.

At the same time, they sent envoys to Sun Kewang's account to mediate. The order to them was that if Sun Kewang wanted to start an internal fight, he would stop him with all his might, and even threaten Sun Kewang. If he dared to start an internal fight, Yang Chao would side with Li Dingguo.

As long as Sun Kewang does not initiate internal fighting, it is impossible for Li Dingguo to initiate internal fighting.

"Looks like it depends on us."

Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh with emotion, realizing that the Northern Expedition had to rely on Jiangnan, and Yang Chao in Jiangnan had the final say alone, and none of the top ten generals under his command had a second heart.

But Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu are relatively independent from each other, so they can't be twisted together.

(End of this chapter)