I want to be emperor

Chapter 546 Let them escape

The Dongbang people ran away again!

General Zuo Yingzhe, the commander of the Third Army, looked at the empty Ningyuan City, his face was terribly dark!
Lieutenant General Qian Tai, Lieutenant General Qian Tai, the deputy chief of operations of the Imperial Guards, also had an uneasy look on his face: "These damned barbarians are pretty good at fighting, why are they still running away like the former Ming army!"

"I ran away in Qiantunwei before, and now I also run in Ningyuan!"

"Damn it, it's not over yet, why can't you muster up the courage to fight us head-on!"

Admiral Zuo Yingzhe withdrew his gaze from the empty Ningyuan City: "It is human nature to be greedy for life and fear death, and the people from the East are no exception!"

"Since they abandoned the city to avoid the war, they probably want to fight us in Jinzhou!"

"Jinzhou has their strategic reserve team, and they can mobilize more troops from the rear. In addition to the tens of thousands of people who have retreated from Ningyuan, there may be more than [-] by then. They should also have the courage to fight us. It's time!"

Lieutenant General Qian Tai said: "It's best to be like this. If they don't fight and flee, then we will cross the Liaohe River and kill them directly to Shenyang, and see if they can escape there."

The Eastern captives abandoned the city and fled many times on the battlefield in western Liaoning. On the surface, it seemed that the Chu army had won a huge victory and was able to recover a large area of ​​the western Liaoning corridor without much effort. The eastward advance of the corridor failed to kill and injure the enemy's vital forces as much as planned.

According to the plan of the Third Army, they want to have a big fight with the Dongyao people here in the Liaoxi Corridor. It is best to kill their 10,000+ troops in one battle, and strive to secure Quankun in one battle.

And this kind of large-scale battle is also more conducive to the Chu army's artillery power and flintlock line tactics.

Most of the Chu army's series of tactics were designed for large-scale field battles.

However, they fought many times against the Dongyao people, whether it was the Liaodong Peninsula battlefield, the Monan Mongolian battlefield, or the previous battle of Guangning Zhongqian, in fact, the core tactics of the Chu army, that is, the infantry line tactics, failed. type it out……

Because the Dongyao people had never fought a serious field infantry battle with the Chu army.

The only large-scale field battle was the cavalry battle in the northern suburbs of Nakamae, but this battle was a very pure cavalry battle, and there was no infantry at all.

Apart from not fighting large-scale field battles with the Chu army, the Dongbuo people did not play the trick of defending the city like the Ming army did in the past.

In the past, when the Ming army faced the attack of the Chu army, the tactics adopted were mainly to encircle and defend strategically important places, such as Jiujiang, Anqing, Yangzhou, Huaiyang, Xuzhou, Tianjin, Tongguan and other places. The heavy troops defended stubbornly, forcing the Chu army to continuously develop siege tactics.

But to be honest... Today's Dongyao people are not as good as the former Ming army in terms of defending the city.

Although the guards in the Ming army are not good, the new standard army compiled by the local governors is quite reliable. They use the new standard army as the core and rely on various types of perfect anti-gun facilities to build themselves It became a tortoise shell, and it was very troublesome for the Chu army to attack these tortoise shells.

As far as the Dongyao people are concerned, they don't have any new standard troops... Although they have also learned from the Chu army to imitate and produce various field artillery and matchlock guns, their tactical application of these new weapons is Hong Chengchou's. The way hot and cold weapons are combined with each other.

You can't say that this tactic is not suitable, in fact it is quite easy to use.

It's just... Facing the sharp guns of the Chu army, this kind of tactics that is still in the era of alternating hot and cold can't deal with it.

Given the perfect artillery fortifications of the former Ming army, they did not have the corresponding infantry tactics to garrison.

The Dongyao people didn't know this at the beginning, or they also knew some things but didn't pay attention to it, until they were taught by the artillery of the Chu army in the tactics of Zhongqian...

After really seeing the sharp artillery fire of the Chu army, they went from one extreme to another, that is, they didn't fight to defend the city at all...

Before that, they directly gave up the former guards of Guangning, and subsequently abandoned many fortresses and cities. When the battle of Ningyuan came, they would rather go out of the city to fight a beachhead counterattack than sit back and watch the Chu army cross the river and defend the city.

Because they know very well that they can fight in the wild, and they can retreat and escape if they can't be beaten, but they are basically waiting to die in the city.

Once the city is strategically surrounded by the Chu army, there will be basically no second possibility for the defenders in the city to be wiped out except for the entire army.

After the generals of the Eastern Captives made this choice, it also led to a series of battles that the Chu army wanted to pass through the Liaoxi Corridor to wipe out a large number of the living forces of the Eastern Captives. Most of the hopes of securing Quankun in the first battle fell through!

In the Northeast Campaign launched by the Chu army, the siege of the city was not the focus, and it was useless to occupy some cities in the air. The core strategic goal of the Chu army was to directly annihilate the main force of the Dongcap people.

There are only so few Dongyao people, even if the Manchu Eight Banners plus the Han Eight Banners plus the Mongolian Eight Banners, the total population is just that little.

If they can kill 10,000+ people in the battle of Liaoxi Corridor, it is basically equivalent to killing more than half of their young and strong.

Even if they don't fight in the future, they won't be able to calm down in more than ten years.

But now, the Chu army also wiped out more than 4 enemy troops in the battle of Guangning Zhongqian, and there were basically no major gains in subsequent operations.

The long-prepared Battle of Ningyuan by the Chu army killed only 3000 people from the East Captives.

This is far from the planned strategic goal of killing more than [-] enemy troops.

And these captives who failed to be killed fled eastward all the way, and they will definitely gather and regroup in the future, and continue to pose a threat to the Chu army.

Now Zuo Yingzhe can only hope that the Dongyao people will be more determined and tougher, and stay in Jinzhou to fight a life-and-death battle with their Chu army.

Otherwise, if the captives continue to flee east, the Chu army will be passive!
Once the captives continue to flee east, it is not impossible to abandon Shenyang directly in the future.

Then the two sides could only continue to fight on the vast northeast plain... and this unexpectedly meant that the logistics line became extremely long and dangerous.

At the same time, the number of your own cavalry is relatively limited, and it will be more troublesome to fight at that time.

At the same time, it is difficult for our main infantry and artillery to exert an absolute advantage.

In this way, the Northeast Campaign may become protracted, and it may take many years to completely wipe out the Dongcap.

This is not a good thing for the Great Chu Empire.

First of all, the pressure on military expenses is too great. Although the Great Chu Empire has money, it is impossible to maintain an army of 30 to [-] people to perform combat missions in the Northeast for a long time.

The cost of an army in combat is much higher than the maintenance cost in normal times.

The military expenditure of the Great Chu Empire will not be reduced by then, and as a senior general of the empire, Zuo Yingzhe has already received rumors that it is impossible for the empire to maintain such a high military expenditure all the time.

During Chengshun's six years, the empire's accumulated military expenditures probably reached more than 500 million taels of silver, while the empire's finances were only tens of millions a year.

Today, within the Great Chu Empire, various expenditures are suppressed to meet military expenditures, and at the same time, various confiscations and confiscations during the unification war can be maintained.

But after a long time, when the confiscation and confiscation during the unification war is almost spent, even the military expenditure of the empire will inevitably drop significantly.

This is no longer a question of whether the military is willing or not, but that there is not so much money.

Based on the issue of military expenditures, the military hopes to bring down the Dongbang people within one year, or two years at the latest.

Only in this way can we reduce military expenditures after a sharp drop in military expenditures in the following years, and then tide over the difficulties.

Time is running out for the military, especially the army.

Zuo Yingzhe knew this very well, so he was very dissatisfied when he saw the Dongyao people running around again and again.

Qian Tai on the side, as a high-ranking guard, also knew something about it, and was just as upset as Zuo Yingzhe.

On the other hand, other middle and low-level officers and soldiers were very happy to watch the Dongbang people run and run again and again.

Because the Dongyao people ran away again, Zuo Yingzhe didn't even have the mood to enter Ningyuan City, so he directly convened a meeting with the senior generals of the land and sea guards at the temporary headquarters near the coast.

The theme of the meeting was simple: "How can we effectively annihilate the vital forces of the enemy army?"

Zuo Yingzhe set the tone from the very beginning: "In the future, it is expected that at least [-] enemy troops will gather in the direction of Jinzhou, and our core goal is to keep them. This time, we must not let them run away again, let alone let them run away." All the way back to the deep mountains and old forests!"

"So, this time we have to change our thinking, and we can't directly advance with great fanfare like before!"

Speaking of this, Zuo Yingzhe said in a heavy tone: "This will cause too much psychological pressure on the enemy, and finally cause them to flee without fighting again!"

"Therefore, we must be cautious when advancing, so as not to over-stimulate the enemy's passive avoidance mentality!"

"We must let them see the hope of defending Jinzhou and the hope of defeating us, so that they can stay with firm confidence, and then we can completely surround them and annihilate them in one fell swoop!"

Hearing what Zuo Yingzhe said, many people in the meeting felt strange.

In the past, when we were fighting, we wished that the enemy would flee without fighting. Now it’s better, and we hope that the enemy will stick to the end. Alas, the world has changed...

At this time, Qian Tai said: "If we advance forward, even if we take various measures to show the enemy's weakness, the other side will know anyway that our army has a large number of main forces and a large number of artillery... and these troops and artillery will reach the city of Jinzhou sooner or later. of!"

"Unless we don't go east, once we go east, they will be vigilant. Once they think they can't resist, they will run away again!"

"Therefore, if you want to keep the enemy, you must force them to flee!"

"I suggest that you can send troops to land directly east of Jinzhou, and after landing, capture the area west of Jinzhou, and directly block the retreat route of the Jinzhou defenders."

"At that time, whether they escape or not, they will not be able to fly out of our hands!"

Lieutenant General Song Qilin, chief of staff of the Third Army, said: "Crossing the sea and landing east of Jinzhou is an option. If necessary, we still have a strategic reserve team of three divisions in Tianjin, and we can also deploy two more divisions in Shandong. strategic reserves."

"However, these strategic reserves are all infantry divisions. There is no large-scale independent cavalry unit. There is no major problem in landing. However, if you want to attack the city inland, it is easy to be attacked by the main force of the enemy's cavalry. The landing troops The land logistics line cannot be guaranteed!"

"Unless we adopt a larger strategic encirclement, land along the Daling River, and rely on the Liaohe River to provide supplies, this can effectively solve the logistical problems of the landing force and capture the Daling River Fort, but the strategic encirclement area is too large Otherwise, I am afraid it will be difficult to stop the enemy's retreat. After the enemy perceives our army's strategic encirclement intention, they can go north..."

Lieutenant General Song Qilin pointed to the map while talking and said: "Escape from the direction of Liushuibao and Kaizhoutun, and then follow the trend to continue to the north and flee to Yizhou and Guangningwei. The terrain is flat and the land is sparsely populated. They can retreat completely. Liaohetao area!"

"Therefore, if we want to strategically encircle the enemy army, we must not only send landing troops to block the eastward escape route of the Dongbang people, but also block their northward escape route!"

"Although we also have cavalry units that can perform this task, once our army uses cavalry on a large scale to go northward, they will not remain indifferent!"

"Now the Dongbang people have become frightened birds. A slight large-scale movement by our army may cause them to flee on a large scale, and this will not be conducive to our follow-up operations in the Northeast!"

"If you want to completely annihilate them in Jinzhou, the best way is to gradually escalate the war and boil frogs in warm water. When they find out that they are being attacked by our army on a large scale, it is too late to flee!"

"The suggestion of our army staff department is that we can use Xingshan and Songshan, the two outer defensive cities of Jinzhou, to increase the determination of the Dongbao people to join the war!"

"Through a small-scale attack, surround a part of the enemy, attract the enemy to rescue, and then gradually expand the scale of the battle, and finally pull all the enemy in the direction of Jinzhou into the water!"

"At that time, they won't be able to leave even if they want to. If they insist on retreating, then we can repeat the battle in the northern suburbs of Zhongqian, and have a large-scale pursuit battle to completely defeat the enemy!"

Zuo Yingzhe, the commander of the Third Army, listened to the suggestions of many generals under his command one after another. Some said to send troops directly to the west of Jinzhou, and some said to gradually escalate the war, trying to boil frogs in warm water.

Some people said that they used long-distance raids directly, forcibly interspersed quickly before the Dongyao people reacted, captured the three cities of Dasheng Fort, Liushui Fort, and Xiaolinghe Fort in the northern and eastern regions of Jinzhou, and forcibly cut off the enemy's flow. retreat.

While listening, Zuo Yingzhe looked at the military map on the desktop repeatedly for a long time, and finally said: "For landing operations, it would be too risky to go directly to the inland, and the cavalry of the Dongyao people are not for nothing, and they have to raise large-scale It takes too long to log in, I'm afraid it will take two or three months, we can't wait so long to fight."

"However, a small-scale landing is feasible. When necessary, a mixed regiment or a small-scale mixed brigade can be sent to march along the Daling River and try to capture the Daling River Fort."

"It is inappropriate to send a large-scale force to go around and attack. The risk is too high, and it is easy to fall into a crisis if you are not careful. Our army now occupies a comprehensive strategic advantage, and there is no need to take risks!"

The Great Chu Empire Army fought wars. Except for the early days when its strength was insufficient, it often carried out various long-distance raids and adventurous surprise attacks. It basically did not play this game in the middle and late stages.

I can crush you head-on and fight safe and risk-free battles, why should I play long-distance raids and various surprise attacks...

If this one is not done well, it may put tens of thousands of troops in danger or even wipe out the entire army. It is not necessary.

"What is feasible now is to gradually upgrade the scale of the battle, and draw the enemy in by boiling frogs in warm water!"

Admiral Zuo Yingzhe is also a very decisive person. Now that he has made a decision, he quickly made some arrangements.

He asked the navy to cooperate vigorously and let the navy prepare warships suitable for inland river operations in advance, so that they can enter the Xiaoling River and Daling River to cover the army's operations, and at the same time prepare to cover part of the troops going deep into the Daling River to capture the Daling River Fort and cut off the enemy. The way the army fled eastward.

The landing force is also handled by the navy. The navy will dispatch the first marine regiment to join some of the navy's sailors to form a mixed regiment of about 5000 people to march into the Daling River.

This kind of landing operation, the navy is professional.

As for the army, Zuo Yingzhe ordered the Seventh Army in the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula to intensify its counterattack. Once the enemy army retreats northward on a large scale, it must decisively launch a large-scale offensive to the north until it captures Gaizhou. Go north, cooperate with the main force of the group army to cut off the retreat of the Dongyao people in the direction of the Liaoxi Corridor.

As for the troops at the headquarters of the Third Army, they implemented the policy of boiling frogs in warm water, and began to send troops to attack Tashan on a small scale, and wanted to encircle but not fight!
After all, if the fight was too hard, if the entire Dongyao defenders in a city were wiped out at every turn, Zuo Yingzhe was really worried that the Dongyao people in Jinzhou would run away with oil on their feet.

But if it is just encircling, then on the one hand, it can reduce the accurate judgment of the Chu army's siege strength by the Dongcap people. How to put it, many people have never seen the Chu army attacking the city with their own eyes. The power of the army's millions of artillery salvos.

Those who knew the strength of the Chu army's siege best were the defenders of the Guangning Zhongqian Institute, and some of the more than 2 defenders died in battle, and the rest were prisoners of the Chu army...

As for other Dongbang people, a small number of people may have seen it, but most Dongbang people just heard about it, and the possibility of dubious belief cannot be ruled out.

As long as the Dongyao people feel that the Chu army's siege ability is not as powerful as the rumors say in the early stage, and if they can hold Jinzhou, then it is possible to strengthen their determination to resist.

Then come another refueling tactic, continue to infiltrate and encircle...

As long as the Dongyao people didn't run away in advance and gave the Chu army a few days to maneuver around, then when the Dongyao people found that they were invincible and wanted to run away, they probably wouldn't be able to run away.

After Zuo Yingzhe finalized the strategic plan, the staff of the Third Army quickly formulated a detailed combat plan, and each unit began to act according to the plan.

The troops responsible for lowering the enemy's vigilance were handed over to the [-]th Division directly under the Third Army Command.

You can tell from the serial number that this is a second-class division, and it is also a former Ming Jiliao frontier army unit that was incorporated two years ago.

Although the equipment has been replaced with standard weapons such as matchlock guns and spears of the Great Chu Empire Army, the combat effectiveness is incomparable with the main first-class division...

And this division, although incorporated into the third group army, has been undertaking the task of maintaining the logistics line before...

Since the launch of the Liaoxi Campaign, this division has never been to the front line, and has been maintaining the logistics line at the back.

However... On May 22, the seventh year of Chengshun, this second-class division received a combat mission to advance to Tashan...

Brigadier General Bian Limin, the commander of the [-]th Division, looked at the combat order for a long time, and finally asked Zuo Yingzhe's adjutant with doubts: "Am I not mistaken? Let's fight Tashan as the forward of the whole army?"

"Is there fire support? Is there cavalry support?"

The aide-de-camp said: "The superior has strengthened six two-and-a-half-jin field guns for you, and there is a regiment of cavalry."

Bian Liming said, "Are you sure it's not the sixty main artillery pieces?"

The aide-de-camp: "I'm sure, there are six field guns that weigh two and a half catties, and there is no one more."

"How do we fight like this... My division only has eight goddamn artillery pieces in total, plus these six cannons are only fourteen, and they are all field artillery pieces weighing two and a half catties, what a fart!"

Zuo Yingzhe's adjutant knows why... He is just a small adjutant major, not even qualified to participate in the strategy meeting!

He was here to deliver the order, and when the order was delivered, he was ready to leave.

Only Brigadier General Bian Liming was left in a daze: "They're all crazy..."

"No, I have to go to the commander, and I have to give an explanation if I am sent to die!"

(End of this chapter)