national surname chiming

Chapter 205 Deception
"How can you lose so badly? Didn't you say that the official army only has a few thousand cavalry? You have more than 1 people, fighting in formation, and you also have cavalry on both sides of the formation. How could you be overwhelmed so quickly!"

After Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan hastily collected the remnants of Jiao Guangqi's army, they immediately began to doubt life.

In order to learn the lesson as soon as possible and figure out the situation, Li Dingguo didn't bother to personally ask about the chores of reorganizing the defeated troops, but just handed over these daily tasks to the pioneer Pan Shirong.

He himself had an urgent discussion with Bai Wenxuan, and carefully interrogated the defeated generals who had retreated.

Because Jiao Guangqi had already been shot dead by the officers and soldiers, among the officers who came back alive, only a few commanders were the highest rank.Li Dingguo had no choice but to chat with these middle-level officers in person.

(Note: In Li Zicheng's and Zhang Xianzhong's armies, the head of the department went up to be in charge of the brigade, and then went up to be the captain. The dead Jiao Guangqi was the captain, which was equivalent to the guerrilla of the Ming army, and the head of the brigade was equivalent to the garrison. )
In order to shirk responsibility, a group of brigade commanders naturally tried their best to describe the sharpness of the officers and soldiers' equipment: "Second General! It's not that I'm waiting for an undead battle, it's because the officers and soldiers are well-equipped. Our firecrackers and bows and arrows shot up, and none of them were killed. !

The cavalry of the official army has a kind of horse fire that has never been seen before. The cavalry can charge and fire while charging, and even only fire twice in a row five or six steps before approaching the enemy!After smashing our army's spear formation to pieces, I took the opportunity to kill them!

Except for some soldiers temporarily equipped with large wooden shields, no one can withstand such bombardment.Even the old battalion brothers in the front row wearing cotton armor, who were originally the backbone of the army, were directly shot to death! "

Li Dingguo heard one head and two big ones, but he quickly summed up a few key points for the officers and soldiers to win a big victory.

He felt that the existence of this "immediate musket" was inconceivable, so he asked some more details, and then confirmed that "in order to be used on horseback, the officers and soldiers shortened the barrel a lot, and there are two pipes" etc. Several features.

As for the technical feature of "this musket is loaded from the rear", Li Dingguo certainly couldn't ask.His troops did not seize any real objects. During the bloody battles on the battlefield, who could see these details clearly from a long distance.

Li Dingguo thought to himself: "It seems that Shen Shuren has improved the original three-eyed blunderbuss of the officers and soldiers, one tube has been reduced, but it is at least a bit longer than the barrel of the three-eyed blunderbuss.

However, the three-eyed gun should be fired three times and cannot be reloaded on horseback.It seems that the officers and soldiers have other secret methods, at least to ensure reloading on horseback. "

However, he still couldn't believe that the officers and soldiers won such a big victory just by relying on sharp firearms, so he asked some more questions carefully, mainly about the morale, military discipline, and follow-up melee performance of the officers and soldiers. Ask very carefully.

Several brigades also talked about it, and quickly pieced together a replay of the real situation on the battlefield.

Li Dingguo is also considered to have the potential of a famous general. He closed his eyes and made up his mind, and he was able to imagine the scene, and then sighed: "Listen to you, these cavalry don't seem to be trained by the soldiers recruited locally in Huguang. .

Being able to face the battle without timidity, charging to the front of the long spear formation five steps away, and still having time to fire the guns and then switch to the saber to slash, and the order is still prohibited after charging, and it is not too scattered and chaotic. I am afraid that Guan Ning's iron cavalry can do it. "

Hearing what he said, a Shaanxi Commander who served in the Ming army more than ten years ago and became a thief later couldn't help but echoed: "What the second general said is very true! The last general didn't expect it just now, you said that , these cavalry are really about the shadow of Ning cavalry!

In the second year of Chongzhen, the last general was still in the army, and he also went to the capital to beat Huang Taiji, who had been detained from Jimen, that is, the time Yuan Chonghuan was hacked.At that time, I saw the cavalry of the Guanning Army confronting the Tartars, it was this kind of momentum! "

Being confirmed by this, Li Dingguo's expression became more serious:
"Why did the Guan Ning army appear in Huguang? Or is Shen Shuren really a genius in military training? That's all, since the incident has already happened, the most urgent thing right now is to be careful.

Wen Xuan, you immediately ask the soldiers to step up camping, strengthen the siege fortifications, and send more soldiers to step up logging and build more giant shields.

According to them, this new type of firecracker used by the officers and soldiers should not be able to reach far. It can only be within [-] or [-] steps or even closer to have terrifying lethality.

Tie Zha cotton armor may not be without defensive effect, after all, the proportion of soldiers with cotton armor coming back alive is much higher.Those who died while wearing cotton armor, it is estimated that the cotton armor was damaged.

Immediately ask the army to find a way to use the cloth and silk thread that was looted along the way to sew, fix and sew the iron bars again, and tell the soldiers that if they sew them up, they may save an extra life on the battlefield! "

There is a lack of iron armor plate, which has little effect on the defensive effect of saber saber and ax hacking, because the attack surface is very wide and the knife marks are very long. Even if some armor plates are missing, the adjacent armor plates can be shared. Attack momentum.

However, to prevent spears from being stabbed and arrows and muskets to shoot, if you are unlucky and just hit the gap, the lack of steel armor is very fatal.

The thieves ran long distances before and had no time to rest and replenish their supplies, but now all the evil results have emerged.

Li Dingguo had no choice but to see the tricks and block the tricks, and try to plug the leaks as quickly as possible within the scope of his ability.

After arranging these tactical deployments, all the brigade-level generals also stepped down one after another and went about their own business.Only Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan remained in the big tent.

Bai Wenxuan was also frowning, and waited until there was no one left before he said, "Are you really going to attack Baling? The reinforcements from the government army have arrived, and the news has been passed on to everyone in the city. Sheng, I'm afraid it will be difficult to win."

Li Dingguo's face was livid, but his expression was resolute: "I also know that I can't win, but I must put on a tough stance and pretend to continue to attack. As long as our siege camp is firmly established, it is impossible for the officers and soldiers to attack the camp by cavalry.

Their short-barreled guns, probably because they are short, can be reloaded quickly, but they have a short range, so they are useless when attacking and defending cities and camps.If they don't fight with the cavalry, they won't be able to perform!It can be delayed for three to five days or even longer!

Our army can't retreat now, I don't know where my father is now, but counting the days, he should have captured the entire Changde Mansion, including Wuling County, which is the prefecture's prefecture, should not be difficult for him.

Now maybe they are going out of Yuanshui River and crossing Dongting Lake to prepare to attack Changsha.What will happen if our army relaxes in Baling now?The official army came against the waterway of the Yangtze River, and the main force of Shen Shuren's rear army must have elite warships!With the wealth of Shen Shuren, maybe there are Hongyi cannons on the battleship!

If the father was intercepted and killed by the army fleet on the lake when he was crossing Dongting Lake, since our army is all rafts and boats temporarily searched from the upper reaches of Yuezhou and Changde, but the army has warships, wouldn't it be a disaster? !

Therefore, we must block the mouth of Dongting Lake for a few days, and we must not let the main force of the father and king be intercepted and killed by the government army halfway across Dongting Lake!Even if we lose a lot, we can't give up!
Of course, I will report the decline here to my father as soon as possible and try to get in touch.It would be best if the father hadn't crossed the Dongting Lake for more than half and was willing to go back.If we have already crossed halfway, it will only be more dangerous to retreat, we must stick to it! "

Li Dingguo's assessment of the progress of Zhang Xianzhong's main force was quite accurate.Don't look at him who has just touched the edge of Baling City, but Zhang Xianzhong's side is very likely to have captured the entire territory of Changde.

This is not because Zhang Xianzhong is more powerful in combat, but because the Baling of the Yuezhou Prefecture is located to the east of Dongting Lake and can only be attacked by crossing the mouth of the lake, while the Changde Mansion is on the west of the lake, so Zhang Xianzhong does not need to cross the lake. Can attack the city.

After capturing the entire territory of Changde, Zhang Xianzhong will be able to attack Changsha by entering Dongting Lake from the Yuanshui River, and then sailing along the south bank of the lake to the entrance of the Xiangjiang River.

Everyone knows that whether it is Yuezhou or Changde, these are small bargaining chips that do not have to compete for gains or losses in one city or one place.In the south of Huguang, the real heartland is Changsha.

Taking Changsha will shake the entire southern half of Huguang, and the defenders of the other prefectures and counties of the Ming army may be frightened and swayed by the wind.

……

Li Dingguo still has a brain, and his strategic decision-making is unambiguous.And in order to deceive the officers and soldiers, he also used some small tricks in response to the situation.

For example, he asked the troops to display their banners and set up stoves in the camp.Even if it's a fake stove, it doesn't matter if you dig some earth pits and pile the dug earth on the edge of the pit, it can't actually cook.

When it was time for dinner, Li Dingguo asked the soldiers who were chopping wood to build shields to share some wood and set fires in those pits. He also tried to choose wet firewood and wet wood, and even burned branches with green leaves directly, which would cause more black smoke The denser it is, the more obvious it is when viewed from a distance.

This bunch of bluffing and pretending to be Zengzao tricks really tricked Liu Shunchen, Zhu Wenzhen, and Zuo Zixiong, who arrived later that afternoon, into it.

Looking at the stretch of the camp, with hundreds of pillars of smoke from the stove cooking for a long time, at first glance I really thought there were [-] soldiers.

In the end, Li Dingguo even did not hesitate to use the banner of Zhang Xianzhong himself, and went to the city of Baling to show off his power and pretend to attack again, and shouted again, false and true, to give a little blow to the morale of the defenders who had just been boosted.

Because the information obtained by the officers and soldiers was also very hasty, and they didn't know where Zhang Xianzhong's main force was.Everywhere Li Dingguo and Zhang Xianzhong went, they pretended to be the main force, so that they could frighten more defenders.

It's just that Li Dingguo didn't go to such an extreme level in the past, and people directly pretended to be Zhang Xianzhong himself to patrol in front of the formation. At most, he just played Zhang Xianzhong's banner.

Bai Wenxuan was also a little afraid of this kind of presumptuous operation, and he persuaded Li Dingguo in private: "Second General, other suspicious tactics are easy to say, this is an act of pretending to be the king... I am afraid that it will be taken in front of the king by someone who wants to instigate it in the future." , it is very bad for you!"

Li Dingguo also knew this, but he couldn't help it:

"I'm also doing this to protect my father and act in a hurry so that his entire army can safely cross Dongting Lake to buy time! If the officers and soldiers know that my father is not here and don't misjudge that our army's main target is Baling, then they We will definitely rush to attack, and we won’t waste it with us!”

Bai Wenxuan sighed: "Second General, you are loyal and filial to the king, we naturally know, I'm afraid outsiders don't think so. Well, since you have done it, let's fight hard."

……

The first day of fighting between the officers and soldiers and the bandits ended in eerie silence.The first batch of troops that arrived before noon consisted of only 1 cavalry from Zhu Wenzhen, and in the afternoon they arrived one after another with [-] cavalry led by Zuo Zixiong, accounting for about half of the troops in Wuchang Battalion.

Zuo Zixiong is not known for his IQ, so there is nothing he can do if he can't see through these tricks.He saw that Baling City was temporarily relieved of the crisis of being destroyed, and he also needed to allow the troops who had traveled five hundred miles by water to rest for a good night, and it was impossible to launch an attack in the evening.

After Zhu Wenzhen reported the results of the battle to him, he asked when Shen Futai himself would arrive, but was told by Zuo Zixiong that it would take about two days, or three days if it was slow.

"The order given to us by Master Futai is to use the vanguard to ensure that Baling is not lost, to ensure that the mouth of Dongting Lake is not lost, and to maintain the waterway for the rear army.

The master of Futai has a lot of things to do every day, and Wuchang's heartland can't mobilize all the troops at once, so he asked Zhang Futai (Zhang Huangyan) from Huangzhou on the opposite bank to bring some Huangzhou soldiers to Wuchang to take over the internal affairs during the war. As an agent, Shen Futai can personally oversee the remaining army in the Wuchang camp to help. "

The deployment of tens of thousands of troops is not a game. It is impossible to transfer all [-] troops from one place at once, otherwise there will be chaos in the old nest of the base area.

Shen Shuren was able to move [-] troops to the front line in two or three days, and his reaction was already very quick.It took Sima Yi eight days to go from Wancheng to Shangyong (Nanyang to Yunyang).

So, in the next two days, Zuo Zixiong and Li Dingguo also had some small-scale friction and offensive battles one after another. The bandits took a defensive position, and the two sides fought fiercely.

But because the thieves could rely on the fortifications of the camp, the short-barreled cavalry of the official army did not find any good opportunities to use their firecrackers.

Coupled with Li Dingguo's combat effectiveness and command ability, it is far from comparable to Jiao Guangqi, who is just a captain.Jiao Guangqi's disastrous defeat that day was also related to his troops marching and camping for a long time, unable to rest and eat after hard work, and lack of energy.

Li Dingguo can now wait for work at leisure, and is still on the defensive side, temporarily adjusting and upgrading his equipment.

Zuo Zixiong didn't want too many casualties among his soldiers, and at the same time, his number of soldiers was not as good as Li Dingguo's after all, and he was deceived by the opponent's deception tactics, thinking that the opponent was actually the main force, so he chose to bring in the Hongyi cannon, and directly faced the bandits The camp was bombarded, and then the musketeers pressed the formation.

Li Dingguo gritted his teeth, and was unilaterally bombarded for a day and a half. During this period, he only tried to fight back with a few Francophones in the single digits. The morale of the soldiers in the camp plummeted. There are more deaths, but this kind of combat form of being beaten alive without fighting back is really bad for morale——

In fact, this was also what happened to Li Zicheng on the battlefield in Henan and under the city of Kaifeng during the same period.As the governing place of Henan Province, Kaifeng has a strong city, and there are many red barbarian cannons in the defenders. Li Zicheng's army was bombarded with the defenders for a long time, and the siege troops were killed too much, and their morale was low.

A day and a half later, on the morning of June 5000th, Shen Shuren himself finally arrived at Chenglingji with [-] troops.

So far, the total number of Shen Jiajun on the front line in Chenglingji has approached 5000, plus Liu Shunchen sent by Kong Yan above, the total number has approached [-].

Li Dingguo on the opposite side lost thousands of troops after Jiao Guangqi's disastrous defeat. The casualties were terrific. complete reversal.

Moreover, during the two days when Zuo Zixiong confronted him and tried to attack the camp, Li Dingguo killed at least 2000 people in battle, and there were many more disabled.Most of the ordinary soldiers were also stunned and stunned by the repeated roar of heavy artillery.

After Shen Shuren arrived at the front line, he immediately summoned the generals to learn about the battle situation.

When he learned that Zuo Zixiong reported that Zhang Xianzhong's main force might be on the opposite side, and that Zhang Ni's whole army was about to storm Yuezhou Mansion, Shen Shuren immediately showed disbelief.

This is not only because he has a higher IQ than Zuo Zixiong, but also because he is well-informed.It is also because, as a descendant, his understanding of the geography of the southern part of Huguang and the importance of various places is obviously different from that of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In later generations, Hunan was established as a separate province. Even kindergarten children know that the most important thing in Hunan is Changsha. What is Yueyang in comparison?
Zhang Xianzhong spent so much effort to kill Shizhou Wei, Yongshun Xuanweisi, and enter the Hunan Plain, just to capture Yueyang?Isn't this nonsense!
"There must be fraud, let people check the current situation of the enemy camp again! All the generals will go to the big tent of the Chinese army to participate in the military discussion! Also, have you tried to break through the blockade of the bandit army and go south to get in touch with the state capital further south? ? Do you only focus on the enemy’s main force when fighting?”

(End of this chapter)