national surname chiming

Chapter 254 You Think You Are Blücher, But You Are Manuel Grouchy
The story is divided into two parts. While Gao Yigong was lured and weakened by Liu Guoneng in Yancheng and Shangcai, Li Zicheng finally rushed to Chen County after two days of preparation, marching, and investigation.

Today is already the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar.

And Shen Shuren, who was on the opposite side, was always concerned about Li Zicheng's movements, and made adjustments accordingly.

To be honest, Li Zicheng arrived much slower than Shen Shuren imagined, and the number of troops who came was also smaller than imagined.

Originally, Shen Shuren was ready to rely on his own personal guard battalion and the part of soldiers led by Jin Shenghuan to withstand the counterattack of the intruders alone.

As a result, this preparation was useless at all.Before the counterattack of the Chuang army appeared, the part of the Shen family army brought by Zuo Zixiong from Ruyang had already rushed to Chen county, and was put into the city by Shen Shuren.

But this is nothing, the enemy will be lenient.It's better to be prepared and useless than to be in a hurry.

Moreover, Zuo Zixiong also brought news that the navy from Shou County would arrive in a day or two at most. On the way he came, he had already met Shen Lian's sentinel boat, who was the pioneer of the waterway.

The main force of Zhang Mingzhen, the chief of coastal defense, was just behind in a big ship, but the big ship sailed slowly, so there was a disconnect.That part of the force is about [-].

Zhang Mingzhen was originally Shen Shuren's direct descendant, and he was recruited by Shen Shuren as early as the end of the 13th year of Chongzhen, and it has been almost two years since now.

Moreover, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan got along better in history. During the Southern Ming Dynasty, Shen Tingyang was also taken under his command as a navy general. Until Shen Tingyang was besieged and killed by the Qing army in Luyuan Port (Zhangjiagang), Zhang Mingzhen followed Zhang Huangyan to break out and led the remnants to continue fighting.

Although history has changed a long time ago, it is difficult to change a person's natural temperament. This kind of general who is very compatible with the Shen family's "compatibility" must of course be cultivated and reused.

After Xingshan and Tashan accepted the battle at the beginning of the year, Zhang Mingzhen seemed to have returned to Ningshao, but in fact he was still working for the Shen family, mainly to help Shen Tingyang, Minister of the Ministry of Households in Nanjing, escort the water transport by sea.Now that winter is approaching, the northwest wind is gradually picking up, and the sea transportation from the south of the Yangtze River to Beijing has also entered the off-season, and it will not be busy again until the beginning of spring next year.

Zhang Mingzhen had fewer escort missions, so he could be there whenever he was called, and the extra rewards and military pay for such missions were all paid for by the Shen family, so no one in the court would notice, let alone criticize.

The preparations of the official army were so full that when Li Zicheng arrived, there were already more than 3 elites in the city, waiting for work there.

There are still [-] navy troops on the Yingchuan River outside the city that can respond quickly, but Li Zicheng's army lacks large warships, and it is impossible to isolate and isolate the navy of the officers and soldiers.

Shen Shuren didn't have to worry about how much trouble a hundred thousand troops would cause.He was even able to send messengers to contact Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen before Chen County was besieged, so that they could adapt to the situation and respond without rushing back to Chen County.

"Officer Shen Gou is so willing to spend so much money? How dare he invest tens of thousands of people in the isolated city of Chen County? Isn't he afraid that his foothold will be taken down by this king's counterattack? There are still so many escaped Li Jiyu in Chen County He is not afraid that these troops in our army should take advantage of the chaos? Quickly order Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu to attack the city!"

Li Zicheng didn't know the existence of Zhang Mingzhen and other naval divisions for the time being, so he didn't understand Shen Shuren's lone army. In addition, he felt that Shen Shuren hadn't completely settled the interior of Chen County, and the defense deployment must not be strict yet. Ordered an immediate attack on the city.

Song Xiance begged hard, but Li Zicheng dealt with it coldly: "You still have the nerve to offer advice! You said that Shen Shuren didn't dare to go deep alone, let's beware of Yancheng! You shouldn't be asked about the war. !"

Song Xiance was at a loss for words for a while, so he couldn't stop him.

Li Zicheng quickly organized a tentative attack on Chen County. Because he came in a hurry and did not have heavy siege weapons, he relied on flying ladders and bridges to hit logs to solve the problem.

What he bet on is that Shen Shuren rushed to march lightly and lack heavy defensive weapons, so the defense of Chen County must be much weaker than that of Shangcai, which has been well-established.
After all, this city was still the territory of the Chuangjun side a few days ago, and the Chuangjun was fighting on the move. They never spent manpower and financial resources to repair the city wall, and even demolished and weakened the city wall instead, taking building materials to do other things
It's a pity that Li Zicheng is destined to be disappointed again. Shen Shuren just left the Hongyi cannon to Liu Guoneng in Xinyang, and he took all the light Flang machines of three or four hundred catties with the army.
Shen Shuren even allocated some horses to pull carts and cannons, just like Frederick the Great of Prussia 100 years later.

So when the Chuangjun rushed under the city wall of Chen County with a flying ladder, and began to attack all the wall sections indiscriminately, he encountered the same situation as when he was in Shangcai again——

The Ming army deployed all the Flang machines on the horse face and the side of the turret. At first, they held back and did not fire.

After the intruders were all wounded by the blunderbuss, bows and crossbows, the flying ladders were erected, and even the first batch of dead soldiers climbed halfway to the height of the city wall, the city guard officers followed the orders given by Shen Shuren in advance, Ignite the franc machine and shoot the grape shot with the holder.

The Chuang army wailed again, with heavy casualties. On the entire battlefield, hundreds of people were killed almost instantly, which really shocked the momentum of the bandits.

But this time, the officers and soldiers didn't need a strong general like Huang Degong to personally lead a team to fight back. The Chuangjun who had suffered too much didn't have a chance to get to the top of the city and gain a foothold at all.After accumulatively killing more than a thousand people and being wounded several times, they retreated again.

Up and down the army, so far everyone has talked about Shen Gouguan's cross-fire bombardment, and it has developed to the point that as long as they encounter this tactic again, no matter how the king orders them to attack the city, the soldiers will only dare to turn around and run away.

The morale of fighting a tough battle has been worn down to this level, and Li Zicheng obviously has no chance of winning by force to attack the city.All Chuangjun suffered from "siege phobia" for the time being.

Seeing this, Li Zicheng could only lament and regret, and retreated his troops back to the camp, choosing to continue the siege.But he was very confused in his heart: he suffered two more crimes, but in the end he continued to besiege the city in Chen County, so what's the difference?

It's just that going to Caiwei failed, and so many people were killed and injured, and then continue to be killed or injured in another place?

Why should it be Shen Shuren who is eager to rescue Kaifeng and those vassal kings in Henan? It should be Shen Shuren who is forced to play the role of the siege side, but when it comes to actual combat, he always attacks Shen Shuren's city by himself?
There must be something very wrong here, but unfortunately Li Zicheng couldn't figure it out for the time being.

……

Li Zicheng moved his troops from one strong city to another, and continued to fight under another strong city, doubting his life at the same time.

Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen, who Shen Shuren sent out to the east to expand their victories and continue to steal and cheat, also gained a lot in these two days.

Their original plan was to go east to expand the results of the battle for a day, and after that, they should return to Chen County no matter what, and join forces with the main force.

At the end of the first day of expanding their victories to the east, Huang Degong and the others did achieve some small victories:

When they attacked from Chen County to the northeast, they succeeded in a sneak attack in Zhecheng County, Guide Prefecture, and succeeded in a sneak attack from Yuan Zongdi's partial division of the invading army. county seat.

That night, they originally planned to have a good night's rest in Zhecheng County. After all, the army hadn't slept all day and night, and they were fighting continuously. After enough rest, they should return to Chen County early the next morning.

But Shen Shuren, after realizing that Li Zicheng was late, successfully dispatched a second wave of messengers before Chen County was besieged.

The next morning, Huang Degong had a good rest and was full of energy. When they were about to return to the division, the envoy sent by Shen Shuren got in touch with them and synchronized the battlefield news, which made them feel relieved and not rush back.

It can only be said that the plan cannot keep up with the changes, although this change is a good thing and not a bad thing.

A cavalry unit of about [-] people has the advantage of maneuverability, and can support the main battlefield at any time without worrying about being surrounded and defeated. It is indeed more effective to stay on the periphery.

After receiving the latest report from Master Futai, Zhu Wenzhen originally wanted to go back. After all, Shen Shuren had saved his life. These Liaodong soldiers were originally wiped out in Liaodong by Huang Taiji after the Battle of Tashan and Xingshan. Shen Futai sent people to save him for a day.

Compared to Zhu Wenzhen, Huang Degong is calmer on the issue of "protecting the lord". After all, he is only convinced by Shen Shu's heart now, but he can't say that he is the master of Shen Shu.

Everyone worked for the Ming court. It can only be said that among the many civil servants Huang Degong has met, Shen Shuren is the one who has the most temper for Huang Degong and is most willing to entrust his life and friendship.

In addition, perhaps it was also because Huang Degong was more adventurous in the military and wanted to make more contributions, so after the two of them summed up, Zhu Wenzhen was still persuaded by Huang Degong and was willing to do more on the outer battlefield.

What Huang Degong said roughly meant this: "Since we found Yuan Zongdi's army in Guide Mansion, if we return to the battlefield in Chen County, Yuan Zongdi will definitely get Li Zicheng's order to return.

At that time, Yuan Zongdi's army will have tens of thousands of people, but our army will only have 1 people. Both sides have returned, and the combat power of the Chuang army has increased even more.Although our army is cavalry, it is the side defending the city. The cavalry cannot play a greater role in the battle of defending the city, and can only be used as infantry.

And our army patrolling and fighting on the periphery can hold back Yuan Zongdi's troops. Even if we can't wait for the opportunity to inflict heavy damage, at least it will force tens of thousands of intruders to be unable to rush back to the main battlefield.

If Yuan Zongdi's army, which is on the ration, grabs the remaining ration and wants to give it to Li Zicheng, we can still use the advantage of the cavalry to intercept it. Wouldn't it play a greater role than going back to Chen County to defend behind closed doors?Before Shen Futai asked us to go back, it was nothing more than worrying about Li Zicheng's rapid march and strong attack to attack Chen County. Now that the enemy has delayed, we don't have this need. "

After Zhu Wenzhen calmed down, he had to admit that the reasoning was very correct.

The current situation is just like before the final battle of Waterloo in later generations, when the emperor heard that the Prussian coach Blücher was about to join forces with the British coach Duke Wellington, so he sent Marshal Emmanuel Grouchy to contain Blücher alone. Cher's Prussians,
I hope to create a situation where "when the decisive battle is over, Grouchy can rush back to the main battlefield, but Blücher can't, so that our army can concentrate our superior forces to defeat each of them, first destroying Britain and then destroying Prussia."

Of course, in history, Navajo ended up being self-defeating. During the decisive battle of Waterloo, Blücher's Prussian army arrived, but Grouchy's more than 3 French troops who went to contain Blücher failed to rush back, and became Navaro himself. Destroyed by the enemy one by one.

However, it is impossible for Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen to know the deeds of people 170 years later, and the artistic essence of military command is the same.

As long as Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen's actions are faster and more efficient than Yuan Zongdi's, he can be Blücher himself and Yuan Zongdi should be Grouchy.

……

After adjusting their thinking, Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen quickly began to discuss how to deploy in order to better contain Yuan Zongdi.

After a whole night of rest last night, the soldiers were also full of energy and fighting spirit, and the horsepower of the horses had also been restored. It was a good time to show their strengths.

According to the latest information from yesterday when Zhecheng was broken, Huang Degong analyzed: "I heard from the captives captured after the defeat yesterday that Yuan Zongdi's headquarters is near Shangqiu County in Guide Prefecture, and Shangqiu City seems to be still under the guard of the government.

Why don't we go to Shangqiu immediately and see if we can relieve the defenders there.If Yuan Zongdi dared to pursue us with our own troops, we would run directly with the speed advantage of the cavalry. If Yuan Zongdi's soldiers and horses were out of touch, we would turn back and fight each other to defeat us-what does General Zhu think? "

Zhu Wenzhen thought about it, especially compared it with his recent resume, and found that Huang Degong's idea was really good.

So he added with the same opinion: "President Huang's plan is very serious, and the general has no objection. And since Li Zicheng has gone to Chen County in person, he will definitely send someone to contact Yuan Zongdi and let Yuan Zongdi Don't worry about such a dilapidated place like Shangqiu anymore, go to Chen County for a decisive battle first.

Therefore, as long as we appear outside Shangqiu City and let the defenders in the city know that the imperial reinforcements have arrived, the morale of the defenders will naturally be boosted.But Yuan Zongdi couldn't bear his temper, and he would definitely withdraw from the siege.On the way back to Chen County from Shangqiu, there are many opportunities for us to show his flaws——

To be honest, Mr. Huang's plan just now is really similar to what Shen Futai saw.The last general was under the command of Shen Futai, and had participated in the Baling rescue battle a few months ago, when he was facing Li Dingguo under Zhang Xianzhong's command.

The order given to me by Shen Futai was also to send cavalry to attack, at least appearing under Baling City, in order to boost the morale of the defenders in Baling City and prevent them from being frightened by the thieves. Intimidate, surrender without a fight.

Mr. Huang, your worries about the defenders of Shangqiu today are exactly the same as Shen Futai's worries about the defenders of Baling a few months ago. "

When Huang Degong heard that for an uneducated person like himself, his sense of smell on the battlefield was similar to that of Shen Futai, who said the same thing about the art of war, he was also overjoyed, and felt more intimate, and he introduced the other party as a confidant, of course, including Zhu Wen. Zhen cited as a confidant.

After the two made up their minds, they set off from Zhecheng, continued to advance northeast, and headed for Shangqiu.Along the way, there were many scattered soldiers of Yuan Zongdi who robbed food and disorderly soldiers, and they were all defeated by the army of officials.

One day later, Huang Degong and others had already approached Shangqiu, but they felt that Yuan Zongdi's actions were a bit abnormal, and they just kept surrounding Shangqiu city without any other actions, neither confronting nor withdrawing their troops.

Huang Degong didn't catch a cold, so he asked the troops to simply camp on the spot, and sent scouts to expand the search and confirm the situation.

And on this night, two more chain events occurred because of Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen's rapid advancement to victory.

First of all, it was Huang Degong's scouts who caught a few messengers sent by Li Zicheng's subordinate Song Xiance to contact Yuan Zongdi.

Secondly, in the southeast of Zhecheng and Shangqiu, a county called Luyi was originally occupied by the Chuang army.But seeing that Huang Degong broke through Chen County and Zhecheng, and rushed to Shangqiu, the generals of the Chuangjun in Luyi came to find Huang Degong and surrendered. Huang Degong didn't even bother to find him.

The surrendered general was named Yuan Shizhong, and his surrender was not considered to be an insult to Shen Shuren, but it was like this in history—this Yuan Shizhong was also a local bandit leader in Henan. After Li Zicheng broke Luoyang, he followed Luo Rucai and others to join him.

In history, Yuan Shizhong was deployed between Guide Mansion and Bozhou in Fengyang Mansion during Li Zicheng's three-siege Kaifeng period, and was responsible for guarding against reinforcements from the government and troops in the direction of South Zhili.But he was a little vacillating, and in the end Li Zicheng became suspicious and asked his nephew Li Chao Chongzhen to lure Yuan Shizhong to death in April 16.

Of course, none of this has happened yet, and it should be five months before Yuan Shizhong was killed by Li Zicheng.It's just that this old Luo Rucai was worried about Li Zicheng's suspicion and didn't want to be cannon fodder. Huang Degong's sudden and strong invasion made him shaken in advance, so it's not surprising that he came to vote.

It's just that Huang Degong doesn't know all this, and he doesn't dare to trust Yuan Shizhong completely for the time being, and his use must still need to be tested.

But no matter what, Yuan Zongdi besieged Shangqiu to raise food. At this juncture, some friendly troops surrendered directly out of fear, which must have been a huge blow to Yuan Zongdi.

Huang Degong was even more confident that he would rescue Shangqiu and even severely injure Yuan Zongdi, preventing him from returning to the battlefield in Chen County.

If Huang Degong beat Yuan Zongdi away, but he himself was able to bring the cavalry of the Shen family army back to Chen County, it would mean that he was Blücher and the opponent was Grouchy.

(End of this chapter)