national surname chiming

Chapter 365
There is one thing to say, the Qing army in the winter of Chongzhen's 17th year was still a strong army in the world after all.

On the territory of Nanyang Prefecture, the first battle with the genuine Huguang Ming army was so embarrassing that the total number of cavalry casualties of the Manchu Eight Banners reached as many as 2000.The most important reason is that they underestimated the enemy and made rash advances, coupled with insufficient understanding of the enemy's trump card.

Since ancient times, arrogant soldiers will be defeated, and madness will bring disasters. This is a natural reason.

When these factors were removed, Azig became serious and rigorous, and Zhu Wenzhen would not take advantage so easily in the future.

On the night after Wadaq's death, Azig only received the sad news that the cavalry of the first line was about to be defeated. However, the news of the defeat of the second line of outflanking troops, which was defeated by Zhu Wenzhen that afternoon, would not be heard until the next day. In Azig's ears.

After all, Yexian County is still a little far from the front line of Yuxian County. Azig has 10,000+ troops, and it can be deployed to cover several prefectures and counties. It takes a lot of time to communicate with each other internally.

Therefore, Azig's warning and deployment adjustments could not be transmitted to the front immediately.

From the second day onwards, the Qing army ended its aggressive probing attack, but still suffered a little loss due to inertia. After confirming that there were no Ming army cavalry around Yu County, the Qing army finally chose to enter the city to station.

However, the supplies in Yu County have almost been evacuated (except for firewood and straw), and those houses and urban areas that were too late to be evacuated were also set on fire by the Ming army before they evacuated. The Qing army did not get any supplies. I had no choice but to spend the night dejectedly in the almost evacuated, unburned city.

But what I didn't expect was that after staying like this, the Ming army left behind a small number of dead guerrillas in the middle of the night, quietly set fire to it, and then stole horses and tried to escape.

Naturally, another wave of riots was unavoidable during the process. Some of the soldiers of the Ming army who performed the mission died in battle, but only a small number of them managed to escape.However, the losses of the Qing army were obviously greater. Many of the supplies accompanying the army were burned before they could be removed. Although not many soldiers were burned to death, the entire army was exhausted, their faces were blackened, and their morale was degraded.

And these Ming soldiers who set fire to harass the dead were all fed by Zhang Huangyan’s cousin Zhu Shu’s family’s money. As long as they are willing to perform the task and find out afterwards that the target city is indeed on fire and the enemy’s situation is alarmed, each person will be given 100 taels of silver. .For those who died in the country, 300 taels of pensions will be added to their families!
Facts have proved that Daming is still a bloody man who is willing to do this kind of thing. He didn't work hard in previous years, mainly because he didn't pay enough money.

Directly spending money and saying that he will support his family's children for a lifetime of food and clothing, the warriors are very eager to work for the surname of the country who is generous and generous.

And the Qing army forward's embarrassment, after sending it back to the rear, Azig couldn't help but dropped a tea set again, cursing and complaining that the forward had no brains, and even this clumsy tactic based on "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" would be tricked, it was simply Stupid!
To make a digression, don’t be surprised by many officials who don’t understand the history of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties—many high-ranking generals and princes of the Qing army at that time read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as a military book when they fought, but they fought well. Yes, this is a historical fact.

On the opposite side, the level of strategy of the civil servants of the Ming army is often inferior to that of the novels.

In Azig's view, this series of setbacks made him think of the scenes in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that he has read by heart, such as "burning Bowang, burning Xinye, flooding the Baihe River, and bringing people across the river" and so on. A series of passages.

After all, his current offensive route is so similar to when Cao Jun attacked Liu Bei in Xinye.The boundary of Nanyang Mansion was Wancheng back then. The Ming army on the opposite side was retreating in such an orderly manner, retreating without chaos, which made him feel chills in his bones as he fell into the historical stereotype.

Under the effect of this kind of panic, it is natural to further admonish the troops to advance cautiously and search closely.

Since then, the Ming army has never had the opportunity to sneak attack again, but it also got at least seven or eight days extra time to evacuate the people and supplies.The Qing army was originally good at deep penetration, division and plundering, but Azig temporarily hid it at the bottom of the box. He only dared to fight head-on with you, which can be regarded as a temporary self-defeating martial art to a certain extent.

……

"Zhu Junmen is truly courageous. Under such circumstances, he was able to hold back Azig's advancing speed for so long. This time our army can completely fortify the wall and clear the field. Zhu Junmen should count on the first contribution! After the siege is cleared in the future, I will definitely express my gratitude." Play to the court and seek a big reward!"

A few days later, after returning to Nanyang County, Zhang Huangyan, who was fully prepared to defend the city and rush to repair the fortifications, was the first to greet Zhu Wenzhen in person after finishing the harassment and confrontation on the periphery. atmosphere of.

Zhu Wenzhen naturally had to be humble, saying that he had done everything he had to do. As a cavalry general, he should have been responsible for delaying the enemy army and buying more preparation time for the friendly army before the siege.

"Zhu Junmen's bravery and courage to fight is really a role model for my generation. The last general was young and went astray. He is about to use Zhu Junmen as a model. When Azig's army arrives, he will invite Zhang Daotai and Zhu Junmen to watch our ambition to fight to the death. "

Li Dingguo next to him saw Zhang Huangyan's Li Xian Corporal, and he was also eager and eager to make meritorious service. He first stepped forward to express his admiration to Zhu Wenzhen.Then he secretly made up his mind to perform well in the follow-up defense battle, wash away the shame, and prove that he can also make contributions in the war against aliens.

Zhu Wenzhen patted him on the shoulder, said a few words of encouragement, and went to rest without mentioning it.

During this period of time, Li Dingguo led his subordinates and was assigned by Zhang Huangyan to strengthen the city defense. It was tantamount to letting the ex-rogue soldiers work as hard labor to repair the city wall to further grind their temper. They would not be allowed to attack casually in field battles, that would be inconvenient manage.

After this period of time, the soldiers were also suffocating in their hearts.

Fortunately, the soldiers also knew that if the city walls were well repaired at this moment, they would have an advantage in the protracted battle of defending the city in the future, so they worked hard and didn't think this task was boring.

Many rogue soldiers just don't understand the technology, and they don't understand the city repair plan requested by the generals. During the implementation process, they complained at the beginning, thinking that this is a blind command——

Many uneducated soldiers, based on their common sense, felt that although the walls of Nanyang County had become thicker and the base was several times wider after the reconstruction, the outer slope was not as steep as before.

Although the original city wall was more likely to collapse under the bombardment of heavy artillery, the outer wall was not absolutely vertical, but at least had a steep slope of seventy or eighty degrees.

After re-strengthening the city wall, the outer wall has dropped below [-] degrees, and even [-] or [-] degrees in some places. This is already slower than the erected ladder and flying ladder. It is entirely possible that the attacking side will save the ladder and use it directly climb the wall.

However, these doubts were all dispelled under the guidance of the direct line veterans in the Huguang Ming Army. Those old troops who had followed Zhu Shuren for many years admired the "uncanny skills" of the Governor. Military technology innovation is definitely more beneficial than harmful, and it will not hurt the armed forces by slapping their heads.

Moreover, some soldiers also came forward to testify, emphasizing that they originally used a fortress similar to today's city defense structure in the Chen County War a year and a half ago, so that Li Zicheng's invasion army suffered a lot.And the governor's fortification improvement technology route is also traceable, and they are all iterated from the previous successful experience, and they don't just pop up out of thin air.

There are so many stories from those who have experienced it firsthand, and those former thieves and veterans also realized that most of them had little knowledge, so they shut up and worked hard.

……

There is nothing worth repeating in the process of nearly ten days of pulling and exchanging space for time.

The timeline on the Huguang battlefield soon came to the beginning of November.The vanguard of Azig's army, after losing a total of about 5000 troops, finally advanced to the outside of Nanyang City——

The extra losses were all casualties of the servant army. The counties along the way would also suffer certain losses, including the attrition of patients caused by logistical disorders.During this process, the Ming army resolutely carried out the harassment of fortifying the wall and clearing the field and relaxation, and none of them surrendered, so Azig's troops did not advance well.

Fortunately, everything has passed. After Azig approached Nanyang City, he took the lead in leading the cavalry to observe the city defense from a distance. He saw that the city wall of Nanyang County had been temporarily reinforced into a strange shape. It seemed to be much thicker in size, but The texture didn't look solid, and he was also suspicious.

Although he didn't understand the principle of this practice, his intuition told Azig that the enemy on the opposite side was difficult to deal with, and this design must have hidden malicious meanings.

In the next three to five days, the Qing army carefully outflanked Nanyang City in all directions, cutting off the Ming army's retreat from the land.

As for the retreat of the waterway, it will not be sealed for the time being—Azig has also considered letting his supply transport fleet go down the upper reaches of the Baihe River and pass through the river section east of Nanyang City.

But there is no doubt that all the boats will not be able to pass, and if they force it, they will hit the rocks. The Ming army filled the bottom of this river with so many weirs, made many stones and iron cones, and completely wiped out the narrow river. blocked.

One of Azig's subordinates, who was in charge of the siege to the north of the city, did not believe in this evil.I want to urge the banner of the Han army under my command and the servants of the Han people in the north to surrender to the army, plus the captured people, to dismantle these fortifications blocking the river.

However, from the tower in the northeast corner of Nanyang City, the Ming army could not only hit the construction position with the Hongyi cannon, but even the strong crossbow and Frang machine could cover this position.

After the construction troops of the Qing army paid the casualties of hundreds of coolie auxiliary soldiers, they had to give up this operation-who knows how big the project will be if they continue to do it. Well worth it.

It is believed that ships from the north cannot pass through the Baihe River, and it is impossible to quickly block the waterway for the Ming army to retreat southward.

Azig thought about it for a while, and he knew that he had two choices: Either send people to construct the river and build a dam directly downstream. To flood the surrounding camps, it is better to block the water directly upstream, and then see if it can be stored higher and then flood the city——Nanyang City is not low, and it is impossible to drown the people in the city. Water, at most, is to isolate the water surface inside and outside the city.

However, considering the strength of the Han people's navy and the ships at the water gates in the city, they must be better than the Qing army from the north. The Qing army must not be able to do this bad idea of ​​​​blocking the maneuvering of horses and facilitating the maneuvering of ships.

So in a word, breaking the river directly is very complicated, and the amount of construction required will be several times larger than that of the Ming army's previous destruction of the waterway.The Ming army took more than ten days to repair, wouldn't it take at least a month for the Qing army to complete?

This move was too slow, and Azig ruled it out directly.

Without water conservancy construction, it is also necessary to ensure that the thoughts of the people in the city are completely cut off. The second method is to wait--Azig knows very well that the rivers in the north are prone to freezing and continuous freezing in the coldest winter. Bottom frozen.The Baihe River is north of the Han River, coming out of the mountainous area, and the water volume is not large, and it may freeze. At that time, it will be impossible for the Ming army to break through.

Azig decided to give it a try, using this reason first, and looking ahead, to see if he could force the Ming army to discuss the terms of surrender.

He found a Han man whose life was worthless to be demoted, the kind who stayed in Beijing and demoted Li Zicheng first when Chongzhen died, and then Dorgon a month later, and ordered:
"Go to the city and try to persuade the generals to surrender, and tell the Ming army guards that this king knows what he is capable of. If he is willing to submit to the new dynasty, he will surely have a high official and rich salary, and he can get it easily. Even if he is the governor of one side, this king can also keep it.

If you don’t obey, the king will attack by force——Besides, remember to remind them, don’t think that there is a way out to escape at any time, if you want to escape, you must escape as soon as possible, no matter how strong the city is, and the Baihe River will freeze for another month, you can leave if you want no more.

This king put his words aside first, taking the Baihe River to freeze as the boundary, after it freezes, even if he wants to surrender, he can't tolerate it!When the time comes to break the city, the whole city will be spared!In addition, regardless of whether the persuasion succeeds or fails, take this opportunity to inquire about the reality of the Ming army, and write down what civil and military personnel you have met! "

(End of this chapter)