national surname chiming

Chapter 388 Jiangyin Siege
The Qing army under Dodo's command, after a few days of tussling with the Ming army, finally succeeded in moving the main force to Wujin County (that is, the urban area of ​​Changzhou in later generations), and began to prepare for a full-scale attack on Jiangyin County with Wujin County as the base of attack.

All the tricks to lure the enemy during the transfer process did not work. Zhu Shuren was not fooled at all, and he strictly restrained his generals, not even a violent general like Cao Bianjiao was allowed to attack and chase the enemy.

In the process of retreating, the Qing army also made some brutal actions that were beyond the expectations of the Ming army.

For example, when their main force moved to Wujin County, Duoduo felt that the defenders in Dantu County, Zhenjiang, who stayed behind would be easily divided and surrounded by the Ming army, so he made the decision to abandon Dantu County and let his troops only concentrate in Wujin The three counties of , Danyang and Jintan are arranged in the shape of Pin, and they are horns of each other, which can be used for protection.

It is not difficult to understand this point just by looking at the map near Zhenjiang, because the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang turns northward, and Dantu happens to be on the tip of the most northerly extension, forming a long distance with the other three counties. protrusion.

When the Qing army needed to recapture Jinshan Temple from Dantu and then contact Guazhoudu in Yangzhou on the other side, this place was of course important.

However, if the Qing army completely gave up on opening up the Yangtze River waterway here, and then stick to this protruding peninsula, it would be easy to be cut off by the Ming army and then shut down and beat dogs.

Doduo didn't want to give up some of his men for nothing, so he naturally had to shrink his troops.

And with the brutality of the Qing army, when Duoduo was angry and had to give up, where would he leave the Han people with supplies?
The elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people who could not leave were almost completely slaughtered by Duoduo.The rest will either shave their hair and give in, or temporarily follow the thief.Either they had armed resistance in private before and broke through to the occupied area of ​​Ming Dynasty.Of course, all the food that could be found was taken away, and all of it was used as rations for the Qing army.

In the end, Duoduo's troops set fire to Dantu County as much as possible before abandoning the city.After the Ming army discovered the situation, they were still afraid of fraud, and after confirming that the Qing army had indeed withdrawn, they rushed to put out the fire and took the county back.

But there are no living people in the city, only an empty city that was killed and emptied was taken back.

The generals of the Ming army shared the same hatred, and their anger was so overwhelming that they could hardly control it.The news from here spread back to the Ming ruled area. It was also the first time that other people in the south of the Yangtze River had complete national cohesion.

At this point in the matter, Zhu Shuren had no choice but to leave the city of Nanjing, lead the troops to march in person, and visit the frontline supervisors in person to ensure that all the generals would not go away impulsively, and the situation slowly came back under control.

This is likely to be the last battle against Duoduo. Of course, Zhu Shuren will personally reap this great achievement and establish his absolute prestige in the Nanjing court.

As for Shi Kefa, the official Minister of the Ministry of War, Zhu Shuren talked badly and persuaded him to stay in Nanjing to coordinate the overall military preparations, and not to stick to the battle in one city and one place.This is also for the good of Shi Kefa, so that the future power can be better and more smoothly transitioned.

In Zhu Shuren's power structure design, Shi Kefa is still a loyal minister, and of course he must be reused, but Shi Kefa's position will always be a military coordinator in the rear, and Zhu Shuren will be the future commander-in-chief of the three armed forces.

This division of labor is like the division of labor between the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the minister of defense, or the division of labor between the commander-in-chief of the army and horses and the privy envoys in ancient times, and it does fit the original functions and powers of the "Ministry of War".

At the beginning of the establishment of the Six Ministries in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Ministry of War was originally in charge of army construction, equipment logistics, and supply financing. Those dynasties still retained the generals of the world's soldiers and horses.It was later that Song and Ming imposed stricter checks and balances on military generals, and the powers of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War gradually became more and more detailed. In the end, not only were they able to directly control the promotion and appointment of generals, but they even had to "micromanage the front line". One of the main reasons for the decline.

Of course, when the world is peaceful again in the future, Zhu Shuren still has to beware of separatist regimes and domineering generals, but it is not necessary for the generation he is alive, he can play the role of military monopoly for life.As for the future, think of another way.

These are all things to say. The most important thing right now is the victory or defeat on the battlefield. As long as you win the battle, everything will be easy to talk about in the future.

……

The story is divided into two parts. After the Ming army gradually compressed the occupied area of ​​the Qing army to three counties, Duoduo finally launched the first round of offensive under the city of Jiangyin.

The main force of the Qing army arrived in Wujin County on the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, and then advanced to the west of Jiangyin City on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

When Duoduo first arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, he had a total of 46 Hongyi cannons. After the Battle of Nanjing, they were worn out to a little over thirty.Half a month's consumption of Jinshan Temple has been seen, and several cannons have been destroyed, and some of them have been damaged due to excessive use.

In short, Duoduo was able to pull Jiangyin's heavy artillery, and the total number has further dropped to twenty.The decline in the number of artillery also forced the Qing army to abandon its plan to quickly break through the wall, and instead consider preparing more other siege weapons, using a multi-pronged approach.

And when Duoduo personally observed the city defense of Jiangyin County on the opposite side for the first time, he couldn't help but gasped slightly again.

The terrain of the battlefield was not conducive to the deployment of large corps. Huanggong Mountain in the north of the city, Huishan Mountain in the south of the city, and the muddy land brought by the canal water flooded all the low-lying plains that were originally suitable for marching.

If it was in the north, Duduo would not be too afraid of water in this cold winter season, because the Qing army was used to fighting in bitter cold places, and the rivers in the north had already frozen in the twelfth lunar month, and even the surface of the Yellow River could freeze.This is the allusion that the heroes of Hebei in the past dynasties crossed the Yellow River on iron cavalry in the severe cold.

But in Jiangnan, the situation is completely different.Even in the Little Ice Age, the Yangtze River or Taihu Lake cannot be frozen in winter. After the canal water is released, it will only be muddy.

Doduo had never been to Jiangnan before, and even his main advisers and civil servants, whether Zhang Cunren or Sun Zhixie, had never been to Jiangnan. .As a result, they didn't think much about this problem at first, and they didn't expect that they would have to fight the mud in the winter.

As for the city wall in Jiangyin County, after a period of rush repairs, the outer wall has also been reinforced with a layer of rammed earth with a gentle slope. The texture does not look very strong, but it can definitely absorb the impact kinetic energy of the shells. It is already close to a Western-style bastion or Nanyang. The city wall of the county was set up.

Of course, when it comes to details, Yan Yingyuanxiu's city is a bit different from Zhang Huangyanxiu's Nanyang County.

Jiangyin County is smaller, and the original scale of the city is more cramped. There were no turrets and forts at the four corners of the city wall, and the number of horse faces is also very small. It is impossible to arrange enough side-firing cross-fire Francophones to bombard the ants attached to the base of the city wall. .It is necessary to build a large fort out of thin air temporarily, the amount of work is too large, and the civilian workers have no time to construct it.

Therefore, Yan Yingyuan gave up the idea of ​​building a large fort according to local conditions. Instead, he set up several small independent fortresses protruding a hundred steps from the city wall in the west of the city.

I have no idea about this design, it can be understood as the protruding triangular fort outside the western-style bastion, which is "Rivelino" in Italian, and the Italians invented it in 1497.

It can also be understood as the "Izumaru" built by Sanada Yukimura in the south of Osaka Castle during the Osaka Battle 30 years ago.It's just that Sanada Maru is only for the Tibetan Musketeers. Yan Yingyuanxiu's front-out triangular forts can each be equipped with four red cannons, and the Musketeers also have a lot of them.

When the Qing army first arrived, they didn't understand the effect of the protruding triangular fort, so they thought about making a quick attack first and seizing a few peripheral fortifications to strengthen the army.

They pulled the only Hongyi cannons to bombard these triangular forts, and then organized a large number of armored soldiers to climb the ladder directly to the city. They felt that these triangular forts could not hide many people, as long as they surrounded them with dozens of times or more soldiers Beat, definitely can win.

However, as soon as the fight started, Doduo realized that he had made a big mistake.

The reason why these triangular fortresses are formed into triangles is through rigorous mathematical calculations. The angles of the two hypotenuses on the outside of the triangles just coincide with the only few horse-faced forts on the main city wall behind.

If the Qing army followed the two outer sloping sides, they would be accurately shot sideways by the Hongyi cannons on the horse's face of the main city wall at the back, and they would be beaten into candied haws. on a line of sight.

However, if the Qing army bypassed the two outward slopes of the triangular fort and insisted on climbing from the inward side, it could prevent them from being right on the crossfire line, but that position was also the closest to the main city wall, only a few meters away. Ten steps, you have to face the enemy.

The most vicious thing is that in Yan Yingyuanxiu's three protruding triangular forts, the battlements on the top of the walls are only found on the two hypotenuses facing outward, and the side facing the main city wall inward , there is no parapet battlement, and there is nowhere to hide.

The height of the triangular fort is also slightly lower than the main city wall, to ensure that once these outlying fortifications are captured by the Qing army, the Qing army will not be able to gain a firm foothold on the top of the wall, because they have no shelter, and their standing position is lower than that of the Ming army on the main city wall behind. , will only be unilaterally slaughtered and shot, and named one by one.

Obviously, the mathematical principles and design applications behind all these were suggested by Zhu Shuren, demonstrated by Zhu Shuren's academic theory team in Wuchang, and tested by engineering and technical personnel.Fang Yizhi, Song Yingxing, everyone has contributed to it, and in the end Yan Yingyuan is just a master of learning and applying it.

The first reckless attack by the Qing army resulted in the loss of more than a thousand corpses but nothing.Also had to go back to the old way of slowly besieging the city and slowly manufacturing heavy equipment.

The morale that was finally boosted after the Qing army shifted its target also plummeted again.The soldiers moved around in the mud, pushing the ox carts whose wheels were often deeply sunken, and transported the siege materials to the east and north of the city behind the enemy's rear, dividing and surrounding Jiangyin City on all sides.

Yan Yingyuan, who was on the opposite side, did not stick to his defense. He even dared to open the city gate of Jiangyin County when the Qing army's few siege troops were in the vanguard, their luggage was too deep, or they were out of touch, and sent death squads to fight back. kill.

Although this kind of interception was only successful once or twice, it also greatly boosted the morale of the defenders in Jiangyin City, made them respect Yan Yingyuan more, and obeyed all his orders without reservation, like a finger.

At the beginning, Duoduo did not expect the Ming army to have such courage. After losing two batches of muddy carriages, he had to keep his siege troops too far apart from each other, so as not to be alone, but this led to a delay in progress. Further retardation.

It took the Qing army four days to initially establish a siege position, and another five or six days to build the necessary fortifications to prevent the Ming army from being caught off guard when they suddenly went out of the city to harass.

(End of this chapter)