national surname chiming

Chapter 432 Restoring the Central Capital ([-]-character chapter)

"My lord, forgive me for the incompetence of the last general! The army arrived in Huaiyuan County and failed to break through the city for several days. I am really ashamed. The Tartars defended very firmly, and our army's cavalry artillery blasted a small gap in the city wall. Desperately shut up and fight hand-to-hand, fight to the death without retreating.

Our army has been fighting for many days, but the rear army has not yet arrived, and we were short of energy for a while, so we had to divide our troops to besiege and build traditional siege equipment separately, which was temporarily blocked. "

On September 22, when Zhu Shuren personally led the troops to the front line of Huaiyuan County to inspect the progress of the attack, Huang Degong, who had not been able to break through the city for several days in a row, immediately came to report in person and apologized with a little embarrassment.

Zhu Shuren seemed very relaxed, and just patted Huang Degong on the shoulder in a friendly way: "Victory and defeat are commonplace in military affairs, not to mention that our army has not been defeated, it's just that the progress has been slow for a while. In the final analysis, the fight was too fast and too smooth before. Soldiers and horses It also needs to be repaired, and the heavy artillery team also needs time to slowly arrive at the front line, there is no need to rush."

Huang Degong arrived at Huaiyuan City on September [-]th, and it is now the fifth day. However, it was not until September [-]th that the first batch of light cavalry guns arrived at the front line. Apart from this, Huang Degong could only count on the traditional siege artillery built temporarily It's normal to be unable to take down the weapon for a while.

Even the cavalry artillery is specially designed for mobile deployment in field battles. It is too difficult to blow up the city wall with a shell that only weighs three or four kilograms. No, it can't be completely collapsed.

The transfer of heavy engineering and heavy artillery is very clumsy. Before the Battle of Feishui, the Ming army did not carry professional siege heavy artillery with the army, and they usually hoarded it in Hefei City.

After a decisive field battle is required to determine the outcome and ensure that the Ming army can control the situation on the Feihuai battlefield, the heavy siege artillery will be transported from Hefei to the north, and it will not take more than ten days to be deployed in place——

After all, before the outcome of the field battle is decided, if the heavy artillery that is inconvenient to move is rashly pulled out for deployment, let alone whether it can be deployed quickly and help the frontal battlefield.

Even if it can be deployed in place, who can guarantee that they will win the field battle without even retreating or turning in one step?Whenever a mistake on the battlefield needs to be diverted, the heavy artillery that is inconvenient to retreat is likely to be captured by the enemy. This is common military knowledge that both Ming and Qing sides know, so no one does that.

Zhu Shuren was well aware of these situations, so naturally he would not have high expectations and demands on his subordinates.

After appeasing Huang Degong, he casually asked about the current defense deployment of the Qing army and the strength of various nodes.Regarding these, Huang Degong has already figured it out very clearly, so he said:
"It is said that the Tatars still have 8 or [-] horses, but the siege of the city has consumed a lot in the past few days, and it is estimated that there will be a lot of battle losses. The last general originally thought that the Tartars would shrink their troops and defend Fengyang with all their strength.

But now it seems that the last general made a miscalculation. Boluo, the new Tartar coach, may have thought that Fengyang city would be crowded with so many defenders, and it would be easy to be exhausted for a long time after being encircled, and the army would starve to death, so he was determined not to be trapped in the isolated city. ,
But to divide the troops to Huaiyuan and Linhuai, the three cities will form a corner to support each other.In this way, the Tartars can also ensure that the two small waterways between Huaiyuan and Fengyang, Linhuai and Fengyang that flow from Huaibei can be transported from the rear.If they are really trapped in an isolated city and surrounded by our army, they will have no logistics channels. "

According to what Huang Degong said, Zhu Shuren deduced it on the battle map, and quickly understood the enemy's scruples.

In the past three years, the savings of the Qing army were not too much. After all, the north was so poor that it still lost more than one million people every year, and hundreds of thousands of them starved to death.

In addition, before the war, the Qing army did not expect to fight a city defense battle in Fengyang. Naturally, it was impossible to transport the main military rations in the Lianghuai theater to Fengyang City in advance to stock up.

Therefore, when Abatai died in battle, the food stored in Fengyang City was probably enough for the original resident soldiers and horses to last for a year or so.If the troops from other places also shrink into Fengyang City, the food from other counties will not be concentrated in Fengyang so quickly.

In a short period of time, the number of people in the city swelled several times, reaching a scale of 8 to [-] people at once, and it might take three to four months or even less for the army to run out of food.

In that way, the Ming army didn’t need to attack by force, but just besieged the city. After three months of siege, in the spring of the next year, the 8 or [-] people in the city would be starving and exhausted. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to wipe them out again?

Besieging the city for several months seems to be procrastinating, and the Ming army also cost a lot, but if it can destroy such a large-scale Qing army, or at least seriously weaken its combat effectiveness, it will be absolutely cost-effective for Ming!Today's Daming can afford to consume this national power!
And if the Qing army only guards the isolated city, one of the biggest problems is that they will completely lose control of the entire Huaihe waterway—Huaiyuan, Fengyang, and Linhuai. , In a position that is convenient for crossing the river, the forts and defensive facilities at the head of the city can also cut off the river.

Controlling any county seat means preventing enemy ships from passing through the corresponding section of the Huaihe River.For example, now that the Qing army still controls the three counties, the warships of the Ming army from the lower reaches cannot reach the river above Linhuai, and the ships from the upper reaches cannot reach the lower reaches of Huaiyuan.

The benefits of the Ming army's navy can be limited to a certain extent, and the tributaries between these counties and from Huaibei to the Huaihe River can also be used by the Qing army.The Ming army could not really encircle Fengyang from all sides, because the section of the Huaihe River just north of Fengyang was still under the control of the Qing army, and the Ming army could only encircle the other three directions at most.

After sorting out the enemy's situation and the enemy's thoughts and intentions, Zhu Shuren took advantage of the situation and asked: "Have you found out how the various tribes of the Tartars are distributed? For example, how many of the remaining 7 people are in each of the three cities?"

Huang Degong: "The details are still unclear, but there are at least 1 people in Huaiyuan and Linhuai each. If there are more, there may be [-]. The rest are in Fengyang City, which should be between [-] and [-]."

Zhu Shuren nodded: "Let's take an average and count as 4 people in Fengyang City—have you found out where Geng Zhongming's troops have evacuated? Did they evacuate into Huaiyuan City, or did they evacuate all the way to Fengyang?" gone?"

When Huang Degong heard this question, his eyes lit up, and he also realized: "The prince wants to develop those traitors as an internal response? Please forgive the incompetence of my subordinates. I haven't figured this out yet. But the siege of the city these few days is indeed true. I have never seen the Geng flag on the top of Huaiyuan City..."

Zhu Shuren stroked his beard and thought to himself: Geng Zhongming withdrew from the west, if he hadn't stayed in Huaiyuan, he would probably have evacuated to Fengyang.After arriving in Fengyang, they will not continue to toss and go downstream.

In any case, with Geng Jimao in his hands who is afraid of death and begging to surrender, he is already invincible, and he can definitely hit a shot with no dates.

At worst, at most it exposed the fact that "Geng Zhongming's son had defected to the enemy and killed the King of Raoyu County Abatai with his own hands", which led to internal strife in the Qing army and Boluo killed Geng Zhongming.

If it works well, the Qing army will be completely in chaos, which will be convenient for the Ming army to counterattack and take Fengyang.

Anyway, Zhu Shuren didn't care about the life of an old traitor like Geng Zhongming. He didn't even care whether the value of this old traitor's death could be maximized or whether the death of this old traitor could take away a few more Tartars by the way.

As long as it doesn't appear to the outside world that Zhu Shuren is deliberately selling Geng Zhongming, don't appear that Zhu Shuren is suspicious of the surrendered ministers, and damages his reputation for recruiting surrenders and traitors, that's fine.

Therefore, if Geng Zhongming really died tragically, Zhu Shuren would definitely give Geng Jimao a large sum of gold, silver and jewels, and he would give it with great fanfare and high-profile, so as to remove his suspicion and continue to set up the people who recruited and surrendered.

After thoroughly figuring out the countermeasures, he gave Huang Degong a detailed order to continue to hold off on the front of the Huaiyuan County battlefield, and to put on a posture of real fighting, big fighting, but cherishing the lives of soldiers and unwilling to fill them with human lives.
It was so easy to deceive the Qing army in Huaiyuan and other places that they misjudged the urgency of the battle situation first, and then supplemented it with other deceitful opponents.

……

Zhu Shuren stood at the height of the strategic level, and after personally instructing, the form of the siege warfare on the front line of Huaiyuan County has also undergone some changes.

Huang Degong no longer pursued the speed of breaking the city, but he did not relax the determination of the attack at all. He just waited for the heavy siege artillery to be in place, and then slowly bombarded step by step.

In a word, it is to cherish the lives of soldiers, but to allow more waste of ammunition, which is a bit or two of the combat style of the US military in later generations-although there is no such professional term as "Van Vleet ammunition" in this era.

Of course, the Qing army on the opposite side would feel this change immediately.The fear of shelling among the frontline soldiers became more and more serious. After all, this is a tactic that can only be beaten unilaterally and has no chance to fight back. Although the direct casualties are not many, the blow to morale is too great.

Since the Huaihe waterway from Huaiyuan to Fengyang was not cut off by the Ming army, the Qing army could naturally continue to send sentry ships to the rear to report the battle situation, ask for help, and state the urgency of the front line.

Boluo in Fengyang City could do nothing but increase troops one by one to encourage the Huaiyuan defenders to persevere, and use the Huai River waterway to transport some seriously wounded to the rear each time the troops were increased.

However, in the process, the Qing army was finally paralyzed gradually, and was also cultivated a thinking inertia by the new combat form. They felt that the Ming army was going to fight steadily and steadily, and was very eager to completely dredge the Huai River waterway and break the Qing army's plan. The momentum of cornering, and then there will be the next move.

It's a pity that while the Qing army's thinking became more and more firm, the Ming army was already secretly carrying out other vicious operations.

……

On September 26, the fourth day after the Ming army changed its tactics,
Another group of fresh troops from the Qing army, who went to Huaiyuan to change their defense, sailed from Fengyang to the front line for reinforcements on a warship along the Huaihe River.At the same time, a group of seriously wounded soldiers who had been transported back from the Huaiyuan battlefield were sent to Fengyang City for treatment.

To send the wounded back to the city, of course, it is impossible for the entire fleet to be wounded, and there must be guarding soldiers and sailors, otherwise who will drive the ship.

At this time, the people responsible for guarding and driving the boats were often some hard-nosed children in the Qing army in Huaiyuan, who wanted to be deserters and temporarily serve in relatively safe areas in the rear.

This kind of thing is unavoidable in any era, just like in the movie "Wreath under the Mountain".In particular, the Qing army had ruled the Central Plains for several years, and there were many corrupt and depraved people inside. Some Eight Banners disciples who carried cages and birds had already developed a mentality of hiding when they encountered wars.

It was also impossible for the Qing army to strictly investigate every soldier who returned to the city. Even if deserters from the front were entrained, as long as the opponent's background was strong enough and their identity was clear, they could easily sneak in.

Time soon reached the night of the day.Except for the soldiers who were on patrol at night, most of the other defenders had returned to the camp to rest.

Geng Zhongming, who had been garrisoned in Fengyang City for seven or eight days, was no exception. He lit a lamp in the study and read the book of war for a while before planning to rest.

Geng Zhongming is a veteran traitor who voted for Tatars in the fifth year of Chongzhen. Now he is very old, he will be in his sixties, and his body is not very good due to years of war injuries and strains.

Historically, he would live for only two more years before dying of illness, and his current health status can only be said to be barely passable.

His current status is King Huaishun, the flag owner of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army, and among the Han generals of the Qing Army, he can be regarded as the group with the highest status.

If it goes back three or four years, his confidence in the Qing Dynasty is absolutely firm. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was flourishing, and the territory was expanding and the territory was getting stronger and stronger.But since three years ago, even a hard-core veteran traitor like Geng Zhongming has started to feel guilty.

The successive defeats of the Qing Dynasty, the loss of soldiers and generals, and the return of the Huainan land by the name of the new wise king, made Geng Zhongming involuntarily doubt his life.

He once thought: Could it be that Daming couldn't do it at the beginning because of Chongzhen's self-willedness, meanness and lack of kindness, and scattered people?It's not that Daming can't do it, it's just that the emperor can't do it?So with an emperor who is willing to delegate power, Daming will immediately become stronger?
Once this kind of thought takes root in the heart, it makes people more and more frightening.It's just that Geng Zhongming also knew that he was one of the hardcore diehards who were least likely to be pardoned by Da Ming, so he didn't dare to have a different heart.

Geng Zhongming read the book for a while, feeling more and more tired, and was about to turn off the oil lamp on the desk, but suddenly he got a report from his confidant, saying that there was a confidant of the major general who had escaped from the front line and was eager to see him.

Geng Zhongming was startled, and quickly ordered to bring it up secretly, and also ordered to make sure that no one had discovered it.

Geng Zhongming was quite sad these days, thinking that his son had been taken prisoner in the Battle of Feishui, and he might even have died in battle. None escaped, so no one could come up with a letter of approval.

It has been more than half a month since the end of the decisive battle, Geng Zhongming is not very hopeful, he only hopes that his son can remain anonymous in the prisoner-of-war camp, but suddenly there is hope.

Soon, a confidant officer of the Geng family was brought up. Geng Zhongming also knew him. He was an old brother who had been with him for many years. He personally arranged for his son to protect him.

"Geng Liu? You escaped? What happened to Mao'er? Was he captured alive? Has the Ming army found out his identity?" Geng Zhongming immediately grabbed the old subordinate and asked.

"Your lord! Biaoxia is incompetent, the little prince...in order to survive, he has done things without a king and father, and Biaoxia can't stop him!" Geng Liuyi was embarrassed to speak for a moment.

Geng Zhongming didn't care much about those details, he just murmured a few times first: "It's good that you're still alive, it's good that you're still alive... If you keep the green mountains, you don't have to worry about firewood, and there are too many captured in the battle of Feishui. The imperial court will not be particularly harsh."

Geng Liu was ashamed and sighed: "If it's just a surrender, it's fine. In order to be exonerated, the little prince even drew his sword against King Rao's personal guards at the last moment and killed each other in order to betray the Ming army." .

In the end, he pretended to be guilty, saying that he beheaded King Rao, and asked Zhu Shuren to forgive him and reward him with an official title. "

Geng Zhongming's head buzzed immediately, so he didn't faint on the spot.

Isn't this cheating!Your father is still clearing the camp, dare to make such a big fuss, if he is exposed by other escaped captives, how can he survive Geng Zhongming?
He was dizzy for a long time, his fingers were like skinny chicken claws, and he firmly grasped Geng Liu. After holding on for a long time, he let out a sad sigh:

"It's been almost half a month, and it hasn't been leaked yet. This Nizi is really lonely! As long as the last cronies next to King Rao can escape and witness the last death of King Rao, I will wait. Destiny is here! Boluo Yuele has to set up a Hongmen banquet to blow me away!"

Geng Liu was also quite sad for the old protagonist, but he had a mission, so he had to finish the more unacceptable words in the follow-up:
"My lord... Zhu Shuren has already thought of what you can think of. This time he detained the young prince, and also detained other surviving Abatai guards who knew the young prince was retrograde, and then asked Biao Xia to report back.

The Ming army will bypass Huaiyuan tomorrow night and attack Fengyang with light and sharp soldiers.Zhu Shuren said that the prince should try to cooperate with the outside world, earn money to open the south or east gate of Fengyang, and let the Ming army enter the city.

Anyway, no matter whether you agree or not, the lord, Zhu Shuren will release some confidant guards who survived beside Abatai... He said that when the time comes, Boluo Yuele will find the lord to settle the score.He said... the Han general killed the Manchu prince, and this crime cannot be pardoned anyway. "

Before Geng Zhongming finished listening, he just fell down on the couch, his heart ashamed.

This is the son who boarded the pirate ship and tricked his father to death.

Enraged by the news, Geng Zhongming almost didn't fall asleep in the middle of the night, and almost got angry directly.

However, after calming down for several hours, he suddenly realized a problem: Originally, it was impossible for his family to be forgiven by Da Ming.

But what his son is doing now, although he is despicable and shameless, betraying his father and betraying his father, he is betting on both ends.His son didn't have any serious crimes, as long as he made contributions to Daming, he might still be able to gain stability and wealth, and their Geng family could have both sides...

Geng Zhongming stroked his gray braids and beard. He is almost 60 years old, and if he is cheated, he will be cheated.

In the end, he made up his mind.

……

Everything that followed was even more tragic than Geng Zhongming expected.

Of course Zhu Shuren would not pin all his expectations on the consciousness of an old traitor like Geng Zhongming!
Therefore, when the surprise attack troops of the Ming army detoured from Huaiyuan and rushed to Fengyang at night, the Ming army released a few of Abate's personal surviving guards just before his death.

Regardless of whether Geng Zhongming opposes it or not, Fengyang City is doomed to be a mess that night!If Geng Zhongming doesn't do anything, Bo Luo, who knows the truth, will try to set up a Hongmen banquet as soon as possible, kill Geng Zhongming's family, and then try to lift the military power of the generals of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han Army!

In the end, the two sides were almost driven to attack at the same time. Geng Zhongming was still in the final stage of hesitation before the battle, but when he suddenly heard that Boluo had something to look for him, he realized the incident like a frightened bird.
Geng Zhongming was very decisive and directly killed the messenger sent by Boluo to treat him, and then directly defended the camp in the city.Boluo was startled and angry when he learned about it, and quickly sent his troops to fight against each other in Fengyang City. The Qing army and the green battalion clashed with the troops of the Han army with the Zhenghuang banner.

Huang Degong's [-] Ming army cavalry and dozens of the lightest cavalry cannons also rushed to Fengyang at the right time when the civil war between the Manchus and the Han army was in full swing. He had no choice but to work together from inside to outside, and rushed into Fengyang City.

Follow-up, it is street fighting with cavalry artillery blocking the road!

The bloody slaughter in Fengyang City lasted for a whole night. Tens of thousands of people died on both sides, but most of them were caused by the civil war between the Eight Banners, the Mongols and the Han Army Banners.

Countless people in Fengyang were also massacred by Manchu cavalry who were blinded by murder and didn't know whether to distinguish between enemy and friend. Basically, they chopped down anyone who looked like a Han Chinese.Later, those Han people who were originally cowardly and resigned had to try to protect themselves. When they saw groups of Manchu-like people approaching, they took up kitchen knives and even farm tools to try to fight.

At daybreak, Bo Luo and Yue Le took the remaining [-] soldiers and horses with smoke and blood on their faces and fled out of Fengyang in embarrassment, fleeing northward in panic.

Because Geng Zhongming was forced to launch ahead of schedule, he also took most of the damage from the Qing army. More than half of his headquarters were killed, and Geng Zhongming himself was killed by the rebellious army.

Except for the Ming army and the Jiang army, there are almost no living people in Fengyang City.Those local people who were fellow villagers with Zhu Yuanzhang's family hundreds of years ago were almost slaughtered again.

But the central capital of the Ming Dynasty finally recovered quickly.

(End of this chapter)