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Hauge knows that the ownership of Hebei is ultimately decided by a decisive battle.
So at this point, of course he can also understand that the most important thing is to concentrate superior forces and put all eggs in one basket.

And absolutely no longer care about the gains and losses of a city or a place. If you want to stick to every fertile land, it will only disperse the troops and give the Ming army a chance to divide and encircle and defeat them individually.

Moreover, on the Hebei Plain, except for Beijing, the other cities are really not strong. During the Qing army's rule, they did not pay much attention to the construction of city defenses.
After all, he won the world with bows and horses in the Qing Dynasty, and money, food and finance were difficult. Who would be patient to learn from the Han people and spend their money on building the city wall?

Under Hauge's shrinking force, Daming Mansion, the southernmost mansion in Beizhili territory, had already become a superfluous place because it was already too far south geographically, and was directly abandoned by the Qing army for most of it.

From Daming County, the seat of Daming Prefecture, and the adjacent Wei County, to the south from this line, the six major counties of Qingfeng County, Neihuang County, Jun County, Hua County, Puyang County, and Dongming County were all abandoned.

The troops were all shrunk to the vicinity of Daming and Wei counties.The troops originally deployed along the Taihang Mountains in the north also went south to gather at Daming, Wei County, and Handan. The northernmost flank deployment did not exceed Shahe and Xingtai.

This is tantamount to giving up the blockage of the Taihang Mountains, allowing the Ming army to enter and exit the southern part of the eight Xings of the Taihang, and enter the Hebei Plain-because Hauge knows very well that there is no need for the Ming army to enter the Hebei Plain for a decisive battle. -Isn't it good for the daimyo line to advance directly along the plain?Why do we have to make a detour from the rugged terrain of Shanxi, and it takes trouble to transport food logistics?

As a result, the core strength of the Qing army of more than 20 troops was assembled in a small predetermined theater within three to five counties, across the three state capitals of Daming Mansion, Guangping Mansion, and Dongchang Mansion in North Zhili. combination.

Hauge has already made a plan, and he has a premonition in his heart, knowing that the final decisive battle of the national destiny between the Ming and Qing Dynasties will happen here.At this point, the territory is no longer important.

Wei County, Daming, Handan and other locations have been the heart of Hebei since ancient times.During the Warring States Period, Jicheng, the capital of Yan, was the Beijing of later generations, and also the seat of Youzhou.The area around Wei County, Daming, and Handan was the surrounding area of ​​Zhao State’s capital during the Warring States Period, and it was also where Ye City, the later Jizhou government, was located. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the surrounding area of ​​Ye City became the capital of the Northern Dynasty many times.

It can be said that in the Hebei region, apart from the city of Beijing, this area is the most worthy of a decisive battle.Whoever owns this area will own the entire fertile and flat land of Zhao.

For the Qing army, a decisive battle in this season is not unacceptable. After all, in order to fear the lack of food, Jiang Yu did not pull the flag until the middle of September. Anyway, the picture is that the autumn grain in Shanxi has just been harvested and put into storage.

But everything has advantages and disadvantages, and there is nothing perfect in the world. Jiang Guan got the convenience of storing autumn grain, and the Qing army can naturally get it too.

At the beginning of the resumption of war in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the autumn grain in Hebei had already been harvested and put into storage, but the tax collection work in various places had not yet started, let alone the transportation.

Now that the Qing army knows that they are unable to defend everywhere, they must shrink and concentrate their forces. With the brutality of the Qing army, of course they will not be polite to the people——

In Hauge's view, the people in Neihuang, Huaxian, Dongming, Puyang and other places are no longer his Qing's people, and as this land is thrown to Ming, the people above will of course become his Qing's enemy!
Why does it matter if we haven't had time to collect taxes slowly and meticulously?Just grab it!Much faster than collecting taxes!
Therefore, when the Qing army was retreating, in order to solve the military rations needed for the hundreds of thousands of troops to gather by the way, Hauge actually inhumanely ordered the two or three of the six abandoned counties mentioned above, especially the southernmost section, which would definitely not be able to keep County, carried out a thorough burning, killing and looting!

Originally, the tax collection might only be a few percent, but if you rob it directly, you can rob it all. You don’t have to keep a grain of food for the people, and you can take as much as you can find.

In Dongming County and Hua County, during the retreat of the Qing army, they even suffered the treatment of not sealing their knives for three days. They robbed everything that could be robbed as soon as possible, and then quickly transported away to escape.

In the few remaining counties in the north, there was no direct massacre, but it is absolutely necessary to rob the folks of autumn food that can be robbed. When people do not want to be robbed of their living food and come out to resist, they will be mercilessly slaughtered. clean.

The tyranny of the Qing army is of course not without sequelae. First of all, even part of the green battalion in the Qing army mutinied. After all, some soldiers in the green battalion were originally from the Daming Prefecture. When the Qing army gathered troops, they burned and killed their hometowns. Being robbed will inevitably arouse resistance.

Therefore, although food was raised for hundreds of thousands of troops, the internal friction of the Qing army also lost at least thousands of troops——

About 2000 Green Battalion soldiers from Mingfu rebelled one after another and merged with the Qing army. If they couldn't fight, they fled and went south to join Daming.In order to suppress these sporadic mutinies, the Qing army also killed about hundreds of people.The combination of pros and cons also lost [-] troops.

And those mutinous Green Battalion soldiers who rebelled south will also immediately bring the movements of the Qing army to the Ming army.

The conscience of heaven and earth, Zhu Shuren was in Kaifeng to supervise the battle remotely, and did not directly command the front line. After all, he is already the governor and prince, so risky things should be avoided.As for him in Kaifeng, he didn't expect Hauge to be so perverted at the beginning, and he directly carried out the scorched earth search and resistance.

Therefore, the Ming army's initial advance was relatively cautious, lest the Qing army's large-scale retreat was a trick to pull the Ming army out of touch and then conduct a large-scale roundabout and outflank on the Hebei Plain.

Until now, I heard that the Qing army was so strong and cleared the fields, burning, killing and looting, it was obviously impossible to set up an ambush along the way, and the people in Hebei were also surging, and they rose up to respond to Ming. Zhu Shu then ordered Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong, and Liu Guoneng to all rush northward.

At the same time, he didn't have time to ask the court for instructions, so he asked Zhang Huangyan to go north from Kaifeng to take charge of the first-line supervisor.He said in private that he would slowly go through the procedures with the Nanjing cabinet, temporarily granting Zhang Huangyan the title of Governor of Northern Zhili and Minister of the Ministry of War, which is equivalent to concurrently serving as the governor of Henan and Hebei.

As for Zhu Shuren himself, he will definitely take the risk of crossing the Yellow River and the north after this decisive battle is decided-it is not that he is cowardly, but that he is now in danger of the world. If there is a mistake, it may make the Chinese civilized Han people The ruling once again fell into civil strife, so we had to be cautious.

He knew very well that his life now was worth more than the life of the emperor in peacetime.The emperor is dead, at least the prince can successfully succeed to the throne, so as not to threaten the survival of the world.

For his Zhu Shuren's life, he must live longer than his father-in-law, and his father-in-law, Emperor Longwu Zhu Changhao, must die first and the grandson of the emperor ascend the throne smoothly, so that no one will cause trouble.Otherwise, if there is an accident for him, maybe there is a side branch of the Ming Dynasty who will find a way to be Zhu Changhao's godson, and everything is possible after a long time.

As for the civil governors, the Ming Dynasty did not have a permanent governor of the Northern Zhili area, after all, that is where the capital is located.That is to say, Beijing is still in the enemy-occupied area and the imperial court is in Nanjing, so it can be temporarily set up.So this position is naturally very valuable, and Zhu Shuren can't rest assured to let others go.

After all, Zhang Huangyan is a loyal and loyal person who will go down in history. Later generations will be side by side with Yue Fei and Yu Qian, and he is also his cousin. He has been governor of Henan for many years, and his military achievements in repelling the Tartars are high enough.

So this decision was quickly implemented.As expected, the generals below were not dissatisfied. To be honest, based on Zhang Huangyan commanding Zhu Wenzhen, Li Yu and others to attack and shoot Azig two years ago, everyone felt that he deserved it.

Zhang Huangyan also lived up to his mission, and quickly gathered all the troops, raised troops to the north, and organized a decisive battle.At the same time, he also ordered the Shandong Ming army to take the opportunity to go north, maintain oppression, and prepare to take over the territory that was about to be abandoned by the Qing army.

Zhang Huangyan was very clear: Hauge assembled troops like this, not only the six counties in the south of Daming Prefecture would definitely give up, but there would also be changes in some corners of Shandong.

And even if Hauge didn't take the initiative to give up, with the Qing army's attitude of exhausting their resources for the decisive battle and fighting for a long-term storage of grain, the people in Shandong would not look at the people who were searching, and they would rise up to make troubles on their own.

Let the Ming army along the border be ready at any time. Once there is a disturbance in the puppet Qing territory on the opposite side, it will be convenient for the first time to take over the territory and save the people from the fire.

His operation was not in vain in the end, allowing the Ming army to take down several prefectures and counties in the Taishan and Mengshan mountainous areas of Shandong without bloodshed.

……

The Ming and Qing dynasties assembled and hoarded food and grass. After more than half a month of seeing and going, the main forces of both sides were finally assembled in the middle of the Daming Mansion, and they were deployed along the Zhangshui River.

The Qing army was in Handan, Wei County, and Daming in Zhangbei.The Ming army was stationed in Neihuang and Puyang in the south of Zhangzhou.

The forces of both sides stretched over several counties, with battalions hundreds of miles away, and each had hundreds of thousands of troops.

When the Ming and Qing sides confronted each other across the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, although the total number of troops mobilized was double that of today's, they were still divided into three or four groups along the thousands of miles of defense, and each theater fought on its own.

Now that the Qing army has shrunk and concentrated in one place in Hebei, where can it be divided into theaters, the remaining main forces are all desperate to focus on one theater.

After Zhang Huangyan arrived in Puyang, he continued to inspect the various armies and check their defenses.He ordered Cao Bianjiao to be stationed in Puyang in the center, Liu Guoneng to be stationed in Neihuang on the left, and Huang Degong to be stationed in Qingfeng on the right.

On the opposite side of the Qing army, the main force of the Qing army, which was led by Prince Su Hauge from Beijing, was stationed in Wei County.
Man Dahai, who had just succeeded Prince Li, led his old subordinates who had withdrawn from Shandong, stationed in Daming County on the east side of the battlefield, and confronted his old opponent Huang Degong.

Wang Yuele of Raoyu County and Wang Boluo of Duanzhong County led the rest of the Qing army on the original West Road, stationed in Linzhang west of Wei County, and confronted Liu Guoneng.

Zhang Huangyan patrolled for several days, seeing that the battle line was stable and entered the stage of stalemate and exploration, he had no choice but to think long-term.

One day in mid-October, he held a military meeting in Puyang City to convene the generals. At the meeting, he couldn't help feeling:
"I didn't expect the Tatars to gather so many soldiers and horses after repeated defeats. In this battle, although our army has the upper hand in terms of strength and armaments, after all, we are far away, and the food and logistics are relatively disadvantaged. We should not underestimate the enemy.

The Tartars gave up several prefectures and counties in Yanbian, Shandong, and Yuzuo in the south of the daimyo.Since the Yellow River changed its course to the south, Zhangshui no longer connects with the southern water system, but instead connects with the Haihe River in the north.

Our army's food and grass had to disembark from Caozhou (now Cao County, Heze) and transfer it to the front of the army by land.Or after crossing the Yellow River from Kaifeng to the north, it was transported to Ji County by land from Yanjin, and then collected by the Zhangshui inland river fleet for transshipment.If the stalemate lasts for a long time, it will be extremely unfavorable to me, Daming. "

The generals had a little understanding of the overall situation, and Zhang Huangyan broke it down a bit, and they further unified their views.Among them, Huang Degong, the most reckless, couldn't help admonishing:

"Your Excellency, since the Tartars are solid and clearing the land, our army's food cost is high, so our army should take advantage of the speedy battle. Taking advantage of our army's heavy artillery, we will cross the Zhang River today and find the Tartars for a decisive battle!

If the Tatars avoid the battle, we will surround Wei County or Daming, and then lure the reinforcements from the other two places to rescue them, and we will fight a final battle with the enemy below the city! "

Zhang Huangyan did not discourage Huang Degong's desire to fight, just smiled and shook his head slightly: "General Huang's bravery, I am well known, and I will naturally give you a chance at that time.

But what we have to worry about is not just defeating Hauge, but also how to make Hauge unable to swallow and vomit, so that we can bleed the Tartars as much as possible by the Zhangshui River, paving the way for my subsequent victory in Ming Dynasty. "

As soon as Zhang Huangyan said this, most of the generals were still a little confused, not knowing how far he was thinking.Cao Bianjiao was the most daring to think, so he thought that Zhang Huangyan was referring to the subsequent offensive and defensive battle of Beijing City, so he tentatively asked:
"Your Excellency thinks that the city of Beijing is strong, so I hope that in the future when we restore Beijing from the Ming Dynasty, the Tartars' defense forces will be as weak as possible? Therefore, we want to strive to wipe out more of the enemy's troops on the Zhangshui battlefield today?"

Zhang Huangyan nodded: "General Cao can see it clearly, but it's still not far enough——Before I came here to be the full-power supervisor, the commander-in-chief once told me that in the future, I will not only restore Hebei, but also take down the old capital. To return to Shanhaiguan, it is even more important to completely subdue the Liao land and eradicate the Qing dog!

Therefore, Tartars come and go like the wind, and this final decisive battle in the pass will send more Tartars before our eyes to kill. If we don't take the opportunity to kill more, wouldn't it be God's blessing?Wouldn't it be much more difficult to chase out of the Liaoxi Corridor and thousands of miles outside the pass in the future?

Therefore, in this battle, we should not blindly seek speed and defeat the enemy. If we fail to encircle and wipe out the enemy, it will be a waste of a god-sent opportunity.For this reason, showing weakness to the stalemate, sticking to the enemy, and slowly looking for more advantageous fighters, even if you pay a little more, and spend more money and food, you can only bear it. "

All the generals fell silent when they heard the words.However, there are hundreds of thousands of enemies, and they are desperate. It is really impossible to encircle and annihilate them. They have no choice but to face each other silently.

Zhang Huangyan glanced at the generals, and asked again: "After these few days of stalemate, have you found out the real situation of the enemy? Is the actual strength of each department?"

When asked about this kind of operational question, the generals became enthusiastic again, summarizing the intelligence they had detected, and roughly sorting out the enemy's military strength.

As early as two years ago, when Azig and Abatai died, the Manchu Eight Banners went through the last round of large-scale encirclement and annihilation. Four banners have been rebuilt once, and the two white banners have been rebuilt twice.

Calculated based on the size of the 20 regular troops of the Eight Banners and 22 men of the right age in the rear, plus the added population in the past few years.Before Haoge's internal strife, the Manchu Eight Banners had a total of 15 male population over the age of [-].

In the Haoge civil strife, both sides of the dead were Manchurians, and 2 people died, including about five or six thousand men who were soldiers.

Later, Jiang Guan, anyway, Jiang Guan also killed a small number of Manchu soldiers stationed in Shanxi and Manchu non-active males. In this part, the Manchu regular army lost thousands, but the key is that the non-active population was more injured. Also reached more than [-] people.

In the process of responding to Jiang Guan and going north to conquer Huaiqing, Weihui, Luzhou, and Zezhou, the Ming army also wiped out more than [-] Qing troops and killed thousands of family members of the right age.In the end, Haoge tried to counterattack the Taihang Mountain defense line before the Ming army in the south entered Taiyuan. He failed in several battles and lost thousands of soldiers.

Therefore, after Haoge Dorgon's internal strife and Jiang Yu's series of changes, the number of Qing people dropped from 22 to 8 men two years ago to [-] to [-].

This number is already the number of people who are over 15 years old and have no age limit. Compared with their peak period, the male population has dropped by more than [-]%.

Moreover, considering that most of the more than 40% of the decline is the able-bodied population between the ages of 8 and [-], the proportion of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled among the remaining [-] or [-] people has further increased.

According to the strict investigation and comparison of the Ming army, combined with historical data, it is estimated that among the 8 or 40 people, only 40 to [-] are between [-] and [-] years old, and the remaining [-] are between [-] and [-]. , and even over [-] years old.

Among them, the number of people who have been baptized in actual combat and served for a long time is [-] to [-]. The rest are old people who have been retired from the reserve service, or young people who have just grown up. Even if they are pulled into the battlefield, their combat effectiveness is worrying.

Not to mention, a considerable number of Manchu teenagers who grew up in the city of Beijing have already become depraved because of their good life and don't have to work hard. Those who have been carrying cages and birds in childhood, how can they have the will to fight with their lives?

After rigorous intelligence integration and combing, Zhang Huangyan finally came to a general conclusion:
"From this point of view, Haoge has assembled at least all the troops of the six banners in the front, because the scouts have found all the banners of the six banners mentioned above in various stations in Daming, Weixian and Linzhang. It is estimated that there are two remaining banners. One should be deployed on the side and rear facing the Taihang Mountains, or in the city of Beijing.

After Dorgon's death, Hauge also expanded the active service of the Eight Banners once. I heard that now there are 500 people for a Jiala, and 1 for a banner.There are also 5000 regular troops in the Six Banners.There should be [-] regular Manchu troops left behind, and [-] to [-] non-active men.

For the Mongolian army, the flags of five banners have been found so far, but the number of them should not be large. The Eight Banners of Mongolia did not support the expansion of Hauge, especially the relationship between Hauge and Bumbutai after the rape. When the war started, he might have already dealt with Bumbutai.

Bumbutai was born in Horqin Mongolia, and now the tribes of Horqin must be waiting and watching.As for Karaqin Mongolia, it was after Lin Dan Khan died that year that his son Ezhe was unable to surrender, and Mongolia was subjugated.Now the Manchus can't get along anymore, and the Mongols definitely don't want to die together on the same boat, so they are left behind. It is estimated that the total strength of the five flags will not exceed 4.

Therefore, the Tartars finally relied on the traitor troops to provide the main force.Most of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty were Han people outside the Guan, especially the Han people in the Liao region, and the coats who had been raised to serve as the flags. The fighting spirit of following the Tartars is still good. It is estimated that 5 to [-] people participated in today's battle.

The last green battalion can be won. They are all mainly Han people in Guannei, and they have not been raised. Now that most of their homeland has been restored by my Ming Dynasty, they should wake up in time.Dorgon planned 20 for the first batch of green battalions and 40 for reserve troops.However, most of Dorgon's initial 20 yuan has been spent in years of bloody battles, or he followed Jiang Yan and others anyway.

The follow-up claims to be 40, but in fact, more than half of them have been taken over by my Ming Dynasty. When Henan, Huaibei, Shanxi and other places were restored, the Tartars did not have time to take away the reserve population, so the current green camp population on hand by the Tartars is at most 20. Less than 10,000+ can be pulled to the front line, and the rest can only be temporarily caught.

Therefore, we have to face 25 to 30 Manchu cavalry, [-] Mongolian soldiers, [-] to [-] Han Eight Banners, and more than [-] green camps.The total strength of the Tartars should be more than [-], and less than [-]. No matter how detailed and accurate the figure is, it is impossible to estimate it for the time being.

My Ming Dynasty has 30 main forces of the Northern Expedition on the front, and the number is not less than that of the Tartars.

In the west, there are Wu Sangui and Jiang Yu who have not rushed to the main battlefield, and they are maintaining pressure on the flanks. In the east, there are Li Fuming from Shandong and Zhang Mingzhen from Hailu, who can also respond to harassment.

The total number of support soldiers from these four routes is no less than 15, and there are still reserve teams available in the rear.My Ming Dynasty has a total of 50 people available to destroy the Qing Dynasty, so you don’t have to worry about confidence, the imperial court will fully support it. "