national surname chiming

Chapter 446 Hauge's Desperation

Out of the consideration of annihilating as many vital forces of the Qing army as possible in the pass,

Don't save these real Tartars who come and go like the wind until the future battlefield outside the customs, and try to kill as many as you can.

After the military meeting that day, Zhang Huangyan roughly sorted out a new combat strategy: he had to choose a temporary stalemate on the frontal battlefield, consume Hauge, and wait for a better opportunity to exhaust the enemy and encircle and wipe out——

Hasn't all Hauge's main forces been gathered at the border of Daming Mansion, Guangping Mansion, and Dongchang Mansion?The rest of Shandong controlled by the Qing army, as well as some of the fringes of Hebei and Shanxi, have now fallen into a void.

In addition to the 30 main forces responsible for sticking to Hauge, the Ming army also has 15 people by land from east to west and 5 by sea. It is obviously easier to obtain annihilation results than to go up recklessly now, and to fight steadily and steadily, and finally seek a decisive battle.

Of course, at the military meeting that day, many generals who knew the soldiers also pointed out a problem: this method of advancing on two wings and striving for a three-sided encirclement situation must not be rushed - because once such measures are taken, the Qing army will fight on the inside. , 25 to 30 people are twisted into an iron fist, which has an advantage in troop deployment.

Once the left and right wings of the Ming army penetrated deep, and the Qing army seized the opportunity to fight desperately against one of the Ming troops, it would easily collapse and fall into danger, especially the Qing army had a high proportion of cavalry and moved quickly, so the risk was even greater .

30 years ago, in the battle of Sarhu, the Ming army wanted to complete their efforts in one battle and try to encircle and wipe out more Qing troops, so they used the method of dividing troops into four outflanking tactics,

In the end, Nuerhachi "let you come a few ways, I will only go all the way", concentrated superior forces to make a time difference, and defeated the four Ming armies one after another.

However, the four-way Ming army lost because they were unable to coordinate communications and arrived at the battlefield at the same time, which became a refueling tactic.

Yin Jian is not far away, and the imprint of psychological trauma left by the fiasco of Saerhu on the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty is indelible. Of course, Zhang Huangyan will be cautious and try his best to avoid it.

Therefore, after he finally weighed it, he found an improved version of the new method, which is: split into a joint attack, and try to pressurize and encircle from three sides. It is not impossible, but the troops on the two wings must be very careful when advancing. , Set up a camp every thirty miles!It can't be like Saerhu back then, where the Ming army marched lightly and marched long distances at every turn.

Now the Ming army has an absolute advantage in attacking fortifications and defending strongholds. Under the deployment of rifle and cannon firepower, as long as there are fortifications to rely on, if the enemy comes to attack, even if the number of the Qing army is five times or more than that of the Ming army, the Ming army can still hold on. Stay, and then send a letter for help.

Therefore, if the Tatars were not given the opportunity to find the Ming army's left and right flanks in a decisive field battle and defeat them individually, nothing would happen.

If Hauge wanted to fight in the field, he could only fight with Zhang Huangyan's 30 main force, and he would not be given a chance to pick the weak ones.

This improved version of the plan finally got the support of all front-line military commanders, and it was implemented smoothly.

Of course, no plan is perfect, and the generals support it, but it doesn't mean that no one else opposes it.At the final stage of the military discussion, some civilian officials in charge of logistics still complained to Zhang Huangyan:

Such a style of play is destined to be protracted, and it may not be completed until the twelfth lunar month if it is expected to be steady and maneuverable.And because of the strong walls and clear fields of the Qing army, it was more difficult for the Ming army to raise food, and they could not get food and grass on the spot.

Now it is already necessary to use land transportation from Yanjin to Jixian County, and only in Jixian County can we use boats to travel Zhangshui.Or choose another road and transport it by land between Dongming and Puyang.

These two land routes are more than 80 miles long, plus the loss of two times of unloading and loading, unloading and loading, the grain transporters and dock workers will waste a lot of food if they eat horses, and the stalemate will definitely be a huge loss to the national strength of the Ming Dynasty. loss.

However, Zhang Huangyan asked Zhu Shuren in Kaifeng behind for instructions on this point. Zhu Shuren said that this is a war against the puppet Qing Dynasty to destroy the country.As long as he can win and annihilate the main force of the Tartars, he will not limit Zhang Huangyan's budget!
Zhu Shuren also asked the envoy to bring Zhang Huangyan his original words: "Facing the wall for ten years, I tried to break the wall. I, Daming, recuperated in the south for five or six years. Xu Tu made progress, because of this moment! The money and food saved in these years are It was spent for this moment! The strength of Gu’s support for brother is greater than Qin Shihuang’s support for Wang Jian when he led 60 Qin troops and Xiang Yan for more than a year! It will not waver!”

Zhu Shuren talked about this point, saying that as long as Zhang Huangyan can win, even if he is in a stalemate like Wang Jian and Xiang Yan, he will squeeze out food from the rear, and Zhang Huangyan has no worries at all, so let him go.

……

Zhang Huangyan chose to advance to the south bank of the Zhangshui River, and after facing the Qing army across the Zhangshui, he built high trenches and deep trenches, and began to build trenches and earthen wall corridors stretching from Neihuang to Puyang.

Such a posture naturally made Hauge on the opposite side a little puzzled at first.

From the first ten days of October to the beginning of mid-October, Hauge first waited and watched the stalemate for five or six days, keeping vigilance, in case the Ming army pretended to be a stalemate, but was actually planning to look for an opportunity to attack.

After waiting and waiting, the Ming army did not make any sneak attacks, nor did they try to cross the Zhang River to cause some damage. Hauge finally lost his composure and decided to fight some tentative harassment wars.

Therefore, after two or three days of calm investigation, the Qing army selected a field fortification area along the Zhangshui River, somewhere between Neihuang and Puyang that seemed to be relatively weakly defended. On a cloudy night, they sent a group of thousands Large-scale Mongolian cavalry sneaked across the Zhang River to carry out sneak attacks.

Of course, this attempt by the Qing army was not a random selection. It was really done rigorously and carefully to confirm that the number of Ming troops in this defense area was insufficient.

Therefore, the move to cross the river went smoothly at first, and the troops successfully disembarked, and then encountered only a small number of resistance from the Ming army relying on high fortifications and deep ditches.

Since the number of sneak attack troops concentrated by the Qing army was far greater than that of the dispersed Ming army, the Qing army once broke through the defense line after only two cups of tea and took control of a section of trenches and earthen wall corridors.

However, relying on the delay in the time of these two cups of tea, the Ming army on the left and right reacted quickly, and immediately supported and defended.When the Qing army took control of some of the fortifications, more Ming troops surrounded it from three sides.

After the bloody tug-of-war, the Mongols could not perform their battles in this kind of positional warfare. As thousands of Wuchang-made rifles took turns shooting, the Mongolian cavalry fell to their deaths one after another, and finally had to retreat and cross back to the north bank of the Zhangshui River.

The Ming army also took advantage of the situation and killed hundreds of Mongolian cavalry who were too late to go down the river. More people were injured or chose to ride horses and waded into the river. Unfortunately, the water level of Zhangshui was not low enough, and many people had to abandon their horses halfway and swim in the dark. escape.

After Hauge's initial sneak attack failed, he was still not reconciled. In the following seven or eight days, he tried two more small-scale consumption.But every time, one or two thousand soldiers were lost. In comparison, although hundreds of Ming troops were killed and wounded each time, the exchange ratio was obviously very poor.

Moreover, the total strength of the Qing army is smaller than that of the Ming army, so it is absolutely hopeless to change lives like this.By late October, Hauge had to abandon the attempt.

"Who is the general who is patrolling the defense line on the opposite side? Why do they react so quickly every time? Don't they relax in the middle of the night? They have been fighting for so long and they are still on guard every day?"

Faced with failure, Hauge couldn't help but want to find some excuses, so he asked this question manically.

Fortunately, the basic intelligence work of the Tartars is still doing well. The following people gave him the answer after a short summary and evaluation:

"Reporting to my lord, the general in charge of patrolling the defense line between Neihuang and Puyang on the opposite side of Nanmanzi is Li Dingguo, the general of Nanyang. This man was originally the remnant of the western thief Zhang Xianzhong. After being subdued by the Manzi court, he has been following Zhang Huangyan and beating some hard-working people. War of attrition.

A few years ago, when Prince Azig was still alive, he attacked Nanyang guarded by Zhang Huangyan. He was held back by this man and fought a war of attrition for a long time, but finally returned without success. "

Hauge heard that if he wanted to attack Li Dingguo, he had to deal with Li Dingguo, so he had no choice but to give up completely.Li Dingguo's rigorous military management and the law of deployment and deployment are still well known in the Qing army.After Azig's defeat back then, he exaggerated it, and no one wanted to waste his life with Li Dingguo.

And Hauge was delayed for half a month because of hesitation and random attempts, and he paid more than 5000 casualties. This number is not too many for the Qing army with a total size of 27 to [-], but Has been defeated on a small scale, and the loss of morale is also obvious.

In addition, in the past half a month, the Ming army has made considerable progress in enclosing land in the direction of Shandong, led by Li Fuming and Zhang Mingzhen, and captured two more state capitals.

In the western direction of Shanxi, Jiang Yu was also ordered by Zhu Shuren to leave Jingxingkou after resting, and began to harass the Zhending Mansion controlled by the Qing army.Wu Sangui chose a harassment route to the south, threatening the surrounding area of ​​Xingtai.

Jiang Yu and Wu Sangui are also very good at preserving their strength. They both strictly implemented the "strengthening the stronghold and fighting the battle" of camping every thirty miles.

The Hauge army also divided up their troops as appropriate and tried to counterattack, but Jiang Yu and Wu Sangui immediately turned to the defensive every time they encountered the main force of the Qing army approaching.Although they each have only 10 to [-] soldiers and horses, even if the Qing army came to attack with [-] people, Jiang Guan and Wu Sangui defended the camp with rifles and cannons, and the Qing army could not move.

……

After Hauge was frustrated, he felt Zhang Huangyan's slow and firm noose again. He couldn't help feeling a little panicked, so he once again summoned the main generals and advisers in the shogunate of Wei County to discuss countermeasures.

"Zhang Huangyan and Gu have been at each other for [-] days. You said Zhang Huangyan before that our army is in the southern part of the Daming Mansion. It is not easy for them to transport food. Zhang Huangyan must benefit from a quick battle. How can he be so exhausted now?

Seeing that Wu Sangui, Jiang Yu, and Li Fuming are all fighting steadily, advancing and occupying land, if they delay further, they will be divided into a joint attack, and they will arrive at the battlefields of Daming and Wei County steadily at the same time, and outnumber the few, what will our army do?

Hong Chengchou!Let me tell you first, you were the one who persuaded Gu Jianbi to clear the wilderness, and you said that the southern barbarians were fighting quickly!If our army is dragged to be surrounded on three sides in the future, how will we break the situation! "

Being held accountable by Hauge, Hong Chengchou, the important adviser, was also a little embarrassed.

The conscience of heaven and earth, the poisonous scheme of "strengthening the wall and clearing the wilderness" is generally not something that the nobles and nobles of the Manchus could come up with.The Manchus are used to mobile warfare. They like to rely on the enemy for food, and hate logistical planning the most. They seldom think about this kind of ruthless trick of "killing one thousand enemies and harming themselves by eight hundred". Even if they burn, kill and loot, It was also a temporary idea, and did not expect to rely on looting to implement some large strategic plans.

In contrast, the situation is different for those hard-core traitorous advisers. They are familiar with the art of war, and they are also familiar with the combat style of the Han Chinese armed forces, and they are particularly good at this kind of targeted coordination.

Facing the pressure, Hong Chengchou could only help Hauge stabilize his heart: "My lord, I still feel that it is not a wrong strategy to fortify the wall and clear the country. In this situation, although the Ming army chose to hold each other, it seems that they have achieved a slow and pressing effect.
But all of this is based on the premise that they advance extremely cautiously. If they increase their speed and reveal a little flaw, it will be the situation of Sarhu back then.

With the current speed of advancement, by the end of October, they will not be able to win Zhending County and Xingtai County. Our army still has troops to support those key nodes.If the Ming army wants to encircle our army on three sides, it may take until the end of November, or even the twelfth lunar month!
And this year's winter doesn't seem to be warm enough. Not only will the Yellow River be frozen, but the Zhangshui will be frozen. The Ming army will come from afar, so why don't we compete with the army for time?Our army fortified the walls and cleared the fields so thoroughly that when the northern rivers could no longer be used to transport grain, the stalemate between the two sides would inevitably change. "

Hauge stroked his beard, and before he could refute, Man Dahai next to him took the lead in spraying: "Pedantic words! How can our army wait for the southern barbarians to encircle them on three sides! Besides, even if they freeze the river in winter and stop transportation ,
But before the river freezes right now, Zhang Huangyan is desperately transporting military rations from the rear to Puyang and other places to stock up. In my opinion, he may be able to store enough rations for the twelfth lunar month and the first lunar month before the freezing!even more!
When the river thaws and the water volume recovers in February next year, the Ming army may have surrounded us here by then!During spring plowing, it rained continuously and the land was muddy, and our cavalry could not exert their combat effectiveness.

According to me, what I fought in the Qing Dynasty was the advantage of the cavalry, and the northerners are cold-resistant. If we want to decide the winner, we have to fight in winter and make a quick decision. I can't stand it yet!
The Southern Manzi already has so many rich and prosperous provinces, but my Qing Dynasty relied on fishing by exhausting the lake and killing and plundering the army rations raised by the people in Hebei. It's easy for the Southern barbarians to destroy it! "

Man Dahai has now inherited the title of his recently deceased father Daishan, and is the Prince of Li, so naturally his words carry some weight.His words quickly won the support of other Manchu imperial relatives, who all felt that Hong Chengchou was too cowardly and his strategy wasted too much.

When Hauge saw this, he just nodded slightly: "Everything you say has some truths. We can't expect it to last forever, but we have to take advantage of the lack of supplies of the southern barbarians in winter and the coldness of the southern soldiers."

The others thought about it, and then Bo Luo came up with an idea: "Brother Wang, since you want to weaken the endurance of the Ming army for a long-term battle, and also take advantage of the winter to make use of my iron cavalry, why not wait and see for a while, find a chance,

When the Zhangshui is about to freeze, how about dispatching troops to attack in a roundabout way, go upstream along the Zhangshui, attack Neihuang, or the Junxian and Huaxian counties behind the enemy, and weaken the Ming army's food and grass gathering places?

As Hong Shangshu said, once the river was frozen, the Ming army would no longer be able to transport grain by water, but the short-distance deployment within a hundred miles by land would not be affected.

Now Zhang Huangyan is stationed in Neihuang, Puyang, Qingfeng and other places.Only Neihuang is the closest to the upper reaches of the Zhangshui River, and it is connected to the rear of the Ming army.The remaining two counties are not directly adjacent to the Zhangshui River.Therefore, the Ming army mainly stored grain, which must be stored in Neihuang, and the grain storage area further back may be in Hua County.

We waited for them to gather most of the food needed for the winter in the Zhangnan Wharf county closest to the battlefield before Zhangshui was frozen, and then raided that county at any cost, robbed or burned the stock completely. However, Zhang Huang said that the hundreds of thousands of troops will inevitably have to retreat because there is no food for the winter and the rivers are frozen and cannot be transported.At that time, our army will chase after the enemy's food and we will win a complete victory! "

Boluo said it with high spirits, and originally wanted to add more details to describe the upcoming decisive battle as another "Songshan War".

After all, in the field battle of the Songshan War in the 14th and [-]th years of Chongzhen, it was because Hong Chengchou's troops rushed forward and were cut off the food road, and their morale collapsed after being trapped.

But when Boluo was on the verge of speaking, he remembered that Hong Chengchou was now on his side, so he left some words and didn't give any examples.

Hauge, who was in charge of making the final decision, felt that Boluo's words seemed feasible after carefully considering the opinions of all parties.

As relatives of the Manchu emperor, they are all familiar with "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". With the analogy of Boluo just now, Hauge almost feels that he is very similar to Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu, and Zhang Huangyan is very similar to Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu. .

As long as the river north of the Yellow River freezes and cannot transport grain in winter, and then burns the grain storage area before the freeze, the Ming army will not be able to survive the winter.

After all, it was only in late autumn that the army started to send troops to the north. The biggest disadvantage is here: if you want to win when you raise troops in late autumn, the key is to use food for the enemy!Take the enemy's autumn grain and feed it to your soldiers!The Qing army was strong and cleared the field, and the Ming army did not get the local autumn rations in Hebei, so the army rations were the biggest and easiest weakness of the Ming army!

Moreover, according to his investigation, the Ming army did not transport all the grain accumulated in Neihuang into the county because of the difficulty of transshipment.

It may be that the Ming army considered that these grains were not for the local soldiers and civilians in Neihuang, but had to be transshipped to various places. Neihuang is just a transit distribution center. If all of them are transported into the city, they will be transported out of the city in the future. Second, the loss is too large.

In addition, Neihuang is a very small county. The original population of the city was not tens of thousands, but now it needs to provide food storage for hundreds of thousands of troops for a winter. Even if all the granaries in the city are full, they cannot be put down, and they have to be demolished. Residential houses were converted into temporary granaries.

Considering that the cost of dismantling and rebuilding is more time-consuming and labor-intensive than directly building on the flat ground outside the city, the Ming army chose to directly rebuild.

Therefore, the Ming army chose to build a camp on the wharf on the south bank of Zhangshui River outside the west gate of Neihuang County, and directly stored a large amount of military rations in this well-defended wharf water village.

However, in Hauge's view, no matter how tightly defended the camp is, it is definitely easier than attacking the city.The 10 people of the Ming army were scattered in many places, and the several strongholds were separated by sixty to eighty miles.

If the Qing army can find an opportunity to secretly gather troops in advance to attack the Ming army at one point, and it may take a day or two for other reinforcements from the Ming army to come to rescue, then he may not have a chance of burning most of the Ming army's rations by taking advantage of this time difference. !

At the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao went to burn Wuchao. After the battle of Wuchao, Yuan Shao's rescue troops arrived. It took a long time or even a day!
After weighing again and again, Hauge felt that it would be better to give it a go than to wait for the enemy to slowly tighten his neck.

"Then it's so decided, and endure for a few more days, and when Zhangshui is frozen and it is impossible for the Ming army to transport food from the rear, take the initiative to attack and burn the west gate of Neihuang County, Zhangshui wharf water village, and the Ming army's main granary together. Alright! Forcing Zhang Huangyan to retreat, and then the whole army will pursue it!"

(End of this chapter)