national surname chiming

Chapter 455 Lost land and people, all people and land lost!
The news of the Ming army's sudden detour and landing naturally caused great confusion to the upper echelons of the Qing army.

Facing Hauge's angry question, the messenger who was only in charge of reporting the military situation was of course unable to answer.

However, Man Dahai, the Prince of Li next to Hauge, felt that something was wrong when he heard that Hauge planned to go back to fight against the Ming army that encircled Ningyuan and Jinzhou.

"Prince Su! Now that the Ming army has landed behind our army, maybe we shouldn't worry about whether we can encircle the Ming army in Ningyuan and Jinzhou right now.

They dare to come, they must have nothing to fear, maybe there are other things to rely on, we might as well avoid their edge and seek safety.Don't retreat along the Liaoxi Corridor along the coast, and retreat directly across Yanshan Mountain! "

Hauge waved his hand and refused without even thinking about it: "No! Not to mention that the Ming army has just ventured around and landed a surprise attack, and it is not known whether Ningyuan and Jinzhou will fall.

If any of these two places were not lost, my Qing soldiers were too frightened to even rescue them. In the end, the defenders of Ningyuan and Jinzhou were wiped out by the Ming army in despair.

In the future, any defenders of any city in Liaodong, apart from our Manchu soldiers and horses, who else would dare to sacrifice their lives for my Qing Dynasty?It's not that they are completely afraid of being beaten by the Ming army. At that time, any random smuggling and harassment may turn a trivial matter into a big one!This kind of thing must be done as an example from the very beginning, and the Ming army's attempt to circle around must not be allowed to succeed even once!
Besides, even if we take ten thousand steps back, assuming that Ningyuan and Jinzhou have all been lost, then we should not bypass the Liaoxi Corridor and withdraw our troops through the grassland north of Yanshan Mountain.

Our cavalry crossed Yanshan without luggage, maybe we can.The infantry didn't bring any luggage, and walked around the grassland for hundreds of thousands of miles, many of them might get separated and starve to death.As for the carts and luggage, how could it be possible to quickly transport them away across Yanshan Mountain?
If you retreat to the north of Yanshan Mountain, it is tantamount to completely abandoning the supplies, weapons, food and fodder that were hoarded here for the decisive battle in Shanhaiguan!The infantry was also doomed to suffer losses and be pursued and killed along the way.Only my full cavalry can retreat unscathed.Such a retreat will inevitably damage the national strength, and what chance is there for a comeback! "

Speaking of this, no matter how slow the other high-ranking generals of the Qing army reacted, they had already figured out the pros and cons of the two plans.

Mandahai's road is more stable, which can ensure that the cavalry can withdraw almost intact, but the luggage will be abandoned, and how much the infantry can run is unknown. It depends on whether the Ming army is stuck in the fight. .

Hauge's way is a bigger gamble. If he fights well, the infantry and Ningyuan Jinzhou can be kept, but if he fights poorly, the main force of the cavalry has to take an extra part.

From the current point of view, the advantages and disadvantages of the two plans cannot be directly seen. The key is the follow-up adaptation and the execution of the troops.

No one can bear the responsibility of "losing the supplies, food and some infantry without even trying it", so listen to Hauge and give it a try.

Who would be willing to amputate a limb if there is hope to take medicine for conservative treatment and cure the lesion.

The Qing army quickly accelerated its mobilization, and began to withdraw from the camp that day, leaving only thousands of cannon fodder of dead soldiers and some strong men staying at Shanhaiguan, in order to delay the pursuit of the main force of the Ming army in Yongping Prefecture and buy time for the main force.

……

It's a pity that the Qing army's retreat did not escape the eyes of the Ming army at all, because the Ming army had already counted the days, and in the past few days even sent many large sand ships with shallow drafts and tall masts to approach the coast of the Liaoxi Corridor scouting.

Originally, the water depth on the northern shore of Bohai Bay was relatively shallow, and it was difficult for large ships to sail close to it. However, since the Ming army built a navy in a targeted manner, this problem can of course be avoided.

It has been two full years since the Ming army dug out the latest Western shipbuilders and ship designers from the Dutch.It is not difficult to improve the original large sand ship and build a ship with a higher draft and a heavier tonnage under the design discussion of the combination of Chinese and Western, drawing on the tonnage experience of the Dutch pot-bellied ship.

The Ming army also installed higher masts than the old ships on these new sand ships specially used in the coastal theater of the Liaodong Peninsula, equipped with ladders and masttop observation cages, and supplemented by the latest high-precision and high-power telescopes. The deployment of troops within dozens of miles along the coast can be seen clearly.

Therefore, the Qing army retreated along the Liaoxi Corridor, and the Ming army discovered it immediately.Unless the Qing army chose to cross Yanshan Mountain and take the road north of Yanshan Mountain, they could escape detection.

After the Ming army detected the enemy's situation, they didn't need to sail back to report. As long as they went directly to the sea every [-] miles, there was a reconnaissance sandship and a beacon fire as a relay. Send it back to the tackling camp in Shanhaiguan.

Therefore, Hauge originally planned to sneak away, and it was best to keep the main force behind for a day or two before letting the Ming army know that Shanhaiguan was empty.But in fact, only two hours after he left, the Ming army decided everything and spread the news to the whole army to let the soldiers know that the Tartars had escaped, and now they were going to Shanhaiguan to pick up the bargain.

The morale of the Ming army suddenly became more and more like a rainbow, who would not fight with the wind.

For a while, the artillery prepared again with fierce firepower, the rifle team fired cross-fire from left and right, and the armored soldiers attacked the fortifications and mopped up the tail.

In just a few hours, the thousands of regular troops of the Qing army that Hauge stayed behind the Shanhaiguan Palace for a while were completely wiped out by the Ming army with an overwhelming force advantage.

Those temporarily captured strong men were even worse, and two to three thousand people were wiped out, and the rest collapsed and surrendered on their knees, turning their guns to help the Ming army.

Hauge's troops stayed in Shanhaiguan to procrastinate for a long time. Huang Degong and Li Dingguo chased out of Shanhaiguan, biting Hauge's tail. The two armies were separated by only forty miles, all the way to the northeast.

This rhythm completely defeated Hauge's original expectations.

Moreover, Huang Degong and Li Dingguo were not afraid that the chasing troops would lose touch and the Qing army would turn around and fight back.Because the Ming army already had an absolute advantage in the sea route, the flanks of the army were protected by sea ships during the pursuit, and there were Hongyi cannons on the sea ships that could maneuver to follow.

Hauge didn't believe in this evil at first, and after fleeing towards Ningyuan for a day, seeing the Ming army catching up behind him, he wanted to take advantage of the relaxation of the Ming army's guard at night when they were stationed and rested, and organized a cavalry team to fight back at dawn, forcing them to fight back. Get rid of yellowing success.

However, Huang Degong and Li Dingguo's march was always by the sea and would not go too far into the inland.

When Huang Degong's former army encountered Hauge's cavalry and turned back to fight back, Huang Degong immediately ordered all the troops to form a moon formation with their backs to the sea to ensure that the Qing army's cavalry would not surround them behind them, and then fired at three sides with rifle firepower. If the Qing cavalry rushed up, they would have to pay heavy casualties.

At the same time, because the Ming army was arrayed with their backs to the sea, when the Qing cavalry rushed up, they soon found themselves within the coverage of the Ming army's naval guns. As long as they approached within three miles from the coast, the Ming army The flowering bullets of the new heavy artillery can blast over.

Therefore, although the Ming army's pursuers did not carry too many heavy artillery with the army, as long as they marched along the Liaoxi Corridor close to the sea and did not go deep into the inland, they could be covered by naval guns at any time.This thing is much more powerful than Liu Yu's battle against the cavalry of the Northern Wei Dynasty 1000 years ago.

After several attempts, at the cost of the Qing army leaving behind thousands of cavalry corpses and wounded soldiers, they retreated hastily. Hauge could only give up completely. You can't take care of each other, and then find the right time to kill the carbine" idea.

"The Southern Manzi's use of the navy is really sharp and vicious. It seems that in the future, even the Liaoxi Corridor will not be able to be used when advancing troops, and they can only go to the prairie. Can we just completely abandon the coast and retreat inland?"

Thinking of this possibility, Hauge's heart was almost overwhelmed with pain.

But what else could he do now that this was the case?The only thing we can do is look forward, see the tricks, and take one step at a time.

It was less than a night after recovering from the pain of the failure and trauma of returning to the carbine. In the early morning of the next day, the Qing army received a new piece of bad news one after another, which once again dealt a heavy blow to its morale:

Both Ningyuan and Jinzhou have been confirmed to have fallen! It was during the period when Hauge's army rushed back from Shanhaiguan to help!From the attack to the fall, the defenders of the two places did not last for three days!

Hauge was furious and beat the messenger who brought the bad news severely, and wanted to ask for details.In the end, I was told that the Ming army came across the sea, and they actually brought enough heavy artillery to attack the city. Yesterday, they suddenly stepped up their offensive, and cooperated with some swaying soldiers in the city to respond internally. Many Liaodong defenders were originally Wu Sangui, etc. The old tribe of the generals of the Ming army surrendered the army, and they broke through the city so quickly through a multi-pronged approach.

After Hauge sorted out this rhythm carefully, a shudder rose in his heart.

And Man Dahai and Yue Le, who discussed the decision with him, also saw the clues to some extent.Man Dahai was relatively more experienced, and suddenly cried out in shock:

"Not good! I'm afraid the Ming army pretended not to be able to break through the city at the beginning, or they were trying to seduce our army to rescue Ningyuan! The Ming army must have had enough siege artillery to forcibly break the city! But they didn't take it out the day before yesterday. , just took it out yesterday, this is showing weakness at the beginning and seducing our army!"

As for what to seduce specifically, a sensible person has already understood it at this point, isn't it that seducing Haoge is reluctant to give up Ningyuan, Jinzhou, and crossing Yanshan to retreat. Big bet!

These words were pointed out by Man Dahai, and Hauge's prestige inevitably dropped a bit.So far, the Qing army has basically realized that Hauge's level of dealing with the southern barbarians is at most no more than that of Duduo Dorgon back then!Impossible to be stronger than them!

It's just that the Qing Dynasty has had enough internal strife. After all, Dorgon has made a mistake in the grand strategy level, and his power has been uprooted, so there is nothing to regret now, and he can only follow Hauge to the dark.

The generals just sighed and sighed, but they couldn't say they were dissatisfied, at most their morale was low.

……

Things have come to this point, all the losses that should be lost have been lost, and it is impossible to just give up the luggage and infantry and then change to the mountains.

Because Ningyuan City is not a checkpoint after all, but just an isolated city.

Even if Zhang Mingzhen of the Ming army took Wu Sangui to land and captured Ningyuan, they couldn't completely intercept the entire Liaoxi Corridor. The Qing army could still bypass the isolated city and retreat.

Unless Ningyuan can be like Shanhaiguan, and the supporting Great Wall is completely blocked, then it is impossible to break through. There is only one isolated city. If you don’t try it, you will be too sorry for the sunk cost of the Qing army so far.

The final result, of course, is "try and die".

On the sixth day of September, the Qing army assembled its main force, preparing to forcibly pass around the city from the northwest of Ningyuan City and continue fleeing to the northeast.

During the march, the Qing army was still on guard. Once Zhang Mingzhen and Wu Sangui, who had just entered Ningyuan City for less than two days, dared to go out to harass the city, they would immediately use the main force of the Qing army to fight back!

In the end, Wu Sangui fought back harder than Hauge had imagined,
He didn't wait for the Qing army to pass halfway, and then intercepted the attack, and he didn't choose to wait for the main force of the Qing army's cavalry to pass most of the way, and then chased the infantry and the baggage team.

Wu Sangui directly chose to go out of the city a few hours before the vanguard of the Qing army had bypassed Ningyuan City. Wang Ping.

Seeing this scene, Hauge finally understood:
"Wu Sangui has such a big appetite after being surrounded by such a small number of people? Expecting to encircle and kill the Guquan army to the west of Ningyuan? Just rely on his small number of people? Zhu Shuren probably doesn't trust Wu Sangui very much! I haven't heard that another elite soldier was sent to Wu Sangui dispatched him, and he only had the old Guanning army under him, with less than 3 people, and he still expects to stop my main force of the Qing Dynasty?"

Although the Ming army used great dispatching power to send troops as much as possible from the sea to go around, but after all, there are two places in Ningyuan and Jinzhou that need to be shared.Moreover, when crossing the sea from Denglai, each ship only transports more than a hundred people, and the troops on the sea must be left behind.
The total transportation capacity of the Ming army, including sailors, is about 8 to [-] people. After removing the sailors, the rest will be divided into two halves. Ningyuan and Jinzhou will each be divided into less than [-]. It's all clear.

So the current situation is that Hauge's Qing army has a total strength of 7, 3, plus some auxiliary soldiers for transporting food.Facing Wu Sangui's [-] to [-] people blocking the road in front of him, Huang Degong and Li Dingguo's army of more than [-] people chased after him.

As long as Wu Sangui held Hauge for at most a day, or even more than half a day, Huang Degong and Li Dingguo would be able to catch up and kill Hauge's rear army.

There are only two ways for Hauge to survive, either to break through Wu Sangui before Huang Degong and Li Dingguo catch up,
Or before Huang Degong catches up and judges that it is really impossible to break through Wu Sangui, then go north and flee across Yanshan Mountain.

However, this kind of measure of only crossing Yanshan Mountain at the end of the matter is destined to be dangerous and difficult, and troops with poor mobility will definitely be bitten and turned into cannon fodder.At that time, only the cavalry can escape, and not all of them are sure to escape.As for the infantry, they were all doomed to be wiped out.

"Assault by the whole army! Be sure to completely defeat and penetrate Wu Sangui's troops before noon! Don't delay! After noon, Degong will catch up at any time. At that time, our army will be attacked by the enemy! The survival of the Qing Dynasty is in this battle, and the generals must do their best. 12 points Do your best to break through! Kill!"

Hauge knew that he had no time to hesitate, so he didn't care what the rules were, and rushed the whole army to the face of Wu Sangui who was blocking the road.

……

Wu Sangui, who was on the opposite side, was in a daze when he saw the entire Qing army rushing forward, swearing to the death.

At that moment, he suddenly felt that the scene in front of him was very similar to when he and Li Zicheng were fighting in Shanhaiguan more than seven years ago!

It's a pity that he misjudged the situation back then, and when he stumbled, he became a despised wolf-introducer.
In that battle, he also had to fight with Li Zicheng for most of the day with the direct line of the Guan Ning army, and then Dorgon led the cavalry of the Qing army to attack Li Zicheng from the flank.

But today, he needs to intercept Hauge's charge in the first place, fight with Hauge for a long time, wait for Daming's friendly army Huang Degong Li Dingguo to catch up, cover up and stab Hauge behind him.

"It's so similar. That battle back then almost ruined my reputation for the rest of my life. If I can win this battle today, maybe I can completely wash away the shame of that year? Will I also leave a good name in the future?"

Wu Sangui is also a courageous person. In history, he finally rebelled against the Qing Dynasty. Now he has abandoned the dark side and turned to the Ming Dynasty for ten years. Although he has been erratic many times, he can still fight in terms of force.

Moreover, since the decisive battle in Hebei, Zhang Huangyan's trust in him has also increased a little since he led the Guan Ning army to support him on the flanks.

Although the Guan Ning army is unable to equip the latest Wuchang-made rifles or even rifled guns, he has been given thousands of early Wuchang-made five-year-old models, as well as [-] cavalry guns, which are regarded as armament treatment. Not bad.With these new equipment at the bottom, his [-] infantry and three to four thousand Guanning cavalry also have the confidence to fight to the death.

"The whole army must fight to the death! Anyone who retreats without permission will be killed! The Tartars are dead fish in the cauldron, and our Ming Dynasty will definitely win! Rifles line up! Guan Ning's cavalry is ready to turn around and attack! Once you see the Tartars trying to turn north, Go up and intercept!"

Wu Sangui personally brandished the sword and rode his horse to supervise the battle. As the Qing army swarmed forward, the two sides quickly strangled together.

"Bang bang bang——" Thousands of Longwu three-year-old old-fashioned Wuchang guns fired one after another. Cooperating with the firepower of other bird guns, they took turns to shoot one after another. soldiers.

Hauge didn't want the Manchu cavalry to rush into the first wave, and wanted to preserve his core strength, so he let the infantry of the Han army flag cannon fodder first.Unexpectedly, in the face of the organized interception of the Ming army, the infantry of the Han army banner rushed so inefficiently, and the death and injury surged but the progress was slow.

When the firearms have been outdated, infantry-to-infantry assaults can easily turn into one-sided massacres.After the Ming army shot wildly again and again, causing heavy casualties to the enemy, their morale rose more and more.

Seeing that Haoge had boosted Wu Sangui's morale instead, he had no choice but to let the Manchu iron cavalry take the lead in the charge at any cost, while the infantry also followed at full speed, seizing every moment of the time difference that the friendly army had bought with their lives.

Outside the city of Ningyuan, blood flowed for a while, thousands of lives passed away in a short few quarters of an hour, and the corpses were wounded and wounded.

The more Hauge fought, the more frightened he became. Why did Wu Sangui, the defeated opponent who he thought was no big deal, become so tough and strong now?

The Qing army wasted wave after wave, repeatedly charging and killing. After paying a heavy price, some cavalry troops did completely smash through Wu Sangui's defense line and rushed behind the Ming army.

The problem is that even though some parts of the front line have been pierced, the remaining Ming army still sticks to the position, neither retreating nor collapsing because of the exposure of the flanks, nor even fleeing back to Ningyuan City because of fear. According to the city to defend.

It can only be said that with the revival of Daming, everyone knows that Daming is the winning side. After the morale rises, everyone is more courageous, not to mention that the Guan Ning army is known for its bravery. Greg can't imagine.

On the contrary, after a part of the Qing army successfully broke through the deadly battle, they didn't want to turn back to help the allies. Since they all escaped, they just ran away!Then the breakout troops left the battlefield directly...

A strange scene appeared on the battlefield. Although the Qing army succeeded in breaking through a small number of troops, their strength advantage became smaller and smaller. Those who protruded just ran for their own lives, and did not turn back to backstab the friendly army——

The main reason is that they know that it may not be useful to turn around. The Qing army has long been accustomed to the hollow square formation of the Ming army's muskets. They know that the firepower behind the Ming army can also be very strong.

Under such circumstances, even though the Ming army was partially opened by the Qing army at any cost, it caused the Qing army to flee. Everyone wanted to rush through these gaps and find a way out for themselves.

Although Wu Sangui couldn't completely wipe out the enemy, he tried his best to force the rifle team to squeeze into the gap, and fired wildly at the gap from the left and right sides with crossfire. You have to endure the concentrated fire from the left and right sides at the same time.

All of a sudden, the road of death was filled with corpses of the Qing army, and for every person who broke through, at least two or three died on the road.

The chaotic bloody battle lasted for a long time, and the Qing army failed to completely defeat Wu Sangui until noon, but the balance of forces remaining on the battlefield began to reverse.

Seeing that Huang Degong and Li Dingguo might appear at any time, Hauge had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead the cavalry unit that hadn't protruded at the end, cross Yanshan Mountain to the north, and escape around the grassland with the last time difference.

As for the infantry and luggage still in the encirclement, they could only be used as the rear guards to delay time, and they were completely lost to Huang Degong.

In the late afternoon, Huang Degong and Li Dingguo finally rushed to the battlefield, and Wu Sangui's remnant, who had suffered heavy losses after the bloody battle, flanked back and forth, completely annihilating the Qing army's infantry artillery and logistics team, which was exhausted in all aspects.

After this battle, Hauge was like a frightened bird, and he did not dare to go to the Liaoxi Corridor and break through Jinzhou again. The remaining remnants all went to the grassland north of Yanshan Mountain, and rushed back to Shengjing.

The Manchu armed forces have lost at least 3 to 8 people in the successive bloody battles since Shanhaiguan, and the total male population of the Manchus has further dropped from 5 to [-] to [-] to [-], which is extremely weak. .

The combined losses of the Han and Mongolian troops and the cannon fodder of the strong men were tens of thousands, and the prestige of the Qing court was completely gone.

What angered Hauge the most was that after he fled back to Shengjing, he sent scouts to investigate again within a few days.

However, after three victories in Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan, and Jinzhou, the Ming army actually bluffed a shot, leaving only soldiers to guard Shanhaiguan, while Ningyuan and Jinzhou were abandoned by the Ming army, and the money, food, materials, and population were directly evacuated. Qing army.

Obviously, Zhang Huangyan's plan is to consume Man Qing's vitality!

He now has the advantage of the navy. As long as the Qing army dares to come back to occupy Ningyuan, the Ming army can go around and break the road at any time, and come to harvest another wave!
In contrast, if the Ming army defended Ningyuan, it would have to disperse its forces and leave various openings for the Qing army to break through. It would be better to shrink its forces and bring the enemy closer to fight. The core goal of everything is to kill more enemy soldiers and let bloodletting.

Anyway, killing a Qing soldier in Ningyuan is definitely much less labor-intensive than going to Shengjing to kill a Qing soldier.

After Hauge figured it all out, he was completely at a loss, and he didn't dare to occupy the empty city even though he left it alone.The four hundred miles of the Liaoxi Corridor has gradually become a no-man's land, and both sides are shrinking, so as not to give the enemy a chance to detour and cut off the road.

(End of this chapter)