Ming Empire

Chapter 238 Disappointment Again
However, Dorgon was soon disappointed. The Northern Expeditionary Army led by Cao Yue did not retreat, and there was not even any sign of retreating.Not only that, after discovering the movement of the Qing army, the Ming army slowly moved forward the main position, ready to take the initiative to fight the Qing army.

This made Dorgon very puzzled. Doesn't Cao Yue care about the survival of Nanjing, or is he not afraid of the threat of Zuo Liangyu's tens of thousands of horses?
Just when Dorgon was puzzled, his subordinates came to report that the Ming army pushed the position forward two miles in the night, and their artillery had already hit their own camp.Hearing this news, Dorgon was taken aback, and immediately went out of the camp to check the situation.

Sure enough, the main position of the Ming army has been pushed forward for less than a distance. Through the telescope, you can see the Ming army busy building positions, digging trenches, and building earth walls. The test firing artillery of the Ming army also rang from time to time. There was a shell that fell near the camp of the Qing army, which made people jump.

The target of the Ming army's attack was Liaocheng, so their main positions were built along the canal. The formations of the Qing army were also close to both sides of the canal, with the purpose of preventing the Ming army from attacking and defending Liaocheng.In such a formation, the Ming army pushed forward and moved north along the canal, and their warships could still provide fire support.

The warships on the canal sailed slowly north after clearing the obstacles in the river to provide support for the Ming army on the shore.With the support of warships in the canal, the two guard divisions on the shore can easily build positions.What's more terrible is that when the Ming army quietly pushed the main position forward, it was at night, and the Qing army didn't even notice it. When it was discovered, the Ming army was already building the main position, and it had a certain scale.

During this period of time, it was difficult for the Qing army to find out the specific movements of the Ming army. The elite squads of the Ming army wiped out many of the scouts of the Qing army.Especially at night, it is the world of the Ming army's elite squad, which can be regarded as an elite Qing scout, and is not an opponent of the Ming army's elite squad at all.

In the end, Dorgon was deeply afraid that the same situation would happen when he attacked Datong. The Ming army's elite squad sneaked into the Qing army's camp to cause trouble. He was also afraid that more scouts would be wiped out, so he basically did not send scouts near the Ming army's camp at night. To inquire about the situation, I just do intensive defense on the front line of my own camp, and use a watertight method to strictly prevent the Ming army from infiltrating.This kind of countermeasure is to prevent the infiltration of the Ming army. After more than ten days, only two incidents of the Ming army sneaking into the camp and causing riots happened.But this also prevented the Qing army from quickly discovering the movements of the Ming army. Just like this time when the Ming army secretly moved the main position forward at night, the Qing army did not find out in time.

Dorgon was very angry, but he didn't lose his mind. He immediately thought of taking advantage of the Ming army moving forward, the defense was not thorough, and everything was still chaotic, and took the opportunity to sneak attack.He immediately ordered a large-scale attack with 5 horses, trying to take advantage of the chaos of the Ming army to severely damage its troops.

But Dorgon was soon disappointed. The warships of the Ming army on the canal and the artillery of the Ming army that had already moved forward quickly sent dense shells to the heads of the charging Qing army. The Musketeers, also when the Qing army rushed forward, fired dense bullets into the charging queue of the Qing soldiers.

Three consecutive waves of attacks damaged more than ten thousand troops, and after failing to break through the defense of the Ming army, Dorgon reluctantly ordered the troops to retreat.

The Ming army moved the main position forward two miles, and Dorgon could only move his camp back two miles, retreating close to the front line of Liaocheng.

In order to prevent the Ming army from continuing to move its position at night, Dorgon had to send scouts day and night to find out the movement of the Ming army.

However, the Ming army still slowly moved the main position forward along the canal, advancing a little every day.

Cao Yue was not in a hurry to fight Jiannu, and he was not worried that Zuo Liangyu's rebellion would cause trouble to the rear. He believed that Zuo Liangyu's rebellion would be subdued soon.

Now what Cao Yue has to care about is only the two 10,000+ troops led by Dorgon in front of him.After nearly 20 days of fighting, Cao Yue has changed his original mind. He thinks it is possible to wipe out these two 10,000+ slaves. .

Moreover, Cao Yue has another strange army, that is Cao Bianjiao's Datong Army.

Cao Yue believed that at this time, Cao Bianjiao had already led his troops to leave Datong and was ready to attack Beijing.

Cao Yue believed that those Ming generals who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty could not withstand Cao Bianjiao's attack, and the number of Jiannu left behind in Beijing was only tens of thousands, and their defense force was not strong.It is impossible for Dorgon to bet big and let Cao Bianjiao lead his army to attack Beijing.

Cao Yue's current strategy is to fight steadily, without haste or impatience.After rebuilding the slaves, he planned to advance half a mile to one mile every day, building field fortifications while advancing.The newly built field fortifications are connected to the original ones, and if the situation is not right, they can retreat along the trenches.And these field fortifications are obstacles to the rapid attack of the cavalry. Even if the slaves are able to fight back, the cavalry cannot move quickly on the positions where the field fortifications are built.

Jiannu set up many obstacles on the canal near Liaocheng, but Jiannu was unable to fill the canal or divert the water in the canal to other places, so there was no way to block the progress of the Ming warship.The obstacles in the canal are easy to remove, and the people nearby can mobilize without enough labor.

The Ming army, which did no harm to the people, gained the hearts of the people at the beginning of the war. The Qing army's brutal grain requisition made more people flee south.These people who fled south were easily recruited. As long as they had food to fill their stomachs, they were willing to do things for you. Therefore, Cao Yue's army got the support of hundreds of thousands of people.

And Jiannu had little to do with the slow advance of the Ming army. Their frontal attack could not do anything to the Ming army, and they could not succeed in sideways or sneak attacks either.The Daming Cavalry and the two attached guard divisions dealt a heavy blow to the Jiannu who were attacking in a roundabout way. The powerful firepower --- intensive musket shooting and the "bombing" of thousands of hand grenades made the Jiannu suffered a lot.

As the days slowly passed, the position of the Ming army was getting closer and closer to the city wall of Liaocheng, but Jiannu, who was slowly advancing like the Ming army, had no choice but to retreat passively to avoid being bombarded by the artillery of the Ming army. arrive.But in the end, Jiannu reached the point where there was no way to retreat, because at this time the main position of the Ming army had been pushed closer to a place less than three miles away from Liaocheng, and their new artillery could hit the head of Liaocheng.

This made Dorgon very anxious, but there was nothing he could do.And just when the artillery on the Ming army warship on the canal and the new artillery advancing with the main position were able to hit the head of Liaocheng City, Dorgon received another piece of bad news, that is, Datong's Cao Bianjiao led his troops to defeat Jiannu who were intercepted outside the city, and advanced all the way, preparing to attack Beijing.

After receiving this news, Dorgon could no longer be calm!
(End of this chapter)