"The son has seen the queen mother."

In the Dashun Palace, which was renovated from the Qin Palace, Luo Hu kowtowed to his adoptive mother, Empress Gao, in accordance with the etiquette of the Dashun court. This is not false, they were basically raised by Gao Guiying, and it would be nonsense to say that there is no mother-son relationship.

Gao Guiying's military and political talents are no less than any woman in history who has a reputation as virtuous and helpful, and even stronger than Li Shimin's eldest grandson. Empress Changsun only left a reputation for being able to advise Li Shimin, but Gao Guiying was able to help Li Zicheng lead the troops and guard the rear. In history, the reason why the Dashun Army was able to hold out until the Kangxi period after Li Zicheng's death was due to Gao Guiying's central coordination organization. If Gao Guiying were not there, I am afraid there would be no historical struggle against the Qing Dynasty of the Thirteen Kuidong Families.

At the gate of the palace, Luo Hu was very surprised to meet Wu Ruyi, the head of the Chinese army.

"Uncle Ziyi, you didn't accompany the emperor in Tongguan, why did you come back?" Because it was not a formal occasion, Luo Hu still called Wu Ruyi very affectionately with the habit of breaking into the camp.

"The battle of Tongguan was very difficult, hundreds of thousands of troops were gathered in a corner, and the daily consumption of grain, grass, firewood, charcoal, oil, salt, and military salaries was huge. The emperor ordered me to go back to Chang'an to see the queen and ask the queen to send grain and grass quickly. ”

When the two were waiting for the meeting at the palace gate, they had a brief conversation, and then they were invited into Queen Gao's bedroom by the female soldiers around Queen Gao.

"Little Huzi, is the war in the north over?"

After returning to his mother, the son was fortunate not to be dishonored and won the battle. Annihilated more than 100,000 soldiers and horses of Dongnu on the edge of the Guanzhong Plain. It's a pity that more than 10,000 people fled, and right now, Wang Si'er and Li Laiheng are leading their men and horses to clean up the battlefield and hunt down the remnants of the Tartar generals. The sons specially came to ask the queen mother, what should our ministry do next? ”

"Tell me about the North Road?" Empress Gao thought for a moment and asked her own question.

Luo Hu never expected his adoptive mother to ask such a sharp question, which was really a bit unexpected to him. Xuan Yang answered Empress Gao's question in a deep voice: "Although the counties north of Guanzhong have only been occupied by the Tartars for a few days, according to the reports of the subordinates of the sons, they will not be able to recover for at least a few years. As for Yulin, Yan'an and other places, they have been destroyed and ravaged. ”

Luo Hu carefully organized his vocabulary, lest his words stimulate his adoptive mother, Queen Gao. In fact, everyone knows that with the urine of the Qing soldiers, in just a few days, they can not ease the ravages and destruction of several counties in the northern part of the Guanzhong Plain adjacent to the mountainous areas occupied by them, so those state capitals in northern Shaanxi are already hell on earth. Don't forget, the main force of these Qing soldiers is the former Ming army, and they hate the Dashun peasant army based on Yan'an and other state capitals in northern Shaanxi. Now that I finally have a chance to take revenge, why don't you take revenge on another species?

"So, in your opinion, how is the battle on the North Road?" Empress Gao also tried to control her emotions and did not turn the topic to the Qing army's ravages and destruction of the place.

"In Erchen's opinion, after this battle, the Tartars on the northern road have suffered heavy losses, and it will be difficult to gather more than 100,000 soldiers and horses to go south for at least half a year. What's more, the capital of Beilu Prefecture has long been damaged by their scourge, and it is difficult to raise grain and grass, and if it is to be transferred from Shanxi and other places, the cost of loss along the way is high. In this direction of the north road, you can ensure that you have no worries for more than half a year. ”

For Luo Hu's judgment, Queen Gao also agreed. Although the Qing army on the northern route belonged to a partial division on Dolgon's strategic chessboard, did not send a pro-noble general, and did not have the main force of the Eight Banners Manchuria and the Eight Banners Han Army as the core, but after all, it was also an army of more than 100,000 horses, and if Dolgon wanted to gather more than 100,000 horses to cross the Yellow River from Shanxi to the west into northern Shaanxi and enter Shaanxi, it would take at least half a year to mobilize men and horses to prepare grain and grass.

As long as there is more than a month, the tens of thousands of Dashun troops who have returned from Qinghai, Gansu, and Xifandi can come in handy. Gao Guiying silently calculated in her heart, calculating the available people in her hands.

"Ziyi, you come back from the former enemy in Tongguan, you tell us about the situation of the former enemy." Letting go of the military situation on the North Road, she began to devote all her attention to the Tongguan battlefield.

"Madam, the battle on the front line is very difficult." Wu Ruyi is an old man who broke into the camp, and inadvertently said the name of the year. As soon as the words came out, I was startled. However, Empress Gao didn't notice this, and just listened to him tell about the battle ahead.

"The emperor and the chief whistle Liu Ye both said that after decades of fighting, they have really met an opponent!" Wu Ruyi first set the tone for the battle ahead, and then opened the chatterbox.

"Our army waited for work, and built countless trenches and fortresses, and the fortifications were strong and tight. I thought that the Tartars had come from afar, and the troops were exhausted. No, the artillery of the Tartars is far superior to our army. Not to mention the range of artillery fire, and the number of heavy artillery is much greater than that of our troops. General Zhang Nai's feet jumped to his feet and scolded several times, saying that if he knew this, he should have purchased more heavy artillery! ”

The operations of the Dashun army have always been mainly field battles, and there are few tough battles, which leads to their selection criteria for treating artillery with excessive emphasis on mobility and lightness. In this way, when it came to artillery battles with the large number of heavy artillery of the Qing army, it was inferior.

“。。。。。 Often the Tartars used two or three guns against one of our heavy guns, so that our guns could not raise their heads, and the gunners were either killed by the guns, or they hid in the trenches and did not dare to go to the gun emplacements to open fire. The Tartar infantry took advantage of the situation to rush up and fight with our Dashun elite from hill to hill, trench to trench. ”

"So, how do we deal with them? Did the infantry also fight the Tartars with their artillery? ”

"If you go back to your mother, you have to thank Xiaohuzi. Let's use the spear of the son to attack the shield of the son. When Wu Ruyi said this, he gave Luo Hu a thumbs up with appreciation.

"Oh? Tell me about it! When Wu Ruyi talked about the war on the front line, although Luo Hu was not there, he also made a contribution, and he couldn't help but look uplifted.

"When the emperor led the army to deploy on the front line of Tongguan, Xiaohuzi made a statement to the Lord of Long Life, saying that the Tartars have always paid attention to artillery fire, and they have been dealing with the Ming army in Liaodong for many years, and the application of artillery fire is quite refined. Therefore, I told the Lord that all battalions and departments should prepare more earthen baskets and bags to defend against artillery. When digging trenches, you should not dig them in a straight line, but dig a few more branch lines along the terrain, and dig the trenches as much as possible, so as not to hurt people along the trenches after the shells fall into the trenches. At the same time, there are also ditches, hidden caves and so on. If the soldiers on the front line did not have these defensive measures, they were afraid that there would be more casualties! ”

"Then how is the spear of the son attacking the shield of the son?" Empress Gao was a little puzzled.

"Mother, you don't know anything. At the beginning, when the Ming army fought several battles with the Tartars in Liaodong, they always relied on the fortifications of the city walls to defend with artillery, which is what Yuan Chonghuan called the cannon tactic of relying on the fortified city. No matter how the Tartars lured and scolded outside the city, the Ming army just didn't go out of the city to fight. You are not willing to fill the cannon with human life. Over time, the Tartars figured out the method of besieging the long trench. Erchen also heard that the Tartars had such tactics, so he suggested to the emperor that the whole army should dig trenches, dig ditches, and dig holes to hide soldiers, so as to reduce the power of the Tartars' artillery fire as much as possible. ”

"Where is this the spear of the son attacking the shield of the son! This is clearly the shield of the son to defend against the spear of the son! Hearing that it turned out to be Luo Hu's battlefield experience stolen from the Tartars, she couldn't help but make Queen Gao feel embarrassed for a while.

"Exactly! The soldiers in front said the same! The Tartars are often followed by a round of artillery fire, and the infantry rushes up! I originally thought that there were no more of our soldiers in the trenches on the mountain, but I didn't know that our trenches were criss-crossing and extending in all directions! As soon as his artillery fire stopped, our infantry began to move! First of all, the musketeers of each battalion moved along the communication trenches to the first-line trenches to lay in ambush, and the muskets were loaded with good medicine, just waiting for them to rush up! The sword and shield soldiers and pikemen in the back stood by in the second trench, ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat. ”

"How's it going?!"

"Niangniang, think about it, on the terrain of Tongguan, it is easy to climb the mountain along the mountain road to the top of the mountain, and suddenly a row of firearms comes down, is there any chaos?" Thinking of the smugness, Wu Ruyi also had a smile on his face. Then the Tartars bombarded our trenches with light artillery, killing and wounding our firearms. Cover his infantry storm. Let's wait for his infantry to climb up the hill, and after entering the first trench, the soldiers and horses will be confused by our dense trench like a spider's web, and when they are divided into a mess, they will suddenly come out! ”

But such tactics were soon found by the Qing army and found a way to crack it.

After the artillery fire stopped, before the Qing army infantry carried out the attack on the starting position, Cao Zhenyan's spearmen would choose the terrain and quietly line up the formation. They opened their bloody mouths and waited for the soldiers and horses of the Dashun army to enter their range. It was often the Qing army infantry that had just bluffed to create the momentum of the offensive, and the Dashun army musketeers and swordsmen and spearmen were gearing up to enter a state of imminent battle, and the spearmen in the distance also smiled and pulled the trigger.

"Several times, our soldiers and horses have suffered heavy losses. The corpses of soldiers on both sides covered the hills. The emperor had to order that our soldiers and horses be withdrawn to the third and fourth positions, so that the Tartars' guns could not exert their power. ”

In this way, the two sides came up with their own tricks, each showed their tactical expertise, and launched a battle for each mountain. The Qing army had the advantage of artillery and carrying guns, and the Shun army gave full play to the advantages of fortified positions. If you are sharp, I'll lure your soldiers into the trenches, throw a few horsetail grenades, and then shoot you with a knife and a sass!" Not to be outdone, the Qing army did not hesitate to spend money, dragged heavy artillery up the mountain, and bombarded the positions and fortifications of the Shun army. Even to the point of bombarding the two warring sides when the soldiers on both sides raised their swords and guns together, they bombarded the two warring sides. The soldiers and horses of one general soldier are almost finished, and they are withdrawn and replaced by the team of another general soldier! Anyway, in the eyes of Duoduo and Cao Zhenyan, these people are all miscellaneous soldiers and horses from all walks of life who have been recruited and retained along the way, and they are not the basic plate of the Qing army, they are just cannon fodder used for consumption, and they will die if they die. Those who can survive on the artillery battlefield will naturally pass the cruel screening and test, and become the elite for the rest of their lives.

Both sides are gritting their teeth.

"As long as the Tartars in front of us are tired, we will kill them in one go, and kill them without leaving a single piece of armor!"

"As long as the thieves on the opposite side can't hold on, let's go into Tongguan in one go, and kill him without leaving a piece of armor!"

However, persistence also requires a material foundation in order to persevere!

There are hundreds of thousands of troops, people, mules and horses on both sides, and the amount of grain and grass consumed by people eating and feeding horses every day is a huge number.

"There are nearly 300,000 people in my Dashun army and horses on the front line of Tongguan, and there are tens of thousands of people, and there are at least 100,000 war horses, mules and horses in various battalions and departments. The daily consumption of grain alone is more than 1,000 stones, and the forage and soybean feed are more than 2,000 stones, not counting oil, salt, meat and vegetables. At present, the weather is cold and freezing, and firewood, grass and charcoal are indispensable. In order to ensure the supply of forage and charcoal, the emperor has issued an order to requisition all the wheat straw and forage in several prefectures and counties near Tongguan, and at the same time ordered all troops and horses to cut down trees to ensure the supply of charcoal. ”

Hearing Wu Ruyi mention the problem of military rations on the front line, Empress Gao was not very worried. After several years of uninterrupted construction of water conservancy, large-scale centralized management of farmland, and popularization of improved varieties of grain and cotton, the level of grain production in the Guanzhong Plain was restored. Although it did not reach the best year in history of "rice flowing fat and corn white, and public and private warehouses were abundant", it was already full of wheat and millet in the official warehouses of various state capitals, and it was not a problem to supply the troops and officials of the Dashun military system.

"Ziyi, don't worry. The military rations needed for the front line, the palace issued an order to transport the grain in the customs to the direction of Tongguan. In addition, since you have returned to Chang'an, you will help the palace do this in Chang'an. All the grain stored in the official warehouses in Guanzhong was transferred out and transferred to the south through Chang'an. ”

"Mother, what is this going to do?" Wu Ruyi was a little surprised by Empress Gao's decision.

Empress Gao naturally has her own thoughts and hardships. As a woman who has followed her husband on the battlefield for many years, her ability to capture battlefield situation information is incomparable to ordinary people. In her opinion, in the east, Duoduo led hundreds of thousands of pigtailed soldiers to constantly attack Tongguan, although the threat from the north has been temporarily alleviated, but the possibility of a comeback of the Qing army is not ruled out. At that time, it was better to carry the grain out early and grasp it in your own hands than to leave the grain to feed the Qing army. Once Shaanxi can't hold it, the Dashun army can go south to Huguang, and these grains are the military rations when the army goes south.

The food problem is easy to solve, but Wu Ruyi's return this time is not just to solve the food problem!

"Niangniang, what the emperor meant, the gunpowder, horsetail thunder, cannons and other things stored in the arsenal are all sharp weapons needed by the front line, and they must be taken out and sent to the Tongguan front line to supply military supplies."

In the defensive war, the two sides repeatedly fought and went back and forth, in addition to the consumption of a large number of casualties on each other, the largest material consumption is gunpowder, horsetail grenades and other materials, especially gunpowder, artillery, and gunfire, and the amount of medicine bags made during defense is amazing. As for the horsetail grenade, it is a sharp weapon for trench warfare; How many times the Qing army rushed into the trenches, they were all dizzy by the horsetail grenade, which bought precious time for the Dashun army.

However, for a fatal thing, such a sharp weapon, and such a deadly material, the Dashun Army's self-production and support ability is extremely poor!

Since Li Zicheng led the camp to come out of Shangluo Mountain, the camp has entered a stage of rapid development. When a village is laid, there will be a large amount of gold, silver, wealth, grain, and even antiques, calligraphy, paintings, rare books, books, and valuable furniture, which can be seized to pay for the purchase of food, weapons, armor, and ammunition. After purchasing a large number of food, weapons and armor, arming a large number of infantry, upgrading the elite such as horses, horses, horses, and old battalions, and then rushing to the next city and cottage, such a virtuous circle, in the eyes of the generals of the Dashun army, as long as there are gold, silver, jewelry, and even those calligraphy and painting books that are not hard enough to burn the fire, gunpowder, artillery, food and ordnance are not a problem. As long as the silver is ready, there will naturally be a Nanzhong merchant Baba to send it to us.

In Henan, in Huguang, even the daily life consumption and military consumption of hundreds of thousands of horses in Chuang Ying and Cao Ying at that time were guaranteed by Nanzhong merchants.

But that's no longer the case. It was not that there was no hard currency such as gold, silver, fine and soft in the Dashun court, and there were even more piles of calligraphy, paintings, and rare books. However, looking at the official treasures piled up in the warehouse, "helpless", it is useless at all!

"Ziyi, it's not that you don't know. Over the years, the gunpowder equipment we need has been procured from merchants in South China. Today, Henan is occupied by these pigtailed soldiers of Dongnu, and the road to Shandong is broken. Huguang can be bought from Grandpa Li Guo in Nanjing, but from Huguang to Shaanxi, the road is far away, and it is difficult to solve the fire from far water! ”

To say that the Dashun Army has not moved the idea of finding a way to make these weapons on its own is definitely staring at the eyes and talking nonsense. In Henan, Huguang, and Shaanxi, production has been organized, from the preparation of gunpowder to the manufacture of artillery guns, from the making of armor to the forging of knives and guns. However, the production cost of these weapons, equipment, and materials produced is not to be mentioned, and the performance indicators are far from those of the purchased South and China weapons.

So much so that Zhang Nai's artillery battalion and Luo Hu's Zhenshan battalion, two units that all use firearms, refuse to use their own gunpowder!

Not to mention the poor performance, the cost is also expensive. The gunpowder made by the Dashun army itself is made of willow charcoal, while the gunpowder produced in Nanzhong is used after charring corn straw. Just this one, the cost of the two has opened a huge gap.

As a result, when fighting for the Falklands with John Bull, the problems faced by the weeping country were also placed in front of Queen Gao. It's really useful to buy something from someone else, but what if you can't buy it with money in your hand? Or, what if someone else is willing to sell it to you, but you can't get it and can't transport it to the battlefield?!

Compared with the Dashun army, the Qing army was much stronger in terms of the supply of gunpowder. Since entering the customs, Dolgon has single-handedly grasped the military department of the former Ming Dynasty and the gunpowder and armor in the 24 yamen, and ordered his henchman Chen Banda to take charge.

Moreover, compared with the system of the pre-Ming period, Dolgon promulgated the piecework remuneration system, which stimulated the labor enthusiasm of these craftsmen to the greatest extent. To the greatest extent, the demand for gunpowder, artillery and other large consumables on the front line was guaranteed.

If we observe the situation of the Shun army and the Qing army on the east and west sides of Tongguan from God's perspective, we will be very surprised to find that on the side of the Qing army, there are a large number of heavy artillery, the supply of ammunition is very sufficient, and there are a large number of surrendered miscellaneous troops for them to use as cannon fodder to squander. On the side of the Shun army, the fortifications were well fortified and the fortresses were strong, but the number of artillery, especially heavy artillery, was insufficient, and ammunition was gradually lacking.

However, compared with the Qing army, the Shun army, which was fighting on the inner line, had a much more adequate food supply than the Qing army. Therefore, although the artillery of the Qing army was fierce, the morale of the Shun army, which relied on the fortified positions to fight, was still very high.

(Well, isn't there something wrong again?) Wasn't the core of the Qing army the Eight Banners Manchuria? Isn't it a Tunguska savage? How can there be so much heavy artillery? Moreover, from the Chongzhen period, the artillery superiority of the Ming army was replaced by the Qing army. The Houjin soldiers, who are known as strong archers and horses, often put up cannons calculated in hundreds, and bombarded the city defended by the Ming army, and the heavy artillery salvo collapsed more than 20 zhang of the city wall, while the heavy artillery of the Ming army rarely had double-digit cases. When the situation of firearms in the Ming and Qing dynasties reversed, the Western missionary John Tang exclaimed: "His man is strong and strong, with sharp arrows and bows, and he has beaten me a lot, and the firearms have been comparable to me recently. At present, firearms are expensive Western milling, the enemy not only has, but now it is widely available...... "from the beginning of the casting artillery technology craftsmen brought by the Sanshun King headed by Kong Youde, the nobles of the Eight Banners headed by Huang Taiji insisted on casting their own artillery, and the Ming army consistently adhered to the policy of "making is better than buying", and did not hesitate to purchase artillery from the Portuguese in Macao. Until Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing army and opened the Shanhai Pass, after the unremitting efforts of the Ming army for several generations, the artillery of the Ming army, especially the heavy artillery, was less than double digits. ）

"Queen Mother, this time the sons fought on the North Road, and they also seized a lot of gunpowder cannons and other items from the Qing army. Many of them were Nanzhong gunpowder that Liang Guogong paid tribute to and sold to the imperial court in the Ming Dynasty, and the total amount was about thousands of stones. It is better to let Uncle Ziyi take it to the front line of Tongguan for the use of the front-line soldiers. I think it can support at least a month or two of consumption. ”

Luo Hu talked eloquently, which immediately made the eyes of Empress Gao and Wu Ruyi light up.

"Besides, Erchen has an idea. If implemented properly, the enemy of Tongguan should be able to break it in one battle! ”