Chapter 554: The Opening Battle
Luo Hu, who was happily chasing all the way to the east, felt that something was wrong with the situation, and the atmosphere on the battlefield suddenly became strange. The troops of Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Jiang Zhu and others marched all the way, and every day they conquered the towns, and there were good news of small gains. The punch that made him feel that he had gathered all his strength to shoot it suddenly missed.
The Wu army shrank its position, handed over all the towns in Yongping Province to the Dashun army, and gathered its forces in the Shanhaiguan area.
The arrangement originated from a meeting in Shanhaiguan City.
The draft of the secret agreement between the two families of Lam Soon that Fang Guangchen copied back was basically a recognition of Li Zicheng's legal status, and the Nanyue army was loyal to Li Zicheng, but it maintained its current situation north of the Yellow River, retained the territory of Shandong, Henan, and southern Hebei, and retained all kinds of original rights. In return, the Dashun court admitted several previous loans from the Nanyue Army and Chongzhen in disguise, but only paid interest and did not repay the principal. At the same time, the two sides will continue to cooperate in the training of officials. More importantly, Dashun proposed a reconstruction loan of 30 million silver dollars to the Southern Yue Army for post-war recovery and reconstruction work in the area north of the Yellow River. The loan was used to purchase grain and various industrial products produced in Nanzhong. If you plan to purchase military weapons, you need to report three months in advance. Interest accrues on the loan from the date of signing the agreement.
These terms are inconsequential to Wu Sangui, and anyone can sit on the chair in the Imperial Palace. However, an additional clause caused an uproar in the entire Guanning military system.
On the issue of the former Ming Dynasty garrisons in the Shanhaiguan and Yongpingfu areas, the two sides also reached an understanding. Gao Yigong was very generous in proposing that if Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses were willing to surrender to Dashun, then Dashun would take them for his own use. However, the precondition is that the number of soldiers and horses, the situation of swords, guns and artillery should be clarified, and then the strength statistics should be carried out, and the salaries should be paid and the official titles should be awarded. If Wu Sangui did not agree to surrender, Dashun could let Wu Sangui lead his troops to retreat south to Tianjin along the coastline of Changli and Ninghe, and then retreat to Shandong. However, the premise is to leave the weapons in Shanhaiguan and hand them over to the Shun army to receive. This is the first solution.
The second solution is Li Huayu's opinion, if Wu Sangui refuses to agree to the whole army and his family to retreat to Shandong with their bare hands, then the right to deal with Wu Sangui's department will be handed over to the Dashun court.
In other words, this cheap nephew, Young Master Ben has run out, so he can do without it. Let's see!
Such a condition cannot be agreed to by Guan Ningjun no matter what!
In fact, this is the dilemma of Wu Sangui, the actual commander of the Guan Ning Army at the moment! Wu Sangui is a person who looks majestic and brave on the surface, and at the age of thirteen he broke into battle to save his father and became famous all over the world. In fact, he is a very timid and afraid person in his heart, in history, Kangxi wanted to cut the domain, but he didn't dare to resist, if it weren't for the fact that several generals Ma Baoxia, Hu Guozhu and Fang Guangchen forced him to rebel, he would really go back to Liaodong to retire.
He really wanted to take the team, even if it was to bring these hundreds of thousands of people (including Guan Ningjun's wife and children) to Shandong with his bare hands, he was confident that the combat effectiveness of this army was so strong that it would definitely be able to enter Li Huayu's eyes. With Li Huayu's support and rearmament, wouldn't it be a matter of formalities to queue up to get armor, knives and guns?
However, his generals had their own ideas.
In addition to the staunch anti-Shun faction of Fang Guangchen and Young Master Fang, in fact, Wu Sangui's internal problems are more serious than those of Dashun. Although the Dashun Army was also formed after the annexation of the camp and the merger of Luo Rucai and He Yilong, after all, the camp was strong and occupied a controlling position.
However, Wu Sangui's troops were different.
Among the Wu army, it can be roughly divided into three factions at the moment. Wu Sangui's own family and descendants are his basic plates, and the Shandong Tuntian soldiers formed by the nearly 10,000 Tuntian soldiers allocated to him during the Tashan War are regarded as his quasi-descendants, relying on this army, he annexed and annexed many battalion heads. The other faction is the faction that was seized and annexed by the Shanhai Navy and Jizhen, Yutian Town, Qiantunwei and other units by him by force and food.
Tuntian Bing resolutely advocated returning to Shandong.
Their ideas are simple and simple. We came out of Shandong, and we were sent by the lord and the eldest lady to help Wu Dashuai. When we came to the command of the marshal, it was because of the military orders of the lord and the eldest lady. How to say that the marshal is also the relatives of the lord, in the final analysis, everyone is a family, we are no different in the Ningyuan army and in the Nanyue army. Now let's go back to Shandong, that is, it is logical to return the establishment.
They resolutely disagreed with the surrender of Li Zicheng. Because, once they surrendered to Dashun, they would never be able to return home.
And those who were annexed and bought by Wu Sangui in the mountain navy resolutely refused to surrender! The truth is all kinds of high-sounding, but the most fundamental reason is worthless.
Check! After Dashun tested the strength of the soldiers and horses, he could be awarded official titles and salaries. How does this work?
Eating empty quotas is the only way for officers and generals to get rich since the early years of Wanli, when the guard system was corrupted, and after the start of the battalion system. These military leaders at the end of the Ming Dynasty, no matter whether they have braids on their heads or not, or whose banner they carry on their shoulders, as long as you give us official positions and pay us military salaries according to the strength we report, then we will work hard for you to fight.
During the Southern Ming Dynasty, Li Chengdong, who blatantly created the Jiading Three Massacres in Jiangnan, why did he do it anyway? It is not a national righteous call, but the Qing army wants to inspect his army and pay military salaries according to its strength. This guy sees that he can no longer make a fortune through this channel, so let's change the owner!
Now that the core interests of the two factions have been touched, even Wu Sangui, the coach, can't control the order in the venue.
"Enough! What a noise! Several of Wu Sangui's pro-army generals separated the two groups of red-faced officers who were arguing, lest they really draw their swords in front of Wu Sangui for a while.
But on the side, Fang Guangchen and a few officials from the capital were smiling in their hearts.
The two factions in the Wu army did not agree to surrender Li Zicheng in this way, so there was no other way to think about it except to go south. However, if he really went south to Shandong, Ning Yuanjun and Wu Sangui's basic plate could not agree to it no matter what.
Leaving weapons to the Dashun army is tantamount to being a group of lambs to be slaughtered, for so many years, the Guan Ning army and the thieves have fought in the customs for more than ten years, and they have not done anything lacking in virtue between each other? What if which Dashun general turned his face and learned from Bai Qi and Xiang Yu? We can't afford to be on guard! This is one of them.
For several generations, we have accumulated a lot of fields and houses in the Ningyuan area, and the tombs of our ancestors are also here. Especially in the past few years, everyone used iron farm tools to let those tenants plow, the harvest was good, and they also made some money, and went south to Shandong, what should we do with these fields and houses? Leave it to the thieves? This is the second one.
No way! Resolutely not to go south! (You can do anything, is a warlord who has no territory still called a warlord?) Isn't that just being slaughtered? In that case, no matter how many troops there are and how strong the combat effectiveness is, it is just a group of pigs and sheep to be slaughtered in the eyes of others! Smack, a mouth hit the author in the face, "Malabar's!" Are you scolding Lao Tzu? A handsome young general smacked the author hard, and his face was full of flowers. )
If you can't descend and don't want to leave, then you have to fight!
At the critical moment, Fang Guangchen pointed out the direction for everyone.
"Generals, right now, Emperor Daxing is martyred, and I, the officers and soldiers of the Guanning Army, are a lone army after the lonely thief. Looking at the current future, what we can rely on is the old man Liang Guogong who is in Nanjing at this moment! ”
"On the public, his old man is a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, and he should provoke the Ming Dynasty to help the Ming Dynasty in the crisis of falling in the wind and rain. In terms of selfishness, his old man is my grandfather Guan Ningjun, and we are a group of orphans! ”
"Whether this document is true or false is also in two theories at the moment. However, even if it is true, the handsome man must obey his uncle's orders, so should he listen to his uncle's words, but should he listen to his grandfather's words? Who is older uncle or grandfather? Now it's just that my uncle said that I want everyone to listen to Li Zicheng, and my grandfather hasn't spoken yet! What's more, whether this thing was forged by a thief, or whether the young marshal was deceived by someone, is also between two theories! ”
"So, we're going to war! It's not that our Guanning Army wants to admonish the young marshal, but we want to play the banner of recovering the country and fight fiercely with the thieves! ”
"Soldier!" Fang Guangchen's words were immediately echoed, and someone jumped out, pulled out the snowy saber from his waist and shouted while waving it: "Immediately warn!" ”
"Soldiers! Soldier now! "It's a matter of their own interests, and there is Young Master Fang to come forward for everyone, the generals of the Guan Ning Army naturally let out a righteous roar in unison, waving their sabers and shouting rhythmically and neatly: "Soldiers!" Conquer the country! Soldiers! Conquer the country! Soldiers! Conquer the country! ”
As a result, Wu Sangui half-pushed and half-assumed the role of the president of the thief suppression, and uniformly mobilized all units of the Ming army in the Shanhaiguan area.
His first order after taking office was to withdraw the garrison of Yongping Mansion and quickly shrink to the direction of Shanhaiguan, preparing to surprise Luo Hu, the pioneer of the Eastern Expedition, in this area.
The vanguard composed of Jiang Ping, Wang Jiayin, and You Shiwei was about 24,500 people, including about 4,500 cavalry, and more than 1,000 elite cavalry in the old battalion of the Shun army. Their equipment mostly used cold weapons, such as horse lances, boring palladium, riding spears, knives and sticks. There are very few firearms, and even if there are some, they are only three-eyed guns used by cavalry.
These three-eyed guns. They are all spiked with iron nails on the outside of the gun, like a three-eyed mace, which is sometimes better than a knife and stick in the face of heavily armored enemy troops.
In addition to the cavalry, there were two other chariot battalions, ranging in number from 2,000 to 3,000 people, with a total of 200 chariots, each with 20 people, divided into two teams. They are all two-wheeled light car styles, with a cover plate in front and several spears under the front plate. War horses can be resisted, and weapons such as rockets and franc machines are arranged on the car.
After easily recovering Yongping Mansion, Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses retreated without a fight, which made their self-confidence burst instantly. thinks that Wu Sangui, who is known as the Guanning Iron Horse, is just a group of paper tigers!
Therefore, the three of them actively asked Luo Hu to fight, asking to immediately launch an attack on Shanhaiguan, at the very least, to take Xiluo City and open the door of Shanhaiguan before the holy driving road!
In order to be safe, Luo Hu ordered Wang Si'er to lead 4,000 cavalry to follow them and hold down the position for these three people.
"Si'er, Russia is always unsure. These three guys are all cowards who surrendered without fighting any hard battles with us, and we don't know what kind of results they fought for? Then Wu Sangui is better than them, right? Why did you run away without fighting?! ”
However, Jiang Zhuo and others did not think so. They only saw that in front of their horses, Wu Sangui's military flag kept retreating eastward. And city after city retreated!
The Wu army was so vulnerable, which immediately boosted the morale of the generals under the command of the three general soldiers, and they kept shouting: "Open the Shanhaiguan Pass and capture Wu Sangui alive!" ”
"The thief wants to escape, how can it be so cheap?! Sons, follow Ben Shuai to pursue! Kill the thief! ”
The three commanders who had won successive victories shouted and chased in the direction of the retreat of the Wu army, preparing to chase them to Shanhaiguan in one breath and make great contributions in front of Emperor Dashun.
As a veteran, You Shiwei originally planned to be more serious, with the cavalry chasing first, and the infantry relying on the car battalion to deploy, slowly pressing the past. However, seeing that Jiang Jian and Wang Jiayin were happily chasing and killing all the way, they seized a lot of money, and there were constantly good news of the capture of first-class horses and ordnance. was also red-eyed, and kept urging his subordinates to chase hard.
The three soldiers and horses chased after me on this great plain and started a chase race and endurance race between friendly troops. Gradually, the formation and the formation no longer existed, just the smoke and dust that rolled eastward on the ground one by one.
"Boom!" A loud cannon sounded loudly, shattering the dream of the three commanders to be promoted and make a fortune. But I saw a white smoke billowing up from the hills in the distance. A flag is rolled under the support of more than a dozen strong men, and under the blowing of the sea breeze in early spring.
"Break into the country!" Four blood-red characters are dancing on the white silk flag.
On the hills, densely packed with large and small Hongyi artillery trucks, the muzzles of the guns pointed to the west, which was the most densely populated among the three general soldiers!
And the battalion formation of these three general soldiers was within the optimal range of these artillery, and the distance between the two sides was less than a mile.
"It's not good, it's in an ambush!"
This thought just flashed through You Shiwei's mind, thunderbolts and thunder, the sound of cannons on the hills was non-stop, thick gray-white smoke rose and condensed in the air, and large and small cannons roared.
Under the power of artillery bombardment, no matter how strong the armor is, no matter how strong the chariot is, it is also vulnerable. The whistling cannonballs continued to crash into the chariots, easily shattering the wooden vehicles into pieces, emitting green smoke and burning.
The heavy cannon fell into the infantry behind the chariot, and the heavy iron ball swept past, and at least more than ten people were broken and severed by the iron ball, and blood mist flew.
A twelve-pound cannonball broke the chariot's wheel, and the horse's front leg was broken by the cannonball, and he fell to the ground wailing. The chariot that overturned to the ground crushed seven or eight soldiers under the wagon, groaning and screaming. Wood chips smashed by the cannonballs flew everywhere in the ranks, stabbing countless people to blood.
Without waiting for Jiang Ji and the others to put the team in order, from the rear of the hill, an army of nearly 20,000 horses and horses silently poured out, and along the top and front of the hill, there were small phalanxes one after another, from north to south, black pressure was armor, weapons and banners. On the Pingchuan River under the hills, there are infantry phalanxes, slightly arc-shaped around the hills, and as far as the eye can see, all of them are the firecrackers of the Wu army.
Behind the hills, the sound of horses' hooves changed from small to loud, and two torrents of cavalry rushing out from behind the hills like a torrent rushed towards the flanks and rear of Jiang Ting, You Shiwei and others! Like the astronomical tide of the Qiantang River, nearly 10,000 elite riders, hooves sound like thunder, flags are like clouds, and the whole earth seems to be trembling violently under their iron hooves!
"It's broken! Wu Sangui wants to copy our back road! Wang Jiayin couldn't stop stomping his feet in the stirrups, so startled that the war horse under his crotch couldn't stop neighing and roaring, so that the soldiers around him used all their strength to barely control the horse.
For Wu Sangui's cavalry, the best tactic is to use cavalry against cavalry, and use cavalry to strangle those cavalry who are ready to cut off the communication between the Shun army and the rear troops, which can not only preserve the passage, but also let the follow-up troops know what is happening here, so that they can quickly come to the rescue.
However, the three commanders at this time did not dare to send out the cavalry under their command when they said that the sky was broken. I know the situation of my own family, how can those weak horses confront Wu Sangui's subordinates, who are known as Guanning Iron Cavalry? Moreover, the number of cavalry on his side is small, even if he reluctantly sends a thousand or two thousand cavalry, he can only send a delicious hors d'oeuvres to Wu Sangui's family.
After a little hesitation, the two cavalry torrents had already converged into a solid embankment, cutting the more than 20,000 horses of Jiang Zhuo, You Shiwei, and Wang Jiayin from Wang Si'er's rear soldiers and horses.
"Kill the thieves!"
The cavalry of the Guanning Army roared in unison.
The drums are cold, and the smoke and dust are billowing out. The cavalry's iron hooves slammed heavily on the ground where the casualties had completely thawed, making a chilling, dull sound.
The two wings were the first to engage in battle, and the first row of knights of the Guanning army was the first to engage with the Dashun soldiers and horses, and took the lead in changing formations. They had a total of two hundred horsemen, leaving only fifty in the middle, and one hundred and fifty in the remainder, outflanking the two wings.
When the war horses rushed into a distance of less than fifty paces from the soldiers and horses of Jiang Pai Datong Town, the riders of the Guan Ning army each held bows and arrows in their hands and shot at the Jiang Pai soldiers and horses not far away.
When the bowstring sounded, the sky was dark.
The riders on the horse, however, did not care about the effectiveness of their shooting, but simply put away their bows and arrows, and hurled their javelins, iron bones, and other weapons forward. (To be continued.) )