Chapter 172: Taking Dongshengzhou lightly, the great enemy is coming

Dongshengzhou City is also called the Great Imperial City, Tuoketuo City. It has always been a battleground for the nomadic and agricultural peoples of the north. It is located at the northeast turn of the Yellow River loop. As early as after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, in order to resist the southern invasion of the Later Turks, in the second year of Jinglong (708), three surrendered cities were built in the south of Yinshan on the north bank of the Yellow River, and the site of the surrendered city in the Middle East was in the Great Imperial City.

During the Mongol Khanate, the importance of its geographical location became apparent again. The Mongol Khanate went south to the Central Plains many times, crossing the Yellow River from Dongshengzhou, crossing the Ordos Plateau and penetrating into the interior, and then to Dali and Sichuan in Yunnan. The Yellow River is narrow and deep, and after the Yellow River freezes in winter, the army crosses the river as if it were on the ground, and there is no natural danger of the Yellow River.

It is very convenient for water and land transportation. Ships on the Yellow River could transport goods from the meanders of Shanxi all the way through Dongshengzhou to Zhongxingfu (present-day Yinchuan, Ningxia). Dongshengzhou is a very important land and water station.

The Ming Dynasty once changed Dongshengzhou to Dongshengwei in order to combat the Mongol feudal separatist forces, but when the Mongols unified the various ministries and the right wing of the ministry, under strong military pressure, the Ming Dynasty army had to move south, and it was occupied by the Mongols.

The Chahar people also attached great importance to this place, and Ezhe sent a thousand households of his own cronies to garrison here. Because this is a port for trade with the south, although the south of the Yellow River here is not much tea and other goods transported here due to the destruction of Li Zicheng's army and the infestation of robbers. But Ezhe firmly believes that this place will prosper in the future.

After the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division gave the order to prepare for a surprise attack on Dongshengzhou, the officers and men began to prepare. The division commander personally led some people to surround this city and go around.

The city wall of Dongshengzhou is all built with soil ramming, the height of the city is about ten meters, the plane of the whole city is rectangular, the north and south are longer than the east and west, run a circle and estimate it, the circumference of the city is less than 20 miles. The city wall is equipped with additional defensive facilities such as piers and horse faces.

In the middle of the four city walls, the city gate is opened, and a rectangular urn city is added, and the east gate adopts the system of heavy cities, so the urn city is built into two layers inside and outside, and the east gate is the main city gate. The eastern, southern, and northern sides of the city were flat, so there were moats dug about 20 meters wide, while outside the west wall there was a steep slope, and no moats were dug.

After observation, the division commander knew in his heart. Because Dongshengzhou has not yet discovered that the danger has arrived, the city gates are wide open, and people come and go casually.

There are many successful examples of raids on the city. During the training of officers, Ouyang He also told them how to give full play to their firepower superiority and suddenly attack and occupy the city. This division commander also participated in deduction training on many occasions.

Since the east city was a double urn city, which was not conducive to attacking, they chose the direction of the attack at the north gate.

The Sixth Division selected more than 20 highly skilled soldiers, armed with pistols and rifles, and dressed up as a caravan. When everything was ready, the soldiers in make-up each led the horses with the goods and horses to the north gate. The defenders here did not yet know that Baotou had been lost, but the thousand households here knew that the naturalization had been occupied by the Tumuts and Han Chinese. However, he thought that their Ezhe would bring a large number of troops to take back the naturalization soon, and the Qing army would also come to support. In any case, the war is not over, and no one will pay attention to their small place. So even though Ezhe sent men to tell him to be careful, they did not close the gates. Because the gates are closed, no caravans will come, and no caravans will receive money if they do not come. He wouldn't do such a stupid thing.

However, he still reminded the soldiers to be extra cautious and carefully check the people entering and leaving the city. In case of any situation, the city gates will be closed immediately. Normally, each gate was guarded by more than a dozen people, but now it is guarded by more than 20 people.

These soldiers defending the city, seeing that the sun was in the west, felt that there might not be a caravan coming today, and they would not receive any more silver today. Suddenly, the guards at the north gate saw a large caravan of more than 20 people coming, and the Mongolian soldiers were all in good spirits. Especially when the caravan got closer and closer, they saw that it seemed to be all Han Chinese, and they were even happier. These Han people are especially timid and timid, and they will take out silver when they are frightened.

The caravan was stopped by the Mongols in front of the drawbridge.

There were seven or eight Mongol soldiers in front of the drawbridge, and a dozen or so were watching the gate from the cave in the gate.

The Mongolian language of "Ula Ula" spoken by the Mongol soldiers was obviously incomprehensible to the Han Chinese, and they came to the front of the drawbridge and were stopped by the Mongol soldiers. When the angry Mongolian soldiers saw the honest and obedient Han Chinese, they couldn't suppress the fire, and waved their hands to give the leader a mouthful. But before his hand touched the face of the Han man according to his thoughts, there was a sharp pain, and it turned out that his hand was caught by the Han man and twisted and had been deformed. This Mongolian soldier was furious, not because his hand hurt, if other Anda knew that his hand was twisted by the Han Chinese, he would not be able to live in the future, and he would be laughed at by everyone to death. But before he could react in any other way, he only heard a "pop", and he didn't know anything as soon as it was dark in front of him. It turned out that he had an eye on his head. With a few gunshots, several Mongolian soldiers in front of the drawbridge fell. The Mongolian soldiers in front of the city gate thought that this time they could collect some silver, but there was a sudden sound of "popping" in front of them, they had not heard such a sound, they were stunned, those Han people lifted the goods on the horse, turned over and rushed over the horse, at this time these Mongolian soldiers who were still waiting to make a fortune knew that it was not good, but the drawbridge was too close to the city gate, and soon the Han people on horseback sounded a series of "pop" sounds, and more than a dozen Anda in front of their city gate were covered with blood holes and fell to the ground. The last Han man swung his knife and cut the big thick rope on the suspension bridge. As soon as the Mongol soldiers on the tower of the city gate wanted to shoot with bows and arrows, the Han people had already rushed into the city gate on horseback. The Han people who rushed into the city gate did not stop in Weng City for a moment, they quickly rushed to the second gate with horses, and several Mongolian soldiers standing guard at the second gate were shot and killed by the cavalry who rushed over before they understood what was going on. After more than 20 cavalrymen entered the second gate of the urn city, they immediately rushed up the wall of the urn city along the side road without any hesitation, and rushed towards the city gate tower along the urn city. Along the way, the unsuspecting Mongol soldiers were killed by them with rifles, and some of the Mongol soldiers on the towers saw that only a few people rushed towards them, and they rushed over with a shout of numbers. But bravery could not stop the bullets, and many people were very unwilling to die, because they were killed by their opponents before they could get close to them.

In fact, when the gunshots were heard, a regiment of the 3rd Cavalry Division rushed over, rushed to the front of a company to the moat, dismounted and lined up, raised their guns to the city gate tower to suppress the fire, once there was an outcrop, a few bullets would soon fly over, and the rest of the cavalry rushed into the city through the drawbridge.

The two dozen or so people who fought the vanguard quickly occupied the city gate and sent a signal to the outside of the city.

As soon as the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division saw that the important matter had been decided, he immediately commanded the brigade to follow up and rush into the city together.

According to the plan, the cavalry that stormed into the city first captured the other three gates. Then some of them were left to guard the city gates, and the others quickly surrounded the Mongol soldiers who were shrinking in the barracks compound.

The commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division had a Han Chinese who knew Mongolian and asked him to shout to the Mongols in the compound to surrender. However, the stubborn Mongol soldiers not only did not surrender, but also shot an arrow, wounding the Han man who was shouting.

With an automatic rifle in hand, a charge rushes in, and a single strafing shot can settle the battle. However, the Third Cavalry Division was reluctant to rush in and was shot down by two people with bows and arrows, and the division commander still wanted to maintain zero casualties.

The commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division, ordered the mortars to be erected. After more than 20 mortars were erected, each gun fired three shells at the courtyard face. The sound of the "boom" explosion was mixed with the cries of crying fathers and mothers and horses, and came from the courtyard.

However, the Mongol soldiers in the courtyard still had no intention of surrendering.

At this time, one of the division commander's guards pointed to the nearby forage field and said to the division commander: "Look, division commander, you can use that thing to warm the Mongols!" ”

The division commander Yile said: "The kid is ruthless enough, just listen to you!" They threw all the grass into the yard for me. ”

The cavalrymen outside the courtyard ran towards the forage field and said, "The division commander is too ruthless!" ”

The cavalrymen each found a bamboo pole, and each of them carried a bundle of grass with a bamboo pole and ran towards the courtyard wall, borrowing strength to throw the straw bale into the courtyard.

At this time, the Mongol soldiers in the courtyard knew that the Han wanted to burn them. They opened the courtyard gate and rode outside. But a few heavy machine guns were waiting for them. The "Da Da Da" heavy machine gun fired hot bullets, tearing apart the cavalry who came and led the horses crowded at the courtyard gate. The cavalry behind no longer dared to rush out.

But a lot of grass had been thrown into the yard. The retreating cavalry began to despair.

At this time, the commander of the Third Cavalry Division was a little distressed about the war horses in the courtyard, and he asked someone to find a Han man who could speak Mongolian and asked him to shout to the courtyard for the last time, telling them that those who dismounted and came out to surrender would not be killed.

Just when the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division was a little impatient and was about to give the order to set fire, a Mongolian soldier came out with his hands raised. There was one who took the lead, and soon many people came out after him. As a result, more than 400 Mongol soldiers came out.

The commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division saw that more than a hundred of them were horsemen.

After the cavalry of the 3rd Cavalry Division went in to reconnoiter around, there was indeed no one in the courtyard.

At this time, the telegraph operator sent a telegram to the division commander.

The telegram was sent by Liu Yun, asking if the Third Cavalry Division had arrived in Dongshengzhou? They are almost in Dongshengzhou.

At this time, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division had this beauty in his heart! He said: "Call back: Our Third Cavalry Division of Yaogang has successfully captured Dongshengzhou, captured more than 400 people, and the results are being counted. ”

After receiving the telegram, Li Jing smiled and said, "Let their third division pick up a bargain." ”

Liu Yun said: "The division commander and deputy division commander of the Third Cavalry Division are all veterans of our kiln gang, and they are also familiar with any raid tactics, so they must have used ingenuity. Otherwise, it would not have taken Dongshengzhou like this. I heard Mr. Ouyang say that it is also a place where soldiers must fight. That should be where we need to attack next. It's between killing Hukou and Baotou, and we have to take it there. There is also a direct waterway to the meander. ”

"Then why do we build the railway to kill Hukou, and from kill Hukou to Baotou. Let's just repair it from Ningwu to the meander. Li Jing asked.

"This matter has been studied, one is that the west of the Yellow River is still occupied by Li Zicheng, and we will transport it on a large scale, and Li Zicheng will not care. In addition, the Yellow River cannot be transported in winter, nor can it be transported in summer when there is a lot of water. It is too laborious to load the goods from Baotou to the river meander, and then unload the ship and then load the train. It's better to repair the railway once and for all. Liu Yun said: "First send a telegram to Uncle Shi and Uncle Kui to inform you of the news of the occupation of Dongshengzhou by the Third Cavalry Division." ”

Li Kui, who was on the road, was so happy to receive the news that the Third Cavalry Division had occupied Dongshengzhou, and he didn't have to worry about camping at night.

And Chen Yufeng and the others didn't need Liu Yun to send back the telegram to know the news of the occupation of Dongshengzhou by the Third Cavalry Division, because Qin Peng's communication center had been listening to all the telegram information.

Hearing the news of taking Dongshengzhou, Chen Yufeng said to Ouyang He: "It seems that our steps have been completely disrupted by Li Jing and them. I originally wanted to solve the affairs of the Chahar people, but after thinking about the affairs over there, it seems that it will not work. We will send people to guard Dongsheng Prefecture directly. ”

"It doesn't seem to be the same. In my opinion, I asked the 3rd Cavalry Division to leave a regiment to stay in Dongshengzhou. Another regiment followed Liu Yun and they escorted the captives to kill Hukou, and when they sent the captives back, this cavalry regiment also returned to Dongshengzhou. At the same time, the infantry division that remained behind to kill Hukou was notified to send out two regiments and follow them to Dongshengzhou. In this case, Dongshengzhou has two cavalry regiments and two infantry regiments to defend, so there should be no problem. When we finish dealing with the Chahars, we will withdraw from naturalization and go to Baotou. We have two support points along the Yellow River: Baotou and Dongshengzhou. In this way, we will be much safer in reclamation. Ouyang He said.

"Good! God gave us a place we couldn't do without. Dongshengzhou and Baotou are connected by waterways through the Yellow River. When we have a firm foothold, we will find a way to get a few warships with 130 heavy guns in the Yellow River, so that we will be more proactive. Chen Yufeng said: "Send a report to the family and let them prepare!" ”

Zhang Zhimu of the Yaogang Command Center completely agreed with Chen Yufeng's arrangement, the infantry division that killed Hukou was newly formed, and the division commander and deputy division commander were Lin Feng and Wei Xiang. The personnel of the Seventh Division they formed were also very special, including those they brought out from Taiyue Mountain, those officers and soldiers from Lishan, some people from the Yan Gang, and the prisoners of the Dashun Army that Li Jing recruited in the battle. What is not enough is supplemented by Qin Peng's boot training camp. Therefore, although they are newly formed divisions, the core personnel strength is not bad, especially several regiment commanders are almost veterans of Yaogang, and even if they are not, they are all officers who have participated in training in Yaogang from Lishan.

This team understands that the reason why he didn't go out to fight and stayed in Hukou was because they were formed late. Therefore, Lin Feng and Wei Xiang took the lead in leading the officers and soldiers to study culture and practice combat skills desperately. When they heard the news that they could send two regiments out of the customs, they couldn't express their joy.

But Lin Feng and Wei Xiang were embarrassed, and the four regiments let that regiment out of the customs, and they had no choice between them. There was no way Lin Feng and Wei Xiang called the four regiment commanders over and said, "You four don't fight, you all want to go, you draw lots." Whoever catches it goes. We'll probably all go out in the future. Otherwise, we'll rotate it every year. ”

When Liu Yun and Li Jing came to Dongshengzhou, they saw that the military flag of the kiln was indeed hanging on the tower of the city gate.

Seeing that Liu Yun and Li Jing had arrived, the commander of the Third Cavalry Division personally greeted him out of the city gate. Seeing Liu Yun and Li Jing, they stepped forward and saluted and said, "Report." General Liu, General Li, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division reports to you! ”

Liu Yun and Li Jing also dismounted after returning the salute, and Liu Yun said: "Li Jing also said on the road that you will ride the third division to pick up a bargain." ”

The commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division also said politely: "Yes, I just picked up a big bargain." I didn't use my brains, and I carried out the battle in full accordance with the battle examples that Mr. Ouyang He said. Seize the city gates, cavalry assault. It's as simple as that, zero casualties. ”

"Come on, we'll blow it again in the evening. How are the captives arranged? Li Jing said.

"It has been arranged, there are two urn cities at the east city gate, so arrange them in the second Weng city. The tents are ready-made, and it will only be one night anyway, and tomorrow night you will be able to enter the Hukou. The commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division said.

Liu Yun said: "You take the captives into the city, and Li Jing and I will take people to welcome Uncle Kui and them!" ”

After Liu Yun and Li Jing met Li Kui and them on the road, they joined forces all the way, and when they arrived in Dongshengzhou, the sun had already set.

On the way, Li Kui said: "We rushed as far as we could on the road. But the brigade of prisoners is still not easy to manage. It's not going to work too fast. ”

After they arranged all the prisoners, the 3rd Cavalry Division had already prepared food and drinks for everyone.

Liu Yun said: "Uncle Kui, there is still a task tomorrow, so we will drink less today." ”

"Alright! It's okay not to drink it today. But the third division of the cavalry won a big victory today, so it's not a good idea not to drink something, right? ”

After Uncle Kui finished speaking, everyone responded with "Yes, yes!"

Now the Yaogang cavalry in Dongshengzhou has five cavalry regiments, which is already a formidable force.

After dawn, all the more than 9,000 captives were organized according to Li Kui's method. After the 3rd Cavalry Division left a cavalry regiment, Liu Yun and his brigade set off to the east. They agreed that today's journey must be hurried and strive to kill Hukou Pass and advance the city gate.

After Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He learned that the three people converged in Dongsheng Prefecture, they no longer worried about their affairs. They thought it was very strange why there had been no news of Ezhe and the Qing army. Could they be walking so slowly?

The Mongols are a people on horseback, and they are well-deserved overlords of the steppe. Although the Yaogang people have weapons and means of communication that are many times more advanced than them, in the steppe, compared with the Mongols, some aspects have been exposed to shortcomings.

In fact, the army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already converged with Ezhe's team.

Although the Manchu Azig with a white flag is known as the first warrior of the Qing Dynasty, they are not fools. He listened to the detailed report on Ezhe's situation.

It turned out that after Ezhe found out that his naturalization was lost, he immediately sent someone to inquire about it, and the news that he came back was unfortunate that Baotou was also occupied. However, he sent a large number of scouts to monitor the situation in Baotou and naturalization. At this time, their advantages can be seen. The kiln people can't see them on the grassland, they can see the kiln people.

The Manchu army also adopted a strategy of concealment. They want to take advantage of the powerful conditions that the kiln gang people don't know, and now look for fighters, and then give the kiln gang people a heavy blow. Strive to use the momentum of thunder to defeat the kiln gang people at once.

I didn't expect this opportunity to come soon.

When their horses were naturalized, they found that a group of kiln cavalry had left the naturalization and walked directly south. They reported more than 4,000 or 5,000 people. Because they did not dare to get too close, but they saw a large group of cavalry going out from a distance. But they didn't know that there were more than 2,000 Mongol captives at once. They had no idea that the Kiln Gang would ride the horses of the captives.

The same was true of the Tanma guarding Baotou, who reported that more than 10,000 cavalry had left Baotou and headed east. The intelligence reported by the spy who killed Hukou was that there were many cavalry who entered the pass through Hukou again.

Combining three pieces of information, Ezhe believed that the Yaogang people did not find the Qing army and the Mongol brigade, and began to be careless, dividing their troops to march to the edge of the Yellow River. There were tens of thousands of people in Yaogang, and tens of thousands of people in Baotou, and they divided into elite cavalry, and there were much fewer troops to defend naturalization. The main force of the naturalized army should now be the Tumertes.

After Ezhe reported the situation to Azig, Azig immediately convened the Manchu, Han and Mongolian generals to discuss the attack on naturalization. These generals have always seen this as an opportunity. Someone said, "Aren't we hiding in the grassland, waiting for this opportunity?" ”

Someone else said: "There are only a few troops left in naturalization, so we will swoop over like an eagle catching a mouse, and take naturalization at once." I was afraid that the Han people would be so frightened that they would run back into their Great Wall and hide in their shells like snails. ”

The Qing army and the Han and Mongolian generals all laughed, as if the previous victory had come again.

Just as Liu Yun and the others were advancing towards Kill Hukou, the Qing army and the Mongol army also began to move and marched towards naturalization.

This time it was the Sunits who took the lead. The Sunit fought with the Yaogang people twice and killed two princes, and this time they swore that they would take revenge, even if all the Sunit men were killed in battle, they would also have this deep hatred. This time, the tribal leader personally led the expedition.

The forward of more than fifty Sunit people, when they walked in front of the Great Black River, encountered a patrol of Yaogang people. The patrol of the kiln gang people was also more than fifty people, and when they found that the other party was not large in number, they rushed towards them with a charge. The patrol wanted to take a prisoner and go back.

As a result, the Sunit advance took advantage of the speed of their horses and fled back with only five men, except for one prisoner. Everyone else was killed by the Kiln Patrol.

After interrogating the captives, Chen Yufeng and the others knew that the time to come had finally come.

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The Song army occupied Hokkaido, and Yuankou landed on the island of Kyushu. Opening up the Japanese battlefield. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".