"Longhair is coming! Run! ”

"Long Hair is coming, get out! Grab everything you can and get out of here! Otherwise, it is fornication and banditry, and it is not to mention killing! ”

Roaring madly, the cavalry of the Qing army under the command of Shengbao rushed into the village markets even more frantically, forced the residents to leave with whips and leather shoes, and threw torches into the courtyard of the room without hesitation. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The horse's hooves are clanging, the fire is blazing, the smoke is billowing, and the people who help the old and the young to flee with large bags and small bags are like ants, calling for their fathers and mothers, and adults and children crying, which is so miserable that people can't bear to see. Similar miserable scenes abound in the northwest of Shandong, on the roads that the Taiping Army's Northern Expedition was about to pass, and the person who single-handedly directed this tragic scene was Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Shandong, who has always been known for his honesty and love for the people.

Luo Bingzhang hesitated for a long time before making this difficult decision, the reason was also forced by the Taiping army to give up attacking Jinan and go directly north, Luo Bingzhang knew very well that General Shengbao's cavalry was vulnerable in front of Shi Dakai's main force, and he also knew that although the Shandong New Army under his control had the strength to fight in front of Shi Dakai, it was difficult to create a miracle like last time, defeating Shi Dakai, who had been equipped with a large number of foreign guns and foreign artillery. So Luo Bingzhang can only do this.

Although the old fox Luo Bingzhang's means were cruel, they happened to hit Shi Dakai's seven inches, and after implementing the tactics of abandoning the grain route and going north directly, Shi Dakai could only use the war to feed the war by plundering the villages and towns along the way to supply grain and grass, and the cavalry of the Qing army relied on the advantage of mobility to burn down the villages and towns along the way, and the grain and grass supply of Shi Dakai's army became a big problem, and he had to fight with the Qing cavalry to grab the grain first, and he had to stop, attacking the state capitals and counties along the way to grab grain for self-sufficiency, and consumed countless precious ammunition. As a result, the pace of northward travel has slowed down considerably.

I have to explain that although Luo Bingzhang's move has attracted countless public grievances, it has not forced too many Shandong people to rebel, because when the wild boar skin was the ninth Xianfeng three years ago, Li Kaifang's department of the Taiping Army had already scooped the Shandong people in this area once, completely robbing every village and town captured by the Taiping Army, and the Shandong people have suffered from it. Now although the Qing army burns houses and burns grain, they still let these people take away everything they can take away, leaving a way for the people to live, and the Taiping army basically robs what they see in order to get supplies, and even does not let go of the people's money and food, so of course these people hate the Taiping army even more.

In addition, there is also a point that is destined to Shi Dakai cannot be as easy as Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan to rob grain supplies, because after the diversion of the Yellow River, the western and northern parts of Shandong were originally the hardest hit areas, even affected by floods, droughts and locust plagues, famine continued, although the people's livelihood has barely recovered in recent years, it is still far less rich than Xianfeng in the third year, so Shi Dakai even if he laid down the three cities of Qingping, Gaotang and Pingyuan at any cost, he still failed to rob much grain, The problem of food shortage has always plagued the Taiping Army, which is far inferior in quality and discipline to the Taiping Army of those years.

Under the command of Luo Bingzhang, the Shandong New Army also went around to the front of Shi Dakai under the leadership of Zhang Guoliang and Yuan Baoheng, and rushed to the strategic place of Dezhou to fortify first. Shi Dakai ignored it, bypassing the Qing army's position and continuing to go north, who would have thought that Zhang Guoliang and Yuan Baoheng had already expected this, and deliberately let go of a large number of Shi Dakai and Zeng Lichang's two armies equipped with advanced weapons, and then suddenly launched an attack on Li Shixian, the weakest in the Taiping army, killing and wounding a large number of Li Shixian's soldiers, and retreating to the defensive position before Shi Dakai returned to help, causing Shi Dakai to scold Li Shixian for being incompetent, and Li Shixian, who suffered heavy losses, secretly blamed Shi Dakai for being too slow to return to help, and the commander became more and more centrifuged.

Shi Dakai, who was in a hurry to the north, did not attack the strong Qing army position to retaliate, but only adjusted the marching queue, and let Zeng Lichang's army, whose strength was second only to the main force of his headquarters, serve as the task of the palace, and then continued to go north with the army. Finally, after crossing Sangyuan Town, the Taiping soldiers finally set foot on the land of Zhili again after a lapse of seven years.

However, it is a pity that before the Taiping soldiers cheered, and Li Kaifang did not wait for Li Kaifang to show a smile to revisit his hometown, the Taiping soldiers were already stunned to see that the villages and towns in front of them were empty, and there was not a single person, let alone a grain or a mule or horse.

This is of course also Luo Bingzhang's masterpiece, while using scorched earth tactics to delay the advance of the Taiping army, Luo Bingzhang also sent a fast horse to ask the Manchu court to implement the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness in the territory of Zhili, and moved all the people along the Taiping army's march road along the way with food, either into the city or to other places, not giving the Taiping army any opportunity to rob grain and supplies, but also forcing the Taiping army to attack the cities along the way, and continue to use the city defense of the prefectures and counties directly under the prefecture to consume the Taiping army's strength and ammunition, so as to achieve the goal of gradually weakening the Taiping army.

Luo Bingzhang's hand forced Shi Dakai into a desperate situation, and in desperation, the Taiping army could only launch an attack on Dongguang County, which had been captured by the Taiping army once seven years ago, under the condition that the Shandong New Army, the Shengbao Army and the Zhili Qing Army were looking at and delaying. As a result, it was also at this time that Li Kaifang, who easily broke through Dongguang City, was stunned to find that the situation was completely different, and the cities in Zhili were far from being as easy to fight as they were back then.

When Li Kaifang led the army across southern Hebei, every time he attacked a city, he didn't even blast it through tunnels, and often forced the Qing troops in the city to flee out of the city with his majestic momentum alone, and even if he launched a siege, he could basically take the enemy city by climbing or burning the city gate with his bare hands. In addition, most of the city walls of Zhili at that time collapsed, the moat was silted, and the defenders were basically defeated by one touch.

Now, the collapsed Dongguang city wall has long been renewed, the moat is deep and wide, and the number of defenders in the city is not only far more numerous than ten times that of the year, but also tenacious fighting spirit, combat effectiveness is completely different, in the case of the Taiping army has climbed the city wall, it can still do the death battle without retreating, and repeatedly repelled the Taiping army's attack. The Taiping army once again exposed the weakness that the overall quality was far inferior to the past, the grassroots soldiers were generally greedy for life and afraid of death, and the officers and old men were no longer as brave as before, so even in the case of far superior troops and weapons and equipment to the Dongguang defenders, the Taiping army was never able to quickly take the small city of Dongguang.

In the end, Shi Dakai fought for more than eight days to barely break the small city of Dongguang, which was originally thought to be easy to take, during which the Taiping army fought fiercely with the Qing army on the periphery many times, and fought very hard and tired from top to bottom. What's worse is that when the county seat was breached, Ling Ruixiang, the Manchu county of Dongguang County, also set fire to the granary in the city and committed suicide by throwing himself into the fire, so the Taiping army failed to grab much food even if it broke through Dongguang City, and had to rob the civilian grain storage in the city, and completely forced the people of Zhili, who hated the Taiping army very much, to the side of the Qing army.

"It's not good, if Cangzhou, Nanpi and Jinghai in the north are like Dongguang, then not only will our food not be able to support Tianjin, but the army will also be exhausted."

When summing up after the war, Shi Dakai, Li Kaifang, Zeng Lichang and others all felt that the Dongguang War was an extremely dangerous signal, and the Qing army in Zhili, which had been prepared for a long time, would definitely not let the Taiping army easily attack Tianjin like last time, and they were all worried about it. But fortunately, Shi Dakai, who can use his brain to fight, quickly came up with a way and said to the generals: "If I'm not mistaken, our plan to attack Tianjin along the canal north must have been seen through by the Qing demon." ”

"If we continue to fight according to the original plan, we are afraid that we will have to fall into a bitter battle every place like attacking Dongguang, and our last resort should be to abandon the canal road, first attack the hinterland of Zhili, plunder enough grain and grass and military supplies, and then turn around and attack Tianjin, and receive the landing of our sailors."

"But in this way, it will take us countless more time to hit Tianjin." Zeng Lichang asked: "If our sailors arrived at Dagukou before us and couldn't get our answer, wouldn't they be in a lonely battle?" When the time comes, if the East King is held accountable, how will we explain? ”

"Send people disguised as people to contact them in Dagu, and tell them to hold out at sea for a few days first, and then it will not be too late for us to turn around and kill them at the mouth of Dagu." Shi Dakai said: "We only have this choice, otherwise, once we run off food and grass, the situation will only be more dangerous." In the future, if the king of the east is held responsible, I will carry it alone. ”

Seeing that Shi Dakai took the initiative to stand up and carry the black pot, the generals of the Taiping Army, who had already been dragged by the Qing army, naturally no longer objected, and all raised their hands to express their support. However, it is a pity that what Shi Dakai, Zeng Lichang and others don't know is that Shi Dakai's tactical choice has long been expected by the old fox Luo Bingzhang, and he still wants Shi Dakai to do it.