Chapter 388: Secretly joining forces
Still fled to the junction of Guangping Mansion and Daimyo's Mansion, and got in touch with Chen Yucheng's army, which was fighting on the border of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Jin provinces, and after receiving Chen Yucheng's timely assistance, the defeated Taiping army led by Yang Yuanqing and Shi Dakai was able to temporarily stop and rest, and free up their hands to reorganize the team. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
It was also at this time that Shi Dakai and Yang Yuanqing were stunned to find that more than 60,000 Taiping troops who went north from both land and water,
After being defeated and separated all the way, there were only more than 28,000 people left, and most of the elite soldiers were wounded, almost all the heavy artillery was lost, and the guns and ammunition were almost exhausted, so heavy that Yang Yuanqing and Shi Dakai couldn't believe the statistics in front of them.
Yang Yuanqing, who commanded the whole army, can't be blamed for his incompetence, mainly because the pursuit of the Qing cavalry was really beautiful, and the only beautiful victory in history was the total annihilation of the Taiping Army in the pursuit of the Taiping Army.
In the pursuit battle, relying on the absolute superiority of mobility, but also taking advantage of the Taiping army's fiasco and the anxiety of fleeing on the way out, as soon as the defeated general saw the Taiping army in chaos, he immediately made an all-out assault, and repeatedly broke and killed the Taiping army team that had no intention of fighting, causing a large number of Taiping soldiers to fall behind and disperse, and then calmly slashed and killed the Taiping soldiers who could not fight in formation, and achieved countless results.
At the same time, the local Qing army and regimental training along the way also frantically attacked the scattered Taiping army soldiers, deliberately destroyed roads and bridges to increase the difficulty of the Taiping army's transfer, and cooperated with the main force of the Qing army to pursue and kill the Taiping army, so it was basically difficult for the small units of the Taiping army that were separated from the main force to return to the team, and most of them were brutally killed by the Zhili soldiers and civilians who hated the Taiping army.
In addition, the overall decline in the quality of the soldiers also doomed the Taiping army to a fiasco, and after being separated from the main force, they did not know how to return to the team as soon as possible, and only thought about fleeing for their lives to a remote and uninhabited place, but they did not know that these places were the key points of attention of the Qing army and the landlords. In order not to be pursued by the Qing army, the situation of taking the initiative to leave the team as a deserter has been repeatedly prohibited, and there have even been cases of new recruits tying up veterans to surrender to the Qing army to ask for merit, and there are countless people who surrender on their knees immediately after being cut and surrounded by the Qing army.
This situation appeared most in Shi Dakai's army, after the last fiasco in the hands of the Shandong New Army, in order to help Shi Dakai regroup, Yang Yuanqing added a lot of elite veterans to Shi Dakai, but also gave Shi Dakai more new recruits, many of which were surrendered and captured before joining the Taiping Army's green battalion soldiers and local regimental training, not only the combat effectiveness is extremely poor, but also the will is the least firm. Therefore, Shi Dakai's department is called the main force of the land division, but in fact, it is the most invulnerable in the escape war, and every time the cavalry of the Qing army succeeds in an assault, it is basically a breakthrough in Shi Dakai's army.
It's okay for Shi Dakai, this time there is Yang Yuanqing to accompany him to lose face, although the Nanjing Taiping Army directly under Yang Yuanqing is Yang Xiuqing's elite lineage, well-armed and well-equipped, and has the largest number of veterans in Guangxi, but after many years of living in Nanjing, these Guangxi veterans have already been soaked in the soft words and fragrance of Jiangnan, and their fighting spirit has been softened. So when it came time to fight hard, Yang Yuanqing's directly subordinate army was even inferior to Li Kaifang, Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian and other teams, with sophisticated equipment and could not play the role of the core backbone, and their performance on the battlefield also made Yang Yuanqing lose face.
Yang Yuanqing and Shi Dakai, who fled all the way south to the north of the Daimyo's Mansion, also affected Chen Yucheng, and the reason why Chen Yucheng's army was able to continue to fight on the border of the four provinces, successively captured Nanle, Cizhou and Neihuang and other cities, and opened up a large base area, the main reason was that the Qing army in Zhili had no time to take care of him, and Chen Yucheng's opponent was only a local landlord regiment, so it was very easy to fight. This will be the main force of the Qing army in Zhili all the way to chase and kill, Chen Yucheng's army is of course immediately tightened in the war, and has to resist the overwhelming soldiers of the Qing army in Zhili with the strength of only a few thousand soldiers.
"This area of the Daimyo Mansion is a yellow flood area, and grain production is scarce, so it is not suitable for our main force to rest and rest, so we must move east and withdraw to Yanzhou as soon as possible."
When sitting down to discuss the next plan, Shi Dakai and Yang Yuanqing, who had been filthy on the way to escape, rarely reached an agreement, and at the same time, Chen Yucheng, who was barely a snake on the ground, also resolutely supported this, believing that under the condition that the main force of the Qing army was pressing, it would be difficult for the main force of the Taiping army, which was seriously injured, to capture the nearby important cities again, and only to quickly withdraw to Lunan, where the current Taiping army has relatively strong control, and then calmly rest and recuperate.
Of course, the withdrawal to Yanzhou had to cross the Yellow River, but fortunately, as long as he got in touch with Ji Wenyuan, who stayed in Lunan, and obtained the covering support of friendly forces, the success of the Yellow River crossing was definitely not small. However, when Yang Yuanqing and Shi Dakai sent people to contact Ji Wenyuan, the envoy of the Wu army carried a letter from Wu Chaoyue's brother-in-law Nie Shicheng, and secretly came to the Taiping army, asking the Taiping army to continue southward and lead the Qing army to the area of Changyuan and Fengqiu, so as to create a fighter for the Wu army and the Taiping army to join forces to annihilate the Qing army in Zhili.
"Can you be so kind? Can you help us deal with the demons? ”
Shi Dakai and Yang Yuanqing were both full of suspicion, and they couldn't believe the good intentions of Wu Jun, and the envoy of Wu Jun replied calmly: "Yiwang, Yang Guozong, the chaotic party in the capital is your common enemy with us, we help you to help ourselves, there is no good intention, you just need to believe that we have no ill will towards you." ”
He glanced at the envoy of the Wu army suspiciously, Shi Dakai opened the letter and read it carefully, but on the letter, Nie Shicheng also directly told Shi Dakai that he was already on the way to the southern Henan battlefield with his own army, and on the surface, the banner was to prevent the Taiping army from taking the opportunity to invade the territory controlled by the Wu army, but in fact, he was preparing to join forces with the Taiping army to deal with the Qing army in Zhili.
At the same time, Nie Shicheng also suggested that Shi Dakai pretend to borrow a way from the Wu army to flee for his life, and fled directly to Chenqiao Town, which is across the river from Kaifeng.
"Could this be Wu You's trick? Trick us into going to Chenqiao Town, and take the opportunity to join forces with the Qing Demon to annihilate us? ”
The incident came too suddenly, Shi Dakai, Chen Yucheng and the others' first reaction was, of course, to doubt Wu Jun's true purpose, and Yang Yuanqing, who was greedy for life and afraid of death, and was stupid and incompetent, of course, shouted that he couldn't be fooled and couldn't take such a big risk. However, after careful consideration, Shi Dakai found that this was a good opportunity, not only to allow the Taiping army to withdraw to Yanzhou more safely, but also to use the power of the Wu army to defeat and turn defeat into victory.
After being shaken, Shi Dakai also discussed with the generals of the Taiping army the feasibility of cooperating with the Wu army's actions, but most of the generals of the Taiping army did not dare to take this risk, for fear that Nie Shicheng would not believe his words and deceive them into death. Only Chen Yucheng, who has a strong strategic outlook, supported Shi Dakai and said: "The Wing King is eight thousand years old, I think it is unlikely that Nie Shicheng will deceive us, the Yangtze River waterway that surpasses the connection between the little demon and the foreigners is controlled by us, and the Wu demon will not ignore the consequences of the Yangtze River waterway being blocked by us." ”
"Wing King, don't be fooled." The veteran Zhu Xikun reminded: "Our Northern Expedition was defeated this time, and our vitality has been greatly damaged, so we must prevent the little demon from taking advantage of the fire to rob, first annihilate us with a strategy, and then go down the river from Hubei and go straight to Tianjing." ”
Shi Dakai hesitated, but fortunately, Chen Yucheng reminded him in time: "Wing King, if Wu Demon really helps us, it will definitely be much easier and easier for us to withdraw to Yanzhou." ”
"If we go east to cross the Yellow River directly, it is possible to get Prime Minister Ji Cheng's response, but we must not forget the new army of Shandong Qing Demon under the command of Luo Bingzhang Lao Qing Demon, that army has never shown up since it went around to you, and it is very likely that it has been specially used by Luo Bingzhang Lao Qing Demon to prevent us from crossing the Yellow River, and once Prime Minister Ji Cheng can't defeat Shandong Qing Demon and can't accept us to cross the river, then we will be in trouble."
Recalling the scene when he was fighting with the Shandong New Army, Shi Dakai subconsciously shivered, and thought of Luo Bingzhang's old treacherous slippery, taking precautions everywhere, and Shi Dakai didn't dare to take it lightly. After thinking about it for a while, Shi Dakai finally made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said, "Go to Chenqiao!" ”
"I'm not going!" Yang Yuanqing yelled.
"If you don't go, I won't stop you, I'll take my headquarters people to go." Shi Dakai replied coldly, and then asked, "Who else is willing to risk going to Chenqiao with me to gamble?" ”
It was very unexpected by Shi Dakai and Yang Yuanqing, in addition to Shi Dakai's hand-picked Chen Yucheng's immediate response, Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian hesitated for a moment, and then they also opened their mouths and said to Shi Dakai: "Yiwang, I will also go with you." ”
"I am the commander of the whole army, do you dare not listen to my orders?!"
Yang Yuanqing jumped three feet high, but Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian ignored him at all, and said in their hearts together: "Just because you are the commander of the whole army, I don't want to suffer from you stupid bird anger anymore." It's dangerous to follow Shi Da away, but he's at least not as stupid as you! I won't be like you! ”
Shi Dakai didn't pay attention to Yang Yuanqing's yelling, but turned to Li Kaifang and asked Li Kaifang about his decision with his eyes. And Li Kaifang hesitated for a long time, then said: "I bring all the cavalry, I can go there, but I think it's better to act together, don't scatter the troops anymore, we have all reached this point, and then divide the troops is purely looking for death." ”
"Then let's go to Chenqiao together." Shi Dakai said coldly: "Yang Guozong, your army is well equipped and has many soldiers, if you are willing to stay alone in the palace, I will never stop you." ”
After that, Shi Dakai didn't wait for Yang Yuanqing to shout, got up and left the Chinese army camp directly, Chen Yucheng followed closely, and Zeng Lichang and Li Shixian did not hesitate to follow. Only Li Kaifang hesitated for a moment, and then threw down a sentence and strode away, "Yang Guozong, I advise you, don't be stupid again, you are looking for death when you go east alone." ”
Thanks to Yang Yuanqing's temper, which was far less irritable and impulsive than Yang Xiuqing, the Taiping Army, which was almost at the end of its rope, did not have internal strife, and it was also unpopular to fight, and Yang Yuanqing was doomed to defeat. At the same time, after receiving the report that Shi Dakai, Chen Yucheng, Zeng Lichang and other troops left the camp one after another, Yang Yuanqing, who was greedy for life and afraid of death, still stomped his feet and shouted: "The whole army sets off and goes to Chenqiao!" I'll talk about the rest later! ”
…………
After the defeat of the Taiping army and Chen Yucheng, they did not directly advance eastward, and chose to continue southward, which of course greatly surprised the old fox Luo Bingzhang's expectations, and at the same time, Luo Bingzhang immediately saw the hidden danger in it. Therefore, after receiving the news, Luo Bingzhang immediately sent a fast horse to contact Shengbao, who led the main cavalry of the Qing army, and asked Shengbao to pursue cautiously, and be sure to beware of the sudden attack of the Wu army and the Taiping army to join forces to attack the main cavalry of the Qing army.
In addition to Luo Bingzhang, Guan Wen, the commander of the Qing army in Zhili, who led the main force of the infantry to follow behind, was also very suspicious of the real purpose of the Taiping army's continued southward movement, and also sent people to get in touch with Shengbao as soon as he got the news, and also asked Shengbao to pursue cautiously, and not to get too close to the territory controlled by the Wu army.
It's a pity that if Luo Bingzhang and Guanwen, the bitter words of the two old foxes, can pull General Shengbao, then General Shengbao will not be honored by Emperor Xianfeng himself as General Shengbao. Especially in the case of successive battles, General Shengbao had long been carried away by the successive victories, and completely ignored the warnings of Luo Bingzhang and the official text, and still continued to use the previous pursuit tactics, divided the cavalry into three ways and threw them into the battlefield, and launched a surprise attack at the first opportunity, slashing and killing the Taiping soldiers and staining their tops with blood.
Just a little time to rest and recuperate the Taiping Army defeated brigade is also very perfect to play the role of bait, already seriously injured, exhausted, and the generals are not in harmony with each other, in the escape war and gave the Qing cavalry several opportunities to raid successfully, the losses are very heavy, it is indeed a real defeat, no matter who will not think that the Taiping Army is deliberately luring the enemy. Therefore, the complacent defeated general was also more unscrupulous and boldly pursued.
Finally, after cutting off the heads of many Taiping soldiers, the main cavalry of the Qing army led by Shengbao unconsciously pursued to the junction of Henan and Zhili, and the result was that the Taiping army defeated the army without hesitation and fled directly across the provincial border into Henan.
In this regard, General Shengbao was quite cautious, and hurriedly inquired about the garrison of the Wu army in Changyuan County's messenger, when he learned that the Wu army in Henan had previously divided its troops to the south, and the main force of Nie Shicheng's department was deployed on the south bank of the Yellow River and Fengqiu, and there were not many reports of the Wu army, General Shengbao smiled again, "It's okay, the Wu thief is stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River, even if you want to help Changmao, you can't give the river immediately, and the cavalry led by this officer is all cavalry, so it's convenient to transfer, continue to chase!" Hunt down this official to the end! ”