There is indeed a reason why Shi Lang is so angry, Haoge's 300,000 troops are crossing the river about 150 miles upstream of Chibi at this time, where it is only more than 20 miles away from the Yueyang City Wall, and it is definitely impossible to send the army to intercept it, and the only person who can intercept it can only be the sailor. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

But the commander-in-chief of the coalition army, Shi Dewei, was good, before the Qing army naval division fleet swaggered through Chibi, and even stationed in the upper reaches of less than 20 miles away from the Fujian naval division port, Shi Dewei thought that the Qing army's naval division was powerful, and ordered all naval divisions to retreat to the port and rely on shore defense artillery to garrison, and not to act rashly.

If Stilwell's move is to temporarily avoid the edge, Shi Lang can also understand it, after all, after the Qing Navy Navy merged with Zuo Menggeng's fleet, the number of warships has reached twice the number of warships of the Ming Army's combined fleet, even if the Ming Navy Division is really the first in the world, there is not much confidence in defeating this Qing Army Navy fleet.

After all, the Qing army came over this time, but it was a real sailor warship, not those rags that were modified by merchant ships.

The front facing the enemy is a little hanging, but now the other party is covering the army to cross the river, and the combat effectiveness of the warship will be less than seventy percent, this is the best time to attack, and the battle plan discussed by Shi Lang and Yan Yingyuan before is based on the Qing army crossing the river.

As a result, Stilwell still ordered the troops not to move, seeing that Hauge's army was about to cross the river, Shi Lang finally couldn't sit still, 300,000 troops crossed the river, it would take a lot of time, and if he sent a warship to attack at this time, maybe there would be a chance to intercept it.

In Shi Lang's view, sending troops now, even if it can't completely defeat the Qing army's water division, can prevent part of the Qing army from crossing the river, and can save the current situation to some extent.

"General Shi Lang, if I give the order now and let the combined fleet attack with all its troops, how sure are you that you will defeat the Qing fleet, and how much will your own losses be?" Stilwell did not refute the other party's words, but asked Shi Lang to speak with data.

"At least fifty percent sure that the Qing army will be prevented from crossing the river." Shi Lang looked at him left and right.

To tell the truth, he was really not very sure about defeating the Qing army's naval fleet, and if the whole army attacked, it was possible to prevent the enemy's crossing of the river.

"What I need is the certainty of crushing the enemy fleet! As for preventing the crossing of the river, they can't cross the river today, but they can still cross the river tomorrow, and once the Qing army sailors are prepared, then they will even set a trap for us next time, even if I don't say it, you should know the consequences. "Stilwell needs Shi Lang's truth.

If he was not sure of causing damage to the Qing army's sailors, Stilwell was really unwilling to startle the snakes, and his goal was the entire Manchu Shui division, rather than a simple attempt to obstruct the crossing of the river.

"This ...... Less than 30 percent. Shi Lang replied truthfully.

"How much will our army lose?" Stilwell continued.

"........" For this question, Shi Lang simply did not answer.

Who knows how much to lose before the fight starts?

If you say too much, you will not be able to do it in the future, and you will have to accept military law.

"So my opinion is that at present, the main thing is to preserve the strength, although Haoge has 300,000 troops, but most of them are tired divisions, at present, Wuchang is taken by Huang Degong, the task of the Fourth Army is completed ahead of schedule, I ordered someone to transfer 70,000 people from its two armies back to defend Chibi, plus my third army, a total of 100,000 troops, it is absolutely no problem to block Haoge for a month, and after Zhang Chao and Guo Sheng take Changsha, our army can fight a decisive battle with the Qing army in Chibi!" Stilwell spoke out his plan.

That's right, although Haoge's army crossed the river, the tired division could not raise its combat effectiveness to the peak in a short period of time, and don't look at Haoge's claim to be 300,000 troops, in fact, the elite is less than 200,000, and the rest basically belong to the heavy troops, the Dashun army surrendered, and some auxiliary troops, Stilwell dispatched 100,000 people to garrison Chibi, which was enough to block Haoge for a while.

By the time Haoge had almost rested in Yueyang, Zhang Chao and Guo Sheng should have completed their combat missions, and the gap between the two sides would be narrowed, and the Ming army's all-firearms force would have a greater advantage.

If before that, the Daming Water Division can defeat the Qing Army Water Division and intercept Haoge's retreat, then these 300,000 Qing troops may be wiped out.

Losing 300,000 Ming Dynasty troops in Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, it was a pity for the Manchus at most, but once the two yellow flags (Haoge's positive yellow flag, inlaid with yellow flags), Dolgon estimated that he would vomit blood.

Even if Dolgon longs for Hauge to die, but Hauge's soldiers are also his Manchu inheritance!

So there is a reason why Stilwell asked Shi Lang to stay still, at this time, the Daming Naval Division must preserve its strength and wait for an opportunity for a decisive battle.

"Save your strength, save your strength! You're a coward! I, the Great Ming Sailor, have never been afraid of any opponent, even if I die on the battlefield, it is better than lying in the harbor and waiting for death! Shi Lang directly slapped the table and scolded Stilwell for being timid.

In his opinion, Stilwell only believed in the Army, and did not believe in his own sailors at all.

"Shut up! I am the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, and I am your superior, don't you know what the crime is guilty of! "It's good to say that the other party just doesn't listen, and Stilwell is also angry.

Shi Lang only had the glory of the Great Ming Sailor in his eyes, and he couldn't consider it from the whole picture for a while, so Stilwell had to take out the shelf of the commander-in-chief to be able to suppress the other party.

Sure enough, Shi Lang was stunned, and he couldn't refute it for a while, so he could only mutter: "Okay, okay, you are the commander-in-chief, what you say is what you say, our sailors are indeed inferior to the Manchu sailors, so let's stay at the dock obediently and let the shore defense artillery force protect it!" ”

"Who said you were allowed to stay at the docks and wait for someone to protect you? From now on, closely monitor the movements of the Qing army's naval divisions, and if they cover the 200,000 Qing troops crossing the river in Daishan, the whole army will immediately attack to intercept them! Seeing that Shi Lang's attitude was so negative, Stilwell had to reveal some news in advance, so that the other party could not forget that the key to this battle was still in the water war.

The reason for letting Haoge's army cross the river was that Stilwell was sure to block the Qing army crossing the river, and second, he needed to show the enemy weakness, so that the Qing army's sailors thought that the Ming army did not have the slightest advantage in water warfare, and did not even dare to send troops.

Once the Qing army's naval division was unprepared, even if there were no steam clippers from the Baoshan Shipyard, with the current combined fleet, it would be possible to block the Qing army's second crossing of the river.

The crossing of the river by Haoge's army is already the limit that the troops of this western expedition can bear, so no matter what, Daishan's army must not cross the river.

After Shi Lang learned of the battle plan, although he was still a little depressed in his heart, it at least proved that Stilwell did not look down on the sailor, and preventing the landing of the Daishan army became the only way for Shi Lang to prove the value of the sailor now, so he didn't want to delay for a moment, and after returning to the camp, he began to train his subordinates to the death...........

After the night battle between Wu Sangui and the Fifth Division, the two sides seemed to have fallen into a delicate balance, even when Haoge's army crossed the river, the Ming Army's naval division did not come out to intercept it, and Duoduo, who was fully prepared, was like a punch in the air, and there was no sense of accomplishment at all.

The most depressed is Wu Sangui, in order to disrupt the deployment of the Ming army and cover the landing of Haoge's army, he almost ran out of his family, but he didn't plan to intercept it at all, it felt like being played by someone as a fool, and Wu Sangui felt good in his heart.

The Qing army successfully crossed the river and saw the dawn of victory, while the two armies of Guo Sheng and Zhang Chao in the south were still overwhelming, collecting Chenzhou, Kehengyang, and even Changsha is now precarious.

Reinforcements are coming, but they can't be dissolved from afar!

Keep watching............ Looking at this posture, it is really hard to say whether it can hold out until the reinforcements arrive.

But if you withdraw like this, and the above blames it, it will definitely not be able to eat and walk around.

Fortunately, after Haoge arrived in Yueyang, he didn't think about rescuing Changsha and other places at all, but directly sent a herald to let the defenders from all over the country retreat to Yueyang and concentrate their forces to prepare for a decisive battle.

In this way, those defenders who could retreat began to retreat, and those who could not retreat, after understanding that there were no reinforcements, soon gave up resistance and surrendered to the Ming army that came to attack.

In just one month after crossing the Yangtze River, the two armies on the south bank of the Yangtze River completed their respective integrations.

The original Hunan defenders who retreated to Yueyang, plus Wu Sangui and Haoge's guest troops, totaled as much as 500,000.

The Nanming water and land coalition troops gathered on the front line of Chibi and Wuchang also had nearly 250,000, and if you count the heavy troops temporarily recruited by the people and laborers, the number was also nearly 400,000.

And these temporarily conscripted laborers have been fighting with the army for four months, and their basic military quality is not much worse than that of those recruits who have just been conscripted into the army for two or three months.

There are even many outstanding laborers who have been formally conscripted into the army, or are responsible for guarding those areas that have just been regained to maintain law and order, or simply transferred to field troops to make up for previous battle losses.

To put it bluntly, these laborers are somewhat similar to the militia nature of later generations, and if they are given weapons, they are real regular troops.

400,000 beats 500,000, Stilwell is not vain at all...........

In Yueyang City, the current prefect's yamen has been changed into a meeting hall, where various military issues of the Qing army are basically discussed.

"This battle is not easy to fight, I sent 50,000 elite cavalry before, trying to sneak attack a vanguard of the Ming army with only 10,000 people at night, but I didn't get much bargain." Wu Sangui was the first to speak.

He was the first general to come to Yueyang to support, although Haoge was the commander of Yueyang, but in terms of war, he still had to listen to Wu Sangui's advice, after all, he arrived in Yueyang earlier than him, and he must be familiar with the local situation.

As for the local defenders......... In Hauge's view, they are all wine bags and rice bags, and they can't give any good advice at all.

"I don't think King Pingxi didn't get much of a bargain, but he suffered a big loss! I heard that there were 50,000 Guanning iron horses, and less than 35,000 survived in the end. Ao Bai didn't give any face, and directly exposed Wu Sangui's scars.

Indeed, when Wu Sangui counted the war losses at that time, it was determined that nearly 10,000 people were killed in battle, and then the wound was infected, and the number of people who died one after another reached as many as 7,000.

The sustained lethality of firearms is far more terrifying than that of cold weapons.

"I'm not talking to you about battle damage, but I want to tell you that even if it is five times the size of the Ming army, it will be extremely difficult to achieve victory, but now our strength is not superior." Wu Sangui stopped at the point, and if he continued, he would be suspected of cowardice.

But even so, Haoge had already heard what Wu Sangui meant, and it was basically impossible for the Qing Dynasty to win this time.

Before Hao Ge could speak, he didn't need to say this kind of thing, so Ao Bai scolded Wu Sangui again: "Don't be alarmist, who doesn't know that the Ming army has sharp weapons now, especially in this mountain, forest and water network area, you still use cavalry to charge the battle, and only attack from the front, isn't this looking for death?" At the beginning, he had to replace it with 20,000 archers and attack from three directions at the same time, how could he defend against it with only 10,000 Ming troops? ”

Ao Bai belongs to the lord who doesn't have a backache when he stands and talks, not to mention that Wu Sangui's descendants are basically cavalry, even if they are changed to infantry, there are no more than 20,000 archers!

In the original night battle, Wu Sangui could only show his hands on 10,000 archers, and mounted archery was not as accurate as foot shooting, although the accuracy was higher, but the tension of the bow was lighter, and the effective range was only sixty steps (about 80 meters).

At that time, the Fifth Division's defensive area, facing the river in the north and the mountains in the south, was not suitable for Wu Sangui to attack.

Moreover, after sending troops around, it is estimated that the sky will also be bright, and the firearms of the Ming army will be more accurate at that time, so Wu Sangui has no other choice but to attack head-on.

However, the failure of Guanning's iron cavalry is now ridiculed by Aobai, which is quite an afterthought.

"Okay, King Pingxi is wholeheartedly for the country, a small loss can still be forgiven, everyone will not mention this matter in the future." Seeing that the suppression was almost over, Hauge finally came forward to play a round.

The boss spoke, and the rest of the generals naturally didn't dare to say more.

"Without further ado, after a month's rest, the morale of our army is at its peak, and the Yangtze River waterway is completely controlled by our Daqingshui Division, and the time is ripe for a counterattack on the Ming army. Da Beile (Dai Shan) sent a message yesterday that he had 200,000 taels of elite red flags (positive red flags, inlaid red flags) to cross the Yangtze River at dawn three days later and launch a counterattack on Wuchang. At that time, we need to attack with our whole army, contain the main force of the Ming army in Chibi, and buy time for Dabeile to attack Wuchang. Once you take Wuchang, you can attack back and forth, annihilate the main force of the Ming army in one fell swoop, recover the lost territory, and even enter Nanjing! ”

Hauge said in the end, because he was too excited, and his tone trembled a little.

Nanjing, a city that made the Qing army suffer enough two years ago, as long as the main force of the Ming army near Chibi can be completely annihilated this time, then the Qing army will really have a chance to "be ashamed".

Although Haoge's words were inspiring, there were many things that only he knew in his heart that the Qing army was actually not ready, but there was not much grain and grass in Yueyang City, and even the Qing army in Wuhan had a grain robbery incident.

Yueyang and Wuhan are not marches along the way, the Qing army wants to stay here, and even start a battle, once it loses the hearts of the people, this battle will be suspended.

In the past, there were cases of soldiers who went out to "collect food" and disappeared for no reason, indicating that the local resistance movement had already begun, and if we did not hurry up to solve the external troubles, this internal worry could drag them down..........