Li Hongfei's latest appointment has not aroused criticism from officials in the DPRK and China, and the ministers have long been surprised by Zhu Youzhen's habit of changing orders at the dawn of the court. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

As long as Li Hongfei can be kicked out of the military academy, even if the expected goal is achieved, not to mention Gao Hongtu and others, they don't want Li Hongfei to enter the cabinet and let the other party go out to "scourge" the local provinces, but it will save a lot of trouble.

Gao Hongtu and others were able to take advantage of this time to adjust their state and thoroughly consolidate the position of the DPRK and China.

So, after Li Hongfei entered the palace and had a showdown with Zhu Youzhen, the political situation in Nanjing finally stabilized.

At this time, everyone's eyes were focused on the north, and even such a major event as Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan did not cause much of a sensation.

South of the Yellow River, in addition to Suzhou, Xuzhou, and Bozhou in the Huaibei region, there are Shang Kexi, Geng Jingzhong, Kong Youde, a total of 150,000 Qing troops, and Dolgon has concentrated the remaining 300,000 troops in Cangzhou, Baoding, and Datong.

Coupled with the 50,000 Mongolian Eight Banners, it just protected Tianjin, Shuntianfu (Beijing) and Zhangjiakou and other important towns, and seemed to want to fight to the death with the Ming army here.

However, according to the information explored by Dongchang, while Dolgon was deploying troops, he was also frantically transferring goods and people to Shengjing (Shenyang) outside the Guan, and it seems that even Dolgon did not have much confidence in this decisive battle.........

"Qi Shuai, the Ministry of National Defense has sent people to urge, hoping that we can solve the Qing army south of the Yellow River as soon as possible." In the headquarters of the East Road Coalition Army, Zhang Chao reported to Qi Hongying.

Although the military system has been reformed, the military rank system of later generations has not been used, so the titles of commanders-in-chief and above of the group army are often the same as the previous titles of commander-in-chief.

Although Qi Hongying is the deputy commander of the coalition army, there has been a custom in officialdom since ancient times: "call big not small", "call high not low", "call positive not deputy".

Therefore, when Zhang Chao called Qi Hongying, he habitually hid the word "deputy" and directly called the other party "Qi Shuai".

"It's quite diligent, presumably Dolgon's actions have stimulated many people, thinking that Dolgon is trying to escape! Even if the other party wants to escape, there are still nearly 500,000 troops in front of us, and if Li Dingguo does not come, our Eastern Route Army will not be able to eat it in a short time. replied to them and told them, don't urge me, if you want to urge, urge Li Dingguo. Qi Hongying didn't have a good air.

Some time ago, the "encirclement point to send reinforcements" did gain a lot, but Geng Jingzhong, Shang Kexi and others are not fools, after suffering a loss, no matter how tempted they are, the other party just defends the city wall and does not come out.

Today's Ming army, fighting defensive battles, even field battles, is not afraid of the Qing army, but this siege war is not very adaptable, a few days ago Qi Zhifeng commanded three full divisions of the Fifth Army, towards Geng Jingzhong's Xuzhou, launched several tentative attacks, and the results were all beaten back.

The last time it was even dispatched, the independent brigade of the Second Army (all units equipped with "Da Ming type" breech guns), in the end, only occupied part of the city wall, and under the subsequent frantic counterattack of the Qing army, it retreated in disgrace.

After several attacks, Qi Zhifeng's Fifth Army lost more than 3,000 soldiers, which was much more expensive than the previous "encirclement and reinforcements", and it seems that this Xuzhou city ........ It's not that easy to take.

"But no matter what, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Bozhou, these three points, our army must be taken, according to the battle plan, the meeting point of our army and the West Route Army is in Luoyang, Li Dingguo can't be so kind, turn his head and help us clean up the mess. Moreover, our First Army has never been an unfinished task! Guo Sheng said.

There will always be all kinds of competition between armies, as a veteran unit like the First Group Army, watching others conquer cities and conquer cities and advance with great triumph, the big guys are holding back the fire in their hearts, especially a belligerent general like Guo Sheng.

"These three points are in a triangular formation, separated by only two hundred miles, and they are horns of each other, so I am afraid that once a large number of troops are invested to attack one place, and the other two places lead troops to reinforce, we will be very passive at that time." Stilwell reminded.

In the battle a few days ago, everyone understood that the Qing army in Xuzhou was not so easy to gnaw, and if it wanted to break the city, it was necessary to invest more than 100,000 troops, and it was necessary to achieve a quick victory, and once it dragged on, it would be very unfavorable to the Ming army.

"I wish they could have reinforcements, but unfortunately we were scared some time ago." Qi Hongying pouted.

The Qing army suffered the loss of encirclement and reinforcements, even if the Ming army really came this time, Shang Kexi and Kong Youde did not dare to send troops to rescue.

"In fact, it is much easier to fight Suzhou now than to fight Xuzhou, we can first make it easy and then difficult, step by step." Stilwell spoke his mind.

Suzhou has always been his third army staring, through various intelligence reconnaissance, found that Shang Kexi only had 40,000 people in his hands (originally 60,000, was ambushed by the First Army halfway, and destroyed more than 17,000 cavalry), it was much easier to clean up than to deal with Xuzhou.

The main force of Stilwell's Third Army is now stationed not far from Suzhou, once the battle starts, they will be the main force, and the imperial court is urging it relatively tightly, but the results can be seen quickly in Suzhou, which can be regarded as an explanation to the above.

"Qi Shuai, I think we should fight Xuzhou first, this Xuzhou our army has been attacking for several days, the other party is already at the end of the crossbow, now withdraw, I am worried about affecting morale, as long as Qi Shuai gives me three more days, I promise to take it down in one fell swoop!" Qi Zhifeng insisted on attacking Xuzhou.

After fighting for so many days, he didn't even take a city wall, Qi Zhifeng couldn't hang on his face, coupled with the unique persistence of soldiers, he vowed not to give up until he reached his goal, and if he really wanted to withdraw the Fifth Army at this time, it would definitely be a big blow to Qi Zhifeng.

"How sure are you?" Qi Hongying asked.

"Seventy percent." Qi Zhifeng didn't dare to say it to death.

"The Second Army is all under your command, I want you to be completely sure that within three days, you will take Xuzhou!" Qi Hongying finally decided.

"Qi Shuai rest assured, he can't break Xuzhou within three days, and he will come to see him!" Qi Zhifeng made a military order.

100,000 people have already occupied an absolute advantage in attacking Xuzhou, and the only thing to worry about is the three-day period.

Qi Zhifeng was ordered to leave and go to the front line to arrange, and Qi Hongying said to the remaining generals present: "I know in my heart what you think, Qi Zhifeng is my cousin, but I am definitely not favoring him, if he really fails to complete the task, it will still be dealt with by military law!" ”

Perhaps worried that the generals would not know their intentions, Qi Hongying could only explain again: "The reason why we must fight Xuzhou is because Xuzhou is the most difficult bone to gnaw in these three places in terms of defense and strength, if we can take it down with thunder, the remaining two may not need us to do it, and they will surrender obediently." ”

That's right, Qi Hongying fights with all her might, and the Qi family army under her likes to fight hard, even Guo Sheng, who was transferred from her, has a vague atmosphere of the Qi family's army.

As long as Xuzhou can be taken in one fell swoop, then Suzhou and Bozhou are very likely to fall from the wind.

"Of course, during the attack led by Qi Zhifeng, you should not take it lightly, with the strength of the First Army alone, it is not realistic to fight an ambush, but it is absolutely no problem to fight and block, so the defense of this periphery will be handed over to you." Qi Hongying said to Stilwell.

"The last general commands!" Stilwell didn't say anything more.

The Second Group Army is Qi Hongying's old army, and it is understandable that people will arrange good things for their former subordinates.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Xuzhou was located in the northwest of Jiangsu Province, the southeast of the North China Plain, the north wing of the Yangtze River Delta, the north of Weishan Lake in the north, Xiao County in the west, Lianyungang in the east, Suqian in the south, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passed through it, known as the "thoroughfare of the five provinces", is an important gateway in East China.

Only by occupying Xuzhou can it really be regarded as entering the Central Plains, as long as Xuzhou is taken, the south of the Yellow River will be controlled by the Ming army.

Dolgon's ideal decisive battle place was Xuzhou, but unfortunately he was defeated one after another, which extinguished the blood in his heart.

Nowadays, in the eyes of many Manchus, this Central Plains is too vast to be easily occupied by these remote tribes.

When the Qing soldiers entered the customs, they felt that the Ming Dynasty was exhausted, and Li Zicheng's peasant army was unpopular in North China.

Anyway, I still have a way back, so it's a big deal to learn from the past, loot a lot, and then retreat to the gate.

However, what happened after that greatly surprised Dolgon and others............ Li Zicheng and failure are too fast!

In addition, the Southern Ming took the initiative to show weakness and retreated to the south of the Yangtze River, which made the Manchus see the "hope" of unifying the Central Plains.

In fact, it is true, if it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's death, and with the help of Li Hongfei, the Southern Ming regime was quickly stabilized, so that most of the Ming generals had a choice, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already unified China at this time (in the original history, most of the Ming generals, in order to "avenge" Chongzhen, listened to Wu Sangui's demagoguery, joined the Manchu camp, and launched an encirclement and suppression of Li Zicheng's Dashun army).

Before the Qing army entered the customs, the national strength was less than 400,000, and after entering the customs, in order to rule the whole country, the strength of the army increased too fast, explosively growing, not only did not increase much combat effectiveness, but made the army become bloated.

However, even if it is a fat giant, it is also a giant, at least there is no problem at all in beating Li Zicheng, if it were not for Li Hongfei's strong defense and several defeats of the Qing army's sharp spirit, Nanming would sooner or later follow in Li Zicheng's footsteps.

However, it was precisely because of Li Hongfei's fatal blows that the Qing army finally woke up, and the dream of unifying the Central Plains was shattered, and the rest was naturally looting.

Gold, silver, treasures, population, and livestock were all objects of looting by the Manchus.

Dolgon did not intend to defend Xuzhou, Geng Jingzhong, Shang Kexi, Kong Youde and others were all outcasts, leaving them behind in order to block the pace of the Ming army's offensive and buy time for a comprehensive retreat.

As for whether he would fight in the end, Dolgon was not sure, so he left his army in the Hebei region, and if Geng Jingzhong and the others were defeated too quickly, Dolgon would naturally speed up the withdrawal.

If it drags on long enough, and can even wear out half of the Ming army, Dorgon will definitely not hesitate to attack and fight to the death with the Ming army.

The battle has been fought so far, and the pace is not good, and it is even more difficult to be slow, which is indeed a dilemma for the Ming army.

However, the imperial court has been urging, so the battle of Xuzhou can only be resolved quickly............

However, the defenders of Xuzhou, who had suffered a great loss from the Ming army's artillery, could be regarded as a good learner, and now Xuzhou City, the city gates are closed, and the inside of the city gate is completely blocked by thick sandbags, and even the suspension bridge has been blown up, and they can't hold on to it.

Moreover, even the artillery in the city was placed 300 meters behind the city wall, not firing at the Ming artillery, and focusing on the Ming infantry who rushed through the moat.

Since the position of the opponent's artillery could not be seen, the Ming artillery would naturally not be able to destroy, and the charging infantry would also face greater danger.

Xuzhou since ancient times soldiers must fight for the place, before it belonged to Fengyang County, this Fengyang is the place where Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing to build the national capital, its city wall is strong, no worse than the Beijing city wall, to use artillery to collapse it, it is too difficult.

Even if you blow up the city gate with an explosive pack, you will be blocked by thick sandbags, and the only way to enter the city is to storm it with a cloud ladder.

But the defenders on the city wall are not vegetarians, Xuzhou City has stored a large number of simplified grenades, these things, is a sharp weapon to deal with the ladder, erect a ladder anywhere, just throw two grenades down, it can be easily solved.

The sharp weapon invented by the Ming army to defend the city is now being countered by the Qing army, which is also a helpless thing.

On the first day of the siege, Qi Zhifeng commanded his subordinates to launch a fierce attack from the east and north gates, and as a result, he lost more than 1,000 subordinates, but he never managed to gain a firm foothold on the city wall.

At night, Qi Zhifeng launched another night attack, and finally when he was close to the city wall, he was discovered by the defenders, and the powerful firepower of the fire guns and grenades on the city wall made the Ming army once again drop more than 200 corpses and evacuate gloomily.

If you want to take Xuzhou, the biggest difficulty is the defenders on the city wall.

Although the trajectory of the shells is parabolic, today's artillery, due to the limited elevation angle, the curvature arc is not large, and it is almost unrealistic to directly hit the enemy behind the battlement.

The width of the city wall is limited, and either the cannonballs fall directly on the city wall or fall directly into the city, and the lethality of the enemy troops on the city wall is really limited...........

"It's already the second day, according to the current situation, it is difficult to capture Xuzhou in three days!"

Zhang Chao, who came to the front line to observe, shook his head and sighed while putting down the telescope in his hand.

"Geng Jingzhong, this old puppet does have a set of troops, and the arrangement of troops is also very reasonable, if it is equipped with the same firearms as us, not to mention the second group army, even if we add our first group army together, it may not be able to defeat Xuzhou, this time Qi Zhifeng is a little too big." Stilwell also found it tricky.

"The key lies in the defenders on the city wall, as long as these defenders can be effectively suppressed for a stick of incense, Xuzhou can easily take it!" Guo Sheng calmly analyzed.

Although Guo Sheng has a short temper, he does not make mistakes in war, and he still has military command talents, otherwise Li Hongfei would not have let him serve as the commander of the First Army.

After he watched the deployment of Xuzhou City, he found the other party's loopholes as soon as possible.

...........