Guidehouse, Dorgon's temporary retreat.

Dorgon, who looked very haggard with his beard, was discussing things with Dorgon who was also haggard, but had a better complexion.

In order to avoid more trouble, Dolgon led his army to retreat from Liaocheng and retreated to the Daimyo's Mansion. However, after discovering that Cao Yue had sent another man to capture the other two cities on the canal, Linqing and Dezhou, and was preparing to attack Cangzhou, he was taken aback and immediately took countermeasures, and gave up the military town of Daimyofu with great courage, retreated to Defu, and sent an army to reinforce Cangzhou to ensure that the gateways of these northern Zhili were not lost.

Having superior forces in the air, but being at a disadvantage in the war, and being passive everywhere, Dolgon is as depressed as he wants. This is something he never dreamed of, in previous wars, the Qing army, which was inferior in strength, always defeated the Ming army, which far outnumbered the side. But now the situation is completely different, the Qing army has the advantage in strength, but it has suffered a crushing defeat in the battle with the Ming army, and the severity of the defeat is also unexpected.

How did this happen? Dorgon was puzzled.

Could it be that the Ming army was equipped with a large number of firearms, which could really directly change the situation between the enemy and us, and have an absolute upper hand in the war?

Although Dolgon realized the power of firearms, the arrogance in his bones made him still not admit the backwardness of mounted archery, and he still believed that the war would eventually be solved by mounted archery, and arrows and swords could finally destroy the opponent and win the war.

In the war with the Liukou, Duoduo, who won an absolute victory, also completely failed to understand that the fourteenth brother, whom he admired the most, would be defeated so miserably in the case of absolute superiority in troops.

If the situation of the war had not come out of Dorgon's mouth, Duoduo would not have believed that the battle of Liaocheng would have been lost so badly.

"Fourteenth brother, Cao Yue is really so powerful that he defeated my Qing army with inferior troops?" However, after listening to Dorgon, Dorgon still had doubts. I couldn't help but ask.

"Will Brother Fourteen still lie to you?" Dolgon was not annoyed by Duoduo's rhetorical question, got up and sighed, and said unwillingly: "This defeat is too depressing, Cao Yue only defended without fighting in the early stage, put the whole army in the trenches and did not fight, and when our army rushed to kill, he counterattacked with firearms, and planted a large number of explosives in front of the battle. The attacks of the Han and Korean armies were actually crushed by their artillery bombardment. Finally rushed to the front of the formation, and the Ming army ignited the gunpowder buried in front of the formation. Nearly 10,000 of my Qing elites were buried at once. The musket fire of the Ming army was very intensive, and the Qing sergeants who were lucky enough to escape the artillery bombardment finally fell under the muskets. However, the Ming army still did not take the initiative to attack, but only advanced slowly, and continued to meet our Qing army that took the initiative to attack in the same way, until a general attack on Liaocheng was launched. ”

After being stunned, Dolgon shook his head and sighed: "This defeated is too bad, my Qing soldiers did not give full play to their strength at all, and they were defeated by the Ming army." Fifteenth brother. The fourteenth brother also knew that the Ming army's Northern Expedition did not really want to recover the north and recover Beijing. They just want to save the rogue, force me to recall you and Azig's men, and give the rogues a respite. But in the end, Brother Fourteen had to make the decision to recall you. Because the situation is too critical, the morale of our Qing army has been destroyed in Liaocheng. If no reinforcements arrived, not only the morale of the Han and Korean armies would quickly collapse. Even the Jurchen elite cavalry, which we rely on the most, will be demoralized, and even if there is a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army one day, there will be no way to exert all their strength and achieve the final victory. ”

"Fourteenth brother, the younger brother thinks that we are defeated by the firearms of the Ming army, not how strong the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is, the new army led by Cao Yue has just been established, and the combat effectiveness is far from being comparable to my Qing army, if they run out of ammunition and firearms cannot be used, then my Qing army can annihilate them all with only half of the horses," Duoduo also immediately understood the essence of the battle of Liaocheng, and immediately gave a strategy to break the enemy, "Fourteenth brother, the younger brother feels that as long as the ammunition of the bright army is consumed, they will be defeated." ”

"Brother Fourteen also thinks so, but the ammunition of the Ming army is like not being used, it consumes so much every day, it can still be sustained, and more importantly, the logistics of my Qing army can't keep up, so I can't fight a war of attrition with the Ming army. And Cao Yue's command of the battle was not old-fashioned, just like this battle of Liaocheng, after taking a defensive position, he suddenly launched a counterattack, and blasted open the city gate with a huge amount of gunpowder, and finally broke through Liaocheng. We have never encountered such a method of warfare before, originally thought that after leaving the city, the Ming army was far from being the opponent of our Qing army in the field, but the battle of Liaocheng proved that without the attachment of the strong city, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was not weakened at all, but was enhanced," Dolgon looked at Duoduo with a headache and said: "Fourteenth brother, I called you here today just to discuss with you how to break the enemy." If this continues, I can only withdraw from Guanwai, and I won't even be able to stay outside Guanwai. ”

Duoduo has always looked down on the Han people and the rabble of the Ming army, but he was defeated twice by Cao Yue, and his own godlike fourteenth brother Dolgon was also defeated by Cao Yue, and he no longer dared to despise the Ming army. For Cao Yue, he was afraid at the same time, but also had more respect. However, although Cao Yue is worthy of respect, he is still their opponent, and he is also their biggest enemy. If you want to win the world, you must defeat Cao Yue, the biggest enemy, otherwise there is no way to talk about entering the Central Plains.

"Fourteenth brother, if you find a way to destroy the gunpowder of the Ming army, then the firearms of the Ming army will not be able to be used, and I can only let me slaughter and cut them down!" In an instant, Duoduo thought of a countermeasure, "Fourteenth brother, my men and horses with the twelfth brother have returned to the north of Zhili, and my Qing army is several times larger than the Ming army led by Cao Yue." The younger brother felt that we could take advantage of the superiority in strength and attack the Ming army led by Cao Yue separately, with the goal of destroying its ammunition. As long as a man and horse attack succeeds and destroys the ammunition of the Ming army, the Ming army will definitely collapse. Even if they don't collapse, there is no ammunition, and the firearms will not be able to inflict damage on our Qing army, we can take the opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack. ”

As soon as Dodor finished speaking, Dorgon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, agreeing with what Dodor had said.

In fact, Dolgon did not expect this method proposed by Duoduo, and used it in the Battle of Liaocheng, wanting to ruin the logistics supply of the Ming army, especially the transportation of gunpowder, but he did not achieve great results. However, Dorgon's words made Dolgon think of another strategy, that is, to take advantage of the huge advantage in troops, use a group of men and horses as bait, slowly introduce the Ming army into the territory of Beizhili, and then organize several groups of men and horses to launch a surprise attack on the Ming army from the flank. The sneak attack on the flanks was not to completely defeat the Ming army, the point was to destroy the gunpowder of the Ming army.

As long as the ammunition carried by the Ming army was destroyed, even if it cost a heavy price, it was a success.

Next, the Ming army, which did not have sufficient ammunition, could only be slaughtered by the Qing army.

Dolgon immediately made a decision, using Cangzhou as a bait to lure the Ming army into Beizhili, and then let Duoduo and Azig each lead a strong force to attack the rear of the Ming army in a detour, and do everything possible to destroy the ammunition of the Ming army, destroy and logistics transportation, and then give Cao Yue a fatal week. (To be continued.) )