New Book Collection: The Rise of Great Powers 1900

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Regarding Li Dingguo's rapid rise, Song Kun and other generals saw it in their eyes, and couldn't help but feel a little envious, but at the same time, they also admired it.

Since the recovery of Guangxi, Yang Chao asked Song Kun to send a group of officers to Li Dingguo's army as observers to learn from Li Dingguo's use of troops.

The battle reports came back from here, which made Song Kun sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes jealous.

Song Kun thought that he couldn't do Li Dingguo's large-scale maneuver, not to mention that he couldn't do it, even the cavalry of Zhao Kang's army, which had the strongest mobility in Yang Chao's army, couldn't do it.

Li Dingguo's army was mainly 40,000 people, but his family members accompanied the army when he fought and became an old battalion.

The main force fights in the front, the old battalion produces in the rear, and the weapons and iron armor that are broken in the front will be sent back to the old battalion several miles away for repair at any time, fully ensuring the combat effectiveness of the soldiers in the flow.

With the old battalion in the rear, the soldiers at the front had an extremely firm will to fight, because retreating would mean suffering for the families of the old battalion.

And don't think that the old battalion is some old, weak, sick and disabled, on the contrary, here are craftsmen, doctors and women, even the women among them are also strong women, not only can they spread their big feet and follow the troops for a long journey, but at critical times, they can also take up arms as suspicious soldiers.

Song Kun knew that in Hengyang City, the defense was actually the main force of 10,000 and 50,000 women and children of the old battalion, but it blocked the siege of the Qing army and the 200,000 army.

The 30,000 army led by Li Dingguo, as well as 50,000 strong women, were often suspicious soldiers. And Li Dingguo's main force assaulted. The Qing army, which often fights, was caught off guard.

After the capture of Xiangtan. Li Dingguo let 30,000 women and children go south along the Xiangshui River with great fanfare, and he personally led the main force to make another detour from Baoqing Mansion to aid Hengzhou Mansion, and joined forces with the defenders of Hengzhou Mansion to attack the Qing army outside the city.

Another key point is that Li Dingguo himself fights and likes to charge ahead. Soldiers have no retreat in battle, extremely heroic, outside the city of Hengzhou, it is Li Dingguo who first confirmed Shang Kexi's main camp tent, in the case that the Qing army did not find out, attacked the Qing army at night, burned the company camp, and was lucky to kill Shang Kexi directly, only to let the Qing army's 200,000 troops collapse directly, he chased all the way to Xiangtan.

The Second Hengyang Tribulation. Li Dingguo killed 80,000 and captured 50,000. Especially the kills are still gratifying.

This kind of feats have already made his fame faintly comparable to Yang Chao's, but it has also made Dolgon and Hong Chengchou even bigger.

Dolgon was really angry this time, and directly reprimanded Hong Chengchou, and Hong Chengchou also admitted his miscalculation and wrote a letter to ask for guilt, but the Qing court did not agree to his resignation, but let him continue to pass through Hunan.

However, in the face of the loss of more than 200,000 troops, Hong Chengchou decided that Hunan could no longer be defended, so he asked the Qing court to abandon Changsha and retreat to Yuezhou, and do his best to keep Hubei.

Dolgon was forced to agree to this method, and after Hong Chengchou withdrew from Wuchang, Lekdehun would be in charge here, and let Hong Chengchou enter Beijing to restore his life, and discuss this wave of offensive by the Ming army in Jiangnan that people could not cope with.

"Adapting to change?"

Dolgon walked up and down the hall in annoyance, and there sat an old man in His Highness, still so calm and breezy that a deep exhaustion could not be concealed.

Hong Chengchou's appearance, so that Dolgon is not too harsh on him, he asked himself, if he changed any of the Eight Banners generals, he might not do better than Hong Chengchou, and it was even likely that he would have been defeated and lost, Hong Chengchou mainly used green battalion soldiers, and he was able to hold on to Jiangnan like this, Dolgon was already very satisfied.

But he couldn't help but be annoyed, and he lost 30,000 Eight Banner soldiers, of which 3,000 taels of the White Flag elite made his heart bleed.

Although he has completely subdued the Eight Banners forces, deep down, he still regards the two white flags as his henchmen, and it is always difficult for him to reassure him from the other flags.

After destroying Hauge and Zilharang, the owners of the two yellow flags and the two white flags were replaced by his henchmen, but he still trusted the two white flags more, so this time he sent 30,000 elites of the two white flags, and cooperated with the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners with a total of 30,000 people to attack Li Dingguo, but he didn't expect to be defeated in a battle.

Before that, Hong Chengchou had always underestimated the Great Western Army, and always focused on Yang Chao.

Although he was Dorgon, he would do the same, after all, it was impossible for him to divert his attention and relax his guard against Yang Chao's army in Jiangnan when a force suddenly appeared.

"Yes, change for everything!"

Hong Chengchou said decisively.

Dorgon snorted, "How else can it change?" ”

It has indeed changed in the past few years, but it has become worse and worse, and it has become worse and worse each time.

Hong Chengchou was still calm, seeing Hong Chengchou like this, Dolgon knew that he already had a complete strategy in mind.

"Boss, let's talk to this king."

Dorgon had to be patient and ask for advice.

Hong Chengchou was neither humble nor arrogant: "Obey." Does the prince think that Yang Chao can tolerate the Western Thief (Great Western Army)? ”

Dolgon shook his head, he thought that Yang Chao was just like him, he was a hero, and it was impossible for such a character to tolerate others.

Hong Chengchou asked again: "Can the Western Thief tolerate Yang Chao?" ”

Dorgon shook his head again.

Hong Chengchou said lightly: "Zhu Yuanzhang met Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youlianger!" ”

Dolgon woke up suddenly, he was also familiar with history books, and naturally knew that the Han people rebelled at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang were inseparable from the Yuan army, but Zhu Yuanzhang took the strategy of "building a high wall and accumulating grain to slowly become king", slowly accumulated strength, first exterminated Zhang Shicheng and Chen Youliang, and finally waved an army to destroy the Yuan Dynasty.

Although Hong Chengchou's comparison of the Qing court to the Yuan Dynasty was quite unpleasant, Dolgon was not too careful, but he agreed with Hong Chengchou's analysis.

"Boss, I don't want to sit back and watch the infighting of the Ming army in Jiangnan!"

Dolgon said with emotion that when the peasant armies were fighting with each other at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan court sat idly by and watched the tiger fight, but unfortunately after Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated the opponents one by one, it was the turn to destroy the Yuan Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou said: "Vertical West thief, suppress Yang thief!" ”

Dorgon nodded. Now the situation in Gangnam is. Yang Chao dominates. And the strong rise of the Great Western Army, if these two forces do not collide, it is almost impossible, and there has never been such a situation in the history of the Han people where the two powers are adjacent to each other and are peaceful.

But Yang Chao is deeply rooted, the Great Western Army has just risen, and what the Qing Army has to do is to suppress Yang Chao and prevent Yang Chao from calmly annexing the Great Western Army. If the Great Western Army attacked Yang Chao, it would cooperate with the Great Western Army, so that the Great Western Army and Yang Chao would constantly weaken each other, and when they were about to fight among themselves, the Qing Army would also accumulate enough strength, and then sweep Jiangnan with a drum.

The truth is such a truth, but those who can play this hand must be the master of the masters, otherwise the battlefield will change rapidly. No one dared to say that the Yuan Dynasty had such a plan back then, but in the end it got out of control.

"There has to be Master Lao in Wuchang!"

Dorgon said very sincerely. Except for Hong Chengchou, it is really difficult for him to find another master of strategy.

Hong Chengchou nodded and said, "I have a life, I don't dare to resign!" ”

Dorgon nodded.

Nanking.

Yang Chao knew that Li Dingguo's defeat was gratifying, and after killing another king, he had to sigh with emotion.

Li Dingguo's battle this time is really amazing, Yang Chao thinks that he can't do this, two times back and forth to use troops, even the Qing army is not easy to do, and Li Dingguo did it, the amazing thing is that his men are not all cavalry, only 10,000 cavalry, the others are infantry, and there are even women.

Yang Chao wrote Li Dingguo's tactics of using troops into cases and sent them to various armies, so that the generals could learn and compare them with the previous battles of the Yang family's army.

With the change of the battle situation in Huguang, the form of Jiangnan is also getting better and better.

After the Qing army lost Hunan, it could not pose a threat to Jiangnan, and now it only borders Henan and Shandong with the Qing army, so that Yang Chao could completely concentrate his forces in these two places.

So Yang Chao immediately dispatched many men to the north to deploy in Fengyang Mansion to threaten Henan and Hubei from the other line, and at the same time sent Xie Fei's troops north to Xuzhou to support Zhao Kang, Li Wuliu and Wang Pu, so far the number of troops used in the north reached 700,000.

Jiangnan only retained 300,000 people, except for Song Kun in Guangdong and Lu Mo in Jiangxi, there were 80,000 troops led by Yang Chao in Nanjing, and 20,000 recruits in Fujian under Jin Shenghuan.

Then Yang Chao wrote a letter to Sun Kewang, asking him if he dared to attack Hubei, and if Sun Kewang was willing to attack Hubei, Yang Chao would wave his army north and go straight to Beijing. However, Sun Kewang seems to have no intention of going north for the time being.

After Li Dingguo's second Hengyang catastrophe, Hong Chengchou led his troops to flee north, giving up Changsha Mansion, and the area south of the Yangtze River, the Qing army gave up all of them.

And Sun Kewang's deployment at this time was very disappointing, he sent Feng Shuangli to occupy Changsha immediately, sent Ma Jinzhong to occupy Changde Mansion, and personally led his troops to take all Yuezhou Prefectures and counties except Yuezhou City, and already had the posture of coercing Wuchang Mansion.

This made Yang Chao sigh.

"Since you are so jealous of Li Dingguo, why don't you send Li Dingguo north?"

In Yang Chao's view, Sun Kewang could let Li Dingguo go on a northern expedition, and with Li Dingguo's temperament, he would never give up such an opportunity, and Sun Kewang sent civil officials to Hunan and Guangxi to operate, but he just took Changde and Yuezhou into his pocket with the mentality of occupying territory, which was equivalent to sealing Li Dingguo's road to the north.

Yang Chao couldn't help but despise Sun Kewang's bearing.

But if Sun Kewang wants to fight with Li Dingguo, Yang Chao will definitely not be able to accept it, and the good situation that came so easily will be ruined like this, which is a pity.

Therefore, Yang Chao was very friendly to Sun Kewang, and Sun Kewang sent him to buy cannon bird guns, and Yang Chao sold them at cost price.

Of course, Li Dingguo sent people to buy iron armor and war horses, and Yang Chao also supplied them at cost price.

At the same time, he sent an envoy to Sun Kewang's tent to mediate, and the order to them was that if Sun Kewang wanted to start an infighting, he would stop him desperately, and he could even threaten Sun Kewang that if he dared to initiate an infighting, Yang Chao would stand on Li Dingguo's side.

As long as Sun Kewang does not initiate infighting, it is impossible for Li Dingguo to take the initiative to infighting.

"Looks like it's up to us."

Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh, realizing that the Northern Expedition had to rely on Jiangnan, and Jiangnan Yang Chao had the final say, and none of the top ten soldiers under his command had two hearts.

And Sun Kewang Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu are relatively independent of each other, but they can't be twisted into a rope. (To be continued......)