Chapter 391: The Battle of Huzhou (I)
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The Qing army's sailors stationed up and down on the field, except for the largest group in Poyang Lake, the largest number of others was less than 3,000, and the more than 1,000 Zhapu sailors in Hangzhou Bay were crippled and captured by Zheng Jing's sailors in just one face, but none of Zheng Jing's sailors could enter the Yangtze River, and the Zhenjiang sailors not far from the mouth of the Yangtze River dared to set up a large number of forts, and the Zheng Junshui division could not pass at all. Originally, the Mawei Navy also sent forty fifth-level warships to enter the Yangtze River, but it was blocked along the way, and the price needed to be paid was greater, so it retreated, and it was still difficult to defeat the Poyang Navy Division with forty fifth-level warships, even if the Poyang Navy Division's combat power was not good.
This time, the trip could not be carried out, mainly because the Poyang Navy Division was transferred to the Yangtze River, and there were thousands of large and small ships, covering the sky and the sun, and the Mawei Navy was completely unable to get down. However, Geng Jingzhong also made an empirical mistake, it is not that large ships of more than 2,000 tons cannot sail on the Yangtze River, from Jinling in Jiangsu Province to Wuhan in Hubei, that is, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, if there are no low bridges in later generations, even 10,000-ton cargo ships will sail in the same way.
He walked on the Yangtze River, and he knew something about the Yangtze River in later generations, and when the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was built, it was considered a great victory of the great man's thoughts. However, the planning and design of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is defective, and the bridge clearance is insufficient, which limits the optimal use of the Yangtze River golden waterway. In later generations, our country was originally a planned economic country, and there should be no phenomenon of planned countries having no plans. The construction of such a heavy project as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge should not only focus on railway and highway traffic. Ignoring the needs of the Yangtze River shipping. But scientists and engineering technicians of the country at that time. It's just the hair that clings to this piece of skin of the party. Their ability lies in listening to the party's words, and their ability lies in turning the intentions of the government into planning and design, into construction blueprints, and into physical objects. They did not dare to express their opinions in front of the political authorities, in fact, they did not learn to form their own opinions. And that's how it turned out.
When Geng Jingzhong was learning knowledge, he only knew that there were no big ships sailing on the Yangtze River, and he remembered that the number was in the early 2,000s. According to his estimates, his third- and fourth-class warships could not enter the Yangtze River, so he had to send fifth-class warships over. However, forty fifth-class warships and numerous auxiliary warships could not form much combat effectiveness on the Yangtze River, and in the face of the Qing army's naval division, which covered the sky and the sun, they had no choice but to retreat.
As soon as the Mawei battalion meeting ended, the General Staff Department recorded and summarized the spirit of the meeting, and specially convened all the written posts on the issue of strengthening the combat consciousness of the whole army, made a warrant, and then issued it to all units at and above the battalion level of the whole army. There is only one purpose, to remind all the horsetail generals that they can no longer be careless, and they must do their best to crack the measures that the enemy may have against them. Make the most of your strengths to destroy your enemies.
The transfer of troops is also in the process of being carried out urgently, and the troops of the two old units of the First and Second Divisions remaining in Fujian still have eight battalions and 8,000 men. This time, they were all transferred out and entered Jiangxi to participate in the battle. As for Fujian Province, only one-third of the tens of thousands of new troops were transferred away, and there were still 20,000 new troops, and now they were also transferred to various provinces in Fujian to take over the officers and men of the first and second divisions. All the soldiers and horses were not transferred to the navy and Guangdong, and they remained in place.
Chen Menglei proposed to recruit new soldiers, and after several discussions, he also unanimously obtained the tongguò, but for the disabled and discharged soldiers, it was not used on a large scale, but only recalled the injured ones who were not too serious, such as only breaking an arm, so that the movement is not hindered, and the soldiers who can usually take care of themselves completely, and their own skills have not been put down, and in the end, it is estimated that only 1,000 people can echo the requirements. This is much different from the original requirements, but Wang Zhenbang took the initiative to transfer some naval officers and men as instructors, which directly solved the problem.
Although most of the training of Admiral Mawei has been at sea and staying on warships in the past two years, he has not let go of basic skills training in peacetime. It is impossible for officers and men of the Navy to stay on the warship all day long, and there are also times when they conduct land combat training in the naval camp, and they can be said to be able to grasp the training of formations, cross-country and so on, after all, they also underwent three months of recruit training before they were assigned to the Navy to start naval skills training.
The recruitment of 100,000 recruits is not a trivial matter, and all preparations will take more than 10 days. A month later, the first batch of new troops will have been training for more than four months, and there will be no problem even if they pull out of the city and fight the enemy in the field. In four months, I trained every day, even if I had never held a knife or gun, I could run 10 kilometers and shoot fluently, but I still needed to go through the experience of blood on the battlefield in terms of combat awareness, but this was not something that could be refined in a day or two.
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In the middle of the night in August, it is difficult for people who know the noise to sleep. But no matter how irritable the sound was, it couldn't interfere with the rest of the Qing army, who had been busy all day. Under the bite of the mosquitoes in the summer, the soldiers of the Eight Banners and most of the Green Battalion soldiers had already fallen asleep, and only the patrolmen in charge of the damage were still patrolling the city wall seriously. However, looking at the patrol soldiers on this city wall, it is obvious that there are many more than half a month ago.
This is the city of Suzhou, a famous prosperous city in the world, even if it is the capital, it is not much stronger than Suzhou. The ancient city of Suzhou is staggered with rivers and ports, and the lakes are densely packed, and the most famous lakes are Taihu Lake and Cao Lake in the west corner; There are Dianshan Lake and Chenghu Lake in the east; There is Kuncheng Lake in the north; There are Yangcheng Lake, Jinji Lake and Dushu Lake; The Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal run through the north of the city. After the water volume of Taihu Lake is discharged into the river in the north and enters the Dianmao River in the east, it enters the river through the Huangpu River; The water volume of the canal enters the Wangting from the west and goes out of Shengze in the south; Due to the vertical and horizontal rivers in Suzhou, it is also known as the water capital, water city, and water town. Polo's Travels praises Suzhou as the Venice of the East. The ancient city of Suzhou was praised by the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu as a 'miraculous workmanship'.
It's just that at this moment, there are a large number of soldiers and horses stationed in the city of Gusu, and the remnants of the Pingnan general Lai Ta and the Zhejiang general Tula are stationed in Suzhou, and at the same time defend the sea frontier; Originally, at the beginning, the Qing court wanted Dingnan general Hilgen to enter Zhejiang to assist Tula and the deputy general Harhaqi to deal with Geng Jingzhong, but at this time, the northern part of Zhejiang was occupied by Zheng Jing's army, and the two southern provinces were also taken by the Mawei army, and Hilgen was trapped in Ji'an Province, and the Qing army had to station heavy troops in Suzhou to deal with Zheng Jing's army.
Jiaxing has been captured by Shi Lang's army, if the Zheng army takes Huzhou again, then it will definitely attack Suzhou to the north, at this time his goal has not yet reached Suzhou, first take Huzhou he can deal with the Suzhou Qing army on the back with peace of mind. Huzhou west of the Tianmu Mountains, the territory of the heavy hills, the mountains, only after taking Huzhou, he did not have to worry about the Qing army from the direction of Anhui to Zhejiang, otherwise when he dealt with the Qing army in Suzhou, the Qing army was coming out from behind. With his troops, he couldn't deal with it at all.
However, Suzhou can already be said to be the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River, the Qing court will never allow Suzhou to be lost, 20,000 people under the command of Pingnan General Lai Ta entered Suzhou City early, and Zhejiang General Tula also led the remnants of more than 7,000 people into Suzhou after being defeated by Shi Lang. The follow-up Qing army soldiers and horses were still coming in a steady stream, and Kangxi directly issued three holy decrees to mobilize 40,000 troops to Suzhou for reinforcements to assist Lai Ta in eliminating the Zheng army and recovering Zhejiang. Shi Lang set up 10,000 elite soldiers and horses to stay in Jiaxing City, and he led 5,000 troops to Huzhou.
Huzhou Governor Lu Yu has not slept these days, not far away Zheng Jun attacked Jiaxing Mansion shouts and kills seem to be able to reach Huzhou, so he has been urging the deputy general in the city Harhaqi to strengthen the city defense, he is timid but does not mean that Harhaqi is also timid, Harhazi should have been in Suzhou City, but before the Zhejiang general Tula led the remnants to retreat towards Suzhou, he had arranged for him to garrison Huzhou with 2,000 soldiers and horses, at this time he either defended the city and waited for the imperial court reinforcements, Either retreat in the direction of Yicheng, Anhui. After all, Harhazi is the deputy general of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the pride of the Manchus makes him unwilling to lead the army to retreat, so he decided to stick to the reinforcements, if he holds Huzhou, then the Qing reinforcements on the Anhui side will be restored to the package to go over, and then he will lead the army and the Pingnan general of Suzhou Lai Ta together to counterattack Shi Lang, then the certainty of victory will become great, such credit is not easy to obtain, this is also a fight.
It's only been a long time, just half a month, the capital of Zhejiang Hangzhou City and the important town of Jiaxing Mansion fell into the hands of Shi Lang, this sea thunderbolt can not only fight naval battles, land warfare is also proficient, Hangzhou City is a surprise attack, Shi Lang only took three days to occupy all of Hangzhou, and Jiaxing Mansion is more difficult, Zhejiang General Tula with 15,000 soldiers stationed in the Pinghu camp outside Jiaxing City, learned that Hangzhou fell immediately after leading troops to hold Jiaxing, Shi Lang led his troops to storm for eight days, and three red-coated cannons were destroyed before he took Jiaxing City. But after taking Jiaxing City, just a little rest, Shi Lang took these 5,000 elite Zheng soldiers to Huzhou. (To be continued......)
PS: There is a big chapter in the evening.