Zhu Shuren led an army of 100,000 people, left Beijing on August 24, and after a short march of six or seven days, passed through the Yangtze River, Weixushui, Chaohu Lake, and Weishui, and successfully arrived in Hefei on the first day of September.

His arrival, of course, greatly boosted the morale of the Ming army in Luzhou Prefecture. Huang Degong, Huang Fei, Jin Shenghuan, Lin Yangcheng and other generals all showed their flags, lined up the whole line, and went out of the city to meet them at the Huangshui Wharf.

"The last general greets the prince!"

"The prince is like a god with soldiers, and with the prince in charge, the Huaibei Tartars will definitely be wiped out!"

"Eh, the army should be called the Metropolitan Governor, and the number of etiquette cannot be abolished."

After being sought after by the generals, Zhu Shuren raised his hand lightly to stop everyone's boasting, and entered the city with the reins, while casually asking about the military situation:

"How is the battle on the front, where are the Tartars fighting?"

Huang Degong has been in charge of the defense of the theater around Hefei for many years, and of course he is responsible for reporting, and he said: "It has been more than half a month since the Tatar attack, and 10 days ago I began to try to encircle Shou County.

In accordance with the instructions of the prince before the war, our army cleared the wilderness and did not seek to fight for an inch of land for a while, so the front-line field soldiers and horses all shrank into Shou County and let the Tartars encircle.

Outside the city, only the Bagong Mountain village that faces the city of Shou County across the river is left, and there are heavy troops to defend it according to the danger, and it becomes a corner. And it can cut off the water to prevent the Tartar troop carriers and grain ships from stealing into the water from the Huai River.

Since the truce between our army and Tatar in the first year of Longwu, in the past two and a half years, there has been a solid operation of Shou County City defense and the construction of Bagongshan Dazhai, and a number of forts have been built on Bagong Mountain, and the firing angles of the gun positions are also precisely designed, which is enough to completely cover the surface of the Weishui River.

There is also a large amount of grain storage in the camp on the mountain, and a water diversion waterway has been built, which can protect a key point of taking water from the Weishui River, and the Tartars want to attack the mountain, the difficulty will not be lower than that of attacking the Shou County Chengchi, and it is absolutely impossible to cut off grain and water. ”

Huang Degong's explanation, Zhu Shuren was a little unintuitive just listening, but fortunately, everyone was chatting on horses, and it didn't take long to enter the city and arrive at Huang Degong's shogunate. Huang Degong immediately asked people to take the map and pointed out the supplementary explanation.

The reason why Shou County has been a battleground for the confrontation between the north and the south since ancient times is because this place is the mouth of the Huai River. The water passes through Chaohu Lake and Weixu Water to communicate the Yangtze River.

In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, this waterway can connect the Jianghuai, and then go down to the Hangou Canal between Yangzhou and Huai'an, which is about to enter the sea.

The city of Shou County is located on the south bank of the three-way junction of the Huai River and the Huaishui River (both in Huainan and Huainan), where the Huai River flows from the southwest to the northeast, and then forks out of the Huaishui in the southeast.

Therefore, in order to completely cut off the water, it is necessary to garrison troops on the east bank of the three forks, that is, at the corner between Huainan and Huaibei.

And the east bank of the three-way junction, because of the high and rugged terrain, it is impossible to build a city, and there is only one Bagong Mountain, so you can only build a cottage. In other words, the reason why the Huai River flows here and forks is because it is blocked by Bagong Mountain.

This Bagong Mountain is also very famous in history - that's right, it is the Bagong Mountain that left the idiom "On Bagong Mountain, the grass and trees are soldiers" was left during the Battle of Weishui in the Eastern Qin Dynasty.

Of course, the confrontation between the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties on the battlefield of Shouxian is still significantly different from the battle of Weishui more than 1,000 years ago.

Because during the Battle of Weishui, the former Qin army had already conquered Shou County, took the land on the west bank of the mouth of the Weishui River, and forced the Eastern Jin Dynasty army to the point that only the east bank could be defended, resulting in the Eastern Jin Dynasty to station the main force on Bagong Mountain and the flat area on the south side of the mountain.

Therefore, in the final decisive battle, Xie Xuan needed to send someone to talk to the Qin army, asking Fu Jian not to be too cowardly, to step back a little, and to give up a vacant land on the west bank of the river for the Jin army to cross the river.

And now, both Shou County and Bagong Mountain are in the hands of the Ming army, and the Qing army can only pull a larger encirclement, including Shou County and Bagong Mountain, trying to slowly encroach on them.

However, the Ming and Qing dynasties have been truces for two and a half years, and in the past two and a half years, Zhu Shuren has devoted himself to farming, and has been deducing the development direction of the war situation when the war reopens in the future. How could he not spend money to run these cutting-edge choke points?

Three years ago, Zhang Huang's Nanyang County had already made Azig miserable. Abatai Yue Le and the others are just because they didn't participate in the front-line attack back then, and they haven't suffered this kind of hardship, so they are more or less light on the enemy.

But today, Shou County and Bagong Mountain, which have been armed by the Zhu Shuren for two and a half years, have been equipped with flowering shell batteries and fortresses, and they have also undergone a sophisticated cross-fire covering design to ensure that there are absolutely no dead ends, and they can definitely make Abatai collapse his mouth!

……

"Abatai is old and ignorant, don't you know how his younger brothers retreated under the Daming Jiancheng back then? He won't storm Shou County and Bagong Mountain, right? ”

After understanding the front-line battle situation that took place before he arrived, Zhu Shuren couldn't help but smile easily.

He wished that Abatai would attack well and kill more people in the battle.

Impressed by the spirit of Zhu Shuren, the shogunate was also full of a relaxed atmosphere, and all the generals had relaxed expressions, Huang Degong couldn't help but smile and said:

As expected by the prince, Abatai was indeed more radical than the other Qing army generals at the beginning. However, after knocking out a few teeth, it also stopped.

Beginning on August 20, he tried to storm the county, first attacking Shou County, fighting for four or five days, losing troops and losing no gain, it is estimated that he lost two or three thousand people, and then turned around and went to fight Bagongshan Dazhai.

Don't look at the seemingly incoherent city walls on Bagong Mountain, only some small sections of walls and forts that intercept the mountain road. As a result, because of this, Abatai felt several times as if he could see an opportunity if he fought again, but he was seduced more and more desperately, and within five or six days, the number of dead and wounded soldiers and horses was several percent more than the number of soldiers and horses who attacked Shou County.

However, I heard that most of the casualties in the siege were the Han army banners and the new green battalions of the Tartars, and those real Tartars were not used to attack the city for consumption, which is a pity. We don't expect to kill the northern Han people to make more military achievements, but I hope that after their morale is low, they will be able to get lost in the future, knowing that the Tartars are just using them as cannon fodder, and it would be good if they were willing to defect to my Ming Dynasty in the decisive battle. ”

Zhu Shuren was not surprised by this result. During the reign of Chongzhen, the Han people in the north were indeed more miserable than in the south, and it was normal for them to have no feelings for the Ming Dynasty, or even only disgust.

It is impossible to expect that now that the situation in Daming has improved, and Dingxin has reformed, the green camp will directly abandon the darkness and turn to the light. Especially in Dolgon's exhaustive fishing in the past few years, the green camp is the beneficiary class, which is equivalent to being raised to become an "assistant of the ruling class", and the treatment is not bad, how can it be true that the heart is Ming?

On the contrary, it is the ruling class that is purely oppressed, and the poor people who have not been soldiers among the Han people in the north are the easier targets of the Ming Dynasty, and they recognize that it is better to mix with the Tartars than with the Ming Dynasty.

The green camp is already a group of people who have the most potential to be traitors, and there is no way to do it, only to beat the pain first, punish the one who comes out, and fight to death.

He also said pragmatically: "For the time being, it is not the turn of the poor to win over the green battalion, at least in the battle of Lianghuai, this is impossible, if you want our Han people to die less in the civil war, first imagine how to fight this series of decisive battles beautifully."

When the northern Han people see that Qinggou has no future, they will naturally rethink. It's still a stalemate, and it's too early to say that. Let's continue to introduce, what did the Qing army do after the defeat of the attack on Bagong Mountain. ”

Huang Degong: "The Tartars stormed Bagong Mountain for days, and after losing their troops, they seemed to be inclined to change to a long-term siege, especially in the first two days, the Qing army scouts also found out the intelligence, knowing that your reinforcements were about to arrive in Hefei.

Abatai surrounded Shou County, and divided the main force to go south along the river by land to meet the prince, so as not to suffer the enemy on the back of the Qing army in the encirclement of Shou County.

Look at this posture, it is still an old-fashioned encirclement point to send reinforcements, surround Shou County and Bagong Mountain, cut off the food and grass of the defending army, and hope that after a long time, my Hefei army will go to the rescue, and then fight a decisive battle with the Hefei reinforcements. ”

When Zhu Shuren heard this, he showed a satisfied smile: "It seems that the Tartars still feel that they are invincible in the field?" How did Dordor die three years ago, they forgot? ”

Huang Degong sorted out his language and said euphemistically: "Lord Wang, with all due respect, although Abatai's thinking is old-fashioned, but if you put yourself in your shoes, the Tartars really have no more choices. They can't help it, they can't spend it anymore, they always have to find a way to fight a decisive battle, and try to hit my main force hard.

And to tell the truth, among the Tartar generals, there are still a considerable number of them who are quite dissatisfied with the battle of the fall of Duoduo three years ago, and feel that Duoduo is because of the rash advance, the lone army went deep, and was besieged in the south of the Yangtze River.

Later, after three sieges and wars of attrition in Nanjing, Jinshan Temple, and Jiangyin, more than half of his soldiers and horses were lost, and his materials and armaments were extremely depleted.

Therefore, those Qing army generals who did not participate in the Battle of Jiangnan three years ago generally believed that this was a special case. I think that if the Qing army was not consumed in advance and lost more than half of its ammunition, but at the beginning of the decisive battle with our Daming field, they would still have a great chance of winning. ”

Zhu Shuren was stunned for a moment, and then relieved, it turned out that Tartar thought so:

"If they're willing to think that, that's for the best. Okay, let them see this time, the Qing army has not been cut off from supplies in advance, and the combat strength is complete, and the decisive battle with me in the field is not complete, can we win in the end!

How many centaurs are there along the way? How far did the other Qing armies know him, and how many soldiers and horses were there? ”

Zhu Shuren will not fight unprepared battles, even if they have the intention of a decisive battle, they must find out the enemy's reality first. He also got some information when he was in Nanjing, but after all, it was not as accurate as the data updated in real time on the Hefei front.

Huang Degong and others also hurriedly summarized and gave feedback on the collected situation:

The Qing army used a total of no less than three or four hundred thousand troops in this southern expedition! However, it is also divided into four fronts.

Haoge, who tore Wu Sangui apart in Tongguan in the west, had the weakest troops, only 20,000 Manchurian soldiers, about one flag for each, plus a Han army flag, and Jiang Jiu of the Shanxi Green Battalion as a strategic reserve. The total number of occupants does not exceed 50,000.

The second weakest was the Qing army in Huai'an, the easternmost province, with only 40,000 or 50,000 men.

Originally, before the war, the Qing army had four routes of men and horses on the battlefield in Huai'an, namely Mandahai stationed in Suqian, Geng Zhongming stationed in Pizhou, Shang Shan stationed in Xuzhou, and Kong Youde stationed in Haizhou (Lianyungang) (this army was mainly a naval division), and these four roads added up to at least 80,000 people.

However, at the beginning of the war, because of the adjustment of the strategic focus, the Qing army only defended the Huai'an road and did not attack, so it transferred Shangshan and Geng Zhongming to the west, and in the Huai'an battlefield, the army only left Mandahai, and the naval division only left Kong Youde, so the strength of the army there was also reduced by nearly half, and all of them were added to the side of Fengyang, Shouxian, and Hefei.

So much so that before this wave of dispatching, Abatai's troops were originally not much more than Azig, but after 40,000 more troops out of thin air, Abatai jumped to the absolute strongest of the four Qing armies in one fell swoop.

Azig's troops in Nanyang are less than 100,000, and Abatai originally had more than 100,000 troops in Fengyang, plus more than 40,000 reinforcements, the total strength is actually similar to the Ming army in the Hefei Theater and the reinforcements brought by Zhu Shuren.

Huang Degong can't figure out the specific number too clearly, but basically the Ming and Qing dynasties are between 15 and 200,000 troops, and the difference will not exceed one or two percent - Zhu Shuren now has 180,000 people, and the enemy on the opposite side is at least one percent less than him, and at most more than one percent more than him.

Zhu Shuren touched his beard and calculated: "It seems that the troops are evenly matched, not bad, a rare fair battle." What about the composition of the force? ”

Huang Degong: "Three of the eight banners, two white flags directly under Dolgon and the blue flag of Abatai, plus two Mongolian army flags, a total of 40,000 to 50,000 cavalry. In addition, there are 20,000 Han soldiers and about 100,000 green battalion soldiers.

The two white flags were completely annihilated by our army three years ago, so they were all rebuilt in the past two and a half years with the two white flag reserve soldiers in the rear and the officers drawn from the two yellow flags. Those Mongolian military flags were also heavily damaged at the beginning, and they were later returned to the rear to replenish and fill up, and their combat strength is estimated to have decreased compared with their heyday.

Dorgon has always liked to use his own descendants' troops to fight the main offensive battlefield that is easy to take credit, and let the other troops play the secondary battlefield to be responsible for containment. This is still the case.

A few days ago, some prisoners were captured in the scout battle, and they all said that within the Qing court, there were many people who opposed the resumption of the southern expedition this year, and the people were not in harmony, and some soldiers and horses were not very able to move, so Dolgon could only rely on the descendants to win some battles first, which proved that his decision was correct. ”

After listening to this information, Zhu Shuren was completely relieved: in this way, winning this battle can not only severely damage the Qing army, but may even tear apart the ruling unity within the Qing court, so that Dolgon's Yiyantang will also be completely challenged, which is a good thing.

In this case, he has more determination and ambition to fight a good battle, not only to win on the physical level, but also to win the good-looking, to destroy the psychological advantage of the Tartars on the psychological level, so that they can doubt themselves, reflect, and even finally infighting!

After smoothing out his thoughts, Zhu Shuren sighed and clapped: "Originally, Gu also planned to use more tricks, improvisation, consume as much as he could, and then try to fight a decisive battle."

But since the people inside the Tartars are also so uneven, we must not only win, but also win so that the Tartars have no excuse at all! Because if Dodor died as he did three years ago, and the Tartar felt that 'this is bad luck and a special case under special circumstances', then Dorgon would still be able to maintain his policy and make the Tartar still willing to throw resources into this pit.

Only if the Tartars see clearly: even if they fight a tough battle, they will still be crushed by my Daming in a dignified manner, then the Tartars will reflect - everything is Dolgon's decision to resume the war itself is very wrong!

We must use military victories to induce political infighting among the Tartars! Completely extinguished their luck mentality! For this, even if thousands of soldiers are killed in battle...... I'm afraid I can only endure it.

All sacrifices are sacrifices for the sake of the overall situation in the future. Sometimes you have to use intrigue and trickery, and sometimes you have to use a dignified teacher, which is a good match, and it can destroy the enemy's psychology even more! ”

Cao Bianjiao brought by Zhu Shuren, and even Huang Degong and Huang Fei in Hefei, all thought it was true.

These people were brave and resolute generals, but now that their weapons and equipment have been upgraded, and the morale of the troops has also risen to a higher level, they are confident that they will defeat the Tartars in a dignified battle!

It's time.

Zhu Shuren saw the attitude of the generals and united as one, so he ordered: "Reinforcements come from afar, and they are stationed for three days to rest, and after three days, they will slowly march north and set up camp, fight steadily, and give the Qing army besieging Shou County to go down to the battle letter, and ask them to fight a decisive battle!" ”

……

Three days passed negligently, and in a blink of an eye, on the fifth day of the ninth month, in the siege camp of Shou County, which had been slightly apprehensive in recent days, Abatai, the commander of the Qing Army's Middle Route Army, finally received Zhu Shuren's war letter.

Abatai is the seventh son of Nuer Hachi, the elder brother of Huang Taiji, and is now very old.

He is fifty-eight years old this year, three years older than Huangtai Jihai, and he should have died of illness in March this year, but now he has lived a few more months for the butterfly effect, probably because he is more reused by the imperial court than the same period in history, and people are in good spirits when they are happy.

But the natural limits of physiology cannot be violated, and even if Abatai is still alive, he is already riddled with old age and illness, and he has been lying on the couch and rarely gets up. In fact, the affairs of the army are mainly worried about by the two sons Yue Le and Bolo.

In the past half a month, Shang Shan and Geng Zhongming have been transferred from the east to his dispatch, but in fact, Yue Le and Bo Luo are also in charge of one, and Abatai rarely asks about the details.

In addition to his two sons and other defenders, Abatai's men are also young rookies. Three years ago, the two white flags were wiped out, and later the reserve force was rebuilt, so that many officers who were originally second-line, as well as middle-aged generals who were converted from civilian to military service, got a chance to stand out.

For example, when Zilharang planned the personnel work for the preparation of the two white flags, he mainly pulled people from the yellow flags directly under the emperor to mix sand. So the button cobalt with the yellow flag. Yin Erden, Niu Colu. Middle-level generals such as Kupilon were all transferred.

The original civilian transfer of the two white flags, or the conversion of second-line generals to regulars, there are Ekeqin, Bambulshan, and Sukh Saha and others from the Tabai lineage, anyway, these people are the elites of the two white flags who survived the battle of the destruction of Duoduo three years ago.

In history, many of these people were only ranked as Zaifu after ten or twenty years, when Shunzhi died, and now they are only middle and high-level generals.

At this moment, Abatai got the war book of the Ming army, of course, he should pay attention to it, and he gathered the main generals on the battlefield in Shou County together to discuss whether to go to the decisive battle.

Yue Le and Bo Luo ranked first in the left and right classes, followed by Shang Shan and Geng Zhongming, followed by Yin Erden, Kubilong, Ekeqin, Bambulshan, and Suke Saha.

"Zhu Shuren came down to fight and asked me to wait for three days to fight a decisive battle in Shaobi, how to fight the enemy?" Abatai took the scroll sent by Zhu Shuren and shook it at the generals.

The generals did not know the content of the war book in advance, and they were all shocked when they heard it, it was like cold water splashing into an oil pot, and they were directly cheated.

Yue Le: "What? The Southern Barbarians actually dared to take the initiative to ask me to fight a decisive battle in the Qing Dynasty? Or is it a field battle? Is Zhu Shuren, a scheming traitor, crazy? Could it be a fraud? ”

Bolo: "The Southern Barbarians are about to fight in Shaobei? This terrain is relatively cramped, and it is indeed not conducive to the development of the army, but why should our army listen to them? Isn't it okay to volley halfway? ”

The two main generals were the first to express their opinions, and the other generals also took this statement seriously.

Everyone thought it was incredible, and after pondering for a while, Suke Saha, who was less qualified, deduced in a consultative tone:

"I don't know if the southern barbarians are specifically on the south bank or the north bank of Shaoshui? Could it be that he wants to repeat the battle of Weishui in the Eastern Jin Dynasty of Qin and Jin? Let our army retreat a piece of land on the north bank of Shaoshui so that the Ming army can cross the river for a decisive battle?

That's whimsical, underestimate me! Fu Jian is such a wretch, he is known as a million people, but the people's hearts are uneven, and they will collapse as soon as they retreat! I am as clear as the sun, all of us are united, even if I retreat a little, I can return to kill anytime and anywhere! When the time comes, the Ming army will be killed halfway and not a piece of armor will be left! ”

Sukh Saha also spoke to take advantage of the opportunity to perform. When he said this, he pointed to the map.

Between Hefei and Shou County, there is a total distance of about 123 miles, and the whole journey is along the river. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the State of Chu ordered Yin Sun Shu Ao to repair the water conservancy project "Shaobei", and then the local swamp gradually became a polder, and the low-lying area was further dredged for water storage.

Shaobi is an inverted triangle shape that is wide in the north and narrow in the south, the northernmost point, the place closest to the water is only five or six miles wide, there is a small river there, it is called Shaoshui, and the water of Shaobi flows out of the lake from there and flows into the water.

The further south the lake becomes, the narrower it becomes, the farther the lake is from the water, to the southernmost point of Shaobi, about twenty-five miles away from the water.

The army of the Zhu Shuren went north from Hefei to reinforce Shou County, while the army of Abatai went south from the south of Shou County to meet them.

Of course, if Abataiken retreated, he could also retreat his troops further north of the north entrance of Shaobi, and put the Ming army into the open area to fight again, so as to avoid the narrow terrain with water on both the left and right.

In the same way, if the Ming army retreated dozens of miles north of Hefei and insisted on not going north, then the Qing army could also be further south and put it in a spacious area further south of the south entrance of Shaobi to fight.

The Qing army had the advantage of cavalry, and it must have been realized that the more open and convenient the battlefield, the more advantageous it would be.

And the Ming army is good at battle, and can force the enemy to a decisive battle in a space that cannot be detoured, and it can also take advantage of it.

The trade-off between this depends on the urgency of the generals of the two sides.

Sukh Saha also knew this, so he was inclined to let the Ming army cross Shaoshui, leave the narrowest north entrance of Shaobei, and put it in the open field north of Shaobi for a decisive battle.

At that time, the Ming army will have to suffer the disadvantage of fighting against the water. If you are defeated by the Qing army after crossing the Shaoshui, it will be difficult to escape if you want to, and you will be driven directly down to the Shaoshui and drowned.

Of course, the Ming army must have the advantage of a naval division, and there are warships that can advance along the river, and they can more or less meet the army. And the Qing army had no ships available on that battlefield.

Because Shou County and Bagong Mountain were still in the hands of the Ming army, the forts in the east of Shou County and the batteries on Bagong Mountain could completely block the Huai River-Weishui estuary, and it was impossible for the Qing army's ships to drive to the south through that point.

However, Sukh Saha's opinion was quickly refuted by Shang Shan, who had suffered three years earlier:

"Don't be underestimated! Even if Zhu Shuren is trying to recreate the battle of Weishui, our army can't easily let the barbarians cross the river just because the Qing Dynasty is united!

The Southern Barbarians are too skillful and skillful in inducing our army to retreat and pretending to force their way across the river to pursue them! In the decisive battle of Jiangyin three years ago, the left wing army under the command of Prince Yu fell for the treacherous plan of the Southern Barbarians!

At that time, the southern barbarians also put on a posture to resist our army's defenders on the east bank of the Hengtang River, forcibly cross the river, and threaten the left flank of the prince. At that time, General Li felt that it would not hurt to be pressed by the Ming army's musket fire across the river to temporarily retreat, and sooner or later he could wait for the first batch of Ming army pioneers to cross the river, and then turn back to kill Bandu and attack.

But the result? The Ming army is good at using cavalry artillery! It's very flexible, you can deploy it forward, and you can fire immediately wherever you pull! In the end, our army wanted to counterattack, but was blocked by the cavalry artillery of the Ming army and a kind of high-throw and curved flowering artillery, causing the Ming army to unexpectedly stand firm!

If you still do this now, I'm afraid that the Ming army will repeat the old tricks! Zhu Shuren is not betting at all that the morale of our army will be as low as the former Qin army, he is betting on the field artillery deployed by the Ming army in rapid advance, which can consolidate the landing ground formed after the retreat of our army's troops along the river!

Moreover, the Ming army still has the advantage of sailors on the battlefield of Weishui, we have no boats, the enemy has boats, if the enemy's warships equipped with cannons are directly inserted into Shaoshui to cover the Ming army's crossing of the river, it will be difficult for us to stop, and we will only lose the opportunity. ”

Shang Shan is not a brain among the generals of the Qing army, but after all, he is also the senior general who has the most experience in the series of battles three years ago and has returned alive. As the saying goes, if you eat a trench, you will grow wise, he has eaten so many defeats, and he knows the enemy very well, and he is already the "living fossil that eats the most trenches" under the command of Abatai at present.

For his opinion, Abatai could not but pay attention to it. Abatai coughed a few times, wheezed and clapped:

"Shang Shan, you don't have to lose too much and lose your ambition and lose the prestige of our army. But what you say is not unreasonable. The Ming army is good at flexibly deploying artillery in front of the front, which our army has not been able to master so far.

Our artillery is mostly bulky, and except for the Franc machine, it cannot be quickly deployed at the front line. The Ming army still has the advantage of sailors, so leaving an extra river across the battlefield is one more variable after all.

It is better for our army to go south in advance, cross Shaoshui first, and then go forward for dozens of miles, advance to the south entrance of Shaobi, and set up a position in a relatively open area to meet the Ming army. Moreover, after our army crosses the Shaoshui River, it can divide the auxiliary troops to fill the Shaoshui estuary,

It is not necessary to completely block the flow of water and cause it to flood, but at least to narrow and fill in the mouth of the Shaoshui River so that gunboats cannot sail from the water into the water. In this way, the artillery of the Ming army could not appear in the rear of our army, and our army could advance and retreat freely. ”

Isn't the advantage of the Ming army that where there is a river, there can be gunboats passing through, and then rely on the artillery on the river to help suppress the battle? If the waterway is temporarily filled, won't it be able to abolish this advantage of the Ming army!

Abatai felt that his consideration was already to maximize the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages, and chose the battlefield in the most suitable position for the northern cavalry troops.

The generals thought about it for a while, and their sons actually thought of some risks, but they were very confident and didn't want to hurt their father's face, so they didn't say anything.

Among the other generals, only the most stable and conservative Curb Pilon put forward a point: "If this is the case with the king of Rao Jun (Abatai's title is the king of the county), wouldn't it bring our army into a situation of fighting against the water?"

Our army crossed the Shaoshui first, if it could not rush into the open area south of the south of the Shaobi South Entrance, but was blocked by the Ming Army in the north of the Shaobi South Mouth in the triangle area, then there is the east of the water, the west of the Shaobei, the north of the Shaoshui, only the south side of the Ming army from the direction of the road, there is an open and flat land route can be detoured.

The Ming army blocked us in a place surrounded by water on three sides, trying to attack and encircle us, how to avoid it? ”

As soon as Kubilong's words came out, no one in the generals next to him accused him of being logically wrong, but except for Suke Saha, Erke and others who were of the same status as him and were not good at laughing at shame, or Shang Shan, who had suffered a few times, was relatively low-key. The others who are higher in status than Curb Pilon are all laughing:

"The Southern Barbarians want to block our army in a battlefield surrounded by water on three sides, so they will encircle and annihilate our army? There is a front of twenty or thirty miles wide between the south entrance of Shaobi and the river, can't my Eight Banners Iron Cavalry break through the front?

If the southern barbarians want to block us, they will also temporarily rush north, and it is impossible to have time to preset camps, trenches, and roads at the south entrance of Shaobi. In the plains and fields, you still want to stop me from breaking through head-on with Eight Banners? ”

"You think the prince is planning to take risks, then you should say a better way! Is this method risky, or is it more risky to let the southern barbarians cross the peony water? There is no perfect strategy in the world, there must be a trade-off with soldiers, you want to occupy everything, and the people of Zhu Shu will not dare to come to fight with us! ”

The last opinion of the generals is not rough.

If Zhu Shuren couldn't get a suitable fighter, he would not be easily forced to fight by the Qing army.

Since going north from Hefei City, the last 120 miles of the road, Zhu Shuren walked very carefully, basically reproducing Zeng Guofan's "hard village, dumb battle", every 30 miles to the north, to set up a camp, and then the battalion to the north to fight steadily.

One hundred and twenty miles, if he is allowed to complete the whole journey, he can build a total of three villages in the middle. As soon as he realized that something was wrong, he immediately retreated into the stockade and defended it.

Therefore, he asked Abatai to fight a decisive battle, and Abatai also had to show some sincerity and give a little blood, otherwise he would choose a battlefield geography and battle timing that was purely beneficial to the Qing army, and Zhu Shuren could completely avoid the battle.

After weighing the generals, the Qing army commanders finally decided to take the initiative to cross Shaoshui south in advance at a suitable time, and then fight a fair battle with the Ming army in the area between Shaobi and Weishui.