Out of consideration for the annihilation of as much of the Qing army's vital forces as possible in the pass,

Don't leave these real tartars who come and go like the wind to the battlefield outside the border in the future, and then clean them up, and strive to kill one more if they can.

After Zhang Huangyan's military discussion that day, he roughly sorted out a new combat strategy: he had to choose to temporarily hold on to each other on the frontal battlefield, consume Haoge, and wait for a better opportunity to exhaust the enemy and encircle and annihilate him-

Haven't all the main forces of Haorge been gathered in the border area between the Daimyo's Mansion and the Gwangpyeong Mansion and Dongchang Mansion? The rest of Shandong, which was controlled by the Qing army, and some of the marginal areas where Hebei meets Shanxi, are now empty.

In addition to the 300,000 main forces of the Ming army, which are responsible for sticking to Haoge in the front, there are 150,000 people by land from east to west and 50,000 by sea, which can be outflanked in a roundabout way.

Of course, at the military meeting that day, many generals who knew the army also pointed out a problem: This kind of method of advancing on both flanks and striving for an encirclement posture on three sides must not be rushed -- because once such measures are taken, the Qing army will be fighting on the inside line, and 25 to 300,000 people will be twisted into an iron fist, and it will have an advantage in troop dispatch.

Once the left and right flanks of the Ming army go deeper, the Qing army seized the opportunity to fight all the way to the Ming army, it is easy to collapse and fall into danger, especially the Qing army's cavalry has a high proportion and moves quickly, so the risk is even greater.

Thirty years ago, in the Battle of Salhu, didn't the Ming army just want to finish its work in one battle and strive to encircle and annihilate more Qing troops, so they resorted to the method of dividing troops into four ways to outflank them?

In the end, Nuer Hachi "let you come as many ways, I will only go all the way", concentrated the superior forces to make a time difference, and broke the four Ming armies one after another.

The four-way Ming army lost because it was unable to coordinate communications and arrived at the battlefield at the same time, which became a refueling tactic.

Yin Jian is not far away, and the psychological trauma left by the defeat of Salhu on the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty is indelible, and Zhang Huangyan will of course be cautious and desperately try to avoid it.

Therefore, after he finally weighed it, he found an improved version of the new method, that is: it is not impossible to divide and attack together, and strive for pressure and encirclement on three sides, but the troops on both flanks must be very careful when advancing, "fight a dumb battle in a hard village", and set up a camp every thirty miles of advancement! It can't be like Salhu back then, where the Ming army marched lightly and hurriedly on a certain road, and marched for a long time.

Now the Ming army has an absolute advantage in attacking fortifications and defending the village, under the deployment of rifle and artillery firepower, as long as there are fortifications to rely on, encountering the enemy's heavy troops to attack, even if the number of the Qing army is five times or more than that of the Ming army, the Ming army can hold on, and then send a letter for help.

Therefore, if the Tartars are not given the opportunity to find a decisive battle on the left and right flanks of the Ming army, and break through each one, there will definitely be no accidents.

If you want to force Haoge to fight a decisive battle in the field, he can only find Zhang Huangyan's 300,000 main force for a decisive battle, and not give him the opportunity to pick a soft persimmon to pinch.

This improved version of the plan was finally supported by all the front-line military generals, and it was successfully implemented.

Of course, no plan is perfect, and the generals have supported it, which does not mean that no one else opposes it. In the final stage of the military conference, there were still some civilian officials in charge of logistics who complained to Zhang Huangyan:

This style of play is destined to be protracted, and it is expected that the steady maneuver will be in place, and it may not be completed until the cold winter wax moon. And because of the Qing army's strong walls and clear fields, it was more difficult for the Ming army to raise grain, and it was impossible to get grain and grass on the spot.

Nowadays, it is already necessary to use land transportation by car and horse from Yanjin to Ji County, and only then can you use boats to go to Zhangshui. Or choose another route and transport it by land between Dongming and Puyang.

These two sections of the land route have more than 80 miles, plus the loss of two unloading and loading, unloading and loading, the grain transporters and dock workers will waste a lot of food when they eat horses and chew, and it is definitely a huge loss of the Ming national strength to hold each other.

However, Zhang Huangyan asked Zhu Shuren who was in Kaifeng in the rear on this point, and Zhu Shuren said that this was a war against the puppet Qing Dynasty to destroy the country, and seeking stability to win was the last word, and there was no need to worry about spending money and food. As long as he can win and annihilate the main force of the Tartars, he will not limit Zhang Huangyan's budget!

Zhu Shuren also asked the envoy to bring Zhang Huangyan his original words: "The wall has been broken for ten years, and I have been recuperating in the south for five or six years, and Xu Tu is enterprising, isn't it this moment!" The money and food saved over the years are spent for this moment! The support of the lonely brother is greater than the support of Qin Shi Huang when Wang Jian led 600,000 Qin troops and Xiang Yan for more than a year! Won't waver! ”

Zhu Shuren talked about this, saying that as long as Zhang Huangyan could win, even if he was the same as Wang Jian and Xiang Yan back then, he would squeeze out the grain from the rear, and Zhang Huangyan would have no worries at all and let it go.

……

Zhang Huangyan chose to advance to the south bank of Zhangshui and face the Qing army across Zhangshui, so he built a high base and a deep ditch and began to build a trench and earthen wall road that stretched from Neihuang to Puyang.

Such a posture naturally made Hauge on the other side a little confused at first.

From early October to early October, Hauge first waited and watched each other for five or six days, keeping vigilant in case the Ming army was pretending to be holding each other but was actually preparing to find an opportunity to sneak attack.

After waiting and waiting, the Ming army did not make any sneak attacks, nor did they try to cross the Zhangshui to cause some damage, and Haoge finally lost his breath and decided to fight some tentative harassment wars.

Therefore, after two or three days of calm reconnaissance, the Qing army selected a field fortification area along the coast of Zhangshui, between Neihuang and Puyang, which seemed to be relatively weakly defended, and found a cloudy night, and sent a group of Mongolian cavalry of thousands of sizes to secretly cross Zhangshui to carry out a sneak attack.

Of course, this attempt by the Qing army was not randomly selected, but it was really done carefully and carefully to confirm that the number of Ming troops in this defense area was insufficient.

Therefore, the move to cross the river went smoothly at first, and the troops successfully went ashore, but then only encountered a small amount of resistance from the Ming army relying on the high base and deep ditch.

Because the number of sneak attack troops concentrated by the Qing army was much larger than that of the Ming army scattered and stationed, the Qing army broke through the defense line for a time and controlled a section of trenches and earthen walls.

However, relying on the delay of these two teas, the Ming troops on the left and right sides reacted quickly and immediately supported the defense. By the time the Qing army had taken control of some of the fortifications, more Ming troops had formed an encirclement from three sides.

After the bloody tug-of-war, the Mongols could not use this kind of positional warfare battlefield at all, and with thousands of Wuchang-made rifles firing in turn, the Mongol cavalry fell one after another, and finally had to retreat and cross back to the north bank of Zhangshui.

The Ming army also took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, and killed hundreds of Mongolian cavalry who had no time to go down the river, and more people were injured or chose to ride horses and wade into the river, but unfortunately the water level of Zhangshui was not low enough, and many people could only abandon their horses and swim in the dark to flee for their lives.

After the failure of Hauge's first sneak attack, he was still unwilling, and in the following seven or eight days, he tried two more small-scale consumption. But each time it ended with one or two thousand soldiers, in contrast, although hundreds of Ming troops were killed and wounded each time, the exchange ratio was obviously very bad.

Moreover, the total strength of the Qing army was already less than that of the Ming army, so it was absolutely impossible to exchange lives for it. By late October, Hauge had to abandon such an attempt.

"Who is the general of the southern barbarians patrolling the defense line opposite? Why is the response so fast each time? Won't they let up in the middle of the night? After holding on for so long, you still keep your guard every day? ”

Hauge couldn't help but find some excuse in the face of failure, so he asked the question manically.

Fortunately, the basic intelligence work on the Tartar side is still okay, and the following people gave him an answer after a little summary and evaluation:

"Returning to the prince, the general of the Nanban on the other side who is responsible for patrolling the defense line between Neihuang and Puyang is Li Dingguo, the chief soldier of Nanyang. This person was originally the remnant of the western thief Zhang Xianzhong, and after being subdued by the barbarian court, he has been following Zhang Huangyan and fighting some desperate wars of attrition.

A few years ago, when Prince Azig was still alive, he attacked Nanyang, which was guarded by Zhang Huangyan, but he was dragged by this person and fought a war of attrition for a long time, and finally returned in vain. ”

When Hauge heard that he was going to attack Li Dingguo, he had no choice but to give up completely. Li Dingguo's rigor in governing the army and the law of deployment and dispatch were still quite well known in the Qing army. After Azig was defeated and retreated, he exaggerated that no one wanted to exchange lives with Li Dingguo.

And because of his hesitation and indiscriminate attempts, Hauge also delayed for half a month, and paid more than 5,000 casualties before and after, which is not much for the Qing army with a total size of 2780,000, but it has been defeated on a small scale, and the loss of morale is also obvious.

In addition, in the past half month, the Ming army in the direction of Shandong, led by Li Fuming and Zhang Mingzhen, has made a lot of progress in enclosing land, and has seized two more state capitals.

In the west of Shanxi, Jiang Jiu was also ordered by Zhu Shuren to go out of Jingchengkou after resting and recuperating, and began to harass Zhending Mansion, which was controlled by the Qing army. Wu Sangui chose to follow some harassment routes to the south and threatened the vicinity of Xingtai.

Jiang Hao and Wu Sangui are also very good at preserving their strength, and they both strictly implement the "hardened village and stupid battle" of camping for thirty miles, fighting steadily and steadily, although the progress is slow, but it is extremely firm.

The Haoge army also divided its troops to try to counterattack at its discretion, but Jiang Hao and Wu Sangui immediately turned to the death every time they encountered the main force of the Qing army approaching. Although they each only had 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses, even if the Qing army came to attack with 100,000 people, Jiang Hao and Wu Sangui relied on rifles and cannons to defend the camp, and the Qing army would not be able to move.

……

After Haoge was frustrated, he felt Zhang Huangyan's slow and firm noose, and couldn't help but feel a little panicked, so he once again convened the main generals and advisers in the shogunate of Wei County to discuss countermeasures.

"Zhang Huangyan has been holding on to each other for 20 days, you said before that Zhang Huangyan turned out that our army was in the south of the Daimyo's Mansion and was clear of the wilderness, so it was not easy for them to transport grain, Zhang Huangyan must be beneficial to the quick battle, how can you be willing to spend it like this now?

Seeing that Wu Sangui, Jiang Hao and Li Fuming are all fighting steadily and steadily, advancing to occupy the territory, if they delay any longer, they will be divided into joint attacks, and they will arrive at the battlefield of Daimyo and Wei County at the same time, and they will be outnumbered, what should our army do?

Hong Chengchou! You say first, it was you who persuaded the lonely wall to clear the wilderness, and it was you who said that the southern barbarians were fighting quickly! If our army is dragged to be surrounded on three sides in the future, how to break the situation! ”

was held accountable by Haoge, and Hong Chengchou, an important adviser, was also a little cramped.

The conscience of heaven and earth, the poisonous plan of "strong walls and clear fields" is generally not something that the Manchurian emperor and noble emperor came up with. The Manchurians are accustomed to fighting sports warfare, and they like to rely on food for the enemy's best and hate logistics planning the most, and they rarely think about this kind of ruthless trick of "killing 1,000 enemies and inflicting 800 losses on themselves." Even if they burn, kill, and plunder, they would do so on a temporary basis, and they did not expect to rely on captivity to carry out some major strategic plan.

In contrast, the situation is different for those hardcore traitors and ministers, who are familiar with the art of war, and are also familiar with the combat style of the Han armed forces, and the food and grass first, so they are particularly good at this kind of targeted coordination.

In the face of pressure, Hong Chengchou can only help Haoge stabilize people's hearts: "Lord Wang, the minister still feels that it is not a fallacy to strengthen the wall and clear the wilderness, and now in this situation, although the Ming army has chosen to hold each other, it seems that it has achieved the effect of slow step-by-step.

But all this is based on the premise that they are advancing extremely carefully, and if they raise the speed and show a slight flaw, it will be the situation of Salhu back then.

At the current speed of advancement, by the end of October, they will not be able to take Zhending County and Xingtai County, and our army will still have the support of remaining troops at those key nodes. The Ming army wants to complete the encirclement of our army on three sides, and it may not be until the end of November, or even until the month of Layue!

And this year's winter, it doesn't look warm, when the time comes, not only the Yellow River will be frozen, but Zhangshui will be frozen, the Ming army will come from afar, don't you have to compete with our army for time? Our army has cleared the walls so thoroughly that when the northern rivers can no longer be used to transport grain, the stalemate between the two sides will inevitably change. ”

Haoge touched his beard, and before he could open his mouth to refute, Man Dahai next to him took the lead in spraying: "Pedant words!" How can our army wait for the southern barbarians to encircle on three sides! Besides, even if they freeze the river in winter and stop transporting,

But before the river was frozen, Zhang Huangyan was desperately transporting military rations from the rear to Puyang and other places to hoard, in my opinion, maybe he would be able to store enough rations for more than two months in Layue and New Year before he froze! And even more!

When the river thaws and the water volume recovers in February of the following year, maybe the Ming army will already surround us here! At the time of spring ploughing, it was rainy and the land was muddy, and our cavalry could not exert its combat strength.

According to me, what I fought in the Qing Dynasty was the advantage of the cavalry, and the northerners were cold-resistant, so if we wanted to distinguish the victory and defeat, we had to fight in the winter and make a quick decision, otherwise if it dragged on, even if our army's grain loss was small, in the end, our national strength would not be able to hold it first!

】

The Southern Barbarians already have so many rich provinces, but I Daqing is relying on the exhaustion of the river and fishing, killing and plundering the military food raised by the people of Hebei, after the spring famine in the coming year, we have no land and population to produce with peace of mind, even if the people are forced to spring ploughing, Hebei is fertile for thousands of miles and a horse and a flat river, and it is easy for the Southern Barbarians to destroy! ”

Man Dahai has now inherited the title of his recently deceased father Daishan, and he is the Prince of Li, so naturally his words have some weight. His words quickly won the support of other Manchu royal princes, and they all felt that Hong Chengchou was too cowardly and the loss of strategy was too great.

Seeing this, Haoge only nodded slightly: "What you said has some truth. It can't be expected to be consumed forever, but the fighters that the southern barbarians are poorly supplied in winter and the southern soldiers are afraid of the cold cannot be used. ”

The others thought about it, and Bolo came up with an idea: "Brother Wang, since you want to weaken the endurance of the Ming army for a long time, and take advantage of the winter to take advantage of my iron cavalry, it is better to wait and see for a while and find an opportunity.

When Zhangshui is about to freeze, how about sending troops to sneak attack in a roundabout way, going up the river along Zhangshui, attacking Neihuang, or Junxian and Huaxian behind the enemy, and weakening the Ming army's grain and grass assembly area?

As Hong Shangshu said, once the river is frozen, the Ming army will no longer be able to transport grain by water, but the short-distance deployment within 100 miles by land will not be affected.

Now Zhang Huangyan is stationed in Neihuang, Puyang, Qingfeng and other places. Only Neihuang is closest to the upper reaches of Zhangshui, and it is connected to the rear of the Ming army. The remaining two counties are not directly on the verge of Zhangshui. Therefore, the Ming army mainly stored grain, and it must be hoarded in Neihuang, and the grain storage land in the rear may be in Huaxian County.

If we wait for them to rush to the county seat of Zhangnan Wharf closest to the battlefield before they freeze in Zhangshui and concentrate most of the grain needed for the winter in the county seat closest to the battlefield, and then raid and attack that county town at any cost, and completely rob or burn the stock, then Zhang Huangyan's army of hundreds of thousands will inevitably have to retreat because there is no grain for the winter and the river is frozen and can no longer be transported. When the time comes, our army will pursue the enemy army with all the food, and we will be able to win a complete victory! ”

Bolo said proudly, and originally wanted to add oil and vinegar to depict it, saying that the upcoming decisive battle was another "Battle of Songshan".

After all, the field part of the Songshan Battle in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Chongzhen was cut off because of Hong Chengchou's troops, and the morale collapsed after being trapped.

But when Bolo spoke to his mouth, he remembered that Hong Chengchou was now a person from his side, so he left a little bit of morality and did not give an example.

Hauge, who was in charge of the final decision, after carefully considering the opinions of all parties, also felt that Bolo's words seemed feasible.

As relatives of the Manchu Emperor, they are all familiar with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and by the analogy of Bolo just now, Haoge almost feels that he is very similar to Cao Cao during the Battle of Guandu, and Zhang Huangyan is very similar to Yuan Shao during the Battle of Guandu.

As long as the river north of the Yellow River is frozen in winter, and the grain cantonment land rushed before the freeze is burned, the Ming army will not be able to survive the winter.

After all, it was only in late autumn that troops began to send troops to the north, and the biggest drawback was here: if you want to win in late autumn, the key is to rely on food to the enemy! Bring the enemy's autumn rations to your own soldiers! The Qing army was strong and clear, and the Ming army did not get the local autumn grain in Hebei, so the military food was the biggest and easiest weakness of the Ming army!

Moreover, according to his investigation, in order to make it difficult to transport, the Ming army did not transport all the grain accumulated in Neihuang into the county seat.

It may be that the Ming army considered that these grains were not for the local soldiers and civilians in Neihuang to eat, but also to transfer to various places, Neihuang is just a transit distribution center, if all of them are transported into the city, they will be transported out of the city in the future, and they will be loaded and unloaded and loaded on ships and ships several times, and the loss is too great.

In addition, Neihuang is a very small county seat, and the original population of the city is not tens of thousands, but now it has to provide hundreds of thousands of troops to eat a winter's grain storage, and all the granaries in the city are full, and they have to demolish the houses and turn them into temporary granaries.

Considering that the cost of demolition and rebuilding is more time-consuming and laborious than directly building on the flat land outside the city, the Ming army chose to build it directly.

Therefore, the Ming army chose to build a camp on the wharf on the south bank of Zhangshui outside the west gate of Neihuang County, and directly stored the huge amount of military rations in this well-defended wharf water village, which also covers an extremely wide area and is well defended.

However, in Hauge's opinion, no matter how tightly the camp is defended, it is definitely easier than a siege. The Ming army was scattered in several places, and several strongholds were separated by 60 to 80 miles.

If the Qing army can find an opportunity to secretly assemble troops in advance and attack the Ming army at a point, it may take a day or two for other reinforcements from the Ming army to come to the rescue, then he may not have the chance of taking advantage of this time difference to burn most of the Ming army's military rations!

At the beginning of the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao went to burn Wuchao, and after the battle of Wuchao, Yuan Shao's rescue troops arrived, and it took most of the day or even a day!

After much deliberation, Hauge felt that it was better to fight than wait for the enemy to slowly tighten his neck.

"Then it was decided, endure for a few more days, and when Zhangshui was frozen and the grain from the rear of the Ming army could not be transported again, he took the initiative to attack and burned the west gate of Neihuang County and the water village of Zhangshui Wharf together with the main granary of the Ming army! forced Zhang Huangyan to retreat, and then pursued the whole army! ”