Chapter 375: Situation
Hearing Tang Mu's question, Li Zhaoji suddenly stopped and fell into deep thought, he thought for a while and said, "No, it's not right, something is wrong." ”
Yang Yandi's eyes looked at the map for a while and said, "What's wrong?" ”
"We can't be too self-righteous, we should think from the perspective of the Qing army, instead of wishful thinking." Lee Siu Kee said.
After everyone fell into thought for a while, Balai suddenly said: "The movement of Abatai's department is unknown, this is not right, it is very wrong. ”
Yang Yandi immediately asked, "What do you say?" ”
Balai said: "From the perspective of the Manchus, the most beneficial thing for them is not that the Eastern Brigade supports Jinzhou and joins forces with the Cantonese army, and the Cantonese army retreats east or from the sea. The more than 4,000 horsemen of Abatai's department should not be lurking and not showing their tracks, but immediately appear to contain us. ”
Yang Yandi looked at the map on the table and nodded slightly, and the rest of the generals also felt that it made sense.
There are two points that are clear, one is that the actions of the Qing army in the western Liaoning corridor are not a whim, after all, Gaodi will not fail to contact the Qing army in advance, so the Qing army can use this period of contact to arrange troops and horses, which can be seen from Duoduo leading 10,000 troops east into the western Liaoning corridor.
The second is that the Qing army's operation in western Liaoning was not the focus of the overall situation, but only a local action.
The reason is simpler, the main force of the Qing army in the Guannai is divided into three branches, Shunyi and Xianghe each set up a large battalion, forming a corner in the direction of the capital and Tongzhou, and Azig led the army to plunder everywhere in the direction of the Central Plains, which is also a group of soldiers and horses.
If the Qing army wants to control Liaoxi and retreat to Liaodong, it will definitely collect the soldiers and horses in advance, after all, the army in the capital is no longer the Ming army that was ridiculed by Dolgon and will only send guests, and the Shun army will definitely carry out counterattacks and pursuits.
What's more, the Qing army has robbed for so long, and there are countless cattle, sheep, livestock and strong men robbed, these are the spoils of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, if these things are not sent back first, it will not be empty-handed.
Therefore, from the perspective of the Qing army, it should be to open up the western Liaoning corridor first and then talk about the withdrawal of troops, rather than first withdrawing into western Liaoning and then opening the corridor.
The difference between the two is specific to the force of the Eastern Brigade, that is, Abatai should contain this army in Liaodong as much as possible, so that it will not be co-operated with the Cantonese army.
If we roughly calculate it, the expansion of the Eastern Brigade has been completed, and the current Eastern Brigade has ten infantry battalions, three field artillery companies and 1,000 cavalry, plus various auxiliary forces, and the strength has exceeded 10,000.
The two divisions of the Guangdong Army's new training and new formation also have 10,000 people, plus the 5,000 people who landed in the Shun army, that is, 25,000 soldiers.
Of course, it is impossible for so many soldiers to gather together, after all, the Ming army will definitely not cooperate with the Shun army, but the coordination between the Eastern Brigade and the Guangdong army can be done. If the Eastern Brigade is allowed to support the direction of Jinzhou, theoretically the new army of 6,000 soldiers, the new training army king, more than 2,000 people of the Xingbu and more than 10,000 troops of the Eastern Brigade can be assembled near the left of Jinzhou.
This is a small force of 20,000 troops, and Wu Sangui still has seven or eight thousand people, which is a force that is inseparable from friends and enemies of the Manchus, and is still stationed on Juehua Island.
The forces that the Qing army could gather in the area of Jinzhou included 10,000 Duoduo soldiers, 3,000 elites of the Gao Di Division, defenders of Jinzhou and Yizhou, 3,000 Han Army Banners, more than 4,000 Manchurian Eight Banners, and 4,500 cavalry of Abatai's Department did not know where to move.
It can be said that the strength of the two sides is roughly the same, how can the Qing army decide the victory in Jinzhou, and if it wins, it will be enough, if it loses, the retreat of Liaoxi will be closed, Shengjing and Liaoyang will not be guaranteed, if the Shun army in the Guannai has cooperated, the Qing army will be wiped out, how can Dolgon take the risk?
So, from Dolgon's point of view. The most secure arrangement of this battle is that the cavalry of Abatai's division appeared on the battlefield at the beginning of the battle, containing the main force of the Eastern Brigade and preventing it from aiding Jinzhou in the west.
The Abatai Ministry did not appear, and it can only be said that it was a conspiracy.
Li Zhaoji expressed his judgment of the situation, and Yang Yandi, Zhao Dahe, Tang Mu and others all thought it was logical, so Li Zhaoji immediately changed the order.
First of all, the Eastern Brigade no longer came to the west to aid Jinzhou, and the four infantry battalions and cavalry battalions that were in combat readiness were immediately led by Yang Yandi and went north to attack Manchu Shengjing. After the rest of the soldiers and horses around Haicheng were assembled, Wang and Xingbu were responsible for guarding the Han Domain in Liaoyang, and Li Zhaoji led the other battalions as follow-ups, all the way north.
Immediately inform the Shun army Guo Sheng and Li Laiheng on Changxing Island, let them go ashore, accept the horses and equipment that have been prepared long ago, join the two battalions of the newly formed Dongfang Brigade in Fuzhou, and go north to support the attack on Shengjing.
Inform the Cantonese army in the area of Songshan and Xingshan to let them retreat in the direction of Huludao, and if it is too late, retreat to the seaside of Xingshan. The Navy of the Trading Company was commanded by Chen Liuzi and went all out to rescue, and the Fuzhou Military Station newly formed two battalions of infantry, an artillery company, and all the weapons that the navy could draw were all landed to assist the Guangdong army in defending it, in order to show that it would not give up.
The advantage of this arrangement is that all the forces of the Ming, Shun, and trading companies in Liaodong can be deployed to deal with the Manchu Qing, and by attacking Shengjing, the place where the Qing army must be saved, the Abatai Department can be forced to appear after a long time, Li Zhaoji does not know what the conspiracy of the Qing army is, but this conspiracy must be executed by Abatai, at least Abatai is the most important force among them.
And if they go west to rescue the Yue army, the Shun army will definitely not participate, and they will be led by the nose by the Qing army.
On 21 September, the vanguard of the whole army led by Yang Yandi crossed the Taizi River, ignoring the Liaoyang Han Domain, and with more than 3,000 horse steps, they directly put on a posture of attacking Shengjing along the Hunhe River.
Immediately afterwards, all the forces involved in it moved, and when the news reached Uiju, it was already September 25, and Duoduo and Abatai in Uiju were shocked when they heard the news.
As Li Zhaoji guessed, Duoduo, who was in charge of operations in this direction, set the main target on the Eastern Brigade from the very beginning. This is the most hated force of the Qing army, and it is also the only mobile force among the enemies in the hinterland of Liaodong that can threaten the battlefield.
The 10,000 people of the Duoduo Department entered Jinzhou from the east of Shanhaiguan, and there were 3,000 elite coordinates, which was completely a trick.
Entering the Qing army from Shanhaiguan was led by Suke Saha, who only had more than 2,000 Qing troops under his command, but brought all the mules, horses, and slaves assigned to Gao Di into the pass, so the scale was huge, and Gao Di did not send 3,000 troops, but 7,000 troops, and the role of this army was not to flank the Cantonese army, but to bluff, to see Wu Sangui's department on Juehua Island, and to make a flanking posture against the Cantonese army.
The main forces of the Qing army were all in Yizhou.
Among them, Duoduo transferred back 6,000 Manchuria Eight Banners from Guannei, and 3,000 Eight Banners of the Han Army, these soldiers and horses went out of the border wall of Jizhou, along the Daling River Valley all the way into Yizhou, and converged with the local 3,000 defenders, and the soldiers and horses were directly tens of thousands.
Uiju City.
Dord, Abatai, and many other officials sat down in two shifts.
Abatai's son, Bolo, used lime on the ground to outline the general situation of the two sides of the Qinghe War, telling the original battle process.
Bolo tried his best to describe it in a calm tone and fair words, not only to excuse the original fiasco, but also to avoid deliberately hiding information so that Dordor and other reinforcements could not accurately recognize the Eastern Brigade.
A few bricks accurately showed the formation of the Eastern Brigade at that time, and Duoduo was really surprised to hear that at the beginning of the Battle of Qinghe, Zilharang led thousands of Manchurian cavalry, and could not break through the guerrilla phalanx composed of more than 2,000 people.
"Bolo, the Dongfan thieves really don't have a shield car?" Dordor pointed his knife on a blue brick and asked emphatically.
"The gentry who participated in the war, from the Eight Banners, Prince Yu can go and ask, the Dongfan thieves don't have a shield car." Bolo said.
It was precisely because of this that Duoduo was not afraid of being deceived, because the army commanded by Zilharan included soldiers of all banners, and the men of the two white flags did not dare to deceive their masters.
"Except for the side that can't be hit, the rest of the soldiers are all equipped with bird guns, no..... No, not a bird's gun, it's a musket. Abatai said.
"Does it make a difference?" Duoduo asked with a smile.
Abatai glanced at his son, and Bolo opened a box that he had brought in, took out a few deformed lead bullets from it, handed them to Duoduo and the others, and said, "Prince Yu, everyone, please see, this is a musket projectile used by the Dongfan thief. ”
Duoduo weighed it for a moment and looked at Shi Tingzhu next to him, Shi Tingzhu was a person who knew firearms in the Han Army Banner. Shi Tingzhu said: "This gun is much heavier than that used by ordinary birds, and the farther you want to hit it, the stronger the penetration. ”
"Yes, three hundred paces away, there are soldiers wearing two layers of armor, and some of them have been killed by armor. This is the ammunition we captured for the Oriental thieves. Bolo opened another ammo box and removed the ammunition inside, which had been seized from some of the rangers.
Shi Tingzhu dismantled it and said, "Prince Yu, this is a paper shell fixed bullet. It is recorded in the military book of Qi Jiguang of the Ming Kingdom that the things used for the launch of the bird gun were filled in advance, so that the gunpowder was not easy to get damp and was much faster to load.
The East Thieves are special, they have three more small bullets, which is supposed to increase the lethality at close range. This small bullet is far away, but it can't pierce the armor. ”
Shi Tingzhu explained that there were still a few shells in the box, he took them out, and asked, "Bolobeizi, are these all shells from the Dongfan thief?" Are there any other types? ”
"And shotguns, some the size of eggs, some the size of quail eggs." Bolo pointed to a layer of shotgun at the bottom of the box.
Shi Tingzhu said: "What the slave means is that this solid cannonball can have other regulations. ”
"Nikan, who escaped from Gaizhou and Haicheng, said that the Dongfan thieves used a larger artillery, and the shells were bigger than our red-coat cannons, the size of a cat's head." Bolo said, he saw Shi Tingzhu frowning, and said: "But it was in the siege battle, the battle of Qinghe, and I didn't see that kind of cannon." ”
Shi Tingzhu nodded slightly: "That's it, it's bigger than the shell of the red-coated cannon, and the cannon is not more than 10,000 catties, fighting in the wilderness, this kind of cannon can't keep up with the team." ”
"In this way," said Dodor, "the thieves used their guns to shoot our cavalry with a salvo of guns from a distance, and a shotgun at close range. Coupled with the sound of guns and gunpowder, the cavalry could not be used.
But what the phalanx is most afraid of is artillery, Shi Tingzhu, how many artillery are there in Yizhou? ”
Shi Tingzhu said: "Prince Yu, the slave thinks that the number of artillery is not very useful. The Dongfan thief has a small Hongyi cannon, Bolobeizi said, the cannon is very light, and our big and small Franco machines will bombard it, and it can't take advantage. The minions thought that the key was the redcoat cannon, and our redcoat cannon could hit farther than their small cannon.
Hit their phalanx from afar with red-coated cannons and broke the phalanx, and the infantry was not left to the cavalry to cut down. ”
Dodor nodded slightly, and he unfolded the map and stated his plan.
From the very beginning, Duoduo secretly ordered Abatai's troops not to show up, but secretly assembled in Yizhou, hoping that the Eastern Brigade would come to the west to aid Jinzhou, and then send troops from Yizhou to kill them on their way to reinforcements.
To aid Jinzhou, it was necessary to cross two large rivers, the Liao River and the Daling River, between which Duoduo chose the battlefield.
"When they have crossed the Liao River and arrived at Quang Ninh, which is in the middle of the two rivers, we will send out cavalry, burn pontoon bridges and ferries, and then force them to fight a decisive battle in the wilderness. Use cavalry to force it to spread out its phalanx, and let it break its phalanx with redcoat cannons. ”
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