On April 20, six days before Liu Chengzong planned to launch a general attack on Gaotaicheng, an unexpected turn of events occurred on the battlefield in Gansu.
Lin Chengdong, the commander of the Gansu Cheying camp who was besieged by Feng Yu's troops to the west of Gaotai, made up his mind and led his army to break out.
Lin Chengdong fought very hard in this battle. The car camp is not an ineffective and rubbish tactic, but the most costly and effective battalion. It can be said to be an iron hedgehog built with silver. The same troops have the same dispatch.
On the battlefield of ability, having a car camp is invincible.
The carriage camp is actually the ancient version of the combined camp. It has both cavalry and artillery, baggage, and cover. In terms of maneuverability, it is much better than the infantry brigade parading the horse on its back. The guiding ideology is to invest a lot of resources and be independent.
Solve most problems encountered on the battlefield.
Chaoying has indeed achieved it. It has high attack power, high health, can fight and carry, and its performance on the battlefield is very outstanding. If the enemies who excel in Chaoying want to destroy it, they can only use the stupidest methods and means to surround it.
Although this does make the death situation of the car camp look miserable, as it is always surrounded by people and collapses, in fact only the car camp will be surrounded to the point of collapse.
Will three to five thousand infantry be surrounded by three times the enemy's army in the field and collapse? Impossible, they will collapse in three days of field battle; three to five thousand cavalry will be surrounded by three times the enemy's force in the field, and they can only kill the enemy and be defeated.
The enemy has a choice between being killed and expelled from the battlefield, and nothing will happen to them on the day the battle begins.
There is only a car camp, and even if it is surrounded by multiple enemy forces for thirty days in the wilderness, it will not necessarily collapse.
What is the concept of being unable to receive support for thirty days in a field battle? The entire front line has been defeated, and the car camp is motionless. The front line has moved away on its own, from the frontline of the battlefield to deep behind the enemy lines. This means that the scheduling of the two sides is completely unequal. Long before the car camp collapsed,
The war has been lost.
Liu Chengzong's method of dealing with the iron hedgehog was also a stupid way, which was to cover it with an iron cage and wait for it to starve to death.
Lin Chengdong fought several battles from beginning to end, but they were not battles, but a struggle to perceive external information.
The Marshal's Mansion built walls and dug trenches outside the firepower range of the camp. From the third day of the siege, Lin Chengdong's camp lost the ability to perceive the battlefield. The iron cage formed by the deep ditch was like an iron curtain.
Blocked his field of vision.
On Liu Chengzong's side, the battle line was very clear and pushed eastward from the Gobi between Qingshui Fort and Camel City. Gao Yingdeng, Zhang Tianlin and Li Hongsi of the Ming Army ran all the way eastward like huskies without a leash. The main force
The troops surrounded the high platform steadily.
But for Lin Chengdong, who was surrounded by three times the force for ten days, double the force for five days, and finally was besieged by slightly less force than the car camp for fifteen days, he always thought that Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Hongsi was still in Camel.
City.
"Luotuo City is so close, why don't you come to save me?"
Just surrounding this conjecture, Lin Chengdong, whose five senses were blocked, almost went crazy. He had no idea what it was like outside.
He was not afraid of being surrounded for ten days, but he became a little panicked after being surrounded for twenty days. He counted the days every day for twenty to thirty days, and the army rations were getting less and less. It was time to kill horses to satisfy hunger, but he dared to do so in such an environment.
Kill the horse?
I don't dare at all. If I kill the horse, I will be completely unable to break through.
It's not too late to break out, at least open your eyes and see what's going on outside.
In the early morning of April 20th, Lin Chengdong selected fifty warriors, carried chisels and sneaked under the earth barrier to plant gunpowder. In the hazy morning, with a loud noise, the entire army abandoned their baggage and rushed out of the gap to surround the outside.
Feng Rubu was shocked.
A siege battle is not easy, especially when the troops are not enough. There is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand days.
Since five days ago, Feng Yu had felt that the enemy was preparing to break out. The Ming army's car camp surrounded by the earthen barracks had greatly increased the amount of artillery shells, gunpowder, food, grass and baggage. From day to night, they kept pumping cold air and firing artillery. This must be
Planning to break out.
But it's useless to have telepathy in his heart. Feng Ru can't tell fortunes, and he can't predict when the enemy will break out of the encirclement. He relies on 3,000 men to surround 4,000 people. Every soldier is tense at all times. As a
The general cannot put pressure on the soldiers at this time. On the contrary, he has to find ways to relieve the pressure on the soldiers.
If a conflict breaks out with a large number of enemies, people will die. If you don't sleep well for three days in a row, the soldiers will go crazy. If the general puts more pressure on him, what awaits him is the roar of the camp.
Strategy and tactics can determine the upper limit of battle, but it is the organization that determines the lower limit. The so-called organization relies on management. Management is a far more complex knowledge than strategy and tactics. The physical and mental state of each soldier will be reflected in the collective at the moment the war begins.
In terms of combat ability.
Therefore, Lin Chengdong's plan to break out was difficult. He thought he would face a huge army of three battalions, but in fact there was only one thousand headquarters in the east, one general headquarters in the south, north and northeast, and none in the west.
People.
Among the besieging troops, two-thirds of the soldiers were still sleeping, and the defense line was penetrated at the first opportunity.
Lin Chengdong's breakthrough was from the northeast. After opening a gap, the four thousand troops divided into four groups and rolled in on foot and cavalry, running towards the Camel City.
Feng Yu urgently gathered 600 cavalry and followed closely. They caught up with them all the way to Luotuo City and defeated them. However, the person who played the biggest role in the battle was not him, but Wang Ziyong who happened to appear in Luotuo City. p>
Wang himself brought more than 200 people, including two dozen artillerymen from Huang Shengxiao camp, a total of 24 people. The others were civilians who transported artillery to the high platform, including the Suzhou flag guard and the Sanjie congregation.<
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They didn't have any old grudges with Lin Chengdong. They showed up at Luotuo City just on the way, passing through Qingshui Fort to the Gobi Desert in the middle of Luotuo City. The Hequ horses dragging the artillery were so tired that they foamed at the mouth, so they could only stop in Luotuo City for a while.
Take extra rest.
As a result, I spent the whole night repairing. When I woke up in the morning, I saw groups of Ming troops heading towards Luotuo City. Not to mention the Sanjie Congregation and the Banner Army, the twenty-four soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion Artillery were so frightened.<
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Camel City has long been in ruins, and the place where they rest is a defensive position built by Li Hongsi's troops.
When the Ming army came over, their lives would definitely be lost. Huang Shengxiao had lost twelve newly-cast cannons and could not spare them. He took twelve thousand-jin red Yi cannons and ammunition and saw Feng Yu's soldiers behind them.
They rushed over without thinking, stuffed their ammunition and opened fire on the Ming army.
In a hurry, the twelve artillery pieces were quickly loaded and adjusted at different positions, and the twelve artillery shells with extremely long intervals before and after were not fired accurately.
But the will they instilled in Lin Chengdong's breakout troops was very clear: the battlefield situation was different from what they imagined. Those stationed in Camel City were not friendly forces. Luotuo City had fallen, and they were now deep behind enemy lines.
They didn't know that Li Hongsi had led a superior force to pursue Gao Yingdeng, and they didn't know that Gansu Commander-in-Chief Yang Jiamo was in Qianhu City, Gaotai. They only knew that Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Hongsi had led his troops to evacuate, and they didn't even call them. p>
The breakout army, which had been out of contact for thirty days, had just regained its ability to perceive the battlefield. Although they were still an organized army, their morale quickly collapsed.
The four thousand troops were confused. They gave up on detecting the Luotuo City garrison in the rolling yellow sand and focused on chasing the main force of Li Hongsi's troops eastward.
When Liu Chengzong received the accurate news from Feng Yu's tribe, the entire main force besieged outside Gaotai City was still immersed in doubts about "what ran away".
Since Qingshui Fort to Gaotai City has become the supply route for the Marshal's Mansion, an army of 4,000 people passed through it, bringing Liu Chengzong seven or eight sources of information from different locations. In hindsight, Liu Chengzong realized that a very
Important questions.
This army, which was fleeing eastward like a big black rat, probably didn't even know that Yang Jiamo was on the battlefield.
The fact was just as he had guessed. On the escape route from the carriage camp, the people who had surrendered to the Marshal's Mansion reported to Yin Ruyue, the commander-in-chief of the Craftsman Camp, many times. The Ming army repeatedly asked them for information. The focus of the intelligence was to ask about Li Hongsi's identity.
Where did the main force go?
There was only half a day between before and after. On the evening of the day when Che Ying broke through, Feng Ru asked to see Liu Chengzong outside Gaotai City: "Commander, will our troops march into Ganzhou and continue the pursuit of Zhangye?"
Liu Chengzong thought for a moment and then firmly said to Feng Ru: "If we are going to pursue Ganzhou, have all the artillery and tanks from the camp been taken away?"
"They haven't been taken away yet. They're still on the battlefield. I left a handful to look after them. They should have been counted by now."
"Okay!"
Liu Chengzong's tone seemed very exciting. He immediately put down the intelligence sent from various places and said to Feng Yu: "Go back, take all the camp equipment with you, and march into Ganzhou."
Feng Lei blinked and was stunned for a moment before asking: "The commander-in-chief wants us to serve as chariot camps? If we go back and push the chariots, we won't be able to catch up with the Ming army."
Liu Chengzong waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, it's a small victory until they give up their heavy equipment."
He didn't say it clearly. In fact, he couldn't catch up with Lin Chengdong now. The soldiers led by that guy had been eating well for a month. The army ran with great energy. They ran for more than a hundred miles in a day and night. This guy just wanted to escape.
, it would be too much for anyone to pursue.
As long as all the heavy equipment of the car camp is left behind, in Liu Shizi's opinion, besieging them for a month will be enough.
Even if it costs three battalions of one month's rations, it is still worth it to weaken the combat capabilities of Lin Chengdong's troops. What's more, the two to three hundred large and small artillery pieces alone are enough to close the gap in consumption of rations. In addition,
With nearly a thousand vehicles and scattered supplies, they won't lose in this battle.
But it's really not profitable, so Liu Shishi didn't show too much joy. He just planned to let Feng Yu set up a car camp. The imperial court had sent the equipment, so it would be in vain if he didn't need it.
However, just when Feng Rui went back to get the equipment and advanced towards Ganzhou, something unexpected happened to Liu Chengzong. As Lin Chengdong broke through, the battle in Gansu actually unfolded in a strange way.
The first time Ganzhou City saw Feng Yu's tribe... Kaicheng surrendered.
When the news reached the Chinese military camp outside Gaotai City, Liu Shizi and his men were all dumbfounded. He was determined to break Gaotai City by force, in order to give a preview of the future attack on Ganzhou City and avoid suffering greater losses in the future.<
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As a result, before the storming of Gaotaicheng began, Ganzhou City surrendered first, and what he never expected was that this was the second time Ganzhou City surrendered.
In fact, before Liu Chengzong knew it, the troops on Zhangye Oasis had already become one.
When Gao Yingdeng led his troops to move east, the veteran generals who were idle at home in Ganzhou City mobilized their servants to go to the city to guard the city. Later, Gao Yingdeng did not go to Ganzhou, and as soon as his troops withdrew, they discovered that the deputy commander-in-chief Li Hongsi was behind them.
The army came in pursuit. At this time, the people of Ganzhou City were still attached to the soldiers and the people.
However, Li Hongsi's soldiers were in a hurry and their rations were not enough for their horses. So he made a fortune in Ganzhou. He personally entered the city of Ganzhou and asked the idle veterans and gentry to provide them with rations and horses. The soldiers returned in units of teams.
At home, you can eat and drink in your clan’s place.
This behavior itself is normal. The Ming army is the legitimate ruler of this land, and the sources of the army are local military households and camp soldiers. There is nothing wrong with going home to replenish supplies before going to the battlefield.
The bad thing is that Li Hongsi didn't know that Zhang Tianlin was following him.
Before his army returned, Zhang Tianlin had already rushed into Ganzhou, causing chaos in Ganzhou.
Zhang Tianlin was not only a general in the Marshal's Office, but also the leader of an independent peasant army in the past. He didn't know that Li Hongsi dispersed his troops to various places. He just entered Ganzhou and spread them out in batches. The six commander-in-chiefs did not expect to occupy the place.
, just let his generals use their imagination to spread all kinds of false news in every village and fort along the oasis.
Zhang Tianlin and Wang Ziyong belong to two extremes. Wang Ziyong is particularly good at using superstition and concepts to mobilize the people at the bottom, while Zhang Tianlin is just the opposite. What he is good at is using the gentry to spread false news.
This was his specialty when he was traveling in northern Shaanxi. He tried to build forts and serve as bandits, but at that time he did not have the ability to fight head-on with the army. The local people who survived by relying on clans to build forts and build forts, and
Basically, it was like the situation in Heilongshan before Liu Chengzong's rebellion. The officers and soldiers were not willing to cooperate when they came, and the bandits were even more willing to risk their lives when they came to rob.
In this case, there is no point in making a rural agreement with the squires or doing work for the common people. It is better to circulate around and use them to spread panic and spread all kinds of false news. On the contrary, it will play a more important role in reducing the official and military organizations.
In Ganzhou, Zhang Tianlin picked up her old profession.
In the blink of an eye, as his army advanced into Ganzhou, including Yang Jiamo who was captured, died, surrendered, and fled, Li Hongsi died and fled, the main force of the Ming army was annihilated, captured, and collected, and even the Marshal's Mansion army had occupied Ganzhou.
Rumors such as Liangzhou's advance to Liangzhou were flying around in the sky within a few days.
In order to prevent the spread of rumors from shaking the morale of the army and the people, Li Hongsi had no choice but to give up the pursuit of Gao Yingdeng and assemble his troops to fight repeatedly against Zhang Tianlin's scattered troops on the Zhangye Oasis.
In a short period of time, Zhang Tianlin's army divided into six divisions was attacked everywhere. There were too many Ming troops in Ganzhou. One of his commanders was intercepted three times by the army along the way in one day. The army lost its structure and ran all over the place.
, this situation did not improve slightly until Gao Yingdeng led his army back.
The first surrender of Ganzhou City occurred when the organizations of Zhang Tianlin and Li Hongsi were completely disrupted.
Zhang Tianlin led more than a hundred cavalry into Ganzhou City from the west gate and occupied the city wall for an hour and a half. While entering the city, they fought in the streets while setting up magistrates, county magistrates and officials. When they rushed to the official warehouse to open a warehouse for grain storage, everything broke out in the city.
He ordered all the embrasures of the cannons on the city to be nailed shut, and gunpowder was laid to blow up the gate hole of the west gate.
Then the Ming army attacked. Zhang Tianlin led three county officials across the market and ran out from the south gate, leaving only a handwritten flag of the Marshal's Mansion on the wall of Ganzhou. When the Ming army entered the city, the flag was removed.
After being thrown into the city, Ganzhou City was declared liberated by the Ming army.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Zhangye Oasis has been on fire for more than half a month. At this juncture, Feng Yu's troops from the Marshal's Mansion entered Ganzhou with a complete car camp, which directly led to the rumors spread by Zhang Tianlin being confirmed. There were more troops stationed in various places along the way.
The military forts and civilian villages with few or even no troops all thought that the Marshal's Mansion had completely occupied Ganzhou.
Ganzhou City, whose west gate was blown down, already had insufficient defenders, and the cannons that nailed the embrasures were still being repaired by craftsmen. Facing Feng Yu's troops, the defenders had no other choice but to declare surrender for the second time.
After receiving such news, Liu Chengzong outside Gaotai City was also very excited. When Huang Shengxiao's troops escorted twelve artillery pieces to Gaotai, he immediately clapped with joy and said: "Ezhe, get some paper and pen, I want
Tell General Feng to send the Ganzhou gentry to persuade him to surrender."
The adopted son Ezhe, who was standing behind him, quickly took a pen and paper and spread it on the table. While sharpening the ink, he asked doubtfully: "Father, the cannons have been brought, why are you trying to persuade him to surrender? Don't you mean this chief military officer?"
Won't you surrender?"
Liu Chengzong picked out a pen, looked at E Zhe, laughed, rubbed his hands and said: "The purpose of persuading him to surrender is not to make him surrender, but to weaken the defensive will of the defenders during the siege. Just wait and see, annihilate the Gansu border