Dorgon didn't know how long he had been in a coma, but he faintly woke up.
Looking around, Dorgon found that he was lying on the kang, and the kang was already so warm that he was so lazy that he didn't want to move at all.
But it still felt like a big stone was weighing on my chest.
Dorgon was so stressed that he could hardly breathe.
"Master, are you awake?" Cao Eryu came in with a basin of hot water.
"Where is this?" Dorgon snorted and struggled to sit up.
But just as he sat up a little, he fell back onto the kang hard.
Only then did Dorgon realize that his two arms were limp and without any strength.
"Master, don't move." Cao Eryu hurriedly rushed forward, "Don't break your body."
Dorgon frowned and asked, "Where are Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan, me and Hou Fangyu?"
"Master, several gentlemen and Hou Fangyu are waiting outside." Cao Eryu wiped Dorgon's feet with a hot towel and asked, "Do you want me to call them in?"
"Call them in." Dorgon thought for a moment and then said, "Call He Luohui, Suk Saha and Esen, all of them."
"Hey." Cao Eryu bowed and exited.
Soon, Hong Chengchou and the others were the first to walk in.
Immediately after, He Luohui, Suk Saha, E Sen and others also walked in.
Dorgon's eyes first fell on He Luohui and asked: "How many casualties are there in total?"
"Master, all the ten thousand warriors of the Eight Banners in Manchuria died, and not one of them came back alive." He Luohui's face showed an indescribable look of regret. The Jurchens were really beaten badly this time.
Even though Dorgon had been mentally prepared for it, after hearing the news, he couldn't help but feel angry again, and his face suddenly turned red.
"Master?" Cao Eryu was anxious and heartbroken, "You can't be angry anymore."
Dorgon shook his head, suppressed his restless blood, and asked: "How many casualties were there between the Eight Banners Han Army and the Eight Banner Mongolia?"
He Luohui replied: "Only a total of more than 7,000 Eight Banners Han soldiers escaped. The other 12,000 people, even if they did not die on the spot, would probably die in the end."
Dorgon sighed again when he heard this.
The losses of the Eight Banners and Han troops were also so heavy.
He Luohui added: "Eight Banner Mongolia is fine, more than 500 horsemen died."
Ersen on the other side continued: "About a thousand of our Horqin bannermen died."
"Esen, thank you for being here." Dorgon sighed softly and said, "If it weren't for you, the tens of thousands of troops and 40,000 soldiers who went to Liaodong would have been completely destroyed."
"I'm ashamed of myself," Esen said hurriedly.
Looking at the Manchu and Han ministers with different expressions, Dorgon was a little happy and a little worried at the same time.
Fortunately, before he went to Liaodong, he had eliminated all threats to the clan, including his fifteenth brother Duduo, who was a compatriot from his mother's mother. He was also deprived of all military power, so even if he suffered such a big defeat in Liaodong, he would not
There will be clan nobles who will make a fuss about this matter and take the opportunity to launch an attack to seize his military power.
What worries Dorgon is that after this defeat, the power of the Jurchens has been greatly weakened. What worries Dorgon even more is that the Jurchens' image of being invincible in field battles has also been defeated by the Hunhe River.
After being beaten to pieces, from now on, the Outer Mongols, the Eight Banners Mongolia and even the Eight Banners Han Army may no longer be as afraid of the Eight Banners Manchuria as before.
The green camp will also become more difficult to control, and I'm afraid we have to find a way to do it.
But these are all things in the future. What needs to be considered now is where the battle of Liaodong will go.
At that moment, Dorgon sighed and asked: "Let's talk about it, should our Qing soldiers continue to fight, or should we withdraw our troops and let the Ming army control the Liaodong and even the Liaoxi corridor?"
When Hong Chengchou heard this, he immediately sighed.
It seems that Dorgon has already begun to think about quitting.
But in the battle of Liaodong, the Qing Dynasty had no way out.
With this retreat, not only would Liaodong be lost, but North Korea would also be lost. The Horqin Mongolian Ten Banners, as the Qing's staunchest ally, would also be completely exposed to the Ming army's front.
And once the Ming army defeated or even annexed the ten banners of the Horqin tribe,
Then the Qing Dynasty not only lost a staunch ally, but
What is even more worrying is that the Ming army will be able to form a huge cavalry with the horses of the Horqin tribe. When the Ming Dynasty has a huge cavalry, the end of the Qing Dynasty will come.
Although this won't happen immediately, that's the trend.
It is for this reason that Chongzhen chose to fight this war of attrition with the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong.
"Heng Jiu." Dorgon turned his eyes to Hong Chengchou, "What do you have in mind?"
Hong Chengchou understood what Dorgon meant and was to help him make up some reasons for withdrawing his troops.
However, Hong Chengchou could not convince his "conscience" and immediately said: "Master, in the battle of Liaodong, I am afraid that the Qing Dynasty has no way to retreat. Although the battle of Hunhe was defeated, it was just a small setback. Master, you can
Deploy more troops from Beijing to Liaodong. As long as we have enough troops, our Qing army still has a chance to defeat the Ming army."
"That's easy to say." He Luohui obviously no longer wanted to continue fighting in Liaodong.
"The Qing Dynasty can send more troops to Liaodong, but won't the Southern Ming Dynasty send more troops to Liaodong?"
"That's right." Suk Saha agreed, "The Southern Ming Dynasty can send troops to Liaodong or transport grain and fodder by sea, which saves time and effort and the loss is very low. On the contrary, if the Qing Dynasty increases troops or transports grain and fodder to Liaodong, it will be difficult because of the muddy roads.
Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the cost is ten times or even a hundred times that of Nanming."
The loss of land transportation is really incomparable to that of sea transportation.
Once the land transportation exceeds a thousand miles, one stone of rice can only be left with at most one bucket of rice.
And if there is no typhoon in sea transportation, more than nine buckets of rice can be left for one stone. How can this compare?
Baiyintu continued: "Chongzhen, the dog emperor, chose to fight our Qing soldiers in Liaodong because he wanted to bring down our Qing Dynasty through the difficulty of land transportation. We cannot be fooled by Chongzhen, the dog emperor."
"This matter is not difficult to solve." Hou Fangyu suddenly said, "We in the Qing Dynasty can also use sea transportation."
"Hou Fangyu, what are you talking about?" He Luohui scolded, "Our navy in the Qing Dynasty has been exhausted. How can we ensure the safety of the fleet if we use sea transport?"
Hong Chengchou had already reacted at this moment and turned around and asked: "Xiandi Chao Zong means ice luck, right?"
"Mr. Hengjiu is a clear warning." Hou Fangyu nodded slightly and said to Dorgon, "Master, it is already mid-October and the North Sea has frozen. Although the Ming Dynasty has the advantage of navy, it can no longer enter the North Sea, so
Our Qing soldiers can use ice sledges to transport grain and even troops to Liaodong."
"Ice sledge?" Dorgon's face finally looked better.
If you use ice sledges to transport them by sea, it will really save time and effort.
Hearing this, He Luohui and other Manchu generals said nothing more.
Of course, the most aggrieved people in this defeat were He Luohui and other Manchu generals.
Therefore, if the difficulties in transporting food supplies and troops can be solved, especially if the red cannons can be transported to the Liaodong battlefield in time, He Luohui and others will not mind fighting another battle to save face.
Dorgon thought about it again and realized that he really couldn't bear the consequences of losing Liaodong.
At that moment, Dorgon shouted: "According to my decree, another 20,000 Manchurian troops and 28,000 Han troops plus 40,000 Baoyi Nikan troops will be sent to Liaodong. In addition, 200 camel cannons and 500,000 shi will be sent to Liaodong."
The army rations are coming."
】
"Hey!" He Luohui knelt down on one knee and hit Qian, then stood up to dispatch the ordering troops.
Watching He Luohui go out, Dorgon signaled Cao Eryu to step forward and help him up.
Hou Fangyu also came forward, and together with Cao Eryu, helped Dorgon sit up, and thoughtfully put a cushion on Dorgon's back to make Dorgon lie down as comfortable as possible.
Dorgon breathed a sigh of relief and said quietly: "Everyone, our Qing soldiers have been defeated in the Battle of Hunhe River, but how exactly this battle was defeated, I haven't figured it out until now. You said, our Qing soldiers
Where did we lose?"
"The slave has the same confusion as the master." Baiyintu scratched his head and said, "Where did our Qing army lose?"
"If we talk about courage, the ten thousand warriors of our Eight Banners in Manchuria can fight to the last man on the battlefield without retreating even half a step. If we talk about weapons, the camel cannon and tiger squatting cannon of our Green Camp will never be as sharp as the bright dogs.
In terms of military strength, the number of infantry and cavalry troops of our Qing Dynasty soldiers was several times that of Ming Dog, but why did we lose in the end? Why?"
There was silence in the room, and no one could answer Baiyintu's question.
Even Hong Chengchou and Hou Fangyu, who were well-informed, had no clue about this.
If Chongzhen were here, he would definitely sneer. Weapons and equipment can be imitated, but the progress of tactical thinking does not happen overnight. If the Qing army wants to evolve from a cold weapon army to a firearms army, it still has a long way to go!
In fact, the Ming army at this time had only mastered the most rudimentary coordination of infantry and artillery.
For example, in the Hunhe Battle, the Ming army's artillery was unable to accompany the infantry's advance.
Some people may ask, is it so difficult to let field artillery and tiger crouching artillery follow the infantry forward?
Yes, it is so difficult. This not only places extremely high demands on artillery, but also places extremely high demands on the tacit understanding between infantry and artillery. All of this requires a lot of training or actual combat, and there is no shortcut.
Because of this, Jiannu's infantry and artillery failed to form a linkage, and were eventually defeated by the Ming army one by one.
But this issue obviously went beyond the cognitive scope of Dorgon and the Manchu and Han ministers present.
After a long while, Hong Chengchou said: "Master, I thought the Eight Banners were still in Manchuria. The Eight Banners Han Army and the Green Camp did not cooperate well, which gave the Ming Army opportunities to defeat each other, leading to the defeat of Hunhe River."
Although Hong Chengchou didn't know the principle, he still had the basic understanding.
"That's good, but the cooperation is not tacit enough." Dorgon said, "But how should we cooperate?"
