Let’s talk about Yan Yingyuan’s main force of the 2nd Division later.
After the 2nd Division triumphantly returned from Japan, Mao Jukui's 4th Brigade, which originally belonged to the 2nd Division, was reorganized into the Osaka Brigade, and some deputy officers were transferred back to China. Yan Yingyuan transferred some generals and officers from the 5th and 6th Brigades to rebuild the 4th Brigade.
4 brigades, so the 2nd Division is still full of three mixed brigades.
After the 2nd Division divided its troops under Du Yinxi's order, it advanced rapidly in the direction of Huangyu Pass, Tumen Pass and Daoma Pass respectively in brigades, preparing to block the retreat of Li Yan's troops. At the same time, it sent flying cavalry to report to Beijing urgently.
Order Beizhi to hold Taiwan and block Zijingguan. In this case, not only Li Yan's troops, but also several other pseudo-submissive armies will be able to escape.
Among them, Yan Yingyuan personally led the 6th brigade to attack Huangyuguan, marching more than 600 miles in just six days to reach Huangyuguan.
What shocked Yan Yingyuan was that Huangyuguan's defense was extremely lax.
There were only about 500 puppet troops guarding the pass, and most of them were rural warriors.
The gate of Huangyuguan is about three feet high, with cliffs on both sides. The terrain is still very dangerous. If the puppet army refuses to retreat, it will be very difficult for the Ming army to break through the pass.
However, the puppet troops did not hold out for long.
The Ming army didn't even have time to set up the mountain cannon. They just fired a few rows of guns. The puppet troops who had closed the wall collapsed instantly, and then the Ming army climbed up the wall effortlessly.
The relatively dangerous Huangyu Pass was captured.
The situation went smoothly beyond Yan Yingyuan's imagination.
Lin Zhiyuan, commander of the 6th Brigade, said: "Commander, when did the puppet army become so incompetent?"
"I'm also confused. Ordinarily, we shouldn't be so weak." Yan Yingyuan was also confused. "Three years ago, the puppet army could still mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to build slaves on Hetao Road to fight evenly."
"I'm afraid there is only one explanation." Lin Zhiyuan said with a cruel smile.
"The puppet army has already sent out all its elite troops, and those left behind are all local soldiers."
"It must be like this!" Yan Yingyuan said with deep conviction, "This is the case at Huangyuguan, and I'm afraid it will be the same in Taiyuan."
"This opportunity must not be missed, it will never come again!" Lin Zhiyuan said decisively, "Brother Jianheng, our 2nd Division should take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regain Taiyuan and even Shanxi in one fell swoop!"
"It makes sense." Yan Yingyuan nodded.
"Leave an infantry regiment and a baggage battalion to garrison Huangyuguan."
"The rest of the regiments will march to Taiyuan immediately, and all will march in a hurry!"
…
It is about four hundred miles from Huangyuguan to Taiyuan.
It only took another four days for the main force of the 6th Brigade to appear outside Taiyuan City.
Because the Ming army arrived so quickly, it was only a moment behind the Dashun army's messengers. Therefore, when the Ming army appeared outside Taiyuan City, the Dashun army who stayed behind in Taiyuan was trying to recruit Xiang Yong to help defend the city.
However, the sudden arrival of the Ming army disrupted the Dashun army's plan to defend the city.
General Dashun immediately ordered the city gates to be closed and ordered the defenders to board the city.
At this time, there were only 4,000 Dashun troops left in Taiyuan. They were spread across the four walls, with only 1,000 people on each side. And there were two gates on each side of the city wall, so the manpower seemed extremely tight.
Because Taiyuan was an important military town in the Ming Dynasty, the city was built extremely solidly.
Therefore, Yan Yingyuan was not in a hurry to attack, but first ordered the mountain artillery regiment of the 6th Brigade to build a position.
While the artillery regiment was constructing the artillery position, the main force of the 6th Brigade was not idle either. Instead, it built a camp defense position centered on the artillery position overnight. Not only did trenches be dug, but the positions for the Crouching Tiger Artillery were also repaired.
It has to be said that Yan Yingyuan is still very cautious, thinking about defeat before thinking about victory.
What they were prepared for was that if Taiyuan City was not captured, the hypocritical reinforcements would come to reinforce them one after another.
If there is not a strong camp at this time, the situation will be very passive.
After spending an afternoon and an evening, the Ming army built a camp.
After the camp was repaired, Yan Yingyuan ordered an attack on the city. First, he used artillery regiments to bombard the south city, mainly Cheng'en Gate and the city walls on the left and right sides. This time, they used explosive shells.
The Ming arsenal is producing explosive ammunition at full capacity.
Now the artillery of the main division has basically used explosive shells.
I have to say that the artillery fire from the explosive shells was really scary.
Even if it's just a 25-inch mountain cannon, it's still scary.
With just one row of 27 mountain cannons, the three-story archery tower of Ying'en Gate was destroyed.
Nearly a hundred hypocritical archers guarding the archery tower were buried alive before they could escape. Many hypocritical soldiers on the city walls were also affected and were either killed or seriously injured.
In addition, the cannonballs that fell on the city also caused many casualties among the hypocritical soldiers.
This wave of shelling directly knocked out the hypocritical soldiers guarding the south gate tower.
Less than a minute passed, and before the hypocritical soldiers on the city tower could recover from their confusion, the second row of shells from the Ming army's artillery rained down on the city head again.
Accompanied by the violent explosion, the ground was shaken for a while.
"I can no longer stand the hypocrisy!" Yan Yingyuan keenly seized the fleeting opportunity and immediately ordered an infantry battalion to line up to attack. They advanced a hundred steps outside Yingen Gate and formed two lines.
This infantry battalion has all been equipped with new rifled rifles.
The bullets used are also nitrocellulose paper-cased custom-loaded bullets.
After two rounds of shelling and a volley of guns, there was no longer a puppet soldier visible at the top of Yingen Gate.
The people who stayed in Taiyuan were not the elite rear camp of the puppet army, but just some miscellaneous soldiers. In addition, the puppet army had never seen such artillery fire, and they were caught off guard and quickly collapsed.
Taking advantage of this short gap, a dozen scout infantry quickly climbed up to the top of the city with the help of flying claws.
After the scout infantry climbed to the top of the city, they discovered that there was no longer a puppet army in sight.
Immediately, the scout infantry lowered the suspension bridge and raised the Qianjin Gate. An infantry battalion of the 6th Brigade of the Ming Army immediately entered Taiyuan City from Yingen Gate.
As a result, they happened to encounter Pseudo-Shun reinforcements who had come all the way for reinforcements.
The Ming army formed a line on Ying'enmen Street, and only two volleys defeated the Pseudo-Shun reinforcements who came for reinforcements. A small number of archers and musketeers from the Pseudo-Shun reinforcements hid in the shops on both sides of the street, trying to get through.
They secretly attacked, but it was all in vain. Although it caused a small number of casualties to the Ming army, it was not enough to reverse the overall situation.
The puppet troops, whose confidence was severely dampened, immediately abandoned the inner city and Taiyuan City and ran away.
The main force of the 6th Brigade, commanded by Yan Yingyuan himself, captured Taiyuan with almost no effort, almost for nothing. When talking about this battle to his colleagues afterwards, Yan Yingyuan and the officers and soldiers of the 6th Brigade only said that they accidentally captured Taiyuan.
…
In comparison, the performance of the Ming Emperor Chongzhen in Chengtian Mansion was much inferior.
It has been a few days since Chongzhen personally led the main force of the 1st Division and 20,000 Huguang Town troops to Zhongxiang, but what is annoying is that it has been raining intermittently in the past few days, accompanied by heavy fog.
This rainy and foggy weather had a serious impact on the Ming Dynasty's firearms.
Forced by helplessness, Chongzhen could only let the Ming army hold on to the camp.
Because the Ming army did not have an advantage in numbers, the puppet army that invaded the south of the Han River was the right battalion commanded by Chen Yongfu, with a total strength of 100,000, and they were basically elites.
These 100,000 people are the old base left by Yuan Zongdi.
Even if it was 40,000 people versus 100,000 people, Chongzhen was not necessarily afraid of Chen Yongfu. Even if both sides did not use firearms and fought with cold weapons, the Ming army would not necessarily lose to the puppets.
But unless Chongzhen was kicked in the head by a donkey, he would never be stupid enough to do this.
You can use firearms to kill a large number of enemies, why do you have to fight with the enemy with bayonets? That's stupid.
Therefore, Chongzhen strictly ordered the Ming army not to go into battle. The puppet troops came to attack if they had the ability. The cannons and rifles hidden in the tents could still be fired normally, which was enough to pose a threat to the puppet troops.
During the confrontation, Chongzhen received two pieces of good news.
Seeing the newspaper, Chongzhen grinned from ear to ear.
Jiang Tianyi next to him couldn't help but asked: "Your Majesty, what good news does this have?"
"There is indeed good news, and it is huge good news." Chongzhen said with a smile, "And there are two at once."
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "First, the three lines of puppet cavalry that attacked from Zijingguan, Daomaguan and Tumenguan have been annihilated by our army. About 20,000 of the 50,000 puppet cavalry were killed, and 30,000 of them were killed.
were captured; secondly, the 30,000 cavalrymen under Li Yan who came out from the east of Huangyu Pass have already turned around."
"Is this happening?" Jiang Tian was overjoyed.
"This is really great news."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, another officer walked in excitedly.
"Your Majesty." The officers and students saluted with military salutes and handed over an urgent message, "Urgent delivery from the 2nd Division! The 6th Brigade of the Division has taken advantage of the emptiness to recover Taiyuan two days ago."
"What? Taiyuan has been recovered too?"
Jiang Tianyi, Xu Yingwei and others were shocked when they heard the news.
They had just wiped out the four lines of pseudo-cis cavalry that had entered Beizhi, but here they had quietly retaken Taiyuan? This speed can no longer be called super speed. Did the 6th Brigade go to Taiyuan by train?
For Chongzhen or the Ming army, today is destined to be a good day.
After the third happiness, the fourth happiness came belatedly, the weather was clear.
"Your Majesty, the rain has stopped!" Another officer and cadet ran in to report, "The sky has cleared up."
Chongzhen led Xu Yingwei, Jiang Tianyi and others out of the tent and looked up, and sure enough they saw that the dark clouds that had been shrouding the vast land of Huguang for the past few days had dispersed.
A ray of sunshine has fallen.
The air after the rain is especially fresh.
Chongzhen was also in a particularly good mood.
What is the old saying?
The heroes who are transported are not free, but the heaven and earth are all united!
Nowadays, the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty is booming, and even God has come to join in the fun.
Wang Jiaqin, commander of the 1st Brigade, said eagerly: "Your Majesty, the sky has cleared and we can attack."
It’s no wonder that the Wang family is so diligent. After the expedition to Japan, the 2nd Division made great achievements in Shanxi. If their 1st Division doesn’t perform well, it will be left behind by the 2nd Division. From now on, they will have no shame to brag about the Ming Dynasty’s 1st Division when they meet their colleagues from other divisions.
division.
The other two brigade commanders also echoed: "Your Majesty, it's time to attack!"
